Letter to Natacha Rafalski

Dear Natacha,

You don’t know me. I’ve been a Disneyland Paris fan from the start. My first visit was in 1993, when you hadn’t yet begun your career with the Walt Disney Company.

In recent months (years? ), Disneyland Paris has never made me want to come so badly. The aggressive policy towards annual pass holders, the equally aggressive price increases, the reduction in the Disney experience, the lack of any real new attractions (apart from Spider-Man, W.E.B adventure), are all factors that make me not want to come back to Disneyland Paris. Even Mickey is tired of giving the same present to Minnie on Main Street, his statue is a 25-year old recycling, and every year since, it’s been in Town Square. Instead of having a real Disney experience, guests will be able to have a funfair experience with Spider-Bot races. And it’s not the new dynamic pricing (where prices can vary according to seasonality and demand) that will change things. Dynamic pricing will only benefit Disneyland Paris. As far as the guest is concerned, we have no doubt that these dynamic rates will be nothing more than a disguised increase, yet another increase or another way of picking guests’ pockets! If the price was commensurate with the experience, it might pass muster, but the price is not commensurate with the experience!

The decline in the quality of new releases is another. There’s Avengers Assemble: Fligh Force, and the sacking of the Nautilus. And the studio redesign isn’t going to improve things. In Avengers Campus, the asphalt has simply been replaced by cobblestones, a little vegetation added and that’s it. It’s not a re-theming but a simple makeover where the art of Walt Disney Imagineering seems to have completely disappeared in favour of simple decoration where storytelling is reduced to the bare minimum.In the old days, you could have fun looking for details and hidden references. Today, storyline and storytelling seem to have become dirty words.

There are a few bright spots at times, and Disney Electrical Sky Parade is one of them. Tales of Magic is another. But when we see the communication for the latter based solely on the debauchery of technology and not on the storyline, we can fear the worst. Disneyland Paris seems to have forgotten that you have to sell a dream, a story, by appealing to the emotions, not by selling a show based on the number of drones! Remember that this show on Main Street has been eagerly awaited for years.

It’s not the latest measure to change my mind about Disneyland Paris – it’s news that would almost have gone unnoticed! Almost!
It’s also news that brings back very bad memories for us fans. It’s like stepping back in time, during the Philippe Gas era, when the resort was in a very bad way, the attractions were no longer maintained, mushrooms were growing on Main Street Usa, and cash was being brought in by selling off entry tickets. When the resort was in such dire financial straits that some lands only opened in the afternoon as a cost-saving measure.
Today, Disneyland Paris is profitable, even very profitable. It’s even a cash machine for the Walt Disney Company. The money is coming in, in particular, as I said earlier, because of an increasingly aggressive pricing policy.
Apparently this profitability is still not enough. So we have to continue to cut corners. The latest idea, put in place for the Christmas season, one of the busiest of the year, is the staggered opening of certain attractions: Fairytale Land, Casey Jr, Autopia, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cars Road Trip (the latter may even close for good, given its poor quality).
The staggered opening will further degrade the guest experience.

When you hear this, you get the unfortunate feeling that you’re going backwards! Disneyland is sorely lacking in new attractions (no extensions since 1995!). Waiting times are sometimes long, very long, and sometimes detract from the Disney experience. No matter, the Disney Premier Acces are there and will help boost profits.

It’s as if Disneyland Paris never learns from its mistakes! And the list of mistakes grows longer month after month.
Disneyland Paris is certainly the Walt Disney Company’s last park, far behind its big brothers in terms of magic and above all in terms of the quality we have a right to expect from a Disney park.
When you see the competition struggling to increase their own experiences, you wonder when Sleeping Beauty will wake up.

The all-accounting logic is seriously starting to show.

An early fan, but above all a dissatisfied customer.