The history of Disneyland Paris, told simply

From the park’s opening in 1992 to a new park opening in 2002 and the second park changing its name in 2026, here’s the whole history of Disneyland Paris.

The idea of a Disney park in Europe goes back to the 1970s. After a long search, the Walt Disney Company hesitated mainly between France and Spain. France won in the end, and the deal was made official on 24 March 1987, as a thirty-year contract signed with the French state. Several reasons tipped the balance: France’s central position in Europe, its status as the world’s top tourist destination and easy access thanks to the RER A being extended to the park and a TGV station being built. On top of that came favourable financial terms (land, taxes, development of the Marne-la-Vallée area), which convinced Disney to settle east of Paris.

Construction began in 1988. For four years, nearly 10,000 people worked on the site to build a park, hotels and a whole leisure complex, with an estimated budget of around $4 billion. On 12 April 1992, the park finally opened to the public under the name Euro Disney Resort. It was the first Disney park built in Europe, and the second outside the US after Tokyo. I tell the story of that opening day, with its anecdotes and figures, in my article on the 1992 opening.

Behind the scenes, the early years were very difficult. The park opened in the middle of a European recession, shortly after the Gulf War, with high interest rates. French visitor numbers were lower than expected, the luxury hotels stayed half empty, and losses piled up into a debt of nearly €3 billion. In 1994, Euro Disney came close to bankruptcy. A sweeping financial restructuring was approved in June: the parent company gave up its royalties until 1998, the banks agreed to ease the interest, the capital was heavily increased and a Saudi investor, Prince Al-Walid, bought a stake of around 10%. This rescue is what allowed the park to survive and get going again.

This is the context in which the name changed. When it opened, the complex was called Euro Disney Resort. But the word "Euro" was seen as too cold and too linked to finance, and the company wanted to put more emphasis on France. On 1 October 1994, the resort was renamed Disneyland Paris. The name would change again (Disneyland Resort Paris from 2002, then Disneyland Paris once more since 2009), but "Euro Disney" long remained the legal name of the company that ran the park.

Once the crisis was over, the park never stopped changing. In 1995, the arrival of Space Mountain boosted visitor numbers, and I tell its story in my article on Space Mountain. On 16 March 2002, a second park opened: Walt Disney Studios. The big anniversaries then set the pace of life at the resort: the 15th in 2007, the 20th in 2012 (around 16 million visitors that year), the 25th in 2017, then the 30th in 2022, marked by the opening of Avengers Campus. In 2017, The Walt Disney Company bought almost all the shares and took full control of the resort. And in 2018, a €2 billion investment plan was announced to expand the second park. I look back at all these anniversaries in my dedicated article.

The latest big chapter is being written in 2026. Announced as early as 12 April 2024 (the park’s anniversary), the change took effect on 29 March 2026: Walt Disney Studios made way for Disney Adventure World, a redesigned and enlarged park. The new World of Frozen land, dedicated to Frozen, is its centrepiece. I go through everything that has opened and what’s still to come in my article on the Disneyland Paris expansion.

The park’s history is also hidden in its rides and its smallest details. To dig deeper, see the legend of Thunder Mesa (the story behind Phantom Manor and Big Thunder Mountain), the lost places of Disney Village, the Euro Disney map from 1992 to see the park as it was at opening and above all my guide to the secrets of Disneyland Paris, packed with anecdotes and hidden details.