The making of Disneyland Paris: the road to the 1992 opening

Disneyland Paris was part of my personal story long before it became what I write about: my father joined at the opening, in 1992, and worked there for nearly ten years as a Cast Member (Disney’s word for park employees). He started in the guest flow teams (managing the flow of visitors), before moving to the show teams and then to the first aid and emergency care staff.

So I grew up with stories from that time, and that’s probably what made me want to explain here how this park really came to be.

Because behind 12 April 1992 lies a decade of decisions: a close contest with Spain, a contract negotiated at the highest level of the French state, an extraordinary building project and a bumpy opening. The hub on the history of Disneyland Paris gives you the big picture. This article goes further and takes you through the creation in detail.

The first Disneyland opened in California on 17 July 1955. It was the start of a line of parks that would spread around the world, and Disneyland Paris is its direct heir in Europe.

The idea of a Disney park in Europe goes back a long way: according to some sources, cities such as Frankfurt, Paris, London or Milan were mentioned as early as the 1960s or 1970s (a point that’s hard to date precisely). But the real trigger came much later.

In April 1983, Disney opened Tokyo Disneyland. It was an instant success and proved that a Disney park could be very profitable outside the US. The management of the time, led by Michael Eisner, then decided to set its sights on Europe.

At the end of 1984, the parks executives presented a list of around 1,200 possible sites across the continent. The UK and Italy were ruled out fairly quickly, for lack of enough flat land. By March 1985, only four finalists remained: two in France and two in Spain.

Spain had a strong argument: the climate. The Spanish sites were on the Mediterranean coast, with mild weather comparable to the parks in California and Florida. The favourite area was in the Alicante region.

But two problems weighed on the Spanish bid. First, Disney scouts are said to have noticed violent seasonal winds during an off-season visit (a story often told, best taken as an anecdote rather than an official criterion). Second, strong environmental opposition, as the site in question was a protected wetland.

On the French side, a site near Toulon was also a serious contender thanks to its climate, but its rocky subsoil made building there too expensive.

From 1985, the battle went public in France. The media seized on the story, and the government pulled out all the stops to win the Americans over: beyond the park itself, the main argument was the benefit to the region (thousands of jobs and an influx of tourists into what was already the most visited country in the world).

In the end, the climate was outweighed by two more strategic criteria: the size of the surrounding population and accessibility. And on both counts, Marne-la-Vallée, east of Paris, was unbeatable.

Beyond geography, it was France’s financial offer that clinched the decision. The government offered land at a reduced price, a loan at a preferential rate, transport infrastructure and tax breaks that Spain didn’t match. At the time, the whole project was costed at around $4 billion (estimates vary from one source to another). Roy E.

Disney, Walt’s nephew, summed up the choice in a now-famous phrase: he is said to have put "the maths before the dream".

Michael Eisner signed a first letter of intent with the French government on 18 December 1985. France had been chosen.

The park’s founding document is the "Agreement on the Creation and the Operation of Euro Disneyland in France", signed on 24 March 1987 at Matignon, the French Prime Minister’s official residence. This kind of agreement is an administrative contract: a deal between the state (and local authorities) and a company that sets out what each side commits to. It initially ran for 30 years.

The signatories show how important the project was: on the French side, Prime Minister Jacques Chirac, the Île-de-France Regional Council, the Seine-et-Marne General Council, the RATP (the Paris transport authority) and the public development body in charge of servicing the land. On Disney’s side, Michael Eisner himself. The agreement didn’t only cover the park: it also provided for the development of Sector IV of Marne-la-Vallée.

The contract specified that the company running the park would take the form of an SCA (a French form of partnership limited by shares, listed on the stock exchange). To meet the requirement for mainly European shareholders, The Walt Disney Company limited its own stake to 49%.

The agreement split the roles clearly: the French state took care of the land, transport and utilities, while Disney designed and built the park, the hotels and the leisure areas. Here are the main commitments on each side.

Financially, the public effort was considerable: a state loan at a below-market rate, several hundred million spent on road and rail links and the VAT cut mentioned above. These figures vary between sources, but they give a sense of how much was invested to attract the park.

A point that’s often forgotten: the 1987 agreement didn’t just create a park, it organised the development of a whole area east of Paris.

Where there were only beetroot fields and a few villages, homes, shops and offices sprang up to house the thousands of people working at the resort. That’s how Val d’Europe was born, around the towns of Serris, Magny-le-Hongre and Bailly-Romainvilliers.

This urban side is very much part of the park’s history: without it, the project wouldn’t have kept its promise of benefits for the region. But it’s a subject in its own right, which I cover in more detail in the hub on the history of Disneyland Paris.

Work began on 3 August 1988 on a site covering five villages in the Brie area: Coupvray, Chessy, Magny-le-Hongre, Serris and Bailly-Romainvilliers. At the time, it was billed as one of the biggest building projects in Europe, comparable in scale to the Channel Tunnel.

Workforce figures vary depending on the source and the phase: Disney’s communications talk of "more than 10,000 workers from all over Europe", while French sources mention closer to 8,000 workers at any one time. Hundreds of companies and design firms took part in the project.

The park opened to the public on 12 April 1992, under the name Euro Disneyland, after a period of tests and previews in the spring. Not everything was finished, though: the Sequoia Lodge hotel, for example, wasn’t completed by opening day. Work carried on through the first year, and it finally opened in 1993.

The opening was spread over several days. On the evening of 10 April, Festival Disney and the hotels (at least the ones that were ready) were inaugurated. On 11 April, a big gala evening was broadcast worldwide in several countries and languages (five languages at the same time).

The show brought together artists such as Cher, Tina Turner, José Carreras, Gloria Estefan, the Gipsy Kings and the Four Tops, opening with children from all over Europe singing "When You Wish Upon a Star". The American version of the gala was hosted by Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. The Buffalo Bill show arrived in Frontierland with lots of horses and bison.

On 12 April 1992, the park opened its gates to the public. That was the day my father began a story that would last for many years.

Contrary to expectations, crowds on the first day were disappointing. Attendance stayed well below government estimates, which had suggested a possible influx of several hundred thousand people. A strike had also disrupted the RER service from Paris, making the park hard to reach.

The project had also stirred up fierce French cultural criticism beforehand. Some intellectuals denounced it as a form of American imperialism. The phrase "cultural Chernobyl" became linked to the theatre director Ariane Mnouchkine, who first used it in private before it was widely picked up by the press.

The philosopher Michel Serres replied, in essence, that it isn’t America invading France, it’s the French who adore it. As for President Mitterrand, he stayed away from the opening.

The first year was gruelling for visitors and staff alike. For the public, the enormous queues were one of the main complaints: you often had to wait several hours for the popular rides.

Behind the scenes, things weren’t easy either: working and housing conditions, along with strict appearance rules that went down badly in France, led to many people leaving. Several hundred employees resigned in the first few months.

This is a period I know a little differently, through my father’s stories: behind the facade of those early days, there were teams learning a brand-new job, in a park still finding its feet. My father, who was part of the guest flow teams in that first year, lived through those endless queues from the inside.

To set up in Europe, Disney adapted its American model a great deal. The central castle, Sleeping Beauty Castle, was completely rethought: the designers (the Imagineers) felt that in Europe, where real historic castles stand close by, they had to aim for a stylised fairy tale rather than realism. The result draws on medieval illuminated manuscripts such as Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry and on Mont-Saint-Michel.

It’s also the only Disney castle with a dragon inside: an animatronic more than 20 metres long, the biggest ever built by Disney when the park opened in 1992.

The Paris weather guided other choices. Along Main Street, two covered arcades (the Liberty Arcade and the Discovery Arcade) let you reach the shops out of the rain, inspired by the covered passages of Paris. As for the atmosphere, Discoveryland replaced the classic Tomorrowland with a retro-futuristic world inspired by Jules Verne and Leonardo da Vinci, while Phantom Manor offered a darker version of the traditional Haunted Mansion, with its own story.

Rather than tell you everything here, I’ll point you to the detailed behind-the-scenes stories of each attraction: Phantom Manor is part of the Thunder Mesa saga, which I recommend if you love the stories behind the sets.

The first few years were very hard. By the end of 1993, the company was on the brink of bankruptcy, to the point that Michael Eisner considered closing the park.

Several mistakes piled up: higher costs than planned, the collapse of the French property market that was meant to fund part of the project, ticket prices seen as too high, hotels designed for long stays when visitors often stayed just one night and an initial ban on alcohol that went down badly in France.

A rescue plan was finalised in 1994: a major capital increase, the arrival of Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal (around $345 million for 24% of the capital), backing from a consortium of banks and concessions from Disney on its royalties (its stake going from 49% to around 39%). Wine and beer were also allowed in the restaurants.

Finally, the name changed. Eisner explained that, for Europeans, the word "Euro" mainly brought to mind business and currency. The park became Disneyland Paris in October 1994. It has kept growing ever since, to become the most visited theme park in Europe.

A quick note on the name: when it opened, the resort was called Euro Disney Resort, then it went through an in-between stage, Disneyland Resort Paris, before becoming simply Disneyland Paris.

The Euro Disney name hasn’t completely disappeared though: it lives on as the legal name of the company that runs the park (Euro Disney Associés SAS).

There’s even a visible trace of it in the park: the letters "EDRR", for Euro Disneyland Railroad, the old name of the Disneyland Railroad, can still be seen in several places, especially at the main entrance.

If the park’s names and remnants interest you, carry on with the lost places of Disneyland Paris and the park’s anniversaries.