On April 12, 1992, the resort opened its gates as Euro Disney Resort. What debuted that day wasn’t a finished project. It was phase one of a far bigger plan, signed five years earlier and modeled on Walt Disney World in Florida. It was the second Disneyland-style park built outside the US, after Tokyo (opened in 1983), and the first one in Europe.
The goal was to create a destination for stays of several days, with multiple parks, its own hotels, lakes, and leisure activities, spread over an enormous plot of land in Marne-la-Vallée.
Today, when I stroll along the lake between the Disneyland Hotel and the New York, or walk past the wide empty lots away from the parks, I can still see traces of that original plan: a project conceived on a grand scale, only part of which came to life when it was supposed to.
What did the original Euro Disney plan include?
The plan laid out a complete destination, designed to grow in phases: a first theme park, seven hotels linked by a network of lakes, an entertainment complex, a golf course, and large land reserves for future parks and hotels.
The hunt for a European site started back in the 1970s. It took about a decade of studies before France came out on top, after a contest with Spain among others, and the choice finally landed on Marne-la-Vallée.
Disney and the French authorities signed the development agreement on March 24, 1987. Jacques Chirac, then Prime Minister, and Michael Eisner, chairman of the Walt Disney Company, put their names to it, and it covered the development of Sector IV of Marne-la-Vallée. It set aside roughly 2,000 hectares some thirty kilometers east of Paris. Drawn up by American urban planning firms, the master plan took its cue straight from Walt Disney World: the idea wasn’t to build a standalone park but to set up a destination that could keep guests there for several days, sheltered from the outside world.
On the money side, the overall budget was announced at around $4 billion. The agreement also committed the government to transportation links: extending the RER A line (Paris commuter train) right to the park entrance and building a TGV (high-speed train) station, backed by tax breaks and subsidies.
From day one, the plan mentioned two theme parks, and the land was divided up to fit even more down the road.
What actually opened on April 12, 1992?
On opening day, the resort featured one theme park (Euro Disneyland, today’s Disneyland Park), seven hotels with 5,800 rooms in total, a shopping and entertainment complex named Festival Disney, a network of lakes, and a golf course. Construction began in 1988 and employed around 10,000 people, most of them skilled tradespeople (masons, carpenters, electricians).
The hotels follow a deliberate concept: each one represents a region of the US, from the pink Disneyland Hotel at the park entrance to the Wild West town look of the Cheyenne, with the lakeside Newport Bay in between. A panel of renowned architects (Frank Gehry, Michael Graves, Robert Stern, Stanley Tigerman, Robert Venturi) had been brought together as early as 1988 to keep the whole site consistent.
Festival Disney, the complex of restaurants and stores later renamed Disney Village, was designed by Frank Gehry, and you can spot it by its oxidized steel towers under a canopy of lights. The 18-hole golf course opened in the summer of 1992 and gained 9 more holes the following year.
| Component | What opened |
|---|---|
| Theme park | Euro Disneyland (today’s Disneyland Park) |
| Hotels | 7 hotels, 5,800 rooms in total |
| Entertainment and shopping | Festival Disney (later Disney Village), by Frank Gehry |
| Golf | 18-hole course (summer 1992), expanded to 27 holes in 1993 |
| Lake | Lakes connecting the hotels to the central hub |
Which parts of the original plan never happened?
The biggest missing piece is the second park: Disney-MGM Studios Europe, slated for 1995, was put on ice by mid-1992. The plan also included a larger hotel district and land set aside for future parks, none of which went beyond the planning stage.
The second park was meant to be a working movie and TV studio, half theme park and half real production facility, built around Hollywood’s golden age. Its construction budget was announced at around $2.3 billion. With the resort struggling financially, Robert Fitzpatrick, Euro Disney’s first president, ordered work on it to be halted.
The project didn’t vanish for good: it came back, but much later and heavily scaled down, as Walt Disney Studios Park (announced in 1999 and opened on March 16, 2002, with only three of the nine planned rides up and running on opening day).
The plan went even further: the land had been laid out to host more parks beyond the first two, with a ring road and wide plots left open. Past that ring road, land was earmarked for extra hotels, timeshare homes, and camping.
Other parts of the master plan, such as a mixed-use town center, a business park, and a regional shopping mall, were moved to the southeast of the site and, years later, became Val d’Europe.
Built
- The first park, Euro Disneyland
- Seven hotels (5,800 rooms) and the network of lakes
- Festival Disney (later Disney Village)
- The 18-hole golf course, expanded in 1993
Never left the drawing board
- The second park, Disney-MGM Studios Europe, planned for 1995
- A bigger hotel district beyond the ring road
- Plots reserved for future parks down the road
- The mixed-use town center, moved outside the resort (later Val d’Europe)
What derailed the plan from 1992 to 1994?
The resort drew far fewer guests than expected, racked up heavy losses, and came close to bankruptcy, with debt of about $3 billion by the summer of 1994.
By May 1992, attendance was hovering around 25,000 guests a day, well short of the 60,000 hoped for. Losses piled up during the first year of operation. As the debt grew, every expansion project, starting with the second park, was put on hold. The dream of a big multi-park resort now depended on whether the resort already open could survive financially.
How did the resort become Disneyland Paris?
A recapitalization in 1994 saved the resort, and that’s when it took the name Disneyland Paris, on October 1, 1994.
The rescue plan brought in a new investor, Saudi prince Al-Waleed, who put in roughly $345 million for a 24% stake. Disney’s share dropped from 49% to 39%, and the banks agreed to waive interest on the debt for a few years. The new name went hand in hand with this recovery, as a way to move past Euro Disney’s damaged image.
The idea of a multi-park resort wasn’t dropped, though. The second park only came in 2002, and it then took decades more for the ambition of a growing resort to really take shape again with the Disney Adventure World expansion.
Disney and the French authorities sign the development agreement
Euro Disney Resort opens (1 park, 7 hotels, golf)
with money running short, work on the second park (due in 1995) is frozen
recapitalization and new name, Disneyland Paris
the second park, Walt Disney Studios, opens in a scaled-back version
Dig deeper
Frequently asked questions
01 How many parks did the original Euro Disney plan include?
Two from the start: Euro Disneyland (today’s Disneyland Park) and a second park, Disney-MGM Studios Europe. On top of that, the land had been planned to host more parks down the road, with large tracts held in reserve.
02 Why didn’t the second park open as planned?
The project was put on hold as early as mid-1992 because of the resort’s financial troubles. It was revived much later in a heavily scaled-back form: Walt Disney Studios opened on March 16, 2002, with only three of the nine originally planned rides up and running on opening day.
03 How many hotels were there when the resort opened in 1992?
Seven hotels with a total of 5,800 rooms, each one showcasing a region of the US, from the Disneyland Hotel to the Cheyenne, by way of the lakeside Newport Bay.
04 Who designed Festival Disney, now Disney Village?
Architect Frank Gehry. You can spot his work by the oxidized steel towers beneath a canopy of lights. Festival Disney was later renamed Disney Village.
05 Why did Disneyland Paris get off to a rough start?
The park ran up heavy losses in its first few years and came close to bankruptcy. Attendance fell far short of forecasts (around 25,000 visitors a day in May 1992 instead of the expected 60,000), costs were too high, admission prices were seen as steep, and several choices were a poor fit for European guests. By the summer of 1994, debt had reached about 3 billion dollars. A rescue plan, which brought Prince Al-Walid in as a shareholder, saved the resort, and the renaming to Disneyland Paris followed.
06 When did Disneyland Paris open, and under what name?
The park opened on April 12, 1992, as Euro Disney. A big gala evening broadcast around the world had taken place the night before, on April 11. It’s the resort’s first park. The second one opened in 2002.
07 Why was Disneyland Paris originally named Euro Disney?
When it opened in 1992, the resort went by the name Euro Disney. For Europeans, the word "Euro" mostly brought to mind business and money. So during its financial turnaround, the resort was renamed Disneyland Paris on October 1, 1994, to put Paris front and center and move away from a damaged image. For a long time afterward, Euro Disney remained the name of the company that ran the park.
