News / Merchandise & Boutiques

So you just have to get your hands on some of the 20th Anniversary merchandise, but don’t have a trip to Disneyland Paris planned any time soon? First of all: why not?! Second of all: help is at hand! A special “Disney Parks Collection” holding page has been added to both the Disney Store UK and Disney Store France websites, promising that a range of products from the resort’s new merchandise collections will be available to buy online. The page is notably absent from the German Disney Store site.

The page reads: “From April 1, 2012, Disneyland Paris invites its guests to celebrate its 20th anniversary, in sparkling and magical style. Lots of surprises and new features have been imagined, to provide an explosion of magic, lights and colour. For all of us who love shopping in Disney style, there will be great new Park exclusive products: T-shirts, mugs, toys, collectibles, clothing, hats and souvenirs… Stay tuned and sign up for our emails to be the first to know about the brand new 20th anniversary Disneyland Paris product range.”

Previously, your only hope of ordering souvenirs from Disneyland Paris outside of the resort was to personally email their own mail order department. Such a tie-up with Disney Store is an interesting move; while the US store has long stocked a wide range of Disney Parks merchandise, the slightly detached nature of Disneyland Paris from the Disney empire, in corporate terms, has presumably made this a more complicated deal. It could be expected that while Disney Store will benefit from new sales, particularly from lucrative fans and collectors, Disneyland Paris itself will benefit from the increased exposure alongside the store’s hundreds of general Disney products.

You can sign up on the preview page to be notified when the Disney Parks Collection arrives in from Paris, which is expected to be from 1st April onwards.

It’s 20s across the board for this month’s Pin Trading releases. The new pins include no less than five special Open Edition pins for the 20th Anniversary, three of which feature Mickey, Minnie and Chip ‘n’ Dale in their sorcerer-themed birthday costumes for Disney Magic on Parade! and Disney’s 20th Anniversary Celebration Train. A fourth pin featuring Tinker Bell completes the set which, priced at €8.99 each, will likely feature the characters in a pin-on-pin effect. At a more affordable €6.99, you could just pick up the Disneyland Paris 20th Anniversary logo pin, which is already in the hands of a few lucky collectors having been given away to shareholders at the Annual General Meeting last month.

Especially nice is the “postage stamp” set of six pins and a lanyard to celebrate the anniversary, while the “20” is even carried over to this year’s traditional season pins, beginning here with the €12.99 Cheshire Cat pin for spring 2012. Tinker Bell, that ubiquitous pin favourite, completes the releases with a €14.99 pin which opens up to reveal her sitting on a pot of gold — for St. Patrick’s Day, of course!

The next Pin Trading Night will be held in La Cantina at Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe from 6.00pm on Friday, 30th March. These are free events, usually with special Limited Pins on sale, where you can meet and trade with fellow collectors. Reservations are now also open for a Walt Disney Studios Pin Event on Saturday, 28th April. Limited to 300 people, the €35 entry fee includes buffet dinner within Restaurant En Coulisse. You’ll need to call 33 1 60 30 60 53 to book.

Disneyland Paris saw overall revenue growth of just 1% in the first quarter of its 2012 financial year, from 1st October to 31st December 2011. The results, published this morning by operating group Euro Disney S.C.A., make for unremarkable if somewhat reassuring reading given the economic climate. Resort revenues, for Theme Parks, Disney Village and Hotels, actually rose a good 4% in the quarter, brought down for the total figure only by lower real estate revenue compared to 2011. Park attendance itself grew a surprising 5%, due to higher numbers visiting from France itself, perhaps taking advantage of the mild late Autumn for last minute trips, with total Theme Park revenues up 7%.

Philippe Gas, CEO, comments that “improved attendance and guest spending are encouraging, especially in light of the challenging economic environment.”

However, average spending per guest in the parks was up by only 1% and average spending per room at Disney Hotels up only 2%. Total Disney Village and Hotel revenues grew by just 1% and room occupancy at Disney Hotels actually fell by 1.1 percentage points. It seems that, despite continued success in getting guests through the park gates, the resort still struggles at turning these numbers into anything more than negligible increases in revenue, probably driven more by price increases than additional purchases. It has to be said that, for a visitor, the resort’s casual dining fare remains largely out of date and uninspiring, while the merchandise range simply fails to engage for many demographics. At a time when a guest will consider and reconsider every additional purchase on top of their ticket, the resort certainly isn’t doing badly, but it is failing to make many consequential gains.

Nor is the dip in hotel room occupancy disastrous, especially after a sharp (and perhaps, unsustainable) jump of 5.6 percentage points in FY2011. Yet perhaps it reflects a growing feeling amongst visitors that the Disney Hotels do not offer the best value for their money. High standard room rates have combined with aggressive discounting over several years to suggest that “the price on the label” may not necessarily be the price they’re worth. A quick visit to any online trip planning forum will immediately bring up potential visitors merely biding their time for the next “big offer” or “flash sale” — hey, like this one! — which, while useful for propping up numbers, must surely be harming the brand value associated with Disneyland Paris. Will anyone ever want to pay full price again?

Signing off, Philippe Gas mentions only the 20th Anniversary: “In April we look forward to launching our twentieth anniversary celebrations with brand new experiences for our guests, including the Disney Dreams®! night-time show, an innovative light and color spectacular. It will also be
an opportunity to celebrate a two-decade journey with our cast members, our guests as well as our key public and private partners who have helped Disneyland Paris become Europe’s number one tourist destination.” Meanwhile the footnotes include only the same passing mention to the launch of a “multi-year expansion of the Walt Disney Studios® Park, which includes a new attraction.” So, despite construction having begun, no Ratatouille dark ride announcement yet; and all eyes on the 20th…

VIA Euro Disney S.C.A. Fiscal year 2012 – First Quarter Announcement (PDF)

From rumour to reality: Disneyland Paris has just begun trialling its very own Disney’s PhotoPass-style service for souvenir character photos. Word spread across Twitter last month that it might be happening, now low and behold @InsideDLParis has provided the very first look at one of the new cards. The “Disney’s PhotoPass” branding is conspicuously absent (and so is some of the functionality — see below) but the essence of the system is there: By handing this card to an official photographer before posing for a photo with characters, they’ll be able to “link” all your souvenir snaps into a single “account” on the resort’s computer system, meaning you can view and purchase all your photos in one go. Currently, guests have to fumble around with a separate paper ticket for every single photo. This credit card-sized slip, being less easy to lose or spoil, should also translate into more photo sales for Disney — if guests bother to check out their photos at one of the nine boutiques listed on the reverse.

Because it’s the clever online element to the American parks’ PhotoPass which appears to be missing, at least from this trial. Over the in US, guests can actually log into www.disneyphotopass.com after their visit using the details on their card, where they can then order prints or photo souvenirs at their leisure.

Quite why Paris don’t simply jump in with the same smart functionality (and branding) of the US system is a mystery, but at least this is a welcome first step to a more user-friendly (read: sales-friendly), 21st Century system for photo sales at a time when the resort’s guest spending levels remain stagnant.

VIA @InsideDLParis (Twitter)

You could have been entirely forgiven for thinking, up until now, that the Disney Fashion store in Disney Village was something of an afterthought — because it was. Originally known as Team Mickey, stocking Disney-branded sports gear, it continued to amble along with that name even after the sports items had long been phased out in favour of general clothing. Eventually given a rebrand in 2007, its interior was functional and uninspiring, like a dull factory outlet shop. But now, after briefly closing for a complete restyling, the store has been transformed — it’s finally fashionable! Less factory shop more quirky boutique, products are laid out in busy themed areas filled with colourful furniture and eclectic props, with as few dull racks as possible. Yes, very trendy — or should that be “Tren-D”? It’s looking very much like the TrenD store in Orlando’s Downtown Disney, which is a nice surprise indeed.

As we’ve discussed before, the opening of the all-encompassing World of Disney next year negates the need for several of the original Disney Village stores along this side of the street, offering an opportunity for a much-needed revitalisation. The generic (and tired) Disney Store is an obvious one to be replaced with something new, whilst Disney Fashion probably seemed the safest — and this seems to confirm it. For the remaining Hollywood Pictures and World of Toys next door, it would be nice if Paris could look to other concepts from the Downtown Disney districts, such as D Street or Disney Vault 28…

MORE PHOTOS Disney Gazette

World of Disney has continued to grow following our big construction photo tour a few weeks ago. The latest additions to the concrete perimeter are three giant arches above the the future entrance, which start to bring the store’s concept art to life. Each arch will have several large glass windows, giving a view inside to the base of the giant globe sitting atop the hexagonal entrance. In reality it’s likely that the northern and southern hemispheres will be two separate domes, with visual trickery making them appear as one single globe “floating” above the space.

VIA @InsideDLParis (Twitter)

It was an unsubtle way to funnel more guests exiting Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast into the adjoining Constellations shop, but perhaps the metal barrier constructed a few months ago didn’t quite provide the bump in sales hoped for. Today the metal gates have all been removed, leaving only the support beams wrapped in red and white tape. Oddly, the themed Buzz Lightyear vinyls previously stuck to the floor attempting to point guests into the shop have also been pulled up, so perhaps this is only a temporary chance to disobey Star Command’s orders?

PHOTO VIA Mark Stothard

A quick break from our Refurb Roundup Day reports of the March 25th fan presentation now, for a bumper load of new World of Disney construction photos. The concrete walls of the resort’s future flagship store have grown incredibly fast since our last look just a couple of weeks ago. Now surrounding the site on every side, many appear to have reached their full height. You can see window openings and even the first doorway. The general curved shape of the building and its main entrance has begun to take shape, really making the concept art much easier to imagine in reality.

Here we go on our journey Around the World in 32 all-new photos! Read More…