News / General Resort

That patch of land jutting out between the IMAX building and its Gaumont Cinemas entrance has been waiting an awfully long time, after all. For almost a decade now, the spot has been earmarked for a large, signature store to anchor this busy corner of the resort centre, using the ‘World of Disney’ branding from the Florida, California and New York locations.

These huge department stores are rather like your ultimate, dream version of a regular Disney Store. Operated instead by the merchandise department of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, they attempt to offer the biggest selection of Disney products available, in a sumptuously-themed interior.

Whilst the New York store fits within its leased 5th Avenue location, the stores in the Downtown Disney areas of Disneyland and Walt Disney World share a somewhat similar style. Will the Paris equivalent continue the theme? Not at all…

Photo: Alexandre Rosa via Disney and More

Even the first models and concepts from years ago depicted a very different style of architecture, one that appeared to almost be trying to fit in too hard with its Planet Hollywood and Gaumont neighbours, offering them a blue globe elevated above its entrance and similarly-curved canopies above the entrances.

And then all fell silent. Until, that is, earlier this year — when member MykeY on DCP forum supplied not only fresh hope that the project could be moving ahead but a brand new concept image. This time, depicting something altogether more fantastical:

Inspired by the grand style of the greatest Parisian department stores, this World of Disney store seems to take its cues more from the Galleries Lafayette than any Floridian retail outlet. Beyond the large, open windows spanning its façade, the store sits below a giant central dome — with others above each entrance. You can never have enough domes in Paris, after all.

Mickey Mouse details are present and correct, worked into the side of the building, but with the monolithic “World of Disney” letters worked into the larger of the two entrances, which we have to assume will sit right on the corner of the site, the exterior is more Art Nouveau than Art of Disney.

The original poster added that the cost was estimated at around €14m, a substantial amount for a new store, however important. See, the location right here on the corner is practically — no, entirely — perfect. Guests leaving the park currently often skip right past the offerings of Disney Village, eager to get their sore feet into their car or hotel as quickly as possible.

Bringing a signature store right out here, addressing and opening out onto the hub itself, is about as guaranteed a way as possible to get those cash registers ringing. And, if you’ve been in the incredibly tired Disney Store just after park closing, the extra space alone will be more than welcome.

But just how much space will there be? From the looks of the imposing profile of our Galleries Disney, a second floor must be a possibility — or how about a grand atrium under that huge dome? The latest information, posted by RiverRogue on magicforum, doesn’t quite promise exactly what we’re wishing for, suggesting the upper floor (or indeed, “floors” plural) will just be for storage:

The design has slightly changed after the retirement of Wing Chao from WDI [link], but the project is still going ahead and construction ought to start relatively soon.

The retail surface will cover most of the ground floor, with upper floors used for storage. Judging from what I’ve seen and heard it’ll be the smallest of the World of Disney stores, but still rather big compared to other stores in the resort.

Nevertheless, using any space on upper floors for storage should mean more space saved for retail on the ground floor. With the comment here that construction should begin “relatively soon” and estimation from the original DCP poster that the total cost is no less than €14m, it seems when this project finally does get done, it’ll be done right.

As rumours point to Earl of Sandwich also starting up construction in 2010, it’s hopefully going to be an interesting year ahead for Disney Village. Not just for new additions, either — what about the existing locations?

Think about it — the generic Disney Store surely can’t outlive the opening of a World of Disney too long, and even Earl of Sandwich encroaches more than a little on the market of Disney’s own New York Style Sandwiches (formerly Carnegie’s Deli). Then there are the other boutiques — with a World of Disney selling the biggest collection of merchandise on property, will there be much need for the arguably quite bland selection of Disney Gallery, Disney Fashion, Hollywood Pictures and World of Toys? With most of that block made redundant, this could be a real chance to turn it around into something a whole lot better.

Given a look at the some of the wonderfully diverse offerings from Disney itself at the American Downtown Disney districts — from Disney Vault 28 to the new D-Street and several more — we can’t but hope this potential domino effect leads to nothing short of a full-scale revolution in the Village.

Yes, they show us the World yet we’re still thinking of more. Bring on 2010…!

Credit to MykeY and RiverRogue.

 

Roy E. Disney 1930 – 2009

Over a 56-year period with The Walt Disney Company, Roy E. Disney twice played a key role in saving it from creative ruin, overseeing a new golden age of animation that included Beauty and the Beast and The Lion King, pushing with all his energy the need to preserve Disney’s historic legacy whilst looking to the future, embracing new technology to revitalise Disney tradition.

D23, the official community for Disney fans, just published a look back at his life and his legacy.

Roy’s resignation from the Disney board of directors in 1984, following his unhappiness with the company’s lack of direction, triggered a series of developments which saw the arrival of Michael Eisner and Frank Wells to revitalise the company and — of course — put together the most lavish magic kingdom the world has ever seen. A shining example of Roy’s constant push to maintain Disney values. A place that would have even blown his Uncle Walt away.

For keeping tradition; For looking ahead. Thank you, Roy.

As the official Disney Parks Blog posted a remarkably… unremarkable confirmation that the Shanghai Disneyland project is moving ahead, newspaper Le Parisien slipped out a fascinating article all about the future of our resort. Talking to Francis Borezée, Vice President of Resort and Real Estate Development, they summarise the next phase of development in the Val d’Europe district, from the expansion of Disney Village to the long-awaited new Convention Centre.

Most of this won’t shock or stun a keen follower of Disneyland Paris news, but one element certainly might: the addition of dates, the revelation that all this is finally due to be officially announced, very soon indeed. And, whilst a project being led by a huge Convention Centre doesn’t seem immediately exciting, the development and its surrounding expansions will change the landscape of the resort beyond recognition.

Where now, as soon as you reach the lonely IMAX cinema and games arcade, the old beet fields suddenly stretch as far as the eye can see, soon you’ll be at the heart of a whole new, very urban, Disney development, comprising the new hotels and Village expansion it so badly needs.

Here’s the article in full, skip down for the summary:

Disney dévoile ses nouveaux projets

Tourisme d’affaires, logements, extension des zones de loisirs et de commerces, le Val-d’Europe poursuit son développement sous l’impulsion du géant américain.

Qu’on se le dise : le groupe aux grandes oreilles n’a pas fini de laisser son empreinte sur le paysage urbain du Val-d’Europe. Fraîchement nommé à la tête des activités de développement urbain et vités touristique du groupe, Francis Borezée dévoile ses principaux projets pour le développement à venir de l’agglomération.

Des programmes qui dessinent les contours de la phase 4 du développement du Val d’Europe, actuellement en discussion avec les représentants de l’Etat et les élus locaux.

Des réalisations sur quinze ans. Chargé du codéveloppement de l’agglomération en vertu d’une convention signée avec l’Etat en 1987, Euro Disney SCA a rempli au- aujourd’hui plus de la moitié du contrat. « Nous avons d’ores et déjà développé 1 100 ha sur 1 943, ce qui veut dire qu’on a encore quinze ans de développement devant nous », résume Francis Borezée.

Actuellement en cours, l’achèvement des programmes de la phase 3 – finition de la place d’Ariane, du quartier résidentiel des Lacs ou réalisation de bureaux près de la gare RER — va coïncider avec le lance- lancement des nouveaux projets de l’opérateur privé.

Cap vers le tourisme d’affaires. C’est la grande nouveauté annoncée par le directeur général adjoint d’Euro Disney SCA. Un gigantesque centre de congrès devrait voir le jour aux portes des parcs Disneyland, pour un budget d’investissement d’environ 100 millions d’euros. D’ici 2015, une première phase prévoit la construction d’un centre de 20 000 ha sur ce terrain coincé entre le parking Vinci et l’hôtel Newport. Une nouvelle gare TGV dédiée et un hôtel de 750 chambres seront construits sur le site, qui pourra accueillir des groupes de 4 000 personnes.

Parallèlement, les activités touristiques classiques continueront de se développer, avec l’extension prévue du Disney-Village et la construction de nouvelles attractions dans les parcs… qui devraient faire l’objet d’une annonce à la fin de l’année.

De nouveaux logements en perspective. Le développement résidentiel reste une priorité pour Francis Borezée, qui prévoit la construction de « 500 à 600 » nouveaux logements, dont « au moins 20 % de logements sociaux » par an d’ici à 2017. Le centre urbain devrait s’étendre avec de nouveaux logements assortis d’équipements publics, au nord de la nouvelle mairie de Serris ainsi qu’au sud-ouest du centre de secours de Chessy et au nord du boulevard circulaire. Pour améliorer le cadre de vie, un nouveau bassin et des espaces verts devraient également voir le jour (voir carte).

D’autres constructions pourraient également apparaître en périphérie, à Magny-le-Hongre et à Bailly-Ro- Romainvilliers, avec un programme mêlant maisons individuelles et logements collectifs dans le quartier des Courtalins. A terme, Francis Borezée prévoit une croissance de la population « jusqu’à 55 000 ou 60 000 habitants », soit un peu moins que l’Etat, qui envisage jusqu’à 80 000 habitants au Val-d’Europe.

L’extension du centre commercial Val-d’Europe. Satisfait du succès du pôle marchand, qui « résiste mieux à la crise » que la moyenne des centres commerciaux, le développeur prévoit son extension, avec une « nouvelle ouverture inter- intermédiaire » de la galerie. Sans oublier l’inauguration, en mars 2010, d’un immense magasin Castorama consacré à la décoration d’intérieur, assorti de 600 à 700 nouvelles places créées sur un niveau intermédiaire dans le parking du centre commercial.

La poursuite du développement. Les entreprises ne seront pas oubliées par l’opérateur d’aménagement privé, qui table sur l’extension du parc d’entreprise Goodman, à Bailly-Romainvilliers. Sans oublier de « constituer une nouvelle offre de bureaux prêts à l’emploi près de la gare, dans le centre urbain du Val-d’Europe. » En effet, les bureaux déjà réalisés dans ce secteur sont déjà occupés «à près de 95%».

The reason none of these grand proposals come as a surprise? Because plans showing exactly these developments have been public for probably over a year now, showing the urban streets of Val d’Europe connecting up with the resort centre.

Francis Borezée notes that, after having developed 1,100 hectares of 1,943 ha available since 1987, the resort still has 15 years of development ahead of it. He confirms that Phase 4 of the Val d’Europe development is now in discussions with the state and local town councillors, and that the completion of various Phase 3 projects (housing and office developments, the town squares) will coincide with the launch of plans for the next phase of their private, resort expansion projects.

So here’s where it gets interesting: The Convention Centre, having waited to be green-lit for over ten years now, will see its first phase developed and built between now and 2015. For an investment of €100 million Euros, the “gigantestque” centre totalling 20,000 ha of floorspace will take shape on the land between the existing Vinci (Disney Village) parking lot and Newport Bay Club.

The article confirms a 750-room hotel will be included in this phase, stating “on the site”. As can be seen in the plans released, there are in fact plots for two new Disney Hotels nearby. It remains to be seen whether they’d choose the hotel next to the Convention Centre or the one across the road, joined onto the Disney Village expansion, to build first.

It also then confirms the new TGV Station, but — especially when you look at the plan they’ve drawn up themselves — seems to have the impression that this will be a whole new station. Technically, it won’t. Similarly stuck on the drawing board for a decade, this will merely be an additional entrance and exit to the platforms of the existing Marne-la-Vallée/Chessy station.

Slotted in right next to the Disney Village multi-story parking, it’ll provide a new booking hall and facilities on the South side of the resort hub, allowing convention-goers and Val d’Europe residents far easier access to the platforms, without having to cross the resort hub.

Next, something we all want to hear — “Parallel to this, the resort’s traditional tourism activity will continue to be developed, with the expected expansion of Disney Village and the construction of new attractions in the theme parks… which will be the object of an announcement at the end of the year”.

Continuing on, the report discusses new housing at Val d’Europe, the creation of parks and lakes as seen in the plans, plus developments to the Shopping Centre, which is apparently beating the economic crisis more than most similar malls. Join the news recently that Val d’Europe will become home to a brand new swimming pool Aquatics Centre, and the rumours of the French Open, and things are looking good.

But you’ve probably stopped reading now, right? Knowing that a completion date has finally been set for all those expansions, and the promise of imminent announcements for Disney Village and new park attractions later this year…

Forget Shanghai, that’s the Parisian Surprise we needed.

Plans © Disney.

Bringing Extra Magic Hours (EMH) over to Disneyland Paris was a great bonus for a lot of guests and almost all fans of the resort, able to enjoy an extra two hours in Disneyland Park each morning thanks to their Disney Hotel or Annual Passport Dream.

However, those two extra hours, starting at 8am, caused the park’s regular opening time to be pushed back to 10am. Any guests not able to use EMH therefore actually lost an hour of time in the park. In fact, make that plural — despite not offering the bonus, the chance was also taken to save a little money by keeping the attractions at Walt Disney Studios Park closed till 10am, too.

Thank the record weekend attendance of last Christmas, then, because this December will finally see both parks return to full 9am opening times on Saturdays and Sundays. Park hours for the first two weeks of the month were published today, confirming the change. Last year, weekends in early December saw major traffic on roads leading to the resort and its main parking lot, with the amount of guests visiting to enjoy the special seasonal events even forcing the closure of Disneyland Park’s gates for several hours at the busiest point of the day.

But what does this earlier opening mean for those two extra hours? Well, they’ll be downsized to just one hour at Disneyland Park… but if wishes come true, they could become two again. Reports (posted by Mouetto, moderator on Disney Central Plaza) suggest that these days could also see Walt Disney Studios Park opened to EMH guests from 8am.

So far, however, the official website’s EMH page remains geared toward only Disneyland Park. If extra time is to be granted over at the Studios, the resort will have to work hard to reword their print and promote such a bonus.

• Check the latest park opening times at our new-look Calendar.

Such a proposal — to replace the real ice rink we’ve become used to with a synthetic version — might have seemed like the perfect opportunity for any jaded Disney nuts to blast forth about how the company has “lost it”. Luckily, there’s no example set here.

Check out the classic, real version:

Then this first photo of the new rink, taken by Chris44 from Disney Magic Interactive:

And it looks… fine, actually. Don’t you think?

Look closely and you can see the joins, but considering that this new artificial surface is cheaper, easier to maintain and better for the environment, it’s a decision well made and at first glimpse, well executed. The finish appears much better than the patio slab-style rink feared. From the thoughts of those who tried it, the quality of the old surface wasn’t much to shout about anyway.

The big possibility this new rink opens up is that of year-round operation. It’s a popular feature of the months from November to April, so why not extend that? Have a perpetual Rockefeller Plaza ice rink outside Hotel New York; surely that’d be vastly better than the truly hideous kids’ go-kart driving circuit that has plagued the space for so many Summers now.

Yes, check into your expensive, “4 star” Disney hotel, look out of your window and see… this:

Ouch. Not very “New York chic”. A permanent ice rink, provided it’s well-maintained, would finally remove this from the resort’s black spot list (Studio 1 billboard, etc, remain).

Of course, we’d all probably still much rather see a return of the wonderful, giant map of Manhattan which is still hidden under there and used to be opened up into a giant water feature, but you can’t have everything.

To add a bit of history from our soon-to-open Euro Souvenirland.com (the Memorabilia section of DLRP Magic! is becoming its own website, plug plug), you can see here how the whole of Rockefeller Plaza used to be full of atmosphere…

…especially come nighttime, when they’d serve a romantic dinner under trees filled with glittering lights, as music from the hotel’s now long-gone Manhattan Jazz Club echoed through the air.

With one of the plaza’s forgotten outbuildings re-opened briefly as a café location this Summer and now a re-think of the ice rink with the possibility of extended operation, perhaps things are finally changing for the better on this side of Lake Disney?

Photos: © Disney; Chris44; Nicolai.

The coveted position in California opened up after previous president Ed Grier stepped down last week, right on schedule at 3 years into the job.

For newly-promoted Kalogridis, this also ends a three-year reign. George became Chief Operating Officer (COO, or French title, Directeur Général Adjoint: Opérations) for Euro Disney SCA, operating group of Disneyland Paris, back in 2006 after Karl Holz was promoted to Chief Executive Officer.

In that time, we’ve seen new parades, new shows and no less than six new attractions — including of course, the formidable Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. We’ve also enjoyed a renewed focus on the resort’s upkeep and details, increasingly wonderful Cast Members, new initiatives like Extra Magic Hours and E-Tickets, and in pure number terms, the most successful years of the resort’s life to date.

Meanwhile, characters have taken over some of the magic of the original park, proper entertainment has been shunned in favour of street dance-alongs, attractions have been forced into reduced operating hours, hotel pools have stayed closed until 3pm, the official website has remained incredibly poor, and progress, generally, at Walt Disney Studios Park has been disappointingly slow and half-hearted. And of course, during his entire run as COO, George Kalogridis would never have seen the front of Disney Studio 1 — it being flanked first by Chicken Little and Cars advertisements, then later a “refurbishment” covering for the past 14 months.

Overseeing such a large programme of expansion should certainly have set him in good step for the continuing billion-dollar expansion and improvements still ahead at Disney’s California Adventure park, if his time overseeing the opening of that park didn’t already — he was their senior vice president of operations first, from 2000 to 2002. Further back, he has history in Paris as one of the original Cast Members on the pre-opening development team in 1988.

The past three years have been spectacularly successful for Disneyland Paris, and we can only hope that the incoming COO is somebody who knows exactly what Disneyland should be — (preferably the Californian or Japanese version, eh?) — and how to achieve that kind of quality more consistently in Paris.

Euro Disney SCA have yet to announce a replacement.

UPDATE (01:46 GMT) — The OC Register “Around Disney” blog has just posted an exclusive Q&A with George Kalogridis, with several interesting comments on the similarities between the California and Paris resorts and some operational tricks learnt in Paris. Here’s an excerpt:

Q. What have you learned from other resorts and your previous stint here that you can bring to the new job?

A. Probably, the one thing that’s most interesting is Disneyland Paris and Disneyland California are the two sites that are the most similar. Both have two theme parks, resort hotels and a retail-entertainment center. Both are in an urban environment. Secondly … in the last three years, I’ve opened a new major attraction each year in my time in Paris. So, I think I also have very recent experience opening a big new attraction. I see the same opportunity here.

Q. What lessons did you learn from the similarities of Disneyland and Disneyland Paris?

A. I think the dynamic of guest visitors and whether or not they choose to cross over to the other park and what makes them choose to do that. It’s an interesting dynamic. There’s no recipe for it. But it’s a big issue as to how you operate. I think we had some learning in Paris. For example, turning the direction of the parade made a big difference in terms of the crush exiting to get to the other park. Again, it’s not that it’s the right thing or the wrong thing here, but it’s learning. … I think the Paris site and this site are the only ones where guests can walk between two parks without a mode of transport.

And some good news for Disneyland Resort fans (and MiceAge columnists) — George states very specifically that “I’m in the parks and hotels more than I’m not. I’m a visible person. […] My goal is to be very visible. And in my time with the company, that’s always proven to be something that’s doable.”

Read the full Q&A here, or the original OC Register news item here.

It seems like only a few weeks ago we were adjusting to a new layout for the all-important Programme. Probably because it was just a few weeks ago.

Well, they’ve been at it again! Take a look:

The new format spreads itself much more freely over three pages, with one side for each park.

Rather than having both times grids together in the middle, they’re now positioned horizontally on each park’s page, surrounded by additional images and graphics. On the front, the “featured” events remain from the previous design, giving extra prominence to the key events of the day.

For the Disneyland Park programme, the entire side has been given a very smart Halloween dressing, far better than we’ve become used to in recent years. The Halloween events themselves are picked out with an orange background, courtesy of the new full-colour printing method.

Will it be all-change again once Halloween is over? Hopefully not — the Programme could look fantastic with a full-colour Christmas overlay, although whether such “extravagance” would continue into the quieter Winter months is debatable. This format is surely somewhat more expensive than the previous, greyscale on lower grade paper, but does help make the Halloween Festival seem that little bit more special.

Last year, it was the French Grand Prix. Now, another top sporting event looks to have its sights set on the beet fields of eastern Marne-la-Vallée.

The president of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) has suggested that the French Open — the Tournoi de Roland-Garros — may in fact be heading away from the capacity-starved Stade Roland-Garros to a new home, out of the city smoke… at Disneyland Paris.

Picked up in the local pages of the Le Parisien website, the story began in a French weekly titled “le 10 Sport” where the FFT president, Jean Gachassin, said he could envisage the Grand Slam tournament moving to a new location either at Sarcelles in Val d’Oise or… “Eurodisney”.

Completely unrelated, a publicity event earlier this year saw
Main Street become a full-size tennis court

Whilst Disneyland Paris had yet to respond to Le Parisien‘s request for comment, it transpires that the most likely location could in fact be at Val d’Europe, the modern town and shopping centre development led by the Euro Disney S.C.A. group next to the main resort centre.

Jean-Paul Balcou, president of the Val d’Europe SAN (syndicat d’agglomération nouvelle) public body, stated that it was simply a matter of proposals to the Euro Disney operating group, adding that the conglomeration of towns was “completely favourable” to such a move.

He confirmed that “one of the plans envisaged would see the tournament based not far from the [Val d’Europe] RER station at the heart of the town centre, between the communes of Chessy and Serris”.

Val d’Europe location relative to the parks

In 2008, fierce rumour of the Formula 1 French Grand Prix moving from Magny-Cours to a new home literally slap bang in the middle of our prized resort rang frightening true when plans were ultimately revealed.

With seemingly no regard for the theme parks, hotels — or towns — nearby, the circuit would have cut a path just metres from the windows of Disney’s Newport Bay Club and Sequoia Lodge, bringing deafening noise for some of the year and abandoned infrastructure for the rest. Ultimately, it was opposed and thrown out by local councils — the same councils appearing to support wholeheartedly this latest sporting proposal.

Despite construction of a new centre court being scheduled to begin at Stade Roland-Garros in 2010 or 2011, expansion of the sporting facilities there, in the congested 16th arrondissement of Paris, has apparently met with strong opposition from locals and commentators alike.

Should the proposed move come to fruition, and Val d’Europe take the match point from Sarcelles, it would be a huge boon for the town and for Disneyland alike; giving Val d’Europe reason above simply its shopping centre and commuter pads, and bringing a prestigious — and pleasantly hushed — annual sporting fixture within the famous Boulevard Circulaire of Disneyland Paris.

Images: Disney/Google. With thanks to Adam.