In years past, Disneyland Paris has put on an amazing display of Halloween festivities. We had to wonder how much of it the park would be able to pull off this year. We’ll take a look at that, and we’ll also see how the park is performing in these difficult times. There are a few concerns we’d like to share.
We’ll start with the bad news . . .
Attendance Collapse
The attendance at the Disneyland Paris Resort is simply catastrophic. July and August did not exceed 15,000 visitors a day in the two parks. The temporary maximum threshold in these times is 25,000 visitors a day (120,000 in normal times).
The cause of the poor attendance isn’t clear cut and is compounded by years of neglect and failure to offer new rides and entertainment. Fears of virus spread are always on the mind and certainly keep many away. Border measures due to the health crisis limit visits from outside France. And then there’s the concern about what guests are getting for the money.
The US parks have so many new attractions and things for guests to want to return and see. Here, the newest attraction at Disneyland is Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast from 2006! And even the new Ratatouille ride in the Studios park isn’t enough to draw guests to a park which just won’t feel worthy until its new Marvel, Star Wars and Frozen lands are complete in the coming years.
Unfortunately, for more than 6 years, Disneyland has relied on parades and entertainment to pull in visitors. But in these difficult times, big entertainment productions aren’t really possible to offer. All of this makes Disneyland Paris a destination with aging attractions, no entertainment, but a high price that just isn’t justified for a European park.
Entertainment Void
This summer, Disneyland Paris planned two big shows to lure guests to the park: The Lion King and Jungle Book Jives. While the Lion King was able to offer performances for 3 weeks before the shutdown, Jungle Book Jive just wasn’t able to get off the ground due to early physical distancing and sanitary practices rolling out in the weeks before the shutdown.
And then there’s the issue of poor communication from the parks. It was more than a week after reopening before the parks admitted to guests that entertainment wasn’t being offered. Which reminded us of the disastrous weekend when the parks first closed. The Walt Disney Company had announced that the two Disneyland Paris parks would close on the evening of March 15th. Unfortunately, they decided to close early on March 13th instead. Only, they didn’t notify guests! Train after train of visitors from Paris arrived at the closed resort for 2 days.
Europe Travel Restrictions
One of the reasons for the drastic reduction in the number of visitors to the park is travel restrictions. In normal times, 55% of the clientele are from outside of France.
On the map below, you can see which countries may prove too restrictive to justify a visit to France (and therefore to Disneyland Paris).
As a result of the lack of visitors, there have been a number of consequences:
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- The Cheyenne Hotel has closed
- Postponement of the reopening of other hotels:
- Disneyland Hotel for December 8, not October,
- The new Marvel Hotel: not until March 2021,
- Disney’s Sequoia Lodge and David Crockett Ranch. Openings still not scheduled to date.
- Disney Village (Downtown Disney) now doesn’t open until 5 p.m. and stays open until 10 p.m. (Note that Annette’s Diner restaurant also serves lunch in addition to evening service int he Disney Village)
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- Disneyland Park Hours:
- Weekdays: 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Saturday: 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Sunday: 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Holidays: 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m.
- Extra Magical Time from 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. (Early opening for hotel guests)
- Disneyland Park Hours:
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- Walt Disney Studios Park
- Weekdays: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. (YES! Only 5 hours of operation for your money)
- Weekends: 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Holidays: 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
- Extra Magical Time has been canceled
- Walt Disney Studios Park
In addition to the limited hours of Walt Disney Studios park on weekdays, closures are also numerous in the parks. Disneyland Park can have some days of the week where no quick-service restaurants are open in Frontierland and Adventureland. In another example, some of the shops on Main Street USA were closed before the end of the day.
The hardest part for hotel guests is that when the parks close at 6pm, the kids are still full of energy, and it is normal to see visitors strolling through the Disney Village at 10pm, even though it is closed.
Beginning October 4th, 23 of the 67 food locations (snacks, restaurants, quick service, etc.) will be closed throughout the Resort.
(Here are some after-hours Disney Village images)
But it isn’t all bad news, folks . . .
Now The Good News!
Because of the low crowd levels, especially during the weekdays, you can ride just about every attraction in just one day! So, if attractions are the most important thing to you, now is a great time to visit. But you might want to avoid the weekends which are much more crowded when the local Parisians return to the parks.
But the biggest bit of good news right now is that Halloween is coming, and the decorations arrive by the thousands.
Main Street USA
Frontierland
Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant
I’m looking forward to seeing Mickey and Friends in their Halloween costumes, the famous Disney villains, and some light entertainment for the season. And of course, there will be seasonal treats and merchandise as well. The season runs now through November 1st!
Save On Future Theme Park Travel
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Let’s Hear From You!
Disneyland Paris is struggling to find an audience. With lower attendance and Halloween returned to the parks, is now the right time for a visit? It is for me, but I do hope that Disney won’t use the pandemic as an excuse to further deny Disneyland some fresh new attractions and reasons for guests to visit in the coming decade. Let us know your thoughts.
Merci! See ya real soon.
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