They placed EuroDisney in the wrong place anyway the French dont want an American park hence the lack of progress and it's failure.
How many French visitors and how many Europeans in general were there really at the Florida Magic Kingdom? And how many of those were theme park only visitors staying just at Disney property as the ones described here.
A lot of Eurodisneys neverending loss history can be attributed to exactly the same mistakes made here the idear that Europeans do theme park holidays the way Americans do. Theres a case to be made that Europeans might be more likely to do so if the park is in the south like the Florida one, but still, there are other problems with that idear. Europeans work shorter hours, thus they earn less and have longer holidays, which reduces the budget per holiday day a lot. Theres also competition from all the historic buildings which are free to look at and often more exciting than any Disney themeing.
But having been there for opening year, 5th 10th and 15th birthday years I am sure they will do something which will no doubt last 2 years like the 15th party LOL
However, it was a strange experience. When it was good it was very, very good - we were blown away by Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Pirates, Haunted Mansion.... and then there was the rest which was just... kind of ordinary and at worst just plain bizarre. We saw a show where the speech was in French but the songs in English. The Snow White ride broke down whilst we were on it and the announcements were solely in French... It all felt kind of odd and mixed and not quite right... And it was tiny... The whole park was a fraction the size of our home-grown Alton Towers and that felt odd...
When we went to Florida some years later suddenly Disney made 100% sense and I fell for the Magic Kingdom hook, line and sinker. This was what it was meant to be...
I'm told Paris has improved greatly over the years since we went, not least with the addition of the Studios Park, (although it looks like a very slim line up of attractions). I'd be interested to go back but I can't help feeling that Disney chose the wrong country to host it's European park. Despite the UK's por winter weather, (not that different from Paris actually), the culture would have been so much more in tune with the Disney ethos and after all, who is the greatest overseas market for Florida and Disneyworld? Yep - the UK....
This has to be the worst 20th birthday celebration ever. Someone get that poor park a glass of Chardonnay.
This is a really early, but good, story.
I was there for the 15th and they made a big deal out of it so I do not see why 20 isn't even bigger.
It also has been a park that has really grown in Europe. It started out terribly, and went to a top European destination.
As for my opinion, it has been the best "Magic Kingdom" style park I have been to. It has the quaintess of DL and the atmospheric size and feeling of WDW. It also has the best Thunder Mountain this side of the Wilderness!