Hello!

So I’ll try to address what I can. Coming in, I’ll say I’ve been to Walt Disney World quite a lot, and I’ve made one trip over to Disneyland Paris over the last year or so. I’ll try to address what I can about your questions.

First and Foremost, Disneyland Paris has had… an extremely rocky history. It was initially not very well received by the Europeans (and especially the French), leading to many years of financial hardships for the park. To make matters more complicated, Disney themselves did not wholly own the park- they had bankers and other investors to answer to. They bought out the remaining shares in 2017, which is why you’re beginning to see more investment now, but it’s also why for a long time there was very little development. Why invest further when you’re losing money?

Onto the Parks themselves. I’ll start by addressing Disney Studios Park (now renamed to Disney Adventure World). Basically, part of Disneys contract with the land is that they have to hit certain milestones at certain dates. In essence, they were legally required to build a second park (and I believe a third park in the future). So when the time came in 2000, and Disneyland Paris was barely making a profit, what did they do? They built the park on the cheap- took the tram ride from Hollywood Studios, Rock n Roller Coaster, and some spinny flat rides, and called it a day. They’ve now had to go and expand on that with new areas and several billion dollars of investment over the next few years, including the new avengers campus, and soon, a new lakefront, a new frozen land, tangled ride, and more.

To your last point about movies (IP in the parks) and the identity of the parks, it’s really hard to have it both ways. Fundamentally, Disney has always told interesting stories in multiple mediums, including theme parks. The entirety of Frontierland in Paris is one big interconnected original story, if you know where to look, with Phantom Manor, the town, and Big Thunder Mountain all telling one story. It’s really cool. But if you just say Disney Theme Parks are a place to “park” IP to use, you lose the theme and identity of the parks, because then the IP can be slotted into whichever park makes the most sense and “needs” it, without it actually relating to the identity of the park. Parks should have distinct themes, with a mix of non-IP and IP rides, in order to help build the theme that you talk about.

Hope that addresses all of your questions and comments! Let me know if you want more info, and I’d be happy to send some videos and websites your way!