So I'm getting excited to go to Europe at the end of this week. Did I ever mention officially that we're going to go to Disneyland Resort Paris (the former Euro Disney)?
I'm really kind of excited for that, which is kind of geeky, I know, but hey, I admit it - I've wanted to go to Disneyland Paris for fifteen years, since it opened in 1992.
In fact, I still remember the magazine cover of The Disney News about the park from that summer.
Euro Disney Resort - The Dream Awakens.
Anyway, we're only going for one day, so I think we're going to skip the new Walt Disney Studios park. And I just discovered on the day we're there (Friday, July 6) Disneyland is only open from 10 am until 9 pm ... which is kind of a short Disney park day for the Edwards family.
But since this is the first time that Liz and I are going to a Disney park together, well, that'll do just fine.
In order to get myself even more excited, here is a list of some fun facts about the resort:
Disneyland Resort Paris has as many visitors every year as the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre put together.
Disneyland Resort Paris is owned and operated by French company Euro Disney S.C.A., a public company of which 39.78% of its stock is held by The Walt Disney Company, 10% by the Saudi Prince Alwaleed and 50.22% by other shareholders.
Investors who paid 11 euro a share when Euro Disney went on the stock market in 1989 now have stock worth about 0.09 euro each.
In June 1994 the resort (and park) were renamed "Euro Disneyland Paris".
In September 1994 the 'Euro' was lost and both the resort and park were renamed "Disneyland Paris".
On July 25, 1995, parent company Euro Disney S.C.A. reported its first ever quarterly profit of US$35.3 million.
A second theme park, Walt Disney Studios Park, opened its doors on March 16, 2002.
The resort lost more than 70 million euro in 2006, its fifth consecutive year of losses.
Disneyland Park had 10.6 million visitors in 2006, making it the fifth highest attended theme park (compiled by Economic Research Associates in partnership with the Themed Entertainment Association). (1-4? The Magic Kingdom at WDW, Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Tokyo DisneySea. Epcot was just a hair behind, with 10,460,000).
Well, I don't know about you, but I'm getting excited!
