Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris

 

Disneyland Paris has been open for twenty years now and is still going strong. There was a plan to build a European Disneyland park as far back has1975. That was only nine years after Walt Disney died. It was considered that Britain, Spain, Italy and France would be the most likely place to build the park. Eventually France was chosen to be the best place to have the park built. This was because France had expansive flat land that would make it suitable for the park. The site in question was Mar-la-Valli it was close to Paris and very central within western Europe. This meant that the location was only four hours drive from an estimated 68 million visitors and only two hours flight from another potential 300 million visitors.
 

It would take another tens years before anything really started to move on. Then an agreement was draw up and signed by Mr Michael Eisner and the French government in 1985. Then a Mr Robert Fitzpatrick was appointed as the President of Euro Disney and the park started to take shape has the first 2,000 hectares started to be constructed in August 1988. Then in 1990 Espace Euro Disney was opened to provide the public with information on the park and a year later a casting centre was open to start recruiting the staff for the park.

Disneyland Paris opened its doors to the public on April 12^th 1992. The opening day was not a big success failing to reach the expected half million visitors. Instead only 50,000 visitors actually turned up on the first day. The company where very disappointed with these figures. The first part of the park complex had over run its budget massively, with the final bill being a whopping 22 million French Francs. The fact that over the next six to eight months the park failed to reach its targets for visitors. The park was receiving 25,000 visitors a day which was far short of its predicted figures of 60,000 visitors a day. This lead to the stock price of Euro Disney falling sharply almost wiping a third of its value. The European recession of 1992 did not help matters. This lead the company into some serious financial troubles. The fact at the time the very cheap dollar meant that people were being persuading to go to the Florida to see the original Walt Disney World. The park carried on losing money over the next couple of years.

 
The company's money problems kept on growing and by the beginning of 1994 EuroDisney was on the verge of bankruptcy and a series of crisis talks took place between the banks and shareholders. The Disneyland team had to try and convince the banks to restructure the loans or risk lose all the money they had invested in the park. The banks would be left with a bankrupt theme park and worthless real estate. This carried on until the banks finally agreed to Disney’s terms on March 14^th 1994. The banks wrote off the next two years of interest payments and the Walt Disney Company wrote off 210 million dollars of services bills. In the summer of 1994 the park started to turn its self around and from August onwards the parks hotels started to become fully booked. In October that year the park change its name from EuroDisney to Disneyland Paris. The park then went on to open new rides and in 1995 the park made its first profit of 22 million GBP. Disneyland Paris is now celebrating its twenty year and all those money worries are far behind them.

I went there earlier this year and thou it was cold and damp the place has a very magical feel about it. The place is great to take your kids, grandchildren or your love ones. Go there and relive your childhood has you walk around the park. The enchanted castle is a must see for anyone you have seen this castle on everything that is Disney, but to see it in real life is something else. I would recommend to anyone to visit Disneyland Paris it is a wonderful place.

London Victoria

Victoria National Rail Station

Victoria train station was built between 1860/1862 and was a joint venture between “The Victoria Station and Pimlico Railway Company”. This company was set up in 1858 to take trains over the river to meet up with the “Great Exhibition” that had recently moved to Sydenham from Hyde Park. The station was built in two parts and was used by four different railway companies “The Great Western (GWR), London & North Western (LNWR), The London, Brighton and South coast (LBSCR) and The London, Chatham and Dover Railway (LCDR)”.

The west side of the station opened first on 1^st October 1862 and was used by the Brighton and south coast lines. The station became very popular with the public and was a huge success. The western side of the station also had an hotel incorporated into it called “The Grosvenor” which had 300 rooms. The eastern side of the station opened shortly afterwards. The stations were designed by the then London, Brighton and South Coast Railway engineer Mr R Jacob Hood and was mostly constructed of wood. The eastern side of the station was much more shabby in appearance than the western side and was occupy by “The Chatham Company” and “GWR”. It had nine tracks leading into the station and some of the lines were built through what was once the basin of the Grosvenor Canal.

At the turn of the century which was around 40 years after the original station was built. The station had became very overcrowded and shabby. The railway management decided to build a new station on the western and eastern side. The new station was to be a much bigger station and a much more well planned one. The station was to be designed by Sir Charles Morgan. There was to be a new section along Buckingham Palace Road which was 9 storeys high and form the main bulk of the new Grosvenor hotel that was rebuilt as part of the development. The main feature of the station was its french style pavilion glass roofs. The new station was opened on 1^st July 1908. The eastern side of the station was designed in Edwardian style with baroque elements in white stone opened a year later in 1909. The eastern side was designed by Mr Alfred Bloomfield. The two buildings are very contrasting to each other in there appearance. The stations ended up being connected in 1924 when it was decided to taking down part of a screen wall that separated the two stations. The platforms were extended length ways in the same year. This was to accommodate the increase in passages and travellers. The platforms were done this way because there was little scope to develop the station in any other way due to the increase transport in the area. During the WW1 the eastern side of the station played an important role in ferrying the troops to seaside ports for transport to France and bring the wounded back again.

Over the years Victoria Station has become a very busy place for travellers from all other the world. To meet this demand the London tourist board have employed visitor information guides to help you if you are lost or just need to ask a question. These tour guides are situated in and around the station. You also have people travelling there from all over the country by coach to the Victoria coach station which is just around the corner from the main line rail station to catch a train to the coast to catch a ferry to France and other destinations and vice verse. What ever time you go to Victoria it is always a busy place with everyone going, coming or waiting for someone.