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[pfspock]

Just found this channel with a couple of beautiful videos from January 1996, the first time I have been to DLP.  I especially love this little show that took place on the ice skating rink in front of Hotel New York. [youtube:1lahd7eq]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqrG7Gb7lvw[/youtube:1lahd7eq].

Ah, those were the days. I remember this show as a cute little bonus after a beautiful day in the park. One more detail that made the resort so magical in the early years. Me and my (back then) girlfriend just stopped at the rink for some Irish coffee (you could get one there back then) and watched the kids having fun on the rink when suddenly this show started. Great surprise. And take a look at the old parade, you can get a glimpse of the Central Plaza decoration which was really beautiful and classy. (Just a snowy landscape with an angel in snowglobe and various animals) And you can see the arches on Main Street...

Other things I remember from this visit that sadly no longer exist:
- the Saloon show
- the ability to visit the Labyrinth AFTER dusk, with gazillions of little lights glowing. Now THAT was romantic.
- A real high quality character breakfast at the Hotel New York (even though we stayed at Cheyenne)
- The festival of fairytales with the gingerbread house walkthrough (nothing special, but a nice plus) and Aurora's wedding ceremony in the castle front court. And loads of characters everywhwere.
- the Space exhibition in the tent that was to become Pizza Planet
- Beauty and the Beast at Videopolis
- the old "Good Morning Main Street U.S.A." parade
- Le Noel de Mickey
- the well maintained Astroport
- the Main Street Electrical Parade which I still prefer over Fantillusion.
And of course TImekeeper and Space Mountain: De la terre...
Just some random thoughts, there were so many little details back then that you never noticed until they were gone but they were part of the magic. Everytime I visit now I get this feeling that something is missing that I cannot quite put my finger on, but it somehow lacks the magic it used to have. And this isn't about discontinued or closed attractions, this is about all those things that made it possible to have a great day in the park without visiting one attraction.

[dagobert]

Do you have any pictures of the Labyrinth after dusk with all the lights? What happened to those lights? Were they removed due to Disney's efforts to "plus" the attraction? :lol:

DLRP was indeed so much more magical back then, I wish I would have been there back then. Thanks for the video!

[pfspock]

Do you have any pictures of the Labyrinth after dusk with all the lights? What happened to those lights? Were they removed due to Disney's efforts to "plus" the attraction? :lol:

I had some as well as pictures from the gingerbread house, the wedding ceremony and the Central Plaza Diorama but I cannot find them. Could be that I lost them while moving or that my ex-girlfriend kept them. Don't know. I remember that most of the lights were in the tunnel when you entered the labyrinth.

[davewasbaloo]

Oh man, those were the days. And people wonder why I campaign to try to get Disney to restore the magic. It does not have to be the same stuff, just simply on the same scale would be nice. So many people discovered DLP later on, and are not sure what they are missing. I envy them. But at the same time, I wish a leader would come along who gets it, and sorts it out.

[dagobert]

Oh man, those were the days. And people wonder why I campaign to try to get Disney to restore the magic. It does not have to be the same stuff, just simply on the same scale would be nice. So many people discovered DLP later on, and are not sure what they are missing. I envy them. But at the same time, I wish a leader would come along who gets it, and sorts it out.

This leader has to be like Michael Eisner and Frank Wells. Maybe it's time for Disney to restore a dual leadership like during the great time of Eisner and Wells. One is responsible for the creative stuff while the other one cares about the financial stuff. I had high hopes in Robert Iger after he fixed the problems with Pixar and brought John Lasseter to WDI.

[pfspock]

I wholeheartedly agree with both of you but tbh, even back then you could sense the problems and the changes that were to come. We went there from Friday to Monday and realized that the parks were nearly deserted on the weekdays (and this was Christmas Season) and packed on the weekends, so we managed to do all of the rides on Friday and Monday and enjoyed the rest of the park on Saturday and Sunday. But we wondered back then how they could possibly survive with so few visitors on weekdays. It was clear that painful cuts had to be made. But still, the whole place just felt different back then. We had one hell of a time just wandering up and down on Main Street with green, red and golden ornaments and yellow lights as the predominating colors (not this tacky LED stuff they so love today). No burnt-out lightbulbs anywhere.
Sigh...

[dagobert]

It's so sad that these wonderful Christmas lights arches over Main Street are gone. The current poles with the princesse's faces look terrible. Many will call me nitpicking, but they just don't belong to a turn of the century street. This messing with the themes annoys me a lot. It's really time for Disney to bring back a classy decoration without any toons. It's a themepark, not a toonpark.

The broken lightbulbs are not only a problem at Main Street, they are a problem in the whole resort. At WDW we haven't seen one broken lightbulb on Main Street. How much would it cost to change the broken bulbs at least once a week or two weeks.

[captain rocket]

Here's the lights at dusk and at night and not a dead bulb to be seen! I fear we may never see the like again, neither the will nor the money appears to be around these days!

[pussinboots]

I'd also like to point out the lights in the trees in Rockefeller Plaza. Has anyone seen the recent (and refurbished!) state of them? Such a simple thing, you wouldn't think it possible that anyone could mess that up.

[lil-shawn]

Damn how fast time passed by, i remember all my visits to Disneyland Paris, 2 times 1992, 1993, 2 times 1994, 1995, 1996, 2times 1998, 1999, 2000 and then i had a break till 2003... and why you ask.. because the quality got down, and my parents didn´t wanted to visit again, so i had to wait til i had my driver license and go for myself.

there were so much little thing´s that made every visit special and magical. to bad not everyone had the chance to visit pre 2000´s.... The park was so clean, the food excelent, the cm very friendly and they tryed to make your vacation more magical. The Waterfall inside Big Thunder Mountain, the geysers, lava rocks in discoveryland, electrical parade, different merchandise in every land, walkaround charakters everywhere, the sparkling lights in the trees at the castle, the lights in the trees by the hotels, fantasia in the sky fireworks, all the great shows, and many more...

to bad no one cares about this stuff anymore.. i know its a bussines who needs to make money, and when things don´t work out like it should be things needs to be cut. but common all this nice and little effects, they cannot cost that much to fix and run. all the money they spending on things that aren´t needet, could stop and they should invest in all this effects and nice little touches that made this park so special and differen to every other themepark...

i wished i still had the video from 1992, but as lucky i am a few pics i have still somewere around...

[davewasbaloo]

Yep, agreed. Instead of Toy Story Playland or these stupid marketing campaign with a newly painted toon train, I think visitors who missed out on the early stuff would have been amazed with what DLP would be like. There is one poster who continually asserts DLP is better today now that it is bigger, than back in the 90's. They are entitled to their opinion, but I totally disagree. Back then it was quality, and to be honest there is not much quantity extra except WDSP (which I would trade for the quality in a heartbeat, and i like the Studios).

But yes, real entertainment everywhere, merchandise that was entertainment in itself to look at, greater diversity of choice in the restaurants, real fireworks, working effects. It made DLP very special. Now, although still better than the competition in many ways, it is a shadow of it's former self, and most of the stuff we enjoy have been there since day 1.

[dagobert]

I think we could fill pages about the bad quality of DLRP today. I wish I had experienced DLP during the 90s. Unfortunately we live in a society that cares more about quantity than quality. Most people aren't willing to spend money on quality stuff. For me the best example is the food. Otherwise I can't explain why fast food is so popular. And the same is happening at Disney. As long as it says Disney on a cheap merchandise product or on an attraction there are people out there who are happy. Maybe they are even happy with a bare steel structure with a printed Disney character on it. That's how it is done at our local fair.

It doesn't cost a lot of money to keep the park maintained. Why is it so hard for DLRP, for example, to avoid overloading dustbins? Why is it so hard to keep the parks clean? Why is it so hard to keep effects working? Why is it so hard not to change broken lightbulbs? Now everyone is going to say, because of the bad financial situation of ED SCA. But there was money for bad themed years. There was money for overprozed bad new attractions. There was money for an iceskating rink that no one needs during summer. There was money for a stage on Central Plaza, while there are so many in the whole resort that aren't used. And there was money for fixing the queue of TSPL, because it can get slippery. DLRP was built nearly 20 years ago and WDI still doesn't know that there can be snow in Paris. Well done!!! I can go on like this.

[lil-shawn]

It doesn't cost a lot of money to keep the park maintained. Why is it so hard for DLRP, for example, to avoid overloading dustbins? Why is it so hard to keep the parks clean? Why is it so hard to keep effects working? Why is it so hard not to change broken lightbulbs? Now everyone is going to say, because of the bad financial situation of ED SCA. But there was money for bad themed years. There was money for overprozed bad new attractions. There was money for an iceskating rink that no one needs during summer. There was money for a stage on Central Plaza, while there are so many in the whole resort that aren't used. And there was money for fixing the queue of TSPL, because it can get slippery. DLRP was built nearly 20 years ago and WDI still doesn't know that there can be snow in Paris. Well done!!! I can go on like this.

hmmm now you hit the nail on the head, but wait someone will say something against it. but i argee with you,
they have money to fix a lot of things in the parks, but they don´t care about it, they love to spend money on
stuff that isn´t needet. It dosen´t mean because its disney it is good. this time is over you can say this.
The problem is we can´t just complain about disney, we also have to complain about the visitors.

If i think back, i remember of entering the park, welcomed by a very friendly CM, who is asking where you from
and then speaks with you in your language, gives you a park map personaly and tell you when the parade or fireworks starts, then the CM wishes you a magical day. I miss those days at disney...
But also i have to say, it´s disneys own fault. first stoping the europe wide advertisment, then the problem with the language, in my opinion its realy bad that to much is in french. Kids from spain, germany, austria, ect. don´t understand anything, thats not okay. A lot of friends or people from my work wanna go to DLP, they ask me everytime if its now more english so they can understand everything, i always have to dissapoint them. The Rides should be all in English, thats just fair, the speaking in the shows also should be in english and the music in every other language. I don´t know anyone who learns french just because they go to DLP. i know maybe am the only one who thinks like this, but i also know that
my thinking is not wrong.

[captain rocket]

Just how much would it cost to repair special effects like this?

[Filip]

I gave up on DLP. I am a huge disney fan, but every year i get more and more dissapointed with DLP. They just chosed to go a wrong way and although every year i am hoping it is not happening and i do not want to think about that anymore. Disneyland was always about being in a diferent world and seeing faraway lands, adventure, seeing spectacular shows which only "Disney can do". Well it is not happening in Paris. What they do here is maybe ok for small kids with parents who are gonna be happy about meet and greets. Since 90s they didnt do or build anything spectacular, neither they are planning in near future. Ok WDS with tower of terror, well it is a still failure... i am not wow about it, one small hollywood street with peeling poster walls and one great ride is not gonna make for a park disney should be ashamed of.
I love Disney but next time i am rather going to WDW, which can afford to put on a show. I am sorry for Paris i know it is not completely their fault - debts - but too bad, i rather spend my money somewhere else.