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[mattboywonder]

Ever notice how you never seem to hear German's in the parks?  Lots of Spanish and Italian....quite a few dutch but rarely German.  Even CM's giving safety talks on attractions TOT or Star Tours sometimes askes "espanol?" "Italiani" but never "deutsche?"

Any ideas?

[dagobert]

I'm not a German, but Disney sees Austria as part of the German market.

There are many reasons why there aren't many Germans at DLRP.

First there is no advertising for DLRP in the DACH market (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), which amazed me, because that is a 100 mio people market. Germany, Austria and Switzerland are also one of the richest countries in Europe and are hardly effected by the current economic crisis. So Disney is losing a lot of money.

Another reason is that there are many great themeparks in Germany, like Europa Park, which offer better quality than DLRP for less money.  Especially the  Disneyhotels are often criticized by Germans. Germany has one of the highest hotel standard in the world and Disney's hotels are far away from that for the money you have to pay.

At the end, I think the main reason is the non-existent advertising. Germans travel a lot and Austrians and Germans have never spend more money on vacations than this year, but Disney doesn't want our money. Instead all the advertising money is spent on countries, like Spain or Italy, which are heavily hit by the economic crisis.

[Aurora1]

I agree on the advertising, there is hardly any. And if there is you have to go look for it. Sometimes there is an ad on the windows at my travel agents office. But it is more expensive then booking on line.
I`m not agreeing that we are not affected by the economy crisis. We are , since a lot of exporting/importing is done in Euros. A lot of buissnesses have their share of problems.
But a little more advertising might help.
I haven`t seen or better heard a lot of swiss people in the parks. I think the most was in fall last year, when we heard them talking.May be because vacation in Switzerland is different in every region.
Aurora1

[mausii]

I'm from Germany and I think that most of the germans come around Halloween. And another reason is that it's very hard to find cheap offers for our country.

[Patrick89]

I totally agree with the missing advertising. Also, Disneyland is perceived as very, very expensive. And as stated above, the hotels and expecially the food are perceived as pretty bad. Also the high number of other theme parks might be a reason.
But in my opinion, the main ones are the high prices and the missing advertising. Also, bookings in Germany have been more expensive than those from UK or France for a couple of years, it was pretty frustrating when comparing exactly the same travel data on the different domains. So high prices and missing advertisement might be the reasons (btw., if there is any advertising, it is focussed on children only, so they don't offer an incentive for young adults or teenagers...). The cliche is that Disneyland is for young children and thus "uncool" for others...

[Farbauti]

I always try to invite my fellow countrymen to DLP - and often I'm successful

But you are right: Too less ads, perceived as too expensive, quality of hotels.

Best regards,

[Josh]

By the way, what are hotels like in Germany? I've never been to the country before, so I don't know what they're like.

[davewasbaloo]

Merph, the theme hotels at Europa park and phantasialand blow all the Disney hotels out of the water (Paris, Orlando and anaheim) go and check out my Easter trip report and you will see. The hotel colloseo, Santa Isabel and the ling Bao are amazing, and cheaper than DLP.

[DisneyBud]

I lived in Germany over the past year as part of my university degree, and I found that (particularaly where I was in the east of Germany) it was not that easy to travel to Paris. Even from Berlin there were no cheapish flights, when compared to what you can get from the UK. I think this is part of the problem. Although I heard quite a few German speakers around the park when I was there in April and August, so some must find their way there.

[Farbauti]

We almost always go by car.
It's a 8-9h drive from Munich to DLP. In general we start at 3am, have a stop at Baden-Baden and another stop for breakfast at St. Nikolaus.
A flight will take 1h plus travel to/from the airports plus waiting times. Thus a flight will save you 2-3h but you are less flexible and the more people the more expensive a flight becomes.

I heared (but never tested) there is a good train connection from north of Germany to DLP directly.

Best regard,

[dagobert]

We almost always go by car.
It's a 8-9h drive from Munich to DLP. In general we start at 3am, have a stop at Baden-Baden and another stop for breakfast at St. Nikolaus.
A flight will take 1h plus travel to/from the airports plus waiting times. Thus a flight will save you 2-3h but you are less flexible and the more people the more expensive a flight becomes.

I heared (but never tested) there is a good train connection from north of Germany to DLP directly.

Best regard,

We have also always taken the car, except for once when we took the train from Salzburg. We will never do that again, because we took the night train which wasn't comfortable and it takes the same amount of time when driving.

The car is really more convinient and it takes 9 hours from Salzburg. If we would fly, we need to drive to Munich or Vienna first and it is also more expensive.
When we take the car we always book an extra night at the Disney hotels and so we have the whole day to drive to Paris.

[DutchBrit]

The hotel colloseo, Santa Isabel and the ling Bao are amazing, and cheaper than DLP.

Hmm. Not sure about this. When I was toying with the idea of going, I went to price things up and found it to be much more expensive that DLP. The hotel prices are roughly about the same, if you don't take all Disney's special offers into account (and usually you can get at least one of those), but the big thing was that the park tickets are not included with the hotel costs, so you had to add them on on top. So all in all, a 3/4 day trip would be at least 200 euros more expensive.

They may well be worth that 200 euros extra, but you've really got to be sure you want to go.

[EVE]

i don't see or hear many germans too at the parks and were always a bit curious about that.
maybe we have enough own theme parks in germany . so the only people who visit dlp are disneyfans or families with kids. and its really expensive to go there for the whole family without discount. me and my sister are travelling 5-6 times a year to disneyland since we've becoming AP Holders. We have only a journey by car about 5 hours, thats really ok. so it might be more interesting for the people in west and southwest germany as well...

[davewasbaloo]

The hotel colloseo, Santa Isabel and the ling Bao are amazing, and cheaper than DLP.

Hmm. Not sure about this. When I was toying with the idea of going, I went to price things up and found it to be much more expensive that DLP. The hotel prices are roughly about the same, if you don't take all Disney's special offers into account (and usually you can get at least one of those), but the big thing was that the park tickets are not included with the hotel costs, so you had to add them on on top. So all in all, a 3/4 day trip would be at least 200 euros more expensive.

They may well be worth that 200 euros extra, but you've really got to be sure you want to go.

Were you comparing them to the Disneyland hotel? I found that a better than dlh quality, we were getting the trip for the four of us at cheyenne prices this easter.

[DutchBrit]

Were you comparing them to the Disneyland hotel? I found that a better than dlh quality, we were getting the trip for the four of us at cheyenne prices this easter.

Comparing them to all the hotels. For example, the lowest rate you can get at the moment for 3 nights for the beginning of May in the Europa park is 852.50 euros (basic room, El Andaluz ) and that's only with a 3 day entry to the park. So that's pretty near the cost of the HNY with 4 day entry to the parks. And it's pretty likely that the current offer of only 15% off could be improved, so you might even be able to get the DLH for Europa prices at some points.

You must have been quite lucky when you went.