Disneyland Paris Loses Its Sparkle As Nearly 15,000 Fans Sign Petition To Bring Back Ticket Perks

Nearly 15,000 disenchanted Disneyland Paris fans have signed a petition demanding that it reinstates perks to the most expensive park tickets after benefits were cut from a new range which costs more than its predecessor.

Disneyland Paris comprises seven on-site hotels, two convention centers, a 27-hole golf course, a 44,000 square meter entertainment complex and two parks – the movie-themed Walt Disney Studios and the Disneyland Park. According to the Themed Entertainment Association’s Global Attraction Attendance Report, they attracted a combined 15.3 million visitors last year making Disneyland Paris Europe’s most-visited theme park resort.

Despite its blockbuster attendance, Disneyland Paris has rarely made a profit since its ornate iron gates swung open in 1992. Its bottom line has been weighed down by charges including interest payments on the $1.8 billion (€1.7 billion) of bank borrowings that were used to fund the construction of the resort.

In 2012, Disney waved its wand and replaced the debt with a low-interest loan before taking full control of the resort five years later. Since then it has gone from strength to strength.

As we revealed in the Sunday Times newspaper in March, an upturn in business last year following the end of pandemic restrictions, led to Euro Disney Associés (EDA), the resort’s main operating company, making its highest operating profit in a decade.

After paying $129 million (€118 million) of royalties to Disney, EDA made a $51 operating profit in 2022 but a happy ending was still far, far away as the company then had to shell out more than $112 million (€100 million) of financial charges. It ended the year with a $51 million (€47 million) net loss so it has had to use another trick from its spell book in an attempt to boost its revenue and banish the red ink.

Earlier this week Disneyland Paris announced that on July 19 it will introduce a new range of annual passes – the priciest tickets as they grant access to the theme parks for an entire year. Called Disneyland Pass, the new range quickly became known for its exclusions rather than its benefits. Amongst other exclusions, the passes no longer include hotel discounts, day ticket discounts, use of a dedicated entry lane, access to VIP viewing areas, free stroller rentals and free locker storage.

In contrast, some of the most-publicised new benefits include access to an exclusive meet-and-greet space several times a year and guaranteed access to four annual pass parties a year for the passholder and one guest, both of whom will have to pay to attend according to the DLP Report fan account. Furthermore, even annual passholders can’t just turn up to the parks whenever they want.

Disneyland Paris still requires guests with non-dated tickets to register the dates of their visit in order to enter the parks. This restriction was introduced during the pandemic to prevent over-crowding in the parks and it has been retained on the grounds that lowering the number of guests gives them all a better experience. Annual passholders previously received three park reservations at a time and this hasn’t been increased with the new range. In contrast, the price has soared with the top-tier option costing $785 (€699) which is $225 (€200) more than its predecessor and more than double the price of the cheapest annual pass.

Instead of just putting its well-oiled publicity wheels in motion to put a positive spin on the new developments, Disneyland Paris invited DLP Report to discuss them with the annual pass team and the account then briefed fans leading to a tidal wave of criticism.

“It’s getting the point that not only do I not want to renew/upgrade my annual pass but I would rather just go somewhere else entirely,” said MagicEverywher with another adding that it “doesn’t seem worth having one now.”

Worryingly, the general consensus didn’t just seem to be that fans won’t buy the new passes but that existing holders won’t renew.

“I definitely won’t renew,” said Anton010 and SimonCotton concurred. “Bye Bye Disneyland Paris we won’t be renewing,” he said. ThrillPix added, “pump up the prices, take away the benefits. A lot of people won’t be renewing.”

At one point fans were left in the dark when the DLP Report website went down. Compounding the problem, the official Disneyland Paris DLPHelp Twitter account shut down a few weeks earlier directing fans instead to make contact through its website, Facebook Messenger or Instagram Direct.

During the website outage DLP Report continued Tweeting about the annual pass fiasco and joined in on the criticism. It expertly picked out the downsides to alert customers and Tweeted that “many benefits are no longer offered with Disneyland Pass.” To hammer it home, DLP Report then Tweeted a photo of the dedicated entry lane, which is being taken out of service, and said “gonna use it everyday to prove a point.”

Echoing the fans’ concerns, DLP Report described the removal of benefits as “a rough move indeed” and pointed out that before the pandemic, passholders had more flexibility because they didn’t need to make reservations. “Disney has created a problem and is now charging us for the solution,” DLP Report explained. It didn’t stop there.

DLP Report held a poll of 5,000 readers which showed that 85% of them will not buy or renew an annual pass and just 2% intend to upgrade from their current pass. It wasn’t the only poll.

An unrelated petition on Change.org also highlights the benefits that passholders will lose and adds that there is a “€200 increase for the elimination almost entirely of the basic advantages…Let’s move on to concrete actions, such as a petition to protect our passion.”

In just five days it has attracted a staggering 13,424 signatures – almost double the number of the 2013 ‘SaveDisneylandParis’ petition which demanded that Disney improve the standards at its French outpost.

It is perhaps unsurprising that the latest petition has cast such a powerful spell given the degree of antipathy towards the new annual passes, or APs as fans refer to them. In response to one of DLP Report’s Tweets about them, PennieK_ wrote “I’m failing to see any benefits to buying any of these.”

Robertgcross added that they “would genuinely love to hear from the team who decided on these new AP’s on how these are not a huge slap in the face / downgrade to those dedicated members. Today it feels like our years of financial loyalty has just been completely disregarded.”

In a statement, a Disneyland Paris spokesperson said, “our new program, DISNEYLAND PASS, aims to provide an enhanced guest experience for all including Annual Passholders, with unlimited access to the parks (according to validity calendar of the chosen Disneyland Pass / until park capacity is reached and subject to prior reservation of 3 simultaneous reservations maximum), a variety of exclusive events, and a new digital approach.

“We also want this new program to be accessible to guests with different options starting at €289. We have also adapted the range benefits, prioritizing what our guests tell us they cherish most, such as the free parking now included in every pass.”

Clearly, many fans disagree, but that aside, it is the timing of the decision to launch the new passes that may seem particularly difficult to understand.

A recession is looming thanks to runaway inflation which has led to strikes repeatedly paralyzing Disneyland Paris over the summer as we have reported. Furthermore, Disneyland Paris even recently lost its direct rail connection to the United Kingdom making it more difficult for travelers from its second-biggest market to reach the resort.

As if that wasn’t enough, it is even facing home-grown challenges as DLP Report frequently posts photos of disrepair at Disneyland Paris including cracked props, exposed plaster, broken doors, peeling paint and even a drone from the night time display that crashed into the centerpiece castle just days before the premiere of a new indoor show in the neighboring Studios park earlier this month.

In light of all this, now may seem like the time to cut ticket prices and boost benefits, not the reverse. However, the new annual passes are actually in line with the strategy seen in Disney’s US parks which aims to attract fewer guests paying more money. It hasn’t been lost on guests or staff.

One fan fumed to DLP Report that “this is a JOKE @DisneylandParis you can’t add €200 onto the price and take away some of the advantages. I know it’s going to work out for them financially but it shows that money is their main priority over everything!” Another bluntly said that the annual pass has “increased by 200 euros, whilst losing most of the best benefits.”

It reflects comments by Ahmed Masrour, one of the Disneyland Paris staff who was recently on strike. He told French news magazine L’Obs that “the visitors sometimes chat with us and say to us: ‘You’re right, we don’t understand why the ticket price has increased, why the prices of all the products at Disneyland have increased, starting with car parking, while you employees, your salary does not follow suit.’ So it’s just a simple equation: Let’s share the wealth fairly.”

There is no doubt that Disneyland Paris has a responsibility to its staff. However, there is also no doubt that it is a for-profit corporation, not a social enterprise, so it has no obligation to distribute its earnings amongst its staff. Indeed, it could claim that it has no earnings as it made a loss after tax. That said, staff could easily counter this by pointing out that the company would have made a $79.8 million (€71 million) net profit had it not paid the $129 million royalties to Disney as we revealed.

If the royalty payment had been handed to the 17,000 staff at Disneyland Paris they would have each received an extra $7,799 (€6,941) annually. That comes to $649 (€578) per month whereas the striking staff are only asking for a monthly wage increase of $225 (€200). They say it would prevent them from being pushed further into the hardship that has been shown on placards showcased by DLP Report.

“Aladdin Need Of A Pay Rise” was the message on one whilst another was based on one of the resort’s most famous slogans as it said “From Need Magic To Need Money”.

Others carried more personal messages. One said that “Coralie, who has been with the company for 14 years, isn’t on strike today because one day away from work would put her in the red”. It added that “Lucie, who had been with the company for a decade, quit because she couldn’t make ends meet”.

Staff at the park’s main union, the UNSA, are worried that the new annual passes will make life even harder for both them and the guests. In an open letter sent on Friday to Disneyland Paris president Natacha Rafalski, the UNSA said that “having such a high pricing policy compared to underpaid employees will undeniably lead to a lasting deterioration in the quality of service and working conditions of employees. It will inevitably cause more and more tense relations between employees and our visitors, who want to ‘get their money’s worth’.

“We are afraid of a surge in the amount of verbal and physical aggression, professional burnout, psychosocial risks, sick leave and resignations. Also, in the longer term, a drop in attendance will obviously bring its share of restructuring and reorganization where employees will once again be the first victims. This is why the UNSA Disneyland Paris asks you to put the health and safety of your employees, as well as the satisfaction and safety of our visitors, at the heart of your concerns before that of your shareholders.”

This bleak assessment has some precedent as there has been a marked increase in the amount of violence at Disney World in Orlando since ticket prices started rising when the parks there re-opened after the pandemic. It has been documented in detail by the WDWNT account which recently reported that the altercations have ranged from a screaming match to brawls in the middle of the theme parks.

Indeed, this kind of behaviour has happened so often that Disney has added a “courtesy” section to its website which says “Be the magic you want to see in the world. You must always remember to treat others with respect, kindness and compassion. Those who can’t live up to this simple wish may be asked to leave Walt Disney World Resort.”

As we have reported, unions have said that the strikes are on hiatus until September as a result of unrest in France following the fatal shooting of a teenager by the police during a traffic stop last month. Although it sparked widespread riots they rapidly abated putting the strikers back to square one.

It remains to be seen whether they will fast-track their calls for strikes in September as they will surely have read that next door in the United Kingdom, more than one million public sector workers were recently offered pay rises of around 6% following intense strikes.

Total staff costs at Disneyland Paris have risen by 40.1% over the past decade to hit a record $816 million (€761 million) in 2022. Since then, Disneyland Paris’ staff received a further 5.5% pay increase as well as a $562 (€500) premium in January which followed another $562 premium in November.

Over the past 12 months, most staff have seen their income (salaries and bonuses) increase by between 9% and 12% and although Disneyland Paris has refused to increase salaries since the strikes began, it has brought forward the annual renegotiation to the end of August. In May it also suggested various options for monetizing paid leave and offered a $140 (€125) net bonus for all staff with at least one year of service. Even that wasn’t enough to keep up with the soaring inflation in France.

The situation is so severe that the staff, who are known as Cast Members due to their role in a themed environment, created the Mobilisation Against Inflation (MAI) Committee to support the unions. Their website says that in addition to the $225 monthly increase, they are asking for increased pay for working on Sundays, better compensation for gas expenses and a switch from variable shifts to the usual eight hour format.

It describes the offers so far from Disneyland Paris as “seemingly disconnected from reality” and adds that “sadly, we are not living anymore, barely surviving. While our work conditions keep on deteriorating, the inflation rate has made living on our current wages impossible…On top of rent, groceries have been getting more expensive than before. We are now forced to choose which meal we’ll have to skip to not end up starving.”

Last year the revenue from Disneyland Paris represented a staggering 85.9% of the total generated by all of Disney’s international parks so the dark clouds that have gathered over the resort could have a significant impact on its parent’s fortunes.

So far, Disney and its chief executive Bob Iger have remained silent about this but their moment is coming up at Disney’s third quarter earnings announcement next month. Its French outpost’s fairytale financial results from 2022 seem a distant memory and, as one fan put it on Twitter, “Disneyland Paris has managed to create unhappy Cast Members AND unhappy fans… what a combo!”