Disneyland Paris facts for kids
Disneyland Paris has come a long way since its opening day on 12 April 1992 and after a shaky start is now recognised as the top tourist attraction in Europe. Always designed with both the young and the young-at-heart in mind it really does cater for everybody. How much do you know about the resort though? If your knowledge goes no further than that there are rides and people dressed as Disney characters read on and surprise the family with just how clued-up you are.
- The European Disneyland resort could have been in the south of France at Toulon or even in Spain at a site close to Alicante. In the end however Paris proved to be the perfect choice thanks to its geology climate and superb transport infrastructure.
- The resort site is huge covering a total area of more than 1900 hectares. To put that into context you could fit New York City’s Central Park inside the resort five times and still have just enough space left over to squeeze in the Principality of Monaco.
- Disneyland Paris had just under 15 million visitors in 2013 and an estimated 59 million euro has been spent there by its visitors since it first opened.
- Fast food at the resort is consumed at a rate of approximately 4 million hamburgers 700 tons of chicken and 283 tons of chips each year all washed down with 6 million litres of cola.
- There have been many famous visitors to the resort from the worlds of politics (former American President George W. Bush and former French President Francois Mitterrand) entertainment (singer-songwriter Elton John and actress Claudia Schiffer) and even space travel (NASA astronaut Buzz Aldrin).
- Lilly’s Boutique on Main Street is dedicated to Walt Disney’s wife Lillian Marie Bounds. Whilst Walt had passed-away decades before Disneyland Paris had been thought of Lilly was a grand age 93 on the year that the resort opened.
- Disneyland Paris is only the second Disney resort to have opened outside of the United States – the other is Tokyo Disney Resort which opened on 15 April 1983.
- Great attention is paid to the landscaping and planting around the resort. A team of gardeners maintain its 450000 planting units and plant half-a-million flowers over the course of each year to keep the borders and flower-beds looking stunning. In some places the landscaping also helps to hide away the ugly functional parts of the resort – helping to maintain the magical look of Disneyland Paris.
- A team of ten tree specialists look after more than 16800 trees that can be found across the resort and golf course and Disney’s Davy Crockett Ranch is set within a 60 hectare forest.
- Included in the original development plan for Disneyland Paris Val d’Europe (which is made up of five residential neighbourhoods) was built as part of the new town of Marne-la-Vallee and is actually owned by the Walt Disney Company.
