Aside from Disneyland in Anaheim, California, the other park having a hard time getting through this pandemic is Disneyland Paris.
The park, as with all other Disney Parks, closed in mid-March due to the coronavirus, but was able to reopen in July. Then in the middle of October French President Emmanuel Macron announced certain areas of France will be subjected to a nightly curfew starting at midnight on Saturday, October 17 and be in place daily from 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. for the next four weeks. That curfew included Disneyland Paris.
Then this week, as cases continued to rise, President Macron announced he was shutting down the country once again for an indefinite period of time.
“The virus is circulating at a speed that not even the most pessimistic forecasts had anticipated,” Macron said in his address. He said that the country was being “overwhelmed by a second wave that no doubt will be harder than the first”. “If in two weeks, we have the situation under better control, we will be able to re-evaluate things and hopefully open some businesses, in particular for the Christmas holiday,” he added.
Shortly after Disneyland Paris announced the resort would be shutting down beginning October 29. At this time, the park will remain closed but in anticipation of the holiday season (and the French Government lifting the shutdown order), they will accept reservations for stays beginning 19 December 2020 through 3 January 2021. That may change depending on the situation at the time. In addition, Disney also stated that the park would then be closed from January 4 – February 12. No reason was given for this closure.
Even though the park was open for the last three months live stage shows did not return. It is not surprising considering social distancing, as well as cast, crew, and guest safety have proven to be difficult. Even live stage shows on Broadway will not return until May 2021 – at the earliest.
On Friday, October 30, Twitter user @RichyDisney posted that “Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show” at Disney Village may never return. Richy said the information was based on an internal memo that went out to Cast Members. He also stated that there will be a meeting with Disney and the CSSCT (The Health, Safety and Working Conditions Commission) on November 16 to determine the fate of this show and also “the fate of puppeteering shows and Moteurs Action officially.”
Daniel Delcourt, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Disneyland Paris, sent out an email to Cast Members informing them of the upcoming meeting and fate of these shows.
In the memo dated Friday, 30 October 2020, Delcourt told Cast Members that because of measures implimented by the French Government, they have closed the park as of yesterday evening (29 October 2020).
Delcourt said that Disney is “focused on the future of our business” and they are “committed to continuing discussions with our social partners in order to define the best possible options for our cast members, our visitors and our destination.”
Cast Members were told that although these discussions will be confidential by nature and “necessary … for [a] constructive exchange with [the unions].” Delcourt did say that he wanted to give Cast Members an overview of what they will discuss next month. “The objective is to discuss the future of certain components of our shows, in particular the Legend of Buffalo Bill … with Mickey and Friends dinner show at the Disney Village [an opening day attraction] and Action/Stunt Show Spectacular in the Walt Disney Studios Park.” Also included will be the fate of puppeteers, Disney Village street artists, and musicians.
Given the fact that Delcourt told Cast Members that they will also “discuss redeployment options for all of Cast Members affected by the proposed changes to our spectacular offerings,” hints that these shows will not be coming back in the near future.
In the future Disneyland Paris is planning on focusing on “new seasonal celebrations” as part of the major transformation of the park such as Cars Route 66 Road Trip and Disney Junior Dream Factory. At the moment they are working on renovating Disney’s Hotel New York into Disney’s Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel, as well as adding the Avengers Campus at the Walt Disney Studios Park.
Disney stated that many of these new changes are based their visitors who have expressed a strong affinity for their franchises. Delcourt told Cast Members that guests also wanted “more seasonal” and limited time “experiences” such as “The Lion King and Jungle Festival.”
As with other Disney Parks, character meet-and-greets were modified into selfie spots which Delcourt told Cast Members were “strongly favored by our visitors.”
Delcourt concluded by telling Cast Members “As we continue to develop and invest in the visitor experience across our destination, we plan to take a similar approach to the redeployment of affected Cast Members. We will share more details with you as soon as possible.”
