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A Touch of Americana in Europe
(w/o permission Orlando Sentinel 1/5/92)
- Euro Disney's hotels will allow guests to soak up the atmosphere
of the Wild West or bask in Disney's version of Manhattan, New
England, the Southwestern United States or a U.S. National Park lodge.
Marne-La_Vallee, France
There's a street in France's Euro Disney theme park that doesn't give
a hint of Mickey Mouse, of strong French coffee, or melt-in-your-mouth
croissants. Instead, it's pure Americana, with a little Hollywood hokum
thrown in.
Welcome to the Cheyenne, one of five Euro Disney hotels aimed at making
Europeans think they've settled in for a stay in the United States - past
or present - when the vast theme park opens April 12 near Paris.
Disney's guests can soak up the atmosphere of a Wild West frontier town
at the Cheyenne, which also boasts a dance hall and a saloon. Or they
can bask in Disney's versions of Manhattan, New England, the Southwestern
United States or a U.S. National Park lodge.
For Euro Disney, the hotels will provide an important boost to the bottom
line. Never before has Disney opened a theme park with so many hotel rooms -
almost 5,200 - ready for rental.
Analysts have estimated that about $1 billion of the $4.4 billion Euro
Disney resort is being spent on the five hotels. The hotels, which surround
the park, will have 1,075 luxury rooms priced from about $211 to $375 a night
depending on the season - and 3,184 first-class rooms, priced from $144 to
$211 a night.
About 2,000 moderately priced rooms will sell for $105 to $144 a night.
In addition, an American-style campground, Camp Davy Crockett, will have
414 rental cabins and 181 camping sites. The campsites will cost from $52
a night, and the cabins, $168 a night.
The prices, steep to Americans because of the weak value of the dollar, are
somewhat more reasonable for travelers spending European currencies.
Disney's hotel strategy was clearly outlined in a 1989 prospectus, prepared
by the French brokerage Bacot-Allain-Farra, before the sale of shares in
Euro Disneyland S.C.A. the ownership company. The Walt Disney Co. based
in Burbank, Calif., has a 49 percent interest in Euro Disney.
The document noted that Disney "intends to avoid the error of strategy that
marked Disneyland and the initial phases of Walt Disney World" by buying
ample land for further development, including hotels.
During Disney World's first decade 1971-81, only 2,430 rooms were added as
a matter of "deliberate policy," the document said. E. Cardon Walker, then
Disney president, failed to heed the lesson learned at Disneyland - that
hotels should be part of the overall resort development, the document said.
What the prospectus called a "paucity" of hotel development in Florida
was a mistake, it said, because "if Disney had had sufficient hotels on site,
it could have reaped the additional profit. Furthermore, because of the
unique characteristics of the Disney properties, the [profit] margins are
usually high."
That mistake will not be made a Euro Disney.
There, hotels are so strong a presence as to be "part of the show," said
Daniel Coccoli, vice president of resort hotels at Euro Disney. He joined
Disney in 1989 after a seven-year stint in New York City and France for a
French hotel chain. "We think the themeing is so strong that we're going
to surprise people, and, we hope, delight them."
And, as the prospectus noted, "once a family is staying on Disney property,
its spending will be almost entirely to the benefit of Disney and not
outside retailers."
So far, the Cheyenne, with its frontier theme and relatively low
room rates of $105 to $144 a night, seems to have the strongest pull. In an
interview last fall, Coccoli said he couldn't be specific about actual
bookings, but he said it's clear that the Cheyenne "is very appealing - it
means something to people."
Robert Fitzpatrick, president of Euro Disney, explained that the theme park's
patrons - an expected 11 million guests in the first year - "are just
beginning to discover that Disney hotels are different - unlike anything
now in Europe."
Another strong draw is the park's signature and most luxurious property,
the 500-room Disneyland hotel.
The hotel will be the first to overlook a Disney park. Its pink, Victorian
style towers rise above the park's turnstiles which are hidden by arches on
the ground floor.
Eric Westin, a vice-president at Walt Disney Imagineering, explained that the
Disneyland Hotel "has been designed as a 'grand drape." It keeps the big
show hidden until you go under the hotel, then voila!
"Its like the Contemporary, but a lost closer," Westin explained, referring
to the Contemporary Resort hotel at Walt Disney World.
Another hotel that's drawing good reservations from Europeans is the
luxurious l,008-room Newport Bay Club. Its design and New England touches
are reminiscent of those at Disney's Yacht Club and Beach Club hotels.
In addition, Coccoli said group sales, have been strong for the 575-room
Hotel New York, a luxury convention hotel that Disney has billed as
"a slice of the Big Apple."
Designed by Michael Graves of Princeton, N.J. who also designed the
Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin hotels, the Hotel New York has art deco
styling and a brownstonelike exterior.
But Coccoli said that Disney is having a harder time conveying to Europeans
what to expect at the luxury 1,001 room Sequoia Lodge, a beautiful
sleek, modern equivalent of a hunting lodge. Group businesses, though, has
been good, he said.
Europeans also don't fully understand the theme at the 1,000 room Hotel Santa
De, with its spare, adobe architecture and Arizonian landscaping, complete with
cactuses.
Thought the Cheyenne "comes straight out of a movie set," Fitzpatrick said,
Europeans "are less familiar with the Southwestern United States" and the
national parks and their lodges.
But Coccoli said that Disney officials "aren't really worried about the
Sequoia and the Santa Fe. We know we just have to work harder at
marketing them."
The two pictures going with this article are a picture of the Hotel Santa
Fe, and the other is of the Cheyenne, with its frontier theme.
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