At last, Paris can really ride high

Running a theme park can be a thankless job. You have to keep coming up with exciting new attractions.

Managing Disneyland Paris has been an especially tough business with more financial ups and downs than the best white-knuckle ride.

But this year it looks as if the Paris park will finally establish itself as the unrivalled Euro super-capital of fun - a title it aimed at more than a decade ago.

The £500 million Walt Disney Studios Park - a Europeanised version of the Disney MGM Studios park in Orlando, using films and film-making as its main theme - will be launched on March 16.

The second theme park - arriving ten years after the original EuroDisney theme park opened - has a number of attractions imported largely unaltered from Florida, such as the excellent Rock'n' Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith, the Studio Tram Tour featuring Catastrophe Canyon and the Stunt Show Spectacular.

New attractions specially created for the Paris park include Armageddon: Special Effects which allows visitors to climb aboard the space station from the Bruce Willis film and Cinemagique, a trip through the history of cinema.

Disneyland Paris now becomes Disneyland Resort Paris with the second park which was always considered crucial to the long-term success of the enterprise. With the one park, Disneyland Park - as it is now called - a cut-down version of Disney's Magic Kingdom in Florida, visitors were always likely to try to cram a visit into one day.

Having lavished a fortune on building seven vast themed hotels next to the park, most of them located around a vast man-made lake, Disney has long been keen to see them filled at maximum revenue year round. Hence the new venture which Disney is hoping will turn the place into a resort which will encourage visitors to stay for three or four days. The new development not only includes the Walt Disney Studios Park but also the massive Val d'Europe shopping mall.

This includes the La Vallee Outlet Mall, with 70 outlet shops selling last season's fashions and end-of-line designer stock at discounts of up to 60 per cent.

The International Shopping Centre next door features more than 130 stores including names such as Zara, H&M, Benetton, Muji, Sephora and L'Occitane. The centre also has its own Auchan hypermarket.

This is also a smart place to choose to eat since it features a wide range of economically priced cafes and restaurants at Les Terrasses.

The Sea Life Val d'Europe is an aquarium featuring hundreds of sea creatures from shrimps and starfish to sharks and skate, presented in 30 tanks and seen from a unique 360-degree walk-through tunnel.

The site also includes a hotel park where three new hotels are due to open in 2003.

Having seen it all, I would say that Disneyland Paris - already the No 1 tourist attraction in Europe - looks set to start to rival the world's top tourist attraction: Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The new development should succeed in turning the Paris attraction into something that appeals to everybody, not just those with children.

The Florida Disney, after all, is visited largely by adults (two-thirds of all visitors), and it is the first choice as a honeymoon holiday in the States.

Where Florida has led, Paris will surely follow.

A one-day theme park entrance ticket - valid for one park - will cost £21 for adults (£17 for children aged three to 11); a three-day ticket with admission to both parks costs £58 (£47 children).

Two-night packages including Eurostar travel, bed and breakfast hotel accommodation and unlimited theme park entry cost from £255 per person.

? Further information: 0870 606 6800; http://www.disneyland paris.com/