Log: Disney's £500m birthday in Paris

We all know that things end happily ever after in every Disney story.

Even Disney theme parks, it seems, can bounce back from setbacks and financial troubles to enjoy a Cinderella success.

Disneyland Resort Paris (the theme park formerly known as EuroDisney) is celebrating a happy event.

While most people are happy to get a book token or a box of Belgian chocolates for their birthday, Disneyland Paris yesterday marked its tenth birthday with the gift of a brand new second theme park: Walt Disney Studios.

Built at a cost of around £500 million, the new park, which is right next door to the first, presents itself as a celebration of movie making, though that merely provides the colourful theming for the park's impressive mixture of rides and attractions.

Armageddon, for example, is ostensibly a ride based on the Bruce Willis film in which he saved the world from destruction at the hands of a meteorite the size of Texas. The 'ride' features a bumpy visit to a Russian space station during a meteorite shower and lots of flames and explosions. Kids will love it.

Boys of all ages will also get pleasure from the Moteurs Action! stunt show. On the face of things, this is a chance to see how car chases are filmed, though it is in fact an opportunity for stunt drivers to show off. The smell of scorched tyres is intense but the flying cars and balletic vehicle skids and turns are very impressive.

Other must-sees include the Rock-n'Roller Coaster - a straight lift from the Disney MGM studios in Orlando, and Cinemagique - a jolly trip through cinema history and 'the magic of the movies'. Then there's the Flying Carpets Over Agrabah, a ride based on the cartoon Aladdin.

The new park is a rough copy of the Florida Disney MGM studios but with several new rides. And, compared with the original neighbouring Disneyland Park in Paris, the presentation is much more French.

Many of the rides in the 'old' park - Pirates Of The Caribbean, Space Mountain, It's A Small World - are selfexplanatory.

But the problem with the fairly complicated presentations at Walt Disney Studios such as the stunt show and Armageddon is that they need a substantial amount of introduction and explanation, which has to be done in French and English. Without wishing to sound anti-French, I have to say the bi-lingual presentation is a pain in the neck.

But it's clear that Disney has learnt a lot from its experiences over the past ten years. Much of the shopping and eating areas (and queuing zones) are under cover, an essential in our wet, windy and often cold European climate.

No expense has been spared on the theming and landscaping - walking into the new Studios park you could easily imagine you were in Florida or California.

Disney's worry now, however, is that having made such a huge investment, will the spending pay off?

The addition of the new park is designed to make visitors stay longer.

Walt Disney World in Orlando now has four separate parks. With only one park in Paris it was a place that people would visit for just a couple of nights at the most.

Having committed itself ten years ago to the massive expense of building hotels at the park offering a combined total of 6,000 rooms (it was this vast expense which stretched the company's finances), Disney now wants to see those rooms filled at the best possible price, 52 weeks of the year.

As well as the new park, there is also a huge new shopping centre and factory outlet mall to tempt visitors to linger.

But just as Disneyland Paris originally opened ten years ago and immediately suffered the devastating effects of a global slow-down caused by the Gulf War, the new park will have to make its way in the wake of the September 11 atrocities.

A lot also depends on the British reaction to Walt Disney Studios. We make up 18 per cent of the park's visitors, the single biggest overseas market, twice the size of the Germans, the next biggest foreign market.

My feeling is that British travellers will enjoy the new park as much as its older neighbour. With many people reluctant to go to the States this year, the born-again Disneyland Resort Paris should enjoy a substantial boost from the UK.

The new park will also be boosted by the fact that France is enjoying a renaissance with the British this summer.

With the pound strong against the euro, prices seem very affordable.

And with Eurostar experimenting with direct rail services from Waterloo to Avignon during July and August, along with no-frills airlines such as Buzz offering a huge new range of French cities at bargain fares, a British invasion of France seems on the cards this year.

Disneyland Paris has transformed itself from Dumbo, the flying elephant, into the gracefully soaring Peter Pan. An ending of which Walt himself would no doubt have heartily approved.

More of Frank Barrett's Travel Logs