STOP ... before we get to the actual letter let me point out one more thing - this time it’s time zero for EuroDisney... with one attraction done and three down the line plus the restructuring plan finally behind Europe’s number one, our beloved resort HAS to finally get back on track ... we all hope that Karl Holz will be the first EuroDisney CEO to actually fix the place and brack a record (i.e. staying in his position for more than three years). Once again this comes out from a fan, a Manager, a Web based writer, a businessman but, most of all, from a kid at heart hoping to be heard by someone who actually has the pixie dust in him to let EuroDisney fly and sore to new, and deserved, heights ... and with that, on to the letter:

Dear Karl,

Let us call you Karl in pure Disney culture, after all your CV talks about 9 years spent at the Disney Cruise Line and especially at Walt Disney World - a place where one can feel the Disney culture 360° around, where magical days transform into endless nights and where Walt’s dream of a vacation kingdom has hopefully entered into your soul as much as in ours as Disney fans.

How does it feel to be part of such a big turnover period for both the Walt Disney Company and EuroDisney? There are changes galore, with Eisner soon out and Iger in, promises and hopes of worldwide expansion have been often hinted at by Disney's next CEO. Plus your ex-counterpart James Rasulo seems to be keeping a firm eye over DLRP, after all it was him who allowed Mr. Lacroix to say and do much of what he did. Therefore I do have the feeling that you won't be alone in your quest to save Disney's European kingdom. And lets not forget that if you want to fight like a knight in shinning armor for Sleeping BeautyCastle you have at least two friends over in Anaheim and Orlando (Matt Oumiet, president of the Disneyland Resort Anaheim, and All Weiss, president of Walt Disney World) who might just give you as much advise and help as needed if called upon. And then there is certainly us: the legions of European Disney fans who desperately want (and deserve, I shall say) to see “our” kingdom shine in its own bright light.

So Karl lets take a stroll together down Main Street and let me please try and be the ambassador of heart for all European Disney fans.

1. Yann, Marco, David and the rest of the gang

These where the people who where in the company long before Andre or yourself, now of the long-timers only three remain: Dominique Cocquet (who’s surname has a strange resemblance to “Clocquette / Tinkerbell” ;-) ), Philippe Gas (head of human resources) and Marco Bernini (devoted head of theme park operations). These three long-timers as well as many devoted cast members working already for many years in the resort are your back bone, your guides to the Company!

They know it inside out, know how to improve things, know what to fix and what to change. I am sure that the move to ask the maintenance crew for a list of the 100 non working effects to fix earned you legions of internal backers. Now listen to the rest of the team for the bigger picture.

2. Play cards “J” and “R”

”J” as in: Jay Rasulo who has been well received by European Disney fans, as he has spearheaded the expansion of the resort and refurbished much of Disneyland Park. Try to follow his lead and “go with the flow”. Andre La Croix seamed to have started off by shouting out all previous errors and taking a more aggressive approach (possibily because he didn’t know the Walt Disney Company before) and only later steered back into the ranks.

“R” as in: “Robert Iger”. He will be the next big cheese at the mouse house and has held the post of president of Walt Disney International, signing the agreement to get Hong Kong Disneyland build as well as often pushing the business plan to see a big growth of Disney outside the US. Europe is one of the richest continents - yes, we might not be as many as the Chinese or as “Japanese as the Japanese” but don’t tell me that anybody within the company really thinks that Disney has tapped the European market anywhere near its full potential.

3. Put on some mouse ears and get in the parks!

I can't say this often enough: no Disney manager earns his mouse ears until he sees Snow White playing with a child, Winnie the Pooh cuddling a little girl or Stitch teasing children. These are experiences guests carry with them for a life time - and the only way to understand this is seeing it with your own eyes ... it is a heart moving sight trust me!

Walt Disney once said that if there is one thing which Disneyland has and no other park will ever have it is the Disney characters. “Get them out there” he used to say. Well this is especially true for Europe! Lately I have witnessed many characters in the parks, but ... it is nearly impossible to have too many Disney characters out in the parks. Therefore get in the park right now and see the guests for yourself interact with tons of characters. Listen to what they say whilst in line and watch what they do, what they like, dislike and how they react to what they experience. No Survey can clearly translate into numbers the heart warming feeling a Disney experience gives!

You have the wonderful advantage no other EuroDisney head ever had (not even the great Steve Burke): you have spent 9 years in Walt Disney World, headed theme parks, Downtown Disney and hotels, as well as at the Disney Cruise Line. Use that experience but don’t force the same things on the Europeans that succeed in the US ... trust me when I say it won't work in every case.

4. Listen to the People

Europe is no Japan (hard learned lesson in EuroDisney history) and no USA but most of all it is no China!

It seems the pendulum has swung quit a bit from the opening of EuroDisney to the one of Hong Kong Disneyland going through various mid points like Animal Kingdom, California Adventure , Walt Disney Studios and Tokyo Disney Seas. Each of these parks has failed or succeeded for completely different reasons from the others. Animal Kingdom is great in themeing but low in rides; DCA probably doesn’t deliver sufficient Disney magic (to put in short ;-) ); Tokyo Disney Seas has great themeing and a wonderful mix of attractions (and numbers will once again sore back high once the new rides open); Walt Disney Studios ... well the Studios ... how to say it ... have little themeing and are low in rides ... I got it of my chest sorry.

You’ll see day by day construction pics of the Tower of Terror and Toon Studios pop on the internet faster than you could say “need magic” - and that does show you that all of us fans desperately hope these two additions will be enough to save the park. BUT that doesn’t mean we believe they will be enough to save the park! Nor do you, or?

You have seen too many parks and now know Disney well enough NOT to believe that one E ticket (as thrilling as the Tower is) and half a land will be enough to keep people in the park after 4.00 pm, right? Oh sure, after September when the bulldozers and cranes mover into Animation Courtyard and construction starts for the Toon Studios, when the press is finally shown that coral reef underwater effect being worked on as well as the Australian current effect (where our turtle will spin in a 360° water tank/tube so to give that definite amazing underwater effect) people might get excited - but this wont be enough to justify a full day at the park. And if people don’t stay for a day they won't spend more in the shops and restaurants - not to mention they won't stay one extra night in the hotels.

Get the Studios fixed Karl. Add sets and streets (something along the lines of the Big Cities of the USA Street just added to the Disney MGM Studios or something along the lines of the London 1890 set found in the plans for the original Disney MGM Europe Studios), get something really amazing Europe has never seen before - and not "just" a glorified freefall ride (I love the Tower and have ridden both versions but I do feel deep down inside me that the storyline and idea behind it, as well as the ghost effects won't be as appreciated as much in Europe as they have been in the USA). Something like the Indiana Jones EMV ride would be unique to Disney and Europe, as well as give the park another famous character-tie-in. It might be expensive but tell me honestly: what do you think might work better in Europe? And if you really want to push this and save money you could even convince All Weiss to build the version for the Disney MGM Studios at the same time and save costs ... a win-win-situation, I tell you!

5. Refurbish the hotels and get food quality back to the top!

Simply put: if I spend top Euros to stay in a Disney hotel I expect top service and quality. The same is true for food in the resort: quality and choice is too limited and therefore guests don’t spend with joy! The great marketing guru Philip Kotler told us that a happy customer is one who smiles when he understands that his money is well spent and a happy customer tends to spend more and return.

So fix the hotels and get the quality level back up. Fixing effects in the parks might be a great idea but the experience starts well before that!

6. Disney University

I hate to say this but often I have had the impression too many cast members in Paris simply “don’t get it”. Maybe it's the language barrier, maybe it's the idea of working for a company which is in distress for way too long, but in the end, as the great Walt Disney said referring to a ride operator: “tell that guy we are selling happiness here”! Treating people like cows to send through the line without smiling and interacting with them won't help creating a happy customer!

Let me say that some cast members are wonderful, most of them I might add are the “creme de la creme” even when thinking about US or Japanese standards, but use your Orlando experience to send some back to Disney University and you will see the guest experience improve even more.

7. Use those assets

As I said to Andre, EuroDisney has land, hotels, theme parks, a golf course, a night district, a shopping mall, a Sea Life centre, gosh even a urban area developed as a city - but it is inevitable that the theme parks shine brightest. Mickey is the star - the rest is capital.

Your biggest asset is the Disney name. Nobody else in Europe will ever have it and this year is the 50th anniversary of Disneyland - why didn’t I see any reference to this on European TV?

Sure we got the extra cool Mission 2 advertisments on all the DVD’s right now, but wouldn’t it be wonderful to see some further promotion of the 50th? Experiencing it in Disneyland Paris might be as much as most fans might ever get the chance to do (some of the DLP.info readers might actually visit DLP on the 17th of July just to be part of the magic). Use this incredible moment to the best!

8. Give me a TONY (a Peter will work just as fine)

... this is what I said to Andre ... but it seams that after too many changes at WDI-P (or however it is called this week) Peter McGrath has taken a plane from Tokyo to Paris. Now is that difficult moment in which the limited Imagineering team in Paris has to use the limited (repetition made on purpose) resources it has to the best. Don’t make the error too many managers make and cut back on there budgets just to impress your bosses in Burbank!

Peter has done an excellent job in Tokyo - Tokyo Disney Seas as well as Imagineering itself has benefited significantly from his expertise since the departure of Steve Kirch (original head of the project). Give Peter the chance to improve on the details and work on those little projects he is known to propose and come up with. This is the time for Imagineering not for accountaneering!

9. “hear it through the grapevine”

Don’t ever forget this: most of your shareholders don’t know the difference between a share of the Company and a bond as they are not “in it for the gold” but “from the heart”. Many of these shareholders read websites such as this one, have Annual Passports and are the most devoted Disney fans you might ever see. These are the same people who visit the parks regularly, who are not interested in the dividends but in the quality Disney is famous for. They want to “be part of the Magic”, they praise your efforts and critisize the problems. Listen to them ... they don’t bite! You will find that a different point of view sometimes is in many ways refreshing and interesting and that following your instinct to listen to the fans (who in the end are your customers) could improve the overall results. You have a huge free marketing machine at your disposal through websites as DLP.info and each and every fan and shareholder individually - use it for more than just making Buzz available online!

10. Leave your legacy

Andre Lavroix will always be remembered as the CEO who spoke in the public about the financial situation and the sinking EuroDisney ship. He placed all his playing cards clearly on the table and succeeded in leaving his legacy by becoming the person who saved the company one more timebut didn’t survive to see the results of the restructuring. Steve Burke and Phillipe Bourgignone did much the same: they saved EuroDisney with the first financial restructuring and opened Space Mountain but then left. You have an advantage over them, as the second restructuring has just been realized and Mission 2 of Space Mountain hasd just opened (funny how history repeats itself) -you were in the middle of the action since September and therefore can improve on the past without forgetting it. You can do something on an even grander scale: you can be always remembered as the one CEO who finally allowed EuroDisney to become the success it deserves to be and not just the “always on the limit of financial melt down Disney resort in Europe”.

So here we are Karl, we walked the park together and now stand in front of that same dragon which Andre has chained but might not have been able to definitely slain. He’s huge, fire breathing, menacing and possibly has defeated many of the knights who came before you. For now it seems to be sleeping chained down by a financial restructuring deal which doesn’t completely convince anyone. None of us wants to see a third financial restructuring Karl so please, please, please slain him once and for all...

Never forget what Walt once said about Disneyland: "We did it in the knowledge that most of the people I talked to thought it would be a financial disaster - closed and forgotten within the first year."

Auf Wiedersehen Karl, we all wish you the best of luck,

Andrea "MickeyFantasmic" Monti