Dear DLP.info readers, I would like to add a few words (written well after I finished writing this) before publishing this article. As a Disney fan I have had the luck of attending the Walt Disney Studios' Grand Opening Celebration form March 14th to the 16th 2002 and wanted to share this experience with you, trying to capture the emotions and the feelings I had about this important time in the history of the Disneyland Resort Paris. In no way do I want to assume by this to be a VIP, a special person or to have the right to impose my stories and my luck on you readers, who I consider friends! The joy and the heart warming feelings I had during those 3 days brought me back to love the Mouse house as much as I did the first time, when at the age of 6 I saw Walt Disney World for the first time. I sincerely would have wished that all true Disney lovers, like myself, could have experienced this occasion the way I did, like a dream come true before your eyes! 
I therefore leave you with my personal experience and the feelings this theme park gave me and hope you enjoy and understand my feelings as much as I did when I lived them...

The heart beating fast, eyes wide open, unable to sleep, hyper excited, practically cold sweating under my sheets - well my friends, this was my status at precisely 02:30 am Wednesday (ehm...it actually was Thursday by then) night, since in less than 10 hours I would have been in Disneyland Resort Paris for the VIP Grand Opening of the Walt Disney Studios. Yes gang, since one month all my days had been spent counting down to the 14th of March 2002, since I received a VIP invitation thanks to some connections, friends, stockholdings, my work as a TV producer and relationships with the Walt Disney Company here in Italy (thanks guys ... I owe you one ;-).

Arriving at the Disneyland Resort Paris after my flight (accompanied by my best female friend), kindly offered in business class by Air France and DLRP, I had the pleasant surprise of learning I was staying at the Disneyland Hotel, right in the centre of the magic. The hotel was a pure marvel - I had already stayed there several times (including the 12th of April 1992) but this time it was different; wherever you looked you could see TV, movie or music stars and Disney suits shacking hands, smiling and having some quality Disney time.
Within 5 minutes we had been given a beautiful room with a view of the Disneyland Park - so I practically forced my beautiful (and patient) friend to stay 2.5 minutes in the room before we were of to Disneyland Park... I felt a bit like a small kid saying “mum come on, lets go..." (I’m sure a lot of you guys do feel the same as soon as you see the pink turrets of the Disneyland hotel right?). I just couldn’t wait to see what Jay Rassulo and his team had conceived for this incredible occasion.

And what did I find? A perfectly well kept Disneyland Park, a Wonderful World of Disney Parade finally with stops again and up to Florida standards - and most of all: I found myself as excited as never before. I continuously encountered Imagineers, movie stars and suits browsing the park, VIPs with their families having a fun time together (which was Walt’s reason for creating Disneyland - well not for the VIPs maybe, but you know the story) and special ceremonies unique and intimate at the same time.
That very evening the press, VIPs and other invited guests were ushered to dine in various areas of the theme park kept open especially for us. Discoveryland had in fact been reserved for a night of fun and entertainment. Locations for the dinner included the the conference pavilion behind Star Tours and the Videopolis Theater (where we where lucky enough to be).

An elegant dinner with entertainment and buffet followed and the theater lit up to a jazz band playing all night and Minnie’s Birthday Surprise being performed. Besides the inclement rainy weather (which forced the fireworks display to be postponed to nearly midnight) we couldn’t enjoy the rides opened for us ... mainly because of the rain but also (personally) because of the shock I was having when I heard the final song from the Minnie show: “Dream our Dreams forever ... dream our dreams together ... open your eyes and wish on a star in the sky and keep your dreams alive”.
There it was - the theme song of “Light Magic” recycled from Disneyland’s 1997 Nighttime-Parade-Streetacular ... and what was incredible was that the song actually fit perfectly ... proving that a good idea (or music) is never thrown away at WDI! 

Ok ... ok ... back to some stuff you should be more interested in: the Walt Disney Studios! The 15th was the D-day - I had followed the EuroDisney project since the announcement in 1986, I had seen the park being built, I had been there more than 30 times and another 30 times  to Disney parks around the world (not bad for a 24 year old Italian, come on), I have written on DLPToday about the original Disney MGM Europe project ... I was practically running towards the gate as soon as I started hearing the theme-music…

Gang this park is a marvel! I really found myself fascinated by what Tom Morris and his team accomplished. The “behind the scenes of a working studio” concept is well delivered throughout the park, the attractions are exciting, amusing and most of all complimentary to what is found in the Disneyland Park next door. And as if this wouldn't be enought this park takes the best elements of the original Disney MGM Europe project and combines them with what proved successfull in the Florida version before updating the whole to the Disney standards of the year 2000.

What can I say - is this park perfect? No - at least not yet! Does it have potential? Yes! It is much more exciting and as far as the theme is concerned more challenging than the Disney MGM Studios in Florida in their opening year - at least for me!
Objectively speaking this is not a Tokyo Disney Seas or an Disney's Animal Kingdom, but it certainly proves to be a park with potential since it stays consistent with its theme (which can - and will - be expanded) unlike, say, EPCOT or Disney's California Adventure, both of which have historically proved difficult for WDI to trigger and expand! Rassulo and Morris had a limited budget on this: only approximately 600 million US-$ were budgeted for the Studios. If you consider that DCA alone (the Grand California Hotel excluded) was tagged on near 1 billion US-$ you get the idea of the severe constraints WDI had to face. But the made it - on time (actually one month before the originally planned opening date) and under budget!!

The real must see of the park is the amazing stunt show spectacular Moteurs... Action! which is a notch above any other Disney (and Universal) stunt show I have ever seen - this is the park's real winner! The Rock'n'Roller Coaster is certainly great, different from the Florida version (if you compare the cut-down version of "Pirates in the Caribbean" in Florida against the original one in California and you get a good idea of what you are missing in the US R'n'RC compared to the newer one here in Paris), Art of Disney Animation is a nice (but less impressive) version of the DCA Animation Pavillion and the Studio Tram Tour is short but sets the mood for the real working studios. Having the "Reign of Fire" set proves a good addition to the tour and the Catastrophe Canyon sequence plays in fact so much better than in Florida since it actually makes sense as we see the “how does it work” of a movie set instead of by chance stepping onto a "real" set like in Florida (which doesn’t play as well).
Animagique, Cinemagique and Studio 1 are simply impressive! Yes, the Stunt Show is a better and more talked about attraction, but these 3 “shows” (housed within Studio 1, Studio 2 and Studio 3) are unique to Paris and they surely represent an achievement for the Imagineers that worked on them. The themeing and all the details inside Lights, Camera, Hollywood (as Studio 1 was originally called) are jaw dropping, the sweetness of Animagique leaves you dreaming and the laughs at Cinemagique seem to be never ending - and all together it proves to be a winning combination!

That night, well, it was a dream come true! A car came and picked us up at the Disneyland Hotel and drove us "all the way" to the other side of the Disney Village and directly to the red carpet which lead to the platform in front of the entrance of the Walt Disney Studios! There we got announced by the speaker and greeted by Sulley (and Mike), waved to the crowd (who must have thought “who are they?”) and passed through the gates into the Studios where the whole WDS cast clapped their hands, while the VIPs and guests were waving at the numerous TV-cameras. Right in front of us was the beautiful Italian star Ornella Muti and behind us came Paul Pressler and Thomas Staggs (Disney theme park boss and CFO of the WDC respectively).
I must say this was a moment in my life I will never forget (my friend actually had nightmares of all these people for a few nights)! We walked down the red carpet through Studio 1 and headed to the Disney Brothers Plaza, where we found waiters offering champagne and appetizers, Castmembers handing out information with the night's program and the most beautiful sight I could dream of: a beautiful night sky kindly provided by the French weather, which nobody could have hoped to be more perfect for such a night.

All attractions were open so we experienced Cinemagique - sitting right next to Gilles Pellison (former EuroDisney CEO) - dinned at Rendez-Vous de Stars, danced in the “Peplum” tent (which had been erected between the Art of Disney Animation and the Flying Carpets over Agrabah, behind Mickey's Trailer), chatted with various WDI and Disney suits (I had the honour of being introduced to Pressler, Staggs and Roy Disney) and rode 3 times in a row Aerosmith’s awesome Rock‘n’Roller Coaster - although it could be fun to plug in some AC-DC stuff like "Highway to Hell" according to my friend - as VIPs don’t seem to appreciate coasters as a look at the queue line could make one believe!

Yes gang, I was lucky enough to receive what could be dubbed as “Disney’s Royal Treatment” - dinners, entertainment, being together with real VIPs all the time, being a Disney Guest in the best hotel of DLRP and being introduced to many personalities of the silver screen and Disney world (although you can trust me when I say I was definitely more interested in the second, my friends) - but this was not the important thing for me. In my heart I was happy for Disney, like a parent is for his son when he passes a difficult exam!
I must admit I was crying for joy when Tina Arena (the female singer who sung the heart touching “When You Wish Upon a Star”) ended her song saying “Good Luck Disney Studios, Good Luck”! This was a touching moment, the Disney hymn from Pinocchio and that sentence by Tina reminded me of all the difficulties EuroDisney had encountered since its opening 10 years ago and it didn’t take much imagination to think about the feelings Eisner and his team must have felt in that moment. It was a touching moment for everyone - the words “Good Luck Disney Studios” meant a lot more than a simple blessing, they are the fulfillment of a dream and the hopeful dawning of a brand new day for the whole Disneyland Resort Paris.

As we walked through Studio 1 toward the exit later that night Disney had once again proved to my heart that no matter how well you know the stories and the difficulties of making the magic real they still can make a tear roll down your cheek.
Having a last drinking that night with some movie stars at the Café Fantasia, next to Roger Moore and Roy Disney’s tables was an incredible sensation just as dancing the night away at the Hurricanes and then chatting until even later in the morning with my friend until we both finally fell asleep - and my dreams brought me back to 1984 when I was 6 years old and crossed for the first time the berm of WDW's Magic Kingdom. Now, 18 years later, for the second time in my life I fell in love with Disney, just as when I was a child and saw Cinderella’s castle for the first time.

The intimate opening ceremony Saturday morning by Michael Eisner, Roy Disney and Jay Rassulo proved ideal considering how extravagant the EuroDisney opening had been 10 years before. Eisner himself appeared smiling and relaxed and Jay Rassulo was visibly moved for his first theme park opening. It was an important moment and when the white drapes came down from the studio arches I was thinking to myself: “Ok, we made it”!
Disney with its treatment had made me feel part of the magic and I watched with loving eyes all those families setting foot in Disney’s new theme park, hopeful that they would have as much fun as I had the first time, many years ago, when I first experienced a non Magic Kingdom type theme park (EPCOT in my case).

I perfectly know that this might not be my standard type column, but I sincerely wanted to express my feelings and my gratitude to the whole EuroDisney and WDI team which made it possible for this park to come true. Now is not the time to talk about rumours, expansion and speculations (although I collected tons of stuff for you my friends), now is the time to appreciate the effort Tom Morris, Jay Rassulo and all there team have put into the Walt Disney Studios!
Finally even here in Europe we have a true Disney Resort, something which we waited for many years and which today we should appreciate for what it is now: the Disneyland Park and the beautiful Walt Disney Studios. This is why next time I visit DLRP I will not only sit and soak up the atmosphere of Main Street, U.S.A., but definitely will make a point of doing some browsing down Studio 1 and the rest of that intimate marvel that is the Walt Disney Studios theme park.
Good luck Walt Disney Studios, good luck after all as “When You Wish Upon a Star Your Dreams Come True”...

For now it's TTFN - tatafornow

MickeyFantasmic

P.S.: I personally wish to thank my friend Camilla for sharing this magic moment with me - all of you Disney fans know how hard it is to find someone who is patient enough (and mad enough) to cope with a Disney fan in such an occasion! A special Thanks to her and to Tom Morris, Jay Rassulo and all Disney staff here in Italy which invited me to this incredible event!