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General History 1997
18th January 1997:The 'Carnival Castle' is officially unveiled for the park's 5th anniversary year. The theme is inspired by the current animated feature, "The Hunchback of Notre Dame". As the castle is the emblem of the theme park, and its silhouette represents magic and entertainment to millions of guests, the objective was to carry out a complete transformation of the castle while still maintaining an easily identifiable shape.
12th April 1997:
Disneyland Paris celebrated its fifth anniversary in style with
an extra Birthday parade at noon featuring marching bands from
all over Europe, plus all the usual Disney parade floats - with
more than 700 performers in all! Other events included Roy E.
Disney and Gilles Pélisson unveiling the new European Disney
Legends statue, the inauguration of the new 'Disney Promenade'
walk (in front of the Disneyland Hotel) by stars such as Melanie
Griffith and Antonio Banderas, and the opening of a two-month
International Festival of Flowers - plus loads of special events
such as a concert by pop band Worlds Apart. Celebrity guests were
everywhere - easily identifiable by their colourful fruit-surround
badges - and the park was looking the best is has for a long time:
well-maintained, everything running perfectly. The cast members
were especially cheerful, welcoming and responsive.
During the evening, the park hosted a private party for specially
invited guests in Frontierland, including more than a thousand
disadvantaged children from Europe and the "Disney babies"
(twinned with the park by being born between 9am and 9.30am on
12th April 1992). The party finished with a short speech
from Roy E. Disney and then the celebrations culminated in the
most spectacular 360-degree fireworks display that the park (perhaps
any Disney park) has ever presented, launched at 10pm right above
the castle from five separate sites. The only negative point about
the day was that the entire park was closed to paying guests from
7pm onwards (Frontierland was closed from 5pm!), which disappointed
a large number of people who had travelled long distances specifically
to take part in the festivities and help 'their' park celebrate
its birthday.
6th June 1997:
Festival Disney is officially renamed as Disney Village at a
big party for hotel guests, cast members and 600 other invitees.
The all-day party includes live rock music and an evening fireworks
display.
October 1997:
The Newport
Bay Club officially opens its new FFr 150m Convention Centre,
which includes an 1,800 square metres main function room, 18 smaller
meeting rooms and 3,000 square metres of exhibition floor-space.