A tale of three Disney resorts

Well the next post came quite quickly I guess :D

I suddenly just felt an urge to write about my experiences at Disney parks around the world. No worries the post wont be to long :D

One of my dreams is to visit all the Disney parks in the world. At the moment I only need to visit two more resorts to have seen all of them.

At the same time I am also an avid fan of walt Disney Imagineering – the architects and engineers that plan and make the Disney theme parks. Unfortunately Imagineering has seen a decline in quality over a period of years... but my hopes are high with Bob Iger having taken over as CEO of the Walt Disney Company. For an insight on Imagineering's thoughts on this check out their independent blog: Re-imagineering

So for those of you who don't know me that well (or the Disney resorts) I've been to three different resorts so far.


My first experience was in Disneyland resort Paris – or as it was known then Euro Disney resort. It was back in 1994 two years after the resort opened. Back then it was only Disneyland, festival Disney and the hotels.
I was so amazed by the whole sight. After that I just knew that I had to go back, which I did several time. After a number of visits I heard of the opportunity to work there and found out that I wanted to try that. In 2002 that became a reality as I became an Operateur animateur attraction of Honey I shrunk the Audience, a 3D cinema. It is by far the best job I've ever had. It was hard work for a lousy pay but it was so amazing seeing how every guest just got so happy from the experiences.

At the time I worked there a second park was opened – The Walt Disney Studios. It's one of those parks planed by accountants instead of artists. It's really a shame as there are some really amazing attractions there, amongst others the fabulous CineMagique.

Then in 2005 after having started university in 2003 I managed to go on exchange to Los Angeles, California. That gave me the perfect opportunity to visit the original Magic Kingdom in Anaheim, which by now is no longer just Disneyland, but Disneyland resort with the Magic Kingdom, Disney's California Adventure, Downtown Disney District and the hotels.
It was a great day for me and I came back many times during my semester there and managed to visit again in the summer of 2006.

And now this year I managed to go on another exchange... this time to Tokyo, Japan. I've always wanted to see Japan as well as Tokyo Disney resort. Tokyo Disney resort consists of two parks – Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea – and hotels. Tokyo DisneySea is by far the most impressive Disneypark I've seen besides Disneyland Paris, which today remains my favorite even though it haven't really been kept up-to date because of a lack of funds. It also lacks a couple of my favorite attractions – Jungle Cruise and Indiana Jones Adventure (Indiana Jones and the temple of the crystal skull at Tokyo DisneySea).

So my next challenge will be to see Hong Kong Disneyland in China and Walt Disney World resort in Florida... and then finally to work for the Walt Disney Company in the park & resort division or Imagineering.

I hope you enjoyed this little post. If you want to see more photos from my trips to Disney parks check out my Disneyland album picasaweb.google.com/et.jensen/Disneyland.