It’s not supposed to happen in the land of fantasy and make believe but yesterday it did – there were no princesses, no Disney characters and no parade. The Disney characters at Disneyland Paris said “non” and went on strike for the whole day on Wednesday 16th May.
Visitors to EuroDisney in Paris were met with long queues at the ticket booths which were explained away as being due to technical problems. However once inside the resort it was very clear that there were no Disney characters to be seen. As the queues grew at the “Meet Mickey Mouse” centre there were a few raised eyebrows at the inefficiency of it all as there was no Mickey to be seen. As more and more parents started to ask questions about the location of this or that child’s favourite character to be told they were “sick” or there were “technical issues” it became apparent that there was a bigger problem. The official line remained “technical problems” throughout the day, no announcements or acknowledgements were made.
Little girls were disappointed not to see the princesses, little boys wanted to know where Mickey Mouse was, parents wanted to know why they hadn’t been told before they paid hundreds of Euros to get in.
Snow White, the Dwarves et al were striking for higher pay and against a decision by management to let a member of staff return to work after a review of sexual harassment. Let’s hope that the problem of Disney’s disappearing acts is resolved soon as spot strikes like this could put parents off visiting the resort just as it’s starting to make money after twenty years of operations in France.
