Tokyo DisneySea reminds me of IOA

[goofy about mickey]

I was just looking at the pictures of the upcoming Tokyo DisneySea theme park at the Mouseplanet web site and I couldn't get over how much some of the pictures reminded me of IOA. For instance, some of the DisneySea "Arabian Coast" pictures looked to me like images from IOA's "Port of Entry." Also, I wonder to what extent the PBH provided inspiration for The Hotel MiraCosta (at least the "bayside" of the resort) in the new park's "Mediterranean Harbor" section. If nothing else, it seems that IOA has raised the hurdle regarding attention to detail in theming.

The pictures are at the following site:

www.mouseplanet.com/tokyo/index.htm

What do you think? Was IOA an inspiration or am I just imagining the similarities?

The new Tokyo park looks like it will be great (hopefully, someday I will be able to visit :rolleyes: ), but I can't see Disney duplicating its design too closely in Florida because it might look like they are just following in Universal's IOA footsteps...and my guess is that is not the image that Disney wants to convey.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I was thinking the exact same thing! Even Mermaid Lagoon reminds me of Suess Landing.

It truely looks like an incredible park and the more I see and hear about DisneySea, the more convienced I am that a Tokyo trip might not be too far in the horizon.

[Seahag]

Hmmmmmm, there's a Sinbad show @ IOA & a Sinbad Show/ride there too ????
I smell a rat LOL:earsboy:

[h20jag]

And it's us who benefit from this healthy competition!
Can't lose!!
Jim

[JessicaR]

WOW! That sure looks so similar to Portofino Hotel! I had to do a double take! Even that colorful park looked like they had Suess Landing in mind!

[goofy about mickey]

Good. So it isn't just me who notices a similarity.

I hope this doesn't mean that Earl, CoasterFEV, and Notatourist are moonlighting! :) :)

Twelve hours in Florida and twelve hours in Tokyo is just too long of a workday! :)

[RUN]

I was looking at all the pics and stuff of the park and I've come to realise there is a huge difference in rides at the two parks. IOA has tons of quality rides. Hulk, Doom, Spidey, Dudley, Popeye, JP:RA, Ice, Fire, and Cat in the Hat. Where as TDS has 2 rides, JTE and 2,000 leagues. All the other rides are rides I can ride at the Carnival when it comes to my city. The only other noticable things are Indy, which is exactly the same as the 5+ year old version at Disneyland, and Stormrider is just some motion simulator that you can ride at practically any park in the world. If you ask me this park is all eye candy and nothing else.

[toefungus]

I think that DisneySea is a little better themed, and has a little more detail that IOA. I love IOA, but DisneySea is just blowing me away.

[eetsoop]

I don't think Disney would want to emulate IOA too much. Sure IOA is a great park with great rides that break down all technological barriers and the themeing is great but all that stuff is expensive. I know they lost quite alot of money that'll take some time to get back. When Disney built their park in California they made it for very little money. Sure no one goes there very much and it isnt as near as cool as IOA but they made money from it all the same. I heard about this Tokyo thing a few months ago and I thought it sounded interesting, but IOARules is right, the themeing might be nice too look at in some places better than IOA's (I liked the looks of the Lost River Delta and that big Mointain), but there is no Spiderman, no B&Ms, nothing like that, it is all Disney rides which are not as expensive to make, not to mention not as exciting (I don't want to go to a theme park to learn how they grow vegetables for crying aloud). Plus this is in Tokyo. I don't think it is major compitition for IOA in Florida. On the other hand I have yet to visit, but I'm sure Disney will rake in alot of profit from the deal.

[hopemax]

The original plans for Disney Sea was that the park was supposed to be build in Long Beach. The plans for that were in the early 90's. It didn't happen, because Disney and LB could not come to an agreement. But in the mean time a group of Disney Imagineers left WDI and went to Landmark and built IOA.

I would bet that , the ex-Imagineers borrowed a cool concept from their old company (Jim Hill wrote an article about how the IOA designers also borrowed from the plans for Beastly Kingdom), and built it. While that was going on over in FL, Disney and OLC came to an agreement and Disney Sea started construction in Japan.

Hidden Mickeys (http://www.oitc.com/Disney/Tokyo/English/Construction.html)

This is a link to the Hidden Mickey's site about the Tokyo resort. You can see that the first information about Disney Sea was posted on the site in Dec 1995.

There is a model of Tokyo Disney Sea on page 75 of the Imagineering book which was published in 1996.

[eetsoop]

What part of IOA is beastly kingdom? Lost Continent?

[toefungus]

Yeah, there were plans for a Dragon type rollercoaster in Beastly Kingdom. When some imagneers left, they took the dragon rollercoaster ideas over to IoA, and we have Dueling Dragons!

[Molokai Gram]

Remeber to stop by and visit me on your way to DisneySea. :wave:

[JessicaR]

Donna....how far is that from you?

[Molokai Gram]

Japan is about 4-5 hours away, I think. About the same as California. We were going to go and went to Orlando again instead. Now I have so many $expensive$ options. But it would be cheaper for me to fly to Japan than to go to Orlando. :smooth:

[Molokai Gram]

Why are most of the signs in English and not Japanese? :confused:

[toddn]

Does anyone know who I might contact for information or names of the landscape architects on Islands of Adventure. I need info. for a school project. thanks.

[Notatourist]

Donna-

Take the trip to USJ-you will love it. I know I do.

[Jon360]

When will Disney create a new E-Ticket attraction?

After they put out Rockin Roller Coaster, TOT, and Indiana Jones, they have really dropped the ball.

[Molokai Gram]

USJ and DisneySea, sounds like a good idea to me! :D Notatourist, do you know if they are near each other? What is USJ like?

[Notatourist]

You're looking at about two to three hours on train between the two-I highly recommend the rail pass if you ever travel in Japan-the price beats paying for one way on the shinkonsen(high speed train).

USJ is just incredible. Take all the great things about USH, USF and add in some great things of IOA-and you there you have it.

It's a beauty of a park.

[eetsoop]

toddn, here's some of the IOA landscape architects, just there names though dont know how you'd get in touch with them:

Dave White-Port of Entry
Patrice Ragusa-Suess Landing
Don Putnam-Jurassic Park
Paul Norconck-Toon Lagoon

hope that helps

[toddn]

thanks for the reply eetsoop. the names helped a lot. IF anyone would be able to refer me to landscape architecture companies in the Orlando area or even the phone number of a help line at universal studies I can't tell you how much of a help it would be. Thanks for your time. If anyone can help please reply.

thank you,

toddn

[Molokai Gram]

Maybe a meet in Japan? ;)

[toddn]

I am currently doing research at Utah State University on the Landscape Architecture of Islands of Adventure. I am trying to locate information about the parks design. If anyone can help with company names or IOA help lines please let me know soon. thanks.

[eetsoop]

toddn this link might be of intrest to you: http://www.themeit.com/members/uioa.htm

some of the companies listed are landscape companies involved with the park

Rogers Tree & Landscaping
Vila & Son Landscaping Corporation
Visionscape Landscaping Solutions, Inc