Before you get to the gist of the heading, you'll read about some background information regarding the design elements of the park and how/why they differ from anything else Disney has done in the past. As you get to the end of Natashia Emmons'(a writer for an amusement trade publication) story, you'll learn that Disney has plans to clone DisneySea,in whole or part, at other sites worldwide. It seems that they are aggresively planning to build other parks, above and beyond what has already been announced. That seems to be a focal point of continued revenue growth going forward.
Tokyo DisneySea, the $2.82 billion (U.S.) second gate to the world's most attended park, Tokyo Disneyland, opens 9/4 offering almost all brand new attractions and theming "as far as we could go," according to the head designer, Steve Kirk. The first visitors to the park during a soft opening of about 20,000 per day say it may be the most beautiful park ever built.
"They're counting on that to be a major draw," said Chris Yoshii, principal at Economics Research Associates out of San Francisco. "They spent a huge amount of money on it."
Every surface was painstakingly themed to transport guests from the bayside Tokyo suburb of Maihama, Urayasu-shi, Chiba into a world of adventure on the high seas, from historic depictions of the Mediterranean, American, Central American and Arabian coastal cultures to the fictional world of Disney's Little Mermaid and Captain Nemo.
The reason for the intense care put into this park was that it has to be intriguing enough to stand up to its 18-year-old sister park. Admission for DisneySea is the same as the first park at $45.86 adult, $40.03 teen and $30.85 child.
"The attention to detail was definitely done intentionally to appeal to a pretty sophisticated market there in Tokyo," said Kirk, executive designer of the park. "The idea of taking the guests away to a completely convincing, immersive environment was one of the objectives we wanted to achieve."
The theming is far more elaborate than the other Disney park that opened this year, the $1.4 billion Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, Calif., a second gate to Disneyland. "The fact is that park was designed to be a California adventure, so it doesn't require a huge amount of theming when you're doing an adventure for reality. More theming is necessary when you're talking about fantasy," said Jim Cora, chairman of Disney International.
A design first for a Disney park is a quarter of the perimeter wall of the DisneySea was left open to allow patrons to see the Tokyo Bay beyond the park.
In a stroke of luck The Walt Disney Co, was not aware of plans to open Universal Studios Japan in Osaka during the planning stages Oriental Land Co. Ltd., the owner of Tokyo Disneyland and the new park, opted against adding a studio themed park akin to Paris Disneyland's new sister park slated to open next year and chose the water adventure theme.
"I think Europeans have always been attracted to American film product. The Japanese didn't think that theme would work," Cora said.
"Oriental Land Co. asked us to think about something that related to the sea. Japanese culture and history has an affinity for the sea."
ECONOMIC FACTORS
Disney has creative control in the construction and a staff of Disney employees will stay on board to work as consultants. Disney receives 5% of the food and merchandise gross, and 10% of rides and admission. "The advantage is that the Disney Co. receives a pretty hefty royalty stream on a steady basis without any capital investment from us. This has been a great partnership or we wouldn't have gone forward," Cora said.
Smaller parks in the Japanese market are not doing well since the region fell into economic recession in late 1997.
But Universal's billion-dollar-plus new park, which opened March 31, hit a million visitors 37 days into operation, and Disney expects DisneySea to see similar popularity, forecasting attendance at 10 million annually, and attendance at both Tokyo parks to reach 25 million. Universal is hoping to hit 9 million in its first year.
As was Universal's experience, the recession hitting at the same time the park project got the green light didn't cause any problems. "It was a good thing for us. Interest rates dropped and Oriental Land Co. was able to get loans at favorable rates for construction," Cora said. "Tokyo is such a huge city that it will work," ERA's Yoshii said. "Their forecasts of attendance were fairly reasonable, so they should be able to hit those targets."
Universal Studios should not cut into DisneySea's business "at all," Cora said. "We just had our third best year, which is after Universal opened. I think one complements the other. It just raises the awareness of theme parks in general in Japan," he said.
Tokyo Disneyland is the world's top drawing park, with attendance of 16.51 million in 2000 (AB, Dec. 25, 2000). "We do well because of the product. Disney is very well known here," Cora said.
Higher-than-expected merchandise per caps during a soft opening period have been encouraging to Cora. Packaged confectionery with Tokyo DisneySea Grand Opening logos are the biggest sellers, Cora said. "I think we're going to do just fine. We're an escape. When things are tough, people want to go to [a park]."
Cora also sees the park as a boost to the economy, with Oriental Land Co. putting billions of dollars into the project, including a new monorail system and two new hotels, and the addition of 8,000 new jobs with the opening of the park. Cora also hopes to draw 15% of the new park's attendance from parts of the Japanese market that have not visited Disneyland, mainly the Osaka region, and 5%-7% from overseas. Tourist stays should be increased also with the new park, he said.
California Adventure in Anaheim also expected to draw weekend stays, but fell short of its attendance goals because there is a perception that the park, which is half the size and cost of DisneySea, does not offer a comparable experience to Disneyland, yet admission was the same. The extravagant DisneySea should not have this problem, Yoshii said.
Yoshii attributes Universal Studio Japan's success to the huge size of the market, a lack of competing theme parks and the successful marketing campaigns and promotions.
Universal attributed its successful opening to heavy promotional support from corporate marketing partnerships, and Disney has a similar strategy, with big corporate sponsors, including Fuji Film and Mitsubishi, already heavily advertising the park. Cora attributed Tokyo Disneyland's 17 million first year draw to this kind of pre-opening hype.
Opening a new park in Japan may have been easier for Disney than Universal in that they have worked in Japan for 18 years now in successful partnership with the Oriental Land Co., Cora pointed out.
FUTURE PLANS
A third gate is already planned for Tokyo, as it has been for Anaheim. No theme has been chosen, Cora said.
The DisneySea model could also work well in other locations, and international expansion is a major focus of the Disney parks division, Cora said. Hong Kong Disneyland is in the dredging process now and is scheduled to open to the public in 2005. That park is a standard Magic Kingdom model. A report came out in a Beijing newspaper last week that Disney planned to open a theme park in that city in time for the Olympics in 2008. Disney did not confirm the report, however.
"We're looking for other sites. We plan to be in the international marketplace big time," Cora said.
China has been a big focus for park developers recently because of the large market and improving economy. "I think China can definitely support two parks," Yoshii said. "It's really a very fast-growing market, but it's just more timing. It's 'when' should the park be opened, it's not really a question of 'if.' As incomes are increasing pretty rapidly, at what point do people have enough money that they can afford to go to a theme park."
So DisneySea may travel overseas. "I don't think the park itself has any element that couldn't be transported someplace else. We didn't give them a Japanese-themed park. It's a quintessentially Disney theme park exactly what the market wants and Tokyo Disneyland has thrived on," Kirk said.
As at the new Universal Park, much of the ride signage at DisneySea is in English. Amenities are, of course, Japanese. Pet sitting is available for $20.85. Guided tours of the park are offered for $6.67 to $12.51, the top end allowing guests to appear as extras in one of the shows.
ATTRACTIONS
Like California Adventure, the target demographic for DisneySea is a little older than the original park. The park serves alcohol and there are more high-end restaurants. "It's more adventure and romance than it is fantasy and magic, a little more sophistication," Cora said.
But the 23 attractions had to be almost all new because Disney's most popular attractions have already been built into Tokyo Disneyland.
"The difficult thing was coming up with new attractions," Kirk said. "That was also one of the strong advantages of this park we could start with a blank piece of paper and come up with themes that all complemented each other successfully as opposed to doing things on a piece-meal basis over the years. An integrated approach is something that is extremely important."
There were probably more than 500 designers, about half of those Imagineers, augmented by outside contractors, Kirk said.
The attractions that are receiving the morning "stampede" during the soft opening are heavily themed rides 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the StormRider motion base attraction, Journey to the Center of the Earth hybrid coaster and dark ride, and Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, the park's biggest thrill ride and the only non-original ride. It is the same Indiana Jones ride as in other Disney parks, but with electric motors and a new theme. Those rides are complemented by a collection of children's rides.
The Mediterranean-themed entry port plays host to the majority of the 32 shops and 33 restaurants because it also houses the five-floor, 502-room Hotel MiraCosta.
Hotel MiraCosta is unusual in that it is built into the park's theme, Kirk pointed out.
This was done to make it stand apart from the half dozen other nice hotels on the property, he said. The room windows are part of the facade inside the park.
Another unique aspect to the hotel is the wedding chapel, which has received intense attention, Kirk said.
Park construction proceeded on schedule with common construction slowdowns, but no unpleasant surprises, Kirk said. The decision to open Sept. 4 was made in January.
The layout of the park is unique in that it is an inversion of the traditional hub-and-spoke layout with back-of-the-house facilities in the center. This allows maximum use of the 22.73-acre moat running throughout the park. "It's more of a donut as opposed to a hub-and-spoke," Kirk said. 'We wanted to maximize the amount of waterfront. It also allows guests to see vistas and new revelations."
Disney already anticipates capacity issues when attendance hits 45,000 per day, and has plans on the drawing board for additional attractions in several of the seven "lands."
As with California Adventure, new rollouts will come quickly. "Capacity is definitely going to be an issue. I know we will be adding sooner rather than later," Kirk said.
The Manhattan waterfront area is the most likely to see expansion first, Kirk said. An early idea to add another land down the line was scrapped due to the way the park is designed, but there are vacant lots behind berms in about half of the lands that could accommodate additional attractions, he said.
Working in Japan is different from working in the United States in some ways, Cora said. "I guess the major thing is an American will make a decision then go work out how they're going to do it. The Japanese figure out how they're going to do it [first]. Once you get to the middle, though, it works fine."
"Language is an issue of course," Kirk said. "The methodology in business and construction practices is very, very precise and calculated and long-term planning oriented, which is an advantage and a disadvantage. Once you've started a path, everyone understands the objective. The disadvantage is improvisation along the way and changes are a little awkward sometimes. I think it's a blessing and a little bit of a curse also. A park this involved over time almost had to be approached with this mentality."
Tokyo DisneySea, the $2.82 billion (U.S.) second gate to the world's most attended park, Tokyo Disneyland, opens 9/4 offering almost all brand new attractions and theming "as far as we could go," according to the head designer, Steve Kirk. The first visitors to the park during a soft opening of about 20,000 per day say it may be the most beautiful park ever built.
"They're counting on that to be a major draw," said Chris Yoshii, principal at Economics Research Associates out of San Francisco. "They spent a huge amount of money on it."
Every surface was painstakingly themed to transport guests from the bayside Tokyo suburb of Maihama, Urayasu-shi, Chiba into a world of adventure on the high seas, from historic depictions of the Mediterranean, American, Central American and Arabian coastal cultures to the fictional world of Disney's Little Mermaid and Captain Nemo.
The reason for the intense care put into this park was that it has to be intriguing enough to stand up to its 18-year-old sister park. Admission for DisneySea is the same as the first park at $45.86 adult, $40.03 teen and $30.85 child.
"The attention to detail was definitely done intentionally to appeal to a pretty sophisticated market there in Tokyo," said Kirk, executive designer of the park. "The idea of taking the guests away to a completely convincing, immersive environment was one of the objectives we wanted to achieve."
The theming is far more elaborate than the other Disney park that opened this year, the $1.4 billion Disney's California Adventure in Anaheim, Calif., a second gate to Disneyland. "The fact is that park was designed to be a California adventure, so it doesn't require a huge amount of theming when you're doing an adventure for reality. More theming is necessary when you're talking about fantasy," said Jim Cora, chairman of Disney International.
A design first for a Disney park is a quarter of the perimeter wall of the DisneySea was left open to allow patrons to see the Tokyo Bay beyond the park.
In a stroke of luck The Walt Disney Co, was not aware of plans to open Universal Studios Japan in Osaka during the planning stages Oriental Land Co. Ltd., the owner of Tokyo Disneyland and the new park, opted against adding a studio themed park akin to Paris Disneyland's new sister park slated to open next year and chose the water adventure theme.
"I think Europeans have always been attracted to American film product. The Japanese didn't think that theme would work," Cora said.
"Oriental Land Co. asked us to think about something that related to the sea. Japanese culture and history has an affinity for the sea."
ECONOMIC FACTORS
Disney has creative control in the construction and a staff of Disney employees will stay on board to work as consultants. Disney receives 5% of the food and merchandise gross, and 10% of rides and admission. "The advantage is that the Disney Co. receives a pretty hefty royalty stream on a steady basis without any capital investment from us. This has been a great partnership or we wouldn't have gone forward," Cora said.
Smaller parks in the Japanese market are not doing well since the region fell into economic recession in late 1997.
But Universal's billion-dollar-plus new park, which opened March 31, hit a million visitors 37 days into operation, and Disney expects DisneySea to see similar popularity, forecasting attendance at 10 million annually, and attendance at both Tokyo parks to reach 25 million. Universal is hoping to hit 9 million in its first year.
As was Universal's experience, the recession hitting at the same time the park project got the green light didn't cause any problems. "It was a good thing for us. Interest rates dropped and Oriental Land Co. was able to get loans at favorable rates for construction," Cora said. "Tokyo is such a huge city that it will work," ERA's Yoshii said. "Their forecasts of attendance were fairly reasonable, so they should be able to hit those targets."
Universal Studios should not cut into DisneySea's business "at all," Cora said. "We just had our third best year, which is after Universal opened. I think one complements the other. It just raises the awareness of theme parks in general in Japan," he said.
Tokyo Disneyland is the world's top drawing park, with attendance of 16.51 million in 2000 (AB, Dec. 25, 2000). "We do well because of the product. Disney is very well known here," Cora said.
Higher-than-expected merchandise per caps during a soft opening period have been encouraging to Cora. Packaged confectionery with Tokyo DisneySea Grand Opening logos are the biggest sellers, Cora said. "I think we're going to do just fine. We're an escape. When things are tough, people want to go to [a park]."
Cora also sees the park as a boost to the economy, with Oriental Land Co. putting billions of dollars into the project, including a new monorail system and two new hotels, and the addition of 8,000 new jobs with the opening of the park. Cora also hopes to draw 15% of the new park's attendance from parts of the Japanese market that have not visited Disneyland, mainly the Osaka region, and 5%-7% from overseas. Tourist stays should be increased also with the new park, he said.
California Adventure in Anaheim also expected to draw weekend stays, but fell short of its attendance goals because there is a perception that the park, which is half the size and cost of DisneySea, does not offer a comparable experience to Disneyland, yet admission was the same. The extravagant DisneySea should not have this problem, Yoshii said.
Yoshii attributes Universal Studio Japan's success to the huge size of the market, a lack of competing theme parks and the successful marketing campaigns and promotions.
Universal attributed its successful opening to heavy promotional support from corporate marketing partnerships, and Disney has a similar strategy, with big corporate sponsors, including Fuji Film and Mitsubishi, already heavily advertising the park. Cora attributed Tokyo Disneyland's 17 million first year draw to this kind of pre-opening hype.
Opening a new park in Japan may have been easier for Disney than Universal in that they have worked in Japan for 18 years now in successful partnership with the Oriental Land Co., Cora pointed out.
FUTURE PLANS
A third gate is already planned for Tokyo, as it has been for Anaheim. No theme has been chosen, Cora said.
The DisneySea model could also work well in other locations, and international expansion is a major focus of the Disney parks division, Cora said. Hong Kong Disneyland is in the dredging process now and is scheduled to open to the public in 2005. That park is a standard Magic Kingdom model. A report came out in a Beijing newspaper last week that Disney planned to open a theme park in that city in time for the Olympics in 2008. Disney did not confirm the report, however.
"We're looking for other sites. We plan to be in the international marketplace big time," Cora said.
China has been a big focus for park developers recently because of the large market and improving economy. "I think China can definitely support two parks," Yoshii said. "It's really a very fast-growing market, but it's just more timing. It's 'when' should the park be opened, it's not really a question of 'if.' As incomes are increasing pretty rapidly, at what point do people have enough money that they can afford to go to a theme park."
So DisneySea may travel overseas. "I don't think the park itself has any element that couldn't be transported someplace else. We didn't give them a Japanese-themed park. It's a quintessentially Disney theme park exactly what the market wants and Tokyo Disneyland has thrived on," Kirk said.
As at the new Universal Park, much of the ride signage at DisneySea is in English. Amenities are, of course, Japanese. Pet sitting is available for $20.85. Guided tours of the park are offered for $6.67 to $12.51, the top end allowing guests to appear as extras in one of the shows.
ATTRACTIONS
Like California Adventure, the target demographic for DisneySea is a little older than the original park. The park serves alcohol and there are more high-end restaurants. "It's more adventure and romance than it is fantasy and magic, a little more sophistication," Cora said.
But the 23 attractions had to be almost all new because Disney's most popular attractions have already been built into Tokyo Disneyland.
"The difficult thing was coming up with new attractions," Kirk said. "That was also one of the strong advantages of this park we could start with a blank piece of paper and come up with themes that all complemented each other successfully as opposed to doing things on a piece-meal basis over the years. An integrated approach is something that is extremely important."
There were probably more than 500 designers, about half of those Imagineers, augmented by outside contractors, Kirk said.
The attractions that are receiving the morning "stampede" during the soft opening are heavily themed rides 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the StormRider motion base attraction, Journey to the Center of the Earth hybrid coaster and dark ride, and Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, the park's biggest thrill ride and the only non-original ride. It is the same Indiana Jones ride as in other Disney parks, but with electric motors and a new theme. Those rides are complemented by a collection of children's rides.
The Mediterranean-themed entry port plays host to the majority of the 32 shops and 33 restaurants because it also houses the five-floor, 502-room Hotel MiraCosta.
Hotel MiraCosta is unusual in that it is built into the park's theme, Kirk pointed out.
This was done to make it stand apart from the half dozen other nice hotels on the property, he said. The room windows are part of the facade inside the park.
Another unique aspect to the hotel is the wedding chapel, which has received intense attention, Kirk said.
Park construction proceeded on schedule with common construction slowdowns, but no unpleasant surprises, Kirk said. The decision to open Sept. 4 was made in January.
The layout of the park is unique in that it is an inversion of the traditional hub-and-spoke layout with back-of-the-house facilities in the center. This allows maximum use of the 22.73-acre moat running throughout the park. "It's more of a donut as opposed to a hub-and-spoke," Kirk said. 'We wanted to maximize the amount of waterfront. It also allows guests to see vistas and new revelations."
Disney already anticipates capacity issues when attendance hits 45,000 per day, and has plans on the drawing board for additional attractions in several of the seven "lands."
As with California Adventure, new rollouts will come quickly. "Capacity is definitely going to be an issue. I know we will be adding sooner rather than later," Kirk said.
The Manhattan waterfront area is the most likely to see expansion first, Kirk said. An early idea to add another land down the line was scrapped due to the way the park is designed, but there are vacant lots behind berms in about half of the lands that could accommodate additional attractions, he said.
Working in Japan is different from working in the United States in some ways, Cora said. "I guess the major thing is an American will make a decision then go work out how they're going to do it. The Japanese figure out how they're going to do it [first]. Once you get to the middle, though, it works fine."
"Language is an issue of course," Kirk said. "The methodology in business and construction practices is very, very precise and calculated and long-term planning oriented, which is an advantage and a disadvantage. Once you've started a path, everyone understands the objective. The disadvantage is improvisation along the way and changes are a little awkward sometimes. I think it's a blessing and a little bit of a curse also. A park this involved over time almost had to be approached with this mentality."
inkbounc 
