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URAYASU, CHIBA— Oriental Land Co., Ltd. announced that plans for the further development of Tokyo Disneyland® and Tokyo DisneySea® Parks have been decided. The plans, outlined in the Oriental Land Group’s “2016 Medium-Term Business Plan” (for the period of March 2015 through March 2017) announced on April 28, include a 500 billion yen level of investment in the theme park business over the next ten years.  The plan for Tokyo Disneyland Park centers on the redevelopment of Fantasyland, which will nearly double the size of the themed land. Work on implementing this large-scale area development has already begun. In addition to the renovation of the existing Fantasyland, major new attractions, restaurants and shops are being considered for installation in the expansion site. Under consideration for Tokyo DisneySea Park is the development of a new themed port in the expansion site located south of Lost River Delta. This eighth themed port will include major new attractions, restaurants and shops.  Oriental Land will also further invest in the two Parks in multiple ways: renovation or creation of attractions and entertainment programs; development of hardware that will enhance the Guest experience in the Parks; further improvement of restaurants; easing of congestion; development of measures to protect Guests from hot and cold weather; and other ways of to make a more comfortable environment for all Guests. Furthermore, investment will be made to strengthen the theme parks’ “backstage” support functions and operational base. In addition to the above investment in infrastructure, Oriental Land will continue to raise the level of hospitality provided by Cast Members, which is vital to the Disney theme parks, by strengthening human resources development and raising employee satisfaction to an even higher level. Oriental Land’s aim for the two Disney theme parks is for them to continue to be places where Guests will have unforgettable experiences that are unlike anywhere else in the world. Oriental Land will strive to make this a reality through the above investments to maximize the value of the theme parks. 1. Amount of Theme Park Business Investment The breakdown of the 500 billion* yen level of investment in the theme park business over the next ten years ( fiscal year** 2014 through fiscal year 2023 ) is projected as follows. (Orientation of Investment)  2. Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea Development Plans Centering on the redevelopment of Fantasyland at Tokyo Disneyland and the development of a new themed port at Tokyo DisneySea, as well as the introduction of new attractions and other facilities, Oriental Land’s investment will aim at maximizing the value of the theme parks. Moreover, the amount of the additional investment for the Fantasylandredevelopment is expected to be the largest ever for Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.  Preparations for creating comfortable environments at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea Parks By further enhancement of restaurants, easing of congestion, introduction of measures to protect Guests from hot and cold weather and other actions, Oriental Land will proactively create environments that Guests can enjoy in comfort. Concrete Examples: • Restructure the show viewing area • Enhance restaurants further • Make service facilities more comfortable • Restructure the IT environment
Strengthening the base for operations including support functions In order to handle the highest level of Park attendance and provide the best Guest service, business-use land, including the land for the theme parks, will be created in the backstage area (the operations base for the theme parks) by enlarging support facilities and moving some facilities. Concrete Examples: • Move and enlarge the Logistics Center and Central Kitchen to company-owned property nearby • Move part of the administration functions to company-owned property nearby
The contents of this release are still at the planning stage. Details for each subject will be announced as soon as they are decided.
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 We recently unearthed a very interesting patent application for an innovative new ride system created by the nice folks over at Walt Disney Imagineering. In many ways this system could be a game changer, allowing guests to interact with attractions like never before. Full Disclosure: This is a patent application. They are typically written in the broadest spectrum possible as to not let on to competitors what the specific plans for the system are as well to have the legal protection of the patent cover as many iterations or ideas as possible. 
Figure 1
At it's essence, this is a ride vehicle you sit on straddling like a motorcycle or even a dragon (hmm) where by leaning (to the side, forward or backward) you can control the direction, speed, or height of whatever you are riding on in a virtual world. The system works by using sensors (gyroscopes) integrated into the seat. The seats sits on a motion actuated base (think Indy or Dinosaur) that responds to your leaning by moving or angling itself to correspond to your movements. In different iterations of the patent application, the motion base can be attached to a track as well as projected images. 
Figure 2
So let's blue sky some possible uses of this technology with in the works Disney rides. Tron Light Cycle at Shanghai Disneyland This idea is doubtful as the ride is currently already under construction, but adding a motion base platform to this launched roller coaster where you sit on a "motorcycle" would add a sense of control, freedom, and pitch and yaw that has never been done on a ride of this type. 
Avatar Many rumors point to Avatar being similar to Soarin' . In this idea you would be able to feel like your were steering the dragon through this space as opposed to a static experience like on Soarin by replacing the large Soarin' screen with an Occulus Rift type VR headset. The tilting action of the motion base with the head tracking of a VR headset would be an amazing 1-2 punch of immersiveness to really bring you into the world of Pandora. 
These are just a couple of ideas. The patent also mentions using the leaning element to free hands for interactive shooting game. You lean to turn in the direction or on the angle you want to to be and have your hands already free to shoot. So there you have some new technology that Disney is hard at work developing and a few possible scenarios that would make for completely unique experiences. We have no inside information of how or when this system may see the light of the day, but..... I'm just sayin'- The ability to fly your own dragon wherever you like in a completely convincing and free 3d world. I could see even the biggest opponents of the Avatar expansion flying down to Florida to try that. So what do you think? Excited about this possible new technology coming to an attraction at one of the Disney parks? What would you like to see it used for? Imagineer away!!!  Yesterday our friends over at Screamscape ran an article from Fool.com about how much Disney was actually spending inside it's parks since 2011. While the numbers are "technically" correct, what they were actually spent on has been lumped together with numbers from the motion picture and consumer products divisions to make certain things (MyMagic+) seem like it was a higher cost than it was. Luckily Chris is a spreadsheet master and put together some numbers to show exactly what was spent and where it was spent. We'll take a look at the Fool.com numbers and show you what was ACTUALLY spent and where. The author of the article took the number for ALL capital expenditures for all parts of Disney including movie production and consumer products.. He used the bottom number on the spreadsheet below instead of using the number next to domestic Parks and Resorts. As you'll see, the TOTAL for all Parks and Resort expenditures since 2011 is $6.7 Billion not the $14 Billion that is mentioned in the article.  Walt Disney World Numbers: The article states that $3.8 Billion was spent on New Fantasyland in Florida and an additional $2.8 Billion was spent ONLY on MyMagic+.  The numbers break down more like this:
So yes, a LOT of $$ was spent on MM+. More than DCA 2.0 and CarsLand combined. And it's an obscene amount of money. But it's still about $1.3 Billion off from what the article states. Disneyland Numbers: Moving over to the West Coast and the numbers for DCA 2.0 and CarsLand area actually LESS than MyMagic+. Could you imagine what DCA would look like if the numbers were actually $3.8 Billion? 
Additional Parks and Resorts Numbers: And lastly, not even mentioned in the article was spending for the Disney Cruise line and Aulani.
So at the end of the day, Disney is still spending a LOT of $$ in their parks and resorts. MM+ cost a LOT of money, so there is some truth to all those articles you've been reading over the last few years. But this just is another example of shoddy journalism to try and prove a point. In this case, you don't really need to fudge the numbers, the proof is already there. What are your thoughts? |
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