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Resort News - (4/23/08) Go on a tour of Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea with Tommy and James.
  (4/15/08) The Oriental Land Company has stated that they were considering opening a new facility in Southeast Asia, something other than a theme park. Right now they have no firm plans yet as they celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Tokyo Disney. They are also making an interesting move in light of the fact that Japan’s population is aging and the birth-rate is shrinking, starting last month they now offer a heavily discounted Annual Pass program for guests 60 and older.
  (2/8/08) Oriental Land Company has released their Q3 results, reporting solid performance from the theme parks resulting in a 0.3% increase over last years’s Q3. In addition costs and expenses were also down this year from last year resulting in a 6.9% increase in income. Guest spending has increased but attendance has been down slightly, an expected change since this is the year following the big 5th Anniversary of DisneySea.
  (1/15/08) Tokyo Disneyland will celebrate their 25th Anniversary on April 15, 2008. It wouldn’t be a big Disney park anniversary without a big new parade and new attractions (see below). According to Joe’s Tokyo Disney Resort website, the entire resort will feature a new Unlock Your Dreams promotion and will break up the year long festivities into five different phases.
  (1/1/08) Today we’ve got links to videos from Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea posted to YouTube.

2008 - Disneyland Hotel - (4/22/08) A Screamscape reader sent in three pictures of the new soon to open Disneyland Hotel which is very impressive looking. The concept artwork we previously had seen doesn’t do it justice at all, as you can see in the photos. Our source also reports that Tokyo’s Enchanted Tiki Room is still down for the Stitch conversion and from what they could tell in Tomorrowland, the new show building for the Monster’s ride is complete. They also noticed another funny thing on a display showing off the history of the various Disney Resort monorails, ending with a look at the new Monorail Red at Disneyland claiming that it opened for passengers in February 2008.
  (1/15/08) The new Tokyo Disneyland Resort hotel will open on July 8th.
  (2/9/05) The Oriental Land Company has announced plans to build a third resort hotel, due to the fact that the MiraCosta and Ambassador Hotels currently have annual occupancy rates over 90%. The yet to be named third resort will be placed in the parking lot of the Tokyo Disneyland park behind the monorail station and open in 2008. The theme will reflect the same early 20th century Victorian architectural style seen the World Bazaar themed land at the entry to the park. (World Bazaar takes the place of Main Street USA). It will have 700 rooms and stand 9 stories tall, bigger than either the Ambassador or MiraCosta hotels. As part of the plan for taking up part of the guest parking lot, they will also build a 1800 space parking structure. The total cost of the project (including the parking structure) is estimated at 44 billion Yen or $417 million if I did my conversion correctly.

2008 - Cirque du Soleil - (1/15/08) The new Cirque du Soleil show will open on October 1st.
  (4/18/05) The Oriental Land Company has reached an agreement with Cirque du Soleil and the Walt Disney Company to open another permanent theater within the Tokyo Disney Resort. This will be the first permanent show for Cirque outside of North America and they will create an original show exclusively for this 2000 seat theater when it opens in 2008.

???? - Third Disney Park - Planning - (5/9/07) In a news release from the Oriental Land Company that just came out called “Innovate OLC 2010” they talk about their future business plans and reveal the concept of the 3rd park is to build something indoor. “In order to realize long-term growth for the OLC Group, we will develop new areas of business that create venues beyond the Tokyo Disney Resort” with the plan to establish the details of these new business projects by 2011, including an Entertainment Facility Project being jointly worked on by OLC and The Walt Disney Company.
  “The project has been created to develop a Disney-style indoor entertainment facility
in a city outside of the greater Tokyo metropolitan area after 2010. The facility, offering entertainment, dining and shopping, will provide a more accessible place for people outside of Tokyo to enjoy the world of Disney in a way that is different from the experience provided at the Disney Parks.”
  (5/7/07) Screamscape has been informed that Oriental Land Company is currently considering the idea of building a third Disney park in Japan, though this time the idea is to build the park off-site in a new location away from the existing two to prevent future cannibalization of attendance at the existing Tokyo Disney Resort. I’m told that one possible area they are looking to is in Southern Honshu. I’m also curious as to what the theme of this third park would be. I assume the idea of a Disney / Pixar Studios style park could be under consideration, but given how huge and different DisneySea was from anything done before, I don’t know if Oriental Land Company would settle for a simple “Studios” themed park.

TOKYO-DISNEYLAND
Japan (Abbreviation: TDL)
Disney & Oriental Land Company

Park News - (1/14/08) Tokyo Disneyland resumed their daily parades over the weekend once again after re-inspecting all of their floats following an accident that took place last week when a large piece fell from a Buzz Lightyear themed float.
  (1/10/08) Tokyo Disneyland canceled the parades at their parks for the first time even after a 660 pound decorated steel pillar supporting “planets” fell off of the Buzz Lightyear float and crashed to the ground just a few yards away from a group of children watching the parade. Jump ahead 1 minute into the YouTube video below to see what I believe is the float in question. While there were no injuries, Tokyo Disneyland cancelled the two daily parades to carry out safety inspections. It sounds like it was an interesting day in the park, as the reports also talk about how a small fire broke out on the roof of the Swiss Family Treehouse forcing an evacuation there earlier in the same day.

Ride Rehabs - The following information is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate.
Enchanted Tiki Room – NOW CLOSED through 7/24/08
Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin – NOW CLOSED through 5/20/08
Pooh's Hunny Hunt – 5/21/08 through 6/5/08
Space Mountain – 6/10/08 through 7/4/08
Mark Twain Riverboat – 7/12/08 though 7/18/08
Haunted Mansion - 8/27/08 through 9/11/08
Star Tours - 9/1/08 through 9/17/08

2008 - Tokyo Disneyland’s 25th Anniversary - (1/15/08) Tokyo Disneyland has changed the name of the new 25th Anniversary parade to Jubilation. I’ve also been told that the park’s Enchanted Tiki Room will close down it’s Get The Fever show on January 28th and reopen with an all new show that will apparently feature Stitch by mid July.
  (5/7/07) Along with the opening of Monsters and the new Disneyland hotel, the park will celebrate it’s 25th Anniversary (April 15th, 2008) by opening a new daytime parade in March called Disney’s Treasures on Parade. There are also rumors about a new Castle area show and the usual assortment of large banners, decorations, special merchandise and menu items.

2009 - Monsters, Inc. - (7/14/07) You can see some concept artwork showing off what the front of the new Monsters attraction building will look like about halfway down this page.
  (1/19/07) If this piece of concept artwork from Disney's annual stock report is any indication, the new Monsters ride under construction in Tokyo will be quite impressive. From the looks of things guests will be taken for a ride through Monsteropolis armed with a Flashlight to scare away the monsters. Complete with a pair of swiveling cars, the concept looks like a merger of the Toy Story Mania idea mixed with Universal's Men In Black.
  (3/7/06) Screamscape has received confirmation that a new Monsters, Inc. ride is on the way to Tomorrowland for 2009. The press release states that guests will “be able to participate in a game of hide-and-seek at the Monsters, Inc. building with the little girl Boo, Mike, Sulley, and other characters featured in the movie.” The ride will cost an estimated $88 million (10 billion Yen).
  (2/28/06) Screamscape sources tell us that they have uncovered plans to bring a Monster’s Inc. ride to Tomorrowland by 2009. With similar rumors going around in Florida’s Tomorrowland, I’m not surprised by this rumor. The big unknown here is if the ride would replace an older attraction or if they would build a new structure for it. Stay tuned.

TOKYO-DISNEYSEA
Japan (Abbreviation: TDS)
Disney & Oriental Land Company

Park News - (12/6/07) Theme Park Review has added an update from Tokyo DisneySea showing off the Tower of Terror and how the “Shiriki disappearing effect” is done.
  (12/11/06) You can watch an all new video ride through of the new DisneySea Tower of Terror attraction at Dreamfinder Forever.

Ride Rehabs - The following information is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate.
Fortress Explorations - NOW CLOSED through 6/4/08
Journey to the Center of the Earth – 6/1/08 through 6/20/08
Magic Lamp Theater – 6/24/08 through 7/3/08
Mermaid Lagoon Theater – 7/8/08 through 7/16/08
Raging Spirits - 9/1/08 through 9/12/08
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - 9/3/08 through 10/22/08
Mystic Ryhyhms - 9/27/08 through 12/5/08

2011/2012 - Soarin’ - Rumor - (5/7/07) The latest rumor claims that we likely wont see Soarin’ show up until 2011 or 2012 now, possibly as part of DisneySea’s 10th Anniversary (Sept. 4th, 2011). Between now and then, Oriental Land Company will be focused on plans for Tokyo Disneyland’s 25th Anniversary (April 15th, 2008) and the opening of the Monster’s Inc. ride in 2009. Again, Soarin’ is apparently just one of a few different attraction ideas under consideration for the park’s 10th Anniversary, so don’t count on it just yet.
  (5/4/07) If the latest rumors are true the Oriental Land Company is looking to add a custom version of Soarin’ somewhere in the park’s Mediterranean Harbor area. Obviously this version of the ride would have to feature a brand new ride film that would appeal to Japanese audiences.

???? - Adventure’s Club Tokyo - Rumor - (2/27/08) I don’t know any details, but an very interesting rumor floated across my screen today claiming that we may see an all new version of the Adventure’s Club, a unique interactive experience at Walt Disney World’s Pleasure Island, created somewhere at the Tokyo Disney Resort. Given the rather interesting theme about a cursed artifact causing all the problems over at the Disneysea version of Tower of Terror I’ve got to wonder if this may be considered as some kind expansion of that theme. Perhaps for a new walk-through exibit, an interactive show or even a fun restaurant concept placed near the Tower. Anyone know more and just how do you say Kungaloosh in Japanese anyway?