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TOKYO DISNEYLAND
at the Tokyo Disney Resort
Tokyo, Japan (Abbreviation: TDL)
Disney & Oriental Land Company (OLC)
Ride Rehabs - The following information is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate.
Buzz Lightyear - Sept. 26 through Nov. 14
Gadget’s Go Coaster - Nov. 7 thrugh Nov. 26
Big Thunder Mountain - Nov. 28 through Dec. 17
Country Bear Theater - Dec. 29
Haunted Mansion - Jan. 5, 2017 through Jan. 24, 2017
Splash Mountain - Jan. 25 through Mar. 10
Alice’s Tea Party - Feb. 1 through Mar. 17
Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin - Feb. 14 through Mar. 10
General Resort News - (7/7/16) In an interview with the President of the Oriental Land Company, he reveals some timelines and important details regarding the future expansion of the Tokyo Disney theme parks. For starters, expansions are on the way because the goal of the company is to see attendance ride by 10% over the next ten years to hit 33 million guests.
Spring 2020 will see the new Beauty & The Beast land open at Tokyo Disneyland. Nothing more was said about the older Fantasyland plans that may be in limbo.
In 2021 or later he reconfirmed that Tokyo DisneySea will be opening a new themed land based on the smash hit film, Frozen. He also mentions that they are looking into expanding into what bits of surrounding land they have available to them to ensure they have enough room to fit in the new expansions, especially for the new Frozen land.
Also, due to the large crowds the park already sees and the future growth they want to achieve, existing park attractions that are not popular with the crowds may be closed in order to be repurposed or allow for the construction of newer popular attractions.
In other news Frozen Forever, a nighttime fireworks and projection show at Tokyo Disneyland will take place nightly from January 13 to March 17, 2017 as part of Anna and Elsa's Frozen Fantasy themed event at the park.
(5/11/16) A very interesting story about how the Tokyo Disney Resort is managing the fascinating problem of an aging population has been posted to BlooLoop. Despite the concept that theme parks are designed to lure in children and young adults, and even young families, the Tokyo Disney Resort has managed to keep their attendance climbing ever higher, despite the fact that the Japanese government reported for the first time that the nation's overall population numbers have decreased for the first time ever.
The Japanese government takes a census study every five years to tally up the population numbers, and they were shocked when the last study reported that the overall population had dropped by almost 1 million people... roughly the effect of a small city just vanishing into nothing. The trend is expected to continue now for the next several years, and mixed with an ever increasing number of citizens aged 65 and over, Tokyo Disney is really setting the example of how theme parks across the globe will eventually have to deal with the same issues of luring in the older demographics along with the younger.
(3/14/16) According to this article the Tokyo Disney Resort will raise ticket prices for the third year in a row in 2016. Starting April 1st a 1-Day / 1-Park ticket (for those 18 and up) will increase 7.24% to 7,400 yen ($60.51). This is still the cheapest ticket in the Disney empire however when you compare it to the cost of admission to Disney's most expensive park (The Magic Kingdom at Florida's Walt Disney World) which rose to $124 on a Peak Day which adjusts to 14,119 yen, almost DOUBLE the new price of the Tokyo parks.
(2/2/16) Tokyo Disneyland has launched their own version of the "Season of the Force" Star Wars themed event at the park this week. Season of the Force will run now through September 7, 2016, and feature the newly updated scenes and special random alternate scenes in the Star Tours ride, as well as an assortment of special food, drinks and merchandise items for sales. Unlike Disneyland however, Tokyo is not getting the Hyperspace Mountain treatment on their Space Mountain.
Spring 2016 - Mickey’s Rainbow Luau - Confirmed - (9/3/15) Tokyo Disneyland will kick off a new dinner show on March 21, 2016 in the Polynesian Terrace Restaurant to be called "Mickey's Rainbow Luau". The new show will feature Mickey Mouse and friends "honoring the heritage of milestone celebrations through the cultural lens of Polynesia". It will feature music and dance from Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand and Samoa. Advanced Reservations are required.
The current show, "Mickey & Minnie's Polynesian Paradise" will close permanently on January 4th, 2016. The Polynesia Terrance Restaurant will be closed for renovations from Jan. 6, 2016 to Mar. 20, 2016.
June 2016 - Tokyo Disney Celebration Hotel - Confirmed - (9/3/15) According to a press release from Oriental Land Company, it was announced that the nearby Palm & Fountain Terrace Hotel would be redeveloped and transformed into a new unique Disney branded hotel property for the Tokyo Disneyland Resort. The new hotel will be called Tokyo Disney Celebration Hotel when it opens in June 2016.
This will be the 4th Disney branded hotel at the resort, which apparently is needed as the existing three hotels (Disney Ambassador Hotel, Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta and the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel) already run with occupancy rates over 90% year-round. The designs of the new hotel rooms will "celebrate the magic and imagination" of the Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea parks.
To begin work the Fountain Terrace Hotel building will close on Feb. 27, 2016 (expected to reopen in June 2016) and the Palm Terrace Hotel building will close on June 1st (expected to reopen Fall 2016). Management and operations of the new hotel "will continue to be handled by Brighton Corporation Co., Ltd."
If you were wondering why they chose this particular hotel, which is nearby, but not right next to the Tokyo Disney Resort, you may want to remember that Oriental Land Company, through a subsidiary company (Milial Resorts Hotel Co.), purchased Brighton Corp. for 500 million Yen back in early 2013, so this falls under the OLC umbrella.
2016 - New Westernland Restaurant and Character Meet & Greet -
(2/17/15) Oriental Land Company announced this week that a new restaurant and a new character meet and greet area would open in Westernland, themed to the Junior Woodchucks animated shorts that feature Donald and his nephews. While the character facility will be new, the restaurant will take over the existing Lucky Nugget Cafe, which will be expanded to feature a new two-story dining area and a campfire setting. Look for these to open in Fall to Winter 2016, and the Lucky Nugget will close in Fall 2015.
 Summer 2017 - Tokyo Disney Electrical Parade Dream Lights - (8/17/16) According to a post on the Tokyo Disneyland Resort Blog they have confirmed that the "Tokyo Disney Electrical Parade Dream Lights" will be "renewed" and relaunched in July 2017, with the addition of five new floats. There will be a new Frozen themed float with Anna and Elsa, two new floats themed to Beauty and the Beast (Belle and Beast) and two themed to Cinderella (Cinderella and Prince Charming).
Spring 2020 - Beauty & The Beast in Fantasyland, Big Hero 6 in Tomorrowland and More -
(7/29/16) Disney and More has posted new pictures of models, aerial photos of Tokyo Disneyland and an assortment of concept artwork showing off everything that is planned to go down as the park's Fantasyland is expanded to take over some of Tomorrowland, adding all new attractions, restaurants and more.
(4/28/16) The Oriental Land Company made a huge announcement on Wednesday, detailing their new revised plans for the Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea theme parks from now through to 2020.
In Tokyo Disneyland they have confirmed that the Grand Circuit Raceway, StarJets and some dining and retail locations in Tomorrowland will close to make way for a new Fantasyland expansion. The Grand Circuit Raceway will close in January 2017 and the StarJets will close in either Fall or Winter 2017.
The new Fantasyland plans appear to have changed quite a bit however, as they will now include a new live performance theater, a new Beauty & The Beast themed area to be anchored by a Beauty & The Beast dark ride. Meanwhile a new smaller attraction and character meet & greet area will also be built in Tomorrowland and a new character meet & greet will open in Toontown.
The investment is expected to be 75 billion Yen for these projects, while other plans are still in development "for new versions of current attractions and entertainment programs". Since the previous version of the plans included building a new version of Its A Small World to allow for the old site to be redeveloped, that project may have just been pushed back.
The new Beauty & The Beast area will feature Beast's castle and Belle's village, with the new dark ride to be located inside of Beast's castle. Opening in Spring 2020, the dark ride is described as, "Guests board enchanted serving dishes that dance in rhythm to the film’s well-known music and follow Belle on a romantic musical adventure inside the enchanted Castle where she dances her way into the heart of the Beast, just in time to break the fateful spell. Guests will feel like they have entered right into the film."
Meanwhile a new flat ride themed to "Big Hero 6" will open in Tomorrowland. Based on the look of the attraction's concept art, this will be a Big Hero 6 themed version of the Mater's Junkyard Jamboree ride that first opened in Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. This ride is also set to tentatively open in Spring 2020. For now I will also assume that the new Tomorrowland character Meet & Greet area may also be themed to Big Hero 6.
In Toontown the character Meet & Greet will have guests meet Minnie (dressed as a fashion designer) in her fashion studio.
While much of what was mentioned in the previous plans is no longer mentioned, the press release does mention that they are still working on new investment plans for 2021 and later at this time, so much of it may have simply been pushed back. It also mentions specifcially that new development plans for all seven of the park's lands are being worked on, which will be built out in stages over the years to come.
???? - Original New Fantasyland Plans - In Development - (4/28/16) Revised new plans for Fantasyland, Tomorrowland and Toontown were released today. It is unknown if the old plans were canceled entirely, or aspects of it simply pushed back to a later date so I’m leaving the original announcement plans here for now.
(4/28/15)
The Oriental Land Company has released two new pieces of artwork for their Fantasyland redevelopment project, giving us a look at what appears to be the entrance to a Beauty & The Beast / Be Out Guest entrance area, as well as a new Alice in Wonderland themed area. The interesting thing is that they say that they will lock down the “themes and facilities” for the areas later in 2015, which means some items may still be in flux.
No solid opening date is listed, they only say that it will be after the start of fiscal 2017. Given the massive effort needed to rebuild an existing land like this, I wouldn’t be surprised if it opens in phases as they work to double the size of Fantasyland.
(10/30/14) The Oriental Land Company made a huge announcement regarding the future expansion of both the Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea theme parks a short time ago. This is apparently part of a planned 500 billion Yen investment into the resort over the next 10 years, which roughly converts to an amazing $4.59 billion US dollars.
Starting at Tokyo Disneyland, the plan here is to focus on a huge redevelopment of Fantasyland that will see the land nearly double in size by the time they are done by adding new attractions, shops and restaurants. The final plan is still being worked out it seems, but the overall plan will see the existing Fantasyland area renovated, the backstage area behind it improved, the “its A Small World” attraction moved and rebuilt in an entirely new location, and while nearby Toon Town will stay, a large section of Tomorrowland will be taken over and repurposed for the Fantasyland expansion that cause the removal of the park’s Star Jets and Grand Circuit Raceway attractions, as well as the removal of part of the structure that is home to the Tomorrowland Terrace restaurant.
According to the press release provided by OLC, the Fantasyland project will see “multiple major attractions” added, but I don’t think we’ll see any serious work begin here until Late 2016. They released a piece of concept art showing off the Fantasyland expansion which looks to have a collection of village buildings, a larger building where the Speedway used to be that will likely be the new Small World location, a possible Be Our Guest restaurant area like the one in Walt Disney World nearby, then a strange pink forest area on the left side and more. I’m not entirely sure what to make of it all yet, but it may be intentionally vague.
Also of major importance… not listed in the press release, but mentioned elsewhere… they do plan to include Arendelle, the world of Frozen into one of these expansions, complete with the castle. The logical place however would be over at Tokyo DisneySea! Click to read more!
(9/18/13) Disney & More reports that a proposal to brings Cars Land to Tokyo Disneyland has been turned down by the Oriental Land Company. Instead the next major project coming to the park is expected to be a large scale update of the park’s Fantasyland area, similar to what we’ve seen take place so far in Walt Disney World. While this will likely include Seven Dwarfs Mine Train coaster, the Little Mermaid dark ride will likely be left out, as it would really need to go into Mermaid Lagoon over at Tokyo DisneySea instead. So far no timeline on this project either, as the park may have to remove or move a few attractions to make room as Fantasyland has virtually no available space to grow in Tokyo.
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