Joyeuses Fêtes!
Felices Fiestas!
Trevlig Helg!
Boas Festas!
Sarbatori Fericite!
Jie Ri Yu Kuai!
Bones Festes!
Tanoshii kurisumasu wo!
Buone Feste!
Forhe Feiertage!
Prettige feestdagen!
Hau’oli Lanui!
Beannachtaí na Féile!
Vesele Praznike!
Sretni praznici!
It has been a while since you’ve seen an update here but as you can see we are back in action.
So what happened? Why where we gone?
Well, we had to fight some technical difficulties on the blog that had forced it into a complete black-out.
It took a while to find the error, but as you can see the Mousekingdom blog is back on-line. Unfortunately we did loose some date, but that will not stop us from adding new stuff.
So if you like Walt Disney, Disney Parks, Disney movies and anything else related to the world of Disney (and more), brace yourself as we are ready for GO!…
It has been a while since we spread some Disney magic but it time for a return. After a couple of hectic weeks I am ready again to fill these pages.
So please make sure to visit us again and spread the word.
Also check out our twitter page, Facebook page and our sister website DLP.info.
And now, let’s get on with the show….
Every year the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) releases their Theme Park Attendance Report. A report that shows the growth or losses in attendance of all major theme parks in the world. This time they do so with a big delay and a report full of errors. After looking at the report I wonder if this can be taken serious as some of the numbers don’t add up when looking at and comparing previous report. The main error is in some of the % related to growth and funnily enough the biggest mistake is related to the Disneyland Paris numbers. More on that can be found on DLP.Info where you’ll see the numbers of 2010 compared to the numbers of 2009.
For the rest of the report we can see some big chances when it comes to winners and losers. Unfortunately Disney is loosing some ground in the USA. While they still have the top spots on the lists, they have been surpassed by Asian parks and must be a little scared of a wizard that is giving a big boost to one of their competitors.
The Magic Kingdom is still number one on the list with 16.97 million visitors. This is down 1,5% from 2009. Disneyland is up 0,5% with 15.98 visitors and remains in second place. Tokyo Disneyland keeps its third place with 14.45 million visitors. This is 5,9% up from previous years. This is good news for Tokyo but we can expect a big decrease in next years report because of the tsunami disaster and the park being closed for an extended period of time because of this. Forth place goes to another growing park, Tokyo DisneySea. It had a growth of 5,5% with a total of 12.66 million visitors. Epcot is fifth with 10.83 Million visitors, a drop of 1,5%.
Next on the list is Disneyland Paris. However the placing ant visitors total should be correct, the percentages are way of. The same can be said for the Walt Disney Studios in Paris (19th in the ranking). (More on DLP.Info)
The biggest winner in the US is Island of Adventure. This will be no surprise to anybody as everybody expected this park to catapult big into a major attendance boosts once the Wizard Harry Potter opened his section of the park. The park gained 30,2% in attendance, boosting a visitors total to 5.95 million. It is important to know that the new section only opened during the last 2/3 of the years so it will be really interesting to see what a full year will do for the park.
Below the full list, including all other Disneyparks around the globe, as published by TEA (including the errors) (more…)
Today Disneyland in Tokyo reopens its doors after it was closed since March 11th big earthquake that devastated Japan. While Japan is still struggling with the aftermath, Disney is offering some comfort and dreams to the Japanese people with doing what they do best; making magic. Disneyland will cut back on the opening times, closing doors about 4 hours sooner as regular times and DisneySea will remain closed until further notice.
Continuing our coverage from Friday and Saturday we are glad to be able to report some good news as the non-Disney centered media such as Deadline Hollywood just picked up on the on-going closure of both theme parks as reported here already on Saturday. In fact those reports are also related to todays good news: the announced closure of the two theme parks is unchanged, i.e. the resort is still planning to make a decision about a re-opening only around 21st March when they are able to include the developments regarding the transportation and infrastructure outside the resort into their decision as well. However, despite this the resort’s Monorail has returned to service!
Earlier the fact that a lot of the liquefaction on the parking lot seemed to have occured close to the beams of the monorail track had resulted in speculation (also by us) that this may result in a prolonged closure of the Monorail. However, this turned out to be wrong. You want proof of that? Here it is … in the form of two videos:
The first short video by YouTube user “mikkyland” shows the walk up to the monorail station next to the official non-Disney operated hotels of the resort, after showing some of the damage to the ground here the monorail can be seen going by:
The second video, running an impressive 7:43 min shows a full circle ride on the monorail. Starting at the Tokyo DisneySea station. “mikkyland” filmed the view toward the two parks (i.e. to the interior of the circle formed by the track) so that we can see both parks as well as Ikspiari. Note the cast member waving up from the area in front of the gates toward the monorail when it returns to the Tokyo DisneySea station at the end of the movie There is no visible damage to any of the show building or backstage buildings seen on the whole tour, in fact the whole backstage areas visible seem undamaged. The only clearly visible more massive damage is a lot of liquefaction residue on the main parking lot of the two theme parks:
Both videos were filmed on Saturday. A third video provided by “mikkeyland” was filmed at the entrance to Tokyo Disneyland shortly after the massive earthquake (that has been upgraded to 9.0 on the Richter scala in the meantime according to some press reports) hit initially. While there are no spectacular visuals in this third video one can hear the English language version of the pre-recorded “earthquake”-announcement played throughout both parks. To watch the video follow this link to YouTube.
Below the jump you can find more videos filmed at the resort in the aftermath of the earthquake (adding to the selection provided in our original two posts) … (more…)
… and that all your Disney wishes may become reality.
We, the Mousekingdom team wishes everybody all the best for the new year with lot’s of Disney magic. Thank you for all your visits and support. We hope to see all of you back many times in 2011 to read and share the most magical Disney stories from around the world.
Happy New Year!
The Mousekingdom team
This could be interesting news, the Oriental Land company is thinking about working together with Disney on the Shanghai park. The oriental Land company has been very successful operating the Tokyo Disney Resort. For example; they got the amazing DisneySea park out there and they are making a good profit on the Tokyo park! Disney on itself isn’t doing so good on their other non US parks, so bringing in the Oriental Land company in the mix might be a good idea.
The Oriental Land company is now talking with Disney about the planned Shanghai park. This would give the Oriental Land Company new growth possibilities.
Logo picture copyrights OLC group
Tokyo DisneySea is getting a new attraction. While we are used to always hear great things of this park, with already a collection of amazing rides, attractions and show, this new attraction isn’t that exciting.
It will be a flying carpet attraction themed to the Disney film Aladdin. The name of the attraction will be Jasmine’s Flying Carpets.
But of course it doesn’t always have to be the newest, biggest thing they have to build. The little guest will be more then happy to fly up in the air on a flying carpet. The new ride will be placed in the Arabian Coast part of DisneySea next to Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage and opening is set for Summer 2011.
Official Press release.
Picture copyrights Disney
Tokyo DisneySea will celebrate its tenth anniversary with a new show ”Fantasmic”. This is now confirmed by the Oriental Land Co., Ltd. The new show will premiere in April 2011 to kick of the celebration of DisneySea’s anniversary, which is on September 4th.
The picture already promises that the show will be spectacular. Looking at the brooms walking up the mountain, one can already start dreaming on how Disney will make this work. Knowing Disney, I am very confident it will look amazing. The show will take place at night in Mediterranean Harbor and will feature Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The show will have scenes from Aladdin, Cinderella and Finding Nemo incorporated. A big battle between Mickey and a gigantic dragon will be the highlight of the show.
The new “Fantasmic” show will replace the BraviSEAmo show that is currently running.
The official announcement can be found here.
Picture copyrights Disney
If rumors are correct we might not only get Captain EO to return in Disneyland, but also in Walt Disney World’s Epcot. An Epcot re-release of the movie might be ready for the summer of 2010. Fans in Japan can also be happy.
If rumors are correct the Oriental Land Company is talking with Disney to come to an agreement for the movie to be shown in Tokyo too. If indeed correct, a release for 2010 could be a possibility. (Via Screamscape)
Picture copyrights Disney
Disneyland Hong Kong will get three new minilands (see previous blog entry by Dirk), but one can only wonder if it isn’t just a small treat in comparison what will happen in Shanghai. Once the Shanghai project takes form it will be 10 times bigger then the Hong Kong park. Shanghai will turn into a resort and that could have a big impact on the Hong Kong park. While I think it is a little early to make 2015 predictions, but according to this article the Hong Kong park is expected to gain a growth of 60% by that date. I wonder where this 60% would come from as many mainland visitors might make the choice to go the Shanghai park that is planned to open in 2014 instead.
So it seems the beans have been spilled, the cat is out of the bag, the dice has been rolled and the heads have been cut; Bob Weiss will be the Walt Disney Imagineering head for Shangai Disneyland – it was a head to head battle between him and Scott Trowbridge (the guy which gave us IOA’s Spiderman ride who had joined WDI in 2007) and Bob won.
Who is Bob Weiss?
Well he is a WDI old timer; he headed, together with the Kirk brothers (the guys who gave us the amazing “Tokyo DisneySEA” much of the initial design for the original “Disney MGM Studios Theme Park2 in 1989.
Then he had a period of “bizare luck”
The guy was first called upon to design (again together with the Kirk’s) the never built “Disney MGM Studios Europe Themepark” which would have been the original second gate for EuroDisneyland.
It’s not the first time I tell people Disney isn’t just for kids, and I guess it will not be the last time either. Not only do I convince people of this fact some don’t understand, but once I get some adult to tag along with me in a Disney park they really see what I and those other adult Disney fans are talking about. Adults can have fun too! I have been in Disneyland Paris on my own on many occasions and have been the Walt Disney World a couple of time with a friend too. We are not the only once who think it is possible, just like two Disney adventures sharing their magic on the web.
And why can’t a couple of dads in their 40s have a blast at the so-called Happiest Place on Earth? (Kentucky.com)
The second issue is out and has arrived at my doorstep. (Or should I say under my car porch as that’s where the postman left it). Although not being excited about it, after not liking the first one, I do had to open it immediately. It’s Disney after all and I couldn’t wait to see it, even if I thought it would not be any better then the first issue. But,… I was going to be pleasantly surprised.
Although I am a big fan of the parks and always hope for in dept park stories and secrets and hope to see something of the parks on the cover, I must admit that I was drawn to the nice Donald Duck cover first. “Donald Duck, 75 years of Mischief, mayhem & mirth!” was the appropriate title to the cover. But it was time to look inside and see if the book could change my mind… and somehow it did. It starts straight away with an article about the new Monster Inc. Attraction in Tokyo Disneyland and was followed with a look at the Disneyland Gallery in the next article. A very promising start.