No, these good news are not about Shanghaî Disneyland - still waiting for Beijing official agreement - but about Hong Kong Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland.
Let's begin by HKDL as its destiny was recently in jeopardy. Reuters press agency announced yesterday that "The Walt Disney Co (DIS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is close to agreeing to invest more capital in Hong Kong Disneyland and allow the island's government convert its loans to equity to maintain its majority share of the theme park"
Reuters source - somebody close to the talks - also said that "Hong Kong's government will not budge on two points: the need to retain equity control of the project, and a refusal to put up any more cash for the park"."The Hong Kong government might reduce its holdings, but still retain a majority shareholding. That's the bottomline."
So, may be had a genious idea to create a "win-win" ending for both parts... If everything goes fine, may be the park's expansion that would enlarge the park's existing area by around a third and feature three new "lands" will not be a dream anymore. Let's cross our fingers!
At Tokyo Disneyland the future looks bright, as it is not less than four attractions that will open in the next three years. Tokyo Disney Sea will have the first one with Turtle Talk with Crush next October. The attraction will be located inside the huge S.S Columbia - no doubt there is plenty of room available inside for an attraction. Cost of this small attraction is U.S $ 13.1 M.
Mickey's Philarmagic will be the next attraction to open, this time at Tokyo Disneyland's Fantasyland in 2011. Cost is around U.S $ 60.5 M. Unfortunately, Philarmagic's opening mean the very end of the beloved Mickey Mouse Revue - that's why i did an article about it a while ago.
The same year, a Cinderella walk through will open inside Cinderella's castle with dioramas, paintings, and most of all a recreation of the grand ballroom where - in the movie - Cinderella danced with her charming prince. Cost: U.S $ 20.2 M.
In 2012, it's Toy Story Mania that will open in the New York area of the American Waterfront. Cost: U.S $ 115.9 M.
Finally, TSM won't be build in the Cape Cod area which doesn't mean that there won't be anything new in this small land. In fact, a new shop dedicated to the extremely successful "Mickey Bear" plushs should open anytime soon in the Cape Cod area (that's a D&M exclusive news!)
Also, if i'm indicating above the costs of the attractions it's not only because it's always interesting to know them, but it may also help some of you to understand why sometime it can be difficult to get a budget approval even for small "A" Tickets.
I'm very happy for TDL and TDS japanese fans, but a little bit less for foreigners. as you can see, if we except the Cinderella walk-through, all the other attractions already exist in the U.S which means that there won't be any new TDL unique attractions coming in the next three years. But it's true that they recently opened the new Monsters Inc attraction, a version which exist only at TDL.
Let's end with a little week-end gift with this great TDL-TDS map at the top of this article! Enjoy!
All pictures: copyright Disney
