Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is the division of The Walt Disney Company that conceives, builds and manages the company's theme parks and holiday resorts, as well as a variety of additional family-oriented leisure enterprises. It is one of the four major units of the company, the other three being Consumer Products, Media Networks, and Studio Entertainment.
The Parks and Resorts division was founded in 1971 as Walt Disney Attractions when Disney's second theme park, the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, opened, joining the original Disneyland in California. The chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is James A. "Jay" Rasulo, formerly the chairman of Disneyland Resort Paris. Rasulo reports to Disney CEO Robert Iger.
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[edit] Administration
- Chairman - Jay Rasulo
- President, Operations - Al Weiss
- President, Disneyland Resort - Ed Grier
- President, Walt Disney World Resort - Meg Crofton
- Chairman and CEO, Euro Disney SCA (Disneyland Resort Paris) - Philippe Gas (effective 1 Sep 2008)
- President and Managing Director, Asia - Bill Ernest
- Managing Director, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort - Dave Vermeulen
- President, Disney Vacation Club - Jim Lewis
- President, Disney Cruise Line - Tom McAlpin
- Senior Vice President, Adventures by Disney - Ed Baklor
- President, New Vacation Operations - Karl Holz
- Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion - To be filled upon Philippe Gas's exit
- International Development and Walt Disney Attractions Japan - Nick Franklin
- Walt Disney Imagineering - Bruce Vaughn/Craig Russell
- Public Affairs - Leslie Goodman
- Finance and IT & Research - Jim Hunt
- Global Marketing - Leslie Ferraro
- President, Operations - Al Weiss
[edit] Disney properties
[edit] Disneyland Resort
Disneyland was founded as a single park by Walt Disney on July 17, 1955, in Anaheim, California.
In 2001, the area was officially named the Disneyland Resort with the opening of Disney's California Adventure Park, two new resort hotels and the Downtown Disney retail, dining and entertainment district. Disneyland celebrated its 50th anniversary on July 17, 2005. Its properties, listed below, are divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Parks:
Shopping centers:
Resorts:
[edit] Walt Disney World Resort
The Walt Disney World Resort opened Oct. 1, 1971, with the Magic Kingdom (similar in layout to Disneyland) and three resort hotels in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, a few miles southwest of Orlando. The property is twice the size of Manhattan, with about a quarter of it having been developed to date. It has become the most popular tourist destination on Earth,[citation needed] with four theme parks, two water parks, a shopping and entertainment complex, 20 resort hotels and eight golf courses. Its properties, listed below, are divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Parks:
- Magic Kingdom
- Epcot
- Disney's Hollywood Studios
- Disney's Animal Kingdom
- Disney's Blizzard Beach
- Disney's Typhoon Lagoon
Shopping centers:
Resorts:
- Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Disney's Contemporary Resort
- Disney's Polynesian Resort
- Disney's Port Orleans Resort
- Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
- Disney's Old Key West Resort
- Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort
- Disney's BoardWalk Resort
- Disney's Beach Club Resort
- Disney's Yacht Club Resort
- Disney's Coronado Springs Resort
- Disney's Pop Century Resort
- Disney's All-Star Movies Resort
- Disney's All-Star Music Resort
- Disney's All-Star Sports Resort
- Disney's Wilderness Lodge
- Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground
[edit] Tokyo Disney Resort
Tokyo Disney Resort, located in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan, opened April 15, 1983. On Sept. 4, 2001, the resort expanded with Tokyo DisneySea. There are several resort hotels on site, but only two are actually owned by the resort, which boasts the largest parking structure in the world. Tokyo Disney Resort is fully owned and operated by The Oriental Land Company and is licensed by the Walt Disney Company. The resort was built by Walt Disney Imagineering, and Disney maintains a degree of control; Nick Franklin leads the Walt Disney Attractions Japan team at the Walt Disney Company, which communicates with the Oriental Land Company over all aspects of the Resort, and assigns Imagineers to the Resort. Its properties, listed below, are divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Parks:
Shopping centers:
- Ikspiari shopping, dining and entertainment complex
Resorts:
[edit] Disneyland Resort Paris
Disneyland Resort Paris, Disney's second resort complex outside the United States, opened April 12, 1992, as Euro Disney Resort. Located in Marne-la-Vallée in the suburbs of Paris, France, it features two theme parks and a golf course, an entertainment complex and six Disney resort hotels. It is maintained and managed by Euro Disney S.C.A., a company partially owned by the Walt Disney Company whose stock is traded on Euronext. Its properties, listed below, are divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Parks:
Shopping centers:
Resorts:
- Disneyland Hotel
- Disney's Hotel New York
- Disney's Newport Bay Club
- Disney's Sequoia Lodge
- Disney's Hotel Cheyenne
- Disney's Hotel Santa Fe
- Disney's Davy Crockett Ranch
[edit] Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney's fifth resort and its second in Asia, opened Sept. 12, 2005. The resort is located in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. Currently, the resort consists of one theme park and two hotels, with land reserved for future expansion. It is owned and operated by Hong Kong International Theme Parks, an incorporated company jointly owned by The Walt Disney Company and the Government of Hong Kong.
Parks:
Resorts:
[edit] Disney Cruise Line
Though it is part of the Walt Disney World Resort venture, Disney Cruise Line is an altogether separate branch of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts. Disney Cruise Line was formed in 1995; its two ships, the Disney Magic and Disney Wonder, began operation in 1998 and 1999, respectively, and were designed in collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering. Both ships offer three-, four- and seven-night Caribbean cruises, each with a stop at Disney's private island in the Bahamas, Castaway Cay. The Disney Magic temporarily relocated to Los Angeles in 2005 to offer cruises along the Mexican Riviera in coordination with the 50th anniversary of Disneyland, and the ship will return to the West Coast in 2008 for similar itineraries. The Magic also offered several cruises in the Mediterranean in 2007.
Properties:
[edit] Other ventures
- ESPN Zone, a chain of sports-themed restaurants operated by Disney Regional Entertainment.
- Club Disney, a now-closed chain of children's entertainment centers developed by Disney Regional Entertainment.
- DisneyQuest, an indoor arcade with traditional video games and virtual reality experiences, initially developed and managed by Disney Regional Entertainment.
- Three World of Disney retail stores managed by the Parks and Resorts merchandise division.
- Disney Vacation Club, a timeshare program that includes several themed resorts within Walt Disney World Resort plus Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort and Disney's Vero Beach Resort.
- Adventures by Disney, a program of all-inclusive, guided vacation tour packages offered at predominantly non-Disney sites around the world.
[edit] Abandoned concepts
Disney reportedly had plans to build a park named Disney's America. The park was to have been located in Haymarket, Virginia, but local opposition to the idea appears to have persuaded Disney not to go forward with it in 1994.[1]
Before Disney's California Adventure, Disney originally had announced plans for a West Coast version of Epcot, WestCOT, which was deemed too ambitious after the rocky financial performance of Euro Disney in France as well as protests by residents of Anaheim. Another concept for a Disney park in California was Disneysea, a contrasting park to Disneyland, to be built in Long Beach next to the RMS Queen Mary which Disney owned at the time. The park was to have led to a permanent West Coast ship in the Disney Cruise Line, which would dock at the park. The concept, although quickly scrapped, inspired the Imagineers to create Tokyo DisneySea, which has recently been deemed the second best-loved Disney park in the world, after Disneyland.
Disney-MGM Studios Europe was intended to be a European copy of the Disney-MGM Studios theme park in Florida, to have opened in 1996 at the Euro Disney Resort Paris (now Disneyland Resort Paris). Imagineers had been working on plans for six months before they were told to stop by management after the resort was drastically underperforming financially. The Walt Disney Studios Park opened in 2002 after the resort started to make a profit, though was ultimately very different from the original plans for Disney-MGM Studios Europe.
[edit] Future properties
Disney has made no announcements regarding plans for another American theme park and CEO Robert Iger frequently has cited international expansion as one of the company's three strategic priorities.[2]
Both Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Resort Paris have room for future expansion. Scouts are looking for a suitable site for a Disney resort on mainland China in addition to the Disney resort in Hong Kong, possibly near Shanghai. Disney has announced that there will be no new resort on the Chinese mainland before 2010.[3]
On 21 January 2008, Bill Ernest, the managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland, said the Walt Disney Company is not in talks on opening a park in Shanghai nor in any other Asian cities and the company is fully focusing on the Hong Kong park.[4]
The only site that is extremely short on land is Disneyland Resort in California. Although the company has acquired enough real estate to build a potential third theme park on a former strawberry farm near the existing resort, the remainder of the original Disneyland parking lot, now behind Disney's California Adventure, more than likely will be demolished eventually to expand the resort. The strawberry fields were purchased in 2004 for $99.9 million with a requirement to harvest them for at least five years.
While many foreign governments have made statements to the media that they have been in discussions with Disney to open a new resort, Disney frequently responds that the stories are false and talks have not taken place.
In October 2007, Disney announced plans to build a resort at Ko Olina Resort & Marina in Kapolei, Hawaii, featuring both a hotel and Disney Vacation Club timeshare units. Scheduled to open in 2011, the 800-unit property will join the other resorts not associated with a theme park, such as Disney's Hilton Head Island Resort in South Carolina.[5]
[edit] Timeline
[edit] 1950s and 1960s
- 1954 - Plans for the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California, are released to the public
- 1955 - Disneyland is dedicated by company founder and namesake Walt Disney on July 17
- 1965 - Plans for the Florida Project (what would become Walt Disney World Resort) are released to the public in November
- 1966 - Walt Disney dies on December 15
- 1967 - Construction on Walt Disney World Resort begins.
[edit] 1970s and 1980s
- 1971 - The Magic Kingdom opens on October 1 and is dedicated soon after by Roy O. Disney; Walt Disney World Resort begins operation with two resort hotels and a campground.
- 1982 - The second Walt Disney World theme park, Epcot Center opens on October 1.
- 1983 - The first international Disney theme park, Tokyo Disneyland, opens in Urayasu, Japan.
- 1984 - Michael Eisner is named Disney's CEO and soon begins an aggressive expansion of Disney's theme parks division.
- 1989 - The third theme park at Walt Disney World Resort, Disney-MGM Studios, opens on May 1.
[edit] 1990s
- 1992 - The second international Disney theme park, Euro Disneyland opens in Marne-la-Vallée, France on April 12
- 1995 - Disney announces plans for Disney's Animal Kingdom, the fourth Walt Disney World theme park
- 1997 - Disney announces Disney's California Adventure and Downtown Disney at the Disneyland Resort
- 1998 - Disney announces a five-year plan to open a new theme park at each of its resorts across the globe, beginning with the opening of Disney's Animal Kingdom on April 22; the Disney Magic begins operation on July 8
- 1999 - Plans are announced for a theme park in Hong Kong; the Disney Wonder cruise ship begins operation on August 15
[edit] 2000s
- 2001 - Disney's California Adventure and Downtown Disney open at Disneyland Resort; Tokyo DisneySea opens at Tokyo Disney Resort
- 2002 - Walt Disney Studios Park opens as the second theme park in France
- 2005 - Disneyland celebrates its 50th anniversary as part of a worldwide jubilee among all Disney's theme parks worldwide; Hong Kong Disneyland Resort opens September 12 on Hong Kong's Lantau Island; Walt Disney World announces that River Country would remain closed permanently
- 2006 - The Happiest Homecoming on Earth as well as the Happiest Celebration on Earth ends, and immediately the Year of a Million Dreams promotional period at the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resorts begins
- 2007 - The Year of a Million Dreams promotion is extended another year; A 1 billion dollar expansion/renovation of Disney's California Adventure is announced to be completed by 2012.
- 2008 - The Year of a Million Dreams promotion is extended again
[edit] References
- ^ "On 28 September 1994, Michael Eisner announced that Disney was cancelling its plans to build Disney's America after a bruising national media fight with Protect Historic America and aggressive local opposition in Virginia from Protect Prince William and other citizen groups." http://chotank.com/disneyrom.html
- ^ Portfolio.com, Top Executive Profiles, Robert A. Iger http://www.portfolio.com/resources/executive-profiles/39787
- ^ "Disney in talks to open theme park in Shanghai - report", AFX News Limited, 2006-02-07. Retrieved on 2007-11-15.
- ^ "Disney May Raise Stake in Its Hong Kong Theme Park - report", Bloomberg.com, 2008-01-21. Retrieved on 2008-01-21.
- ^ Schaefers, Allison. "Aloha, Disney", Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 2007-10-04. Retrieved on 2007-10-06.
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