Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
Walt Disney Parks and Resorts is the segment 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 four major business segments 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 Thomas O. Staggs, formerly the Senior Executive Vice President and CFO. Staggs reports to Disney CEO Robert Iger.
In 2009, the company's theme parks hosted approximately 119.1 million guests, making Disney Parks the world's most visited theme park company,[1] far ahead of the second most visited, Merlin Entertainments.
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[edit] Disney resorts
[edit] Disneyland Resort
Disneyland was dedicated as a single park by Walt Disney on July 17, 1955, and opened to the public on July 18, 1955 in Anaheim, California.
In 2001, the area was officially named the Disneyland Resort with the opening of Disney's California Adventure Park (now named Disney California Adventure Park), two new resort hotels and the Downtown Disney retail, dining and entertainment district. The resort occupies 500 acres (2.0 km2), listed below, and are divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Theme Parks:
Shopping and entertainment complex:
Resorts:
[edit] Walt Disney World Resort
The Walt Disney World Resort originally opened on Oct. 1, 1971, with the Magic Kingdom and three resort hotels. Today it is the largest vacation resort in the world, with four theme parks, two water parks, a shopping and entertainment complex, 20 resort hotels, eight golf courses, and miles of recreational activities.
Theme parks:
Water parks:
Other parks:
Shopping and entertainment complex:
Resorts:
- Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
- Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Disney's Contemporary Resort (Includes Disney's Bay Lake Tower at the Contemporary)
- 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
- Walt Disney World Swan - Operated By Westin Hotels
- Walt Disney World Dolphin - Operated By Sheraton Hotels
[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 three 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 Paris
Disneyland Paris, Disney's second resort complex outside the United States, opened on April 12, 1992, as the Euro Disney Resort. Located in Marne-la-Vallée in the suburbs of Paris, France, it features two theme parks, 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 sit on 4,940 acres (20.0 km2), listed below, and are divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Parks:
- Disneyland Park (previously named Euro Disneyland)
- Walt Disney Studios Park
- Golf Disneyland
Shopping and entertainment complex:
- Disney Village (previously named Festival Disney)
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 September 12, 2005. The resort is located in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. 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. Hong Kong Disneyland Resort sits on 320 acres (1.3 km2).
Parks:
Other parks:
Resorts:
[edit] Shanghai Disneyland Resort
In November 2009, Disney received approval from the central government of China to build a Disney theme park in the Pudong district of Shanghai. "China is one of the most dynamic, exciting and important countries in the world and this approval marks a very significant milestone for Walt Disney Co in mainland China," said Robert Iger, president and CEO of Disney.[2] The resort is expected to open in 2014.
[edit] Disney Cruise Line
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. Two additional ships will join Disney's fleet in 2011 and 2012.
Properties:
- Disney Wonder
- Disney Magic
- Castaway Cay
- Disney Dream (2011)
- Disney Fantasy (2012)
[edit] Other ventures
- ESPN Zone, a chain of sports-themed restaurants operated by Disney Regional Entertainment. (Last restaurant is at the Disneyland Resort in California)
- 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. (Last one is at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida)
- 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, Disneyland Resort Anaheim plus Disney's Aluani Resort, 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.[3]
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. Tokyo DisneySea is currently open at the Tokyo Disney Resort.
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 projects
[edit] Asian & European projects
Both Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Paris have room for future expansion.[4]
In July 2009 the company was rumored to have been approached by the executives of Dubailand to build a theme park in their mega-resort.
In November 2009, Disney received approval from the Chinese government to build a Disneyland resort in the Pudong district of Shanghai.[5] The resort is expected to open in 2013.
[edit] Hong Kong Disneyland Expansion
Rita Lau, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development for Hong Kong, announced that the expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland had been approved by the Executive Council on June 30, 2009, and also approved by the Legislative Council of Hong Kong on July 10, 2009. The park will receive three new lands; Grizzly Trail, Mystic Point and Toy Story Land. Construction began in late 2009 and will take 5 years to complete. The park will feature a total of seven themed lands after the completion of all the new additions.
[edit] American projects
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.[6]
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, Robert Iger has stated that the company's focus in Anaheim is to improve its second park, Disney's California Adventure, before building a third. The strawberry fields were purchased in 2004 for $99.9 million with a requirement to harvest them until 2009. The remainder of the original Disneyland parking lot, southeast of Disney's California Adventure, was designated as a future growth space for the park. Since the park's opening in 2001, three small projects have been built into that space (A Bug's Land, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and a backstage warehouse) while a third, much larger project known as Cars Land is currently being built.
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.[7]
[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.
- 1959 - First major expansion of Disneyland with the opening of the Matterhorn Bobsleds, Submarine Voyage and the Disneyland Monorail.
- 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.
- 1972 - Plans to build a theme park in Europe are released to the public.
- 1978 - Plans for a second theme park in Walt Disney World Resort (Epcot) are released to the public.
- 1979 - Construction begins on Epcot Center. The Main Street Electrical Parade opens at Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California.
- 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.
- 1985 - Disney begins a licensing agreement with MGM, giving Disney the right to use the MGM name and logo for the third park at Walt Disney World Resort.
- 1988 - Construction on Euro Disney Resort begins.
- 1989 - The third theme park at Walt Disney World Resort, Disney-MGM Studios, opens on May 1.
[edit] 1990s
- 1990 - Espace Euro Disney opens to show the public a preview of Euro Disney.
- 1992 - The second international Disney theme park, Euro Disneyland, opens as part of Euro Disney Resort in Marne-la-Vallée, France on April 12. Fantasmic! opens at Disneyland.
- 1994 - Euro Disney Resort and its theme park, Euro Disneyland, are both renamed Euro Disneyland Paris in June, and then Disneyland Paris in October, elimintating the word Euro.
- 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 Disneyland Resort.
- 1997 - Festival Disney, the Shopping, Dining and Entertainment complex at Disneyland Paris, is renamed Disney Village.
- 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 new resort 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 at the newley renamed Disneyland Resort Paris. The first park is renamed Disneyland Park.
- 2003 - Construction on Hong Kong Disneyland begins.
- 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 will remain closed permanently.
- 2006 - The Happiest Homecoming 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. Disneyland Resort Paris celebrates its 15th anniversary.
- 2008 - Disneyland Resort Paris' 15th Birthday is extended and Tokyo Disney Resort celebrates its 25th anniversary. Disney-MGM Studios at Walt Disney World is renamed Disney's Hollywood Studios. Two new cruise ships are announced for the Disney Cruise Line.
- 2009 - Year of a Million Dreams ends and What Will You Celebrate? promotion begins at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Disney announces a new resort, Shanghai Disneyland, expected to open in 2014 on the Chinese mainland, and announces that the Disney Cruise Line's new ships will be called Disney Dream and Disney Fantasy. Disney announces plans for a Fantasyland Expansion for Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom Park to begin construction January 2010 and finish in phases. Phase 1 is to be completed in 2012, while Phase 2 is to be completed in 2013. Disneyland Resort Paris changes its name back to Disneyland Paris and begins construction of a new land in Walt Disney Studios Park: Toy Story Playland, scheduled to open in August 2010.
[edit] Executive Management
- Chairman, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts - Thomas O. Staggs
- President of Worldwide Operations, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts - Al Weiss
- President, Disneyland Resort - George Kalogridis
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Disneyland Resort - Michael O'Grattan
- Vice President, Disneyland Park - Jon Storbeck
- Vice President, Disney California Adventure Park - Mary Niven
- Vice President, Downtown Disney and Disneyland Resort Hotels - Tony Bruno
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Disneyland Resort - Michael O'Grattan
- President, Walt Disney World Resort - Meg Crofton
- Senior Vice President of Operations and Next Generation Experiences, Walt Disney World Resort - Jim MacPhee
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Walt Disney World Resort - George Aguel
- Vice President, Magic Kingdom - Phil Holmes'
- Vice President, Epcot - Dan Cockerell
- Vice President, Disney's Hollywood Studios - Rilous Carter
- Vice President, Disney's Animal Kingdom - Michael Colglazier
- Vice President, Downtown Disney - Keith Bradford
- Vice President, Resort Operations - Kevin Myers
- Vice President, ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex and Disney Water Parks - Ken Potrock
- Vice President, Transportation Operations and Maintenance - Jim Vendur
- Vice President, Global Promotions, Disney Destinations LLC.– Greg Albrecht
- Chairman and CEO, Disneyland Paris (Euro Disney SCA) - Philippe Gas
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Disneyland Paris - To Be filled upon George Kalogridis's Move
- President and Managing Director, Asia, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts - Bill Ernest
- Managing Director, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort - Andrew Kam
- Vice President, Park Operations - Noble Coker
- Vice President, Hotel Operations - Peter Lowe
- Vice President, Marketing - Maple Lee
- Chairman and CEO, Tokyo Disney Resort (Oriental Land Company) - Toshio Kagami
- President and Chief Operations Officer, Tokyo Disney Resort (Oriental Land Company) - Kyoichiro Uenishi
- President of Walt Disney Attractions Japan - Nick Franklin
- Vice President and Executive Managing Director, Walt Disney Attractions Japan - Dave Vermeulen
- Managing Director, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort - Andrew Kam
- President, Disney Cruise Line and New Vacation Operations - Karl Holz
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Disney Cruise Line - Tom Wolber
- President, Disney Vacation Club - Jim Lewis
- Senior Vice President, Adventures by Disney - Ed Baklor
- President, Disneyland Resort - George Kalogridis
- Chief Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering - Bruce Vaughn
- Chief Design and Project Delivery Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering - Craig Russell
- Senior Vice President of Operations Integration/line of Business - Erin Wallace
- Senior Vice President, Conservation & Environmental Sustainability - Jerry Montgomery
- Senior Vice President of Global Sports Enterprises - Ken Potrock
- Senior Vice President, Corporate Responsibility - Kerry Chandler
- Senior Vice President of Worldwide Travel Operations - Kevin Lansberry
- Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Diversity & Inclusion - Jayne Parker
- Executive Vice President, Public Affairs - Leslie Goodman
- Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer - Jim Hunt
- Executive Vice President, Global Marketing - Leslie Ferraro
- Executive Vice President, International Development - Mike Crawford
- Executive Vice President, New Business Development and Next Generation Experiences - Nick Franklin
- President of Worldwide Operations, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts - Al Weiss
[edit] References
- ^ "TEA/ERA Theme Park Attendance Report 2009". www.themeit.com. 2010-04-26. http://teaconnect.org/etea/2009ThemeIndex.pdf. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
- ^ "UPDATE 4-Disney takes China stride as Shanghai park gets nod". Reuters. November 4, 2009. http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssTechMediaTelecomNews/idUSN0352328120091104.
- ^ "On September 28, 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
- ^ "Disney in talks to open theme park in Shanghai - report". AFX News Limited. 2006-02-07. http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/02/07/afx2507986.html. Retrieved 2007-11-15.
- ^ http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsworld.php?id=452465
- ^ Portfolio.com, Top Executive Profiles, Robert A. Iger http://www.portfolio.com/resources/executive-profiles/39787
- ^ Schaefers, Allison (2007-10-04). "Aloha, Disney". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. http://starbulletin.com/2007/10/04/news/story01.html. Retrieved 2007-10-06.
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