1. DISNEYLAND
OPENED: JULY 17, 1955
Creating a place where adults and children could have fun together. This
was Walt Disney’s initial idea, eventually becoming Disneyland. The first plan
was a much smaller park adjacent the Disney Studios in Burbank called Mickey
Mouse Park. At first the Burbank City Council voted in favor of this park, but
as the idea grew bigger, the final proposal was rejected in 1952. The council
did not want a dirty amusement park attracting ‘the wrong kind of people’.
(After the war, many amusement parks were left neglected like Coney Island for
example). So, Walt set out to find a new location and purchased the affordable 160-acre
orange tree orchard in Anaheim. At the time, few people believed Disneyland
would be successful. It was difficult to convince people that his park would
not be an amusement park, but a completely new type of experience: a theme
park. It did not help that his park was situated in the middle of nowhere. As
was often the case, Walt was right, his park would become a success and it
would be the first of many Disney parks around the globe.
Disneyland’s easy-to-understand wheel and spoke lay-out is one of the
most genius theme park design elements Walt came up with. Any guest can easily
return to the hub at any given time to get orientated and decide which one of
the five lands to visit next: Main Street U.S.A., Adventureland, Frontierland,
Fantasyland or Tomorrowland. The names are chosen to be clear and simple so guests
can assume what is to be found inside each land. In the earliest drawings, the
park featured more lands including Holiday Land and Lilliputian Land, but these
were scrapped. Holiday Land did open in 1957 and closed 4 years later in 1961.
Over the years four additional lands opened: New Orleans Square in 1966,
Bear Country in 1972 (renamed Critter Country in 1988), Mickey’s Toontown in
1993 and finally the Star Wars based Galaxy’s Edge in 2019. Today, Disneyland has
9 themed lands, featuring over 60 attractions, more than any of the other Disney
parks.
2. MAGIC KINGDOM
OPENED: OCTOBER 1, 1971
When Walt Disney unveiled plans for what was known as “The Florida
Project” by insiders, his initial goal was to create a real living city with
transportation and design elements way ahead of its time, known as EPCOT: the
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. But after his death in 1966 the
Disney company was struggling to create this massive project. Finally, it was
Roy Disney, Walt’s brother who led the company to create Walt’s biggest dream
anyway. Instead of taking the risk of opening the enormous and expensive EPCOT,
they chose to open Magic Kingdom, a safer choice since it was based of the highly
successful Disneyland.
The biggest issue was space. Walt was frustrated that he could purchase only
160 acres of land in Anaheim and to his dismay his park became boxed in with
cheap hotels and retail spaces popping up around it. That is why The Disney
Company secretly bought a total of 27000 acres of land in Florida. This time
the surroundings would be filled with Disney’s own choice. A theme park
surrounded by themed hotels, recreational areas, lakes and so on. Assured nothing
unforeseen might pop, they also kept open spaces or natural elements in-between
each location. The theme park itself would also be bigger. The innovative
design of Disneyland was perfected in Florida for Magic Kingdom is designed to
handle more crowds, with bigger walking paths and more open space. And there
would be plenty of room left for expansion.
In the earliest drafts the park featured seven themed lands. The five
Disneyland originals: Main Street U.S.A., Adventureland, Frontierland,
Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. With Liberty Square, a replacement for New
Orleans Square, and Holiday Land added. The latter would be dropped and so
Magic Kingdom opened with six themed lands. In 1988, to celebrate Mickey’s 60
Birthday, a special temporary land was added: Mickey’s Birthdayland. Because of
its success it became a permanent land, it was renamed Mickey’s Starland in 1990
and Mickey’s Toontown Fair in 1996. It closed eventually in 2011 to make place
for the area Storybook Circus in the New Fantasyland, that opened in 2012.
Magic Kingdom opened as a part of the Walt Disney World Resort, together
with two hotels, two golf courses and the monorail. Later that year a
campground and some key attractions in the park like Peter Pan’s Flight,
Submarine Voyage and Flight to the Moon opened.
3. TOKYO
DISNEYLAND
OPENED: APRIL 15, 1983
Tokyo Disneyland was the first Disney park to be constructed outside the
US and the first to be owned by another company: The Oriental Land Company
(OLC), licensing the themes from The Walt Disney Company. It was the OLC that
came to Disney with a proposal to build a theme park in Japan. Disney was
intrigued and at the same time worried. They questioned the weather and how to
adapt the park to the Japanese guests. Furthermore, being occupied with the
construction of EPCOT in Florida they said no at first. OLC proved persistent
and convinced Disney by assuring the weather would not be a problem if the park
was done properly. They also assured that no cultural adaptations were needed,
people would come for the simple fact that it was so American. The OLC would
finance everything, while Disney would be in control creatively. The deal was
signed eventually, and construction began in 1979.
One inspirational painting by Herbert Ryman showed Space Mountain to the
left of the castle rather than the typical right side. Interestingly, an early
lay-out of the park showed Tomorrowland indeed on this spot and Adventureland
and Frontierland on the other side. This plan also introduced a sixth land:
International Land, a miniature version Epcot’s World Showcase, not to be confused
with World Bazaar. The latter would be a contemporary international shopping
and dining street, much bigger than the current version, including
entertainment facilities, designed to be able to operate independently of the
other lands. For they would close if the weather was bad. Although, these ideas
may seem interesting and renewing, OLC made it clear to copy as much as
possible from the existing Disneyland and Magic Kingdom parks. The result was a
park with clones from the best attractions of both parks. The total cost of the
project ran up to 180 billion yen against a budgeted 100
billion yen. OLC’s President Takahashi made it clear to build the real thing
without compromises.
The biggest difference in lay-out is the huge hub and the large walking
paths throughout the park. There is open space to be found everywhere. This was
chosen as a striking difference between the density of Japan, and Tokyo in
particular. Guest come to the park for leisure, it had to have a relaxed atmosphere.
On opening day, Tokyo Disneyland consisted of five themed lands:
Adventureland, including a small New Orleans area, Westernland, Fantasyland,
Tomorrowland, and World Bazaar. The latter resembling Main Street U.S.A., but
with a giant canopy over it. Disneyland clones of Critter Country and Toontown
were added in 1992 and 1996 respectively.
A change of strategy occurred most notably with the opening of the
resort’s second gate: Tokyo DisneySea, a completely unique and extremely
detailed park, featuring no cloned attractions whatsoever. Tokyo Disneyland too,
would welcome some original attractions and additions including the unique
Beauty and the Beast themed expansion of Fantasyland in 2020.
4. DISNEYLAND PARIS (opened as EURO DISNEYLAND)
OPENED: APRIL 12, 1992
Remark: although 'Disneyland Park' is the official name of this park and 'Disneyland Paris' is the name of the resort, I will use 'Disneyland Paris' as name of this park to avoid confusion with the original Disneyland Park in Anaheim.
Disney was interested in opening a park in Europe as early as the seventies. But it was not until the proven success of Tokyo Disneyland and under new management of CEO Michael Eisner, concrete plans were realized. Many countries were considered, but the location near Paris in France was chosen because it was so central in Europe. Some argued Spain would be a better choice for the climate, but Eisner argued that weather was not a problem, given the success of Tokyo even in the rainy winter season.
Quite opposite to the agreement in Japan, the European agreement stated
that the park had to have some tributes to European culture in general and
French civilization specifically. Tony Baxter, senior vice president of
creative development for the project, said this was certainly a challenge.
Disneyland needed to be redefined here for in America there was nothing to
compare with, there was no competition. In France, there was history, art, and
a landscape that defines ‘charming’ and ‘pastoral’. The park needed to fit in,
it had to be typically Disney but mixed with European artistry and heritage.
Not just the park but the whole complex would be adapted for the
European market. Research pointed out that Europeans travelling to the USA
showed the most interest in New York, Disneyland, and the western states. The
themed hotels: Hotel New York, Hotel Cheyenne, Hotel Santa Fe, Sequoia Lodge,
and off course Disneyland Hotel, reflect this interest. On top, a permanent Wild
West Show was added in the entertainment complex, Festival Disney.
Euro Disneyland opened with five themed lands, keeping four traditional
lands: Main Street U.S.A., Frontierland, Adventureland, and Fantasyland. Discoveryland,
was chosen as a replacement for Tomorrowland, it was going to be very French
and very European at the same time. The park featured many attractions upon
opening, including the ones that were added little by little in the previous
parks. The advantage here was that they could be fitted in from scratch, making
the overall design of the park quite brilliant.
The park opened with almost 40 attractions, more than any other Disney
park on opening day. With 6 hotels, a campground, a golf course and an
entertainment complex, the Euro Disney Resort was the biggest of any Disney
Resorts upon opening too.
5. HONG KONG
DISNEYLAND
OPENED: SEPTEMBER 12, 2005
Since Hong Kong has proven to be a good steppingstone for businesses to launch into China and given the ongoing success of the first Asian park in Tokyo, Disney grabbed the opportunity to open a new theme park here. It sits on quite a unique location with beautiful mountains as a natural backdrop for the park and a great view over the South China Sea and the Hong Kong Skyline from the hotels.
Just like in Paris, Disney made sure to build the park respecting the
local culture. Therefore, a local Feng Shui master was contacted. His advice
was used to adapt the overall masterplan, namely the location and orientation
of every structure including the orientation of the park in general. Throughout
the park and the hotels many elements are slightly adapted to fit the Feng Shui
rules including the use of certain colors and numbers and the implication of
the five elements: fire, water, earth, wood and metal. Finally, four symbolic
creatures, namely Tortoise, White Tiger, Phoenix and Dragon located in the four
cardinal directions in the topiary gardens in front of the park were added.
After the financial struggles of the European park, Disney made sure not
to make the mistake again of opening too much too soon. Designed as a homage to
the original Disneyland in California, the park opened with only four lands:
Main Street U.S.A., Adventureland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. The typical
Frontierland was dropped, although it appeared in an early presentation which
also included Toontown. Being small, the park lacked many classic rides,
especially thrill rides. Many new lands and attractions were added over the
years. In 2011 Toy Story Land was added, followed in 2012 by Grizzly Gulch, as
an alternative for Frontierland, and finally Mystic Point opened in 2013 as a
completely unique land. With these expansions, the park now consists of seven
themed lands and two more lands under construction. The first is World of
Frozen, opening later this year and the second is Stark Expo set to open in 2024.
Alternative additional lands like a Pirate Land or a land called Glacier
Bay were proposed but rejected by the Hong Kong Government who owns the
majority of the park.
Hong Kong Disneyland opened on September 12th, 2005, a Feng Shui lucky date. On top of that, it opened to coincide with the 50th birthday of the original Disneyland in Anaheim. On opening day, the resort included two hotels. A third hotel was added later in 2017.
6. SHANGHAI
DISNEYLAND
OPENED: JUNE 16, 2016
Opening a Disney theme park on mainland China was a challenge Bob Iger,
CEO of the Walt Disney Company, took personal. China is after all the second
largest economy of the world, after the U.S.A. To please the Shendi Group, the
state-owned Chinese partners, adapting the park and adding as much of the
Chinese culture as possible was more than ever a necessity. Disney even
invented the slogan: ‘Authentically Disney, Distinctly Chinese’, to underline
this.
This park was going to be different, more than just a copy with cultural
adaptations, like Paris or Hong Kong, they redesigned the park from scratch.
First: The American lands Main Street U.S.A. and Frontierland were left out.
Instead, you enter the park through Mickey Avenue, a land with the same
function as Main Street, but with a different theme. Frontierland, with all its
beloved attractions, was dropped in favor of Treasure Cove, a pirate themed
land. Adventureland was renamed Adventure Isle, featuring completely different
attractions. Finally, the hub was replaced by an entire new land: Gardens of
Imagination. This land features a handful of classic rides in a Chinese looking
environment. This implicated the hub-and-spoke design to be scrapped too. It is
replaced by a big circular boulevard around the Gardens. Fantasyland and
Tomorrowland are the only ‘classic’ lands that remained. Tomorrowland taking
the spot on the left side rather than the typical right side of the hub, is one
notable change though. Since Paris does not have a Tomorrowland, Fantasyland is
the only land present in all of the 6 castle parks.
Instead of an overall circular lay-out, like all previous parks, Shanghai
looks more like a Venn diagram. This makes the distances from one land to the
other longer but creates calm open spaces. Something missing most notably in
the original Disneyland.
Shanghai features the most unique range of attractions too for many
stalwarts were scrapped such as Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain, and It’s a
Small World. Again, this was done to avoid any hint at cultural imperialism.
Other classic rides were altered completely. Tomorrowland was designed by Britain-based
Grimshaw Architects, making it look entirely different from any previous
version. It features a multi leveled land with a freeform canopy over its key
attraction: Tron Lightcycle coaster, instead of the classic Space Mountain.
With its 963 acres, the park was marketed as the biggest of any Disney
park. One important detail here is that this consists of the entire resort
rather than just the park. There exists no official acreage of the park and
this is confusing. Some sources state that it is more than 11 times the size of
the original Disneyland in Anaheim. A simple measurement of the occupied land
proves the theme park by itself is actually quite similar in size.
With its 6 lands Shanghai Disneyland opened on June 16th, 2016. Simultaneously 2 hotels and an entertainment complex known as Disneytown opened. It featured the Mandarin version of the Broadway musical The Lion King. In 2018 Toy Story Land was added as the 7th themed land. City of Zootopia is currently under construction as the park’s 8th land.
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