Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 So, apparently Al Weiss is so concerned over the slooooow movement of getting Shanghai DL off the drawing board that he felt compelled to let everyone (all those mommy, fanboi, housewife and government subsidized Disney lifestyle bloggers that is ... along with maybe half a dozen real reporters) know that things are 'moving forward' on that front. Well, despite his cheery proclamation, the increasingly dour faces in Beijing of late, who just don't seem enthralled by the pixie dusted business relationship of dealing with The Weatherman, JR and the Flying Monkeys, seem to view things differently. If you think there's been a lot of indecision on a smallish/modest Fantasyland redo in the stalest MK of them all, then you have no idea what's been going on in creating a new one in the PRC. Still, I so wish I had been a bug on the wall during the Shanghai meetings in O-Town ... Beijing isn't Shanghai and everything goes through Beijing, even theme park attraction 'menus' ;-) Do you know that if say (not saying this is happening mind you ...) Shanghai wanted exclusivity on a major new attraction that say Burbank wanted to stick in other resorts ... that you wouldn't see that attraction anywhere else. No more Mickey's PhilharMagic deals. Yet whenever Disney makes announcements regarding Shanghai they never seem to mention the CCP at all. Shanghai doesn't make decisions. Well, not without approval. They want the best quality Disney product possible with the least amount of Disney input (from a corporate standpoint). And they don't want any more 'parks built on the cheap' and let's not forget that Iger, Rasulo and Staggs were all with Disney at VERY high levels when Disney built three parks on the very cheap, including one on Lantau. ~I am craving spring rolls right now~
Originally Posted By Manfried Spirit, why don't you do some research on how long it was before Tokyo Disneyland was finally completed. They started talking about the project in Disney shareholder reports in the early seventies. Shanghai was only formalized last year for its first steps.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer "Yeah, just one more hurdle" ...Meanwhile, the hurdle is about 500 feet high....
Originally Posted By Mr X Actually, Manfried, it's YOU who should do some research, since you're mistaken. But happily, one of our resident gurus regarding all things Tokyo Disney related, namely SuperDry, just recently provided a link to a history of the Tokyo Disneyland project, which you can easily find in the Tokyo Resort section right here on LaughingPlace. So, by all means, go and look it up and learn about your mistaken assumptions (and why didn't you check the Tokyo Resort section before making your inaccurate comments is beyond me!).
Originally Posted By FerretAfros "Shanghai was only formalized last year for its first steps." Then how did I obtain a Disney-made t-shirt with the Shanghai Disneyland logo on it (almost identical to HKDL's) a full decade ago? This project has been in the works for a very long time.
Originally Posted By Mr X D'oh. And in case Manfried doesn't reply, an interesting note from that article includes the fact that the name "Tokyo Disneyland" didn't even get decided upon until March of 1977 (assumedly they talked about the "Tokyo Project" or something like that prior)...and the park opened a mere six years later in 1983. And that was on a "never before attempted" leap into bringing a "Disneyland" to a foreign country for the very first time...hardly comparable to the situation today.
Originally Posted By Manfried Because others made them up before anything official was ever inked. Until last year it was all talk. D'oh back.
Originally Posted By Manfried And when I find the time I will go find one of those actual printed shareholder reports with a photo of the then bay where they were going to put the land.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Disney has been trying to get this done for a very long time ... it has been a long and very bumpy ride and remains so. The Mouse is trying to put a smiling face on a mis-trusting dragon. This project has BY FAR been the most contentious of any resort outside the USA. That is why Al started his presentation with the comments he did.
Originally Posted By GOB Hey Spirit, do you know how much longer Iger has (I believe you said he'd be gone by the time SDL is open) and who would replace him? It makes me sick that Disney is moving towards being a distribution company and the parks are suffering from stagnation, while there doesn't seem to be anyone in a powerful position that wants to change that.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>Disney has been trying to get this done for a very long time ... it has been a long and very bumpy ride and remains so.<<< This has been floating around since, when? 2000?
Originally Posted By Mr X ***And when I find the time I will go find one of those actual printed shareholder reports with a photo of the then bay where they were going to put the land*** I wouldn't bother if I were you. I've no doubt you are correct that the reports existed, you're just wrong on your timeframes.
Originally Posted By Manfried Possibly. And will confirm when I find the reports, in one of those long buried boxes somewhere in the attic.
Originally Posted By Mr X No, not "possibly", as you can read easily in the Tokyo section. They didn't even shake hands until very late in 1974, and the agreement to officially proceed wasn't until mid 1976. None of that falls even close to "in the early 1970's". Beyond that, it didn't appear to be delayed as you implied in your opening comment. It took three years to plan, then three more to open after groundbreaking. Sounds like a regular, normal old timeframe to me.
Originally Posted By Manfried Okay, so it was 1974. That's still 9 years until it opened. I think you proved some of your point and I some of mine. Can we shake hands and move on?
