Originally Posted By SpokkerJones "The parks can wait until things return to normal, if that is even possible in the foreseeable future." How long can they wait until the loss of revenue begins to affect the long-term viability of the company? How long can they wait until their employees begin to become unable to pay their rent or buy groceries? If the parks could open, I'm not so sure attendance would be as sparse as you think. During the Great Depression, who would've thought that people would want to go see movies during such a crisis? The entertainment industry flourished during one of the hardest times in American history. And no, not every Japanese person thinks the same way. Some would not visit and some would like to visit and get on with their lives and do what they enjoy doing in life. No harm in that. "No, the officials at the Resort have said they are assessing the damage and expect to have a report by March 21. We have no idea what has happened, outside of amateur images sent through social media and videos posted from outside the parks themselves." You are simply wrong. "At the present moment, there’s no serious damage in facilities and buildings, or no liquefaction phenomenon in the theme parks." They are already repairing the parking lots. "Note: The phenomena which seem to be liquefaction can be found only in the limited area of the parking spaces, and are under reconstruction in a rapid manner" The statement says "no serious damage" three times. If the resort is not important, why issue a statement? Is anyone who reads it an unfeeling monster? Why report on the park? Why write an article about it? Why not close this forum until further notice?
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>If the resort is not important, why issue a statement?<< If anything, I think it's more to let the rest of the world know what's going on, rather than those in Japan. I noticed that "Tokyo Disneyland" was a trending topic on Yahoo for several days after the earthquake. While it may seem a little frivilous, it's also a way that Americans can relate directly to what's going on. Anyone who has been to a Disney park around the world (or really any other theme park) has a general idea of how scary it could be in a major disaster. It puts the events in a semi-relatable frame, since so much of what's in the mainstream media is over the top, or unrelatable. That said, I still don't think there are too many people in Japan interested in a day at the amusement park right now. There are more important things going on. In the grand scheme of everything going on in Japan, I don't think that waiting another week or two (or even a month or two) would really hurt the long-term financial vaibility of the OLC and TDR. Yes, it will be tough for a while, but I think it would be even more tough to staff an operating theme park for non-existant crowds.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< How long can they wait until the loss of revenue begins to affect the long-term viability of the company? >>> OLC may very well have what's known as "interruption of business" insurance. This would cover them for losses due to an inability to operate that was beyond their control. That would certainly cover the current situation. It would likely require them to make reasonable efforts to resume business as soon as practical (which very well may be weeks off given current conditions), but once that point is reached, coverage would end and they could not continue to collect on it just because some people thought it might be "too early" from a taste perspective to open. <<< How long can they wait until their employees begin to become unable to pay their rent or buy groceries? >>> That's an important issue, and one that every business faces. That's why it's important for the economy as a whole that all businesses be able to be "open for business" as soon as practical. In a city like Tokyo, there's probably no one employer that is critical for the region, but if all large employers don't take the stance that they need to re-open as soon as practical, then there are enormous downside potentials for the economy, and now would be the worst time for there to be an additional economic disaster on top of what's already happened.
Originally Posted By MagicalNezumi Here's a very old article concerning OLC's insurance bond sale: <a href="http://www.atimes.com/japan-econ/AD27Dh05.html" target="_blank">http://www.atimes.com/japan-ec...h05.html</a> -- MagicalNezumi
Originally Posted By DlandDug >>If the resort is not important, why issue a statement?<< Who has said the Resort is unimportant? >>Is anyone who reads it an unfeeling monster?<< That's it exactly.
Originally Posted By Hats and Wands Having been in Japan for two weeks over Tokyo Disneyland's 25th anniversary, I have been freaking out about the whole thing. As Californians, we experience big earthquakes every so often, but nothing like the one in Japan. I work in a 2 story+parking garage building on rollers, and you feel it roll even when heavy trucks go by out front. After the Northridge quake, we rolled seemingly for months with every aftershock. How can Japan deal with aftershocks that are bigger then most earthquakes? Can't even imagine. We were in Tokyo DisneySeas waiting to ride 20,000 leagues under the Sea when a small earthquake hit, they had to cycle everything to make sure it was safe before we were able to ride. I'm sure that even a month from now (which would have been the timeframe that we were there), if we were going back, it would not be the great wonderful trip that we had. There will still be aftershocks, there will probably still be nuclear craziness that might affect Tokyo. What would we do? How would we deal? The state department is stating that Americans not travel to Japan, what if this were our trip & we were there now? I can't even imagine the logistics of dealing with everything. My heart goes out to those who are there & can't (or won't due to other reasons) leave as well as those who were visiting & might be stuck there for an indefinite amount of time. Please know we all send our prayers your way.....!
Originally Posted By TomSawyer "Here's a very old article concerning OLC's insurance bond sale:" $200 million in earthquack bonds? Must have bought them from Scrooge McDuck.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Repairs at TDR are currently underway according to Deep Disney. Here's the spot where Steve Davison took those photos. Crews are seen hard at work repairing the pavement. <a href="http://daily.deepdisney.com/img2/110317/063002011031700.htm" target="_blank">http://daily.deepdisney.com/im...1700.htm</a> <a href="http://daily.deepdisney.com/img2/110317/063002011031701.htm" target="_blank">http://daily.deepdisney.com/im...1701.htm</a> Here is the parking lot that many on Twitter said was a total loss. <a href="http://daily.deepdisney.com/img2/110317/012002011031702.htm" target="_blank">http://daily.deepdisney.com/im...1702.htm</a> I suspect that there were people on Twitter trying to spread rumors that the damage was worse than it really was. I saw reports that DisneySea was completely flooded. Either they were deliberately misinforming others or people just announce what the imagine the worst-case scenario is. Is the Deep Disney guy an employee or something? I'm surprised they would allow him to roam around the property. And hey, at least McDonald's is open. <a href="http://daily.deepdisney.com/img2/110316/026002011031600.htm" target="_blank">http://daily.deepdisney.com/im...1600.htm</a>
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Is the Deep Disney guy an employee or something? I'm surprised they would allow him to roam around the property. >>> All of the pictures I'm seeing on Deep Disney right now look like they were taken from public streets or sidewalks. As such, unless an area is clearly cordoned off for repairs, DD shouldn't need anyone's permission to be present or take pictures.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones TDR isn't private property like Walt Disney World? Very interesting.
Originally Posted By SuperDry The parks and hotels at TDR are of course private property, but I don't see any picture in today's DD set that was taken from the grounds of a park or hotel. As far as WDW, I think it's an urban legend that the roads at the resort are private property. Except for the parking lots and driveways immediately at each park and resort at WDW, all of the roads that feel like "freeways" and most surface streets are public roads. They are under the jurisdiction of the Reedy Creek Improvement District, which is a government entity controlled by Disney, and acts more or less like a mini-county. Although Disney controls RCID, it's still a government entity. The roads are maintained with assessed property taxes (almost all of which Disney pays), but they are public moneys spent by a government entity, and as such the roads are public roads that Disney has no right to control access to.
Originally Posted By Bob Paris 1 "I suspect that there were people on Twitter trying to spread rumors that the damage was worse than it really was" Well, THAT would NEVER happen......would it? ; )
Originally Posted By fkurucz As I've metioned elsewhere, I have family that was in Mexico City when the big one hit in 1985. While the part of town where they lived was not hit hard, their life was disrupted for months. My brother was a college student at the time and the school was closed for weeks as damaged was assessed. Damage assesment was big deal. Every licensed civil engineer was summoned to inspect structures and it took months to complete the task. A friend (a civil engineer) told me that the worst thing was having to condemn residential structures and telling families that they were now homeless even though their houses or apartment buildings were still standing. It also took forever for the infrastructure (water, electricity, phones, broadcast TV and radio) to return to a normal mode of operation. I'm sure that the Japanese are better prepared today than the Mexicans were in 1985, but just because buildings haven't collapsed in a particular neighborhood doesn't mean that everything is OK. My mom couldn't go to work at her central office as roads and freeways were blocked for weeks. The Metro (subway) was out of action for a while, even though it suffered only "minor" damage. From what they told me, it was almost a year before life was back to normal.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 ^^Very true. When a regional disaster strikes, there always tend to be areas that seem almost unscathed, while others can be devastated. When Hurricane Wilma came thru SoFla in 2005, I was in one of the only communities to never lose power at all. So other than a lot of downed trees/limbs and blown roof tiles, I was able to have normalcy almost right on through the whole deal. But the region certainly didn't recover that quickly ... and Wilma (heck, almost any hurricane) was nothing compared to what has happened in Japan.
Originally Posted By Mr X Reading over the first 10 posts here is very revealing (given all the chit chat since then). Now that we are close to a couple of weeks removed, it's very interesting to read what people were saying (myself included, I'm sure!). Seems to me that SuperDry and Passholder had a bead on the situation right away...both of you guys should be commentators for news shows in future! And now, even two weeks later the disaster continues to unfold (4 earthquakes yesterday that I noticed, three so far today, and walking around seeing the damage is just horrible even so far away from the epicenter and the tsunami!).
