Miscellaneous Tokyo Thoughts

[BrianLo]

Forbes article breaking down OLC's finances.

It mentions that OLC appears unlikely to meet their 2024 attendance forecast, despite the opening of Fantasy Springs, and that OLC's capitalization has decreased by $22.3 billion this year.

The Disney Resort Operator That’s Worth Less Now Than It Was Two Years Ago

When theme park operators spend billions on an expansion they don't expect the value of their company to plummet after it opens. But that has happened at one Disney resort.

www.forbes.com

I despise this writer. She’s the one with the nearly unreadable meandering article about Disney Sea that felt written by AI.

Perhaps the article has been updated, but it’s not a failure to meet their attendance targets, attendance is projected to be up 5% and typically OLC under estimates in their forecasts.

It’s the arbitrary failure to be above 2019 attendance that she is highlighting. Maybe failure, since these are projections. Maybe failure, since we don’t really know what this resort is actually targeting for attendance, since they still don’t have APs back. The attendance mix is very different.

 

[hopemax]

While looking around at the masses while lined up for Happy Entry, seeing the lines for all the Halloween snacks, seeing the people enter the park to do nothing more than plant their picnic sheets and watch parades all day, my Dad wondered how many were Passholders. When I told him APs hadn't returned after Covid and everyone had either bought a single day ticket or the even more expensive packages, he was gobsmacked.

So I am glad to hear that the article was overstating the attendance miss, because it looked like a pretty healthy crowd, and I'd hate for those levels to be unsatisfactory.

 

[tanc]

https://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/tds/guide/disneypremieraccess.html

Premier access will feature all shows soon.

 

[Kevin_W]

Having lived in Japan for five years, the amount of foreign tourists is absolutely bonkers now. Every where you go in Tokyo they are everywhere. Every neighborhood, every train, every restaurant. Just packed to the gills everywhere you look.

Interesting. We were there just ~1.5 years ago and saw very few other obvious tourists. I remember being on the JR line at Shinjuku station during a busy time. There were hundreds of people crammed into our train car and the ones we could see in front and behind us, and we were the only white people in sight.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

OLC news dump today mostly focused on announcing the new seasonal event periods for early 2025.

TDL gets a Vanellope event and TDS gets a Duffy one (opinion: all of these events are small and lame and are just the bare minimum to get local Disney otaku to repeat visit throughout the year).

Probably the biggest piece of news today is that Big Band Beat (currently still in Special Treat version) is ending permanently on Sep. 30, 2025 and it sounds like an entirely new show might be replacing it.

 

[SweetDuffy101]

OLC news dump today mostly focused on announcing the new seasonal event periods for early 2025.

TDL gets a Vanellope event and TDS gets a Duffy one (opinion: all of these events are small and lame and are just the bare minimum to get local Disney otaku to repeat visit throughout the year).

Probably the biggest piece of news today is that Big Band Beat (currently still in Special Treat version) is ending permanently on Sep. 30, 2025 and it sounds like an entirely new show might be replacing it.

View attachment 825074
View attachment 825075

New BMT show to be announced at a later date.

 

[Vclguy90]

This may be a controversial thought. But is Fantasy Springs kind of a pointless and dumb way to have spent so much money? It is about 1/3 the size of TDS and seems to awkwardly far away from everything and awkwardly laid out. Essentially, I feel it would've been more valuable to give half the plot to TDL and the other half to TDS, put Frozen where it was originally supposed to be placed and did something that got into TDS more thematically. Idk, it just seems like a dumb addiction and, if anything, hurt the appeal of TDS more than help it. I could be alone on this. - Just seems unnecessary

 

[Supersnow84]

This may be a controversial thought. But is Fantasy Springs kind of a pointless and dumb way to have spent so much money? It is about 1/3 the size of TDS and seems to awkwardly far away from everything and awkwardly laid out. Essentially, I feel it would've been more valuable to give half the plot to TDL and the other half to TDS, put Frozen where it was originally supposed to be placed and did something that got into TDS more thematically. Idk, it just seems like a dumb addiction and, if anything, hurt the appeal of TDS more than help it. I could be alone on this. - Just seems unnecessary

If you read my thoughts on the other Tokyo thread (the expansion one) I’m not as against it as you but I share you general criticisms that the expansion is too empty for its size, doesn’t fit TDS well and doesn’t really justify how much money was spent on it

To me arendelle at HK is unequivocally the better land

 

[Vclguy90]

If you read my thoughts on the other Tokyo thread (the expansion one) I’m not as against it as you but I share you general criticisms that the expansion is too empty for its size, doesn’t fit TDS well and doesn’t really justify how much money was spent on it

To me arendelle at HK is unequivocally the better land

Why do you think the only viable expansion area for both parks was given to this?

 

[Supersnow84]

Why do you think the only viable expansion area for both parks was given to this?

I can’t guess. I’d guess it’s probably because we notice its faults because we are theme park nerds but to the average guest this is just the most mind blowing thing they’ve ever seen so our opinion is kinda “pointless” for want of a better word

 

[Gusey]

I will say, I'm glad the original expansion plot where Frozen is going is still vacant, so there is still room for Sea to expand. Land doesn't have that much space left now to expand, right?

 

[Supersnow84]

I will say, I'm glad the original expansion plot where Frozen is going is still vacant, so there is still room for Sea to expand. Land doesn't have that much space left now to expand, right?

Land and sea both have the space of the cast area behind soarin/western railroad and land still has the carpark behind space mountain

The contract for the development of Tokyo bay prevent the parks from expanding to the far side of the monorail loop but it doesn’t exclude backstage/production areas for moving there

I have seen mockup plans that move alot of the central cast areas to the sports fields east of ikspiri then expanded the parks inwards towards each other

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Buried in a press release that OLC just released today:

New locations and characters are coming to Star Tours at TDL starting April 8, 2025. The new locations will run locked until June 30, after which they will become part of the standard scene rotation.

The press release doesn't mention what the new locations are, but my guess is that this must be the TV show scenes that debuted in the U.S. this year. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Star Tours Japan already has all of the sequel trilogy scenes.

For anyone curious, the rest of the press release goes through TDR's schedule for 2025 events. Nothing else really worth noting except that it confirms the operating period for It's a Small World With Groot (1/15-6/30) and confirms that new entertainment is coming to TDL for Christmas this year.

 

[SweetDuffy101]

Buried in a press release that OLC just released today:

New locations and characters are coming to Star Tours at TDL starting April 8, 2025. The new locations will run locked until June 30, after which they will become part of the standard scene rotation.

The press release doesn't mention what the new locations are, but my guess is that this must be the TV show scenes that debuted in the U.S. this year. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Star Tours Japan already has all of the sequel trilogy scenes.

View attachment 826660

For anyone curious, the rest of the press release goes through TDR's schedule for 2025 events. Nothing else really worth noting except that it confirms the operating period for It's a Small World With Groot (1/15-6/30) and confirms that new entertainment is coming to TDL for Christmas this year.

Im sensing that this press release is giving rush vibes. Especially when theres no mention BBB finale event nor detailed entertainment lineup. Regardless Im looking forward to the Yearlong Duffy event.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

New stage show "Dreams Take Flight" coming to TDS Hangar Stage July 16, 2025.

 

[fradz]

I was in TDS yesterday and TDL 2 days ago, just woke up (it’s 8:30 here in Tokyo). Wow, this was so different than the other TDR trips I’ve made. Crowds were insane, we had the vacation package with our pre selections, I bought quite a few DPA, we were in the lines really early before opening, we used mobile order for all our food, walked 19km per day, and still, it was tough. I hate that you have to spend so much time on your phone just to be able to get the experiences you had before easily. You rush through the gates, then everyone is standing on their phones trying to secure whatever ride they can. You’re in the most beautiful park in the world and this is what you have to do: stare at your screen. This was a trip where I focused on making sure the wife was able to see everything, it being her first time there. Fantasy Springs was nice, especially at night, but the middle feels dead and empty. (I’ll eventually post a selection from the thousands of pictures I’ve taken over the years at TDR).

I’m also going to add one more thought for now: Paris nighttime shows are the best. There, I’ve said it. Although we’ll see next month how the new one is in DLP. I felt that both TDR shows were really meh, not really emotional and not a lot of wow factor. I’m not standing in line or buying a DPA for their nighttime entertainment anymore next time.

 

[SweetDuffy101]

2 Weeks ago i arrived at 9:30 am at Disneyland and went home at 6:40 p.m and the crowds were insane considering its a weekday.

Honestly TDR has been losing its spark since pandemic, even with new offerings it feels always like sad and disappointing, Like others are mentioning, You really have to stare at your phone to reserve experiences.

I mean yes its convenience into it but you as a guests needs to feel happy or enjoying your day at a Disney park.
Instead you are pushed to buy Up charged passes to buy time at the same time it rans so fast.

Disney mobile order is the most disappointing experience, While yes you can order online but theres this inconvenience that you still need to find proper seat in restaurants.

Standby pass for limited merch still bad, Chinese re-sellers are insane, Imagine they hire people to bulk buy merchandise and after a few days of release its sold out.

others use X to hire people to queue early morning.

Even though there are strict rules they always find a loop hole to make things impossible to buy.

 

[SweetDuffy101]

at this point id rather go to USJ, HKDL,SHDL or International theme parks. I love tokyo Disney parks but if this trend continues they will lose loyal customers and yes you can say but there are alot of people, but it doesnt translate into good experience. Ive seen people struggle especially foreigners who are First time visitors.

Just look at YT.

 

[BrianLo]

at this point id rather go to USJ,

I found USJ even worse; only because you have to buy their express pass to actually engage with just about anything in their park. I guess it’s better as you just buy it and move on… but so much more expensive.

Still lots of things can be done for free with Disney; TDL was actually fairly fine in the grand scheme of things, it was mostly TDS that is the cluster of passes on passes. Mixed with keeping guests pre-security in the morning.

I hate to say it, but both operators just need to crank up their ticket prices and keep building things quickly.

 

[DonniePeverley]

Tokyo Disney in a country known for efficiency, sure does struggle to be efficient with it's crowd managment.

It's never addressed the issue, as most Japanese are very zen like submissive and willingly line up. But to an international visitor it's an utter disgrace.

Queing 30 mins to just get some popcorn - i won't be going back.