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Walt Disney Parks and Resorts
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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.
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Encyclopedia
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 James A. "Jay" Rasulo, formerly the chairman of Disneyland Resort Paris. Rasulo reports to Disney CEO Robert Iger.
Administration
- Chairman and President - Jay Rasulo
- President, Operations - Al Weiss
- President, Disneyland Resort - Ed Grier
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Disneyland Resort - Michael O'Grattan
- President, Walt Disney World Resort - Meg Crofton
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Walt Disney World Resort - To Be filled upon Erin Wallace's Move
- Senior Vice President, 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 - Val Bunting
- Vice President, Downtown Disney - Kevin Lansberry
- Vice President, Disney's Wide World of Sports Complex and Disney Water Parks - Reggie Williams
- Chairman and CEO, Euro Disney SCA (Disneyland Resort Paris) - Philippe Gas
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Disneyland Resort Paris - George Kalogridis
- President, Tokyo Disney Resort - Toshio Kagami
- President of Walt Disney Attractions Japan - Nick Franklin
- Vice President and Executive Managing Director, Walt Disney Attractions Japan - Joe Schott
- President and Managing Director, Asia, for Walt Disney Parks & Resorts - Bill Ernest
- President and Managing Director, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort - Andrew Kam
- Senior Vice President of Operations, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort - Noble Coker
- 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
- 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
- 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 - Nick Franklin
Disney properties
Disneyland Resort
Disneyland was founded as a single park by Walt Disney on July 17, 1955, in Anaheim, California.
In 2001, the area was officially named the Disneyland Resort with the opening of Disney's California Adventure Park, two new resort hotels and the Downtown Disney retail, dining and entertainment district. The resort occupies , listed below, and are divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Parks:
- Disneyland
- Disney's California Adventure Park
Shopping centers:
Resorts:
Walt Disney World Resort
The Walt Disney World Resort opened Oct. 1, 1971, with the Magic Kingdom (similar in layout to Disneyland) and three resort hotels in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, a few miles southwest of Orlando. The property is twice the size of Manhattan, with about a quarter of it having been developed to date. It has become the most popular tourist destination on Earth, with four theme parks, two water parks, a shopping and entertainment complex, 20 resort hotels and eight golf courses. The resort is divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Parks:
Shopping centers:
Resorts:
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:
Disneyland Resort Paris
Disneyland Resort Paris, Disney's second resort complex outside the United States, opened April 12, 1992, as Euro Disney Resort. Located in Marne-la-Vallée in the suburbs of Paris, France, it features two theme parks and 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 , listed below, and are divided into parks, shopping centers, and resorts:
Parks:
Shopping centers:
Resorts:
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
Hong Kong Disneyland, Disney's fifth resort and its second in Asia, opened Sept. 12, 2005. The resort is located in Penny's Bay, Lantau Island. 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 .
Parks:
Resorts:
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:
Other ventures
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.
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.
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.
Future properties
Asian & European projects
Both Hong Kong Disneyland Resort and Disneyland Resort Paris have room for future expansion. Scouts are looking for a suitable site for a Disney resort on mainland China in addition to the Disney resort in Hong Kong, possibly near Shanghai. Disney has announced that there will be no new resort on the Chinese mainland before 2010.
On 21 January 2008, Bill Ernest, the former managing director of Hong Kong Disneyland, said the Walt Disney Company is not in talks on opening a park in Shanghai nor in any other Asian cities and the company is fully focusing on the Hong Kong park.
In January 2009, Disney announced that a theme park will be made in Shanghai by 2013. The project is still awaiting for the permission from the Chinese Government.
Currently, the Walt Disney Company is negotiating with the Hong Kong Government in funding the Phase 1 Expansion of Hong Kong Disneyland. The expansion includes three additional theme lands to the park, which are expected to complete latest in 2013, one year prior to the opening of rumoured Shanghai Disneyland Resort. A number of thrilling rides have already been chosen in order to satisfy the market of the young adults and teenagers. It is reported that the preparation work for the construction has been finished and the park is ready to start the project once it has granted permission from the government. However, according to Bill Ernest, the company is still considering the detail terms, including the means of funding, with the government. The company is looking forward to reaching an agreement in 2009 so that the first theme land can be open in 2011 (during the 5th anniversary celebration of the Hong Kong park).
Projects in America
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.
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 for at least five years. 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 planned to be built into that space in the coming years.
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.
Timeline
1950s and 1960s
1970s and 1980s
1990s
2000s
* 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 - What Will You Celebrate? promotion at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Disney announced a new resort, Shanghai Disneyland, on the Chinese mainland, expected to open in 2014.
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