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Last revised
16-Dec-2000
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[Whats
New?]
NOTE: Don't
get caught out with the wrong credit card at Tokyo Disney
. . . .
Tokyo Disneyland first opened to the public at
Urayasu, just outside Tokyo on 15th April 1983, twelve years
after The Magic Kingdom opened at Walt Disney World, and twenty
eight years after the original Magic Kingdom theme park opened
at Disneyland in Anaheim California.
After the considerable success of Disneyland, and
later the Walt Disney World resort in Florida, The Disney
Company were approached by various countries, all eager to
share in the tourist industry the Disney theme parks sparked.
In Japan, The Oriental Land Company owned a sufficiently
large enough parcel of land that had been reclaimed from Tokyo
Bay, which was to be used for recreational purposes. The area
also satisfied the other key requirement for Disney, in that
it had a large local population within a 30 mile radius.
The Japanese were frequent visitors to Disneyland,
and subsequently to Walt Disney World, and so it was decided
that it would make an ideal location for a third Disney theme
park, which would be built along the same lines as the previous
two existing Disney theme parks, rather than building a park
with a distinct Oriental theme.
The weather in the Tokyo Bay area however is far
more changable than in Anaheim or Orlando, so the Disney Imagineers
planned a glass-roofed World Bazaar area instead of the usual
Main Street to greet visitors when they first entered the
new park. The attractions were also designed with more covered
areas than at the other Disney parks.
One of the unique things about Tokyo Disneyland
is that the various lands are not accessed by the central
hub, but instead by a series of paths that branch off of the
Main Street.
The one main concession to the fact that it was
Disney's first major theme park outside of the USA is the
"Meet the World" attraction, that uses Audio Animatronics
to deal with Japanese History.
The now standard attractions of Big Thunder Mountain
Railroad, Star Tours, and Splash Mountain have all been added
to the park since it was initially opened, and as a result
Tokyo Disneyland regularly attracts more than 10 million guests
each year.
Tickets
for the park can be bought from several locations, but are
probably best bought at the main park entrance.
Unlike the original Disneyland in Anaheim, and
later Walt Disney World in Florida, Tokyo Disneyland doesn't
have it's own Monorail system, however if monorail
rumours are to be believed this may soon change.
The full address for the Tokyo Disneyland theme
park is:
Tokyo Disneyland Park
1-1, Maihama,
Urayasu-shi,
Chiba 279,
Japan
Ttel: 047(354)0001
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