Thanks to Tigertail777 my mind has opened up to reasons why some parks flop and others sky rocket. One of the reasons that i brought up in another forum (Why is DCA disliked) is the construction company or secondary company who helps in the building of parks. So the major question is does it make such a diffrence in the development in a park from the construction company or making of a park. One example would be why DCA is a flop to must and Tokyo Disney Sea is amazingly magical when both parks were made during the same time of each other. Any more imput?

Yeah, one was made by people who wanted to do the best they possibly could, and were allowed the creative and financial leeway necessary to do so. The other was not.

Even when WDI was presented with the origional plans for DCA, they did a darn good job planning it. However, after Pressler's little picking, we got what we did today.

Let's just say that Paradise Pier actually looked like a boardwalk, and looked great. :)

I think the construction company or secondary company has little to with it. It all stems from Imagineering to design, and then the will to build the finest you can. Walt said " If you can dream it, you can build it". Money was only a secondary concern.

As a result, Tokyo Sea is a showplace of design, beauty, and magic. It is custom built. Eisner California Adventure on the other hand, started off as a mediocre idea with good designs. Anything bold or innovative (read:expensive) was nixed right away. The bean counters took over, and the attractions were not all custom built, but were much cheaper off-the-shelf ones with a smidgen of extra fiberglass to lend a customized flair. Even the custom attractions were dumbed down.

Construction companies or secondary companies had little to do with it. It's about visionaries willing to get and spend whatever it takes to design and have built the best there is. Plain and simple.

I see I wasnt clear enough on who Oriental Land co. is... sorry about that, I tend to assume everyone knows what I do. OK, Oriental land co, is not a construction company, they actually basically rent out the "Disney name" and likenesses, and built first tokyo Disneyland, which was quite a big hit, than later Disneysea. Basically they own the parks themeselves and just pay Disney licensing fees for the characters likenesses and names etc. They have their own company with its own board of directors etc that runs everything.

I think the key is the people who run the company: they keep the red tape to get something done to a minimum, and still make sure the guest comes first. Whereas here in America, the Disney company, like all big corporations is SO big, that one hand doesnt know what the other is doing. I think it comes down to efficiency: Japanese companies are very, very big on things running smooth and efficient, with as little paperwork as possible to get something done. Here in America big companies have a HUGE efficiency problem that they tend to ignore, especially small sort of "everyman" companies that grow large: when they were small they HAD to be efficient or die, but as they grow they lose sight of the bottom line and complicate even the simplest matters with reams of unneccessary steps and paperwork.

It takes about a hundred steps to get from "A" to "B", when they could actually just get away with a few steps to accomplish something. This seems to stem from the mistaken assumption that people are better employed if they always have something to do whether it makes sense or not (you know, what they used to call "busywork" in school: something that has nothing to do with the end goal, but just keeps you busy for no purpose.)

In addition our way of accounting with the same mentality in mind figures into this: there is only so much money set aside for project "X", project X runs overbudget, so because we have no leeway to really expand budgets much other than juggle things around, they begin cutting costs. Rather than see a project through to its original full final completion whether it runs over budget or not, they cut down the product. Japan is a little different; they have the mentality that it must be done, as effieciently and close as possible to project specs, BUT if it does runover it is cost absorbed by the company with the thought that if the product is good enough they will make back those extra costs plus profit. This is also how many smaller businesses here run: they will eat costs to please the customer, because they know in the long run it is the wiser decision. Many big businesses are "penny wise, and pound foolish" an old saying that basically means: in order to save a penny they spend a dollar. Sounds quite crazy but its so very true.

Also, another thing many businesses do now, rather than give themselves a bumper for over-run costs by having a higher than estimated budget, they tend to ask the minimum that a project can be accomplished with, THEN cut THAT budget in HALF. Not smart at all.

So in a nutshell: efficiency and flexibility (especially concerning budgets) are the big problems, plus not keeping the end goal prominently in mind in all aspects (which would be the CUSTOMER and what THEY want, not what the business wants).

Went to bed... and mulled it over... there is one more very large ingrediant I had forgotten. In Tokyo they have faith that their employees will do the best job they can, they know that is what they are trained for and let them handle what they need to without holding their hands every single step along the way. Here management tends to distrust their own employees feeling they have to keep an eye on them every moment of the day, or they will do something wrong.

So this boils down to my third point: employee expectations and pride. If you expect something to go wrong, or somebody to screw it up it usually happens, if you expect great things from a employee and honestly show them you have faith in their abilities they usually shine because they are proud of their work and what they accomplish. No doubt about it, the Imagineers were given the reigns to the Disney Sea project and they did something they knew they would be proud of.

So if i understand you right, Oriental Land co. is a whole diffrent company with there only minds and ideas they just "rent" the Disney name so more people flock to their park. Oh ok makes sense. So why can't Disney notice how well a no-name company made successuss (sp?) and they can't work on it. I think Disney's createst problem is relizing that they can make mistakes and that they have.

Yes I agree they do have a big problem acknowleging thier mistakes, but more importantly they seem to think that mistakes are always bad. They are not bad if you learn from them.

And to be more clear: Disney does not own any of the parks in Tokyo AT ALL. They only get money from renting out the names and characters, they dont own anything in Tokyo. Plus Disney does not have a say over what does or does not go into the park very much since they do not own anything. Oriental Land co is soley responsible for what does or does not happen in the Tokyo parks. There are a few stipulations however; any new rides developed at the Tokyo parks, Disney has full access to the infrastructure of how they were made so they can copy them if they choose. Disney also can stipulate to a certain degree how the characters they license out are used.

Also: Disney does not COMPLETELY own Disneyland Paris, that is more or less a partnership between several companies, so Disney does not outright own that park either.

OLC also hires Disney's Imagineering division to design the attractions. But, it does not hire Disney's Accountaneering division to help design the budgets.

So in other words a no-name company is showing Disney how to run a park the right way.

Ha why do we have a matelistaic America :(

You know I really think that the Oriental Land Company should buy Hong Kong Disneyland and save it from disaster.
Imagine what OLC could do with the place considering what they did with Tokyo Disney.