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Disney Imagineers Will Never Give Disney World Their Best

Mickey Mouse looking panicked in front of colorful Main Street USA at a Disney theme park.
Edited by Disney Dining

The barrage of new rides, lands, and attractions coming to Tokyo Disney Resort has multiple Disney World and Disneyland fans green with envy at the quality of rides and attractions gracing the international Disney Park. 

On June 6, 2024, Fantasy Springs, an all-new themed port at Tokyo DisneySea, will open, and with it three brand new lands themed around Tangled, Peter Pan, and Frozen

For months, Disney has been teasing fans with sneak peeks into the lands. With less than a month to their opening, we’re now getting videos and photos of what these lands look like, and Disney Imagineers have truly outdone themselves.

tokyo disney resort

Tokyo DisneySea and Tokyo Disneyland / Credit: Tokyo Disney Resort

While the Walt Disney World Resort and its four amazing theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, and EPCOT) have been long hailed as the ultimate destination for the Disney experience. However, as the international Disney Parks have caught up, that crown has become one that is contested.

Whether it’s Hong Kong Disneyland (which, per the recent earnings report, was one of the primary reasons for operating revenue in the theme park sector of the company), Shanghai Disneyland, or even Disneyland Paris, any global Disney theme park is making its mark as a premier Disney destination.

One of the theme parks that is a world apart, according to some fans, in the quality it provides to fans is the Tokyo Disney Resort. The Japanese Disney Resort is unique in that it’s operated by the Oriental Land Company, not the Walt Disney Company, and it’s also not owned by Disney either.

For this reason, some believe that OLC’s unwillingness to skimp on quality is the reason for Tokyo Disney Resort’s success. (Domestic fans will remember that many have expressed that the quality of the Disney experience has been steadily dropping despite exponentially rising costs.)

With the upcoming opening of the eighth port at Tokyo DisneySea, many have been debating what it might take for attractions of a similar caliber to come to Disney World.

At this point, one fan took the time to point out that “Oriental Land Company has exclusivity clauses with Walt Disney Imagineering,” implying that many of these dark rides that fans have been salivating over will likely never come to any other park in the world.

Some complained at that juncture that perhaps The Walt Disney Company should also sign exclusivity clauses with Walt Disney Imagineering. However, some fans are cynical and don’t believe that this will result in anything useful at Disney World.

One fan commented, “Yeah so the shitty rides will never be in Tokyo Disneyland lol.” 

Another fan complained“Why can’t we get the stuff Tokyo gets in Orlando? Because OLC, who operates Tokyo Disneyland, is willing to spend all the $$$ needed to execute state of the art rides whereas in the US, execs are too busy counting pennies and slashing budgets.” 

mickey and minnie

Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse at Tokyo Disneyland / Credit: Disney

It’s certainly interesting to note what a difference the operating company can make.

Stay tuned to Disney Dining for the latest news on all things Disney.

About Priyanka Kumar

Priyanka is a writer, artist, avid reader, and travel enthusiast based in Chicago. In her free time, she is probably walking by the lake, catching up on the latest releases on TV, or spending inordinate amounts of time rewatching Moana, Encanto, and her Disney Channel life-long favorites Zack and Cody wreak havoc on the Tipton.