Japan begins to slowly recover from the devastation of an earthquake / tsunami, and now come the ads ...
First, it was revealed that resort to the Tokyo Disneyland will be closed for at least ten days with earliest possible date for reopening set for March 21. Here is the official press release:
Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea have suspended operations due to the earthquake in the Tohoku region and the Pacific coast on 11 March. The operations of the theme park continues to be suspended. Our goal is to make a decision and notification to March 21, when we expect to resume their activities.
This earthquake did not cause serious damage to structures and buildings in the theme parks, and we have already proceeded with the security checks. We will make a decision on the timing of restarting operations very carefully, taking into account security parks, and recovery of transportation systems and infrastructure nearby.
Although most of the structures of the theme park does not seem to have been affected, the parking lots are in poor condition and the date of March 21 is unlikely to be effective the date of reopening. There is talk that might remain closed for much of April. Nothing has yet been approved, but it may be true that the restoration of the park will not be until May. And even then you do not know if it will be back to full capacity.
And this also brings into perspective the fact that the celebration of the 10th anniversary of Tokyo DisneySea will most likely be postponed. The opening in April of Fantasmic! will be highly unlikely. Many members of the cast took a leave of absence or in the case of foreign cast members, this shall be returned to their countries of origin. The status of the Tokyo Disney Resort is very similar to the current state of Japan, the damage assessment and clean up after a devastating earthquake of 9.1 degrees (9.0 or as someone else said) and the resulting devastating tsunami. We'll know more as we get closer to the end of the month.
