Down Under Disneyana Australian Disney Forum

As you'd all know by now, there has been a massive earthquake in Japan. I hope we all spare a thought to our friends, Disney fans, cast members and the people of Japan during this terrible event.

News from Tokyo Disney Resort is that there has been damage due to liquefaction - with water coming up through the carparks:


The parks have closed but they have not been evacuated to the lack of transport. The Tokyo Metro has closed so no one can get home and there are reports that the JR Keiyo line between Maihama and Tokyo has been damaged. Disney is allowing around 70,000 guests to stay in the parks and have issued ponchos due to it beginning to rain. They've also brought out gas heaters to keep people warm as it is still winter. The have to stay outside because of ongoing aftershocks.


People sitting outside of Space Mountain - awaiting evacuation news (from Rezikam on yfrog.com)


Resort damage (via Twitpic)


People getting ready to stay the night in the park (from Rezikam on yfrog.com)

The images coming out of Japan are just horrific!

Here's an article re: the park
http://www.examiner.com/worldwide-disne ... ts_article

The park has been closed
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/enterta ... quake.html

About six months ago - a girl in New Hampshire contacted me as she was planning to do a Disney world tour like we did in 2006.

I've been corresponding with her ever since, giving her lots of advice and I even posted the latest Tokyo Disney park maps to her after I got back last year.

She was pretty apprehensive about the Tokyo leg - she wasn't sure how she'd get around over there not understanding English - and she was having some problems arranging airport transfers because her flights were early in the morning.

Anyway - after all the planning and correspondence between us, she headed off on Wednesday for Tokyo - her first day in the park was Thursday, so I imagine that she was in Disneysea on Friday when the earthquake struck.

I can't imagine what she's going through now - her flight out to Hong Kong is on Monday morning. I've tried emailing her in case she had access to her email while over there, but I've had no response.

So how would you like that for your once in a lifetime world Disney tour?? I feel so sorry for her given how excited she's been and how long she's been waiting and planning!

When you travel you end up having a good time or a good story.

Here's hoping she ends up with a good story and nothing worse.

Greg

When you travel you end up having a good time or a good story.

I love this line - thanks Greg.

Anyway - I heard from Joanne this morning. She and her husband are fine. They were in Disneysea when the earthquake struck, but as they were staying at one of the Disney hotels (Disneyland Hotel or Miracosta - not sure which), they were able to escape the park. They then had to sit in the lobby for a number of hours while the hotel was checked for structural soundness, before being let up to their room. They said the damage at the resort was fairly minimal, but they could see considerable damage in the surrounding areas (fires and such). They had no idea of the extent of the earthquake initially due to lack of english tv channels.

The hotel is providing guests with free meals. She is going to try to get accommodation at Narita airport this evening so she can get her early morning flight to Hong Kong tomorrow - she doesn't want to stay at Disney tonight and risk missing her flight due to the current erratic nature of the subway system.

And she echoes what many other people who have reported from Disney in the last few days have said - "I have to say that the Disney staff are exceptional and unexplainably positive during this entire experience. They have been amazing."

Finally she also tells us that the resort will be closed for the rest of the week.

And she echoes what many other people who have reported from Disney in the last few days have said - "I have to say that the Disney staff are exceptional and unexplainably positive during this entire experience. They have been amazing."

Reading about peoples experiences in the Disney Parks during 9/11 I have to say that they really do seem to know their stuff and be able to do it.

Greg

Well Joanne appears to have escaped Tokyo. I had an email from her today saying she was at the gate waiting for her flight to Hong Kong and the plane was parked there ready to go! Hopefully she's in Hong Kong now enjoying the next leg of her around the world Disney trip!

That is good news Keith... I'm so glad she's safe.

This whole disaster just keeps getting worse and worse.... just breaks my heart seeing all the devastation... Its horrible that there has been any damage to the parks but the scale of the whole catastrophe really puts that in the shade. Several of the people I am studying with have spent about a year each living in Japan and have had the same issues as you Keith, trying to contact friends and the worry must have been just awful. Its bad enough when you don't know anyone there.

Lets hope they are spared any further waves/explosions/earthquakes so they can start to put their lives back together.

Something that I haven't been able to shake since Friday is this encounter I had with a customer about 3 weeks ago who for some reason felt she had to share with me a 'vision' she and several of her other friends had had... I listened politely and then wrote her off as a fruitcake and never gave it another thought. She'd moved from living directly on the coast to the hinterland purely on the strength of this vision....

What was this vision I hear you asking ( or, like me, maybe you weren't asking ...lol...) That there was going to be a MAJOR tsunami caused by an undersea shift of the tectonic plates somewhere in the pacific, in our immediate future and it was going to cause catastrophic loss of life, and was going to sweep across the pacific and effect many countries in every direction. She was quite forceful in her insistance that this was imminent.

spooky huh?

Not quite so spooky in hindsight I suppose. It's incredible what you hear from people. For example I have a friend who works for Energex who was at a presentation in October last year when an engineer suggested that Energex prepare for the worst floods in South East Qld this summer due to all the possible indicators at his disposal, including the volume in the dams and the upcoming weather patterns. Needless to say, his theories were dismissed at the time ....

Even to hear yesterday that there was another sizable quake and another small Tsunami (around 2.5m) was forecast for yesterday afternoon at the same location as the big one, adding to the disaster already. Also the nuclear situation and these guys can't take a trick can they.

With all the activity on the "ring of fire" it's making us question our future travel plans. We're currently planning a possible trip hopefully for next January to the US. I mentioned over the weekend that we need to head straight to the East Coast, and I was serious. With Indonesian volcanoes, NZ earthquakes, Japanese earthquakes and volcanoes, Hawaii have had a volcano go ballistic as well as a recent small earthquake, and there is talk that St Helens is bubbling away as well. I reckon that it is only a matter of time that LA and San Francisco will get one as well. WDW and WWOHP are looking very tempting.

yep ajp, the whole Volcano thing was topic of conversation with friends the other day... its the only BIG thing that hasn't gone off on the ring of fire... and we all thought LA and surrounds might not be on any of our lists for a bit.

I reckon that it is only a matter of time that LA and San Francisco will get one as well.

Errr - where am I heading in two months time...oh yeah...LA and SFO!

I reckon that it is only a matter of time that LA and San Francisco will get one as well.

Errr - where am I heading in two months time...oh yeah...LA and SFO!

yup and ill be there next month I know these places are due for a big one but I guess like all people we hope it never comes.

Yeah, I'm suddenly glad of my lack of immediate travel plans. Never thought I'd say that

The whole Japan situation is just so sad. A lot of my extended family have friends in Japan. A lot of us have been there; a few cousins on exchange programs and have had exchange students stay with them and others that have just traveled through like us. We've been lucky that everybody we know has been contacted and accounted for. Some of THEIR extended family live in the North East of Japan but were not in the affected areas. It's all just horrible and with the nuclear situation in particular, the effects are going to be felt for years.

Did anyway see the footage of the park on the TV today? Craig said it showed large cracks in the pavement