Starbucks to open in Disney theme parks

Seattle coffee retailer Starbucks will open locations in each of the Walt Disney Co.’s six U.S. theme parks, the two companies announced Monday.

The first in-park Starbucks will open in June in Disney California Adventure, the second of two gates at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Calif.

Additional locations will follow at unspecified dates in Disneyland itself and in each of Walt Disney World’s four theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Starbucks said many of its customers have asked for locations in Disney theme parks through Mystarbucksidea.com, a 4-year-old company website. “So we are pleased to bring this idea to life,” Arthur Rubinfeld, Starbucks’ president of global development, said in a prepared statement.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Disney said each Starbucks location will have a unique theme to blend in with its theme-park surroundings. The California Adventure location, for instance, will be located in an eatery called the “Fiddler, Fifer and Practical Café,” meant to evoke Los Angeles in the 1920s. The store will be built with Spanish/mexican architecture and the Starbucks “baristas” brewing coffee will wear period costumes.

While these will be the first Starbucks coffee shops in Disney’s domestic parks, the two companies have worked together elsewhere. In June 2009, Starbucks opened a store in Disneyland Paris’ Disney Village.

Starbucks also operates two locations at Universal Orlando: One inside the “New York” section of Universal Studios Florida, the other in the resort’s Citywalk retail district.