NEWS: Breaking Ground for Shanghai Disney Resort

Today marks the groundbreaking of Walt Disney's next full-on resort based in Shanghai. After years of negotiations and much speculations, Disney and the Shanghai government came to an agreement to building a new resort, complete with a Magic Kingdom park, a downtown area and a couple of suitable hotels. Future endeavors will result in an already planned 2nd and 3rd gate, an eastern EPCOT center and a new approach to the Animal Kingdom.

Despite the fact that there is already a highly successful full-on resort in neighboring Tokyo - currently closed due to recent circumstances - and a small-scale park in Hong Kong, which is currently expanding its own Magic Kingdom park with unique lands and attractions, Shanghai is quite enthusiastic of bringing the Disney magic to their own doorstep.

The first park will feature a unique Magic Kingdom, surrounded by water and every land will feature tons of interactive elements, which have recently creeped into the queues of various attractions of the American-based parks. There won't be a traditional Main Street area but an interactive park area, which will lead guests to a baroque storybook castle, reminiscent of Cinderella's castle in both Orlando and Tokyo. What the other lands and original attractions will be are left to be speculated.

To give you an idea where this is going, though, here is some of the most recent concept art:

Spoiler:

The castle is said to be the largest of all and contain interactive walkthroughs, a restaurant and much, much more.

Spoiler:

On a personal note; I am excited about this since I've heard the rumors a few years ago. I do, however, have my doubts about all this new, interactive stuff they've planned for the park and cutting out an entire land, which sort of marks the entire entryway leaves me with a bitter aftertaste. The original Disneyland in Anaheim works and it works for a reason and messing with its formula can be quite risky...

Well I doubt I will be making any trips to Shanghai in my near future, so I guess I'll just have to stick to Luna Park if I want my rollercoaster and theme park fix.

The concept art makes the place look rather magical, but that is what Disney is known for.

hehe just got to say Andy, they way you wrote this makes it sound like you are trying to sell vacations to Shanghai Disney

And thus the evil corporation extends its feelers.
I've got nothing against Disney, (except that crap they call entertainment on the Disney Channel, and Radio Disney and all it's associates) but their prices are just ridiculous. It's like 12 bucks for a hot dog.

sjhorm wrote:It's like 12 bucks for a hot dog.

Lol, does it come covered in gold?

Arkanay wrote:

sjhorm wrote:It's like 12 bucks for a hot dog.

Lol, does it come covered in gold?

No it only comes with a side dish of resentment towards Disney.


Guess in their minds, you are at Disneyland, you are hungry, so you don't have a whole ton of choice. Either go out of your way to leave the park, and get something to eat or pay a clearly unreasonable amount of an ordinary hotdog.

You nailed it, Remi. They got power of sale, so they can boost up the prices quite a lot.

I say bring your own home made sammich.

They probably bring in thugs and beat you if you do.
For 12 bucks, this better be the best hotdog I have ever eaten.

sjhorm wrote:They probably bring in thugs and beat you if you do.
For 12 bucks, this better be the best hotdog I have ever eaten.

Been to Disney and a long time ago. Remember getting a hotdog. Don't remember how it tasted. That doesn't mean it was necessarily bad, but If I can remember the taste, it was nothing amazing. Two of the main things people can remember almost their entire lives are smells and tastes. If something is tasty enough, you can go years with eating it, and then eat it again and memories from that time will flood back.

I can remember the taco stand near my house when I lived in America, as they made the best tasting tacos ever, but I can't remember the hotdogs from Disney Land, meaning they were probably "meh".

I remember my first pancakes.


They had to have been made by God himself. They were simply orgasmic. If I could taste those pancakes again, light would probably explode from behind my eyes and I'd go critical.

Many would probably die. But it'd be okay- I would have a little taste of Heaven once again.






Anyway, I once trolled Disneyworld in Florida. I brought a huge amount of food with me, brought up a chair right in front of the food line -in everyone's way, naturally- and started snacking. I was all "Oh, hey! Look what I'm eating! It tastes so good, and you know what it cost me? THREE BUCKS! So Imma sit here in front of ya'll and enjoy the taste of a real bargain!"

I was hailed a hero.

Hmmm, you don't go to Disneyland for the food, even the regular guests know that. And only in Disneyland Paris the food has quality since they cater more to Europeans. I've been there a couple of times and have never complained, but then again, I'm not an iffy eater.

eh, maybe its just I the one I went to and it was a long time ago. Again, the food wasn't bad (probably). You can normally remember a bad taste just as good as a good taste.

But you're right, you don't go for the food, but some foods there are just unfairly overpriced.

Do they still do the disney dollars stuff at disneyland?

LordRemington wrote:Do they still do the disney dollars stuff at disneyland?

I don't think so. They do however interrupt the whole queueing experience with the fastpass that allows the holder to skip the queue because they in no way have the patience or time to wait in line. I still can't wrap my head around that math how a few skippers won't make the regular queuing guests wait even longer...

Also, take in mind that for 21 years, Michael Eisner, the former CEO, did anything to suck every penny out of our wallets when we'd visit any of the parks, but for the past 6 years, the new CEO Bob Iger's been doing anything to make Disney a bit more appealing to those sourpusses. Although, I find it suspicious that he's one of the richest ducks men in the world.

Shanghai Disney Resort, however, will be financed and run mostly by local government-owned enterprises, so it will probably go down the path of Tokyo Disneyland, which is much better maintained than both Disneyland and Disney World together.

So, is EuroSpore making a field trip to Shanghai's Disneyland?

Arkanay wrote:So, is EuroSpore making a field trip to Shanghai's Disneyland?

Already packing my bags.

Did you know, there were plans and even concept art for a Disneyland in Sydney, but they scrapped that due to low population density and the fact that Australia is too far away for the western world to go for a short trip to.

Andeavor wrote:Did you know, there were plans and even concept art for a Disneyland in Sydney, but they scrapped that due to low population density and the fact that Australia is too far away for the western world to go for a short trip to.

Low population density? Sydney is by far Australia's most populated city. It has roughly 1/4 of Australia's entire population in Sydney and the Sydney suburbs. However they had a good reason not to open a Disneyland.

They probably saw what happened to Wonderland. Wonderland used to be Sydney's biggest Theme park, however roughly 8 years ago, they closed down due to low numbers of people visiting the park. Was pretty lame, as the next best thing is Luna Park, but it doesn't have rollercoaster (well not full sized ones) and is more of a carnival like place.

If they opened a Disneyland it would probably be successful for a time, but like Wonderland would eventually close.

And yeah Australia is quite a ways away from the rest of wetsern society. The people who take the long flight here from other countries, probably aren't too interested in visiting a theme park that they could probably find in their own country. And people who come here, don't normally go for short trips. Australia is actually quite popular as a backpacker destination.

I meant low population density for the entire Australasian area.

oh. Well thats true as well 90% of Australia is un-inhabited and New Zealand hasn't got a massive population either. New Guinea, while technologically part of the Australasian area, has little to do with Australia, and also is pretty tiny in terms of population, so they would expect much in the way of tourism from there.

Wouldn't be worth them making one here. The Gold Coast is theme park central of Australia. It has all of the good theme parks now. While us in Sydney, are stuck with a ferris wheel and bumper cars at Luna Park.

I miss rollercoasters. The last one I went on was two years ago when I visited my family in America. Two Flags I believe was the place. Feels like it was yesterday.

My favorite local theme park has to be Kennywood. Pretty modest park, but they have great cheap food and some of the rides are freaking awesome. Case and point: The Thunderbolt (I think that's the name, it's been a while). When it was built, I think it was the fastest rollercoaster of its time and it still ranks pretty high up there. It's not very high: But it's fast as hell and the safety bars practically don't exist, so it feels like you could get thrown to your violent death at any moment.

It's awesome.