Disney to Build First New Theme Park in 15 Years
Get ready for Disney magic in the Middle East! For the first time in 15 years, Disney is set to unveil an all-new theme park, unlike anything the world has seen. Announced during a recent earnings call, the entertainment giant revealed plans for its most technologically advanced resort yet, set to rise in Abu Dhabi. This bold expansion marks a historic move for Disney, promising next-level experiences that push the boundaries of theme park innovation.
Fresh off the heels of a triumphant second-quarter earnings report, Disney dropped some enchanting news on Wednesday: the Disneyland Abu Dhabi resort is officially in the works, and is set to become the seventh jewel in Disney's global theme park crown. The most recent Disney park to open was Shanghai Disneyland, which was first announced in 2010 and officially welcomed guests in 2016.
Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be fully developed, built, and operated by Miral, a leading Abu Dhabi-based company that has developed other resorts, including SeaWorld YAS Island Abu Dhabi, Yas Waterworld, and Warner Bros. World.
Disney Imagineers will spearhead the creative vision for Disneyland Abu Dhabi and provide operational oversight. The initial blueprint for the new Disney resort includes a theme park and an unspecified number of hotels.
Disneyland Abu Dhabi won't be a carbon copy of existing Disney parks. As Josh D'Amaro, the chairman of Disney Experiences, emphasized in an interview with CNN, 'Every time we open a new experience or a theme park… it's really important not just to take a theme park that might exist somewhere else and plop it into the ground in that new area that we would be going into.' He further elaborated on the importance of cultural integration, stating, 'Each park needs to reflect, in its design, its food and more, each specific location, he added. 'And so here in, in Abu Dhabi, we want the same thing.'
According to Disney, the Abu Dhabi resort will be its most technologically advanced to date, aligning with the city's forward-thinking vision. While every Disney resort traditionally centers around a castle, this one breaks the mold. Concept art reveals a striking, spiraling crystal-like structure towering over the park — a dramatic departure from the classic fairytale silhouette.
In another exciting first, this resort will be Disney's inaugural property with direct waterfront access. While the Tokyo Disney Resort graces the edge of the Pacific, its waters remain beyond the park's perimeter. In Abu Dhabi, guests will be able to immerse themselves in the waterfront experience.
Furthermore, Disney is poised to leverage its recent forays into immersive gaming to elevate the park's offerings. D'Amaro highlighted the potential use of Unreal Engine — the powerful rendering software employed in many Disney films — to enhance attractions within the park.
'So that the real-time translation of stories from film, from game, to theme park, it's right there for our guests to enjoy,' he explained. 'So we're very, very bullish on this space, and I think for this part, particularly given how tech-forward it's going to be, we have a huge opportunity.'
The choice might raise eyebrows for some, but Disney's decision to plant its next magical kingdom in Abu Dhabi is rooted in strategic foresight and the unique opportunities the region presents. Both Abu Dhabi and Dubai harbor ambitious visions for their airports, aiming to become a powerful duo of global aviation hubs connecting a staggering third of the world's population within a convenient four-hour flight radius. This impressive reach includes the 1.4 billion residents of India, many of whom would find Abu Dhabi a significantly closer gateway to Disney magic than the existing parks in Shanghai or Hong Kong.
According to Josh D'Amaro, the chairman of Disney Experiences, the region boasts a potential market of 500 million people with the economic capacity to visit a Disney theme park. This accessibility, combined with the nation's unwavering commitment to future-forward development, proved to be a compelling combination for the entertainment giant. 'There was no question that for our seventh resort, this is where it was going to be,' D'Amaro confidently stated.
The chosen location for Disney's newest resort is Yas Island, a vibrant hub already developed by Miral and home to other prominent leisure destinations. These include the previously mentioned SeaWorld Yas Island Abu Dhabi, Yas Waterworld, and Warner Bros. World.
Strategically situated, Yas Island offers easy access, being just a 20-minute drive from downtown Abu Dhabi and a 50-minute drive from Dubai. The island is already a thriving entertainment district, boasting multiple theme parks, a golf course, a marina, a picturesque waterfront, and a sprawling mall with a diverse array of 165 dining options.
While the allure of a new Disney resort in Abu Dhabi is undeniable, some industry experts caution that the path to profitability in this region may not be a straightforward fairytale. 'The Middle East has seen hits and misses as it relates to theme park and leisure development,' noted Dennis Speigel, owner and founder of the consulting firm International Theme Park Services. He pointed to Dubai's earlier ambitious endeavors, stating that the emirate 'early on…planned and opened a slate of theme parks which were overcapitalized and frankly overbuilt.'
Speigel, who has no direct involvement in the Disney project but has consulted for investors in Middle Eastern theme parks in the past, highlighted a concerning trend. He stated that several theme parks in Dubai and across Saudi Arabia 'struggled and showed no profit for at least 10 years.'
However, Speigel also offered a more optimistic perspective on Disney's specific location choice. 'I was surprised to hear the announcement at this time, but not surprised to learn Disney chose Abu Dhabi,' he commented. 'The critical mass of leisure development already established in the area provides the necessary elements required by Disney to come into the area in a more manageable way.'
Disneyland Abu Dhabi is slated for a potential opening in the early 2030s.
Source: CNN
Read the original article on GEEKSPIN. Affiliate links on GEEKSPIN may earn us and our partners a commission.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Eater
35 minutes ago
- Eater
Las Vegas Gets Shut Out of the 2025 James Beard Awards
On June 16, luminaries of the restaurant and bar world gathered at the Lyric Opera House in Chicago to celebrate the finalists and winners of the 2025 James Beard Foundation Awards. However, none of those winners represented the city of Las Vegas. Eater hosted the official livestream that showed Vegas-based finalists Cristie Norman of Delilah for Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service; Sarah Thompson (Casa Playa); and Eleazar Villanueva (Restaurant de Joël Robuchon) for Best Chef: Southwest representing Las Vegas's prodigious and talented dining scene. Vegas did come away with a victory of sorts. Though no longer based in Las Vegas, the founders of Portland, Oregon's JinJu Patisserie Kyurim 'Q' Lee and Jin Caldwell won the national award for Outstanding Bakery. They worked extensively in Las Vegas, including Aria, Wynn, Bellagio, and Joel Robuchon, prior to opening their now award-winning bakery in Portland. The James Beard Awards, often considered 'the Oscars of food,' are among the most prestigious awards in the food and hospitality industry. Each year, the James Beard Foundation gives awards in categories like Outstanding Restaurant, Best Chef, and Best New Chef. This year's awards introduce three brand-new categories into the mix: Best New Bar, Outstanding Professional in Beverage Service, and Outstanding Professional in Cocktail Service. The first James Beard Awards ceremony was held in 1991, when chefs like Rick Bayless, Nancy Silverton, and Wolfgang Puck walked away as winners. In recent years, the foundation has been under increased scrutiny after canceling its programming in 2020 and 2021 due to misbehavior and abuse allegations against nominated chefs, and a lack of nominated and winning Black chefs among the categories. In response, the James Beard Foundation conducted an internal audit to make its voting processes more inclusive and equitable before returning in 2022. The awards have also shifted the Best Chef category to a regional model to better recognize the diversity and depth of talent. Disclosure: Some Vox Media staff members are part of the voting body for the James Beard Awards. Eater is partnering with the James Beard Foundation to livestream the awards in 2025. All editorial content is produced independently of the James Beard Foundation. See More:
Gizmodo
2 hours ago
- Gizmodo
Tony Gilroy Created His Own ‘Star Wars' Endings and Aimed for ‘Legit Hope'
But where and when Lucasfilm uses 'Andor' characters in the future is out of his hands. When Tony Gilroy and his Andor star Diego Luna decided to cram half a decade's worth of new Star Wars lore into three episodes per year leading up to the events of Rogue One, they knew the task was unbelievably ambitious. In a chat with the Wrap, Gilroy expressed the excitement everyone involved felt over their great big heist of an entry into Lucasfilm's Star Wars lore. 'We kept waiting for it to fail, going, 'There must be something that's going to bite us here.' We kept waiting for a bugaboo that never appeared,' he said. 'I wrote the top and the tail of each block to set the frame for each year. And I took that into the writers' room so nobody could tell me that it wouldn't work. And then we filled in from there.' Now with the Disney+ series at an end and awards season kicking in, Andor's mission is one fans would say really paid off for the critically acclaimed show. No one really cared that it didn't tie into shows like The Mandalorian or Ahsoka and Gilroy wasn't forced to embed any sort of direct lines to get more viewers to those shows. 'I paid rigorous attention to the canon that I'm supposed to pay attention to. I've ignored the canon that I'm allowed to ignore,' he stated, but that doesn't mean his canon if off the table for other projects: 'I don't own the IP, so they can do what they want.' Instead Gilroy was able to say goodbye to his characters on his own terms. He told the trade that key final moments such as Dedra's face-off with Luthen, and when Andor meets a Force healer in probably the only time the energy which courses through Star Wars was directly mentioned, didn't all come together that meticulously. 'You spend so much time constructing and tearing down in your imagination. It's just such a constant process,' he said about how the series still surprised him as they finished the last scene. 'I wanted to be able to not feel like a sadist with what I was doing with these characters and have some hope,' he said of the moment we see Bix in the field with her and Andor's child facing out into the future; to Gilroy, that's the close to his time with Star Wars. 'Legit hope. Not cheesy T-shirt hope, but real hope.'
Travel Weekly
3 hours ago
- Travel Weekly
Test Track, fresh off a tune-up, is set to reopen at Epcot
Test Track presented by General Motors, a thrill ride at the Walt Disney World Resort's Epcot, will reopen July 22 with a new musical score and new scenes "that highlight technology making our cars smarter and our lives more fun," Disney said in a post on the Disney Parks Blog. The attraction temporarily closed last summer for a retheme. Disney offered a sneak peek at one of the new scenes. In it, guests will drive through an area with more than 29,000 points of light that illustrate, through cameras and sensors, how vehicles "see" the world. Information about previews for the attraction before its official opening is expected to be released in the coming weeks.
