Earlier today, The Walt Disney Company announced Disneyland Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. This new theme park and resort will be built on Yas Island in collaboration with Miral. This will be Disney’s first theme park and resort in the region. To celebrate this exciting announcement, a stunning drone show and fireworks spectacle lit up the night sky at Yas Island.
This nighttime spectacular took place at Yas Links and was set against the incredible backdrop of Yas Island’s waterfront. Global celebrities, including Tyrese Gibson, Naomi Campbell, Ed Westwick, and others, were in attendance. The evening included a live performance featuring world-renowned pianist Lang Lang alongside acclaimed Emirati singers Rashed Alnuaimi, Kerry Ellis, and Sonya Balsara.
When completed, this new destination project will be the seventh Disney theme park resort globally. It will connect travelers from the Middle East to Africa, India, Asia, Europe, and beyond. The new resort will be within a four-hour flight of one-third of the world’s population. The region itself has a tourism market of around 500 million visitors annually.
Disney shared that the upcoming resort promises to seamlessly blend Disney’s iconic stories, characters, and attractions with Abu Dhabi’s vibrant culture, stunning shorelines, and breathtaking architecture. The resort will be completely developed and then built by Miral. Disney and Walt Disney Imagineering will lead the creative design and operational oversight to provide guests with a world-class experience.
At this time, a timeline for when this new theme park and resort will open isn’t known. However, in an interview with CNBC, Disney CEO Bob Iger said about the timeline, “We’re not pinning down a date yet.” He continued saying, “It typically takes us between 18 months and two years to design and fully develop, and approximately five years to build, but we’re not making any commitments right now.”
Iger also shared that Disney has been eying the United Arab Emirates since 2017 or 2018. However, the pandemic and the changing of the CEO at Disney put the brakes on things. Despite these delays, Disney has still been growing in the UAE in recent years. This includes new retail locations and also touring entertainment productions like Disney on Broadway’s The Lion King and Disney on Ice productions.
Many questions will be asked and answered in the coming years. At this point, not a lot is known about this new theme park and resort. Two pieces of concept art were shared. Both were quite vague. As things move forward, there will undoubtedly be questions about the culture in the UAE and how it fits with Disney’s culture, which is defined by five keys: Safety, Courtesy, Inclusion, Show, and Efficiency. In particular, the question about the Inclusion key will be a question for many moving forward.
Daps Magic will continue to follow this story and provide updates on Disneyland Abu Dhabi as they become available. What do you think about this new Disney theme park and resort? Do you want to visit it when it opens? What do you hope to see there? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
