Shanghaî Disneyland Update

Interesting news from Shanghaî Disneyland today with this model picture posted on ShanghaiNews.net of one of Shanghaî Disneyland hotels. Actually, this one will be the Toy Story themed hotel, supposedly located outside the park, behind Toy Story Land which might be a good idea as the hotel will have the Toy Story Land in the background. The model picture below should help you to locate where this Toy Story themed hotel will be. It's the "hotel 2" , the "hotel 1" being the Shanghaî Disneyland 5 stars hotel.

It was rumored that this hotel would have a Toy Story theme, but now we can be sure of it thanks to some deco elements that can be seen on the model picture ( the one at the top ). First, as you can see, there is this orange structure located at the hotel entrance which looks clearly like if it was a RC Racer track put horizontally. Then you have the clouds painted on the exterior building walls, who looks like the ones in the movie on Andy's bedroom walls. 

The hotel also have this shape which looks like an "8", a lucky number in China meaning prosperity, wealth and success,  and God knows - or in this case Confucius! - how important the symbolism of numbers can be for Chinese people. That said, the hotel will also have two patios gardens, supposedly having two different designs  paying tribute to the Yin and Yang symbols. On the others pictures below - posted by Shanghai Environment Online and showing the different walls of the hotel - the purple and green rectangles are supposed to be glass panels, and the green ones are supposed to "open" so it might be the guest rooms windows...

As i told you, this SDL Toy Story hotel - which, by the way, looks very much like a "budget" category hotel - should be located in an area outside the park behind Toy Story Land. If this is the case it would be a smart idea as hotel guests would probably have TSL in the background with at least the RC Racer track visible from the hotel. And why not the parachutes of the Parachute Drop attraction, you ask? Good question, as the height of the Parachute Drop structure would surely  be high enough to be visible in the background. Except that SDL Toy Story Land will NOT have the "Parachute Drop" ride. Why? It took me a while to understood why and the first reason could have been for a question of visual intrusion, but in fact it's probably not this one, and my future SDL update will explain you more about all this.  

Let's end with another fresh - and interesting - news about Shanghaî Disneyland released today by China Daily: "Shanghaî Disneyland will feature a production center, which will showcase some of the technical and creative wizardry, which will be used at the site, the company said on Friday. The first of its type in Asia, and scheduled to be open by the second quarter of 2013, the center will become the "heart" of show production for Shanghai Disneyland, the company said, highlighting the park's most complex technology before it is permanently installed within the theme park, the company said".

Looks like to me that it could be a kind of "preview center", certainly different than the one they did for Disneyland Paris before DLP opening but it might be a kind of Blue Sky Cellar like at DCA. This will be definitely interesting to follow. 

Picture: copyright Shendi - Disney

All my thanks to Luke from Luke and the Temple of Fun!