Saturday, May 21, 2016

Shanghaî Disneyland Week-end Update !


It's time for the D&M Shanghaî Disneyland week-end update and this week, in addition to some great aerial shots we'll have a look at SDL future. I know it can seems a bit odd to talk about the future of a park which is not even officially open yet but the two first weeks of Shanghaî Disneyland are already sold out and the park will most certainly be a huge success from day one.

But, and it's a big "but", does the park has enough capacity for the dozens of thousands of guests who will rush in starting June 16? That's the big question and from what we can see of the waiting times during SDL trial days - up to 195 minutes for the Soaring ride, for instance - when the park didn't even reached its full capacity we can doubt that it will be the case when 60000 guests will be in. I think that everyone knows it, from SDL Imagineers to the folks at Shendi Group and the phase two to add new rides and attractions should come probably pretty quickly, although it always take time to build them. Thanks to pictures showing SDL backstage we'll have a look at the room available for a park expansion, not to mention the land also available in the park here and there. So, let's have a look at all this, shall we?

We'll start by some new aerial pictures shot at night over the park. Above, SDL Castle and Gardens of Imagiantion, below Treasure Cove and Adventure Isle.






Let's have a look now at another kind of aerial pictures, showing SDL backstage areas.





Now, on the two above pics the backstage area may look huge in comparison to the park, but first there is a wide angle lens effect which makes them looking bigger and the park itself being in the picture background looks of course smaller than the backstage in the foreground. So, and although there is a big part of optical effect, Shanghaî Disnyeland has plenty of room for an expansion as you'll see also on the Google Earth satellite shots below.



On the picture above showing SDL Tomrrowland the available backstage room don't seem that big - though they do have some - but behind Fantasyland and Treasure Cove - picture below - it's a whole different story as here they DO have plenty of land available.

And apparently from what a Disney fan has discover on a SDL map recently released online they apparently intend to build Expedition Everest mountain there, nothing less. If you look at the two pics below you'll see that the track in both cases ( from a SDL map and an aerial view of Animal Kingdom ride ) look exactly the same. This one should be located behind Treasure Cove and POTC fortress.



They also have some bits of land available inside the park here and there, which can be big enough for small dark rides but probably not for a big E-Ticket attraction. And of course there is the big land located between Adventure Isle Roaring Rapids and SDL Lake, supposed to be kept for a third hotel though they may change their mind and use it for a park expansion, who knows?




In addition to Expedition Everest which seems to be a done deal rumors of an Alice in Wonderland trackless ride and aMarvel super-hero coaster - probably themed or Spiderman. These must be considered as rumors until an official announcement.

See you soon for a new SDL week-end update!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hopefully the situation with Shanghai will be different from Hong Kong, HK opened with too few rides, but the park as a whole was kind of underwhelming. Shanghai, on the other hand looks awesome, the scale of it alone will probably draw people, and hopefully the sheer awesomeness of the rides will make up for the crowds and long wait times. Hopefully it will make enough money to be able to ease the budget cutbacks in the domestic parks. The one park that may be hurt may be Hong Kong, which may suffer by comparison, but maybe the two parks are far enough apart to support both of them.

Unknown said...

Off topic I know Alain, but how do the recent Chinese south China Seas exploites affect the international traveler to SDL? Could this be a concern? As a USA citizen, I already have reservations and tickets to the resort in September and I'm wondering about all those of us who have already booked will be affected, should conflict escalate?

Alain Littaye said...

It won't escalate, Brandon. At least not now, you have plenty of time to come to SDL before it does.

Anonymous said...

Correct me if you can, but in the first photo, the round plaza area looks about the same size as two-thirds of California's Disneyland. The lake on the bottom left of this picture looks like a little smaller than Disneyland's Jungle Cruise. Just trying to get an idea of the massive size of Shanghai Disneyland.

Alain Littaye said...

No it's not as big as two third of DL, the picture was shot with a hyper wide angle lens and it can give this feeling but it's not. It's a pure optical illusion.

Anonymous said...

So how big is Shanghai Disneyland park compared to Disneyland park? And how tall is the castle compared to Disneyland's and WDW's?

Unknown said...

I don't think Everest is à fond deal because that map was not recently released but was one of the first map of SDL à few years ago and the Everest was cancelled of the phase 1.