Disney Reveals More Details for Shanghai Disneyland

July 14, 2015, 11:34 PM · Today in China, Disney CEO Bob Iger detailed the attractions coming to Shanghai Disneyland when the park opens next year.

Bob Iger
Iger, with a scale model of the Shanghai park. Photo courtesy Disney

There should have been no surprises in the presentation for Theme Park Insider readers, as we've been listing the park's line-up for several months now. The only difference from the reported line-up was the absence of the Toy Story Playland attractions from Iger's presentation, suggesting that land has been moved to a Phase Two. In case you missed it, here's the line-up, by land:

Adventure Isle

Fantasyland

Gardens of Imagination

Tomorrowland

Treasure Cove

Disney also released some new concept art, including images of Roaring Mountain...

Roaring Mountain

...home to the Roaring Rapids raft ride, which will present a "Journey to the Center of the Earth"-style encounter with a monstrous creature.

Roaring Rapids

Finally, Disney released a concept video for the park's Tomorrowland:

Update: Here is a longer promo video:

Shanghai Disneyland is scheduled to open in Spring 2016.

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Replies (23)

July 15, 2015 at 12:43 AM · Roaring Rapids looks great, both on the exterior and interior. But why did it have to be a raft-type ride?! These type of rides are fun, but the story I think this ride wants to tell is better left told with a different ride system that doesnt have the vehicle spinning randomly and where most of the attention from people on the ride is focused on the getting wet part.

Anyway this seems like a more abundant attraction line-up than when Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005.

July 15, 2015 at 5:15 AM · What an amazing collection of attractions. Clearly Disney is holding fast to its standing as one of the greatest theme park operators on the planet!
July 15, 2015 at 5:40 AM · How many phases are there? So phase one will presumably be done for opening. Do we know when the target completion date for phase two will be?
July 15, 2015 at 5:46 AM · The Tron coaster will look incredible at night-time...any info on just how different the new Pirates ride will be?
July 15, 2015 at 5:51 AM · I am very impressed with this line up. There seems to be a lot of experiences that are unique to this park and that is something to be said from the cookie cutter, copy/paste, why fix it if it ain't broken type of experiences that Disney usually deploys. I am up for a ride on Tron light cycle's any day of the week. Why did it take Disney so long to come up with this obvious attraction? Roaring Rapids? How can they use the name that Six Flags uses for the majority of their raft rides?
July 15, 2015 at 6:13 AM · Phew may need to look into starting a Savings Fund and getting a Passport for this one! haha
July 15, 2015 at 6:40 AM · No Splash Mountain
No Thunder Mountains
No Haunted House
No Test Track/JTTCOTE/Ratatouille
No PIXAR
No Frozen
No Tower of Terror
No Star Tours

So is this a Disney park or a Chinese rip off of a Disney park? I'd rather go to Happy Valley Beijing than experience a few TRON attractions. I mean, TRON? There will never be a sequel to that film EVER, BECAUSE NOBODY LIKED IT AND IT WAS A FINANCIAL BOMB, so why they are making a attraction out of it is beyond me.

Pathetic.

July 15, 2015 at 7:00 AM · I don't think I'll be going to China anytime soon so the thing I'm most excited about is the new Soarin' film since at least that might come to Epcot in the future.

On an unrelated note, does anyone else think the monster on the rapids ride looks a little too similar to the Indominous Rex from Jurassic World? Thinking this design might need to be tweaked before the lawyers get involved.

July 15, 2015 at 8:14 AM · No Splash Mountain, but the Roarin' Rapids ride is an improvement. I hope they designed the new creature right so it doesn't breakdown like the Yeti.

Tomorrowland has the movie aesthetic. Their title actually means Tomorrow-World. They should have dueling Rocket Jets with the huge population going to the parks, but maybe later. The Tron coaster looks like a bigger version of Knott's Pony Express.

There's a lot of new ideas in the park. Hopefully a few rides will make it to the USA along with Japan's and Hong Kong's new rides.

July 15, 2015 at 8:28 AM · If you look at the preview video for Fantasyland, they have one of the vehicles for the Winnie the Pooh honey pot "tea cups" and I also noticed the Alice maze had artwork from the Burton version.
July 15, 2015 at 12:23 PM · Not that we didn't already know this, but now its clear why work on domestic Disney parks has been so slow, Iger's got his army in Shanghai pulling out all the stops. It looks amazing and I love how many new, original or updated attractions this park will have.

*Also to the guy who blasted the park...you would rather just have another Disneyland clone park? And I don't know if you are referring to Tron or Tron: Legacy but the latter was not a critical and financial disaster. Over $400M worldwide paid for the film and marketing, so it was about a break-even, and critics were divided, but the overall message was "ok to good, just not great."

July 15, 2015 at 9:37 AM · To the one who said that there would never be a sequel to Tron: what are you talking about? There already is a sequel. It is Tron Legacy, which was out a few years ago. Many people liked it and it wasn't a bomb. A Tron attraction would be amazing.
July 15, 2015 at 9:40 AM · hope they bring tron to studios
July 15, 2015 at 10:17 AM · Looks terrific to be sure, but I am most anxiously awaiting more details on Treasure Cove. I am hoping something similar will eventually come to Adventureland at the Magic Kingdom. That area of the park is ripe for a redo (after Tomorrowland, of course).
July 15, 2015 at 11:01 AM · Wow so china has 7 new and original e ticket rides either opened or soon opening (I'm including Hong Kong which is China wether they admit it or not) while Disney World got the mishmashed New Fantasyland with the 2 minute dwarf train as its marquee attraction? It's sad that you need a passport to experience Disney's newest and best.
July 15, 2015 at 1:08 PM · Mr. Galvan writes: "It's sad that you need a passport to experience Disney's newest and best."

I Respond: Citizens of China don't need a passport "to experience Disney's newest and best." AND thats' gonna be like a jallion new customers for Disney. Of course back here in the states -- if you believe the TEA/AECOM numbers -- Walt Disney world's "mishmased (sic) New (sic) Fantasyland" seems to be more than enough to keep the turnstiles spinning.

July 15, 2015 at 1:54 PM · I liked the line up, but 20 attractions/shows aren't enough for a theme park this size that generates a lot of expectation. Why would they cut Toy Story Playland? It is cheap, easy to build and has no development cost! And would reforce the line up.

Also some C ticket copy/paste attractions from other Disney parks would be usefull to divert the crowds from the main attractions queues.

July 15, 2015 at 2:07 PM · This park is a big departure from a typical Disneyland park. No Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain... the mountain range are gone. No Small World. I suspect this new and improved Disneyland is counter-programming to the cheap Chinese-made Disneyland knock-offs. The Chinese won't see the dancing dolls that they did in the other knock-off parks. No flying into outer space roller coaster. The real Disneyland park has the Tron cycle and the Voyage to the Crystal Grotto. They also get the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I suspect 3 hour waits.

Shanghai Disneyland sits between Japan and Hong Kong. It is so different from the other two parks. This will just drive attendance to Japan and Shanghai. I wonder if Hong Kong will feel shortchanged.

July 15, 2015 at 3:34 PM · Can't say I'm particularly impressed here.
July 15, 2015 at 4:57 PM · Time to start saving pennies, should be done by 2042.
July 15, 2015 at 8:15 PM · Mr. ? writes :

"Citizens of China don't need a passport"

I respond:

I'm not a citizen of the Peoples Republic of China therefore my opinion is not of their perspective.

"Walt Disney world's New Fantasyland seems to be more than enough to keep the turnstiles spinning"

That may be so but my comment has nothing to do with attendence or profits. I simply noted the huge difference between recent investment in China compared to disney world.

July 16, 2015 at 2:42 PM · If they decide to add anymore cloned attractions to this new Disney park, it should only be the very best Disney has to offer. What? You thought I was talking about Radiator Springs Racers, Haunted Mansion, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Pirates of the Caribbean or Mystic Manor? Pfft, nah, not those crappy attractions! I'm talking about the ones that showcase the true magic of Disney! That's right, I'm talking Rocket Rods, Tomorrowland Speedway, Astro Orbiter (grounded version), Tuck and Roll's Drive' em Buggies, and...the greatest Disney classic of all...Superstar Limo!!! Now that's an all-star lineup if I've ever seen one!
July 18, 2015 at 2:20 PM · The park looks like it will be the new standard for Disney. Sure they are missing several favorites, but they have replaced them with new attractions for the next generation of Disney fans. They probably should have included a few clones that are missing just to make sure it has enough atteactions to meet demand, but they can do that in the next few years and as needed. My guess is the new attractions here will appear throughout the world at the existing parks, especially Tomorrowland. Hopefully they don't make the same mistake they did copying the Paris version with just a new paint job. Hopefully with the redo at DCA, Shanghai Disneyland, Avatarland, redoing Hollywood Studios, and more to come, people will stop saying Disney does nothing. Universal is doing great, and has truly become a competitor that is as good, but not as big as Disney. Disney took decades to get where it is now, and they didn't do it by rushing. It's true that Disney is slow. But Disney's always had periods of growth and updates, followed by stagnation. That's happened at Disneyland, it's gone on lately at DisneyWorld, and at the parks overseas as well. In a few years things will be quiet at Universal. It's impossible to keep adding new attractions every year at multiple parks. Disneyland had lots of new things in the early years because it was Disney's only park. Once Walt Disney World started construction, they had to decide where to spend their time and money on. While Disney's operations have grown it still has this same problem it had, its just now nthere are more parks and resorts are in the mix.

Universal is doing so well because It just builds its newest and best in Orlando, then squeezes in whatever they can fit into it's other parks. They've never had the reputation or quality Disney has had so they've been able to to just focus on reinventing their parks starting with Orlando. Its hard to eliminate popular attractions even if they replaced it with something better. Universal dosen't have to worry about that right now. Disney does need to speed up their construction times thought, that I agree with. Hopefully after Shanghai they will decide to do whatever they can to expedite construction, even if it costs more money. They just need to remember not to speed up the creative process as well. As someone once said "you can't rush art"!

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