The resort also features live entertainment spaces, two hotels (the 420-room Shanghai Disneyland Hotel and the 800-room Toy Story Hotel), a shopping, dining and entertainment district called Disneytown, and the 40-hectare Wishing Star Park.
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After more than a decade of negotiations, five years of construction and weeks of testing, Shanghai Disneyland opened its doors to the general public on Thursday.
It calculates there are 330 million people living within a three-hour journey of Shanghai who are potential visitors.
But there has been criticism in the Chinese media about the price visitors have to pay. When Wanda’s Nanchang park opened last month, performers dressed as Snow White and Captain America greeted children throughout the grounds, prompting Disney to issue a warning to Wanda that it is prepared to take action to protect the company’s intellectual property rights. At the entrance, instead of “Main Street USA”, it’s “Mickey Avenue”.
In a garden leading to its iconic castle, Disney created a “Garden of the Twelve Friends” using characters such as Remy from “Ratatouille” and Tigger from “Winnie the Pooh” to represent animals of the Chinese Zodiac.
Iger yesterday said the Shanghai Disney project needs to show “great respect” for the Chinese people and culture, calling Disney an “invited guest” of the Chinese government.
But Disney faces the danger that it might be so crowded potential visitors would be put off. A concert and party were then held in the park on Wednesday, ahead of the official grand opening on Thursday.
But the Hong Kong park has long struggled due to its small size and lack of popular rides, and profits have remained flat at the resort in Tokyo.
“One thing that is very obvious to us is how much people are enjoying themselves”, Iger said.
In 2005, then Disney President and Chief Operating Officer Bob Iger told the New York Times at the eve of the Hong Kong Disneyland’s opening that they can not put up a similar theme park in the mainland without “educating” the audience of their characters and stories first.
Shanghai Disney could also help lure more consumers to its films.
The three-day celebration began on Tuesday with the staging of the first ever Mandarin production of The Lion King at the 1,200-seat Walt Disney Grand Theatre.
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The massive store inside the park is selling Minnie Mouse in traditional Chinese dress, as well as a doll evoking 1920s Shanghai glamour. “What we’ve found on food has been surprising”, Disney CEO Robert Iger said in an interview last week, referring to the park’s F&B offerings.
