By late afternoon, the rain gathered strength. “It’s a waste of time”, she said.
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While profits at Disney’s parks in the USA have surged by 50 percent over the past five years, revenue at its resorts in Hong Kong, Tokyo and Paris has been flat.
The Shanghai park’s opening comes as tragedy struck Disney’s resort in the U.S. state of Florida, when an alligator killed a two-year-old child at the shore of a lake by a hotel in the massive complex. There is Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, as in Anaheim and at Disney World in Orlando, Fla., but zones such as Frontierland – Westernland, as it is known at Tokyo Disney – are not included because the park wants to avoid accusations of cultural imperialism. In contrast, Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, drew 19.3 million visitors in 2014. The boy’s body was recovered Wednesday. “We believe the benefits associated with the Shanghai Resort and the resulting continued diversification away from (its cable networks business) will be supportive of the Disney narrative”.
Walt Disney opening the gates of its first resort in mainland China was a big moment. Iger read out messages from President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping.
Shanghai’s opening day events were somewhat tarnished by news from Florida.
It comes as China’s economic growth is actually slowing down.
The news is causing huge excitement in China, with China Eastern Airlines even making over one of their passenger jets in full Shanghai Disneyland regalia.
In the Shanghai park, Disney needs its Chinese partner’s approval to change restaurant prices and other management details. Others posed in front of the iconic castle. All guests for the opening ceremony were given blue-and-gold mouse-ears hats to wear and asked to keep them on.
Some of the quirkier aspects of the park include a turkey leg station which is serving the meat, rarely eaten in China, to adventurous Disney fans. Before the opening ceremony, the officials stopped by the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Thousands more guests visited the resort’s Wishing Star Park recreational area and Disneytown, a vibrant retail, dining and shopping district that is home to the Walt Disney Grand Theatre, where guests may experience the first Mandarin production of Disney’s musical hit THE LION KING. Aside from a brief stretch outdoors, the ride immerses guests inside at speeds of 62 miles-per-hour as they race to capture eight energy gates.
Only those with tickets bought in advance were allowed entry Thursday.
“It’s not worth waiting for two hours”, said one man from the central province of Henan, who had his two sons in tow.
Shanghai Disneyland undertook a massive recruitment campaign earlier this year to hire the 10,000 staff it needs to operate the park.
But on its first day, visitors came from all over China.
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“With the opening of Shanghai Disney Resort, Disney is providing the people of China with family entertainment for all of China and its Mainland”, the letter read, calling the resort a symbol that “reflects the growing relationship between our nations”. The joint venture with China-based Shanghai Shendi Group, which owns 57% of the park, is the glitziest in a spate of entertainment firms rushing to establish themselves in the world’s most populous nation, one run by a regime that increasingly views entertainment as a vital component of its soft power.
