Shanghai Disneyland

[Sam]

No-one cares about Shanghai Disneyland.

Anyway, new low-res concept art:



Overview. POTC on the right. TRON ride on the left.



Park entrance.



Area between entrance and castle.



Ratatouille.

[MinteButtons]

It certainly looks promising but I'm sorely disappointed in the lack of a Mulan ride.

:P

[SpinballEdders]

It certainly looks promising but I'm sorely disappointed in the lack of a Mulan ride.

:P

That would look too normal at this Disney park. It's like having a Chav themed area at Thorpe!

:P

[JoeGibbon]

That would look too normal at this Disney park. It's like having a Chav themed area at Thorpe!

Wait, so it's not intentionally themed like that? Wonders never cease...

Anyway, looks to be a fairly decent park ride wise, theming wise of course it will be amazing. I can't see a space mountain though is Tron instead of this?

[Sam]

I can't see a space mountain though is Tron instead of this?

Yes.

[Coolbeans14]

If it is scaled back, I wonder if they are looking back to the last biggest project they undertook, Paris, which has been such a financial success...

[Sam]

Very exciting news about Shanghai's Pirates, sounds like it won't be the dumbed down affair we first suspected.

Park News - (5/21/12) Remember that last rumor about the all new version of Pirates of the Caribbean being planned for Shanghai Disneyland? You know… the one where they would use of magnetic LIMs underwater to not only control the speed of the boats, but give them the ability to make the boats move backwards as if pushed by an otherworldly force? 

    Well, that rumor just took another big step towards reality this week, with the discovery of a new Disney technology patent filed just last year for an “Amusement Park Ride With Underwater-Controlled Boats”. According to the patent, the technology would allow for “a boat ride with precise speed and orientation control.” The technology gets even more interesting than I had imagined, as describes the boats having two independent bogies (front and back) that are “operable to independently propel, with linear motors, the front and rear bogies at the same or differing first and second velocities by applying a magnetic force to reaction plates on the bogies. The track assembly includes a joined section and a divided section, which includes a primary track on which the front bogie travels and a secondary track, spaced apart from the primary track, on which the rear bogie travels. The boat may be rotated to any orientation in the divided track section.”

    Translation: Not only can the boats move forward and back, but the back of the boat will be on a second “track”, allowing for the back to speed up faster than the front, thus spinning the boat AROUND. Even better… the patent exposes another interesting use for this technology on the 4th page where it shows the boat turning sideways to rotate around a central “show scene” like the hands on a clock. If this looks familiar, this very same concept was used in a few rides at Epcot, such as the original Journey Into Imagination dark ride (where you were introduced to Dreamfinder) and is still in use today at the summit of Spaceship Earth where all the cars rotate to view the projection on the domed ceiling.

    This actually ties into another common and generally assumed fact… that this new version of Pirates will be themed entirely to the film series and not themed around the concepts and scenes from the previous rides. The Chinese culture was not raised over the last few decades to have a general knowledge of what to expect from Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean rides, but is aware of the new feature film series. This brings to light another popular rumor claiming that this new version of the ride may heavily favor projection based show scenes rather than rely on animatronics. After all, why spend the money to make a Captain Jack animatronic figure try to lip sync to a soundtrack when you can just film Johnny Depp himself performing as Captain Jack?

    While this new concept is not the same as the more action oriented flume ride version envisioned for Hong Kong Disneyland, I’m hearing that they may opt to keep the same iconic finale scene, which would involve an outdoor Splash Mountain style plunge, with the boats exiting out of the mouth of “Skull Rock” and plunging down through the wreckage of a doomed pirate ship impaled upon the rocky shoreline (standing in for the same visual effect as the Briar Patch on Splash Mountain.) Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?  Now how can we get one of these here in the US somehow?

Omnimover-on-Sea anyone?

[Nightfall]

Very interesting. I look forward to seeing this come to life.

I must say I like the new approach they are taking with Shanghai Disneyland. While it's a pity they are using more film IP's and less pre-existing classic ride IP's for these new twists on existing attractions the results should be very interesting, potentially game changing.

[JustWill]

I want to bring this topic back considering we're not too far from opening.

I must admit, the park looks gorgeous and the castle is one of, if not my favourite, Disney castle.

I do also like the variation they have in the park, it's not using the same formula and layout used at pretty much every other Magic Kingdom park and I am very excited to one day be going.

[Aidan Lowe]

Can we just appreciate how beautiful the Tron ride looks: " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Owen]

Toy Story Land

Toy Story Land is headed to Disneyland Shanghai in summer 2018! This new land appears to be very similar to the other existing lands featuring RC Racer, Parachute Drop and other fun rides and attractions. As more details are revealed I am sure we will know about them!

[Robert.W]

Toy Story Land opens at Shanghai Disneyland!

The new area, themed to Pixar's popular Toy Story movies was officially opened on 26th April, and includes new attractions as well as meet and greet opportunitys and themed shopping and dining experiences!

New Attractions:
• Rex's Racer – a steel shuttle roller coaster, hosted by the character "Rex". It is the same ride system used in other Toy Story Playlands, where the attraction is known as RC Racer.
• Slinky Dog Spin – a caterpillar style ride, themed to the character "Slinky Dog". It is a clone of the same ride which can be found at other Toy Story Playlands.
• Woody's Roundup – a demolition derby type ride, themed to the character "Woody". It is unique to Toy Story Land at Shanghai Disneyland, and can not be found at the other Toy Story themed lands.
• Meeting Post – a character meet and greet location, where guests can meet with characters from the Toy Story movies.

New Shopping and Dining:
• Toy Box Café – a themed quick service cafe serving food and drinks from multiple cuisines.
• Al's Toy Barn – a themed shop selling merchandise including games, toys, pins and more.

The video below gives us a look at what the new land has to offer!

[youtube]sI54IoKI0ts[/youtube]

[abigsmurf]

Considering how amazing so most of Shanghai Disneyland is, it's kinda strange they decided to clone one of the most questionable additions to Paris. Maybe they felt they needed some new rides in quick.

[Swarm Chris]

I seem to remember it was quite popular at Hong Kong Disneyland. Ironically it's given more space in Hong Kong than at Paris, which helps a lot.

Looks like they've done a pick and mix of Paris and reskined California Adventure rides.

[ThemeCrafter264]

Remember China is still very much 'new ' for allowing non-Chinese media to be shown. This explains why Star Wars just isn't that big in China (poor Last Jedi performance) and also with Disney princesses. However, newer brands like Marvel and Pixar are a lot more successful in China due there not being a nostalgic connection like in Europe/America. Thus, you can see in SDL, that Toy Story is a big thing for the park (still makes no sense why there is still the alien shooter dark ride in tomorrow land).