Disney announces $800 million increase for Shanghai Disneyland

Wow, lots to think about here:

1) Really?

2) How could they have gone this far down the path with this park, and now determine that they need additional capacity at opening?

3) Really? After all we have heard about how this park would be fully sized at opening after the half day parks that preceded it (DHS,DAK, DCA, Paris studios, HKDL)

4) How the hell does Disney hope to have anything closely resembling $800MM worth of previously un-announced attractions up and running in 24 months. Even if you assume that the official announcement post dates the actual go-ahead, it couldn't have been by much, right?

5) I would LOVE to see the planning that somehow has $800MM in expansion pad projects ready to be green lit at a moment's notice, ALL while the park is being built (and some would say redesigned on the fly)

6) Any speculation on what these heretofore unannounced attractions could be, based on the designs and attractions list previously announced?

Disney California Adventure was never a half-day park. I'll agree with the rest of your list, but in terms of the number of attractions it had a full lineup from the day the park debuted in 2001.

When there are only 15 other people in the park and no lines for anything, it's not a full day park.

egieszl,

I know you have a greater love for DCA v1.0 than I do, and there may technically have been X number of attractions that, on paper, looks like a full day park. The reality was something entirely different, and certainly not up to the expectations of someone paying full Disneyland pricing to get into DCA.

I can't stress enough how much I enjoy DCA v2.0, and find myself spending more time there than in DL. But the park today versus it's opening day line up are so vastly different, that it's almost not the same park (it is, but you know what point I'm trying to make).

As for Shanghai, I guess that Toy Story Mania is an easy "plug and play", so there's $200MM.

What else was missing from the initial attractions list that could be easily dropped in?

I sure hope a copy of that wouldn't cost $200 million... the R&D has been done for years!

Jeff,

That's the estimated cost for the proposed Paris version (accounting for Euro costs) from another site (that focuses on DLP). I agree it seems high. I would assume that once it's all "budgeted", with accelerated construction costs, Shanghai might be similar, but hopefully cheaper.

Either way the obvious expansion pad sites at SDL were Toy Story, and the big pad/pathway to the left of Pirates which might be anything, though Pandora might be the obvious choice (and would certainly help amortize the Orlando costs). Tom Staggs must be salivating at that thought.

So that's still not $800MM. Any thoughts?

Magic Bands? There goes the budget right there...
:-)

BWAHAHAHAHA! Nice.