Walt Disney Postpones Opening of Shanghai Disneyland

Feb 03, 2015 08:34 AM EST

Dancers perform during the groundbreaking ceremony of Shanghai Disneyland in Pudong April 8, 2011. REUTERS/Aly Song

Walt Disney Postpones Opening of Shanghai Disneyland
US-based Walt Disney Co. has decided to delay the opening of the much-awaited Shanghai Disneyland Resort as it pursues the expansion of the original plan for the theme park, sources said.
Walt Disney has not officially commented on the report yet but sources said it will announce in the next few days the postponement of the opening of Shanghai Disneyland.

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The US $5.5-billion Shanghai Disneyland is scheduled to open by the end of this year but Walt Disney has decided to move it to the first half of 2016 so that the expansion of the original plan for the theme park will be included.
Sources also said that the American family entertainment and media enterprise also considered the result of consumer studies and weather concerns in deciding to postpone the opening of the park.
Shanghai Disneyland is a US $5.5-billion theme park jointly developed by Walt Disney and state-owned Shanghai Shendi Group.
The management of the Shanghai Disney Resort came out with new details on 13 November such as an 800-room hotel to be themed after the animated box-office hit Toy Story.
Still another hotel, the 420-room Shanghai Disneyland Hotel, is Art Nouveau with some Disney thrown in.
The 46,000-square-meter lakeside Disneytown will also have space for dining, entertainment and shopping.
The Shanghai Disney Resort is Disney's sixth resort destination worldwide. Construction began in 2011 in the Pudong New District, and it is slated for opening by the end of next year.
At 3.9 square kilometers, the size of 56 football fields, it will be the first Disney park on the Chinese mainland.
Apart from the "Treasure Cove", the first Pirates-themed land in any Disney park, Shanghai Disneyland will also feature many Chinese elements, like the "Garden of 12 Friends", based on the 12 animal signs of Chinese horoscope.
According to Philippe Gas, Shanghai Disney Resort General Manager, the theme park in Shanghai will offer the same spirit of share family entertainment that was first introduced by Walt Disney nearly six decades ago.