Abu Dhabi Reveals Disneyland Could Open Before Universal Studios Great Britain

Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism has disclosed that its Disney theme park is expected to open in 2030 at the earliest, one year ahead of the new British outpost operated by the Mouse’s main rival Universal Studios.

The news was disclosed on the Department of Culture and Tourism’s official Visit Abu Dhabi website which states that “Disneyland Abu Dhabi is still in the early design stages. While no dates have been officially communicated yet, expect the opening of Disneyland Abu Dhabi to be sometime between 2030 and 2032.”

It reflects comments from Josh D’Amaro, chairman of Disney’s Experiences theme park division, who told Reuters in May when the park was announced that a project of this scale could take a year or two to design, and another four to six years to build.

On the same day, Disney’s chief executive Bob Iger was interviewed by CNBC about the development of its theme parks and gave a different view. He said that “it typically takes us between 18 months and two years to design and fully develop and approximately five years to build.” Adding to the confusion, despite these statements, just a few hours later Disney’s publicity team told me that “we have not been giving an estimated opening date” for the park.

As this report revealed, the details on the invitation to the Disneyland Abu Dhabi announcement said that it would showcase the “vision for the next five years” of Yas Island, the entertainment destination where the park will be built.

This suggested that the earliest it could swing open its doors is 2030 in line with D’Amaro’s timeline. However, Disney’s public relations agency was quick to point out that the promise of an announcement about the vision for the next five years of Yas Island was simply a way of inviting media “without mentioning Disney” in order to keep the project under wraps.

When the new park was announced, Disney released several pieces of concept art showing that it will be home to an eye-catching crystalline castle. This author revealed that the designer behind the project is Zach Riddley who spearheaded the rose gold repaint of the iconic Cinderella Castle for the 50th anniversary of the Magic Kingdom theme park at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

In a video released today, Disney confirmed that the castle will be returning to its original blue and silver color scheme now that the celebrations are over. Riddley also revealed that although Disneyland Abu Dhabi will have an avant-garde castle, it will be “based on our Magic Kingdom style of storytelling.” He added that “Abu Dhabi is a city on the water and so we’re really excited about being able to incorporate water for the first time in the design of one of our castles.”

Riddley confirmed that development only got underway recently which explains why the park still has a wide opening window. “We have shared artwork very early in terms of what we think the vision of this could be,” he said. “I think on that end stay tuned.”

However, there is considerable compulsion to open it sooner rather than later. Unlike most of its other outposts, Disney won’t own or operate the one in Abu Dhabi. Instead, local leisure experts Miral will be responsible for that and in May its chairman Mohamed Al Mubarak told Good Morning America that he wants Disneyland to open “as fast as possible.”

Universal has announced a specific year when it expects guests to start streaming through the turnstiles of its upcoming park. At last week’s Bank of America 2025 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, Mark Woodbury, chairman and chief executive of Universal Destinations & Experiences, said that the company is targeting a 2031 opening for its United Kingdom theme park.

He described the project as “a full-blown Universal theme park with an [integrated] 500-room hotel,” but added that to prevent “cannibalizing” U.K. visitors to its Orlando resort, the new one will feature “a different mix of attractions” based on stories that appeal to the local audience. It has fueled rumours that James Bond and Paddington attractions will be built in the park which is forecast to create 28,000 jobs and inject $67.8 billion (£50 billion) into the U.K. economy. Time will tell when the money starts flowing in.

A report in yesterday’s Sunday Times claimed that experts have warned the park could increase daily water demand in the area by as much as 50% so Anglian Water, the local supplier, may need to double the size of its sewage treatment works and overhaul major infrastructure.

Ofwat, the industry regulator, has reportedly insisted that Anglian has not yet submitted detailed proposals for the work. If it throws a spanner in the works hitting the 2031 target might not be a walk in the park.