" A $5 billion Disneyland-style development the size of Monaco." (Link Fixed)

[WDWHound]

I posted this on the CB, but I thought the folks on this board migh find it interesting.

Its called Dubailand and its gonna be huge. Dubai seems like a strange place to build such a thing, but they are moving forward. One of the attractions will be called Restless Planet...

"Restless Planet, scheduled to open in late 2006 or early 2007, would be a 500,000-square-foot air-conditioned park that re-enacts the origins of planet Earth, the beginning of time when dinosaurs ruled the earth and their demise in a mixture of entertainment and education.

The venture aims to recreate the gamut of dinosaur species, their surroundings and plant life in as authentic a way as possible. It will feature more than 100 life-size animatronic dinosaurs, plus possibly thousands of computer-generated dinosaur-age beasts in movies, graphics and other designs."

Here is a link to more info:
http://www.amusementbusiness.com/am...article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000969154

 

[marypops!]

is disney making this then
because i would think they have disney in the name
and also the link doesn't work
(scared of dinosaurs Ahhhhhhh!)

 

[WDWHound]

is disney making this then
because i would think they have disney in the name
and also the link doesn't work
(scared of dinosaurs Ahhhhhhh!)

Nope, Disney is not involved. Thanks for letting me know about the link. I fixed it.

 

[ChrisFL]

Acutally Dubai is a big place for building super expensive stuff, since they are all rich oil-barons over there. They have that hotel that looks like a sailing ship, only 6 star resort in the world, or something like that

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

See http://www.dubailand.ae/

 

[mark&sue]

I thought is was seven star hotel - apparently the worlds most expensive hotel. There is a massive water park next to the hotel.


Susan

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

I thought is was seven star hotel - apparently the worlds most expensive hotel. There is a massive water park next to the hotel.

That's the Burj Al Arab, luxury hotel with just 202 huge suites. See http://www.burj-al-arab.com/

I've never heard of a "seven star hotel." Most hotel rating scales go up to five stars. But this is clearly a very high-end hotel for wealthy visitors.

The water park is Wild Wadi. See http://www.wildwadi.com/

Dubailand and the Burj Al Arab are not the same thing. Dubailand will be a massive theme park and resort complex.

 

[dennis99ss]

Expensive, but not that expensive, when compared to other hotels in the same class. about 750 a night.

 

[wildviper]

I am speechless. Walt Disney reincarnated. This is going to be the biggest entertainment and tourist attraction on the planet. What I love about Walt Disney was his willingness to dream. Something the creators of Dubailand understand. Where are the visoniaries for the Disney Corporation?
As Walt himself once said, "If you can dream it, you can do it."

 

[PrincessShea]

Wow. The pictures on the website looking amazing. I would love to go. The Dinosaur thing seems very "Disney-ish".

Not to bring political drama into the discussion, but isn't UAE surrounded by a lot of "dangerous" places? How can it become a tourist mecca? Has anyone ever been? Anyway like I said, it sounds cool enough for me to take a risk.

 

[mitros]

Let me hop in my Lear jet and boogy on over to Dubai.

 

[ChrisFL]

How can it become a tourist mecca?

There is great irony in this sentence, I'd just like to point out.

 

[jimmybog]

Dubai is fast becoming one of the main holiday hot spots for Europeans. Only a 7 hour flight away, fantastic weather (no hurricanes here!) very high standard of accomodation, excellant shopping and food. It's also becoming a major Business centre. There are a lot of major developments taking place there at the moment; three man made palm islands, business districts, new airport and of course Dubailand. One thing that goes against Dubai though is the costs. Food, drink and hotels are not cheap compared to Florida. And I would be suprised if Dubailand made a significant dent in Uk visitors to Florida. Safety wise? I would say that Dubai is no less safer than other major tourist destinations.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) I am sure the park will be exquisite.
2) However, don't people realize how big Monaco is?
3) It is ONLY 0.76 square miles (approx 486 acres)
4) This is about three times the size of Disneyland.
5) Big, but not all THAT big.

 

[Horace Horsecollar]

1) I am sure the park will be exquisite.
2) However, don't people realize how big Monaco is?
3) It is ONLY 0.76 square miles (approx 486 acres)
4) This is about three times the size of Disneyland.
5) Big, but not all THAT big.

Good point about the small size of Monaco. But the topic name, "A $5 billion Disneyland-style development the size of Monaco," appears to be inaccurate.

See this article: http://www.ameinfo.com/34675.html

It says, "According to bin Dasmal, the 2 billion square feet project - 100 times the size of Monaco - will have radical implications for the bottom line for tourism and hospitality companies that already have sizeable interests in Dubai."

 

[Kelly Grannell]

500,000-square-foot air-conditioned park

WOW! Imagine the electricity to run the AC clusters.

 

[peter11435]

WOW! Imagine the electricity to run the AC clusters.

Lets not forget the land pavilion at Epcot is 250,000 square feet, as is the UOE. Even just the AA is over 100,000 square feet. Thus 500,000 square feet is not all that much to air condition, and far less than is air conditioned at WDW.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

Well, it's still double the size of UOE, plus considering they are going to have life-sized dinos, the ceiling will be that much higher which makes cooling even more difficult.

 

[mwehttam]

But honestly, who will go here? Europeans? It's in the Middle East (south of Saudi Arabia). It will have a big bulls-eye on it for terrorists. Granted it will take time to build but if there are still fanatical anti-western Islamists, this Dubialand will never be safe. So I don't see any Western tourists going. Then who is left? Rich Arabs? There aren't that many for this place to turn a profit and the terrorists hate them as well.
Just my 2 cents.

-Matthew

 

[peter11435]

Well, it's still double the size of UOE, plus considering they are going to have life-sized dinos, the ceiling will be that much higher which makes cooling even more difficult.

Many of the Dinosaurs in the UoE are also life-size and the main show building is about 6 stories of open space. Also there ia over 45 million square feet of air-conditioned space at WDW. 45,076,719 at last count to be exact.