By Ben Fritz
SHANGHAI -- Walt Disney Co. on Thursday opened the gates to its
first resort in mainland China under rainy skies, after years of
planning and costs of more than $5.5 billion.
As Chinese dancers and costumed characters filled a stage in
front of the Shanghai Disney Resort's massive Enchanted Storybook
Castle, announcers declared the park officially open at 11:01 a.m.
and fireworks went off above the castle.
Thirty minutes later, hundreds of employees lined the sides of
the main avenue of the park as the first visitors ran in. Employees
warned visitors to walk slowly as the ground was wet from the
rain.
Worried about overcrowding, particularly around the theme park's
entrance, Disney cautiously allowed access to the first ticket
holders only after the morning ceremonies were completed. Hours
after the gates officially opened, thousands of ticket holders
stood under umbrellas outside the park hoping to enter. Few
complained of the long wait.
Inside the park, university students Liu Zenyu and Zhang Shiming
from nearby Jiangsu province said they were surprised by how big
the park was and how many people it could hold. The 18-year-olds
waited more than half an hour for the Tron Lightcycle Power Run
roller coaster but said it was well worth it. "It was so fast,"
said Mr. Zhang with a grin.
By late afternoon, the rain gathered strength. Messrs. Liu and
Zhang said they were still excited to join the 40-minute line for
the park's flagship attraction, Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle
for the Sunken Treasure, a ride based on the movie series starring
Johnny Depp.
Mark Jochens and his wife, Nicole, traveled from Maastricht in
the Netherlands to experience opening day. Wearing an Epcot Center
shirt, Mr. Jochens said he had been to every Disney park and was
surprised at the wide walkways in the Shanghai park, which he said
took away "a bit of the atmosphere" but made it easier to deal with
the crowds.
The couple had already been on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride
twice by midafternoon.
The carefully orchestrated opening of the immense Shanghai
Disney Resort capped months of anticipation. But tragic events on
the other side of the world, starting with Sunday's mass shooting
at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub, threatened to overshadow what was
supposed to be a week of unalloyed triumph for the world's largest
entertainment company.
On Tuesday, a 2-year-old boy was killed when an alligator
dragged him into a lake at Florida's Walt Disney World Resort. The
boy's body was recovered Wednesday.
Disney Chief Executive and Chairman Robert Iger called the
family from Shanghai and George Kalogridis, president of the Walt
Disney World Resort, left China for Orlando immediately after news
of the alligator attack.
At the opening ceremony in Shanghai, Mr. Iger read aloud a
letter from U.S. President Barack Obama that said the resort
captured the spirit of the two countries' relationship and
underlined "the importance of China continuing to make itself
attractive to investment from around the world."
Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang, who read a letter from President
Xi Jinping, made light of the weather: "I told Chairman Iger rain
is a sign of good fortune," he said. "I like to call this a rain of
U.S. dollars and RMB" -- another name for China's currency, the
yuan.
There was no mention of the Orlando tragedies at the opening
events in Shanghai.
The park opens at a time when China's economic growth is the
slowest in decades. In a reference to global economic headwinds,
Mr. Wang said foreign investment into the country rose in the first
part of this year, "pointing to the attractiveness of China to the
global investment community."
After Disney opened a theme park in Hong Kong in 2005,
attendance was initially lower than expected in part because of a
lack of appealing attractions, though the company has steadily
added more.
Shanghai authorities have given Disney broad scope to manage
security inside the park. On Thursday, the area of the opening
ceremony in front of the castle was surrounded by metal detectors
and hundreds of security guards. All guests for the opening
ceremony were given blue-and-gold mouse-ears hats to wear and asked
to keep them on.
Government officials were escorted on golf carts by Disney
executives including the theme park's general director, Philippe
Gas. Before the opening ceremony, the officials stopped by the
Pirates of the Caribbean ride.
A combination of careful crowd control and the rain meant that
most lines weren't excessive by Disney theme-park standards. Most
waits were under an hour, though at one point the wait for the
Roaring Rapids water ride was two hours.
Only those with tickets bought in advance were allowed entry
Thursday. People arriving at the park's subway station were met by
Disney staff handing out information brochures, telling them there
wouldn't be any admission tickets on sale that day.
"The sight of the long lines makes me feel dizzy," said Zhen
Shuangqi, a 24-year-old student from Nanjing. He didn't have a
ticket and contented himself with browsing the Disney store outside
the park.
Disney tweaked its attractions during a month of testing ahead
of the opening, operating the park at up to two-thirds of its
capacity. After the opening, attendance could exceed 60,000
visitors daily, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
More than 10 million people are expected at the park in the first
year.
Disney owns 43% of Shanghai Disney Resort, with the majority
controlled by the local government's Shanghai Shendi Group Co.
--Yang Jie and Erich Schwartzel contributed to this article.
Write to Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 16, 2016 08:24 ET (12:24 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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