NEWS: Disney Responds to Questions About When New Disneyland Abu Dhabi Park Will Open

Disney shocked the world recently when it announced that it had plans to bring a brand-new theme park and resort to Abu Dhabi, UAE.

Disney revealed a few small details about the new park, which will be on Yas Island, along the waterfront. Disney also revealed it could be its most technologically advanced resort to date. We also learned that the park would be fully developed and operated by Miral, a company focused on destinations and experiences. Disney did not reveal an opening timeline, although we have a rough idea of when it might open.

In a recent interview, CNBC asked CEO Bob Iger about a potential opening date for the new Abu Dhabi Resort, but Iger stated that the company hadn’t yet decided on a specific opening date or timeline. However, he gave us a good idea of exactly when the park could open based on how long it would take to build the resort.

Iger said, “It typically takes us between 18 months and two years to design and fully develop, and approximately five years to build, but we’re not making any commitments right now.”

So if we do the math, we can estimate that if Disney begins designing the park this year, in 2025 (and it’s likely the company has already started on this), they’ll have the plans done for the park in 2026 or 2027. So let’s go with 2027. Once that’s done, it will take five years to build the park, which puts the opening timeline around 2032. So this is probably the EARLIEST we could see the new Abu Dhabi resort open to the public.

Of course, we don’t know how far Disney has made it into the planning stage, and the design stage may not have started yet so that that date could be generous, and we could see it open later than that — or earlier, as we don’t have any more details.

We’ll basically have to see how progress on the Abu Dhabi resort progresses and wait for Disney to give us a better idea of the resort’s timeline. It’s worth noting that the project is NOT financed by Disney. The park will be developed and built by Miral, and Disney Imagineers will lead the creative design and operational oversight. Ultimately, Miral, in collaboration with American and European brands, will operate the resort.

Until then, we’ll be keeping an eye out for updates, so check back with AllEars again soon for more.