Disney Announces New Theme Park Resort in Abu Dhabi, Its First in the Middle East

8 days ago in "Disneyland Abu Dhabi"

Posted: Wednesday May 7, 2025 8:00am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

The Walt Disney Company is expanding its global footprint with plans for a new Disney theme park resort in Abu Dhabi, developed in partnership with Miral, the developer behind many of Yas Island’s major attractions. The new resort marks Disney’s seventh theme park destination and the first in the Middle East.

Disney Abu Dhabi Concept Art

Located on the waterfront of Yas Island, a growing hub for entertainment and tourism, the Disney Abu Dhabi resort will combine Disney’s well-known characters, attractions, and storytelling with the architectural and cultural identity of the UAE capital.

Miral will fully fund and develop the project, while Disney will lead the creative design and offer operational guidance through its Imagineering team. Miral will also operate the completed resort.

Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse at Disneyland Abu Dhabi Announcement

“This is a thrilling moment for our company as we announce plans to build an exciting Disney theme park resort in Abu Dhabi, whose culture is rich with an appreciation of the arts and creativity,” said Robert A. Iger, Chief Executive Officer, The Walt Disney Company. “As our seventh theme park destination, it will rise from this land in spectacular fashion, blending contemporary architecture with cutting edge technology to offer guests deeply immersive entertainment experiences in unique and modern ways. Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati – an oasis of extraordinary Disney entertainment at this crossroads of the world that will bring to life our timeless characters and stories in many new ways and will become a source of joy and inspiration for the people of this vast region to enjoy for generations to come.”

The new destination is designed to serve the region’s rapidly growing tourism sector. The UAE is located within a four-hour flight of one-third of the global population and serves as a major air transit hub, drawing over 120 million annual passengers through Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Experiences, described the project as Disney’s most advanced and interactive resort to date. “This groundbreaking resort destination represents a new frontier in theme park development. Our resort in Abu Dhabi will be the most advanced and interactive destination in our portfolio. The location of our park is incredibly unique – anchored by a beautiful waterfront – which will allow us to tell our stories in completely new ways. This project will reach guests in a whole new part of the world, welcoming more families to experience Disney than ever before. Ultimately, it will be a celebration of what’s possible when creativity and progress come together.”

The development will include:

A new Disney theme park with immersive attractions
Themed resort accommodations
Dining and shopping offerings
Entertainment designed to reflect Disney’s storytelling and the cultural identity of Abu Dhabi

Disney Abu Dhabi Concept Art

Miral Chairman His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak emphasized the long-term vision behind the project. “What we are creating with Disney in Abu Dhabi is a whole new world of imagination — an experience that will inspire generations.”

A timeline for construction and opening has not yet been released.

Pictured: Mohamed Abdalla Al Zaabi, CEO of Miral, His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, Chairman of Miral, His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Bob Iger, CEO of The Walt Disney Company, Josh D’Amaro, Chairman, Disney Experiences

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Go_Bears_8012 minutes ago

He meant "but wee tykes" as in, "when we were but wee tykes".

lazyboy97o1 hour ago

Have you not seen a Six Flags park? Warner Bros. World was a $1 billion park. It’s not a comparable scope and scale.

osian1 hour ago

BTW having slagged off the dark rides, I must point out that some of the POVs you see aren't really representative and the rides may actually be better than they look in YT videos. In a lot of them, you can see the warehouse the rides are in, the infrastructure on the ceiling, the walls, the supporting arms etc and it looks like what exactly they are, artificial sets in a warehouse. But they are filmed with low light cameras. You can't actually see all those details in real life.

Lilofan5 hours ago

Who knows if you hob knob with the oil sheik billionaires you just might get a nice gift in return !

mkt5 hours ago

At least with Wizarding World, they’re absolutely pedantic to deal with.

osian5 hours ago

I was in Dubai and Abu Dhabi with the ECC in March 2017. I was swayed by the bragging rights of riding the world's fastest coaster, but I'm over chasing record breakers now and I won't be going there again. We visited Legoland, Bollywood, Motiongate, IMG, Ferrari World, some malls with rides, Global Village and the Burj Khalifa. I agree that the rides in these places were very much meh. There was amazing theming everywhere but the dark rides especially were underwhelming. I remember the Dinosaur/Indian Jones lookalike in IMG (The Forbidden Territory I think it was called), and it just felt cheap. Overall impressions of the place at that time were extremely hot and empty parks. My favourite park was actually Bollywood, loved the theming. Favourite coaster was Flying Aces at Ferrari World, phenomenal coaster. And favourite other ride was the Hulk-themed one at IMG, sort of like a more intense version of the new Danse Macabre at Efteling. Cross between Star Tours and a massive Tagada!

Rush5 hours ago

Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi is a great park, even if some of the rides are a tier or two below Disney and Universal standards. The Harry Potter expansion and the rumored DC additions will keep it a must visit, even after Disneyland opens.

JaKnight5 hours ago

I've been watching videos of the dark rides at Warner Bros Abu Dhabi and they're simply terrible. They're basically rides through static sets, with a few animatronics with simple movements and some screens. I also find it curious that all of their attractions feature the DC Comics heroes in their New 52 versions — a much-criticized take that stopped being used around, what, 10 years ago? It would make more sense to use the more iconic standard versions, in my opinion. Warner Bros Movie World in Madrid is also quite disappointing in many ways. I wonder if Warner Bros doesn't enforce strict control over the use of its IPs the way Disney or Universal do. Disney really has an easy path to stand out with a massive difference in quality in the area.

Rush8 hours ago

It's not that simple. Abu Dhabi's probably the last qualified geographical area left for Disney to tap into. EMEAI is a developing region with an already established rich, and an emerging middle class. UAE is at the center of it, and a hot spot for tourists from the Arab World, the rest of MENA, India and Russia. In addition, the Emirates has invested heavily into it's aviation industry, and creating an attractive layover is part of it all. Miral footing the bill is simply an additional plus.

Vegas Disney Fan12 hours ago

I agree, it’s been interesting reading the pros and cons of other cities but I think if we were having the same conversation a year ago and someone suggested Abu Dhabi most people would have argued against it… bad climate, small population, some social issues, etc. The reality is they have deep pockets and are willing to pay for it, that’s why Disney is building a park there.

MisterPenguin12 hours ago

I'm sure there are a lot of places around the world that Disney would happily build a new park. If someone else was spending the $10B to build it.

Robbiem17 hours ago

To have a full resort and not a day park it really needs to be in southern Europe where the weather is better. Spain and Portugal would be the obvious choices

Comped18 hours ago

The French government may, depending on who you asked who was involved in the early days of EuroDisney, not been forthcoming about the issues Disney would have with labour in particular... Which still haunt the resort to this day (that, and a contract which forces new parks once the place meets benchmarks). (For his part, a friend of Iger's once told me that he would have built the resort in the Netherlands or Belgium.)