Disney announced the development of a fourth themed resort hotel, located immediately adjacent to the entrance to Shanghai Disneyland, along with a new development plan that’ll add a second ‘wing’ to the Disneytown shopping and dining district. Here are full details from the press release, followed by our commentary.
Upon completion, the fourth hotel at Shanghai Disney Resort will be a gateway for its guests to begin their day in Shanghai Disneyland. The new development plan will also include new shopping and dining experiences, allowing resort guests to have extended experiences in the Disneytown retail, dining and entertainment district located just outside the theme park.
These new projects add to the massive expansion plans already underway at Shanghai Disney Resort, including the development of a third themed hotel on the south shore of Wishing Star Lake, a ninth themed land at Shanghai Disneyland, and a major expansion of the park’s iconic Soaring Over the Horizon attraction.
The expansion will transform the area next to the main entrance of Shanghai Disneyland into Shanghai Disney Resort’s fourth themed hotel. Located just a few steps away from the theme park’s main entrance, the brand-new hotel will become the closest Disney hotel to the park, welcoming guests into a premium destination infused with Disney stories and imagination.
Here’s concept art of the expansion released by Shanghai Disney Resort:
As part of the expansion, a wide variety of brand-new shopping, dining and entertainment offerings will accompany the development of the fourth hotel, in what will essentially be Disneytown’s second phase.
As one of the highlights of the expansion, a new Disney shopping destination, similar to the World of Disney Store on the opposite side of Shanghai Disneyland’s front entrance, will offer a new and unique shopping experience, allowing guests to have access to the resort’s exclusive merchandise without entering the park.
The fourth hotel will be the latest addition to join Shanghai Disney Resort’s other three themed hotels, including Shanghai Disneyland Hotel, Toy Story Hotel, and the third hotel that is currently under construction, providing even more accommodation and leisure options when guests plan their Disney vacation at Shanghai Disney Resort.
If you’re trying to visual where this expansion will be located, here’s a map:
The fourth hotel, Disneytown expansion, and Soaring’s second theater, will all be located in the green area between Adventure Isle and Wishing Star Park. This was master-planned as this type of expansion from the conception of Shanghai Disney Resort.
Shanghai Disney Resort’s Third Hotel
The resort’s third themed hotel is currently under construction on the south side of Wishing Star Lake, adjacent to Shanghai Disneyland Hotel. This nine-floor deluxe hotel is currently undergoing interior fit-out and façade installation.
Inspired by Shanghai’s unique architectural legacy, the hotel will be designed and decorated in the Art Nouveau style while incorporating the resort’s guiding principle of “authentically Disney and distinctly Chinese,” offering guests a themed accommodation experience.
When completed, the third themed hotel will feature rooms with extraordinary views of Shanghai Disneyland, and new recreational amenities and programs, including an outdoor pool and indoor pavilion pool.
Soaring Over the Horizon Expansion
As part of these efforts, the resort will expand Shanghai Disneyland’s iconic attraction, Soaring Over the Horizon, to significantly increase the daily capacity for one of the theme park’s most popular attractions. As a special surprise, once completed, guests will encounter a brand-new scene at the end of their aerial journey. The attraction will remain open during the expansion phase.
Featuring an original story, Soaring Over the Horizon takes guests on a flight across the globe, offering a fan-favorite guest experience. The expansion will see an approximately 50% increase on the current attraction capacity, so more guests can take flight on aerial tours around the globe (and with lower wait times).
New Spider-Man Land
A little over one month ago, Shanghai Disney Resort achieved a major milestone by installing the first vertical steel column for the major attraction at Shanghai Disneyland’s new Spider-Man-themed land, marking the official beginning of the installation work for this high-energy thrill coaster.
The construction of the Spider-Man-themed land officially began in May 2025 and is progressing smoothly. As the latest addition and the ninth themed land at Shanghai Disneyland, this Spider-Man area will present the park’s first major Marvel attraction, a high-energy thrill coaster featuring Spider-Man.
Guests entering the Spider-Man land will be surrounded by Spider-Man and his friends with unique shopping, food and beverage, and entertainment experiences that extend the story and invite guests into the web-slinger’s world.
Shanghai Disneyland Hits 100 Million Guest Milestone
The resort’s ongoing expansion and development efforts are fueled by growing demand from guests and fans from across China and around the world, as evidenced by Shanghai Disneyland’s latest milestone, welcoming its 100 millionth theme park guest since its Grand Opening.
“Guest experience is at the heart of everything we do. By blending creativity, innovation and storytelling, we continue to design and deliver new, unique experiences in true Disney style,” said Andrew Bolstein, President and General Manager of Shanghai Disney Resort.
“Our latest expansion plans stand as compelling testaments to this commitment. The new hotel will become another important touchpoint of our holistic resort offering, and with the additional shopping and dining experiences, we will provide our guests with a vibrant, comprehensive vacation experience with even more dynamic options.”
Shanghai Disney Resort has welcomed guests from near and far with its unique high-quality entertainment experiences, bringing happiness and smiles to guests around the world.
Last week, the resort hit a major attendance milestone when its theme park welcomed its 100 millionth guest, an impressive record within only slightly over nine years of operations. With its continuous development in guest experiences, Shanghai Disney Resort has become a landmark tourism destination of the city, resonating with local guests as well as Disney fans worldwide.
The announcement of the expansion also comes amid Shanghai Disney Resort being internationally recognized as an iconic global tourism destination. According to the TEA Global Experience Index 2024, Shanghai Disneyland again ranked #5 in attendance among the all worldwide theme parks, and #1 in China, with a record-breaking annual attendance of 14.7 million. (We covered the attendance report here.)
TEA further attributed the China market’s growth to be led by Shanghai Disneyland, and stated that the opening of Zootopia land led to a major impact throughout 2024, with the land’s headline ride, Zootopia: Hot Pursuit, receiving high guest satisfaction scores.
Our Commentary
Whenever projects are announced for the international parks, the inevitable response among many Walt Disney World and Disneyland fans is: “why aren’t they investing that money here instead of overseas?!” Well, for one, they absolutely are. Both Walt Disney World and Disneyland are in the early phases of a 10-year plan that will yield a minimum $20 billion investment through the 2030s. Probably more.
For another thing, those attendance numbers should answer the question. Shanghai Disneyland was behind only Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, Universal Studios Japan, and Tokyo Disneyland in global attendance. Those are three other high-capacity castle parks–the newest of which is over 40 years old–plus Universal’s most crowded park on the planet.
Shanghai Disneyland is punching above its weight for a park that is still so new (only 9 years old).
The initial investment in the park now looks brilliant, and I say that as someone who openly questioned whether Disney would make the same decision to build Shanghai Disney Resort were the decision made in 2020 (perhaps even more recently). The post-COVID comeback has been huge. Investing more money in SDR/SDL absolutely makes sense.
Bob Iger should’ve retired after opening Shanghai Disneyland, because it would’ve been a great legacy project that aged like fine wine. The series of decisions and events since has been a bit more, ahem, mixed. Maybe in a different multiverse, Tom Staggs is on stage for the opening of the park as part of his transition into the CEO role. We could’ve been spared the whole Chapek Era and all that came with it.
It looks like a brilliant decision almost a decade later, but it was a rocky road to get Shanghai Disneyland to this point. Or even just to opening day. Getting a deal done with the Chinese government was no easy process–it took roughly two decades (and two CEOs) after the initial idea of entering the mainland to sign a deal to build Shanghai Disneyland, with partner Shendi owning a majority stake in the project.
That agreement was approved by the Chinese government in November 2009, with the park announced a year later by Disney in November 2010. Construction began with a groundbreaking ceremony on April 7, 2011.
Originally scheduled to open in 2015, an additional $800 million investment was made due to cost overruns, delays, and/or to add capacity and entertainment. Reports of various problems, from the health of the workers on the construction project to talk of rebuilding certain elements due to shoddy construction, were tied to the project. As a result of these issues or others, the opening date of Shanghai Disneyland was delayed by roughly a year.
As longtime readers might recall, we attended opening day of Shanghai Disneyland–wrongly assuming it would be the last new castle park in our lifetimes. We’ve called it the most complete opening day park in decades, and a return to form for Disney in that regard.
In terms of operational capacity, it’s quite the contrast to Epic Universe, the most recent major new park we’ve attended. Universal’s new gate is fantastic…so long as attendance is under ~12,000 people. I cannot even imagine what would need to be added in order for Epic Universe to comfortably welcome 14.7 million guests in a year. Probably a lot more than will be built out there in the next decade.
For comprehensive Shanghai Disneyland trip planning–covering everything from culture to hotels to transportation from the airport and more–read our Shanghai Disneyland Trip Planning Guide!
Your Thoughts
What do you think of these expansion plans for Shanghai Disney Resort? If you’ve been to Shanghai Disneyland, what are your thoughts on the park or resort complex as a whole? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!