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The operator of Disneyland Abu Dhabi has put an end to months of speculation by confirming that the upcoming theme park would "never work" outdoors.
Disneyland Abu Dhabi will be developed and run by Miral, the Abu Dhabi government-backed leisure operator behind the region's leading theme parks - Warner Bros. World, SeaWorld and Ferrari World. These three parks on Abu Dhabi's Yas Island hold their own against the best in the business even though all of them are indoors due to the scorching hot climate where summer temperatures soar above 110 degrees.
"We know from our experience that an outdoor theme park would never work," said Miral's trailblazing chief executive Mohamed Al Zaabi in a revealing interview with the the Middle East's local edition of Forbes.
It will be a first for Disney as all of its other theme parks are largely outdoors. In contrast, it is familiar territory for Al Zaabi as he is an industry pioneer.
As he explained in a LinkedIn post about the Forbes Middle East feature, "everything we do here, we do differently."
He added that he is "proud to see Yas Island becoming the capital of theme parks in the world; a true global destination that continues to attract the most iconic international IPs, and now the future home of Disneyland Abu Dhabi. This recognition is a testament to Abu Dhabi's visionary leadership and the unwavering dedication of the Miral team."
Al Zaabi told Forbes Middle East "we know for sure that Disney will be hybrid, it will be indoor and outdoor. At this stage, it is too early to decide, but I reckon a good percentage of it will be indoor." This follows the model of some of Miral's existing attractions such as Ferrari World where the outdoor roller coasters cover a footprint which is almost as large as the park itself.
Zipping around outside on a roller coaster is one of the best ways to beat the heat in Abu Dhabi which billows from all angles like it is coming from a huge hairdryer.
Often it isn't even possible to cool down with fans which spray mist as the water warms up the moment it hits the air. In winter, it can hit 90 degrees but that's nothing compared to summer. Over the past week alone it has been more than 100 at night in nearby Dubai with humidity of more than 70%. During the day the mercury regularly soars above 110 in Abu Dhabi giving it a 'feels like' temperature of more than 130.
To put that into context, at Walt Disney World in Orlando the National Weather Service only issues "excessive heat warnings" when it feels like more than 113 degrees.
In Abu Dhabi and Dubai the sidewalk can get so hot that it melts shoes causing soles to get ripped off when they stick to the floor. It can be a particular problem in the region's many water parks as the pathways are often so hot that it stings to walk on them bare foot which is why some operators give complimentary aqua socks to all visitors.
To beat the summer heat, Miral is keeping its Yas Waterworld park open until at least 9PM every day until the end of August. The park recently swung open the doors to a new expansion which is purpose-built for late night operations with tiny lights under the handrails. Sun loungers are also lined up under the artificial fort at the heart of the park and a new restaurant has indoor seating. Al Zaabi told Gulf News that Miral "tailored and designed this experience...based on feedback we received from our customers."
This has all contributed to Miral becoming known as the world's leading operator of indoor theme parks and its specialism has paid off.
As this author reported in the local Khaleej Times newspaper, Warner Bros. World is the first theme park in the Middle East to appear on the Global Attractions Attendance report with 1.8 million visitors streaming through its turnstiles in 2023. In turn, this has had a magic touch on Yas Island's hotels.
Talking at the Hotel Show 2025 in May, Paul Fanning, Miral's executive director of asset management, said that last year "average occupancy for 12 months was 83%. In summer it was 82% and in August 2024 we were at 90% occupancy in our hotels which is a pretty staggering number and really shows that we have turned that around completely so now we are a year-round destination. Now of course it helps when you have covered theme parks."
Bearing that in mind, it is completely logical that Disneyland Abu Dhabi will follow its counterparts and won't be outdoors. However, there has been a cloud of uncertainty over this from the moment that the park was announced in May as as the concept art of it looked like it was uncovered.
Seemingly endorsing an outdoor format, Disney's chief executive Bob Iger told CNBC that "we're not talking about anything small or anything in a box" and added that "this will be a significant theme park that we're putting here."
Al Zaabi then told the DubaiEye radio station that his "priority is to create convenient and unique customer experiences for our guests. We really want them to enjoy their time and have the best experience here in Abu Dhabi. And it has to be as convenient as we can. As you know, we have done all our theme parks indoor. So Disney will be an indoor theme park."
This was initially reported by hospitality trade title Skift which was picked up on the same day by The Sun, one of Britain's most widely-read newspapers. That brought it to the attention of a string of theme park fan websites such as Inside The Magic and WDW News Today.
Sources inside Miral later explained that Al Zaabi wasn't referring to the whole park when he told DubaiEye that "Disney will be an indoor theme park." The radio station has since edited that comment out of its interview but it's what actually happens that really counts.
Disney's theme parks are designed by its Imagineers who are named after their imaginative use of engineering. Their head office is in Glendale, California, which is where the parks are usually designed. Al Zaabi recently posted on Instagram that he has visited the office but it seems far more important for Imagineering to spend more time in Abu Dhabi.
In his recent interview with Forbes Middle East, Al Zaabi said that the Disney team only made its first visit to Abu Dhabi in 2024. "For some of them, it was their first time ever to visit this region," he added. They may need to spend much more time there than that in order to get a true sense of the scale of the hurdle they are up against with the climate.
Some observers have suggested that it gets hot in Orlando and that doesn’t prevent Walt Disney World from being outdoors so why does the park in Abu Dhabi need to be indoors? That is like saying that Disneyland Paris is outdoors and it snows there so why not build an outdoor park in Iceland. It does indeed get hot in Orlando but not on a par with Abu Dhabi and if the parks weren’t indoors there they wouldn’t be viable.
Given how many hours visitors spend walking from ride to ride at a Disney park, with some guests doing it in a mobility scooter, it could be extremely dangerous if Disneyland Abu Dhabi was outdoors. Some dedicated Disney fans make a point of visiting all of its parks and Miral would not want even one of them to suffer in the brutal heat which is precisely why Al Zaabi said that "an outdoor theme park would never work."
Guests are in safe hands with him. The INSEAD-educated manager began his 25-year career in business working for the UAE government before switching to ALDAR Properties, Abu Dhabi's biggest listed property developer where he rose to the role of director of strategic investment. This gave him high-level experience of the role that real estate plays at the heart of the UAE's economy and it also brought him into contact with Mohamed Al Mubarak,the chairman of Miral and Abu Dhabi's Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT).
A graduate of Northeastern University in Boston, Al Mubarak is one of Abu Dhabi's most prominent business figures having been chief executive of ALDAR before becoming chairman of DCT where he has turned the city into a global cultural powerhouse. His pioneering approach brought the Louvre to Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island cultural district with a Guggenheim,a Natural History Museum and a National Museum also under construction.As this author has reported,they all played a key role in convincing Disney to plant its flag in Abu Dhabi.
However,it wouldn't have been possible if it wasn't for Al Zaabi's vision of making Yas Island a hub for the world's leading theme parks. Disney is the crown jewel but it will still follow the same model as the other parks with Miral funding,developing and building it. This is very different to Disney's model in the United States which sees it designing,developing and owning its parks. If Disney wants to build an outdoor park in the U.S. then that's what it does.
In contrast,Miral is calling the shots in Abu Dhabi and the end result should be all the better for it as the company is the region's foremost theme park expert. This is one of the reasons Disney chose it and now it has to take its advice on board which is thankfully exactly what seems to be happening.
Al Zaabi recently told Gulf News that regular workshops are already taking place between Disney and Miral's development teams so clearly The Mouse isn't going it alone.
Ultimately,if the park ends up being "in a box" as Iger put it,it doesn't actually matter. As Iger knows,just like the soundstages where movies are made,it’s not what they look like from the outside but what happens inside that counts.
Of course,just because the park isn't outdoors,that doesn't mean it has to be in a box-shaped building. As this author reported,there is evidence to suggest that Disneyland Abu Dhabi could be located inside an eye-catching series of spheres as were planned for California's Port Disney project.
Developing a park which isn't outdoors will also enable Disney to create attractions which aren't possible at its usual parks.
The Disneyland Abu Dhabi concept art showed that it will be home to a shimmering crystalline castle similar to the one in Disney's hit animated film Frozen. The film has already featured in several Disney rides but none have been set inside an actual snowy environment which would be possible in an indoor park. As this author has reported,indoor snow parks are highly popular in the Middle East and are one of the few genres of attraction which aren't already on Yas Island.
An indoor setting will also give Disney the flexibility it requires for its usual park format which can involve afternoon parades taking place in the summer between midday and 3PM. This wouldn't legally be possible if Disneyland Abu Dhabi was outdoors as the government imposes a ban on work under direct sunlight and in open-air spaces between 12:30PM and 3:00PM,from June 15 to September 15.
An indoor park would make Disney's nightly fireworks displays more difficult to pull off though transparent spheres could address that. Likewise, an outdoor lagoon surrounded by air-conditioned corridors would give Yas Island the platform for a much-needed regular night time spectacular. Air-conditioned corridors are far from fantasy as Dubai recently announced that it will build 6,500 kilometers of them to ensure that 80% of residents can access essential services within a 20-minute commute. The city has already figured out a way to ease the strain on pedestrians as one of the main sidewalks leading up to the world's biggest waterpark on Dubai's palm-shaped island is lined with a rubbery red surface so that walking isn't stressful on your heels.
Perhaps the best indication of the potential for Disneyland Abu Dhabi is that Dubai's Expo 2020, which featured theme park-quality pavilions, pulled in a staggering 24 million visitors during its six-month run. Although the site was largely outdoors it was held in the cooler months from October 1, 2021, to March 31, 2022. If it had been held indoors and had run for the entire year it could have cast an even more powerful spell. Miral really does have everything to play for.