See what Fireworks top Disney - Total Luxury opens with Atlantis

[flynnibus]

Wow, check out this article covering the opening the Atlantis in Dubai - billed to be the world's new most luxurious hotel.

The fireworks presentation alone at the opening cost 3.5 MILLION and the opening party cost 30 million. Check out some of these stats about the firework's show

Now, before you see pictures and videos of it, you have to know that there was not one firework only around the Atlantis, but all over the 17 km long Palm Jumeirah Island crescent and inside the island. Here are some numbers to give you the idea of the gigantic proportions:
- The Fireworks were launched from 716 locations (!)
- 50 points along the 17km crescent of Palm Jumeirah
- 226 floating pontoons stretched across 46km of water outlining the fronds of The Palm
- 40 locations along the 5.5km monorail outlined Palm Jumeirah’s trunk
- Over 400 balconies on the south facade and all rooftop surfaces of Atlantis The Palm - More than 100,000 specially designed pyrotechnic devices were fired in less than 9 minutes
- Relay sequences raced over 2,500 miles per hour in order to ignite more than 500 devices in 50 locations covering 17km in only 8 seconds
- The display utilized 79k of cables stretched across the 520-kilometres of Atlantis and Palm Jumeirah
- 220 pyrotechnicians spent 3,500 days to set up and produce this display
- The pyrotechnic display was one of the most ambitiously designed and technically advanced computer-controlled fireworks performances ever attempted, run by 62 computer systems operated by 1,200 satellite control modules, which fired more than 36,000 circuits.
- Special Effect Fireworks were designed and manufactured in China, Spain, Italy and Taiwan in addition to the designer’s own special effects Fireworks by Grucci made in the USA.

Full story and details at the blog post
Disney and more: Atlantis The Palm Grand Opening - Part Two

But here are just some of the clips of videos posted there
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=http:...layer_embedded

Check it out.. amazing photos and story.

[flynnibus]

And THIS is a lobby! :o

[kcnole]

Its truly incredible the level some of the things are being built at out there, but I still have doubts that this area will be able to sustain the immense number of tourist things they're having there. I mean how many theme parks do they need in one area? I just don't see them all surviving. What are they going to do in 15 years when the area is full of beautiful buildings that nobody goes into.

[JtnOrl]

Dubai is certainly the most extravagant project I've ever seen, I'll give them that, but I still think it's doomed to fail. Tourist meccas don't pop up overnight.

[Coast21]

Wow, insane fire work display a lil to much for my taste but still awesome. That lobby tho, AMAZIN!!!!!!!!

[MissChristine]

Wow, that's amazing! And I'll take a lost chambers suite, while I'm there. Egadz!

[flynnibus]

Tourist meccas don't pop up overnight.

Coming from someone with their location marked as Orlando.. don't you think that's kind of ironic?

But Dubai already is a tourist destination.. just not for the US.

[DisneyPro]

A little off-topic, but I'm going to the Atlantis in the Bahamas in two weeks. I am so excited!

On topic:

Those fireworks are pretty extravagant, but a little too much for my liking.

[kcnole]

I know Dubai already brings in a lot of tourists, I'm just not certain it can support this many things. If you tried to put that many theme parks in Orlando most of them would fail. I'm just not convinced it can support the sheer number of announced attractions.

[MissChristine]

A little off-topic, but I'm going to the Atlantis in the Bahamas in two weeks. I am so excited!

On topic:

Those fireworks are pretty extravagant, but a little too much for my liking.

On the Off Topic...the Atlantis of Nassau/Paradise Island is stunning! Enjoy it!

[JtnOrl]

Coming from someone with their location marked as Orlando.. don't you think that's kind of ironic?

No. Orlando didn't build this much, this fast. Forget tourist attractions, this place didn't even EXIST twenty years ago!


Dubai in 1990

[flynnibus]

No. Orlando didn't build this much, this fast. Forget tourist attractions, this place didn't even EXIST twenty years ago!


Dubai in 1990

And Orlando has only been anything more then a regional stop before WDW came only 37 years ago. Orlando boomed in less then 15 years.

Just because Americans aren't going to Dubai doesn't mean no one does.

[flynnibus]

Oh.. and BTW... in 2008... the hotel occupancy rate in Dubai beat Orlando.

Nov. 25--Orlando-area hotels were less full in October than a year earlier -- the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year declines for the local lodging market.

The average hotel in the Orlando market was 61.9 percent full last month, compared with 65.3 percent in October 2007, according to Smith Travel Research, for a decline of 5.1 percent. Revenue per available room -- a key industry measure -- was also down 5.1 percent from a year ago.

Compared to Dubai.. which was tracking at 69%. And those ultra high priced hotels? 84%

Orlando has dropped like a stone the last two months (even down to 51%) but I can't find more recent data for Dubai right now.

[kcnole]

I'm not saying Dubai won't stay as a tourist destination, but there's what (15 different plans for various theme parks there). Can it really support that many things? I hope they do, because it seems like some great ideas are going out that way. It just appears to be aiming for something twice the size of Orlando as far as attractions go.

Back to the fireworks, they reminded me of the Olympics fireworks, but these all appeared to be real.

[CupcakeTerror]

Whoa.