Hong Kong Disneyland - Photo Update

[getbak]

I mean is it going to have all of the DL updates.

The last I heard, HK's Space Mountain is going to be the same as the renovated version at DL. Based on the pictures, one difference is that the entrance will be at ground level.


I'm still undecided about the bricks on Main Street. It looks nice, but it sort of loses the "Street" aspect of it.

[GhostHostJeff]

Wow, that looks like the DCA of Disneyland. The aspects that they have taken from Disneyland are nice, but they way they used them seems so generic. I don't know really, but when I look at those pictures it just looks like this park does not have the Disney feel to it. Welcome to Main Brick Station.

[disney rocker]

It looks nice and all.....but something just feels odd to me. Hopefully once it is fully completed I will think differently, but as for now it feels so empty. I hate the fantasyland tent look, everything else looks fine. But something is just missing....hm.

[GhostHostJeff]

Also I see Pooh has a track, why in the word would they put it on a track when they could have done the one like in Tokyo. Something seems like they really did not go all out for this park.

[Skully]

Why spend the millons on a Pooh like Japan's on a park that probably won't pull in the same amount of people?

[jonvn]

it looks nicer than the anaheim park. It's really well done.

Are any of the signs in chinese? It looks like all signage is in english.

[Disney Vault]

it looks nicer than the anaheim park. It's really well done.

Are any of the signs in chinese? It looks like all signage is in english.

I can not see one thing I like better in this park then the anaheim park.

[jonvn]

THen I suspect you're not looking very closely. The location is amazing, with the mountains and the ocean, the brickway in the streets, the freshness of it, and so on.

But what it comes down to, though, is if you are determined to not like something you won't, no matter what. And I really don't think it means a whole lot. If you don't like it, I don't think Disney is going to go out of business.

I figure that most people making comments either way will never set foot in the place.

[Marcie]

Okay, for some of you who want to quickly judge a park before its completion, you first need to understand how the park came about with regards to the unique and restrictive relationship Disney has with the government of Hong Kong.

Disney had to create a separate company that is co-owned with the government. In fact the government owns a majority of the company. The government has scrutinized every single dime that Disney has spent on this project and basically tied Disney's hands on their initial budgets.

In addition, there were deliberate decisions made in the design of this park that cater to a culture and market that is completely different than the American and European audiences. Frontierland was cut because the Chinese don't have any connection to the American wild west.

There are no Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder, Splash Mountain, etc. because a very small percentage of people who live in China and Hong Kong are even familiar with any of the basic Disneyland attractions like these big E-tickets. Furthermore, the Chinese have an issue in seeing ghost like images in a 3-D format, so the Haunted Mansion wasn't built with this park.

Such stories as Snow White, Peter Pan, Pinnocchio and Alice in Wonderland are also not well known in China and Hong Kong, so those dark rides were left out. Theater is really big in China and Hong Kong, so the decision to add theater type attractions was a deliberate one.

Such stories as Lion King, Winnie-the-Pooh, Tarzan, and Toy Story are popluarly known in China and Hong Kong, so those attractions were included.

Disney has been spending the past year in helping to build an awareness of HK Disneyland, as well as introducing many of the classic Disney stories on a weekly TV show called, coincidently, Magical World of Disney. The effort is paying off as China and Hong Kong residents' awareness of what HK Disneyland is as a theme park concept went from like the low teens in percentages to better than 70 and 80 percent.

There are plans in the works to add at least another 2 to 3 E-tickets over the next 3 to 4 years. However, Disney is bound to work closely with a governing body in Hong Kong that is so controlling and difficult at times with finances.

So, I think some of you should be careful about jumping too quickly on that bandwagon before knowing the facts about the behind-the-scenes relationship between Disney and the Hong Kong government.

The park is absolutely stunning. Yeah, it is small but, with plenty of room to grow and grow, it will over the next decade. Disney took a huge gamble going into a market that wasn't largely familiar with Disneyland, let alone most of Disney's classic animated films. Fortunately, that is all changing and I perdict HK Disneyland will be a huge hit, but not without many challenges that the park will face in the first few years.

Also, for the people who criticize the park on being too similar to Disneyland need to realize that only Main Street, small portions of Fantasyland and one building in Adventureland are replicas of the original park. 95% of Tomorrowland, much of Adventureland, and a number of buildings in Fantasyland are all unique to the HK park.

Now let's look at other Disneyland type parks around the world. Much of TDL buildings are replicas of buildings at Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom in Florida. A majority of the building facades on Main Street at DLP are from WDW and some of the buildings in DLP's Fantasyland are from Disneyland in Anaheim.

So ALL Disneyland style theme parks around the world borrowing existing designs from each other. The only exception might be the Magic Kingdom in WDW didn't borrow any building designs from Disneyland back in 1971.

So, don't judge it until you see it in person. While the pictures are nice, they don't do the park justice.

Oh, and the hotels are not ripoffs from any of the other properties either. The Hollywood Hotel isn't a duplicate of the Ambassador Hotel in Tokyo. And while the Disneyland Hotel may look similar to the Grand Floridian, it is far more eleborate and victorian in its theming on the inside. In fact, in my opinion, it blows away the interior theming of the Grand Floridian.

[Sydney]

Marcie-- Great to hear from ya, hope you're doing very well...

I for one was thrilled with the previews and pictures we've had of the HK park so far, and I think it's wonderful that they replicated the main street from the park here in CA... and the rumored E-Tickets for the first few years of upgrades sound amazing... seems to me that HK Disneyland has a bright future...