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HONG KONG DISNEYLAND
Lantau Island, Hong Kong
Walt Disney Theme Parks
 Park News - (7/1/09) Big news from Hong Kong Disneyland today as the park has announced plans for a huge expansion to the park that would see the creation of three new lands and several attractions to be built along a new pathway that will run along the backside of the park’s River area. What I found kind of surprising is that the long rumored giant Pirates themed land was not one of the new areas… instead they chose to copy the new Toy Story Land from Disneyland Paris, build a new Frontierland style area called Grizzly Trail as well as building an entirely new take on the Haunted Mansion concept in an entirely new concept area called Mystic Point.
Branching off from Adventureland around to the backside of the Jungle Cruise river will be Grizzly Trail, which is themed around an old west frontier gold mine town called Grizzly Gulch. According to the story the town was founded on August 8th, 1888 – the luckiest day / month / year ever to happen… however wild bears have been causing a lot of trouble for the Big Grizzly Mountain Mining Company.
In addition to fun photo opportunities, geysers and scenic props all around the abandoned town area, the major attraction of the area is the Big Grizzly Mountain Coaster, a runaway mine train that passes through the nearby mountain and empty town area. This isn’t just a copy of the popular Big Thunder Mountain concept however, as guests will encounter plenty of life sized Animatronic bears along the way, and the coaster itself may have more in common with Expedition Everest. According to the description the coaster will feature a run backwards down an incline that I assume will twist and turn through tunnels in the mountain before the train hits a launch section that will “blast” it back out of the mountain.
The next land down the park is Mystic Point, where you will encounter Mystic Manor, a large creepy home hidden away in the heart of the dense uncharted rain forest. The home belonged to a very eccentric world traveler and adventurer and serves as a large showcase for all of the various exotic and perhaps magical artifacts he had collected over the years. Thanks to a “mischievous monkey” an enchanted music box is activated and is the cause for the dark ride adventure that follows. Nothing was said about the exact story or what happens within the ride itself, but it was mentioned that it will feature a trackless ride system that will allow the cars to move about anywhere they want inside Mystic Manor. Nearby the Manor is Mystic Point, a garden full of relics and statues that hide a hidden world of illusions. In a move sure to really irritate some Walt Disney World fans, the area will also feature a restaurant with a very interesting theme… The Adventure’s Club. Guests will dine in a restaurant themed around a vast collection of strange and unique artifacts discovered all around the world. Yep… the Adventure’s Club restaurant idea that was once rumored for DisneySea is actually going to Hong Kong.
Last up, which will connect the path back into Fantasyland is Toy Story Land, a pixar themed land that will feature three flat rides and is pretty much being designed based on the same land being built right now for Walt Disney Studios Paris. The rides will include a half-pipe ride themed to RC Racer, a kid friendly parachute drop themed to the Green Army Men and a Slinky Dog themed Music Express style ride.
All said and done, Disney is spending just over $450 million on this expansion which will be built up from now through 2015. While I’m not entirely sure of the order, I believe Toy Story Land may be built first and I wouldn’t be surprised if Grizzly Gulch was built last, but I haven’t seen an exact timeline yet. To read more details and see some awesome concept artwork, make the jump over to Disney and More.
(5/6/09) According to this news article, the Hong Kong government and Disney may be close to coming to an agreement as to how to move ahead with the Hong Kong Disneyland park.
(4/21/09) According to the Disney and More blog, they talk about a new article that came out in the local Hong Kong media about the themes for three possible new lands in the park. The themes of the new lands would include a Wilderness area, an Arctic area and an Adventure area. The Wilderness area sounds like Frontierland, complete with a Big Thunder style coaster ride. The Arctic area talks about building an enclosed area with snow slopes while the description of the last area almost sounded like they were looking at building something like the Indiana Jones dark ride or something else with a more supernatural adventure theme. (Splash Pirates anyone?).
(3/20/09) Disney and the Hong Kong Government are having some issues it seems over the future of the Hong Kong Disenyland park’s expansion. According to a few news articles online, Disney has pulled all staff off of any plans involving the expansion of that park right now.
(3/17/09) A great photo trip report from Hong Kong Disneyland has been posted to Westcoaster this week.
(12/31/08) An article at Reuters talks a bit about how the Hong Kong Government may accept “equity rather than cash” as repayment for some of the $782 million loan they gave to fund Hong Kong Disneyland as the park, government and Walt Disney Company work out the ways to fund the parks next much needed expansion.
(12/23/08) According to this article the CEO of Hong Kong Disneyland has mentioned a possible HK$4 Billion expansion of the park is being talked about, with details to be released sometime next year once the government signs off on the plans. The project could take 2-3 years to finish but would add three themed zones and the size of the expanded area would be as big as 1/3rd of the size of the current park. Some new attraction planned for the area would be exclusive to HKDL.
(12/17/08) According to Variety Disney has offered to fund the massive expansion plans for the Hong Kong Disneyland park, though the plans have yet to be approved by the government.
(12/11/08) According to this article Hong Kong Disneyland only drew in 4.5 million guests this year, falling short of the 6.2 million they had hoped to get. This number is an improvement over last year’s 4.17 million however. Of course these numbers are at odds with a previous article we quoted from over the summer that claimed that the resort was targeting only 5.6 million this year.
(11/20/08) According to an article posted in Variety, Disney and the Hong Kong Government are in talks over a proposed $645 million (HK$5 billion) expansion plan to the theme park that would add three entirely new themed lands and attractions. As hinted at previously, I can only assume they’re trying to finalize plans to finally add a Haunted Mansion and Pirates attractions (see below) to the park at the very least. More on this as it develops.
(10/1/08) According to the news an agreement has been settled between Disney and the local government to switch over the park’s 3.3 billion Hong Kong Dollar loans to various banks to the Walt Disney Company who can offer them more favorable terms. With this important step complete, the park can now start to plan their next wave of expansions and improvements.
(9/17/08) Take a visit to a very empty looking Hong Kong Disneyland with Theme Park Review with lots of pictures taken inside the new It’s A Small World.
(9/9/08) Hong Kong Disneyland has put up a great website and preview video showing off what they have planned for Haunted Halloween. It’s a Halloween event like nothing we’ve ever seen here in the USA, complete with the Adventureland Haunted Trail, Glow In The Park Parade (ummm, didn’t Six Flags use that name?), Main Street Haunted Hotel and Space Mountain – Ghost Galaxy.
(8/28/08) According to the local news Hong Kong Disneyland is expected to finally meet or at least get close to their target attendance figure of 5.6 million, up from just 4.2 million last year.
(8/14/08) Disney has hired a new head for Hong Kong Disneyland in the form of Andrew Kam, who comes to Disney from his previous gig where he was the managing and sale director in charge of 14 Chinese markets for the local Cola-Cola company, so at least he knows how to promote an American product to the Chinese marketplace.
(8/2/08) According to the local media Disney and the Hong Kong government are currently at odds over the issues of how they will re-finance $325 million of loan debt due this September. On a positive note for the park however, the Chinese government has made some changes that will make it easier for potential tourists from the nearby Chinese cities to visit Hong Kong Disneyland.
2011 - Pirates of the Caribbean - In Development - (6/6/07) The latest rumors claim that construction on the movie themed version of Pirates of the Caribbean could start in 2009 and open in 2011.
 (1/19/07) The new Disney Stock Report contained this interesting piece of artwork showing off what looks like a pirate port city on a river, whcih is exactly what the rumors claim the outside of a new Pirates ride would look like.
(1/9/07) This week's MiceAge gives off a few more details about the next Pirates ride in development for Hong Kong Disneyland. While they don't address the rumors that it may feature a few more wild flume thrill ride style elements, they do talk about it's placement in the park and confirm our previous rumors that it will be closely tied into the story and scenes from the films and not so much on the older Disney ride scenes. The placement of the ride will be similar to how Indiana Jones was placed at Disneyland, with the ride building just outside the berm and train track and a new pirate village themed entrance placed at the edge of Adventureland as the entry area. In fact they mention a few smaller attractions may be considered to be placed outside the ride as well. Like Indiana Jones at Disneyland, the ride may have a long and extensively themed queue through the pirate town of Port Royal to take guests from the main park out to the ride building. They also mention that it may also feature a Blue Bayou restaurant tied into the building / attraction just as they have at Disneyland. Even better, they may even set up a lagoon setting in front of the ride that could be used for a Hong Kong version of Fantasmic that may also be themed to Pirates.
(5/4/05) The latest word from our sources indicates that the addition of Pirates has been pushed back a few years. Since the park is owned by the Hong Kong government they will need to fund the project themselves and will want to have the park open and see how it performs before committing to it. They are serious enough about it however that the project has been designed to the “Schematic Phase” where it will take about 3-4 years to complete and build it. Our source also confirms that the ride design is a hybrid between Splash Mountain and the traditional Pirates of the Caribbean rides. The ride will also likely be slightly more themed to the film series from the start.
2013 - Haunted Mansion - Rumor - (1/9/07) We’ve heard the rumors ourselves on and off, but it just seemed too far off to report yet until new details were brought to light with the Pirates project above. The reports claim that the Hong Kong version of the Haunted Mansion may place it beyond the upcoming Pirates attraction project where it will tie into the overall Pirates area and themes to create a new storyline about pirates and cursed ship captains, wenches and whatnot, possibly using the Tia Dalma voodoo priestess character from the films. Like many of the other Hong Kong icons, MiceAge reports that the plan at this point is the make the outside of the Mansion look similar to the Disneyland version, which has never been copied at any other Disney park before.
???? - New Hotel - Confirmed - (7/26/07) While attendance at Hong Kong Disneyland is below expectations, that hasn’t stopped the Disney Resorts on site from filling up. Based on the occupancy rates at the resorts existing two resorts, HKDL is moving ahead with plans to build a 3rd hotel to fill the growing demand. The new hotel, which wont open for a few more years, will be built on a site between the resorts other two hotels that is currently used for “sporting activities”.
Future Projects - (6/6/07) Sources claim that a Hong Kong version of Downtown Disney is on the drawing boards right now, though we have no idea when they may try to move forward with it. We’ve also heard they have plans for another themed hotel too, but those plans will only move forward if and when the current attendance problems have been solved. Right now the focus is on improving the park experience and adding new attractions that can draw in bigger crowds.
From what I’ve been told there are a few other ride concepts being tossed around to go in after Pirates opens, most of which will likely be connected to the area in some fashion. In addition to a couple of kiddie rides ideas, we’ve heard talk about a themed outdoor coaster ride as well as the previously rumored voodoo themed Haunted Mansion that would also share a connection to the Pirates films. The coaster concept is interesting however, because I’ve got to wonder if it’s the same one they were talking about adding to Florida’s Magic Kingdom based on the idea of a Pirates 4: Fountain of Youth theme.
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