The Troubled History of Hong Kong Disneyland 

A trick : watch movies at Kaldrostream. I've been using them for watching lots of of movies lately.

@Shane Grayson Yea, been using kaldrostream for since december myself =)

We love Mystic Manor and think it's worth a trip to the park just for that ride! The future of the park looks so bright with all the upcoming expansions, we are looking forward to seeing what comes of this Park after it's troubled beginnings! - Luke

Yes!!! Mystic Manor is my favourite!!

And HKDL Has Disney Characters in its a small world

In which year was Mystic Manor established? (I managed to go to the park for a day in 2017-end)

@@SaurabhUdhani it opened in 2013

2020: Should I tell them?

2020: “Buckel up cowboy, it’s ab to get worse.”

@brucegoldberg1215 they already lost a vast amount of empty land, thus the chances of a second gate are now gone.

2019: freehonkong #cancelactiblizz

@@Emplordxiii 2024: IM BACK BABY

SoCal Transportation Spotter what about Animal Kingdom ?

Don't forget Disneyland Paris - unlike HKDL (which is majority owned by the HK government), that park was the true money sink for Disney after 25 yars of operation...

Ohlourdes Padua Disney didn’t own Paris either, Disney sold its shares to investors and a Saudi Prince. They’ve only just bought back 90% of the resorts shares from the Prince and these investors. This is why there’s so much investment all of a sudden, that’s why almost every part of Disneyland Paris has been refurbished and renovated over the past 2 years and expansions are being announce for WDS, because Disney finally has the rights to make these decisions once again after 20 years. The other share holders never did any of these things because they couldn’t be bothered.

For all the bad he did, he’s done a ton of good for the company. He was a risk taker, whereas Iger is just way too safe. Disney needs a middle ground.

I'll never forget how depressing the company's attitude toward the Disney parks seemed in the late nineties. It's true that Eisner played a part in saving Disney, and he deserves great credit for that, but Frank Wells was also responsible and rarely gets his due. Eisner wanted to close down animation before Little Mermaid. His only instincts were in making things bigger. And don't forget SaveDisney.com, Roy Disney's site, dedicated to fighting Eisner's trashing of the company near the end of his reign of terror. When Eisner did go, he stripped the company of its assets and took his filthy lucre. Iger, on the other hand, has shown that he understands what the Disney experience is supposed to be about, and all the new park additions are genuinely historic. He's solidified his place as a leader and not just the next Eisner. I love that HKDL was and is a smaller park. There's no question that Disney Sea is impressive, but it's so massive and seems to have none of the intimate quiet places that makes some of the other parks so special. What makes the original Disneyland so magical for me is its miniature qualities, which only HKDL has fully preserved, while opening up the spaces with more walkways. All in all it's turned into a very lovely place, especially with the gorgeous mountains surrounding the park. I'm heartbroken over what they're doing to the castle though. What the...?

We couldn't have said it better ourselves! It really is an amazing park that may have had a rough history but is well on it's way to being one of the top Disney Parks, especially for a Disney first timer!

I road that long skyway of birdcages. And the escalators, I didn't know they were the longest in the world.

Same

Instead of just another Toontown replica, HKDL could include a Disney Afternoon/Channel/XD-themed land named Cartoon Island which would be based not just on classic Disney cartoons and comics but also Disney TV Animation material such as DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, Chip n Dale the Rescue Rangers, TaleSpin, Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb, Gravity Falls, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Wander Over Yonder, Kick Buttowski, Amphibia, The Owl House and Big City Greens. That would be a perfect vehicle for Dipper/Mabel, Star Butterfly, Anne Boonchuy and the Plantars, Luz/Eda/King, Wander/Sylvia, Kick/Gunther/Jackie/Kendall and the Green family meet-and-greets at any Disney theme park. Seriously, IMOHO, these characters could give HKDL some more edge of its own because none of the other Disney parks ever give any kind of love to them as much as they used to give in the past (Darkwing Duck, Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb) or not at all (Gravity Falls, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Amphibia, The Owl House, Big City Greens, Wander Over Yonder and Kick Buttowski. As for a second Disney theme park in Hong Kong, I think it could be Disney's Hong Kong Studios which could differentiate itself from its sister locations in Orlando and Paris by seamlessly blending Tokyo DisneySea, which is one of the best Disney theme parks of the world, with the Hollywoodland from Anaheim complete with their own modernized Great Movie Ride consisting of both Disney/Marvel/Lucasfilm/20th Century Studios movies and Hong Kong martial arts masterpieces like Crouching Tiger & Hidden Dragon and the Jackie Chan movies. Add several functional movie soundstages to rival Wanda's Oriental Movie Metropolis in Qingdao and create a tram tour attraction out of them. They would be a perfect location to shoot both Disney and non-Disney stuff. Also, there could be Pixar's Hong Kong satellite animation studio tasked to produce short films and contract work for their main Emeryville headquarters. That studio would be a joint venture between Disney/Pixar and Jade Animation and would also serve as a theme park attraction similar to the defunct Disney Animation ride in Orlando. This park could be a perfect vehicle for any 20th Century Studios franchises such as The Simpsons, (James Cameron's) Avatar, Titanic, Die Hard, Planet of the Apes, Ice Age, Horton Hears a Who! and The Peanuts Movie. It could also host Sesame Street characters and rides because, seriously, we would like to see Kermit the Frog and friends and the Sesame gang together again...in a Disney movie or TV special. Consequently, Disney's Hong Kong Studios could easily follow the footsteps of the original Disney-MGM Studios by having characters they never own and whose theme park rights are not owned by Universal Studios on certain countries. Oh, I almost forgot The Twilight Zone's Tower of Terror! The Hong Kong version could be a combination of its original Florida incarnation (its facade and the Fifth Dimension portion) with the different storylines from its Paris counterpart. So, what do you guys think of my own ideas for HKDL? Please, gimme comments!

@@eduardoho5637 I would travel to China just to see a star and Marco pony head attraction! And I'm Floridian!

I think Disney finally realised Hong Kong needs more original exclusive attractions to become the International destination it deserves to be, whilst I don't think it will ever be as good at the Tokyo Disney Resort, I feel when all the upcoming changes are complete it will still be an amazing Disney park. Also, I'm incredibly jealous of you getting to visit Tokyo Disney so often! - Luke

@@ReviewTyme Not just HKD, but all Disney themeparks worldwide, will be getting some unique attractions that will then encourage people to visit the other disney parks elsewhere in the world. It makes senses to do that as opposed to having 100% identical cookie cutter themeparks

Thanks! We hope you enjoy your trip, it really is the hidden gem of Disney parks right now and it's only going to get better! We look forward to your trip reports from the resort!

Did you also visit ocean park?

Keep your eyes open we may have some more Documentary’s in the works!

ReviewTyme And what can we expect? More disney or other themeparks? Im curious 😬

Ruben Maes We have a bit of both coming, some Disney, some other company’s. Our next Disney one is a big one and should be out by the end of the year!

It's going to be the first Disney park to get a Marvel land, which is pretty cool.

@@MattMcIrvin Well they have something to be thankful for, at least it's not going elsewhere like Shanghai.

Yeah we definitely thing Disney learnt their lessons around opening parks during this period, it's just a shame we had to get so many lackluster things for them to learn that.

It really has matured into a great park since then and is getting better and better with each new expansion, anytime in the coming years once the new Castle is done would be a great time to give this park a second chance! - Luke

It really has improved as a park since and is getting better and better with more new expansions every year and is worth a visit in our eyes. If you want to see more of what the park is like today check out our review of Hong Kong Disneyland :) - Luke ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eIhfEcHKTSk.html

My wife made a (short) visit there lately and had a lot of fun--the later expansions to the park added a lot. They've got a world-class ride called Mystic Manor that's unique to Hong Kong, a Toy Story Land (more like the Paris one than the Orlando one), and a unique roller coaster called Big Grizzly Mountain that is sort of Big Thunder crossed with Expedition Everest. I think the Iron Man ride is closed at the moment because the Marvel area is expanding, but there's going to be more there, as well as a Frozen land before too long. Also, the crowds there are still very light, so it's relatively easy to get into everything.

Hey Jordan, we would love to make a video on the second gate but there just isn't too much information out there sadly. But you can know if there ever is anything more leaked or revealed about the second park for Hong Kong we will be one of the first to make a video about it! - Luke

Thank you for the kind words! A lot of this footage was taken back in 2015 when I lived in Hong Kong. It was taken on a Canon 600D using a stock lens. The colour grading was done in Premiere using a lut and some personal style preferences that I also use when editing photos. I’ve moved to a Sony a7 and a DJI Osmo Pocket as they’re more convenient for our work. - Dom

We do have plans to visit Shanghai in the future, we are just trying to figure out when we can visit. So stay tuned :) - Luke

Thanks for the kind words, we are glad you enjoyed it. The history of the Asian Theme Parks is so interesting to us because it's usually so different from what happens in the US-based parks. We have been looking at Tokyo lately but the history is quite hidden to us Westerners but we will keep searching so stay tuned! - Luke

@@ReviewTyme Check out the Disney Dish Podcast with Jim Hill. Several years ago they did an episode about the history of Tokyo Disney Resort which is a great jumping off point. There is alot of great insight. Keep up the good work

It's amazing how far that park has come and with all the announced upgrades coming to the resort since the full Disney takeover I think we are in an exciting time for the Disneyland Paris Resort!

HKD has additional challenges as the majority owner is the HK gov't who also happens to be the owner of Disney's main competior-Ocean Park. Ocean park has a bit of everything--a mini Animal kingdom/aquarium/county fair/themepark. Ocean park is also significantly cheaper than Disney for a family. To originally build it/expand now, HKD (being majority gov't owned) also has to request partial funding from the treasury board, another Hk gov't dept.

Time changes things but I would have turned to them and said "On an island?! How are you going to fill the park if people have to take a ferry to it?

So, like the "horns" in traditional English slang...

Between the two of us here at ReviewTyme we have spent probably over 50 days at the park over the last few years and can honestly say we've never personally seen things like that. In the last 5 or so years, the park has really matured and grown into an awesome park to visit. It has some great exclusive attractions and looks to get even better in the coming years! Thankfully a lot has changed since the park opened and it's definitely worth travelling to, especially if you want to visit every Disney park! - Luke

as a local which has gone to the park milloins of times us as hong kongers are better than that and we would never do such things but idk if i can say the same about the mainlanders that come to hk but it doesnt happen very often and the bathroom thing yeah the staff members would never allow that but ive heard storys abt that happening in shanghai disneyland cause in mainland china idk why but they think its normal and it culturly ascepted to like pee outside in the grass in public they dont think its wrong but in hong kong we would never we are in china but we are culturly very differnt our history is very differnt even the languae we speak is differnt

It's crazy to think about today but Disney almost did go Bankrupt in the 1980s, even though we insult some of Michael Eisner's decisions (Especially around the theme parks) he was the man who brought the Disney Renaissance and saved the company! - Luke

Space Mountain currently has a Star Wars overlay making it Hyperspace Mountain, so the track is still the same but the music and theming have been changed! - Luke

I honestly feel after all the current expansions are done that Hong Kong Disneyland could be the perfect first Disney Park for a lot of people, it already has one of the best dark rides in the world with Mystic Manor and pretty much everything else coming to the park looks to be original and exclusive as well! It's an exciting future for Hong Kong Disneyland and we look forward to seeing it! - Luke

Yeah we are hoping all the current expansions goes well and we could see the original expansion plans come to reality with everything we were initially promised (Just a little bit later than expected)!

ReviewTyme The closest thing to Toontown we'd like to see is a land themed after not just classic Disney cartoons and comics but also Disney Channel/XD cartoons like Kim Possible, Phineas and Ferb, Gravity Falls, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Amphibia, The Owl House, Big City Greens, Wander Over Yonder, Kick Buttowski and DuckTales 2017. I'd personally call it Cartoon Island.

Mystic2760 The closest thing to any Toontown/Toon Studio I'd like to see in Hong Kong Disneyland is the Cartoon Island which would be themed to not just classic Disney cartoons and comics but also the Disney TV Animation output such as Amphibia, The Owl House, Big City Greens, DuckTales 2017, Kim Possible, Gravity Falls, Star vs. The Forces of Evil, Kick Buttowski and Wander Over Yonder.

That's great news, I honestly feel after they finish all the currently in progress expansions at Hong Kong they will re-evaluate and if all goes well we could finally see the second theme park for the resort! - Luke

It honestly seems that the Oriental Land Company almost has no budget restraints when you compare it to what Disney themselves are doing everywhere else in the world! - Luke

ReviewTyme I’m sure Disney would be much more adventurous with their investments if all the parks were as massively successful as the Tokyo resort is. It helps that the Japanese just love Tokyo Disney and that there’s a big cultural inclination to buy a lot of merchandise. Also The OLC only have the one resort to fund and reap profits from, as opposed to Disney juggling 5 other resorts. That being said, the OLC isn’t entirely limitless with their purse strings. That’s why they opted out of getting World of Color for DisneySea (too expensive) or why the upcoming fantasy themed port is heavily IP-based.

DisneySea (and by extension Tokyo Disneyland) actually spend less than any of the other Disney parks - about the 100's of millions annually. And they are far more methodological in their planning and implementation which also leads to being the only Disney Parks that made public its financial reports.

@@axelpatrickb.pingol3228 That's really interesting actually. I wonder why they spend way less? Especially considering how notorious they are for having so many special events every year.

@@josephbernados1649 Their planning is methodological, and gradual (emphasis on this word). Unlike the American strategy of going big and expect short-term profitability, Japanese business mindset was more on long-term sustainability; hence they plan out years-long strategies that they can spend on less.

Hey Nick, as Australians we constantly are hearing about “Disneyland Australia” in one way or another but nothing has ever got past the planning stage sadly! We have a video coming in the future exploring the closest thing Australia has ever got to a Disney resort so stay tuned for that!

I agree

Star Wars is not popular in China. All the Star Wars films were flops in China.

Yeah the park opened in 2005 to celebrate the 50th birthday of Disneyland, but correct you are in Small World opening up in 2008 :) - Luke

The park will have changed so much if you ever go back! It really has flourished into a great resort and should be even better in a few years time when all the current construction is completed! Also what an awesome picture! I doubt anywhere else in the world you would be able to get a picture like that in front of a castle with 4 princesses without them being hounded by guests!

The photo-op with 4 princesses was a VERY limited opportunity. It lasted only about 5 minutes after the park first opened in the morning. That is why you don't yet see a crowd in the picture. This was my last day at the park before flying home. If I had known about the photo-op during my prior visit that week, Belle would have been in her golden ballroom gown. So, to make sure I was able to get a picture, I got to the park well before opening. Just like at DIsneyland, they allowed you onto Main Street before the park actually opens. I positioned myself at the ropes so I would be one of the first ones into the park when they dropped the rope. I then did a brisk walk over to the photo spot in front of the castle. Still, I was about the 7th person in line. Only 3 more were allowed into the line before they closed it off less than 5 minutes after park opening. It took until about 20 minutes after before I got my picture. The princesses then dispersed to their regular individual photo-op locations around the park. Despite this being my favorite picture from the trip, I still had 3 disappointments concerning it. First: Belle wasn't in her ballroom costume. Second: The overcast weather. Third: Only Belle was Asian. I was hoping to get pictures with Asian princesses. But the other 3 were westerners speaking flawless English.

When did you attend the park Aric? Whilst it is still the smallest of the Magic Kingdom styled parks, hopefully once all the expansions open it will become a favourite for some people. - Luke

6 years ago. Was so small.

It's interesting to think, especially because Universal Singapore is run under a licensing agreement rather than run by Universal themselves. I feel these smaller Universal Parks could work well in places like HK. - Luke

@ReviewTyme please do a video about Universal Studios Singapore. It’s a great park, and if you go during the week with a seasonal pass or skip the queue, you will mostly not have to line up for more than 10 minutes at any ride. And there are quite a lot of good rides too! Would love to see your review and how you think it stacks up against other bigger parks.