( inside the
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort . The Disneyland park is owned and managed by the
Hongkong International Theme Parks , an incorporated company jointly owned by
The Walt Disney Company and the
Government Of Hong Kong .
Hong Kong Disneyland, the fifth Disneyland in the world, is located on
Reclaimed Land in
Penny's Bay ,
Lantau Island . After years of negotiations and construction, the park finally opened to visitors on
September 12 ,
2005 .
The park consists of four themed lands similar to those found in the other Disneyland parks around the world. They are
Main Street, USA ,
Adventureland ,
Fantasyland and
Tomorrowland .
Adventureland in Hong Kong Disneyland is the biggest one among all the Disneyland parks.
Although the park is the smallest Disneyland in the world, the construction of Phase 1 Extension that has been started will bring three new attractions to the park by summer
2006 , they are
Autopia , Stitch Encounter, which is similar to Turtle Talk with Crush found in Epcot and Disney's Califonia Adventure Park, and UFO Cool Zone. Besides, other grand attractions have been rumoured to be built in the park, such as "it's a small world", due to open in summer 2007. An outdoor roller-coaster, probably not
Raging Spirits , due to open in summer 2008.
The theme park uses both
English and
Chinese (both in Traditional and Simplified for text, Cantonese and Mandarin in verbal) in its
Communication .
On
September 23 ,
2004 , a special castle "topping ceremony" was held in the park to commemorate the placing of the tallest turret of
Sleeping Beauty Castle . Many important people were present, including
Tung Chee Hwa , former chief executive of the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ;
Jay Rasulo , president of
Walt Disney Parks And Resorts ;
Michael Eisner , CEO of The Walt Disney Company;
Bob Iger , president of Disney; as well as
Mickey Mouse and other costumed characters. Hong Kong Disneyland had the shortest construction period from the start to the opening day among all the
Disneyland -style theme parks (possibly because it is the smallest one).
As the reclaimed land reserved for and the Disneyland park are being blocked by Park Promenade (a pedestrian walkway which links the
MTR Disneyland Resort Station , Disneyland park and
Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel ), it's expected that the resort's second Disney theme park will be built on that site.
Moreover, the is being considered by the
Walt Disney Company and the Hong Kong Government.
The park currently features four themed lands similar to those at other ,
Adventureland ,
Fantasyland and
Tomorrowland . The park is missing a fifth classic land;
Frontierland is not present at the park, as Imagineers saw it as the least relevant of the five to Hong Kong Disneyland.
The park features a daytime parade "Disney on Parade" and "
Disney In The Stars " fireworks show in the evening.
- (opens in summer 2006) - Drive into the future aboard electric cars that cruise along the highways of tomorrow. No driver’s license is necessary and the road is open to guests of all ages. The only requirement is that they be tall enough to “put the pedal to the metal” in their battery-powered “zoom” buggies with on-board instrumentation and audio effects. The cars jet around an alien landscape filled with strange-looking trees and shrubs that are (or at least appear to be) out of this world. (This attraction has been listed on the Park Map since opening day)
- (opens in summer 2006) - Guests are invited to visit Space Traffic Control for a tour. Space Traffic Control (or STC) is the nerve center for this quadrant of the galaxy and where all space traffic is closely monitored. The tour goes as planned until the host is interrupted by Stitch, a fluffy blue mischievous alien known also as "Experiment Number 626" in a “borrowed” space ship. Stitch interacts in real time with the guests, plays games with the kids and even teaches everyone how to speak Hawaiian. Ultimately, Stitch’s nemesis, Gantu shows up and wants his ship back. It is up to the guests in the audience to help Stitch escape! The show is a combination of action and comedy, and never the same show twice. This attraction is not related to Stitch's Great Escape at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World , but is similar to Turtle Talk With Crush at Epcot And Disney's California Adventure
- (opens in summer 2006) - Guests are invited to get up close and personal with some UFOs (Undeniably Fun Objects) in this interactive play area designed for guests of all ages. The colorful, oversized props include a mischievous robot that sprays water and makes noises when his buttons are pushed, a water-squirting ray gun, a crashed rocket ship (still “smoking” from impact), a flying saucer in take-off mode and an alien plant that unexpectedly wiggles to watery life every few minutes. Guests can choose to get wet – or not – amid all the pop jets, bubblers, misters, thrusters and squirters. This is one alien invasion people will be running to, not from.
; : Disney on Parade is a daily cavalcade of Disney characters and music in a magical procession starting in Fantasyland and proceeding down to Main Street, USA.
; : It is a magnificient, magical fireworks spectacular choreographed to classic Disney songs and music.
Three new attractions will be built and opened inside
Tomorrowland in summer
2006 , said
Bill Ernest , the managing director of the theme park.
Also, rumours suggest
Frontierland and
Mickey's Toontown will be built in the near future. After completing Phase 1 Extension, Hong Kong Disneyland will then consist of six themed lands. In addition, new attractions will be added during the Phase 1 Extension.
The followings are possible attractions that will be added soon for the Phase 1 Extension:
- --- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- --- Haunted Mansion - Since the "classic" attraction hasn't been built inside Hong Kong Disneyland, Haunted Mansion is a possible new attraction to be added when Frontierland is opened. However, Haunted Mansion had also been rumored to be built in Adventureland and feature a voodoo theme.
Disney fans have complained about the small number of opening-day attractions. None of these attractions are unique to Hong Kong Disneyland, and many ''classic'' attractions (such as the
Haunted Mansion ) have not been included. And although the ticket is the most inexpensive among all Disney theme parks, there are only 22 entertainment items in the Hong Kong Disneyland, comparing to 44 in Paris, 45 in Tokyo and Florida, and 65 in California. The per-item cost is the highest among all Disney theme parks though the number of items increase as other phase completed.
The management of Disney and Disneyland, especially Michael Eisner, was heavily criticized and the financial crisis that
EuroDisney is experiencing was cited as the reason for the recent trend in ''mini-Disney parks.'' They are small in the beginning - to be expanded once it is financially safe to support a bigger park.
Another issue is whether the Hong Kong Government secured good terms in its deal with Disney. The government is bearing most of the financing risk, including the construction of a new subway line to the park, but it has not secured an exclusive deal for the region. Disney has already been in talks with cities in
China to host another Disney theme park - most notably
Shanghai (''see
Shanghai Disneyland Resort ''). A park in Shanghai would decrease the market for the Hong Kong Disneyland by taking mainland visitors from the Hong Kong park.
Just before the grand opening, the park was also criticized for overestimating the daily capacity limit of 30,000 visitors. The problem became apparent on the charity preview day on 4 Sep 2005, when 29,000 locals flocked to the theme park and found the most dominant attractions in the park to be queues. The estimated queue time for fast food outlets exceeded 45 minutes and for rides, over 2 hours. The day was summed up by the local press as a massive chaos.
Although the community and the park's biggest shareholder, the Hong Kong Government, put pressure on the park to lower the limit, the park insisted on keeping the limit and only agreed to relieve the capacity problem by extending opening time by one hour or introducing more discounts during weekdays. However, the park said local visitors tend to stay in the park for about ''nine'' hours per visit, implying the mentioned practices would do little to solve the problem.
During Chinese New Year 2006, many visitors including tour groups from Mainland China arrived at the park in the morning and were informed by the staff that the park was already full. This led to chaotic scenes as some of these visitors attempted to force their way into the park or climb over the barrier gates. Disneyland management responded to the problem by designating future periods close to Chinese public holidays as 'special days' when admission would only be by a date-specific ticket.
Further complicating this public relations snag were complaints from several music stars who participated in the Hong Kong Disneyland promotional videos, including
Kelly Chen . They complained about the rudeness of park employees, especially from upper levels of Disney management. Disney has not acknowledged nor tried to correct this problem, even though several stars threatened not to promote or go to Hong Kong Disneyland ever again.
The lack of government law enforcement within the resort also made headlines two days before the park's grand opening. Officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene department were asked by Disney staff to take off their badges and caps when they wanted to enter the park to investigate a food-poisoning case in the park's restaurants, lest the park visitors get scared. The chairman of
Legco 's Food Safety panel,
Fred Li , described the incident as shocking, and called on the director of the department to take follow-up action against Disney. Hong Kong Disneyland says what happened was inappropriate and has apologised for the incident. It said there was a ''mix up in communications'' and in the future they'd comply with all local laws.
The police also insisted that it has definite power to enforce law in the park. But they admitted they cannot get into the park whenever they need to, unless their admission is arranged by the security inside the park.
Some scholars and university students also complain that Disney produced its souvenirs in
Mainland China , by contracts with local factories. The production conditions are said to be poor, the workers exploited. Some further criticize that Disney behaves irresponsibly by quickly severing deals with these factories when they discover poor working conditions.
Staff at the park working in costumes as 'meet and greet' Disney characters have complained about poor working conditions including low pay (HK$9000 per month), long working hours in extremely uncomfortable costumes and having to tolerate being treated abusively by some of the park's guests.
Environmental issues were also a problem.
Reclamation Works were carried out before an environment report was concluded. Fishing farms on the island of
Ma Wan nearby were not compensated for their loss during the reclamation phase of construction, creating a high level of toxins in the sea that killed fish. Residents of nearby
Discovery Bay are upset about Disneyland's decision to put on fireworks every evening, which produces airborne particles that might be hazardous to people with cardiac and respiratory diseases. Disney uses more environmentally-friendly fireworks at Disneyland in
Anaheim, California ,
USA .
In an effort to appeal to Chinese visitors, the park originally planned to offer shark's fin soup on its restaurant menus, but objections from environmental and animal rights groups led to this plan being cancelled.
On the opening day of Hong Kong Disneyland, the park estimated that of the 16,000 guests that entered the gates, one third were from
Mainland China . Although they did bring good business to the park, they also caused some problems. Sources such as the
Apple Daily and
Ming Pao showed pictures of visitors from mainland China smoking in restaurants and non-smoking areas and a woman helping a young child loosen his trousers to urinate beside a flower bed. Some mainlanders were barefoot and laid their feet on chairs; others were
Spitting in public, a
Habit regarded as un
Sanitary and poor
Etiquette in Hong Kong since the
SARS and
Avian Flu outbreaks. Many Hongkongers were upset that Disney allowed this behaviour in the park.
Hong Kong Disneyland spokeswoman Esther Wong declined to say whether she thought the reports would tarnish the park's image. She said the rules require that all guests wear shoes within the park, and that public urination in the park is illegal.
In other news, Disney released a press announcement
{Link without Title} on November 24, 2005, that Disney has officially welcomed over 1 million guests during its first two months of operation. Disney finally decided to release the statement after media reports surfaced saying the park's attendance numbers might be lower than expected.
In response to negative publicity locally, Hong Kong Disneyland offered $50 discounts for admission to the park to holders of Hong Kong I.D. cards in the period before Christmas in 2005. In the period from March to June 2006, the park offered holders of Hong Kong I.D. cards the opportunity to buy a two-day admission for the price of a single day.
