Hong Kong Disneyland
Topic: Cancelling Visit in Oct. '08

#	Author	Message
21	The Goddess Mara Fri 2/29/2008 4:21p	It's a tiny park, very little to do, and it's amazing how quickly you can get bored. You made the right choice in avoiding it.
22	WorldDisney Fri 2/29/2008 4:51p	So Bob, no hope of just going to see HK? Seriously, I know we are pushing this, but really even if HKDL was a great park, HK city should STILL be on top of the list regardless. What did your friend think of Hong Kong btw? Did she do a lot in the city? Was it her first time in Asia?
23	Witches of Morva Sat 3/1/2008 5:35a	ORDDU: For what it's worth, my sisters and I just read a RUMOR about Hong Kong Disneyland on another web-footed site, which predicts that some worthwhile expansion plans for this little park are about to be announced. Supposedly Bob Iger has made a recent, 'secret' visit over there to investigate the newest version of IT'S A SMALL WORLD. While there, he's supposed to also be in meetings with the HKDL Government about expansion plans for the park. We'll soon see....
24	karlg Sun 3/2/2008 3:04p	Re #6 by FerretAfros >>> I can't help but wonder if HKDL has some of the same problems that DLP had when it opened. I heard stories (don't know if they're true or not) that a lot of early DLP guests missed out on a lot of attractions, since they were used to all rides being outside. Because of this, they would skip over things like Phantom Manor and Pirates, because they thought that they were just walkthroughs or museum-type experiences. <<< I told a friend of mine who is a Disney insider that I was hoping to get to Hong Kong Disneyland some time and he said not to bother, it is known as the first "drive through Disneyland." I think the story you told of people missing out on a lot of attractions is more myth than truth. I visited EuroDisney about 2 years after it opened. This was just after their Indy Temple Du Peril Coaster opened (which is very similar to the new Indy coast at TDS by the way) but a year or two before Space Mountain. I have also read the Book "Once Upon and American Dream: The Story of EuroDisneyland" which chronicles the problems with EuroDisneyland. The problems with EuroDisneyland had nothing to do with in-door attractions. It had a lot to do with what they built, where they built it, and expectations (both by Dinsey/Eisner and the Europeans). As "Once Upon and American Dream" points out, Disney/Eisner started believing the press on how big EuroDisneyland would be. The numbers got highly inflated and that caused them to spend more money to accommodate the large numbers. They took on too much debt that they would have to service and that led to the financial problems. One problem was that the place would be packed on weekends (I can attest of that) and then be very light during the week. My understanding is that the Temple Du Peril was put in quickly to ease the capacity problems of the park (it is basically a dress-up off the shelf coaster and took a lot less time to build than Space Mountain). It was like a 30 minute train ride from Paris which made it both easy to get to BUT also meant that there was no need to stay in the Disney Hotels, thus they way overbuilt on hotels. Like the theme park, it was hard to get a hotel room on Friday and Saturday night but the hotels went vacant the other 5 days of the week. Then you have the different in souvenir and meal buying between the US, Japan, and Europe. They just didn't buy the pricy souvenirs nor would then eat in the expensive restaurants. This caused Disney to make a lot less money per person that entered the park. Then there was the reality that Paris has a lot to see and do in its own right. Why is a person visiting Paris going to go to EuroDisneyland. Even as an admitted Disneyphile, it was a bit of a tough decision for me. If I had not been to Paris before, I would have would not have gone (it came down to going to the Palace of Versailles or EuroDisney that day - and most "normal people" would probably have picked Versailles. Another issue that I new first hand from an English friend of mine is that for the first several years, he took his family to WDW because A) there was a lot more to do, B) it was less expensive! (The flight was a little more but not that much and everything else was less expensive), C) they spoke English everywhere at WDW, and D) you didn't have to deal with the French. In later years he started going to DL Paris as it became more convenient with the chunnel train (the chunnel opened a few years after EuroDisneyland) and the park filled out more attractions. Anyway, the bottom line is that Hong Kong Disneyland has a very different set of problems than EuroDisney/DLP.

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