I tried to make more direct observations of things that have been discussed. First, Disney apparel. There's a few people wearing Disney shirts and some girls with Minnie ear head bands, but not many. No more than the percentage of people wearing any other licensed apparel. Saw just as much spongebob, Iron Man, Dora and Hello Kitty as Disney. I did see one little girl in full princess dress. The people in Disney wear looked to be either Westerners, Hong Kong natives or Japanese. Not mainlanders.
Gee, just like I've said. Just like what was said in that HuffPo Op-Ed that Willow Bay decided needed to be scrubbed from the 'net. ... I'm sure we're all crazy. Oh, and Spongebob is probably the most popular of the IP you mentioned. I'm sure that's why he's getting a ride in UNI-Beijing (unless they changed that again today!)
Strollers - I'd be lucky if at any moment I could look around and see even two strollers. No ECVs and no giant stroller parking lots. A lot of little kids, but walking, running or being carried.
What a novel way of parenting. When a child can walk, they walk. I've often said strollers are more for lazy parents, then children. But I have pics from my first visit in 2008 of 'stroller parking' areas with NO strollers at all.
For anyone who hasn't been to HKDL, I will say that it is incredibly clean and well run. The landscaping is beautiful (as you might expect in the tropical climate). It is more humid than Florida, but no mold or rot was in evidence anywhere. Lots of CMs continually cleaning. Bathrooms were the nicest I'd been in all week.
The landscaping is amazing. You'd never know you are standing on land that was Penny's Bay at the dawn of Y2K. Of course, just another issue I have with George Kalogridis and the WDW 'leadership' team removing trees and greenspace all around the resort in the swamps.
Coming into the park, it's apparent that Duffy is continuing his infectious creep into all the parks. He was on the cover of the map guide, in s big store window display on Main Street, and there were Duffy and his lady friend (whatever her name is) figures set up in various landscaped areas. I wasn't a fan of Duffy when I first saw him at TDL. I just don't get the appeal or the logic of creating yet another plush character when you have hundreds already. But, to each his own. I'm not the target market.
I was at HKDL in 2010 when Duffy made his debut. I don't get him, either. Until I step into the gates of TDR and his stuff sells more than Mickey and Pooh and Tink combined I was told.
Mickey and Minnie had their meet and greet in the middle of town square with a very orderly line of maybe a dozen or so families waiting for their photo-op. In the past, I've seen other characters out and about in various areas of Main Street for meet and greet, didn't see them today.
Half of the left side of Main Street was behind a scrim for refurbishment. I took a pic on my phone if anyone's really interested. One thing I also took a picture of was the curbs on main street. Yep, real 3-4" curbs. I guess people in Hong Kong know how to walk down a street without falling off the curb and twisting their ankle. Maybe the lack of strollers allows you to have curbs.
Removing curbs because idiots can't handle them. WDW all the way ...
Speaking of construction, I haven't seen a lot of buzz anywhere about what's going in behind Dumbo in Fantasyland. Doesn't look huge and all that's there right now are pipe stubs and a few trees. Hopefully it'll help fill out Fantasyland. With only one dark ride, it is fairly week. The backside of Fantasyland has always struck me as "unfinished".
Also saw a sign posted for "making new magic for your future enjoyment" in front of a wall between Adventureland and Grizzly Gultch. Just to the left before you go under the train tracks. Looked like some shell construction back there.
@WDW1974 , any idea what that might be?
I've been told there's room for an attraction in the castle (a la DL) and room for two additional dark rides in Fantasyland, but they aren't in current plans. Not sure about what you are speaking of. I know Fantasyland has some construction going on for additional meet-greet-and-gropes. But that is small scale.
Most of the rides and show elements looked great. Space mountain is great - smooth, dark and onboard audio, although the entry and exit queues are lacking. Small World was pristine - later in the day I got a boat all to myself for a nice relaxing cruise. Grizzly Mt. Mine ride is just a superb piece of imagineering and probably the smoothest coaster I've ever been on. I really wish they would have fleshed out this land with more than just one ride. Both Grizzly Gultch and Mystic Point are beautifully done, but very sparse "lands".
A few critical show elements not working. The worst was on Mystic Mansion. The timing for the finale was messed up. Both times I rode, I only got half the scene before being whisked out to the music box room. The first time, we entered the room halfway through the scene when the wall was already blown out. The second time, we caught the first part of the scene, but were out before the big effects started. Very poor show and really confuses the ending. Second thing I noticed was at the end of Philharmagic, the rear curtains open and - no Donald AA. The audio plays, but I could see confused looks on some people around me.
A shame about your rides on MM. I'd kill just to ride the thing at this point. I watched them building it. I want to ride it! ... and weird about that and PhilharMagic. I've never had show quality issues at that park. Ever.
In my opinion, the biggest negative in the park is Toy Story land. Especially if you come out of Mystic Point, it's a jarring transition. I'd say it's the Chester and Hester of the park. It looks like what it is. Re skinned carnival rides plopped down in a parking lot. Even the landscaping appears to have been an afterthought simply to screen the view with bamboo. I'm sorry, maybe some people like it, but it turns me cold. Some of the elements are cute in how they've combined different toys to make fences and benches (oh yeah, benches. Forgot to mention the benches everywhere). The whole area reeks of "cheaply done".
The layout is all strange, no doubt. I believe that was dictated by the local officials. The whole expansion wasn't well thought-out in big picture terms. As long as the bamboo grows in nicely and hides much of the land, I don't have an issue with it. I've lived with circus tents in the MK since 1988.
One thing I took a picture of, I'll try to post later, was a frozen meet and greet they had set up in Fantasy land, complete with plastic Olaf. I saw the set and the roped off queue, so thought I'd hang around and see what happened. About five or six CMs were buzzing around, but no guests. I saw some people walk by and look quizzically at what this might be. The pic I snapped was about five minutes before Anna and Elsa came out. I thought it was amusing because the queue was completely empty. Later I saw maybe five or six families waiting, two obviously westerners. I guess Frozen is not as bit of a hit in Asia.
Spent some time seeing the shows this time. The Golden mickeys is really a well done show and Festival of the Lion King is fantastic. Saw the Paint the Night parade for the first time. The floats are jaw dropping, but the parade is a bit short. Could use a few more. The flights of Fantasy parade was rained out. I've seen it before and it is great. Superb floats. I ended up trapped in Tarzan's treehouse during the parade, which was actually kind of cool to look out over the park from atop the tree during the rain.
I am looking forward to seeing the longer version of Paint the Night in Anaheim this summer.
A few things that concern me some about the Shanghai park will be the cultural behavior of the mainlanders. In HKDL, it's mainly HK residents, expats, Indian and Japanese tourists. Not so many mainlanders. The mainland Chinese stick out like a sore thumb. The Chinese culture of pushing and shoving to the front of a line was evident from a few mainlanders and will be interesting to see how it plays out in SDL. Also, the spitting, public snot blowing and tossing of garbage. I went to the Shanghai zoo last summer. It's a beautiful, historic zoo and piece of property in the heart of Shanghai. I could barely walk without tripping over literal mounds of garbage. Every animal pen was full of food and garbage thrown at the animals by the locals. And every water feature you could almost walk across due to the number of plastic water bottles thrown in. Disney better have an army of cleaning crew planned for SDL.
I have some concerns, but I've got to believe that behavior will be governed. I recall hearing how bad it would be in Beijing in 2008 and there was a major governmental campaign to stop the behavior. It was barely seen in the entire city. If Disney and the locals don't want that behavior then it won't be tolerated. If either or both don't care, then we'll have some ugliness there.
