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[iHeartDisneylandCats]

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[danlb_2000]

The other site is reporting the craziest rumor I have ever heard. They are claiming that HKDL is jealous of Shanghai's bigger castle, and they are planning on replacing Sleeping Beauty Castle with a larger castle, but still smaller than Enchanted Storybook Castle. I don't buy this for one second, but I thought I would share. Could any insiders give any insight as to why this "rumor" was even started?

I have no inside information, but replacing the castle doesn't seem that far fetched an idea.

 

[Belpois2712]

Well the people in Hong Kong know that their castle serves only 3 functions, A park castle, Projection surface for their firework show, and entrance to Fantasyland. They are missing what other parks have such as a walk through or restaurant, murals, or even a gift shop. HK Disneyland's castle is a shell of its older brother in California. With competition from Shanghai Disneyland, I wouldn't be surprised to see Hong Kong want a grand castle as the other parks besides Disneyland. I personally believe no park should copy the design of the Original Sleeping Beauty Castle, which is why Paris did their Sleeping Beauty castle well by taking its design from the movie.

 

[indianajack]

This wouldn't surprise me. As mentioned above, HKDL's castle is a copy of Anaheim's but only serves three minimal functions. And since the castle is small, the projections for the fireworks is can be hard to see. It doesn't generate revenue so rebuilding it with a princess restaurant is something I can definitely imagine them doing. The big problem with HKDL's Fantasyland is the lack of dark rides except Pooh (which gets huge lines because it's the only dark ride). The Hong Kong government went cheap with HKDL's initial construction and shot themselves in the foot from the start.

 

[Timothy_Q]

One issue that is coming to my mind is forced perspective. Would they be able to make it still work with a new castle?

Why would it not work?

 

[malice]

if anything, the surrounding mountains are screwing up the forced perspective of the current castle. If you've seen it in person, it really is diminutive.

 

[lazyboy97o]

Well I have never been to the park, and I am sure that it would be possible to make it work, but I am just curious as to what they would have to do to make the forced perspective on Main Street still work.

The forced perspective along Main Street, USA is vertical along the facades, not horizontal along the street. Forced perspective is a design technique not one set thing. What I think you are more concerned about is scale. A larger castle will be much larger than its surroundings. This is part of the problem with Shanghai Disneyland. Mickey Ave is overly diminutive in its vertical elements, to call it forced perspective would be a stretch as there is no convincing illusion of occupied space, with an overly wide walkway between the two side. This then sits in front of the massive Gardens with the even more massive Enchanted Storybook Castle still dominating the horizon.

 

[RandySavage]

Of all the seemingly far-fetched rumors of the past years (i.e., Frozen to replace Maelstrom; Guardians to replace ToT), this is one of the few I would be really glad to see happen... which I'm pretty sure means it won't. Fingers-crossed, though: a soaring, Fairytale castle equal in quality to Paris' would really help the park's identity.

 

[Timothy_Q]

This does seem somewhat plausible though, as HK has focused on expanding the park with unique attractions.
Mystic Manor, Grizzly Mountain and Iron Man.

So they do want their park to diferentiate itself from the rest (TSL being the exception)

 

[WDWdream97]

Based on what Spirit said about HK's second gate being placed in deep freeze, the next logical thing would be to heavily invest in the 1st park. I guess they really wanna place make the whole resort.

 

[No Name]

Whoa... I've been hoping they'd do this for the longest time. There were hints at this, but I've always thought that a permanent change was a long shot. Glad to hear that may not be the case.

Replacing a castle would necessitate a lot of changes to store items and marketing materials. It also would cause the park to have nothing at its center for a significant amount of time, which isn't great, especially in a park with falling attendance. And finally, it takes away something that may be a huge memory of many children and families.

It really depends on how they see their castle. Many DL patkgoaers see theirs as "quaint." I imagine that isn't as much the case in HK. If the HKDL parkgoers are in support of this change, then I could see it happening.

And it would be a great, great thing for the park, especially in the long term.

One issue that is coming to my mind is forced perspective. Would they be able to make it still work with a new castle?

I actually think it would work even better. Right now the mountains in the background can be seen over or at least behind the castle, which makes it look really small. Even smaller than the original in California.

 

[sedati]

In one of the original concepts where the castle currently stands would just be the main castle gate. The actual castle would have been in the back of Fantasyland, but in line with Main Street. That would give you the chance for a much larger castle that could fit a restaurant, shop, attraction, and yet not overwhelm the smaller-scale park.

 

[Bocabear]

the water in front of the castle doesn't connect with anyting, so technically it couls go away, and beyond that it looks like there is plenty of space if they wanted to expand the footprint. they could also build up the base area like Paris did by creating an artificial mountain to cover the lower floors... works beautifully there, and I suspect would be a good solution here as well.

 

[sedati]

Do you have the concept art for this? This sounds very interesting.

A very different park, but if you check it against what was built, the spot for the castle in the rear is still available if they wanted to do something like this.

 

[Timothy_Q]

In one of the original concepts where the castle currently stands would just be the main castle gate. The actual castle would have been in the back of Fantasyland, but in line with Main Street. That would give you the chance for a much larger castle that could fit a restaurant, shop, attraction, and yet not overwhelm the smaller-scale park.

That's an idea that dates back to the early plans for the original Disneyland

 

[brb1006]

 

[Otamin]

It looks to be keeping most of what currently stands, whilst adding to it.

It looks much nicer than the Shanghai castle in my opinion.

 

[SirNim]

It looks to be keeping most of what currently stands, whilst adding to it.

It looks much nicer than the Shanghai castle in my opinion.

Yeah... much much less boxy and modular than the ESC.

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

It should be quite the engineering feat to add this much more to an existing structure.

 

[SweetDuffy101]

i've noticed something about the new castle,is that it still has the original layout of the castle but gotten bigger, and i like the fact they're not going to totally tear it down and make a brand new one, my question is how will this effect the fireworks show in HKDL while the castle is going under construction? will they Focus more on PTN in the meantime or create a new spectacular that doesn't involve the castle itself nor the hub?