britain
Well-Known Member
Excellent video, as usual, @marni1971! Please share your specific thoughts please on Mystic Manor!
-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
First timer thoughts from Hong Kong Disneyland
- Thread starter marni1971
- Start date
Thank you.
Mystic is the perfect quintessential Disney attraction. Lovely exterior. Detailed, themed queue that in part tells the plot of the forthcoming attraction. Original storyline with IP designed for the attraction. Cute and enjoyable preshow. Perfect ride system. Gorgeous original Danny Elfman music score. Great animatronics and some stunning visual effects including what I think are the most amount of lasers in a single Disney attraction. It doesn’t translate well on video but the first and last rooms have ultra thin curtains of gauze or mesh hanging from the ceiling that drop and rise unseen in the dark; the laser “magic” projected onto them really seems like it’s flowing around thin air in 3 dimensions. Even entering into a gift shop that is so lavishly themed isn’t bad. The attached Explorers Restaurant is the icing on the cake with great food in a highly themed environment that continues the Manor theme and rides story.
In the context of the park and also in the wider theme park world it’s up there in my top 10 along with Rise, Tower, SSE, Paris Pirates, FJ etc. An attraction both as good as and also greater than the sum of its parts. And it works perfectly in the naturally exotic location of HKDL.
Last edited:
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
I had no idea there was a pre-show until I saw it in person, because nobody had bothered to film it up to that point.
Thankfully you have, and from multiple angles too.
I saw some of the mesh on my second ride through, but didn't know it dropped down. I just thought it was there the whole time, but I never noticed. Having it rise and fall like a curtain to make it as invisible as possible is the kind of smart, but simple effect WED was known for.
It was closed when I went.
Props for keeping it "The Explorer's Restaurant" and not something like "King Louie's House of Chicken Nuggets"
DisneyDean97
Well-Known Member
@marni1971 interested to hear your thoughts on their Adventureland? We visited back in 2019, but felt that land was lacking something, couldn't put my finger on it. A Disney Adventureland without Pirates doesn't feel right, that Flume concept they had a while ago would work perfect for this park, and would balance the park out once the E-Ticket goes on the utopia site.
Pretty much everything you said. Though we were taken aback by the view across the river with the JC sailing past. It looked so…. Big. As they say. A bit of a wow moment.
Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
networkpro
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Enjoy it while you can.
Hong Kong Pushes New Security Law to Root Out ‘Seeds of Unrest’
Warning of threats posed by spies, the city’s leader expressed confidence that the new law would enjoy public support. “They will love it,” he said.Hong Kong Disneyland's newest attraction, the world of Frozen has just opened since November last year, the crowds are packed making hard to walk around the attractions.
Elsa is definitely one of the hottest princess (or should I say Queen) in all of Disney right now, we spotted different Elsas all across the park, but here is the World of Frozen from our recent trip to Hong Kong!
Elsa is definitely one of the hottest princess (or should I say Queen) in all of Disney right now, we spotted different Elsas all across the park, but here is the World of Frozen from our recent trip to Hong Kong!
davis_unoxx
Well-Known Member
Been looking at wait times at Hong Kong last few weeks… Really looks like the park doing quite well now. Plenty of rides over an hour a wait right now, Winnie at 55!
Supersnow84
Well-Known Member
I noticed that as well, WOF is basically always 90-120 minutes and then the rest of the D and E tickets are regularly getting 1 hour
A full financial year of that sort of attendance I can see the park pulling 7-8 million which would be a massive win
davis_unoxx
Well-Known Member
With the
Amazing! Think park will go back to being open everyday this year? I saw on app it’s open everyday through end of the month or March.
I’m sure it will. They went from 5 to 6 last October.
denyuntilcaught
Well-Known Member
This is great - HKDL is a park I really want to see win here. A bit of a solid underdog story.
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
I adored HK DL. For me the intangibles did it, the feelings WDW once gave you. The quality of the CMs. The quality of the audience, who dress up for a Disney day rather than dress down as in the West. And who are a pleasure to be around, quiet when the setting demands it, joyous where it suits. A Disney fanhood that doesn't give out an arrested development vibe. And just overall, the ops focus seems to be to create the best guest experience rather than sucking him dry for every last penny.
The castle for me didn't really work. No match for Shanghai, the one it tries to top. YMMV.
Mystic Manor is terrific, except for the loud volume. Yet I felt strangely unaffected. I didn't get sucked in as one does on Pirates or the Mansion.
Iron Man is the one great Marvel ride Disney has done. Just plain fun.
As with DAK, lush great landscaping can go some way to hide under investment. HKDL was built too cheaply, and it shows. But the entire ground oozes charm and warmth. The metro is awesome. Not unlike DL, the size proportions feel warm and embracing.
Adventureland was my big favourite, great take on the Jungle Cruise. Topped by Grizzly, for me the park's best ride. Together with Iron Man, great modern takes on classic Tony Baxter rides - one uses an entirely new theme but leaves the ride mechanism intact, the other reuses the theme but with entirely different ride.
The food was outstanding, my favourite was indeed the Royal Banquet Hall. Just classic Disney restaurant decoration.
Downsides. The park remains woefully underbuilt. Where it can compete with its DL inspiration for warmth (a quality which can't be overstated for either park), it falls absolutely short in ride count. And even in plain surface area. Then again, Shanghai has too much of that, there you wish you could take an underground from one area to another. Maybe staying on-site creates a greater sense of space, and of place.
The outer rim of Grizzly, Manor and TS are and feel like awkward add-ons. Speaking of, TSL is plain rubbish, as it is everywhere else. Unbelievable they should have copied this cheap carnival land so often. 'Random oversized objects so you think you're small' isn't the fabulously clever design they think it is. By contrast, pictures don't do justice to how pretty MM is.
For a bonus, Hong Kong itself is a fabulous city destination. Orlando might as well not exist. Paris is great, but is now a random Third World hole with more thieves than normal people. LA has its sights but anything worthwhile is a ten hour drive away from Anaheim. HK is convenient, compact, and makes for great tourism.
Supersnow84
Well-Known Member
With arendelle open I don’t think the park is that under built (though it 100% was at launch), ignoring “transport” rides and “walk through experiences” the park has 16 true rides and 3 high quality stage shows, it also has the two transport rides and the Duffy atttaction
I think at this point the parks problem is twofold
1) there isn’t enough to do at the resort that isn’t the park itself
2) you get things done a lot faster because you wait in less lines so the park feels like there is less to do, think HK has more attractions than DAK, EPCOT, DHS, TDS and equals Shanghai and DCA, but it’s the only one of those that greater than 90 minute lines aren’t really a problem so you get things done faster
I think at this point the parks problem is twofold
1) there isn’t enough to do at the resort that isn’t the park itself
2) you get things done a lot faster because you wait in less lines so the park feels like there is less to do, think HK has more attractions than DAK, EPCOT, DHS, TDS and equals Shanghai and DCA, but it’s the only one of those that greater than 90 minute lines aren’t really a problem so you get things done faster
I’ve said it elsewhere, but The fanboy in me says build the Avengers E. Build the pirates flume. Add a good PPF and the park would be ideal for what it is and what it needs.
Resort wise, out of the park, we didn’t find it lacking. A village area could be nice, but potentially unsustainable. We didn’t miss it. I’m sure they have spreadsheets to tell them If one is needed. We spent 8 nights there and didn’t get bored (though going to bed at 10pm could be an age thing as much as anything!)
IMDREW
Well-Known Member
Yes, yes, yes to everything you said. We’ll also be doing 8 nights next september!
Great news. Anything you think I can help with (as a western tourist) just ask
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
Also worth mentioning the park is profitable last quarter, for the first time in 9 years I believe. Frozen seems to have been a huge Boone to further driving the turnaround, one that seems to have started with locals suddenly taking to the park.
I hope it sticks and *hopefully* the Avengers attraction occurs this decade to keep up the momentum.
I hope it sticks and *hopefully* the Avengers attraction occurs this decade to keep up the momentum.
Supersnow84
Well-Known Member
Do you have a link to this super interested