-
Welcome to the WDWMAGIC.COM Forums!
Please take a look around, and feel free to sign up and join the community.
HKDL gets new castle, frozen land and marvel land.
- Thread starter Kiwiduck
- Start date
Haymarket
Well-Known Member
We're getting the good ones!!
WHOA! I totally thought they'd be Epcot's not-so-great ones. This is a very pleasant surprise!
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
It will be a meet and greet space.
BrianLo
Well-Known Member
I think this is a stellar mini land, well scaled to "Disneyland's" architecture. Really the only thing it could maybe use is a table service restaurant.
I've been pointing out for a while that while the track is similarly laid out to Maelstrom/FEA, the show building size and therefore scene square footage is quite a bit more robust than Epcot. Seeing the upgraded animatronics I think we might be pleasantly surprised.
Not that it won't be FEA scene for scene, but that there may be some notable improvements like deeper, larger scenes.
I've been pointing out for a while that while the track is similarly laid out to Maelstrom/FEA, the show building size and therefore scene square footage is quite a bit more robust than Epcot. Seeing the upgraded animatronics I think we might be pleasantly surprised.
Not that it won't be FEA scene for scene, but that there may be some notable improvements like deeper, larger scenes.
Haymarket
Well-Known Member
How many acres will the park be once the Frozen Kingdom land opens?
The park was 68 acres when it opened. I'm hoping it's been on a slow march towards the more normal 100 acres of the original Disneyland.
The more popular the park, the more likely there'll be a second park and a proper retail and dining area? I know the city didn't permit a renewal of Disney's option for the second plot, but there's just temporary quarantine housing there now.
The castle still disappoints me, as does the needlessly dinky front gate, a copy of the original. But the park is making serious progress.
Hong Kong
Shanghai
The park was 68 acres when it opened. I'm hoping it's been on a slow march towards the more normal 100 acres of the original Disneyland.
The more popular the park, the more likely there'll be a second park and a proper retail and dining area? I know the city didn't permit a renewal of Disney's option for the second plot, but there's just temporary quarantine housing there now.
The castle still disappoints me, as does the needlessly dinky front gate, a copy of the original. But the park is making serious progress.
Hong Kong
Shanghai
Will let you know.
yensidtlaw1969
Well-Known Member
Sadly, this is closer to what Walt Disney World should have gotten than what they actually built. WDW is clearly the more natural fit for such an expansion of the stateside resorts, but instead they bunted on a billion-dollar franchise and gave us an underwhelming addition to EPCOT.
Disneyland has no room for such an expansion in any existing gate (and even less in the only gate where it would make thematic sense). But even if they were to reclaim existing areas, it would be a holistic error to dedicate so much of Disneyland to one property.
**Throws side-eye at Galaxy's Edge**
While I would have preferred a Frozen Dark Ride in Fantasyland at MK and think that would have been the most organic use of the property, at this point I probably wouldn't have complained if we'd gotten a slightly amped up version of this land at DHS with some fiddling to explain how it makes sense there. Not that Toy Story Land and Galaxy's Edge go to real lengths to explain how you got from Hollywood to their respective locales. At least MGM made the argument that the destinations were "hot sets" or the like, which isn't so much their MO anymore, so I doubt they would have gone to much trouble to explain how we suddenly got to Arendelle. But at least the property would have been given room to breathe and actually satisfy guests with a scale deserving of Frozen's success.
WDW really is in a weird spot these days. It seems like no curatorial conversation is being had at Disney around either what properties the film studios are presenting or how to make sense of representing any of those in the parks. Disney has made up its mind that the film studios are the source for all the ideas that will ultimately be built in the parks, but the studio is rarely producing films and characters that would make any real sense in EPCOT or Animal Kingdom. They know they can't just toss everything in Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, so instead they just place the successful movie characters where they don't belong and pretend they do.
The infrastructural thematic design of Walt Disney World - namely in the makeup of its 4 theme parks - and the infrastructual capacity of those four parks do not actually support the mission they've decided to undertake in this past decade. They make movies that beg to be built in the MK despite that park needing the least new investment and infusion, meanwhile EPCOT continues its downward spiral of guest attendance, guest spending, and thematic integrity. Imagine if they put a movie in the pipeline with the goal in mind that if it were successful it'd be a natural fit for EPCOT. Now imagine if they tried that 10 times a decade like they seem to for MK.
All this to say, it would absolutely make sense on paper to build a Frozen Land in the US, but Disney has put themselves in a weird corner where they can't do that without undermining what they've already built. Which, sadly, does not seem to stop them in the slightest.
SplashJacket
Well-Known Member
It should be Toy Story Mania. Relatively cheap, loved, and re-rideable attraction,
HKDLer
Well-Known Member
Castle is inaccessible for both HK and Paris versions. The HK meet and greet is located at Playhouse in the Woods underneath the coaster while the WDS meet and greet is housed in an additional structure between FEA exit shop and the castle.
Haymarket
Well-Known Member
I was worried that this would be the case. What a waste.
yensidtlaw1969
Well-Known Member
Well that's a shame. Would have been perfect for an "Enchanted Tales with Olaf" type-experience where guests enter and he gathers them around the fireplace to retells the story of Frozen as we know only he can.
Like, at least they could have done that. If not more and better.