New HKDL Construction Pixs

[cherrynegra]

Originally posted by jrriddle
Tomorrowland- Space Mountain, Orbitron, Buzz.

Fantasyland- Pooh, Philharmagic, Teacups, Dumbo, Carrousel, Fantasy Garden.

Adventureland- Tarzan Isalnd (treehouse?), Lion King show, Jungle cruise.

Not alot.

Rumours I've heard for Phase 2- Little Mermaid Dark ride (old one), Jungle themed Haunted Mansion.

Okay, then. If those are the only attractions, I'm seriously reconsidering the whole "get a group to go to HK when they open" idea I floated some posts back. It's even worse than I thought. How do they expect to compete with Ocean Park? I guess they're going to fall back on the Disney name. I don't like it when they do things half-a$$ed.

 

[jrriddle]

Well, those are the only ones I know of. I might have missed something (been out all weekend with a nasty cold so it may be the Contact C talkin').
I think Disney (read Eisner) is still freaked out over the whole Disneyland Paris situation. Being a little too ambitious at opening.
Start slow sort of idea, as we saw in some extent with DAK and DCA and Disney Studios Paris.
Of course with DCA and DSP we can see that building half a park is just going to backfire on you.
I don't know when Phase 2 is supposed to begin. I'm guessing that from what I have seen most of the budget for Phase 1 went into the filling in of Penny's Bay as well as the hotels and utilities and of course the park.
Waiting for a group trip until Phase 2 is complete may be a good idea. Disneyseas anyone?

Note: Please excuse any ramblings and/or spelling errors. Like I said still a little out of it.

 

[cherrynegra]

Oh, yes. I'm up for a trip to Disney Seas and the Tokyo park. Maybe late next year would be nice. Let's start planning now!!:lol:

As for Eisner's fear of the HK park winding up like the Paris park, well whose fault was that??? The Paris park had his fingerprints all over it. Let's start with the location. I would never have chosen France. I just finished reading The Keys to the Kingdom by Kim Masters and the whole chapter on the Paris park is just eye opening.

 

[jrriddle]

The Paris park is not without it's faults, but Damn it's Beautiful!
I have not read the book you mentioned but it's on my to do list.
Besides location the other problems I've read is the number of hotels at opening (way too many), and having a train station on property (people would come in from Paris for the day, the train made it convenient for them to return at night without staying the night). Besides with the current situation in Spain who knows if it would have been any better (terrorism, unstable Government).
It's something I've thought about and maybe should start a thread about it.
"What if Disneyland Paris would have been a success?"

Would the "Disney Decade" have continued for the Parks?
Would DCA been something better (Westcot?)
Would Disney Studios in Paris been such an excuse for a park?
Would a fifth park in Florida been in the planning stages by now?
What would the new Hong Kong park be like?

 

[jrriddle]

Originally posted by cherrynegra
Oh, yes. I'm up for a trip to Disney Seas and the Tokyo park. Maybe late next year would be nice. Let's start planning now!!:lol:

Perhaps The WeirdOne can fill us in on when is the best time to go and when ToT and the new coaster will be up and running?

 

[cherrynegra]

Yeah, after reading that book, I definitely got the impression that Wells was able to reign in Eisner and tried his best to put out fires that Eisner started. I know that he had deep misgivings about the Paris park. I know it's beauiful, but they paid for it. There's a story in the book about how Eisner didn't want a certain attraction at one part of the park so he moved the model to another part of the mockup and told them to do the same with the real thing. It wound up costing them MILLIONS just to move that building even though it was claimed it was unnecessary and wound up looking out of sync where Eisner wanted it. Very amusing book.

 

[WeirdOne]

Originally posted by jrriddle
Perhaps The WeirdOne can fill us in on when is the best time to go and when ToT and the new coaster will be up and running?

2005 = Coaster
2006 = Tower Of Terror

Best Time = 2006 for 5th Anniversary most likely. It's going to be a HUGE gala event. It will most be likely filled to the max everyday, sadly. - The WeirdOne

 

[marni1971]

And while we`re all here:

HKDL:

No POTC
No HM
No IASW
No Splash
No BTM

Bet theres lots of shops!

 

[BenS]

Originally posted by marni1971
And while we`re all here:

HKDL:

No POTC
No HM
No IASW
No Splash
No BTM

Bet theres lots of shops!

What was their budget!? $500!?

 

[cherrynegra]

I know!! If you look at the construction photos, the park appears to be huge. HOWEVER, when you factor in the resorts, and the lands they will have, it's going to be small. Call me crazy but I think this will be the smallest Magic Kingdom type park.

 

[jrriddle]

I'm not sure what the size is in comparison but it would not surprise me if it is the smallest.
Again I believe the budget for the project was pretty healthy just not the actual park it's self.
While part of me is disapointed by the lack of attractions, I still understand the need to not overbuild the park like Paris (and by that I don't just mean the themepark but the whole resort).
But only one E ticket at opening is pretty short sighted.
They really need to find a balance.

 

[jrriddle]

Oh and by the way if you think HKDL is a poor excuse for a park, wait until Shanghai! This is from Jim Hill's site awhile back (from an Imagineer):

"Good Christ, Jim. These idiots are never getting to learn. You would think that -- particularly after DCA and Walt Disney Studios -- Paris blew up in their faces -- that those back in Burbank would finally take a hint and not stint when it came to Phase 1 of their next couple of theme parks.

But you know how Hong Kong Disneyland is small, Jim? So small that HKD is sort of a Readers Digest version of Anaheim's Disneyland? Well, Shanghai Disneyland is supposed to be even smaller than that. The joke that's currently going around WDI right now is that -- given how tiny in scope this project is supposed to be -- this may be the very first Disney theme park to feature a drive-thru window.

Unless they significantly up the budget on this proposed park in the not-so-distant future, Shanghai Disneyland is going to be the equivalent of an outdoor Disney Quest. Okay, maybe two outdoor Disney Quests, Jim. The point is that SDL is -- as it stands right now -- going to be a project that isn't properly funded that features far too few attractions. Which means that -- when the thing opens in 2010 and is greeted with a shrug by Shanghai residents (Don't forget, Jim, that we're going to be following Universal into Shanghai. That they're going to have their studio theme park open at least two to three years ahead of SDL. So that -- by the time Shanghai Disneyland opens in 2010 or 2011 -- Shanghai residents will know what to expect from an American-style theme park) -- we're just going to have to do to that theme park what we're doing to DCA and Walt Disney Studios right now. Which is throwing a lot of unbudgeted, big ticket items into those theme parks -- rides and attractions that SHOULD HAVE automatically been part of Phase 1 of these projects to begin with -- with the hope that that's what will bring the customers back.

That's the thing that scares me the most of Mouse House management these days, Jim. They just don't seem to be learning from their previous mistakes. They built a cheap theme park in Anaheim and the people didn't come. They then built a cheap theme park in Paris and people didn't come to that one either. Now Mickey's building even cheaper theme parks in Hong Kong and Shanghai. But the in-house reasoning is "That's okay. The Chinese don't have a high quality Disney theme park right nearby to compare these two low budget projects to. So they'll happily accept whatever it is that we give them. Which is why HKDL and SDL will be hits right out of the box."

Can you believe these idiots, Jim? These suits have deluded themselves into thinking that no one in Hong Kong has ever made a trip over to Tokyo. That none of the Chinese have ever been to Tokyo Disneyland and/or Tokyo DisneySea. And that these people aren't going to compare the tiny little theme parks that Disney foists on them to the grandiose ones that the Oriental Land Company operates just across the way."

Oooo Scary....

 

[cherrynegra]

You know, China would have been a great place to have two separate parks feeding on the same population. They should have had a much larger and attraction filled Magic Kingdom in HK and then in Shanghai (Are they really going to build a park there???) they could have built something like the Beastly Kingdom idea everyone is crazy about. But no. Let's keep building smaller and smaller and smaller parks.

 

[jrriddle]

From what I've read (Hill or Fab, I forget where) Shanghai is just the first stop.
COMING SOON: Disneyland Australia, Disneyland South America and so on...there are soon going to be like McDonald franchises.
Ridiculous...except for Disneyland Canada...that one makes perfect sense to me.:lol:
(I'm kidding, possibly a worse location than France)
BTW Who's Foamy?

 

[cherrynegra]

Yeah, I can't believe they're going to build parks in all those countries. I mean, really!! I don't know. I'm still torn on this one. Part of me feels that too many parks water down the originals. Especially if all they're doing is building clone parks. They should have tailored the parks and attractions more to their host countries. I think DisneySea is a great example of that. Asia is too park heavy now. If Shanghai is a go, that's three parks in Asia. I think one more park in South America should be it. Australia??? Okay, whatever. You're right though. I think I had commented on another thread that the next park would be Disneyland Mars!! Why stop with the Earth? Let's colonize the solar system!!

And to answer your question, you can find out more about who Foamy is here:

http://www.illwillpress.com/vault.html

He is truly a god. Foamy for President!!!

 

[jrriddle]

I just noticed even the hotels at HKDL are not going to be original.
The Disneyland hotel is just the Grand Floridian (with a little bit of the Disneyland Paris Hotel) and the Hollywood Hotel (from the picture) looks alot like the Ambassador Hotel at the Tokyo Disney Resort.
Yawn...

 

[cherrynegra]

Are you serious??? Okay, definitely not worth going now. Where is the individuality of each park or resort?? You're right. Definitely a yawner.

 

[jrriddle]

Look familiar to you?

http://www.disney.com.hk/hkdisneyland/english/hotel.html

 

[cherrynegra]

Wow!! Talk about a lack of Imagineering. They could have themed something like a Chinese Emperor's palace or something along those lines. No, let's be boring.

 

[jrriddle]

I almost find it a little surprising. Eisner is a known architecture freak, and the hotels are (usually) big money makers.
They are really cutting corners on the whole resort, not just the park.