Originally Posted By HongKongDisneyLand Grizzly Trail <a href="http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL1277/4360269/22232456/368386086.jpg" target="_blank">http://pic20.picturetrail.com:...6086.jpg</a> Mystic Point <a href="http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL1277/4360269/22232456/368386089.jpg" target="_blank">http://pic20.picturetrail.com:...6089.jpg</a> Toy Story Land<a href="http://pic20.picturetrail.com:80/VOL1277/4360269/22232456/368386088.jpg" target="_blank">http://pic20.picturetrail.com:...6088.jpg</a>
Originally Posted By Anatole69 So Grizzly point has Big Thunder and Grizzly River Rapids. GRR needs animatronics, but I am not holding my breath that they will add them to the ride in HKDL. Mystic point has Haunted Mansion and that other building on the right has me puzzled. Toy Story Land is a bunch of off the shelf rides, and I am guessing TSMM. Too bad, the park already has Buzz. Those two rides should be kept to different parks. I can't tell what the building next to TSMM is. Both of the buildings have the dogs on them, so I am assuming one is for TSMM. - Anatole
Originally Posted By Anatole69 I like the look of the first two lands. Seems like they are really using the space well, but still creating themed environments with the small amount of area they have. I think calling Frontierland Grizzly Falls is a good idea. You get the wild west without directly referencing the American west. Toy Story land just looks cheap and not very immersive. I think they dropped the ball on this one. Should have just stuck with the Toontown theme, at least that has an evocative look to it that immediately suggests a feeling and texture. I honestly can't tell where Toy Story Land is supposed to exist. It doesn't bring out any immediate emotions from first glance. - Anatole
Originally Posted By Anatole69 I read up on the three lands. Looks like Grizzly Trail is a Journey to the Center of the Earth/Big Thunder/Everest hybrid. It gives the park a Mountain. Mystic point will have a trackless Haunted Mansion. This should be interesting, though I am wondering what kind of capacity it will have. Toy Story Land doesn't have TSMM, thank godness, but it also doesn't have much of anything else either. So three lands and two e-tickets. It should help the park bring in more people, but I will be shocked if it does more than bring in a few more heads. Two e-tickets is just not enough to turn this park around, IMO. - Anatole
Originally Posted By HongKongDisneyLand there's still enough space for future development probably reserved for at least another "LAND". I wonder what this future new land would be.
Originally Posted By Anatole69 Pros: they are taking classic attractions and putting a new spin on them. This gives the park a couple of new attractions that are both old and new at the same time, making it a little different from the other parks. They seem to be using the space well as far as theming the areas, making them evocative yet also leaving enough room for the attractions. Cons: Toy Story Land just looks cheap and pedestrian and really does not create a story for me at all. - Anatole
Originally Posted By Anatole69 Also on the bright side, I don't see much in the way of tooning, Toy Story Land aside. The other two areas look like they are free of any toons, and the attractions look like the are relying on their own original story's. - Anatole
Originally Posted By u k fan Toy Story Land looks very similar to what's being built at WDSP at the moment so there'll be very little unique about that area. Basically, it's some dressed up carvival rides!!!
Originally Posted By Anatole69 Yeah the concept of Toy Story Land blows. Forgot to add that the report I read has Mystic point getting and Adventurers Club restaurant. It doesn't mention if it will include the cabaret/cast member interaction of the one in WDW, or if it will just be a themed restaurant. If it is cabaret style, then that pushes the expansion plan over the tipping point for me. If it doesn't, then I am slightly underwhelmed. - Anatole
Originally Posted By LindsayC <a href="http://www.disneyandmore.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://www.disneyandmore.blogspot.com/</a> Disneyandmore have decent renderings of the new lands and their placement at the park.
Originally Posted By LindsayC [So Grizzly point has Big Thunder and Grizzly River Rapids. GRR needs animatronics, but I am not holding my breath that they will add them to the ride in HKDL.] From the press release: • Life-size Audio-Animatronic® bears set the story in motion on Big Grizzly Mountain Coaster, an adventure aboard a runaway mine train through town. Guests careen backward down an incline that propels them through twists and turns, before a launch sequence “blasts” the mine train out of the mountain. So it appears there isn’t a GRR.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Interesting that they would choose to go outside the RR tracks on all three of the new lands. I remember the early HKDL publicity pieces that touted how the train tracks were built in a manner that would allow them to easily expand to accomodate new attractions/lands. Apparently, it's not that easy. Mystic Point just seems weird to me and not really fitting a traditional Magic Kingdom-style park. It doesn't really evoke any particularly time or place in the world as far as I can tell. I wouldn't be as harsh on the Toy Story land as most. However, I think the nostalgic elements that shape most of this land will be lost on Chinese guests. I seriously doubt that the impoverished Chinese were enjoying things like matchbox cars, lincoln logs, or slinky dogs during the heyday of those toys in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. It's those nostalgic elements that make a land like this work in the U.S, but probably not so much in an emerging market that has different cultural experiences.
Originally Posted By jmuboy Sport Goofy - your comments regarding the cultural context of Toy Story Land are dead on! That's the problem Disney has faced in general when translating its stories for the Chinese. A problem they have not run into before. Overall I'm slightly underwhelmed by the attraction list. I'm not down on the expansion overall and I'm glad they are doing it. Mystic Point seems odd to me. I might have made that attraction part of an expanded Adventureland and moved the Grizzly Trail area next to the Toy Story area. Grizzly Trail seems to have the most potential. It's neat how the coaster wraps through the guest area. Add in the water play area, a saloon and some cool photo ops and eye candy and shopping and the area should be nicely done. Personally, I was hoping for more Disney dark rides in Fantasyland or a HK version of PotC. In the end I will reserve judgement and hold out hope it all turns out great.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy I also wonder how the trackless vehicle version of the Haunted Mansion can navigate inclines? Does this mean that the HKDL version won't have the classic ascent and descent of the mansion staircase like in the rest of the Magic Kingdoms?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Toy Story land just looks cheap and not very immersive. I think they dropped the ball on this one. Should have just stuck with the Toontown theme, at least that has an evocative look to it that immediately suggests a feeling and texture. >>> Toontown doesn't have a line of Pixar-related merchandise just begging for a gift shop shelf. Also, remember the story of when Bob Iger watched the HKDL parade on Opening Day: reportedly, when watching the Chinese guests, he noticed that they had no reaction when the classic Disney characters went by, but recognized and got excited by the Pixar characters. Pixar characters are what's recognizable to Chinese youth, especially in the mainland. It makes perfect sense for HKDL to have a Toy Story Land in place of Toontown.
Originally Posted By CaptainMichael I sure hope that we aren't losing our (read WDW's) Adventurers Club to Hong Kong. There's no reason why we both cannot have this "new" experience.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA <From the press release: • Life-size Audio-Animatronic® bears set the story in motion on Big Grizzly Mountain Coaster, an adventure aboard a runaway mine train through town. Guests careen backward down an incline that propels them through twists and turns, before a launch sequence “blasts” the mine train out of the mountain.> Hey, they're actually going to use Audio-Animatronic bears for this. Remember how we used to debate the merits of AA bears in Grizzly River Rapids at California Adventure. And everybody said you couldn't see them anyway because you're going too fast, and then other people would say well, what about Big Thunder Mountain, your train is moving fast and you could slow the rapids in the river and you would see the AA animals and then people would say but you're facing the middle of the boat so you'd have to crane your neck, and then people would say that's riduculous. Remember that? That was awesome...
Originally Posted By Anatole69 I know the story of Bob Iger in HK. I disagree about the cultural differences comment, HK is not the impoverished mainland, the are very westernized. The problem with this park, among many, is it can't decide if it is a locals park or an tourist park. The focus on unique attractions with this expansion seems to be focusing on being a park for the mainland and international tourists, while the Toy Story Land is something that the HK residents would get a lot easier. I still say it looks cheap and not very immersive, esp. compared to Toontown. - Anatole
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I know the story of Bob Iger in HK. I disagree about the cultural differences comment, HK is not the impoverished mainland, the are very westernized. >>> That's true, but the biggest target market for HKDL is mainland visitors, not HK locals. Or, at least it was during the design and planning phase of the project. <<< The problem with this park, among many, is it can't decide if it is a locals park or an tourist park. >>> I don't think it's a matter of "can't decide." It was quite clear from the beginning that tourists from mainland China were the biggest projected market of visitors. When they didn't materialize in the numbers anticipated, they had to do anything they could to get guest numbers up, and the obvious market for temporary or short-term (or desperate?) promotions is the locals market. I don't think there's any doubt now nor has there ever been that HKDL will be successful only if it gets a substantial increase in visits from tourists to the territory.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy It's also interesting what constitutes a "land" in this modern era. Grizzly Train is essentially an updated version of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. A single attraction encompasses the entire "land." There might be some diversions and photo ops accompanying the main attraction, but no other significant attractions to get turnstyle clicks. Mystic Point = Haunted Mansion + a restaurant. Toy Story Land = a collection of flat rides themed around a single movie tie-in. There's nothing as broad-based and diverse in the attraction line-up as a Frontierland, New Orleans Square, or Fantasyland. There isn't a real change in scenery from one end of the land to the other, like you might get at WDW's Frontierland where you move from the desert southwest to the inland rivers of the midwest. It's also hard to see how these "lands" offer much for further expansion of the theme or ideas since they are all shoehorned in side-by-side outside of the park's railroad. At one time, I might have believed that Disney had a master plan for expansion at HKDL, considering that they started with such a small footprint. But the way these "lands" are tacked on around the periphery of the park without any real coherent transition from one area to the next, it seems like this is all just an afterthought. Kinda strange.
