Hong Kong Disneyland

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Hong Kong Disneyland (香港迪士尼樂園) is a theme park at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. It was constructed by The Walt Disney Company and the Hong Kong Government on reclaimed land from the Penny's Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong. The park was officially opened to vistors at 13:00 local time on Monday, September 12, 2005, although VIPs and winners of a ticket lottery had been allowed entry on a number of "test days" held before the grand opening. The theme part uses both English and Chinese (both in Traditional and Simplified) in its communication.

Construction

On September 23, 2004, a special Castle Topping Ceremony was held in the park to commemorate the placing of the tallest turret of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Present were Tung Chee Hwa, former Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Jay Rasulo, president of Disney Parks and Resorts, Michael Eisner, CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and Mickey Mouse among other costumed characters. Hong Kong Disneyland has the shortest construction period among all the Disneylands, possibly because it is the smallest one.

Attractions

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Sleeping Beauty Castle on September 11, 2005

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Lucky the Dinosaur roaming Adventureland

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HongKong Disneyland Parade.

The park features four themed lands similar to those at other Disney parks: Main Street, U.S.A., Adventureland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. It will also feature a daily parade and nightly fireworks.

The attractions include:

• Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad
• Jungle River Cruise
• Tarzan's Treehouse
• "Festival of the Lion King"
• Mickey's PhilharMagic
• Cinderella Carousel
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• Fantasy Gardens
• Mad Hatter Tea Cups
• "The Golden Mickeys"
• Space Mountain
• Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
• Orbitron

The following attractions will be added soon for the Phase 1 extension:

• Autopia (open in Summer 2006)
• "it's a small world"
• Peter Pan's Flight
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Raging Spirits

Autopia is already illustrated on the park guide map, and therefore is definite. Raging Spirits is a jungle temple themed rollercoaster that recently debuted at Tokyo DisneySea, and will likely appear in Adventureland. Pirates of the Caribbean will take the format already created at Pirates of the Caribbean attractions at other Magic Kingdoms and mix with the Splash Mountain format, creating a dark-ride with a log flume. Peter Pan's Flight and "it's a small world" are tried and tested classic Fantasyland slow-moving and appealing attractions.

Criticisms

Disney fans have complained about the small number of opening-day attractions. None of these attractions is unique to Hong Kong Disneyland, and many "classic" attractions (such as the Haunted Mansion) have not been included. The management of Disney and Disneyland--especially Michael Eisner--was heavily criticized. The financial crisis that Paris Disneyland is experiencing was claimed to be the reason of the mini-parks recently built by Disney--build less at the beginning and expand once it is financially safe to support a bigger park.

Another issue is whether the Hong Kong government secured good terms in its deal with Disney. The government is taking most of the financing risk, including the construction of a new subway line to the park, but has not secured an exclusive deal for the region. Disney has already been in talks with cities in China, most notably Shanghai (see Shanghai Disneyland), to host another Disney theme park. This would adversely affect the market for Hong Kong Disneyland, since many visitors are expected to come from the mainland.

Although the ticket is the cheapest among all Disney theme parks, there are only 22 entertainment items in the Hong Kong Disneyland, comparing to 44 in each of the theme park of Paris, 45 in Tokyo and Florida, and 65 in California. The per-item cost is the highest among all Disney theme parks.

Just before the grand opening, the park was also criticized for setting an overestimated daily capacity limit of 30,000 visitors. The problem became apparent on the charity preview day on 4 Sep 2005, when 29,000 locals flocked to the theme park and found out the most dominant attractions in the park are queues. Waiting for 45 minutes for so-so fastfood and two hours for a hit ride might be a custom of Disneyland, but that's not accepted by most impatient local residents, especially when rain showers have got kids wet from head to toe. The day was concluded by local press as a massive chaos. Although the community and the park's biggest shareholder--the SAR Government--put pressure on the park to lower the limit, the park insisted to keep the limit and only agreed to relieve the capacity problem by extending opening hours by an hour or introducing more discounts on weekdays. However, the park agreed local visitors tend to stay in the park for about nine hours for each visit--implying the mentioned practices would only make little changes to the problem.

Further complicating this public relations hit was reports from several music stars who participated in Hong Kong Disneyland promotional videos, including Kelly Chen. They complained about the rudeness of park employees, especially those from the upper levels of Disney management. Disney has not acknowledged nor tried to correct this problem, even though several stars said that because of this problem, they would not promote for or go to Hong Kong Disneyland ever again.

The power (or lack thereof) of government law enforcement within the resort also made headlines two days before the grand opening. Officers from the Food and Environmental Hygiene department were told by Disney staff to take off their badges and caps when they wanted to enter the park to investigate a food-poisoning case in the park's restaurants, in order not to scare the park visitors. The chairman of Legco's Food Safety panel, Fred Li, described the incident as shocking, and called on the director of the department to take follow-up action against Disney. Hong Kong Disneyland says what happened was inappropriate and has apologised for the incident. It said there was a "mix up in communications" and in the future they'd comply with all local laws.

The police also insisted that it has definite power to enforce law in the park. But they admitted they cannot get into the park whenever they need to, unless arranged by the security inside the park.

Some scholars and university students also complain that Disney produced its souvenirs in mainland China, by contracts with local factories. The production conditions are said to be poor, and the workers are exploited. Safety conditions are also unacceptable. Some even further critize that Disney behaves irresponsibly by quickly severing deals with these factories when discovered.

Environmental issues were also a problem. Reclamation works were carried out before an environment report was concluded. Fishing farms on the island of Ma Wan nearby were not compensated for their loss during the reclamation phase of construction, creating a high level of toxins in the sea and killing the fish. Residents of nearby Discovery Bay are upset about Disneyland's decision to put on fireworks every evening, which creates a large quantity of floating particles in the air, and these are potentially hazardous to people with cardiac and breathing tract diseases.

Problems

On the opening day of Hong Kong Disneyland, the park estimated that of 16,000 guests that entered the gates, one third were from mainland China. Although they did bring good business to the park, they did cause problems for it. Mainland Chinese tourists visiting Hong Kong Disneyland on its debut day smoked in non-smoking areas, went barefoot and even let children urinate in public. Some people were barefoot and laid their feet on chairs. Sources such as the Apple Daily and Ming Pao showed pictures of visitors from mainland China smoking in restaurants and non-smoking areas and a woman helping a young child loosen his trousers to urinate beside a flower bed. Other offenses include spitting. It is rumored that the famous Sleeping Beauty Castle smells like a smoker's house after the first two days. A person was caught smoking in an area with a sign above him saying a no-smoking zone. The people of Hong Kong are angry at these insults.

Hong Kong Disneyland spokeswoman Esther Wong declined to say whether she thought the reports would tarnish the park's image. She said the rules require that all guests wear shoes within the park.

Miscellaneous

The park suffered its first casualty, when a Singaporean woman, Madam Ng, 82, felt unwell while waiting for the nightly fireworks display at the park on 28 September 2005, and collapsed in her hotel room later. She passed away despite being rushed to the Princess Margaret Hospital.

External links

• Hong Kong Disneyland (Official Website)
• Hong Kong Disneyland news
• Hong Kong Disneyland Fansite(Japanese)
• Gallery of publicity photos and park map
• Google Maps (Satellite Image) (Latitude: 22.313 Longitude: 114.041)
• Hong Kong Disneyland