Okay, so after going back to the UK to finish my degree, I moved back to Hong Kong a year later (and will be staying here for the foreseeable future). Naturally, within a week of landing in the land back-East, I was meandering around the lands of HKDL.
Since I was last here, Mystic Point has opened.
Some thoughts:
- Outside of Mystic Manor, Mystic Point is nothing. It's not really a land, to be honest. There's Mystic Point, and some gardens. The gardens are tiny and essentially feature a few optical illusions. Not worth mentioning.
- MM itself, however, was fantastic. Beautiful animatronics, clever ride vehicles, just beautiful colour the whole way around - most importantly, great fun. Definitely a highlight of the park. Second best ride after Grizzly Gulch's mine cars.
- Space Mountain seems to be extremely low budget versus versions in other parts of the world.
- Finally got to do the Gulch mine cars in the evening, spectacular lighting effects, and the (relatively) cool air feels good on the face (I say relatively... it was still easily above 30c, with humidity over 90%).
- Adventureland is absolutely stunning at night. One of the most beautiful sets I've seen in a theme park. Shame there's not much going on here attraction-wise.
- Lion King show is poor compared to Orlando version, no where near as many stunts. Unfortunately, more time has to be spent providing the show in multiple languages.
- Golden Mickey's. In Cantonese only. Still a great show. Kids absolutely adore the show.
- Autopia. Why does this exist? I could understand it in the older parks, but HKDL is much, much newer. Why build this thing again? Especially when it takes up so much real-estate in the land-sparse park.
- Iron Man Experience construction coming along quickly. The rate of build in this park is crazy, especially when compared to the efforts by TDO. Kinda strange, however, because in Hong Kong in general construction moves at a complete snails-pace. I've seen store refurbs that take up to 10 months. There are some active construction sites that don't seem to have any movement at all since I last saw them over 12 months ago.
- HKDL ticket prices haven't changed much (if at all), standard one day is 450hkd (about $60), we got ours at $405 (about $50). Seniors get in at the ludicrous price of 100hkd ($13). What has blown my mind is the explosion of prices inside the park, and they don't seem to make any sense. Prices inside the park for food and beverages have doubled. Food prices in HK in general in this time have barely moved, and many restaurants/supermarkets see lower prices than they did before. Disney has completely blown this out of the water. Probably to subsidize the low ticket prices. To put things into perspective, bottles of soda (16 oz) are about 26hkd in HKDL... in 7/11 you can get two bottles for 13.50 - we're talking quadruple prices. I don't think I've seen a discrepancy this large in Disney prices before.
- That said, food variety seems to be better in HKDL than Orlando. Orlando, most restaurants seem to just be rethemes of each other. There's many genuine different offers in HKDL, with offerings of different Asian, American, and European cuisines. We had dinner in the Coca Cola restaurant, where they were serving all kinds of Mocktails made with coca-cola products.
- I feel like Disney should have done a bit more research into the way that Chinese queue. Queues in HKDL are designed for the Western style of queueing, where people tend to stand in groups slightly separate from each other. In China, people tend to queue as individuals and will squeeze through any gaps to try and cut through the line. Not only do these wide queues cause unfair situations where the people who push harder move quicker, but it also means that nobody gets a chance to see the showpieces that Disney put in around the queue itself. They need to make the queues thinner, just wide enough for one or two people (and cut back on any kind of corners where possible) in order to get the queues to function in a more fair manner.
Since I was last here, Mystic Point has opened.
Some thoughts:
- Outside of Mystic Manor, Mystic Point is nothing. It's not really a land, to be honest. There's Mystic Point, and some gardens. The gardens are tiny and essentially feature a few optical illusions. Not worth mentioning.
- MM itself, however, was fantastic. Beautiful animatronics, clever ride vehicles, just beautiful colour the whole way around - most importantly, great fun. Definitely a highlight of the park. Second best ride after Grizzly Gulch's mine cars.
- Space Mountain seems to be extremely low budget versus versions in other parts of the world.
- Finally got to do the Gulch mine cars in the evening, spectacular lighting effects, and the (relatively) cool air feels good on the face (I say relatively... it was still easily above 30c, with humidity over 90%).
- Adventureland is absolutely stunning at night. One of the most beautiful sets I've seen in a theme park. Shame there's not much going on here attraction-wise.
- Lion King show is poor compared to Orlando version, no where near as many stunts. Unfortunately, more time has to be spent providing the show in multiple languages.
- Golden Mickey's. In Cantonese only. Still a great show. Kids absolutely adore the show.
- Autopia. Why does this exist? I could understand it in the older parks, but HKDL is much, much newer. Why build this thing again? Especially when it takes up so much real-estate in the land-sparse park.
- Iron Man Experience construction coming along quickly. The rate of build in this park is crazy, especially when compared to the efforts by TDO. Kinda strange, however, because in Hong Kong in general construction moves at a complete snails-pace. I've seen store refurbs that take up to 10 months. There are some active construction sites that don't seem to have any movement at all since I last saw them over 12 months ago.
- HKDL ticket prices haven't changed much (if at all), standard one day is 450hkd (about $60), we got ours at $405 (about $50). Seniors get in at the ludicrous price of 100hkd ($13). What has blown my mind is the explosion of prices inside the park, and they don't seem to make any sense. Prices inside the park for food and beverages have doubled. Food prices in HK in general in this time have barely moved, and many restaurants/supermarkets see lower prices than they did before. Disney has completely blown this out of the water. Probably to subsidize the low ticket prices. To put things into perspective, bottles of soda (16 oz) are about 26hkd in HKDL... in 7/11 you can get two bottles for 13.50 - we're talking quadruple prices. I don't think I've seen a discrepancy this large in Disney prices before.
- That said, food variety seems to be better in HKDL than Orlando. Orlando, most restaurants seem to just be rethemes of each other. There's many genuine different offers in HKDL, with offerings of different Asian, American, and European cuisines. We had dinner in the Coca Cola restaurant, where they were serving all kinds of Mocktails made with coca-cola products.
- I feel like Disney should have done a bit more research into the way that Chinese queue. Queues in HKDL are designed for the Western style of queueing, where people tend to stand in groups slightly separate from each other. In China, people tend to queue as individuals and will squeeze through any gaps to try and cut through the line. Not only do these wide queues cause unfair situations where the people who push harder move quicker, but it also means that nobody gets a chance to see the showpieces that Disney put in around the queue itself. They need to make the queues thinner, just wide enough for one or two people (and cut back on any kind of corners where possible) in order to get the queues to function in a more fair manner.
Regarding the queue design, I wonder if they have similar requirements as ADA here, demanding a specific width. I wouldn't stand a chance in a competitive line.
