Hong Kong Disneyland

[Mad Dog]

I know it's just a Star Tours ride system, but I want to ride it.

That shouldn't be a problem if you get a air ticket out there. Hong Kong Disney is the park with no lines. Almost all of their attractions, including the new ones, are generally walk ons, unless it's a holiday week.

 

[GAcoaster]

Wow, that looks so generic...

 

[Viator]

As a word of news, the Iron Man Experience will be opening on January 11th.



Disney Parks’ first Marvel-themed ride Iron Man Experience opens in early January at Hong Kong Disneyland

 

[Alexshow.]

Two things, one more important than the other..

• Iron Man Experience will open on January 11th
  
• Hong Kong Disneyland will be receiving a 1.4 Billion Dollar expansion featuring new lands, attractions, shows and a brand new castle to replace the original one.
  

 

[malice]

Press Release from Disney


http://news-en.hongkongdisneyland.com/PressReleases/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?AssetId=06bb4d23-21ce-485a-a20a-1becc8863b9b

 

[Ryan]

Lots of specific details are weirdly being scattered around all over the place, not fully contained in the PR. Disney did a press summit on the expansion that gives away a good deal more: https://www.facebook.com/MagicPost/videos/1348506835194286/


Specifically at 3:40 they go into high detail at the Frozen land's "E-Ticket" ride. Surprise! It's Frozen Ever After. Yes, a near-direct clone, although one hopes there are significant changes to the overall design dynamic including the boat capacity. Don't be shocked when this comes to a Disney park close to you... maybe really, really close. It's now Disney's version of Minion Mayhem, after all.   (for the record, I like Frozen Ever After for what it is, but I would still prefer a different attraction for an original build)


Also including is Oaken's Dancing Sleighs, which will be an indoor version of Luigi's Rollickin Roadsters with what sounds like a way to up capacity: guests will presumably board the trackless sleighs in Oaken's shed, and then will go out onto the ice to dance in front of the queue line. So while one group dances, the others board. Also included is either an Olaf figure or AA, so props to them for giving a family flat ride a surprising lot of dressing.


The land will include stunning vistas, shops and restaurants and will open in four years in 2020 per the blueprints provided in this tweet: https://twitter.com/DLPWelcome/status/800985384305983488


There's of course the castle, which contrary to what you may have heard is not completely new. It'll still stay Sleeping Beauty's Castle and even the current clone castle will stay. Instead, the castle will be extended upwards, essentially putting a Cinderella Castle-esque topper on it. I'm mixed on it as while I get the intention to stand up to Shanghai and be bolder in facing the competition from Ocean Park, it will completely throw off the scale of Main Street and may be a bit overpowering. The idea of a thinner, slim skyscraper to the top will help in delivering the contrast between the wider castle in Shanghai. Also included is a redo of their hub as well as flanking WoC-esque fountains similar to what's in Paris to deliver a projection-based fountain show. Also, because of course, there will be a stage in front as well. This will be completed in three years in 2019.


In Tomorrowland, two new Marvel attractions will accompany the Iron Man Experience which is opening in two months. Buzz Lightyear will shut down early next year and will be revamped into an Ant Man-themed shooting omnimover ride. Yes: an Ant Man ride. I never thought I'd see the day haha. That will open up in 2018, presumably late in that year. Meanwhile, either on top or replacing Autopia (they won't confirm either weirdly enough) will be an unnamed Avengers attraction which is going to open up in seven years (wow) in 2023. Whatever it is, I'm guessing we're not finding out anytime soon.


The last one is a small Adventureland expansion, as they will be debuting a second show next to Festival of the Lion King themed after Moana, opening in 2018 presumably before Ant Man, making this the first of the expansion efforts to open.


So that is:
Moana show -- early 2018
Ant-Man ride (Buzz overlay) -- late 2018
New castle/nighttime show -- 2019
Frozen Land (Frozen Ever After/Oaken's Dancing Sleighs) -- 2020
Untitled Avengers attraction -- 2023


This also ties into a third hotel opening next year, and I wouldn't be surprised if future outer infrastructure occurs in that time as well. I'm impressed with Hong Kong stepping it up, and there's still yet another expansion pad left open between Frozen and Toy Story Playland for the future, in addition to that space for a second gate. Good stuff ahead!

 

[Jon Fu]

Specifically at 3:40 they go into high detail at the Frozen land's "E-Ticket" ride. Surprise! It's Frozen Ever After. Yes, a near-direct clone, although one hopes there are significant changes to the overall design dynamic including the boat capacity. Don't be shocked when this comes to a Disney park close to you... maybe really, really close. It's now Disney's version of Minion Mayhem, after all.   (for the record, I like Frozen Ever After for what it is, but I would still prefer a different attraction for an original build)

I don't understand why people are making such a big fuss over this on Twitter. Universal cloned an entire land three times, but Disney can't clone a ride from one park to another without resounding criticism? Not to mention the fact that half of the attractions currently at Hollywood, Florida (and to some extent, Japan) are available at another Universal park worldwide.

 

[k_peek_2000]

I don't understand why people are making such a big fuss over this on Twitter. Universal cloned an entire land three times, but Disney can't clone a ride from one park to another without resounding criticism? Not to mention the fact that half of the attractions currently at Hollywood, Florida (and to some extent, Japan) are available at another Universal park worldwide.

There will be 4 versions of this ride in the near future. HK, FL, Tokyo and soon (rumored) CA. I think it's more that people are just tired of Frozen at this point than anything else.

 

[HereWeGo]

We may be tired of it but small children are not. Frozen is still making Disney an insane amount of money. So from a business stand point, I completely understand why they want to put the ride in 4 different parks. The exact same reason Universal keeps cloning HP. It makes money. 

 

[Ryan]

I don't understand why people are making such a big fuss over this on Twitter. Universal cloned an entire land three times, but Disney can't clone a ride from one park to another without resounding criticism? Not to mention the fact that half of the attractions currently at Hollywood, Florida (and to some extent, Japan) are available at another Universal park worldwide.

It's due to the fact that Frozen, as a property, deserves more than FEA IMO. I get why FEA was done, and yes it is the best of a bad situation. However: when it comes to an original build they should've gone bigger, especially with doing FEA again which is already suffering capacity issues. It's disappointing because the cloning doesn't make 100% sense outside of saving R&D costs: operationally and story-wise FEA is flawed and there's more potential to be had. It's just not the right attraction to clone IMO.


Not that Uni isn't to blame here for doing the same thing. Minion Mayhem is a dead-on ringer for this and the less said about Supercharged in Florida the better. However I can't say the same for Potter, as that's a successful, well-worn, popular-as-hell land with attractions that are very good in almost all categories which people adore. It's less about cloning and more about what is being cloned.

 

[Alexshow.]

There will be 4 versions of this ride in the near future. HK, FL, Tokyo and soon (rumored) CA. I think it's more that people are just tired of Frozen at this point than anything else.

If i'm not mistaken, I believe Tokyo dropped the plans for their Frozen Expansion at TDS and are bringing the technology that would've been in the Frozen attraction into the BaTB E-Ticket as apart of the TDL New Fantasyland.

 

[Ryan]

They still have unspecified plans for Frozen later on. It'll come last out of all four.

 

[Freak]

When they get Frozen Ever After, I really hope they adjust the plans for capacity concerns. Whatever they do will be a sign as to what we will get. The wait times are pretty awful. They could have dual loading at least. 

 

[Jon Fu]

It's less about cloning and more about what is being cloned.

I think therein lies my issue. I get people don't want any more Frozen, but to me, it's almost on the same scale as the minions from Despicable Me. There's way too much of both brands in the park, but it's certainly not because the two aren't popular.


I went on Frozen in Epcot and it was a cute ride. It's probably on the same scale as Despicable Me for me, and that's not really a bad thing.

 

[HTF]

I have a hard time imagining Frozen Ever After will be an exact clone. Sure it will be VERY similar but I'm gonna hold of judgement until we see the final product. They may change things up a bit since they're building a brand new area for this instead of shoe horning it into an existing building. 

 

[UNIrd]

So the first reviews for this are out.. and apparently the 3D is stunning but the ride offers zero surprises and is just a generic simulator. I was hoping that future Disney simulators would take a cue from Stormrider and it's effects, which is probably the best one I've been on and opened back in 2001, but alas.

 

[Viator]

With the brand new Iron Man Experience soft opening at Hong Kong Disneyland, a POV of the attraction's film has been posted..



And..two things. First off, this is using an extremely dated ride system when it can really be something special in it's own right. And from what it seems, UC could be doing that; given the chance in the near future. I hope that I'm wrong, but they shouldn't of used the Star Tours/Body Wars ride system for the Iron Man Experience as it's a cheap move..

speaking of cheap. The Ride Film, while yes; I'm going off with a Video that may not be in the best quality, it is doomed to potentially become hilariously outdated because of the new Expansion's coming for Hong Kong Disneyland and that it looks albeit like the issue that USH's Supercharged has. And another thing, I really find the impersonation of Iron Man (and Jarvis when you listen to some of the line videos) to be..rather cheesy and off putting.

I'm not sold on this, and I am not sure how to think of it to be honest..

 

[ThemeParks4Life]

I think it looks like a good simulator.

 

[UNIrd]

It's a frustration I have with both Disney and Universal. When you think they might be forced to make certain decisions because they're limited due to retrofitting existing buildings or rides, they go on and build the exact same thing from the ground up somewhere else.

 

[Mad Dog]

Usually I pay little attention to You Tube videos since they don't do a good job of recreating a true ride experience. But this case is a bit different since it seems this is a nearly exact version of Star Tours, which I've rode dozens of times, so I can easily imagine the experience. It's just a different action film,which just doesn't seem to have the excitement of Star Tours Two. And if it doesn't have the extra randomized scenes like Star Tours Two (does anyone know if there are random scenes?), then it would be vastly inferior to Star Tours Two, which I enjoy due to it's repeatability with the random scenes....And the people that criticize Transformers for being too much like SpiderMan, would really be taken aback by how similar this is to Star Tours. This is really just a duplicate ride with a different film, albeit less exciting and less interesting than the Star Wars stuff.