Hong-Kong Disneyland to receive 3 Mini-Lands! (2nd update)
Not even a week ago it was revealed that Hong Kong Disneyland would receive a major expansion. Today (June 30) Mrs. Rita Lau, the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of Hong Kong, announced the details negotiated in the past six to seven months between the government of Hong Kong and The Walt Disney Company.
According to her statement, the park will receive three mini-lands in phases over five years. The working names of the new mini-lands are “Grizzly Trail”, “Mystic Point” and “Toy Story Land” (working titles).
All three new mini-lands can be seen in the concept art accompanying this article and released together with the press release by the Government of Hong Kong. While “Grizzly Trail” and “Mystic Point” are to be exclusive areas found only at Hong Kong Disneyland but no other Disney theme parks worldwide, “Toy Story Land” according to the statement of the government of Hong Kong will be exclusive only within the Asian region. In any case the exclusivity for the three mini-lands is only “guaranteed” for five years from their respective opening.
Based on the statements, the name of this third new mini-land as well as the concept art it can be assumed that the new land and its attractions will identical or at least highly similar concept-wise to the new “Toy Story Land” to be added to the Walt Disney Studios Park at Disneyland Resort Paris (which, while not announced officially, is already under construction and expected to open in 2010). The concept art shows three rides in that land: a small parachute-drop tower themed to the Green Army Man, a slinky dog ride (rumored to be a music express style ride) as well as a half pipe attraction with a vehicle themed as race cars – in other words exactly the attractions that have been rumored repeatedly for the expansion of the Walt Disney Studios Park at DLRP.
According to the expansion map shown during the presentation and attached here of the expansion plans the three lands will be placed to the left of the current Adventureland area in an undeveloped area, with the “Grizzly Trail” at the bottom, on top of it “Mystic Point” and finally “Toy Story Land”. As the three mini-lands are placed behind the rivers with the Disneyland Railroad track running between the shores and the new mini-lands there are only two access points, one in Adventureland leading into “Grizzly Trail”, from where guests can walk into “Mystic Point” and then on at the top of the rivers where guests that walked through “Mystic Point” into “Toy Story Land” can then enter into Fantasyland or Adventureland, right where these two lands border on each other. Note that the expansion map presented and the concept art of the land do not fully fit. In particular the concept art for “Grizzly Trail” omits the necessary walkway leading toward “Mystic Point” which would be placed to the right on the concept art of “Grizzly Trail”.
With the completion of the expansion plan the Disneyland Park is supposed to feature over 100 attractions thanks to 30 new attractions in the new mini-lands – however, as impressive as this sounds, one should keep in mind the counting practices of Hong Kong Disneyland in regard to attractions which include even something considered a minor feature in one of the other resorts as individual attraction. However, those 30 new attractions are also supposed to include thrill rides targeted at the young adults segment.
Of interest are also the new budget numbers contained in the statement. Originaly when the news about the expansion broke a budget of 7 billion HK-$ (903 million US-$) was mentioned, but it is now stated that “TWDC will contribute all the necessary new capital (estimated to be about 3.5 billion HK-$) for the construction of the new themed areas as well as for sustaining the park’s operation during the construction years”.
In more financial news The Walt Disney Company has agreed to convert its entire outstanding balance (projected to be 2.76 billion HK-$) of its loan to the joint venture to equity. The Government of Hong Kong on the other hand will not inject any new capital into the resort for the expansion plan but according to Mrs. Lau “is prepared to convert a substantial part of its loan to equity, retaining a balance of not less than $1 billion” with the conversion being subject to approval by the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council. The government did further pressure The Walt Disney Company, which according to prior rumors was strongly pushing for an expansion of the theme park, into “some changes to the existing arrangements relating to HKD’s operation, and on enhancing the transparency of the theme park’s operation”. In detail this means the management fee will be linked to the park’s performance. Also a mechanism was agreed that allows the resort at times of adversity to defer payment of royalties to The Walt Disney Company and payment of interest and principal of the retained Government loan. In particular the deferment of royalties and interest and principal of loans is an instrument that was also used in the various re-financing measures the Disneyland Resort Paris went through in the past.
Those following the development of the resort will be especially interested in another change that is to be realized – to cite Mrs. Lau again: “In response to the strong demand of the general public and Legislative Council members, we have impressed upon TWDC the need to make appropriate disclosure on the operation of HKD. TWDC has now agreed to disclose annually, starting from 2008-09, main operating and financial results of the park, including attendance and key indicators of the park’s financial performance”.
Those interested in the actual press conference including some interesting questions from the press and related answers regarding the various potential business scenarios and expansion idea for the Hong Kong Disney Resort can watch it as a streaming Windos Media video online as well as a streaming Real video online in English (running about 37 min.).
Concept Art by The Walt Disney Company provided by the Government of Hong Kong
June 30th, 2009 at 11:23 am
[...] The Government of Hong Kong as officially announced a major expansion plan for Hong Kong Disneyland including three new mini-lands one of which is to be called “Toy Story Land”. While the other two will be exclusive to Hong Kong Disneyland for five years from their respective opening, the latter is going to be exclusive to Hong Kong Disneyland only within the Asian region (to learn more about the three lands and the multi year expansion plan for Hong Kong Disneyland visit the Mousekingdom Blog). [...]
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