Hong Kong Disney Expansion

Well, I just logged onto Yahoo, and saw this article:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050526/ap_on_bi_ge/hong_kong_disneyland

It talks about how the newest Disney park has plans to expand before it even opens! To me this is kind of amazing. Are they anticipating a huge draw? I mean, I would at least wait a little bit to see if the park will make enough many to expand so quick (yes, it probably will, and yes Disney is a multi-billion dollar corporation). What do you all think? Good idea? bad?

I think there is going to be a rather large "phase 2" expansion. From what I understand, it is going to be needed. The list of rides/attractions at the park is mighty slim (many Disneyland/Magic Kingdom favorites are MIA) and Disney has caught a lot of heat for building a park of lesser quality. I think the expansion is meant to silence the critics as much as it is to satisfy the crowds they are expecting.

And since Hong Kong is in China, which has about a trillion chinese people inhabiting it, I'm sure they'll need it for the crowds ;).

True. Which is why I wouldn't be surprised to see a Disney park announced for China very soon.

Every Disney park has expansion plans drawn up before it opens. Epcot opened without the living seas, Horizons, or Wonders of Life (not to mention several countries), but they were all in the plan for the park since before it opened. EuroDisney opened without a significant chunk of Discoveryland, including Space Mountain, but it was always in the plan.

The idea is that there's a group of people who are going to come to a new Disney park no matter what, so why throw all of your resources at them right out of the gate. Hold something back to give them a reason to return.

Plus, it helps to have an idea of how you're going to grow the park in the future, even if those ideas never actually get built.

As for a mainland China park, only a matter of time.

"I've been born again my whole life." -SAVED

Looks like Paramount wants to put a park on mainland China.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aYGJVnVu8LZ8&refer=asia

Army Rangers lead the way

Western River Expedition!

"I go out at 3 o' clock for a quart of milk and come home to my son treating his body like an amusement park!" - Estelle Costanza

ThemeDesigner said:
Epcot opened without the living seas, Horizons, or Wonders of Life (not to mention several countries), but they were all in the plan for the park since before it opened.

Even more then that, in the case of Horizons and Living Seas they were actually being built even before opening day. I think the Living Seas just might have been late though...I think the orginial plan might have been to have it open with the park, but that just didn't happen. I remember it being fairly far along when I was there the first month Epcot opened.

Then there's the other case where things are planned and even built a little for (like the Africa "country" at Epcot) but never happen.

The Living Seas didn't open until 1986, I thought.

--Madison