Hong Kong Disneyland offering student pass on missed attendance goals

Isn't this the DCA problem all over again? They built a park light on attractions, and the customers moved on. Adding a snooze fest like "It's A Small World" for the youth market instead of POTC, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder, etc., kind of points out that they are headed into the wrong direction.

I don't think that's a fair assessment or solution. Hong Kong is a vastly different market culturally than SoCal.

To me though, it seems like Disney has a history of building parks that tank on opening - or at least underpeform - and then limp along until they are able to be built up. They would rather build amazing hotels, than actual attractions to lure guests in. Look at the pattern: Epcot, Disney's MGM (2 attractions!), Animal Kingdom, Disneyland Paris & Disney Studios Paris, DCA. Imo, if they spent less on hotels in phase one of thier planning, they wouldn't keep running into the same problems. And yet they keep on making the exact same mistakes every time out?

Hong Kong Disneyland is in a culturally different market that much is true, but they do compete with the popular Ocean Park, which is similar to a Busch Gardens. I don't think Disney appreciated that they couldn't build a premium priced park with less attractions than Ocean Park. Now, they are forced to discount admissions in order to attract guests.

In it's current form, imo, it doesn't deliver the Disney difference in quality of attractions. For example, the teacup ride, carousel and the dumbo spinner are the marquee rides of Fantasyland for now. That's a problem to think that re-dressed carnival rides are e-tickets. 1 ride in Adventureland/Pirateland, 3 in T-Land and the orbiter carnival ride, and that's it for actual rides. But man, that hotel is stunning.

I think if they do get POTC open in 2011 as rumors suggest, they will be in much better shape for future growth. That is the kind of ride that no other theme park operator can compete against, unlike carnival spinner rides and 3D movies. They will most likely be struggling to hit their numbers for quite some time.

I'd have to agree with the anonymous poster above. HKD is frankly too small to be value for money, with a lot of the staple Disney attractons absent. Right now it's a half day park.

Yep. Wife and I did it this summer in about 4 hours and got just about everything we wanted to do. There were a few things we could've done again and a few things we missed, but we felt like we had done most of the major stuff.

Compare to Ocean Park which we did the next day and only got half done in about 6 hours...