The Year of the Dragon is beginning today and as each year the chinese new year is the biggest event of the year in whole Asia! From January 13 till February 5th Hong Kong Disneyland is celebrating the Year of the Dragon and of course they do it with Mushu the little dragon from the Mulan animated movie. Lot of decors have been added in Main Street U.S.A and Central Plaza, and twice a day HKDL guests can watch the Dragon Procession in Main Street U.S.A as well as new "year of the dragon" merchandise products in Main Street shops.
If you can't come to HKDL for the Year of the Dragon celebration at hKDL, here is a video of the Dragon Procession!
Let's begin this Year of the Dragon with new infos about HKDL future: in my last HKDL update i told you that the park would like to open new hotels at HKDL and asked Hong Kong government its agreement. This was announced by The Standard, a generally reliable media, but i've learned from my own source that they did a mistake as what Andrew Kam told in fact in the press interview is that HKDL had planned to have 4 hotels in phase 1, including the two existing hotels, the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel and the Hollywood Hotel. Which means that they are planning to build two more hotels and not four. As you can see on the picture below there is a land between the HKDL Hotel and the Hollywood Hotel which apparently is big enough to build two more hotels, while Hollywood Hotel can also be expanded. The Hong Kong Government seems to support HKDL for these new hotels, also probably because of the lack of hotels in the HK city. Talking about hotels, HKDL is now refurbishing the rooms of the Hollywood hotel and Hong Kong Disneyland hotel, and 20 new princess-themed rooms will open soon. And the "Bibbidi Bobbidi boutique" which has been renamed "My Little Princess" will be expanded too.
You might remember that in the HKDL project was also planned to build a kind of "Downtown Disney", and the last news that i had is that this Downtown Disney will be determined later, probably around 2015 as HKDL is in fact waiting to know how many visitors will be brought by the new bridge linking Lantau Island to Macau. This is a huge bridge project that would link two of the major destinations in Asia. It involves both a 29km bridge and submerged tunnel section and artificial islands. There is no doubt that this monumental bridge will bring new guests to HKDL when it will be build, if it is for real.
AND, talking about HKDL future here is the latest video update from michael20183 which will show you that Grizzly Gulch is well on its way for an opening later this year as well as the works on Mystic Point Manor, opening in 2013. Also, i told you in my previous update that Star Tours 2 should come to Tomorrowland, and here is a bit more about an opening date: 2015 will be HKDL 10th anniversary celebration but they will leave 2015 to the entertainment division. So if Star Tours 2 cannot open in 2014, then it should be in 2016... or eventually for the finale of the 10th anniversary.
See you soon for a new HKDL update and in the meantime, don't miss my HKDL Wallpapers Application, you'll find it on the iTunes Appstore! See article here
Direct iTunes link HERE!
Thanks for the great update!
ReplyDeleteQuestion ... do you know if it is possible that in a very distant future (after the opening of Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch, Star Tours 2) HKDL might get a Grizzly River Run attraction? Because if you look at satellite pictures of HKDL, there is still a lot of empty expansion space left on the east of the rollercoaster (and still within the borders of the themepark).
Same question, but for the open space north(-west) of TSLand, might HKDL ever get a Toy Story Mania attraction?
To Anonymous: I didn't had any news telling that a Grizzly River Run or a Toy Story Mania will come to HKDL. To be honest, i wouldn't bet on it.
ReplyDeleteHappy Chinese New Year! I actually just wrote a book that takes place during the holiday, called Nike's Chinese New Year.
ReplyDeleteThat bridge/tunnel looks like a very challenging project!