Monday, July 2, 2012

HKDL Grizzly Gulch Part Three: Geyser Gulch



Grizzly Gulch, Hong Kong Disneyland new land, have an interesting back story: Grizzly Gulch was a newly established western gold town.
In a warm afternoon, a man walked through the forest and saw the bears family, scratching their backs on the rocks. Once the bears were gone, the man found that the rock on which the bears were scratching their backs was shining and shimmering, and that was the first gold found in the gulch. The man develops the site around the mountain into a little town and named it Grizzly Gulch.

Everyone in Grizzly Gulch was thinking that the bears brings luck to them. And they had the rule that nobody could bother the bears. Actually, the bears family is still living in the gulch, which is why you can see them in the ride. You also can see that the town was built from green field within a short period of time, that's why the baby bear is still a baby. May be that's the answer why the buildings in Grizzly Gulch looks so new.

There is a "Welcome Wagon Street" show telling this story and the one of the first man who saw the bears, and below are the videos of it, but before, a Grizzly Gulch walk through video which will show you the whole land.











But Grizzly Gulch is more than a great coaster ride and a mine town, there is also plenty of geysers and we will have a look in this part three on the "water" part of the land. As you can see on the picture above and below, HKDL Imagineers did a great painting job on the geological part of Grizzly Gulch to make sure the colors of the geysers will look like the real one we can find in nature on real and hundred years old geysers.







It looks even more magical and spectacular at night...















Kids will definitely others areas where they'll be able to splash themselves!









One clever idea is the one behind the water battle located inside the town. The water battle is between Blacksmith and Dry Good, and the back story about these buildings is that they were wrongly built on geysers and starts collapsing. To save their business, the owners of these shops pump the underground water and splash each other ( But then, in Geyser Gulch legend, Blacksmith eventually closed his shop and worked for the Big Grizzly Mountain Mining Company).

Here is the Dry Good building, day or night...







And the facade and inside of Blacksmith, facing Dry Good...











As you know Mystic Manor is the next - and highly awaited - attraction to open at HKDL, and it will open next year. It's located next door to Grizzly Gulch and the signs are already in place...



...but the question is: do we see Mystic Manor from Grizzly Gulch? The answer is yes, as you can see on the picture below, and the next one will show you how great is looking the building.





As i told you in the part two a path has been created between Grizzly Gulch and Toy Story Land so the guests can go from one land to another - and this also avoid to have two dead end.





You may have noticed that there is on the fences some posters, all referring to the coming of Mystic Manor next year. I'm sure you would love to see and get these posters in big size, right? Good news, i have them for you and here they are below!





We're not done yet with Grizzly Gulch as the new land is even more magical at night so in the next part we'll have a great report of Grizzly Gulch night pictures! Don't miss it!

AND if you love Disney Parks attraction posters like the ones above i remind you that the fantastic WDI Disney Parks attraction posters book will be released in six weeks or so and that it's still time to pre-order it - and save $15 on the final price - on Amazon.com right HERE.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Mystic Manor can indeed be seen from GG ... so let's hope that the trees that separate the two areas will grow very fast, bacause an Adventureland-style haunted mansion right next to a Far West-style area?????

Why did WDI not choose to make the two expansion areas in the same theme?
1) Go for the Frontierland-style of GG, and create a haunted mansion in that theme.
OR
2) Go for the Adventureland-style Mystic Manor, and create a rollercoaster ride (+ surrounding town) in an adventurous style (maybe Indy-themed).

Now, guests walk through Adventureland into the Far West themed GG, to end up again in the Adventureland-themed Mystic Manor (and I'm not even getting started on what lies behind MM) ... some people may find this very weird and extremely confusing!

Sure, HKDL gets some unique rides, but it pays the price for them by also getting a DL that's quite weirdly and very chaotically themed.

Mark said...

The theming of the Gulch seems poorly executed. Is that right?

Alain Littaye said...

I don't think so, Mark, and here is why: the mistake is coming when one compare Grizzly Gulch and a normal Frontierland. It's not a "full" Frontierland, and it's not even a "full" land. What it is, as i see it, is something in-between, a mini land built around a ride. The closest thing which is near to this concept would be Critter Country in any Disney theme park where there is one, except that Grizzly Gulch seems to be bigger.