Thursday, September 5, 2019

Hong Kong Disneyland Castle Construction Update


Here we go for a new Hong Kong Disneyland update about HKDL Castle transformation. First, i have to thanks Gavin Jones from Coaster Force who shot the pictures and kindly authorized D&M to post them in this article.

So far HKDL released the two artworks above and below showing the new castle day or night...


...and HKDL castle model was displayed at the last D23 Expo, picture shot by Andy Castro.


As you'll see in the pictures below new elements of the castle arrived and are now being put in place on each turrets. I'm still dubious about the final result considering the mix of syles and the size of the castle  in regards to Main Street proportions,  but let's give them the benefit of the doubt until the castle is finished and open in the first half of 2020. So, le'ts have a look at the pictures, would we?



















What is more problematic is that it seems that some "gold" parts mainly at the very top of the turrets seems to be only painted with gold color instead to have the gold done with gold leaf. On the screen capture below the gold of the crown and others decorative elements is probably gold leaf,  but the cone right under them really looks to be gold painting only.

HK Main Street Gazette does a very good job by posting each week a new 4K video showing the progress on the construction, and here is their latest video posted just two days ago.



I remind you that one of the reasons that the castle include different styles is because it is supposed to be a tribute to thirteen different Disney princesses - or considered as - and on the fences around the castle guests can see some artworks which are "hints" for each characters. The characters don't appear on them, only the "world" they belong to and i let you guess who is who, which shouldn't be very difficult...
















See you soon for a new HKDL update!

Pictures: copyright Gavin Jones, Andy Castro, Disney

7 comments:

ARMINT said...

I think it will be gorgeous, as beautiful as Paris one (maybe more..!)

Stephen Hughes said...

Hi, when is it expected to open??

Alain Littaye said...

Stephen, a good answer obviously would be "when it will be ready", but i expect it to open next year around April or so, may be before...

ARMINT said...

I think it could be ready for Christmas time

Pierre Peeters said...

Hi,
To Armint: I agree that each of the individual towers looks quite nice in these pictures, but it will be a weird mixture of styles when put together. On top of this, this castle has the same problem as Shanghai’s castle: it is missing a reason to exist. When I visit Paris with my children, I visit the castle and tell them the story of Aurora. It works, it’s an immersive experience and we spend a lot of time in and around the castle. But in Shanghai I don’t know really what to say to them. It’s just a castle, it doesn’t matter how impressive the building is, it’s missing a story, so we skip it. In HK it will be even worse: my daughter of 7 will not understand why all these princesses share a castle. It simply doesn’t make sense, no matter how beautiful or detailed each individual piece may be. Regards

ARMINT said...

Pierre, I'm simply IN LOVE with Paris castle!!!
I'm just saying that this design is very interesting, maybe more that the design of Paris one, BUT that one IS a castle, I totally agree with you!

Komissarov said...

I think you have to think about the country and the culture the parks (and castles) of Hong Kong and Shanghai are in. In China big means beautyful, so nobody did understand, why the castle in HKDL was not the biggest building of the park (actually Space Montain was). They corrected that in Shanghai and do now in Hongkong.
Secound is, that chinese customers are not that interested in the stories behind the attractions. So, I can undesrtand Pierres's concern, but this means not a big point in China.