I’d like to share a few tidbits from my visit to Hong Kong Disneyland. The first is about their opening show. Each morning, guests are invited onto Main Street a half hour before the official opening time. For the next thirty minutes they are allowed to wander the shops and grab a bite to eat at the bakery. A rope keeps guests from entering the Hub.
About seven minutes prior to opening, Belle, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Cinderella stroll through the castle and over to the Hub. A family, who has been selected in advance, is waiting for them. An announcement is then made in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English, and after a short countdown, a child cuts a ribbon and the park officially opens. This is a very simple ceremony, but the Princesses create quite a stir and cameras click like crazy.
This next picture was taken next to the Tea Cups. I’ve never seen a warning like this on any sign in the States. It does make you wonder since all bags are checked prior to entering the park and no alcohol is served inside.
Hong Kong Disneyland has a special program called “Star Guest.” Each morning, a limited number of bright yellow Star Guest lanyards are given out (free of charge) at City Hall. This is done on a first come, first served basis until that day’s allotment has been exhausted. From the lanyard hangs a Mickey balloon-shaped piece of cardboard wishing you a magical day.
Guests who wear this lanyard are frequently singled out by the cast members for special treatment. For example, while waiting in line to ride the Jungle Cruise, I was asked my name. Then, during the excursion, the skipper made several references to me with typical Jungle Cruise humor. And when I exited the attraction, I was greeted by this sign.
I was also given another cardboard Mickey to hang from my lanyard indicating that I was a “Jungle Cruise First Mate.”
When I saw the Stitch Encounter Show (similar to Turtle Talk with Crush), I was singled out by Stitch and my picture appeared onscreen with this little monster. Afterwards, I was given another cardboard Mickey. In all, I collected four more pendants throughout the day as my special treatment continued.
Hong Kong offers a great summer parade called Mickey’s Waterworks Parade. Before the pageant begins, folks are warned that they WILL GET WET and to take appropriate precautions with all cameras and electronic devices. You’re warned that if you don’t want to get wet, there are two “Dry Zones” from which to watch the spectacle. In these areas, the “squirters” temper their mayhem.
As you might guess, the floats spray water on the guests all along the parade route. You get wetter in the front seat of Splash Mountain, but if hit by one of these water cannons, you’ll definitely know you’ve been squirted. This is a great parade and something that would be immensely popular at the Magic Kingdom during our hot summer months. I videotaped the parade so you can see what it’s all about.
My final Hong Kong tidbit is about their version of “The Festival of the Lion King.” Unlike the Orlando version, which was to be a temporary show until Beastly Kingdom was built, Disney spared no expense when building this Hong Kong counterpart. Here, the stage rotates, rises, and has pyrotechnic displays built into it. It’s amazing and adds a lot of pizzazz to the show. Although the Orlando and Hong Kong shows are similar, they are also different. For example, in Hong Kong, they actually tell the story of Simba, while in Orlando, they just celebrate him.
I saw the show twice and filmed it both times. For one filming, I sat in the first row and for the other, I was on the opposite side of the theater, two-thirds of the way back. I edited the material together to create a seamless presentation. The video is in two parts and takes about 18 minutes. The actual show is 30 minutes, but I cut out much of the dialogue. If you don’t have time to watch both videos, might I suggest just looking at the last three minutes of Part Two. This will give you a good idea of how terrific the stage is. Enjoy.
I find the tapered shows are not as good as when I first saw them. But, I still enjoy them nontheless.i spend two night with them.
Hey Jack,
Thanks for giving us a peek into some of the interesting aspects of Hong Kong DL. I love the idea of opening Main St. 30 minutes early to browse the shops. If MK did that, I’d probably do more shopping than I do.
The Star Guest is such a great Disney idea. What an excellent way to make guests feel special. It sounds like bithday buttons on steroids.
I would love for WDW to bring the WaterWorks parade here, but keep our FOTLK. I love the 4 dynamic voices featured in WDW’s version. At times, I found the girl’s voice in HK’s version to be painful. The stage is very cool, though.
-Kirstin
Jack, thank you so much for taking the time to edit all your videos so beautifully and then share them with us. I’ll probably never get to
Hong Kong, but I feel like I’ve experienced a bit of it through your eyes. By the way, FOTLK is my favorite show at WDW, but I can see that the amazing stage at Hong Kong could really add a whole new dimension to an already incredible show.
For the Lion King show in HK, they used to have a ‘gun-shot’ go off in one of the scenes, but apparently an old lady got a heart-attack from the sudden loud noise and they have removed that part from the show.
Another mishap was in the Golden Mickey show where a cast member got some burns from the fireworks in the finale. So, no more fireworks in the show.
I find the tapered shows are not as good as when I first saw them. But, I still enjoy them nontheless.
Hello, about the “sober” thing – the characters used for that phrase are “qingxing” 清醒 and the phrase can mean sober, but it also means “awake” and “conscious.” Maybe they were really trying to convey that you must be about your senses to ride? A lot of times when things are translated from Chinese to English, the person translating may not know enough English to make the phrase sound correct to native English speakers, and picks the first meaning they find in the dictionary. There are lots of websites devoted to signs in China that have been translated poorly. I studied Mandarin for a couple semesters, and we would use pictures of those signs to try and translate it to make more sense, and see where the translation went wrong, and I think this “sober” thing is just like that 🙂
I watched your excellent video and found the FOTLK at WDW to be much better. From the Tumble Monkeys, audience participation, and singing especially “Circle of Life”.
Thanks, Jack, for the report. I’ve been interested in the Waterworks parade and HK’s FOTLK.
The Star Guest program is interesting. I like it. But I don’t think it would work in a setting like Walt Disney World.
Jack, it’s great that you were able to visit Hong Kong Disneyland. I’ve been to Disneyland Paris and would love to make it over to the other overseas parks. I enjoyed the odd little tidbits and can’t wait to check out the Lion King video.
Did you find any problems communicating with any cast members or do most of them also speak English? Also, as far as signs and menus, were they available in English as well as Chinese?
Jack’s Answer:
Hong Kong was a British colony for 100 years. English is very common in Hong Kong and all of the signs and menus at Disneyland are printed in both Chinese and English. Communication simply is not a problem.
I have a picture of the “you must be sober” sign near the Teacups, as well. What a hoot! I wonder if something might have been lost (or added) in the translation?