Subsonic Radio

Read this:

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2009/03/1 ... kong-disn/

OMG, that is so sad to read. Although I have never been there, it is really sad to think that a Disney property could close.

I think it puts Disney in a bad light. It makes it sound like they used Hong Kong, not only for it's money but to get into other Asian markets. This could be true, but we will never know.

Yes, I agree with agingerbugg very sad to close a park.

maybe I am in the minority but I have always been a firm believer there should be fewer Disney parks, not more. When attractions are cookie-cuttered they aren't as special.

horizons1 wrote:maybe I am in the minority but I have always been a firm believer there should be fewer Disney parks, not more. When attractions are cookie-cuttered they aren't as special.

Agreed. It starts to make the rides seem less important and less special when every park has the same one. It doesn't matter how the queue looks or how the exterior is themed if the ride is basically the same.

horizons1 wrote:maybe I am in the minority but I have always been a firm believer there should be fewer Disney parks, not more. When attractions are cookie-cuttered they aren't as special.

Well, considering most Americans will never get to Hong Kong (or, indeed, out of the country at all), I don't mind extra parks in far-off places. You also have to consider the converse...that this will be the only chance for many locals to visit a Disney park.

It does completely suck, however, that they half-assed the park, and have further tarnished the Disney brand.

That said, there was a lot of talk of Euro Disney failing early on, and eventually they got it together.

horizons1 wrote:maybe I am in the minority but I have always been a firm believer there should be fewer Disney parks, not more. When attractions are cookie-cuttered they aren't as special.

I also agree. It gets to be much of a hassle when having a lot more parks. I'm still a bit hesitant on the Shanghai idea too.

Captain Schnemo wrote:You also have to consider the converse...that this will be the only chance for many locals to visit a Disney park.

I don't know, Schnemo. If I want to go see Tivoli Gardens I have to fly to Denmark. There is no Tivoli, USA. Granted the difference is that Disney uses the parks as marketing platforms for the entire brand. That is how they got away with 9 rides to begin with.

There has to be a limit - I do not want to see Disney parks become like Six Flags. Not to disparage Six Flags, I happen to be a stockholder of both companies. but Six Flags is a theme park chain. Disney may be a brand but it should never be a chain.

I am probably in the minority here, but when I heard they were going to build this place many years ago, I thought it was a bad idea. This doesn't come as a surprise to me at all.

horizons1 wrote:If I want to go see Tivoli Gardens I have to fly to Denmark. There is no Tivoli, USA.

I just don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with the same stuff existing on opposite sides of the planet, when the vast majority of people would never be able to make it to both. I don't see how one diminishes the other.

Disney might be spreading its limited resources thin, but that's a management thing. Assuming there could be two world class parks in different parts of the world, I don't see any trouble with it.

Frankly, I think most of us would be pretty happy if WDW imported the best Japanese Disney stuff.

It's not like a Disney park in Europe or Japan is part of the real culture of the area. I don't think most people who visit Paris or Tokyo would even consider going to their MKs. People like us would, of course, but we're mutants.

I wonder if the failure of Hong Kong is the main driving force behind Shanghai? I'd thought it was odd they were rushing to build another park in (effectively) the same country - albeit really, really far away - so soon after Hong Kong opened. Seems like there's usually a longer lag time between openings. If they worked out that they're going to cannibalize the same audience with a Shanghai park and they're okay with it, things certainly don't look good for HK.

It does seem odd that they're possibly going to write it off altogether, though. EuroDisney took a long time to get going (I still think change the name helped there...).

I don't really think it's a big deal if the parks are very similar in places that don't get a lot of cross-tourism. I don't know how many 'regular' American visitors are gonna go to Hong Kong, much less Shanghai. I can't speak for the Paris people... perhaps they're more globetrotting than North Americans. It seems to me that the Hong Kong park was aimed at grabbing up people in southern China and nearby (relatively speaking) SE Asia. Gotta kind of wonder how much impact the Disney brand has in, like, Laos, or somewhere that it's not been part of the culture 50 years.

Captain Schnemo wrote:It's not like a Disney park in Europe or Japan is part of the real culture of the area. I don't think most people who visit Paris or Tokyo would even consider going to their MKs. People like us would, of course, but we're mutants.

I'm in that mutant group and I'm still not sure we're going to Tokyo's MK in the fall. DisneySea, yes (oh god, yes), but I dunno about the MK.

Wow, so few rides. No wonder why it never made it to becoming a huge destination.

What a truly sad proposition that Disney might abandon a park. I have to agree with those of you that mentioned EuroDisney and it's rough start. But if they are not going to continue to develop the attractions in Hong Kong it seems doubtful that it will last long. I guess I will have to hurry if I want to see Hong Kong DL in person...

I wonder how much was really understood about the cultural problems that might exist such as the fact that it's hard for most Chinese to get permission to go there and that they like to use the gardens as restrooms. I personally would not have forseen that problem!

Well if we all go to walmart, Disney Hong Kong should see new life.