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| © Hong Kong Disneyland |
A massive set of expansion plans,
costing $1.4 billion and running for six years from 2018 until 2023, has been unveiled for
Hong Kong Disneyland. Changes include new rides and attractions to open almost every year during the expansion, based on themes such as Frozen and the Marvel Comics properties.
One of the biggest changes is set for a 2019 debut, and that's a total re-imagining of the park's main castle. Seen above, the new castle will be dramatically larger and have a much bigger presence over the park.
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| © Hong Kong Disneyland |
The park's current Sleeping Beauty Castle, which is fairly small and a near copy of the original at Disneyland, will be replaced with one designed for several live entertainment options. Totally redoing a castle is unprecedented in Disney parks, so this is quite a dramatic move. The new castle will be surrounded with a moat that will be incorporated in both daytime and nighttime spectacles. (one of which is pictured above) A redesigned 'hub' area will also be built, with much more dedicated viewing areas for the new entertainment.
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| © Hong Kong Disneyland |
This map details the castle change along with everything else that is being planned. There will be significant changes to the Tomorrowland area, pumped up with Marvel-themed rides, and an entire new land based on Frozen. Click the image for a larger view of the future park map.
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| © Hong Kong Disneyland |
Hong Kong Disneyland's new Frozen themed area (listed as opening in 2020) will be the first full land at a Disney park to carry the Frozen theme. The recreated Arendelle will be located beyond Fantasyland, and feature themed dining, retail, character interactions and two attractions. One of them will be a trip to Elsa's frozen ice castle, named Frozen Ever After, which from the description in this
video sounds like a clone of the ride of the same name that opened this year at Epcot in Florida.
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| © Hong Kong Disneyland |
The Frozen area's second attraction is named Oaken's Dancing Sleigh Ride, where visitors sit in oversized sleighs that dance around on a frozen pond. From looking at the concept art, it appears as though this may use a
ride system similar to Luigi's Rollickin' Roadsters at California Adventure.
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| © Hong Kong Disneyland |
It looks like Disney is betting on their latest movie, Moana, to be a success considering that in 2018 a new Adventureland Show Place will open at the park, featuring “Moana’s Village
Festival.” The theater will have a "series of daytime entertainment offerings anchored
around a lively stage show in a new interactive entertainment
environment."
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| © Hong Kong Disneyland |
Changes to Tomorrowland will be significant, and kick off with the new Iron Man Experience simulator ride that will
open on January 11, 2017. The map of the park shows that the land will contain several clustered Marvel rides, with a big one replacing the current Autopia car ride. That is listed for the very end of the expansion, in 2023, so there is plenty of time left to take a spin.
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| © Hong Kong Disneyland |
Time is quickly running out for another Tomorrowland ride, though, and that's Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. The ride will be renovated into a Marvel Super Heroes attraction for 2018, I believe the concept art above is for this change. The in-car shooting feature looks to be hanging around, but with a total theme change.
Hong Kong Disneyland is majority-owned by the Hong Kong government (53%), so they will be splitting the massive bill for this expansion with Disney accordingly.
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