Much hype had been surrounding the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland tomorrow. Many have talked about the number of tourist from mainland China and elsewhere in Asia to Hong Kong, which suppose to result in economical benefit of Hong Kong. I personally do not have this same believe.
For one, the size of Hong Kong Disneyland is between 15 – 19 hectare, when considering the 30,000 maximum capacity, that equates to 2.5 square meters per person. It is currently the smallest Disneyland in the world. Hong Kong Disneyland spokesperson speaks of the Disneyland Hotels and resort facility as a whole when talking about the size of Hong Kong Disneyland, but how many of the visitors would even care or for that matter see these other facilities.
Everything at Hong Kong Disneyland is smaller than the rest of its brothers and sisters in Paris, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Orlando.
In particular the Cinderella castle for some reason looks more like Cinderella’s cottage. It lacks the dominance that a castle should instill. May be it has to do with the mountain that is its backdrop. This so call mountain on Lantau island is the size of a hill in most fairy tales. This is the only Cinderella castle that has a mountain as its backdrop, but to make the castle smaller just to give a better proportion to the mountain is ridiculous.
Disneyland has delivered the Disney magic for years to visitors for years to visitors around the world, but with the behaviours of the mainland China visitors to Hong Kong Disneyland, they have tainted this magic. Until Hong Kong Disneyland spend more effort to prevent these behaviours the Disney magic will never be successful in Hong Kong.
My recommendation to all, is to save the money and go to Tokyo Disneyland / Disney Sea instead, then reconsider Hong Kong Disneyland again in 4 – 5 years from now.