The Hong Kong Disneyland That Never Was

[Loomis]

Much gets said about the budget cuts at HKDL, and how the park was smaller than originally intended. What does that really mean though?

http://news.hkdlsource.com/story/163

In the course of tidying up here at the Source over the last few days, a couple of things occured to us. Firstly, we realised that we didn't have a copy of the original press release/announcement of the park from way back on 2 November 1999. So for that reason, we have faithfully recreated one of those - with a few of our own graphical additions along the way.

However, this got us to thinking: what would Hong Kong Disneyland have looked like if the original plans had been followed? Would it have been that different a park?

http://homepage.hkdlsource.com/park/lostlands

For this purpose, we have created a new page called Lost Lands. In this section, we aren't speculating about forthcoming attractions or pointing fingers at where Disney went wrong. We merely wish to examine those areas of the park that were originally meant to be something else. After all, who doesn't enjoy a bit of armchair Imagineering?

After looking at the above, what do people think? Are they disappointed HKDL didn't go down that path? Angry that there were a whopping twelve additional rides slated? Optimistic for the future of the park?

Let's have a bit of fun with this...

[Disneyfreak1990]

who knows they might add them later on since they are adding Small World, the Haunted Mansion, and Pirates before 2010 comes. but it would have been better if this was how it looked. and i don't see how they can really expand that much.

[Big Disney Fan]

who knows they might add them later on since they are adding Small World, the Haunted Mansion, and Pirates before 2010 comes. but it would have been better if this was how it looked. and i don't see how they can really expand that much.

I know what you mean, and I too am disappointed in the results, but you never know. I think they deliberately left spots of land open for expansion at a later date.

[dizfan]

Wasn't a Raging Spirits announced for HKDL a long time ago? What happened to that?

[Disney-Fan]

Raging Spirits was announced, and built, for Tokyo DisneySea, not Hong Kong Disneyland.

[Loomis]

Wasn't a Raging Spirits announced for HKDL a long time ago? What happened to that?

Raging Spirits was announced, and built, for Tokyo DisneySea, not Hong Kong Disneyland.

Actually, you are both kind of right. Tokyo is the only one to have built the Raging Spirits, but it was "announced" for HKDL a long time ago ... which is the point of the Lost Lands page. The stuff that got announced back in 1999 and never actually built.

The actual quote from the 1999 press was: "ride a roller coaster through a dark jungle filled with mysterious surprises", which we can only assume was Raging Spirits. It is now one of those 'permanent rumours passed off as fact' for the park.

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[dizfan]

Raging Spirits was announced, and built, for Tokyo DisneySea, not Hong Kong Disneyland.

Yes, I know. I have pictures of me standing in front of it.

But I knew it was announced for HKDL. I read it much more recently than 1999 though.

[jwa1107]

After all, who doesn't enjoy a bit of armchair Imagineering?

they should add it to the next Olympics!

[Loomis]

But I knew it was announced for HKDL. I read it much more recently than 1999 though.

As I said, it has been rumoured so many times that it is often passed off as "fact", especially on the ever-reliable Wikipedia. Rest assured, if it was announced, we'd be all over it.

[Disneyfreak1990]

acually Raging Spirits was kinda announced in the press release but not with a name. all it said was a jungle roller coaster in adventureland so we're assuming its raging spirits.

[Loomis]

acually Raging Spirits was kinda announced in the press release but not with a name. all it said was a jungle roller coaster in adventureland so we're assuming its raging spirits.

Yes, as mentioned above