Bob Welbaum: My Hong Kong Non-Adventure
Page 5 of 5
We went to a character buffet in the Disneyland Hotel and I noticed something unusual. As the characters approached me, they would frequently pat me on the stomach. I am not overweight, certainly not a Buddha wannabe. But during this trip I did have a bit of a paunch. The reason was simple – I was wearing a travel wallet around my neck that came to about stomach level. The characters may have thought they were giving me good luck when they were actually patting my wallet, a practice some in this country might find ironic.
This was the only Disney park where I’ve seen Korean Squid for sale as a snack. (No, I didn’t try it.)
Korean Squid for sale in the theme park for 20 Hong Kong Dollars (or about $3).
Lastly, Hong Kong Disneyland has the largest lizards I’ve ever seen at any Disney resort. Those Florida geckos simply wouldn’t be able to compete on Lantau Island.
The largest lizards in any Disney resort are in Hong Kong!
This visit was great… but it also left me scratching my head. I realize these overseas parks are major business decisions, especially when your partner is a foreign government with a different political philosophy. And yet, why are things proceeding so slowly? Granted, the opening of “It’s a Small World” should be a major boost. Still, if I had a communications channel to Disney upper management, my message would be: “You have a beautiful location with plenty of land. You have the infrastructure, especially the rail line and the pier. You have the cast. This is your entrée to the most populous country on Earth. Can’t we pick up the pace a bit here? Please?”
During our subsequent stay in Tokyo, we did meet a member of Disney management who confided that the company intends to make this resort something of a showplace within about ten years. We can certainly believe that.
Still, considering the lack of familiar souvenirs and what we thought was a low-key approach to encouraging guests to spend money, we started developing a theory of our own. Perhaps the master plan is deliberately subtle to introduce the Chinese to the Disney approach to recreation. Get them comfortable with Disney characters and films and then let the whole thing take off? To us, that was only logical conclusion after seeing so many underutilized opportunities.
During other overseas trips that have had more than their share of snafus and disappointments, I coined a saying to keep things in perspective: “If everything goes as planned, it’s not an adventure.”
This trip went much better than planned, by my definition a non-adventure if I’d ever had one, so I guess I need a new saying. I’m working on it now… something about serendipity.
For more information, visit the official website at http://park.hongkongdisneyland.com (the English home page is actually http://park.hongkongdisneyland.com/hkdl/en_US/home/home?name=HomePage), and see articles in issues #4 and #5 of Tales From the Laughing Place magazine.
Discuss It
-- Bob Welbaum
Bob Welbaum is a longtime Disneyana fan and NFFC member from the Dayton, Ohio area.
-- May 21, 2008
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