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Hong Kong Disneyland Halloween 2015

gavin

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Just saw this over at Screamscape:

The Jungle River Cruise at Hong Kong Disneyland will be closed from August 23 to to Sept. 16, in order to prepare the area for a special Halloween themed event makeover.

No details at the moment, but the fact that it's closed for three weeks seems to make it a fairly big deal.

Space Mountain is only down for a few days while they fit the Ghost Galaxy overlay. No idea if that'll be back this year though; they didn't do it last year.
 

gavin

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Re: Halloween Jungle Cruise for Hong Kong Disneyland

Just had this through my e-mail:

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Looking good with new stuff for this year, but no real details at the moment. Jungle Cruise has been down for a while to be retrofitted, so should be pretty major. It seems like Grizzly Gulch will be a scare zone with dead miners, but it's a bit unclear at the moment whether Mystic Point will be a scare zone, or whether Mysic Manor itself is having something done to it. I'm opting for scare zone as the ride itself is probably too complex to actually alter, especially given that there's no advertised down time for it.

No mention yet of whether Graves Academy is returning to Main Street or if the building might be used for a different walkthrough, but it seems that Revenge of the headless Horseman won't be re-appearing this year, or replaced, since they're continuing to use the show building for their temporary Frozen Village attraction.

I've just registered for the preview night on the 17th. It could be better to wait until the 19th in case they need to iron anything out, but I can always go back once the event opens properly, and probably will anyway to be honest.
 

peep

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Saw the Jungle Cruise news on twitter yesterday, sounds like it'd be a great addition to what already looks like a brilliant event.

What annoys me though is that Disney are fine doing scary in Hong Kong but nowhere else. The TWDC even shut down the amazing scare event at the Paris Studios Park. #jealous

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gavin

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^ It's still kind of family friendly though. They go for atmosphere over blood and gore.

Having said that, the walkthroughs are jammed full of jump scares.

Also, with Ocean Park having massive Halloween events, Disney kind of need to do something o guess. They only do it 2/3 nights a week, keeping the park open later than usual, so they can still very much keep it for families for the most part.
 

Pink Cadillac

Giga Poster
peep said:
What annoys me though is that Disney are fine doing scary in Hong Kong but nowhere else. The TWDC even shut down the amazing scare event at the Paris Studios Park. #jealous

Imagine the amount of complaints if it was done at an american park </3
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Terrorific Nights at Disneyland Paris was completely half arsed though, it's nothing on the scale of Hong Kong's event which always looks absolutely phenomenal.
 

peep

CF Legend
The difference with terrorific nights was it was only for two nights. Whereas this is a whole season. You just can't compare them like that. They had to hide all related theming during the day and get it all ready in like 3 hours. It's kinda insane when you think about what they achieved.

You had the DL park celebrating a traditional Halloween the whole time and then a two night only sold out event at the Studios for adults. It was very popular and was actually fantastic fun, Paris events always grow the longer they go on. For something which could have sold out even if it lasted a whole week it seems naive of Disney to cut the event.

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Lofty

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peep said:
The difference with terrorific nights was it was only for two nights. Whereas this is a whole season. You just can't compare them like that. They had to hide all related theming during the day and get it all ready in like 3 hours. It's kinda insane when you think about what they achieved.

A lot of companies and parks do this though, have a hangover time of only a matter of hours, look at Halloween Horror Nights, apart from the huge sets that they cannot move during the day, most of it is covered over during the day and you don't really notice it.

You can compare the events though - the Terrorific Nights was actually more catered towards the adult/teenage market than the Hong Kong event is. As an event, it truly wasn't a spectacle, with more money and a longer run put to it, it could have been incredible. When it's in competition with Parc Asterix' halloween event, that's actually really quite good and in some respects Europa's, Walibi's, Movie Park Germany's and even PortAventura's events that are all superior, it just didn't hit the mark, especially for a 'Disney standard event'.
 

Ben

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This has probably got a lot to do with the fact DLRP is terrible and awful and everything they do is ****.
 

gavin

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I went a Halloween preview event at Hong Kong Disney last night. I'll get a report up later, but some details for now:

Curse of the Emerald Trinity

This takes place on the Jungle Cruise ride. The idea is that an explorer has taken a sacred stone from a temple - the temple has been constructed in an early part of the ride, complete with projection mapping - which has caused the curse to happen. Later, you see the explorer in his tent with the stone; plants vines come up and around and pull him under ground. This is all done through projection; you see it all in silhouette. It's done in the "Gorilla Camp" section of the ride, with the same tents being used, but projection screens at the front to make closed tents rather than open. Obviously the gorillas will still be inside. The hippos coming out of the water have been replaced with zombies. The fire/water has been lit slightly differently, but otherwise remains the same.

The whole thing is VERY Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The stones are identical to those in the movie and the silhouette of the explorer, including the hat, is clearly "inspired" by the character.

The Haunting of Grizzly Gulch

Big Grizzly Mountain has been projection mapped and looks really cool. I thought this might be a scare zone, but it's not really. It starts off using the small stage area (MUCH too small really) that is usually used by a group of musicians during the day. There's an old miner who starts telling a story about fights between groups of miners and cowboys. Other performers use skeleton puppets to demonstrate it. It's pretty poor. However, part way through, the whole land gets filled with actors - miners, cowboys, saloon girls etc. These are obviously of the "dead" variety. Fights break out among the different groups, turning it into a kind of stunt show really. Pretty decent.

Cycle of the Spirits

Mystic Manor has been projection mapped. At first it just looks like a different lighting design, but when the show starts you can see that it's mapping. A kind of vortex is visible in the lower right for most of it, I guess as a portal for the spirits which appear. A bunch of actors appear on the steps and then come down into the crowd and mingle around for a good half an hour or so before heading back up the steps. It's not frightening at all, but the atmosphere is excellent. I recorded it, but the quality is poor as my camera just doesn't do video too well. You can get the idea anyway, though the detail of the projection is lost.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMNkXS5boO8[/youtube]

There are no walkthroughs this year. One of the buildings that they usually use - which has held Revenge of the Headless Horseman for the last few years - is still holding the temporary Frozen Village attraction which they've extended from an initial summer run due to its popularity. No idea about the other walkthrough though.

Also worth noting, the new projection work on the Disney in the Stars show is currently missing. The fireworks are the same and the castle has a lighting package, but no projection. I think it's safe to say it's because the projectors are being used on Big Grizzly Mountain, Jungle Cruise and Mystic Manor.
 

mouse

Giga Poster
^ Is it somewhere near Thorpe? (Sorry, couldn't help myself :p.)
I personally read the preview event post with great interest, as I do with the Asian trip reports and news items :).
 

Lofty

CF Legend
Love it Gavin.

Are you gonna be visiting a few times?

It's such a shame that they're not doing any walkthroughs this year, they always look such fantastic quality.
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
Oh I love the mapping on Mystic Manor and all the actors, that's so cool. Their Halloween stuff doesn't look as scary as perhaps I've been led to believe, especially if they've scrapped all the wallkthoughs this year. Still looks a great atmosphere though.
 
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