Hong Kong Disneyland's Glacier Bay: The Concept Art

The brilliant old school excellence of Mystic Manor. The Newfangled blend of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Expedition Everest found in Hong Kong Disneyland's recent Grizzly Gulch's Runaway Mine Cars. The upcoming Iron Man attraction. A new evening show, "Disney Paint the Night", with shades of California Adventure's incredible World of Color. What will be next for Hong Kong Disneyland?

How about something old? Something discarded? Something that was planned once upon a time by the Imagineers and cut due to budget restraints of the budgeteers. Let's call it "Glacier Bay", an icy wonderland perfectly designed to cut through the heat of Asia.

Far beyond the ordinary fairground mentality of the bland Toy Story Playland, the beautiful Glacier Bay would be home to a roller coaster, jet skiing, and more.

Is it my imagination or does Glacier Bay remind you of Tokyo DisneySea's futuristic Port Discovery? Regardless, all this work was done for a proposed but abandoned part of the Hong Kong park done by Favilli Studios, one of the relatively new players in the theme park business. 

With nearby Ocean Park ramping up the competition for tourist dollars and Shanghai Disneyland within a couple of years of opening, the suits in Hong Kong are looking for ways to keep the guests coming in. Be it the inevitable second park or a Downtown Disney buildout, my bet is that they look backwards to what was once planned- and give their guests a wintery excuse to get away from it all.

(Art copyright Favilli Studios.)

Before Hong Kong Disneyland Got It's Bear Hug

Howdy! Yep, those Runaway Mine Cars in Grizzly Gulch at Hong Kong Disneyland look putty snazzy! So does that up and coming Mystic Manor which will be open to the public in 2013. Those Disney Imagineers did some great work there!

You might know that these were unknown and unplanned additions when the park first opened. In fact, one of the original pieces of art made the park look entirely different than what guests found when it first opened. From the latest Disney  Imagineering book, here is an early concept for the park.

It looks small, but just click on it and see it full size. What will you see? A very interesting variety of attractions and a very different layout for the park's Fantasyland. The castle is at the back, but it is the rest of the park that looks just as unique!  Way back is a lagoon for an evening show to the east side of Main Street. An early version of World of Color from California Adventure? Maybe Fantasmic? There's also a big chunk of land for the Indiana Jones Adventure. Would this older plan or the newer one we are seeing have been a better competitor to Shanghai Disneyland? 

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)