Underneath The Mouse Ears

A little over two months after Hong Kong Disneyland opened on Lantau Island with worldwide fanfare, there are plenty of questions, which nobody - least of all the Hong Kong Government or the Walt Disney Company - seem to have answers to. If they do, they’re not saying.

At the top of the list are the attendance figures. Just how many people have visited the park since it opened? That’s shortly followed by why Disney decided to cut ticket prices for Hong Kong residents by $50. Not far behind is why it has already cut back the closing hours, from 10pm on opening day to 7pm on weekdays. As legislator Emily Lau puts it, “It’s taxpayer’s money going into it and we have the right to know.”

Disney spokespersons, who must be fatigued at the volume of criticism they’ve either had to respond to or ignore - everything from rumored toilet practices by mainlanders to public demonstrations by disgruntled “cast members” - patiently claim the change in closing hours is due to “seasonality.” As for that drop in ticket prices, that’s a “Residents’ Salute” for one month ending on December 8. “This is not an initiative to boost attendance,” says one spokesperson, “but to thank Hong Kong residents for their support over the past six years.”

That’s a nice gesture, if one chooses to believe the clever spin perfected over decades administering four previous theme parks and a multimedia empire that’s one of the biggest in the world. So are Hong Kong residents - or anybody else for that matter - supporting Hong Kong Disneyland the way everyone hoped? A November 15 visit revealed a half-full park at best, with just five- or 10-minute queues for rides, including Space Mountain and Orbitron (“The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh” ride was the most crowded, with a 30-minute wait). But don’t expect to find out how many people attended that or any other day: attendance figures “are commercially sensitive information,” according to a written response from Financial Secretary Frederick Ma to Emily Lau, who was asking just that. Since the government set up a joint-venture company with Hong Kong Disneyland called Hong Kong International Theme Parks, it has no interest in telling you either.

Richard Foglesong has seen this lack of transparency before. As a political science professor at Rollins College in Florida in the mid-80s, Foglesong began to examine the governmental powers Disney acquired in Orlando, Florida with Disney World. His results became the basis of the 2001 book “Married To The Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando.” While he enjoys Disneyland on a personal entertainment level, he calls them a corporate “bad neighbor,” or, “a Vatican with mouse ears.” Last week, in between giving lectures at Hong Kong University, Foglesong paid his first visit to Hong Kong Disneyland. His impressions? “If you haven’t seen a Disney park before, then this is thrilling. The entrance way is especially impressive. But it really is small. Secondly, there aren’t that many rides. In that sense, it’s not exciting, though the landscaping is done better here than in Florida.”

He also noted that attendance during his visit on November 18 was mediocre despite this park having the lowest Disney ticket price in the world. Yet he claims HK Disneyland is on the same historical track as Disney World in Florida. “It opened in October 1971 with disappointing crowds, but by Thanksgiving, cars were lined up all the way to downtown Orlando.” At the end of the year, he adds, “You’ll have a pretty good idea of how the park is doing,” though he cautions it will take five years to assess whether the park is a success - or a flop.