Seasonal Events

Frozen Village to Debut for Hong Kong Disneyland 2015 Summer

May 31, 2015 By Erin De Santiago Leave a Comment

From June 11 to August 30, 2015, visitors to Hong Kong Disneyland can enjoy this year’s new summer event, Frozen Village.

Look for special menus and themed foods and desserts. I’m curious to see if they are debuting new foods in addition to the Frozen themed goodies they already had during my last visit in April.

New Frozen foods and treats will be available for Hong Kong Disneyland Summer event - disneyglobetrotter.com — New Frozen foods and treats will be available for Hong Kong Disneyland Summer event.

There will be a special musical performance featuring Queen Elsa, Princess Ann, and Kristoff, which will feature the “Let It Go” anthem.

Hong Kong Disneyland debuts Summer event "Frozen" Village - disneyglobetrotter.com — Hong Kong Disneyland debuts Summer event “Frozen” Village.

Hong Kong Disneyland’s themed Frozen Village will provide a wintery atmosphere to help guests cool off from the summer heat. There will be different snow activities, including a snow play area where you can build your own snowman or ride a toboggan!

The Frozen merchandise line is expanding, and the latest news from Hong Kong Disneyland is there will be even more new merchandise for the summer Frozen Village.

New Frozen merchandise for Hong Kong Disneyland Summer event - disneyglobetrotter.com — New Frozen merchandise for Hong Kong Disneyland Summer event.

Unfortunately, I’m currently working in Europe and headed back to Belize for the remainder of the summer, so it’s doubtful I will make this event. If you attend and post photos, let me know — I’m curious to see all the merchandise, food, and park decor.

Here’s a look at some of the Frozen decor and merchandise available during my last several visits:

Hong Kong Disneyland It's Springtime - Frozen Display - disneyglobetrotter.com — Hong Kong Disneyland It’s Springtime – Frozen Display

Erin De Santiago

A lifelong Disney fanatic and freelance travel and food writer currently based in Belize and the Netherlands. Annual passholder to all Disney Parks worldwide. Bring you Disney Magic from around the globe.

Hong Kong Disneyland Chinese New Year Celebration: Lucky Fortune Trail

January 28, 2011 By Erin De Santiago 6 Comments

Hong Kong Disneyland debuted their annual Chinese New Year celebration on the same day as the kick-off of their 5th anniversary celebration. Although the focus was definitely on the 5th anniversary festivities, the resort featured special Chinese New Year decorations, a Lucky Fortune Trail, Disney characters in Chinese New Year outfits, special menus, and my favorite — new merchandise!

We flew to Hong Kong on Friday January 21 for both the Chinese New Year and 5th Anniversary kick-off events. Main Street featured some traditional Chinese New Year decorations and the main gazebo where Mickey and Minnie greet guests was decked out for the holiday as well. The only odd part (although not surprising) was seeing Mickey and Minnie in their 5th Anniversary outfits versus Chinese New Year ones. Given it was media day for the 5th Anniversary “Celebration in the Air” I am not surprised they featured Mickey and Minnie in those outfits.

cny30 — Mickey & Minnie's photo spot decked out for Chinese New Year

cny26 — Year of the Rabbit decoration in the Corner Cafe window on Main Street

hk23 — Chinese New Year decorations on new Center Street Boutique

I was holding out hope that Duffy the Disney Bear was in his Chinese New Year outfit. Since the US Parks released the Chinese outfit, I figured this was the perfect segue to bring that one to Hong Kong. Duffy’s photo spot was decked out with a floral heart and lots of red and yellow flowers along the base. Cast Members were passing out stickers with Duffy dressed in his Chinese New Year garb. As we wandered in the Emporium, we found the Chinese outfit from the US Parks. And sure enough, once Duffy arrived to his photo spot, he was donning an adorable Chinese New Year jacket and hat. We lucked out and Duffy saw one of our Duffy Bears dressed in the Chinese outfit and held him so we could snap a few photos!

duffy29 — Special Duffy Chinese New Year Sticker

Duffy12 — Duffy the Disney Bear in his Chinese New Year Outfit

Duffy18 — Duffy holding our stuffed bear in his matching outfit

For the Chinese New Year festivities, Hong Kong Disneyland has the Lucky Fortune Trail. At the end of Main Street, you can pick up your “Lucky Trail” card, which directs you on where to find the different displays around the park. Each display has its own special fortune and the object is to place the right sticker of the right fortune on the location for the display on the map. When complete, bring the card back and you will receive a special sticker set with the characters featured in the park displays.

Here is a look at a couple of the themed displays along the Lucky Fortune Trail (please see the gallery below for all the Chinese New Year decorations and Lucky Trail displays). If you are visiting Hong Kong Disneyland prior to February 13, you can enjoy the special park decorations, Chinese New Year menus, and take a stroll along the Lucky Trail. Look for upcoming posts detailing the special menus and merchandise released for Chinese New Year — the Year of the Rabbit.

cny5 — Mickey and Minnie (and our Duffy Bear) on the one of the Lucky Trail displays

cny25 — Genie is even on the Lucky Trail for Chinese New Year

Duffy the Disney Bear’s seasonal display

You can see the Chinese New Year decorations as soon as you arrive

Year of the Rabbit decorations on Main Street window

Chinese New Year decorations on Main Street

Back of the Mickey and Minnie display on Main Street

Stickers received after completion of the Lucky Trail

Windows decorated for Year of the Rabbit

Other Hong Kong Disneyland Chinese New Year Posts:

Year of the Rabbit Merchandise at Hong Kong Disneyland

2011 Chinese New Year Menus and Treats at Hong Kong Disneyland

Erin De Santiago

Tokyo DisneySEA Christmas Wishes: 2010 Themed Christmas Trees

January 3, 2011 By Erin De Santiago Leave a Comment

For the 2010 Christmas Wishes event at Tokyo DisneySEA, the Park was decorated with special Christmas trees in each land. These were complimented by banners when you first enter DisneySEA as well as the “Seven Lights of Christmas” show that featured a host of Disney characters — including an appearance by Duffy the Disney Bear and Shellie May!

Although I was only at Disney this trip for 1 1/2 days, I was able to take in all the shows and photograph the seasonal decorations around the Parks. Here is a look at the special Christmas trees and banners. You will note that most of these photos were taken during the evening hours — I wanted to capture the trees lit up at night as I find Christmas trees to be even more beautiful when they are just illuminated by the lights on the tree and the moonlight above.

The first banner was for Mickey and the Christmas tree that adorned the Mediterranean Harbor area. Notice the details — the base of the tree and the tree itself contain Mickey shaped designs and ornaments.

XmasSEA3 — Christmas Banner for Mediterranean Harbor

XmasTree9 — Mediterranean Harbor Christmas Tree at Tokyo DisneySEA

The second banner depicts Goofy and Pluto at Mysterious Island and the abstract tree that was showcased there. The picture of the tree does not do justice to what a scenic area of DisneySEA this is during the evening hours. Mysterious Island tends to be very dark and the blue and purple hues coming from the volcano are one of my favorite aspects of this park at night.

XmasSEA2 — Christmas Wishes banner for Mysterious Island

XmasTree10 — Christmas Tree in Mysterious Island at Night

XmasTree11 — Used flash just to get details on base of Christmas tree

The next banner is for Mermaid Lagoon and features who else, but Ariel herself. This was definitely one of the more popular trees and we had to wait for probably five minutes before we could get a decent shot of it.

XmasSEA1 — Mermaid Lagoon Christmas Tree Banner

XmasTree12 — Mermaid Lagoon Christmas Tree

XmasTree13 — Close up of Ariel ornament on tree

After Mermaid Lagoon, the next Christmas tree you will encounter is for Aladdin and the Arabian Coast. This tree was incorporated into the main fountain that is the central focal point for this land.

XmasSEA7 — Aladdin and the Christmas Tree for Arabian Coast

XmasTree14 — View of the Arabian Coast Christmas Tree and Fountain

Tucked in the back of Tokyo DisneySEA is the Lost River Delta, which featured Donald and Daisy for the Christmas Wishes Event. The Lost River Delta tree was rustic, and primitive — using an actual tree for the display. It was massive and featured simple ornaments and “paper” lanterns with Donald and Daisy on them. What a great way to use the existing landscape of DisneySEA!

XmasSEA5 — Donald, Daisy, and the Lost River Delta Christmas Tree

XmasTree15 — Lost River Delta tree with some flash lighting

XmasTree16 — Lost River Delta tree in moonlight

XmasTree17 — Lanterns on the Lost River Delta tree

Moving on from the Lost River Delta area, the next stop on our list was Chip and Dale’s tree in Port Discovery with another modern take on the traditional Christmas tree. Each “layer” of the tree featured numerous snowflakes and Chip and Dale were reflected in the compass on the front of the tree. This was a fun tree to photograph as the colors gradually changed every few seconds, giving the tree a completely different look in the dark.

XmasSEA6 — Chip and Dale with the Port Discovery Christmas Tree

XmasTree8 — Port Discovery Christmas Tree

XmasTree7 — Another shot of the Port Discovery tree

After Port Discovery, the next tree on the list was a much anticipated one. So much so that I photographed it several times throughout the day! There was a special Duffy the Disney Bear and Shellie May Christmas tree for the American Waterfront right in the middle of Cape Cod. There was a pretty lengthy line all day long as people waited to have their photos taken with their own Duffy and Shellie May bears.

XmasSEA4 — Minnie Mouse and the Duffy and Shellie May Christmas tree

XmasTree3 — Duffy the Disney Bear and Shellie May Christmas tree during the day

XmasTree2 — Backside of the Duffy and Shellie May tree

XmasTree6 — Duffy and Shellie May tree lit up at night

XmasTree5 — Close up of Duffy and Shellie May on the tree

Also, in the main area of the American Waterfront, there was a giant Christmas tree filed with ornaments and other decorative elements.

XmasTree1 — Giant American Waterfront Christmas tree during the day

XmasTree4 — Giant Christmas tree at night in American Waterfront

I will post additional photos of other park decorations, the Seven Lights of Christmas and Christmas Wishes shows, and merchandise. To see the Christmas themed treats Tokyo DisneySEA offered this year, please see these two posts:

https://disneyglobetrotter.com/2010/12/25/duffy-the-disney-bear-and-shellie-may-christmas-treats-at-tokyo-disneysea/

https://disneyglobetrotter.com/2010/12/27/2010-christmas-treats-at-tokyo-disneyland-and-disneysea/

Erin De Santiago

Duffy the Disney Bear’s Debut at Hong Kong Disneyland

November 23, 2010 By Erin De Santiago 5 Comments

In conjunction with the commencement of Hong Kong Disneyland’s Christmas festivities, Duffy the Disney Bear made his official debut on Friday, November 19th. Being a fan of Duffy, my husband and I flew in for the opening day to cover the festivities and meet Duffy. Hong Kong Disneyland released the Duffy merchandise earlier in the week so I had seen some photos online, which depicted nothing different than what is available at Tokyo Disney or the US Disney Parks now.

Upon arrival, we tried to find one of the Christmas fliers that had Duffy on it, but no one had any available. We quickly found out that they were giving out Duffy Christmas stickers for the event. One note on this — what a contrast to how DCA handled the Duffy debut. The stickers at DCA were for having your photo taken with Duffy and the CM’s would not allow you to get your sticker on the backing. You had to put it on, which was quite disappointing since many people I spoke with had hoped to scrapbook with them. On the flip side, Hong Kong Disneyland always passes out stickers during events and have no issues giving you extras sometimes. Since we had our entire Duffy posse in tow, we ended up with quite a few of the Duffy stickers by the end of the day!

Duffy51 — Duffy stickers handed out by Hong Kong Disneyland Cast Members

Once inside the Park, our first stop was in the Emporium to scope out the Duffy merchandise. A small area was dedicated to the arrival of Duffy and he was fairly offset from the Christmas merchandise, which was somewhat of a disappointment overall (will save for a separate post!) Something interesting Hong Kong Disneyland did was to feature a number of bears already dressed and ready for sale. They had price tags on the outfits and the bears so no savings there.

Duffy6 — Duffy tie in to the Christmas display in the Emporium

Duffy22 — Dressed Duffy the Disney Bears available for purchase

Now, speaking of price — this has been an area of interest to many. I was rather surprised to find the pricing in line with Tokyo. The outfits are exactly the same as those from Tokyo DisneySea, however, tagged slightly different. This is quite disappointing as the bears are now identical, just tagged differently — with quite a price gap between the US and Asia Parks. The bear is $25 in the US whereas Duffy is 3,800 Yen (around $46 US) in Tokyo. In Hong Kong, he retails for HK $320.00 (about $41 USD). The outfits are also on par with Tokyo Disney pricing. The “original” Duffy the Disney Bear outfit is HKD $240.00 and the Christmas outfit is HKD $280.00.

I had noticed on the earlier posted photos, the packaging for outfits is identical to Tokyo DisneySea — so much so they are actually using the same EXACT packaging, but applying stickers to cover up the Tokyo references. This is confusing to guests who do not know much about Duffy and his origin. The Christmas outfit has the illustration of Duffy and Shellie May (who is still only in Tokyo) and says “Straight from Cape Cod”. I took photos of the differences in the packaging to illustrate how it is just being covered up. While I am happy Hong Kong is getting the quality outfits from Tokyo, I do mind that it is literally the same merchandise with the new generic “Disney Parks” logo. Does this mean that the Tokyo quality goods will make their way to the US Parks? Does it mean that Disney is going to really push this “One Disney” concept and rebrand everything with the “Disney Parks?” How will this affect the unique items typically found only at TDR? I guess only time will tell.

Duffy52 — Disney Parks Sticker over "Tokyo DisneySea"

Duffy57 — Underneath the "Disney Parks" sticker it says "Tokyo DisneySea"

Duffy55 — The mobile barcode popular in Japan are covered over on Duffy outfit hangers

Observing the reception of Duffy at Hong Kong Disney versus opening day at DCA, he definitely received a warmer welcome from the HK crowd. He has a little reserved spot on Main Street, which is a prime photo location for seasonal events typically. There was nothing special noted in the Times Guide and we quickly found out Duffy would be available for photos from 11am – 2pm. My husband hurried over to get in line, while I photographed holiday decorations. We were second in line for the photos (about 1/2 hour out) behind a Japanese family who actually live in Vietnam now. Behind us was a mother and child from Tokyo Disney who had the latest seasonal Duffy stuff from Tokyo.

Duffy9 — Duffy's special sign on Main Street

Shortly thereafter, I spotted the big Duffy fans joining the line. I exited the line to go back and ask if I could photo her “backpack o’Duffy Bears” and quickly learned she was a die hard collector. Turns out, Beatrice is from Hong Kong and has quite a collection of the mini-plush, many of the older designs you rarely see. It was great to connect with a fellow Duffy fan who is not local to Tokyo and see that he is loved and well-received outside the Japanese community.

Duffy11 — Duffy fans - Kelvin and Beatrice

Duffy17 — Our Duffy family (minus one that we bought later!)

Duffy27 — Duffy the Disney Bear's new home on Main Street in Hong Kong

Duffy24 — The queue line for Duffy after he arrived

After we finished watching the Duffy fans arrive, we headed off to enjoy the rest of the Park and managed to find a few other interesting Duffy items…unfortunately, neither of them were for sale. Some CM’s were given really cool “pins” that have Duffy’s face on them — I want one of these! Then, we were walking down Main Street later in the day, we found a CM with a Duffy shaped balloon! He was quite talented and managed to make a balloon animal look like Duffy — he even went so far as to draw the Mickey head on his foot!

It was nearly time for the Procession of Toys by this time. On our way to queue, we found another Duffy lover, Noel, who is friends with Beatrice and Kelvin (the Duffy fans we met earlier in the day). Noel is a CM at Hong Kong Disney and definitely in the know about all things Duffy at HK Disney.

We had arrived about an hour early to get a front row spot for the Procession of Toys event so I could get prime Duffy photos. We were so early they had not even set up the ropes yet and a CM kept giving conflicting information on where we should be. Quite a difference from parades and shows at Tokyo Disney! A tip for those who plan to see the show this season – queue in the middle of Main Street to get a center view of Duffy when he comes out!

Duffy36 — All the Duffy Bears ready for the Procession of Toys

This turned out to be a perfect spot and provided ample opportunity to photograph Duffy. The Procession of Toys was quite short and not quite what I was expecting. Based on the media images, I had assumed Minnie would present Mickey a stuffed Duffy Bear and then they would introduce Duffy the Disney Bear live. Basically, Duffy appeared from the Christmas present box and then the spotlight came on and well, there you go. I just think this was a missed opportunity to start out with the stuffed bear (like the story) and then move to the actual character. Either way, at least he was presented to the HK Disney community in such a way that Duffy may do quite well.

Duffy39 — Duffy makes his appearance in the Procession of Toys

Duffy44 — Mickey, Minnie, and Duffy during the Procession of Toys

In speaking with the local Duffy experts, there was discussion that HK Disney initially planned to bring Duffy in a limited capacity (perhaps 1,000 bears or something) and feedback from CMs changed their minds. The CMs know how popular Duffy already is with locals and tourists alike, which they were obviously able to relay to the powers that be. I spent considerable time in the stores, trying to gauge the reaction and Duffy stuff was definitely moving off the shelves. I saw numerous people buying bears, clothes, and a few carrying the already dressed Duffy bears. I was surprised that I did not see more Tokyo Duffy people though. I’ve seen more on a regular day at HK Disney, but given that I was there on a Friday, the weekend could have been quite different. One thing was consistent though – there was always a line to have a photo with Duffy. Although the info booth told us Duffy was only there to 2pm, he did make another appearance in the afternoon after the Christmas parade as we saw him around 4pm.

So far, Duffy is available in a few stores on Main Street and Fantasyland; however, I did not find him in Tomorrowland or Adventureland. Surprisingly, he is available in the Disneyland Hotel, along with the Christmas costume.