Disneyland Korea?

[Garet]

So i'm taking this with a big heap of salt until I see something more official but this has been trending all over social media in Korea that a disneyland park will come to Korea: http://m.iworldtoday.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=176797

 

Sorry the articles in Korean, I've yet to find an English article but the article is claiming a Disneyland is confirmed (not rumored) to be built in Incheon. To give you a rough idea of location it would be similar to Hong Kong Disney in being halfway between the city and the airport. I'd assume somewhere on the Incheon subway line since nearly all bus depots across Korea have frequent buses to the airport so that would connect it up to most of Korea.

 

Here's the thing, I've seen this article shared a lot today and I'm extremely skeptical. The picture doesn't scream Disney to me at all, not just the look but I can't see a park being constructed around some high-rises where you can see a lot of backstage. Also with Shanghai opening soon and Tokyo in the other direction, Korea is already in the middle of two parks that are not that far by airplane.

 

However I thought I'd share the article anyway because I'm curious if any-one thinks a Korean Disney Park would happen like this article claims is "confirmed." Lotte World and Everland were two of the highest attended parks last year outside of Universal/Disney (only Ocean Park had more I think), with Lotte World matching Hong Kong Disney, 2015 might have a dip in attendance since a lot of the country avoided public places in springtime (one of the busier times) after a MERs outbreak in Korea.

 

There's also the fact looking at Korea's parks developments here that family parks and attractions are the thing that the owners seem to think will bring people in. We have Legoland in 2017 and the last time that we had something aimed at thrill-seekers in the whole country was probably 2008 when T-Express was installed (with the removal of Eagles Fortress and the Boomerang at another park SBNO apparently I think the number of coaster has decreased from 2008 - now). Everland & Lotte World have installed countless new rides in the 6 years I've been here but I think apart from a Gyro-spin at Lotte World, pretty much all of them have been aiming for 1m- 1.1m minimum height restrictions.

 

Grand Park in Seoul removed their looping coaster and re-did the whole park to fill it with rides for the family, the looping coaster was replaced by a family suspended, the drop tower has a pulley on top so it can't drop fast and they removed their brand new intamin gyro-swing.

 

As I said I'm skeptical about this announcement that is making the rounds currently, but I'm curious if anyone thinks that the next Disney park could be Korea?

[Double0Kevin]

Looking at it through Google Translate, I'm confused why it's talking about MGM Resorts building it. DIsney wouldn't partner with a casino company to build a park and I don't see MGM being interested in trying to contract with Disney either. Maybe MGM is looking to build a Disneyland type park if it's attached to some sort of casino resort, but as far as I know, the only US company that was successful is securing permits to build in Korea was Caesars Entertainment. I'm pretty sure MGM wasn't selected.

 

If MGM is involved, maybe they were able to get in by building a park, and are hoping to use that as leverage to expand into gaming.

 

I'm taking this with a grain of salt.

[Nrthwnd]

^^ How about a box full of salt?

[thedlr]

Perhaps an entire stalk of bamboo salt...

[Garet]

Yes though the article looks completely bogus, I was just curious if any-one thinks that the next disney park after Shanghai would be Korea or a park would come here in the not too distant future.

 

I personally don't think so since Korea will soon be in the middle of 2 existing parks, Tokyo is just over 2 hours by plane and Shanghai isn't exactly that far away either but that didn't stop Universal from almost making a park here and Osaka is just over an hour away by plane.

 

On the other side to that, flying across isn't overly cheap like Europe as well, I never really see many budget airline companies like ryanair or easyjet etc. for short trips. Also as I pointed out in my OP, Korea does seem to be big on family friendly parks and rides lately and the attendance for the 2 big parks here is pretty high. Like most countries, Frozen went down extremely well here I think it was the most seen animation by a huge margin here in cinemas.

 

There is also the fact that anti Japan sentiments can be pretty high here sometimes, there are a few Koreans who still refuse to visit Japan or Tokyo, even the news always seems to have something bad to broadcast about Japan now and again. As an outside I try not to comment when they talk about history or where some-one did pictures but even I end up rolling my eyes when I see headlines accuses Japan of removing a Korean actor from a movie poster, especially when it's a minor character who wasn't on any posters even the ones in Korea. But then again on every visit I've made to Japan people try and warn me about all the radiation.

[thedlr]

For what it's worth, I sent the link to my girlfriend. She read it and seems to think it's legit.

[Garet]

For what it's worth, I sent the link to my girlfriend. She read it and seems to think it's legit.

 

My wife read it and seemed to think so but I feel if this was a confirmed announcement there would have been more articles than just the one. If I see anymore news I'll post it but it seems strange this is the only one that was making the rounds. I'd love a Disney park close enough to be a passholder but I'm not sure this announcement is it.

 

I live in a city pretty close to where Universal Korea was supposed to go and as soon as that deal was confirmed there was lots of press coverage and the town had banners for the park everywhere and none of that is happening here. If the deal was finalized, I feel like there'd be a lot more fanfare.