Magical Throwback: Celebrate Hong Kong Disneyland's 20th Birthday with a Look Back at the Park in 2010

Twenty years ago today, September 12th, 2025, Disney opened the gates to Hong Kong Disneyland, ushering in a new way to experience the magic of Disney for fans around the world. Let’s take a look back at what the resort looked in 2010.

At the tail end of Michael Eisner era Disney, The Walt Disney Company opened their first owned Asia-located resort on Lantau Island in Hong Kong. While Tokyo Disney had been welcoming guests since 1982, Disney does not own or operate the resort, marking Hong Kong Disneyland as their first official Disney Parks venture on the continent. While 20 years later, Hong Kong Disneyland has made a name for itself, the park’s opening was underwhelming.

The company’s first international resort, Disneyland Paris, was a gorgeous and original take on the classic “castle park" with unique offerings and charm. While an incredible feat from Disney, Euro Disneyland proved to be a massive financial failure. With the tragic 1994 death of Frank Wells, Eisner was on his own to handle the underperforming France resort, which was made even worse by a large drop in tourism post 9/11.

For Disney fans, this era is one of the darkest times in theme park history. Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened with an unacceptably small lineup of attractions, regardless of how beautiful the park was. Disney’s California Adventure was a massive disappointment with Soarin’ being the only standout modern attraction in the park. Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris was even worse. Hong Kong Disneyland was another victim, opening incredibly bareboned, with copy and pasted attractions from around the world.

Unlocking its gates on September 12, 2005, Hong Kong Disneyland opened with 4 lands: Main Street U.S.A, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, and Adventureland. Main Street, U.S.A. opened with the Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad and Main Street Vehicles; Adventureland was home to Jungle Cruise, Tarzan’s Treehouse, the Rafts to get the Tom Sawyer Island replacement, and Festival of the Lion King; Fantasyland boasted the most attractions with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, Cinderella Carousel, Dumbo, Mad Hatter Tea Cups, “it’s a small world," and The Golden Mickey’s stage show; Tomorrowland held the only true headliner in the park with Space Mountain, which was accompanied by Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and Orbitron. Needless to say, the park was a shell of its sister parks around the world.

Getting a chance to visit Hong Kong Disneyland back in 2010, the park was a strange alternate universe Disneyland that suffered from cut corners, disappointing design choices, and a general lack of, well, magic. Let’s take a throwback look at the park as it looked just 5 years into its existence.

Walking into the resort, Hong Kong Disneyland was actually very clean and charming. The “esplanade" equivalent outside the park hosts a really nice moving fountain.

While not much has changed at the entrance of the park, I was immediately taken aback by how similar the park's train station and turnstiles were to the original California park. Take away the Hong Kong humidity, I could’ve been convinced I was in the states.

Even their Main Street is nearly identical to Disneyland, minus the missing trolley track down the center of the land.

One thing Hong Kong Disneyland had over Disneyland, even then, was the gorgeous setting of the park. The large mountains surrounding the resort are far prettier than the sprawling and commercialized Anaheim.

The Tomorrowland Entrance fountain has always been really cool, regardless of how “meh" the rest of the land was. Space Mountain, which is now Hyperspace Mountain, had a beautiful station that was much smaller and less elaborate than either the defunct Tokyo version and California version with the same track layout. I do desperately miss the Michael Giacchino score on this, as it was easily the best of the clones, in terms of ride experience.

Fantasyland, while small and with only one classic dark ride, was a strange mixture of Disneyland and Magic Kingdom. PhilharMagic sits where it does in Magic Kingdom, and Winnie the Pooh, which is the Walt Disney World version, takes the place of Princess Fairytale Hall. The park’s “it’s a small world" is GORGEOUS almost having its own mini-land.

Unfortunately, 14-year-old me didn’t take many pictures in Adventureland. However, there was a really cool Toy Story 3-themed sand castle and I did capture that!

Since opening day, Hong Kong Disneyland has blossomed into a unique crown jewel within the Disney Parks lineup. The 2010s saw massive expansions within the park including Grizzly Gulch and its modern Big Thunder Mountain counterpart Big Grizzly Mountain, Mystic Point and the world renowned Mystic Manor, Toy Story Land, and Tomorrowland’s Marvel additions The Iron Man Experience and Ant Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle. The 2020s kicked off with the massive Sleeping Beauty Castle transformation into the Castle of Magical Dreams, which was joined by the World of Frozen expansion last year.

Happy 20th Hong Kong Disneyland! Congratulations on the glow-up!

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