When the Walt Disney Company set out to build a theme park in Hong Kong there were a lot of questions. Would the Chinese take to the American style theme park? Would the Disney characters resonate with a population that had previously had little exposure to them? Just who was the audience for the park?

Fortune Magazine looks at some of the lessons Disney can take away from their experience in Hong Kong that might serve them well in future expansion into Asia markets.

[Disney] failed to gauge local tastes, opened with a park that was too small to meet the grandiose expectations of its clientele, made some public relations mistakes early on, and took too long to adapt to local food, culture, and tastes, according to Allan Zeman, the chairman of the rival Ocean Park theme park in Hong Kong.

“Disney, on the other hand, came in very American,” Zeman says. “Disney was a big brand, not really understanding the culture at the beginning. They had everything run out of the U.S. At the beginning there was a sense of arrogance: ‘We’re Disney, and don’t tell us how to run a theme park.’”

Hong Kong Disneyland also earned the wrath of the Hong Kong press corps by taking a long time to respond to queries with answers that had to be approved through U.S. headquarters

In hindsight it’s obvious Disney didn’t know what they were getting into when they built Hong Kong Disneyland. Let’s hope they’ve done their homework for Shanghai?

This week yet another sexual assault incident at a Water Park, this time Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon, was covered by the local press. It may seem like there have been dozens of reports this year, but it’s really just a handful. That’s not to downplay the severity of any incident, but it shouldn’t be taken as a trend.

As it turns out, where you really have to be careful is crossing the roads. The Orlando-Kissimmee has been rated the worst for pedestrian safety. An average of 2.8 annual pedestrian deaths per 100,000 was cited. With 48 million tourists visiting the area each year, the numbers really start to add up.

At one time Las Vegas was known for its terrible pedestrian safety record. Particularly in the popular area of Las Vegas Blvd, aka The Strip. Then the region got serious about the safety of its customers, aka revenue stream. It made streets more pedestrian friendly and where traffic was very heavy, built pedestrian overpasses to totally remove people from the streets. It’s been a very successful strategy.

Maybe it’s time to look at this same solution here in Orlando.

Reports are growing that The Blackstone Group has put the final touches on its acquisition of Busch Entertainment Company (BEC), the division of AB-Bev that owns SeaWorld and Busch Gardens theme parks. The Blackstone Group already owns about half of the Universal Orlando resort and theme parks. And the joining of the two would create a destination that could compete much stronger against their chief competition for tourist dollars in Central Florida – Walt Disney World.

Of course, not all BEC properties are in Orlando where easy synergy can be found. Plus The Blackstone Group owns parts of Six Flags, Legoland, and Madame Tussauds. Which makes some some interesting tie-in possibilities to central Florida. Remember that Legoland rumor that went around last year? And wouldn’t a Madame Tussauds fit in wonderfully at Citywalk?

The complete list of BEC properties is:

Busch Gardens Tampa Bay (Tampa, Florida)
Busch Gardens Williamsburg (Williamsburg, Virginia)
SeaWorld Orlando (Orlando, Florida)
SeaWorld San Antonio (San Antonio, Texas)
SeaWorld San Diego (San Diego, California)
Discovery Cove (Orlando, Florida)
Aquatica (Orlando, Florida)
Adventure Island (Tampa, Florida)
Water Country USA (Williamsburg, Virginia)
Sesame Place (Langhorne, Pennsylvania)

And there is a project in Dubai to build three more parks, but it is currently on hold due to the economic crisis.

In California Legoland and SeaWorld can now work closer together to attract visitors and save on supply orders and management costs. That seems like a potential plus too.

Apparently high ranking officials from Blackstone have been seen walking around SeaWorld and rumors really started flying after word went out earlier to BEC employees to expect an announcement later today. I certainly wish my friends at Seaworld and Busch Gardens well and hope that everyone lands on their feet.

So with Harry Potter, Shamu, and Shrek all soon to share one corporate master, what do you see happening first?

Someone at Disney has leaked what appears to be very real blueprints laying out all the new ‘attractions’ planned for an expanded Fantasyland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. This plan matches what I’ve heard from other sources. My gut tells me it’s not something fan created and is actually from the halls of WDI in Glendale. Now the question is, has all this been approved for construction? If so we should start seeing bulldozers pushing dirt as soon as October. I won’t believe any of this is true until we do.

So what will the expanded area consist of? It remakes everything from where the current Little Mermaid meet and greet is, moves Dumbo, and goes back to the service road all the way across to the existing Toon Town Fair tents. The only attraction that will remain from the existing Toon Town is Goofy’s Barnstormer. Dumbo will now be located across from the Barnstormer and will be expanded to two spinners doubling the capacity of that popular attraction.

The rest of the expansion is dedicated almost entirely to the Pixie’s and Princesses that has become the marketing and merchandising focus of the Walt Disney Company the last few years. There are three new meet and greets Pixie Hollow is expanded, Cinderella gets a larger meet and greet, Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty) also gets a spot. I think calling a meet and greet an attraction is a bit of a stretch, but there are ways to expand the experience and elevate it to attraction level. Let’s hope that’s in the budget.

Ariel, the Little Mermaid has a meet and greet too, but she also gets a whole new attraction (essentially a clone of what is now under construction in California). It looks like Belle gets a meet and greet and a new “Be Our Guest” restaurant. At one time there was a Dinner Theatre restaurant by that name planned for Disneyland Paris, I wonder if they’re reviving that concept. That’s certainly something the Magic Kingdom has been lacking and I can see the long lines forming now for reservations.

What’s missing from the earlier rumors? One more roller coaster for the area. There was supposed to be a Snow White Mine Ride. Although I’m glad they’re not building that if it meant removal of the existing Snow White attraction. Perhaps Goofy’s Barnstormer will get rethemed to the Mine Ride.

My thoughts on this plan? It’s exactly what I would expect Disney World to come up with as an answer to Universal’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter. Disney is essentially writing off the tween boys and focusing all their attention on the girls with the idea that moms and their daughters control the vacation purse strings.

There’s only so much you can tell from a blueprint (assuming this is the final version). But I like what I see if that’s Disney’s choice. I would have liked to see a bit more balance and, perhaps, a new C or D ticket as well. I’m also curious to see if the rest of Fantasyland gets a retheming as well.

So assuming that this is the real thing. What are your thoughts?

With little or no ceremony the next to last section of the original Disneyland parking lot, now known as Timon, has been closed to guests. This is in preparation of adding ‘Cars Land’ to California Adventure, the second gate at Disneyland Resort. All the original parking lot will now be given over to the expansion project.

The OC Register has more details including where Disney plans to park all those cars now. (Hint: you’ll be walking.)

The Orlando Sentinel has come out with a long anticipated update on the progress of Universal Orlando’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter project. Inspired by the movies, Harry Potter will get a multi-attraction treatment with re-themeing of two existing attractions and a new ‘Robocoaster’ :

a ride system in which guests sit in seats suspended from a robotic arm that can swivel and swoop in multiple directions while it advances along a track.

Plans show the track snaking through more than a dozen scenes, though what those scenes will be remains a mystery. The attraction, according to the people familiar with it, will also feature an elaborate pre-show queue with special effects such as floating candles and snow falling indoors.

There will be two main sets of the new ‘land’ at Islands of Adventure. First will be a 150 foot tall version of the famous castle that is the Hogwarts school of Wizardry. The second themed area is the town of Hogsmeade. Both are expected to totally immerse the guest in the Harry Potter world.

All this sounds great, and should be open sometime in 2010. Unfortunately we don’t have a more specific date than that, although I’m sure they’re shooting for sometime in the spring. Many businesses in Orlando are pinning their hopes on this project reviving the local tourist economy. Let’s hope they’re right.

“I want to be a real park” said Hong Kong Disneyland after seeing the poor imitation theme park puppet it had been constructed as. Alas until recently, HKDL was caught between it’s Stromboli (Eisner’ fear of infrastructure investment) and Fowlfellow (a rotten government only looking out for itself) and the Blue Fairy was no where in sight.

Finally a deal has been struck that will fix some of the mistakes in the concept and construction of Hong Kong Disneyland. But it will take at least $450 million to do so. This move is important because Disney will shortly start construction on another theme park in Shanghai, which is on mainland China. Not to mention the competition Ocean Park is giving Disney right there in Hong Kong.

After the expansion the beautiful but small Disneyland model park will have three new lands that are uniquely its own and a list of attractions that is nearing respectability.

Below the cut are descriptions of the new lands that will be built. One thing that irks me is that while the Adventurers Club sits unloved and abandoned over here in Florida, they’re planning on building one in China. Of course, I was an advocate for building an Adventurers Club west out in Disneyland, the more the merrier. Just reopen this one too.

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I’m all about keeping Central Florida as the premier theme park vacation destination in the world. So I think it’s a terrific idea if LEGO wants to build one of their themeparks here. That’s the rumor that was just posted on Screamscape.

The not-so-great part of that rumor was that they were looking at the old Cypress Gardens as the possible location. As good as that location may seem with the historic gardens and water-skiing attraction plus a water park already in operation, the distance and back roads access cancels all that out. Even as a pretty decent amusement park Cypress Gardens was never able to attract the tourist market and there is no reason to think that even a Disney operated park could. So Blackstone, no matter what your surveys say, just say no.

That said, there are a number of very decent locations that are much more central to the established tourist cooridors. Yes, they will cost more, which will mean more debt to start (always a risky proposition), but lots of customers and some debt is better than little debt and no customers. Plus the current economic market might find sellers who are interested in more creative deals right now.

For instance, in Kissimmee, there is a plot of land just past the Old Town attraction on Hwy-192 that’s already zoned for a theme park. There are 100 acres of developable land and easy access from Hwy192 at the top and I-4 at the bottom of the property. The current owner wants a huge price because he wants to include the non-developable acres in the price, however, he might be willing to negotiate more today.

One more thing to ask. Just build it before my kid is too old to play with LEGOs. Thanks!