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The central land of the park, Night Hollow is the home of the most villainous of villains. The rocky island has become the camping ground for all the Storybook Villains, with only three small wood bridges to connect it to the "mainland".
The terrain here is mountainous from nearby Bald Mountain, but unlike most of the reference images shown there will be a fair number of pine trees in this land, to break up the scenery and limit site-lines. The architecture of the land is Alpine.
Entering north, we come upon a crossing where a giant stone pillar has been erected. On the pillar is a plaque: Hollow Island, founded 1666.
The path diverges into three directions: the north leads to Black Bayou, the west leads to Pleasure Island, and the south heads into Night Hollow.
To the west (Pleasure Island route) is the Hollow Haberdashery, a quick service restaurant selling Chinese food. Hats are not allowed. There are lots of outdoor eating spaces in this land, with the rare building far apart. The lack of buildings both contrasts it to the popular Fantasyland while also allowing guests to take in the natural wonder of the land.
On the south path is Maleficent, a flying roller coaster. The station is Maleficent’s iconic castle upon a hill, with the queue seeing you slowly work your way up the mountain. A new touch-screen game has been developed for the queue, where you play as Maleficent in Dragon Form attacking Aurora’s Kingdom..
Do not be afraid of the term “flying coaster”. This has been done to maximize immersion. When you ride Big Thunder, you feel you’re on a runaway mine train. When you ride Space Mountain, you feel you’re on a spaceship. When you ride Maleficent, you feel you are a dragon soaring through the sky.
The track is family friendly, with no inversions or sharp turns. The coaster starts with a dip into a backstage, where we see Prince Charming battling the mighty Dragon-Maleficent. Then, the coaster drops- the station is on a hill- at a moderate speed and begins to bunny hop and helix around the castle.
Bald Mountain
Bald Mountain
Right next to Maleficent is the icon of the park! The back of Bald Mountain is home to the Night on Bald Mountain walkthrough. This is one of the largest walkthroughs at a Disney park, seeing guests descend further and further into the caves and coming across various animatronic “villains” preparing for the big show tonight:
The Evil Queen is asking her mirror if she is the baddest, but the Mirror keeps responding with the good ol’ Magic 8 Ball trick: Reply hazy, try again later.Ursula is singing “Poor Unfortunate Souls” to her magical orb, with her moray allies whisper in the background.Jafar is talking to the Genie in the Well of Souls.Gaston is singing with his followers about how great he is.Prince Hans is freezing in the arctic cave.The last scene sees Chernabog… sleeping.
Also within the cavern is Mirror Mirror, a gift shop that is essentially one giant mirror. You always know what a t-shirt looks like on you when there’s a mirror nearby. Maleficent’s exit pathway funnels into this shop.
Coming out of Bald Mountain, the next attraction is Hook Naval Academy, combining the IPs Peter Pan and the Little Mermaid. Using Aquatopia ride vehicles, guests become “pirates” in Captain Hook’s fleet. But all along the pathway, “Ursula” has set-up water cannons to attack the pirates. The pirates must avoid being hit by the sea-witches, or else they will lose a point. A scoreboard keeps track of what is happening in this “duel of villains”, and if Team Ursula is able to hit enough targets they will win the game. If Hook's trainees can avoid the cannons- while having a bit of fun on their own- they will win.
Across from the naval academy is Mother Gothel’s Tower. This is a kiddie tower of Terror, measuring roughly a third of the size. You will bounce up and down as you travel to various different rooms in the tower and evade Mother Gothel. To save space screens are used instead of props. Three “towers” run at once all under the same larger show-building.
Finally the most important piece of information on the land. Near Mother Gothel’s Tower are the Tangled Bathrooms, replicated exactly from WDW. On April 1st, Disney announced the bathrooms would be getting personal fast-passes out of anticipation for how popular they will be.
Night Hollow is one of the smaller lands in Dark Kingdom, but we have tried to put every possible space to use. The theme is possibly the most popular association with villainy, and although we are striving to create more options for villains through the more radical lands, sometimes it is nice to go back to the basics. And then throw a twist.
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