Tarzan's Treehouse
| Tarzan's Treehouse | |
|---|---|
| Park | Hong Kong Disneyland |
| Land / area | Adventureland |
| Type | Walk-through treehouse |
| Opened | September 12, 2005 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Height req. | None |
| Status | Operating |
Tarzan's Treehouse is a walk-through treehouse attraction in Adventureland at Hong Kong Disneyland, based on Disney's 1999 animated film Tarzan. It stands on an island in the middle of the land's river, and reaching it is part of the experience: guests cross the water by raft, then climb through the tree on foot, passing scenes and props from Tarzan's life in the jungle before descending on the far side. It opened with the park on September 12, 2005, and since the California original was rethemed in 2023 it is the only Tarzan's Treehouse still operating at a Disney park.[1]
History
The treehouse format is one of Disney's oldest: walk-through trees had stood in Adventureland since the Swiss Family Treehouse era, and Disneyland in California converted its tree to Tarzan in 1999 to coincide with the film. Hong Kong Disneyland, designed a few years later, built its treehouse around Tarzan from the start — but placed it somewhere no earlier version had been: on its own island.
Hong Kong's Adventureland is organised around a broad river, the Rivers of Adventure, which loops entirely around the island and carries the Jungle Cruise boats with it. The arrangement borrows as much from Tom Sawyer Island at the American parks as from earlier treehouses: the island is a destination in its own right, reached only by water, with the treehouse as its centrepiece. Rafts boarding near the Festival of the Lion King theatre ferry guests across in both directions throughout the day, though the island typically closes earlier than the rest of the park.
The California treehouse closed in 2021 and reopened on November 10, 2023, as the Adventureland Treehouse, inspired again by Swiss Family Robinson. That change left Hong Kong's version as the last Tarzan's Treehouse, and one of the few opening-day attractions at the park to survive in its original form.
Experience
After the short raft crossing, guests land on an island threaded with paths, caves and waterfalls at the water's edge. The treehouse itself is climbed by stairs and rope bridges, moving upward through small chambers dressed as the home Tarzan built in the canopy: living and working spaces filled with salvaged objects, sketches and inventions that retell the film's story — the shipwrecked baby raised by gorillas who grows up to meet Jane Porter and her father's expedition.[2]
The climb is self-paced, and the reward at the top is the view: across the river traffic of Jungle Cruise boats circling the island, over Adventureland's rooftops, and out toward the rest of the park. Coming down returns guests to the island paths and the raft dock for the trip back to the mainland.[3]