Igniting the Dream - Part 1
Again, due to image restrictions, this post will be in 2 parts.
I wandered through Gardens of Imagination, not looking for anywhere in particular, but just keeping an eye out for a decent view. Over near Dumbo looked reasonable, and there was a little out of the way area in the vicinity. I bookmarked that spot and kept going.
I took one look at the crowd in front of the castle and turned around to take my chances with Dumbo! It was only about half an hour before the show by that time, and it was looking like a bit of a crush in there. I made my way back to my little spot near Dumbo, and was thrilled to see that there was still plenty of room right on the rail. Despite the large red box blocking much of the castle, I was happy with the spot, and figured that the little pond would give some lovely reflections.
It proved to be a lovely quiet spot, and I enjoyed some friendly interaction with the pair of older Chinese ladies next to me as we waited. One of them ran off to get some sustenance for the show, and I instantly regretted not doing the same before I’d saved my spot! By then it was too late to leave and expect to come back to the same spot.
I also kind of destroyed one of my feet during this time. My hip was sore and my legs were tired, but the ground was still pretty damp, so I decided to lean/sit on the little concrete mound at the bottom of the fence. It was angled such that the water had run off, but the angle of it didn’t make for very comfortable seating, and must have put an odd sort of pressure on my foot at an odd angle. I don’t know what I did to it, but it was giving me grief for a few weeks!
The excitement was building as it got closer to show time, and there was a collective gasp of apprehension as the lights dimmed.
The show is quite similar to Disney Dreams in Paris, and focused on Mickey, as he made his way through various Disney stories, mostly in Chinese but there were a couple of English songs. I had made a point not to watch the show on youtube as I didn’t want to ruin it for myself. In hindsight, for photography purposes it would have made sense to make myself at least a little bit familiar with when I could expect to see fireworks etc. I also may have realised that the large red box would actually block a significant part of the projections (and by significant, I mean that it was covering most of the main character projections). Still, I think for being such a pleasant place to be, the results weren’t too bad. Plus, that big red box has since been taken away, so I would actually recommend this as a great place to watch now!
The show started with a few introductory projections featuring Mickey, accompanied by an introductory spiel and a version of A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes, both in Cantonese. There were actually no Cinderella projections at all, but lots of bright colours as we were introduced to the story. You may also be able to make out the top of the fountains in front of the castle in some of my photos. There were also plenty of backlighting and lasers, the effects of which were actually vastly improved with the haze. Fireworks were actually a fairly secondary element of the show, and I imagine the minimal use of them has something to do with the air pollution regulations in China.
The show transitioned to a Lion King set, starting with The Circle of Life, which was actually in English. It was quite a long segment, which also included I Just Can't Wait to be King and Hakuna Matata, both in Cantonese.
The show transitioned into an underwater scene with Mickey falling into the waterfall during Hakuna Matata, and went straight into The Little Mermaid. It was only a short segment, featuring Part of Your World in Cantonese. I missed most of the projections, which were behind that stupid box!
Next in the underwater set was Finding Nemo, which I was surprised to see featured so heavily in both the parade and Ignite the Dream. There was a reef scene, followed by the EAC scene, followed by a brief interlude with Bruce the Shark. All in Cantonese of course, accompanied by the movie score.
The show transitioned back to land based scenes through Pirates of the Caribbean. It was mainly various battle scenes projected onto the castle, accompanied by the movie score.
The Aladdin scene started with Mickey reaching for the lamp in the Cave of Wonders, and giving it a rub to release the Genie, who then burst into song. It was a pretty colourful number with a grand finale of fireworks.
I have been having some serious issues trying to actually make a purchase! First of all, regarding the website - the photos are shown in such low quality it's pretty impossible to pick out which specific ones you might like to purchase. With that in mind, and being pretty keen to get them all, I was just trying to purchase the whole lot. It took a little bit of trial and error, but I finally found the option to purchase the whole lot. I couldn't figure out whether it was only going to give me a day's worth, or everything attached to my card, so I decided to start with Day 1 and decide from there if I wanted to purchase the other days if I needed to. When I tried to make the purchase, I couldn't get the visa or mastercard options to work, and obviously I can't use any of the Chinese specific payment methods. I emailed the PP helpdesk.
FWIW, no one batted an eyelid when I gave it a go (although I was ready to defend myself by saying I was just trying to get my original spot back lol!), fully cementing my theory that it isn't cutting, just a different way of queuing.
