Hong Kong no Phooey TR (Apr 2012)! The Yee's have it....TR finish #1101, 07/09

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by usnuzuloose

I love all the details of the restaurant. I liked how they made the food. So cute , you dont want to eat it. I agree sometimes its better to seperate and come back so everyone can do there own thing at their own pace.

Cool parade, love the way you added the song in there.

At least it didnt look to crowded. Cant wait to hear more

Separation is always a good thing. It makes you appreciate the time you have together more.

Originally Posted by skiingfast

Dim sum looked awesome. I'm not sure how you didn't order more, it's never filling.

It is nice the the crowd control CMs crouch down when the parade is behind them.

Looks like any Main Street? HKDL always has the wierd Castle because you can see the mountains behind it. And it's covered with bricks and missing tracks. The buildings are close.

On to the rides!

Aside from the tracks, Main Street was like any other Main Street. The Castle had the extra ramparts but the thing I missed the most was the Partners Statue.

Originally Posted by zanzibar138

I love your pictures! Especially of the dim sum since we didn't end up doing that. I thought the castle was much smaller than its Anaheim counterpart, but I could be remembering incorrectly lol!

I'm pretty sure it's the same size as the Anaheim one. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.

Originally Posted by queenie82

Love the parade photos

Brings back a lot of memories. It is just so vibrant and colourful. It and the Paris one were my favourites. Tokyo takes the cake for best night parade though with Dream lights


That is a pricey Dim Sum, but I'm glad you had a good time and that the quality was high despite the decoration. I do know how dried out those buns can get.

Those little piggies would have landed on my plate for sure

I thought there were alien ones? Do you remember what was in them even if you didn't order them??


I DIDN'T know about the dinner in the circle??
I was standing in there for my photos so it certainly wasn't on the day I was there That's really disappointing not getting to stand in there...especially for those without a full size tripod as the light poles were crucial for me.

Intrigued I am.....

There were alien/little green men dim sum. I think it had lotus seed in them and was thinking about ordering them on the second round. There never was a second round!

There was also a Chicken Little bao with meat and vegetables.

Dinner was held elsewhere. They reserved the circle for the diners AND the CM were incredible about policing the area. There were a number of mainland Chinese people that thought they could just barge in....all got kicked out.

Originally Posted by Wherem I Now

Just popping in to say that I love that you put so many pics in your TR. I've always wanted to know what Hong Kong Disney looked like!

Hey Mike! Thanks for popping in and de-lurking. I hope you stick around some more.....I still have three or four (thousand) pictures to sift through and share.

Originally Posted by dgbg100106

The Dim Sum looked amazing... I wanted to try it all, my mouth is watering...

The parade is beaufitul and makes me long for Disney!

I'll go back to Disney with you!

Originally Posted by skier_pete

Holy cow, I feel I am way behind already. Great pictures as usual, Princess. I probably should just add that to my signature for everytime I post in your thread.

Anyways, comments from someone very far away from Hong Kong:

- That hotel was absolutely beautiful. At first I was surprise, but as my brain started working, I thought it made a lot of sense - it has a very old world British colonial feel to it to me - and being that Hong Kong was british for so long, and so that's probably why. Beautiful grounds, also seemed very empty as well.

- Your right about the time change. 2-3 hours are the worst, because the body just doesn't want to accept it. Stupid bodies!

- I thought the Fab 5 Fountain (FFF) was extremely cool. My DD really got a kick out of looking at it with me.

- Don't know how you managed to spend the whole morning at the hotel. I would have been so chomping at the bit to get to the park.

- The Dim Sum meal: My experience with Dim Sum is limited, really more getting it as an appetizer than a full meal. The food looked very good, except that the Duffy head looked really...um...creepy. A little too "real" to me, like they lopped off poor Duffy's head and put it on a plate.

-The park - your initial pictures do make it look like very low crowds. I hope for your sake it stayed that way!

-The parade looked like a lot of fun. The one question it brought to mind - for the Disney Princesses...did they use Western CM or were they local CM made up with a more Westernized look? Looking at your pictures I have to say I really couldn't tell which it was, which I guess speaks for Disney setting just the right tone with those characters. Overall, the characters look really fantastic. It's amazing how even from a very different part of the world, that parade doesn't feel like it would seem out of place in Anaheim or Orlando.

- Main Street is the first thing that feels kind of "off" to me. I don't know why...I also having never had a castle other than Cinderella's can't picture that teeny tiny castle. One of my earliest childhood memories is from seeing Cinderella's castle off in the distance when we were visiting Orlando, and how it seemed to tower over everything. I think that will be the oddest thing when we get to DL. I picture this conversation going on July 22nd:

DD:"Where's the castle?"
Me:"Right over there."
DD:"Really? It's tiny!"
Me: "It's just they didn't have the money to build a giant castle back then."
DW:"I've seen bigger castles playing mini-golf."

I might have played on the same mini-golf courses as your DW. Wait till you get to Anaheim.


How did I stay away from the park all morning? I really didn't.....had to take that walk to the front gates to look. And then I figured I might as well enjoy the swimming pool at the hotel as it might have been the only time for us to make full use of the facilities.


Some of the CM were Caucasians. With the Princesses on the float, there was one of them that I wasn't sure about because of the make-up. But the others were westerners.

[PrincessInOz]

Right is the way to go


No matter how hard I try to teach my son, when faced with a choice, DS will ALWAYS choose right from wrong…..er….left. In this matter, he is definitely his father’s son. So, when faced with a choice of which land to go to, it came as no surprise to me that he chose the right path….into Tomorrowland.





I think I was more surprised at the relatively lack of crowds on a Sunday.


The Orbitron was immediately to our left.





Wait time was 30 minutes and DS decided not to stop.

To the right is the Starliner Diner.





We were never to experience the fare here.





We headed past the UFO Zone, one of the non-attractions listed as an attraction on the map. It really wasn’t much of an attraction and just seemed all rather wet to me.






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[PrincessInOz]

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Journey into the Future and Take Your Imagination for a Drive


Ever since his first time at a Disney park, DS first ride of choice is this one.





The queue time was 20 minutes and there was not even a hesitation in joining the line.





It gave me time to take in some of the rules. Just in case you’ve forgotten what they are…..






In my quest to click, I missed an important discussion between DS and DH.



Turns out I was riding with the prince and the DS was travelling solo.






Anyone notice the second rule?








There are 3 driving lanes at HKDL that you can choose from. Each lane takes a slightly different path from each other and will criss-cross each other at some point.





We just needed to find DS so that we could supervise the child! However, he'd taken a different path to ours.






The silence was eerie…..literally!






The Autop'ars are electric driven; not gas. Whilst I appreciated the lack of diesel bouquet, it came without the accompanying put-put-putting that the Cars of Tomorrow ordinarily come with. Seems like I wasn’t the only one to feel this way. In order to recreate the much loved sound, we did notice a put-put noise coming from the speakers in the car. Yeah. Go figure.


Me? I was still on the look-out for DS.





Wait…..






OMG! I had a momentary flash of Journey into the Future!



DH had to speed it up with pedal to the metal to catch-up….





…and I had to speed it up with the shutter to catch this….






It then dawned on me…I had time travelled 4 or 5 years into the Future. In 4 or 5 years’ time, DS will be of age to apply for his Learner’s. My reaction resembles these trees!





I can certainly see the future in these pictures!











I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to see the unloading area!





It was definitely time to put an end to this Journey into the Future.





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[PrincessInOz]

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Shooting at Infinity



Unloading from Autopia brought us close to the Astro Blasters.





Stand-by wait time?





Practically walk-on!





The inside theming is identical as far as I can tell.













We were at our destination within 5 minutes.





I opted to travel solo this time, so the boys got into a carriage ahead of me. They eagerly reached for the sky…..





With both my pistols still in the holster, I think we all know I had a different kind of shooting in mind. I’ve been advised to set my lens focus on infinity. I’ve finally decided that ‘they’ must mean this kind of Infinity and beyond.

























Not too bad a haul this time round. And I couldn’t resist the other kind of shooting as well……





Until this trip, I was the ruling queen….or princess……of this game in the family! With this one round, DH has now surpassed this measly score of mine. He shot in the 200’s…but then he was aiming for Zurg.


Me? I consoled myself with the fact that I aimed at infinity.



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[PrincessInOz]

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A quick trip to Space and All Stitched Up



DH and I could see a firm favourite from across Tomorrowland.





Sadly, it is NOT a firm favourite with DS…….I’d like to think……..yet.


Anyone notice the stand-by wait time? Well, the single rider wait time was even better…..5 minutes. That’s walk-on for this side of the queue!





DH and I took turns at walking on….






…and it didn’t take long for us to get to the front of the line.





At this stage, I packed my camera away and enjoyed the ride.





Dark rides, relatively large cameras and twists and turns you can’t see are never a good mix, in my viewpoint.

I definitely couldn’t see any differently and Space Mountain felt the same…my bahookie kept sliding round the seat with each twist and turn in the dark.
And there was to be a flash of light somewhere towards the end as the ride that told me that my picture was taken and that the stop at the end was near and we pulled into the loading area.



As the planets were nearly aligned, I did take the opportunity to catch the loading area again at exit.






I went off to find the boys and tag DH for his turn. They had found a cool spot to wait.





After DH returned from Space, we walked to check out the Stitch Encounter we were right next to. We had managed to coincide our timing with an English hour, so it didn’t take much convincing for us to walk in. See the sign between the two CM? That tells you the language the showing is in. I understand that it circulates between English, Cantonese and Mandarin…your daily guide will also tell you the times.






Stitch Encounter is pretty much like Monster’s Inc. Laugh Floor and Turtle Talk with Crush and takes about 20 minutes per show. We got in a little later and had a side view.





I’d recommend trying to sit in the middle section, if you have any say in the matter.






Time to say goodbye to Experiment 626.






It was a funny show but I think the Laugh Floor had better gags for the show I experienced. However…DH and DS did go back to re-visit this attraction on Day 2 and they said it was even funnier and better than the showing I saw. Maybe it really does depend on the audience!


We took another look at the Orbitron queue and decided to leave that for another time. Aside from the Orbitron, we’d pretty much got through Tomorrowland in under 2 hours!

[usnuzuloose]

Isnt it amazing how you can see things in a different view? One minute you see little kids and then BAM! it hits and now your thinking , oh crud its almost that time in life and this kid is going to get a drivers license and then the prom, and then college and so on.....


I love it , I hope your time there was like that the whole way. No crowds to really fight through. Problem is I would of kept riding space mountain over and over...

This is great and I cant wait for more.

[skiingfast]

Driving is great, right until that license is real. Then it's greater.


ISn't it a shame that Stitch isn't the same as in the Magic Kingdom?

[queenie82]

I LOVE the photos you scored of DS in the car. I know it's launched you into OMG mode.
But they are awesome photos memory wise.

They were clearly expecting crowds having all three lanes open. There was only one when I went. So that is a nice reward.

I REALLY REALLY love the Buzz lightyear photos
It's one of my favourite rides but I know I wouldn't pull off any decent photos so the destroying Zurg battle wins. But I LOVE what you snapped photos of.

Stitch and Turtle Talk rely entirely on the Audience. Monsters can be a good show either way. But it can be AWESOME with just one great audience member.
Stitch is tough as it's quite a very specific and 'boring' concept that can't be modified much. And most reliant on audience interacting within the parameters.


Back to the dinner...and roped off area
I am still curious as to the details of it. You'd think little miss PTR would have spotted some mention of this. It's such a fun ... fun.... website...
There was NO roped off area at all when I was there is all I know. So it's not all the time.

[zanzibar138]

Originally Posted by queenie82

Back to the dinner...and roped off area
I am still curious as to the details of it. You'd think little miss PTR would have spotted some mention of this. It's such a fun ... fun.... website...
There was NO roped off area at all when I was there is all I know. So it's not all the time.

I'm interested in this too. Were you able to get any details?

Tomorrowland was our least favourite area of the park (same at Anaheim), but I still love the pics you got! And Space Mountain is always fun

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by queenie82

Back to the dinner...and roped off area
I am still curious as to the details of it. You'd think little miss PTR would have spotted some mention of this. It's such a fun ... fun.... website...
There was NO roped off area at all when I was there is all I know. So it's not all the time.

Originally Posted by zanzibar138

I'm interested in this too. Were you able to get any details?

Okay, you two. I'll specifically address this one now and get back to the sideline comments later on.

This is the Star Fireworks Dinner, part of the new expanded Star Program at HKDL.

I think it only went up in late Feb/early Mar and I didn't find out about it until later in March.

Dinner is at the Plaza Inn....I'm guessing 6 - 8 course Chinese Banquet. At a cost of HK$360; which is about $45 per head, its pretty pricey.

We'll get to the meals I had in Hong Kong later on...but by way of comparison, most of the Chinese banquets I was eating were between $125 - $180 per head.

Just thought I'd put that pricing in here just in case anyone is reading and wondering if this was a good deal or not.

[queenie82]

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

Okay, you two. I'll specifically address this one now and get back to the sideline comments later on.

This is the Star Fireworks Dinner, part of the new expanded Star Program at HKDL.

I think it only went up in late Feb/early Mar and I didn't find out about it until later in March.

Dinner is at the Plaza Inn....I'm guessing 6 - 8 course Chinese Banquet. At a cost of HK$360; which is about $45 per head, its pretty pricey.

We'll get to the meals I had in Hong Kong later on...but by way of comparison, most of the Chinese banquets I was eating were between $125 - $180 per head.

Just thought I'd put that pricing in here just in case anyone is reading and wondering if this was a good deal or not.

Thank you

There is ONE thing that would sell that package to me and that is if the photo op was with Mickey and Minnie in their Red Oriental Outfits
(which is the photos I'm also waiting for....the characters.... )
I would pay that price for that...but...I'm NOT happy about that area being blocked off every night.

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by queenie82

Thank you

There is ONE thing that would sell that package to me and that is if the photo op was with Mickey and Minnie in their Red Oriental Outfits
(which is the photos I'm also waiting for....the characters.... )
I would pay that price for that...but...I'm NOT happy about that area being blocked off every night.

We didn't do the Red Oriental Outfits....*hangs head in shame*.

[skier_pete]

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

Anyone notice the second rule?

Before I could read the 2nd rule, my first thought was "Hey, they use the same 'NO DANCING' sign that they do in the states." Last trip every time we saw it, DD and I said 'NO DANCING' and started waving our hands around.

Looks like a good start. One of the few rides I've NEVER done as an adult is the Tomorrowland Speedway (WDW version of Autotopia). DD has never shown any interest in it and it looks mighty boring to me. I might give Autotopia a try at DL should we have the time. I haven't started looking at my DD from a "driving" perspective, but I keep thinking "5 years she'll be in high school" which is our highest level secondary school. (Pre college.)

Buzz Lightyear looks WAY similar to the WDW version. The Stitch show looks and sounds better than Stitch's Great Escape - which is more annoying than fun. We really like the laugh floor, so good comparison to give us a feel for what it's like.

I couldn't get a good feel from your pictures...it feels like Tomorrowland is more...I don't know...spread out or exposed or something....it kind of looks like it is on a hill/slope as well. Is it laid out similar to WDW/DL?

[BillyBuff]

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

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Shui Mai, with scallop on top!




Duffy Red Lotus Seed buns




Three Little Pigs Char Siew Bao




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These look too cute to eat!

I think that's abalone on top of the Shui Mai (My wife is from Hong Kong and that's what she told me)

I can't wait to visit this park! Never been to Hong Kong before so I'm thinking of stopping by here!

[ACDSNY]

Originally Posted by usnuzuloose

Isnt it amazing how you can see things in a different view? One minute you see little kids and then BAM! it hits and now your thinking , oh crud its almost that time in life and this kid is going to get a drivers license and then the prom, and then college and so on.....

Boy I remember those days.


PIO - I love your pic of your DS in the car with his hands behind his head. Hopefully he'll keep his hands on the wheel when he starts driving for real.