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

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by kmedina

He does not see it that way and probably never will. I, on the other hand, agree with you. I can take pictures and still enjoy the moment. The pictures help me enjoy the moment longer, because memories come rushing back to me when I look at them in the future. That is why I am having a hard time remembering our first MK day. There are hardly no pictures!


More great pictures. I love all of the night and fireworks pictures a lot. My favorties are the fountain ones and the one where you can barely see the teacups. That one is astounding and should be published in a photography journal. DH wants to take your camera back! Hopefully, you did not let him. Our Cannon 50d hardly ever gets used. I will learn how to use it someday. I know the trash picture was not meant for me, but that is not a site you see very often at Disney. Interesting catch. Those circle buns look awesome. Too bad there was not much left in the bakery. Glad you remembered dinner.

Time to get that 50D out in the open!

Originally Posted by ACDSNY

I finally caught up again...love the pics and I agree those pics of the teacups are fantastic, you're talented with the camera. What's DH thinking?

DH is thinking that he wants to take similar pictures.

Originally Posted by DisneyFirefly

Yes, I am lurking I just forget to comment sometimes Your pictures, as always, are gorgeous, even this one

I know. I wanted you to know that I was thinking of you at Hong Kong Disneyland.

Originally Posted by aussietravellers

Gosh that food looked yummy. Why is it that I always seem to read your TR, with food porn, when I am starving and waited for dinner
Off to cook dinner.

Hmm.....have you eaten yet? If not, go eat FIRST. Do not pass go....do not collect $200.....do not look at the next series of posts.

Originally Posted by usnuzuloose

I saw the teacups and thought you were about to say, he wanted to have a spin. Now he wants that camera back? Gotta think about that one. Love the firework shots. You dont take bad ones no matter where you sit. It always seems your time flys by at DL faster than we want it to.

Those donuts looked so good. I was ready to reach for it.. And the food, well I guess I am hungry. I am looking forward to HK. Did your mom take any pics of their High tea there?

My parents took pictures of them WITH the high tea. You can't see much of the food; just the 3-tier platter. I won't be sharing them here.

Originally Posted by Princess_Melanie

Loved the 2nd set of firework pics - the 1st ones weretruely magical and amazing though I am yet to take an even semi-recognisable firework picture so I usually just give up and watch

DBF and I are food-holics so I'm loving the pictures - making me hungry and I'm on a diet now till November!!

I take lots of food porn. So, just remember to stick to your diet.

Originally Posted by zanzibar138

Oooh those 'slacks' look so yummy!

I *cannot* believe how crowded the park was! And that by 7pm there was only that much left in the bakery. No wonder you decided to skip the shops - it was bad enough when we were there just before fireworks time!

AND I think you definitely deserve to keep your camera More super awesome night/fireworks shots!

Thanks. I couldn't believe how empty the bakery was at 7 pm. I had thought to pick up something there for dinner.

But it's all good. The alternative worked out much better.

Originally Posted by bobbiwoz

Wow! Your pictures are gorgeous!

Thank you.

[PrincessInOz]

Now THIS is what I call Breakfast! (Enchanted Garden)


Hotel check-out day. We’re heading to Hong Kong City today and whilst I was sad to leave a Disney resort, I was looking forward to new adventures and new sights.


Those of you that followed my PTR will recall that I sold this trip to DH as a holiday to Hong Kong; which just happened to have a Disneyland. Well…the truth was that we were both keen to visit somewhere different and if it happened to have a Disneyland, then it would just add to the experience and our enjoyment. But we would still have the morning to enjoy on a Disney property.


NOTE: By extrapolation, this means that our next trips could well be Japan and France.

When I was planning the Disney part of the holiday, I knew I wanted to book into a character dining experience.
1. My family enjoys it.
2. We get to meet the characters without having to queue up in line and lose out of park/photo time.
3. We get to eat.

What's not to love??

I settled on the breakfast buffet at Enchanted Garden. This is the last of the dining places at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel for us to visit.

The Enchanted Garden restaurant is located below the reception level. You may remember the elevator in the foyer….there are stairs nearby and the elevator will take you down.





As with everything else in this resort, the theming of this restaurant was typically Disney. There is a wonderful mural on the wall….





…where you would wait if a table wasn’t available.





I’d made a reservation for 8 am in the morning. But given how the park had been busy, I suspected that there might be a crowd for breakfast as well.

The restaurant opens at 7.30 am. We got there shortly after opening time….check out the queue that was there already.





I got in line and because I had a reservation, there was no issue in us getting in. There seemed to be a lot of walk-ups this morning. Maybe it’s normal. But I’m so used to making ADRs or PS for the US parks that it just didn’t occur to me not to make a reservation. I’d definitely recommend making reservations if you plan to dine at any of the Disney restaurants. They are firm bookings and the table is reserved for the time in question.





We walked in under the arches.





And admired the Mickey fountain.





The inside of the restaurant reminds me of Crystal Palace.





This was our table this morning.





It was located in the middle of this section of the restaurant.





With most of the diners still outside, I made a beeline for the buffet.






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[PrincessInOz]

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Yes….this IS what I call a breakfast buffet. As a child growing up in South East Asia, I was used to having noodles, rice, curries and congee for breakfast. Everything that I remember having as a child was HERE!!! I’ll post pictures of the buffet first, and then move on to our plates of food.

This was the noodle bar where you choose your bowl of noodles from the egg noodles or rice noodle options.





Decide on the protein of your choice…





…pass it over to the chef where he will then cook it for you.





There is a wide selection of Asian type condiments to add to your bowl of soup noodles after you get it back.





There was a section just for dim sum. Here are some of the options that were available that morning.

Spring rolls





Haam Sui Gok (Salty pastry, I think it had a pork filling)





Wu Kok (Taro dumpling)





I’m not even sure what this is! I think it might be a water chestnut cake. This is not something that we see in Melbourne very often and I think my mother told me what it was.





Shui Mai (steamed pork dumplings)





Lo Mai Gai (Lotus leaf glutinous rice, stuffed with chicken, chinese sausage and mushroom)





Char Siew Bao (Steamed BBQ Pork Buns)…the crowds were getting larger by this stage; and conversely the food baskets were getting smaller.





Har Gow (Prawn dumplings)…obviously popular with the masses.





The Congee station! One plain, the other flavoured with chicken.





Ready for you to add the accoutrements…this is century old egg.





And some sort of tofu dish, I think.






I was particularly excited to see the Indian section!

Roti!





And two curries to go with the bread.

This one had okra and was tomato based. Spicy, hot and sour. YUM!





The chickpea curry





Samosas were also available.





I’m not sure if this was part of the Indian section; but they do appear in this order.

Fried Rice





Fried Noodles







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[PrincessInOz]

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The next section along was the Western breakfast section. I couldn’t even get near enough. There was cook to order omelettes and the standard eggs, bacon, waffles, pancakes etc that you would expect.

Pastries and breads were next.





You would be needing jam and other spreads to go with your toast.





You can see from the above picture that the section ended up a selection of fruit.

Juice bar and more fruit.








So let’s check out some of the plates of food that ended up at my table.

These represent a selection from the buffet…I will NOT disclose if all of these plates were mine…..and only mine… MOINE! MOINE! MOINE! MOINE!

Soup noodles for breakfast.





A selection of Dim Sum. There is also cheung fun or rice noodle rolls on the plate with hoisin sauce. I used to love this as a child.





A bowl of warm soya milk. Mmmmmmm. Another childhood favourite.





Indian curries on the roti, with a samosa.





What’s a Disney breakfast without these?










On the Western front.





Cooked to order omelette.





And fruit.







Anyone remember that this was a CHARACTER breakfast??

The characters starting to make an appearance after 8 am. I was pleased to see that there wasn’t hardly any push and shove from the diners and everyone patiently waited their turn for the characters to make the way round the room and to their table. Of course, the handlers were out and about; and aside from the stray ankle biter now and again, the most stress the handlers had was in making sure that they knew which button to press for the different cameras.

Most of my shots have my parents in them and I know they don’t want their mugs plastered all over the innernet; so I’ll refrain from posting those.

Here’s what I do have to share.

Daisy for first to make it to our table.






As ever, Daisy and I keep comparing our perfectly pear shaped figures.





Pluto was next.






Mickey was rather gracious!










And Goofy ambled along in his own time.






I snaffled this one from DH’s set.






It was nice to see the characters; and Mickey and Goofy did interact with DS a lot. I did see Daisy interacting with a sweet little girl a couple of tables along; so it would seem that character interactivity extended into the Hong Kong branch office as well.



Breakfast was about HK$298 per person. That’s about $40 in our (Australian and US) money….not sure about what that converts to in Euro or Pounds. It ended up being a lot cheaper for us; we got the 15% discount as part of the Magic Access passes AND my mother’s breakfast was free as I had negotiated the birthday privileges for her.



I know that Zanzibar had a slightly different take on the breakfast here. For this breakfast to be worth your while, you will need to be super fond of Asian food and to have the stomach for the Asian noodles, rice, congee, dim sum and curry this early in the morning.




I LOVED it! For us (my parents, DH and DS) this was easily the BEST breakfast buffet we’ve ever had at any Disney location.

[Princess_Melanie]

Perfect food post!! I'm quite looking forward to Asian breakfasts, I enjoy savoury over sweet for breakfast (with the exception of mickey waffles and pancakes - gotta have those!!) I'm not sure what all of the food is yet still trying to work out all the dim sum names - but I'll get there - what's congee?

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by Princess_Melanie

Perfect food post!! I'm quite looking forward to Asian breakfasts, I enjoy savoury over sweet for breakfast (with the exception of mickey waffles and pancakes - gotta have those!!) I'm not sure what all of the food is yet still trying to work out all the dim sum names - but I'll get there - what's congee?

Rice Porridge. You have it savoury.

[usnuzuloose]

Very nice inside for the buffet. It does look alot the the Crystal Palace. I love noodle dishes. I would be willing to try some things. Well I am so glad you got to intereact with the characters and no pushing or shoving. Its to bad your mom didnt get just some shots of the room where they had tea. I understand some people dont want their pictures put up.

Well even though its time to go, your adventure in HK will get started and I cant wait to see what you saw!

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by usnuzuloose

Very nice inside for the buffet. It does look alot the the Crystal Palace. I love noodle dishes. I would be willing to try some things. Well I am so glad you got to intereact with the characters and no pushing or shoving. Its to bad your mom didnt get just some shots of the room where they had tea. I understand some people dont want their pictures put up.

Well even though its time to go, your adventure in HK will get started and I cant wait to see what you saw!

It was the room where I got my 'slacks' and 'smacks' from. The sitting area in the lobby.

[Aussie Wendy]

Well we so HAVE to do an Enchanted Garden breaky when (note when not if...) we visit-DD and I will love it though I don't think I can stretch to congee. DH maybe less so but there's enough there to keep me man happy! A day we depart and not a long day in the parks sounds ideal as when we pig out for breaky we have tended to feel too full and not quite 100% to fully enjoy a long day in the parks-just don't have the Yees stamina obviously!

[skier_pete]

Hmmm...I didn't realize you only had two days in the park. I guess that really seemed like enough time, as there doesn't seem to be a lot there. I will definitely continue to follow the rest of the trip, though! I enjoy your pictures and stories so much.

And poor DH - trying to get "his" camera back. Maybe you should hold a contest for who takes the better pictures.

Last, the food for the "breakfast" looks pretty good, though to me the Indian dishes looked the best. I have to snicker at the idea of flying to HK and getting a "Western Omelet". The 100-year old eggs, I've heard of them but never had one...not sure I would want to!

Keep those updates coming!

[ehsmum]

So after I don't know how many pages, I've forgotten what I wanted to comment on!

We really enjoyed the Enchanted Garden breakfast. We also did it our last morning which just extended the Disney magic for us. For some reason I had it in my head that the characters were the princesses though, so I had told the kids we were going to see the princesses. When I tried to wake them up for breakfast, my youngest was very annoyed and said he didn't care about princesses! I made him get up and go anyway! So it was a pleasant surprise to see Goofy, Pluto, Mickey and Daisy . The characters were really good too - Goofy was the first to arrive at our table when the 3 boys were all in the bathroom. He took pics with my daughter but I asked him to come back to see my boys, which I didn't expect, but he did! As soon as the boys got back, Goofy finished with the table he was at and came back. I was very impressed We didn't end up meeting Pluto because the characters went on a break just before he got to us and we had finished eating. We had a family vote and the kids wanted to have a swim while they could,so the majority voted to leave without meeting Pluto.

I'm surprised by your impression of Toy Story Land. We really enjoyed it and went back a couple of times. Granted it was pouring rain and the crowds were low at the time. All 3 rides were walk on for us, so that probably changes our perspective. But it was definitely a favorite for my kids.

I love your plan to include either Paris or Tokyo in your next trip! According to my kids, our main objective in life is to visit every Disney park! So when we got home and were asked where we were going next, the junior members of the family all replied Paris, then Tokyo. DH and I are trying to figure out how to rig the lottery!

[kmedina]

Disney has an Enchanted Garden on the Dream. It looks very similar. They are both beautiful restaurants. The food looks amazing. I do not think I would have made it to the Western section either. Chinese food is the best (next to Italian food). If I had a chance to eat actual chinese food, I would not choose the stuff I could eat at home anytime. I love that you get pictures taken with the characters.

[dgbg100106]

oh my that breakfast looks wonderful... I love all the food displayed and I have been know to eat anything for breakfast, so I think this would fit right in with DH and I for a place to start the day!

Beautiful photos..

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by Aussie Wendy

Well we so HAVE to do an Enchanted Garden breaky when (note when not if...) we visit-DD and I will love it though I don't think I can stretch to congee. DH maybe less so but there's enough there to keep me man happy! A day we depart and not a long day in the parks sounds ideal as when we pig out for breaky we have tended to feel too full and not quite 100% to fully enjoy a long day in the parks-just don't have the Yees stamina obviously!

I was very happy with breakfast on this morning.

Originally Posted by skier_pete

Hmmm...I didn't realize you only had two days in the park. I guess that really seemed like enough time, as there doesn't seem to be a lot there. I will definitely continue to follow the rest of the trip, though! I enjoy your pictures and stories so much.

And poor DH - trying to get "his" camera back. Maybe you should hold a contest for who takes the better pictures.

Last, the food for the "breakfast" looks pretty good, though to me the Indian dishes looked the best. I have to snicker at the idea of flying to HK and getting a "Western Omelet". The 100-year old eggs, I've heard of them but never had one...not sure I would want to!

Keep those updates coming!

If I didn't take pictures and it wasn't crowded, I suspect that 1 day might be enough at this park. But it will be interesting to see how people feel about it after Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point open. And it will be interesting to see if HKDL start selling 3 day passes.


I know what you mean about the "western omelette"....but for a lot of the Asian visitors, that's EXACTLY what they are looking for in a breakfast at HKDL. Most of them don't even want to look at the Asian selection.


I guess I'm cooking Indian style curries when you get here.

Originally Posted by ehsmum

So after I don't know how many pages, I've forgotten what I wanted to comment on!

We really enjoyed the Enchanted Garden breakfast. We also did it our last morning which just extended the Disney magic for us. For some reason I had it in my head that the characters were the princesses though, so I had told the kids we were going to see the princesses. When I tried to wake them up for breakfast, my youngest was very annoyed and said he didn't care about princesses! I made him get up and go anyway! So it was a pleasant surprise to see Goofy, Pluto, Mickey and Daisy . The characters were really good too - Goofy was the first to arrive at our table when the 3 boys were all in the bathroom. He took pics with my daughter but I asked him to come back to see my boys, which I didn't expect, but he did! As soon as the boys got back, Goofy finished with the table he was at and came back. I was very impressed We didn't end up meeting Pluto because the characters went on a break just before he got to us and we had finished eating. We had a family vote and the kids wanted to have a swim while they could,so the majority voted to leave without meeting Pluto.

I'm surprised by your impression of Toy Story Land. We really enjoyed it and went back a couple of times. Granted it was pouring rain and the crowds were low at the time. All 3 rides were walk on for us, so that probably changes our perspective. But it was definitely a favorite for my kids.

I love your plan to include either Paris or Tokyo in your next trip! According to my kids, our main objective in life is to visit every Disney park! So when we got home and were asked where we were going next, the junior members of the family all replied Paris, then Tokyo. DH and I are trying to figure out how to rig the lottery!

Sadly, I didn't win the $50Million in last night's OzLotto draw. Given that the main prize didn't go off, I suspect that you and DH didn't quite figure out how to rig the lottery either. How about you include me in the NEXT jackpot WHEN you do finally get round to properly rigging things?

Originally Posted by kmedina

Disney has an Enchanted Garden on the Dream. It looks very similar. They are both beautiful restaurants. The food looks amazing. I do not think I would have made it to the Western section either. Chinese food is the best (next to Italian food). If I had a chance to eat actual chinese food, I would not choose the stuff I could eat at home anytime. I love that you get pictures taken with the characters.

By the look of the Asian guests flocking the Western food section and the Western guests flocking the Asian food section, I guess this view is universal!

Originally Posted by dgbg100106

oh my that breakfast looks wonderful... I love all the food displayed and I have been know to eat anything for breakfast, so I think this would fit right in with DH and I for a place to start the day!

Beautiful photos..

Brandi - That breakfast is just right for you and your DH!
Thanks.

[PrincessInOz]

After Breakfast, a little shopping time


We’d just had an incredible character buffet breakfast at Enchanted Garden and it was time to decide what we were going to do for the morning.

But first….we hit the shop.

Like all Disney resorts, there was one merchandise shop on the resort premise.





It had a beautiful leadlight feature in the shop.





Right near where this section of merchandise was.






Yes….D&B are here with a special Hong Kong Disneyland label on the equivalence of the cruise line design.





There was a good enough selection in the shop and as I hadn't really spent a great deal of time in the park shops, I didn't know if I was missing anything or not.
Retail therapy for us consisted of t-shirts and pins. T-shirts cost about HK$195; which is about $26 in our money, roughly the same as a t-shirt in the US. Pins followed the same colour code system as in the US with pricing varying depending on the colour. I never really worked out what a basic pin cost; but I suspect that there is no arbitrage to be had here either.



My parents, with their Magic Access Passes, decided that they wanted to go see the Golden Mickeys show again. Having completed their packing last night, they headed back to their room and brought their bags down to concierge for luggage storage. I waited for them in the lobby to collect their room cards as I would be checking us all out later in the morning. Then they said their goodbyes and headed towards the park.

I seriously contemplated getting a one-day pass for myself at this stage but decided against it as I knew I was NOT going to get value from it.

DH and DS decided they wanted to go for a swim and they got changed and headed off for the pool.


I finished the last of the packing and double checked that we hadn't left anything behind.

I should note that we got two of these every day for the duration of our stay.





And whilst not quite the towel animals like what I’ve experienced in WDW, these were cute too.






There was one thing left on my DisBoard Community Service check list to do and this was the perfect time to do it.



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