Disneyland Resort Style, Confucion and Elegance
We have arrived at the Disneyland Hotel. This hotel was the second hotel to be built on the HK Disney premise in 2005. It was modelled after the Grand Floridian in WDW and the Disneyland Hotel in Paris; which means that the Hotel del Coronado was the inspiration for the exterior styling of red turrets and Victorian grace.
Despite the lateness of the hour, there were ample cast members on duty. Bellhops hopped to help us with our bags and to open doors for us. The service was exemplary and what you would expect of Disney. We would eventually hand over a $40 tip (nearly $6) to the bellhop that brought our bags to the room. DH was later advised by my mother that it was the custom but a single $20 note was the going rate. I think we felt better about the $40 because it felt more aligned with what we were used to paying bellhops in the US. For the Aussies reading this, yes
..I know there are varied viewpoints about tipping. What can I say other than we do tend to spend a great deal to time in the US?
The first time I walk into a Disney hotel foyer always brings tears to my eyes. In the case of the Disneyland Hotel, I was gobsmacked by the elegance. It may have been a tad smaller in size to the deluxe hotels in Orlando; but it certainly rivals them in the expected Disney details.
From the floor as you walk in
.
to the cavern space we all expect from a Disney hotel lobby.
In case anyone mistakes this for anything else, the Big Cheese stood to remind us where we were.
It was late at night (near 11 pm Hong Kong time but 1 am Melbourne time) and I really couldnt see much beyond my nose.
I attempted one of my artsy fartsy shots and it wasnt till I unpacked the pictures at home that I realised that I had fluked a Hidden Mickey.
I swiped this shot from DH. It shows registration.
Confucius say Without knowing the force of words, it is impossible to know more
The Asian features of the Cast Members and the language were the things that struck me straight away. The first CM that helped me noticed that I was Asian and asked if I spoke Cantonese. I responded ngo saik teng; em saik kong which roughly translates to I understand but cant speak. It brought a different reaction than I expected. Turns out I was the perfect guinea pig for another one of the Cast Members. In his case
he understood English but didnt speak it well. Dont tell any of my fellow travellers and definitely not DS; but with that simple innocuous reply, our check-in took double the time it needed to.
The second CM would speak Cantonese to me. I then repeated in English to make sure that I understood correctly and he would either agree with me or provide more verbage in Cantonese depending on whether I understood correctly or not.
My fellow travellers still think that check-in took a long time because I told them I had to complete the two Magic Access Passes for the seniors with me. But really the truth was because I had wanted to practise my long forgotten Cantonese.
This action set the trend for the rest of the Disney section of the trip. At least 3 other CM at the resort were more than happy for me to practise my kitchen Cantonese on them. All the CM spoke English well enough and we always had the safety net of being able to revert back to English (or Cantonese) at any point. And I got to improve my Cantonese a little.
One thing to be aware of with registration
. The room key at Hong Kong is just a room key, it isnt a KTTW; but as with any Disney resort, you can set up room charge. There is a pre-validation swipe of the credit card required and for the two rooms, my CC validation total came to $5000. I think this equated to about $600 - $700 in our money. However, unlike other hotels and stories Ive been reading recently, when you check-out and pay for your room charges, HKDL will ONLY claim the room charges. You will not see the pre-validation amount on your credit card.
And with registration complete, we headed to our rooms. We were allocated rooms 5021 and 5019
side by side.
I swiped this picture from DH
our rooms were in this direction.
Disney touches were everywhere! This table was where our lift well was.
Dont you just adore the fan?
Inside of the lift
and heading towards our floor.
(Continued in Next Post)