Day 5 - Part 10 - Farewell Hong Kong Disneyland - fireworks, crowds and sore feet!
Paint the Night was fantastically fun, full of energy and incredibly joyful and nostalgic - all the things that make a good Disney parade/show perfect in my book! We loved it.
After Paint the Night we hurried into the hub to get a spot from which to shoot the fireworks. We squeezed into a spot on the rail of the main garden area only to find that people were sitting on top of the railing on the other side, completely blocking our view!! I was quite grumpy at this because it was beyond rude, especially to people on the railing behind, whose views were almost completely blocked (of the castle at least) by this! So we moved further back, but afterwards regretted our decision as there were more people with kids on their shoulders then the heads of people sitting on the rails anyway! Because Hong Kong's castle is so small we didn't actually get a lot of it in our shots! Still, Jared was happy with the results of his first real fireworks shoot with his ND filter
.
The fireworks themselves were ok, a little meh, the projections were pretty un-seeable as far back as we were (which wasn't really that far back). I think even Disneyland does it better. Hopefully when Hong Kong Disneyland gets it's new castle (which will be taller I believe) they can do something a little more spectacular. Still it was a great way to end our day with a "bang" and enjoy some Disney fireworks fun.
After the fireworks were done my foot was pretty much ready to give up, but we'd forgotten to get our customary 'we were at this Disney park' magnet (it's usually the only souvenir we buy ourselves from any place we visit - our fridge is a fun collection of all the places we've visited). Anyway, like idiots we decided to just pop into the Emporium to buy one, forgetting this was a Disney park in Asia, and that the Asian Disney parks are notorious for the number of people inside the shops after park close. It was a complete mad house, just trying to walk through took us forever and trying to find the magnet an eternity, and then we had to queue for 30 minutes to actually check out! We realised then why there were so many people left in the park an hour and a half after closing the night before, they were all still shopping! It was such a strange experience in a park that had been extremely quite elsewhere for two days; to see so many people and experience those level of crowds. Sadly, it was the longest we waited for anything the entire trip at Hong Kong Disneyland! So a tip to anyone visiting Hong Kong Disneyland (or any of the Asian parks because this was true in all of them): DO NOT leave your souvenir shopping until the end of the day!
Anyway after that experience we left the park a little grumpy and frustrated, sad that experience was our final farewell to Hong Kong Disneyland, and of course my foot was hurting worse than ever. Just when I wanted to sit down and have a good cry (which was silly really but my foot pain was making me a little unreasonable) we reached the Hong Kong Disneyland fountain, and the kiss goodnight show we'd photographed the night before started playing! It was like Disney giving me a final reminder that the parks are often crowded, your feet are often sore, but there is no place like a Disney park to escape and feel the kind of happiness you felt as a child where you have no worries, and no responsibilities! We sat down and watching the show, chiding ourselves for letting our grumpy attitudes almost ruin our final moments at Hong Kong Disneyland. I am a very firm believer that the attitude you take with you on your trip, not your circumstances, will ultimately decide if you have an enjoyable holiday or not - and while things hadn't gone perfectly that evening we were still responsible for how we choose to react to those circumstances. We decided we wouldn't let those circumstances them marr an otherwise wonderful time at the park.
Still, there was the fact that walking was very painful for me, standing even more so (walking I was less constantly putting weight on the sore). I seriously didn't know how I was going to make it back to the hotel, we could see how many people were standing waiting for the buses and knew it would be ages before we would get on one. We decided, as hard as it would be for me, to just suck it up and walk the 20 minutes back to the hotel. Walking, we at least knew how long it would take, and that we wouldn't have to stand still so I could, at least, between steps, give my poor foot a break
.
By the time we made it back to the hotel though I was in a pretty bad way (it sounds ridiculous really but I cannot stress how painful it is to put pressure on a wound every time you take a step). Anyway, when we arrived at the hotel the plan was to pick up our bags from the bell services CM's and grab a cab into the city. When we walked up to the Bell Services desk and saw the line of people standing and waiting for cabs I despaired a little, and fell down on the ground in front of a pole near the Bell Services desk and told Jared I'd just sit there while he waited in line for a cab. I was perfectly happy sitting on the dirty ground (it was Disney so it wasn't really that dirty
) as long as I could sit!
The Disney CM's though, always magical and wonderful, saw me flopping down (I probably did it a little too dramatically) and rushed over to see if I was ok. I was trying to explain to them that really I was fine, I just had a sore on my foot and standing was killing me so I'd just wait on the ground while Jared waited in line for a cab. Hearing this, they insisted I go inside and find a chair in the lobby (Jared too) and not to worry, they'd call us when our cab was ready. Anyway, I wasn't looking for special treatment, but was pleased enough with the suggestion so we headed in. Less than 5 minutes later one of the CM's was rushing back advising us our cab had arrived. When we walked out the door the Bell Services were already loading our bags (I think Jared had given them our ticket when we went inside) and we noticed that every single person who had been waiting in line for a cab was still waiting, but they'd assigned the next one to us! I did feel a little sorry for the people in line then, we didn't need special treatment or priority (I was fine after sitting down inside) but it was so very thoughtful of the CM's to do all this out of concern for me and my blistered foot!
That ended our time at Hong Kong Disneyland, and while there were a few un-fun moments, it was mostly wonderful, extremely magical and and wonderful experience overall. The highlights of the park were definitely the Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point areas and attractions, along with the Iron Man ride and Paint the Night. Overall it's clear that the park was made very cheap at the outset, but the additions over the years have improved the park by leaps and bounds. Still it's a small park and could use a few more attractions, especially dark ride style attractions. After the new castle is built (the current one is much too small and doesn't have the nostalgia attached to it, like the Disneyland one) and Marvel land is opened the park will be spectacular and worth a visit on it's own. For now though I'd recommend visiting Hong Kong Disneyland, but perhaps only as a stop if you are already going to the other Asian parks (like Shanghai or Tokyo or both) or if you were already planning a trip to Hong Kong. The park itself is not worth an entire trip just to see it, but given that Hong Kong and Tokyo are so close, and Hong Kong and Shanghai even closer, it's a great stop on your way to any of the other Asian parks. Also doing all three like we did is really quite easy, and could be done within 1.5 weeks if necessary I'd say (probably even within a week, but you'd be a bit rushed).
Anyway, we headed into the city to the hotel we were staying in. The first thing we noticed as we pulled up were the adorable Chinese lanterns, presumably hung for the Chinese New Year.
The hotel was situated in Tsim Cha Tsui, which is next door to Kowloon, and overlooked the Hong Kong island area and parts of Victoria Harbour. When we arrived and checked in we discovered our room had been upgraded (something that's never happened to us before). We were already impressed by the hotel, it was clean and nicely decorated, the staff were friendly and spoke excellent English. When we arrived at the room and saw the view, we were more than impressed, it took our breath away!
It's hard to tell from the pictures but the window was probably about 5-6m long (16-19 feet) and basically covered the front wall of the entire bedroom area of the room. But, the room wasn't just one bedroom, there was a hallway, bathroom, study and dining room as well, all with their own windows and views!
The room was sparsely decorated - very Asian in it's style, but it was also incredible - the square footage only was like nothing we've ever experienced in a hotel! We were completely blown away!
Continued in Next Post...