An Asian Disney and Universal Adventure - Trip Report COMPLETED 6/23
- Thread starter RachelleBeaney
- Start date
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Thank you, I really appreciate such wonderful feedback
Thank you for your kind words. I'm glad you are enjoying the report. I was able to take the sting out of the issue with my foot by taking my arch support out of my shoe. The rest of my foot ached a lot worse but the acute pain from the blister wasn't quite as bad! Still it did bother me for a few days...but that's ok, we were at Disney so I didn't think about it much.
My foot was still healing for the next few days, though I do promise to try and not whinge about it too much, we were at Disney after all. I'll say this, it didn't slow us down at all! HKDL is beautiful at night, as with all the Disney parks. I think that some of the flaws you can see during the day sort of disappear there at night, so it's so much more beautiful! Closing down a park is HARD. We thought, hey this will be easy, the park closes at 8pm so it's not like we have to wait until 1am or 2am to be the last ones out. But people were so stubbornly not exiting even after an hour and half of the park being closed, so we finally gave up being the very last ones. Still among the last 20 or so was an achievement for us! If you can make it it's an eerie feeling, seeing the park so empty! I will say this though, we lost interest in closing down a park after that, even though we had plans to in Shanghai and Tokyo. The closest we came was on our last night at Tokyo Disney, but we were nowhere near the last ones in that night. I think the key to closing down a park is to stay in the back areas of the park until just after closing, when they start to usher you to the front. If you are in the front part of the park you won't be able to get back to the back parts, and you'll have to wait out the crowds exiting. Also those back areas will feel quieter and will have less people, and by the time you get to Main Street hopefully the main crowds will have died down a little
.Thank you for your kind words, and I love sharing all our adventures with people! Singapore was pretty amazing, I definitely want to go back!
Jenny Sanders
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2007
Do you mind my asking what kind of camera your husband uses???? I apologize if someone has asked this already...
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
No problem, I'm pretty sure no one has asked that here yet (I think someone did in the pre-trip report). Jared uses a Canon 6D with a Tamron 2.8f 24mm-70mm lens and a Sigma 4.5-5.6f 70mm-300mm zoom lens (depending on the shot). We also used Lightroom to edit all our pictures and we shoot RAW. The 6D is our first full frame camera (and was quite a bit more expensive, but still reasonable - an entry level full frame), on our last trip we had the 700D, which is still good. FYI I believe the 700D is called the Rebel T5i in the states. For many of our night shots we also make use of a tripod/gorilla pod or green pod camera bean bag to take long exposures
. And of course Jared knows how to use the camera on full manual mode (I tend to put it on aperture priority when I shoot because I don't know as much as he does). Hope that's helpful We did carry a full tripod, a gorilla pod and a green pod camera bean bag each day we knew we would need to take night photos - which was most days (the backpack - the everyday back by peak design which is incredible and totally worth the $350 we paid for it, helped managed all this and the weight). The backpack weighed about 9kg each day (with water and others things in it too)...so it was a lot, but we just got used to it (and by me I mean Jared
). The tripod we have is light weight and collapses quite small. But yes, you have to carry a lot of gear when you want to take decent night pictures At least at Tokyo Disney you couldn't use tripods so we only had the gorilla pod and bean bag, and the bag was so much lighter.
Jenny Sanders
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 8, 2007
No problem, I'm pretty sure no one has asked that here yet (I think someone did in the pre-trip report). Jared uses a Canon 6D with a Tamron 2.8f 24mm-70mm lens and a Sigma 4.5-5.6f 70mm-300mm zoom lens (depending on the shot). We also used Lightroom to edit all our pictures and we shoot RAW. The 6D is our first full frame camera (and was quite a bit more expensive, but still reasonable - an entry level full frame), on our last trip we had the 700D, which is still good. FYI I believe the 700D is called the Rebel T5i in the states. For many of our night shots we also make use of a tripod/gorilla pod or green pod camera bean bag to take long exposures
We did carry a full tripod, a gorilla pod and a green pod camera bean bag each day we knew we would need to take night photos - which was most days (the backpack - the everyday back by peak design which is incredible and totally worth the $350 we paid for it, helped managed all this and the weight). The backpack weighed about 9kg each day (with water and others things in it too)...so it was a lot, but we just got used to it (and by me I mean Jared
Thank you very much!
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
I love your trip report! And your photography is on point! What beautiful pictures!
Thank you so much, I'm really glad you are enjoy the report and the pictures ❤
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 1 - The quietest Disney park
We arose early this morning to pack, as we would be checking out of the hotel that evening and heading over to Hong Kong city. Apparently we didn't arise early enough though as we arrived at the park 5 minutes after opening! We were not doing well with early arrivals so far this trip. Luckily it hadn't been needed because the parks were so quite, and Hong Kong Disneyland was definitely easy to manage that morning! We had decided that it was going to take us even longer if we had to wait for a bus, so even though my foot was still quite sore, we decided to walk to the park. It took about 20 minutes and I'm actually really glad we did it (even though my foot probably wasn't) as the walk was extremely peaceful, the walkway was so beautifully done it's probably the best entrance corridor to any disney park in the world (in that there were no car parks, no other things in the site line, it was just beautiful trees, topiaries and signage).
So yes we arrived about 5 minutes after opening, and the place had a few people around. Still Hong Kong Disneyland is still to this date one of the quietest Disney parks I've ever experienced, so much so that we were vetoing waits of 20 and 30 minutes, saying we'd come back later when the waits were shorter, because inevitably they would be!
Anyway, we arrived at Main Street and today we actually took a few pictures.
Well by few I mean 2, the area wasn't really that enticing during the day, but I've already gone over that
We hadn't gotten to experience Hyperspace Mountain before, so we headed there first. The wait was 15 minutes when we arrived.
I loved the loading area in Hong Kong, the planets and lighting were really different to most of the Space Mountain loading platforms I've seen. This was our first time on Hyperspace Mountain, having never experienced it at Disneyland. It was really good, and I particularly loved the Star Wars soundtrack. Still the bigger projections took some of the fun and speed away from the attraction because they made it too light, and as a result you could see the track and where you were going and the sense of speed that becomes more acute in the dark was lessened. There were some projections down the bottom end of the coaster that were great, because they were small and zippy and didn't allow you to view too much of the track ahead of you, but overall i think that, other than the music, this version of Space Mountain isn't really an improvement. Also why Disney would want to have Space Mountain (a classic beloved by so many) taken over with a theme that they already have another ride based on (though to be fair, Hong Kong Disneyland doesn't have Star Tours) and when they are building a whole new (and what is sure to be incredible) Star Wars land, is a bit strange to me. Still Hong Kong has no other Star Wars themed attractions, so I can understand why it's been permanently placed here. I just wish I could have experienced Hong Kong Disneyland's original Space Mountain, as I'd heard it was one of the better versions.
So in my last post I mentioned that certain areas closed half an hour before park closing (the new lands). Well, these areas also opened half an hour after park open. By the time we were done with Space Mountain Grizzly Gulch was actually open, so we headed that way. We had skipped Big Grizzly Thrill Ride (yes I'm sticking with the silly names) the day before because of a half an hour wait, and when we arrived this morning the attraction was a walk on, so we knew we'd made the right call. In fact the whole Grizzly Gulch area was empty at this time of morning.
Now if you'd rather not hear any spoilers about this ride (because you are planning a trip and don't like spoilers) stop reading this paragraph now! For the rest of you I'll tell you some really surprising things about this attraction. First, and don't kill me for blasphemy, I actually thought it far superior to Big Thunder Mountain! Second, there is a backwards section on the ride, which is not really a surprise as you see that the coaster goes backward watching it from Grizzly Gulch. Third, the attraction has adorable and awesome animatronic bears, which adds a nice Disney touch. But forth, and most surprising, this coaster has a launch! Not at the beginning mind you, but half way through, after you encounter some of the aforementioned rascal bears and they ignite some dynamite sending you speeding off through the second part of the coaster. The backwards section is fun too, the whole thing is definitely more thrilling than Big Thunder Mountain, but probably not as thrilling as Expedition Everest. We were actually able to ride twice with no wait!
Oh yeh, those bears just wanted their fishy noms, and in the process they managed to almost blow us up
Like I said, Grizzly Gulch was dead this time of the morning, so we took advantage of that and took lots of pictures!
This Geyser area is I think why it's called Grizzly Gulch (though I would have thought Grizzly Geyser made more sense!)
As you can see more people were starting to arrive so we decided to keep going into Mystic Point.
I wonder if you can guess what our next attraction was...
Continued in Next Post...
We arose early this morning to pack, as we would be checking out of the hotel that evening and heading over to Hong Kong city. Apparently we didn't arise early enough though as we arrived at the park 5 minutes after opening! We were not doing well with early arrivals so far this trip. Luckily it hadn't been needed because the parks were so quite, and Hong Kong Disneyland was definitely easy to manage that morning! We had decided that it was going to take us even longer if we had to wait for a bus, so even though my foot was still quite sore, we decided to walk to the park. It took about 20 minutes and I'm actually really glad we did it (even though my foot probably wasn't) as the walk was extremely peaceful, the walkway was so beautifully done it's probably the best entrance corridor to any disney park in the world (in that there were no car parks, no other things in the site line, it was just beautiful trees, topiaries and signage).
So yes we arrived about 5 minutes after opening, and the place had a few people around. Still Hong Kong Disneyland is still to this date one of the quietest Disney parks I've ever experienced, so much so that we were vetoing waits of 20 and 30 minutes, saying we'd come back later when the waits were shorter, because inevitably they would be!
Anyway, we arrived at Main Street and today we actually took a few pictures.
Well by few I mean 2, the area wasn't really that enticing during the day, but I've already gone over that
We hadn't gotten to experience Hyperspace Mountain before, so we headed there first. The wait was 15 minutes when we arrived.
I loved the loading area in Hong Kong, the planets and lighting were really different to most of the Space Mountain loading platforms I've seen. This was our first time on Hyperspace Mountain, having never experienced it at Disneyland. It was really good, and I particularly loved the Star Wars soundtrack. Still the bigger projections took some of the fun and speed away from the attraction because they made it too light, and as a result you could see the track and where you were going and the sense of speed that becomes more acute in the dark was lessened. There were some projections down the bottom end of the coaster that were great, because they were small and zippy and didn't allow you to view too much of the track ahead of you, but overall i think that, other than the music, this version of Space Mountain isn't really an improvement. Also why Disney would want to have Space Mountain (a classic beloved by so many) taken over with a theme that they already have another ride based on (though to be fair, Hong Kong Disneyland doesn't have Star Tours) and when they are building a whole new (and what is sure to be incredible) Star Wars land, is a bit strange to me. Still Hong Kong has no other Star Wars themed attractions, so I can understand why it's been permanently placed here. I just wish I could have experienced Hong Kong Disneyland's original Space Mountain, as I'd heard it was one of the better versions.
So in my last post I mentioned that certain areas closed half an hour before park closing (the new lands). Well, these areas also opened half an hour after park open. By the time we were done with Space Mountain Grizzly Gulch was actually open, so we headed that way. We had skipped Big Grizzly Thrill Ride (yes I'm sticking with the silly names) the day before because of a half an hour wait, and when we arrived this morning the attraction was a walk on, so we knew we'd made the right call. In fact the whole Grizzly Gulch area was empty at this time of morning.
Now if you'd rather not hear any spoilers about this ride (because you are planning a trip and don't like spoilers) stop reading this paragraph now! For the rest of you I'll tell you some really surprising things about this attraction. First, and don't kill me for blasphemy, I actually thought it far superior to Big Thunder Mountain! Second, there is a backwards section on the ride, which is not really a surprise as you see that the coaster goes backward watching it from Grizzly Gulch. Third, the attraction has adorable and awesome animatronic bears, which adds a nice Disney touch. But forth, and most surprising, this coaster has a launch! Not at the beginning mind you, but half way through, after you encounter some of the aforementioned rascal bears and they ignite some dynamite sending you speeding off through the second part of the coaster. The backwards section is fun too, the whole thing is definitely more thrilling than Big Thunder Mountain, but probably not as thrilling as Expedition Everest. We were actually able to ride twice with no wait!
Oh yeh, those bears just wanted their fishy noms, and in the process they managed to almost blow us up
Like I said, Grizzly Gulch was dead this time of the morning, so we took advantage of that and took lots of pictures!
This Geyser area is I think why it's called Grizzly Gulch (though I would have thought Grizzly Geyser made more sense!)
As you can see more people were starting to arrive so we decided to keep going into Mystic Point.
I wonder if you can guess what our next attraction was...
Continued in Next Post...
Last edited:
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 2 - Getting to know Albert
So as you may have guessed we were going to experience the amazing Mystic Manor again, and this time, we were going to take a lot of pictures. Again, we rode this twice in a row with no wait. This first time we rode (in which the pictures were taken) was our second time on the attraction and we noticed a lot more detail than the first. Also it was about here I fell in love with Albert, the mischievous monkey who temps fate and opens a cursed music box allowing all manner of magic and sorcery loose in the manor. He was so adorably naive and cute that I proclaimed him my new favourite Disney ride character (sorry Chandu), even though Albert is a ridiculous name for a monkey (too posh!).
Here he is welcoming us, along with Lord Henry Mystic, to Mystic Manor during the pre-show. He greets the audience with "Nihao" in the cutest little voice!
And here was our ride vehicle, which took the style of a Edwardian era car or carriage
The artefact library was stunning!
Don't touch that Albert!
Oops, he did!
Somehow Albert manages to contain the magic back in the box and all is well again.
And that was a ride through of Mystic Manor in pictures. The experience was every bit as amazing, if not more so, the second (and then third) time around. We did experience our first issue with rude guests the second time we rode though. We had worked out where to stand in the pre-show room to be near the exit door as it opened. We managed to be one of the first in the room so we headed in that direction and stood right by the door. As the pre-show ended one of the guests and her three kids literally almost bowled me over in order to stand in front of us near the door (and let me be clear, we'd left no gap between us and the door) and then they all ran to the boarding area, which was completely un-necessary, as there was still a line once they got in there and they literally only beat two people. We ended up being loaded in the same batch of cars. For me I didn't care if they passed us, it was the way they did it. Our first indication that what is considered un-polite (and in some circumstances, in my mind as well, down right rude) in our culture is necessarily an issue in theirs. The issue with pushing in queues was something we saw a little in Hong Kong, but a lot in Shanghai. And I will clarify here that no, it wasn't just that they like to fill all the space because they are used to bunching up close, it was blatant line cutting, opening doors and going under ropes, pushing people out of the way to get further forward in a line instead of waiting their turn like everyone else. And no, it wasn't everyone, but there were a number of people who did it and I'll be honest, it did bother me a lot. Still, I would not consider it a reason not to do the Chinese parks, just something to be aware of when you do.
Continued in Next Post...
So as you may have guessed we were going to experience the amazing Mystic Manor again, and this time, we were going to take a lot of pictures. Again, we rode this twice in a row with no wait. This first time we rode (in which the pictures were taken) was our second time on the attraction and we noticed a lot more detail than the first. Also it was about here I fell in love with Albert, the mischievous monkey who temps fate and opens a cursed music box allowing all manner of magic and sorcery loose in the manor. He was so adorably naive and cute that I proclaimed him my new favourite Disney ride character (sorry Chandu), even though Albert is a ridiculous name for a monkey (too posh!).
Here he is welcoming us, along with Lord Henry Mystic, to Mystic Manor during the pre-show. He greets the audience with "Nihao" in the cutest little voice!
And here was our ride vehicle, which took the style of a Edwardian era car or carriage
The artefact library was stunning!
Don't touch that Albert!
Oops, he did!
Somehow Albert manages to contain the magic back in the box and all is well again.
And that was a ride through of Mystic Manor in pictures. The experience was every bit as amazing, if not more so, the second (and then third) time around. We did experience our first issue with rude guests the second time we rode though. We had worked out where to stand in the pre-show room to be near the exit door as it opened. We managed to be one of the first in the room so we headed in that direction and stood right by the door. As the pre-show ended one of the guests and her three kids literally almost bowled me over in order to stand in front of us near the door (and let me be clear, we'd left no gap between us and the door) and then they all ran to the boarding area, which was completely un-necessary, as there was still a line once they got in there and they literally only beat two people. We ended up being loaded in the same batch of cars. For me I didn't care if they passed us, it was the way they did it. Our first indication that what is considered un-polite (and in some circumstances, in my mind as well, down right rude) in our culture is necessarily an issue in theirs. The issue with pushing in queues was something we saw a little in Hong Kong, but a lot in Shanghai. And I will clarify here that no, it wasn't just that they like to fill all the space because they are used to bunching up close, it was blatant line cutting, opening doors and going under ropes, pushing people out of the way to get further forward in a line instead of waiting their turn like everyone else. And no, it wasn't everyone, but there were a number of people who did it and I'll be honest, it did bother me a lot. Still, I would not consider it a reason not to do the Chinese parks, just something to be aware of when you do.
Continued in Next Post...
Last edited:
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 3 - Flavours of the Far East
Anyway, we decided we'd go Big Grizzly Scream inducer again and we did, loving every minute of it. We had fun with these silly photo ops:
We Australian’s are mostly convicts of course, so Jared is back where his ancestors belong here I guess!
He's a little too pleased about it here
We saw Western style Mickey and Minnie on our way back through to Mystic Point, but we didn't feel like waiting for a picture so settled for some sneaky ones from outside the line!
We headed back through Mystic Point to our next destination, lunch at the Explorer's Club Restaurant food court.
I wanted pictures with my favourite attraction (up to that point) of all time!
The Explorer's Club Restaurant was stunning! Inside and Out!
The restaurant is cafeteria style, however there are 5 dining areas, each themed to different Asian, African or Eastern European Country. Left to Right (as you walk in) we have:
China
India
Russia
Morocco
Egypt
Jared had gone to order while I took these pictures, and before I decided on a dining room to eat in (it was a really hard choice by the way as they were all so beautiful) the lovely cafeteria greeter CM struck up a conversation with me. Her name was Wendy and we just chatted about how much we love Disney! I told her that we love to visit Disney as often as possible, and have now been to almost all of them, and that we were on our way to Shanghai next. She was excited to tell me that she had gone over to Shanghai to work during the grand opening to train the new staff over there. She wanted to give me lots of tips and pointers regarding the parks which was lovely (many of which I already knew because of my research, but I appreciate her refreshing my memory anyway). After chatting with her for a while I wandered to take more photos and Jared had to come looking for me, as he and the lovely CM who helped him carry all our food couldn't find me anywhere, and didn't know where to sit! Oops. I told him I decided on China, as it felt right given that we were in China, plus I loved the beautiful jade style statue.
I also have to say that for a counter service restaurant, the food at Explorer's Club was amazingly good. Adhering to the theme Chinese, Indian, Morocan and Japanese food was available, and we ordered some Asian beef (Japanese style) ribs and satay chicken skewers. They came with sides like a bento box (can't remember exactly what they were now) and it was all delicious. My only complaint was that our ribs were a tad too fatty. Still it was an amazing meal for a counter service restaurant and I'd highly recommend it for anyone visiting Hong Kong Disneyland.
Continued in Next Post...
Anyway, we decided we'd go Big Grizzly Scream inducer again and we did, loving every minute of it. We had fun with these silly photo ops:
We Australian’s are mostly convicts of course, so Jared is back where his ancestors belong here I guess!
He's a little too pleased about it here
We saw Western style Mickey and Minnie on our way back through to Mystic Point, but we didn't feel like waiting for a picture so settled for some sneaky ones from outside the line!
We headed back through Mystic Point to our next destination, lunch at the Explorer's Club Restaurant food court.
I wanted pictures with my favourite attraction (up to that point) of all time!
The Explorer's Club Restaurant was stunning! Inside and Out!
The restaurant is cafeteria style, however there are 5 dining areas, each themed to different Asian, African or Eastern European Country. Left to Right (as you walk in) we have:
China
India
Russia
Morocco
Egypt
Jared had gone to order while I took these pictures, and before I decided on a dining room to eat in (it was a really hard choice by the way as they were all so beautiful) the lovely cafeteria greeter CM struck up a conversation with me. Her name was Wendy and we just chatted about how much we love Disney! I told her that we love to visit Disney as often as possible, and have now been to almost all of them, and that we were on our way to Shanghai next. She was excited to tell me that she had gone over to Shanghai to work during the grand opening to train the new staff over there. She wanted to give me lots of tips and pointers regarding the parks which was lovely (many of which I already knew because of my research, but I appreciate her refreshing my memory anyway). After chatting with her for a while I wandered to take more photos and Jared had to come looking for me, as he and the lovely CM who helped him carry all our food couldn't find me anywhere, and didn't know where to sit! Oops. I told him I decided on China, as it felt right given that we were in China, plus I loved the beautiful jade style statue.
I also have to say that for a counter service restaurant, the food at Explorer's Club was amazingly good. Adhering to the theme Chinese, Indian, Morocan and Japanese food was available, and we ordered some Asian beef (Japanese style) ribs and satay chicken skewers. They came with sides like a bento box (can't remember exactly what they were now) and it was all delicious. My only complaint was that our ribs were a tad too fatty. Still it was an amazing meal for a counter service restaurant and I'd highly recommend it for anyone visiting Hong Kong Disneyland.
Continued in Next Post...
Last edited:
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 4 - Toys and Fairytales
Quick unrelated note here - sorry about the delays between posts, we are moving house this week so the posts may be coming in a little slower for a bit. Still, will try keep up with it and after we are settled I'll be back into it!
So after lunch we had a quick look through the Gardens of Wonder at Mystic Point. Calling them both a garden and in anyway wondrous is a bit of a stretch in my book (it's a nicely landscape little area with a few cool statues, most of which are optical illusions) but making it an actual attraction shows you how desperately few attractions there are in Mystic Point! Anyway, here are the picture...
That really didn't take long, and we then decided to head into Toy Story land and we figured if wait times were short we'd do a couple of the carnival style rides there. All the rides had waits of 20 minutes and above though, which didn't seem worth it for a half pipe coaster and a drop ride that seemed aimed at younger kids. Oh well, we took some pictures of the area anyway which is fun to look at, even though you can tell that the imagineers didn't really stretch themselves a lot with this land (I hope the Toy Story land Walt Disney World gets does it better).
You exit Toy Story Playland into Fantasyland, or if you veer off to the right, back into Adventureland. We headed on into Fantasyland. I took photos (yes these are actually my shots) while Jared ran and got us Hyperspace Mountain Fastpasses. On that note, Hong Kong Disneyland currently only has Fastpass for three attractions, Space Mountain, the new Iron Man attraction, and Winnie the Pooh (which is an odd attraction to use it on but I guess it's the only real dark ride at the park if you don't count it's a small world!).
Anyway, here are my photos of Fantasyland, taken by me (don't worry, they are nothing hugely special I'm just always pleased when photos I take end up on the final batch, and not deleted with the 2/3 of terrible photos that always get deleted!
There are two character meet and greet garden areas at Hong Kong Disneyland, Fantasy Gardens - where you can meet Mickey and friends, and the Fairy Tale Forest where you can meet the Princesses(which appears to be sponsored by Pandora!). We never got around to meeting any characters at Hong Kong Disneyland, but the meet and greet locations certainly are beautiful (I only really got to see Fantasy Gardens as Fairy Tale Forest was more enclosed. Fairy Tale Forest is a little bit like a walkthrough version of the Storybook land canal boats with character meet and greets I think (but of course I didn't actually see it so don't quote me on that)!
I decided to wait over by the Teacups for Jared, figuring he'd come into Fantasyland to look for me that way (as that is the end of Fantasyland that leads into Tomorrowland).
The area had this adorable photo opportunity - and I sat down in it figuring Jared would be by soon to take my picture!
Then after a few minutes I felt rude hogging the cup so I got out! And I waited...
And waited...
And waited...and no Jared. I was getting a little antsy at this point because I didn't have a mobile phone, or any way to contact Jared and ask him where he was. Never fear, he showed up eventually. Having apparently assumed I'd be over by the Fairy Tale Forest where he left me, he'd come through the hub into Fantasyland and had practically walked through the whole thing until he found me (oops). Oh well, I got my teacup picture
And just at the right time the train trundled past so I got that in the shot too! So very classic Disneyland! I think it perfectly captures all those elements of Disneyland that feel very original, the train, the tea cups, it's a small world (which I know isn't original per se, but it's such a classic it feels like it).
Continued in Next Post...
Quick unrelated note here - sorry about the delays between posts, we are moving house this week so the posts may be coming in a little slower for a bit. Still, will try keep up with it and after we are settled I'll be back into it!
So after lunch we had a quick look through the Gardens of Wonder at Mystic Point. Calling them both a garden and in anyway wondrous is a bit of a stretch in my book (it's a nicely landscape little area with a few cool statues, most of which are optical illusions) but making it an actual attraction shows you how desperately few attractions there are in Mystic Point! Anyway, here are the picture...
That really didn't take long, and we then decided to head into Toy Story land and we figured if wait times were short we'd do a couple of the carnival style rides there. All the rides had waits of 20 minutes and above though, which didn't seem worth it for a half pipe coaster and a drop ride that seemed aimed at younger kids. Oh well, we took some pictures of the area anyway which is fun to look at, even though you can tell that the imagineers didn't really stretch themselves a lot with this land (I hope the Toy Story land Walt Disney World gets does it better).
You exit Toy Story Playland into Fantasyland, or if you veer off to the right, back into Adventureland. We headed on into Fantasyland. I took photos (yes these are actually my shots) while Jared ran and got us Hyperspace Mountain Fastpasses. On that note, Hong Kong Disneyland currently only has Fastpass for three attractions, Space Mountain, the new Iron Man attraction, and Winnie the Pooh (which is an odd attraction to use it on but I guess it's the only real dark ride at the park if you don't count it's a small world!).
Anyway, here are my photos of Fantasyland, taken by me (don't worry, they are nothing hugely special I'm just always pleased when photos I take end up on the final batch, and not deleted with the 2/3 of terrible photos that always get deleted!
There are two character meet and greet garden areas at Hong Kong Disneyland, Fantasy Gardens - where you can meet Mickey and friends, and the Fairy Tale Forest where you can meet the Princesses(which appears to be sponsored by Pandora!). We never got around to meeting any characters at Hong Kong Disneyland, but the meet and greet locations certainly are beautiful (I only really got to see Fantasy Gardens as Fairy Tale Forest was more enclosed. Fairy Tale Forest is a little bit like a walkthrough version of the Storybook land canal boats with character meet and greets I think (but of course I didn't actually see it so don't quote me on that)!
I decided to wait over by the Teacups for Jared, figuring he'd come into Fantasyland to look for me that way (as that is the end of Fantasyland that leads into Tomorrowland).
The area had this adorable photo opportunity - and I sat down in it figuring Jared would be by soon to take my picture!
Then after a few minutes I felt rude hogging the cup so I got out! And I waited...
And waited...
And waited...and no Jared. I was getting a little antsy at this point because I didn't have a mobile phone, or any way to contact Jared and ask him where he was. Never fear, he showed up eventually. Having apparently assumed I'd be over by the Fairy Tale Forest where he left me, he'd come through the hub into Fantasyland and had practically walked through the whole thing until he found me (oops). Oh well, I got my teacup picture
And just at the right time the train trundled past so I got that in the shot too! So very classic Disneyland! I think it perfectly captures all those elements of Disneyland that feel very original, the train, the tea cups, it's a small world (which I know isn't original per se, but it's such a classic it feels like it).
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 5 - Adventure to Space
We were thinking about going on the Jungle Cruise at this point, we had heard this version was far superior than any of the US versions, but the wait always seemed to be 20 minutes and we didn't feel like it was worth it. Instead we took more photos in Adventureland, and then, as we'd discovered Big Grizzly Thunder Mountain and Mystic Manor only had waits of 5 minutes so we did those again!
As I said, Adventureland was by far the best of the original areas at Hong Kong Disneyland - I loved the feeling and the landscaping in the area!
The water and the treehouse, and canoes in the area also gave it a kind of kinetic energy that you find in Frontierland and New Orleans Square in Disneyland (New Orleans Square being my favourite area at Disneyland, I think for this same reason).
As you can see, the parks remained fairly empty throughout the day in terms of crowds within the lands.
And so we headed to Big Grizzly "insert pointless description of attraction here" for the wildest ride in the...oops, not that's wrong - lets instead say a bear safari!
It was so much fun!
As was Mystic Manor. I swear, we probably spend the majority of our day just riding these two attractions over and over again, but it was completely worth it! Also these two areas of the park were unique to Hong Kong, and so far superior to the other areas that you just felt drawn to them, and wanted to spend most of your time there! Plus the attractions in Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point are so much fun and so far superior to anything else at the park!
Anyway, after this ride on Mystic Manor I decided that I had fallen in love with Albert the Monkey and must have a souvenir of him to take home so I could remember him always. I was able to find the adorable Mystic Manor keychain with him on it and it was the perfect little souvenir for me to take home!
By this point our Hyperspace Mountain Fastpasses were up! So that's where we headed next
This, as it turns out, was the most interesting part of Tomorrowland during the day!
We decided to check the Jungle Cruise again, and so we headed back past the castle to Adventureland, stopping for a few quick photos of it on the way.
These few pictures, without the mountains behind, you could almost be at Disneyland in Anaheim! Except it's never that cloudy/foggy in Disneyland Anaheim!
With such a big camera we really suck at selfies, but this was our best attempt, and the only photo of us both at Hong Kong Disneyland!
Continued in Next Post...
We were thinking about going on the Jungle Cruise at this point, we had heard this version was far superior than any of the US versions, but the wait always seemed to be 20 minutes and we didn't feel like it was worth it. Instead we took more photos in Adventureland, and then, as we'd discovered Big Grizzly Thunder Mountain and Mystic Manor only had waits of 5 minutes so we did those again!
As I said, Adventureland was by far the best of the original areas at Hong Kong Disneyland - I loved the feeling and the landscaping in the area!
The water and the treehouse, and canoes in the area also gave it a kind of kinetic energy that you find in Frontierland and New Orleans Square in Disneyland (New Orleans Square being my favourite area at Disneyland, I think for this same reason).
As you can see, the parks remained fairly empty throughout the day in terms of crowds within the lands.
And so we headed to Big Grizzly "insert pointless description of attraction here" for the wildest ride in the...oops, not that's wrong
- lets instead say a bear safari!It was so much fun!
As was Mystic Manor. I swear, we probably spend the majority of our day just riding these two attractions over and over again, but it was completely worth it! Also these two areas of the park were unique to Hong Kong, and so far superior to the other areas that you just felt drawn to them, and wanted to spend most of your time there! Plus the attractions in Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point are so much fun and so far superior to anything else at the park!
Anyway, after this ride on Mystic Manor I decided that I had fallen in love with Albert the Monkey and must have a souvenir of him to take home so I could remember him always. I was able to find the adorable Mystic Manor keychain with him on it and it was the perfect little souvenir for me to take home!
By this point our Hyperspace Mountain Fastpasses were up! So that's where we headed next
This, as it turns out, was the most interesting part of Tomorrowland during the day!
We decided to check the Jungle Cruise again, and so we headed back past the castle to Adventureland, stopping for a few quick photos of it on the way.
These few pictures, without the mountains behind, you could almost be at Disneyland in Anaheim! Except it's never that cloudy/foggy in Disneyland Anaheim!
With such a big camera we really suck at selfies, but this was our best attempt, and the only photo of us both at Hong Kong Disneyland!
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 6 - Another trip to the Manor
So we thought we'd check on the Jungle Cruise wait time again, as our next planned activity was watching Festival of the Lion King, which was not going to be playing for another hour. Of course, it was still 20 minutes, and of course, we didn't want to wait for that. We thought instead we might take a break in the beautiful lush Adventureland with a small Hong Kong Disneyland snack, before watching the show.
The problem was everyone else in the park seemed to have the same idea, and the only spot we could find the sit and rest was a rock wall near to the toilets! Jared went away and found these yummy Disney snacks, and we sat and ate, but after the eating was done we didn't really want to hang around the toilet area, and we still had about 35 minutes until the show!
So we needed to kill some time, what should we do? Well of course, we went at rode Mystic Manor again, and this time we decided to photograph it once more! Again, the wait was only 5 minutes - and this was our 5th ride on it - we really did love it that much!
Continued in Next Post...
So we thought we'd check on the Jungle Cruise wait time again, as our next planned activity was watching Festival of the Lion King, which was not going to be playing for another hour. Of course, it was still 20 minutes, and of course, we didn't want to wait for that. We thought instead we might take a break in the beautiful lush Adventureland with a small Hong Kong Disneyland snack, before watching the show.
The problem was everyone else in the park seemed to have the same idea, and the only spot we could find the sit and rest was a rock wall near to the toilets! Jared went away and found these yummy Disney snacks, and we sat and ate, but after the eating was done we didn't really want to hang around the toilet area, and we still had about 35 minutes until the show!
So we needed to kill some time, what should we do? Well of course, we went at rode Mystic Manor again, and this time we decided to photograph it once more! Again, the wait was only 5 minutes - and this was our 5th ride on it - we really did love it that much!
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 7 - Festival of the Lion King
We had not really left ourselves enough time to get the Festival of the Lion King and get a good seat, so we found ourselves up the back of a giant auditorium, which was not ideal, but at least we had gotten in. I had heard that the Hong Kong version of Festival of the Lion King was a lot better than the US version (can't remember where) and so I had it in my mind that this would be superior, and I have to say that I left disappointed. It's not that it wasn't good. Judged of it's own merits the show was a good one, but there were things missed from this version that I definitely prefer in Animal Kingdom's show. First the positives and things you could perhaps say are better than the US version. The theatre is obviously the number one improvement over the original show at Animal Kingdom because it is permanent. The staging area, and some of the effects the theatre can pull off (a rising centre platform for example) are impressive. That being said, Animal Kingdom now has a permanent theatre that's just as good. The floats did seem a little better, and little more fleshed out perhaps. However (and this is the negative bit now) because of the permanency of the theatre, and the apparent draw of the floats the show had scaled back a lot of the "wow" factor the US version had. By this I mean there were no acrobatic stunts, no beautiful wire performances. There was one ribbon performance, a few stiltists and 2 fire breathers, but all were scaled down a lot from the US version, and seemed to be additional to the dancing and singing rather than the focus of the show. Lastly, the show was a re-telling of the Lion King story as a presentation to Simba by actors portraying what happened in the Lion King. This allowed them to try and tell the story in a sort of broadway style, but the premise of the storytelling was weak and the show lost a lot of the amazing carnival/festival atmosphere the US version does. Plus, if you want to see a re-telling of the Lion King story, broadway style, go to Broadway (or Shanghai where they show the Lion King in Mandarin). Having seen the Lion King musical about 5 times now nothing could ever live up to the way they told the story in that production, so it seemed rather counterproductive to try. In addition, trying to tell the story in 30 minutes made the whole thing seemed rushed. Lastly, I missed the audience participation. We weren't encouraged to make animal noises (there were no animal sections, at least any that were specified), sing the Lion Sleeps Tonight, or any of the other cute things you do in the US version. There was a small section at the beginning, where three drummers got the audience to "drum" along with them, but it was more of a pre-show thing than anything else.
Anyway, that was my analysis of the show. It wasn't bad, I guess I just had a lot more lofty expectations for it which once again proves you are better off not going into anything with expectations, because you are less likely to be disappointed that way!
Continued in Next Post...
We had not really left ourselves enough time to get the Festival of the Lion King and get a good seat, so we found ourselves up the back of a giant auditorium, which was not ideal, but at least we had gotten in. I had heard that the Hong Kong version of Festival of the Lion King was a lot better than the US version (can't remember where) and so I had it in my mind that this would be superior, and I have to say that I left disappointed. It's not that it wasn't good. Judged of it's own merits the show was a good one, but there were things missed from this version that I definitely prefer in Animal Kingdom's show. First the positives and things you could perhaps say are better than the US version. The theatre is obviously the number one improvement over the original show at Animal Kingdom because it is permanent. The staging area, and some of the effects the theatre can pull off (a rising centre platform for example) are impressive. That being said, Animal Kingdom now has a permanent theatre that's just as good. The floats did seem a little better, and little more fleshed out perhaps. However (and this is the negative bit now) because of the permanency of the theatre, and the apparent draw of the floats the show had scaled back a lot of the "wow" factor the US version had. By this I mean there were no acrobatic stunts, no beautiful wire performances. There was one ribbon performance, a few stiltists and 2 fire breathers, but all were scaled down a lot from the US version, and seemed to be additional to the dancing and singing rather than the focus of the show. Lastly, the show was a re-telling of the Lion King story as a presentation to Simba by actors portraying what happened in the Lion King. This allowed them to try and tell the story in a sort of broadway style, but the premise of the storytelling was weak and the show lost a lot of the amazing carnival/festival atmosphere the US version does. Plus, if you want to see a re-telling of the Lion King story, broadway style, go to Broadway (or Shanghai where they show the Lion King in Mandarin). Having seen the Lion King musical about 5 times now nothing could ever live up to the way they told the story in that production, so it seemed rather counterproductive to try. In addition, trying to tell the story in 30 minutes made the whole thing seemed rushed. Lastly, I missed the audience participation. We weren't encouraged to make animal noises (there were no animal sections, at least any that were specified), sing the Lion Sleeps Tonight, or any of the other cute things you do in the US version. There was a small section at the beginning, where three drummers got the audience to "drum" along with them, but it was more of a pre-show thing than anything else.
Anyway, that was my analysis of the show. It wasn't bad, I guess I just had a lot more lofty expectations for it which once again proves you are better off not going into anything with expectations, because you are less likely to be disappointed that way!
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 8 - Night Photos minus the Night
So after Festival of the Lion King we headed into the Royal Banquet Hall for dinner. The area is a food court, and the food is only so so, but the place is so beautifully decorated, it could have been a table service place!
When we were done it was about an hour until Paint the Night would be shown. Wanting to grab the perfect spot for pictures I decided to sit down and wait, and Jared went off to take some photos we'd missed the night before. We knew that after Paint the Night and the fireworks there would be no opportunity to get back into Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point where we wanted to take the shots, because they would already be closed! Unfortunately at this point it was still a little too light for any decent night photography, but we still got a few nice pictures anyway. They are more sunset pictures without the sunset (due to the smog) or night pictures, without the night part!
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So after Festival of the Lion King we headed into the Royal Banquet Hall for dinner. The area is a food court, and the food is only so so, but the place is so beautifully decorated, it could have been a table service place!
When we were done it was about an hour until Paint the Night would be shown. Wanting to grab the perfect spot for pictures I decided to sit down and wait, and Jared went off to take some photos we'd missed the night before. We knew that after Paint the Night and the fireworks there would be no opportunity to get back into Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point where we wanted to take the shots, because they would already be closed! Unfortunately at this point it was still a little too light for any decent night photography, but we still got a few nice pictures anyway. They are more sunset pictures without the sunset (due to the smog) or night pictures, without the night part!
Continued in Next Post...
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DrTiger
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2014
Just found your trip report and spent all day at work catching up (luckily, it was a slow day!). I have "traveled" with you before, and with your wonderful descriptions and Jared's amazing pictures, I feel like I'm right there with you on this trip, too. Minus the heat and humidity. Can't wait for more!
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
It's so nice to hear that people feel transported to places reading my reports - that's what I hope for when I write them! I'm glad you are back and that you are enjoying coming along. Jared's pictures are indeed amazing and I love how they take me back to being there too! And yes, trust me without the humidity you're much better off
RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
Day 5 - Part 9 - Paint the Night
So you may remember in an early post I mentioned we caught snippets of Paint the Night the previous evening while taking photos in Fantasyland. That snippet made us extremely excited to see the parade, which we'd never managed to see at Disneyland, and which, from all I'd seen and heard, was magnificent!
The parade was indeed magnificent! The soundtrack, When can I see you again by Owl City, was perfect - so much fun and energy to it and much more conducive to the ear than Main Street Electrical Parade. In addition, I may be bias because this is one of my favourite Disney "pop" songs (by that I mean a pop song used in the soundtrack of a Disney movie). Plus you already know the song so it makes you able to sing along (though I this case I'm pretty sure it was sung in Cantonese, but we knew the lyrics!). The other thing I enjoyed was the soundtrack wasn't too repetitive, as some parade soundtracks can be.
The floats themselves were so incredible. The lights, LED screens, everything was so wonderful and colourful and bright, it just made me happy! The whole time we watched it I'm pretty sure I was smiling! I'm still not sure which I like better, this or Tokyo Disneyland's version of the Electrical Parade. I did miss the minute details of thousands of twinkling lights here, but I also really enjoyed the versatility of the LCD screens, so it's a tough call! Overall though, the parade is a must see and I really hope that Disneyland brings it back eventually because it is incredible in every way!
Anyway, enough acclaim from me - the pictures tell the story better than I. As you can see, we were in the perfect spot (I am sorry about the graininess of some of these pictures - apparently I got a bit excited while editing them!)
The costumes of the dancers and parade support characters, and their use of light to accentuate important features, were so clever!
This guy was impressive! He is the size of a regular truck! So incredible!
There's more paint the night coming....
Continued in Next Post...
So you may remember in an early post I mentioned we caught snippets of Paint the Night the previous evening while taking photos in Fantasyland. That snippet made us extremely excited to see the parade, which we'd never managed to see at Disneyland, and which, from all I'd seen and heard, was magnificent!
The parade was indeed magnificent! The soundtrack, When can I see you again by Owl City, was perfect - so much fun and energy to it and much more conducive to the ear than Main Street Electrical Parade. In addition, I may be bias because this is one of my favourite Disney "pop" songs (by that I mean a pop song used in the soundtrack of a Disney movie). Plus you already know the song so it makes you able to sing along (though I this case I'm pretty sure it was sung in Cantonese, but we knew the lyrics!). The other thing I enjoyed was the soundtrack wasn't too repetitive, as some parade soundtracks can be.
The floats themselves were so incredible. The lights, LED screens, everything was so wonderful and colourful and bright, it just made me happy! The whole time we watched it I'm pretty sure I was smiling! I'm still not sure which I like better, this or Tokyo Disneyland's version of the Electrical Parade. I did miss the minute details of thousands of twinkling lights here, but I also really enjoyed the versatility of the LCD screens, so it's a tough call! Overall though, the parade is a must see and I really hope that Disneyland brings it back eventually because it is incredible in every way!
Anyway, enough acclaim from me - the pictures tell the story better than I. As you can see, we were in the perfect spot (I am sorry about the graininess of some of these pictures - apparently I got a bit excited while editing them!)
The costumes of the dancers and parade support characters, and their use of light to accentuate important features, were so clever!
This guy was impressive! He is the size of a regular truck! So incredible!
There's more paint the night coming....
Continued in Next Post...
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RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
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...
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...
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