HKD is great for a short trip. It's a very small park (feels like about 1/3 of the size of the Magic Kingdom) but very pretty set against the background of mountains and ocean, and the cast members are excellent. The resort also has a mass rapid transit station so it's convenient to get around Hong Kong from.
On the day I arrived, I entered the park at the exact time the waterworks parade was winding around the train station hub. The park was so empty, there was only one other person standing with me in front of the whole train station along the parade route (although still a number of guests standing further around by the town hall etc) and it felt like we had the whole parade just for us. The people on all the floats stopped and interacted with us with their water guns and sprays and it was truly a cool, never to be repeated experience. I didn't take any photos because of all the water unfortunately!
The weather was a mixed bag, but didn't affect the fireworks. I had a 50% discount off the room rate at the Disney Hollywood Hotel with my annual pass so snagged a park view room, and watched the fireworks from there 2 of the the 3 nights - that was very cool, I've never stayed in a park view room before. The fireworks show is of course different again to those at the other parks. It includes some beautiful violin solos, and several songs from Mulan (which is one of my favourite Disney movies). They kick off the show first with a minute or two of a light show on the Castle front. I find this really useful because whenever a fireworks show starts, there's always an inevitable rush of last minute people who may or may not block your view, so it gives you some extra time to edge around and make sure everyone can see before the actual fireworks start.
On the downside, sadly, rude guests abounded, noticeably a number from India. I saw a number of run ins between them and shocked local visitors during my 3 nights stay and even had a not so lovely lady who for kicks assaulted me in the park and then harassed me at the hotel later in the evening. I've visited India and never saw such behaviour there, and didn't see anything similar while there in January, so I think I was just unlucky this particular week.
Also, I had no problem making a solo reservation for breakfast at the hotel (Chef Mickey, although no characters, was great with a fantastic range of different foods, covering local favourites, traditional english breakfasts, european bakery goods, salads and cold cuts, fresh fruit, indian curries and the trimmings, congee, dim sum, thai spring rolls, make your own noodle bar, sushi, you name it). However, in the park at the Town Hall they refused to make a reservation for 1 person at one of the sit down restaurants, saying that because I was alone I should eat at a counter service and not at a restaurant because restaurants were for those with family or friends. Never Ever had a response like that anywhere in my life and never thought I'd run into it at HK
Disneyland, but just let it go and went off to enjoy myself, second class citizen feeling aside
I love the HKD version of IASWA, and they of course have Philharmagic which is another of my favourite attractions at WDW. They also do the Lion King musical show, but a different version to at the Animal Kingdom. I was tickled pink to attend a Stitch Encounter (like Turtle talk with Crush at Epcot) in putonghua (Mandarin) and understand most of it, so my Mandarin seems to be progressing well! The show was hilarious and near the end Stitch decided to play matchmaker with two complete strangers, very cute. The biggest surprise however is the jungle cruise ride. It blows the WDW one out of the water, especially at the end, although I wont say why so I don't spoil the surprise if you ever ride it yourself
So overall, a great trip (and far too much shopping outside the parks

) and most importantly, it was a handy little something to tide over my Disney park addiction until August!
On the cruise front, I've booked the glasss bottomed boat tour at Nassau but given Palo a miss - no brunches left and I think this time around we'll stick to the main restaurants for dinner. Fingers crossed everyone gets what they want
