sayhello
Have Camera, Will Travel
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- Oct 28, 2006
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Hey, everyone!! Here we go! This is my Trip Report for my Enchanted China ABD! Sorry it took so long for me to start, but the jetlag hit me harder coming home than I'm used to. But I think I'm mostly recovered now. PLEASE push me, because my goal is to keep posting this on a fairly regular schedule!!
Day 0 & Day 1 & Day 2 – Arrive in China, Hong Kong Disneyland, Welcome Dinner, Hong Kong, and back to HKDL.
So I’m going to preface this report with the fact that I came *this* close to cancelling this trip. (Well, maybe not, but I did seriously consider it, and went as far as to call my Trip Insurance company to solidify what they required in order for the cancellation to be covered.) You see, I found myself, a few days before the trip, with sciatica pain in my left leg. And I could not FATHOM a 16-hour flight with sciatica. My chiropractor was out of town (how dare he?) so I made an appointment with him for Wednesday (I left on Friday!) I also got an appointment with my regular doctor for Tuesday. My regular doctor didn’t hold out much hope, but he gave me drugs to get me through if necessary. But I’m glad to report that my chiropractor worked a miracle, and the sciatica abated after I saw him. I had my first ever acupuncture treatment also, and I think that helped calm it down, too. That, paired with a Purple gel seat cushion that I’d purchased online seemed to do the trick! So off to China for me! YAY!!
Day 0 – Arrival in China
So after a LONG day of traveling (one leg was 16 hours non-stop from Chicago to Hong Kong!!) I arrived in Hong Kong. I flew Cathay Pacific, a Hong-Kong based airline, and I have to say, it was not too bad for a 16-hour flight. I sprung for Premium Economy, which actually means something on Cathay Pacific. The general Economy cabin seats were 9-across, and the Premium Economy were 8-across, so they were a bit wider and cushier, and definitely had more leg room. There were only a few rows of Premium Economy, so we had a nice, sort of exclusive cabin. It was nowhere near as nice as business class, which had lay-down seats, but it was definitely better than regular economy.
It wasn’t too horrid getting through customs and all – and when I got through, there was a guy holding a sign with my name!! I do love that part. He introduced himself as Bruce, and said he was going to be one of the Guides on my trip. I was a little confused, as he said he’d be seeing me on Monday, but the ABD started on Sunday. It turned out that he was the *local* guide for Hong Kong, not an Adventure Guide. (Hey, I was tired, I’m allowed!) He got me and my luggage out to the curb, and in just a little bit, my car arrived to take me to the Peninsula Hong Kong! Bruce said there was one more family coming in soon that he needed to go back for, and we said Good-bye until Monday.
The drive was pleasant, and after not too long a time, I arrived at the Peninsula. My luggage was whisked off, and I checked in. The room was spacious and quite lovely, but it turns out it was not the nicest room I’d have on this trip by a long shot! I started to settle in when I realized that I did not have my gel seat cushion!! 0_o Oh, no!! I called down to the front desk to see if maybe I’d left it down there while registering, but they didn’t find anything. Fortunately, Joe & Ralph, our Adventure Guides, had left a letter in my room that, among other things, had their cell phone numbers! So I called Joe, and got his voicemail, and left him a message that I thought I’d left my cushion on the van. Ralph called me back, and I described it to him. A while later, I got a call from the front desk that my cushion had been found. I wondered where they’d found it until right afterwards, when Ralph called back and said that Bruce had located it on the van, and the van driver had given it to the front desk. Calamity avoided!! Yay for Bruce and Joe and Ralph and the van driver!
At this point, exhausted, I checked my email (CaliforniaGirl09 said she’d use email to communicate) and then settled in for the night. (I’ll mostly be calling her CG from here on; it’s just easier!)
I loved that they had this table with a properly-lit pop-up makeup mirror. I really hate how most hotel rooms force you to get ready in dim mood lighting. It was very refreshing to have a dedicated table with lots of light!
The view from my room. Unfortunately, it was so humid out that the window was fogged up. It never really unfogged.
Day 1 -- Hong Kong Disneyland OYO & Welcome Dinner
The next morning, I woke up at a relatively normal time, feeling relatively pretty good and started to get ready for the day. I arranged with CG that we’d meet up after breakfast to see about meeting up with the Adventure Guides, and then heading over to Hong Kong Disneyland. I finally got to meet the awesome CaliforniaGirl09 & her wonderful family (DH, DS & DD).
After working our way through a bit of a maze of rooms, we found the place where our Adventure Guides had set up shop. They were Ralph and Joe. Ralph is from the US (works in entertainment at Disneyland) and Joe is from China (specifically, Beijing). They made a really good team! They explained some logistics stuff to us, answered any questions we had, and gave us our lanyards.
We then got a bit lost trying to find our way *out* of the maze. We finally escaped, and headed down to the lobby to arrange our ride to HKDL. CG wanted to use Uber, which I’d actually never used before. It seemed to work pretty well.
After an uneventful ride, we arrived at HKDL.
CG’s DS & DD. (Yes, the castle is really that small!)
Iron Man waffle!
So, I have to mention here that the park was seriously empty this day. Most rides had “5 minutes” as their wait time, when in reality, the 5 minutes was just walking through the queue. We walked right onto virtually everything until later in the day! It was really, really nice! But it was seriously hot. We were melting after not too long of a time.
The first ride we did was the Big Grizzly Mountain rollercoaster. Very much like Big Thunder Mountain. Great rollercoaster, but it turned out to be a *BIG* mistake for me. My stomach decided it very much did NOT like the motion of this rollercoaster, and I spent most of the ride trying not to be sick. I used to LOVE rollercoasters, but it appears my body no longer does. I ended up skipping a lot of the “rough” rides. It was OK; we did enough other things that I was OK.
CG & her kids on the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop in Toy Story Land.
We stopped for a quick service lunch. This was the Mickey shaped sushi.
We did It’s a Small World and Mystic Manor. I really liked their version of It's a Small World, and Mystic Manor was exceptionally cool. Just really fun and imaginative.
I went through some of the lines with CG & family, but just couldn’t actually get myself to actually ride things like Hyperspace Mountain or the Iron Man Experience. This getting old stuff is no fun!! But I knew I’d be back the next day with ABD, so I wasn’t too worried about it.
CG's DS happily having his pic taken being "questioned" by a couple of storm troopers.
Eventually, we knew we had to start heading back to the Peninsula, so we could get ready for the Welcome Dinner. As you can see, it was still pretty empty as we were leaving. (Joe said a lot of this is because of Shanghai Disneyland. Folks from the mainland have to get a Visa to go to Hong Kong, so it's just easier to go to Shanghai.)
CG could not connect with Uber, so we all ended up squeezing into a cab to go back. (We think they may have been blocking Uber at the park. Who knows?)
Continued in next post.
Day 0 & Day 1 & Day 2 – Arrive in China, Hong Kong Disneyland, Welcome Dinner, Hong Kong, and back to HKDL.
So I’m going to preface this report with the fact that I came *this* close to cancelling this trip. (Well, maybe not, but I did seriously consider it, and went as far as to call my Trip Insurance company to solidify what they required in order for the cancellation to be covered.) You see, I found myself, a few days before the trip, with sciatica pain in my left leg. And I could not FATHOM a 16-hour flight with sciatica. My chiropractor was out of town (how dare he?) so I made an appointment with him for Wednesday (I left on Friday!) I also got an appointment with my regular doctor for Tuesday. My regular doctor didn’t hold out much hope, but he gave me drugs to get me through if necessary. But I’m glad to report that my chiropractor worked a miracle, and the sciatica abated after I saw him. I had my first ever acupuncture treatment also, and I think that helped calm it down, too. That, paired with a Purple gel seat cushion that I’d purchased online seemed to do the trick! So off to China for me! YAY!!
Day 0 – Arrival in China
So after a LONG day of traveling (one leg was 16 hours non-stop from Chicago to Hong Kong!!) I arrived in Hong Kong. I flew Cathay Pacific, a Hong-Kong based airline, and I have to say, it was not too bad for a 16-hour flight. I sprung for Premium Economy, which actually means something on Cathay Pacific. The general Economy cabin seats were 9-across, and the Premium Economy were 8-across, so they were a bit wider and cushier, and definitely had more leg room. There were only a few rows of Premium Economy, so we had a nice, sort of exclusive cabin. It was nowhere near as nice as business class, which had lay-down seats, but it was definitely better than regular economy.
It wasn’t too horrid getting through customs and all – and when I got through, there was a guy holding a sign with my name!! I do love that part. He introduced himself as Bruce, and said he was going to be one of the Guides on my trip. I was a little confused, as he said he’d be seeing me on Monday, but the ABD started on Sunday. It turned out that he was the *local* guide for Hong Kong, not an Adventure Guide. (Hey, I was tired, I’m allowed!) He got me and my luggage out to the curb, and in just a little bit, my car arrived to take me to the Peninsula Hong Kong! Bruce said there was one more family coming in soon that he needed to go back for, and we said Good-bye until Monday.
The drive was pleasant, and after not too long a time, I arrived at the Peninsula. My luggage was whisked off, and I checked in. The room was spacious and quite lovely, but it turns out it was not the nicest room I’d have on this trip by a long shot! I started to settle in when I realized that I did not have my gel seat cushion!! 0_o Oh, no!! I called down to the front desk to see if maybe I’d left it down there while registering, but they didn’t find anything. Fortunately, Joe & Ralph, our Adventure Guides, had left a letter in my room that, among other things, had their cell phone numbers! So I called Joe, and got his voicemail, and left him a message that I thought I’d left my cushion on the van. Ralph called me back, and I described it to him. A while later, I got a call from the front desk that my cushion had been found. I wondered where they’d found it until right afterwards, when Ralph called back and said that Bruce had located it on the van, and the van driver had given it to the front desk. Calamity avoided!! Yay for Bruce and Joe and Ralph and the van driver!
At this point, exhausted, I checked my email (CaliforniaGirl09 said she’d use email to communicate) and then settled in for the night. (I’ll mostly be calling her CG from here on; it’s just easier!)
I loved that they had this table with a properly-lit pop-up makeup mirror. I really hate how most hotel rooms force you to get ready in dim mood lighting. It was very refreshing to have a dedicated table with lots of light!
The view from my room. Unfortunately, it was so humid out that the window was fogged up. It never really unfogged.
Day 1 -- Hong Kong Disneyland OYO & Welcome Dinner
The next morning, I woke up at a relatively normal time, feeling relatively pretty good and started to get ready for the day. I arranged with CG that we’d meet up after breakfast to see about meeting up with the Adventure Guides, and then heading over to Hong Kong Disneyland. I finally got to meet the awesome CaliforniaGirl09 & her wonderful family (DH, DS & DD).
After working our way through a bit of a maze of rooms, we found the place where our Adventure Guides had set up shop. They were Ralph and Joe. Ralph is from the US (works in entertainment at Disneyland) and Joe is from China (specifically, Beijing). They made a really good team! They explained some logistics stuff to us, answered any questions we had, and gave us our lanyards.
We then got a bit lost trying to find our way *out* of the maze. We finally escaped, and headed down to the lobby to arrange our ride to HKDL. CG wanted to use Uber, which I’d actually never used before. It seemed to work pretty well.
After an uneventful ride, we arrived at HKDL.
CG’s DS & DD. (Yes, the castle is really that small!)
Iron Man waffle!
So, I have to mention here that the park was seriously empty this day. Most rides had “5 minutes” as their wait time, when in reality, the 5 minutes was just walking through the queue. We walked right onto virtually everything until later in the day! It was really, really nice! But it was seriously hot. We were melting after not too long of a time.
The first ride we did was the Big Grizzly Mountain rollercoaster. Very much like Big Thunder Mountain. Great rollercoaster, but it turned out to be a *BIG* mistake for me. My stomach decided it very much did NOT like the motion of this rollercoaster, and I spent most of the ride trying not to be sick. I used to LOVE rollercoasters, but it appears my body no longer does. I ended up skipping a lot of the “rough” rides. It was OK; we did enough other things that I was OK.
CG & her kids on the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop in Toy Story Land.
We stopped for a quick service lunch. This was the Mickey shaped sushi.
We did It’s a Small World and Mystic Manor. I really liked their version of It's a Small World, and Mystic Manor was exceptionally cool. Just really fun and imaginative.
I went through some of the lines with CG & family, but just couldn’t actually get myself to actually ride things like Hyperspace Mountain or the Iron Man Experience. This getting old stuff is no fun!! But I knew I’d be back the next day with ABD, so I wasn’t too worried about it.
CG's DS happily having his pic taken being "questioned" by a couple of storm troopers.
Eventually, we knew we had to start heading back to the Peninsula, so we could get ready for the Welcome Dinner. As you can see, it was still pretty empty as we were leaving. (Joe said a lot of this is because of Shanghai Disneyland. Folks from the mainland have to get a Visa to go to Hong Kong, so it's just easier to go to Shanghai.)
CG could not connect with Uber, so we all ended up squeezing into a cab to go back. (We think they may have been blocking Uber at the park. Who knows?)
Continued in next post.
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Love the pic of him with the storm troopers. I'd already forgotten how hot it was in HK, but we were seriously wilting that first day on some of the rides (the army men one in particular). Looking forward to days 3 and 4!
