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Old 31 Oct 19, 02:17 PM  
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Melbatb
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Hong Kong 2019 - Day 6 Disneyland


Surprisingly, I slept through the night and woke just before the alarm clock at 7 AM.

Both O and I had showers, before heading down for breakfast. O had his usual egg and hash browns and toast and I had again the noodles and rice. The rice was not that tasty, though the noodles were lovely.



Today was Disney day. I am the first to admit that I'm not the biggest Disney nut. I have been lucky enough to visit four of the parks - Orlando, the original Disneyland in LA, Disneyland Paris and Disneyland Hong Kong. Since I visited Disneyland Hong Kong, it has been expanded.

We did discuss visiting the other theme park in Hong Kong, Ocean Park. However, when I looked at their website, a lot of the main attractions were not in operation for maintenance reasons. I did wonder if this was a cost cutting exercise due to the downturn in tourism in Hong Kong at the moment. It seemed very strange that they would program the maintenance of virtually all the big rides at the same time. So Disneyland it was!

The way to get to Disneyland from the hotel involved four changes on the metro. We guesstimated that it would take about 1 1/2 hours so left at just after 8:30 AM. In fact, everything ran smoothly and it took about one hour 15 minutes.

The last train was the Disney train. It had these very cute hand holders.



We arrived at about 9:50 AM. There were quite a lot of people arriving at the same time, but many of them seem to be cast members as they went into a different entrance.



On the way to buy the tickets, we passed this very cute water fountain.



We had tried to buy the tickets online the evening yesterday But unfortunately O had forgotten to change the phone number on his bank account so he couldn't do the visa verified check.

The tickets were HK$649 - about 75 euros.

We walked to the entrance and were about the fifth party in line. At about 10:15 AM, Mickey and Minnie arrived in a car and were greeted by the family of the day. There was a presentation to them and some photos taken. At 10:20 AM, they announced that the park was open.



We walked through the entrance, though a lot of people run to the Mickey and Minnie meet and greet. It has to be said that neither of us are very enthusiastic about character meats so we went to have a look at the pretty empty Main Street.

The park was all decorated for Halloween.






As the park had opened a little early, there was a holding area. As you can see from the photo of the castle, it was under repair. This obviously did not make for a very pretty photos.

I had actually done some research the evening before us to tactics for the day. From what I had read, the park is fairly quiet at the moment. I wrote down all the big attractions that I thought O would like. We decided we would start in Tomorrowland with the rides there.



As we had a few minutes to spare, we looked in the shops. O found a T-shirt he liked so we took a photo of it to remind us to buy it later.



At 10:30 AM, there was another opening ceremony with another family where they cut the rope. We were then allowed to enter the park. We took a right to the Castle to go to Tomorrowland.



Our first stop was Hyperspace Mountain. From memory, this is very similar to Space Mountain in Paris.

Even though we hadn't run, we were the first people on the ride. This meant we were in the front row of the train. O has good memories of this ride from Paris, even though he must have only been about 10 years old when we went.

We both enjoyed the ride, and as it was still a walk on, we decided to do it again and again. After three consecutive goes, my body was already feeling a little whacked and we decided it was probably a good idea to try another attraction.



We walked through Tomorrowland to the next attraction.



At least there was one angle of the castle that didn't have all the scaffolding in it!



The next attraction was Ant-Man and the Wasp. This was similar to Buzz in that it was a shooting attraction. Once O realized what the objective was, he thoroughly beat me.

We thought once was probably enough for the time being.



We then went on the Iron Man Experience. This was a simulator attraction where we were passengers in a drone and we were attacked by the out of space enemies. Iron Man came to our rescue.



We both enjoyed the ride and decided we would come back later for a second go.



The queues were still non-existent.

We moved from Tomorrowland to Fantasyland.

O was very happy to go on a Small World. He remembers this very clearly from our visit to Disneyland Paris and was still happy to revisit it.












Outside the attraction, it said the wait time was five minutes. This was in fact the time it took to walk through the path to the boats.

We were at the front of the boat. The song immediately got into our heads and I have to say it took a while for it to disappear.

However, we both enjoy the ride. It is one of the classics.



The next stop where the tea cups. Again it was another walk on. It was a ride we enjoyed, but didn't feel the necessity to redo it at any stage.









Next up, was the Winnie the Pooh ride. Yet another walk on. In fact, this ride is only one of two rides in the park that has a fast pass. I don't think anyone was using it today.

This was probably the ride O disliked the most. He thought it was pretty pointless. I tend to agree with him.



Fantasyland was still empty. When we passed through it again later in the afternoon it was decidedly busier.



The next land was Toy Story Land. This was very well themed.

This part of the park had not been here when I visited six years ago.



Our first stop was the RC Racers ride. Another walk on.

It is a disappointing ride in that it is very short. I also didn't like the fact that I had to put my bag in an open cubbyhole to the side of the ride. With two phones,two credit cards, a passport and a HK id card in there it made me uneasy.

O decided to go on it again. I decided I would just watch. We both agreed that it would not be a ride we would queue for and it seems to be a lost opportunity. If the ride had been longer, it could have been good.



We then went on the Slinky Dog ride. Unfortunately, this was another not to be repeated ride. I am sure with young children it is good fun, but with a thrill seeker it was not the best ride. O kept asking when it was going to get faster. It didn't.






Last up in this land was the Parachute Drop. We had done this in Paris and O remembers it. It's a fun ride but I can imagine that when it is very busy it takes a long time to get on. Thankfully, we waited about five minutes.

The advantage of the ride, was that we could see the construction going on behind Toy Story Land. I am not sure what the plans are but something is going on.






We then went into Mystic Point where Mystic Manor was. I think this is the Hong Kong equivalent of the Haunted House. The story behind the ride is that the mansion is full of artifacts that have been collected by Lord Henry and his monkey on their travels. The last was a music box that was rumoured to have special magic qualities.

It was a very clever ride and we both enjoyed it a lot. It was definitely one to be repeated on our second tour of the park.



The next land was Grizzly Gulch. The big ride here is the Mountain Runaway Mine Train. This was yet another walk on. We both loved it. At one point, you went backwards and towards the end it went faster and faster. After the first ride, we went on it again.



We were starting to get hungry. It was about 12:45 PM. Unfortunately, due to the lack of crowds, a lot of the restaurants were shut.

We decided that we would go on the River Cruise in Aventureland before heading back to Tomorrowland where we thought that the quick service restaurant was open.












You had to choose which language you wanted to listen to. There were three queues; one for Mandarin, one for Cantonese and one for English. We chose, of course, the English queue. We were very lucky in that the English boat was about to leave and they held it for us. It was quite difficult to hear the guide but he seemed to be giving it a try. There was laughter from the front of the boat so he must have been quite funny.



On our way to eat, we saw the entrance for the Star Wars meet and greet and decided we would go. There was no queue. We met R2D2 but both felt very awkward talking to it.



Lunch was at the Starliner Diner. O had fish nuggets and chips and I had a veggie burger and chips both with a drink. This cost HK$227. It filled a gap.



Over lunch, we discussed our tactics for the afternoon. As we were in Tomorrowland, we decided we would redo the three rides we had done first thing this morning. We went twice on Hyperspace Mountain - probably not the best idea immediately after lunch. Again it was still a walk on.

After that we did the Ant-Man shooting game. O had really understood how to get points and more than doubled his score from last time. Mine was pretty consistent.

Next was Iron Man Experience. I saw things I missed the first time so it was certainly worth re-doing it. It's a very clever attraction.






We then we did It's a Small World, and really enjoyed it a second time too!



Fantasyland was a lot busier. There were a considerable number of strollers. Having said that, most of the rides we still walk on. There was some queues for the carousel and Dumbo but no more than 10 minutes.

We continued into Toy Story Land.



We went back on RC racer. I loved the notice on the way through; you should be sober to ride.

This time, we put our phones in our pockets. Again the ride is just too short.



It was then time for an ice cream. HK$38 each.



Next up was Mystic Manor again. This was one of those favorite rides. It really is cleverly done. And a very cute story too.



As O needed to do some more studying back at University this evening, we agreed we would try to be back at the hotel by 6:45 PM.

But we definitely wanted to do the Mountain Runaway Mine Train again.

We were really lucky and got on the front row. This was certainly the best position to be in with a clear view of what happens. It really is an excellent ride. Even though the queue time said 15 minutes, it took eight minutes to get onto the ride and we were in fact off within 15 minutes. We still had time so decided to redo it. This time we were at the back. The front is definitely the best place to be.






O wanted to finish with Hyperspace Mountain, so we rode it for the sixth time of the day. We asked to be at the back. It was another great ride and a fabulous way to end the day. We had managed 23 rides in seven hours. This is how to do Disney!



Main street was a little busier.



And the crane definitely spoiled the view of the castle.



We went into the shop and O picked up the T-shirt he had seen and also a present for his friend back in France for her birthday next month. The queue to pay took ages. However we were still on time.



It had been a great day. However, one day is certainly enough especially when there are so few crowds.



Having said that, we didn't watch the parade or do any of the shows. We do have to leave something for next time!



The journey back was the same, just in reverse. We were back near the hotel by 6:45 PM - on time



As a wanted to go back to study, we decided to go to Pizza Express again. We knew what we wanted so ordered as soon as we sat down. We didn't even look at the menu.

The food came within 10 minutes and we had finished and paid within 20 minutes of arriving in the restaurant. Certainly was fast food tonight. O came back to the room to get his things and then we walk down together to the entrance of the metro station.

It had been a smashing day together full of new memories and old.


Edited at 04:02 PM.
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Old 31 Oct 19, 03:53 PM  
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New Photo Added by Melbatb - 31 Oct 19 2:53 PM.
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Old 31 Oct 19, 04:49 PM  
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What a great day, 23 rides in 7 hours is amazing. It looked very quiet there. Lots of different rides there as well as the iconic favourites like It’s a Small World. We would love to try the Iron Man ride, I love the idea of IronMan coming to save me 😉

How dedicated of O to leave early to study, I’m sure I would have to drag Georgia out at closing time (and then she would study late at night 😂 )
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Old 1 Nov 19, 09:53 AM  
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Amazing Disney day, you certainly packed a lot into the day.
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Old 1 Nov 19, 03:47 PM  
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That was a great Disney day so many rides and so few people

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Old 2 Nov 19, 12:09 AM  
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Wow 23 rides, that is amazing, I wish it was like that in Florida!
What a super day to spend time together and enjoy the park then to wrap it up with O’s favourite - pizza express!
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Old 2 Nov 19, 01:01 AM  
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Melbatb
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Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil View Post
What a great day, 23 rides in 7 hours is amazing. It looked very quiet there. Lots of different rides there as well as the iconic favourites like It’s a Small World. We would love to try the Iron Man ride, I love the idea of IronMan coming to save me 😉

How dedicated of O to leave early to study, I’m sure I would have to drag Georgia out at closing time (and then she would study late at night 😂 )
I think we had got so much done, it wasn’t a problem to leave early. There are no nighttime fireworks at the moment!

We were lucky it was so quiet - an upside to the protests.

Originally Posted by dubletrub View Post
Amazing Disney day, you certainly packed a lot into the day.
My legs are still sore

Originally Posted by mick View Post
That was a great Disney day so many rides and so few people

Joan
We were spoilt by the quietness - will probably never be as quiet again.

Originally Posted by Stardust5 View Post
Wow 23 rides, that is amazing, I wish it was like that in Florida!
What a super day to spend time together and enjoy the park then to wrap it up with O’s favourite - pizza express!
I think all Disney parks should be like that!

We haven’t finished with pizza express yet
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Old 2 Nov 19, 09:27 AM  
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What an awesome day. Love the Uber touring and yet you didn’t have to rush around. Great to see so much of the park with no queues. Love the theming and the takes on the rides from the other parks. This is great. What a fun time and brilliant that all your transport went so smoothly too.
And wow, super fast in pizza express. That is fast food !
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Old 2 Nov 19, 12:56 PM  
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What a wonderful day, 23 rides in 7 hours is amazing.
Definitely a very fast pizza express experience, I think O is going to have serious withdrawal when you go home!
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Old 2 Nov 19, 02:54 PM  
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Melbatb
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Originally Posted by WileyCoyote View Post
What an awesome day. Love the Uber touring and yet you didn’t have to rush around. Great to see so much of the park with no queues. Love the theming and the takes on the rides from the other parks. This is great. What a fun time and brilliant that all your transport went so smoothly too.
And wow, super fast in pizza express. That is fast food !
We were so lucky with the crowds! It was such a lovely day with O (neither of us are patient queuers! )

No idea how we got our meal so quickly though it was good as O needed to get back to uni!
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