マイク＆サム·ヘッド東！- A journey to Hong Kong & Japan - May 2014 - Day 4 - WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!

[soarinfan]

Day 4 - Thursday 8th May - We're going to Disneyland!

Firstly I apologise for how long Day 4 has taken to write! As you can see it does seem to go on forever (no apologies for that! ) and I have moved house recently so its been all up in the air - I know a few of you have been waiting to see the TR progress - so here we go!

As with most Disney day's in TR's, this report is going to be very photo heavy and will contain spoilers for fans who haven't visited - enjoy!

Well my oh my the alarm clock was set to go off early this morning...6:30am rings a bell. Why? I'll tell you why..

WE'RE GOING TO DISNEYLAND!

Can you tell I'm listening to The Magic the Memories and You whilst writing this?

Hong Kong Disneyland was a park I had obviously never visited before, so it certainly was ticking a box on the bucket list. This was my first Disney park in Asia, my first Disney park east of DLP...and my first Disney park outside of WDW and Paris. To cut a long story short, I was looking forward to it probably more than most other activities we had so far enjoyed in Hong Kong! When we were originally planning this trip, Hong Kong wasn't even on the radar. However as planning ensued, it seemed just as cheap to have a 3 day stop over in Hong Kong, to which I said to Sam... you know Hong Kong has a Disneyland, right? Enough was said, we really were going to Disneyland. Sam had been to Hong Kong a few years ago, when HKDL was fairly new but unfortunately fairly small as well. The park certainly seems very new and fairly small still, however some expansion has taken place so it really would have been rude not to visit!

Our day started the same as most other days in Hong Kong - to the bakery on the corner! I once again had my beautiful Ham & Cheese Croissant, with some little Pain au Chocolat's to finish off, and Sam went for doughnuts, before we made our way to the Fortress Hill MTR station. We were essentially heading back to the airport once again (like yesterday - seems everything of interest is over this way!?) but this time we were leaving the train at Sunny Bay.

Disneyland MTR Line!

From Sunny Bay there is a direct 1 stop service to Disneyland Resort Hong Kong that takes about 4-5 minutes. There is no need for a resort line monorail seeing HKDL has only 1 park, plus 2 hotels which are very close by to the 1 park, so MTR decided this was the best route of access for park guests

Love the themeing on the MTR owned Disneyland Line!

The Disneyland MTR line is very Disney-fied! All of the windows are in the shape of Mickey, all of the standing handles to hold onto are Mickey heads, and the inside of the train is decorated with Disney statues of characters as well as Disney music playing all of the way! We arrived at HKDL at about 9:30 and the park was opening at 10:00am today, quite late for a Disney park I thought but then I suppose DLP also opens at 10am for non AP holders.

Welcome to HKDL!

We posed for some obligatory photos outside the park before heading up the main walkway towards the turnstiles. At the far end of the walk way was a surfing Mickey on a fountain of water from the blowhole of a whale. Later on when we left (although we didn't stop for a photo as it was beginning to rain) it is all lit up with very bright vibrant colours - really worth while to see!

Surfing Mickey!

As you turn the corner to the right heading towards the park (turning to the left heads towards the hotels) you come up to the standard huts where you can purchase tickets before the turnstiles - shock horror - no queue at all! Cast members were standing outside with massive Mickey hands waving and smiling and directing us to the nearest booth - we really could pick and choose - never before have I seen no queue at one of these things at opening time!

The price for a day at HKDL at time of going was HKD$450 which equates to just short of £40. I thought this was a little on the expensive side in comparison to other attractions in Hong Kong, however for Disney I would always gladly make the exception! Sam purchased her own ticket and we headed towards the turnstiles.

Disneyland Railroad! Which wasn't working

Sadly the guy at the turnstiles who I got talking to told us that the railroad was out of action for today (and a lot of the summer it seems) due to the construction of a new land just off of Tomorrowland! Whilst I was taking the picture a Photopass photographer motioned for us to pose and he would take photos with my camera - how thoughtful of him!

Non Disneyfied Photo!

He did take a couple of photos as well with his camera, we posed for Tinkerbell in our hands as well as a couple of other hideously embarrassing but necessary poses for a bit of Disney magicification but again due to the rain at the end of the evening, completely forgot to go and see them - I probably would have got the Tinkerbell one and it has tempted me for next time to buy a Photopass...

We passed under the bridge and Sam grabbed us some maps and show times in English, we knew we were going to be coming back here later on to get some more to take home as keepsakes so we weren't too worried about these getting a bit damaged throughout the day. Although it was a Disney park to us with most things in the place we would expect them, we still felt it was new to us so a map was essential!

What I saw next I couldn't believe. Now I know the castle was described to me on the net before I came as being small. But I didn't realise it would be THIS small!

Wow thats a small castle...

Just for a bit of perspective, I also took a shot of the entire of Main St as I usually do when entering a Disney park...

Blink and you'd miss it...

Just looking at that second photo on the Preview Post screen without enlarging it, I even struggle to see the castle at all! It really was small. I've heard the DLC castle is equally as small, but kind of hoping it has a little bit more umph than this one. Strangely however, as the day went on I kind of got used to the size of the castle and it really didn't seem as odd anymore!

Sam was eager to get exploring, so we walked up to the top of Main Street where unfortunately it was roped off - there we were thinking we had been let into the park a bit early by a cast member with a dodgy watch! A cast member informed us that the rope drop occurs inside the park at HKDL and it would be happening at 10am, so we spent the next 20 minutes perusing some of the shops along Main St. I think this is the first Disney park I've been to which doesn't seem to sell, or even know what a fridge magnet is!

A very dignified rope drop ceremony

We returned to the top of Main Street where the time was now 10am and the rope drop ceremony was about to commence. It was very short, quiet and dignified in comparison to WDW. A family had already been chosen from the crowd to come out to the front, and a princess (this time Aurora) came from the castle, walked across the hub and surprised the child from behind her, and the family cut a small ribbon to declare the park open - different but nice! Then something happened which again was a first for me - probably only 3 or 4 people started running to their first attraction, the rest just slowly ambled into the rest of the park!

Disney!

I said to Sam we may as well take this opportunity to get a half decent photo in front of the castle, so I took a quick snap. It seemed the majority of the guests were heading through the castle into Fantasyland and a few were heading towards Tomorrowland on the right, but no one was heading towards Adventureland and the lands to the left. Sam and I knew there was a ride that way that was featured in HKDL only and not in any other park...yet..! So we headed that way first.

Grizzly Gulch Land

The theming around Grizzly Gulch Land is very similar to what we're used to in WDW for Frontierland. I believe they have something similar in regards to area in California but not the ride which we were about to go on - this was something unique! As I said hardly anyone seemed to be coming through here, so we managed to get on the first ride of the day, by ourselves, on row 1, with no queue

Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars!

If you can imagine Expedition Everest mixed with Big Thunder Mountain you can grab a rough idea of what this ride is like. It really was unique and we absolutely loved it! There were lots of hidden surprises which completely through us off guard and having not been on it before (or even YouTubed it!) it was a fantastic surprise throughout. We managed to get on it three times, with the second and third time not having to run through the queue maze again which was really good of the HKDL cast members because a few people were making their way through the maze but had not arrived at the loading station yet.

Heading into Mystic Point

As you head on out of the Grizzly Gulch area you head on into another land which is not seen anywhere else in the Disney Parks collection - Mystic Point. It has similar stylings to the Haunted Mansion, yet it is not one.

Mystic Manor - a cast member very happy to see us!

Mystic Manor is a ride similar to the technology used to the Pooh's Hunny Hunt ride which is in Tokyo Disney which I couldn't wait to experience after an ex colleague had said how amazing it was! I think it is also similar to the new Ratatouille ride system in Paris but yet to try that out at the time of writing. It is a trackless ride system, so there seems no logical order to where you move, however I'm sure its all programmed up to the neck by a computer somewhere!

If you want to watch it, please click the image below for a video I filmed - just loved it so much I had to!

Click above to watch the On Ride POV of Mystic Manor!


Entrance to Mystic Manor

As you move through the queue maze (which was absolutely empty for our first ride, and about 4 people for our second ride!) you wind through a collection of antiques and treasures which Lord Mystic and his mischievous monkey friend Albert had collected over the years, whilst also listening to some classical music which is very British and museum like - strangely on our first trip through the queue maze I suddenly realised we were hearing the theme tune to that comedy show which is often on Gold - Waiting for God! Sam had never heard of the show, so decided to pose in front of an Anglo Saxon mask...

Sam and her mask of gold


Mystic Manor Ride Vehicles

The ride vehicles are similar to those used in Toy Story Mania, however a tad more roomier for bags down by your feet and no gun in front of you. Before you know it you are being whisked off into the manor to meet Lord Mystic and Albert. The gist of the tale is that Lord Mystic has just acquired this mystical magical box...which Albert then proceeds to open and unleashes mayhem bringing everything inside the house to life... until Lord Mystic can get his hands on him again. I won't describe much else of the ride as you can see it in the POV Video I have linked you too, however I will leave you with a couple of photos from inside...

Where's that blasted monkey?


There he is! Albert!


Albert getting a telling off for opening the box...oops!

We had decided to eat at The Explorers Club for lunch in Mystic Point, however it was still mid morning so we continued to navigate around the park in a clockwise direction - which left us in Toy Story Land. Toy Story Land in HKDL is almost a carbon copy of that in DLP so there wasn't really much new here to enjoy, however we of course enjoyed it all the same! I'm a big fan of Toy Story so I'm happy to encounter it on any of my travels.

Gigantic Woody welcomes all to Toy Story Land

Our first stop was the obligatory ride on RC Racer. We are used to an hours queue at DLP for this ride which today just simply didn't exist. How lucky! It was literally a walk on. The ride has such a slow throughput of guests its beggars belief anyone ever actually waits for it, so obviously those in Hong Kong have got the right idea

Sam posing with RC

We decided to get a couple of goes on this whilst there was no queue, as we weren't really going to be returning to Toy Story Land later in the day. For what it is its a fairly exciting tame ride, leaves your stomach behind at least! We also hopped over onto the Slinky ride which is identical to DLP, before heading out towards Fantasyland/Adventureland. We bypassed the Parachute drop ride because there was actually a 30 minute queue for it which none of the other rides in TSL had. On the way out we were met by these awesome folk!

Army Men!

This was a brilliant bit of Disney magic right there. The show went on for about 15 minutes as the Army Men interacted with some of the guests and went chasing after the ones who tried to runaway. Really good fun!

Adventureland!

After you go underneath the railroad track (because Gulch/Mystic/TSL are all outside of the perimeter as additional lands) you have a choice. Left is Fantasyland. Right is Adventureland. Left looked very busy. We chose right

I love Adventureland in WDW so I was hoping this version was going to be just the same, and to be honest it was. The level of detail around all of the theming was amazing, and it really did feel like walking through a jungle what with the humidity in Hong Kong. Adventureland is only home to a few shows and attractions unlike WDW. And unfortunately - no PotC! What I hear you say? Thats right. No Pirates at all... on the plus side there was still plenty to see and do! And we knew PotC was in Tokyo so it made it slightly better!

The Jungle Cruise - now available in 3 languages!

Jungle Cruise is the main attraction really in Adventureland, and I was so surprised to see that they actually offer a choice of 3 languages on the ride! You can choose as you join the queue line whether you would like the tour in English, Cantonese or Mandarin which is really good, something that Tokyo Disney we found later was lacking - however not many English speakers in Tokyo so it does sort of make sense.

3 languages - now thats service!


Our skipper today onboard the Mekong Maiden

Although it was great that the ride was in English, it really did lack a sense of humour when not delivered by an American tour guide. The jokes just weren't funny unfortunately, and to be honest even though she was loud and dramatic like some of her American counterparts - the volume on the mic compared to the volume of the engine was pretty low! So it was just nice to experience.

We soon disembarked and headed on over to their version of the Swiss Family Tree House - the Tarzan Treehouse. Similar to Tom Sawyer Island, you need to take a raft over the water (where the Jungle Cruise sails) to get there, and then the experience is very similar. We enjoyed it whilst we walked around, though in the Hong Kong humidity it was hideous climbing all of those steps!

Needless to say we were desperate to cool down. I sat down at the bottom of the treehouse and waited for Sam to catch up as she was busy taking lots of pictures. I noticed from a park map that in our haste to catch the next raft to the treehouse, right opposite was Festival of The Lion King! Assuming this was the same show as in AK this was bound to be good, and it was inside with the additional bonus of air con - what more could we ask for right now! So we ventured in.

The show turned out to be nigh on identical to the AK version so we were more than happy to sit through it. The show was conducted in English and what I can only assume was Cantonese - one cast member would say something in English and then again, we assume it was repeated in Cantonese! Which is pretty good to be honest as it caters for visitors and locals. It didn't add any time to the show length but naturally by the time it was finished we were pretty hungry as it was already midday when the show began.

As we had already planned to eat at The Emperors Club in Mystic Point, we headed back that way.

We spent what felt like an hour standing outside the restaurant deciding what to eat. in DLHK they have lots of plastic examples of the dishes served in the restaurant outside, and Sam being a bit fussy when it comes to spice wanted to make sure what ever she was going to order she wasn't going to have to drink her way through eating!

Inside the restaurant - similar lay out to quick service we are used to

Once inside the service was really good. Unfortunately the server where you order the food couldn't speak much English but we muddled through, and the cashier was very pleasant. I found a nice secluded spot away from the hustle and bustle and Sam soon joined me. I had ordered the Deep Fried Chicken Steak with Omelette and a side dish of Chicken Satay which was absolutely divine!

We spent quite a while inside the restaurant chilling out - we only really had Fantasyland and Tomorrowland left to explore of the park as DLHK is quite small in comparison to the other parks being fairly new and yet to be developed much. I tried using Facebook at this point as had picked up some wifi somehow, but with no luck. After sending a quick text (bearing in mind it was 1:30pm in Hong Kong, still 6:30am in the UK!) home we headed for Fantasyland.

We went via the hub and got another few photos of the castle before heading across the bridge inside. I'm afraid the castle is a bit of a non event and is merely a tunnel from what I remember! There were a few attractions here offering FastPass. Winnie the Pooh had a 60 minute wait so we grabbed one for that before we did anything else.

Cinderella's Carousel was next. I also make a habit of going on this even if I ended up going on nothing else in Fantasyland. Plus I'd just seen "Walt" (aka Tom Hanks!) go on it in Saving Mr Banks on the plane over and in the several weeks before in DLC, so felt it was a must I managed to nab one of the last horses about - thats the only thing we dislike about this ride, often being stuck on something which isn't what you wish to ride on if you're near the back of the boarding queue!

[soarinfan]

Unfortunately as with most Disney Parks, the queue for Dumbo was ridiculous - even though it looked like it was about to CHUCK it down with rain, the queue was still pushing 60 minutes. Now I will wait 60 minutes for a lot of things, but travelling around in circles after 60 minutes of standing in line isn't my cup of tea - yes I have only ever been on Dumbo once! Terrible!

So we headed over to a firm favourite just as the heavens opened - Mickey's PhilharMagic! The show is nothing short of identical to the show in WDW, however there is one subtle difference - you enter the theatre from the right of the stage rather than the left. PhilharMagic is probably one of my most favourite shows in the Disney catalogue, always remember it from some of my early trips and trying to buy the show on dvd on eBay as a kid! The little dialogue that there is was in English just as in WDW so no problems there either...

The rain was absolutely chucking it down still when we emerged from PhilharMagic - it was on par if not worse than some of the storms you can seem to get in Orlando! We made a mad dash over to some trees (luckily no lightning) and sheltered there for a little while taking in the ambience - funny how people act like sheep and follow the leaders - we were in a very secluded area with no one else there, with benches and stroller parking for a good 5 minutes before it became packed full of people who were pinching our idea! So we decided it was time to try our luck with Pooh. We were 5 minutes early but the cast member just waved us on with a smile anyway - which is nice considering it was a 75 minute queue!

Unfortunately on exiting Pooh (no puns...!) the rain was not looking like it was going to let off. What is a long winded indoor ride we thought? We can't stay out in this. I think the above says it all. Again another one of those rides I think you just have to do no matter what in Disney, whether you love it or hate it, you can't say its not a must see!

You'll notice the loading station is much more budget than in some of the other Disney parks! I will include a few photos below of our multi-lingual journey through the small world of animatronics. Some cool additions which I haven't seen before at other parks - some Disney characters had been included along the journey where normally the bog standard dolls would be. See if you can recognise them...!

We had pretty much seen the entire of Fantasyland by this point - its nothing in comparison to New Fantasyland in Orlando I'm afraid but it does do the job . There was a show which we were planning on seeing a bit later, so we moved on towards our final land which was...

How 1980s...

Space Mountain was my first "proper" rollercoaster when I was 10 - so its always a firm fave when I go to any Disney park. I knew this one however was slightly more tame than the others around the world but I was still looking forward to it anyway. We were quite surprised that it only had a 5 minute standby queue time despite the torrential rain and the entire queue being either under cover or indoors! The queue videos were scrolling through in both English and what I assume was Cantonese, a bit similar to DLP with the French & English.

You sit next to one another on this ride with a lap bar so it was going to be fairly tame. To be fair it wasn't the tamest Space Mountain I was ever going to go on (wait for Tokyo!) but it was pretty tame. You end up going up a small hill and around a corner with lots of neon lights and space like noises before entering the main ride arena and going up another hill with lots of stars around you. It reminded me slightly of the Black Hole if anyone remembers that from Alton Towers, but a fair bit smoother. It was very good for what it was . We managed to get on it 6 times before I said come on enough is enough!

When we emerged there were lots of cast members running around Tomorrowland with squeegees - something I was yet to witness anywhere else before! The rain had died off to a light drizzle and they were all busy trying to get the rain water towards the drains! Sam wanted to go on Autopia - much to my disgust in the rain! So we did. I drove - but strangely they don't like you driving in the station - so they stand on the back of the car and do it for you on both departure and arrival which makes the loading process VERY slow when theres only 1 lane open and only 2 cast members loading.

Half of the queue line was sectioned off because they were busy building a new Iron Man ride/experience to add on to Tomorrowland which was also causing the closure of the railroad too. It will be interesting to see in a couple of years what they have made from all the mess that you could see through the green netting in very non-Disney like fashion.

Although Sam was keen to avoid this one - as there was a fair bit of light drizzle still in the air we hopped on. It was pretty much the same as all of the others - yet inspired by Toy Story 2 - why not Toy Story 1?

The Golden Mickey's was the show that I mentioned earlier that we wanted to see in Fantasyland, and now the sun was going down was the perfect time to nip in. Neither of us really knew what it was at all as there was no real explanation outside, nor had we even heard of it before. But my what a lovely surprise we had! I'll include just a few of the hundreds of photos I took inside:

If you can imagine a Cantonese Disneyfied version of the Royal Variety Show then this is pretty much what it was. It was absolutely amazing - nothing like what I thought it was going to be (mind you - I had no idea what I thought it was going to be). The show was entirely in Cantonese (I imagine!) with the odd word here and there in English. I couldn't quite work out whether photography was allowed so I was being quite sheepish with my camera as ushers were walking up and down the aisles, but then I figured this is Disney, nothing front of house seems to be off limits! So I went for it and took something crazy like 250 pictures of one show. I think Sam filmed it so I will have to try and get the video from her because it really was a great 45 minute or so show full of Disney songs (all the music and singing was in English I must add) and dance.

When we emerged it was pretty much night time. You could see the dark storm clouds rolling down the mountain behind the Its A Small World building, so we had a little wonder around taking some pictures of the attractions lit up at night which looked very pretty considering they were soaked from the rain.

We moved on back to Tomorrowland as we had already picked out that we wanted to eat at one of the two counter service restaurants which they had in there. On the way back I had to snap a few pics of my fave at night - Space Mountain - all lit up!

We tossed up between a burger joint near the Buzz Lightyear ride, but figured when in Rome do as the Roman's do - so we opted for the Asian equivalent, and for what I purchased I was very very impressed. We decided to eat at the Comet Cafe.

Yes that is a china dish and bowl you can see there, and chop sticks! I was very impressed that at a counter service anywhere in the world you can get something that isn't on a paper plate or in a paper box. Just goes to show the difference in society and culture over in Hong Kong to Orlando and the like. I had opted for the BBQ Pork with Rice and a side dish of Poached Wontons which came to HKD$127. All meals come with vegetables (again - another first?!) and a drink of water/soda. So all in all a good sized meal for just under £10 - bargain! Wasn't too keen on the veg as it was quite chewy - however the rest was absolutely divine especially the wontons. Sam had the same minus the wontons and enjoyed it too.

After dinner I took a quick wonder through the shops and purchased some DLHK merchandise and pins whilst Sam was in the loo and she soon joined me and did the same. I really wanted to get a good polo shirt with the HKDL logo but the only one they had was really poorly made unfortunately - it was stripy and had the text blocked out by some of the stripes, not good!

Because of the weather the night time parade had been cancelled, however the fireworks were running. "Disney in the Stars" is Hong Kong's version of Wishes. Running for a similar running time, I was blown away by how well this was displayed with such a small castle. Just goes to show how forced perspective in Disney parks really plays a great role in the imagination.

I crazily trusted Sam with my brand new DSLR camera for this, and she took some really good photos! The whole show is to music as you can imagine. For a moment I thought it was going to be cancelled as it did drizzle a little bit but it was very light and you could hardly notice it just before the show began. I'll show you some of her pics below:

Unlike Wishes, the fireworks do signal the closure of the park I'm afraid, so our amazing day experiencing our first Disneyland in Asia had come to a close. We had a long day of travelling the next day so as soon as the lights came up at the end of the show we made a swift move for the exit. It really was pandemonium - we had heard that it can be a nightmare getting the MTR out back to Hong Kong itself and everyone else had obviously heard this too - never been rammed with strollers so many times in my life! The surfing Mickey was all lit up and I kick myself now that I didn't stop and take a picture - but I had lost Sam in the crowd so finding her was my priority.

We were soon reunited, so I snapped this as we were passing underneath

Surprisingly the MTR station really wasn't that bad at all. I think it only took us about 35-40 minutes to get back to our hotel door to door so I was pretty impressed by that. As we arrived back to the doors of the hotel the heavens opened once more and the lightning was absolutely atrocious - then I remembered we were on the top floor!

We ventured up in the lift expecting a recreation of the Tower of Terror (no way I was climbing all those steps) and got back to the room. Sam jumped in the shower and I collapsed on the bed. The lightning was unbelievable - I turned off all the lights in the room and the lightning was literally lighting up the room as if it was day time! Never seen anything like it, especially being so close to it! The block of flats just across the way was struck at one point - boy that was loud and bright! We shoved some stuff in the suitcase as we had an early start in the morning.

Tomorrow we were flying to Japan! Couldn’t believe how quickly our time in Hong Kong had passed, yet it felt like we had been there for ages which is always good on holiday

Thank you so much for reading Day 4 - hopefully now I’m settled at home again it won’t take as long for Day 5 to get to you all! Stay tuned!

[TobyK]

Amazing! What an experience! Don't forget to post the video of the show.

[Guest]

Wow, that is definately next on our to go list! IASW is cute with characters like that at DL. I think it's my favourite castle out the 3 I've seen so far but I love CRT at WDW.

[soarinfan]

Hi all,

Please click above for Disney in the Stars

Here is the video of Disney in the Stars from HKDL as well - enjoy

[rich2820]

Thanks for posting this trip report. I'm reading it with interest as I'd love to travel to Japan, and maybe Hong Kong too.

[hross42877]

Excellent day!

[Bobsledwheels]

HK Disney looks awesome! So glad i've added in some time to go there now - pleased to see some english on menus and the like as well