Zawadi
04-28-2013, 05:20 AM
Return to Day 9 (http://www.intercot.com/discussion/showthread.php?t=199048)
Today started off much as the others a 09:00 breakfast, in preparation for Disneyland opening at 10:00. The breakfast was more limited than in the Intercontinental but we had our fill then set off wearing shorts, Mickey T-shirts and our Anniversary badges. The promenade was empty of people until we got to Mickey's Fountain (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5010_zps2dc40747.jpg.html) at the park gates. Then the obligatory security check and the turnstiles where we got a "Happy Birthday". The locomotive Walter E Disney (#1) was in Main St Station but it's a steam imposter, diesel with a steam soundtrack, and the rolling stock has side wards seating (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5014_zps799f47b8.jpg.html), like the Wildlife Express in WDW Animal Kingdom.
After picking up a map and time guide, we walked under the station into Town Square. The layout was very familiar. Going from left to right... City Hall (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/P1030488_zpsda84a7c1.jpg.html), Restrooms, Fire Station (Strollers), CM/Parade gates, Emporium, Main St, Animation Academy (did expect to see Tony's for a brief moment). The main difference was that the buildings were lower.
Then into Main St. and the first view of Sleeping Beauty Castle (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/P1030491_zpsa52ef4ae.jpg.html). Not as imposing as Cinderella Castle due to its lack of height. However, a different aspect with the hills in the background.
At the hub, we we turned right to Tomorrowland (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5043_zps783654ff.jpg.html) and saw a ground level Orbitron, electric cars on Autopia and Space Mountain. All nice but we were heading to Buzz Lightyear. Here, the space blasters are hand held, like in Paris. Inside, we only heard the animatronic Buzz speak in English. We expected a multi lingual Buzz, as in Paris. We had two rounds of fighting Zurg's robots both being walk on. We thought about a third round but decided on ensuring that we covered everything that we wanted to do in the park.
So, we went next door to Space Mountain, a single track version with side by side seating. Again this was walk on. We found it a lot smoother than WDW's version, but Paris is our favourite with the inversion loop.
We continued our counter-clockwise walk, past Stitch's Encounter (think Turtle Talk with Crush) until we heard a familiar TICK-TOC, TICK-TOC. Not the croc. from Peter Pan but It's A Small World. This was walk on to the extent of having a boat to ourselves. This was the first time that we had seen some of the Disney characters interspersed amongst the dolls. There is scene of Hong Kong which depicts Victoria Harbour with a Star Ferry sailing across, the North Shore skyline including Central Plaza and the Bank of China Tower and last but not least a panda (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5054_zps620ab108.jpg.html).
From IASW, it was walk through Fantasy Land (home to Philharmagic, Carousel, Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh and train station). We stopped to watch Philharmagic and were surprised at the number of people videoing it! It's a 3D movie using a form of stereoscopic projectIon which doesn't work on a normal TV. Toy Story Land (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5098_zps4f8994c8.jpg.html) is a copy of Paris, with a Toy Soldier Parachute Drop, RC racer in a half-pipe track and Slinky Dog Spin. We tried all but RC Racer, as it was down. Slinky is good for young kids, once was enough for us and we only did it because when we saw Slinky in Paris in Dec 2010 it was covered in snow. Again very short lines, less than 10 minutes. We came across some Toy Soldiers and one of the privates shouted "Happy Birthday!"
We back tracked, to Fantasy Land, to move on to Adventure Land and came across the Jungle Cruise. The first thing to note is that this has three lines. English, Cantonese and Mandarin. It was another 10 minute wait until we boarded the boat. The verbal jokes were practically non existent but the visual/physical effects were impressive.
We continued our walk to Grizzly Gulch, receiving more "Happy Birthday!"s but a few CMs once seeing both badges corrected themselves mid sentence "Happy Birth...Anniversary!" Time for the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. This is a cross between Everest and Big Thunder Mountain. Again this was walk on, which was a shame as it was hard to appreciate the detailing of the queue line. At the top of the first lift is a grizzly scratching its rump against a track switch lever. This of course sends you on your "merry" way. The second lift has a steam winding engine using "Never Fail Cables". Guess what? At the top of the lift there is a twang and sound of a whipping cable and you transfer from a climb to fall without any hesitation (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5065_zps57045b48.jpg.html). The backwards section ends in a tunnel full of dynamite. Above your head are two grizzlies in a mine car who are trying to reach some fish. The car tips and hits a detonator plunger. Flash, bang and whoosh. A catapult launch for the final section of the ride.
It was then time to head back to the hub to see the Flights of Fantasy Parade. This parade was designed for Hong Kong Disneyland as part of the parks 5th birthday celebrations in 2010 and has 7 floats and 2 show stops like the old Party Bash at Studios but it was much better, featuring all characters and lasting 20 minutes. (Mickey in the parade (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/P1030502_zps2148ee87.jpg.html), surfing on Stitch's float (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/P1030514_zpsb815b571.jpg.html))
Where to next? Festival of the Lion King. The theatre is similar to the one in Animal Kingdom, except that you were not permitted to walk across the central portion of the arena. The show started. This is nothing like WDW's version. Rafiki, the lady from the musical stage version, opens and then the floats come in. Giraffe, Elephant, Timone & Pumba then Simba. Rafiki welcomes Simba and introduces the show as a celebration of his life (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5073_zps3fcc6547.jpg.html). Rafiki allocates actors to play Scar (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5075_zps70099823.jpg.html) and Nala. Timone and Pumba play themselves. That just leaves young Simba, who appears from a basket centre stage. The rest of the show loosely follows The Lion King. There are no Tumble Monkeys and the stage contains pyrotechnics (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5083_zps2b860096.jpg.html) and fire eaters (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5085_zpsdd5c84fc.jpg.html). The arena itself is a multi-level carousel (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5090_zps1320de06.jpg.html). They've even got around Pumba's short legs not letting him get down from the float. All the floats move and end up on the carousel (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5095_zps2bcd7544.jpg.html).
Time for some lunch. We had been spoilt with the Intercontinental as the food options meant that we had not needed to buy meals. Here we stopped in the Royal Banquet Hall. The setup is different here. You get your meal, from one of three stations depending on the type of meal (as in Cosmic Rays) then pay on the way out. DW went for a cheese burger with mushroom soup and I went for steamed chicken with rice, bok choy and sweet corn and ham soup. The cutlery pack is given out with the meal. DW got knife, fork and spoon whilst I got chopsticks and Chinese soup spoon. We found seats at the end of a table where an Asian family were eating. For a casual observer walking by it must have looked strange as the Asian family were eating western food with knife and fork whilst a European was eating eastern food with chopsticks :) Just trying out each others cultures.
By now it was mid afternoon and the temperature was dropping so we returned to the hotel, via Main St. Bakery where we sampled some Hong Kong Egg Tarts, to change into warmer clothes. In fact the dress style around the park is much different to the other Disney parks. Not many guys wore long shorts (but several girls wore very short shorts) , we saw a handful of people wearing character hats and the only Disney character shirts being worn appeared to be ours. Another thing that we noticed is that pins are sold but pin trading is not common place.
We did stop at City Hall to find out about same day re-entry so that the second day of our ticket was not used by mistake. We were greeted by a "Happy Anniversary!" And when I said 18 years, we got a "WOW!" The CMs that we spoke with probably weren't born when we got married.
Continued in next post...
Today started off much as the others a 09:00 breakfast, in preparation for Disneyland opening at 10:00. The breakfast was more limited than in the Intercontinental but we had our fill then set off wearing shorts, Mickey T-shirts and our Anniversary badges. The promenade was empty of people until we got to Mickey's Fountain (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5010_zps2dc40747.jpg.html) at the park gates. Then the obligatory security check and the turnstiles where we got a "Happy Birthday". The locomotive Walter E Disney (#1) was in Main St Station but it's a steam imposter, diesel with a steam soundtrack, and the rolling stock has side wards seating (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5014_zps799f47b8.jpg.html), like the Wildlife Express in WDW Animal Kingdom.
After picking up a map and time guide, we walked under the station into Town Square. The layout was very familiar. Going from left to right... City Hall (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/P1030488_zpsda84a7c1.jpg.html), Restrooms, Fire Station (Strollers), CM/Parade gates, Emporium, Main St, Animation Academy (did expect to see Tony's for a brief moment). The main difference was that the buildings were lower.
Then into Main St. and the first view of Sleeping Beauty Castle (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/P1030491_zpsa52ef4ae.jpg.html). Not as imposing as Cinderella Castle due to its lack of height. However, a different aspect with the hills in the background.
At the hub, we we turned right to Tomorrowland (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5043_zps783654ff.jpg.html) and saw a ground level Orbitron, electric cars on Autopia and Space Mountain. All nice but we were heading to Buzz Lightyear. Here, the space blasters are hand held, like in Paris. Inside, we only heard the animatronic Buzz speak in English. We expected a multi lingual Buzz, as in Paris. We had two rounds of fighting Zurg's robots both being walk on. We thought about a third round but decided on ensuring that we covered everything that we wanted to do in the park.
So, we went next door to Space Mountain, a single track version with side by side seating. Again this was walk on. We found it a lot smoother than WDW's version, but Paris is our favourite with the inversion loop.
We continued our counter-clockwise walk, past Stitch's Encounter (think Turtle Talk with Crush) until we heard a familiar TICK-TOC, TICK-TOC. Not the croc. from Peter Pan but It's A Small World. This was walk on to the extent of having a boat to ourselves. This was the first time that we had seen some of the Disney characters interspersed amongst the dolls. There is scene of Hong Kong which depicts Victoria Harbour with a Star Ferry sailing across, the North Shore skyline including Central Plaza and the Bank of China Tower and last but not least a panda (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5054_zps620ab108.jpg.html).
From IASW, it was walk through Fantasy Land (home to Philharmagic, Carousel, Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh and train station). We stopped to watch Philharmagic and were surprised at the number of people videoing it! It's a 3D movie using a form of stereoscopic projectIon which doesn't work on a normal TV. Toy Story Land (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5098_zps4f8994c8.jpg.html) is a copy of Paris, with a Toy Soldier Parachute Drop, RC racer in a half-pipe track and Slinky Dog Spin. We tried all but RC Racer, as it was down. Slinky is good for young kids, once was enough for us and we only did it because when we saw Slinky in Paris in Dec 2010 it was covered in snow. Again very short lines, less than 10 minutes. We came across some Toy Soldiers and one of the privates shouted "Happy Birthday!"
We back tracked, to Fantasy Land, to move on to Adventure Land and came across the Jungle Cruise. The first thing to note is that this has three lines. English, Cantonese and Mandarin. It was another 10 minute wait until we boarded the boat. The verbal jokes were practically non existent but the visual/physical effects were impressive.
We continued our walk to Grizzly Gulch, receiving more "Happy Birthday!"s but a few CMs once seeing both badges corrected themselves mid sentence "Happy Birth...Anniversary!" Time for the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. This is a cross between Everest and Big Thunder Mountain. Again this was walk on, which was a shame as it was hard to appreciate the detailing of the queue line. At the top of the first lift is a grizzly scratching its rump against a track switch lever. This of course sends you on your "merry" way. The second lift has a steam winding engine using "Never Fail Cables". Guess what? At the top of the lift there is a twang and sound of a whipping cable and you transfer from a climb to fall without any hesitation (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5065_zps57045b48.jpg.html). The backwards section ends in a tunnel full of dynamite. Above your head are two grizzlies in a mine car who are trying to reach some fish. The car tips and hits a detonator plunger. Flash, bang and whoosh. A catapult launch for the final section of the ride.
It was then time to head back to the hub to see the Flights of Fantasy Parade. This parade was designed for Hong Kong Disneyland as part of the parks 5th birthday celebrations in 2010 and has 7 floats and 2 show stops like the old Party Bash at Studios but it was much better, featuring all characters and lasting 20 minutes. (Mickey in the parade (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/P1030502_zps2148ee87.jpg.html), surfing on Stitch's float (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/P1030514_zpsb815b571.jpg.html))
Where to next? Festival of the Lion King. The theatre is similar to the one in Animal Kingdom, except that you were not permitted to walk across the central portion of the arena. The show started. This is nothing like WDW's version. Rafiki, the lady from the musical stage version, opens and then the floats come in. Giraffe, Elephant, Timone & Pumba then Simba. Rafiki welcomes Simba and introduces the show as a celebration of his life (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5073_zps3fcc6547.jpg.html). Rafiki allocates actors to play Scar (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5075_zps70099823.jpg.html) and Nala. Timone and Pumba play themselves. That just leaves young Simba, who appears from a basket centre stage. The rest of the show loosely follows The Lion King. There are no Tumble Monkeys and the stage contains pyrotechnics (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5083_zps2b860096.jpg.html) and fire eaters (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5085_zpsdd5c84fc.jpg.html). The arena itself is a multi-level carousel (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5090_zps1320de06.jpg.html). They've even got around Pumba's short legs not letting him get down from the float. All the floats move and end up on the carousel (photo) (http://s1279.photobucket.com/user/Zawadi99/media/Hong%20Kong%20April%202013/HK%20Disneyland%202013/IMG_5095_zps2bcd7544.jpg.html).
Time for some lunch. We had been spoilt with the Intercontinental as the food options meant that we had not needed to buy meals. Here we stopped in the Royal Banquet Hall. The setup is different here. You get your meal, from one of three stations depending on the type of meal (as in Cosmic Rays) then pay on the way out. DW went for a cheese burger with mushroom soup and I went for steamed chicken with rice, bok choy and sweet corn and ham soup. The cutlery pack is given out with the meal. DW got knife, fork and spoon whilst I got chopsticks and Chinese soup spoon. We found seats at the end of a table where an Asian family were eating. For a casual observer walking by it must have looked strange as the Asian family were eating western food with knife and fork whilst a European was eating eastern food with chopsticks :) Just trying out each others cultures.
By now it was mid afternoon and the temperature was dropping so we returned to the hotel, via Main St. Bakery where we sampled some Hong Kong Egg Tarts, to change into warmer clothes. In fact the dress style around the park is much different to the other Disney parks. Not many guys wore long shorts (but several girls wore very short shorts) , we saw a handful of people wearing character hats and the only Disney character shirts being worn appeared to be ours. Another thing that we noticed is that pins are sold but pin trading is not common place.
We did stop at City Hall to find out about same day re-entry so that the second day of our ticket was not used by mistake. We were greeted by a "Happy Anniversary!" And when I said 18 years, we got a "WOW!" The CMs that we spoke with probably weren't born when we got married.
Continued in next post...