Hong Kong: Hong Kong Disneyland! (HK15 Part 3)

Hong Kong 2015

What is not to love about Disneyland? Just by hearing the word Disney triggers endorphins in your brain. I lived my childhood with Disney movies. That glorious time without iPad and YouTube, and kids watch VHS on tv for countless of time and never get bored. So yeah, I love everything Disney!

Before I start, this is my 3rd Disney park in the whole wide world. I've been wanting to go to Disney park ever since I saw about it on travel channel eons ago. I knew that I must be there someday. It's like, my destiny.....     Anyway, my dream came true in 2003 when I went to Disneyland Paris (although initially I dreamt for Walt Disney World, such a big dream!). Then in 2007, I went to the original, the first ever Disney park, the one built by Walt Disney himself, Disneyland Park, in California. I had my 3rd opportunity to go to another Disney park, and this time, it's Hong Kong Disneyland! I've been postponing the trip for years. Well, better late than never.

Despite the well-reputation, Disney brand is also well known for it's "expensiveness". For me, any Disney vacation is a luxury. Since Hong Kong is not that far from KL (only 4 hours flight), we could save a lot on airline cost here (as compared to flight to Japan or the US). So I thought, why not we splurge a little for a better Disney vacation this time (our previous Disney visits were definitely on budget).

Well, that's quite a long intro. So back to Hong Kong Disneyland trip, shall we.

We leaved the apartment in the morning and took a taxi to Sunny Bay station. Actually, it's quite a hassle to tell the driver where we're going every time, due to the language barrier. Yes they speak and understand basic English. Pronunciation is the issue here. The problem is, places in Hong Kong are named in Chinese. The romanize spelling doesn't really help. For instance, I've been practising to pronounce Tsim Sha Tsui multiple times, and the sound came out nothing like the one I heard from the chinese people. Some of them places (mostly the commercial ones) will also have English name. But I learned that Hong Kongers don't care about the English name. So, I just figured out a way. Upon calling for a taxi, Google map the location we want to go beforehand, and there's a Chinese name stated in the map. When the taxi arrive, just show them the phone. They'll be glad you do this, I'm sure.

Google Map showing location name in both English and Chinese.

Actually, the efficient way to get to HK Disneyland (HKD) from our apartment is just to go straight away by taxi. But we took a detour to Sunny Bay station just because we want to ride on the Disney MTR. It's part of an experience that I don't want to miss. The Disney train took us from Hong Kong Island to Disneyland Resort station in Lantau Island.

Hey Mickey!

It was weekday, the train was almost empty.

We reached HK Disneyland station greeted by pouring rain (and about rain, it was only the beginning of this trip! more and even more rain to come!). Luckily it only lasted for few minutes. We then took a shuttle bus that brought us to our Disney Hollywood Hotel (shuttle bus service is available to and fro for every 10-15 minutes all day). We already booked the room in advance with early bird discount. We entered the hotel lobby and I couldn't help but to notice a very nice smell in the air. And actually, the hotel lobby always smell nice the entire time we were there. Just next to the lobby is a mini Disney store, where you can already start spending money on the overpriced Disney merchandise. So we checked-in to our spacious, 2 queen-bed hotel room that could fit 5 of us comfortably.

Upgraded Disney Hollywood Hotel to deluxe room, for early check-in (before 2pm).

Hello Hong Kong Disneyland!

The cloud with a high chance or rain, spared us a moment for this photo.

We bought our Disneyland tickets online too and we redeemed our physical ticket at the special counter at the Disneyland gate (no need to queue). We also got a complimentary meal voucher (online promo) for each adult ticket purchased. I seriously couldn't wait to get in now.

You might probably have heard this, that HK Disneyland is copying it's predecessor Disneyland Park, mainly on the Railway Station at the entrance, Main Street USA and the most obvious one, the Sleeping Beauty Castle. I've been to Disneyland before, so yes, it's like a dejavu. The view of the castle is even better with a backdrop of a real mountain in Lantau Island. Feeling all jakun, we seized the moment by taking hundreds of photos and lots and lots of videos, from the Main Street USA all the way through the Sleeping Beauty Castle. When finally, we're in Fantasyland! Because parade time was near, we decided to stay around in Fantasyland nearby the castle. While waiting, we went on Cinderella Carousel, our first ride of the day. Too bad, it was raining at that time so parade was cancelled and replaced by a Rainy Day Express show (which is nothing in comparison).

Ponchos, were truely our savior! We bought these from Daiso. It's more like a raincoat only thinner, but more durable than the normal poncho.

See what I was talking about? Simply amazing!

When HKD was first open 10 years ago, it only had few lands in the park, so the park itself was initially small. Many people said that it can be finished in just one day. But after HKD added new lands to its park, I doubt that one day is enough (that's why we bough 2-day ticket). The new lands are Toy Story Land, Mystic Point and Grizzly Gulch.

Toy Story Land. I just love it because I am a Toy Story fan (who doesn't love Toy Story anyway?). Entering the land was like, we were shrinked into a toy-size figure. The rides that we have here are:

1. Slinky Dog Spin
2. Toy Soldier Parachute Drop
3. RC Racer

I tried all of these and Toy Soldier Parachute Drop is the one I like the most. My daughter loves it too. At first, I thought she's gonna freak out, but it turned out fun! The queue for this ride was the longest among others. I love how we can see the view of the whole park when we were up there. Definitely a must try!

Slinky Dog Spin. A child friendly ride.

Apparently a mission-accomplished of that some one in the middle.

Toy soldier theming at the queueing area.

More theme. The screen was actually showing  a safety video on how to do parachuting, featuring popular characters from Toy Story itself. 

Shoes off.

Toy Soldier Parachute Drop.

Next was RC Racer, a so-called roller coaster with 120 cm minimum height requirement is actually a "meh". But what can I say, it fits the theme and the target audience of this land.

How come I do not have even a single photo of the ride?! Well, you have to check out my video later to see it. 

The theme at RC Racer queueing line. A toy race track.

When you see Rex, act scared. Yes we did.

Then we moved to the next land just beside Toy Story Land, the smallest land in HKD (I think), and that's Mystic Point! I've heard (or read) so much about this land. It has the most detailed mystical theme right here. But other than just great theming and a very nice ambience, here lies the most awesome ride by the name of Mystic Manor. But I just had to postpone this review because the ride was closed at that time so we missed it on day 1.

Entering Mystic Point.

Mystic Manor. I'll get back to you soon!

Feeling a bit disappointed, we brought ourselves to the next land, the Grizzly Gulch. Now, it's time for some "real" roller coaster, the Big Grizzly Mountain Runway Mine Cars. Because it was still drizzling at that time, so the queue for this ride was like a breeze. People are afraid of getting wet I guess? We did it twice in a row! It has a surprise factor which I'm not gonna tell, *spoiler alert start* but it is something as the name suggest (read: grizzly bear) *spoiler alert end*. Not a thrill ride for me, but hey it's Disneyland, so expect nothing thrill here. It was fun nonetheless. We were then get going to Tomorrowland through Adventureland. But first, let's watch The Lion King Festival, as it was about to start. It's an entertaining musical show with all the familiar number. Feel like singing along all through the show.

Part of the Big Grizzly Mountain Runway track.

Another view with the Grizzly Mountain at the back. 

Some one was interested with the astro blaster.

And yes, Tomorrowland, my all time favourite land of all. Here we have all the cool stuff and cool rides (minus Star Wars attraction). Although I've been to Disney parks a couple of times, I had never ride on any Space Mountain before (it's a long story), and I didn't know what I was missing all this time. Space Mountain was super duper freaking awesome! Now I know! I love everything about it, and I totally love the theme song!  We did it back to back because it's just too awesome. I don't understand why nobody's queueing for this ride. Fastpass ticketing counter was totally wasted here.

Welcome to the future.

The last chance that I didn't take.

The first ever Marvel attraction in Disney parks.

Basically, we spent the rest of our evening in HKD at the Main Street USA. We had Mickey Waffles (yummy!) and did some shopping, watched fireworks show and went shopping again afterwards. The weather was either pouring heavily or drizzling or totally stop for 5 seconds. To sum it up, the day was wet, wet and wet all day! No Disney Paint The Night show, no parade but luckily there was still fireworks on. And I'm grateful for that.

Festival of The Lion King.

Pocket cries.

Hana approved! Noticed that white rabbit sticker on the table? Hana had been collecting a lot of stickers the whole time spent in HKD. The cast members have these stickers with them ready to be given to children around HKD Resort (yes, hotels included!). So go get them!

Sleeping Beauty Castle at night. Awaiting for firework show to start.

Summary of all attractions that we tried on this day:

1. Cinderella Carousel
2. Slinky Dog Spin
3. Toy Soldier Parachute Drop
4. RC Racer
5. Big Grizzly Mountain Runway
6. Festival of The Lion King
7. Space Mountain
8. Disney In The Star Fireworks


End of day 1. Stay tuned for HKD day 2! =)

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