11.11.09
I woke up about 7 to see us pull into Hong Kong. This place is incredible. The buildings are so tall and beautiful. It is just such a stark contrast coming from a place like Vietnam. I grabbed breakfast with Katie and Mackenzie and then we went to get ready.
We all met back up in Tymetz Square so we could get our game plan. Mackenzie and I went to go find Kelli because she was taking pictures up on the 7th deck. We didn’t find her, but we did find Dr. Aimee and Louise. It is kind of sad because Louise is leaving, but they are both glad to be back in Hong Kong. Now I see why Dr. Aimee loves it so much. It is beautiful.
After taking some pictures, we went back to Tymetz Square and found Kelli. We tried to map out a route of how to get to Disneyland. We came up with the brilliant plan of just going to the Peninsula Hotel, which Dr. Aimee suggested we walk through because it is a 5-star hotel and really pretty, and asking the concierge for directions. With that plan in mind we just had to wait for the ship to be cleared.
Around 0945 the ship was cleared. We were some of the first people off. The
dock is interesting in Hong Kong. We got directly off into a mall. We have to walk through the mall to get to the buses. This is the nicest mall I have ever been to and it has some of the most ridiculous stores ever i.e. Dolce and Gabbana Junior. Really?
After escaping the mall, we made our way through the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. The place is huge – Think New York City with more people, more trees, and mountains. It is a pretty neat place.
We walked through until we found the Peninsula and Dr. Aimee did not disappoint. The place was gorgeous. It was also connected to its own mall of designer stores. We found the concierge and played the lost tourist card. I was expecting a detailed subway route, but instead he just looked at us and said to take a taxi. Well who would have thought? It is more expensive than the MTR, but still under $10 a person and also faster than the MTR. We still had him tell us the subway route. It involved 3 different train changes. We went with the cab.
We said thank you and went to catch a taxi. The nice valet out front of the hotel hailed us a cab and away we went. Our cab driver had a figure of Zazu on the dash. How fitting.
Hong Kong Disney is located on Lantau Island. All the signs that have Lantau Island on them also have the Mickey Ears. I love it. We all got so excited when we saw the Disneyland sign. We couldn’t believe we were actually at HK Disney. It took us at least 30-45 minutes to get into the park because we were taking pictures. We were all just so excited. We took pictures with the sign, with the fountain, of the random plants. Pretty much everything.
We made it to the ticket booth, bought our tickets, exchanged money at guest relations and headed in. We didn’t make it very far before we stopped again to take pictures. We got stopped by the HK version of PhotoPass. The first difference that I noticed was that they use Canon cameras instead of Nikon. That’s a change I can get behind. The second difference is that they don’t have any scanners of cards. Rather, they give you a slip of paper of paper for every picture they take. So at the end of the day you end up with a HUGE stack of cards at the end of the day. You have to take the slips of papers to Exhibition Hall and go through all the pictures. It is really inefficient and you can’t order online. But more on that later.
We had a mini photo shoot at the beginning of the park. Apparently, in addition to the peace sign, there is another pose that is all the rage in China when taking pictures at Disney. They put their hands in fists and then on their head like Mickey ears. I think it is great!
Our next stop was at City Hall. Here is where I met a fabulous person named Dorothy, or at least that was her English name. Turns out that she had done the International College Program and had worked at Pecos Bill’s in MK and lived at Vista. She was great. She ended up giving us all sorts of stickers and magnets. She was the most friendly cast member I saw all day. The whole rest of the day all the CMs acted like they hated their life. That was definitely a change of pace from WDW.
Once we eventually made it in to the actual park, the first thing I saw was a giant Christmas tree. It is weird thinking that it is almost Christmas. We got past the ginormous tree and then I got my first glance of Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was slightly underwhelming. It is maybe 1/3 the size of Cinderella Castle in MK, but it was still cool. We took pictures all up and down main street and in front of the castle. We kept exploring Fantasyland and found a section called Snow White’s Grotto. It has a cave and figurines of the dwarfs and a wishing well the plays Snow White singing. This is where you meet the princesses.
We found a way into the heart of Fantasyland and decided to ride the Many Adventures of Whinnie the Pooh. It is exactly the same as it is at MK, but we still had a blast because we were so excited. Next we went to PhilarMagic, which is exactly the same down to the hidden Mickey in the French horn. The only difference is that the cue is much better because it is themed like a cottage. Kelli and Mackenzie had never seen it so that was fun.
As we exited, we saw a garden where we spotted some characters. We ran over and ended up meeting Minnie, Mickey, Goofy, Pluto and Pooh. There was nobody in the park so there were no lines, which was awesome.
Our next stop was a show called The Golden Mickey’s. It is kind of a take off the Oscars. It was great! They need to bring it to the State ASAP! It was a little hard to understand because it was in Mandarin, but all the songs are in English. They went through different categories and there were heroes, and love and friendship. They had acrobats, dancers and singers. They sang “You’ve Got A Friend in Me,” “I’ll Make A Man Out Of You,” Beauty and the Beast,” “Something There,” “You’ll Be In My Heart,” and a bunch more classics. Tarzan came out and did some of the rope acrobatics and it was fantastic. Of course, they also had amazing costumes and sets.
We grabbed a lunch of sweet and sour pork and white rice and people watched. The silverware that we got was sweet. It was a packet and it had chopsticks, napkin, a Chinese spoon, and a toothpick. I meant to ask for one packet to bring home, but I forgot. And the food was good too.
Our next stop was back to the castle to meet Belle and Snow White. I really wanted to talk to them backstage because they are clearly American and I want to know how they came to work there, but I never got the chance.
We decided to explore Tomorrowland next and ran into another group of SASers. The group consisted of Charity, Mario, Maria, Dani, and Alyssa. We chatted, but then we left them and went to go ride Buzz Lightyear, which is also the same as it is in the states, except the guns are cooler and I did much better than I normally do. Level 3 baby.
Autopia was next, but I have never ridden that in the States, so I don’t know how to compare it. Kelli said it was slower. I did meet a girl working there who is hoping to do the international CP and going down in January. So hopefully she gets it.
We finally went to ride Space Mountain and it was awesome. The music was probably the best part besides the fact that there was no line. It defiantly had better effects than the one in MK. I think the MK Space Mountain refurbishment should make it better though.
We also caught an in English show of Stitch Encounter, which is basically a Stitch themed version of Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor. It was adorable and really funny.
We had to find a spot for the parade next. We found a sweet spot on the corner and sat down. The parade was so cute. It wasn’t very long and the music wasn’t that good, but the floats were awesome. They had a huge castle that all the princesses were on and a huge flower for Alice to sit on with the Caterpiller behind her. The dancers were in costume as animators and had rolling easels to dance with. Some of the other dancers were dressed up as film rolls. It was pretty neat. It was a quick parade and afterward we went to Adventureland.
The first character we ran into were Chip and Dale so of course we got our picture taken. Then Mackenzie fell in love with a pirate named Jake Sparling (get it? Jack Sparrow?) It seemed like his main goal was to remind people to sanitize their hands after they got back from Tarzan’s Tree house. He was really funny. We said goodbye to our new pirate friend and decided to check out Tarzan’s Tree house for ourselves. It really wasn’t all that exciting. It was basically the Swiss Family Robinson tree house from MK.
We left the Tree House in time to go see The Festival of the Lion King. It’s not the same as the one at AK, but very similar and very good. One thing that was interesting was that some of the fire dancers had tattoos, which I didn’t think were allowed, but they did go with the theme.
We got out of the show and literally ran to the castle to catch then last High School Musical show. It was great. They mainly did songs from HSM and HSM2. Of course they ended with “We’re All in this Together” so I busted out the dance. At the very end, they pulled guests in to teach them a part of the dance and Kelli and I got pulled in! It was so much fun! But I didn’t get a Star Dazzle Award, though.
We then hit up the castle again and met Cinderella. She was cute and super nice. We headed back to Tomorrowland and rode Space Mountain again and again.  We ended the night on the Orbitron before we went to the castle for fireworks.
The fireworks were good, but not as good as Wishes! Of course. The castle is just so small that the fireworks dwarf it even more. It was weird, we hardly saw anyone in the park, but then the fireworks come around and the place is packed.
As we were leaving, we stopped in the stores and shopped. I got a t-shirt that says HK Disneyland on it. After taking a bunch more pictures we finally had to call it a day and head back to the ship. None of us wanted to leave, but we were all exhausted.
We found a cab and headed back. We had to walk through a really ritzy mall and ended up shopping at Pizza Hut for dinner. I didn’t feel like paying $12 for a pan pizza so I just waited while Kelli and Mackenzie ate.
Once we were back on the ship, I went up to Deck 7 and grabbed some food and we had a picture swap for the day. We all took so many pictures. I hurried down to my room so I could shower and pack because I leave for Beijing tomorrow. I got packed and got in bed around 0030. I have to be up at 0430! I am going to be so tired.