Travels - Indo China Cruise (March 2008)
(Day 2 - Visiting Hong Kong Disneyland)
Staying at and visiting a Disney Park was not really on our list of planned activities for 2008 especially since we had just spent a week at Disney World in Orlando last summer. We changed our thinking on that when planning this trip when we discovered that Hong Kong Disneyland was running some very deep discounts to attract customers this year. Seems that the 18 month old theme park hasn't quite caught on with the local audience yet so a night in the 5 star Disneyland Resort is currently about 1/2 the price of a 3 star hotel in the Downtown Hong Kong area (and only a 20 minute subway ride away). Even tickets to the park are very cheap - our family of 4 only cost about $70 US total. That's about the price of 1 adult at a US Disney Park.

Another reason for the lower cost, beyond just a lack of popularity, is that the park is very small. Hong Kong Disneyland currently only consists of what those familiar with the Orlando Walt Disney World would call the Magic Kingdom. In fact, it's laid out very similarly with the castle at the hub (Aurora's castle from Sleeping Beauty), Main Street USA at the front, Fantasyland in the rear and Tomorrowland and Frontierland to the sides.

The ride selection in the park is still under development and as of our visit there were only 16 total "rides" including Tarzan's Tree House (think Robinson Caruso's Tree House in WDW), the Disneyland Train, Cinderella's Carousel, The Dumbo ride and the Orbitron (like Dumbo only spaceships instead). This spring the park will add "It's A Small World" - Uncle Jason and my dad are sure to want to be first in line for that.

The bigger rides here are mostly the same as in the US with Space Mountain, Mickey's PhilharMagic, Festival of the Lion King, and the Jungle Cruise as the key headliner rides. The one unique show really in HK Disneyland is "The Golden Mickey's" which is a live performance with Disney Characters singing and dancing in a sort of spoof on the Oscars for Disney Films. The Golden Mickey's are very well done and being the one really unique major attraction probably was our favorite.

What the park lacks in size they do try to make up for in shorter lines and in much more live entertainment. The streets all constantly had some small show going on whether it was the drumming garbage men, The Muppet Mobile Lab with Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, High School Musical live performances, the Disneyland Parade and more chances to meet and greet characters than you could possibly imagine. The characters even have an entire corner of the park reserved just for photos and autographs with the characters (who very seldom take a break) in an area called the fantasy gardens.

Our day in HK Disney was very fun and it was nice to leave the park with the unusual experience of not being completely broke after visiting the Mouse House. Hmm...do I hear Tokyo Disneyland calling to us?
All of us with our favorite characters, Chip and Dale, this time in their Chinese garb.
Hong Kong Disneyland Resort Hotel. Designed in grand Victorian style the resort is immaculately clean and one of the best hotels I have stayed at. As locals are all new to the "Disney" atmosphere, that bubbly happy attitude is missing but I can't say I missed it. Instead the staff just seems extremely competent and eager to serve the guests.
Humorously, one of the kids favorite attractions was this garden maze in the Disneyland Resort Hotel courtyard. Adults and kids of all nationalities would play hide and seek for hours in this even late into the night. The simplicity of the fun was Disney at it's best. It also kind of reminded me of that expensive gift you give the kids at Christmas and in the end they have more fun with the box. The 2 heads in the photo are Sarah and Josh and this was taken from our hotel balcony.
The center piece of all Disney parks is the castle. For HK Disney it's the castle from Sleeping Beauty. The picture also illustrates HK Disney's smaller scale. This Disney castle is tiny compared to WDW Orlando.
Autotopia is the same idea as Disney Speedway in WDW Orlando.  Both kids had fun driving...note the cars are all RH drive. Probably Josh's favorite ride.
Unfortunately neither of the kids could pull the sword from the stone. Both gave it their all though.
A new "spin" (ha, ha, ha) on an old classic - The Mad Hatter's Tea Party with Chinese Lanterns. This ride always brings out the smiles especially since the faster we spun, the greener mom got!
With not as many rides as the US parks, HD Disneyland has lots of shows and hands on exhibits to play with. At the left Sarah and I have a jam session on the bongos in Frontierland. At the right, High School Musical is Disney's new worldwide hit and HK Disneyland offers 3 live performances a day.
Mickey and Minnie on their castle float during the Hong Kong Disneyland Parade. "The Mouse" is especially popular in Asia this year since it's the "Year of the Rat" (seriously, that's not a joke).
End of our story on Hong Kong Disneyland...but our trip had barely started!

As I said, there are lots of live performances in HK Disneyland. This was my favorite. These Janitors go around cleaning the park and then suddenly drop their dust pans and get their grove on with a 15 minute performance that was different each time. Very fun to watch. The performers are all dressed and equipped exactly like the park workers right down to the cans and buckets so you never know who is a worker or who is a drummer. Very clever.
(Video Clip tends to load slowly - sorry)