Disney Magic

Hong Kong Disneyland – Part the Second

Day 2 of our Hong Kong Disneyland experience was possibly even better than the first day. Partly because we managed to recover somewhat from the exhaustion of having to hit the ground running on the first day.

Friday morning, we took a 5am flight and arrived in Hong Kong at about 10am, blitzed into the hotel for a quick check in, then went straight for lunch and into the park. Which meant that I was awake for the better part of 48 hours and even though the kids got pockets of sleep on the flight, they were surviving on pure adrenaline the entire first day.

After a nice deep sleep in our room at Disney’s Hollywood Hotel, the kids were up and ready to go at 8am on Saturday morning.

Breakfast was a character buffet meet and greet at the Enchanted Garden in the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel next door. The food? Stunning both in terms of variety and quality. I still can’t get over how good the food is in Hong Kong Disneyland because my brain has been programmed to associate Disneyland with fried chicken. But the best part was that Mickey, Goofy and Pluto came over to say hi while we were munching on dim sum.

Kirsten saw Mickey approaching from 3 tables away and started shouting “MICKEY! MICKEY I’M HERE!! SEE, IT’S MICKEY, MOMMY!!!” Naturally, everyone turned to look at the commotion but she got an extra hug from Mickey for her enthusiasm.

Once we were in the park, our first stop was Tomorrowland to get Fastpasses for Space Mountain. Since I was pregnant and Kirsten was too short, we did the baby rides while the 2 boys used our Fastpasses and went on Space Mountain 4 times. Yes you heard right, 4 times. Truett just made the height limit for the ride and he was in roller coaster heaven.

Hearing him rave about Space Mountain, I almost tried to sneak in once for old time’s sake but I didn’t because I’m pregnant and responsible.

Another of their favorite rides was Autopia, a race car ride that they could steer and drive along a track all on their own. They weren’t very good at steering so the ride got a little bumpy but all that bumping made it all the more fun for them.

Here’s a video of Truett showing off his driving skills. By the second ride, he actually got pretty good.

While queueing for the Jungle Cruise boat ride, they were picked by one of the cast members to be little helpers to the skipper on board. They were given special safari vests and allowed to help the captain steer the boat.

The last land we visited was the bright and cheery Toy Story Land, the park’s latest addition which opened in November last year. It is also Asia Exclusive, so you’ll only be able to experience it here. There were 3 rides here – the Slinky Dog Spin, the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop and the RC Racer. Unfortunately, Kirsten was too short and I was too pregnant for all the rides here so we walked around and took pictures while the boys got their adrenaline fix.

Baby girl is on a mission to grow taller and I’m on a mission to give birth so when we do that, we’ll be back to try them out.

By late afternoon, we managed to try most of the rides but we couldn’t possibly leave without doing the meet and greets, so we spent the rest of the time waiting to meet characters.

Truett wasn’t big on queueing to take pictures so after spending 20 minutes in line to meet Pooh, he decided his time was better spent on one of the rides. Kirsten, however, was intent to meet Minnie. I told her the queue to meet Minnie would take 25 minutes and she was all “I will be patient…I want to give Minnie a big hug.”

So she did. And that hug meant the world to her.

That pretty much wraps up our 2-day Hong Kong Disneyland experience. Just as we were walking out of the park and waving goodbye to the happiest place in the world, Tru turned to us and said “I like Disneyland. We need to come back again, ok?”

My sentiments exactly.

Disney Magic

Hong Kong Disneyland – Part the First

I think I fell in love with Disneyland the first time I walked down Main Street in Disneyland, Anaheim 14 years ago. It was one of those moments in life where you know something magical is happening the very moment it happens. I remember standing outside the Emporium looking down the street at Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and feeling like I was in a dream I never wanted to wake up from.

Over the years, I’ve been to Walt Disney World in Florida, Disneyland in Tokyo, and back to Disneyland Anaheim. And every single time, I’ve felt the magic standing at that same spot along Main Street.

This visit to Hong Kong Disneyland, we wanted the kids to experience the same magic.

The moment they stepped into Disneyland, they alternated between the OMG-I-can’t-stop-jumping-euphoria and the too-much-awesomeness-brain-shut-down. It was too cute to watch.

The first order of business when we arrived was the Flights of Fantasy Parade, a street parade with floats, a marching band, lots of dancers and their favorite Disney characters. We got great seats with a brilliant view of the entire parade.

Kirsten even got a chance to join in the parade to dance with the characters. She was so thrilled she couldn’t stop talking about it the rest of the day. “I dance really well like a princess right? SO FUN!”

Right after, we went for the classic “it’s a small world” boat ride in Fantasyland. I have to admit that in all the times i’ve been to Disney, I’ve never been on this ride because it’s totally for babies. In fact, I’ve never been on most of the rides in Fantasyland because there’s no way I’m queueing 45 minutes surrounded by a bunch of babies to get on the carousel or the spinning tea cups.

But with the kids, we became one of those parents who stood patiently in line for a 2-minute ride on dancing horses. And you know what? It was awesome.

We also managed to catch a show on the first day – The Golden Mickeys. I must have enjoyed it the most because it was basically a musical singalong session featuring all my all-time favorite Disney songs from Beauty and the Beast, Little Mermaid, Mulan, Hercules. The husband didn’t really know most of the songs but he thought the staging was superb.

The kids got a little bored halfway through and Kirsten fell asleep just as her beloved Ariel came on stage, which was unfortunate because that was the only time we managed to see Ariel appear during our entire Disneyland visit. She was really bummed when she found out that Ariel doesn’t do character meet and greets in Hong Kong Disneyland so it seems like we’ll have to make a trip down to Florida some time in the near future.

That was pretty much the end of our first day and we wrapped it up with a splendid dinner and the “Disney in the Stars” Fireworks show.

I’m not really a foodie but I have to take a moment here to talk about the food in Hong Kong Disneyland. It’s like having the best of both worlds because there’s nothing like being able to slurp down a bowl of steaming hot wanton noodles in Disneyland. When we were in Florida, we were eating burgers, pasta, fried chicken and fries until we were both a little nauseous. Our Chinese stomachs were craving for some comfort food in the form of rice, noodles and chili sauce.

During this trip, we had some awesomesauce Chinese food. Like double boiled conpoy and chicken soup in coconut, king prawns in black bean sauce, wok-fried tenderloin beef cubes and these super cute character paus.

Happiness.

More to come tomorrow.

Videos I dig

A dose of Disney Magic

We’ve been looking forward to this weekend for a while because tomorrow, we’re all heading over to Disneyland Hong Kong to soak in some much-needed magic fairy dust. Especially so since the kids have been battling illnesses and feeling a little down in the dumps all week. After Truett came back from the hospital, it was Kirsten’s turn to come down with a whole bunch of flu-like symptoms.

The great news is that they’re both almost fully recovered in time for our trip early tomorrow morning.

This trip is extra magical because it will be the kids’ first trip to Disneyland, plus it comes fully sponsored by Disney – for which we’re extremely thankful. They’ve arranged for all the accommodations and itinerary, and I’ll be updating details of the trip over the next couple of days.

On a related note, Kirsten is completely in love with Ariel, the Little Mermaid. I’ve never been a fan of any of the Disney Princesses because hello, Pooh, Buzz Lightyear, Mike Wazowski, Boo, Mater?? But seeing how Princessy my little girl is, I’m not surprised her favorite Disney character would have to be a princess. I’m just glad she went for a spunky one at least.

She watches Ariel’s Part Of Your World song several times a day on Youtube and knows all the words to the entire song. Ok, the pitch is all over the place and we suspect she might be a little tone deaf but what she lacks in musical talent, she makes up for in unadulterated passion.