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disneyland

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, love bites

California Dreaming: Los Angeles (Part 2 – Finale)

Leg 5: The happiest place in the world

The castle
The castle

I have to devote a whole post to Disneyland because it is hands down the single happiest place in the world. It’s an insane amount of happy thoughts packed into 85 acres. There’s fairy dust in the air that makes all your troubles disappear and turns kids into tiny little balls of sunshine (even the bratty ones). It’s impossible to feel depressed in Disneyland. Even the Grinch would have turned into Tinkerbell if he had the sense to go there. Only in Disneyland, you could be a kid and no one would judge you.

I originally wanted to get a 5-day pass but the husband threatened to leave me there alone so we compromised and decided to go for 3 days instead. It was 3 days of non-stop action. I dragged his ass out of bed at 5.30 every morning just so that we could be at the gates by 6.30 when the doors opened. And I refused to leave till they chased us out at close to midnight. I’m like a hardcore Disneyland fanatic.

If there’s one bad thing about the place, it’s the crowds, which is legendary. The average waiting time for popular rides like Space Mountain and Indiana Jones was about 2 hours, so you either had to forego the experience or spend up to 12 hours just waiting in line. But not us, because before we left, I spent hours developing a genius of a masterpiece – Daphne’s Disneyland Touring Plan. I had the day divided into 15 minute segments and it required massive amounts of discipline and a lot of running. The folks who walk in Disneyland are the queuers and the smart ones, well, they have to sprint from one end of the park to the other. But the result was that we never spent more than 15 minutes in the queue. Ever.

Seriously, if you’re planning to head down, just drop me a mail and I’ll send it to you. You will be eternally grateful to me, and you can also come clean my house from time to time after that.

I kept these 2 Disney dollars from my trip in 1998
I kept these 2 Disney dollars from my trip in 1998
Our stash of fastpasses
Our stash of fastpasses

Besides checking out the rides, I was also on a mission to collect autographs and photos of all the characters I could find, which is way harder than it sounds. First, there are tons of crazy kids thronging them all the time, and they don’t have a fixed schedule of appearance. So they can just pop up anytime and then suddenly disappear. Since I was way smarter than all the pesky kids, I bribed the staff to give me their schedules for the day so I could beat them all to it. Actually I had to grovel and offer some special services for it, but hey, whatever it takes baby.

Eeyore
Eeyore
Pooh
Pooh
Pluto
Pluto
Chip or Dale
Chip or Dale (I could never tell)
Goofy
Goofy
Minnie
Minnie
Mr Incredible & Frozone
Mr Incredible & Frozone
Sully
Sully

But I think it’s karma. After spending 3 days shoving babies out of the way to collect autographs, I actually lost the autograph book, which was far more upsetting for me than when I lost my wedding band in Tahoe. (see, I didn’t even bother to mention it in the Tahoe post, but I did. I lost it up on Adventure Peak) At least I still got the pictures to show for it.

So that’s it. All 3 weeks of our honeymoon. The best 3 weeks of my life. When it was time to drive back to LAX, I was turned to the husband all Arnie style and said “I’ll be back”.

love bites

California Dreaming: San Francisco

I’m having the most severe honeymoon withdrawal ever. It started the moment I got on the plane from LAX and it hasn’t gone away since. For the first two weeks after I got home, I’d crawl into my “happy place” in my head and imagine that I was strolling down the strip in Vegas and squishing snowballs in Tahoe. Some days, I could almost smell the scent of fresh snow. Heavenly. On the last day of my honeymoon, I was throwing a hissy fit refusing to go home. I told the husband something along the lines of “that’s it, I’m staying here forever and you can go home without me.”

2 years and 2 kids later, I still wonder if I should have sat my ass down on the kerb and stood my ground. Life would be so different. IHOP every morning, skiing in the winter, road trips, shopping at Saks, sipping coffee in Santa Monica, Disneyland. Life would be good.

These days, I still retire to my happy place whenever things got too depressing. The irony is that I end up feeling more depressed than ever. It’s bittersweet, especially now that there’s no chance of ever recapturing those moments again. We were young and in love, flying by the seat of our pants and without a care in the world. We’re still young and in love, but my pants are now stuffed with diapers, breast milk and baby vomit. And responsibilities compel me. It’s a catch 22, really. Taking a holiday with the kids would be a logistical nightmare and taking a holiday without them would be an emotional one.

So I’m content with browsing the pictures and recapturing the moments in my head. And since I’m feeling extra generous today, I’ll share them with you.

Leg 1: I left my heart in San Francisco

I still don’t know what ever possessed us to do it, but in a bid to save $400 on admin charges to fly direct to SFO, we decided to land in LAX and take a 9 hour drive along the Pacific Coast Highway right after a gruelling 27 hour flight. I have since learnt a painful lesson on not being too cheapskate.

I was so exhausted I had to hold on to the car for support

I was so exhausted I had to hold on to the car for support

I love that the entire Bay area is so laid back. Folks aren’t rushing at breakneck speed and they’ll take the time to stop and chat. The first day, we were up at 5am and by noon, we had conquered Fisherman’s Wharf, Coit Tower, the Embarcadero, Chinatown and Union Square. Don’t ask me how we did it, but we did it.

climbing up coit tower was enough workout for the entire trip

climbing up coit tower was enough workout for the entire trip

Bubba Gump has the best shrimp in the whole wide world

Bubba Gump has the best shrimp in the whole wide world

My personal favorite was Sausalito. It’s like a slice of heaven. We’ve already marked it as our ideal retirement location. I felt like I was stepping into Stars Hollow on the set of Gilmore Girls. The shops were quaint and there was magic in the air. I even made friends with a cute little Goldie.

there's love in the air in Sausalito

there's love in the air in Sausalito

one day, I'll get a goldie just like this one

one day, I'll get a goldie just like this one

And of course, the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge. Driving across at 80 mph, my hands were trembling as I felt the bridge sway. And in the distance, the bay was completely fogged up.

Me: Look, its all fogged up!

Husband: Hey, stop swearing ok.

Me: Just shut up.

see, I told you it was all fogged up

see, I told you it was all fogged up