Disneyland HK

I just wanna bang on the drum all day

Annette's company had a holiday outing at Disneyland Hong Kong and I was able to tag along. Being mid-December, the weather was almost perfect and the crowds were very light. Perfect day to check out the new park.

After we arrived and surveyed our surroundings, we quickly realized that this Disney was about a quarter the size of Disney World, if that. (We just visted the Florida park last year when Annette had a conference there.) Still present were the familiar areas 'Main Street USA,' 'Adventure Land,' and 'Tomorrow Land', and many of the traditional rides such as Space Mountain and Dumbo. Conspiciously missing were 'It's a small world' (which Annette had really wanted to ride in Florida but it was closed) and 'Pirates of the Carribean'. Maybe they will add them later.

Anyhow, shortly after we arrived, the big parade started. It was actually on par with DW, if not a little better. Many of the costumes were incredibly intricate.


Parade

Tuba

Parade

Army Men

Space People

Like Ocean Park, Disney was decked out with Holiday cheer. We snapped this photo in front of the giant Christmas tree.


Christmas Tree

Our favorite rides were in Adventureland. Space mountian was maybe not quite as exciting as the original, but the "Buzz Lightyear" ride left us very satisfied. On that ride, you sit in a car with a lazer equipped 'space gun' and zap aliens. It even keeps your score. We saved the Earth on four different occasions that day.


Beam me up, Scotty!


The castle was much smaller than we though it would be.. and the color scheme was a little weird too.. pink and blue?


Mini Castle

Of course we had to get our photo with some of the characters.


Asian Chip and Dale

Annette in Space

We also went to three of the shows - the 3D "Mickey's Philharmagic" was a clone of the Disney world version.. which was great since we both really enjoyed it both times. Next was a live action "Lion King" show which was pretty good.. costumed actors and animatronic animals sang the songs from the cartoon. It was all in English, with some Chinese translation here and there. On the other hand, 'The Golden Mickeys' was in Cantonese.. which wasn't a big deal since most of the time it featured actors singing Disney songs in the original English.

After seeing pretty much all the park had to offer, we watched the fireworks show and lingered on main street for a few minutes as the snow (foam) fell around us.


Christmas Tree

Wes

Fountain