The Accidental Pinoy Tourista: Hong Kong Disneyland

After checking into the JW Marriott, Jon and I walked to the MTR (Mass Transit Railway) station to buy our tickets to Disneyland. Once again, we had to find a way to get smaller bills to even use the ticket machine. Disneyland is nearer to the airport so the trip was almost as long.

Read somewhere that November weather in Hong Kong is ideal: no more rains, and it's cool but not cold since winter doesn't arrive till middle of December. Decided that the coldest it would get in Hong Kong during our stay would be Tagaytay or Baguio cold.

When I got to Hong Kong, I realized I didn't need to wear a jacket over my shirt because it wasn't that cold. I did wear a light jacket when we went to Disneyland as it got colder the nearer evening came. I found it amusing to notice that some locals riding the MTR were wearing thicker sweaters/jackets/coats. The trip to Sunny Bay station was long enough for me to figure out that the people who did wear those thick outerwear simply wanted to look fashionable as they even took time to complete the look - with the women it meant wearing the appropriate high heeled boots.

At Sunny Bay station, we took the MTR line that plies the Disneyland route exclusively. Actually, the Disney experience starts the moment you board that train. All the windows are shaped like Mickey's head, and small figures of disney characters are displayed between seat partitions.

Once we got to the theme park, a big fountain in the middle of a wide promenade area greets visitors. Walk a bit more and you'll find the gates and the ticket booth. It's a Sunday, and therefore we had to pay peak day entrance fees. We saw the train chugging along as we entered the gates.

Hong Kong Disneyland is patterned after the one in California. Jon says the lay-out is the same, only on a smaller scale... driven home by the fact that Main Street, which leads to the Sleeping Beauty Castle, was short.

These crystal works are exquisitely beautiful:

If I ever return to playing Sims2, I'd probably try building this castle in the game:

Had to take this picture because I love Winne the Pooh.

Next stop was Tomorrowland. Wanted to try Space Mountain but the wait was long. Took some pictures there then we walked onto Fantasyland. Wandered into Fantasy Gardens where we found people lining up outside the different gazebos so that they could have their pictures taken with the Disney mascots. We took some pictures in the garden but passed on lining up to meet the "Disney Friends".

Outside the garden, a group of musicians passed by and greeted us in Tagalog ... turns out they were all Filipinos. We later saw them playing music outside the Philharmagic building.

We decided to watch the 3D Mickey's Philharmagic show. Couldn't really take pictures of the show since 1) It's discouraged and 2) my camera could'nt capture 3D anyway. If one took the 3D glasses off, one would only see two images of the same scene being projected.

It was already dark when we walked out of the theater and into Adventureland. We realized that our first stop should have been Adventureland since the place is better seen during the daytime.

We were already in line for the Jungle River Cruise, and trying to take photos of Tarzan's treehouse from the pier when we realized it was almost time for the "Sparkling Castle Lights" show. We got out of line and rushed back to Main Street where most of the people have gathered in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Jon took a video of the show:

I took some still pictures with my phone camera:

After the show, it was back to Adventureland and we got into the boat for the Jungle River Cruise. Tried to take pictures but it was impossible because of the moving boat, so decided to switch to Video mode. Too bad I made the decision too late ... there was little left to film:

We then took the raft to Tarzan's Treehouse which is in the middle of Adventureland's lake. Scenes from the movies were depicted in dioramas to be found at all levels of the treehouse.

The Disneyland staff were rushing us to finish our tour of the Treehouse so that we could catch the "Disney in the Stars" fireworks. It was a subtle way to tell they want to start "closing shop".

The fireworks had already started by the time we got back to Main Street and in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. Jon started taking a video once we found a nice spot: