One of the reasons for holidaying in Hong Kong was because of Hong Kong Disneyland. I explained in the first holiday post that our planned holiday in Florida fell through and because that included a Disney World visit, considered other Disney options.

To start the day I went with plain congee and dim sum. Not quite a breakfast of champions.

We elected to purchase in advance two-day tickets. We’d heard that Disneyland is bigger than places like Dreamworld and Movieworld on the Gold Coast so we figured a two-day pass would help us see everything we wanted to see and not be disappointed.. We caught a series of trains from Hong Kong Island to Disneyland.

The final train is a special Disneyland train fitted out with Mickey Mouse shaped windows and hand holds. I have no idea who the bloke in this photograph is.

At the entrance before the ticketing area is a big whale fountain. Atop the fountain is a surfing Mickey. The column of water moves up and down.

The second best ride is the Grizzly Gulch Mine Car Ride. I found a YouTube point of view video which is better than any photograph I could have shot.

Ms20 really likes Toy Story and so does her BF apparently.

We went on the parachute ride.

It was okay. Nothing like the Big Drop at Dreamworld or Batman at Movieworld.

We also rode Slinky Dog.

We walked back to Adventureland and got on the Safari Jungle River Cruise.

Daniel was pretty funny in his own way.

Okay, Yummy Lummy is a food blog so I need to add a little more about food. The most appalling and disappointing thing about Hong Kong Disneyland is the quality of the food. I expected the prices to be high. That’s the norm for theme parks unfortunately. But in most places I’ve accepted the meal as at least mediocre.

I should have gone with my gut and stuck with Asian food. After all we were in Hong Kong and there were Asian options. Even Chinese options. I was hungry and we were in Fantasyland and Ms18 was keen on a Mickey Mouse shaped pizza. Rather than waste time looking for another outlet I asked for what I thought might be reasonable. I knew the Chinese should never have shared any food with Marco Polo. The European versions of Chinese food don’t rate. I went with what was described as a creamy mushroom pasta.

The photographs tell the story. The pasta was stuck together. It was tepid. It was too salty. The mushrooms were chewy. It was disgusting. My advice is do not ask for this from Fantasyland’s Royal Banquet Room.

Okay, rant over until next time 

So here is a gallery of some random photographs from the afternoon.

Here comes another food rant.

For afternoon tea. Yes, on holidays we enjoy afternoon tea. I ignored tried to forget my body mass and my expanding waistline.

We went to Main Street and noticed a cafe selling High Tea. Now I’ve had high tea at Raffles in Singapore, the Hyatt in Canberra and a few other places. That said, my expectations were suitably set for Disneyland.

It all looked nice and there was appropriate Mickey Mouse branding on some of the products. The chocolate drink which I had assumed to be cold was hot and limp is how I would describe it. The plates had mixes of sweet and savoury on a plate which got a little confusing. I don’t mind a sweet and savoury high tea, but keep them separated on different plates. There was a scone which was just awful. It was tough and chewy. There was also a layered pastry which looked like it should be sweet but it was salty. The mouthfeel from the macaron suggested it was a few days old.

Here’s a gallery of high tea photographs.

 

After high tea we settled into a spot for the parade and fireworks. It was during this five hour period that my patience was sorely tested. I’ve already mentioned in a previous post about our encounters with people who do not have a similar understanding of personal space and both situational and spatial awareness. The girls were really keen to get a good view for the evening parade so we staked out a place on a street curb which impeded no one else and we sat/stood there waiting. From time to time one of us would break off to visit the rest rooms or go looking at something. As night fell the crowd grew. Officials roped off an area near us so the frail and infirm could get a good view. Behind me I felt people poking and prodding. People were coming off the street in front of us and just pushing Miss14 aside to get through. I man spread to protect her and stood my ground buffeting shoulders of passers by. One bloke behind me then started poking me in the shoulder and told me he expected me to sit on the ground when the parade started. I’d already planned to do that but being told by someone just annoyed me. Then he started pulling at my camera bag. I nearly took a swing.

After the parade we turned around getting ready for a wait for the fireworks. Again, people just streamed in front of us. Two women came and stood right in front of Ms20 while she was photographing the fireworks. No consideration whatsoever. It was just unbelievable how rude people could be.

Here is a gallery of some images from the parade and fireworks. I haven’t processed any of these images. I was too annoyed to focus on the photography at the time.

The fireworks finish at 9 pm and then there is the crush to the exit, boarding the Disneyland train and the making connections with two more trains before the 10 minute work from the Causeway Bay MTR station to the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

It’s true what they say, Hong Kong is for people who like to wake up late and stay awake late.

We came back the next morning after breakfast.

I’d say our favourite rides were Space Mountain and Grizzly Gulch Mine Carts. Both were reasonably fast with good twists and turns. The Grizzly Gulch has a long backward stretch making it exciting. The Space Mountain ride is mainly in the dark with projections on the ceilings and walls. It made me wish we had a Star Trek theme park with rides on the NX-01, NCC 1701 A, B, C, D and E, as well as shuttle craft and the Defiant. Most of all it would be great to have battles with Klingon and Romulan Birds of Prey.

Anyway back to Disneyland. One ride we waited over 60 minutes to do was the Autopia car ride. Miss14 was my driver and I took a time-lapse video of the track work.

Autopia At Hong Kong Disneyland from Gary Lum on Vimeo.

The next ride was “It’s a small world” which was very colourful.

For lunch I couldn’t go past the Star Wars Darth Vader cheeseburger. As much as I prefer Star Trek, my favourite character is Darth Vader. I love the dark side of the force.

We wended the second day with an egg custard tart

For dinner we agreed we’d stop at the Kowloon MTR station and look around. We came up the Tasty Congee and Noodle Wantun Shop where we stopped and enjoyed a nice meal. We craved vegetables so we asked for some Chinese vegetables along with our noodles.

So ended another day. We were pretty tired and happy for a relatively early evening.

Have you been to Hong Kong Disneyland?