Surviving The Chaos: Hong Kong Disneyland

After two stops and sixteen hours on a plane, we finally arrived in Hong Kong! It was the first leg of our nine day trip to China. We were really going there for one reason...Hong Kong Disneyland! We got there late Sunday night and got up early Monday morning and headed to Disneyland. The taxi ride over was the first time we really got to see the city. It was fascinating, amazing and quite spectacular. I felt like I couldn't get enough. Everywhere you looked your eyes were filled with something interesting, jaw dropping, humbling, unbelievable or just crazy.

I was so excited as we walked the long corridor to the entrance of Disneyland. I have to admit the Ricky was a really good sport because he was there because I wanted to be. It was a very hot, humid and rainy day and if your not a Mickey fan like I am, it can make for some miserable conditions. Luckily he was a trooper and we had a great and memorable day together. The park itself was quite small. In fact, it's the smallest of all the Disney parks. I was a little surprised to find that the guests attending the park are not as diverse as other parks. Ricky and I stuck out like a sore thumb.

The park had a great layout with a good mixture of shows and attractions. We rode several rides including Space Mountain, Buzz Astro Blasters, Small World, the Train, and Big Thunder Mountain. With the exception of the Buzz ride, all the others were slightly different then the original rides and frankly we agreed that they were all better! Big Thunder Mountain was the best. It goes backward (which we weren't aware of) and it sure scared Ricky and gave a good laugh.

The shows were quite good as well. We saw one that was a Broadway style show, another that was an animated 4-D adventure and the last was Lion King which was in an arena setting similar to the one in Animal Kingdom. We were impressed with the mixture of English and Mandarin throughout the shows and the performers did a great job. The shows were a nice way for us to get a break from the rain.

I always look forward to the yummy (mostly junk) food at theme parks. Unfortunately this trip really struggled in that area - mostly because I'm a very picky eater and I don't like most Chinese food. We managed to find a hamburger (if you can call it that) joint where we ate lunch. The fries were good though. I did get excited to have a frozen yogurt for an afternoon snack. Much to my surprise, it wasn't like our Western frozen yogurt. It was plain flavored and a bit sour. We also quickly learned that they don't have cold drinks like we do in the states. We sure missed having an ice cold coke or diet coke.

One of my favorite parts of the day was dinner at the Disneyland Hotel. As expected it was beautiful. It definitely had the Disney magic (and details) throughout. We thought it was likely one place that we'd be able to get a Western dinner and we were right. We ate at Walt's Cafe. It was actually a fine dining restaurant overlooking the hotel's garden maze and the ocean. The food wasn't exactly what we'd be served here but it was close and still quite delicious. The amazing part was the service. At any given moment we had at least three servers waiting on our every move or request. We ended our dinner with a yummy dessert. After three courses, we were stuffed with delight and were left with a $1007.00 bill. Ricky thought was the funniest part of dinner. We actually spent over a thousand dollars! The most expensive meal the two of us have ever had together!

We made our way back to the hotel via taxi. We were traveling at approximately...light speed and I saw my life flash before my eyes several times. I'm pretty sure our taxi driver strived to one day be a race car driver and was practicing in his little old beater car. It was nothing short of a miracle that we made it back to our hotel safely that night but we did and it had been a magical and memorable day.

Entrance to the park

Waiting for the gates of the park to open.

Main Street

The tiny Castle

Inside Small World

My favorite land was Toy Story land. It was absolutely over the top adorable.

There were only a few rides but the themed decorations were perfect.

Ricky and the Toy Story Army Man

We left the park at around 5:00 pm and had seen just about everything. I think if it hadn't rained on us all day that we would've stayed longer but we had a great day.