Disneyland

Welcome to Disneyland

Today was our Disney adventure.  We had considered cancelling this experience, but a friend of ours had given us a gift and specifically wanted us to experience Hong Kong Disney.  So we set off from the hotel on the 10 am shuttle, planning to make a full day of the experience and returning on the 8:45pm shuttle.  Dana had done some research and we found that Disney offers a meal plan for lunch and dinner plus a snack.  Food at Disney isn’t economical, but this was a better deal than buying it a la carte if you intended to stay the whole day.

Our time at Disney started off a little rough.  When we left the hotel it was a bit cool and we had even brought along jackets as the weather forecast was showing overcast skies and temps in the upper seventies.  By the time we arrived at the park it was sunny and warming so the jackets got dumped into the backpack and we were getting warm.  Add hot to being tired and not having a plan of attack for navigating the park, and the wait of getting through the gates, getting the meal tickets, etc. and we weren’t all being as patient as we could have been.  

Luke loving the runaway mine cars ride

We started off with a train ride to the other side of the park – Fantasyland.  We rode a few rides and developed a plan for the rest of the day.  We grabbed a snack, made our way through Toy Story land and then moved to Mystic Point where we ate lunch at Explorer's Club Restaurant.  They had food selections from various countries like Korea, Japan and southeast Asia.  From there, we headed to Grizzly Gulch, the area where Ian wanted to go because it had the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars roller coaster.  Alex was too short to ride, so I went on the ride with Ben, Cami, Ian and Luke.  The kids loved it so much, they rode it again and this time I stayed with Alex.  Because the lines were short, they rode it a third time.  Later in the day, we stopped back at this area for three more rides.  It was definitely the favorite ride of the day and the one that generated the most smiles and laughs.  

We also made it over to Tomorrowland where Alex and Cami enjoyed several rounds of the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters game.  We also ate our dinner at the Starliner Diner in this area where they served a Darth Vader burger although it was hard to figure out how to order it.

The parade at night

After dinner, it started to get dark and we watched the parade of characters when it was all lit up.  This was quite a spectacle.  After the parade, we tried to get back to Grizzly Gulch for another roller coaster ride, but that area of the park had already closed for the day so we ended up riding the Mad Hatter Spinning Teacups as the finale ride for the day.

Our shuttle bus back to the hotel left at 8:45pm and the fireworks show that closes the park started at 8:30pm and the walk to the shuttle bus took 10+ minutes so we finished up the last souvenir purchases and watched a few minutes of fireworks before racing back to the bus, arriving minutes before it pulled out of the lot and headed back to the hotel.  We were all exhausted, but I think everyone had a good time.

Ben would like this car.

Several expensive cars outside our hotel.  Cami's choice!

Alex loved the characters.  Here with Sophia the First.

On the Merry Go Round

Actors dressed as toy soldiers in Toy Story Land

Tomorrowland

The elusive Darth Vader burger

Star Wars eggs.  There were character eggs all over the park.

Rice shaped like Mickey tastes better

The parade at night.

Goodbye, Disneyland Hong Kong