Garet

Part 2: Grizzly Gulch. Grizzly was a fantastic roller-coaster, I've never been the biggest fan of Thunder Mountain, I may be in the minority here but although I enjoy it and will get the credit it's very rarely one of those rides I will visit a second time if I can fit in re-rides. However this ride completely blew me away it was just complete fun from beginning to end, it was a lot more thrilling for a family ride than I thought it would be, the launch was surprisingly forceful and it took the hills at more speed than I thought it would. We caught a showing of the Lion King next I wasn't overly interested in this but it looked pretty We did the English tour first but it felt kind of forced and awkward, despite the signs saying all lines were equal length there were a lot of Chinese who went on this tour because the line looked shorter then talked really loudly and translated to his family what was being said We never got around to checking out the tree house sadly. It looked fun though Looks ominous Save the hippos This can't be good the different finale was fun This made me miss all the amazing random flavours I had in Tokyo but we really enjoyed the honey mustard popcorn On the way to Grizzly Gulch, they were setting up for the Halloween carnival Grizzly Mountain This ride had no-line for most of the day, on the second day we skipped the parade and while everyone was watching it was like having your own ERT with trains going round with only 3-8 people in them, although there's something a little creepy about watching people on a ride where most of the restraints are still open and the train is going round. I think this was a forwards part but I can't remember Cable snap time I couldn't get my girlfriend on this, she loves dark rides but will avoid most flats and coasters, she did the mummy but found it a bit too much and watching this bit from afar was what put her off, it's a shame she couldn't see the back seats from afar where the drop isn't so big Pure hands up fun Those darn bears. And the water effect Grizzly Geyser Most areas of the park had their own dirnks, Grizzly was a peach cocktail drink with cherry bubbles. We had a lunch reservation coming up so we did some shopping in the ten minutes before our time, Japan has full versions of the bus holders and Hong Kong had key ring versions of the bus holders There were a lot of half animal, half machine merchandise being advertised when we visited, we were really surprised to see how much Stitch was mixed in with the core characters in merchandise, all the Halloween limited additions had a stitch variant and a lot of the multi packs included stitch with Mickey Minnie and Donald where I expected Goofy to have been. More terminator merchandise Alfred caps now available Bumped into a band on the way to dinner The corner cafe food was delicious and so where the mini-waffles, see you tomorrow for the other half of the park.

So with Korean thanksgiving coming up again we decided we'd fly out and have a quick visit to Hong Kong Disneyland. I had always heard from others who visited about 5 years ago how small it was and how it was the kiddiest of the Disney Parks, however with Mystic Manor, Grizzly Gulch and Toy Story Land since then I was extremely keen on seeing how much had been expanded. I'm glad we went we found the park phenomenal, however I think my girlfriend liked it too much though, she actually would rather return here than Tokyo I will still claim to my dying breath that Tokyo will always be the disney for me no matter how busy it is and she openly admits it's the best one just not the one she wants to visit the most She did give some reasons though: Maybe we've just been lucky with the days we went but she just really loved the fact that it wasn't too difficult to stroll up to see a parade or get a good spot for the fireworks, the lines never seemed to hit over 30 mins (except autopia and the parachutes), actually got to see the shows and generally if you wanted to meet 1 of the characters in their pavilions in fantasy land or a princess was spotted around the park you could easily stroll up and meet them within 10- 15 minutes. I think she was just also really sold on how instead of a mad fastpass rush with crazy crowds and shoving like our last trip to Tokyo, you could stroll around the park in the opening hours book up a reservation for the retaurant and get in half the park before the lines started to get anywhere near higher than walk-on. She thinks that when we have a child it would be best to return here over any of the others. She just found Hong Kong as a park where we could take the day as it comes whereas when we did Tokyo even when we were just enjoying the park we still were constantly being stuck on tight schedules to optimize flashpasses or beat crowds. She openly admits it's not the best Disney (that still goes to Tokyo) but she just found this the only one out of all of them where she just felt she could be "washed over by the atmosphere" just stroll around the park and do rides as we pleased and bump into disney characters (they still had meet and greet areas but the lines were so tiny it really did feel like you'd just stumbled out of a restaurant and bumped into Buzz as opposed to the 30min-hour waits we've encountered on most other trips for princesses/greetings). I get what she is saying since between us we've done all the Disney parks and this is the first one where on one of our days we have just done the whole park as we pleased but I don't think anything will ever knock Tokyo my must return to spot (although who knows how Shanghai will turn out ) Since the park was so quiet, I took a lot of photos. I'll break them into 4 parts with parts 1 & 2 today and parts 3 & 4 tomorrow. Part 1 is Toy Story Land & Mystic Manor. I really enjoyed these lands, Toy Story Land was the first place we hit since most of the crowds seemed to be not heading there, although I wanted to do Mystic Manor first I had no idea how quiet the park would really be and was worried RC Racer would have a long line later in the day since it was the only credit without single rider.The area is stunning with all its bright colours and Rc Racer was a lot of fun but there generally wasn't that much reason around the land for us, we rode the flats although the 45 minute wait for Sarges parachute drop wasn't worth it when we revisited and when we rode we got a view of not much.... I'd love to see a Toy Story Mania go here just so Hong Kong has the Toy story set. It was really weird seeing the coaster and flat going round half empty but all the people standing in a full line for the parachutes. Mystic Manor was an incredible dark ride, I rode this so many times and all the effects where incredible. However though its one of my favorite dark rides I wasn't as fascinated by the trackless parts of the ride as I thought i'd be. Even when the cars joined up for the chinese tornado room at the end your eyes are so focused on the effects that except for the first and last room and when another car came to join up with us before heading to the tornado room I completely forgot about it, that's not a bad thing since I'm sure that's the point but there was never that insane how on earth is this possible moment like the Pooh disco room or most of Aquatopia. I just like moments where those two rides really show off what the trackless system could do but then I'm the guy who dreams of seeing a Radiator Springs indoor ride where all the trackless cars share one giant main room of the town with the main road and then divert off into rooms of the different shops before coming back to the main room between each one. Basically i'm just hoping for an indoor giant version of aquatopia where there are trackless cars everywhere Maybe one-day we'll start to see trackless animatronics driving around or interacting with the riders on these trackless rides. I think my girlfriend got sick of "Is this the right train?" jokes many years ago. Sadly these full size versions weren't spotted in the gift shop unlike Tokyo. We've arrived It had a beautiful landscaped entrance They were getting ready for Halloween when we visited The train pulled up so i'm assuming the park will be opening soon, do many Disney parks have the sideways seating that these trains have, I don't remember them in the other parks but we very rarely have had time to ride the train. I've never been this close to the gates for an opening ceremony at a Disney Park before. Mickey and Minnie wave to the crowd, a family and their children pose for photos then the children were given a giant key and lock to open Disney. Unlike Tokyo and the mad crowd rush to fast passes, everyone in Hong Kong seemed to either A)run straight onto the train or B) run for the photo op with mickey and They had this set-up but I forgot to go in and see what was happening. Obligatory castle shot To Toy Story Land Woody greets people as they enter As you'd expect from a land based on toys, it was really colorful. Andy sure did have a lot of toys. First ride of Hong Kong Disney. I loved the line was themed to scalectrix pieces. To that random lady who went back and re-rode so I could get some pictures when no-one was here, thank-yo and this is your moment. TPR salutes you I loved that this moved with the ride, it's the little details An overview So many colours A fun ride for the family, not overly fast but enjoyable it built up lines later in the afternoon. Again the detailing is fantastic and I love how it loves as if it's just been pulled out of the box A fun ride but not worth the huge lines later. Bye bye Toy story land The work put into this building was fantastic It really looks amazing from all angles. I forgot his name any Disney fans out there remember? Was it Henry or am I confusing him from ToT in Disneysea? Mr Simpsons music Alfred hides from Jerry Bruckheimer turning him into the next big Disney blockbuster. Alfreds more about shadow puppets. Ride vehicle Looking at the previews i'd always wondered why out of all the cool stuff he want's this box. Once on the ride I noticed the box has two monkeys reaching for the jewel carved into it, the little details really blew me away. The finale tornado room with one ticked off monkey. The details in these screens were incredible. Although the magic music dust that flys around the room before being pulled into the box was my favorite effect of the whole ride.

Quieter periods for staff to get used to operations and sort out any kinks, work out how to spread crowds etc before the busy period prehaps?

Wow that'll be an amazing view from the top, apart from tilting this one doesn't rotate like the older gyro-drops does it? I can't remember it in the press release, there will be some great different views from different seats if it doesn't.

Yes but it should have been off by default or at least offering the option before it did it, I signed on today to find google + back-up had been installed on my computer without a single notification or ask of permission, i'm not quite sure why it bugged me so much that something had installed without me knowing but it did. I appreciate that picasa is free and google gives me free storage for lower quality versions of my photos but I have a back-up on USB and picasa web. All these "auto-awesoming" to show up privately and installing programmes with 0 notification makes me feel like google is trying to force me into google+ whether I want to or not, if it gave me the option first or asked to install maybe I wouldn't be as put off getting a google+ as much as I am now.

Towertimes has been updating over the last few days with the new rides although not being target audience of the new tv shows and also not having been in that area of the park on previous visits that is being refurbished into cbeebies land, I have no idea which of these are brand new rides or old rides/play areas redecorated although the last one is confirmed as a retheme of the boat ride: http://old.towerstimes.co.uk/index.php.

Is this an optional add-on? It'd make for a great challenge though, take the commentary from one of the videos or make a mix and then design a ride around it to try and sync up with the audio and make a great layout.

Damn, I wish i'd known how awesome customer service was, since I didn't back-up my installer when my old laptop suddenly bit the dust I rebought it. Oh well was still worth every penny even paying twice.

I think the day I gave up with google+ was when I was using picasa to save photos and google+ would then take them and keep insisting it had "auto-awesomed" my photos by making all the lights twinkle.... on everything. Or just make everything into moving gifs, It just kept making the thing look cheesy and was just too much hassle keep removing things (even if they are private) that should have been optional instead of automatic.

Now Flying Turns is open, they should spend the next few years making a version of the virginia reel.

I honestly would have just assumed that if we hadn't been on the Hong Kong website beforehand to see what was around the park, I blame it on Jin, she had no interest in the bears at all but it was where Chip N Dale were supposed to be, but with the temperature 33C while the princesses were around for much longer and in the gardens the main characters were switched often but the random meet and greets would only do photos for 20 minutes which meant after about 3 minutes the line would be closed because there was enough people to take up 20 minutes. We were told Chip and Dale would also be on main street at 11:20 so we hung around the shops and got there at 11:23 to be turned away, we were told the next one was in an hour so we went off to get rides but never seemed to make it on the exact window of time needed. Jin was definitely on the dot the next day but since it was opening the line was stopped almost as soon as it opened, thankfully a cast member recognized her and gave her the correct time and took pity and let her join the back of the line when we had just missed it again. Lesson learned though, she never tried to play it to the exact time by doing more shopping and preferred arriving a little early for the other meet and greets, a relief for both me and my wallet.

True, could have been worse and been the bears from Brave

Yea, I felt the same that they were generic bears when we rode it but we saw Kenai & Kona meet and greets a few times so my girlfriend was curious if they were tied into the ride, I think it was more that there's an older bear and bear cub on the ride and Disney had some costumes from a not so popular movie lying around

Are the bears on the grizzly mine train supposed to be the bears from brother bear? The setting of the mine train is obviously very different from the movie but I ask because there were Kenai and Kona meet and greets in Grizzly Gulch and they were the characters who had meet and greet in the area apart from the few times when Mickey,Minnie and chip/dale were there the days we visited.

In regards to that, they are required by law to show that video since its a safety video that opened with the ride. If any of the TVs aren't displaying the video or the DVD player breaks, then the ride cannot run until it is fixed. Is that a california-only law? I feel like i've been to other parks that sometimes have had their tv screens turned off.

It didn't seem to have much effect when it was open, when I visited transformers had an hour wait, with the mummy and the Jurassic rides with 40 minutes on the other side of battlestar and even then with 1 train operation and single rider the trains were leaving half empty. Makes me wonder if it was removed if we'd see a big/thrilling roller-coaster again or if they'll stick to milder rides. If it's not too Japanese, i'd love to see a space fantasy clone in sci-fi city

This one at pleasurewood hills you don't tend to see that often: http://pleasurewoodhills.com/rides-and-attractions/thrill-rides/the-tide-traveller/

Wasn't there another at Flamingo Land, UK?

I'm not sure about the cycle but Seoul Land has one they installed themed to soccer for when the world cup was here.

I think people are over-reading how much the early release will actually do as well when it is first released, by the sounds of it the construction of rides will be added as ready. No problem with this, as said above it's better to release something when it is ready but I just hope people aren't expecting to pick up their early release and start getting straight into building a full blown park, the early release sounds more to trying out each feature and testing it with the next ones unlocking in patches etc.

Haha, I'm also part of the broke out of space prison club

Ok a little confused, what movie is this going to be based on? I'm guessing Jurassic World? Edit: Oops, just beaten to it.

It's somewhere near the zoo area: http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/LatestIncidentsContainer_21121310.asp#.UrV1JbRbxht

But since it's interacting with the audience it's pretty much in the language with very little garble, so the one in hong kong ran 3 different languages at different times during the day, cantonese, mandarin and english, on the day we visited you had to be there roughly between 3:30-5:30 (I think I can't quite remember the time but I think the English version didn't have as many viewing as the other ones) if you wanted the English version.

I was planning on doing my next update of Lotte World and Everland soon-ish since Lotte World opened a lot of new rides (although I may wait until the re-opening of childrens grand park before I go around looking at the new rides), lately I have been posting my photos straight from my computer so they are bigger sized. Since they need to be 800x600 for the park index would it be better to post all the pictures again in this friend as a duplicate or would I post a link to the TR here so you can choose which photos for the new rides are best and then I just re-size those ones? Edit: I'll just post all my TR's in 800x600 still, I don't think that much quality is lost when I change it on picasa for forum viewing and there's just no point over complicating it.