milst1

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We go to Alabama over July 4th every year and in 2013 we tagged a credit run onto our usual activities. I picked up this little baby, front and back.

We had a great trip to the Pacific Northwest in September in order to hit the Washington State Fair in Puyallup, but we took this great detour on the way home. I give you Silverwood, front and back!

Thinking of warmer days in warmer climes.

I shouldn't say this, but Cheryl and I went to an orthodox Jewish wedding a few weeks ago, and with the separated gender dancing, I kept joking that all the men dancing in a circle together in their dark suits looked like "March of the Penguins". And Chuck, thank you for bringing Burgess Meredith to life again, if just for a moment. March of the Penguins (photo from the NYT)

Apologies if someone's already listed this. I know rides are for fun and screaming, but we seem to frequently get young female screechers in the row directly behind us. I guess I'm getting old, but sometimes the decibels are dangerously high. I need to start bringing ear plugs, or try to rearrange the row I'm sitting in.

We did two days at HK Disneyland, but I've already messed with the photo sequence, so I'm going to try to force some temporal order on this photo TR. So let's go on to Day 2, when we visited Ocean Park! Take the Hong Kong MTR to Admiralty and find Exit B. Hop on Bus 629 and it takes you right to Ocean Park. You go up a big escalator. And you're there. We arrived pretty early. They open the gate but then you have to wait a while before they drop the rope. It got really crowded. I read that they had to close the gates during the Chinese New Year holidays. The place is HUGE. We got to say hello to Tom Mehrmann before the park opened. And Walter Kerr too, but we didn't get a picture. These are some of the the people behind Ocean Park's transformation into a Applause Award Winner. They have this crazy steampunk funicular up the mountain. Steampunk! It's more like a ride than a tramway. Thrill Mountain is this section. There's Hair Raiser. Great views from the queue. It's a great coaster and it's on top of a mountain, so it's really cool. Unfortunately I hadn't worn my contact lenses and they would not allow eyeglasses, even with a good retainer. Of course nothing grinds my gears more than a no-glasses rule. You can walk around forever. It's a huge mountain. If you need to rest, you can sit on ice cream containers. The Dragon is the next credit. More great views. There's an animal hospital and we found some dolphins. And the classic Ocean Park credit, Wild West Mine Train. Burned again. We had not made inquiries about closures. We'll be back when Iron Man is done at Disney. This was a nice sea lion and seal exhibit. Seal. But he did not perform "Kiss From a Rose" for us. And a lot of sea lions basking in the sun. The way to tell them apart is that sea lions have external ears. These birds were available for contact. These birds were not available for contact. Tuxedos was the penguin-themed restaurant. These were penguin-theme flower topiary. You can watch the penguins in the restaurant. And you can measure the carbon footprint of your meal. Clever. The Sea Jelly Spectacular was cool. Soundtrack and colored lighting combine with jellyfish to create a spectacular show. There was an aquarium for Chinese Sturgeon. See how massive these fish are! There is another huge aquarium closer to the park entrance as well, but we did not visit. Cheryl with sturgeon-themed flower topiary. Good views from the observation tower. We had to wait on line for this one. The park got more and more crowded during the day. Lots of mainland Chinese. But this ride didn't disappoint. There's the Thrill Mountain section. We were pretty exhausted from walking around so much. We took the gondolas back down the mountain. Attempt at selfie. These are marine mammals, happily working in captivity. I liked this little section callled Old Hong Kong. I have a romantic image of places like Hong Kong and Singapore and what they were like back in the 1920s and 1930s, before WWII. Images of Singapore on Sentosa captures it well, if you get a chance to go there. We hit the Panda exhibit. And the goldfish exhibit. If you like goldfish, this is the place for you. They had a billion different varieties of goldfish. Here's the Applause Award. Liseberg gives out this award every two years. We've been to all of the winning parks except for the defunct Opryland. Ocean Park is definitely worth a visit if you're a serious theme park enthusiast. And one last note: We really enjoyed the food in Hong Kong. We went to Din Tai Fung the first night, and found this hole in the wall, Mak Man Kee Noodle Shop at 51 Parkes Street near Yau Ma Tei and Jordan MTR stops. We had to share a table with strangers, but it was awesome. My former student who is from Hong Kong and lives there said: "You're eating like a local!" when I posted this to Facebook. Thanks to everyone for checking out this report! More Hong Kong Disneyland to come! Next!

It was AWESOME.

Nice report Garet. I've got my own Ocean Park report coming up soon.

Holy crap. Great report.

I want to go there. Thanks for the report!

Cheryl and I started off 2014 with a bang by visiting the parks of Hong Kong. We started with Hong Kong Disneyland, so here's a portion of that first day. Enjoy the video of Mystic Manor that Robb has graciously posted! This was an incredibly long flight, against the jet stream. Our trusty steed. After 8 gazillion hours of travel, we check into Disney's Hollywood Hotel! And we wake up to a delicious breakfast containing each of the 7 basic food groups. Yes, we're a Chef Mickey's! Mickey loves Cheryl. Seriously, this was spontaneous. To the park shuttle. Just a little bit further. Are we there yet? omg Yes! Yes, we have Auto Magic Tickets! There! This was a surprise. I've never seen Main Street U.S.A. unfinished like this before. Anyone know the story? Awesome Main Street U.S.A. garbage can. We seem to have circumnavigated the globe by mistake and we're back home! Sleeping Beauty's Castle! Hong Kong Disneyland Tip Board! First Stop: Space Mountain! Almost as good as L.A., but they need to turn the music UP! It's my favorite part of the ride. Hong Kong Adventureland! To Grizzly Gulch! Two kinds of popcorn at one stand!!! Excellent. CREDIT! Low to the ground gives the illusion of speed! Backwards! Water play! Geysers! Looks like Yellowstone! I mean it. The train! Which we forgot to ride! We have arrived at Mystic Point, where you can find the estate of Lord Henry Mystic. Theming. That is gorgeous. Why yes, we would like to take the tour. A scale model. The Mystic Magneto car for which Lord Mystic won an award. Is that who I think it is? Hightower and Shiriki Utundu????? My heavens. How Albert found his fez. Oingo Boingo Lead Singer Danny Elfman Welcome! Thanks for joining us on this trip. Much more Hong Kong Disneyland to come, along with Ocean Park, Macau, and yummy food.

Just saw this post! Glad to be of service! I always try to throw in at least a little bit of local color in my trip reports.

Picked up this little number last week, in a former UK colony.

Very cool!

Option 1. I like the twitter feed.

This is a really decent park in northern England. They also have a nice zoo attached. I give you Flamingo Land!

Since beatle11 is one of the loyal readers of this thread, I give you Vortex at Canada's Wonderland!

Wow, great report. We're heading there next week and we can't wait! Looks fantastic.

This is not a theme park shirt, per se, but this organization, Coney Island USA, is responsible for the Mermaid Parade, the Coney Island Museum, the Coney Island Film Festival, and the Freak Show. Coney Island USA was active during the worst years of the district's decay, so Coney Island lovers should take off their hats to this great arts organization.

Pretty decent smallish park in Italy, Fiabilandia! Don't forget your parking token on the way out.

In honor of my trip to Hershey over the last day or so, I bring you Skyrush. Unfortunately I couldn't get any nice snow-covered coaster photos today.

This is a pretty hard shirt to get. There's just one credit at this park on Taiwan's beautiful east coast, and it's really hard to get to by car or train. We flew r/t in a day, and we hired a guide to take us through Taroko Gorge, the "Grand Canyon" of Taiwan.

Sorry for the absence. We were away on one of our rare non-coaster trips. This is from our trip to Texas in 2008.

Great report, Benny! Looks like a lot of fun!