milst1 Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 (edited) 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. Edited February 23, 2014 by milst1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatle11 Posted February 4, 2014 Share Posted February 4, 2014 Great start to this report! Big Grizzly Mountain just looks like a fun ride! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nrthwnd Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I looked at the video of MM earlier, Martin. And I thought it was really the best POV of the attraction I have see so far. Great! And I miss Chef Mickeys. Great buffet, breakfast and dinner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteornotes Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Great photos. Really liked this park when I visited in 2008. Hope to make it back there at some point. dt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kyle Coleman Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Is mystic manor as awesome as the pov makes it seem? Disney needs to work on getting this one over here asap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbalvey Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 This was a surprise. I've never seen Main Street U.S.A. unfinished like this before. Anyone know the story? They actually do those "themed scaffolding covers" whenever they are doing work on a building. I see them at MK and DL quite often during the off-season. I guess you've just been lucky to go to a Disney park when they aren't doing work on one of the buildings. Personally, I think it's quite cool that they actually theme the scaffolding as to not make it stand out quite as much! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cedarpointer Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Awesome report! Love the ToT easter egg! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Hong Kong Disney is a very nice park. Runaway Mine Cars is a fun coaster, and Mystic Manor looks great. The Hollywood Hotel was great, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon8899 Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Hong Kong is certainly on my travel list for the next years. Not only for the parks but also for the city itself. Cannot wait to see more from this TR! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clippers6 Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Chef Mickey has Disney dim sum? Might do that instead of the dim sum set at Crystal Lotus. Thanks for the pictures. I'll be there in a month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperShawn Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Mystic Manor continues to move higher up in my must ride list, as does visiting Hong Kong Disneyland. Thanks for the updates and excited for part 2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arby Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 This is certainly on my to do list. What Interstate goes there? Great TR so far! Looking forward to more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ginny Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I loved the Hollywood Hotel and the buffet at Chef Mickey's is so much fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Honey Mustard Popcorn!?!? Did you try it!?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TPDave Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Mystic Manor continues to move higher up in my must ride list, as does visiting Hong Kong Disneyland. Thanks for the updates and excited for part 2. This. Thanks for the pictures Martin, love the ToT cameo! I had no idea that was there Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milst1 Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 Honey Mustard Popcorn!?!? Did you try it!?!? It was AWESOME. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milst1 Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 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! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteornotes Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 I loved this park the one time I've had the chance to visit, and really want to get back to it at some point. Thanks for the photos! dt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simon8899 Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Great looking park! Hope to visit it soon. Thanks for the TR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerstlaueringvar Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Great TR! Ocean Park is a beautiful park. Two new credits had opened since my last visit, can't believe I haven't make it back even though it's only a two hours drive, maximum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 Love the idea for a Penguin restaurant, can't believe none of the sea parks in the US have jumped on that given how trendy and popular Penguins are! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cfc Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 A restaurant for penguins, you say? "Wack, wack, wack!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milst1 Posted February 6, 2014 Author Share Posted February 6, 2014 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garet Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 Honey Mustard Popcorn!?!? Did you try it!?!? Gotta agree it was delicious, we saw it only on one stand near Grizzly but it was very popular and was gone everytime we tried to get some. Finally managed to get a box of it on our last day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
beatle11 Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 That park has to have the best views of any park anywhere! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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