Here you leave today and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy - naks naman!
Hong Kong Disneyland. Disneyland will open at 10 AM, and we wanted to be the first person to be there. We decided to leave around 9 in the morning. So, to go to Hong Kong Disneyland from Ramada Hong Kong Hotel, we had to:
1. Ride free hotel shuttle to Hong Kong MTR.
The free shuttle at our hotel had been very useful to us. :) The shuttle leaves every 30 minutes. All you have to do is inform the concierge and they will tell you when the shuttle is ready. The driver dropped us at International Finance Centre (IFC). The Hong Kong MTR and the Airport Express Hong Kong Station are just beneath IFC, while the Star Ferry Terminal is just within walking distance. The MTR in Hong Kong is just like MRT to us Filipinos - only it is more extensive. While the Star Ferry Terminal is the terminal for ferries from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon (vice versa). Our driver stopped at Shun Tak Centre (Macau Ferry Terminal) and the couple in the shuttle got off thinking it was the Star Ferry Terminal. I felt bad for them. We weren't able to help them cuz we only figured what they were talking about the next day. But I am sure they were fine. We didn't drop them in the middle of a desert or something.
The free shuttle at our hotel had been very useful to us. :) The shuttle leaves every 30 minutes. All you have to do is inform the concierge and they will tell you when the shuttle is ready. The driver dropped us at International Finance Centre (IFC). The Hong Kong MTR and the Airport Express Hong Kong Station are just beneath IFC, while the Star Ferry Terminal is just within walking distance. The MTR in Hong Kong is just like MRT to us Filipinos - only it is more extensive. While the Star Ferry Terminal is the terminal for ferries from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon (vice versa). Our driver stopped at Shun Tak Centre (Macau Ferry Terminal) and the couple in the shuttle got off thinking it was the Star Ferry Terminal. I felt bad for them. We weren't able to help them cuz we only figured what they were talking about the next day. But I am sure they were fine. We didn't drop them in the middle of a desert or something.
2. Ride the Hong Kong MTR to Sunny Bay MTR Station.
Once we get off the shuttle, we went inside IFC. We had to go to the MTR Station beneath the building so we took the fastest escalator I've ever seen. The Hong Kong MTR Station is spacious and clean. The people were always in a hurry. It's almost 10 in the morning and they were still in a hurry! I was wondering if they just walk fast or they were running late.
Their escalators are twice as fast as the escalators here in Manila - as in ang bilis!
We bought our Disneyland tickets at the Hong Kong MTR Station. The Disneyland ticket express didn't have a long line. We figured the ticket counter at Disneyland Entrance might get crowded, so we might as well buy our tickets there. :)
Tip: Hong Kong Disneyland tickets are cheaper on Regular Days. Regular Days (HK$295) are on weekdays. While the Peak Days (H$350) are on weekends and holidays. :) These tickets pretty much cover everything, except food and souvenirs, of course. :) The guy at the ticket counter for MTR tickets was so nice. He told us to buy the HK$ 50 ticket, which we can use for the whole day, compared to buying one way tickets. It's cheaper if you add the 2 one way MTR tickets - it costs more than HK$ 50. :)
Note: There are some changes with the MTR fare now. It seems the 2 one way fares are now cheaper than HK$ 50. Maybe they now offer cheaper all day tickets. :)
3. From Sunny Bay MTR Station, change train to Disneyland Resort.
Once we arrived at the Sunny Bay MTR Station, the Disneyland Resort train was already waiting for us at the other side of the platform. It appeared that all passengers who got off the Sunny Bay station were going to Disneyland. :)
Tip: Hong Kong Disneyland tickets are cheaper on Regular Days. Regular Days (HK$295) are on weekdays. While the Peak Days (H$350) are on weekends and holidays. :) These tickets pretty much cover everything, except food and souvenirs, of course. :) The guy at the ticket counter for MTR tickets was so nice. He told us to buy the HK$ 50 ticket, which we can use for the whole day, compared to buying one way tickets. It's cheaper if you add the 2 one way MTR tickets - it costs more than HK$ 50. :)
Note: There are some changes with the MTR fare now. It seems the 2 one way fares are now cheaper than HK$ 50. Maybe they now offer cheaper all day tickets. :)
3. From Sunny Bay MTR Station, change train to Disneyland Resort.
Once we arrived at the Sunny Bay MTR Station, the Disneyland Resort train was already waiting for us at the other side of the platform. It appeared that all passengers who got off the Sunny Bay station were going to Disneyland. :)
Disneyland Resort Train - the cutest train ever!
The windows and handles in the train were Mickey Mouse inspired. Actually, Disney characters were everywhere! The vibe inside the train was infectious. It was just happiness all around. I am starting to believe that Disneyland is the happiest place on Earth. ;)
When we got off the train...btw, the train station was the best! It was just a different world! As I was saying, once we got off the train, there were lots of people! :) It was kinda long walk to the entrance of the park and Disney music were blasting from the speakers. This added to the "happy" atmosphere.
When we got off the train...btw, the train station was the best! It was just a different world! As I was saying, once we got off the train, there were lots of people! :) It was kinda long walk to the entrance of the park and Disney music were blasting from the speakers. This added to the "happy" atmosphere.
At Hong Kong Disneyland entrance. The Mickey Mouse head is made of flowers.
Hong Kong Disneyland is divided into 4 sections: Adventureland, Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and the Main Street.
Adventureland. We first headed to Adventureland. Adventureland is at the left side of the park. If you love Tarzan and Lion King - this place is for you. :) We spent most of our time at Jungle Cruise, Tarzan's Treehouse, and looking for souvenirs. We also had our pictures taken with Timon (Lion King) and at the Liki Tikis.
We had so much fun at Jungle Cruise! The line for this ride was a little bit long but we get to ride the riverboat easily. There's a different line for English, Mandarin, and Cantonese speaking guide. Luckily, the line for English speaking guide was way shorter. :P The guide was really funny! Everybody was laughing. Most of the passengers on our boat were Koreans. They're so much fun! :) They actively participated with the guide and they kept on waving to other people we passed by.
We had so much fun at Jungle Cruise! The line for this ride was a little bit long but we get to ride the riverboat easily. There's a different line for English, Mandarin, and Cantonese speaking guide. Luckily, the line for English speaking guide was way shorter. :P The guide was really funny! Everybody was laughing. Most of the passengers on our boat were Koreans. They're so much fun! :) They actively participated with the guide and they kept on waving to other people we passed by.
Our boat with our funny guide. :)
We passed through several major rivers in the world with different animatronic jungle animals, like monkeys and elephants. My favorite part of the cruise was the one with volcanoes. Fires exploded coming from nowhere!!
The elephants look so real
After Jungle Cruise, we look around for souvenirs. There were many stalls selling ballpens, fans, shirts, and hats. Then, we went looking for the Festival of the Lion King show. The woman in front of the theater told us to wait until 12.30 pm. It was kinda long wait. So, we decided to skip the show and do something else.
Across the theater was the raft to the Tarzan's Treehouse. We boarded the raft among the twenty plus people. :) It was just a raft - you stand on it and you are on your way to Tarzan's Treehouse, which is on an island.
A walk-through attraction centered around a giant treehouse where children can hear and see various scenes based on the Disney movie Tarzan.
There's nothing much to see on this island. It was all about Tarzan. :) But it was kinda impressive cuz it felt so real. It's like you are in this Disney Tarzan movie. In the treehouse, there's this room about Tarzan's life and there was also this hanging bridge up in the tree. The rest room in this island was kinda great, too. It was hidden behind a rock or a cave - something like that. :)
After the treehouse and our visit to the ladies room, we boarded the raft and we went back to Adventureland. While we were looking around, we saw the Liki Tikis. There were Tikis around and it should have water spurting upwards but we didn't experience that. No water. :(
It's time to go to Fantasyland.
Before we reached Fantasyland, we passed through this open area, like a foodcourt and some restaurants. We first checked on the schedule of The Golden Mickeys. It is a live show. It will start within the next 45 minutes. We decided to wait for it since this and the Festival of Lion King (which we skipped) were the only live shows on that day. While waiting, we bought ice cream (head of mickey mouse), popcorn, and water. We sat on the bench near the entrance. We saw Belle, she walked in front of us and some kids were running after her. :) They couldn't catch up with her - she walked so fast!
Belle and her bodyguard. :)
The show started at 1.30 PM. Around 1 PM, we were asked to fall in line. We saw many people going out of the theater. There were lots of people, who are waiting to get in. It took us a while before we could get in. The theater is really big. It looks small from the outside but with the number of people getting out, you would wonder how they all fit in! The secret - the seats inside the theater were like benches - so people could squeeze in. :)
It was a great show. It was hosted by Bebe (she reminds me of Susan Enriquez from GMA-7) in Cantonese. But the film shown had English and Chinese subtitles. The show was filled with dancing, singing, acrobatics, and parades of Disney characters. Rallon Alonso was also there - he performed! :)
Sneak Peak:
Beauty and the Beast
The Golden Mickey show - Rallon is somewhere there.
After the show, we went to Cinderella's Castle and we saw this souvenir store of Winnie the Pooh nearby. It's called Pooh Corner and it's quite big! They don't just sell Winnie the Pooh stuff, there were also some Mickey and other Disney characters. We spent most of our time here. Actually, we went to this store just to kill time - we were waiting for the parade. But what happened was we don't want to leave the store anymore - actually, I don't want to leave the store. I'm not done shopping! Screw the parade. LOL! I remember my aunt telling us to leave the store to watch the parade and I pretended I didn't hear her. LOL There was so much to buy!! It drove me nuts!
Most of my pasalubongs were from this store
I'm done shopping.
Finally, it's time for the parade! :) There were lots of people forming in front of the castle and we were just in time! :) My sister was in front of me and she was holding the camera to get some pic and videos. I was standing beside her and being a short person that I am I couldn't see anything. Since she was holding the camera above the people's heads, I end up watching the parade from the screen of the camera. And there were times, I tried jumping. Imagine a woman jumping up and down at the back of a crowd. LOL!
Start of the Disney On Parade
Most of these guys are Pinoy! (or mukha lang Pinoy)
Characters from Toy Story
Alice in Wonderland - I wonder baket nde sha nahuhulog sa mushroom
After the parade, we went to Tomorrowland and had our pictures taken. We skipped the rides and it's only now that I realized the rides in Tomorrowland are so much fun! Too bad we missed it!
Welcome to Tomorrowland!
We went back to Fantasyland to get the FastPass for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This is one of the rides I enjoyed most! Make sure not to miss this. With the FastPass, we no longer had to fall in line. You just go to the machine for your FastPass and it indicates the time you should go to The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh for the ride. Once we got to the The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, there was a loooong line. Those with FastPass had shorter line and we got to ride the train in less than 3 minutes! I saw a monk on one of the trains for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. :)
Here we are on the yellow train
In the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
While waiting for our ride in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, the waiting time usually takes a while, we went to Fantasy Garden to have our picture taken with Goofy and Minnie Mouse. There were two assigned person to be Minnie Mouse cuz with the first batch of photos, Minnie Mouse was nice and accomodating. Then, she left. After few minutes, Minnie Mouse was back. But this time, Minnie Mouse was so hyper and flirty! LOL!
A girl having her pic taken with Goofy
Minnie Mouse at the Fantasy Garden
We no longer had anything to do so we decided to ride the Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad train. But once we got there, the train was already leaving and it was the last trip! So we went back to Main Street, USA to shop some more. We are now waiting for the fireworks at Cinderella's Castle. The fireworks was around 7.30 PM. We had a couple more hours to look around. :)
View from the Raildroad station
Garbage bin @ Main Street, USA
balloon vendor along Main Street
He smiled at us :)
Along Main Street, USA
It is only now that we realized we hadn't eaten anything aside from the ice cream and popcorn I mentioned above. Sobrang naexcite cguro kami kaya nde na kami ginutom. :) We found this man and we bought sandwiches, water, and corn. The best corn!! Easy to eat even if you have braces on! :)
where we bought the best corn! :)
While we were eating our food, we sat on a bench. It's starting to get dark and really cold!! :) But we were happy! Finally, the fireworks started and I wasn't done eating my corn. :) While we were watching, there was a family of Pinoy beside us. :)
After the Disney on Stars (fireworks), we went back to these stores at Main Street, USA and we had our pics taken in front of Mickey and the whale. :)
Cinderella's Castle before the Disney on Stars
Bye Mickey!
On our way to MTR, I went to the ATM while my other aunt was stuck at the entrance gate cuz her ticket wasn't working. From Disneyland, we changed train at Sunny Bay station and got off at Kowloon Station. We want to visit Dicksons Warehouse. It was around 8pm and the stores were closed. So we went back to the MTR station and we got off at Hong Kong station (station after Kowloon Station). We followed the signs to Central Station. We passed by a 7-11 and we stopped there to buy some stuffs. :) It was kind of a long walk from Hong Kong Station to Central Station. From Central Station, we took exit C or D...I cannot remember actually. It is the one with Li Yuen Street. You can find the sign before the stairs to the main street. :) Then, we rode the tram back to our hotel. :) To sum it all up, it was the best day of my life. I really had so much fun! :)
