My HKDL Trip Report

[Loomis]

Well, we've just returned from our trip to Hong Kong and the daily grind of work is already getting us down. Thankfully, we'll always have our memories as we bring you the first official HKDL Source trip report for our archives!


I relate all my tales of meeting characters, riding Space Mountain until I felt as though I was born in there and buying a Really Silly Hat.

http://www.hkdlsource.com/news/viewstory?story=40

[TDLFAN]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

*FABULOUS* trip report Loomis. Great read and intro to anyone who has not been to DL. I am so glad you had a great time at HKDL. Also, isn't the Hollywood Hotel one of Disney's best kept secrets?? I *loved* staying there, and would recomend it over the fancier HKDL Hotel.
I totally agree with your positive words in your summary. HKDL is the little park that CAN deliver, and it can only get better and better....
Kudos to a great trip report.

[MouseLivesOn]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

Thank you for your informative & upbeat report. I have been planning our upcoming trip (Nov 06) for some time now, and it is encouraging to hear good reports.

As a fellow vegetarian, it is nice to know that there are good things to eat to look forward to.

P/S Love your new hat!

[nish221]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

Loomis, Thanks for a very comprehensive report!

Also I think you write very well. That last paragraph (re: family on Dumbo) took me
back to my first trip to DL over 27 years ago. Thank you for writing that.

[TDLFAN]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

P/S Love your new hat!

They sell those hats as well at WDW.

[Loomis]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

They sell those hats as well at WDW.

It was my first silly hat. Be gentle.

BTW, updated the report slightly. We noticed a few buggy bits in there, and paragraphs that ran into each other and deleted some text. Should be sorted now. (Thanks Alex).

[Witches of Morva]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

ORDDU: My sisters and I are happy to hear you had a wonderful trip and that you're back home safely, duckling! We visit your web-footed site often and appreciate the time you give to it. Hugs and kisses from Morva!

[cpdisneyprincess]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

Awwww. Thank you for such a great report! I too felt that this park was fresh and had a lot of room to grow. I loved the Hollywood Hotel - we had a view of the park and were able to watch the fireworks from our room our first night there, they even had a channel where you could listen to the music! (do they have that in other parks?) I also loved watching people really experance Disney for the first time. Though being able to literly walk onto Space Moutian Ten Times and have to wait30 minutes for Pooh boggled my mind a little. My friend and I also gained a small following for just behaving like I normally do at Disneyland - the HKDL band even asked for a picture with us!! Hehee. And the feeling of being in California, but not being in California was slightly overwhelming at points. Anyway, that you for your report. I couldn't have said it better myself. Oh. And Yes. The lady hosting Golden Mickey's is one of the most annoying people on Earth.

P.S. Great Hat!!!

[mikeland]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

Great report! I hope to visit HKDL sometime next year.

[Katsmom]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

I'm laughing at your description of the lady in the golden mickeys. Was she the fat one, the real skinny one who says gallup gallup gallup after "the toy story song" or the one who can't really hit the high notes in "when you wish upon a star"

As long as I'm asking, was tarzan the adonis with muscles bulging off of muscles, or the wimpy little thing that really needs to wake up and realize he has legs?

Everyone I talk to here says they like the Golden Mickeys more than the lion king show. I've taken advantage of the summer pass and because the little one loves both shows, I've seen them both at least 20 times. And I have to say Lion King wins hands down. There is no comparrison. I don't get the general local enthusiasm over the golden mickeys. But as I said, my daughter loves it so I go.
I've even worked out that tarzan is the starfish, and that the new beast is the one of the fans in the beginning of the show. Bell is a cowgirl from toystory and the security at the beginning of the show. and I can go on and on and on........

[cpdisneyprincess]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

I'm laughing at your description of the lady in the golden mickeys. Was she the fat one, the real skinny one who says gallup gallup gallup after "the toy story song" or the one who can't really hit the high notes in "when you wish upon a star"

As long as I'm asking, was tarzan the adonis with muscles bulging off of muscles, or the wimpy little thing that really needs to wake up and realize he has legs?

Everyone I talk to here says they like the Golden Mickeys more than the lion king show. I've taken advantage of the summer pass and because the little one loves both shows, I've seen them both at least 20 times. And I have to say Lion King wins hands down. There is no comparrison. I don't get the general local enthusiasm over the golden mickeys. But as I said, my daughter loves it so I go.
I've even worked out that tarzan is the starfish, and that the new beast is the one of the fans in the beginning of the show. Bell is a cowgirl from toystory and the security at the beginning of the show. and I can go on and on and on........

Hehe, the lady I saw was the one that said gallup after Toy Story. She was just a LITTLE too Happy for me. Whew. And I was blessed...ooooooh soooo blessed o see the Tarzan with the beautiful body. I believe he also was one of the hula dancers and the Beast Turned Prince. I liked him very much. But we only did Golden Mickeys once - we did Lion King three times. LOVED that show!!!

[DisneyMickey]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

I want to go now.

[Dustysage]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

I want to go now.

It is a great park, with a lot of potential, but not yet worth a trip from the US. If you are already going to be in Hong Kong, you should stop by. Otherwise, take a trip to Tokyo Disneyland instead.



Fantastic report Loomis! Thank you!!!

Wish you would post a few pictures and excerpts here on MiceChat as well.

-Dusty

[Loomis]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

I'm laughing at your description of the lady in the golden mickeys. Was she the fat one, the real skinny one who says gallup gallup gallup after "the toy story song" or the one who can't really hit the high notes in "when you wish upon a star"

As long as I'm asking, was tarzan the adonis with muscles bulging off of muscles, or the wimpy little thing that really needs to wake up and realize he has legs?

I seem to remember the 'gallup gallup', but she also struggled with the "When You Wish Upon a Star" a bit. In fact, we commented on it at the time. However, I must admit to being a little distracted. The family behind us seemed to have trouble controlling a certain smelly bodily function, making the theatre stifling. Sorry, that was probably too much information...

Tarzan was very much the adonis.

By the way, thanks to you, Katsmom, for providing us with our first 'fan' review. Hopefully it will be the first of many such reports!

[Katsmom]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

Just a funny aside about the lion king. I teach English at one of the universities here in town. My daughter and I went to see the lion king one day and as we were walking out sommeone grabbed my. I have a thing about personal space annd being touched by strangers so I rounded on the guy with an earful. He was fantastic. He kept saying Miss Rox, I'm the fat monkey. After a few minutes, I realized that he was a student that made the classes a good laugh. He failed, but he was majoring in Chinese language and literature.
I couldn't think of a better job for him at this time. He made a great fat monkey, and the way he spoke during the show is exactly like he speaks out of the show. He took his training to heart.
The upshot of all that is he gave the people at the gate the heads up, and now we get priority seating when I'm too lazy to stand in line or forget to get the fastpasses.
There are two singers for Simba in the show. One has an aweful accent. I find him hard to understand at times, and I am used to bad accents. The other singer is amazing. When he and Nala sing together it is amazing. The "fat monkey" told me they met here at HKDL and got married. You can definately tell there is more than just singing when those two are together. Dare I say it, "It's Magical!"

Now I'm just waiting for the announcement of the annual passes. Disney has released two different numbers for the ticket price, and I hope they don't get gready and charge the higher one. It's worth the money to pay 4 or 5x the regular cost, but 7x at this point is just plain greedy.

[TDR_Fan]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

It is a great park, with a lot of potential, but not yet worth a trip from the US. If you are already going to be in Hong Kong, you should stop by. Otherwise, take a trip to Tokyo Disneyland instead.



Fantastic report Loomis! Thank you!!!

Wish you would post a few pictures and excerpts here on MiceChat as well.

-Dusty

I agree. Don't forget Tokyo DisneySea either, which I personally believe to be a bigger reason to go to Tokyo. It's unlike any other theme park you've ever visited and will be a completely new experience. Its uniqueness is reason enough to warrant a trip to Japan (at least for me )!

[Loomis]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

Wish you would post a few pictures and excerpts here on MiceChat as well.

Pics are forthcoming, Dusty.

Ive been without a PC at home for a short time, and I should be back online and in a position to edit/post piccies regularly by Wednesday next week at the latest. It has been frustrating.

We also hope to have our galleries up and running in the next few months (time allowing), so I'll have LOTS to share (I think I took a few hundred there, and even if I do say so myself, the parade and fireworks shots came out really well).

[tloolgb]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

Great report.

[barfownz]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

How did HKDL match our Disneyland in California? Was was similar and different?

[Loomis]

Re: My HKDL Trip Report

How did HKDL match our Disneyland in California? Was was similar and different?

Apart from the size...

Generally speaking, and I covered this in the report in brief, HKDL is probably the most similar on the surface to the original park.

The entrance and Main Street are virtual replicas of the Californian park. As you reach the end of Main Street, you'll notice that the Sleeping Beauty Castle - a slightly smaller, yet identical in every other respect, replica of the original - is sitting right on the Hub. There is no 'Partners' statue.

Fantasyland has its own unique elements, but they are all covered in detail on our site.

The major difference - and this is pretty major - is that there is no Frontierland, New Orleans Square or Toon Town.

Adventureland is the most distinct from the original park. Given that Hong Kong Disneyland is without a Frontierland or a Rivers of America theme, Hong Kong Disneyland’s Adventureland has taken on many of the qualities of that land from the other parks. Indeed, the area is a great example of how Hong Kong Disneyland has taken three classic Disney concepts – Frontierland’s Rivers of America, the Jungle River Cruise and the treehouse – and combined them to make a truly unique area of Hong Kong Disneyland.

This may sound like an obvious statement to make, but another different is the majority of the vistors and staff are Asian. Now, this doesn't change the physical qualities of the park, but this is not a culture that has necessarily grown up with Walt Disney on their television sets for 50 years, and they don't have the benefit of bi-coastal theme parks or what us Disneyland fans would think of as a 'Disneyland culture'. My silly hat is a great example of this. While it is par for the course that you'd wear a silly hat in the US parks, we garnered looks of surprise, delight and even requests for photos. It is a small indication that the 'Disneyland culture' is not as inundated there as it is in the US. This has plusses though. You get to feel the experience vicariously of seeing all this stuff for the first time, by some people who have clearly not done so before.

With the introduction of Annual Passes this week, it is only a matter of time before that Disney culture permeates Hong Kong as well.