Uh oh, we woke up late… The plan was to leave the hotel at 9, but that’s when we woke up instead. Oops.
So, instead of hurrying up and got all stressed out about it, we took our time, showering, had bagel breakfast at the coffee shop nearby… Then, instead of taking the train to the Hong Kong MTR Station, we walked and enjoyed the street view of Hong Kong.
From Hong Kong Station, we then took the orange line (Tung Chung line) to Sunny Bay, to transfer to the Disneyland MTR… The one with the Mickey windows! I actually have never took the Disneyland train. And I had been wanting to try it since the first time I saw those Mickey-windowed train, which I think was when I was in elementary school… So I (not Aina) was excited to see the inside of the train.
The platform at Sunny Bay was full of little kids with their parents and some with their grandparents. Some were super happy, some were cranky, but most were wearing Disney costumes, even those sitting in strollers. So cute!
When we got to Disneyland, the weather was almost perfect… If it was sunny, it would be perfect. But Hong Kong was cloudy the whole time we were there. It was warm, almost too warm for what we were wearing. I wish I had brought short-sleeve tees.
Hong Kong Disneyland is rather small compared to the other Disneylands I’ve been to. The size is probably just slightly bigger than Universal Studio Singapore. So, it’s doable for a one-day trip, especially for a 9-year old kid like Aina. She liked to walk around, exploring the park, absorbing the magical feeling about this place.
We were lucky that we went there during the off-season. The park wasn’t too crowded, most of the lines for the ride was only 5 minutes long. There were a lot of people, but I guess, it was nothing compared to the high season time. Because the lines for the rides were short, we got to try a lot of rides that Aina wanted to try. She’s not into roller coasters and speedy stuff (which is too bad for me, because I like those!), so we skipped the Magic Mountain, or I think it’s called Hyperspace Mountain here in Hong Kong.
Aina’s favorite ride turned out to be the Mystic Manor… I have never been on this ride before, but it turned out that it’s like the Haunted Mansion type of ride, with a more cheerful theme (not ghost-related). It was a lot of fun!
After walking around for a while, we decided to rest our feet and went in the Small World. I think, out of all the rides we took, this one had the longest queue… But even then, it was only about 25 minutes, which is not much, in my opinion.
When we came out of the ride, we realized that we actually missed more than half of the Flight of Fantasy parade. We totally forgot about it! Aina was a bit sad, because the parade looked amazing, even though we only caught the end of it. It was colorful, fun and had a lot of characters that she knew. I was sorta kicking myself for forgetting the time.
Since we missed the first parade of the day, we decided to keep track of time, so that we wouldn’t miss the night parade and the fireworks later.
So, when it got closer to 6PM, we decided to hang around and get something to munch, instead of going for more rides. That way, we could keep track of the time for the night parade. We went to Main Street Corner Cafe to get some snacks, which turned out to be really good! Ari and Aina got their waffles while I had their Onion Soup, and they were excellent… We also liked their decoration and the silverwares. They reminded us to those little cafes in Little Italy, New York…
When it got closer to 7PM, we walked out and found a space to watch the night parade, called Paint the Night – Nighttime Spectacular. And it was spectacular, indeed. It’s similar, but different than the Disney classic Electrical Parade. It’s much more modern, with LED lights and screens everywhere. We got pretty good seats, and could watch the whole thing up-close.
The staff of Disneyland made sure that the parade went smoothly by keeping the spectators, who were watching from the side of the streets, behaving well and in an orderly manner. Spectators were allowed to stand only on the sidewalk. Those who sat on the curb had to remain seated, and were not allowed to stand on the road. And the staff were very strict about it… which was good, so everyone could enjoy the show without people running around wildly in front of them.
At the end of the parade, the staff and the kids marched along the road carrying a lit up pole…
After the parade, we walked around a bit and went to the bathroom. The next show was the fireworks, and again, we gotta find a good seat… By the time we reached the plaza in front of the castle, there were already hundreds of people sitting on the ground. Wow, that was fast… we only went to the bathroom, and the plaza was already full! But we managed to squeezed in, and got our seats… Just like the parade, the staff had taped the ground to make areas where the spectators are allowed to sit, and reserved isles for walking.
The Disney in the Stars Fireworks Started at 8:15, exactly an hour after the night parade started. And I personally think, it was the highlight of our Disneyland trip. Unlike normal fireworks, this one is combined with songs and projections on the castle, making the whole thing amazing. The pictures just couldn’t do it justice, but there were a few iPhone movies we took, and you can find them here. It really made Disneyland the happiest place on earth, for that 15 minutes of the show… We were soooo happy! It was a perfect show to close the day.
I thought, we would be stuck for hours on the way home, because everyone in Disneyland went home at the same time — right after the fireworks ended. But surprisingly, we got home (back to our hotel, of course) much faster than I anticipated. The Mickey train came swiftly, so the wait at the station was quite short… and the connecting train at Sunny Bay also came quickly. Both trains wasn’t as packed as I thought it would be… It was a comfortable ride home. We were impressed!
We took so many photos today at the Disneyland, please check them out… they are all in Hong Kong Disneyland 2017 photo album.
The rest of the stories of this trip is in Hong Kong and Macau 2018 Trip entry, and photos from this trip is in Hong Kong 2017 photo album in Flickr.