Ocean Park - Winter Hong Kong with Children Day 5

Been so looking forward to this day for Ocean Park~ I've been there many years ago when I was in my late teens (OMG that was like so long ago!). So it's changed a lot since then, it became bigger than what I remembered of it.

I woke early and tried to shoo the children out of bed as early as possible. 爸爸 bought tickets from 7-11 store near the hotel to save some queue time (HK$320 per adult and HK$160 per child). Later it seems there is a ticket counter at Admiralty MTR station that sells tickets to Ocean Park at slightly discounted price? Not sure as we didn't stop to find out, just saw a sign in front of the counter.

Our way of going about HK is easy, just hop on the MTR (using Octopus card, very convenient), and change lines until the required station. So end up we arrived at Admiralty MTR (金钟) at 10am. From Admiralty station, there are signs showing which exit to go for Citybus 629 which will take us directly to Ocean Park. Bus fare is HK$10.60 per adult, HK$5.30 per child (not free, ok!). We paid with Octopus card so it's still convenient. Bus driver will keep a hawk eye on you while you are scanning your card, don't even think of cheating :) Even though it's a Monday when we visit, there is a long queue building up for bus 629 :P

Citybus 629, we manage to get top level front row seats!
However 姐姐 looked like frowning in the photo as she knocked her head on the TV display when scrambling to 弟弟's side.

We reached Hong Kong Ocean Park in about 20 minutes of bus ride. It stops right in front of the park since it's a dedicated service. See the crowd is already building up, there's quite a long queue for tickets. Luckily we already had ours and went straight to the entrance. My sympathies to a foreign family (not sure what nationality), they printed online tickets and were having problems with the barcode, don't know what happens then. But our poor quality 7-11 tickets went through without problem. They checked our bags again (just like Disneyland) and I think they are looking for canned foodstuff too (hahaha are they expecting us to bring canned curry chicken? Just joking).

Direction of the sun is not suitable for photo, but no choice :P

I think we didn't really research the layout and map properly, so we just went for the Ocean Express first. As Ocean Park opening hours is from 10am to 8pm (this is for the time we visit, seems like opening hours might be different so check their website), there's not much people yet (they're probably still queuing for tickets outside).

Ocean Express - we took this train throughout the day. 

We took the Ocean Express several times throughout our visit. There's no way to walk to the Summit area other than taking Ocean Express unless you take the cable car (think long queue again).

This breathtaking view is from Summit Plaza, Hong Kong Ocean Park

Christmas decorations around Summit Plaza

Then we went around exploring the North Pole Encounter and South Pole Spectacular. No flash photography allowed here so our photos didn't turn out nice :P

We manage to see walrus feeding, but it's just throwing food at the animals so it's not as interesting as in Siam Ocean World. It's much colder inside North Pole Encounter and South Pole Spectacular.

Walrus feeding (see the two brown walrus right at the back?) and Arctic fox, cute, it's looking at us and take photos with the children.

Arctic Fox walking around its den. Penguins and a mock penguin. 

Penguin deco around South Pole Spectacular. Met Penguin mascot, but no time to wait for photo :P

It may be called Polar Adventure but there's no polar bear at Hong Kong Ocean Park.

There's still some time before show time for Sea Lion Fun Time Show, so we went to see the pandas. The big pandas were sleeping away, and everyone is asked to be keep their voices down.

Red panda and sleeping panda -they are all cute!

Around the same area, there's alligator.

Gator - fake (above), real (below)

Family photo with panda mascot

After that, it's the Sea Lion Fun Time Show at Whiskers Theatre. 姐姐 was called to the stage to mimic how the trainers train sea lions hehe. Poor girl she was jumping around as she didn't understand Cantonese.

Then, after the show it's lunch time at Panda Cafe. Kids had kids' meal and panda steamed buns, we shared a chicken stir-fry dish (costs HK$264). The food is nothing to shout about, although the panda steam buns are cute. It's quite packed during lunch hour and we're lucky to get a table.

Panda steamed buns and kid's meal at Panda Cafe

After lunch, we went back to Whiskers Theatre for Ocean Heroes. It's a kids' musical in Cantonese :P

Children with Gator mascot. Talking Tree, we think it's actually a trash can! 

Children taking photo with Ocean Heroes mascots. Children with blue Santa at Santa's Ocean Cove

More mascots, intercepting Panda. And met a starfish :P

Now, I don't know why we went back to Polar Adventure.

These are mock animals :)

Finally photos with spotted seal!

Next we went to wait for the Ocean Wonders show at Ocean Theatre. OMG, it's so far walking there as we kind of lost our way a little and so hot waiting for the show to start under the sun (even in winter)! I'm definitely not coming here in summer hahaha :P

Ocean Wonders at Ocean Theatre, Hong Kong Ocean Park - see the dolphins' jump?
And dolphins decorations :P

To be honest, the show is definitely more geared towards being educational, it's in Cantonese so those who don't know the language, sorry. 爸爸 bought us popcorn to share while waiting for the show, but the popcorn is really bad. It's nothing compared to those even from the cinemas hahahaha. Definitely the ones at Disneyland tastes much better. We think the show at Bangkok Safari World is the absolutely most entertaining among those we had seen. So this one rates kind of boring with the children. And the children quietly said "why are the dolphins so fat, they can't even jump as high as those from Bangkok Safari World" :P

We went to Chinese Sturgeon Aquarium Yangtze Exploration after the Ocean Wonders show. No photos here however. It's really tiring walking around as it's steep uphill and downhill around Ocean Theatre. We did pass by Garden of Joy without meaning to :) It's just a tranquil garden with koi fishes and oriental surroundings. It seems that Ocean Park is more crowded in the afternoon with Mainland Chinese tours. Maybe they only do half-day for Ocean Park after lunch. The queue for cable car is extremely long now so totally no chance to go on it.

Then it's Pacific Pier where the seals are housed. Super cute, as they are snoozing under the sun.

The children loved  Pacific Pier! Oh the sun direction again :(

Seals and more seals :)

Snack at Boardwalk Cafe, only because of the seals at the tables.
The bottom one with 弟弟 is actually outside the restroom.

After snack time, we decided to take the Ocean Park Tower since the queue looks bearable by now. It's pretty nice except, again for the rowdy tourists spoiling my mood. Did it occur to people they don't have to holler at the person right in front of them? Sigh...

Top photo: Ocean Park Tower
Bottom photo: Touch pool, touching star fish at Grand Aquarium

Children and 爸爸 explored the Grand Aquarium while I waited outside (couldn't find any place to sit inside). Too tired to walk by now, but it was cold :P

Waited for the Symbio show, it's claimed to have water and fire and some laser images. Then it's boarding the 629 bus to Admiralty. We went out before the show finishes but there's still a crowd. Cannot imagine how it is if we had waited. Very tiring day!

Well, if you haven't been to Hong Kong Ocean Park, you'd be wondering what's so tiring about it? Remember it's a pretty big place, and everything is not located together. You'd have to walk and walk over hilly terrains. If you're healthy and fit, it's fine.

We also didn't plan this visit nicely. It would have been a better visit if we had studied the park map more thoroughly. There are limited drinking fountains and can be found from the map. It would be good to note where the toilets are (from the map) especially if travelling with children. Some toilets at certain locations could be crowded, so it's good to know where another nearby one is.

The children didn't get to take any rides, actually the children rides are at Whiskers Harbour. The other rides are meant for teenagers and adults. It's difficult to balance rides, shows and animal exhibits. We just tried to cover as much as we could in our limited time.

After leaving Ocean Park, we went hunting for dinner near the hotel. We tried 北海道活壽司 Hokkaido Katsu Sushi at Citywalk. It's about closing time, so we are the last order. We had 北海道叉烧豚骨拉面 which is some char siew pork ramen and sushi rice set with tempura and miso soup. Too bad no photo as too tired and hungry. The ramen is pretty good, but sushi rice is served cold :P Still food is good at reasonable price, we spent $164.1, which is price after 20% discount (some after hours discount).

Macau - Winter Hong Kong with Children Day 4

Macau is a totally new experience :) I've been to Hong Kong but never to Macau, so I'm really anticipating it.

We took MTR near our hotel, changing lines several times, all the way to Sheung Wan (上环) MTR station. The Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal (港澳碼頭) is just at the MTR station, and there are quite clear signs leading to it. It does seem like being in the same building (I don't know if it really is) as everything is connected. When we reached the ferry terminal, it's already slightly past 11am, and the earliest ticket we manage to get is for 12:45pm. We bought ferry tickets from Turbojet counter, HK-Macau ferry fare is at HK$172 per adult and HK$157 per child. We got return tickets Macau-HK too (8:30pm) at the same time so as not have to worry about scurrying for ticket counter when return. The Macau-HK tickets are HK$184 per adult and HK$169 per child. No idea why the ticket prices are different :P

At the Hong Kong-Macau Ferry Terminal, on ferry and upon reaching the Macau Ferry Terminal

We had early lunch at the ferry terminal before boarding time. This time we try a random 茶餐厅 local-style cafe. Oh, the 奶茶 milk tea and 鸳鸯 (coffee/tea mix) are super good at any 茶餐厅 at Hong Kong. This one is good too :) Surprisingly, the service is pretty nice. Of course I'm comparing to my last visit many many years ago when HK is super obnoxious during the good economic times. Nowadays the service staff are much more humble and probably speaking Cantonese helps.

餐蛋面 and French toast at 兰芳园

It's a Sunday so there were really many visitors to and from Macau. The queue at immigration counter is quite long for visitors (but not local residents). This time to Hong Kong and Macau, we didn't get any stamps on our passports, everyone's going digital nowadays even immigration. As the frequency of ferry is quite packed, we have to ask around the counters after immigration for the correct boarding gate. They put a sticker of our seat number on the tickets when 爸爸 approach them for the correct boarding gate. They do voice announcement when it's boarding time, but the staff do not actually check our ticket before boarding haha. I really don't know how they manage to get everything going smooth, I mean, someone could board the wrong time, so it just depends on the passenger to be vigilant and honest.

The ferry ride to Macau took about 1 hour. Not sure if it's because of the lunch/breakfast or because of not enough sleep, 弟弟 suddenly told us he don't feel well during the ferry ride. Way after we got back only he revealed that he actually vomited but he swallowed back as he didn't want to spoil our moods. Poor boy, he didn't want to take another ferry ride like this. After enduring the ride, he still manage to smile for the camera after we disembark upon reaching Macau Ferry Terminal 外港客运码头.

First thing we notice from Macau Ferry Terminal is the Portuguese language signs. By the time we got out to arrival hall it's past 2pm. We were stopped by tourist guide and we booked a half-day tour with them. Our itinerary is simple as we have limited time, we just wanted an overview sight-seeing trip (mix of historical/modern type) and I'm not up for much waiting/walking anyway. Next time if we do visit Macau again, we could plan and do it on our own :)

First stop at Macau Fisherman's Wharf. I had in my mind something like San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf but it turns out to be a shopping place :P It's modeled after Portuguese style buildings so it looks quaint and pretty (it's not those historical ones just made to lookalike).

Colosseum lookalike at Macau Fisherman's Wharf, called Roman Amphitheatre

Marina front at Macau Fisherman's Wharf, I think it's called Legend Wharf

The quaint looking shops at Macau Fisherman's Wharf, Legend Boulevard

Fountains and statues at Macau Fisherman's Wharf

Outside Aladdin's Fort and the middle top photo seems to be Marco Polo statue

We stayed for a while just to look around. Shopping is after all, not on our agenda this trip.

Our next stop is Guia Fortress (free entrance!). This is a more interesting place for me. I love the atmosphere, the natural surroundings and the historical value. Guia Fortress is located on top of a hill. We went through a "secret military tunnel" which is now a gallery. Then it's a short hike up to Guia Lighthouse and Guia Chapel. The view is nice. Even someone who can't walk much like me can make it up to the Lighthouse :) It's cool so you see the children still zipped up their jackets.

Around Guia Fortress. Cannons, military tunnel and walking up the hillslope

Guia Lighthouse and Chapel. Loved the blue sky on this day.

Guia Chapel is truly beautiful sight, especially for girls. It's with pinkish walls inside, with many delicate carvings and decorations. No wonder, as it's originally established by nuns. I've no idea why they don't allow photos as it would be so nice to have a memory of the beautiful decorations.

Outside Guia Chapel as no photos allowed inside. Inside, it's really beautiful!

Posing around Guia lighthouse, too bad visitors are not allowed inside the Lighthouse.

Children's playground at Guia Fortress.
We only photographed the nice portion as some parts are still under construction.

After that, we are dropped off at Senado Square. The guide was telling us something about big something in Cantonese, which we thought is a shop name :P More about this later. Senado Square is maddeningly crowded on this day. We thought there'd be food stalls, there's no time to stop for a sit-down meal. As we're quite hungry by now, we just took a few photos of some interesting places.

Holy House of Mercy 仁慈堂 and at the front of Senado Square

St Dominic's Church, with it's beautiful interiors

Finally, eating Portuguese egg tarts and snacks by the roadside!

Everyone at Senado Square seems to be carrying a tote bearing the name 鉅記 Koi Kei. Turns out it is a popular Macau shop selling Chinese biscuits and other confectioneries which has shop branches everywhere. We also bought some biscuits here. See the sea of people along the street where Koi Kei is located. Tourists from a certain country is hollering here and there, really deafening and beh tahan when the guy in front suddenly holler in your ears since it's so crowded.

Went back to our van and the tour guide asked did we see something called Big something. Now only she told us Ruins of St Paul's is just right after Senado Square. So we were driven there instead of walking. We laughed so hard as 爸爸 didn't know she meant Ruins of St Paul's when she said 大三巴牌坊. We thought she meant some branded local shop. Haha, come on, she knows we are not local, so why mention the local name, we have been telling her Ruins of St Paul's mah. And it's really crowded on the narrow street where the biscuit shops are located, plus the signs are super small around Senado Square. So we didn't even reach the end of the street where we'd have seen Ruins of St Paul's in front of our eyes.

Ruins of St Paul's. This is the only photo that didn't have too many people swarming around.
The street where zillions of people are walking links to Senado Square.

Looking down from Ruins of St Paul's

There's Mount Fortress 大炮山 right beside Ruins of St Paul's but we're too tired to climb up. It's getting a little dark and we didn't want to be late so we left in a hurry after photos.

About the last stop at Lotus Square, it's just a little field with this giant golden lotus and flowers. By the way, the flowers surrounding the golden lotus are real :) Sky is turning darker and darker by now and it's getting cold.

Lotus Square

Last stop at Venetian Macau. It's on another island of Macau called Taipa where the Macau International Airport is located. We'd be dropped off here and our tour guide showed us where to take the shuttle bus from Venetian Macau to Macau Ferry Terminal.

At Venetian Macau, we only wanted to take the Gondola Ride Experience (this from watching too much Boys Over Flowers Korean drama hehehe). We bought tickets from this shop called Boutique di Gondola. Boy, it costs a bomb of MOP$472  (MOP$ to HK$ is 1:1 now). This is the price for private gondola ride as we didn't want to wait around for other guests (no time! and if I remember correctly it's a MOP$50 difference with normal tickets for 4). No wonder it's so pricey, our "driver" actually sings like opera singer :P The shop sent someone to take our family photo but we were not allowed to use our own camera to snap out from the gondola (apa la, try to make more money from tourists).

Inside Venetian Macau, along man-made canal. Sky is fake, buildings are shops.

The Gondola Ride Experience

The children enjoying gondola ride

After the gondola ride, it's time to rush to take shuttle bus to Macau Ferry Terminal. By this time it's dark and it's windy and cold waiting for the bus. The queue is really long too. It seems there are more buses to Macau Ferry Terminal compared to other stops, so it's not too bad.

The Venetian Macao casino from outside.
And waiting for shuttle bus.

No one asked for tickets or anything when we boarded the shuttle bus. Got to Macau Ferry Terminal on time. Waiting area from Macau is much less before the boarding gate, it's tiring standing around after walking around practically the whole day. Inside the boarding gate there are more seats for tired people like us. For the trip back to Hong Kong, 弟弟 slept once he is on the ferry so he was ok. We were seated at 3-person side so it's not so convenient this time.

We made it back to Hong Kong near to 10pm. As shops at the terminal is mostly closing, we just wolfed down McDonald's burgers as supper, only 弟弟 got special burger made with pork :P

Loved Macau for its diversity compared to Hong Kong. If we had found this map from the 'net before going it would help lots in terms of planning our itinerary. Perhaps we could be back in the future? :)

Map of Macau heritage trail

Hong Kong Disneyland - Winter Hong Kong with Children Day 2 and 3

We took the MTR from Mongkok station to Sunny Bay (欣澳), then to Disneyland Resort station (迪士尼). The MTR from Sunny Bay to Disneyland Resort is decorated with Disney touches, so the children were very excited to board it. Even the Disneyland Resort station has Disney touches.

MTR from Sunny Bay to Disneyland Resort

We were lugging luggage so after reaching we took the free shuttle bus from the station to Disney Hollywood Hotel, where we're staying for a night. We bought Hong Kong Disneyland tickets at the hotel. The 2-day tickets cost HK$585 per adult and HK$415 per child.

Hong Kong Disneyland entrance

By the time we are ready to enter Disneyland it's about 11am. Right before our eyes, there were some tourists who ran all the way to the entrance :P At the entrance, Disneyland staff check our bags and backpacks, when I asked the guy told us they are looking for canned foodstuff hahahaa. Our water bottles and leftover buns from breakfast didn't attract their attention.

Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad

First stop at Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad. This takes us around the park at leisurely pace. Narration is in 3 languages, English, Mandarin and Cantonese (which is too much for us who knows all of the languages). There's a stopover at Fantasyland but we took the whole route then only stop at Fantasyland for the 2nd round. During the ride, some of the tourists were so excited seeing fake mechanical elephants in Adventureland that they have to be reminded by the crew to remain seated while the train is moving (which they ignored anyway). According to Disney website, HK Disneyland Railraod will be closed from 17 Feb 2014 until 2015 for construction of Iron Man Experience.

Lunch at Royal Banquet Hall at Fantasyland

By the time we got to Fantasyland, it's 12pm so we went for a quick lunch before the crowd. We're about the few families having our meal there and we could go around and choose without any queue yet. It's HK$186 for baked pork chop rice and beef brisket set.

Cinderella Carousel at Fantasyland

After lunch, the children wanted to go for rides. We only allowed them to go on Cinderella Carousel as it's just after taking a meal. The crowd is quite big so it's a rather long wait of more than 30 minutes.

Then we saw Disney characters at Fantasy Gardens, so we join the queue to take photo. Only a short queue for Goofy and Pluto. Just our luck, there's a change of shift of the characters so we had to wait about 5 minutes for Mickey when it's our turn. Can use own camera, but the staff will still take with theirs so that they can sell you the photo :)

Children taking photo with Goofy and Pluto

Family photo with Pluto, he's cheeky and the children loved him. Kids with Mickey.

Family photo with Mickey Mouse at Fantasy Gardens.

Next we went quickly to see the Flights of Fantasy Parade which starts at 1pm. We were just in time for the parade is going past Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Flights of Fantasy Parade. This is the float with Mickey and Friends on it.

After the parade, we are back to Fantasyland for more rides. Dumbo the Flying Elephant is quite a popular ride and the waiting time is almost 45 minutes! The children are taking this ride on their own. 爸爸 is bringing the children for rides, while I wait around :P

Dumbo the Flying Elephant

Dumbo the Flying Elephant

Next, it's another ride, the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. All of us took this family ride.

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Photo with Winnie the Pooh at Fantasy Gardens after the ride.

Family photo with Winnie the Pooh. And more Pooh outside Pooh Corner. 

Sleeping Beauty Castle

Then it's off to Adventureland for Jungle River Cruise. It seems on the day we went, there were more English language boats so we took this one to cut short the waiting time :) The Jungle River Cruise took us to see fake mechanical animals which moved (hahahaha!), and there's suppose to be some parts where we got wet (but the skipper probably took pity on us so she skipped that wet part). Last part is where controlled fire flames out with smoke, and it's really smelly and smoky :)

Jungle River Cruise at Adventureland, passing by Tarzan's Treehouse

After that, we move on to Toy Story Land, and the children wanted to have a ride on Slinky Dog Spin. It's about a 40 minute wait as most kids will go on this. We don't allow them to go on the RC Racer as it looks too scary for kids :P

Slinky Dog Spin at Toy Story Land

Then we go to Mystic Point, the ride is at Mystic Manor. The children say some parts of the ride was jerky but it was not scary. I was waiting outside munching on popcorn (HK$38 per pack), it's delicious! There are more photo opportunities here at Garden of Wonders but we gave it a pass. It's here that I saw some children asking the crew for Disney stickers, so I shared this with the children and they start asking the crew for stickers at every opportunity.

Magneto-Electric Carriage at Mystic Manor

Next we reach Grizzly Gulch, and the children went with 爸爸 for Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. There's a minimum height guide of 112cm. 姐姐 got pinched by the seatbelt when the staff helped her put it on, and she bumped her leg here which gave her a bruise so she didn't like the ride. Actually she liked the ride but she didn't like the part where she got hurt. I waited for them at the Geyser Gulch, seeing the bubbling waters (not sure these are real or fake) :P

Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars at Grizzly Gulch.
This photo is taken the next day :)

By now, I'm hungry for dinner so we went to Main Street to look for our meal. It's getting dark and cold.

We had dinner at Plaza Inn by Maxim's. Food portion is large, so we couldn't finish them.
Dinner is HK$505 for 3 big dishes, with Chinese tea and rice.

After dinner, we went back to Fantasyland, as the children would like to take Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride again, but the waiting time is still 45 minutes. So make to do with taking photo of Dumbo.

Around Fantasyland in the evening

Then we decided to go for photo with Minnie since she is still working. I didn't want to stand in queue so taking a rest while waiting for them. Just our luck as there's a change of shift right before the children's turn so  it's another 5 minutes wait while Minnie took a break.

Photo with Minnie Mouse at Fantasy Gardens

There's still time for more rides before Fantasyland closes for "Disney in the Stars" Fireworks so we went for It's A Small World, and Mad Hatter's Tea Cup. No queue at all at It's A Small World at this time. It's a little boat ride and fancy clockwork cute stuff to see during the ride. 姐姐 requested for another go at It's A Small World as she likes it, and gave her painful legs a rest. My ears are ringing of It's A Small World when we finally finished the 2 times ride.

It's A Small World at Fantasyland. The lights and mechanical movements of the clock is quite amazing.

The favourite teacup ride, but 爸爸 gave it a miss as he don't like the spinning (especially after a full dinner).

Mad Hatter Tea Cups

Still a little time left before the fireworks, so we check out Tomorrowland as we intend to go "tomorrow". The children liked this too.

Orbitron at Tomorrowland. Looks fancy lighted up at night. 

After that it's almost time for grand fireworks. Maybe the location I was at is not strategic, and I couldn't sit on the ground. I didn't really fancy it but the children enjoyed. We rested a while and went window-shopping for the crowd to clear a little first before going out.

The crowd at Main Street

Good night Hong Kong Disneyland!

We took the free shuttle bus back to Disney's Hollywood Hotel. The children loved it here as there are many touches of Disney everywhere. Me, I get kind of sick of the sight of the friend with big ears :P There is no central heating at the hotel, so they provided us with oil heater (in the picture below). It did provide relief from the cold of Hong Kong winter for us from the tropics.

Disney's Hollywood Hotel. The white device that looks like heatsink is an oil heater. 

The next morning, it's Hong Kong Disneyland again for us. We didn't finish the rides partly because of the waiting time during this time of the year, and partly because we didn't really want to rush ourselves. On the second day, we started off with Tomorrowland. 爸爸 and 弟弟 went for Space Mountain, while 姐姐 gave it a pass as she didn't want any more rides giving her bruises. She went for Stitch's Encounter with me. It's just a short show with Stitch making jokes with the audience. The session we went is in Mandarin. By now, 姐姐 already got the idea of asking for Disney stickers from the crew.

Space Mountain and in front of Autopia at Tomorrowland

The ride 弟弟 really wanted to go on is Autopia. But from yesterday and this morning, there is no chance to go yet as the waiting time is 45 minutes or more.

Next ride we went is Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. It's like a computer game where we target the lighted area and those we hit, we will get points (although all is in the name of fun and no actual rewards for the game). It will be closed from 17 Feb 2014 until 2016 for construction of Iron Man Experience according to Disney website.

Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters at Tomorrowland

After we finished the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride, we saw Buzz Lightyear outside, so definitely the children queued for the photo opportunity. Again, our luck that it's Buzz' break time right before our turn, so another wait before he came back to work.

Photo with Buzz Lightyear at Tomorrowland

Then we went for mid-morning snack of Mickey Waffle at Main Street Market. Hehe, taste is so-so only (and forgot the price).

Mickey Waffle at Main Street Market

After that, we went to Adventureland to take Raft to Tarzan's Treehouse. The raft can take many people at one time so there's not much waiting time. But Tarzan's Treehouse is really, how to describe it. Totally man-made. The big tree is man-made. The leaves are fake (probably only a few of the shrubs are real). The baby elephant at the little river is fake :) Anyway, they didn't promote that it's real, it's a theme park ok :P

Raft to Tarzan's Treehouse at Adventureland

Next, we waited for Toy Soldier Parachute Drop at Toy Story Land, sigh, 40 minutes wait. The children thinks it's high and fun, just a little scary. We have to let the children take the ride before lunch so that they don't go on such ride with full stomach.

Toy Soldier Parachute Drop at Toy Story Land

Lunch at Starliner Diner at Tomorrowland, kids' meal in lunchbox (lunch is HK$282 for fastfood).
爸爸 and 弟弟 saw the parade again.

After lunch, we went for Mickey's Philamagic. It's a 3D show with Disney characters. Later, we went separate ways as 弟弟 still have eyes for Autopia. 姐姐 and I were going for The Golden Mickeys, not knowing it's a musical. I thought it's a cartoon show. First time we went it's already closed. So we took a short break for snack of Mickey shape jelly, which costs me HK$22 for one. We queued for the next session of The Golden Mickeys just in time. The musical is narrated in Cantonese, so it sounds kind of funny :) There's translation in English on the screen (at the side).

Mickey jelly and The Golden Mickeys (a musical).

Right before the show starts, 爸爸 messaged me saying they did not go for Autopia as the waiting time is 75 minutes! So they waited for us to finish The Golden Mickeys.

While we were passing by Sleeping Beauty Castle, just happen to see Belle in photo session so we queued for photo as well. Terrible, right before our turn the crew interrupted as they say some girl wanted an autograph from Belle (what, is there such a thing).

Family photo with Belle at Sleeping Beauty Castle

Children with Belle

We just took a short restroom break after our photos. Then it was 2 princesses, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty there. But the crew don't let us join the queue as they say closed for queue and the next session is at 5:30pm. So we went for afternoon tea set at Main Street Corner Cafe, one set is meant for two. The children loved it. This set alone costs HK$327, and it comes with 2 drinks of our choice. Only a piece of chocolate cake and a piece of watermelon in Mickey shape. The rest are just normal stuff. But the food actually taste quite good in my opinion.

Afternoon tea set at Main Street Corner Cafe

After we finished tea, we went back to Sleeping Beauty Castle but queue already closed again. Aiyo, really teruk. So we only have photo with one princess. It's difficult to arrange the time between photo sessions and rides, and most photo opportunities are just coincidental for us.

After that, we went for souvenir shopping and got back early from Hong Kong Disneyland to avoid the crowd. Taking our luggage from hotel to the station, it took nearly 1 hour and lots of packing with sardines to reach our next hotel.

Dimsum dinner at restaurant next our hotel.

Dimsum

So is Hong Kong Disneyland one of the happiest place on Earth? Hehe, it's just an advertising gimmick. It's crowded so the queues are long at the time we went. This kind of killed some of the joy, although waiting in the cool weather is not so bad. It seems that the weather at Hong Kong Disneyland is kind of cooler than the city area, I see Chinese tourists (who must be used to the cold weather from their own country) bundled up in full winter gear of puffy jackets, scarves, hats and boots. The Chinese children are even more bundled up. It must not be a nice time to go for Princess make-over as it's too cold for the Princess costume and the girls were layered with sweaters underneath, it takes out the purpose of dressing up as princess, you know. There are plenty of water fountains near the toilets, so getting water is not a problem, but hot water is only available from the food outlets. This being Disneyland, everything is expensive, including food, snacks and souvenirs, so don't ask about prices. Especially our own currency is so low compared to HK Dollar, sigh.

They no longer give out Disney stickers proactively, so the children have to keep asking the crew for it. They became quite well-versed in asking for stickers by the second day. You can even get stickers from the Disney hotels :) Most staff speak Cantonese, Mandarin and English fluently so there's no problem getting around. At the time we visit, most visitors are Chinese tourists, only a very small number of families are other nationalities (maybe it's not travelling season for other countries?). Strangely, there were far more adults than kids visiting Hong Kong Disneyland. For every child, there seems to be 3 or 4 accompanying adults. Later I remembered the one-child policy and one tour guide mentioned Hong Kong locals usually don't have more than 2 children due to the high expense and cramped lifestyle. There are quite a number of couples on dates and groups of friends too. So to 姐姐 and 弟弟, it didn't seem fair as they say the rides are children rides, but they have to stand in queue a long time to wait because the adults occupied their rides. They say children should be given priority in queue and the adults should be waiting instead :P It did seem strange that adults not accompanying children are riding on Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Slinky Spin Dog, Buzz Lightyear Astro Busters. Anyway, Disneyland probably made a lot more money out of adults than children so that's why they didn't prioritize rides for children. Most rides do not have minimum height limitation except those scarier ones like Space Mountain, Runaway Mine Car, RC Racer, Toy Soldier Parachute Drop etc.

Even with 2 days at Hong Kong Disneyland, even though it is not considered a big themepark, we walked until our legs hurt. Probably I'm not much in the mood for walking. Especially with the waiting time for photo session with the Disney characters, it's not published anywhere who is going to be available at what time, so it's quite frustrating for those of us with limited time. Our experience at Sleeping Beauty Castle is the worst, missing all the sessions except one with Belle.

The children being children, still liked Hong Kong Disneyland even though they are frustrated with the queue. Even though in brochures it's already stated entire party must queue together, most of the time those tourists from a certain country will assign someone to queue and then the party will conveniently cut in front of us. When we walk slower in the line, they will conveniently rush in front of us (especially those lines with wide lanes) and stand in front pretending as if queue starts not at the beginning but depends on how fast you walk along the way. There are no staff to stop them as it's already past staff manning points and before the next gate. Even though they are supposed to have 5000 years of culture but that's their style. And man, they are loud and holler all over the park too :D Actually the quality of the crowd killed some of the enjoyment, so hopefully if we go to other Disneylands (in other countries) in the future we will not experience the same unpleasantness.

Maybe it's because we visit on Friday and Saturday (due to our schedule and the way we arrange hotel stay), that's why we face crowds like this. Next time hopefully we still have chance to visit Disneyland themepark elsewhere, and we can arrange to visit on a weekday in the middle of the week, it would not be so crowded and queue times might be shorter.