Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Hong Kong, Day Three

Finley was wide awake at 3:30 am this morning. Sitting up straight in her bed talking to her animals. There was no coaxing her back to sleep. Clifton and I both fell back asleep, but she never did.
We headed down for breakfast around 7 am and afterwards to the MTR to Disneyland. We ended up getting to Disneyland much quicker than we expected, which meant we were there nearly an hour before opening. Luckily Main Street opens a half hour before the park, so Finley got to meet Minnie and Mickey before the park opened. Finley had brought Figaro with her and loved showing her to Minnie Mouse.

We decided our best strategy was to try and ride Space Mountain first. Turns out, it isn’t so popular here in Hong Kong so we were able to ride it three times and Buzz Lightyear three times without waiting in line. The big draw in Tomorrowland is Autopia. The mad rush was to get there in the morning and the wait time was never below 45 minutes, so we didn’t get a chance to ride it.

We then headed to Fantasyland to watch the Golden Mickeys show. A lot of the show was in Chinese, but all the songs were in English. Tarzan came over to Finley and played with her hair, I am not sure she realized who he was. Then it was onto It’s a Small World, Teacups and Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh had a big line all day and was one of only three rides that had Fastpasses. After Winnie the Pooh, we went to the Storybook Shoppe to get Finley new ears for Hong Kong. There weren’t many ears to choose from, in fact that shelves were quite empty. People were shopping like crazy and it was hard for the salespeople to stock the shelves fast enough. Finley’s new ears were pink with a red and white bow. Finley wanted a set of Pluto ears, but they didn’t say Hong Kong Disneyland, so she said Grammy would get her the Pluto ears in Disneyland. We grabbed lunch and rode Buzz again while the ears were being embroidered.

After we picked up the new ears, we headed over to Toy Story Land. We rode Slinky Dog and Army Men Parachute Drop. The lines were long over here, reminiscent of Toy Story Land in Paris. We cut it real close to see the parade, but we made it just in time. The music was the same as the parade in California Adventure and Hollywood Studios, but some of the words were changed to fit the Flights of Fantasy theme. And part of it was in Chinese (obviously.) Finley liked the Pooh float the best.

The line at Jungle Cruise was quite long, so we headed over to ride the carousel, visit characters and do some shopping. We also picked up a new button for Finley. I lied and said it was her birthday because when I asked for one, they said “for her birthday?” and I went with it. While shopping four stores in, we came to the realization that we weren’t going to find the Pluto Finley was hoping for. Eeyore was second on the wish list, so we picked up the last one on the shelf. There are baskets in all the shops here and people were just stuffing them full of stuff. It was madness.

We headed back over to the Jungle Cruise and rode it twice in a row. This Jungle Cruise is quite different. It goes around an island with Tarzan’s tree house in the middle and there is a fire and water show at the end. We rode in an English speaking boat both times, but I think the jokes must have been lost in translation. They both mentioned turning into a gorilla if you went through a window…

After the Jungle Cruise, we went to fastpass Space Mountain. They said not to bother, it was a walk on. We rode Orbitron (HK version of Astro Orbiter) with a 20 minute wait and then walked on to Space Mountain SEVEN times in a row. I think I have ridden this version more than the one in California. I was amazed there was no line. And that Autopia was still 45 minutes. Finley just wanted to ride it again and again, she was running down the ramp and the cast members remembered her every time. We sort of stuck out here. The lady working at Chip and Dale remembered us from the morning with Mickey and Minnie. The other comical thing about HK Disneyland was the number of people who wanted to take pictures of Finley. It was so very strange, we had our own mini paparazzi. It happened several times and everyone was really nice about it, but it was rather silly.

Space Mountain wore Finley out. We grabbed a quick dinner and Finley passed out in her stroller. She slept through the fireworks and the whole train ride home. If you ever get a chance to visit HK Disneyland, the subway is one of the neatest things. All the windows are shaped like Mickey Mouse and even the handles inside the cars are shaped like Mickey. There are character statues inside the cars and it is really decked out Disney style. Finley’s heart remains with the monorail…
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