With Minnie in the Gardens of Wonder
Disney in the Stars Firework Show
The train from Sunny Bay station to Disneyland was a Disney themed train, featuring Mickey Mouse shaped handles, windowpanes, glass pods with Disney characters, Disney themed carpets and musical scores from Aladdin at intervals. The train stopped and I stepped out at Disneyland station and took the escalator to the ground level. There was a huge straight path which was filled with paver blocks upon which Disney Characters were been painted. A huge fountain with Mickey Mouse surfing on a jet of water coming out from the blowhole of a whale is the first place one sees a crowd as everyone seems to want to take a photo of it. You turn right and you see this sight (a red building with grassy bank before it which has Mickey Mouse face coloured flowers grown on it) The entrance to what is known as ‘the happiest place on earth,’ looked magnificent.
The Entrance to Disneyland
The attendants at the turnstile welcome you in with a smile.(somehow they identified me as an Indian and wished me Namaste) Once you enter and look straight ahead, you can see the image that is associated with Disney which can also be called as the symbol of the park .i.e. The Sleeping Beauty Castle, a fairy-tale structure which signifies a gateway of dreams. When I saw that, a feeling of ecstasy filled me, I wanted to go there straightaway, but then decided against it and figured it would be better to start from the zone I was in at that moment.
After picking up and looking at the map on the brochure I learnt that the park has 7 zones. We started off with Main Street U.S.A. Since this zone was right at the entrance, it featured only 2 attractions i.e. Art of Animation and Animation Academy.
In Art of Animation one enters a room as part of a class and sits for a 20 minute session on how to draw mickey mouse and goofy.(yes you can take the drawing you made as well as the Disneyland pencil that is provided to you at the desk) The exit door leads to the hall which serves as the location for Animation Academy. In Animation Academy one sees foot long statues of Disney characters and write-ups about the characters such as when they were created and their history. There is also a spinning wheel which has Toy Story Characters on it.
The wheel of Toy Story Characters
The rest of Main Street U.S.A. consists of a few shops, the concierge and a few eateries (didn’t eat in this zone as I was excited about finally setting foot in Disneyland and wanted to see and ride everything and finally reach the Sleeping Beauty Castle) The location having a large number of shops is sensible as this zone is the one you must pass on entry and exit and that’s when most people decide to shop.
We sat down on the footpath and witnessed the magnificent Flights of Fantasy Parade. The parade featured attractions from all the zones of the park. Some movies like the Jungle book and Winnie the Pooh had their own floats as well. Small children were even allowed into the cordoned off area to interact and dance with the performers. The parade had the song “Sky High Celebration.”
A performer in the Flights of Fantasy Parade
The concierge and the attendants at the Main Street were all smiles while wishing the visitors good morning and bowing and directing us to places with such a good nature and that itself set the tone for the day.
Once in Adventureland we walked over to the Theatre of the Wild. Whilst walking I noticed and appreciated the way the zones had just changed. While Main Street U.S.A. had a mid-20th century and colourful setting with a yellow bricked road, Adventureland had something like a mud covered road and had many trees which made it feel like a forest. The music around was of drums and the occasional animal sound.
The performance started punctually and was choreographed brilliantly. It evoked a feeling of nostalgia in me as listening to a medley of numbers from the Lion King which included Oscar Nominated songs like “Circle of Life”, “Hakuna Matata” and the Oscar winning song, “Can you feel the love tonight,” made me visualise scenes from the 1994 animated classic “The Lion King.” The revue was beautiful and everyone was buzzing excitedly as they exited the Theatre of the Wild.
Following that one can walk over and take a Jungle River Cruise around the river separating The Tarzan Treehouse Island from the main land. The boat ride is experience is enhanced by the park employee in charge of the boat who provides commentary that makes one feel as if the chase is on. The boat ride features sudden turns to avoid geysers, an animal gathering on the banks of the river, crocodiles staring at you with their jaws open, a thin curtain of cold water, etc.
The rafts to the treehouse is an attraction that one has to go through in order to reach the Tarzan Treehouse. Over here and only once you reach right to the top you are able to spot other parts of the park (which isn’t possible on ground level as the makers of the park have built it brilliantly so as visitors get to experience one part of the park without any distractions from a view or music from another part of the park). It should be avoided by those who will struggle to climb and those who fear walking on rope and plank bridges.
Grizzly Gulch
This according to the brochures is one of the new zones and the smallest, featuring only one roller coaster, and a walk through zone where geysers suddenly fire up water. The setting is like the one we see in the Westerns (according to a board, the town was set to be founded 8 August 1888 the luckiest day of the luckiest month of the luckiest year by prospectors looking to discover gold)
There is a huge mountain, which has what looks like mine train track and rocks piled up at he sides. This was the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars roller coaster which gives one the impression of a slow and tough ascent followed by a chain breaking noise followed by the mine cars hurtling backwards into the mine.
Fantasy Land
To enter this zone one can cross over from Adventureland itself, but I chose to walk back to Main Street U.S.A. just so that I could enter Fantasyland by walking over the drawbridge laid down and then under the arch of the Sleeping Beauty Castle. This zone contained the most attractions.
First up was “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” where I went as it had the shortest line. Here we sit in ‘Hunny’ pots and take an indoor ride at slow speeds listening and experiencing the story of Winnie the Pooh and his friends Tiger, Piglet, Eeyore and Roo. The Flying Elephant ride was next which was an opportunity to sit in Flying Elephant shaped pods and look at Fantasyland from up in the air.
One thing here that made me smile and realise that this park is for the young and the old was the sight of an old couple sitting in a green coloured Flying Elephant pod and smiling with delight as they worked the stick to move the pod up and down.
Next up was the Mad Hatter Tea Cups ride which consisted of a huge disc upon which there were smaller discs which featured 3 cups on each disc. Each cup had a rubber coated wheel in it so that riders could hold on for dear life once the discs and cups started spinning.
Mickey’s Phillharmagic was next. This was a 12 minute 4-D movie. Immediately after the conclusion of that show we raced all across Fantasy Land, under the railroad bridge, past the “It’s a small world” attraction to the Disney Storybook Theatre to catch the Golden Mickeys(Mickeys parody of the Golden Globe awards). The Golden Mickeys has since been replaced by Mickey and the Wondrous Book.
The next attraction was the Gardens of Wonder. It features pathways through a garden, leading up to four separate gazebos. Each of the four gazebos contained one core character from Disney history i.e. Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy.
The Small World ride was one of the best. This is the largest indoor ride in the park and being in Hong Kong it has a separate room for China.(which makes this small world ride unique from Disneyland Paris and Tokyo) It’s a ride I always remember when culture are spoken about as it features a river ride on the banks of which various cultures are displayed. The message here is that all cultures can live in harmony in a small world. The song sung here is “Children of the world.” The song is hard to forget. It was playing in my head even after I left the park.
Finally, I saved the best in this zone for last. The Cinderella Carousel. The thing which after Sleeping Beauty Castle is what is most synonymous with Disneyland. I rode a horse, and it was under the golden lights of the carousel which seemed even brighter as the sun had set, that I had a glorious 5 minutes on the carousel.
Tomorrow Land
This zone could also be referred to as the outer space zone. It is here where I deemed a roller coaster to be safe, as it was an indoor roller coaster and I really don’t mind speed, but speed and height would both be an issue on an outdoor roller coaster. Also having ridden an indoor roller coaster at Universal Studios, Singapore I preferred them for the stunning visuals that enhanced the ride. The roller coaster was called Space Mountain. It featured a journey into the far reaches of the Universe to blast an enemy planet and a race to escape from outer space forces who ae chasing you and you are dodging rogue meteors that are being fired at you.
For all those who have dreamed of taking on Zurg (nemesis of Buzz Lightyear) the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters is just for them. It features a train going through rooms and you are given a blaster which you have to use to hit Zurg statues that pop up. At the end of the ride your score flashes on a screen in front of you.
The UFO zone was what could be called the photo attraction over here. They were water squirting objects and had a thin drizzle of water fall on the person if they stood under the rocket or the flying saucer at specific time intervals.
Orbitron was the next attraction which was similar to Fantasy Lands Flying Elephant attraction, only difference was that instead of flying elephant pods there were Flying Saucer pods.
Toy Story Land
This is the one zone in the park that is reserved completely for 1 movie (Frozen will soon get its own zone set in Arendelle)
Do you remember the parachute drop by the green parachute men in the Toy Story series? This zone has an attraction called Toy Story Parachute drop in which you can actually experience it. Slinky the dog has his own ride in which visitors can sit in the belly which is like a chain and sit there while he goes round and round in an attempt to catch his tail.
As a zone reserved purely for one movie there is an attraction called Barrel of Fun, in which you can meet, greet and pose with your beloved characters from Toy Story like Buzz, Jessie, Woodie, Bullseye, Mr and Mrs. Potato, Aliens and Hamm.
It is set in a rain forest sort of place. I visited this zone last and made only 1 stop which was at Mystic Manor. This ride can be a little scary for small children as it features slightly scary music and light effects. It features of tour of Lord Mystics antiques. There was a garden of wonders right next to Mystic Manor, but, I skipped it as there were only 15 minutes left for the commencement of the firework show for which we had to race from Mystic Manor to Main Street U.S.A.( a run which took me 5 minutes)
Mystic Manor
The fireworks were amazing and the tracks such as “A Whole new World”, “Cinderella”, “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” , “When you wish upon a star”, “Be my guest”, “I’ll make a man out of you”, enhanced the experience even further. The lights illuminated the sky, and our eyes widened in wonder. One could say that our eyes were illuminated by the stunning firework display.
Disney in the Stars
It was a sight to behold. The words, "I can show you the world," featuring fireworks go up into the sky and exploding high above the castle, with the words “Shining, Shimmering, Splendid,” will be etched in my memory forever (that image in my head is what motivated me to write this article)
The park made everyone feel happy, everyone forgot their age as they knew no one would judge them if they posed with a Donald Duck or a Mickey Mouse. It evoked nostalgia among older visitors as they got to hear songs of movies they watched in their childhood. Most heartening was to see that children aren’t completely consumed by the new cartoons and still find fun in classic old school cartoons(of course the park is evolving and will soon have an Iron Man Experience). The Disneyland planners also take note to make sure the new attractions(Toy Story, Mystic Manor) do not disrupt the classic Disney characters(Mickey and friends). That may change as there are plans to replace the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters with an Ant-Man shooting game.
I, along with the rest of the people boarded the train back to Sunnybay and had in my hands two bags of merchandise. Once I sat down I realised how tired I was as my legs started aching, the strain of 10 hours on my feet was showing, but the attractions in the park had made that completely vanish. The trip here had left me speechless and had given me the power to be a storyteller, to narrate my experiences about this magnificent place.
The entrance fee was HK $375. But the memories that had been made there were worth a million dollars.
Location: Penny Bay, Lantau Island, Hong Kong
How to get there: MTR from Sunny Bay station located on Tung Chung Line to Disneyland station via a special Disneyland train
What to see and do: Visit the attractions, Interact with Disney characters, have a good time, shop, have a wonderful time, see the Sleeping Beauty Castle, etc.
