Hong Kong no Phooey TR (Apr 2012)! The Yee's have it....TR finish #1101, 07/09

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by usnuzuloose

Isnt it amazing how you can see things in a different view? One minute you see little kids and then BAM! it hits and now your thinking , oh crud its almost that time in life and this kid is going to get a drivers license and then the prom, and then college and so on.....


I love it , I hope your time there was like that the whole way. No crowds to really fight through. Problem is I would of kept riding space mountain over and over...

This is great and I cant wait for more.

Sadly, it doesn't stay this way.

Originally Posted by skiingfast

Driving is great, right until that license is real. Then it's greater.


ISn't it a shame that Stitch isn't the same as in the Magic Kingdom?

I had no idea that you actually LIKED the Stitch show at MK. It would be very very very low on my list if I had to rank the attractions at MK from best to worst.

Originally Posted by queenie82

I LOVE the photos you scored of DS in the car. I know it's launched you into OMG mode.
But they are awesome photos memory wise.

They were clearly expecting crowds having all three lanes open. There was only one when I went. So that is a nice reward.

I REALLY REALLY love the Buzz lightyear photos
It's one of my favourite rides but I know I wouldn't pull off any decent photos so the destroying Zurg battle wins. But I LOVE what you snapped photos of.

Stitch and Turtle Talk rely entirely on the Audience. Monsters can be a good show either way. But it can be AWESOME with just one great audience member.
Stitch is tough as it's quite a very specific and 'boring' concept that can't be modified much. And most reliant on audience interacting within the parameters.


Back to the dinner...and roped off area
I am still curious as to the details of it. You'd think little miss PTR would have spotted some mention of this. It's such a fun ... fun.... website...
There was NO roped off area at all when I was there is all I know. So it's not all the time.

It was a Sunday, so crowds were expected. They never came on that day....

Originally Posted by zanzibar138

I'm interested in this too. Were you able to get any details?

Tomorrowland was our least favourite area of the park (same at Anaheim), but I still love the pics you got! And Space Mountain is always fun

Tomorrowland grows on you. I think it is best at night....particularly Orbitron and Autopia.

Originally Posted by skier_pete

Before I could read the 2nd rule, my first thought was "Hey, they use the same 'NO DANCING' sign that they do in the states." Last trip every time we saw it, DD and I said 'NO DANCING' and started waving our hands around.

Looks like a good start. One of the few rides I've NEVER done as an adult is the Tomorrowland Speedway (WDW version of Autotopia). DD has never shown any interest in it and it looks mighty boring to me. I might give Autotopia a try at DL should we have the time. I haven't started looking at my DD from a "driving" perspective, but I keep thinking "5 years she'll be in high school" which is our highest level secondary school. (Pre college.)

Buzz Lightyear looks WAY similar to the WDW version. The Stitch show looks and sounds better than Stitch's Great Escape - which is more annoying than fun. We really like the laugh floor, so good comparison to give us a feel for what it's like.

I couldn't get a good feel from your pictures...it feels like Tomorrowland is more...I don't know...spread out or exposed or something....it kind of looks like it is on a hill/slope as well. Is it laid out similar to WDW/DL?

I think Tomorrowland at HKDL was really small in comparison to DLR and WDW. The hill is *almost* right at the back of Tomorrowland but I think it's less than 1/2 mile away. HKDL is built mostly on reclaimed land. So the park itself is really flat, despite the hills in the close background.

Originally Posted by BillyBuff

These look too cute to eat!

I think that's abalone on top of the Shui Mai (My wife is from Hong Kong and that's what she told me)

I can't wait to visit this park! Never been to Hong Kong before so I'm thinking of stopping by here!

Thanks for stopping by the TR!

It looks like abalone....but I'm almost pretty sure that the menu said scallop....at least that's what I think I remember....maybe....and they were pretty small to fit on top of the shui mai.

Let's just call it abalone then.

Originally Posted by ACDSNY

Boy I remember those days.


PIO - I love your pic of your DS in the car with his hands behind his head. Hopefully he'll keep his hands on the wheel when he starts driving for real.

I certainly hope he keeps his hands on the wheel too.

[franandaj]

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

Har Gow




We also ordered the Har Cheong. It was early in the trip and my parents had not yet worked out that food needed to be photograph first! This is what it looked like on my plate.

So what are these? I'm not familiar with Dim Sum, but they look good!

Originally Posted by PrincessInOz

Mickey Seafood Glutinous Pancake

I've had the scallion pancakes and at Epcot F&W they had a shrimp pancake that was pretty good. These must have been yummy!

I thought that I quoted the picture of the saxophone players where the tenor sax player was not inline! I also found it funny that they were playing Yamaha saxophones. I thought the Chinese and Japanese were feuding!

Originally Posted by skier_pete

-The parade looked like a lot of fun. The one question it brought to mind - for the Disney Princesses...did they use Western CM or were they local CM made up with a more Westernized look? Looking at your pictures I have to say I really couldn't tell which it was, which I guess speaks for Disney setting just the right tone with those characters. Overall, the characters look really fantastic. It's amazing how even from a very different part of the world, that parade doesn't feel like it would seem out of place in Anaheim or Orlando.

I had the same feeling too! I'm not sure why I was a little surprised to see the dancers in the parade were Asian!


I love all your detail, keep it coming!

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by franandaj

So what are these? I'm not familiar with Dim Sum, but they look good!



I've had the scallion pancakes and at Epcot F&W they had a shrimp pancake that was pretty good. These must have been yummy!

I thought that I quoted the picture of the saxophone players where the tenor sax player was not inline! I also found it funny that they were playing Yamaha saxophones. I thought the Chinese and Japanese were feuding!




I had the same feeling too! I'm not sure why I was a little surprised to see the dancers in the parade were Asian!


I love all your detail, keep it coming!

Har Gow? Its Prawn dumplings. The wrappers are made from rice flour and after the put in the filling, the dumplings are steamed.

The second picture is of Har Cheong (Fun). Again the wrapper is rice flour and the filling is Prawn. The "wrapper" is more like the flat rice noodles rather than smaller like a dumpling.

I guess you could equate the rice flour "wrappers" or noodles like pasta. Same basic recipe but cut or folded in the various ways to form the different shapes. And then it can be filled with the different fillings.

Back to the Cheong Fun. In Australia, its really common to see them filled with BBQ Pork or with Prawn. In Hong Kong, they added some scrambled egg to the one in the pictures.
It's coming later....but we had a vegetarian filled version of the Cheong Fun when we got to Hong Kong proper. I've never eaten anything like this filling before.


Glad you're loving the detail!

[PrincessInOz]

How to go to Fantasyland without going to Fantasyland


The time was getting close to the top of another hour and I figured we should try to see if we could catch up with my parents. We’d missed the first hour catch-up as we were somewhere in the future and I figured that we should see if my parents were there for the second.

We still had about 10 minutes to kill; so I thought we’d sneak into Fantasyland and take some pictures of the back of the Castle.

Our path took us past Snow White Grotto, another one of those non-attractions but listed as one on the map.





It wasn’t all bad….we did come across another princess in the area.





With a boy, this is the closest I’m going to get to meet any princess! There was a long line but she graciously posed for me between groups.

Another turn…





And we were heading into Fantasyland.









I got in some shots of the back of the castle….













..and the surrounding buildings.
















Everything is so much closer at HKDL. It is a smaller park and the buildings are much closer together; even more so than at Disneyland.


The Banquet Hall was near here and I got a picture of the menu and the outdoor dining area for those of you interested. I didn’t get a chance to head inside during this trip but I have seen pictures of the interior in Zanzibar’s TR.









By this stage, DH had found my parents and it was time to move on.


Turns out that my parents had spent their time in Fantasyland and were keen to press on. As we’d just finished with Tomorrowland, that really only just left Adventureland for us to head. That ended our short visit to Fantasyland!


(Continued in Next Post)

[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)


All Roads lead to Adventureland



We wandered in through the gates to Adventureland….





…and admired the scenery.





It felt and looked really green in here.









Adventureland at HKDL felt definitely larger in size than the other Adventurelands I've been too. However, with only about 3 real attractions, it isn't that much more bigger than the others. I suspect that when Grizzly Gulch is opened, it will make this land much more noteworthy than it is.

We thought of catching the raft across to Tarzan’s Treehouse and started making our way in that direction.





Sometimes, life has a way of making you see the light…

















….because we noticed a mass movement towards a massive pavilion in Adventureland….and it was definitely Hakuna Matata with us.



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[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)


Festival of the Lion King



Without meaning to, we found ourselves at the perfect time for a performance of Festival of the Lion King. The show is staged at the purpose built Theatre in the Wild venue at Hong Kong Disneyland and unlike the revue version at WDW is actually a condensed version of The Lion King story; rather than just a conglomeration of the songs. The shows are in English and have two monkey-like characters translating Rafiki’s lines into Cantonese.


As we had arrived at the back of the pack, our seats were higher up. We will be having heads in our way for this screening of FoTLK.





Ever wonder how that pattern on the floor is formed?





The show was wonderful and the performers were of the calibre you would expect of a Disney show.


The opening Circle of Life with Rafiki.






The floats were familiar.


















These are the monkeys I was talking about.





Simba’s entrance…





…he just can’t wait to be King.









But Scar is just being prepared!









Look out Simba….I think you’re about to lose.





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[PrincessInOz]

(Continued from Previous Post)


But you can always rely on friends and Hakuna Matata.





Surprisingly, I could feel the love tonight…or at least my camera capture was reasonable for this part of the show.













Time to fight for Pride Rock!





Sic ‘em Simba!





It’s only fire and brimstone.





Hand tackling above the shoulder is definitely not allowed.





High kicks for the winner!






And he gets the girl too.






Time for this Circle of Life to wrap up, Rafiki.






Everybody clap for the cast. They were great.






A very colourful show indeed and a highly enjoyable 30 minutes for us.









ps. I did attend this show a second time on Day 2. I shot it with the telezoom lens; so there will be close-ups of the performers coming.

[usnuzuloose]

Wow, this DL is really different. Fantasay land is short. Does the park get any bigger crowd? Never ever saw a Lion King show. Cant wait for more. I hope you get to feeling better.

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by usnuzuloose

Wow, this DL is really different. Fantasay land is short. Does the park get any bigger crowd? Never ever saw a Lion King show. Cant wait for more. I hope you get to feeling better.

My visit into this corner of Fantasyland was short.....there might be a bit more to Fantasyland than I saw at this short hop in.......maybe when I get to Day 2....maybe.

[Mum from oz]

Great report so far. The hotel looks gorgeous, I like the maze, it's really cute.

Finally some food porn! The dim sum looks yummy, I love how well presented it all is. The hotel breakfast looks good too, the fruit looked really fresh, thanks for letting us know that fruit was dragon fruit, at first I was staring at it thinking, has that got black sesame seeds on it? lol

Great shots of the Flights of Fantasy parade, I agree it is so colourful and cheerful. I really loved it while I was there.

[aussietravellers]

Have just caught up and I am absolutely drooling over that dim sum.

I can't believe that Disney collection (of dim sum). I have never seen anything like that and they just look amazing. Gorgeous! Did you have trouble eating them looking so cute?

Love the look of the park. Going back now to have a better look at the park photos, I had so much reading to do that I just skimmed over the photos to read the report.

You really do write great TR's.

[queenie82]

Love the photos...

But why no photos of the Monkeys that do the translating?


All these discussions of the CM's in the parade is interesting.
While it is very possible that the CM's were trained in the US and are American imports. (very likely for the cast of The Lion King) there are a LOT of Western people living and working in Hong Kong. So finding Western staff wouldn't have been nearly as hard as in Tokyo. Especially now, finding Western CM's would be very difficult for Tokyo. But in Hong Kong I can't imagine it being too hard.

For Parades there isn't interaction with CM's on a float most of the time so they would often wing it I imagine with a Eurasian CM if that was easier.
And as for much of the staff being Asian. Again finding Asian CM's that speak Cantonese and English fluently isn't very difficult in Hong Kong. And the fact is many of the most demanding guests are from Mainland China so they NEED to have Mandarin speaking staff to deal with them.


Looking forward to the rest of the Photos

[skier_pete]

Originally Posted by franandaj

I had the same feeling too! I'm not sure why I was a little surprised to see the dancers in the parade were Asian!

Originally Posted by queenie82

All these discussions of the CM's in the parade is interesting.
While it is very possible that the CM's were trained in the US and are American imports. (very likely for the cast of The Lion King) there are a LOT of Western people living and working in Hong Kong. So finding Western staff wouldn't have been nearly as hard as in Tokyo. Especially now, finding Western CM's would be very difficult for Tokyo. But in Hong Kong I can't imagine it being too hard.

For Parades there isn't interaction with CM's on a float most of the time so they would often wing it I imagine with a Eurasian CM if that was easier.
And as for much of the staff being Asian. Again finding Asian CM's that speak Cantonese and English fluently isn't very difficult in Hong Kong. And the fact is many of the most demanding guests are from Mainland China so they NEED to have Mandarin speaking staff to deal with them.

My original comment was more regarding the "look" of the face characters...thinking of whether it would break the "magic" for kids to have snow white have very asian features. I would think this would be a non-issue for the Lion King cast, though.

That's an excellent point though about the international flavor of HK - and how they likely would need M & G characters to be bi-lingual. The casting process might be more complicated there than here in the US.

Back to the TR - your Adventureland is the first time I've seen something and thought - Wow that looks cool! Specifically, the Tarzan tree-hpuse. I also think it's neat that they took the Lion King show and sort of combined parts of the Festival of the Lion King (my fav WDW show) with a more broadway story-telling format.

[dgbg100106]

I love the Lion King.... My most favorite!

[PrincessInOz]

Originally Posted by Mum from oz

Great report so far. The hotel looks gorgeous, I like the maze, it's really cute.

Finally some food porn! The dim sum looks yummy, I love how well presented it all is. The hotel breakfast looks good too, the fruit looked really fresh, thanks for letting us know that fruit was dragon fruit, at first I was staring at it thinking, has that got black sesame seeds on it? lol

Great shots of the Flights of Fantasy parade, I agree it is so colourful and cheerful. I really loved it while I was there.

Thanks for the feedback on the TR. I really appreciate it.

Those black sesame seeds are rather like the seeds in Kiwifruit. The dragon fruit has the texture of a cross between watermelon and cantelope, the seeds scattered through it like Kiwifruit and the taste rather like a cross between an apple and a pear.

Originally Posted by aussietravellers

Have just caught up and I am absolutely drooling over that dim sum.

I can't believe that Disney collection (of dim sum). I have never seen anything like that and they just look amazing. Gorgeous! Did you have trouble eating them looking so cute?

Love the look of the park. Going back now to have a better look at the park photos, I had so much reading to do that I just skimmed over the photos to read the report.

You really do write great TR's.

We didn't have trouble eating the dim sum. We had trouble STARTing to eat the dim sum. Even my parents went photo crazy for a while.

Originally Posted by queenie82

Love the photos...

But why no photos of the Monkeys that do the translating?


All these discussions of the CM's in the parade is interesting.
While it is very possible that the CM's were trained in the US and are American imports. (very likely for the cast of The Lion King) there are a LOT of Western people living and working in Hong Kong. So finding Western staff wouldn't have been nearly as hard as in Tokyo. Especially now, finding Western CM's would be very difficult for Tokyo. But in Hong Kong I can't imagine it being too hard.

For Parades there isn't interaction with CM's on a float most of the time so they would often wing it I imagine with a Eurasian CM if that was easier.
And as for much of the staff being Asian. Again finding Asian CM's that speak Cantonese and English fluently isn't very difficult in Hong Kong. And the fact is many of the most demanding guests are from Mainland China so they NEED to have Mandarin speaking staff to deal with them.


Looking forward to the rest of the Photos

There are a couple or three pictures with the monkeys in them, if you wanna check the pictures again. I was kinda sitting in the wrong section for photo taking. Not a lot of the characters faced my way.

Originally Posted by skier_pete

My original comment was more regarding the "look" of the face characters...thinking of whether it would break the "magic" for kids to have snow white have very asian features. I would think this would be a non-issue for the Lion King cast, though.

That's an excellent point though about the international flavor of HK - and how they likely would need M & G characters to be bi-lingual. The casting process might be more complicated there than here in the US.

Back to the TR - your Adventureland is the first time I've seen something and thought - Wow that looks cool! Specifically, the Tarzan tree-hpuse. I also think it's neat that they took the Lion King show and sort of combined parts of the Festival of the Lion King (my fav WDW show) with a more broadway story-telling format.

I'll have more on Adventureland on Day 2 and that Tarzan tree-house.

Originally Posted by dgbg100106

I love the Lion King.... My most favorite!

It was my favourite too; until I saw Aladdin at CA.