Hong Kong 1: Disneyland and Ocean Park

We have been in Hong Kong for two days and so far it hasn't rained once!  There does seem to be a perpetual haze hanging over the city, as I had read, which means that it never feels super sunny.

I bought tickets for the Airport Express train that brought us to Hong Kong Island in about a half hour and then waited a few minutes to board a free bus that brought us right to our hotel.  We are staying at a Holiday Inn Express because it was the only hotel that I could find on Hong Kong Island, in an area that seemed to be an all round good location.  We were first given a room on the twenty third floor.  We got to the elevator and Miles talked about how excited he was to be that high up.  I immediately went back to the front desk and requested a lower room.  They gave us the seventh floor.  In the elevator I told the couple with us about how I switched rooms and they told me that they did the opposite, trading a low floor for a high floor.

Our first day's destination was Disneyland.  It opened on the later side, at 10:30.  We were allowed into the park a few minutes early and then were held back from going to the rides until 10:30.  They announced over loudspeaker that they would be rolling out the lands gradually.  I had planned to go to two rides on the left side of the park.  I asked the attendant if this area would be open right away and she said yes.  We went there and it was closed off until 11.



That being the case, we went over to the other side of the park, to Tomorrowland.  Luckily, the park isn't super huge.  Fastpasses are only given for two rides in the park, Space Mountain and Winnie the Pooh.  We grabbed fastpasses for Space Mountain before entering.  This Space Mountain was rethemed for Star Wars, like the one in Paris.  Unlike the one in Paris, this is still an old style slow roller coaster, with only one tiny drop.  The Star Wars screens and effects were cute though.



Next door was the Iron Man Experience.  This was Star Tours, but with Iron Man.  I am absolutely unimpressed with this type of ride nowadays. 




We used our fastpass and returned to where we started, the Wild West area that was now finally open.  We went first to the Thunder Mountain variant, the Big Grizzle Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, a ridiculously long name.  The line was short.  The ride itself was interesting. There are no big drops and not many fast turns.  There really is a lot of wasted space, with too many slow straightaways where the coaster seems to slow down.  The ride relies on two gimmicks.  Luckily, we did not notice the first one.  We were in the back car for our first ride, so we didn't notice the length of the cable.  Shortly after the ride starts, it pulls you about two thirds of the way up the usual ascent that roller coasters have before dropping you backwards into a track change.  You end up in an area where a bear explodes dynamite and you are shot forward.  Miles loved the ride and we ended up going on it four times throughout the day.

Miles stopped to play with water guns nearby.  Next up was Hong Kong's twist on the Mansion ride, this time about an explorer who uncovered an artifact that supposedly animates inanimate objects.  His pet monkey activates it for the ride of course.  The ride is trackless and glides around smoothly.  This was undoubtedly the hit of the park for me.  It was beautiful and incredibly imaginative.  At one point you spin around a centerpiece while paintings on the wall get blown around in a gust, sucking out art from one and sending it to another, before the wall gets blown down by the gust, revealing another screen behind it.  One of the best Disney rides that I have ever been on.

The line for the Mystic Manor ride

They have a Toy Story area filled with dinky, unimaginative rides.  The Small World ride was very nice, with Disney characters dispersed throughout.  The Little Mermaid character sang the song as if they were singing through bubbles.  Even Miles liked it.  The Jungle Cruise was short and just plain bad.  Instead of Tom Sawyer's Island, there was an island for Tarzan's Treehouse.  It was like Swiss Family Robinson, but with Tarzan.  It looked on the map like there was more of the island to explore, but it was the treehouse.  This wouldn't be a problem if you didn't have to wait for the raft to bring you back and forth from the island.  The castle was under construction from all sides, so we never got near it.  The only real ride we didn't get to was the Winnie the Pooh ride, as we missed the short 30 minute time period of the fastpasses here.  I had planned it for the hour that they gave you at Disney World.  It is reportedly like the one there, so we didn't miss much.

At one point we stopped for snacks and saw an interesting potato chip, fudge, and ice cream combo.  We did not get it.




The next day we went to nearby Ocean Park, a park built on a small mountainside.  It has many aquarium exhibits, mostly in a large aquarium at the entrance.  Most of the food options are at the bottom of the mountain.  You can take a sky ride or train to the summit, where most of the rides are.  We went for the train.  In front of the train there was really the only real attempt at theme in the whole park, a statue of an underwater contraption, along with the ceiling of the train lighting up to show aquatic life.



We rushed to the best coaster as our first ride.  We rode on it without the ride being completely filled with passengers.  I don't know where most of the people spent their day, but it must have been mostly at the bottom because we didn't need to wait in line all day.  The coaster was on the very top of the mountain and on the turns you saw everything on all sides. 

We went to try to ride again, and even sat down, but then we were ejected from the ride due to some issues and the ride never ran again for the rest of the day.  This was a huge disappointment.  Most of the other rides were dinky carnival rides.  Miles fell in love with a ride that slowly spun you while going up into the air to do two upside down revolutions.  He went on this ride around seven times.  I didn't go.



We went on one circular swings ride, a smaller version of the one I experienced growing up in Six Flags Great Adventure.  We were the only two on the ride.  We tried the other coaster.  It was rickety and slow.  What drew my attention to the park, a roller coaster that had you wearing cirtual reality helmets while riding, was shut down for maintenance, apparently for the entire week. 

The park mostly looked run down and not well maintained.  The park attendants never smiles and took exceedingly long to start rides.  The whole thing was slipshod except for the aquarium areas.  We really enjoyed them.