Trip Report Sometimes going halfway is a good thing - Max's Hong Kong Adventure

Hello All and welcome to another Max Trip Report

This one is solo - sans family - as it was a quick stop at a new park for me
Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL) opened in 2005 and has slowly been growing into itself
Initial feedback on HKDL was too small and not enough to do.
As you will see in this brief stop I had plenty to do (and actually did not accomplish everything I wanted to do)

Who: Max , aka Clarence to those who read my Cali report recently.
What: HKDL for a day and a bit
When: Friday Oct 6and Saturday Oct 7
Why: A Disney park I have not been to AND my company was sending me back to Japan so I detoured at the start of the business trip to catch this gem of a park.

Up next: Intercontinental travel !!

Max

 

[amjt660]

Awesome pictures! Hong Kong Disneyland looks so fun and different from some of the other parks. Someday I will go, someday...

You will enjoy HKDL when you go
Give yourself at least 2 days - my 1.5 was rushed

Max

 

[amjt660]

Day 3 cont'd
Introduction of J

So here is part of the story I have not mentioned yet
I met up with a friend and we toured HKDL together on Saturday!!!

J is a friend of my daughter (C) - a class mate at university - who is now my friend too.
In Sept 2016 J and two other friends stayed at my house for 1 week because their apartment building was not finished yet
Then in Sept 2017 J stayed with us again for a few nights when she was running Orientation week and did not have a place in our city to stay.
J is on a coop work term here in Hong Kong
She was born here but has lived in Toronto Canada for most of her life

When she found out I was coming to her hometown we agreed to spend the day together
Of course I checked with C first - did not want to weird her out having her Dad hang out with her friend
C was cool about the whole idea

I was let in at about 9:20 (40 min early?) and walked down Main street to the castle
They were setting up a "rope" drop there and were going to let us in at 10am

J arrived a little later and through texting we able to meet in the middle of a relatively empty Main street
After that we went shopping for a bit - I found out that she is a big Iron Man fan

As you can see in the first few pics and will see more in the ones that are coming

J and I both have a firm grasp on our inner child!

She took this one

They had a ribbon cutting ceremony to open the park

And then they let us in

First ride?? J's favourite

HKDL recently converted its Star Tours into Iron Man
You ride this vehicle from the Stark Expo and fly into downtown Hong Kong
Of course Hydra shows up and it goes a little sideways

Overall great fun!! - Same star tours simulated but a brand new overlay made for a great first ride of the day!!

I will have more queue pics later in the day - we walked through pretty quick on this first ride

 

[amjt660]

Brief interruption of this amazing trip report
( you have got to love self promotion!)

Max is back on a plane and going to fly back to Japan

Will this trip include Disney??

You will just have to wait to find out!

Max

 

[riverside]

Brief interruption of this amazing trip report
( you have got to love self promotion!)

View attachment 244800

Max is back on a plane and going to fly back to Japan

Will this trip include Disney??

You will just have to wait to find out!

Max

I hope it includes Disney!! Have a safe trip!!

 

[Kiwiduck]

Brief interruption of this amazing trip report
( you have got to love self promotion!)

View attachment 244800

Max is back on a plane and going to fly back to Japan

Will this trip include Disney??

You will just have to wait to find out!

Max

With a tease like that I hope so!
Thats another awesome looking plane seat. Hope flight is/was good.

 

[gdisneyfans]

All caught up!

Next was a walkthrough (Fairytale Forest) that reminds me of Storybook Canel boats in DLR

I would love to see Fairytale Forest - looks so cute!!

Loving all of your pictures!! Really enjoying your report so far and the fact that you have gone yet again to another country and spent time with someone from your past

 

[amjt660]

This is the hat I am wearing today when I go to Disney but which one am I going to.....??

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I hope you trip includes a trip to Tokyo Disneyland.

 

[Swissmiss]

Love the hat!

 

[12in12]

DisneySea? Where ever you are going I hope you have a wonderful time.

 

[amjt660]

Mission accomplished !!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

View attachment 245326
View attachment 245329
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Mission complete!!

So cool! I'm happy for you and completely jealous too!

 

[Kiwiduck]

Wow Shanghai!! Have you completed all the Disney parks in the world now then?

 

[coachwnh]

Got here very late, but glad I found it. Loving this TR, and can't wait to see this detour! Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing.

 

[wdwfamilynh]

Thanks for the tag, Max! I am really behind on my reading, but I will enjoy catching up

 

[wdwfamilynh]

Oh no! Not a video phone That photo reminded me that vacation truly ends in less than 3 hours (yes, I am hanging onto every last minute) and that same phone is waiting on my desk for me

 

[amjt660]

I hope it includes Disney!! Have a safe trip!!

Everything has been safe so far!!

With a tease like that I hope so!
Thats another awesome looking plane seat. Hope flight is/was good.

Business class is awesome - but expensive - hard to justify $6600 round trip from Toronto-Shanhai-Nagoya - Toronto

I would love to see Fairytale Forest - looks so cute!!

Loving all of your pictures!! Really enjoying your report so far and the fact that you have gone yet again to another country and spent time with someone from your past

The Fantasy Forest was soooo cute that I walked through again on Saturday
Meeting up with J was icing on the cake

I hope you trip includes a trip to Tokyo Disneyland.

Sorry not this time......

Love the hat!

It is the replacement for the same hat from Walt Disney World
The one that got destroyed by the heat , humidity and my perchance to perspire in great amounts!!

DisneySea? Where ever you are going I hope you have a wonderful time.

Not Disney Sea this time!!

So cool! I'm happy for you and completely jealous too!

Thank you - only by luck though - if it wasn't for Toyota sending me on business trips to Japan none of the Asia trips would have happened.

Wow Shanghai!! Have you completed all the Disney parks in the world now then?

As the saying goes I have 'touched them all"!!
Stay tuned - the next trip report will follow this one

Got here very late, but glad I found it. Loving this TR, and can't wait to see this detour! Awesome stuff. Thanks for sharing.

The Shanghai TR will start but I still have a lot of Hong Kong to show you !!!

Thanks for the tag, Max! I am really behind on my reading, but I will enjoy catching up

Thanks for joining the party!!

Max

 

[amjt660]

Day 3 cont'd - Get your Star Wars geek on !!!
Next up was supposed to be Space Moutain but..

It is now permanently Hyper Space Mountain!!!
They did this because they redid Star Tours into Iron Man so they needed a Star Wars ride.

Did I mention that J is also a big SW fan!! (can you tell)

This ride is (as best as I can tell) the exact same as Disneyland California Space Mountain
Side by Side seating, Soundtrack (Star Wars music and audio and Phew Phew Phew's !!)

Ride was great - only complaint is the additional effects (projections) do cause more ambient light which means you can see the track more than usual.

I took a picture of the ride photo - the Tie Fighters scroll across the screen covering most of it up (to Force you to buy the picture)
(@sheriffwoody that last pun was for you)

Now J gets pretty scared on roller coasters as you will see below

Outside of the ride is the X wing

Picture of the Iron man gift shop and ride at the back (behind more construction)
I did not ask what was being built.

Selfie of J and I
And no, we did not coordinate our Red and Blue - but it turned out great
Her with the Toronto Blue Jays regular hat and me with the Canada Day hat.

We walked toward Adventure land and rode the Jungle Cruise.

Now the Jungle Cruise is presented in 3 languages ( Cantonese, English and Mandarin)

We did the English version for me - but to be totally honest I had a difficult time understanding our skipper
It was a combination of fast talking, strong accent and a not so high quality sound system that contributed to the issue.

Overall it was a good ride

My pics unfortunately did not turn out at all.

 

[fractal]

Loving the updates and - Shanghai! Can't wait for that.

 

[LadyBelle]

I would probably prefer the side by side seating of Hyperspace Mountain. The single seat ships have always freaked me out a little.