There’s one in every crowd

Hi everyone! Apologies for the delay in this post. We were pooped after a busy day yesterday, so I am catching up on two days here.

Yesterday was all about one thing. The Mouse. You know the one I’m talking about. M-I-C-K-E-Y. Disneyland! You all knew it was going to happen… what with my last trip to Japan but also Kate’s fixation on all things Disney too. You know what that meant. It was going to be one helluva crazy day.

When we were getting ready to head off the sun was shining and the forecast was for a sunny 26 degrees. Perfect! Keep that in mind for later.

So anyway, off we went on the super efficient MTR out to Disneyland (how can Melbourne Metro be run by the same people???). Of course the last leg was on the special Mouse Train.

All aboard!

When we arrived we were greeted with the familiar sights… the welcome to Disneyland, the queues, the saccharine cheer. But you know we love it. After getting our tickets (sorry to say readers, they are 2-day passes) and getting inside… there they were. Mickey and Minnie. Now us being us we thought for all of 5 seconds “do we wait to get photos with them?”. “of course we do!”. So there started our first queue. But the result was worth it. Quintessential touristy photo. Gold.

First of a number of kitschy photos

By this time we were already getting a bit peckish. What to eat? Why not a Mickey Mouse shaped waffle? Who says this place is too commercial? Who cares if it is this tasty? Ha ha ha.

Mmmm… Mickey in waffle form

Walking down Main Street we cast eyes on the classic Disneyland castle. Way smaller than I am used to, but the classic castle nonetheless. In fact most things about Hong Kong Disneyland are a bit smaller than the others.

No princesses to be found here

They seem to be rectifying that with some new areas, some of which Kate hadn’t seen before. So off it was to one of those, Grizzly Gulch and the mine cart ride (via Adventureland as evidenced by kitschy photo number 2).

Get used to me looking like this in photos

The mine cart ride was your quintessential mine cart ride. Lots of sharp turns and dips. Conveniently I ignored the warning about people with back troubles not riding. As always, we had plenty of time to pose whilst riding it.

In a calmer moment on the mine ride

While on the ride, the mornings weather report seemed to be a little falsified, as we started getting just a bit wet. Just a bit turned into quite a lot. So much for my 99 cent weather app on my phone. They are getting a bad review.

Time to be less serious with the mice

In the escape from the rain we chanced upon… yep… Mickey and Minnie again. Wow those two get around the park a lot. of course we needed another photo.

We also came across the last new part due to open, alas in a month’s time. Apparently it is a bit Haunted Mansion inspired, which kinda sucked as it is both Kate and my favourite ride. Oh well, next time.

There’s a snake in my boot!

Next up was the final new bit, Toy Story Land, in which we were greeted with, well, you guessed it, lots of toys. A distinct lack of Woody and Buzz sadly though. There was a significant amount of hamming it up for photos however. The one ride I was keen on (a giant drop type ride) had too crazy a queue, so that was going to have to wait.

Matt gets some competition

Matt has trouble measuring up

Matt decides, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em

All this running around make you hungry. But unfortunately Disneyland is never really a place for culinary treats. Oh well, you take the bad with the good. There seems to be a bit of an obsession with turkey legs here, but I decided to pass up on the bird and go a hot dog with some seemingly random chilli/saucy type topping. Not the worst but far from the best.

Far from michelin-star cuisine

One of my favourite rides from Tokyo Disney was the Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, located not in Toy Story Land, but in Tomorrowland…

Welcome to Tomorrowland! Where it rains a lot!

I was talking up my abilities on this ride, since you have to shoot targets to score points, and was threatening Kate with a bit of a whoopin’. She kept the trash talk low key. I soon found out why. For those playing at home, hers is the score on the left, mine on the right. Yep. Must have been a dodgy gun.

Being shamed

By this time, the rain had well and truly set in. So much so that we were pretty soaked by this time. Bah, we were tough. But you know who isn’t tough? Every character in the park. The regular 4pm parade got bumped for the “Rainy Day Parade”, or as I called it, the “We’re Obligated to Put on a Parade Parade”.

The “Rainy Day Obligation” parade

It consisted of a measly 4 floats of characters. I countered this with antics that got more outlandish the wetter I got. See exhibit A at the top of this blog posting.

Even though it was raining, it still didn’t stop us from shenanigans. Why would it? We did duck inside where we could, but who cares if you’re a little wet? In our travels we bumped into some more Toy Story fellas…

Note the rifle’s been replaced by a megaphone

As well as a very grown up Tinkerbell…

Steady on fellas

We also managed to sneak in another round of Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters. Less humiliating this time around, but I still got shown who’s boss.

A little more respectable

By this time we were well and truly pooped. Almost 12 hours of fighting the crowds and the elements meant it was home time. Back to Kowloon where we both crashed and blog posts had to wait…

See you again in a few days!