In less than 5 days, Imma see Jonghyun and the guys again! SO. PSYCHED. (This is me looking at the silver lining despite what has been a killer of a busy week.)
In this post, I will wrap up our Hong Kong Disneyland adventure, which I blogged about earlier in part 1.
(This is part 2 of a two-part post on our HK Disneyland visit. Again, my apologies for the image-heavy blog post.)
My exposure to fairy tales is, to say the least, moderate. I knew the basics, like the main storylines of Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Cinderella. But to say that I know the intricacies and “deeper” details of these stories… well, I don’t. Let’s just say that it was never my cup of tea.
Nonetheless, I had a blast during this trip. It’s like being a kid getting my first taste of what usually cheers up kids, ya noe?
Behind me, is Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, which also happens to be the entrance to Fantasyland. I am standing on the circle where, later in the night, people will be parked on watching the Disney in the Stars Fireworks. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
(Fangirl segue. I think the words on my Arashi shirt is sooooo fitting, don’t you think?)
At this point, no, we did not enter Fantasyland immediately. Instead, we took a detour and headed to Adventureland instead.
And our first stop was the Jungle River Cruise.
The Jungle River Cruise attraction involves riding on a boat and taking a cruise, with a skilled guide telling surprising and entertaining tales along the way. Guests have the option of choosing a Chinese-speaking and an English-speaking guide. One guess as to which one we chose. Haha!
We had fun during the Cruise. Our guide was so good, and so funny, and my folks were riveted. The smoke came on and I swear they even started panicking. 🙂
Walking around Adventureland, you’ll find safari and jungle scenes. On the right is only one of the tikis at the Liki Tikis attraction.
And this kid caught my eye as she plays around with bubbles.
We walked further on until we came to the area dividing Adventureland and Fantasyland. Finally, we relented and went inside the fairy land.
There were also so many souvenir shops in here, with the themes depending on which part of the Park they are located.
It gets exhausting to just walk around. Or so I’ve been told by my aunt. 🙂 So you get to take a rest whenever you can, however you can. This is my Dad and I waiting for my Ma-dear and Aunt buying souvenirs at a shop. Behind us is the Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad – Fantasyland Station.
By the Fantasy Gardens, children frolic and play around. What did I tell ya. It’s Fantasyland after all, so kids are a given!
You saw the front part of the Sleeping Beauty Castle earlier, right? This is the back part. Walk through the archway, and you’re on the other side.
We found ourselves going back to Adventureland to catch the 2:30 pm show of the Festival of the Lion King.
The Festival of the Lion King is basically a compressed music-and-dance show of the story of The Lion King. If I remember correctly, it lasts about 30-45 minutes. It’s held in an amphitheater-style giant “hut”and hey, the one who played the role of Simba is Pinoy, too!
This is one of those times I wished I had a decent camera. *sigh*
After the show, we tried out another Adventureland attraction: Tarzan’s Treehouse. To get there, you have to ride on a raft that will cross the River of Adventure to get you to the small “island” in the middle (aptly called Tarzan Island), where the treehouse is located. This is quite a popular attraction, so there was a queue.
Tarzan’s Treehouse is, indeed, a treehouse that towers over most of the area. When you get up there, you’ll get a great view of the surrounding areas of the park. At this time, the area that is now the Wild Wild West-themed GRIZZLY GULCH was still under construction, so it was mostly a barren piece of land with large machines working to flatten it. TOY STORY LAND was only partially completed.
As you walk up and through the Treehouse, there are these large tomes telling parts of the tale of Tarzan.
And then you get to the house itself.
Even the toilets stuck to the theme of the area they are in! This is an Adventureland toilet. 🙂
There were several areas in the park where you can have character meet-and-greets. But the queues to take photos with them were sooooo long that we simply did not bother. We did, however, stumble upon the end of a session with Pixie Hollow‘s Tinker Bell.
Cinderella’s Carousel at night. (Yes, we’re back in Fantasyland. haha!)
In the pic above, you can again spot the back of the Sleeping Beauty Castle behind me.
For dinner, we headed back to Tomorrowland. Which looks even more sci-fi in the dark.
And, armed with popcorns, and shivering like crazy, we headed back to that circle I told you about earlier, and took our spot among the maaaaaaaaany people who have already taken their spots. It. Was. So. Crowded.
Watching the play of lights and the light show, with the accompanying music, against the Castle was mesmerizing. You’d really feel like you are in an entirely different world.
Sadly, my camera was not meant to take photos of fireworks. I did take a video, but it was filled with grating sound, no thanks to the whipping wind and crowd reaction (including mine). I guess I’ll just put this as one of those you-have-to-see-it moments.
Leaving the Park when the fireworks ended and the Park finally closed for the day, my Aunt lamented (with a sigh), “I don’t want to leave. Now it’s back to the real world.”
Oh, so true.
I wouldn’t mind going back here in the future. No, I wouldn’t. Not at all.