After the Giant Buddha, Mel and I split up for the afternoon. I took the train to HK Disney and she went to see some of her old Mission haunts. I couldn’t imagine that I will ever be back here again, so may as well get my Disney Asia experience out of the way! I have now been to Disneyland, Disney World, Paris Disneyland, and HK Disneyland. WooT! It was amazing!! And different. It is weird, the things that you can’t quite put a finger one that were different. Of course there are the park differences, just the rides and stuff, but that is normal. The main thing with that was the Mystic Place and Mystic Manor instead of Haunted Mansion and New Orleans Square. Mystic Manor was a mix of Indiana Jones and Haunted Mansion and a cartoon white explorer and his mischievous monkey that opens a box and brings all the artifacts to life (night at the museum style) and the ride is going through all the halls and getting scared and trying to get them back in the box. The whole Mystic Place is his gardens and freaky stuff to see and do instead of New Orleans Square. But again, all that is just the park being changed a little to fit the space and be different for different areas, the main things that are different are the cultural things I think.
First, the part is only open 10:30 to 8:30 and honestly, by 7pm almost everything was closed up. Rides were still open, but they were a ghost town. None of the kiosks or stores were open and there weren’t staff or people anywhere. Almost all the lights were off and I got lost trying to get back to Main Street because everything was so dark. It is not the same as in America where people stay all day and night and you practically have to kick them out of the door.
Second, there are only 2 rides with fast pass, there are no Max passes and the lines are pretty short. I only waited in a line for 30 minutes once and that was because I just didn’t want to walk back later so I didn’t do the FP for HyperSpace Mountain and just waited for it. It isn’t super crowded and a lot of people there don’t go on rides. There are a lot of people there that are sitting off to the side or watching other kids or people and letting a small group of people ride the rides as they sit off to the side.
Third, when I went to the shows, people were all amazed at the things. Things that American audiences don’t even react to, the crowds were ooohhhing and aaaahing to. The 3D Mickey Music show, people were reaching out their hands to touch the 3D items and ducking from flying objects and squealing when the water or air puffed, it was just such a different experience than watching it in America. Same with being on the rides, people were squealing and laughing and having the time of their lives, even on the Winnie the Pooh ride or It's A Small World.
Fourth, everyone moves so slowly. No one is in any type of hurry to get anywhere. The lines move slowly, the pathways move slowly, the food lines move slowly, everyone is just relaxing and in no sort of hurry. I just kept thinking that my friend Erica would be losing her mind with all the wasted time!!
Fifth, the characters that are everywhere are not mobbed by adults. Actually, hardly anyone that isn’t a small child gets pictures with the characters. Only about 5 years old and down get pictures and they look kind of surprised when someone older gets in for a shot, but they do it. The characters also all have big masks, none of them have natural faces, even the princesses, I guess so they aren’t asian princesses? It seems a bit racist, but it is what it is.
Sixth, the parade was practically empty. I guess because the park is basically empty by the time it starts, there were all sorts of front row seats for the parade. It did start to crazy rain at the end of it, but that never stopped anyone at DisneyWorld. I don’t think that parades are things in Asian countries so I don’t think that they know what it means on the description, nor do I think a lot of them are multitime returners so they wouldn’t know to stick around for it.
Seventh, The food has its Asian flare, as you would expect, but even the American food they try to have, just isn’t quite right. They have hot dogs, but they are on a stick and split and roasted and that is how you are supposed to eat them. Or they have popcorn, but it is a little sweet or cheese or mix. No regular popcorn. There was one churro stand, but the churros did not taste good and I was sad. They also had fish balls and sushi and fried fish sandwiches and everything you can imagine with fish being in HK.
Eighth. Even though it is Disneyland, Mickey and Minnie are not the main characters on display, it is Duffy and Sallie Mae, the Disney Bears and their friends. There is Cookie and a bunch of them and instead of Mickey balloons and Mickey ice creams and all that, it was all Duffy everywhere you went. It was very weird. I mean, you still could find Mickey stuff, but Duffy stuff was first.
Ninth, the feel wasn’t the same. You could see all the Disney elements, but because the people didn’t seem to buy in and believe that it was the happiest place on earth and they weren’t mezmorized and excited, it seemed to take some of that away. People didn’t have on lots of ears and swag and stuff like in America. Everywhere you looked you didn’t see different sets of cute ears, or bags, or family t-shirts, it just gave everything a different feel. From what I saw in VN, people don’t have TVs and extra time and vacations and I think, to a lesser extent, this is the same for HK and parts of China. They are not as poor as VN, but they are workers, they don’t have extra time or money to sit around and watch movies and youtube and be sedentary like Americans. They don’t go on big family vacations and spend money on their families in such decadent ways as going to an amusement park, if they go on a vacation it is to see family in other cities. I don’t think that they dislike Disney, but I don’t think it is as ingrained on a cultural scale as it is here.I think there are rich families and groups that it is, and they go here and want to be like Americans and buy into the whole thing, but I don’t think it works for the millions.
Finally, It is pretty awesome to see all the things with the wilderness of HK behind it. Even with things cleared away, the wild is creeping in and it is kinda cool. There are some areas that aren’t in use and you can see them overgrown and the jungle sneaking back in. Like that Flintstones Amusement park that is abandoned? It could be this place one day...
First, the part is only open 10:30 to 8:30 and honestly, by 7pm almost everything was closed up. Rides were still open, but they were a ghost town. None of the kiosks or stores were open and there weren’t staff or people anywhere. Almost all the lights were off and I got lost trying to get back to Main Street because everything was so dark. It is not the same as in America where people stay all day and night and you practically have to kick them out of the door.
Second, there are only 2 rides with fast pass, there are no Max passes and the lines are pretty short. I only waited in a line for 30 minutes once and that was because I just didn’t want to walk back later so I didn’t do the FP for HyperSpace Mountain and just waited for it. It isn’t super crowded and a lot of people there don’t go on rides. There are a lot of people there that are sitting off to the side or watching other kids or people and letting a small group of people ride the rides as they sit off to the side.
Third, when I went to the shows, people were all amazed at the things. Things that American audiences don’t even react to, the crowds were ooohhhing and aaaahing to. The 3D Mickey Music show, people were reaching out their hands to touch the 3D items and ducking from flying objects and squealing when the water or air puffed, it was just such a different experience than watching it in America. Same with being on the rides, people were squealing and laughing and having the time of their lives, even on the Winnie the Pooh ride or It's A Small World.
Fourth, everyone moves so slowly. No one is in any type of hurry to get anywhere. The lines move slowly, the pathways move slowly, the food lines move slowly, everyone is just relaxing and in no sort of hurry. I just kept thinking that my friend Erica would be losing her mind with all the wasted time!!
Fifth, the characters that are everywhere are not mobbed by adults. Actually, hardly anyone that isn’t a small child gets pictures with the characters. Only about 5 years old and down get pictures and they look kind of surprised when someone older gets in for a shot, but they do it. The characters also all have big masks, none of them have natural faces, even the princesses, I guess so they aren’t asian princesses? It seems a bit racist, but it is what it is.
Sixth, the parade was practically empty. I guess because the park is basically empty by the time it starts, there were all sorts of front row seats for the parade. It did start to crazy rain at the end of it, but that never stopped anyone at DisneyWorld. I don’t think that parades are things in Asian countries so I don’t think that they know what it means on the description, nor do I think a lot of them are multitime returners so they wouldn’t know to stick around for it.
Seventh, The food has its Asian flare, as you would expect, but even the American food they try to have, just isn’t quite right. They have hot dogs, but they are on a stick and split and roasted and that is how you are supposed to eat them. Or they have popcorn, but it is a little sweet or cheese or mix. No regular popcorn. There was one churro stand, but the churros did not taste good and I was sad. They also had fish balls and sushi and fried fish sandwiches and everything you can imagine with fish being in HK.
Eighth. Even though it is Disneyland, Mickey and Minnie are not the main characters on display, it is Duffy and Sallie Mae, the Disney Bears and their friends. There is Cookie and a bunch of them and instead of Mickey balloons and Mickey ice creams and all that, it was all Duffy everywhere you went. It was very weird. I mean, you still could find Mickey stuff, but Duffy stuff was first.
Ninth, the feel wasn’t the same. You could see all the Disney elements, but because the people didn’t seem to buy in and believe that it was the happiest place on earth and they weren’t mezmorized and excited, it seemed to take some of that away. People didn’t have on lots of ears and swag and stuff like in America. Everywhere you looked you didn’t see different sets of cute ears, or bags, or family t-shirts, it just gave everything a different feel. From what I saw in VN, people don’t have TVs and extra time and vacations and I think, to a lesser extent, this is the same for HK and parts of China. They are not as poor as VN, but they are workers, they don’t have extra time or money to sit around and watch movies and youtube and be sedentary like Americans. They don’t go on big family vacations and spend money on their families in such decadent ways as going to an amusement park, if they go on a vacation it is to see family in other cities. I don’t think that they dislike Disney, but I don’t think it is as ingrained on a cultural scale as it is here.I think there are rich families and groups that it is, and they go here and want to be like Americans and buy into the whole thing, but I don’t think it works for the millions.
Finally, It is pretty awesome to see all the things with the wilderness of HK behind it. Even with things cleared away, the wild is creeping in and it is kinda cool. There are some areas that aren’t in use and you can see them overgrown and the jungle sneaking back in. Like that Flintstones Amusement park that is abandoned? It could be this place one day...