If I could have one wish, just one, it would be to have one day as a child again and visit the place where I always wanted to go as a child. I didn't know anyone who had been there when I was a kid. Let's face it, it was the 70s and money was tight. My dad promised that he would take us there if he won the pools, but he never did win the pools.
The place is, of course........Disneyland.
So you can imagine my excitement at the thought of visiting the new Disneyland in Hong Kong. I was nearly peeing my pants with anticipation. Situated on Lantau Island, the recently opened HK Disneyland is easily reached by MTR. We bought entry tickets at the MTR station and boarded our train. We changed trains along the way and finally arrived at Lantau Island where we changed onto the Disney train which was waiting for us at the station.
This train was brilliant, the windows were all in the shape of Mickey Mouse's head, there were bronze statuettes of the Disney characters in all of the carriages, Disney tunes from the films were piped into all of the carriages. The Disneyland MTR station bore no resemblance to the city MTR stations, there were refreshment stalls, Disney shop stalls, the building was all made of wood and looked more like a Frontier bar than a station.
We made our way from the station to the main entrance, up a wide avenue with topiary shaped like the Disney characters, a huge fountain with Mickey Mouse surfing was at the top of the avenue. Minnie, Donald, Goofy and Pluto were all in various happy poses around the fountain. It was delightful..
I started the day with a ride on Space Mountain, it is the only roller coaster here at the moment. It's years since I've been on a roller coaster, I swore I'd never go on one again after going on the Pepsi Max at Blackpool, but I succumbed to Space Mountain and enjoyed every second of it. We wandered round the different areas looking at the kiddie rides, familiar characters, shops, shows, parades, eateries and immaculately manicured gardens. The whole place was wonderful but the most brilliant thing was one of the shows which we attended, 'Mickey's Philharmagic.' This was a fantastic 3D show where various implements from the show flew out of the stage at you, in the water scenes we got a bit wet, during scenes with food in them we could smell it, it truly was magical.
There is plenty of room for expansion here and signs of imminent expansion are evident from the air (you fly over it coming out of HK airport). Despite probably being smaller than the other Disneys (I can't be certain that that is a fact, I'm still waiting on my dad to win the pools so that I can go to the others), the whole place was spot on. We ended the day by watching the Disney Parade when all our favourite cartoon and film characters paraded in their floats down Main Street USA............. all on an island in Hong Kong.
I went back to the hotel feeling all warm and fuzzy. At the age of 38 I was finally a child again..........Just for one day.
Here are some scenes from HK Disneyland, the fountain, castle, Tarzan's house and the parade.