It is going to be a hot and sticky day but thankfully the ticket stands are covered. The strange thing we notice right away is that you cannot see the princess' castle from the ticket area. Usually they tower over all else in the park but we can't even see the spires, but we do see mountains in the background. We get our tickets and head for the gates where a guy named Max (bet that's not what his momma calls him) looks in our backpack and gives the kids a character trading card. We enter the park and like the other ones we've been to, Main St. USA is right there as is the train station. We go rent two strollers since they don't have any double strollers. We chose to leave ours in the apartment as it is not an easy walk to the metro and we figured we'd both be carrying kids on the way back to the apartment. Emerson starts to cry as soon as we put him in it and he wails and struggles against the straps. Shades of the car seat impending on our drive home?He has obviously never been in a car seat and I am sure that he'll love the 5 pointe harness. Everything looks like a typical Disney park and it is all in English, too. We had read that this was intentional because the Chinese don't want an Asian Disney, they want an American look and feel. We feel right at nome and I am guessing many of them wonder what half of this stuff says. LOL!
As we get closer to the castle we see that is is probably a quarter of the size of the others we have seen and say that it must be Aurora's weekend apartment. We pause for a picture with the family in front of the castle and to give you an idea of the scale, we are standing on the drawbridge off the moat and have everything in the shot, including Emerson trying to escape the stroller.We pass through the castle, no joke, maybe 20 or 30 feet wide and are in Fantasyland. The kids want to ride the merry go round so they all get in line while Emerson and I find a spot to sit and watch them. I leave him in the stroller and try to soothe him and he calms down once the Cheerios are broken out but begins to sob again when they are gone. It is sweltering and he is sweating buckets with the effort of crying so I get him out and hold him where he eventually calms down. I get a lot of sideways and weird looks from passersby and try to remember that they are all God's children instead of what I am thinking. ;). Julie and I have talked about this before and the stares we get range from genuine happiness and smiles to blank stares to what looks like disdain. If only these people really knew what we were doing, but we realize that we don't need to justify ourselves to anyone. The paperwork is done and their dirty looks cannot change that. The kids enjoyed the ride and meet up with us.
We decide to head towards Tomorrowland and the Buzz Lightyear ride. We decide we are all riding this one including Emerson. We stand in line and patent the Fuller Blockade to prevent or at least minimize line jumpers. As soon as we get into the building, Emerson starts to cry. The noise, crowds and darkened interior don't work for him but it is too late now, little guy! Max and Sydney get in a car by themselves (they are so big now), Julie takes Veronica and I take Emerson. He cries and doesn't like it at all, but even shooting left handed we score to L-3 with 67,000+ points. We get off the ride and decide it is time to try the restrooms here. In classic Disney fashion, they are nice and clean. Max has decided that he is ready to give roller coasters a try. His first and last experience was Goofy's Barnstormers in Orlando and that ride couldn't have been done fast enough for him. He says he is ready for Space Mountain so he and I go get in line while the girls and Emerson hang out under some trees in a shady spot. We worked our way through the line and you can see the intensity growing as we get closer. Max laughs a nervous laugh at the sign that says this is your final option to exit the ride but braves on. We had a great time and he totally loved it! He just about flew to the girls to tell them about it, but when we got there, our strollers were there, but nobody else. We figure they went to the restroom as there were some close by and they joined us shortly.
Sydney wanted to ride the cars you drive around in so Julie, Max, Sydney and Veronica went to go stand in line while Emerson and I stayed in the shade. About ten minutes later they came back and said that the line was HUGE and that they didn't want to wait that long. We packed up and Emerson freaked a little less as we headed towards Adventureland. Now we mentioned that this park is smaller, but it literally took no time at all to go from Tomorowland, around the Main St. circle and cross into Adventureland. As luck would have it we were ten minutes away from the start of what most guides considered the best show there, "The Festival of the Lion King" so we found some seats in the air conditioned theater and enjoyed the show. It was very good and was maybe a 30 minute recap of the Lion King. It was neat to see how they added two new characters to relay much of the non-singing dialogue into Chinese. We enjoyed it because it was the first time we had heard that much English outside of a hotel! Emerson wasn't too sure when they started and the theater was darkened but seemed to tolerate if not enjoy it by the end. We were all starving and tired so lunch seemed appropriate and we hit the Tahitian Terrace for some good old fashioned Asian and Indian cuisine. Not your typical Disney fare, but very good and extremely efficient. Max and I literally walked in, ordered, paid and walked out in five minutes. Try THAT in Orlando! LOL! The food was very good and we enjoyed eating in the shade and strategizing about what to do next. We settled on the Jungle Cruise since we were still in Adventureland. We got in line and thankfully they had multiple lines for Mandarin, Cantonese and English so we hopped in the Cantonese line to brush up. No, we didn't we got in the English line. We waited for maybe twenty minutes before getting on and taking off for our adventure. Our guide's English was ok, but not as clear at times as we would liked. I don't think she got the humor that the other guides we've had use so it came off a bit awkward at times but the kids enjoyed it and they had so many new twists to the cruise that were neat like fire and steam.
After our cruise, we were compelled to do It's a Small World because you can't hit Disney without seeing it so we headed towards Fantasyland. Again the size of the park was apparent as this was the 2nd time we were in Fantasyland in the same day and not as exhausted from the walking as you'd expect. We walked right in and waited maybe five minutes for Small World. They have added some new twists here too where there is a rainforest section and at least one section that we can't remember right now. ;). After Small World we realized we had not met any of the characters so we headed towards a pavilion area to see who we could meet. As we were walking up Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Pluto and Tigger were coming out. The kids wanted to see Pluto so we got in line and had our pictures taken with him and then moved to the Mickey line. As we were waiting to see Mickey the characters needed to take a break and who couldn't blame them in this sweltering heat? The good news was that they came back out in a few minutes. While we waited for them to come back we noticed that the train here has two rows of almost bench/stadium seating and that everyone faces into the park. We think the space Disney bought was so small that they couldn't put stuff on both sides like you have at the other parks so have you face inwards to see the park. Another interesting nuance with Hong Kong Disneyland, huh? Mickey came back out and while we were waiting our turn a couple in front of us proposed and had the staff bring roses out. It was nice and she said yes. We got our photo with Mickey and decided we better call it a day as we still have a one hour metro ride back to the apartment.
On the way back Emerson and I grabbed a seat on Main St. USA and watched the crowds and ate caramel popcorn (there are some advantages to hanging with dad) while Julie and the crew shopped for souvenirs. As we were waiting Stitch's Surf Party Parade rolled down the road and we had front row seats. Emerson seemed to enjoy the parade and especially the gold Mickeys they shot out as confetti at the end. We collected a few for the other kids and waited until they were done shopping. After that we dropped off the strollers and headed towards the metro. Always sad to leave a Disney park. We took the metro back which wasn't as crowded as I was afraid it would be. I think we missed the rush hour home traffic and if we did they were headed the other way, out of the city. On the final leg of the journey a man came on the train and while I was standing there holding Emerson asked us about his cleft lip repair and we learned that he was a pediatrician. He gave us his cards, though we are not sure why since we told him we were leaving to go home the next day, but he insisted. We walked to the apartment and picked up some water to rehydrate after a hot, sweaty day..
Julie started giving baths so that we wouldn't offend others on the plane and I made blueberry jelly sandwiches and whatever else we could find. The heat did a number on all of our appetites and nobody was terribly hungry. We finalized the packing and cleaning and verified that we had transportation from the apartment to the airport arranged. We are going to have a van pick us up at 8AM because there would be no way we could get our crew from the apartment to the airport in a taxi or via the metro and we don't want to pay for two taxis. We finally wrap everything up and hit the sack. Emerson and Veronica are out before Julie finishes her rounds (she is such a good mom!) and the rest of us fall asleep dreaming of home.
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