Walt Disney World and Disneyland(s) Discussion

[pug205]

OK here are my pictures from Tokyo Disneyland of the guests during Halloween 2009. It is not just the kids but the parents, young and old. I love how the Japanese go all in and do these things properly by taking their pop culture seriously

 

[Coheteboy]

Wow. Those costumes are NEXT LEVEL. Holy crap.

 

[Coheteboy]

More Shanghai Disneyland... here's some TRON Merchandise

Favorite thing I bought was this die cast TRON ride vehicle that you put together. It's about $20.

Lightcyle outer queue.

Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue score chart

There's a workout with Baymax and Hiro show

more later!

 

[Kamandi]

RIP Electric Light Parade

My two girls loved the Electric Light parade (I did too because Tinkerbell had a nice ass but I digress) Such a shame that it's gone. It sounds like they're not even replacing it.

 

[evenflow]

Thanks for all the awesome pictures. I would love to visit the international Disney parks.

 

[Coheteboy]

You're welcome!


Back for more Shanghai Disneyland iPhone pics.... here we're in Treasure Cove day 1, my second meal on property was Barbossa's Bounty. But it's still weird that Pepsi is the main soda here. They have a special can to buy but no one is. Maybe for Americans its something fun to have, but for Coke loving Chinese, it's rather excessive.

Ribs on rice with corn.... while the corn was a bit soggy, I thought it was overall really good.

Now we're in Adventure Isle's Camp Discovery. This is the mountain climbing attraction where no one is allowed to bring anything... even cell phones! I snuck one on and they were none the wiser.

Big fish

Guests get harnasses in 3 phases.

I don't know if the pictures really show anything, but this is my third favorite attraction here. It's not something you'll likely see in the states. There's no safety nets and americans are generally too fat. There's some heavier Chinese but no one is fat fat or even needing a scooter. It's just a very different lifestyle and culture.

It got pretty rainy so I took a break at the Wandering Moon Teahouse for some peach ice tea. or maybe it was mango... i can't remember.

Intercom for Club 33

And here's the Donald Duck waffle... only place in the world you can get Donald waffles.

Mary Poppins can eat it.

Just a few more cellphone pics to go...

 

[Coheteboy]

Recapping Shanghai through iPhone, Day 2, went to visit Shanghai Disneyland Hotel

Breakfast at the Ballet Cafe... this thing was AMAZING.

I also had a bao which was okay

This is a white pear drink made by Tropicana.... i LOVED IT. In fact i ended up drinking it the rest of my time at Shanghai Disneyland.

adventure is out there.... it's funny that on merchandise, they call it Apu Taku mountain, but in all press releases they call it "Roaring Mountain".

Some rain. Lots of it.

Meeting R2 and C3PO

A look at wait times just for fun in Treasure Cove. The explorer canoes has an extremely low capacity whereas Pirates has an extremely high one.

Lunch at Tribal Table in Adventure Isle... this was really good

This is my friend's beef dish

Beers at Blue Frog

Coolest popcorn bucket around

TRON messenger bag

I wasn't the first rider but they still handed these out

Treasure Cove

And that just about wraps it up for Shanghai Disneyland. I have Hong Kong Disneyland next so stay tuned for that.

 

[YoNoSe]

Thank God the one Freak who travels the world takes great pictures.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Coheteboy again.

 

[Coheteboy]

Thanks, YoNoSe!

We now move on to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. It consists of One Disneyland and Two Hotels (HK Disneyland Hotel and Hollywood Hotel). I stayed at the flagship Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel because a friend came along for this trip, gets a discount, and wanted this one over the Hollywood Hotel. He would later agree that I was right and we should have stayed at the other one.

It's not that it's bad... it's nice! But it's just.... kinda classy for the sake of being classy and has no other real identity.

They have a Walt's Cafe which I will eat a few times during my stay.

First evening in Hong Kong and it was dinner so we went with the Crystal Lotus restaurant, which is their fancy Chinese cuisine dining location.(all food was taken on cellphone so i'll post those at the end)

Hanging in the wall of the room

It's a 5-10 minute walk from the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel to Hong Kong Disneyland and I gotta say, this place is HUMID AF. I thought Shanghai was bad, but no... Hong Kong is the devil's taint. Unbearable. On par with Florida on the worst day... or maybe worse.

There's a fountain in front of the park

I'll pause right there so the next post will be officially in the park.

 

[Apone]

The heat is the worst!

 

[Coheteboy]

Alrighty, Hong Kong Disneyland here we go. It was bizarre... when I first went to Florida's Magic Kingdom, it was surreal in that it was like Disneyland but very different. Same idea but everything was built differently, different designs, different architecture, etc. In Hong Kong, it's nearly identical... but different. So it was even MORE strange. Like an alternate universe kind of thing. I didn't like that feeling.

But after going through photos... i'm sure people who aren't so close to Disneyland will still enjoy it for what it is. But it was super weird for me. First off, Main Street is ALL BRICKS. Which means no Horse Drawn Street Car, and there's no Omnibus... just one lone vehicle.

Fire station is a Stroller station. WEIRD!!!!!

Celebrating 10 years

In case you're wondering, the place was DEAD. It was a Thursday though. But i went on Saturday too... and it was even MORE dead that day.

We decided to venture into Tomorrowland, maybe to get a fastpass for Space Mountain

This... feels... .weird

Tomorrowland here is tiny. It's just a plaza. No main artery, it's just a pocket.

So we were GONNA get a fastpass for Hyperspace Mountain here, but the line was so short we waited it out.

X-Wing on display

The queue here is rather disappointing. Whereas Disneyland has the build-up and the larger room where you board, this leads into a tiny boarding area. The ride itself is nearly identical to Anaheim's, with a few variations to what you see. The projections are definitely brighter here. Hong Kong is actually the birthplace of Ghost Galaxy Space Mountain.

Here's a BB-8 snack cart

Gone, sadly, was Autopia, the only electric version in the world. It was closed for a temporary Jedi Training Academy. sigh

More tomorrowland

Construction for Iron Man Experience. It's a lot further along now.

I didn't eat here

and we're back on Main Street

 

[Shawpaw]

I wonder why it's so dead there? Place would be standing room in FL. Great pictures!

 

[Coheteboy]

I wonder why it's so dead there? Place would be standing room in FL. Great pictures!

Thanks!

My guess would be because of location. at WDW, it's just the number 1 vacation destination period. At Disneyland, it's surrounded by millions of local residents, many in walking distance.

At Hong Kong, it's pretty far from the main city of Hong Kong. Not THAT far, mind you... it's a 40 minute metro ride about but it's just in the middle of nowhere pretty close to the airport. That proximity from everyone I think requires the locals to make it a special trip when they do go. That and maybe there's just not enough rides to really fill your day for repeat business.

That's what Disneyland does so well, the amount of rides means you can never do everything in a day. But HK Disneyland, you can.

Going through Adventureland now.... what's weird is that there are three lands that are inaccessible from the other lands. Grizzly Gulch, Mystic Point, and Toy Story Land are on the other side of Adventureland... and you need to go to Adventureland to get to any of these other lands. It's very poorly designed and laid out. Very weird. It's a total afterthought.

My friends didn't mind the Grizzly mountain but I thought it looked like a pile of dung.

Grizzly Gulch is like their version of Frontierland, but it's also not entirely thought out. There's a roller coaster, a place to eat, and that's pretty much it. Not even a store.

 

[Rambler]

Great pics. Thanks for sharing.

 

[UK Collector]

I would agree with you about the layout afterthought, when I went it just seemed like there was no flow to the place. Instead of just walking around you had to double back on yourself quite a bit.

What's the haunted mansion like? They were building it while I was there and I kept going on the Toy Story parachutes so I could get a decent view of the construction.

 

[Coheteboy]

I would agree with you about the layout afterthought, when I went it just seemed like there was no flow to the place. Instead of just walking around you had to double back on yourself quite a bit.

What's the haunted mansion like? They were building it while I was there and I kept going on the Toy Story parachutes so I could get a decent view of the construction.

Oh, the Mystic Manor? It is one of the best Disney attractions ever made!

cue Mystic Point.

The ride, is unlike any Haunted Mansion out there. It's less haunted and well... more mystical. Ghosts just isn't a part of Chinese belief I guess so the story centers around a eccentric collector who decided to build his manor in the middle of the jungle (this could have been a part of adventure land but it's not). He has a pet monkey Albert who steals the show.

Pre-Show introductions

Some spoilers ahead i suppose since I'm showing pics of the ride. You board trackless vehicles and you go in groups of four. Two tend to stay together and you hover around on magneto mobiles or something. There is a tiny piece of track where two will go one way and the other will go another... but it's only one scene difference. Everything else is more or less the same, but just a different perspective.

We'll come back to Mystic Manor again later to visit the restaurant. Onwards to Toy Story Land, which is the most north-western area of the park. I suppose this is themed to Andy's backyard and he left his toys out.

Back in Mystic Point, everything in Toy Story Land had too long of a wait for such mediocre rides. There's a small garden by Mystic Manor with some curious displays to take pictures with.

If a person stands on the left, he/she will be much shorter than the one on the right.

Back on Main Street

And leaving the park for lunch at the hotel

food pics on the phone, will show later on!

 

[UK Collector]

Mystic Manor! I knew it was something different but you got what I was going for

Looks really good! Hoping to get back there next year as part of a big long trip taking in Shanghai and Tokyo as well.

Also visiting family in CA next month for thanksgiving so will be hitting DLC for the first time in 15 years. Can't wait!

 

[Coheteboy]

Mystic Manor! I knew it was something different but you got what I was going for

Looks really good! Hoping to get back there next year as part of a big long trip taking in Shanghai and Tokyo as well.

Also visiting family in CA next month for thanksgiving so will be hitting DLC for the first time in 15 years. Can't wait!

Fantastic! I posted food recommendations a while back for Disneyland but let me know if you would like some recommendations.




back in hong kong... here's some parade pics

more to come

 

[Coheteboy]

Alrighty more update form Hong Kong Disneyland. it's a small world is located on the outside of the main shape of the park so you'll have to go under the train tracks to get to it.

some misc Fantasyland

 

[Black Knight]

Great pics