Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORGOCH: In the meantime, ya can feel free ta send whatever ya thinks we'd like over ta Morva, Malin! ORDDU: Above all, have a lot of fun and know that we look forward to hearing your trip report from there.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***but havn't you admited your more of a rides kind of person, which I think could be part of the reason for the low opinion.*** I like rides, sure. I also enjoy well done shows however (love the Mermaid show at DisneySea, for example). ***I enjoy the full experience, that includes attractions, shows, parades, dining, shopping*** We did all that stuff. Still, not much to do when it comes down to it. It only takes minutes to walk the whole place, seriously. Fantasyland and Tomorrowland are downright tiny! I would also say it's unfortunate that some of the more detail oriented places, where you can spend a lot of time just checking them out, are missing in Hong Kong. In particular no NOS or Liberty Square, and no Frontierland. Those are sorely missed imo.
Originally Posted By Mr X I get the impression that people think we sort of hurried through the park, and thus dismissed it as "a half day experience". Nothing could be further from the truth actually. We arrived late in the morning (intending to stay til closing), strolled the park a LOT, watched the parade, ate, checked out the Jammitors show, rode space mountain twice I think, Philharmagic twice (I'm sure), browsed the shops a bit. We definitely didn't rush. As far as dining is concerned, don't forget that most of the food is, essentially, the same. All Chinese in other words. Granted Chinese food is good, good for you, and of course you're in China so it's even better (I thought the food in the park was extremely high quality for a Disney park, just not enough variety). It's funny though, eating pork and pea pods over rice in Tomorrowland just seemed odd. I dunno why my idea of "Tomorrow" consists of fast food burgers though. That's pretty pathetic in and of itself lol. If they REALLY wanted to go for authenticity in the Tomorrowlands and Future World, they should serve astronaut cuisine or something. But anyway, the vibe of having this (very tasty) ancient oriental wok stirred meal in Tomorrowland was weird to me. What can I say?
Originally Posted By Malin I guess the Chinese food is just something Westerners need to put up with. But atleast the park does offer the usual burgers, fries, Fish & Chips etc. So atleast you do have some alternative options to Chinese food available to you. I believe the Plaza Restaurant also serves up some Western meals. I wouldn't consider Pork and rice to be that Foreign to what we could find at home anyway. I will have to take your coments about the park being a half day attraction into consideration, because your one of the only Members who has been that is offering his feedback here, which is much apreciated. Althrough I'm the kind of person who could find enough to keep me going for the day at DCA or the Studios in Paris. And the Studios in Paris is a lot smaller with less things to do and see than HKDL appears to be!
Originally Posted By Mr X I don't think they have fries, the only burger place I saw served it with steamed rice. Things might have changed though. LeeMac is the most up to date guy on that park around here I think. My personal advice is that if you want to plan a full day go for it BUT keep in mind that if you decide to bail it's easy enough to get into Hong Kong for the evening (so you're not "stuck" at the resort in any case). Two days in that park is, in my view, excessive...unless you really want to repeat EVERYTHING many times, and spend lots of times in the hotels and all that. If you are a leisurely enough park goer to fill up a whole day at WDSP though, you'd probably want a whole day in HKDL as well.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros I didn't get a burger, but I'm pretty sure I got fries. We went to the banquet hall place in Fantasyland (not the Festival of Foods, but the other one), and I got something that was similar to a Sailsbury steak. I don't know what they called it, but it was a name that I wasn't familiar with, and it came with fries. So you can get a burger and you can get fries, but you probably would have a tough time finding a burger and fries at the same place. (For what it's worth, the fries were really good!)
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Two days in that park is, in my view, excessive...unless you really want to repeat EVERYTHING many times, and spend lots of times in the hotels and all that. >>> Sadly, I have to agree. I can see staying on-site for two nights, spending the afternoon of arrival at the pool and doing other things at the hotel, and having a fine dinner. Then on the second day, spend it in the park and eat there as well. Then, on the morning of the third day, leave for the city. It would be a stretch to find anything more to do there.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORWEN: Maybe some ducklings like to go there just to imagine what might have been or what COULD still be. Anyway, it's being reported on another web footed site that talks between Disney management and the Hong Kong Government have stalled again. So there might not be any new attractions put into this poor little park for quite a few years, at the rate things are going.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney <<I get the impression that people think we sort of hurried through the park, and thus dismissed it as "a half day experience". Nothing could be further from the truth actually. We arrived late in the morning (intending to stay til closing), strolled the park a LOT, watched the parade, ate, checked out the Jammitors show, rode space mountain twice I think, Philharmagic twice (I'm sure), browsed the shops a bit. We definitely didn't rush. As far as dining is concerned, don't forget that most of the food is, essentially, the same. All Chinese in other words. Granted Chinese food is good, good for you, and of course you're in China so it's even better (I thought the food in the park was extremely high quality for a Disney park, just not enough variety). It's funny though, eating pork and pea pods over rice in Tomorrowland just seemed odd. I dunno why my idea of "Tomorrow" consists of fast food burgers though. That's pretty pathetic in and of itself lol. If they REALLY wanted to go for authenticity in the Tomorrowlands and Future World, they should serve astronaut cuisine or something. But anyway, the vibe of having this (very tasty) ancient oriental wok stirred meal in Tomorrowland was weird to me. What can I say?>> Well, as I said many times before, I took as much time as possible and even stayed a few hours after Mr. X to see Hong Kong a bit (it was his first time and faaar from mine ) just to catch some of the shows to get the entire experience. I could've left earlier with Mr. X because we were 'done' in the sense, but the two shows and the fireworks seem to be 50% of the experience in this park (where it might be 20% at other MK parks, but there just so many more shows anyway not to mention rides). Anyway, even after doing it an entire day, I went back 4 days later to give it another do-over! Although the first day, I wasn't really bored since I was with Mr. X and SOME of it was new to me, but by the 2nd day, I was bored out of my head and was out of the park in 2-3 hours time. There was just nothing all that interesting to repeat again and certainly nothing new. And yeah, when you put it in such a exciting and distracting city like Hong Kong for a first time visitor, it makes it harder to justify spending so much time in a park that takes a few hours to see vs a city you can spend days in just sightseeing and never get bored. As for the food in HKDL, yeah, it was a lack of the usual burger and fries Disney fare, but it really didn't bother me. It was nice to change it up a bit and yeah, I LOVE chines food lol, especially in Hong Kong. Half the reasons I go to Hong Kong is just to eat the food .
Originally Posted By Mr X Yeah, I agree I didn't really have any "Problem" with the food being Chinese food at HKDL (hell, I was only in town for a couple of days anyway!), BUT it did seem strange not to get the "usual" Disney experience. The food we (me and WD) ate in Tomorrowland was really good though. I don't remember where else we ate (if at all??), but eating Chinese food in Tomorrowland just stuck out to me as the weirdest thing. I had no problem with the quality of the HKDL food, I'd say it probably blows away the regular quality of ANYTHING offered in the American parks...the lack of variety did seem weird to me though.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney Hey Mr. X, just got off the phone with you lol. Telecommunication in today's world is just great ;D. Well, we also ate IN Hong Kong a bit and I took you to my favorite 24 hour restaurant near Kwai Fong, but you didn't really like it all that much if memory serves. I think we also did one or two non-Chinese places as well. Remember when we were in Kwai Fong and these two restaurants managers started arguing over us over which of their restaurants to eat?? LoL, that was bizarre. Hope that helps.
Originally Posted By Mr X Yup, I remember that Kwai Fong place (I DID like it, but one dish was kinda weird I thought...IIRC there were some weird bones in there that freaked me out since it should've been a boneless dish lol). Yeah, I remember the managers lol. It's funny because I remember eating (of course, we obviously ate over those couple of days), but aside from the McDonalds breakfast (how LAME!?) I don't really remember much about the food but I do remember it was really freakin good. Lots of stir fried stuff, lots of rice, all that...but somehow better than Japan (for what it was...in Japan I really love the tonkatsu and the beef dishes and all that). FWIW my recollection of that trip was FILLED with bizarre memories such as you trying to catch some scary, rickety, possibly kidnappy bus in the middle of the night for 13 cents instead of letting me pay the three bucks for a taxi. It was a great trip, I'll never forget it. I LOVE Hong Kong, what an amazing city! Thanks for the call, just shot you an email.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney ^^Yep, just shot you one right back . Yeah, its funny, I *also* can't remember any of the other specific places we ate in Hong Kong other than that place (but mainly because I ALWAYS eat there everytime I'm in Hong Kong--I've taken two ex girlfriends there, a local expat there and you ). Great place that's 24 hours and the menu the size of a Harry Potter novel . I guess we're just getting old lol, I don't even remember the McDonalds, but yep the food is great in Hong Kong. I'm rarely dissappointed, but as long as their meat in it, I'm usually pretty happy . <<FWIW my recollection of that trip was FILLED with bizarre memories such as you trying to catch some scary, rickety, possibly kidnappy bus in the middle of the night for 13 cents instead of letting me pay the three bucks for a taxi. >> Man, will you EVER let that go??? They are called light buses and used by the locals all over Hong Kong when most of the regular buses go down. Yeah, I was on budget and in my 'backpacker mode' since I was in Thailand two weeks before I met up with you, so I was use to pinching pennies by then lol. I took them a few more times a few months later too and they really drive like the bus drivers here in Korea, so I'm VERY use to it .
Originally Posted By WorldDisney WAIT!!! Another restaurant just came to me: In Kowloon, I took you to a restaurant I had eaten a few times before and also liked. It was a smaller one and more 'mom and pop' tone, but REALLY good too . I think it was our 3rd night there I took you there.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***I don't even remember the McDonalds*** I totally remembered that because I was annoyed that we were eating there (but we didn't have much time), but also I was impressed that they served breakfast stuff after breakfast time, and also there was a McCafe there too (first time I ever saw one of those).
Originally Posted By WorldDisney ^^LOL, now its alll coming back!! Yeah, we ate at our McDonalds near our hotel, the morning we headed to HKDL IIRC? Yeah, I think I wanted to eat there because I miss pancakes sooo much lol. Anytime I'm in Japan or Hong Kong and was actually UP in the mornings, that's where I go. At the time, we didn't have a breakfast menu in Korea and pancakes in general are non-existant, BUT we have it now .
Originally Posted By Mr X ***They are called light buses and used by the locals all over Hong Kong when most of the regular buses go down.*** Funny as it was at the time (and I'd have been WAY more into it if I'd had more time to kill than just a couple of days), I sure wish they had something like that in Tokyo! Miss the last train and your ONLY options are a) stay out all night, b) pay $100 or more for a taxi, or c) pay $50-60 and stay in a coffin hotel!
Originally Posted By WorldDisney Yeah, that what sucks about Japan . As much as I loved living there, I hated the fact that I always had to decide if I was going to go home at a 'late' 11:30 or stay all freaking night, which I did a few times, but not fun when you are ready to go home by 2 am . But for HK, its not a problem. Besides the fact the Taxi's are reasonable, yeah, just grab a light bus for under a dollar and you can get home all hours of the night (you just have to know WHICH bus to take and where to get it ). Here in Korea, I never spend more than $5-6 to get home in a taxi, one of the things I love about living here.
