Originally Posted By SuperDry Alright - it's finally here. My flight for Tokyo with a connection to Hong Kong was just announced for boarding. Passport: check. Camera: check. Octopus card: check. Reservations at HKDL Hotel: check. Excitement and anticipation: double check. Updates to follow.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney Wow, you're on your way, huh? Have a GREAT time and yes, reports, reports, reports!!! BTW, if you see all the cute girls on the beach, tell them I said hello and will see them all in a few months ;D.
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: Best Witches for a spell-binding trip, SuperDry, duckling! My sisters and I will be thinking of you the whole time--and hope you'll be thinking of us, too! ORGOCH: Is ya nuts?! Why would anybody on vacation think about 3 old hags with wrinkles, warts and geritol breaths? Leave him be, fer Pete's Dragon's sake!! ORWEN: Excuse me, SuperDry, duckling! But--if you get the chance--would you be sure and take a picture of all my favorite characters for me? I promise to reward you if you do! ORGOCH: And there's ANOTHER good-fer-nothin' sister ta just ignore! Just have a good time an' don't git washed away by any a them monsoons!!
Originally Posted By leemac Aye! Just woke up and off to the inauguration of some of the Disneyland attractions today.
Originally Posted By SuperDry I'm at Narita Airport in Japan right now, waiting for my connecting flight. My flight to Hong Kong boards in about two hours. As I may have mentioned in another thread, I unfortunately don't have tickets for Opening Day itself, as I was not paying attention and they sold out before I was aware they were on sale. But, I check in to HKDL Hotel the day after, and that gives me guaranteed park admission. I plan to go to the resort anyway just to soak up the Opening Day vibe, and if for some reason they have crowd control that won't permit me to do that, we'll I'll just soak up the vibe in HK in general. Details to follow. <<< BTW, if you see all the cute girls on the beach, tell them I said hello and will see them all in a few months ;D. >>> Now, which beach is the best one to go to? I don't want to end up at the one without the cute girls!
Originally Posted By leemac <<^^So when can we expect your first-hand reports to begin?>> Not a lot to report really. The inauguration ceremonies were scattered throughout the day and guests were permitted inside the park from 9am-3pm. There is a party inside the park tonight for invited guests. The official ceremony tomorrow morning is at 11:30am and the guests are permitted entry from 1pm.
Originally Posted By SuperDry I'm still at Narita, as my flight to Hong Kong is delayed for several hours. Fortunately, I've been able to find an ultra-cool self-service beer machine where you put a glass in, it tilts it to dispense beer into it without foaming up, then tilts back down and adds a pre-measured amount of "head" on the beer on purpose. This thing quite literally has my name on it!
Originally Posted By leemac ^^ Is that in the ANA lounge? I can never get the hang of those things! Smog has been horrific today. But at least it has been as dry as a bone.
Originally Posted By WorldDisney Oh, that's too bad dude. It's cool you're on the same time zone as I am now . So, what's the first thing you're going to do in Hong Kong (OTHER than the park I mean)? BTW, the beach I was referring to is on Lamma island. Don't worry, everyone knows me there. There are lots of signs with my pictures on it saying, "Stay away from this man!!" in two languages ;O. BTW, if you have some extra time there (Seriously, how long can you stay at DL before complete boredom sets in ;D), then go to Lantau island if you haven't been. BEAUTIFUL island, very rural in a lot of ways and doesn't feel like modern Hong Kong. GREAT chinese food, great atmosphere and yes, cute girls there too . Just a suggestion. Only about 30 minutes (I think) from Central by ferry. You'll love it.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< ^^ Is that in the ANA lounge? I can never get the hang of those things! >>> I'm in the Northwest lounge at the moment, but in my experience, all of the airline lounges at Narita seem to have them. A few years ago, I nearly broke a glass in one of these things by not knowning how to place it on the base properly. <<< Smog has been horrific today. >>> That's too bad to hear. I don't think I've been in Hong Kong when it's been really smoggy yet. That's a shame to have that in an otherwise beautiful city. <<< So, what's the first thing you're going to do in Hong Kong (OTHER than the park I mean)? >>> Well, considering that I've been up 23 hours straight now on 5 hours' sleep Friday night, and have an estimated 8 more hours before I get to Hong Kong and my hotel, I predict that SLEEP will be first on the agenda After that, and after the park, I plan to hit The Fong at least once. I'm actually considering getting a suit and some shirts tailored, as I've never done that before (I might also get a pair of fake Rolex's - one for each wrist - j/k). There's actually way too much to do: I want to head over to Macau for a day and check out their new "Las Vegas style" casinos - I was very unimpressed 9 years ago with their traditional ones. Also, Shenzhen now has their subway in operation, so I'd like to explore that city a bit beyond what's right over the border checkpoint. Plus, there's Lamma Island as you suggest, which I've never been to. I thought that staying a full week would give me enough time to see/do everything that I wanted to do, but I now realize that this will not be the case.
Originally Posted By SuperDry After a few hours of delays, I'm here. It took 30 hours door-to-door from Texas to my hotel in Kowloon. It's late, and I skipped a night of sleep as it is, so I'm hitting the sack now, and will venture out to the resort on the afternoon of Opening Day. So far, Mickey and DL is everywhere. Signs in the airport, signs on the highway. The highway signs are neat in that some of them don't say Disneyland but use a moniker: much like you'd see a blue "H" and know that that's the way to the hospital, or an airplane with an arrow to get you to the airport. Now, all around town, you see just a Mickey ears silhouete on a highway sign and know where that arrow leads you. Also, Mickey in his traditional Chinese outfit posting for a picture in front of the castle is on the cover of my in-room visitor's magazine. More to come tomorrow from actual Opening Day, to the extent I get to see it,
Originally Posted By Witches of Morva ORDDU: My sisters and I hope you have only the sweetest of dreams before you embark on your newest quest, dear. And don't forget to dream a sweet dream of me, too, while your head's on the pillow...
Originally Posted By maximus I'm sorry.. but wouldnt it make more sense to skip a night of sleep to be there when the resort officially opens. I mean, isnt that the whole point of going on the opening day anyway? ofcourse that's just my take on the whole thing... 2,5 hours to go... lets get ehm.. sort of excited!
Originally Posted By maximus my dear pal jakijajah just pointed out to me that you actually don't have tickets for the opening day but will just suck op the opening vibe. What a pitty, i'm sorry. Hope you'll have a grand time sucking up the vibe though! I assume you have tickets for the next days?
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< I'm sorry.. but wouldnt it make more sense to skip a night of sleep to be there when the resort officially opens. I mean, isnt that the whole point of going on the opening day anyway? ofcourse that's just my take on the whole thing... >>> That's certainly what I would have done, had I had an admission ticket. But, I didn't feel the need to be there right at 1pm to see all of the people that DID have tickets get to go in as I remained outside.
Originally Posted By SuperDry Alright - I'm back to my hotel. I got to the resort around 2:30pm. I took the MTR (the municipal subway) to the resort. As I switched trains to the Disneyland Resort line at Sunny Bay Station, that's where the change from being in the city to being at Disneyland started. I didn't recognize it as Disney music, but there was definately "magical" music of some sort playing in the station. They were definately expecting crowds. Each door to the train had a station attendant standing there for who knows what reason, plus there were a couple of MTR customer service "ambassador" types milling around. As as been reported by others, the trains inside are nearly identical to the TDR Resort Line. The level of enthusiasm of my fellow passengers started at Sunny Bay station. I don't know about theme parks or gardens (yet), but the Chinese definately like taking pictures in front of a Mickey-themed train, pictures inside the train, pictures of the mini-statues in the display cases, etc. In addition to the locals, I spotted two tourists from Japan, with various Disney pins on their packs, and one wearing a TDS 3rd Anniversary T-shirt (not to mention a camera that I want). As the train goes through the tunnel, and announcement comes on along with appropriate music, welcoming you to the resort. The Disneyland Resort Station was full of people, once again with everyone taking pictures. There were two young female models/characters/whatever dressed in Victorian formal clothing, having their picture taken with everyone. I got the sense that they had been hired by MTR and not Disney, especially since this was still in the fare-paying section of the station. Then, out on to the esplanade. There were various media teams set up, and an area penned off that was curiously labeled something like "Public event activity area." I got the sense that that was the designated "free speech" area for protesters, and I saw on the news that there were some, but they had long cleared out by the time I got there. Again, everyone had smiles on their faces, excited to be there. But, it was not even close to a madhouse. I walked down the promenade toward the entry plaza. They were clearly set up to handle heavy crowds, with barricades and private security standing every 100 feet or so for the length of the promenade, but there just weren't all that many people there. From what I saw on the news, there were a lot of people there, so it must have been that most of the ticket-holding guests were already in the park. I guess the berm works both ways: you'd never know that the park inside was running at capacity by what was going on outside. There was no noise coming out of the park that would tell you that it was busy inside: no pistol report from the Jungle Cruise, and all of the screams from Space Mountain are contained within the building of course. I continued down the promenade to the HKDL Hotel. I was surprised that from the park entry plaza near the fountain, the hotel looks as if it's up on a hill. As I got closer, I could see that the front entrance is kind of built up, such that the main entrance is really on the second floor. Interesting. The hotel was interesting to see inside. Obviously, very new. I had seen the pictures that have been posted by LPers, so I knew a bit of what to expect. The guests milling around and hanging out in the lobby were mostly westerners, and from what I gather, mostly WDC/WDI types from California. I know that a lot of them are going back home now, after spending several months in HK getting the park ready. There seemed to be a lot of goodbyes being said, and conversations along the lines of "Wow, we finally made it!" I was hot with all that walking around, so I had a sandwich and some iced tea in the Empress Lounge. There were very few people there. The bartender says that as soon as the park closes, it's crowded in there. I suspect that this will continue once paying guests start checking in tomorrow, as if you're staying at the resort, there's really nothing else to do out there after the park closes since there's no DTD. After lunch, I wandered into the store at the hotel, and I have to say, I really liked most of the merchandise. It was a stark contrast from the last time I wandered into a Disney Store and saw nothing that I wanted to buy. This store had several plushes that I plan on getting (which is saying a lot as I've never bought one before), T-shirts, and a whole wall of various chocolates, cakes, candies, and so on that reminded me of TDR. I'm looking at a plush, look up, and in walks Bob Iger. I was thinking to myself "Is that who I think it is?" He saw the look on my face, nodded, and said "How are you?" as a person like that probably does all day long would do. The CMs in the store were all very friendly and helpful but not in a pushy way. I got into a conversation about a Steamboat Willie plush that they have that I plan to get, and explained how I have a little plastic one on my keyring that I got at Disneyland Paris. Regarding special merchandise, they had things like T-shirts and so on with one of two logos: the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort general logo, and the Grand Opening special logo. I asked if there was a particular time period that they will be selling the Grand Opening merchandise, and they said that they had not heard of a particular date, but it will probably be just until they sell out of their current stock. Apparently a lot of it has "2005" on it, so they must expect it to not last more than a couple of months. Tomorrow, I check in to the HKDL Hotel, and then on into the park. I can't wait!
