I wasn’t going to do another HKDL report for a while, but I ended up taking pictures of stuff that I haven’t before, so this is really more of a place just to dump them more than anything else.
Main Street and the central hub has been decked out with flowers and s**t as it’s now spring. They’ve removed the fab rotating sculpture though, which must have been temporary when Paint the Night was a new thing.
It was a relatively quiet day (Friday afternoon), with Space Mountain only having 5-15 minute queues, with Single Rider being walk on, so I had a couple of goes on that and then a couple more at the end of the day.
I haven’t bothered with Autopia since my first visit here back in 2007. It always gets pretty heavy queues even on quiet days. I wanted to try and get a peek at some of the Iron Man construction though, which you can kind of see from the queue line. Well, you can’t really, but sticking a camera through some sheets and hoping for the best, you can see a bit. The pictures are in this construction topic:
http://forums.coasterforce.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=36859
I ended up waiting 40 minutes for Autopia. Kids and families seem to love it, and it is quite “nice” I suppose, being completely hidden among plants and trees and stuff.
I caught the parade, which I rarely bother with now, but after seeing the absolute wet turd of a parade at Magic Kingdom, I now have a new appreciation for.
A few of us were talking about Animal Kingdom on Facebook, and Joey started a topic about it somewhere, but it was basically about how “perfect” the theming was and how that didn’t always translate, or went unnoticed, especially with regards to vegetation. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but this is also true of HKDL’s Adventureland area.
On my first few visits, I’d always assumed that they’d just cleared some trees and built in and around the existing area using the natural foliage, given that Hong Kong is, perhaps surprisingly for many people, actually very green, especially Lantau Island where HKDL is based. When you’re in Adventureland, with Hong Kong’s mountains in the background, it all feels very natural, like it’s always been there and Disney just “moved in”.
It’s only when you realize that the entire area is man-made – there wasn’t even any land here at all before; it was just the South China Sea – that you realize what total perfection it is, and most people wouldn’t even stop to think that they’re in a totally artificial environment.
So yeah, let that sink in a bit. This used to be the South China Sea. None of these trees or plants were here before Disney put them here.
Now for the embarrassing bit. I’ve been to this park **** knows how many times, and it was only on this visit that I realized that Big Grizzly Mountain is actually designed to look like a bear. Such a moron! I think it’s because I’d never really paused to look at it from this exact angle though.
What’s especially clever about it is that it ties in with the local Hong Kong/Chinese culture of naming rocks as the animals they may kind of look like. For example, from my school I can see Lion Rock, a mountain with a peak that (kind of) looks like a lion. There are others scattered all over the territory too. I was about to just pop out of the office to get a picture, but it’s really cloudy today, so here are some off Google:
I’ve been forgetting where I’m actually posting. Sorry for getting semi-cultural and educational. Here’s a picture of a coaster: the queues were similar as they were for Space Mountain, never going above 15 minutes from what I saw, with Single Rider taking at most 5.
The queues were similar as they were for Space Mountain, never going above 15 minutes from what I saw, with Single Rider taking at most 5.
I’d never taken any pictures of The Golden Mickeys before, so I thought I’d get a few this time. The first time I saw this, I didn’t think too much really, but it’s grown on me and is actually among the better Disney shows in terms of scale and production. Sorry to say it, but the equivalent shows at the Florida Disney parks, not including the big nighttime or stunt shows, are cheap w@nk compared to Hong Kong’s.
Paint the Night had been down for a week for “enhancements” and started back up again on that day. Some of the costumes seemed to have more lights on them, but that might just have been me looking for something different. Otherwise, it was the same as before.
I guess they could have done some work on the interactive element. I was kind of hoping they’d just ditch it as it doesn’t really work; too few people buy the paintbrushes, so you’re stuck with a bunch of performers fannying around in the same place for 5 minutes while the soundtrack encourages the crowd to “PAINT!” the costumes with the brushes that they haven’t actually bothered to buy.
I managed to position myself to get some decent pictures of the Little Mermaid float while that was going on though.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but Ariel actually has a microphone and talks to the crowd. It’s usually just complementing little girls on their hair and dresses, but it’s still a nice touch .
Right, that’s DEFINITELY it with the HKDL reports for a while, at least until they have something new which will likely be for their Halloween event, but that’s just guesswork on my part. There’s absolutely no sign of any work being done on the rumoured maze at the moment, although the site is still very much boarded off, which is making me think that we may not see it this year at this rate.
Main Street and the central hub has been decked out with flowers and s**t as it’s now spring. They’ve removed the fab rotating sculpture though, which must have been temporary when Paint the Night was a new thing.
It was a relatively quiet day (Friday afternoon), with Space Mountain only having 5-15 minute queues, with Single Rider being walk on, so I had a couple of goes on that and then a couple more at the end of the day.
I haven’t bothered with Autopia since my first visit here back in 2007. It always gets pretty heavy queues even on quiet days. I wanted to try and get a peek at some of the Iron Man construction though, which you can kind of see from the queue line. Well, you can’t really, but sticking a camera through some sheets and hoping for the best, you can see a bit. The pictures are in this construction topic:
http://forums.coasterforce.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=36859
I ended up waiting 40 minutes for Autopia. Kids and families seem to love it, and it is quite “nice” I suppose, being completely hidden among plants and trees and stuff.
I caught the parade, which I rarely bother with now, but after seeing the absolute wet turd of a parade at Magic Kingdom, I now have a new appreciation for.
A few of us were talking about Animal Kingdom on Facebook, and Joey started a topic about it somewhere, but it was basically about how “perfect” the theming was and how that didn’t always translate, or went unnoticed, especially with regards to vegetation. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but this is also true of HKDL’s Adventureland area.
On my first few visits, I’d always assumed that they’d just cleared some trees and built in and around the existing area using the natural foliage, given that Hong Kong is, perhaps surprisingly for many people, actually very green, especially Lantau Island where HKDL is based. When you’re in Adventureland, with Hong Kong’s mountains in the background, it all feels very natural, like it’s always been there and Disney just “moved in”.
It’s only when you realize that the entire area is man-made – there wasn’t even any land here at all before; it was just the South China Sea – that you realize what total perfection it is, and most people wouldn’t even stop to think that they’re in a totally artificial environment.
So yeah, let that sink in a bit. This used to be the South China Sea. None of these trees or plants were here before Disney put them here.
Now for the embarrassing bit. I’ve been to this park **** knows how many times, and it was only on this visit that I realized that Big Grizzly Mountain is actually designed to look like a bear. Such a moron! I think it’s because I’d never really paused to look at it from this exact angle though.
What’s especially clever about it is that it ties in with the local Hong Kong/Chinese culture of naming rocks as the animals they may kind of look like. For example, from my school I can see Lion Rock, a mountain with a peak that (kind of) looks like a lion. There are others scattered all over the territory too. I was about to just pop out of the office to get a picture, but it’s really cloudy today, so here are some off Google:
I’ve been forgetting where I’m actually posting. Sorry for getting semi-cultural and educational. Here’s a picture of a coaster: the queues were similar as they were for Space Mountain, never going above 15 minutes from what I saw, with Single Rider taking at most 5.
The queues were similar as they were for Space Mountain, never going above 15 minutes from what I saw, with Single Rider taking at most 5.
I’d never taken any pictures of The Golden Mickeys before, so I thought I’d get a few this time. The first time I saw this, I didn’t think too much really, but it’s grown on me and is actually among the better Disney shows in terms of scale and production. Sorry to say it, but the equivalent shows at the Florida Disney parks, not including the big nighttime or stunt shows, are cheap w@nk compared to Hong Kong’s.
Paint the Night had been down for a week for “enhancements” and started back up again on that day. Some of the costumes seemed to have more lights on them, but that might just have been me looking for something different. Otherwise, it was the same as before.
I guess they could have done some work on the interactive element. I was kind of hoping they’d just ditch it as it doesn’t really work; too few people buy the paintbrushes, so you’re stuck with a bunch of performers fannying around in the same place for 5 minutes while the soundtrack encourages the crowd to “PAINT!” the costumes with the brushes that they haven’t actually bothered to buy.
I managed to position myself to get some decent pictures of the Little Mermaid float while that was going on though.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before, but Ariel actually has a microphone and talks to the crowd. It’s usually just complementing little girls on their hair and dresses, but it’s still a nice touch .
Right, that’s DEFINITELY it with the HKDL reports for a while, at least until they have something new which will likely be for their Halloween event, but that’s just guesswork on my part. There’s absolutely no sign of any work being done on the rumoured maze at the moment, although the site is still very much boarded off, which is making me think that we may not see it this year at this rate.
