Hong Kong Disney, take 2

Erik had to bolt early in the morning to pick up our visas (oh yeah, that's why we're in Hong Kong) so the kids and I spent part of the morning watching - what else - the Disney channel. We tried to hit the pool but got rained out within 10 minutes, so we decided to brave the park on our own. Megan decided to give me a mild cardiac arrest by getting to the gate and announcing that she couldn't find the ticket I gave her back at the bus (never, ever, give your children control of their tickets early). Thankfully we found it in a little puddle, wet, but still intact.

I convinced Megan that she really DID want to go on Space Mountain again with me. She said once a day is enough. The kids figured out soon afterward that the Disney employees offer free stickers of all the characters if you ask. Megan proved more motivated and brave in this task, finishing the day with over 30 different stickers. We met up with Erik at Mickey's Philharmagic show, which is in 3D. It was amusing to see the kids keep reaching out, trying to grab what was coming out of the screen. What was more amusing was seeing the Chinese woman on the other side of me do the same thing. I discovered that my good eye can't compensate for my bad one when I'm wearing 3D glasses, so it was a bit of a blurry show for me, but entertaining nonetheless.

What Disney trip would be complete without pictures with the characters? We nabbed Pluto (Megan's favorite) and Mickey before Ethan said "enough" and we headed for It's a Small World. You what's great about that ride at Hong Kong Disney? It was obviously made recently. Not that I didn't thoroughly enjoy the one at Orlando, but I'm pretty sure those are the same dolls I saw when I was 6. They've also thrown in other Disney characters at this one, which is fun. There was a western family in front of us who told us all the primary schools in Hong Kong were cancelled that day because of swine flu, and Disney was giving discount tickets. There was an article in the paper the next day about how the government got upset over that. I can see their point, because it's like saying, "don't go congregate in school - come to Disney and pass potential germs to an international community!" But in Disney's defense, their sanitation practices are pretty good.

We did several rides again - Megan loved the Cinderella carousel, and while the kids liked trying to improve their scores on Buzz's Astroblasters ride (you shoot aliens to get points) I think Erik enjoyed it the most. We watched The Golden Mickeys again because they were just so much fun (and because Erik admitted that he slept through it the first time), ate dinner, and went back to the hotel to watch an encore of the fireworks from the night before.

So what's our assessment of Hong Kong Disney? Well, I'd say if you had little ones, say Megan's age and younger, this is about as much Disney as you need. It's easy to navigate because it's smaller, the rides are better suited for them, and the lines are SO much shorter (our longest wait was 20 minutes). I will say that if you have already been to Disneyworld, this isn't nearly as exciting. On the other hand, if you take them here first, Disneyworld will seem FANTASTIC.