myrrh*

We all know most Disneylands are in visa countries, it means I only got Hong Kong as a choice but it is still Disneyland after all. Since we are staying at Tsim Sha Tsui, we went on our way around 8:30AM and arrived past 9:30AM, earlier than it’s opening just to get the hang of it all. The park opens it gates earlier but the castle and rides open at 10:30AM. #NBNumbers

And since it is October, Disneyland is on its Halloween Time while kids gets to play dress-up! Here I am spotting some Elsa and Snow White beside me.

Mandatory shots, anyone? C’mon, it’s the happiest place on earth!

Had to force this guy to take his mandatory Disneyland arch photo. He is definitely not on Disneyland high, yet.

I am a little giddy, inner me is screaming - orange everywhere!

When in Disneyland, huge tripods are not allowed, you can only bring in selfie sticks or monopods. But here’s the trick, garbage cans are your best friends if you don’t want asking strangers to take your photo. It’s a bummer when strangers don’t put in some effort to take your photo that it would result all blurry. Garbage cans in Disneyland are so tall, chest-high tall that it would pass off as table for everything in your bag and they are everywhere in the park. So don’t fret, timer will do the trick. This is why we still have so many couple shots. Haha. Took this along Main Street while we were waiting for castle opening. #VVPose

First stop, Tomorrowland!

Oh diba, sa kanya effort pa akong lumuhod. Sa akin, wala.

One of the most visually appealing area in the park, and consisting of two fast pass, we strategically made this our first agenda (because me trying other rides while staying under the morning sun would just cause me migraines).

Being the first Marvel-themed ride among Disneylands, of course we wouldn’t miss Iron Man Experience! Bonus points that we only had 15 minutes waiting time.

Let’s tour you around Stark Expo.  

Mark III, right?

JARVIS is still AI here in Hong Kong.

Stark Vision glasses on. All aboard Iron Wing. Walang-wala Rialto at 4D sa EK, beh. Haha. What a way to start Disneyland!

Beside Iron Man Experience ride is Iron Man Tech Showcase, who would pass on a personal encounter with Iron Man himself!? Still the same 15 minutes waiting time. The whole Iron Man encounter was in Chinese, trust me, I just went with the flow. Haha. Also, don’t forget to ask the personnel assisting at the entrance of every ride for free stickers.

And guys, don’t forget to set your camera to burst mode. Remember what I said about strangers taking your photos? Even assigned personnel of Disneyland wouldn’t give in too much effort on your photo. Lucky I got even one decent photo from the bunch.

And every exit leads you to their respective souvenir shops. Here, Stark Expo.

Team Cap or Team Iron Man? Or maybe Team Spidey? Can you guess which one I bought?

Oops, I almost forgot. Better to come end of 2018 again or 2019 onwards. The new ride is said to open after the premiere of Ant-Man 2 on July 2018.

Next stop, Hyperspace Mountain!

For y’all Star Wars fanatics.

All I thought was this was some regular rollercoaster ride in space but boy I was wrong. Very very very wrong. Hindi ako na-orient! You would go inside slowly and you literally can’t see anything until it stops then stars will show up once the ride starts. Then it is just never ending hoops and turns and drops and hoops and turns and drops. No breaks, all thrill. I was so nervous not because of how fast the ride was but because I was clinging for my dear camera life the whole time! It was that intense. It was crazy!

Oh god, but that was fun!

Take a left turn from Hyperspace Mountain, adjacent to Tomorrowland, is it’s a Small World.

Represent.

After that crazy experience at Hyperspace Mountain, this is the perfect ride to chill and wind down at without wasting time. And once you finish this cute ride, you will be singing it’s a small world non-stop. Haha.

Africa is my favorite part. See how amazing the colors are.

My childhood.

The Pacific Islands.

Asia!

They’ll be all singing in their native language so you will learn their own version of it’s a small world. I believe I don’t have a photo of the Philippines because I filmed it.

Spot paalam?

Yes, I was still singing it’s a small world and sat outside to take a beat under the shade. Then these birds came out of nowhere because this guy was eating his crackers. Even the birds are friendly and happy just because Disneyland. Haha. I rarely get to see this birds up close, they’re very elusive in our place.

So just walking aimlessly on where to go next til I spot this magician.

Until we spotted Fairy Tale Forest by Pandora.

Just a quick maze where you will see the princesses’ castles or your favorites scenes to life along with interactive boxes and music.

Of course my favorite is Tinker Bell’s forest with these huge ass flowers towering over us. But what is better is this trio who presented themselves to take our photos even when we didn’t ask and even when they can’t converse in English. They are so cute with all their matching outfits! And they were using Sony Alpha too. Korean, perhaps?

Ain’t this place whimsical!? Ugh.

Enough spazzing, back to regular programming.

Just wanted to share to you our overpriced lunch in Starliner Diner at Tomorrowland. Well, everything at Disneyland is overpriced. Haha. 99 HKD for that two-piece chicken and fries only. Another 99 HKD for the Iron Man bun, when 1 HKD is 6.6 PHP at the time. Do the math.

On the left side of the castle, Adventureland.

Which one do you think we went first?

But we did not ride anything from Adventureland. We just passed through to Grizzly Gulch. For being the smallest among all Disneylands, we still did not get to ride it all. We did try here another rollercoaster that runs forward, and backwards. This time under the sun against Hyperspace Mountain’s dim setting, which also why you should ride this in the afternoon.

And since we went around Halloween, we made sure not to miss Mystic Manor.

Why didn’t I have any photo here, I don’t even know why. But I thought this would be just a plain haunted house, but boy I was wrong again. Very very very wrong. This might be my favorite ride of all!

So let me explain otherwise; at the mansion of Lord Henry Mystic with his friend monkey, Albert, he instructed not to touch the magical box in the beginning of the tour through a video. Then we rode a trackless! technology wagon in which we are brought to where the box is. Imagine a roller coaster without tracks, you’ll get to see every inch of the whole place for every turn! I was just in awe the whole time. Since Albert touched the box, glittering dust flew all over and made all objects alive. The mere glowing dust already made amazed, what more the whole ride. I can’t even pinpoint how those dust lights moved - definitely not LED, since they moved without rhythm and no exact size; definitely not over head projection since the whole room was dark. Whatever. Then every wagon went on its own magnetic way showing us 360 degree view of every moving artifacts, not missing one bit, until I don’t know if I’m seeing 4D already without the glasses. Everything is surreal even if coming from a screen only. After writing this, I remembered why I didn’t have any photo - I was definitely moved by this ride. I was living in the moment.

Plus, Mystic Manor is exclusive to Hong Kong Disneyland. More reasons to visit, yeah?

Check out this blog to know more, see more about this ride.

Last stop, Toy Story Land.

Didn’t get to ride this Toy Soldier Parachute Drop since waiting time is 40 minutes. And that guy above is not feeling very well, but we got to ride that U-shaped RC Racer since waiting time was only 20 minutes.

How did we get this shot?

Through this chair, and through a lot of photobombers.

And lots of cute nooks in between.

Finally mastered how to take a selfie on my camera.

Howdy, Woody!

Of course I wouldn’t miss Andy’s Toy Box, souvenir shop of Toy Story Land. The whole store is my childhood! From Mike Wazowski to Sullivan to Nemo to Woody to everything! Aaah!

The whole wall is a scrabble game, noticed it?

I wanted to buy magnet again but none are as animated as Tomorrowland’s Stark Expo magnets.

That’s it. Going back to Main Street for some snacks before the night parade.

My knight in shining armor, or maybe my knight in One Piece t-shirt and black jacket.

Disneyland is equally magical at nighttime.

Just like most overpriced foods in Disneyland, this vanilla coated ice cream is 32 HKD, guys, 32! Nothing special, but too adorable.

Had some pineapple buns too.

It’s almost night parade, we were already just killing time and resting but I had to squeeze in some night shots just because the lights were amazing against the buildings.

Now waiting for the nighttime parade. From orange, everything turned dark, blue and green, but seriously amazed with the lights projection on the building walls. It was actually just a parade of Disney villains, again in Chinese. So again I did not understand a single bit of what they were saying the whole damn time. Haha.

After the parade, we passed by Tomorrowland for a quick peep before the fireworks spectacle. It’s futuristic theme is great against the night sky.

I have to say the next photo will be the last one for this post. I had a great time the whole day, from laughing to how oblivious we were to the rides to having happy hops while walking to taking non-stop selfies because let’s face it, being at the happiest place on earth doesn’t call you to take fierce/pa-cool photos. Loosen up, live a little!

Well it’s also good timing because Disneyland is now under renovation, 2018 til 2023. Fireworks spectacular will also be stopped because the castle is included in the renovation. I actually only have a handful of fireworks photo because my camera was already low batt, which also a good thing because I get to cherish the whole show.

Happy? Happy!