It's Disneyland day! The one thing Tanika knew she desperately wanted to do. I had to pick up a new SD card as I filled my first one in two days (typical) so we stopped at Kowloon Tong and I had a very awkward moment where I couldn't figure out where the register was and the man ran off with my money and the SD card, but I figured it out in the end. We showed Tanika Taste, an upmarket supermarket that sells everything from hand made sushi to freshly squeezed juices, of which we picked up one each for our journey. We made it to Sunny Bay (even managing to get seats!), and on to the Disneyland train with Mickey shaped windows and figurines of various characters lining the walls. With Tanika almost shaking in excitement, and myself not much different, we made it through the gates, past the giant water feature of Mickey surfing water from a whales blowhole, and found ourselves a map. Deciding to start with Adventure Land, we discovered we were just in time for the next session of "Festival of the Lion King", a 30 minute stage show that was almost entirely worth the entry price. Enormous extremely detailed animated puppets of Simba, Timone and Pumba, and various other characters were main features in the production, along with intricate costumes, beautifully choreographed dance moves and extremely talented performers. It was probably the highlight of the entire day. Making our way back into reality, we headed for Grizzly Gulch, where Tanika managed to convince mum to go on a roller coaster. Despite her high pitched assurances of "I'm fine, I can do this" she copes extremely well, and didn't even scream. To be honest the reaction was slightly disappointing. Our stomachs were rumbling, and so after making it to Mystic Point, we stopped for lunch. The food was gross, looked nothing like the pictures or the description, but being at that point of hunger we ate as much as we could handle and kept moving, rather quickly. Mystic Manor was probably mums favourite attraction, featuring a cheeky monkey called Albert and a relatively slow paced ride where the worst that happened was a few water droplets obscuring her glasses. Although I think she enjoyed the couple behind us photobombing our obligatory selfie just as much. Heading for Tarzans' Tree House, it started to drizzle, but with mums assurance that the weather was at its worst for the day, we boarded the raft and began our super authentic jungle exploration. Tanika had her first experience of witnessing Chinese spitting, and I was asked to get a photo with a very polite pair of Indian gentlemen. The Treehouse itself was pretty cool, although I was slightly confused as to why baby Tarzan was watching Tarzan the movie, but I guess not everything has to make sense in this confusing world. Tanika was shattered once we arrived at the princess garden, to find out Tinkerbell had packed up and called it quits for the day, however the rest of the princess Castles were nearly as exciting, especially when we figured out you turned the little wheel and they started doing stuff. With a chorus of "Under the Sea" and a swing in our step, we continued on our adventure. Although we couldn't meet Tinkerbell, Winnie the Pooh was out and about still, although looking a little on the tired side. Being a fond childhood memory for both of us, we joined the queue with a 20 minute wait time for a few snaps. When it was finally our turn, Pooh got a little too friendly. If there's one way to crush a dream, it's to have your butt groped by your childhood hero. Despite this we both still bought a honey pot mug as we left that night, and refuse to let one gropey Pooh ruin our memories. And hey, we still got our photo taken. Our program said the Mad Hatters teacup ride would be closed, but with luck in our favour (sort of) it was open and the queue was short! After maybe elbowing a few kids in the face (I said maybe! Nothing confirmed and no visible injuries) we scored a super sweet teal cup. And god dammit we were the fastest teacup in there! Well, we felt like we were, and that's what counts, although mum just shut her eyes and tried not to be sick. Slightly dizzy, we made it to Tomorrowland, home of Iron Man, and other super futuristic whosiwhatsits. The Iron Man expo was a solid 7 out of 10. All of the cool Stark inventions were on display with heaps of info, and the only place points were lost were for two extremely shitful small girls, whose parents were completely oblivious to their demon spawn climbing under people's legs, over railings and pushing and shoving their way through the crowd. This began a super fun game between Tanika and I, we later named "fuck 'em". Blocking them at every opportunity became more and more difficult as they grew increasingly frustrated and desperate, actually getting on their bellies to try to squeeze between our ankles, before mum snapped "I think you need to go find your mother, now" in her super scary adult teacher voice. After successfully disposing of the pests, we were able to enjoy the virtual ride with Jarvis and Iron Man to its full extent, fighting aliens and saving the world! Having seen all we could really handle in one day and feeling pretty lethargic, we headed to the shops before the famous Disneyland Parade, which happened to be cancelled, because it was drizzling. We were not impressed. We got a little too excited with the shopping part of our day, which can happen, but hey, it's Disneyland, who wouldn't? Laden with bags we decided to still give the day a strong 9/10 and headed back to the city to find dinner. Mum took us to a fantastic Thai restaurant on the riverbank, and we finished our day full of food and definitely ready for bed.
