Annual leave!

Part of the reason why I worked so hard for most of the summer was that I had a huge, 16 day trip to Asia planned. My husband and I set out on a quest to visit all the ‘Eastern’ Disney parks: Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. “Why?” I hear you ask? One of the first coherent memories I have from my childhood is watching a film of a family fly together in a hot air balloon over Disney World in Florida. It was a commercial at the end of a Disney movie and I vividly remember watching it while sitting on my Gran’s blue recliner chair. She was cleaning the living room and I asked how many Disney parks there were. I can’t recall if she told me the exact number, but I do remember her telling me a story about visiting Disneyland soon after it opened. During this conversation, I told her I would visit all the Disney parks one day and I can now say that dream has come true.

It was a more extensive and expensive trip than what it might have been in the early 90s. It may seem childish or silly to some, but hearing about the early days of Disneyland from my Grandparents, listening to stories about my parents working in the California park as teenagers, visiting Californian and Paris Disney parks as a child and falling in love with the complete immersive experience gave me and continues to fuel my fascination. Each park has its similarities: most are set out in a similar structure, all have parades, high-quality song and dance shows, and of course, rides. But, each one also has several unique features, some suited to the country and culture and others exploring new innovations in ride tech or creative immersion. My husband and I often say we are happy enough to walk the parks all day long without going on a single ride, and this is simply because the parks offer so much more. So here are a few highlights from this trip.

Shanghai

It is the newest park out of the 3, and even though it is only a few years old, it is already growing and expanding to include new lands and rides. The ride tech for Tron and Pirates of the Caribbean is out of this world and the level of ‘imagineering’ (a Disney-coined term) really shows what technology can do in terms of story-telling and creating a fully immersive atmosphere. The layout of the park is relatively unique and while I appreciate the aim is to facilitate the maximum number of guests, I found it difficult to navigate at times. I missed the old, familiar layout that all the other parks have and I couldn’t quite get my head around the transition from Mickey Avenue, ‘the hub’ and the four lands. Some of the magic is missing from the cast members as well, who aren’t quite as peppy and upbeat as a Disney veteran might expect. These are minor complaints, and I did find the park really beautiful. When we visited, it was easy to ride most rides in a day as crowd levels were low. We benefitted from ‘Magic Hours’ – a luxury bestowed on guests who stay in a Disney hotel, which means we could enter the park 1 hour earlier than those who had only purchased park tickets.

Hong Kong

We stayed ‘off property’ at Hong Kong, partly because I knew the park wasn’t as popular, so we wouldn’t be battling potentially high crowd levels. We also wanted to explore a bit more of Hong Kong itself. We stayed in a lovely resort called Noah’s Ark, which really wasn’t what we expected. It is genuinely an Ark built on the Park Island coast, complete with its own education area, which focusses on world history and the environment. There is also a lot of life-size animal models replicating the Biblical story. Inside the rooms all had a balcony view and it was wonderful to eat breakfast overlooking the busy sea.

The park is the most similar to the ‘Western’ Disney parks in terms of layout and rides, which isn’t really a problem considering the other two are very different, but it is by far the quietest and unfortunately the weakest in terms of its performance. Half of the restaurants were closed when we visited and the park opens very late in the day (1030am-8pm). There are no fireworks to close the night, though the Electrical Light Parade was brilliant. The meal-deal isn’t worth the money, particularly with so many restaurant closures. The cap of 130 HKD for meals is too restrictive (basically, unless you want to eat a burger and fries, only a couple vegetarian dishes are available) and there are only a few snack choices included in the deal. We had our 2nd day of meals refunded once we realised all of the imposed restrictions. However, the park was very quiet and we easily did everything in a day. It was nice being able to walk around a Disney park with almost no crowd or queues! Mystic Manor is unique to the park and is definitely a highlight. It is worth the trip just for this ride alone (but maybe pair up the Disney park with other sightseeing).

 

Tokyo

We spent a lot of time exploring Japan before going to the Disney park. It was nice to have a break and see different cities for a while. I would definitely recommend the Japanese Rail pass, which gives unlimited travel on most train lines all over the country. We even got to ride the bullet train to Kyoto with the pass. The country is very clean and most hotels provide a whole host of pampering products such as a hairbrush, toothbrush, razor, shower cap, as well as washing essentials.

Disney has 2 gates: Disneyland and Disney Sea and both are extremely popular with huge crowds. Though we stayed in a Disney partner hotel, we didn’t have Magic Hours so we struggled to ride all the rides and catch all the shows in the 3.5 days we were there. It’s just about possible to do Disneyland in 2 days, but Disney Sea needs 2-3 days at least, especially if you plan to ride the E-ticket attractions. ‘Soarin’ was never below a 160-minute wait the whole time we were there and many of the other big rides were over 100 minutes. We decided to focus on shows and forget most of the rides. Big Band Beats was a song and dance jazz show featuring numbers from the 1920s-1940s. With a live jazz band, singers, dancers and all the favourite Disney characters, it was just wonderful from beginning to end. The Hallowe’en show Festival of Mystique was a simple concept but impeccably executed.

We watched it twice and both times I was drawn in to the point I felt a little scared by the action! Fantasmic is the evening show, which is followed by the fireworks and while those who have been to Florida and California may recognise the overall premise, it has some unique elements.

It is much easier to ride most rides in the late afternoon in Disneyland, particularly between 4pm and 6pm, when families are heading off and before the night time crowd arrives. We managed to see the park at the beginning of the Hallowe’en season, so the Haunted Mansion had a Nightmare Before Christmas holiday overlay, which was amazing. Most rides are similar if not the same to those in Western parks, but Pooh’s Honey Hunt was surprisingly unique! The Hallowe’en parade was spooky in all the right ways and the Electrical Light Parade was dazzling. I really liked that everyone was encouraged to sit down and watch the performances, so I didn’t struggle (as I often do) to see the performances.

I realise this is a bit of a deviation from my typical posts, but it is important to take time away. I certainly don’t wish to glorify overwork and it is important to remember that no matter what the time off is – a lifelong dream holiday, a spontaneous trip, a city break or just time to read in the garden – allows for a mind reset. I cannot say this trip was quiet or relaxing and I didn’t avoid work completely, but it did give me time to focus on something else; to reflect, to regroup and to reset, which are all very important.