Every year I say I’m not going, every season I say that if I overuse it, it’ll stop working, somehow being special and maybe one day I’ll ‘grow up’ enough that walking through those gates won’t bring tears to my eyes and I’ll be able to sleep like a baby the night before.
But I doubt it, because I just never want to be that grown up.
Unfortunately my trusty camera finally gave up the ghost after nearly 3 years of near constant use, I think Great Barrier may have finished off the seal. So on the way to the train station I stopped and picked up a cheapish point and click just to last the rest of the contract. It only cost $120 and after being carted around in my bag all day the viewing screen is already damaged (you get what you pay for!) but it’ll do the job until I can get home and replace my Olympus.
And like hell I was going to go to Disneyland without a camera! I mean what are you nuts? With the new Mystic Point area finally open? Puh-lease.
That said, Mystic Point actually turned out not to be quite everything I’d hoped (though the architecture’s lovely and the surrounding gardens are breathtaking), it does contain the long anticipated Mystic Manor, which is HK Disney’s take on the Haunted Mansion, but they went a very kid-friendly route with it and it ends up lacking the classic creepiness of the original. But it is a fun concept and I always get a kick out of seeing how each park puts its own spin on the classics (random aside, the Haunted Manor in EuroDisney? Scary as heck…though perhaps that’s just because I don’t understand French all that well.)
In my tradition of going on every ride at least once, I finally braved the RC Racer coaster in Toy Story Land, and…I am never doing that again. I like roller coasters, I really like roller coasters, normally they don’t scare me. But this one? I do not like being suspended nearly upside down! Nope nope! Especially since I’m so small I actually felt more than ever like I was going to slide right out of the safety harnesses.
Yes I screamed. Loud. I am an unashamed coward.
I should note that as I sit here scribbling in my ever present notebook, I’m listening to the clack clack clack of Big Thunder Mountain (or as they call it here, the Grizzly Gulch Mine Trains), which remains my favourite ride in the park, although it and Space Mountain are the reason I’m wearing my hair in flipped pigtails today – normal ponytails they just are not compatible with roller coasters.
I’ve always loved Space Mountain, since it requires you to have such total faith in the machinery because your eyes don’t adjust enough to see the tracks at least not on the first go around. There’s just you, and the lights and the hypnotic ratcheting of the tracks as you’re pulled up the hills and around the curves. Pity that this time I didn’t get a chance to ride it more than once this time.
I avoided the carousel for a while for a couple of reasons, the biggest of which his that the carousel always tugs at my heart strings, it reminds me that there are so many people who should be there who aren’t and I always find myself wanting to reach across for a hand that isn’t there.
I also took the requisite spin on the mad hatter tea cups, which always makes me miss my Dad; but he taught me well when it comes to spinner rides! A word of warning to anyone who finds themselves trapped in a teacup with me! I can make those suckers go fast…really damn fast. Which naturally makes the whole world keep spinning for a few minutes afterwards.
Then of course, there’s the twenty minute quite for the Golden Mickeys stage show which remains one of the only things in the park I’m willing to queue that long for; I have well placed strategies for avoiding lines, especially in Hong Kong (where ‘line up’ translates into ‘pushing, shoving throng, please do not step on the children’ . The show is amazing, I’m sure that at some point they’ll add something from Frozen to it, for which I’ll be beyond thrilled. The only thing I always have difficulty with watching stage shows in Hong Kong is that people don’t applaud here, it’s bizarre, the cast is up there giving more than 100% – I mean there is ribbon work on this show that is absolutely stunning – and all they get is a golf clap. It’s so weird!!!
The show let out with nearly two hours to spare before the fireworks show, so I figured I would use the time to squeeze a few more rides on Big Thunder (one of the only benefits of doing theme parks alone: ‘Single Rider Please’) but I surprized myself by walking headlong into a line up in the middle of Fantasyland. Puzzled, I craned my neck to see what everyone was looking at…and I blinked.
No way…
Y’see, in three seasons of being lucky enough to come to Hong Kong Disneyland – the only character I’ve ever seen out for meet n’ greets other than the ‘fab five’ is Tinker Bell, and even she’s rare (she shows up at her Pixie Hollow perhaps once a day).
But there was Alice, clad in long-sleeves because of the dreary weather, but never-the-less there, and ten steps away around the corner were Cinderella (who’s line up was already cut off for the day) and Belle, who had just one spot left in line.
Seriously, the princesses never come out in this park, you only see them in the parades.
Yeah, okay so I’m a nerd, so I’m a big kid. By now all of you should know that already and if you don’t well…are you blind?
So I snapped my pictures and then made that final trip to Big Thunder, then wandered through Main Street to pick up the few souveniors I’d had my eye on earlier; a tiny snow globe statuette of Tinker Bell, and a new throw pillow for my cabin shaped like a pocket watch from Alice In Wonderland (it says ‘I’m Late, I’m late for a very important date’ on one side in these fun spirally letters).
Which brings me to now, pigtails slightly windblown, fingers sticky from caramel corn, mascara probably slightly smudged, sitting on the cooling pavement of Main Street waiting for the lights to dim.
It was my Dad who taught me how to find the sweet spot for a fireworks show, or for a parade. I swear he must have had some mathatmetical equation because he always got it right. Me, I just guess and hope I’m lucky.
At seven thirty the castle comes alive with blue and pink in a crazy colourful tug-o-war, and sitting here scribbling by the glowing light of the castle, I can’t help but wonder how many people in the crowd recognize that that mini-light show is a recreation of the argument between Flora and Merryweather over the colour of Briar Rose’s ball gown at the end of Sleeping Beauty.
Er…see previous comment about being a nerd.
Any any rate, just like I camped out for the Electrical Parade in Tokyo, here I camp out for the fireworks, only for about a half an hour, but it snagged me a front row seat. Completely unobstructed view, which is saying something because it’s amazing how quickly the crowd fills in around you. You kind of have to stake your claim early.
And then they start making the announcements.
Ladies and gentlemen, in just ten minutes time high above Sleeping Beauty Castle…
It never changes even when it does. And as I sit here, the whispers from people who aren’t here but aren’t, nearly drown out the babble of excited voices around me. Especially something Silver said to me once a long time ago
For either one of us it could have been a cabin in the woods, but that park is what it was for you, and no one should ever judge that.
I may come here alone each year, the family that should be sitting here with me is scattered across different countries, different time zones, different ships…but sometimes for one shiney shiney, we don’t feel that far apart at all…
In the spirit of keeping everyone in the loop I want to honestly apologize for the vast amount of space in between updates this season. I know I ‘talked’ a lot during my summer contract and by contrast I must seem pretty silent these days. Rest assured – the blog isn’t going anywhere, I’m only quiet at the moment because there honestly is less to talk about!
