Day 3~Disneyland

Same as the first! After running the maze a few times, we returned to Disneyland and were there to watch the opening ceremonies, where Chip and Dale cut the ribbon to open the park. Our first ride was the Orbitron, and then Phil and Alex tried out Space Mountain! Zachary and I watched people getting sprayed in the UFO Zone while we waited for them. Next up was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. The boys loved this ride, and we rode it many, many times. It was an interactive game, with astro blasters that you used to shoot at targets for points. Toward the end of the day, Zachary was giving out commands as to which targets Phil should aim for and which ones he would cover himself! Zachary even scored a level 3, matching my high score! Autotopia was next up. This was the longest wait of any ride we took, and even though the sign said 45 minutes, it was really only 30.

Then we returned to Buzz Lightyear for a few more spins. Finally, some shopping on Main Street and we had our picture taken with Goofy!We returned to the hotel for a break and some swimming and sliding

Of course we decided to try again for the fireworks show... We bought some yummy donuts and Phil went to a store while the boys and I sat on the curb of Main Street to people watch and eat. Suddenly both boys started to sway and Zachary even dropped his donut. Alex partially woke up for the castle lighting ceremony, but they were both out for the fireworks show. Phil and I enjoyed it though! And, fortunately, it didn't rain on us this time!

Just a brief resting place until the show starts...

Day 2~Big Buddha

Since we were up at an incredibly early hour, we ordered room service for breakfast. Mickey waffles and pancakes for the boys and omelets. It was quite the spread. Then we burned off some energy in the maze before taking the shuttle bus to the Disneyland MTR station. We took the train to its one and only stop at Sunny Bay and transferred to another line to Tung Chung.



You have to love a subway car with Mickey Mouse shaped windows and hand grips, and Disney character statues!

At Tung Chung, it was a short walk to the Ngong Ping 360 Skyrail for a glass bottom cable car ride to Ngong Ping Village, Po Lin Monastery and Big Buddha.



The cable car ride is 5.7 km, and about 25 minutes long. It makes a couple of turns on the journey over the Tung Chung Bay and the mountains. I still can't believe we did this! But it was beautiful, and despite the haze, the view was spectacular.
We wandered around the village for a while and then stopped to watch the Shaolin Monks' kung fu display. The show was amazing, and the skills were impressive. Alex enjoyed seeing the monks perform, and we've been talking about earning different colors of belts in kung fu and how you have to practice a lot to become a master. It was good for him to see what years of practice leads to, and the monks are wonderful showmen too!

The men hanging upside down, were filling cups with water and then doing sit-ups to pour the water into the hanging buckets.


We continued on to the staircase leading to Big Buddha. Alex walked all the way to the top and Zachary walked more than half of the way. Once at the top, we were able to walk around the base of the statue and enjoy the beautiful view and the breeze.

Big Buddha is 79 feet tall and made of brass.

We strolled around the grounds of Po Lin Monastery and through the temples. They are in the process of building a new temple, and it is going to be very large. While we were walking, we smelled lots of incense and saw a few of the monks. As we were leaving, the monks began some prayer chants. Even among all of the tourist and shops, it was a peaceful place.


Before leaving the village, the boys tried out some of the Shaolin monk training exercises at stations throughout the village. This one, they came up with on their own!
On the cable car ride back down the mountain, we noticed a few people walking in the low tide mud flats of Tung Chung Bay. As we got further out over the water, we noticed a lot of people. We can only assume they were clamming.

We returned to the hotel via MTR and shuttle bus and went down for dinner, even though the boys wanted to go back to the pool. We would have gone to the pool afterward, but Alex fell asleep at the table! Zachary wasn't ready to sleep, so he and Phil went for a nice long walk. When they returned, Zachary was more than ready to go to sleep!

Day 1~Disneyland

Not quite a panorama from our balcony, I haven't figured that option out yet.
After a couple of hours of sleep, we awoke to a beautiful, if hazy day. We prepped for the day and went down to enjoy a continental breakfast in the Lotus Room, complete with dim sum, pastries, yogurt, lunch meat, cheeses, and congee.

After breakfast, we went out to the maze, and the boys mastered it in no time!
Next we explored the grounds in the daylight and discovered that the pool had a waterslide! The playground had a climbing wall. We also went to the Prince Eric playroom for a while.

At last it was time to hop on the shuttle bus for Disneyland!

Our first stop was the train ride, followed by Winnie the Pooh, and a spin on the carousel. The line for Pooh was the longest, and it was only about 15 minutes, and it kept moving. While we were having a snack and resting, we noticed a group of security people standing by a gate. Suddenly they started to fan out and clear a path right in front of us. Who should drive by, but Lightning McQueen! We also saw many of Lightning's friends throughout the park.
Air-conditioned (yay!) It's a Small World only had a 5 minute wait. It took almost as long to walk through the maze as we spent waiting to ride. The boys were in complete awe and couldn't decide where to look. Zachary was so amazed, his jaw was hanging open. Even before we were out of the boat, Alex was clamoring to go again. This time around, Alex made up a song to the tune and everyone was still amazed. He wanted to go again, but we had more to see.We all ate Mickey waffles and then went to the safari ride. There were 3 different lines, depending on which language you wanted your tour in, Cantonese, Mandarin, and English. The wait was closer to 1/2 hour, the longest of the day, and during the wait, the announcements reminded everyone not to stand too close together since it was so hot. Yep, it was that hot. Alex thought the safari ride was funny, but he and Zachary didn't really like it when the boat was trapped by a tsunami and fire water. Fortunately, our boat captain was experienced and we made it to the dock. In the tiki garden, the tikis randomly played music and squirted water. Alex and Zachary really enjoyed trying to get the tikis to spray them.We thought it would be a good idea to return to the hotel and rest for a while. We tried to get our hands stamped to return later, but it was so hot and humid, the stamps weren't working. They assured us we would still be able to return. Instead of the long walk to the bus area, and then waiting for the bus, we decided to walk the promenade back to the hotel. It was such a pretty walk, with lots of flowering trees, fountains and topiaries. It was also deserted. Our plans to rest were thwarted by an extra hyper Zachary so we decided to just head to the pool. Alex and Zachary swam for 2 hours! They jumped off the edge and swam to us, then back to the edge, dunked themselves, and went down the waterslide. We had to drag them out of the pool!
Again, our plans were to be ignored. The intention was to ride back to Disneyland for a quick dinner and then watch the fireworks. Zachary started to look super drowsy on the bus. When we got off the bus, he refused to walk, so Phil picked him up and within seconds, he was out cold. As we were walking down Main Street, I noticed Alex was stumbling so I picked him up. He was out within minutes. We had dinner anyway. But decided to skip the fireworks.
Of course during our dinner, the most impressive thunderstorm had begun. At first it was just some rain and thunder and lightning. Soon though, it was pouring and we were instantly soaked. Some of the lightning was really close and the thunder was really loud. As everyone was huddled under any available awning, the park announcer came on and says "Join us in 15 minutes when Tinkerbell lights up the castle." As if torrential rain is normal (maybe it is). We caught the bus just as it was getting ready to leave. The storm continued most of the night, and we were able to watch it from the dry comfort of our balcony and room.

And We're Off

We've been planning our trip to Hong Kong for most of the summer. It's finally time to go. The boys packed up their suitcases and are excited for an adventure.

The beginning of the flight, also know as the calm before the storm.

We had packed some special surprises in their suitcases, after they had put in their few chosen items. They enjoyed opening up the prize bags and discovering new toys. And yet, when the on-board computer claimed "10 hours to Hong Kong arrival", Alex started in with "I want to be there already!" Fortunately, that was a short lived request. The airline supplied them with an activity pack that included stickers, colored pencils, coloring pages and a little lunch box-y box to hold it all. We had requested the kid's meal for them, and it came with lots of little snacky items like animal crackers, raisins, gummies, a candy and the ultimate, an ice cream bar. Of course neither ate the actual food, but we tried.
There was also a fun twisty straw with a fish decoration on it and the utensils had fish on them too.

Eventually, they fell asleep.

We passed through immigration with no trouble and the boys (Ok, the parents too) were excited to get their new passports stamped. They also really like the bathrooms at the airport as there was an extra large stall with both a full size toilet and a kid size toilet. And, also sinks at kid level. We're actually lucky we were able to get them out of the bathrooms! We gathered up the luggage and tried to figure out the best way to get to our first hotel.
We chose a taxi. As we were driving, I pointed out to Alex that we were driving on the opposite side of the road than at home. This prompted many observations from Alex, such as "this car sounds like your car" "this car is faster than your car".
We checked into our room and tried to get some sleep. It was soon obvious that the sleep ferry had sailed, so we decided to go for a walk around the grounds. Even at 3:30 am, it was hot out. The boys both complained about being too hot and wet. Hmmm, should be interesting in a few hours.



View from our balcony of the Disneyland Ferry terminal and the maze.
Resting on the seawall, along the South China Sea, looking back at the ferry terminal and lighthouse.
The hotel at night.