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TPR's Return To Asia - Day Two: Hong Kong Disneyland!
Ok, onto our day......first off, as we've said before the "rumors" you've heard about the place are NOT TRUE! It's nice, it's clean, it's friendly, and the people visiting the park are 100x nicer than your typical Saturday clientelle at most So Cal parks!
Let me get the "downers" out of the way first, because to be honest there aren't many. Tomorrowland leaves a lot to be desired, IMO. It's not that the rides aren't good, because I think both Space Mountain and Buzz are better than the DL counterparts, it's just that the area is small and really doesn't "look" all that great.
The Castle - WTF??!?! The lamest Disney castle ever gets copied at HKDL. I just don't get it! And if that's not enough the natural mountains behind it dwarf it even more. Oh well, it just means MORE CASTLE JOKES!!!
The only other "downer" is that the park, at the moment, is missing a lot of Disney "Signature" rides, leaving not that much to do, especially if you're a seasoned Disney theme park visitor.
That being said, the park is REALLY nice. In fact, the entire resort by far exceeded my expectations.
I'm going to make this brief since we're at the hotel and need to be on a flight to Tokyo in about 3 hours, and I have about 100 photos to post (I'll do half today and half tomorrow) so here's a breakdown of what we did.
Space Mountain - For one, I had low expectations. I had heard it was a 'crappy version' of the new California version. What we got was a BETTER version than that! The ride is even smoother than the new "smooth" CA version. And it certainly "feels" a lot faster. There aren't any of those jolty tranisions, which I personally like and I think it adds speed, or at least the feeling of speed to the ride. You really do "whip" around some of those turns! And I really liked the added FX. The star field was much more pronounced, you flew past asteroids, there was what looked like a "hyperspace tunnel" during the "drop" and all the lift effects were "new", unlike the the revamped CA version which were just updated versions of "old" effects. The stataion was tiny, yes, and that was a downer, but what was there was at least "nice"
Buzz lightyear - Basically looked like a clone of the Tokyo version, which means it's also a clone of the CA version, but less "claustrophobic."
Jungle Cruise - It's like a souped up riverboat cruise with a "Catastrophe Canyon" ending. Fun ride. Very similar, but with more fire! =)
Mickey's Philharmagic - Fun 4D movie! This was the first time we had seen this, and other than Donald being the star (we're not big Donald fans!) the music, effects, and movie were pretty good. Not a "Muppets-beater" IMO, but fun!
Tarzan's Treehouse & Rafts - Picture Tarzan's Treehouse from DL on Tom Sawyer's Island and there you go! =)
Winnie the Pooh- WDW's Pooh. Which is WAY better than CA's dumpy version, but is NOTHING compared to Tokyo's orgasmic dark ride.
Other flats - Astro Orbitor, Tea Cups, Dumbo, Carousel - traditional Disney stuff. Looked nice, but you're familiar with these already.
Basically, as you can see, there's not a lot to do at the park, and that is the one major downer. But like I said, the park exceeded our expectations and I think as the expansions are built, this park will give the others a run for the money!
For photos from today including a POV video of Space Mountain with LIGHTS ON click here:
http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum...21216&start=46
Here's a couple of photos:
Look Familiar?
Space Mountain - Think the new So Cal version is cool? Think again! :P
I love it when the ride E-Stops!
Woah! The Jungle Cruise sure is different!!!!
Click the link above for the rest of the photos and video!
Enjoy!
--Robb
Originally Posted by Hector 
Re: Robb & Elissa's HKDL Photos & Video! 
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