Thanks to Chooi Peng and Michelle, who figured out a way to get discounted hotel rates in Disneyland. We are the proof that it can be done, and got 40% off for our 2nd night in Disneyland’s Hollywood Hotel (1st night, they ran out of ‘discounted’ rooms allocation).

Even with this discount, we still got to enjoy the 1 for 1 promotion currently running, i.e. buy 1 day’s park ticket, get a 2nd day free if you stay in either one of the Disneyland’s hotel.

(Note1: meals in Disneyland are not cheap nor tasty, it’s best to stock up on your own snacks or food if you plan to be there the whole day or more).

(Note 2: We haven’t been to any Disneyland before, this is our first.)

♥16 Dec♥
After breakfast in the room (buns & croissant from Tung Chong), we took the free shuttle to Disneyland, where the queuing magic began.

We just walked past Main Street, USA (mainly shops) and went straight to Adventureland, because we wanted to catch the Festival of the Lion King. I’m not sure if they changed shows frequently, but this time it was The Circle of Life, which I think was just ok; there were just too much talking and narrating between the characters.

Lunch was HKD50 roast duck rice for myself and char siew (Cantonese : BBQ Pork) rice for the girls at Tahitian Terrace (food court). 2/3 of the girls’ rice gone to waste because Zaria was already napping and according to Zara “I think Malaysia char siew rice is nicer. Hong Kong’s one not nice, but I’ll force myself to eat.” (we didn’t bother to keep some for Zaria since Zaria wasn’t the type who would ‘force’ herself to eat).

After lunch, we found a quiet place and let Zara nap. After her rest and 15min queuing later, we got into Mickey’s Christmas House. It’s just a big room with large plastic furniture. Highlight was a photo shot with Mickey. By this time, girls were familiar with the word ‘queue’ and ‘take turns’ and they waited for their turn before dashing to Mickey with their hugs and kisses.

Zara : “Is Mickey real or not? There’s a person inside right?”
Zaria : “I love Mickey Mouse.”
Me : “Grrr.. Like that also must queue so long?”

Then it was time for Sleeping Beauty’s Christmas Ball (another show) right in front of Sleeping Beauty Castle. We just sat at the pavement to watch. Sleeping Beauty appeared just for a while with Prince Charming at the end. Not worth the time.

We headed to Fantasyland for rides after the Ball. We went several rounds on the Cinderella Carrousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephants, and The Mad Hatter Tea Cups, since the girls like it, and the queues weren’t long. Every time when the ride ended, Zaria would create a fuss and claimed, “I want some more! I don’t want to come down!!”

The girls like “It’s a Small World” ride best at Fantasyland. Even after we got home, when Zaria recalls, she will still say, “(Re)member? I went on the boat ride. Then the doll(s) sing, lalala…” (and she starts humming the tune).

We then caught the Christmas Parade where I bumped into a Singapore colleague and his family. What a coincidence, we were supposed to make plans to go to Ocean Park together, but he didn’t manage to reach me before I left KL, and here we were, right next to each other watching the Parade. Girls liked the parade, and Zaria went out a few times to try to hug a dancing character and the Disney staff has to lead her away. My colleague and I split after the Parade since we got fast pass (for some rides, you can get a ‘ticket’ earlier which will print a time for you to return, with that you can return and enter the rides bypassing the queue) for The Many adventure of Winnie the Pooh. Nothing fantastic with this ride.

Dinner was fast food from Starliner Diner and then it was time for the Fireworks. Since they put the stage for Sleeping Beauty’s Christmas Ball right in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle, the view was obscured. *sigh*

After the fireworks, it started ‘snowing’ (foam like bubbles sprayed from roof tops), girls were ecstatic! That was a good ending for Day 1.

That night, Zara told me our hotel looked so nice (from the shuttle), and then later when we entered the room, she asked me a question, “Mummy, why in Hong Kong the hotel looked so big outside, but inside the room so small??” (remembering Novatel Citygate too). Good observation!

♥17 Dec♥
Breakfast was again in the room. This time, the croissants were 2 days old and tasted a bit yucky. We checked out, left our luggage in the hotel, and headed to Disneyland.

We took the Hong Kong Disneyland Rail from Main Street USA to Fantasyland. We went first to Fantasy Gardens (a garden to meet and take photos with Disney characters). Every time when it was our turn to meet a character, the girls would dash forward as though meeting a long lost friend. They would hug and kiss the character. Then Zaria would again utter, “I love so-and-so.”

Upon the girls’ request, there were more rounds on Cinderella Carrousel, Dumbo the Flying Elephants, and The Mad Hatter Tea Cups.

After lunch, we caught the The Golden Mickey show. We like this show best, it was performance of the familiar songs of Disney shows. Best bit was Under The Sea sung with a mermaid with a beautiful tail dangled mid air as though swimming.

We were at Tomorrowland the rest of the day. Went on the Orbitron, Autopia, Buzz Lightyer Astro Blaster. Nothing really fantastic, and the queue was quite long especially the latter two.

They didn’t get to take any photographs with the Disney Princesses, but Buzz Light Year (for Zaria, it’s E-Buzz-Year) saved the day.

The final ride we took was Jungle River Cruise back at Adventureland, Zara was getting a bit scared spotting the alligators and then she got a real fright when the fake volcano suddenly erupted. This was her least favourite ride.

Pillion Riding – This is our solution when both girls wanted to sit on the stroller

Our last stop was the biggest Disney shop in Main Street, USA. Zara was very keen in getting some of the exorbitantly priced Disney merchandises, i.e. chunky jewelry, bubbles blower etc.; we didn’t indulge her and told her they were expensive. We couldn’t really find something that she will use or wear, in the end, we just got the girls each a handkerchief (btw, I saw a similar one in Sogo later for 2/3 of the price).

Zara was very happy she eventually got something from the shop and was dancing when we left.

We then left to pick up our bags from the hotel, took the MTR and headed for Park Lane Hotel at Causeway Bay. Daddy’s face was so sour (because he had to lug the 2 big suitcases while I handled the kids) when we arrived at Causeway Bay station, he said we should flag a cab to bring us to our hotel. o.O” I was against it, although I didn’t know how to get there, I knew it wasn’t far away. We took some wrong turns and took about 15mins to get to the hotel (of course lugging the bags, while pushing a child on the stroller and carrying another on a super busy street didn’t speed things up). The hotel was only ~3mins walk from the MTR station actually.

The room in Park Lane was quite spacious, and they gave us an extra bed for free (and I got corporate rate for it).

After checking in, Daddy said he will bring us to eat the best wonton noodle. When we arrived at the small restaurant, I realised this was the same one I went to with Mom2Ashley in March. It’s Mak Kee’s (麥奀記) on Jardine Bazaar. The noodle came in small rice bowl with super yummy soup, and it’s probably the best wonton mee in Hong Kong (based on what we’d tried so far). The girls slurped down their noodle with their thumbs up, we adults ordered extra bowl and also its yummy fish & century egg porridge. A must try if you are in Causeway Bay.