Day 2 (10 Sep 2018) - Hong Kong, Adventures by Disney Enchanted China Adults Only Tour

A “good night’s sleep” really didn’t work out too well. I’m not sure if it was the humidity + the time difference, but I was up many times during the night to use the bathroom and just laying in bed awake. Having fallen asleep right around 9 pm last night, I first woke up and thought I had been asleep for a long time but, looking at the bedside control pad, it was only 2 hours later. It was like this for the rest of the night with waking up at 3 am, then 6 am, and then finally getting out of bed at around 6:30 am.

I took a shower and got ready for the day. We had been instructed the night before that breakfast would be in the Veranda again starting at 7 am and the group would be meeting in the lobby at 8:30 am. Daisy was also very excited that it looked our weather would be great during the next 2 weeks with the temperature cooling off quite a bit from the previous trip where the days were in the 90s F and with the humidity, the heat index exceeded 100F. Hong Kong was supposed to our warmest day and then get progressively cooler as we made our way through China.

Breakfast was great again. I think I can eat dim sum just about every morning. After breakfast, we decided to exchange some USD for HKD at the front desk. The rate was $7.52 HKD to $1 USD (although the market exchange rate was closer to $7.80 HKD per USD).

Bruce met us in the lobby and, with the orange Adventures by Disney paddle in hand, led us out the side of the hotel to the first of many motor coaches we would be using for this tour. 

On the bus, Ralph gave us a run down of our day (including 2 “contests” looking for the best “hidden Mickey” and “lost in translation” pictures of the tour), offered us some Vitamin C jelly beans to “boost our immune systems”, and then Bruce told us all about Hong Kong.

Our first stop was Stanley Market where we would be given time (we had about 45 minutes or so) to look around and do some shopping. We were coached on how to do some bargaining. Bruce guided us from the bus to the market which was in a “T” configuration. Our starting location was near the public bathroom – a “solid 3 stars, nearly 4” according to Ralph and at the bottom of the “T”. Following the street came to a dead-end where a right turn would take you to the shorter end of the market and out to the waterfront. Taking a left turn would take you down the longer end of the market. We decided to go out to the waterfront first where we took some pictures, walked around for a bit, and came upon the first of many Buddhist temples.

As Wade and Charlie headed back to the market to order some engraved chops, Seth and I wandered at the waterfront a little longer and came upon the Tien Hou Temple which was the largest temple we got to see in Hong Kong. There was a ton of incense being burned it actually stung my eyes, and at one point, someone scared the pants off of me and banged on a huge gong/bell. The figurines were very elaborate and there were many offerings of food, fruit, water, and “spirit money”. 

 

We walked over to a butterfly garden and then headed back to the market to find a magnet for our collection. I stopped to look at a booth that caught my eye when we passed by the first time - pictures of people on oxygen, necrotic digits, etc…..I thought it was a booth selling TCM (traditional chinese medicine) or cures but these were actually warnings being used on the tobacco products. This isn’t the first time that I’ve seen how other countries handle the marketing of tobacco products – when they do, it’s nearly always more graphic and straight forward than our generic “Surgeon General warnings” on our US products.

We met back up with the group at 10:15 am and were led back to the bus by Bruce for our trip to Victoria Peak. We stopped for some photo ops overlooking Hong Kong Island and then Seth and I walked down the paved walk to the end taking more pictures along the way.

We met up again at the Peak Lookout restaurant where we would have the first of a handful of pre-ordered “Western” meals. Seth and I both had the salad and it was at this point that all of a sudden I felt something crawling on my left arm and almost immediately I was stung twice right by my elbow by what I saw was a large black wasp. It’s the first time I’ve ever been stung by a wasp and it hurt like the dickens. I must have said “Ow” kind of loudly as Daisy soon appeared with a cup of ice and a first aid kit. We put some lidocaine solution she had for insect bites on my elbow and then I iced it but it continued to hurt and burn for the rest of the day until we got back to the hotel that evening and I took some ibuprofen.

I had ordered the vegetable curry for lunch but, unfortunately, it had a ton of chopped cilantro on it so I ended up sharing Seth’s burger and fries which was actually a perfect amount of food. Seth had a beer and I had a glass of cabernet which we had to pay for separately. We were each given a tram ticket and after we were through with lunch, Bruce escorted us to the tram station which was actually more like a small train than a tram. The ride down from the peak was at a 30 degree angle and wasn’t very long.

We re-boarded the bus and took a very short bus ride to the Star Ferry terminal where we boarded and crossed the harbor on a fairly short (and very slow) ferry ride. The ferry terminal on the other side was actually just across the street from our hotel, the Peninsula. We stopped in a public building for a bio break and by this time, it had started to rain. We got our 2^nd pin of the tour and, after another group picture, we got back on the bus headed to Hong Kong Disneyland.

Bruce gave us more information about Hong Kong and how he carried 7 phones with him because although the phones and data service were really cheap, air (talk) time wasn’t unlimited and a bit more expensive so he had extra phones to use when he was out of talk time on his smart phone He also described to us how expensive it was to live in Hong Kong as flat land was hard to come by on the island and that, in some areas, the cost per square foot for a flat (apartment) was $2500!

Ralph gave us a run down of how it was going to work at Disneyland. He had handed out park maps and then told us that we needed to have all 4 items to enjoy the park:

(1) A park entrance ticket
(2) A Priority Entrance Pass for the Mickey and the Wondrous Book show in the Storybook Theater at 6:30 pm
(3) A Paint the Night parade wrist band which would be at 7:15 pm
(4) 3 Priority admission passes to be used for certain rides. He recommended 3 for sure: Mystic Manor, Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, and the Iron Man Experience.

Daisy was very excited that the wait times at the park were only 5-10 minutes – maybe it was a combination of the rain (it had stopped by the time we reached DL) and being a Monday that made the park less crowded today. We exited the bus, were given HK DL rain ponchos just in case, made our way to the front of the park for another group shot, and then to the Whale fountain where we received our wrist bands. After bag check, we gathered at the front entrance turnstiles and were given the other 3 items we needed and reminded to meet in front of the castle (which is a very small castle that they were in the process of renovating and making bigger) at 8:15 pm when the park closes.

We strolled down Main Street....

...and decided to head over to Frontierland first where we found the Mine Cars. This ride was reminiscent of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad but it had an added twist (unbeknownst to me) of going backwards for a bit. The line was so short we didn’t have to use our priority passes. We found Mystic Manor next and, again, the line was short so we went standby and got in immediately. The pre-show was similar to the Haunted Mansion in that you were in a room but this one had a video screen where you watched the plot of the ride which was an explorer, his monkey, and a magical box. The ride itself uses a track-less system of cars that moved around like the Toy Story mania cars but the 3 or 4 cars around you didn’t take the same route through the ride as ours so you can do this ride and conceivable have a completely different experience. We enjoyed this ride very much. Next we made our way to Adventureland where we found Jungle Cruise and chose the English line. Our boat captain wasn’t as funny as the ones in the US – the ride was very similar to the one in WDW. We could have probably skipped this one.

We then wandered over to Tomorrowland where we found the Iron Man Experience. Seth and Wade opted out of this ride as it was a 3D simulator type ride (similar to Star Tours more than Soarin’) but Charlie and I wanted to try it out. Standby was 30 minutes for this ride so we used our priority passes and got right on after getting our 3D glasses. We enjoyed the ride and it wasn’t as nauseating as Star Tours but as we exited the ride, a woman walking in front of us kept retching/dry heaving.

We found Seth and Wade in the EXPO shop and decided to head over to the Plaza Inn for dinner. The Explorers Club menu wasn’t appealing to Seth and some of the dinner venues were closed for some reason so we headed back across Main Street to the Plaza Inn which was serving a set menu much like the meals we had the previous day but the prices were more reasonable and was all brought out at the same time and served family style. Again, the BBQ and sweet/sour pork were the favorites.

After we finished dinner, we found the Storybook theater in Fantasyland where we used our special passes to get in and get seated in the theater first. (we had been advised to show up at the theater about 20 minutes early to take advantage of this VIP seating). Daisy directed us to sit in the seats that were on the right side of the center section as the English subtitles would be displayed on a screen on that side of the stage. Chinese would be displayed on the screens to the left of the stage. The show was very cute and the cast was very talented. It was just a little strange, though, to hear Mickey and Goofy “speaking” in Cantonese but the songs were all in English.

After the show, Daisy and Ralph took us to the VIP viewing area for the Paint the Night parade – it was very close to the start of the parade. The costumes and floats were great as was the music with a lot of the music from the Main Street Electrical Parade worked in. The weather was perfect for the parade – cooler since the sun went down with a slight breeze.

Following the parade, we did some quick shopping finding another magnet to add to our collection. We had a bit of a potty stop and then met up with our group on Main Street in front of the castle to watch one last show where they projected different colors, scenes, videos onto the buildings on either side of Main Street while singing a “We Love Mickey” song then it was back to the bus and during the ride back to the Peninsula, Ralph gave us the instructions for Day 3 of our Adventure.

Next post:  Day 3 (11 Sep 2018) - Hong Kong to Beijing, Adventures by Disney Enchanted China Adults Only Tour