gci2011 Posted March 25, 2011 Share Posted March 25, 2011 (edited) Hey TPR! I tend to hang out in the Games section, but now that the off-season is almost over, I'll be posting Photo TRs every so often. I'll try to keep an updated list of my PTR's here on the first page. Parks List 2011 March 24: Hong Kong Disneyland, Hong Kong - Page 1 March 25: Ocean Park, Hong Kong - Page 1 March 31: Siam Park City, Thailand May 1: Universal Studios Florida/Islands of Adventure Previous Photo TRs Cedar Point, Summer 2010 (includes CoasterMania!) More Cedar Point, Hersheypark, and Kings Dominion Kings Island Knoebels Kalahari (Sandusky) Future Parks Cedar Point Possible Future Parks Kings Island Knoebels Six Flags New England Lake Compounce I'm sure these lists will get longer once more parks open for the season! Comments are always appreciated! -gci2011 Edited May 5, 2011 by gci2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gci2011 Posted March 25, 2011 Author Share Posted March 25, 2011 Hong Kong Disneyland, Part 1 Arrival and Main Street, U.S.A. Overall Park Rating: 8/10 Best Ride: Space Mountain I've always told myself that I didn't like Disney that much because their parks didn't have very many thrill rides. With Cedar Point as my home park, I'm a thrill seeker myself. However, lately I've been in the mood to give Disney another chance. Being in Hong Kong for Spring Break was the perfect opportunity to do this. The reviews that I read were generally positive, with the only complaint being that it hadn't quite "filled in" yet, as it's only 5 years old. My opinion after the day at the park was pretty much the same. We rode the MTR train to Hong Kong Disneyland. The train station at Disneyland was really nice and new, and the Disney trains were much nicer than the normal trains - bronze busts of various characters, Mickey-shaped windows, and blue cushioned seats. The entranceway to the park was wonderful as well. The landscaping was great, and the fountains were nice. We were already off to a good start. Main Street, U.S.A. was amazing. Everything was flawlessly detailed and very authentic. I play a lot of Roller Coaster Tycoon 3, and Main Street is one of the most popular recreations among RCT3 players. It was like seeing one of my parks come to life. The atmosphere in Main Street was a lot of fun - they even had vintage cars driving around. Anyway, I'll get onto the pictures: On our way to the park! Minnie Mouse statue on the train. Disney sure does go all-out. The train was really nice - blue cushioned seats and Mickey-shaped handles and windows. Arriving at Disneyland. These stairs sure are steep! Finally here! The entrance was beautiful. Classic fountain shot for you. The train station completely blocks out the castle! Mickey has made the castle magically disappear! Everything was written in English and Chinese. The gardens and Main Street, U.S.A. There's the castle! You almost can't see it all the way down there... The architecture and detail was great, of course. Lots of unique facades, but the inside was just one big gift shop and a bakery. I would've liked to be able to stop in here, but we wanted to keep moving. Have I mentioned how detailed it was?! Looking back down Main Street. I was surprised that they were actually selling jewelry in here. Not very unique, but still cool. Evening shot of the train station as we leave the park. Adventureland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland will be posted soon! -gci2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gci2011 Posted March 26, 2011 Author Share Posted March 26, 2011 Hong Kong Disneyland, Part 2 Adventureland and Construction Adventureland was nice, but definitely the emptiest land in the park. The best part about Adventureland was that I could see the construction from the top of Tarzan's Treehouse. Onto the pics: Arriving in Adventureland. Tarzan's Treehouse was our first stop. The crane really ruins the illusion... Construction Shot #1 Construction Shot #2 The loop of this baby crying drove me insane! There's a better shot of the construction. Wouldn't the baby be scared by the gorilla? Space Mountain is bigger as the castle - and Orbitron is just as tall! The treehouse was really well done though. Tarzan's showing off. The Jungle River Cruise looked kinda fun. We planned to head there next. Test subject or jungle snack? This guy sprayed everywhere... Yeah, that's the end of Tarzan's Treehouse. We stopped for some strange Asian chicken at the Riverview Café. We passed on the Jungle Cruise after all once we saw that line. More soon. -gci2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gci2011 Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 Hong Kong Disneyland, Part 3 Fantasyland Fantasyland was my favorite land, but it was still a bit lacking. However, the attractions were well done and I enjoyed them a lot. The little army men are heading into Fantasyland. The mountains overshadowed the entire park. We skipped Dumbo, the line was enormous (no pun intended) We stopped into Philharmagic though - it was great! The Fastpass machines were helpful too. This was basically all of Fantasyland. The sorcerer statue was cool. Short ride cycle on the tea cups. Up next: the Singing Animatronic Ride. Nice facade though, if a bit plain. I will not be having ice cream pancakes, thank you. Then the building started spitting out more animatronics. Next: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Stranger danger! They had some Asian Merlin guy... The construction is still showing. The back of the house- I mean, castle. The kitchen crew put on a show. We passed on Cinderella's Carousel as well. Snow White's Grotto was nice. Celebrating their 5th anniversary. Obligatory shot. Up next, Tomorrowland! -gci2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gci2011 Posted April 16, 2011 Author Share Posted April 16, 2011 Hong Kong Disneyland, Part 4 Tomorrowland After we finished up in Fantasyland, we immediately headed to Tomorrowland to get our Fastpasses for Space Mountain. The good news is, by the time we got to Space Mountain, it was a walk-on. We rode it twice, and it was a lot of fun! A bit jerky in places, but by no means rough. We got in line for Autopia next, which somehow had a 30 minute wait. The ride itself was just meh, the best part was honestly the landscaping. I probably won't wait that long for it again. We hit Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters next, which was a lot of fun and was another walk-on. It was well done, nothing special for a shooting dark ride, but we enjoyed it. We rode the Orbitron next, which had a very short ride cycle, and wasn't particularly thrilling - then again, I wasn't expecting a white-knuckle ride at Disney . We saw that Space Mountain still had no wait, so we all did it one more time. 3 rides was enough for me, as I was starting to get dizzy from all the sharp turns on it. We headed out of the park after that; it was a great day! Just a few pictures today: Walking into Tomorrowland. Stitch has taken over Space Mountain! It was a walk-on all night. Next up, Autopia! Through the trees! Yup... the steering wheel is on the right... Forget Autopia, let's get back to Space Mountain! Well, at least the landscaping was cool. Upskirt Orbitron shot... Luckily, Space Mountain looked like this all night. Obligatory shot. Next up: Ocean Park, Hong Kong Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PSiRockin Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 Nice photos, funny that they have a small castle too! Good that Space Mountain had shorts waits, and I had no idea they has an Autopia here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The SETGO Guys Posted April 17, 2011 Share Posted April 17, 2011 Nice photos, funny that they have a small castle too! Good that Space Mountain had shorts waits, and I had no idea they has an Autopia here! Hong Kong Disneyland is actually based on the original Disneyland, it opened with the same amount of rides that Disneyland opened with on opening day 1955. A weird concept if you ask me, but HKDL looks like a really nice park, can't wait to see the expansion! I think it will really help the park. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gci2011 Posted May 4, 2011 Author Share Posted May 4, 2011 Ocean Park Hong Kong, China Overall, Ocean Park was nice, but it wasn't quite what I had hoped it would be. Regardless, it was a fun day: We started out with the aquarium when we got there, which was interesting but not quite as exciting as some of the park's other offerings. We stopped into the panda exhibit after that, where there were separate habitats for several pandas, yet only one was on display. Regardless, it was very cute. After these two stops, we hopped on the Cable Car to the other side of the park. On the other side, we made sure to hit up all of the unique rides. By that, I mean rides we don't have at my home park, Cedar Point. First stop after lunch at the Terrace Café (which was delicious) was the Flash, which was a lot of fun. It also gave a great, albeit distorted, view of the massive expansion project. Hair Raiser looks great by the way, check it out below. After that, we headed down to Mine Train, which was mostly just good for the view. Also, this park was quite run down compared to other areas - I hope they're planning to fix this part of the park up. We headed towards the Dragon next, which I did want to try despite all of the bad things I'd heard about it. This area of the park was a lot nicer, and was much more populated as well. The Dragon, not surprisingly, had no line, so we hopped on. Actually, the ride was much better than I was expecting, probably because I had set my expectations so low. It could have been my defensive riding, but either way, I wouldn't be completely opposed to re-riding it. Just to be clear - this does not mean it is a good coaster, just better than I was expecting After a few laps on Eagle, their Condor ride, we headed up to the train station to catch the tram back down the mountain. The park was about to close, so we didn't have time for some of the other rides in the area. Regardless, it was a lot of fun and the tram itself felt very nice and new, although I definitely prefer the Cable Car. We got to the other side of the park just as the new Symbio show was starting. Stupid me though - I had no idea that it was new or special, so I unfortunately don't have any pictures or a video. Sorry! Regardless, it was a good park overall, and I'd love to go back once the renovations are complete! For additional thoughts, visit the report on my new blog: Park Impressions Onto the pictures: Welcome to Ocean Park! A view of the Grand Aquarium, centerpiece of the Aqua City renovations. The balloon wasn't running due to the wind. The aquarium was very well done. "I'm gonna eat your face!" This guy couldn't stop smiling The octopus looks hungry... Onto the panda! Er... part of him, anyway. The park had this logo carved into the mountain! Looking out on the South China Sea from the cable car. We could still see some of the city, though. Looks like progress on Hair Raiser! Here's a few more views (sorry for the bars) I wasn't planning on bursting into flames... We stopped for lunch at the Terrace Café. The view was amazing of course! From the deck, I managed to get a few more (hopefully better) shots of Hair Raiser. As far as I could tell, trackwork was complete. I *think* this is the rapids ride, but it looks nice no matter what! We stopped for lunch at the Terrace Café. First stop - Flash! There it goes! This thing was not ideal right after lunch! We headed down to Mine Train after that. It really is a terrain coaster - not like there's any other choice at this park! They also had a cute, accurate little statue of the ride out front Back at the top of the mountain, we got an overview of the rest of the park. We dragged ourselves onto the Dragon. The Eagle was a lot of fun too, especially with the terrifying setting! We ran out of time for Abyss. We hopped on the tram and headed out after that. Good Night, Ocean Park! Next up: Siam Park City, Bangkok, Thailand Did I mention that it was on the side of the mountain?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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