Friday, December 12
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Today was Disney day! Yes, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland. First, know that this is an indication that we got some sleep, though we were all still awake by 5:30, but frankly we figured we might as well head out and have some fun.
Some of you might recall from our last trip that Hong Kong and Disney have a fabulous, dedicated subway line that takes you right to the park, so we used that again. When we arrived, I rented two strollers. Yes, two. Yes, Emily is 6 years old, and 52 lbs and therefore exceeds the maximum of 15kgs allowed. Yes, I lied to the girl at the counter in order to rent the stroller, so sue me! I know my child. I know how heavy she is when she falls asleep and we end up taking turns carrying her, so I lied.
So, two strollers.
We had a fantastic day. Unlike our last trip, when Stephanie cried on most of the rides, so Emily and Danny had all the fun, this time Stephanie was totally into the rides and in fact insisted on repeat visits to the tea cup ride and others.
We had lunch at one of the many restaurants in Disneyland. Chicken (bird flu WHAT?) on rice, duck on rice, and chicken with salted egg and sausage on rice! Find that in Florida. The kicker is that all four of us ate, and well, for about $45 CAD. Try to find that at Florida Disneyworld, my friends. The food was quite good and we were re-charged for the rest of the day.
We went on tons more rides, then headed over for the parade. It was called “Let it Snow”, and get this—it DID!!! Disney uses this soapy bubble chemical thing, sprayed from the tops of all their buildings along Main Street, and it snows throughout the parade time. The locals were going crazy snapping photos of themselves with ‘snow’ on their hair! It was fun to watch. The parade itself was typically Disney fabulous. Full of all the characters the kids had been wanting to see and lots of great music, too. Stephanie, Danny and I really enjoyed it. What’s that? You’re wondering if Emily enjoyed it? Well, considering she slept through the entire thing, probably not. We tried everything to wake her. We tickled her, poked her, and washed her face, all to no avail. We could NOT wake her. So, she missed the entire parade, but had a good nap (yes, in the stroller I LIED to rent).
Shortly after the parade, we went to the Christmas market for some snacks. Danny had a smoked turkey leg, I had a baked sweet potato, and Stephanie had a hotdog/sausage on a stick. The food was surprisingly tasty, although seemed pretty darn strange, given where we were.
The last thing to do before departing was hand over all our money in the shops. The girls wanted some t-shirts, etc., from the shops and we got those. Emily was completely fixated on a “little dog I saw back in Adventureland,” and wasn’t going to leave without it. We went into the gift shop with her description. She held her hands about 4” apart and said it was that big. We asked if it was soft or hard and she said hard. We asked the girls in the shop for help. They tried, based on the description, but no luck. Finally, in desperation, Danny took her back to Adventureland. I told him to buy two of whatever little dog it was she wanted. You can see by the photos just how demented Emily’s sense of size is. So, now Disney has all our money and we have TWO freaking 20” tall Pluto dogs, complete with batteries, that we have no way to fit into our suitcases.
Decided to buy them Christmas Disney sweatshirts and Minnie Mouse ears, mostly for the photo op, to share with you guys!
Oh yeah, and I did some Christmas shopping while in the gift shop, without the kids knowing, so Santa may actually find us on December 25th, even here in Hong Kong.
Note to some of you (and you’ll know who you are). Shopping is open on Christmas Day in Hong Kong. Including the Coach store. Including ALL the Coach stores. Restaurants, too. So, we’ll be shopping, eating, and having a great day, but I don’t see any turkey in our future. Ironically our hotel offers a complete Christmas dinner, but we’re going to pass on it. In a tribute to his favourite Christmas movie, Danny wants to eat Peking Duck, but I think we’ll pass on that too.
That’s all for today. I’m off to try to figure out a way to open the hotel room door and let these damn noisy Pluto dogs get out without causing a major family dispute. They bark, they walk around, and are generally really annoying!!
