Disneyland

We'd been building it up for the kids for months and last week we finally delivered.   It's Hong Kong Disneyland!  

Hong Kong Disneyland is very accessible from our apartment - a 15 minute MTR ride to the Sunny Bay station where we transfer to the special Mickey trains.  

Once we exit the MTR,  there is a wide open area where kids can run around and build up more excitement.   There is also a big fountain/meeting place type area which produced this cute picture.

It's Cinderella's castle!  

 You can't tell from this picture but it's not as big as the American version of the castle.   In fact, the whole place is like that - noticeably smaller.   For bigger kids, it might be a bit of a drag.   For young kids and their parents,  it makes everything easier and more accessible.

First stop:   Toy Story Land.    We thought this was the home of the very popular Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters but that ride was in fact at Tomorrowland.

After we hit Toy Story Land (and Paul Eli had his tantrum because he wanted a toy from its gift shop) it was time for Buzz Lightyear's AstroBlasters.  I was hoping for some action but basically it was a blacklight shooting gallery thing.   So pretty lame for Dad but totally freaking awesome for Paul Eli.

Then Starships.   We assume the standard position of Dad and Esme in one car and Mom and Paul Eli in the other car.   

Paul Eli was in charge of the altitude by that knob in his hand.

They had a very impressive parade in the afternoon.   This next picture is Chandra taking a picture of people taking a picture of our kids.   There is a fair amount of that,  especially for Esme.  The Asians love them some American kids.   I'm surprised they haven't taken pictures of Chandra,  I think she is a lot more exotic-looking than our kids.   But I guess it's only the kids that capture the imagination.

Paul Eli looking really tired.  He didn't get a nap, obviously.   His story was that he got something in his eye but I'm calling BS.

There is a lot of talk in Hong Kong about uncouth mainland Chinese tourists.   As far as I can tell, the biggest pet peeves with the mainlanders are:  1)  public spitting and obnoxious phlegm clearing;  2) public urination;  3)  blatant line cutting and/or pushing people in front of them in line.   There are many signs up at Disneyland meant to curtail this behavior.   We actually didn't see much of it,  except in the Dumbo line.   There we saw it,  and it was sweet.   

These three Chinese grandmas pictured behind me were very efficiently cutting in front of a bunch of meek Hong Kongers until they met their match.   I don't care if they are Grandmas and I'm not moving aside.. even if they are retarded enough to cut in front of children in the Dumbo line.   So once they got to me,  we did a 15 minute tango, where they would pretend to be very interested in something and try to move past me and I would pretend to be stretching and block their way.   Finally they gave up and just pushed on my back for the final 10 minutes or so.  

More pics as the sun starts to go down.   Esme was very happy with her little stuffed Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse shirt.