Spring sprang a couple of weeks ago, and after some careful planning, the family was able to travel to Hong Kong for the first time. Our first stop was the relatively new Hong Kong Disneyland, opened in late 2005. We stayed at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel which is about a 10-minute ride from the park via a Disney shuttle bus. There is also an MTR (more on this system later) station near the entrance, so it’s convenient if you’re staying along one of the many stations along one of the routes.

Visitors are greeting by a surfing Mickey and some other aquatic friends.

If I blinked, the entrance is similar to other Disneyland-based parks that I have visited, with a security check of your bags and the Main Street station. On first glance, the layout of the park is similar as well, with one big difference. There are only four sections to the park: Main Street, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, and Adventureland. While they have a few of the main rides that you would expect—Autopia, the Jungle Cruise and Space Mountain—the park may be more notable for rides that are missing: Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, among others.

The park can easily be visited in a day, although that might not work if there are any large crowds. We virtually walked up to all the rides and got on. The only exception to that was the Autopia, but even that was reasonable. The sign said 60 minutes, but our wait was under 30 minutes. The second-longest wait was for The Lion King show (around 20 minutes). Although some places, like the entrance, seemed crowded, the park seemed to absorb people well. I read a couple of articles in the local paper noting that attendance was not as high as expected; for those of us visiting now, that is a good thing. Disney stockholders (who own 43% of the park; the Hong Kong government owns the other 57%) might think otherwise. I also read that two more sections are planned for Hong Kong Disneyland. The article’s main topic, however, was that a Shanghai Disneyland is in the works, and that might impact the numbers of visitors to the HK park. Time will tell.

All in all, I would have to say it’s worth the visit, especially if you’re planning to be in the area. We had a good time and plan to visit again. I’ll write more on some of the details. Stay tuned.

This summer we got a chance to spend a couple of nights at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. We used some of our Disney Vacation Club points to stay on the concierge level of the Disneyland Hotel. The service was great and the view excellent! Two nights and two parks worked out well for us.

We happened to be at California Adventure when High School Musical 2 was debuting. There was a show and parade, and we were able to catch the float as it sped by. I had no idea at the time of its popularity. Now I know.

Another highlight was the Finding Nemo Submarine Adventure. The old submarine ride has been updated with newer, more accessible submarines and a whole new underwater world. We took advantage of the popularity of the ride (a three-hour wait!) and rode other rides early with shorter lines. We went back and took the Nemo ride later after things calmed down (and one of the parades was going).

More on the visit later…

I did not see any full costumes being worn outside of any of the stores, but there was a local news report showing a Halloween parade downtown in the big shopping arcade. I saw a group of four students below my office having a picnic; they were trying on each others’ masks and having a fun time. Four of my students came to my office saying, “trick or treat,” and they got some of my stash of Hersheys dark chocolate—smiles all around.

I hope some of the commercial aspect wears off and people can enjoy the day dressing up as their favorite characters (or even teachers! )

It’s a fairly well-known secret that there’s a barbershop not too far from the entrance at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World. The cool thing is, for those of you who are young at heart, for the price of haircut, you can get a Micky Mouse image and some confetti sprinkled in your hair. The shorter your hair, the better the washable dye works (a word of warning: the image could still be seen for a few days after). It also works if your hair is long enough to be pulled back and tied with a band of some kind. They will add some hairspray to hold it all together. I have to say that each time I did this, I felt several years younger. That helped put me in the spirit that I think Walt intended. Have you ever been applauded by a hundred Brazilian school kids? It was a lot of fun.

Mmmm… Now that I’m reading this post, I wonder if anyone will take the previously one seriously. It’s all part of life, isn’t it?

I think just about everyone wants to try one of the quiz-type game shows for real some time, you know, just to see. Walt Disney World’s Disney-MGM Studios USED to give people a chance to try it for themselves. I say used to because the attraction closed last year in the middle of August (the one in California Adventure at Disneyland Resort closed before then). I turned out to be one of the last to sit in the “Hot Seat” before it closed.

To get to that seat one needed to choose the correct order of four items before anyone else of up to 500 people in the audience. The one that got me there was choosing the chronological order of four songs from the 1960′s. I knew three of the songs, but I was not sure of the exact order. Since speed is of the essence, I did my best, pushing a couple of them at random. The next thing I knew, my seat number was flashing and my mug was on the big screen. They had a host as personable as those you’ve seen on the TV versions of the game, and she did a fine job. The game is played much like the one you see on TV, but they are a bit more relaxed in the first round of five questions. I found all of those to be as easy as you would expect.

The big difference in this version of the game was that they did not offer cash for prizes. After answering the first five question correctly, the prizes were five trading pins and a baseball cap based on the game. The second round of questions was almost as easy, but I needed to “ask the audience” on a Prada design question. The 32,000 point level yielded a polo shirt, another five pins, and a pin-trading strap.

I needed to answer five more questions for a Disney cruise to the Bahamas. I got the next question right; four more to go. The twelfth question was a stumper: What was the name of the submarine in the movie “Atlantis: The Lost Empire?” I missed that one when it was making the rounds (did anyone watch that movie?) This provided a chance to use a lifeline different from that of the TV show: “Ask a complete stranger.” When that one is used, they dial a number that goes outside the studio somewhere. The cast member who answers the phone finds an unsuspecting passerby who then attempts to help the contestant. The woman who helped (thanks for doing that!) didn’t sound too sure of her answer (did anyone watch that movie?) I used up the 50-50 lifeline which got rid of two answers, including the one offered by the passerby (I made the right move). So now I just had to choose the right one of the two. I picked one, and a bunch of audience members applauded. I thought I got it, but unfortunately it was the other.

Bummer that I didn’t get to go further, but I had a blast giving it a try. I would do it again in a second.

Anyway, that was a long time ago, and life kinda gets in the way of those things. I was reminded of all that when I read Chris Anderson’s take on the state-of-the-art of RC planes. It seems that the technology driving things like brushless electric motors in hybrid cars and LiPo batteries in cell phones have migrated to radio-controlled (RC) planes. Maybe some day again…