Hong Kong Trip - Day 5

OK, let's conclude our HK trip. So it's Day 5 at Disneyland. Oya, we stayed at Disney's Hollywood Hotel, the cheaper out of the two hotels there. I had booked 3 standard rooms there. I had also booked a baby cot for Daria; the funny thing is, they placed a cot in all 3 rooms!! Hahahaha...

Since the park opened at 10.30am, the kids wanted to swim in the swimming pool for a few hours in the morning. I called the front desk and found out that the pool opened early at 7am. Initially hubby took the girls down to the pool. Here they are in their bathrobes. I love the fact they prepared bathrobes for children, it was such a nice touch.
Hubby brought Daria back up after 1/2 hours since she was still afraid of the water. Here's Daria trying out the bathrobe...she looks like a mini jedi!
The pool wasn't that big but since we went down early morning, there weren't a lot of people. Here are pictures of the girls trying out the slide.
Dania!!
Aqilah!!
Dina!! Hehehe...peace sign tak tinggal.
Heeee...I didn't want to miss out on the fun either!
Final photo ops before getting ready to head back to the park.
A quick photo with Mickey in the lobby while waiting for me to check us out from the hotel.

Since check out time was 11am and our flight wasn't until 5.10pm, we checked out at 10am and placed our bags in storage.

Since we had already covered Adventureland and had seen most of the parades, we moved at a more leisurely pace along Main Street. One of the outlets we visited was The Art of Animation, which showed us the process of animation from sketch until finished product.
The girls posing in front of sketches for The Little Mermaid.
Dina in front of her favorite princess, Aurora a.k.a Sleeping Beauty.
Dania posing as Alice.
We also entered a shop selling crystals. This is a replica of Sleeping Beauty's castle made entirely out of crystals. The color of the lamp changed from red to blue to green and yellow. Spectacular!
You could also see how the crystal models were made. Here the guy was attaching an ear to a miniature Mickey.
Magician Mickey....selling for HKD25,000!
This was the most magnificent piece in the store. A replica of Sleeping Beauty's castle made from gens and crystal...selling for HKD300,000!!
As we were heading along Main Street, they announced that Stitch's Summer Dance Bash parade was about to start. We found a shady spot and waited for the parade to begin. As you can see there were many Disney characters involved; from Goofy, Mr. Incredible, Stitch, Ariel, Genie (from Aladdin) and many more.
One of the things we just HAD to do while at Disneyland was to take pictures with the Princesses. Here we are getting ready to snap a photo with Snow White and Cinderella.
It was a truly girl-girly event. Even Daria got into the action. Doesn't Snow White look exactly like the cartoon character?
Next, it was off to take pictures with Aurora and Belle. Dina was so happy to get a big hug from her favorite princess, she couldn't stop talking about it for days.
Dania and Aqilah trying out one of the many street games they had set up all over the park.
Next, we headed off to see The Golden Mickeys show. Basically it was like the Oscars, disney style. Here are the hosts, Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
The cast of Toy Story....except I think it was only Woody and Jessie.
There were many characters but Daria wanted to climb on the chairs so I had to hold her and distract her with my camera. I think there was Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Ariel, Quasimodo, Tarzan (incredible six pack...muahahaha!) and also Lilo and Stitch.
A quick photo outside Tomorrowland before we head back to the hotel to pick up our bags and head to the airport. Bye bye Disneyland...we had a great time!
We decided to take 3 taxis to the airport since we has so many bags and everyone was too tired to take the MTR. Each taxi costed us around HKD150 which was ok since we had put that into our budget. We arrived at the airport around 3.30pm but the ticket counter didn't open until 4.30pm, so we went to Popeyes for lunch (halal restaurant). Everyone was hungry for food so I ordered 2 buckets of chicken with mash potatoes, fries and red rice(?), with apple juice for everyone.
Daria enjoying her last meal in Hong Kong.
Check out the Stitch hat Azad has on. It sure was a crowd pleaser, especially going through customs. Everyone was happy but also sad to leave Hong Kong. Although we only got to visit a few places of interest, the important thing is we all had fun. Here's to planning our next family trip...next year!!

Toy Story 3 - Review

Let’s take a break from my HK trip. Last weekend, we went back to Melaka (as per unwritten contract). As promised, we took the girls plus hubby’s nephew to see Toy Story 3.

I know a lot of buzz (lightyear..hah!) has been made about this movie and some of you are still waiting to watch it at the theaters, so I won’t be giving any spoilers here. Except this…..GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!

If I had to name one special moment in the movie that did it for me, would it be…
- The opening act of Woody & Buzz Vs. Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head.
- Their introduction to Sunnyside Daycare
- Ken's "playing dress up" scene
- Their escape from Sunnyside Daycare
- Spanish Buzz (I’m still laughing over that one!!)
- The incinerator scene (tears…nearly…hold them in!!)
- The final playtime with Andy (sob…almost lost it here…tahan, nanti En Rashid gelakkan!)

Ahh…this is one movie that I really think is worth the time and money to watch. Plus there are many important lessons for the kids, plus lots of laugh moments for the adults (adults no need to learn any lessons, meh?)

Thank you Pixar, for bringing us Woody, Buzz and the gang. It’s been fun playing with you guys.

Hong Kong Trip - Day 4

Aren't you guys bored yet with my HK trip? Hahahaha...lantak la yer..this is for my personal agenda. When I'm old and drooling, I can look back on these memories and smile.

OK, so Day 4. We're off to Disneyland!! We checked out from the Citadines at around 11am, after breakfast and everything. Since we had so many bags, we decided to hire one cab so my dad and Azad could bring the big bags to the Disney Hotel while the rest of us took the MTR. Luckily Joey (the receptionist) was there and she got us a deal with the cab driver; HKD180 for 2 people and all the bags they could fit in. Dina and Daria waiting for everyone in the lobby. Vogue gitu!

Once we saw my dad and Azad off, we all headed to the MTR station. From there we got off at Central, then changed lines to the Tung Chung line. We got off at Sunny Bay station and waited for the Disneyland Resort line.
Dania at one of the shops in Central station.
The Disney MTR was really special. The windows were the shape of Mickey's ears. Even the hand holders were shaped as so.
Camwhore moment with my cousin, Aina.
My aunt carried Daria to explore the MTR. It was filled with Disney memorabillia.
We've arrived at the Disneyland Resort station!!
We headed to the hotel first as we wanted to put our bags in the lobby. From the station, we walked a short distance to the resort bus station. Even the shuttle buses were Disney themed. The kids were getting excited by the minute!!
Once we had checked in our bags (they had a very efficient system in place. Since we could only check into our rooms after 3pm, they allow us to put our bags into storage so we could go ahead and visit the park), we took the resort shuttle bus back to the park.
Disneyland...here we come!!!
Taking a photo before entering the park. You can see Mickey surfing on top of that whale. Cool! Another picture before entering the park. If you read the reviews, yes, the park attendants do check your bags for food and drinks. However, it's not like the customs at the airports; they just ask you to open your bag and basically they're checking for weapons or other illegal stuff. We did bring in some water bottles and biscuits and told them they were for the kids (plus baby). The attendants were very considerate and allowed us to enter.
As soon as we headed down Main Street, a band was getting ready to play.
Since it was almost 2pm, the first order of business was to find some food. We looked at the map to find any halal restaurant; unfortunately there were none. However, we did find a restaurant on Main Street that sold fish and chips...excellent! They also had seafood ramen and ...wait for it...Penang Laksa!! However be sure to ask if any of the food has meat in it; the laksa did so we asked them to only put in seafood. I think the name of the restaurant was Corner Cafe; it's located on the right far end of Main Street.
Daria enjoying her fish and chips. Ahhh...bestnya!
A few minutes after we finished our meal, it was time for Mickey's WaterWorks Parade. They had split the routes into dry zones and wet zones. Of course, me and my cousins all rushed to the wet zones...apa best dok tempat kering je..tak thrill la! Here's Buzz Lightyear with his super duper water pistols. Goofy!!
Minnie!! And I think some of the guards from Alice in Wonderland.
The princesses and their...perfume bottles? Anyway, they were mighty popular, everyone was shouting for them and taking their pictures.Mickey!! And his water machine that totally drenched me and Aina as we sat on the sidewalk. Haha!Woody and Jessie! We were prepared to get soaked by those hoses held by the soldiers...tipu je..they were actually vacuums!! Haha!

After the parade ended, we headed off to Adventureland. It was nearly time for The Lion King show so we lined up for that. It had also started to drizzle so we all huddled under huts while we waited for the auditorium doors to open. The show was fantastic; even Daria was impressed with the giant elephant (robots, of course) and the monkeys and of course, Simba. The show as done in English but as a local touch, they had two monkeys translating everything into Cantonese.
After the show, we headed to Tarzan's Tree House. Then we took the Jungle River Cruise.

This is Mike, our cruise director. He was very funny and kind of cute. Hee.
The animals we saw along the river cruise. Not real of course but they looked real enough!
When we got off the boat, we saw Goofy next door. We rushed to take pictures with him; the kids were ecstatic!Next, we went to see Mickey's PhilharMagic. Basically it was a 3D movie, thus the 3D glasses. Hubby took Daria on Cinderella's Carousel. She was fine in the beginning but once the ride started, she got a bit spooked and started crying. To be honest, the carousel spun around rather fast; fortunately it was a short ride and Daria could come back down to safe ground. Heee..apala anak ibu.

My dad then suggested we go on the "It's a small world" ride. Aiseh atok..tak mencabar la. But we all went. Fortunately the line was short due to the fireworks were due in 30 minutes. That damn song is still stuck in my head! Blahhh!It was still a good 15 minutes until the fireworks show so some of us squeezed in a ride on the Space Mountain. I was already too poofed to do anything so I took Dania and Daria for a walk around Tomorrowland. We bought some fridge magnets and took pictures in front of UFO Zone.
Dania: To Infinity and Beyond!
Daria: Yeah..whatever.They made a last announcement for the fireworks so we quickly made our way to the castle. People had already filled up the streets but we managed to get a good view of the fireworks. They were impressive and lasted for 20 minutes.

Once the fireworks ended, we all slowly made our way out of the park. It had been a tiring yet very exciting day, especially for the kids. The next day, we were due to head back to Malaysia, but not before squeezing in another day in Disneyland and more shopping!

Coming soon - Day 5. Disneyland some more..and we head home.