One of the perks of working for Disney is the complimentary admission to their theme parks. Ashley and I took full advantage of that for my birthday this year. I have officially been to 4 of their 5 resorts worldwide--just have Tokyo left! This time we went big--we stayed at the lovely Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. It was beautiful. Over the next few days I'll be posting some pictures about all the fun things we did on our whirlwind 2 day trip.
First up--the hotel. But before that, we had to actually make it to the park. We flew into Shenzhen, China and took a bus to Kowloon, Hong Kong. The bus is about an hour and a half. It drops us off at the border, we walk through customs on both sides, and get back on the bus on the other end. Once we made it to Kowloon, we stopped briefly for some chocolate milk, nacho cheese doritos, & Ms. Fields cookies (all things that are hard to find/impossible to find in China!). We then boarded the metro to Disney. There was just one interchange and it was super simple. Disney actually has its own metro line to take guests out to the parks. It is adorable! The windows are shaped like Mickey's head, and so are the handles that people hold when they're standing. It also boasts couches instead of standard benches.
Once we made it to Disney, we took a resort bus to our hotel. Ready? This was the view of the hotel from our window:
It looks just like the Grand Floridian in Orlando.
There's a giant maze out by the sea that you can wander through.
Don't you love the mountains in the background? And yet, its tropical. I think I prefer that to the cold any day.
We stayed on the 6th floor. There was an area overlooking the lobby where a live band would play each night.
Gorgeous chandelier.
View out the giant windows in the lobby area.
Here's the front desk. Kind of makes me miss working at a hotel, but just a little :)
Disney offers a "Celebration" package. Since we were celebrating my birthday, we figured we'd go for it. They had this adorable vinyl decal on the door, a giant card, a towel made into a cake, a box of cookies in a HKDL tin, and more decals on the windows.
The beds were also decked out with runners and balloons.
Disney is known for the details. The "makeup my room/Do not Disturb" sign, the shelf with Mickey, a Sneezy decal above the tissues, the Seven Dwarves bathroom amenities, a boo-boo bunny. Disney-fied phone display, Mickey slippers for the whole family, and tea service Victorian-style.
I loved the mirror in our bathroom. I wanted to ask it who the fairest of the all was, but I already knew the answer ;) Around the mirror it had the faces of the dwarves and Snow White carved in it.
We had a blast staying there. One of the perks was having the Disney Channel!! (I only have one English TV station at my apartment in Nanjing and it is the news... I haven't turned my TV on in 8 months!) Not only did they have the Disney Channel in English, they had it in Mandarin and Cantonese as well. And a channel for Disney's short Have a Laugh videos (We actually have a small collection at Disney English that the learners get to watch during break during the weekend classes). It really was the most magical place on earth.
