Monday, January 23, 2012

my fantasy of an empty theme park


Wouldn't it be great to have Disneyland's Main Street - or any theme park for that matter - all to yourself like this? So your photos will not have more people you don't know than you know?

We went to Hongkong Disneyland last week for Noah's 7th birthday. And it wasn't very crowded. Waiting time at each attraction was anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes. Not bad. But getting a photo of the sights without strangers in the picture was still quite challenging.


Family member - 1. Strangers - 4. And this display was not even a big one. Try getting a photo of Sleeping Beauty's Castle with just your family.

What more trying to get a photo of just the attractions - no family member or stranger - for your blog? I so wanted to take photos of the newly-opened Toy Story Land for my blog. I had planned to take attraction-only photos for anonymity (I'm still shy) and so unsightly crowds of strangers are out of the picture. But so many people were trying to get their turn at a photo op that when a kid leaves, another would always get there before I was able to take a shot of just the attraction.

Turns out, even these official photos from Hongkong Disneyland features the crowds.


I guess it showcases the perspective more accurately - how people look like they've been shrunk to the size of toys: really small ones, like Sarge and those tiny toy soldiers. While the toys in Toy Story Land are big, the place isn't. There are basically just three rides: Slinky Dog Spin, a kiddie rollercoaster ride (or caterpillar ride as we call it here in the Philippines) where Slink chases his tail around and around.


Toy Soldier Parachute Drop, a parachute training drill that vertically drops riders from high above.


And RC Racer where RC speeds back and forth on a soaring U-shaped track (ala Enchanted Kingdom's Anchors Away ride).


This ride we skipped, so we just faked it on this giant RC photo op display (Oh, I am still shy. But I didn't get that attraction-only photo of RC that I wanted. So am hoping we won't be recognized with our mouths open so wide.).


The last attraction is the Barrel of Fun. The queue is right beside these giant domino & checkers pieces with some monkeys from the Barrel.


And inside the gigantic Barrel of Monkeys, you meet either Woody or Jessie (In case you're wondering, Buzz still makes his appearance in Tomorrowland).


I wanted a Jessie-only photo but as with all the other attractions, that was impossible. An empty theme park may just be a fantasy, but I'm glad that birthday-boy Noah had his fill of big smiles, roars of laughter and delightful fun!

Photos from here and my own.

Click here for another post on our recent trip to Hongkong Disneyland.

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