ToyStory Land!

If I said that it was mostly only my girls that were excited about ToyStory land, I'd be lying.  I was super excited about going!  I was really curious to see how the HK Disney park was going to pull it off; it's the smallest Disney theme park, but that's one of the reasons why it works so well for our family.  

For all the other asia expats who are interested, here's my thoughts and opinions on the new addition:

Larger-than-life Woody greets you as you walk in, and from there you can wait in a forever long line to take pics with Woody and Jessie.  I appreciate that they have their own little area, since in the past it's been a little hard to find them.  When your kids like Woody and Jessie as much as mine do, you must.find.them.

End of Story.

And even though we've taken countless pics with everyone's favorite western heroes, the girls wanted to wait in the 45-minute long line for yet another shot with them.

The Disney people are so funny about getting everyone involved in the picture.  Silas was sleeping in the stroller over on the side.  Back in the days when he took two naps - *sigh*.

They had Green Army Men here, which was super cool.  They would imitate your actions, but not say anything.

 And if you didn't do anything, they didn't do anything either.  Seems no one told that to my girls...

 The entire area has all sorts of kids toys as backdrops, props, entrances and exits.  I love the creativity, but I have to admit, I think it made this ToyStory land look like a kid's room....and by that, I mean cluttered.  Plus, the actual area of the ToyStory land was very small - and it felt small.  The pathways at the rest of HK Disney and large and open; these were tight and cramped.  It felt like everything was on top of everything else.

 I love the creativity of Disney people.  I secretly think I should be one - not because I'm creative, but because I'd love seeing all their ideas turn into reality.

 ToyStory land has three new rides:  RC Racer (which looked super fun, but more of a big-kid ride, and no one was willing to ride with me), Parachute Drop, and Slinky Dog ride.

Slinky Dog ride was fun, but presented the other big downside to the TSLand - long lines.  I know, I know, spoiled mama that I am, not used to waiting more than 10 minutes for a ride, but this one was nearly 25 minutes.  Josh and I split up - he took the big girls while Abby, Silas and I had lunch, then I took Abby while Josh and the big girls had lunch.  [Note for summer travelers: There was one eating area in TS land, but it was not indoors and not air-conditioned!]

 I was really surprised that all three of my girls were willing to do the Parachute Drop with me - even after watching it drop from really high up!  Again, the line was super long - but we got two rides out of the deal!  The first go round, the ride got stuck as we were all up in the air.  Josh was down below waiting with Silas and recording the mechanical malfunction on video while we were enjoying great views of the rest of the park and the mountains surrounding it.  We stayed up there a good five minutes while they fixed whatever was wrong, and then resumed the "drop" part of the ride.

For all our trouble, they let everyone ride again - which was great! Saved me another 30 minutes in line!

As we left ToyStory land, Abby fell in love with the Mickey Mouse ice cream bars and I was a sucker for a good picture.

Overall, I liked TSland because it added three new rides that my kids would ride.  At the HK park, that's a pretty big improvement!  I loved the quality of all the props, decorations, and themed areas - again, the creativity was amazing.  But  - the cramped feeling was hard to shake.  The long lines were surprisingly irritating, and it just felt like it was an odd addition to the park.

But even with all that, you can bet we'll be going back again the next time we're in HK.

Maybe someone will ride RC Racer with me this time...