Disneyland smackdown – California v. Paris v. Hong Kong

           Yep, I’m a dork.  Let’s just get that out of the way right off the bat.  I unabashedly love Disneyland, have been more times than I care to admit - and counting.  It’s pure fun.  Hell, just hearing the Disney music playing as I wait to enter brings a huge grin to my face.  Through my travels I have been lucky enough to visit parks on 3 continents (Disney World in Florida and Tokyo Disneyland are still on my hit list, but I’m sure it won’t be too long before I have them chalked off, too.  I’ll keep you posted) and am qualified to compare them head to head in this, my first Disneyland Smackdown.  

           For the purposes of this smackdown, I’m going to stick with just the “Disneyland” and not include the California Adventure or MGM Studios Paris, as they are  each so unique, and would put Hong Kong, a place with only one park, at a disadvantage right off the bat.  Also, I’m going to focus more on the differences between them than the similarities.  This is because, to have the “Disneyland” title, there has to be a huge amount of similarities to keep the Mousketeers happy.  If the formula ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right?  Every park has a Main Street, Tomorrowland,  Fantasyland, etc. and honestly, if you need a bathroom on Main Street, they’re in the same place in all three countries.  And so it begins…

          The first major difference any guest would notice is the Castle.  It’s smack in front of you and will undoubtedly require a photo stop at least once in every visit.  In California, the castle was intentionally built smallish and done in pastels as to be friendly and unintimidating to visitors.  In Paris, where the guests are going to be accustomed to insanely large and ornate realcastles in their home countries, the castle is much larger, more gothic in it’s architecture, and bright pink.  Oh, and it has a giant animatronic dragon beneath it.  Hong Kong tried to recreate the cuter California castle, and they did a good job, but it’s small-scale is highlighted by the mountains surrounding the park, making it seem, well, dinky.

           The coolest things to compare are the coasters.  Big Thunder Mountain in California is big and classic with the focus more on the animatronic goat chewing dynamite and bat-filled mines than the speed or the drops.  You just enjoy this ride, it’s not particularly thrilling.  Paris once again took this idea and cranked it up to the extreme.  Their Big Thunder is hands-down my favorite Disneyland ride in any park, as it takes up the entirety of the island in the middle of the Rivers of the Far West, and the start and end involves a dark, fast tunnel right underneath the water before you pop up on the other side. The “danger” factor is upped, too, as if you speed off the rails, you end up in the water.  They have the goat, too.    Hong Kong, unfortunately,  doesn’t have a Big Thunder yet, but I’m sure one’s in the plans somewhere.

                All three parks do have Space Mountains, though.  And all three are thrilling, fast and whip you around crazy turns in the dark.  For years the California one made me dizzy, as so many of the twists were in the same direction, but about five years ago they overhauled it, introducing new ride cars, a better soundtrack and new track configuration.  It made a huge difference in my books, as the dizziness is gone and it’s just a crapload of fun.  This is a great ride people who like the coaster experience without giant drops to contend with.  Hong Kong’s Space Mountain is a close counterpart here too, and the screamometer level is about equal to California, although this one, most likely due to the fact that it’s technology is only a few years old, feels faster and darker.  And then there’s Paris.  I went on this ride expecting it to be as simplistic (for lack of a better word) as the other two.  In hindsight, the over-the-head locking seatbelt should have tipped me off, but it didn’t.  This ride really goes up the screamometer right from the start, where they actually shoot you out of a cannon on the roof, going from zero to feaking fast in seconds.  Inside there’s also a full 360 loop and a corkscrew.  The intensity caught me so off guard that I bruised both knees bracing them on the back of the seat in front of me!  Once I knew what this ride was like, it’s great (still no big drops.  I don’t do big drops), but if you’re unprepared, look out :) 

           It’s a Small World (come on, you knew it was coming) is so synonamous with Disneyland that all three parks feature one.  You either love it or hate it, but everyone rides it.  Hong Kong was the first to deviate from the Small World mold, mixing animatronic characters from Disney movies (Aladdin riding his carpet in the middle east, Lilo and Stitch surfing in Hawaii, etc) with the ubiquitous singing dolls.  As someone raised on IASM(my mobile played the music when I was an  infant, no joke) I was worried this would detract from the simple joy of this ride, but it surprised me by being very seamlessly integrated into the classic format.  Now it’s kind of a “spot the movie characters” game as you go.  Especially great for the little ones.  As recently as June 09, California took a page from Hong Kong’s book and debuted their own new IASM, complete with the ”hidden” characters.  Paris, as of writing this, was still using the classic format.

           Naturally, the language is going to be different from country to country, but the Disney people do a great job of putting signage in multiple languages, and what isn’t translated is accompanied by pictograms to remove any confusion.  There is something that makes me giggle uncontrollably at hearing the PeeWee Herman voice of the robot in Star Tours entirely in French, though.  The Jungle Cruise in Hong Kong found a simple solution to the language issue by just running boats in Mandarin, Cantonese and English simultaneously.  All you have to do is make sure you get into the right line and you’re golden.

           Food is an essential part of any theme park experience, and, coming at it with a very westernized palette, I found this aspect a ton of fun overseas.  Sure, all three parks have the standards: hot dogs, burgers, fries, Mickey-shaped ice cream bars, etc. but the regional specialties make this interesting.  Hong Kong, for example, sells fish balls and Korean squid on a stick at the street carts right along with the hot dogs.  The Plaza Inn here sells wonderful Dim Sum meant to be shared in a lantern-lit restaurant.  Paris has frog’s legs and sells alcohol pretty much everywhere, so you can wander around with your wine and frog’s legs to your heart’s content. 

              In conclusion, the castle is bigger and the rides are more intense in Paris;  Hong Kong is smaller and newer with more of a focus on regional food and the smaller family-friendly rides;  And California is the original, so nothing can compete with that.  Plus, due to their age, they have the most rides per square foot.  But despite all their differences, Disneyland is still Disneyland, regardless of what country you’re in.  If you have kids or just like feeling like one, it will always be worth the price of admission.

Tags: BlogSherpa, California, China, Disney Specialist, disneyland and anaheim, France, Hong Kong, memories, Paris, roller coasters, theme park, USA

Vacation Anatomy part 3: The memories

                “Two weeks away, feels like the whole world should have changed, but I’m home now, and things still look the same.”  I think Dido puts it really well in this line from Sand in My Shoes, as that post-vacation letdown never gets any easier, no matter how often you travel.  It’s over.  You had spent such a long time anticipating this trip, and then you went and now… now what? 

          Now it’s time to develop those pictures, that’s what.  Just because the physical part of your trip is completed doesn’t mean your vacation is done.  Go through each exposure and laugh at the face you’re making in that one or how cool the Eiffel Tower looks in this one.  Take out all those cool new souvenirs and remember the story behind how you found that perfect vase in a tiny little shop down a dark “oh my God, why am I walking down here?” alley, but it turned out to be a total treasure trove.  Call up all your close friends and arrange to meet over coffee so you can give them the gift you brought back for them and describe all the cool things you saw.  Yes, your vacation might be technically over, but it’ll still be fresh in your mind for months, years to come.   Embrace this.   Use the words “remember that time…” as much as possible and milk every good feeling you can out of your trip.

           Of course, now that one trip is behind you, we can smoothly transition back  into the Anticipation stage again.   Travel is like a drug, once you get it in your system it’s hard to get out and it leaves you craving your next fix.   So do it.  Start thinking about where to go next.  I mean, you have to do something with those vacation days, right? 

Tags: BlogSherpa, memories, photos, souvenirs, travel agent

Vacation Anatomy part 2: The trip itself

           Okay, so now you’re off.  All your worldly possessions are crammed in your wheeled nylon sidekick, you have a complimentary bag of peanuts in your pocket and your camera batteries fully charged.  I’m not going to tell you how to travel, that’s a very personal thing and can vary dramatically from person to person.  But I am going to say: enjoy every second of it.

               Whether you’ve been to the destination a dozen times before or it’s your very first, the most important thing is that you have fun while you’re there.  Without a doubt, everyone gets out of a vacation exactly what they put into it.  Happiness is contagious.  Regardless if you can communicate with the people around you or not. a smile is universal and can go farther than you think in breaking down barriers.  Things have a tendency to go awry on vacations (be it a late plane connection, mislaid luggage, a disappointing city tour or even simply getting lost), but the secret shared by all great travelers is to not let that event ruin your whole trip. Far too often I’ve seen it where something goes a bit off-track at the beginning of a vacation, and, despite the fact that the matter was resolved, the passengers continue to mope about it for the remainder of the trip.   All this does is bring them and the people around them down.  Move on.  Roll with it.  Don’t rob yourself of enjoying your hard-earned vacation.  You spent a lot of time and money on this, you deserve for it to be great.     

              Remember, the  joy is in the details.  Even a trip to the supermarket can be fun if you look at it from the right angle (”They have seafood tempura flavoured chips?  Cool! ”, “It called Coke Light here instead of Diet Coke!”) and revel in all that your destination has to offer.  Then, no matter where you are and what you’re doing, you’re guaranteed to have great memories of your vacation. 

            But eventually you have to go home, which brings us to Stage 3…

Tags: BlogSherpa, enjoyment, luggage, memories, Tips, travel agent

Not problems, “Adventures”

                There are certainties in life.  Death.  Taxes.  Travel problems.  If you’re talking to someone who claims to travel frequently and everything always runs perfectly smoothly, they’re either a liar or in complete denial.   Shit happens, the trick is to just roll with it and remember that one day you’ll be looking back at this and laughing.  Not everything on your vacation is going to be particularly memorable, but if something gets messed up/goes wrong/is not what you expected, I guarantee you’ll still be talking about it years from now.

             This I know from personal experience.  Being an agent means nothing when I’m standing on a curb in Kuala Lumpur for two hours, waiting for my airport transfers which never showed up.  The phone conversation with the company rep went something like this: 

Rep: “Are you sure you have arranged transfers?”  

Me: “Of course I’m sure, I’m the one who freakin’ booked them!”

Rep: “Oh.”

       And I still had to make my own way to my hotel.  But on the flip side, if I hadn’t been stuck there for so long, I never would have met some of the nicest people, complete strangers who went way out of their ways to help me out, or seen an incredible lightning storm.

            Over the years all sorts of crap has happened to me.  One time I was staying at a hotel in London, and one of the beds only had three legs, so it tilted at an interesting angle.  When maintenance was called they went all high-tech and brought phone books to prop it up with.  This same room had no less than 6 lights in a five by five room (well, it felt that small, anyway), but only three light bulbs, so half the time you tried to turn something on and got nothing.  Maintenance was creative with their solution to this one, too, answering our request for more light by, while we were out sightseeing, moving those three bulbs to the other lamps.    This was the only available room in the hotel, so changing rooms wasn’t an option, and, as it was a non-refundable, prepaid reservation, I didn’t have the funds to pay out of pocket to move to a new hotel in pricey London.  But the location was great, steps from Paddington Station and Hyde Park, across from a cute little square that had live music some evenings for free, and surrounded by pubs and restaurants.  Even knowing how crappy the hotel was, I would stay there again if it was the only one available in that area (and they could guarantee me light bulbs)!

                  Another time British Airways accidentally misprinted my boarding pass, sending me to gate 25, which was down this long gray hallway and felt like I was hiking to the middle of nowhere.  Ten minutes before my flight closed, I discovered that gate 25 went to Cairo and my flight back to Vancouver actually left from gate 5.  Ten Minutes, twenty gates, and this was at London Heathrow Airport, where each terminal is roughly the size of Luxembourg.  It was very Amazing Race, running screaming through the crowded airport, dodging fellow travellers and hurdling luggage.  I was the last person on the plane, and I smelled like a gym sock for the next nine and a half hours (I’m sure my seat mates appreciated that), but I made it.   I’m actually pretty proud of this, I didn’t think I could run that fast!

                Then there’s the time I was in Bangkok and we got the great idea to take the water taxis down the Chao Phraya river after dark to get a great view of Wat Arun, the Temple of the Dawn from the water.  It started off swimmingly, water taxiing up, and stopping for a drink as we waited for darkness to fall.   Finally the conditions were perfect and we go to board the water taxi, only to have people shaking their heads and saying “no” repeatedly.  By now we had a fairly good idea of how the water taxi system operated, so we knew we hadn’t done anything wrong, but we couldn’t figure out why they wouldn’t let us on.  Turns out that after the evening rush hour, all the water taxis only ran upriver, so we were stuck, on the wrong side of the river from our hotel, with no way of getting back.  A taxi was looking like our only option (and not a good one at that, as our hotel was a very long – and expensive – distance away, and bartering with Bangkok taxis, especially for two women alone at night, was not a particularly appealing or safe thing to do). 

            The water taxi operators pointed us to a cross-river ferry that would, at the very least, get us back onto the correct side, so we hopped on that, the only passengers at this time of night.  The view wasn’t the one we had been going for, but you could still see Wat Arun, and it was spectacular.  This dropped us off in the midst of a night market, not a big, nice one like Chatuchak, but a clutch-your-purse-to-your-chest-and-look-around-furtively one.  Fantastic.  And it only got better, as when we reached the street there were no taxis to be seen, only Tuk Tuks.  Every guidebook harps on how dangerous these little riding lawnmower taxis can be, but we were desperate, so we climbed in and agreed on a price to Hua Lamphong, the closest subway station I could remember the name of.   Oh my God, this was a blast.  Screw the guidebooks, zipping through the dark streets in little more than a pop can with an engine was exhilarating.    We took them as often as possible after that.

             It had started off as a big, stupid mistake, but it ended up being a really fun, incredible night that still makes me smile when I think about it.  Murphy’s Law states “anything that can go wrong will go wrong”, but I prefer Holly’s Law, “Anything that can go wrong could go wrong, and if it does, roll wth it and laugh about it later”.   At the time it may really, really suck, but everything, good or bad, only makes your vacation into more of an adventure, and isn’t that why you’re traveling in the first place?

Tags: airport transfers, Bangkok, BlogSherpa, Kuala Lumpur, London Heathrow, memories, travel problems, tuk tuks