Spending Christmas Eve 2025 at Hongkong Disneyland .𖥔 ݁ ˖!

Tentatively, I slowly began to open my eyes after a good night's rest by the sound of a possibly too hyper toddler's giggles. "Oh, Sophia's awake. Mayap a abak pu!*" Mamu, my always cheerful grandma, greeted me. "Mayap a abak pu, Mamu..." I murmured groggily, my body heavy and eyes narrowed, still adjusting to the sudden brightness. I would've at least tried to match my grandma's jolly tone to my greeting, but the usual morning grogginess weighs me down, and affected my tone of words. If everyone is in a good mood, then I have to be too, I decided. Flashing a smile to my uncle and greeting him a brief "good morning!", I strode toward the bathroom, towel and attire in hand. Disneyland trip with my family, here we go!!

As a girl who'd been living in New Zealand for 5 and a bit years, I never anticipated that I would be hit with a ferocious bone-chilling thrust of breeze when the automatic doors ushered me outside into the busy streets of Hongkong. Why is it soo c-cold?... I couldn't even imagine what my relatives who lived in a hot climate would've been feeling at the moment. If I was shivering away with my teeth clattering, they practically must've been dying out there. But I noticed that even if they felt that way, with crossed arms to gather warmth from the cold, they still pushed through with a grin, and I couldn't help but marvel at it.

Experiencing a similar circumstances that I'd been through yesterday; my family and I searched for the train station interchanging to Disneyland. Since the iconic theme park with caramel and buttered popcorn and crowded tourists with Mickey Mouse ears was so well-known, they had a separate train station just to get there. Our main priority, was to get there earlier before 9am, so that we could escape the crowd, and get into the park first. Since Disneyland is known to be a super crowded destination, I predicted the theme park's grounds would be filled with people in no time.

After an interlude of pacing back and forth, we hit the elevator, once more, just to try our luck. It was at this moment when our spirits dropped a tiny bit that an elderly local enters the lift just in the nick of time. Without any delay, Tito Ram confronts the elderly local by uncertainly stating "Uhm, excuse me?". The local rotates his head backwards, to make eye contact with my uncle. "Do you know where the Tsuen Wan train station is?"

At first, I thought striking a question to a local who just wanted to get his groceries would be pointless. I've observed that almost all locals are not fluent in English, so I figured this local would in return give Tito Ram a puzzled expression. To my surprise, the words that come out of his mouth were fluent English. What shocks me the most is that he actually directs us to the basement floor, a route to the train station. In a hurried manner, we all thanked the helpful local and rush over the lit up sign that says "Tsuen Wan West station."

I'd never thought I'd ever imagine this, but... I'M HERE AT HONG KONG DISNEYLAND. My family's sets of eyes are practically all over the place, including mine. And my suspicions were indeed correct. The park entrance is scattered with tourists ranging from young children to couples celebrating their honeymoon phase. "Come on guys! Let's take a quick photo with the park entrance sign!" Tito Ram ushers us in to huddle closer. He snaps a photo, and before I know it, determinedly, we're all jogging to the ticket area, and despite not us knowing it, the compilation of endless waiting and queue has just begun.

One remark, we're not even two hours in meandering around the parks grounds and the amount of photos we'd taken already is bazaar. This is a way to infer that my family is having a great time, and highly excited, weirdly. But in the Danganan family culture, it occurs a lot. Tito Ram, our main tour guide with his trusty device to guide the way, his phone, rapidly suggests rides to go to for a first timer. "We could go to the Iron Man exhibition, or... Mystic Manor, Frozen Ever After and Sliding Sleigh. Those are the top 4 rides that are highly recommended taking. Since we just took Frozen Ever After, we should try something else?"

"Yeah. I think I wanna go to..." I weigh my options. Which one? "Mystic Manor or the Iron Man exhibition. What about you guys?" I consider everyone else's opinions. We ponder on which ride to take, having a mini discussion on which option is best before coming to a conclusion. "Iron Man it is." Tito Ram says as he leads the way.

Popping our VR glasses, we enter the VR room, which its interior is in a layout of a highly advanced aircraft. Nervousness and adrenaline hits me at the last moment, and after putting on my seatbelt... we're off.

Soaring through the skies at a Tony Starks aircraft, halfway we plunged into the main street of Hongkong, and despite it being a simulator, it felt very realistic. In fact, too realistic. The sudden drop makes my heart pound in my chest like it's a drum and a drumstick is beating on it, and Iron Man saves the day once more. We're back on track. Iron Man guides us passengers in the aircraft by attaching a rope to his waist, which is connected to the aircraft. Then he drags us into a opening of a ginormous robot terrorizing the city, and smashes its heart. The passengers behind me audibly gasp at Iron Man doing so and so do I, because honestly, who wouldn't?

Eventually we're back to Iron Man's headquarters and instinctively remark to Tita Pretty beside . "That felt so fast." They nod in agreement as we all disembark out of the enclosed VR room, or aircraft. You could call it either. 

Photos from the rest of our time in Disneyland!!

Toy Story Land

The Festival of the Lion King

people in this photo (by order left to right), me, Mamu (my grandma), Tita Pretty (my aunt) with my niece, Cubby, Tito Ram (my uncle), and Mum (my... mum??)
photos of the "Momentous: Party in the Night Sky" firework show