Travel Photo Thursday: Hong Kong Disneyland

It feels like time for some fun to break up the mood of the last couple of weeks. For Travel Photo Thursday I selected a shot that I took of the Hong Kong Disneyland fireworks as seen from behind the castle. Most people watch from the front of the castle where the production is designed to be seen; however, watching it from the other side of the park not only gives you a different view of the fireworks, you can do it with 10,000 fewer people around.

Hong Kong Disneyland Mickey Statue Fireworks

Travel Photo Thursday is a weekly collection of photos from travel bloggers hosted by Budget Traveler’s Sandbox. Please go check it out to see more (and better) photos from around the world!

I know some people look down their noses at Disney parks as being inauthentic but my first memories are from Disneyland and my many visits to the many lands helped inspire me to travel. There is a real magic to it for those of us who grew up watching the movies and seeing Walt Disney on TV every week. For those who are skeptical, go during a non-peak time and stand in the middle of Main Street or Fantasyland just at the moment when the sun starts to go down and the lights start coming up. Look around, listen to the music, smell the food, and just try to not love it.

Bonus pictures:

Hong Kong Disneyland Main Street Marching Band

Here is the Main Street marching band posing for pictures with tourists. I decided to try shooting almost exclusively with my 50mm f/1.4 lens this trip. Not only do you get great control over depth of field with buttery smooth bokeh, it also forces you to in close on a lot of shots that you (I) might otherwise crop far too wide. Getting in a bit closer than you originally think tends to result in some great pictures!

Hong Kong Disneyland Parade Fairy

I’m usually not one to take a lot of parade pictures, but this one had so many great bright colours that I was having way too much fun shooting with my prime lens. I’ll post more of these shots to Flickr at some point. More photos have been posted to Flickr!

Tahitian Terrace Curry Lunch

I love checking out the different food options at the different Disney parks. I’m not sure that you’d see this nice a curry plate in any of the other parks. Yes, it was a little bland because they didn’t go very spicy, but it was still a nice surprise.

Hong Kong Disneyland 5 Year Anniversary

Hong Kong Disneyland is now 5 years old. It’s a pretty small park with only 1 actual E-ticket ride, but they will be adding a new Land each year for the next three years. I guess they don’t want to be surpassed by Shanghai Disney when that opens in a few years.

 


16 thoughts on “Travel Photo Thursday: Hong Kong Disneyland

    • You might want to wait a little bit – the park should be a lot better once they add the new lands over the next couple of years.

  1. Very fun topic for Travel Photo Thursday! I have fond memories of Disneyland in California, but I haven’t been there since I was seven years old! I’ve been to DisneyWorld as an adult, but even that was a long time ago. Nice photos!

    • Thanks. I also have fond memories of Disneyland in Cali. My earliest flashes of memory include looking up at the old ticket booths while sitting in a stroller and some of the animatronics from small world. I was 2 years old at the time.

  2. Great shots – I love the one with the statue of Mickey and the fireworks behind him and the fairy in her long-sleeved clothes – I’ve never seen a fairy quite so bundled up before! We have been to Disney World in Orlando and Disneyland in California so far and later this month we are going to Disneyland Paris. My younger daughter just learned this week that there are also parks in Hong Kong and Tokyo and has decided that she needs to visit them all – I didn’t know that there was one in the works for Shanghai too.

  3. The focus in the first picture is too interesting. I’ve been trying to play around with that a little more, but not that successful 🙂 The parade fairy looks so cute. Very unreal.

  4. Awesome photos. I like them a lot, very artistic and does a good job of showing the area too. I almost went to HK Disneyland a few years ago when traveling through Hong Kong, but we ended up not going to spend more of our limited time in the city. Maybe next time if I go back.

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