China 2013: Ocean Park TR

[JamesB]

Hello there!

Since March I have been living in Zhongshan, China, I am currently teaching English here and I've taken the opportunity to visit various places. Today I went to Chimelong Paradise... and it was amazing! I hope you enjoy my trip report.

This is my current schedule:

Today: Chimelong!
25th: Disneyland Hong Kong
26th: Ocean Park

The park was pretty easy to get to, I went from Guangzhou South Station to Chimelong by free shuttle bus which was very convenient, however the shuttle bus is pretty hard to find as its hidden away in a underground car park!

The admission is 200 rmb, about £20, not bad! You can have ticket combinations to do the other parks but I was just there for the theme park today! I'm thinking about returning to do the safari park later on.

My first ride was this...



Maybe not the best start, its pretty much as rough as Colossus, if not more! I came off with a sore head but it quickly wore off.



Keep it to the point, why not?



I didn't actually ride these, but it looked interesting! I didn't fancy being face to face with some stranger!



This area looked under construction, don't know what's going in there. There was another area near the Young Star coaster that was being worked on too.



Hello originally named roller coaster. This was my second Vekoma motorbike coaster… and they are a little uncomfortable in certain parts. Let's leave it at that. The queues at peak time must be hideous with only one train.



This was quite fun, the moving from side to side didn’t really add anything though. I found the one at Happy Valley Shenzhen more forceful however.



Oh boy, this sounds fun. I think they actually mean a mime show, but dumb will do.



Easily the best flat ride in the park! Apart from blasting the same disco song over and over, it was amazing. It's my first giant Frisbee and the air time on it is great.



Time to call home? Oh wait…



Because flower love you long time.



They should rename this one 'mind rape'… because that’s what it does. This was my first time riding this type of coaster.. and probably my last.



Splash!



The young star coaster… soon to be sponsored by Justin Bieber. Was alright for a family coaster, quite slow in parts.



The highlight of the day! This beast was incredible, so graceful and packed a punch. It's one you want to ride again and again and the Chinese love it too.



Sexy curves.



You now leaving earthy zone, bye bye.



This credit spited me! They would only let these two Chinese guys ride it. So unfair.



Yeah, it's the stunt show! Look it's a flying jet ski…



It mainly consists of shooting and blowing things up, which was pretty awesome!



Zoooooooom.



I hope he had insurance.



And the grand finale, everything blows up and everyone dies. The end.

I had a great day at Chimelong. The staff were very friendly and helpful. The operations could have been better, the rides are so slow loading and un loading, it seems all the staff stick to what they were trained, I imagine in peak times the queues must be awful. The longest queue I had today was 20 minutes which was pretty good.

I hope you've enjoyed my TR! I will post about Hong Kong next week.

James

 

[ATTACKHAMMER]

Re: China 2013: 21st June - Chimelong Paradise TR

It's awesome reading about somewhere different nice report!

 

[CookieCoasters]

Re: China 2013: 21st June - Chimelong Paradise TR

^agreed

 

[davidm]

Re: China 2013: 21st June - Chimelong Paradise TR

Nice report - you seem to be pretty close to the new Chimelong Ocean Kingdom park, hope for a TR from there when it opens!

 

[JamesB]

Re: China 2013: 21st June - Chimelong Paradise TR

Sadly I'm only here til July and from what I've heard its not opening until next year now, which is a great shame, I was hoping to visit whilst I was here. I was actually in Zhuhai the other day but didn't see any adverts for it yet.

 

[peep]

Re: China 2013: 21st June - Chimelong Paradise TR

Nice trip report. That stunt show looks awesome. Fire =

Look forward to hearing your thoughts on Disney.

 

[JamesB]

Re: China 2013: Hong Kong Disneyland TR

Hong Kong Disneyland!

Hello again! I'm back to report on my visit to Hong Kong. I will start off with my trip to Hong Kong Disneyland on Tuesday.

I arrived on Monday via ferry from Zhongshan and stayed in a hostel in Chungking Mansions which actually wasn’t too bad and really cheap! Breakfast at Starbucks every morning was a real treat after not having had a Starbucks for 4 months!

Anyway, so I got the MTR to Disneyland and arrived at park about 9:30 and then waited for 30 minutes for the park to open. I immediately rushed over to Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point first as they contained the two rides I was most desperate to try out! I'm going to review each area of the park rather than go chronologically as I did a lot of moving around! This is only my second Disney resort after doing Disneyland Paris twice so a lot of the rides were new to me.







Grizzly Gulch

Opened last year, the second of the three new lands at HK. The area was really well themed and even though it is a theme that is done in theme parks across the globe it still felt fresh and original. The roller coaster itself was nice, I felt the first half of the ride was very tame until the launch which was very fast considering it's a family coaster. I rode the coaster twice and found it very enjoyable and fun. The area is really crying out for a few other rides however, hopefully they will be added in the future.



Mystic Point

A very small area but well themed and of course feature the brand spanking new Mystic Manor. I don't want to spoil anything for people who are waiting to ride it but it really is an outstanding ride. The theming and immersion is definitely one of Disney's best. The effects on ride were great and there are several surprises along the way. I think my only criticism of the ride would be due to the size of the vehicles the floor span is very large and in some places the huge black floors detracted from the whole ambience of the room you were in. I know there isn't much you can do about this, maybe they could have coloured some of the floors?



Toy Story Land

Having visited Paris before Toy Story Land opened there , this was my first experience of the world of Toy Story! I went on the Parachute ride which gave a good view of the park, the drop was faster than I expected. I also did RC Racer which actually was really good fun, a lot of air time and no spinning like the Chimelong one. The over the top restraints are a bit unnecessary though.



Fantasyland

I always love the theming of this area, the cute little shops with the wooden beams and stone walls. This land features two really great shows, the first is The Golden Mickeys, I thought from the name this was going to be some tacky, silly award show but actually it was done really well and was very entertaining. No awards were actually given out and there was plenty of dancing and singing! I really enjoyed the show. There is also Philharmagic which is a 4D show featuring again many songs from classic Disney movies and the ending was really funny and well done. I also went on the Winnie the Pooh ride in this land, by the looks of it, it eats up Fastpasses like nothing and it had a reasonably long queue all day. The ride was enjoyable enough, quite similar to the Snow White and Pinocchio rides at Paris however the rocking and bouncing motions were quite fun. No visit to Fantasyland is complete without Small World, and yes the song was stuck in my head for ages.



Adventureland
This land only features one ride which is Jungle Cruise, another first for me. It has a good queuing system where you queue according to your language. The guide was funny because no one got her jokes and it just ended up being funnily awkward, the ride was okay, nothing too spectacular happened.

The real highlight of adventureland is the Lion King show! I haven't the musical but I do now after seeing this show which is a 30 minute version of it. The show was really well presented, the effects and singing was top notch!



Tomorrowland
My first ride at Tomorrowland was the Buzz light year blaster ride which I think is pretty much the same as the Paris one, I managed to get a pretty good score so was happy with that! I grabbed a Fastpass for Space Mountain as the queue was long all day, a really great ride, very different from the Paris one but I loved how the lift hill keeps going and then some of the drops and turns are quite intense!



Parade

The flight of fantasy parade, as expected, was very good, it had a very catchy musical score and everyone seemed to love it. It seemed a little short, I can't remember if the Paris one is longer or not. Anyway, enjoy the photos…













Well I had a great day at the park as you can see! My only criticism would be the lack of a fastpass facility for Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Manor, the queues in the afternoon were pretty long and I'm sure a fastpass facility would be appreciated there, I know Mystic Manor has just opened, maybe they will introduce it next season. Oh and also get a bigger castle!

Tomorrow I will post my review of Ocean Park, look out for it!

 

[peep]

Re: China 2013: Hong Kong Disneyland TR

Once again a very nice report. Although I use Fastpass when at Disney I still loathe the idea of it, the normal queue also moves quicker without one.

Still, yet another very positive review of this resort, I really need to get over there now Mystic Manor has opened.

 

[JamesB]

Welcome to my trip report for Ocean Park in Hong Kong!



Ocean Park is a marine theme park located on Hong Kong island. The park is made up of two sections, The Waterfront is located at the entrance of the park and then The Summit which is located at the top of a hill overlooking the ocean, giving beautiful views! The park is a nice combination of rides and indoor aquarium exhibits (how I imagine Seaworld is, I haven't been!)



The park is easy to get to, you get the MTR to Admiralty Station and then you can buy your park tickets there along with a return bus ticket. The bus takes about 15 minutes to get to the park. As with my Disneyland report I will do the review by area as it makes it easier for me and not get confused!

The Waterfront

The first thing you see when you enter Ocean Park is the huge Grand Aquarium building which looks like a giant blue egg. The aquarium is really well presented with a huge range of species all featured around the main exhibit which is the giant ocean tank which I think is about 3/4 floors high. The main tank features sharks, turtles, manta rays and many fish. The Chinese lap up the photo taking opportunities in front of the huge viewing gallery.





The other two highlights in this area are the two Giant Panda exhibits, yes two! The first being Sichuan Treasures (named after the province which the pandas originate from) inside are a pair of giant pandas and also some rare snub nosed monkeys. Opposite is the Amazing Asian Animals exhibit which features another pair of Giant Pandas and alongside them; Red Pandas, Otter and a Goldfish house. There is also a area full of kids rides too but I didn't check that out.






To get up the 'mountain' you can either take the cable car or the Ocean Express. The ocean express is a metro kind of train that takes you up the mountain, once inside it goes dark and videos of fish show on the overhead screens, it's actually a really cool experience. The cable car ride provides really great views of the surrounding areas including the ocean. The pathway up to the station is themed around Old Hong Kong and the theming is really nice, see the photos below.




The Summit

Polar Adventure

Polar Adventure features two big exhibits based on the north and south pole. The South Pole Spectacular features a big penguin exhibit home to 3 different species. The exhibit is designed so the penguins can swim under the floor below you which was pretty cool. The exhibit is kept at 10 degrees so it was pretty nippy inside! The North Pole Encounter features walruses, seals and sea lions. All the animals seemed well cared for and the exhibits provided good views of them on land and underwater. The area also features a powered roller coaster that I didn’t have time to ride.



Thrill Mountain

Hair Raiser is the ride that cannot be missed in this area, standing out in it's beautiful red and yellow. The coaster is a B&M floorless, my first floorless. The ride was a pretty bad experience from start to finish.. so much shaking! I don’t know if this is common on floorless coasters but the whole car just shook so much during its course and made for a lot of head banging. One ride on it was enough. Also in the area is a range of flat rides that I didn’t do for lack of time.



Rainforest

This small area features a walkthrough aviary and some awesome looking rapids which were sadly closed for maintenance work. Not a lot to be said about this area.

Adventure Land

After going down two long escalators you eventually arrive in Adventure Land, I made the trek especially to ride the creatively named Mine Train, the ride is very picturesque with the ocean behind it and it's interesting support structure. The ride is actually very fast in places and a lot of fun.



Marine World

Marine World is the biggest area in the park and features lots of attractions. Ride wise, it has The Dragon roller coaster which I didn’t ride, I spent most of the day focusing on seeing the animal exhibits and not on rides. The Sea Jelly Spectacular was a great exhibit with many jelly fish housed in mirrored enclosures. There is also the Pacific Pier home to seals and sea lions. Probably one of the most popular attractions of the park is Ocean Theatre which puts on the Sea Dreams show with dolphins and sea lions! The show was really well done and the crowd loved it.








Well that's all for my adventures in China so far, I am staying here until July… I might be able to squeeze in a trip to Chimelong Safari Park later on, so will post a little about that if people want?

 

[owentaylor121]

Great report, shame that you didn't like hair raiser, seems like B&M are having this problem with a few of their rides recently. Ocean Park seems like a really nice park and well thought out.

 

[Snoo]

That is actually quite legit. Got any other plans on your docket?

 

[JamesB]

Great report, shame that you didn't like hair raiser, seems like B&M are having this problem with a few of their rides recently. Ocean Park seems like a really nice park and well thought out.

Thanks! Yeah I'm sure Hair Raiser would be a great ride if the whole car didn't shake from start to finish, I imagine its pretty hard to maintain the ride considering its on top of a huge hill! I bet B&M just love sending people up there.

That is actually quite legit. Got any other plans on your docket?

Thanks! I was really hoping to do Ocean Kingdom at Zhuhai but it seems like it won't be opening until next year now, sad times! I will be heading back to Chimelong to do the safari park. I think that's it for China at the moment, I'm on a Chinese salary so I can't do as much as I'd like to.