On Tuesday there was a VIP Preview event for Hong Kong’s Great European Carnival. It’s basically a traveling fair that sets up for a few months on the harbour from mid-December until just after Chinese New Year in February.
I didn’t bother with it last year. Nic and I had a quick look, but couldn’t see any creds, so sacked it off. Turns out there was a Big Apple, though that might have been added later since the line-up changes slightly over the months.
Although it would have been quicker to just get the Metro over, I took the ten-minute walk from my place down to the harbour to get the ferry across since I had a bit of time to kill before meeting friends.
The view from my side:
The ferry across takes about 5 minutes and costs the grand total of $2.50, or about 20p. Transport is about the only thing this place manages to do cheaply. Like I said, I’d get across quicker by taking the Metro, but the ferry’s fab for the view.
Predictably, my friends were late, so I killed some time by taking some pictures of the comedy Ferris wheel. It’s not part of the carnival, but a semi-permanent thing. No idea how long it’ll be around for since I’ve never seen it busy.
I haven’t tried it myself, but apparently on a clear day you can see as far as the offices on the 10th floors of the buildings surrounding it.
The entrance to the carnival then:
Gala premiere. Invitation only, bitches.
What a f**king joke that was. It was packed! They must’ve been giving these invitations out all over the place. I shouldn’t complain since everything was free, but there was nothing VIP about it. It wasn’t too bad when we arrived just after seven, but we ended up not getting very much done since it just kept getting busier and busier.
We should’ve done this thing first up since it wasn’t too busy, but my friends wanted to work up to it and come back later.
By the time we got back to it though, the queue looked to be at around an hour. F**k that then.
Same thing happened with the Booster. It looked really good though to be fair. It looked really fast and had 8 people on each end of the arm which I don’t think I’ve seen before.
We did the fun house. It wasn’t a lot of fun.
It was at about this time that the rides’ lights went out and they shut down for half an hour. Thinking back to the timing of it, it may have been because of the light show, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense. I just took a few pictures and then waited near the first cred to get a ride in when it reopened.
No idea who owns/runs this, which is annoying me as I want to try and be accurate with Coaster-Count.
Still waiting for lights to come on and stuff to reopen
This looked interesting, but, again, I didn’t get to ride it. It’s kind of like a Booster, but the car can lock, so it’s like a cross between a Booster and a Top Spin I guess.
Mirror Maze was alright:
Spinny, swingy thing:
The other cred was a Big Apple. The paint job around the station had “Family Coaster” on it, but I’m guessing that’s a description rather than a name.
This thing was vile, but I least I got to do something other than the two creds, the crappy funhouse and the mirror maze.
Just going to throw some more pictures in here.
We’d only been there a little over an hour, but the queues had gotten ridiculous and we just couldn’t be arsed waiting upwards of an hour. I decided to get the Metro back since the station is closer to my house than the ferry. A couple of pictures of the whole site, not that you can see much.
Considering it’s only a small area, there’s actually a lot crammed into it. It’s too bad it was so busy though. Like I said, I shouldn’t complain since it was free and I got 2 creds out of it, but I think I might go back another time to try out some of the flat rides. I’ve got no idea on the pricing, but knowing Hong Kong, it’ll be ridiculous.
I didn’t bother with it last year. Nic and I had a quick look, but couldn’t see any creds, so sacked it off. Turns out there was a Big Apple, though that might have been added later since the line-up changes slightly over the months.
Although it would have been quicker to just get the Metro over, I took the ten-minute walk from my place down to the harbour to get the ferry across since I had a bit of time to kill before meeting friends.
The view from my side:
The ferry across takes about 5 minutes and costs the grand total of $2.50, or about 20p. Transport is about the only thing this place manages to do cheaply. Like I said, I’d get across quicker by taking the Metro, but the ferry’s fab for the view.
Predictably, my friends were late, so I killed some time by taking some pictures of the comedy Ferris wheel. It’s not part of the carnival, but a semi-permanent thing. No idea how long it’ll be around for since I’ve never seen it busy.
I haven’t tried it myself, but apparently on a clear day you can see as far as the offices on the 10th floors of the buildings surrounding it.
The entrance to the carnival then:
Gala premiere. Invitation only, bitches.
What a f**king joke that was. It was packed! They must’ve been giving these invitations out all over the place. I shouldn’t complain since everything was free, but there was nothing VIP about it. It wasn’t too bad when we arrived just after seven, but we ended up not getting very much done since it just kept getting busier and busier.
We should’ve done this thing first up since it wasn’t too busy, but my friends wanted to work up to it and come back later.
By the time we got back to it though, the queue looked to be at around an hour. F**k that then.
Same thing happened with the Booster. It looked really good though to be fair. It looked really fast and had 8 people on each end of the arm which I don’t think I’ve seen before.
We did the fun house. It wasn’t a lot of fun.
It was at about this time that the rides’ lights went out and they shut down for half an hour. Thinking back to the timing of it, it may have been because of the light show, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense. I just took a few pictures and then waited near the first cred to get a ride in when it reopened.
No idea who owns/runs this, which is annoying me as I want to try and be accurate with Coaster-Count.
Still waiting for lights to come on and stuff to reopen
This looked interesting, but, again, I didn’t get to ride it. It’s kind of like a Booster, but the car can lock, so it’s like a cross between a Booster and a Top Spin I guess.
Mirror Maze was alright:
Spinny, swingy thing:
The other cred was a Big Apple. The paint job around the station had “Family Coaster” on it, but I’m guessing that’s a description rather than a name.
This thing was vile, but I least I got to do something other than the two creds, the crappy funhouse and the mirror maze.
Just going to throw some more pictures in here.
We’d only been there a little over an hour, but the queues had gotten ridiculous and we just couldn’t be arsed waiting upwards of an hour. I decided to get the Metro back since the station is closer to my house than the ferry. A couple of pictures of the whole site, not that you can see much.
Considering it’s only a small area, there’s actually a lot crammed into it. It’s too bad it was so busy though. Like I said, I shouldn’t complain since it was free and I got 2 creds out of it, but I think I might go back another time to try out some of the flat rides. I’ve got no idea on the pricing, but knowing Hong Kong, it’ll be ridiculous.
