disneyland resort – Flair Candy

Most Memorable Dim Sum Lunch at Crystal Lotus Hong Kong Disneyland

flaircandy — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:00:16 +0000

Before I start the post, hereâ€™s a flower to all of my readers 🙂

Flowers are everywhere and I canâ€™t help but take snapshots of it!

Before anything else, I just want to say that writing this blog post is such a torture.Â It kept on getting me hungry just by viewing these photos again.

When Vince and I traveled to Hong Kong again, we decided to focus our stay on Disneyland for 3 days, stay in Disneyland Hotel and enjoy, relax and be kids again.Â Well, we are kids at heart anyway 🙂

We left Manila at around 9am and arrived in Hong Kong at 11am.Â We flew via Cebu Pacific and slept throughout the trip.Â I remembered both of us did not get any much sleep at all, thus we were so excited for our vacation!Â Since Disneyland Hotel is very near the airport, we decided to just cab it.Â It cost us around HKD 120.Â At the airport, take the Red colored cab.

You can go around the Disneyland compounds via Bus.Â This will take you to Disneyland Hotel, Hollywood Hotel and the Disneyland Train Station where the park also is.

Thereâ€™s free Wifi in the lobby!Â Although sometimes it can reach the room.Â But if you ask for net connection in the room, you need to pay.

Lunch at Crystal Lotus

I had the most memorable lunch in my life!Â We had lunch at Crystal Lotus.Â It can be found on the Ground floor of Disneyland Hotel.Â I very much enjoyed lunch here.Â It is known for its creative dimsum recipes.Â I have never experienced anything like this!Â I was so happy that I almost forgot that Iâ€™m a blogger and I almost ate my food without taking photos!

Crystal Lotus is an award-winning restaurant that offers outstanding cuisine from four major culinary regions of China: Sichuan, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong.Â What we had for lunch is a specially created Disney Dim Sum!Â So, if ever youâ€™re around, you can ask for Disney Dim Sum set.Â They are only open on Weekends and Special Holidays though so make some inquiries before you book for lunch or dinner.

From here, I will walk you through the things we ate 😛

Steamed Piggy Masked Buns

this is best eaten withâ€¦

Roasted Suckling Pig

I ordered Milk Tea.Â Milk Teas in Hong Kong are the best!

Mickey-shaped carrot with Justin Bieber hair 😛

Iâ€™m about to kiss an alien 😛

Seriously, it is a Little Green Man Pork and Vegetable Bun.

The famous Mickeyâ€™s Seafood Glutinous Pancake.

It tasted like radish cake. Itâ€™s best when dipped in that hot chili dip!

Double-boiled Chicken and Canopy Soup in Petite Coconut!

This was our favorite soup ever!Â The sweet soup had the natural flavors of coconut.

Look! Mickeyâ€™s hands!

Wok-Fried Shrimps and Disney Root Vegetables

Red-braised Pork Loin stuffed in Whole Chinese Pair.

The pork skin was still crispy!

and this was my favorite dish! A GOLDEN CRAB!

hehe just kidding 😛

Open it up and here goesâ€¦

my favorite Fried Rice with Tasmanian Crab Meat stuffed in golden crab shell!

Iâ€™m Asian and I heart rice for life!

Chicken Little Steamed Lotus Seed Paste Bun.

Poor Chicken Little bun, Iâ€™m about to eat it!

but before that, picture time with Chicken Little 😛

Chicken Little was accompanied by these monkeys! so cute!

To end the spectacular meal, they served Chilled Mickeyâ€™s Red Bean Honey Pudding (on the left)

and also Chilled Mickeyâ€™s Green Tea Jelly (on the right)

Zoom in and whoah! are those flowers? <3

Exclusively for their 5th year anniversary, you can also get this cheesecake with Nemo!

ahhâ€¦ very satisfied customer â€“ tummy filled Flair Candy 🙂

We definitely enjoyed our meal and we are ready to roam around Hong Kong Disneyland Resort!

Check out my previous posts to see how it went <3

Now, itâ€™s time for me to grab some lunch 🙂

Check out my other posts:

Flaircandy Visits the Magical World of Hong Kong Disneyland

My Favorite Hong Kong Disneyland Attractions

Flights of Fantasy Parade at Hong Kong Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel Enchanted Garden and Disney Characters

Most Memorable Dim Sum Lunch at Crystal Lotus Hong Kong Disneyland

Disney in the Stars Fireworks and How to Capture It

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PARK

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Hotel

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Disneyland Hotel

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Disneyâ€™s Hollywood Hotel

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Ticket and reservations

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 5th Anniversary

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Star Guest

Disney in the Stars Fireworks Display and How to Capture It

flaircandy — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 03:45:40 +0000

Disneyland is all about happiness and magic! Â What better way to celebrate a lovely day than to watch the Disney in the Stars Fireworks Display at night? Â Disneyland shows fireworks display everyday at around 8pm to wrap up the day.

I love fireworks and I’m always amazed at the art of pyrotechnics! Â Disney fireworks are always fun because they do it around the castle, in harmony with Disney music in the background and video projections of different clips of Disney movies and cartoons along the castle’s walls. Â The Castle is well lit with different colors that also change in sync with the fireworks and the music from time to time.

I was so happy, I cried with joy!

The music they played are of course snippets from our favorite Disney songs. Â The fireworks gracefully dance along with it.Â But, even if we captured it in video, it is not the same if you watch it in person. Â Watching it in person is 100x as magical. Â I focused on taking photos of the fireworks.

What I love more than fireworks is me capturing it! Â So I’m sharing with you the photos I took with some selected photos having their EXIF details just in case you want to know what manual settings I used for my Nikon D40 to capture it!

This is a picture of the Sleeping Beauty Castle with Tinkerbell’s Pixie Dust all over! Â This decoration is only available this year to celebrate the 5th year anniversary of Hong Kong Disneyland.

It’s pretty and magical isn’t it?

To capture every detail of the castle at night and not to overexpose it, I set the aperture to max.

Here are the technical settings of my shot (only if you want to view how I set the photos)

Aperture: f/22.0

Exposure (shutter speed): 1.6 Â seconds

ISO: 1600

*no flash used

Thank goodness I brought my tripod with me. Â I set the timer to 10 seconds because I don’t have a remote flash trigger.

To capture the detail of the castle in the background with people on photos, you need to adjust settings accordingly. Â Or else, Castle will get either overexposed or underexposed.

Aperture: f/10.0

Exposure (shutter speed): 0.5 Â seconds

ISO: 1600

*flash used

This was the perfect setting for me.

I’m sharing another photo of us but this one is not as good as the other one because as you can see the castle is a little bit overexposed in the background.

This is my favorite shot of the Hong Kong Disneyland Disney in the Stars Fireworks Display.

Capturing fireworks is a little bit tricky. Â It’s technically trial and error because you can’t predict what type or kind of fireworks will fire next.

So in taking fireworks shots, just take as many photos as you can because you will never know how it will turn out.

Aperture: f/22.0

Exposure (shutter speed): 4 seconds

ISO: 200

*no flash used

I technically used this setting for the rest of the shots. Â I didn’t need to adjust because Disney fireworks are flying in gracefully slow tempo.

Tips in taking fireworks:

(I used my Nikon D40 + 18 – 55mm kit lens + CDR king tripod)

All shots at 18mm.

If your camera has a fireworks scene mode, use this if you really have no background in adjusting the manual settings of your camera. Â They don’t take the best firework shots but they’re good enough to capture the beauty of fireworks.

If your camera doesn’t have a fireworks scene mode, just use Auto. Â Again, it won’t give you the best results but still, your camera will detect how to capture it and this should be good enough.

Tripods are highly needed. Â But sometimes, I can take firework shots with my camera hand held.. I just need to hold it steady and adjust shutter speed to be faster – but this doesn’t give me the best results. Â That’s why I brought my tripod with me all along. Â I bought the one from CDR-king. And I bought it not because it’s the cheapest one I saw, but it’s the lightest one too. Â I can’t carry heavy gears @_@ unless you’re a professional and you’re getting paid for your photos then you need to have the best gear.

I usually max up my Aperture setting (22 f) and slow down my shutter speed (4-5) because I would rather capture the path of the fireworks. Â Setting my aperture settings at 22 also captures the detail and the beauty of the castle. Â If I set it at 8 (which is what usually people do -) the castle gets overexposed. Â Anyway, try out your camera settings and practice when you can.

Adjust aperture from time to time. Â When the fireworks are slow, use the highest (22). Â When the fireworks are more exciting and the fireworks keep popping, use 18 below. Â I don’t touch the shutter speed because the fireworks’ path in entirety can usually can be captured in 4 seconds.

and so I forgot to adjust aperture in the finale (which fired out the brightest fireworks in the set) and look what I got:

I hope this post also helped you in trying to figure out how to capture fireworks so that when you do visit Hong Kong Disneyland, you will know how to take great shots too 🙂

and if you do, don’t forget to share it with me and comment below 🙂

Check out my other posts:

Flaircandy Visits the Magical World of Hong Kong Disneyland

My Favorite Hong Kong Disneyland Attractions

Flights of Fantasy Parade at Hong Kong Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel Enchanted Garden and Disney Characters

Most Memorable Dim Sum Lunch at Crystal Lotus Hong Kong Disneyland

Disney in the Stars Fireworks and How to Capture It

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â PARK

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Hotel

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Disneyland Hotel

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Disneyâ€™s Hollywood Hotel

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Ticket and reservations

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 5th Anniversary

-Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Star Guest

Flights of Fantasy Parade at Hong Kong Disneyland

flaircandy — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:58:20 +0000

Happy 5th anniversary Hong Kong Disneyland!

5 years ago, Disneyland officially opened in Hong Kong! Â This meant a lot to us Filipinos because we don’t have to go all the way to the US to experience the magical world of Disneyland. Â Hong Kong is just 2 hours away from the Philippines and this meant, more happy trips to kids and… well, adult kid like me 😛 Â It’s more affordable to for us of course and we don’t need to apply for VISA in Hong Kong (unless you stay for more than 30 days). Â Almost everyone can go: kids, adults, family, couples and even persons with disabilities! Â Hong Kong itself is a pretty friendly place for PWD, moreso Disneyland and its different attractions. Â You will clearly see in the map that they took every consideration to also have PWD enjoy touring around Disney and experiencing its different attractions.

Flights of Fantasy Parade

For their 5th year, they included more special productions. Â Check out their parade every 3:30 pm.Â Parade time may change though so please check the timetable when youâ€™re there. This parade is a new production and they call it “Flights of Fantasy Parade” which happens exclusively in Hong Kong Disneyland. Â This means that you can see it only in Hong Kong and not anywhere. Â This production will only be played on this year.

You don’t have to be a kid to enjoy the parade. Â It was an awesome production and you shouldn’t miss this because you will get to see different Disney characters.

Are you into photography like me? Â If you are, Disneyland is the perfect place for you to practice your landscape and portrait skills. Â The sun shines bright and you can practice tinkering on your manual settings. Â At night, there are fireworks so you would also get to practice your fireworks photography and low light snap shots because even at night Disneyland is very colorful.

I enjoyed taking photos on the Flights of Fantasy Parade more than anything else because it was so colorful and I practiced my portrait photography too with different characters. Â I didn’t need a studio and a model to practice my portrait photography, here in Disneyland I already have models and efficient source of natural light 🙂

So, here we go… sharing the photos I enjoyed taking during the Flights of Fantasy Parade in Hong Kong Disneyland!

Before the parade, I took photos of myself first before I get overwhelmed taking photos of different characters.

Time check it’s 4:02 but the parade started at 3:30 The characters move around the streets of the Disneyland Resort. Â Where we are is the last stop of the characters and check out the crowd – all excited to see the characters!

Also, check out the uniform of the Disneyland staff – they’re so cute and they are all in costumes too!

Here you go, the Flights of Fantasy parade celebrating the 5th year of Hong Kong Disneyland.

Good ol’ Disney characters Chip and Dale, Donald Duck and Goofy!

Bees flying around in front of me! Â I want to try jumping around this thing. Â What they’re doing looks so much fun!

Wee! Â I love the composition of this photo. Â It’s so colorful! Â Disneyland is very photogenic indeed!

She’s so cute, she posed for me! Â I want to go inside the pot because my nickname is also “Honey” or “Hunny”

The parade won’t be complete without the Disney Princesses: Snow White, Cinderella, Belle and Aurora.

They get into character all the time and really act like princesses – the way they smile, they move and they speak 🙂

Princess Aurora a.k.a. Sleeping Beauty

This is the lovely and cute Tinker Bell

Go a nice portrait of one of the flower characters 🙂

Fairies! They looked so cute riding a bike 🙂

Toy Story soldiers! Â They are life sized though and they are not statues – they are real people in costume and they move! but they move like a toy which is so amazing! Â That soldier just waved at me! Â I must commend the costume and the makeup – good job!

Now I want to cosplay Buzz Lightyear! Â These are really cute costumes and I want to make one for me to use 🙂

See Buzz LIghtyear, Ham and the Aliens!

and guess what, by 2012 – Hong Kong Disneyland is going to have a new attraction!

Toy Story Land!!!

My favorite Disney character – Stitch!

Aloha Hawaiian girls!

That’s about it for now. Â It was really a great production and congratulations Disney for preparing this magical production for everyone!

Happy 5th Anniversary and more magical years to come!