A weekend with Mickey

A weekend with Mickey

Anvee Barjatya is ecstatic. The 8-year-old from Bangalore can’t believe she’s meeting Disney princesses. “I love princesses. I even dress up like Cinderella and I’m learning ballet because I want to be a princess some day,” says Anvee, one of the 37 winners of a contest on Disney Channel. She’s with her family on an all-expenses-paid, two-day trip to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort (HKDR). In no mood to try any of the rides, Anvee is content with just meeting cartoon characters. “I want to play with Mickey, Goofy, and Donald Duck, and take pictures.” Her parents stand by patiently, waiting to “see and enjoy other attractions.” Another winner, Saanvri Sirkar, 5, waits while her parents try out the stomach-churning roller coaster ride, the Space Mountain. Her mother, Madhumita, looks dazed after one round, but is raring for another go. “The thrill is worth everything,” chuckles the 32-year-old homemaker from Kolkata. Her husband Aroop has had his fill of thrills. He’d much rather wait with his daughter. The Sirkars and Barjatyas are part of the single largest Indian contingent to have arrived in HKDR, but it’s not the first, says HKDR marketing director, Wendy Chu. The 311 acre theme park is the smallest Disney property in the world, but because of Hong Kong’s proximity, it is a convenient holiday destination for Indian families. “Being the closest Disney resort to India, it is obviously a big draw with Indians,” says Chu. She adds that the number of Indian visitors has prompted the resort to accommodate varied tastes. “After seeing the demand, we’ve even tried to include Indian dishes on the menus of most of the restaurants.” Besides Indian food, HKDR also offers a number of attractions. The main street is lined with stores — a magic shop, candy stores, coffee parlours and an ubiquitous penny arcade. At the end of the street is a Grimm’s fairy-tale styled European castle. Across the drawbridge over the moat is a 3D theatre, Mickey’s PhillarMagic, with animated characters on a 150-foot wide screen. Here, scents, sprays of water, gusts of wind and changing temperatures make Donald and his orchestra come alive. A lion appears to lunge at the audience, and a little girl, Puja, starts crying. She’s soon gurgling happily, watching Donald Duck go into a tailspin. “Did you see Donald stuck in the wall, struggling?” she asks, even while being dragged out of the castle for the water parade. At the Water Parade, armed with water guns and hoses, characters like Pinocchio, Donald Duck, Goofy and Snow White spray water on bystanders. The cool water is a relief, but adults open up umbrellas to protect their cameras. We take photographs, trying simultaneously to protect our equipment from the water. Kids, on the other hand, are only too eager to get up close with Disney characters.