Theme Park Discussion / Cocoa's Asian Adventures - Happy Valley and Shenzhen Parks

Hey friends, i thought id make a topic to just document my coaster travels over the next few weeks. I just finished my undergrad so im spending 9 weeks in hong kong, japan, and sri lanka. I dont know how many coaster pics ill take because cp6's albums are more complete and useful than anything i would do! So im just gonna ramble some thoughts for a bit even though no one reads this shit.

First up- hong kong disneyland. For context, its my first theme park and credit in 5 years, and ive had so many recurring dreams about going to disneyland and thinking to myself "ah good thing this isnt a dream this time" only to be dismayed later. So this time its real! The dud of the magic kingdoms, here i come

Now ill start off how ill start off any good rct review- i had a great time today and the park is fun, and any disney park is good at the end of the day. That said, it has its flaws- but well get to that in amongst my ramblings of the day.

I got there waay too early at 9. Hong kong residents are not early risers so there was no rush. They actually let us into main street at 930, adventureland+tomorrowland+fantasyland at 10, and the rest at 1030. Idk why. but that 30 minutes was more than enough to get evac'ed 70% of the way through a lackluster pooh clone (and somehow the only flat ride in fantasyland besides small world?!?) And get in a ride on jungle cruise. Jungle cruise was good but not great (a recurring theme?). It felt a bit short and tacky although the finale was fun. The usual sarcasm is lost in non native English speakers but i still thought it was hilarious and i was the only one laughing on our boat- the jokes were fine but his delivery was just weird so everyone else thought he was being serious when he said stuff like "if you have any problems dont tell me, i dont know how to fix them". I should also note that unless youre a doofus and go during a Chinese holiday, everything is walk-on until noon. You could literally finish the park in 2 hours, and that includes most flat rides, if youre smart and a moderate walker.

By then its time to walk back to toy story land because the rides there are lower capacity. The halfpipe is fun, although i think i prefer the usual spinning trains. I really liked how the queue was scaletric track (? That car game where you race them on a metal rail by pulling a trigger). I also rode the flats coz why not- the parachute ride was surprisingly fun and freefall-y for a kids ride- defs jump in the single rider line for it. Toy story area is a great addition- i had thought it was tacky, but actually the themeing is clever and well done and 3 more rides were desperately needed for the park. I do think an even more intense version could be incredible, like an indoor park of Andy's bedroom.

Onto mystic manor. The area is beautiful- calmer, cooler colors and spookier vibes. Great foliage to reflect the atmosphere, and of course that building is great. I just wish both this area and grizzly gulch had also come with a flat ride. Although there's enough to do if you love shows, parades, characters, and random nonride distractions, (ie you have little kids) this park is calling out for more big attractions, which it is getting slowly. Mystic manor itself is a very good dark ride, probably the only really great ride in the park. Im not convinced its "better" than the usual phantom manor but i applaud the design here and its a fun ride. Id enjoy it more if i hadnt seen povs already unfortunately. But its great, if not so thrilling- the only dark rides i like more than trackless systems are the higher speed ones like journey or indy. I would have loved it if the experience was much different for each of the 4 separate cars or it really used the fact that paths can intersect, but its pretty much the same experience for all.

Grizzly gulch. The area is entirely based around the coaster, so ill mostly talk about it. Its pretty overall, like a smaller frontierland. A rapids or log flume would add a lot to this area and really put the park in spotlight contention. The coaster is fun. I got about 4 rides in at various spots in the train, and honestly it rides quite similarly everywhere. Back is a marginally better coaster but front is easier to see the scenery from. The backwards section is unfortunately squandered- it sort of meanders slowly next to the postlaunch track, which isnt interesting at all when it could have been so exciting. The launch is forceful and fun if trimmed quite quickly, and the final turns have some good g's that i wish the whole ride had. Its defs a fun ride, one of Disneys best coasters on "coaster-ness" alone, but i wouldnt say its great all up. My main complaint is that the entire ride is visible from paths because it hugs the ground and weaves around it. So theres no surprises at all, and no adventure to go to. When you ride btmr, you embark on a journey to that distant canyon you only get glimpses of, which adds so much excitement imo. Neither the launch nor the backwards drop are hidden, so the shock they could have had is lost, not like with everest's similar gimmick. But its still fun and operations are great- always a train ready to be loaded and "30 min" signs were more like 10. Theres some fun activities in the area too, like a water battle between two buildings (ones called "dry goods", thought that was cute) where you pump these billows to shoot water at your friends.

Now if youre aiming for 2 hours in the park, you could walk from here to tomorrowland and grab those 2 big rides and probably go home satisfied (or not) at noon. Everything up till then is pretty much walkon. Instead, i checked out tarzans treehouse. Getting there on the rafts is an effort and theres not much. Its a linear walk through an admittedly nice treehouse with strangely cartoony and lifeless tarzan sculptures. Fun for kids maybe. Then i went and got a bad hotdog and coffee. The quick food in the park is strangely the same at every single stall and i didnt understand how to order/eat the flattened squid thing. Lame i know

Next up tomorrowland. Its a small area (what a theme so far). Nothing near the grandeur of florida with the peoplemover overhead. Or maybe i was 8 then and in my head everything felt larger back then. I hit iron man first - a decent simulator. fun enough, bit of marvel jokes, definitely needed in the area rides-wise. Got plenty of cool stuff in the queue too. Didnt feel any need to reride. The new antman ride opening in march is a shooting dark ride i believe which will absolutely spruce the area up more, even if the theme sort of sucks (boo IPs). Now space mountain. Shitty queue, shitty star wars skin. Maybe still the most fun ride in the park. As a coaster its surprisingly intense- fast, tight turns, a couple drops. My eyes had thoroughly watered by the end. That said, it is pretty much a giant spiral which gets tighter as you get farther down. Also 3 lifts! So unrealistic. The star wars projections honestly add almost nothing to the experience because theyre sorta hard to pay attention to and very samey, and im a starwars fan. They also light up the room a lot so that you can see all the track- great if youre a nerd who likes to see that structure but sorta sucks in terms of the exciting dark unknown ride. But, a ride you can see is a ride thats less rough since you subconsciously anticipate the track, and my rerides were subsequently more pleasant. It and pooh are also strangely the only fastpass rides, and they handle it badly- they just block off the regular queue frequently to let the fastpassers merge in. The whole thing is frustrating in standby since you end up not moving for ages and very un-disney i thought. All that said, its still very fun and it and grizzly mine were the only rides i ended up really wanting rerides.

By this point, its 130. So i do another lap of the coasters and MM. I will say this about MM- i really admire the role of a preshow both from a capacity view and from the view of extending the narrative experience for guests and what counts as "ride". They really improve the experience, similar to the elevators in journey. Small touches which go a long way in enjoyment. That said, i would have loooved to skip it for my reride...

I ended the day going back and forth between grizzly and space mountain. My feet hurt although its a small park so i should have just left earlier but i think i have some sorta detachment syndrome from theme parks and i find it hard (without another bored friend pressuring me) to leave parks . I will say that i felt a bit lame amongst families visiting on my own. But they were always good to me and i got zoomed forward in lines a bit. A few times i confusingly got cars all to myself instead of filling them... Workers were generally less "disney happy" than other parks but also they were efficient and fine, and stood up for me against pushy old ladies who dont understand lines.

I will say this- i have no idea how disney let the OG park open the way it did. The tracked rides then were space mountain, small world, the train, jungle cruise, and pooh. Edit: also autopia and astroblasters which are being renovated now. Thats an atrocious lineup. It also would have been tiny... even with the fantastic new lands the park is small and cries out for 2-3 more major rides, at least. I also watched philharmagic, a 3d movie with donald duck fucking with various classic songs. Its nice but not my cup of tea. Some cute 4th wall breaking ideas throughout though. I couldnt bring myself to ride small world and the train closed early arvo so i never rode it. Not a big loss id say.

All criticism aside, its still a lovely park. I spent much of the day focusing on the design and composition. Actually, the best piece of archy is easily the metro train station outside - its a beautiful iron arching thing with some lovely flow. I bet that was contracted out by the metro and not disney so they threw more time at it than any one thing at Disneyland proper.

Anyway i left around 5 and found some delicious brisket noodles near midlevels recommended online. Ocean park tomorrow probably!

Metro station:
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I just liked this one
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Sorry for long delays between updates, I couldn't be bothered typing on my phone and I have access to a computer at my current hostel so I'll write up Ocean Park for now.

 

I didn't really understand a whole lot about Ocean Park before I came, but its separated into two very different sections. At the bottom of the mountain, where you enter, is pretty much a whole zoo/aquarium complex (and kiddy area), and all the way a couple km up the mountain is the thrills part of the park.

 

I got there just before opening on a Tuesday and found out immediately that mine train was down for maintenance (this will become a common theme...) Oh well, not the biggest of letdowns. Also, seems like every girls school in HK decided today was their field trip to Ocean Park. There goes not feeling out of place as a lone white dude in a theme park.

 

The entrance area is quite nice- the main aquarium building is really impressive and the plaza is all well themed, reminding me a bit of a fishy wuze town vibe. I got good advice to skip the cable car up the mountain because thats where the crowd flocks and took the train which goes through the mountain- its this giant, steampunk themed contraption that fits in hundreds of people (all schoolgirls except for me) and has "windows" displaying the sea that you pass through on the roof. A neat idea, and I was impressed at the commitment to themeing relatively decently a ride thats just there for bulk transport really.

 

At the top I sort of got lost- the park descends snake-wise down this mountain with almost no stair-based shortcuts to avoid walking back and forth a million times. I headed up because thats where the coasters were and immediately jumped on the powered one because I knew I wouldn't be bothered waiting for it when lines got longer around noon (Hong Kongers/chinese people don't seem to like waking up early I found). Honestly, its a decent ride and I'm not one of those stuck-up enthusiasts who dismiss powered coasters. It 'feels' like a coaster so good enough for me. The very top is all polar themed, and looks super tacky IMO especially pushed right up against the circus themed thrill area where Hair Raiser, their star b&m resides.

 

Obviously I headed there next since I assumed very correctly that operations would be one train and extremely slow. I more or less walked-on but they still took ~10 minutes dispatching trains. The ride has two incredible things- location, and layout. Its literally perched on the top of the mountain and the view of the surrounding islands is astounding (its really very high up). They also nicely positioned the line so that you get a good view the whole time. The layout is also pretty solid- it has an immelman and dive loop, as well as a solid airtime hill and one less solid wacky hill thing near the end. But- the ride is shaky as hell, to headache inducing levels. It really puts a huge damper on the whole ride. I rode it twice and then never could be bothered again in the rest of the day. 

 

I slowly wound my way down the hill from there, stopping for the rapids which would not get you wet at all if they didn't have garden hoses set up to just spray you (its meant to be a mist but it just sprays). Their old arrow looper is the most ridiculous coat hanger of a layout ever, and its colors look like rct vomit. It goes lift hill -> incredibly long elevated straight section into turn -> boring drop -> loop -> flat 180 deg turn -> loop -> sidewinder -> two strange slightly tilted and confused helices -> 2nd lift hill into station. The flat turn after the first loop is the weirdest to me. Honestly, it wasn't that bad, just a bit eh. Could have been a lot more painful. Nearby is also a decent drop tower, although I always find shot towers to be way better. Such a beautiful view though! 

 

I sort of just meandered after this and checked out animals. They have a cool dolphin rehab center you can just walk right into and get super close, some seals where they play barking noises out of speakers, a good penguin/seal/walrus exhibit (never seen a walrus IRL before, I think!), a confusing sturgeon center (really not an interesting fish I reckon), a decent shark center, and some rainforest bird type stuff on the top of the mountain. Generally pretty deserted and ranging from eh to good. The polar exhibits were definitely the most impressive. I also rode the log flume (also not wet but a cool layout, just a walk and half to get to since the nearby mine train wasn't even running).

 

I took the cablecar down the mountain to check out the bottom- its really a beautiful ride (but in HK, theres better cablecars which take you to the big buddha near disneyland). I didn't expect that they would have real pandas, which are always a treat to see. They run the animal exhibits like rides which you must queue for, except now the queues are filled with the rudest old ladies who try and edge you out at every junction. Honestly, they entirely ruined every experience in the bottom section of the park for me. At the main aquarium, every single person would rush up to an exhibit and hog it while taking flash photos (explicitly against the rules) and then move on, without ever looking at the animals with their own eyes. Who were they taking those photos for?? The crowds down there were the rudest I've ever seen at a theme park. The aquarium is probably nice- they have some cool things like weedy sea dragons, but I just didn't enjoy it at all. The golden monkey exhibit was also pleasant. I bailed at this point and went and had more fun at my hostel than you can have at a theme park on your own.

 

Overall impressions? Ocean Park is really a much 'fuller' park than I expected, even compared to Disney. A good selection of rides and exhibits rounds out a full day here without excessive re-riding or shows. That said, if you offered me either right now, I would choose disneyland in a heartbeat. Its just an "easier" day and although ocean park has a few more thrilling rides, the fun of the rides at disney more than makes up for it. Its also way easier and smaller to navigate (less hurty feet). Ocean park is a pretty good park by any theme park standard, if a bit small on the coaster count compared to big american ones. But its really quite unique and has a cool vibe and some beautiful views. I'd give it a gold or maybe a low spotlight on a good day- bit inconsistent throughout.

 

I'm at this hostel two more nights so I might try and write up my shenzhen adventures tomorrow.

 

Some random pictures:

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In line for the train up the mountain

 

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Mine train actually undergoing visible maintenance (I was surprised)

 

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Hair Raiser through the cable car window

 

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The "Old Hong Kong" section had some good vibes. Put that one in my rct pocket for later.

 

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Failed to get a picture of the entrance plaza without waterfalls

 

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I`m running a bit behind because travelling is fun but I`ve got a bit of time to right up my next entry, which will Shenzhen shenanigans. Getting there from HK is pretty straightforward. If you`re from most countries, you can get a 5 day special visa at the border crossing which costs ~25 bucks (and believe me, you dont need longer than that in Shenzhen!) Doing stuff in mainland China is always a lot of red tape and effort so you always gotta put at least an hour or so away to figuring out what they want you to do.

Obviously the main draw here is Happy Valley, which I believe is the first in the chain. I don`t know the history but I would be surprised to find out that it was unrelated to the Happy Valley racecourse in Hong Kong, I imagine they probably developed it or fronted the capitol or something. The park is located pretty much right in the middle of Shenzhen, on a medium sized rectangular plot, with a monorail connecting it to the "windows of the world" miniature scultpure park thing. I got there just as it opened.

The main street is interestingly before the actual park gates, and is relatively pleasant. Reeks a bit of cheesey Chinese themeing but they`ve clearly tried in some sense to theme it, even if its not entirely obvious what they were actually going for. I went in to the left and walked through the weird kids castle inside area. I never quite figured out what some of the rides here were- theres definitely a crappy looking 4d theater, some sort of dark ride, and maybe a shooting dark ride as well as small kiddy flats. It was quite hard to work out what the rides were in some cases and I never bothered to really spend much time there- it honestly was a bit creepy. Just outside its a bit nicer with a well themed splash battle and a wacky worm on a roof. Obviously I rode it and was pleased to see that other chinese adults were also riding it, which made me feel less bad.

Just behind the kiddy area is a giant hill with a shot tower on top which is a real effort to get to, but its a pretty good shot tower with lovely views. By this point it was looking like time to see if the s&s launch coaster Bullet Coaster (or Tibetan Eagle in chinese apparently, thanks v1) was open. They`re currently doing a huge revamp of the wild west area, which unfortunately meant that the mine train and rapids were down, both of which would have definitely extended the amount of stuff to actually do at the somewhat disappointingly small park. It also meant you have to trek on this easily >1km long path all the way around the aztec water park to get to the rides on the other side of the park.

Moving around clockwise once you cross the great Aztec bridge is the Tibet area. This area is clearly the best in the park, with the two biggest rides, some decent flats, and really solid themeing compared to the entry half of the park. The whole time though I just couldn`t get it out of my head how fucked it is that a Chinese park builds a whole Tibet area... I mean you can`t get any more pointed that that. Its like if there was a Jewish ghetto area in a German park, but also in a timeline where the Nazis didn`t lose, brainwashed all their citizens that they never did anything wrong, and continue to oppress people in their country to this day. I mean jeez why would they even want to build a Tibet area at all when theres so many themes in the world to chose from??

OK but I`ll put politics aside for the moment to get back to park reviewing. Theres some really well done fake landscaping in this area, with huge cliffs and waterfalls and stuff that bullet coaster goes over. I was surprised at how nice it was. I got into the queue for Ruishi I mean Bullet coaster and was in the first train of the day, in the back seat. Chinese operations are super slow for a number of reasons. Often, they won`t run trains until its sufficiently full, which the days I went, could take up to 15 minutes (yay for walkon rides though, even if its still a 20 minute endeavor). They wont load the actual gates until the train before has left the station, and at HV, they wouldn`t let people getting off leave the station until everyone had gotten off, collected their stuff, and formed an orderly line. Also, they always make you do stretches in line (maybe some policy to reduce sore riders??)

Anyway, the ride itself is pretty fantastic. I ended up riding it maybe 5 times throughout the day in various positions, and its not so different from any. Probably back is the best marginally, with front still being cool for the view. Its a great launch, some good airtime and elements, and some good forces. It also interacts pretty well with themeing. Its a bit rough but it felt more like janky track than bad maintenance, although I`m sure they`re not maintaining it well. Moving on from there is the custom SLC called something ridiculous like Golden Flying Over Snowfields, honestly I can`t remember. Its got a very elaborate station structure, sort of like Everest at Disney. It also has a beautiful swooping (but entirely forceless) drop over a pond. Its a pretty decent ride, only a little bit of headbanging in the ridiculous padded restraints and some good elements. It is also unfortunately just way too short- it goes drop, loop, cobra roll, zero g roll, sort of helix thing, then smashes into the breaks at top speed. You could fit a whole other half of a coaster there. I rode it twice (front and back) and front is definitely the way to go because the setting is super lovely but hard to tell from other seats.

Rounding off the tibet area is I believe two ghost house walkthrough things themed to Tibet. Not my cup of tea. Also, wtf. Sorry no more politics. Continuing around the park is a big lake with hoenstly not a whole lot around it, I guess you`re meant to relax and picnic around it or something? The train circles around I believe but it was closed when I was there. Eventually you come to a rather nice wooden sort of seaside area. Sort of pseudo cape cod or maybe pacific/monterrey vibes. You know what I mean. They`ve got a splash boats ride here which I couldn`t be bothered getting wet for. Its a nice area though.

And thats pretty much it to Happy Valley unfortunately. Without a western area to explore, I was done by 2pm but really well before then since I was just reriding bullet coaster and walking around the park a bit more just to get the whole vibe. Theres some nice rows of games/food near the entrance which is a bit prettier, a few flat rides, but overall nothing special. The tibet area is really the only fully formed and satisfying area, but that will change next year I believe when they add the pulsar ride and finish the western retheme (not that it looked bad before...)

From my hostel (on the 26th floor, really lovely) I could see a drop tower somewhere in the city so I decided to explore that instead of staying at HV longer. I got off at the metro stop I thought was relevant and just followed my nose. I ended up finding two parks- one being Children`s Park (which I couldnt see from my hostel) and the other being Cultural Park. Shenzhen is absolutely massive and relatively wealthy so a lot of these smaller parks have sprung up to entertain the 12 million citizens who live there. The former park has two coasters, one boring kiddy one and one more interesting mouse sort of ride. Unfortunately both were very down when I stumbled on them, missing wheels and such from the cars. It seemed like a lovely place to take your kids though. I managed to snag a ride on the kiddy coaster at Cultural Park, which gave us 3 cycles. I did it on my own, but after seeing me the next train was full of other adults and teenagers. The parks are sort of cute, mostly a collection of sort of fairground rides and games stuffed in between huge apartment buildings but honestly was a sort of fun atmosphere with young adults just hanging out and getting snacks together there. They also had that ride which is just a big spinning platform which throws you around which is probably great fun with a huge group of friends. They also had a surprisingly fancy card system where you load up money and pay a deposit and then scan it at each ride. at the end you return your card to get back your deposit and anything else you still had loaded up on it. I wouldn`t recommend visiting Shenzhen to anyone who wasn`t also a theme park nerd like me but I didn enjoy strolling around and seeing a slice of life in the city, and following where my nose took me. Also, everything is much cheaper than HK and the street food scene is way more interesting. IDK what it is really called but google translate tells me its a "Chinese hamburger" or "meat folder" and its pretty much a pita made of pastry filled with delicious stuff. Its great and everywhere in shenzhen and nowhere in HK for some reason.

The next day I headed out to knights valley, which honestly was a nightmare to figure out how to get there. I probably spent 4 hours googling buses to no avail, but the owner of the hostel eventually figured it out for me. Its quite a long bus out of the city, more than 30 minutes since its half theme park half mountain scenic viewing. Its part of a weird sprawling resort with tea gardens and other "theme parks" although it seems that word means a slightly different thing in China than in the west. Knights valley itself is a weird park, with only really a handful of rides as well as the infamously good wooden coaster, but also giant artificial waterfalls and a mountain overlook. Anyway, I finally got there after a decent amount of toil only to find pretty much everything closed, including wooden coaster. I watched a visible section of it in vain for like 30 minutes while I debated whether to go in anyway or to save my money. In the end, I left. I don`t know why I would ever be back in shenzhen, but if I am, I might as well have a full park to go to instead of just one ride. So I`ll save the experience, which seems sort of weird and amusing. At the same time, I probably know that I will never get this credit. Its an incredible amount of effort getting back to shenzhen and then knights valley, and why would I when I can go to new places when I travel... oh well. I did other stuff in shenzhen but it was sort of meh and I`ll keep this theme park related.

That wraps up my shenzhen adventures. Up next, Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, which was easily the unexpected highlight of all the theme parks so far.

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Concept for new area

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Slc entrance

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Childrens park

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Nope

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Cultural park

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10 points if you can see the drop tower (to be fair its small and easier at night when lit up)

nice photo and congratulations on graduation

When are you coming to Japan?  I move there in a week and if you come by USJ I'd love to say hi!

Im there right now, currently typing this from the kawasemi line at tobu zoo. Absolutely! Ill probably be in osaka in a couple weeks or so