BabySmooches: Hong Kong : Ocean Park (25-11-2011)

We initially scheduled Ocean Park to be on a Sunday, but due to the Christmas season approaching and also Malaysia's and Singapore's school holidays, we anticipated there to be a big crowd on weekends. We pushed forward Ocean Park to a Friday but it turned out that the place is really packed!

Entry passes to Ocean Park is marked with Ocean Park's animals. I think the passes in Hong Kong are always so colourful and cute. Upon arrival, we found the wind to be quite strong. The weather is fine for the day. Nice day to walk around and explore the park. This park is definitely bigger than Hong Kong Disneyland.

After getting the park maps and schedule for showtime, Uncle Othniel and little Brendan started scrutinising the maps. While Disneyland itinerary was mostly mapped out by Chanel and myself, Ocean Park's highlights was practically marked by the guys. Unfortunately, most of the rides are more suitable for older kids.

We started by taking the cable car up to The Summit where most of the "chee-kek" rides are. For us, the main focus at The Summit will be the marine mammals show at the Ocean Theatre. There are tons of rides like the crazy roller coaster rides, Flying Swing, The Abyss, Eagle, and many more. I would have love all this if I'm still a teenager, however now, I'd rather just standby and watch. Some of the rides at The Summit are not for the faint hearted. My kids would love to go for it if not for the age and height requirement. Oh, thank goodness. haha.

Taking the cable car up to The Summit. You get spectacular views of Ocean Park Waterfront and overlooking Ocean Park's area.

The top left picture here is actually many, many toys vending machines. Just so many of them to tempt young kids. Here, we see Eryn posing with a Mermaid and the kids taking the kiddish train ride "Toto The Loco". The kids got excited and posted inside the huge teeth. Err..... I don't know what species that would be. A shark, maybe?

The marine mammals and trainers show at the Ocean Theatre. The dolphins are such fine creatures. They're a sight to behold. The kids were thrilled in seeing a real sea lion and was amazed at their huge sizes!

One of the two major giddy roller coaster rides in Ocean Park. Just looking at this from the top of the Ferris Wheel makes my tummy churn. Can't imagine going through this. The previous day's Space Mountain ride in Hong Kong Disneyland made me feel like puking. This would probably make be faint. This ride was close though. We later found out that another monsterous roller coaster ride was located near the Raging River ride. Apparently, this roller coaster ride was not in the Ocean Park map. Must be something new, I think.

View from the gondola on the top of the Ferris Wheel.

The interesting looking train called the "Ocean Express" which we took from The Summit to get back to The Waterfront. This ride is so much more faster compared to the cable car. The train resemble a submersible machine. It's a little dark in there and it looks like we are riding in the sea, with videos of the sea above us, on the ceiling of the train.

The Ocean Express Summit Station looks really cool.

Kids love this place. Nice place to just walk around and 'lepak' too. It's not really that cold. Heard that the summer heat can be a hindrance. So, make sure you plan your trip during November which I think would be a good time to go.

More fun stuffs to see and do. Those cute jellyfish keychain are so cute.

Hey, what am I doing with 6 kids on the Frog Hopper ride? hahaha.... Well, for each ride, only one adult is allowed and therefore, I'm the "chosen" one. Looks like a kiddish ride, but you can see the kids' faces that the hopping can make your heart skip a beat or two!

The panda bears we saw. Managed to take one during feeding time. The rest were sleeping. The picture below the panda pictures is Brendan and Jeriel with Ocean Park's mascot.

The Grand Aquarium is amazing. There are tons and tons of fishes and sea animals and lots and lots of sharks swimming around. Here, we see colourful sea cucumbers, starfish, a sea dragon and squids. There are many other other fishes as well swimming in huge aquariums. There's even big snow crabs and a very, very huge sand shark that looked bigger than a human! The photo we took of it wasn't that clear, so am not posting it here.