Hong Kong Disneyland Pin Trading

[hopemax]

I’m here, I’m here! Our hotel room is beautiful. Already bought a lot of pins. Did okay with my 3 lollipop tins got 12 of 15. Unfortunately two of the ones I’m missing are Alice and Gelatoni. Didn’t do great on the Easter Eggs. Two of my tins were the same, and I’m missing 6 pins, 3 of which were the Beauty & the Beast pins I most wanted. Did get the Inside Out and Moana pins completed.

 

[hopemax]

Well, we failed miserably at playing the pin game. But I became quite the celebrity in line when people realized I had US pins. It was just PWP and booster type pins but I had Stitch , Tinker Bell, Chip & Dale, Simba so I traded for 9 pins in line. And got most of the Magic Access Teacups I wanted, so it worked out. Lesson learned if in HKDL during LE weekend...bring More Pins!

I’m nervous about playing the games for the vegetable pins because we played so poorly. But I did trade for the Alien!

 

[hopemax]

Day 2 is in the books. We did make it to Karabuni Marketplace to play the games. Thankfully most of the ones I really wanted were the “loser” prizes. So I got Sadness, Cheshire Cat and my husband won Dumbo. Also I needed Heinrich as Butterfly and Roquefort Tsum Tsums so even my loser games without pins were successful. I technically won the Plinko style game but they let me have the pin instead of the Eeyore pillow. I also was able to trade for two good pins in Center Street Boutique. One of the Days of the Week Hidden Mickey pins and the Grape Chip. Those were the only CM trades I made. So of the prize pins I didn’t get Judy, Stitch or Mike. Of those Stitch is the one I am most interested in, but I’m not sure if I’m interested enough to trade them down.

Today was a little cooler, and not so crowded as yesterday so we got a lot done. I really enjoyed our two days in the parks. Tomorrow is our last day and we decided to head back to Hong Kong Island to do a few things we didn’t get done before. The original plan was to do the gondola to the Big Buddha but it is under maintenance this week so we weren’t sure what we were going to do instead.

Then it’s the long flight home.

 

[Gelatoni]

Glad you had a good time. Many frequent visitors and CMs I talked to yesterday were surprised at the amount of people. I think part of it may be that people wanted to be indoors to escape the heat making certain areas more crowded than usual.

Since you'll be back on the island, you may want to check out the Zoological & Botanical Gardens if you haven't already.

Have a safe flight!

 

[bcol]

Sounds like you're having a great time. Hong Kong is just amazing! Have a good trip back, that flight is a killer

 

[Addicted to Alice Pins]

Hooray for a good trip! Will there be photos when you get home? I'm looking forward to more in-depth commentary when you have the time and energy!!!

 

[hopemax]

Hooray for a good trip! Will there be photos when you get home? I'm looking forward to more in-depth commentary when you have the time and energy!!!

Of course there will be!

I plan to write effusively once I get caught up in sleep and eat some proper American food. Not that there is anything wrong with the food here but we plan on eating at Red Robin when we get home because we are craving a good, familiar hamburger.

As for the long flight, our original flights were paid with miles. Once DH’s job situation was settled we splurged on the $800 Economy Plus subscription. It may not be First Class or Business but the few inches of extra space and seat recline were well worth it.

Going through my souvenirs I realized I got the Judy game pin too. So I only didn’t get the Stitch and Mike. That game took actual skill to win and I failed, although not as miserably as trying to topple Tsum pyramids for the LE pin weekend game.

 

[FoolishMortal71]

Sad I'm missing to LE releases but wouldn't have wanted to fight those crowds. Any idea if the Mystic Manor one sold out already? I packed my pin book with some traders but after seeing your report, I may add a few more. Looking forward to the games, tins, and possible park trades next week. I am not looking forward to the heat/humidity. The last two days have been bad here in DC area so at least it's prep for over there.

 

[hopemax]

Mystic Manor was the only one of the 4 LE pins I saw in the small case in the Emporium. It was still available last night. So hopefully you will be able to get one, only a few more days for you.

 

[momin.ator]

Can't wait to see your photos.

 

[Abyssinian28]

Love reading the reports from other Disney parks! Thanks for sharing!

 

[hopemax]

Most of the way home. Currently sitting at our gate in San Francisco.

Just wanted to post a quick note about the airport. There are two Magic of Hong Kong Disneyland stores in Terminal A. You can only get to them when departing Hong Kong. The first is in the secure area after Immigration/Security but before you get on the train. This is the store that has pins.

There is a second store in the gate area after you take the train. It is a smaller store and I didn’t see any pins.

 

[hopemax]

One other quickie that I wanted to post for the benefit of those traveling to Hong Kong soon. If you are going to be site seeing on Hong Kong Island...

Before we left, I tried to Google for stores in Hong Kong that specialized in Disney merchandise. And I found a Facebook Page for Koby Gift, which is located in Causeway Bay. We visited the store, and they have a lot of Disney items, as well as Pokemon and a few other Japanese animation character families. They have a lot of small items like stationary, jewelry and plush toys, Tsum Tsum and lots of stuff for Duffy & Friends characters. Some of their prices were high, so I didn't buy much. What I did buy were 3 issues of the Japanese Disney FAN magazine (I had always been curious about these, and the Google Translate app seems to work for what I need). They had about a dozen of these for 108 HKD ($13.75 US). I also bought some Magic Access Teacup pins for $58 HKD ($7.40 US). These were pretty much the only pins they had, but they did have a handful of others. They DO take major credit cards.

Koby Gift Shop

 

[Spr175psu]

I’m here, I’m here! Our hotel room is beautiful. Already bought a lot of pins. Did okay with my 3 lollipop tins got 12 of 15. Unfortunately two of the ones I’m missing are Alice and Gelatoni. Didn’t do great on the Easter Eggs. Two of my tins were the same, and I’m missing 6 pins, 3 of which were the Beauty & the Beast pins I most wanted. Did get the Inside Out and Moana pins completed.

I have an extra Alice lollipop if you want to trade me for stitch. I also have an extra lumiere egg if that is one of the beauty and the beast you're missing.

As for the game pins, I ended up with 1 Judy, 2 stitch (both potentially spoken for, if not, I would be interested in Dumbo), and a chip. Only played 6 games and lost twice. That Dumbo game was hard! I had a much easier time with the stitch game since I'm used to playing that ball toss game.

Absolutely loved HKDL. The springtime processional was probably our favorite. Loved iron man and mystic manor and grizzly gulch the most. But also enjoyed the differences in PTN, small world, and jungle cruise. And now it's on to Shanghai in the morning.

 

[Gelatoni]

Glad you guys had fun. If you have time at the airport, stop by the HKDL store in terminal 2 before crossing security. They tend to have more sale items than the ones after security in terminal 1.

If you plan to buy LE pins in Shanghai, sometimes they also have gift with purchase buttons and a special pin board for LE purchasers only. I picked up a SH 1st anniversary LR pin from the board and a Stella Lou button the last time I was there. Fireworks crowds can be a bit crazy with tight controls on guest flow and Pirates of the Caribbean is an amazing ride.

Sent from my SM-G9200 using Tapatalk

 

[hopemax]

I have an extra Alice lollipop if you want to trade me for stitch. I also have an extra lumiere egg if that is one of the beauty and the beast you're missing.

Unfortunately, Stitch was the 3rd Lollipop pin I am missing. I traded for Gelatoni in line, so I still need Stitch and Alice. And Lumiere...I got 3 of him. I'll probably just buy what I am missing off of Facebook.

As for the game pins, I ended up with 1 Judy, 2 stitch (both potentially spoken for, if not, I would be interested in Dumbo), and a chip. Only played 6 games and lost twice. That Dumbo game was hard! I had a much easier time with the stitch game since I'm used to playing that ball toss game.

I could get the ball toss, the first one really easy. Then the 2nd one I would invent all sorts of new ways to miss. I had my husband play the Dumbo game, and he got one of the small targets in his first throw, so he was able to concentrate on a larger target for his 2nd throw. But I was happy I was able to trade for Alien in the pin line, and didn't have to play it twice.

Absolutely loved HKDL. The springtime processional was probably our favorite. Loved iron man and mystic manor and grizzly gulch the most. But also enjoyed the differences in PTN, small world, and jungle cruise. And now it's on to Shanghai in the morning.

We loved it too. I remember when the park first opened and reading all the complaints about the lack of things to do, and how small it was. But they have have added some very nice attractions, and it's growing into a beautiful park. Plus, you can tour the park in the way that you used to be able to tour Disney parks in the 80s. Pick a direction, and just do everything in that area. None of this nonsense, running back and forth collecting or using Fastpasses. No "invasion" plan needed. The small size is more of a feature, my feet certainly appreciated it. And to think, we watched 3 different parades. WDW has 4 parks and they are down to 1 parade, property wide. And it's signature float caught on fire. Did you watch Festival of the Lion King? I expected it to be just the same as AK. And on some level it was, but the differences made it even more amazing. Of course, two Fire Dancers to watch, helps too. Lol.

Enjoy Shanghai!