China - By some amazing stroke of luck my colleague, Jade Otto, and I found ourselves with an entire day to spend at Disneyland Hong Kong after a business trip a couple of weeks ago.
After working through the guilt of being at most children’s dream destination with no kids in tow (and promising my daughter I would take her there as soon as humanly possible), we decided to go with it and enjoy the day as much as possible.
So here are my four reasons why every grown woman needs a day at Disneyland (with no kids).
1.It’s all about your fun: When you take your children anywhere, you end up experiencing it through their eyes. Are they having fun? Are they safe? Do they need to pee/eat/rest. But this day was all about me. If I wanted to ride the kinda scary Space Mountain five times I could. I didn’t, but I could.
2.You get to wear the goofy hat: Disney is a merchandising machine, and I couldn’t resist buying a Minnie Mouse hat and wearing it all day. Nobody knew me there and it was wonderful to swop heels and a business suit for takkies and my new favourite hat. And, anyway, almost everybody was wearing one.
SPECTACULAR: A swan and princesses featured in the Flights of Fantasy Parade.
3.You can be a child again: There’s something surreal about Disneyland. The magical rides, familiar movie scenes and the smell of candyfloss and doughnuts in the air makes you forget about the real world out there. Once you have your entry ticket, you can even forget about money for a while, at least until you get hungry or enter one of the ubiquitous merchandise stores and need to dig deep again.
4.You can be as old or as young as you like: Again, what you do for fun is often determined by how old your kids are, but that day I was a six-year-old princess riding the carousel, then a teen fan girl taking flight over Hong Kong in the Ironman Experience’s Iron Wing, then a 10-year-old seeing her favourite princess in the Disney Parade.
Okay, so I’ve had my amazing once-in-a-lifetime child-free day at Disneyland, and I encourage you to do the same. Hope to see you there. I’ll be the one watching with delight as my daughter’s face lights up as she feels the magic of Disney.
* Riana Howa is editor of IOL.