Elisa hands in her ticket which is scanned and returned to her. She walks through the gate and waits for me to do the same. I join her, we hold hands, and walk onto Main Street of Hong Kong Disneyland. Elisa in her taboo purchased snow white outfit (ie, not legit) and me in shorts and a Uniqlo superman tee shirt. There is Minnie Mouse under a gazebo with a line of kids waiting to take their picture. I ask Elisa if she wants to and she silently shakes her head no. Not the shy, I really want to kind of NO that I would have done at her age. Just a NO. We instead head up to the train station which is my idea to show her the whole park. We get on the train and make it half way around, to FantasyLand, where we depart.

It is Friday and the park is only mildly crowded. There are lots of old people around. "Old" being a relative term now that I am 47. Elisa says it is hot and walks in the shade. The temperature is in the high 70s, which for Hong Kong is not really hot. Certainly nothing like the heat Lydia and Aidan endured a few Augusts ago when we took them to HK Disney. Elisa at first does not want to go on a ride. She wants to shop. I expect myself to be anxious and pushing her to "have fun" but I am relaxed and just enjoying the moment. I tell her we can shop after one ride and we take the merry go around. And then we take a ride on the flying dumbo and Elisa starts to realize these ride things are fun.

Elisa's favorite ride isn't a ride but the 3D movie theater were they show a 10 minute Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck movie. 3D doesn't quite cut it as the movie theater also has smell and water splashes. Elisa liked it so much that we went three times. In between the three times we went on quite a few rides, saw the main street parade, ate ice cream, and did a bit of shopping. I was worried Elisa would be bored and want to go back to the hotel after a few hours but as they day went on she got more and more into it. At one point she asked to rest and we sat on a bench together for 15 minutes. Recovered, we headed back out into the park.

My personal favorite is "it's a small world" as sappy as it is. And as an adult I can see it's displaying stereotypes but it doesn't bother me. I just get caught up in the music and watching Elisa watch the continents go past. As we got ready to leave the park Elisa and I agreed to do one more ride. She said "let's do your favorite one" and we started to walk over. Then she saw the pooh ride, changed her mind, and made that the last ride of the day. Such is the mind of a five year old.

It was a quick trip to Disney. Fly down on a Thursday, hit Disney on Friday, and fly home Saturday afternoon. A simple father and daughter get away. Lots of hand holding, lots of looking at Elisa racing down the hallway at the Disney hotel looking for Mickey Mouse in the carpet, lots of love. I keep thinking she will never be this perfect age again; that she will be the next perfect age; but five is soon gone just as four was just as three was just as two was. These days especially I just want to hold onto snow white for a moment longer.