We were nervous as we stood in line outside Main Street Cinema to meet Duffy, the Disney bear that Minnie made for Mickey so he wouldn’t get homesick on one of his sailing voyages. Gelatoni, Duffy’s cat friend, was with him too, but we were focused on Duffy. We would have been focused on ShellieMay too, the bear Minnie created to become Duffy’s friend, but she wasn’t there that day. We had our Duffy hat on our head, our enormous ShellieMay bag hanging from our shoulder and lots of little Duffys and ShellieMays dangling from our bag.
A girl behind us in the line was focused on Gelatoni. In fact, she started crying when she spotted him. “So kawaii,” she squealed and sniffled, tears running down her red face.
It was our turn. Spotting our Duffy gear, Gelatoni waved his hands at us, greeting us warmly. Then he grabbed our bag to look for any sign of him… and found none. We had about ten Duffys and ShellieMays dangling from our bag and no Gelatoni.
Gelatoni was upset. He lifted his hands—in shock, in sadness, maybe a mix of both—and walked to the corner of the room, leaning his head against the wall. Duffy had to console him before leading him back to us. It was adorable, dramatic, funny. That was the moment we fell in love with Gelatoni.
We had fallen in love with Duffy the year before, also in Hong Kong Disneyland.
These characters, along with ShellieMay and the dancing rabbit StellaLou, are among the newest (and cutest!) additions to the Disney family and, let us warn you, they will steal your heart.
They’ve already stolen countless others. It’s been called “the Duffy phenomenon.” In Japan, Duffy and his friends are so well-loved that people bring them around, take a lot of pictures of them, buy them outfits and put different costumes on them.
Duffy and his friends are extremely popular in Hong Kong too. The red envelopes featuring Duffy and his friends were sold out on the first day they went on sale at Hong Kong Disneyland. We started panicking when we couldn’t find a little plush Duffy wearing his Chinese New Year outfit on the shelves at Hong Kong Disneyland anymore—it had disappeared so fast. Luckily, we found one at the Trading Post at Disney Explorers Lodge.
There are all kinds of merchandise featuring Duffy, ShellieMay, Gelatoni and StellaLou: bags, pouches, plush toys, blankets, stationery, apparel and more.
And these have become our favorite things to buy at Hong Kong Disneyland.
In fact, we bought a whole bunch of Gelatoni Tsum Tsum for our friends, our way of making it up to dear Gelatoni.
More gift ideas
The adorable princess costume and accessories at the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique.
For someone you really, really like: Hong Kong Disneyland exclusive Pandora charms
Iron Man and Star Wars merchandise for the superhero fans.
Hong Kong Disneyland also lets you personalize merchandise like phone cases and water bottles (and Duffy hats) for truly unique presents.