UPDATE: You can now watch our Hong Kong Disneyland adventure in video form here -
or you can continue reading the post before you watch it later ;)
We left Kuala Lumpur on one of the earliest flights to Hong Kong. I can tell you honestly that 6am flights aren’t usually what I’m used to but I was super excited about Disneyland, and was settling work the night before that I barely had any sleep. Barely, would mean only 1 hours worth of sleep. I managed to catch some power nap in the four hours flight though, so I was refreshed and stoked about being in Hong Kong Disneyland. I’ve only been to two Disney parks in my whole life – one was in Los Angeles, and around 10 years ago in Disneyworld, Florida. Re-visiting the Hong Kong one, with very little expectations (part of it was to surprise myself) was like visiting my childhood all over again. I didn’t know what to expect to feel, being all grown up so I was a little worried that I might get bored but to my surprise, it was a whole different feeling. I think you will understand why as you go along this blogpost. We reached Disney’s Hollywood Hotel, checked into our respective rooms, freshened up and went down for a welcoming lunch at one of their park’s main hotels. I won’t spoil you guys with food photos in this post; you will have to wait for my next blogpost when I talk about food around the park itself!
The moment I reached the entrance, of course, I had to take a compulsory photo to mark my first time stepping foot into Disneyland Hong Kong!
Since it was noon already, the first thing we did was hang around Main Street U.S.A to watch their daily Flights of Fantasy Parade of all Disney’s characters (starts at 3.30 pm everyday in Main Street USA). If you want to watch it from the best angle, make sure you arrive early and book your spot by the sidewalk and park yourself with snacks and drinks from their nearby street stalls which sell hotdogs, cotton candies, popcorn, ice-cream and drinks.
It was such a cheerful parade that I didn’t realize I was bopping to the pop beat of dwi-lingual song that they had. It was a huge parade, to my surprise and you would be able to see most of the main characters from the Disney fame, especially those highlighted in the park itself. My favourite part would of course be the Toy Story parade cause I’m such a big fan!
After the parade was done, we couldn’t help but to visit as much as we can before the ride ends in the evening and catch our early dinner! First stop was to the nearest park – Adventureland. By the way, Disneyland Hong Kong has five parks in total for you to visit:
3. Toy Story Land (The latest park in Disneyland and Asia’s exclusive too!)
We went on our first ride – the Jungle River Cruise. You can opt for the English, Mandarin or Cantonese language boats and you will have your personal skipper to guide your boat through the mysterious river of adventures. Our skipper was funny and joyful and I loved that she had a sense of humour while the boat goes through the river filled with wild animals and many other exciting surprises.
We were rushing for time and went straight to 'it’s a small world' ride in Fantasyland – a compulsory ride if you visit ANY Disneyland. I’ve been on this ride on every Disneyland I’ve been on. It was very kiddie-like but I loved that it was so cheerful that I was singing along with it! hahaha
We managed to catch the next show on our agenda – The Golden Mickey. This was a whole new thing for me. It’s actually an award-inspired musical (in Cantonese but with screened English subtitles) showcasing all the famous songs from all of the famous Disney movies. I grew up with Disney movies that I surprisingly sang along and memorized the lyrics too! You know how it feels like when you manage to sing ‘Under the Sea’, Mickey Mouse’s theme song, ‘You’ve got a friend in me’, ‘Beauty and the Beast’ and more? I left in awe and enjoyed my time throughout the whole show!
Shows do fill up so arrive at least 30 minutes prior to showtime to be able to get the best seats in the house! You can get Showtime Guide, Dining Guide and Guide Map at the entrance of the park itself and trust me, plan your day out with the map. It will definitely save so much time and it would be easier for you to navigate yourself around the park.
Our last stop for the day before dinner was at the brand-new and Asia exclusive Toy Story land. It means that no other Disneyland in the world has this Toy Story Land except in Hong Kong.
Being a big Toy Story geek myself, I was super stoked that I went on ALL rides they had in the Toy Story land. My favourite was of course the RC Racer. Other rides includes the Slinky Dog Spin and the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop.
I don’t have a bird’s eye view photo of the park so here are the best photos from the internet!
source: Disneydreaming.com
source: CNNgo
Disneyland is really pretty at night so make sure that you have some time to go around the park when it is lit up after your dinner before you park yourself in the Main Street USA in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle again for the highlight of the night - The “Disney in the Stars” fireworks show which starts everynight at 8pm.
The fireworks show was uber beautiful, it nearly brought me to tears. I’m serious on this. I was literally zoning out and immersed myself in the beautiful music and firework display that complemented it. I can’t wait to show you guys the fireworks show on video!
oh and if you’re there during cold nights, don’t forget to get some pastries, cakes and coffee from nearby cafes.
The park closes when the firework ends but the shops will open until an hour after so it was time when everyone rushes into the stores to get their souvenirs and browse around! They had so many shops that sells all kinds of kitschy items! I wanted THEM ALL! I swear I was squealing at almost every cute plushies I saw and luckily I managed to keep my plastic card inside my wallet.
Ok fine, I lied. I just had to get these Minnie headbands just cause almost every other girl in the park was wearing it. It’s like a signature, why wouldn’t you want one? Too cute for words! The ears costed me HKD95, which is about RM40. Totally worth it!
I think I knocked out super early and only saw everyone else AFTER breakfast the day after! LOL
They had a mini parade with this band in the morning! Imagine that. Super early and everything was already super chirpy and happy. The whole park gave this ethereal and chirpy mood, it was ridiculous! I could hardly be angry or in a pissy mood at all!
First stop of the day was to have breakfast and off to Tomorrowland! First ride I went on was a rollercoaster in pitch dark – Space Mountain! It was super fun! If you go early, you get to skip queues and probably could even go on it a few times too! We wanted to go for the Stitch Encounter show but they only had the English show in the afternoon so we set our watch to go there 15 minutes before the show.
You will meet interesting characters around the park and you may queue up for an opportunity to have a picture with them.
We thought of going for the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters a little later in the evening cause we had the Fast Pass. Fast Pass allows you to skip long queues on famous rides. All you have to do is slip in your ticket in the Fast Past machine and it will give you a ticket that tells you the time range when you should come back again for your ride.
So we went for the Mickey’s Philharmagic show instead! It was actually a 4D show of the Disney characters. You watch it in 3D and experience another sense of touch. Means that there would be real water and wind effects accompanying the show screened.
They don’t only have normal brick and mortar shops that sells their souvenirs, they also have pop-up stalls in each park for you to quickly get your hands on their super cute exclusive Disney merchandises.
Disneyland was full of surprises that we found classic Disney characters painted on the ground with just water by a man using a broomstick! It felt like I was at the ‘Walk of Fame’ and just had to take photos with it. How creative was that?
After we caught up with the Stitch Encounter show which was super hilarious, we SERIOUSLY ran to Adventureland again just to watch The Lion King Festival. I know it won’t be as great the the broadway show we saw in Marina Bay Sands but it was bigger than I expected it to be. There were huge build ups of props to accompany the story-telling which was filled with songs and dancing. It felt like a Safari Parade by itself. You gotta arrive early to be in front of the queue but get the top seats so you will have a full view of everything from on top!
Here’s a photo of one of the Fast Pass machines outside the park rides! Best way to experience the rides minus the long queues if there were any.
Here are more details regarding the park. Visit Disneyland Hong Kong’s official website here à http://park.hongkongdisneyland.com
Access to Disneyland is pretty simple. Here are main transportation access provided by the Disneyland Hong Kong:
I'm gonna write about the hotel and food around the park in my next two posts (cause my internet refuses to cooperate with me and I'm doing this via my phone internet) and oh, the video is almost done! Keep reading!
Gonna leave you guys with more random photos of Disneyland Hong Kong!
UPDATE!
I'm gonna show you guys the hotel I stayed in called Disney's Hollywood Hotel!
Pretty grand, I must say. And they really stick to the old classy Hollywood concept that they even have a movie theatre themed diner for your to grab bites if you don’t fancy (or don’t have the budget) for hotel food.
In case if you still can’t get enough of the Disney shopping experience, or may want to do some last minute shopping, all of their hotels have a Disney store. I certainly couldn’t stop browsing through every single store there was in Disneyland! So tempted to even buy this Slinky ear muffs for the sake of it. Everything was just too cute to resist T_T
Disney’s Hollywood Hotel has a Diner, other than their restaurants and coffee house for a quick bite or snacks. It’s a cafeteria in a 60s Hollywood Diner theme, made me feel like I was in the set of those classic American movies like Grease. Luckily there wasn’t a jukebox nearby or we could’ve had a skates party =P
If you’re there, do take walks on the hotel grounds and trust me, every corner there will be surprises. Next post, I’m gonna talk about food in Disneyland! Can’t wait cause the food was one of a kind! I have so many photos to show you guys too!
Just as an extra info, amenities available in Disney’s Hollywood Hotel are as follows:
• One king-sized bed or two double beds in all rooms
• Non-smoking rooms available
• Flat-screen LCD TV
• In-room high speed internet access
• Free wireless internet access at hotel lobby and dining locations
• Guest parking spaces
• Guest limousine service
• In-room safe
• Cribs upon request
• Laundry and valet service
• Disabled-accessible rooms available
Here are more details regarding the park and the hotel itself. Visit Disneyland Hong Kong’s official website here à http://park.hongkongdisneyland.com
If you missed it on top, you can now watch a gist of our Hong Kong Disneyland adventure in video here -
