We spent three days at Hong Kong Disneyland during the first week of December 2005, staying in the Hollywood Hotel. We had a great time and enjoyed the park very much. That said, it is very small and has only 22 attractions. But our Feb 2005 WDW commando-cure trip ate our lunch, so we were determined to conquer this tiny park, even if it took three days! 
While it is not necessary to spend three whole days in this relatively small park, we would have been hard-pressed to have seen and done all we wanted in one day. But it you are a die-hard commando and are willing to miss some attractions, its do-able. But its definitely worth a day as part of a longer trip to Hong Kong or any other city in southern China.
Since Hong Kong is on the same latitude as Havana, we were expecting balmy weather. It was coldwith temperatures ranging from 60-68F during the day and dropping down to as low as 50F after dark. It was windy, too, which kicked in the wind chill factor. Much Cadbury hot chocolate was consumed when the temperature dropped! But better December than July!
The park was busier than we were expecting and there were a lot of tour groups who tend to tour en masse.
There were very few children in the park (granted we were there on weekdays while local schools were still in session) and the guest list was overwhelmingly Chinesego figure!
Knowing some of the cultural habits of the Chinese, we tried not to be to put out by their propensity to get ahead, but the queue cutting and pushing and shoving did get old after a while, especially when directed at our seven-year-old daughter. She was shoved by an older woman who approached us in a standing-room only crowd in the middle of Main Street after the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. We were shoved out of the way ascending the stairs to the train station, cut off when approaching ride queues and even shoved out of the way in the doorway exiting the restroom next to Festival of the Lion King!
The cast members were friendly and very gracious, with varying degrees of English proficiency. Many treated us like fellow cast members, which they assumed we were, because we were the only guests wearing lanyards & pins! Hint: if you plan to visit HKDL, take lots of pins to trade with eager HKDL CMs. They are even willing to trade their LE & CM-exclusive pins! Their favorite of ours was the EPCOT w/ Sorcerer Mickeywe could have traded that one ten times over. Many of the pins available at HKDL are similar to the ones available at WDW, but they have the HKDL logo on the back. And of course there are HKDL exclusive pins, too.
Each of the three landsFantasy, Tomorrow & Adventureand Main Street has two restaurants, one serving Chinese dishes and the other western food. Food prices in the park were very reasonable; we regularly ate counter service meals for between $15-20 for the three of us. Main Street also has a nice bakery which reminded me a lot of WDWs main street bakery. Dont miss the delicious egg tarts, a Hong Kong specialty. The giftshops merchandise was very similar to WDW but lacked variety, but lots of stuff with HKDL logos was available.
Chinese guests were enthralled with anything Pooh! Queues for The Many Adventures of Winne the Pooh were over 60 minutes long by noon and all Fastpasses distributed by 2 p.m. Pooh & Tigger always has a crowd waiting to see them at their greeting gazebo in Fantasy Gardens. All the characters we greeted were tickled to be asked to sign autographs since most guests were only taking pictures with them.
"Festival of the Lion King" is different than the one at WDW. I overheard it said that it is similar to the performance on the Disney cruise ship(s). The dialogue for The Golden Mickeys is spoken in Chinese, but the songs are sung in English. There are CMs who conduct the Jungle Cruise in Englishdon't miss finding out how to tell difference between the female and male zebras!
The Hollywood Hotel is an art deco gemall chrome, glass & mint greenand we liked staying there. We were disappointed not to get to use the pool but it was just too cold until the day we left, of course, when the sun was shining and the mercury rose to 80 degrees! The vintage cars dispersed around the grounds facing the waterfront were pretty cool and made great photo ops. Chef Mickeys served delicious (if pricey) buffet and a la carte meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner (we paid $100 for dinner one night). But the counter service Hollywood & Dine is very affordable with a good selectioneven serving turkey legs! Yum!
The HK Disneyland hotel is a Grand Floridian clone and looks very elegant from the outside, but we did not tour the inside. I have to say that the setting of the resorts and the park are stunning, with small mountains behind the castle and harbor views from the resorts. You dont get that at WDW!
But just like WDW, your room request may not be accommodated, but since we checked in near midnight, I guess that was to be expected. We were reassigned a room more to our specifications the next day and the bellmen moved our luggage for us. Park admission can be purchased at the hotel front desk, but they can only sell you tickets for two days at a time. Resort guests are guaranteed admission even if the park is sold out. Package delivery is available and they can be picked up from the bellmen.
The resort shuttle buses ran on a timely basis and were never full. The MTR train station is on the plaza before the entrance to the park and is not a far walk to the main gatevery convenient if coming in from the city. If you take the MTR from the airport, you can then hop a resort shuttle to the hotels. Tip: taxi fare for two is about the same as MTR fare for two from the airport, but the MTR is better themed.
Heres a couple of my earlier posts with some additional HKDL tips:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=914062&page=3&pp=15
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=968431
For a great virtual HKDL trip report & tour, dont miss crcormiers "我的天在Disneyland 香港 - My Day at Disneyland Hong Kong!!!"
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=925644
Im happy to answer any specific questions you might have about HKDL.
As they say at Hong Kong Disneyland, Have a Magical Day!
While it is not necessary to spend three whole days in this relatively small park, we would have been hard-pressed to have seen and done all we wanted in one day. But it you are a die-hard commando and are willing to miss some attractions, its do-able. But its definitely worth a day as part of a longer trip to Hong Kong or any other city in southern China.
Since Hong Kong is on the same latitude as Havana, we were expecting balmy weather. It was coldwith temperatures ranging from 60-68F during the day and dropping down to as low as 50F after dark. It was windy, too, which kicked in the wind chill factor. Much Cadbury hot chocolate was consumed when the temperature dropped! But better December than July!
The park was busier than we were expecting and there were a lot of tour groups who tend to tour en masse.
There were very few children in the park (granted we were there on weekdays while local schools were still in session) and the guest list was overwhelmingly Chinesego figure!Knowing some of the cultural habits of the Chinese, we tried not to be to put out by their propensity to get ahead, but the queue cutting and pushing and shoving did get old after a while, especially when directed at our seven-year-old daughter. She was shoved by an older woman who approached us in a standing-room only crowd in the middle of Main Street after the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. We were shoved out of the way ascending the stairs to the train station, cut off when approaching ride queues and even shoved out of the way in the doorway exiting the restroom next to Festival of the Lion King!
The cast members were friendly and very gracious, with varying degrees of English proficiency. Many treated us like fellow cast members, which they assumed we were, because we were the only guests wearing lanyards & pins! Hint: if you plan to visit HKDL, take lots of pins to trade with eager HKDL CMs. They are even willing to trade their LE & CM-exclusive pins! Their favorite of ours was the EPCOT w/ Sorcerer Mickeywe could have traded that one ten times over. Many of the pins available at HKDL are similar to the ones available at WDW, but they have the HKDL logo on the back. And of course there are HKDL exclusive pins, too.
Each of the three landsFantasy, Tomorrow & Adventureand Main Street has two restaurants, one serving Chinese dishes and the other western food. Food prices in the park were very reasonable; we regularly ate counter service meals for between $15-20 for the three of us. Main Street also has a nice bakery which reminded me a lot of WDWs main street bakery. Dont miss the delicious egg tarts, a Hong Kong specialty. The giftshops merchandise was very similar to WDW but lacked variety, but lots of stuff with HKDL logos was available.
Chinese guests were enthralled with anything Pooh! Queues for The Many Adventures of Winne the Pooh were over 60 minutes long by noon and all Fastpasses distributed by 2 p.m. Pooh & Tigger always has a crowd waiting to see them at their greeting gazebo in Fantasy Gardens. All the characters we greeted were tickled to be asked to sign autographs since most guests were only taking pictures with them.
"Festival of the Lion King" is different than the one at WDW. I overheard it said that it is similar to the performance on the Disney cruise ship(s). The dialogue for The Golden Mickeys is spoken in Chinese, but the songs are sung in English. There are CMs who conduct the Jungle Cruise in Englishdon't miss finding out how to tell difference between the female and male zebras!
The Hollywood Hotel is an art deco gemall chrome, glass & mint greenand we liked staying there. We were disappointed not to get to use the pool but it was just too cold until the day we left, of course, when the sun was shining and the mercury rose to 80 degrees! The vintage cars dispersed around the grounds facing the waterfront were pretty cool and made great photo ops. Chef Mickeys served delicious (if pricey) buffet and a la carte meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner (we paid $100 for dinner one night). But the counter service Hollywood & Dine is very affordable with a good selectioneven serving turkey legs! Yum!
The HK Disneyland hotel is a Grand Floridian clone and looks very elegant from the outside, but we did not tour the inside. I have to say that the setting of the resorts and the park are stunning, with small mountains behind the castle and harbor views from the resorts. You dont get that at WDW!
But just like WDW, your room request may not be accommodated, but since we checked in near midnight, I guess that was to be expected. We were reassigned a room more to our specifications the next day and the bellmen moved our luggage for us. Park admission can be purchased at the hotel front desk, but they can only sell you tickets for two days at a time. Resort guests are guaranteed admission even if the park is sold out. Package delivery is available and they can be picked up from the bellmen.
The resort shuttle buses ran on a timely basis and were never full. The MTR train station is on the plaza before the entrance to the park and is not a far walk to the main gatevery convenient if coming in from the city. If you take the MTR from the airport, you can then hop a resort shuttle to the hotels. Tip: taxi fare for two is about the same as MTR fare for two from the airport, but the MTR is better themed.
Heres a couple of my earlier posts with some additional HKDL tips:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=914062&page=3&pp=15
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=968431
For a great virtual HKDL trip report & tour, dont miss crcormiers "我的天在Disneyland 香港 - My Day at Disneyland Hong Kong!!!"
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=925644
Im happy to answer any specific questions you might have about HKDL.
As they say at Hong Kong Disneyland, Have a Magical Day!
