Hong Kong Disneyland - Oct 2007

[EuropaParkFan]

Hong Kong Disneyland
Onsite: Hollywood Hotel - October 2007
The Travelers: Tom and Alex (D wife and D girlfriend stayed home)

Background:
My friend and I visited China in October 2007. My friend Alex is a real WDW veteran. He was very helpful in providing some good tips about the worldwide Disney system (fast passes, ADRs etc). He also filled me in on how this Disneyland is similar to WDW, and how it isn’t. Unfortunately, neither of us have been any other Disney parks so these comparisons are only based on what I have learned on this forum. I have actually not been to WDW since 1986!

Pre-trip:

Since we were already flying in and out of Hong Kong, we thought the best place to end our China trip (mainland) would be on Lantau Island. This is the location of the Hong Kong International Airport. But most importantly, it is also the location of Hong Kong Disneyland! Hong Kong is a pretty large territory and the trip from the airport (Lantau Island) to downtown Hong Kong or Kowloon (another land mass entirely) takes around 45 minutes by train. Driving takes even longer! Obviously, a stay at Hong Kong Disneyland is the PERFECT way to end a Hong Kong vacation, since you are 10 minutes away from the airport by car. Therefore, getting to the airport 2 hours before international check-in is suddenly no longer a problem.

This is a map of Hong Kong. I added in RED the main MTR (subway) stations of importance to any Hong Kong Disneyland trip. Notice the Hong Kong international airport and Disneyland BOTH on Lantau Island. Then notice the main Central MTR station on the main Island of Hong Kong (downtown). The Central station is the main transportation hub of Hong Kong. This is where the Disney Magic Express drop off pick up is located. Unfortuneately, we forgot all about this free service and lugged our bags all the way on the MTR to Sunny Bay, then the Disney one to Disneyland.

Although, there are alternatives to Disney hotels on Lantau, for example a business hotel cluster near the Asia Expo World (behind the airport's red dot). Those hotels cost nearly twice as much as an onsite Disney stay! A stay at the onsite Disney Hotels should be considered for this reason EVEN if you never enter the park. Hong Kong is one of the most expensive places to book a hotel stay, anyway. In this kind of environment, staying onsite can be even cheaper than staying off site! Perhaps the other hotels were higher priced because of the trade fairs going on at the same time, in which case Disney did not raise prices accordingly, a different crowd.

Day 1: Check in
Alex and I checked into our Disney hotel around 3pm after arriving from Guangzhou (mainland) China. Guanzhou (Canton) has a direct (but slow) 2 hour train to Hong Kong station.

The Guangzhou East Railway station. Guangzhou is the next major city up after Shenzhen. So looking at that map, Guangzhou is another 30 minutes by train to the north from Shenzhen.

Here is Alex enjoying First Class service in the KTT train to Hong Kong.

After arriving on the Hong Kong side, we cleared customs + immigration there, just like in an airport, then rode on the MTR (subway) to Sunny Bay station on Lantau Island. This part can take as long as the trip from Guangzhou because of the line at customs. Sunny Bay is the last MTR station before you switch to the Disneyland MTR.

Some school children at Sunny Bay MTR station trying to find the Disneyland connection train.

This is the sign they are looking for. Train 3 is basically the disneyland monorail.

As in Tokyo, Disney could not do their own on-site monorail, so they had to combine it with the common public transportation system. Actually in Hong Kong Disneyland, the monorail experience really HAD to be offsite. The park is too small for an enclosed Monorail system. So instead of a Disney Monorail, we have a MTR train with Mickey Mouse ear windows.

Likewise, the Disneyland MTR station is like the TTC (transportation ticket center) for the Hong Kong Disneyland resort. From here, you can either walk to the Disneyland Park, or take the Busses to the 2 Onsite Resort Hotels.

More to come later......

EuropaPark

 

[EuropaParkFan]

Disney’s Hollywood Hotel (The Hong Kong version of Pop Century)

There are only 2 onsite resort options in HKDL. First up is the Disneyland Hotel, (HK’s Grand Floridian). This is the Deluxe Hotel. The other option is the Hollywood Hotel, which is similar in design to the New York hotel at Disney’s Paris resort. Alex swears that this resort is the value Pop Century of HK Disneyland, so I will take his word for it. I would consider the Hollywood Hotel closer to a moderate resort myself. I think in HKDL, you need to think in terms of Classic or Modern instead of Deluxe, Moderate, Value, like we have here. The Disneyland hotel does cost a bit more than Hollywood Hotel, though. Here is a photo of the check-in in the lobby of the Hollywood Hotel. Notice there is not much of a line and not much of a crowd. Remember, this is late October. Just like in US parks, this is one the least crowded time to go, and it really shows. The park was practically empty…. A Good thing!

The HK Hollywood Hotel Reception Desk

During Check-in, the concierge / cast member offered us a two for one park ticket at a greatly reduced rate. I was planning on only getting a 1 day park ticket since we were checking in so late the first day. During the off season, the Disneyland park closes at 6:00pm! I think it was only $10 USD more to get the 2 for 1 deal which was running that month. I grabbed it, since after check-in I would have 3 hours or so to explore the park, while Alex runs back downtown on the MTR to pick up a suit he bought. Since this may very well be my only trip to HKDL, I splurged and paid for a theme park view room (vs an ocean view one). This turned out to be a great idea! As I was standing in the hallway, staring at the room, looking out the window, I could clearly see the top of Space mountain and some other tall attractions in the themepark! What really took my breath away was the fact that I felt EXACTLY like I was standing in a tower room in the contemporary resort looking out the magic kingdom in Florida in 1974! The smell of the room even matched my Contemporary Room memories all those years ago! Wow, the Disney Magic extends to the overseas resorts, how do they do that? I am a believer now! See for yourself!

This is the park view room of the Disneyland Hollywood Hotel

And a larger view from the window itself. I have never seen a brand new looking space mountain since the early 70s in WDW! Its like going back in time, and seeing WDW when it was brand new.

More to follow.....

EuropaParkFan

 

[EuropaParkFan]

Day 1: Exploring Disneyland (3 hours only till park closing)

I grabbed my park ticket and set off to catch the Bus outside the lobby. Everything is perfectly clean here, outside and inside, I am impressed with the Hollywood Hotel. There is only 1 bus route here with 3 stops. The Bus goes in a circle from the Disneyland MTR station (near park entrance) -> Disneyland Hotel -> Hollywood Hotel -> back to Disneyland MTR……. Because it is such a short distance from the hotels and park, the wait is less than 5 minutes, and each leg of trip is less than 5 minutes. I think there are like 5 busses running all the time.

After getting off the bus at the MTR station (a tropical Transportation and ticket center –haha) I started walking through the little park area up the entrance of Disneyland. I was getting very optimistic about the size of the park.

If the walkup to the entrance takes this long, the park must be huge. Wrong! I think the distance from the MTR station to the entrance is the same distance as the entire diameter of the main Disneyland Park.

Here is the main entrance sign, welcoming everyone to the park.

Here is the fountain in between the entrance sign and the main gate of Disneyland. I swear this grand entrance is twice the size of the diameter of the Disneyland park.

Here is the actual entrance. If you look carefully, you can see bags being checked.

Just like all other Disney parks, there are some security guys checking everyone’s personal belongings. But since this was an empty park day, the lines were only 20 people long or so. As soon as I entered the park, I noticed how tiny but clean everything is here. I know I am comparing 1986 WDW to a brand new 2005 disney park, but dam! It really looks spotless and new. I can’t believe that I was standing on main street USA but the tiny Hong Kong version of it!

My first stop was one of the most interesting attractions I have ever seen at a Disney Park “The Disneyland story”. This is a basically a well done little museum about how HKDL came to Hong Kong.

But the best part of the whole thing was the information displayed about all the Disney parks around the world. There is a little animatronics figure speaking Cantonese about how incredibly large the world of Disney really is. There are large wall sized photo displays of all the Disney Parks. The coolest thing was the Walt Disney World photo.

Notice in the photo below, the text in the display is both Cantonese and English. The robot guy was only speaking Cantonese though. I have no idea what that little robot was telling people about WDW, but it drew quite a crowd in front of the WDW display. He must have been very specific about the descriptions of the multitude of resorts and multiple parks. People were basically Gasping, pointing, and arguing about the Monorail going through the contemporary, “Ahhhaii!” talk about excited and amazed people.

I suppose the robot told the people how large the property of WDW is compared to this tiny HK park or California Disneyland for that matter they may have heard of, and they simply cannot believe their ears. But the photo of all the themeparks and the Monorail going through an onsite hotel really makes it all true, and the Chinese text to prove it all. I can see these people planning trips to all the Disney parks around the world, Disney is good at selling more Disney, I give them that. If I lived in a small territory like Hong Kong, then the WDW property would seem like its from a future world, no pun intended. I think the general consensus of people at this park is that all the Disneylands around the world are exactly the same size.

More info later.......

EuropaParkFan

 

[EuropaParkFan]

Main Street USA:

First of all, Alex insisted that I snap this photo, why is it significant? Maybe a new Disney Movie?

Just like in the Orlando version of DL, there are many transportation vehicles on Main Street:

I stopped in my tracks only halfway down Main Street USA. I was staring at an empty park but at the same time a huge line (queue). What could all these people be queuing up for?
The line was to get a photo with Mickey Mouse. Amazing! The character photo lines were by far the longest lines in the whole park! So character greetings are the top priority around here. This bodes well. Maybe there are no lines at the real attractions. Yay!

Now this will sound incredible, but Disneyland Hong Kong has only 3 lands. Tomorrowland (right side), Adventureland (Left side) and Fantasyland (behind the castle). It took me maybe 5 mintues to get to Space Mountain. 5 minutes walk! Wow, this park is small.

I then decided to walk back to the entrance of the park and ride the Disneyland railroad around the whole park to get a good tour before park closing.

This park is SO small, there are only 2 stops, Main Street (in the front) and Fantasyland (in the back). The train trip was very interesting in itself…. Since it really doesn’t go anywhere but front and back of park, it is more of a tour vehicle, literally. As we passed all the lands of the park, there was an American guy speaking with a Western accent being followed by the Chinese man giving the translation. Along the way, there were little animatronics characters popping out of the bushes. The park definitely has some extra growing room. The train did take a while to go all the way around.
I basically explored some of the shops on main street, checked out the counter service restaurants, and walked around the park so I would be able to take Alex to all the attractions the next day.
After walking around the park, I stopped in one of the 5 or so gift shops on Main street USA. It seems that there are two versions of all our favorite Disney characters, Western and Eastern.

Eastern Mickey VS.

Western Mickey VS.

1920s Mickey? Who will win??

Oh no! An Eastern Donald too!

As you can see there are many many nice Hong Kong only Disney items to be had in the Main Street emporiums here. And just like in the other Disney properties around the world, you can have your purchases delivered to your room.

Tommorow on to Tommorowland and Adventurland, Fantasyland!

 

[eyeore]

loving the thread! cant believe they have eastern mickeys! cool.

 

[serendipity]

Jumping on board. Thanks so much for sharing your experience with this. I'm loving the Eastern versus Western Mickeys!

 

[EuropaParkFan]

OK, even I know that the Chef Mickey Character Meal is one of the most difficult ADRs to book, everwhere BUT Hong Kong Disneyland.

As I stated previously, I am completely clueless to these Disney tips, advanced dinner reservations is one of them! So anyway, I thought I could just go downstairs into the lobby and have dinner at Chef Mickey! By the way, in Hong Kong Disneyland, Chef Mickey is located inside the Hollywood hotel. I got to the Chef Mickey entrance and was greeted by the cast member who immediately asked for my meal voucher or ADR timeslot. Looking over her shoulder, I saw a nearly empty Chef Mickey. So I said, "sorry I didn't have one", expecting her to send me elsewhere for dinner. To my surprise, she allowed me to book in advance, 1 hour later.

So I went upstairs and got Alex (the WDW veteran) and told him that Chef Mickey's was downstairs and we have reservations in an hour.

Alex, for obvious reasons, thought that I was mistaken.


Anyway, after we arrived for dinner, Alex was so excited he insisted that I snap this photo of an empty Chef Mickey! He said any Disney veteran would find this simply amazing!

Tomorrowland, Adventureland, Fantasyland coming up later.......

EuropaParkFan

 

[EuropaParkFan]

OK,

Day 2, After hitting Chef Mickey AGAIN for Breakfast Full attendance but still avaialble, we headed back to the park.

First Stop Tomorrowland!

Reason: Space Mountain is one of the few rides that has a long line.

Notice there is a line to the left and a line to the right. The right line line is the famous single rider line that NO ONE uses in Hong Kong!

I told Alex about this rumour that I read from a previous DisBoards trip report.
Basically, if you get into the single rider line, you will have nearly NO WAIT in Hong Kong. Guess what! Its 100% true. The regular line was nearly 45 minutes long. There must be some catch! Alex and I BOTH got into the single rider line and it snaked all the way up the loading area. Only 5 people were in front of us. Whats the catch?! Well there is no catch! The cast member gave us the stop signal with the hand in our face, for maybe 3 cars of people. On the forth car, she waved Alex on board. The next car she waved me on board. A 5 minute wait!

The really funny part is the ride itself. You will notice from the photo that this is a MINI Space Mountain to say the least. How do they make the attraction at all scary when its this teenie tiny? Well the answer is, they make it darker than the other Space Mountains around the world. I don't think we were going nearly as fast as the Orlando verison! But in the pitch blackness, sudden turns can give you a little excitement, I suppose.
Well the other guests on the train were really screaming their heads off! Maybe they think they are supposed to do this. LOL Because the ride was very mild and pleasant, and you can't see a thing!

EuropaPark

 

[EuropaParkFan]

Next stop,

Astroblasters......

I can't really compare this to the other versions of Buzz. This was my first time on this attraction.

No, I think Buzz is stronger than Alex.

One thing I found interesting..... There was a little trashcan that followed the kids around and spoke Cantonese! Really amazing.

More to come later......

 

[EuropaParkFan]

Adventureland was very small, just like the rest of the park. The only major attraction here is the Hong Kong version of the jungle cruise. Both Alex and I agreed, this is definately much better than the Orlando version. There are more special effects, fire and an earthquake of some kind. I'll leave it at that.

The Jungle Cruise pilot was very nice and funny, and even posed for a quick photo!

During our walk through Adventureland, we caught sight of a huge line, maybe the biggest I had seen so far in HK Disneyland. What could it be?!
I think this line is much longer than the line to meet Mickey!

It is a new attraction called the haunted Hotel! My goodness its the Tower of Terror! No wonder the line is so large!

It certainly has some good promotion for the new "hauted attraction".

It turns out this is simply a haunted house, and one that is not very well done. Alex tells me that the introduction is the same as the Tower of Terror, but then you simply walk through a haunted house. My goodness! Why the long line then!

On the way to lunch, we passed some interesting Adventureland performers near the HK version of Swiss Family Treehouse. Alex actually played the hand drums with these guys.

More coming....

EuropaParkFan

 

[EuropaParkFan]

OK,

On the way into Fantasyland, Alex and I decided to try to stop somewhere for Lunch. I was absolutely shocked when I saw this restaurant! What is wrong with this picture?

OK, we have a european middle ages theming thing going on here, after all, it is Fantasyland. But look at the menu on the sign! It is all Asian food! I guess this is what people ate in Europe during the middle ages. LOL

Anyway, food prices in all Disneyland parks are outrageous whereever you go. In fact, food prices in all themeparks are higher than in the city.
I usually judge the cost of living by the price of a big mac or a coca cola.

$20 HKD for a coca cola is about $2.50 USD. Now this may not sound as bad as WDW today. But keep in mind, this same bottle of coke in mainland china (cheaper than HK, I know) is 30 cents. So Disney is always expensive, whereever you go.

One nice thing about visiting a Disney park in a foreign country is, you can always get a hotdog. After having nothing buy Chinese Food for 2 weeks, a hotdog was welcome this time.

More to come later.....

EuropaParkFan

 

[EuropaParkFan]

After lunch,

We decided to take a look at Fantasyland. Here is the border between Fantasyland and Tommorowland:

It is amazing how tiny this park really is! If you look at the photo of MainStreetUSA, where you can see the castle in the near distance, Fantasyland is only a small area behind that. Since there is no Frontierland at all, there is only 1 stop on the Disneyland Railroad, and that is Fantasyland in the BACK of the park. Stop 1 Main Street Entrance, Stop 2 Fantasyland, thats all!

The rear Fantasyland Station

Here is a nice closeup of the teenie tiny Castle:

Since I had never seen any Winnie the Pooh attractions, We jumped on that, first. Many people were snapping photos in front of this one. Is it new in HK?

Later in the day, we caught 2 shows: The Golden Mickeys and Animagique.

Animagique had some funny 3D glasses, as you can see.

I REALLY wish I could have gotten some photos of Golden Mickeys since it is unique to HK. I read a post somewhere on here that the Disney Cruise Line has a similar show. I beleive it! This show reminds me of cruise ship entertainment! It was really cool watching Mickey and Minnie speaking Cantonese with the same voice we have always been familiar with.

End of Trip Report.... Might just go back and do a little editing from now on.

EuropaParkFan

 

[serendipity]

I'm absolutely loving this report. Thank you so much for sharing this special trip with us.

 

[EuropaParkFan]

Thanks,

I just noticed that there really aren't any trip reports ANYWHERE on any Disney Board for Hong Kong Disneyland, so I thought I should do this. Actually, I have been wanting to post this since October, but couldn't figure out how to do it.

Anyway, if anyone has ANY questions about HK Disneyland feel free to ask.
I would probably just recommend that everyone goes to Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea (never been to either). But if you are already passing through Hong Kong, why not?

I should also mention the existence of another big theme park on the south side of the island of Hong Kong called Ocean Park. It is more of a cross between Universal and Seaworld, more rides and aquariums. I skipped this one for Disneyland.

Also in Shenzhen (directly over border from Hong Kong) there is a group of 4 theme parks connected by Monorail. When you add the 4 parks together, they really get up there in size. The original Splendid China is one of these parks.

Farther north to Guangzhou, there is - Chimelong Paradise - which is more of a Six Flags. It has a coaster with the most inversions in the world, 14 I think.

Enjoy!

EuropaparkFan