shaycamp21
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2005
We (DH, myself & DD) recently visited Hong Kong Disneyland on Friday (Aug 4th). We are currently on a 12 night cruise in Asia and Hong Kong was one of our ports. We had two days in port here and we chose the first day to go to Disneyland since we would be in port overnight and we didn’t want to stress about getting back to the ship (plus we wanted to see Momentous and the ship was leaving earlier the next day).
I bought our tickets (Peak Plus which are the priciest due to the time of year—-only bonus was our daughter who turns 12 later this month is not a Disney adult so her ticket was a little less) online on the HKD site, a couple days before using my Visa (Royal Bank of Canada card). The only issue I had with the purchase was that Visa wanted verification (I guess since we were in Vietnam at the time) and would send me a code but since I was using an E-sim (Nomad) I wasn’t getting the texts so I had to turn on my primary number to get the text to complete the purchase. By the time I figured this out I was several texts behind and kept inputting the wrong code but eventually figured it out. On the day of, I purchased the Premier Access passes for 8 attractions and since I now knew what to do didn’t have any problems.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get into port until almost 11 am (Park opened @ 10am) and by the time we got off the ship and took a cab to Disneyland it was after 12, so can’t comment about rope drop. It was busy and hot, oh my goodness was it hot and most of our WDW visits have been in August and it didn’t feel this hot. Mind you at WDW since we stay on property we’d always had the option of going back to the resort for a break or swim (I was almost sorry I didn’t book a room for the night to have that option).
The park itself was quite small and fairly easy to navigate (I didn’t really even use the app map mostly relied on the signage). I wish we would have been able to experience rope drop as by the time we arrived most rides had high wait times, many 70+ minutes with line ups well outside the attractions which would mean waiting in the blazing sun and heat. The Premier Access passes were worth their weight in gold, many rides were walk-ons but honestly we relished any time we got to wait in the cool air conditioning. We only managed do the 8 rides on the pass and last show (6:30 pm) of the Festival of the Lion King (which is a little different than the one at WDW but still really good — a must do I would say— we waited 1/2 in the shade before being allowed in the theatre)
The Rides:
Grizzly Gulch
Big Grizzly River Mountain Runaway Mine Cars (like BTMRR but more thrilling— loved this one— my DD’s fav)
Toy Story Land
Slinky Dog Spin (similar to the one in Paris that just goes around in a circle—meh)
Toy Soldier Parachute Drop (similar to Jumpin’ Jellyfish at CA DLR but more of a drop feel—also provided sweeping views of the park which were amazing)
Mystic Manor
Mystic Manor (a enchanted house rather than haunted with “mystical happenings” — my DD who can be timid with rides was a bit scared, I thought it was more cute and fun than scary — something different from HM)
Tomorrowland
Iron Man Experience (simulator ride— reminded me somewhat of Star Tours but more updated— this was mine and DH’s fav)
Ant Man & Wasp Nano Battle (basically Buzz Lightyear with different theming— DH likes these types of shooting games—I have terrible aim lol so do not)
Fantasyland
Small World (similar to DLR—a classic)
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (same as WDW)
Food
Food and snacks seemed to be similarly priced, maybe just slightly more than WDW. We had snacks from Jesse’s Snack Roundup: Dole Whip Strawberry Slush float (so delish), churros (hot & fresh) and DH got corn on the cob which was mushy and not sweet. DD also had a bottle of real watermelon juice which was sweet and refreshing. Later before Momentous, we had popcorn (soo buttery and good and the caramel was super yummy too) and DD had a Stitch Blue Raspberry Sherbet bar which she loved. Our dinner was at Starliner Diner (similar to Cosmic Rays) which we realized after the fact was more expensive than other QS places in the park but we were there and hungry. We ordered 3 Fried Chicken meals which came with 2 pieces of chicken and a small portion of fries and very small soft drink. Overall, it was just enough though we were starving since we just had snacks rather than a real lunch earlier. It was difficult to find a place to sit — anywhere there was air conditioning was full and what was frustrating most people inside weren’t eating just seemed to be camping out from the heat with families sitting around playing cards or just letting their kids sleep at the tables. We ended up finding something outside after circling for bit, shaded at least, though still miserably hot from the humidity.
Momentous
We went to the castle hub about an hour before the show started and managed to snag a good spot right in the centre. The Castle of Dreams is really beautiful and intricate, probably my favourite castle of all the Disney Parks. The show itself, Momentous was good but relies mostly on projections and has very little in terms of fireworks so we weren’t as wowed as with Happily Ever After at WDW or even Disneyland forever. However, we did enjoy it overall, the music was great and they did have projections from movies that aren’t commonly show which I was happy to see. One word of advice which I’d read on the Tokyo Disney board which I wished I’d followed and applies here — don’t wait until after the show to buy souvenirs. The gift shop was a crazy sea of humanity. Also one thing I was bummed about was there was very little merchandise that actually said Hong Kong Disney and there were no Christmas ornaments anywhere I could find (we did try to ask Cast Members about this but they seemed confused and didn’t seem to know what we were talking about).
Overall we had a great day and we were glad we spent one of our days in port here. Wifi has been spotty on our cruise but I can try and answer questions if anyone has any. Our cruise ends in a couple days in Tokyo so looking forward to crossing Tokyo Disney off our bucket list as well.
I bought our tickets (Peak Plus which are the priciest due to the time of year—-only bonus was our daughter who turns 12 later this month is not a Disney adult so her ticket was a little less) online on the HKD site, a couple days before using my Visa (Royal Bank of Canada card). The only issue I had with the purchase was that Visa wanted verification (I guess since we were in Vietnam at the time) and would send me a code but since I was using an E-sim (Nomad) I wasn’t getting the texts so I had to turn on my primary number to get the text to complete the purchase. By the time I figured this out I was several texts behind and kept inputting the wrong code but eventually figured it out. On the day of, I purchased the Premier Access passes for 8 attractions and since I now knew what to do didn’t have any problems.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get into port until almost 11 am (Park opened @ 10am) and by the time we got off the ship and took a cab to Disneyland it was after 12, so can’t comment about rope drop. It was busy and hot, oh my goodness was it hot and most of our WDW visits have been in August and it didn’t feel this hot. Mind you at WDW since we stay on property we’d always had the option of going back to the resort for a break or swim (I was almost sorry I didn’t book a room for the night to have that option).
The park itself was quite small and fairly easy to navigate (I didn’t really even use the app map mostly relied on the signage). I wish we would have been able to experience rope drop as by the time we arrived most rides had high wait times, many 70+ minutes with line ups well outside the attractions which would mean waiting in the blazing sun and heat. The Premier Access passes were worth their weight in gold, many rides were walk-ons but honestly we relished any time we got to wait in the cool air conditioning. We only managed do the 8 rides on the pass and last show (6:30 pm) of the Festival of the Lion King (which is a little different than the one at WDW but still really good — a must do I would say— we waited 1/2 in the shade before being allowed in the theatre)
The Rides:
Grizzly Gulch
Big Grizzly River Mountain Runaway Mine Cars (like BTMRR but more thrilling— loved this one— my DD’s fav)
Toy Story Land
Slinky Dog Spin (similar to the one in Paris that just goes around in a circle—meh)
Toy Soldier Parachute Drop (similar to Jumpin’ Jellyfish at CA DLR but more of a drop feel—also provided sweeping views of the park which were amazing)
Mystic Manor
Mystic Manor (a enchanted house rather than haunted with “mystical happenings” — my DD who can be timid with rides was a bit scared, I thought it was more cute and fun than scary — something different from HM)
Tomorrowland
Iron Man Experience (simulator ride— reminded me somewhat of Star Tours but more updated— this was mine and DH’s fav)
Ant Man & Wasp Nano Battle (basically Buzz Lightyear with different theming— DH likes these types of shooting games—I have terrible aim lol so do not)
Fantasyland
Small World (similar to DLR—a classic)
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (same as WDW)
Food
Food and snacks seemed to be similarly priced, maybe just slightly more than WDW. We had snacks from Jesse’s Snack Roundup: Dole Whip Strawberry Slush float (so delish), churros (hot & fresh) and DH got corn on the cob which was mushy and not sweet. DD also had a bottle of real watermelon juice which was sweet and refreshing. Later before Momentous, we had popcorn (soo buttery and good and the caramel was super yummy too) and DD had a Stitch Blue Raspberry Sherbet bar which she loved. Our dinner was at Starliner Diner (similar to Cosmic Rays) which we realized after the fact was more expensive than other QS places in the park but we were there and hungry. We ordered 3 Fried Chicken meals which came with 2 pieces of chicken and a small portion of fries and very small soft drink. Overall, it was just enough though we were starving since we just had snacks rather than a real lunch earlier. It was difficult to find a place to sit — anywhere there was air conditioning was full and what was frustrating most people inside weren’t eating just seemed to be camping out from the heat with families sitting around playing cards or just letting their kids sleep at the tables. We ended up finding something outside after circling for bit, shaded at least, though still miserably hot from the humidity.
Momentous
We went to the castle hub about an hour before the show started and managed to snag a good spot right in the centre. The Castle of Dreams is really beautiful and intricate, probably my favourite castle of all the Disney Parks. The show itself, Momentous was good but relies mostly on projections and has very little in terms of fireworks so we weren’t as wowed as with Happily Ever After at WDW or even Disneyland forever. However, we did enjoy it overall, the music was great and they did have projections from movies that aren’t commonly show which I was happy to see. One word of advice which I’d read on the Tokyo Disney board which I wished I’d followed and applies here — don’t wait until after the show to buy souvenirs. The gift shop was a crazy sea of humanity. Also one thing I was bummed about was there was very little merchandise that actually said Hong Kong Disney and there were no Christmas ornaments anywhere I could find (we did try to ask Cast Members about this but they seemed confused and didn’t seem to know what we were talking about).
Overall we had a great day and we were glad we spent one of our days in port here. Wifi has been spotty on our cruise but I can try and answer questions if anyone has any. Our cruise ends in a couple days in Tokyo so looking forward to crossing Tokyo Disney off our bucket list as well.
