Hong Kong Disneyland Trip Report--Part I, The Arrival

[wintergreen]

Just back from a quick visit to Hong Kong Disneyland, and thought I’d share some of my experiences.

I had to go to Hong Kong last week for business, and begged DH to agree to let me stay an extra day to visit HKDL. Once I got the green light from him (with promises that someday the whole family would visit together), I did some research on the hotel situation. Since we are DVC members, I had the option of using points for my one night stay, or I could pay cash. I visited the HKDL website (http://park.hongkongdisneyland.com/hkdl/en_US/home/home?name=HomePage), and decided that the Hollywood Hotel looked great, and that the rates did, too (about $155 U.S. dollars). Well, add about $50 to that price, because you have to book over the phone, and that’s how much my phone call to make the reservation cost. Oh well, DVC points might have been a better way to go.

Anyhoo, Saturday morning at about 8:00 a.m., I checked out of my hotel in Kowloon, and headed for the subway. HKDL has its own stop on the MTR, Hong Kong’s subway. The MTR is clean, efficient, and very easy to navigate. Because I had to change trains a few times, it took be almost an hour to get to the Sunny Bay station, where I transferred to the DL line. The train cars to HKDL are SO cute, with Mickey-shaped windows and hand straps. After arriving at the station, I took a resort bus to the Hollywood Hotel. I dropped my bag, bought my ticket, and had a quick cup of coffee and a pastry at Hollywood and Dine, the quick service restaurant. I boarded the resort bus again, and was back at the park entrance by 9:45.

There is a beautiful promenade leading from the train station to the park entrance, with lovely landscaping and a very cool fountain that has Mickey surfing on top of Monstro, the whale’s spout. I entered the park, walked down Main Street, and stopped at the rope, waiting for the drop. A marching band came by, played a song, one of the band members welcomed everyone to the park, and we were off!

 

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HKDL is the smallest of all of the Disney Theme parks, and it can definitely be visited in one day. I was also amazed at how uncrowded it was, especially since I visited on a Saturday. This may be the only time in my life, that I would be the first guest to board Dumbo! I did all of the attractions in Fantasyland (Dumbo, Cinderella Carousel, Teacups, Winnie the Pooh and Philharmagic), then headed over to Tomorrowland and did Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain. I really loved the Space Mountain at this park! Very different from the others. After that I went to the Golden Mickeys stage show back in Fantasyland. Great show with songs from lots of movies! The narration was in Chinese, but that did not bother me a bit (Chinese pronunciation of Mickey is “My-ee-kay.” Took me a while to figure that one out).

After the show I grabbed a burger in Tomorrowland (too much Chinese food earlier in the week, I needed a burger!!), then headed out to watch the parade. The parade was really nice, and since the park is small and the crowds were low, everyone got a good viewing spot. I particularly liked the huge balloon of Mickey in Chinese garb. After the parade, I went over to watch the Festival of the Lion King show in Adventureland. OK, I have to digress and say that it really IS a Small World After All (even though this attraction is not included at HKDL). While waiting to get into the show, a friendly woman struck up a conversation with me, asking me where I lived. I replied that I lived in Washington. Nice lady: “Washington State or Washington, DC?” Me: “Washington, DC. Where are you guys from?” Nice lady: “Idaho.” Me: “No way! Where in Idaho?” Nice lady: “Coeur d’Alene.” Me: “No way, that’s where I grew up.” Well after that, it was like we were lifelong friends, and I watched the show in HKDL with a family from MY HOME TOWN in Idaho. How weird is that?

After the show (which was great, by the way, and very different from the one at WDW), I said goodbye to my newfound friends, and boarded the resort bus to go check into my room at the hotel. When I arrived at the hotel, I was delighted to find that I had been upgraded from a Garden View room to a Park View room. Must have been those low crowds I noticed earlier. Anyway, I happily went to my room, and my luggage arrived just a few minutes later. Let me say that this hotel was just beautiful. The room was great, and the grounds were spectacular. I loved the Hollywood/Art Deco theming. I changed into my swimming suit, and headed down to the pool. Beautiful pool with a nice slide. There was also a playground, and I saw some supervised children’s activities taking place out on the lawn.

 

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After my rest, I left the hotel, and walked over to check out the Disneyland Hotel. This hotel is themed very similarly to the Grand Floridian, and was very beautiful. Following my quick tour, I headed back to the park (total walking time from Hollywood Hotel to the park was about 20 minutes, 10 minutes from the Disneyland hotel).

Once back inside the park, I headed to Adventureland, and did the Jungle River Cruise. The lines for the cruise are divided into three languages, English, Cantonese, and one other local language (can’t remember what it was). I chose the English line, and was onboard in about 5 minutes. The cruise was great, and the CM was very funny. Following the cruise, I took the raft to Tarzan’s Treehouse, and toured that. It was very nicely done, but I missed the Swiss Family Robinson. After taking the raft back, I stopped at a counter service restaurant and picked up some very good chicken curry for dinner.

I still had about an hour and a half before the fireworks, so I went back to Tomorrowland and rode Space Mountain again. Then I went to Fantasyland and rode Pooh again. I had my longest wait of the day on this ride (about 10 minutes). Next I went to the railroad, and took the train all the way around the park. At this point, it was getting close to fireworks time, so I headed down Main Street and took a peek at the Story of Hong Kong Disneyland exhibit. Then outside for the fireworks, which were really great, and accompanied by scenes from various Disney movies projected onto the wall of Sleeping Beauty’s castle.

Well, by this time I was pooped, and had ridden every ride other than the Orbitron (sort of like the Astro Obiters at WDW). I went back to the hotel, and had a good rest. Next morning I had breakfast at Chef Mickey’s (nice buffet, no characters), packed and checked out. Taxi from the hotel to the airport took about 30 minutes. I had a great visit, and hope to return some day (with the family!).

Any questions, please ask.

 

[barryb]

Thanks Wintergreen for the great trip report. It's brought back lots of memories!!!!

I visited HKDL in September and also stayed in the Hollywood Hotel for 5 nights!!!! We had a great time and loved the whole resort.

Next time you should definitely do a trip into mainland China. This is soooo well worth it too.

Anyhow here's photos and videos from my trip: http://www.barrybedford.com/hongkongdisneyland/index.html

Enjoy,
BarryB.

 

[OhMari]

Glad to know parents aren't throwing their kids over the fence-remember Opening Day.

Is there only one park? Sorry, I should read up on HKDW.

 

[LOLA2]

Next time check out DisneySea for me won't ya???

 

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[wintergreen]

Thanks Wintergreen for the great trip report. It's brought back lots of memories!!!!

I visited HKDL in September and also stayed in the Hollywood Hotel for 5 nights!!!! We had a great time and loved the whole resort.

Next time you should definitely do a trip into mainland China. This is soooo well worth it too.

Anyhow here's photos and videos from my trip: http://www.barrybedford.com/hongkongdisneyland/index.html

Enjoy,
BarryB.

Enjoyed your pictures, Barry. And yes, mainland China is on "The List." ("The List" being all of those places in the world that I would someday like to visit. It is amazing how it expands, rather than contracts, as I visit more places in the world.) I was fortunate that the business meetings I was attending in HK also included some sightseeing in and around Hong Kong, so I got to see more of the area than just HKDL.

 

[wintergreen]

Glad to know parents aren't throwing their kids over the fence-remember Opening Day.

Is there only one park? Sorry, I should read up on HKDW.

Yes, there is only one park, and it is small compared to the other Disney parks. I think that the idea was to proceed cautiously, and not to overextend, with the ability to do further expansions, if there is proven demand. In any case, it was nice that I got to see pretty much the whole thing, as I was only there for one day!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Thanks for the report- I'd love to go there someday! Neat that the jungle cruise line was split by language! (Was the 3rd one maybe Mandarin?)

 

[TLinden16]

What a neat experience! That is too funny that you met a family from your hometown.

Thanks for posting.

 

[averill94]

Thanks for the post. What a wonderful experience! I was surprised to hear they had the same/similar attractions.
Yes it is a small world!

 

[wintergreen]

Thanks for the report- I'd love to go there someday! Neat that the jungle cruise line was split by language! (Was the 3rd one maybe Mandarin?)

Yup, I think that it was Mandarin. It was listed as "Potunghua," but I believe that is Mandarin.

 

[horsegirl]

Wow, tough job going to China for business! Thanks so much for your report. Are you fluent in Marndarin? How did you figure out everything?

I would love to get to Asia, someday....

 

[wintergreen]

Wow, tough job going to China for business! Thanks so much for your report. Are you fluent in Marndarin? How did you figure out everything?

I would love to get to Asia, someday....

Yup, I'm lucky to have a job where I get to travel to some pretty interesting places! Believe me, I am not fluent in anything other than English, but fortunately, that was not a problem--in Hong Kong anyway!!!

 

[wendylovesdisney]

I was there in November and what I remember is that the Chinese were very pushy... in lines, etc. I got trampled a few times. Also some of the food was pretty interesting. When I went to get a Mickey Ice cream bar they also had green tea flavored ice cream! They also had a lot of fruit and some fish dishes. I had my Chinese adopted daughter with me and the cast members made a very big deal over her.
-Wendy

 

[5disneyfreaks]

I really enjoyed your post. DH and I were just talking about doing a trip to Hong Kong last night. No lie. We were daydreaming of future trips and were would like to go. I think it would be fun.