TR~ Friday, Jan 4th in HKDL *LAST-9/22-Getting Tired*

[YukiPhnx]

Hi all! I'm fresh off the plane from HK and can't wait to share with you my one day in HKDL. Since I took so many pictures, I'll be splitting my posts up according to land.

Just some deets for now. My name is Yuki and I went to HK with my fiance Andrew. We spent 2.5 weeks in Taiwan and HK, visiting family. For this day trip, his sister's family joined us with her 3 small children and his parents showed up in the afternoon. We stayed in an Airbnb apartment in Wan Chai and took the MTR to HKDL. It was a chilly Winter's day on Lantau Island.

I'm going to try to provide as much info as I can, while everything is still fresh in my head. If you have any questions, please ask away!

 

[YukiPhnx]

Contents

Getting There
Getting In
Getting Shrunk
Getting Shrunk-more pictures
Getting Adventurous
Getting Grizzly
Getting Crowded
Getting Tired


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[Candycane83]

Can't wait to hear your thoughts. I'm from Toronto too and am going to HK and the Philippines in May. I was thinking about going to HKDL but am wondering if it's worth it. My husband and I just went to WDW in November so it might be a disappointment?

Anyway, hope you have a great time!

 

[dizneeat]

Okay I am here.

Now I need to go back and read.

 

[PennyLane1084]

Can't wait to hear all about it Yuki! I made it on the first page. Yay!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Joining in too.

 

[zanzibar138]

I'm here - looking forward to reading all about your adventures

 

[jenshell75]

Hi Yuki,

I can't wait to hear all about your trip to HKDL. I'm heading to HKDL for Christmas and I want to learn as much as possible about HKDL and Hong Kong.

jen

 

[YukiPhnx]

Can't wait to hear your thoughts. I'm from Toronto too and am going to HK and the Philippines in May. I was thinking about going to HKDL but am wondering if it's worth it. My husband and I just went to WDW in November so it might be a disappointment?

Anyway, hope you have a great time!

Hooray, another Torontonian! If you are a Disney fan, HKDL is worth it. I've been to WDW 3 times now and I still loved HKDL. It has its own charms and as long as you're not looking for another WDW in Hond Kong, you won't be disappointed. They have some great rides you can only find in HKDL.

Okay I am here.

Now I need to go back and read.

I'll give you more to read soon!

Can't wait to hear all about it Yuki! I made it on the first page. Yay!

Woohoo!

Joining in too.

I'm here - looking forward to reading all about your adventures

Great to have you here!

Hi Yuki,

I can't wait to hear all about your trip to HKDL. I'm heading to HKDL for Christmas and I want to learn as much as possible about HKDL and Hong Kong.

jen

Oooh, Christmas time is a great time to be in Hong Kong. Their decorations are INTENSE and it's still pretty warm.

 

[BillyBuff]

Are you there yet? Are you there yet? Are you there yet?? lol

I want to go back to visit all the other stuff I missed!

 

[YukiPhnx]

Are you there yet? Are you there yet? Are you there yet?? lol

I want to go back to visit all the other stuff I missed!

Haha, I'm already back from it! Looks like our trips had very similar goals, to meet our SO's families. Well...I met some family I've never seen before. This is what happens when your grandfather had 3 wives and had 2 other brothers that also had multiple wives.

 

[YukiPhnx]

Real life tidbit 1

One of my co-workers just asked me if I got anything cool in Hong Kong. Excitedly, I told her I got a hat that looks like Stitch is eating my head (I should take a pic to post).

She stared at me for a sec, then slowly said, "Right....You said you were going to Disneyland like, 50 times before you left."

Ahahah, my Disney obsession weirds people out.

 

[__disneygirl]

OMG I'm super excited to read this!! You are SO lucky you got to go! I wanna see that Stitch eating your head hat as well.

 

[zanzibar138]

One of my co-workers just asked me if I got anything cool in Hong Kong. Excitedly, I told her I got a hat that looks like Stitch is eating my head (I should take a pic to post).

She stared at me for a sec, then slowly said, "Right....You said you were going to Disneyland like, 50 times before you left."

Ahahah, my Disney obsession weirds people out.

I would definitely also be interested in seeing that hat

I get some weird looks occasionally relating to my Disney obsession too, but all the important people in my life have gotten used to it. I don't really care what the others think

 

[jenshell75]

I can't wait for photos

 

[PennyLane1084]

Real life tidbit 1

One of my co-workers just asked me if I got anything cool in Hong Kong. Excitedly, I told her I got a hat that looks like Stitch is eating my head (I should take a pic to post).

She stared at me for a sec, then slowly said, "Right....You said you were going to Disneyland like, 50 times before you left."

Ahahah, my Disney obsession weirds people out.

That's awesome Yuki! Hater gonna hate! Can't wait to see the hat.

 

[YukiPhnx]

OMG I'm super excited to read this!! You are SO lucky you got to go! I wanna see that Stitch eating your head hat as well.

I would definitely also be interested in seeing that hat

I get some weird looks occasionally relating to my Disney obsession too, but all the important people in my life have gotten used to it. I don't really care what the others think

I can't wait for photos

That's awesome Yuki! Hater gonna hate! Can't wait to see the hat.

Ok, I'll post pics of the hat later tonight. It's super cute and believe it or not, even though I'm the Stitch-lover, it was Andrew that fell for the hat.

 

[YukiPhnx]

Getting There

I'm going to do things a little differently for this TR. I'm going to type up a post and insert photos later, at the end of the post. That way, I can still update at work even though photobucket is blocked, and y'all don't have to wait as long! Here it goes!

Our trip to HK was to visit family that lived in North Point on Hong Kong Island, so we chose to stay on Hong Kong Island to be close to them. We rented an apartment on www.airbnb.com. If you haven't already checked this site out, you should! I highly recommend it. Our apartment was a short 5 min walk away from the Wan Chai MTR station.

The park opens at 10am but as an experienced DISer, I knew to be there much earlier than that. I had initially planned to get there an hr ahead but am glad I got there at 9:30am instead. The MTR is a great way to get to HKDL because you get to ride the Disneyland train! A subway that is themed like the TDL monorail with Mickey windows, handle bars, and miniature statues of Disney characters.

We got to the Wan Chai station at 8:40am and got to the Disneyland station by 9:20am. Exactly 40 minutes. We saw a lot of other people on the train with us and started getting worried that maybe we showed up too late. It turns out the majority of the other passengers on the train at that time was just heading to work in the parks. The cast member entrance is actually right around the corner from the Disneyland station and we saw a lot of cast members disappear into the bush.

It was pretty interesting to pick out the other Disney fans amoungst us. They were the ones stopping to take pictures of everything while everyone walked by us. I saw a couple of solo Disney fans throughout the day, probably doing the same thing I was doing, and documenting every part of my trip in photos. Kindred spirits!

The hotels are situated very close to the Disneyland station, which is about a 10 min walk from the entrance of the park. I can't wait to explore them on future trips. So after you exit the station, you walk this long path with a fountain at the end. My favourites are Donald and Daisy's statues. After the fountain, you head to your right and towards the entrance of the park where you can buy park tickets if you haven't already done so.

There was no line when we got there at 9:30am. We bought tickets for us and my future sister-in-law's family. They didn't think the kids would be able to wait in line for 30mins at the gate, so they chose to show up closer to 10am. 9:30am seems like the perfect time to show up on a weekday if you want to be at the front of the gates. The crummy weather might also have something to do with that. It was VERY cold and windy on that day and never really warmed up. I would suggest to watch the weather reports and dress warmly. Hats and mittens are recommended.

This was my first time in a Disney park with small children in my group. My future neices are 5 and 3 and future nephew is 2. They were a very last minute addition to our group, having decided to fly to HK from Taiwan only a week before. I had to change my plans slightly to accommodate them and keep their needs in mind. I still had a great time and definitely did things I wouldn't usually have done!

Looking back on the station we just came from.

You can see the CM entrance to the right of this picture.

You can buy tickets here. If you bought online tickets, you can pick them up from kiosks located right behind these.

The gates are open!!!

I was expecting some sort of rope-drop show. This is all we got. Mickey and Minnie came out and waved to the crowd. A chosen family was given a key to Mainstreet USA? I have no idea because nothing was said to the crowd. Stuff just...happened. So I took pictures.

I LOVE this shot. Seeing all those people behind me in line.

Next up: Getting In

 

[PrincessInOz]

Thanks for sharing that site. Seems like a great way to look for accommodation.

Looking forward to seeing how park entry went for you and the extended family.

 

[zanzibar138]

Looking forward to seeing the pics! Besides being annoying, it always amused me that work had blocked photobucket, but not facebook or any of the forums that I was part of, which were always a much bigger time waster

Anyway, back to your trip...

I loved the Disney train too, thought it was so cute with the Mickey windows! And the fountain - I like Donald and Pluto And I particularly loved not having to get up at the crack of dawn to go and line up to get into the park

The hotels are definitely worth checking out too for next time.

Looking forward to seeing how your trip is influenced by the kids in your party and what things you did that you wouldn't have normally done.