The Magical World of Hong Kong Disneyland

HongKong Disneyland only for kids?? Of course not.. I haven’t been to a theme park before, even in Malaysia or during my childhood.  A visit to HongKong Disneyland with both my parents during our trip to Shenzhen and Hong Kong was actually my first experience.  I absolutely loved every minute of it. Walking into Hong Kong Disneyland, I feel like I’m in a wonderland.One is given the opportunity to leave all the worries and troubles behind and enjoy this special moment.

We went there by MTR, stopped at the HongKong Disneyland Station. Its a long walk from the train station to the Disneyland entrance. A Welcome Sign, Mickey skateboarding above a whale and Mickey the Magician, all these welcoming you when you reached the main entrance before continuing  your adventure through this amusement park.

statue of Mickey riding on a whale before arriving the entrance gate

at the park entrance

The Main Street USA

The first theme park that we come across is ‘Main Street, U.S.A.’. After the entrance, we walk towards a roundabout with gazebo where Mickey and Minnie waiting inside it to take photos. Everybody lined up to take pictures with them. Because of the long queue, we decided not to join the crowd and just sneak pictures outside of the gazebo. Oh ya, you can find disney character at other locations within the parks too. We manage to snap some picture with Mickey and Goofy at the Fantasy Garden inside the Fantasyland. Meeting the characters was great as you can use your own camera and they really interact with small children, never felt rushed by them. Be aware though that they will go off for short 5 minute breaks frequently.

lots of people queuing to have pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie

posing with Mickey at the Fantasy Garden at Fantasyland

Entering Main Street, I’m amazed by the delicate buildings, dim gas lamp and Paddy Wagon passing by. Antique taxicabs, Disneyland Railroad and the City Hall transports us back to America of the early 20th century. This area consist of big souvenir shops, main restaurants and the city hall (guest relation and information center).

at the Main Street USA

the shops at the Main Street USA

Oh ya, for those who want a quick view overall the park can take a train ride circling the whole park from the Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad station located at the entrance of the Main Street USA with a stop at the Fantasyland Station. You can also onboard from there.

the Disneyland Railroad station nearby the entrance of the park

At the end of the streets, there is a roundabout that will bring you to either Adventureland, Fantasyland or Tomorrowland.

The FantasyLand

The Sleeping Beauty Castle, one of the icon of Disneyland chain is  the entrance to the Fantasyland. It is beautiful, but I personally quite disappointed with its small size, and we can’t even enter the castle. However, the view of the castle at night was magnificent. White castle lighted by colorful light was very beautiful. The castle also is the place where the fireworks show everyday at night. People will gather at every spot of the parks to view the show. Unfortunately, we unable to view the show as we exit the park early to catch the train. We could see the park staff is setting up the equipment for the firework shows when we exit the park.

in front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle

When you are in Fantasyland, look out for Mickey’s Philharmonic Magic. It is a Philharmonic featuring Mickey and Donald using 3-D adventure or should I say 4D movie experience. You’ll be amazed. We all amazed, not just by the 3-D performance, but we actually ‘felt’ the wind blowing and ‘washed’ by the rains. I loved how the food and characters seem to jump at you. But what surprised and delighted me more was the occasional spray of water directed at my face and the delicious smell that wafted in the theater whenever food came out on screen. It is just amazing. No wonder they called it Mickeys PhilHar Magic.  This was one of my favorite shows.

queuing to watch the Mickey Philharmonic Magic 3D show

ready for the 3D show

There is It’s A Small World where moving and singing costumed dolls representing different countries sang the same song in the local dialect. Its quite a fun ride for kids, however you can miss this if you don’t have enough time.

the fun ride at the It’s A Small World

There is also three other rides at this park, all suitable more for kids, The Cinderella Carousel, ride on graceful, prancing horses, The Mad Hatter’s Tea Cup and Dumbo the Flying Elephant. Me and my mother took the cinderella carousel ride and we really feel like kids !!  We really enjoyed our rides.

me and my mom riding the Cinderella Carousel

the Mad Hatters Tea Cup

The Tomorrowland

At the Tomorrowland, find the Space Mountain. It is a thrilling high-speed roller coaster but the difference is that you’ll be riding through the ‘darkness of Outer Space’. You have to try to find out what I meant :). This ride not really advisable for those who had weak hearts and kids, but to my surprise, my mom ride it with me.. tough mom ya..

outside the Space Mountain ride

proof that Mama took this ride.. hehehe

Orbitron is where you pilot your own saucer high above Tomorrowland.  Alas, we weren’t able to partake in this adventure.  The line is too long… There is also Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters but we skipped this as it not appealing to both my parents.

with Buzz Lightyear

The Adventureland

When you arrive at the Adventureland, don’t forget to go to the Tarzan Tree House. Traveling by raft in the Rivers of Adventure, we land at our destination: Tarzan Island. Exploring Tarzan Island and visiting Tarzan’s Treehouse reminds me of the story of this human child raised by gorillas.

river raft to cross the river

riding the river raft to Tarzan Treehouse

at the Tarzan Tree House

at the Tarzan tree house

The Jungle River Cruise also was a really entertaining ride for all ages. Although the queue for the this ride was quite long during our visit, it is worth it. Our captain was a gregarious fellow who never failed to point out all the realistic animals and lots of special effects.

in front of Adventureland entrance

The Flights of Fantasy parade cannot be missed with all Disney Characters dancing around. Almost all of the visitors gathered at the Main Street USA and the officers are gathering to control the crowd and the crowd are trying to find the best spot as possible to take pictures. The parades are great fun and lovely to see all the famous characters like Mickey, Minney, Donald, Goofy, Little Mermaid and many more. The parade was indescribable. Amazing 5 stars performance. The Parade lasted about 45 minutes until the end.

For overall, the Hong Kong Disneyland Park was not really big, sizeable enough for asian kids to have fun and can be explored for just a day.

Love this castle at night

the Main Street USA at night

Food

No outside food is allowed into the park. It is proven true when all begs been checked thoroughly by the officers at the entrance gate before you are allowed to enter the parks. However, bottled drinks are allowed. Luckily I’ve done some rearched much earlier and hide our packed foods inside my towels and sweater in the bags and the officers didn’t noticed it. Oh ya, you can refill your empty bottle at the water station located at nearby every toilets.

For non-muslim, food will not be an issue as each area in the park has it’s own colorful and specially themed restaurant. but of course the price is a bit expensive. However, you should try their cute mickey mouse shape waffle cake.

diner at the Tomorrowland

cute Mickey waffle

For muslim, there is one restaurant that have halal certified by the The Incorporated Trustees of the Islamic Community Fund of Hong Kong, The Tahitian Terrace in Adventureland. In Tahitian Terrace, they serve South Asian specialties, such as Indian vegetarian meals, Middle East Chicken Steak with Rice, Singaporean Laksa Rice Noodle Soup, etc. All food offerings provided by Tahitian Terrace are Halal certified.

Praying area for muslim

Surau are not available in the park, however the staffs are helpfull enough to provide some space for you to pray. We are very gratefull when the staff at the Guest Relation Office at the Main Street USA area allowed us to use one of their room to pray during our visit here.

Tips.

1. Avoid visiting the parks during weekends as it will be full with their local people. Often it could get overcrowded with extremely long waits for rides (quite painful in hot summer days).
2. Buy your entrance ticket much earlier before visiting the park as the queue at the counter can be very long during peak seasons and weekends. The park ticket can be purchased not only at the park but also from most of hotels, travel agents, online website and the official Disneyland booth at few sigthseeing area.  Please do some research because the price might be cheaper than the standard counter price. Some travel agents offering some discount price. We bought ours at the booths at Avenue of Stars, and they give us some HK Disneyland free gift, few cute mickey mouse shaped pencils and cute umbrella.
3. Before you go to the park, get a brochure to be able to plan out your day.  It’ll tell you time slots for shows, picture taking with characters and location, parade, fireworks, and locations of all the rides. Maybe you can start your rides from the further location first.
4. Make sure you were confortable shoes or sandals as you will be walking a lot.
5. Souvenirs were expensive but you wont really find them somewhere else..love the pens,accessories, and cookie box that I bought..no regrets at all.. The disney souvenir sold at the markets in HongKong will only have charactor images, without the HK Disneyland logo. However, you should only browse and check out the price tags first. Don’t buy as yet! You will soon find similar outlets at other parts of the attractions selling the same items at a discount! We found cheap bargain at the Jungle shop for HK Disneyland shirts, 3 for HKD100 only !!
6. If you want to do a bit of shopping after the park, you could go to Tung Chung outlets/Citygate Outlets. It is only few train stop from the park.

How to get there:

Located on Lantau Island near Hong Kong International Airport, Hong Kong Disneyland is easy to get to. Yon can take Disney Resort Line, car, taxi, public bus or coach.

By Disney Resort MTR Line:

Travel by Hong Kong MTR network and change for Disney Resort Line at Sunny Bay Station. The MTR line operates from Sunny Bay from 06:15 – 00:45, from Disneyland Resort Station from 06:20 – 00:40. The frequency is about 4-10 minutes.

At first, we were shocked because the train is ‘different’ where they provide a Disney-theme trains to Disneyland. Not just the colors, even the windows are different. The window looked like Mickey. And the interior is awesome. With exclusive seats and you can’t wait to get there. The Disney train is so cool it has mickey shaped windows, Mickey grab holds from the roof, really, really plush seating and golden Mickey ornaments on display through the cabins

in the Disneyland Train