We took the MTR from Mongkok station to Sunny Bay (欣澳), then to Disneyland Resort station (迪士尼). The MTR from Sunny Bay to Disneyland Resort is decorated with Disney touches, so the children were very excited to board it. Even the Disneyland Resort station has Disney touches.
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| MTR from Sunny Bay to Disneyland Resort |
We were lugging luggage so after reaching we took the free shuttle bus from the station to Disney Hollywood Hotel, where we're staying for a night. We bought Hong Kong Disneyland tickets at the hotel. The 2-day tickets cost HK$585 per adult and HK$415 per child.
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| Hong Kong Disneyland entrance |
By the time we are ready to enter Disneyland it's about 11am. Right before our eyes, there were some tourists who ran all the way to the entrance :P At the entrance, Disneyland staff check our bags and backpacks, when I asked the guy told us they are looking for canned foodstuff hahahaa. Our water bottles and leftover buns from breakfast didn't attract their attention.
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| Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad |
First stop at Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad. This takes us around the park at leisurely pace. Narration is in 3 languages, English, Mandarin and Cantonese (which is too much for us who knows all of the languages). There's a stopover at Fantasyland but we took the whole route then only stop at Fantasyland for the 2nd round. During the ride, some of the tourists were so excited seeing fake mechanical elephants in Adventureland that they have to be reminded by the crew to remain seated while the train is moving (which they ignored anyway). According to
Disney website, HK Disneyland Railraod will be closed from 17 Feb 2014 until 2015 for construction of Iron Man Experience.
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| Lunch at Royal Banquet Hall at Fantasyland |
By the time we got to Fantasyland, it's 12pm so we went for a quick lunch before the crowd. We're about the few families having our meal there and we could go around and choose without any queue yet. It's HK$186 for baked pork chop rice and beef brisket set.
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| Cinderella Carousel at Fantasyland |
After lunch, the children wanted to go for rides. We only allowed them to go on Cinderella Carousel as it's just after taking a meal. The crowd is quite big so it's a rather long wait of more than 30 minutes.
Then we saw Disney characters at Fantasy Gardens, so we join the queue to take photo. Only a short queue for Goofy and Pluto. Just our luck, there's a change of shift of the characters so we had to wait about 5 minutes for Mickey when it's our turn. Can use own camera, but the staff will still take with theirs so that they can sell you the photo :)
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| Children taking photo with Goofy and Pluto |
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| Family photo with Pluto, he's cheeky and the children loved him. Kids with Mickey. |
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| Family photo with Mickey Mouse at Fantasy Gardens. |
Next we went quickly to see the Flights of Fantasy Parade which starts at 1pm. We were just in time for the parade is going past Sleeping Beauty Castle.
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| Flights of Fantasy Parade. This is the float with Mickey and Friends on it. |
After the parade, we are back to Fantasyland for more rides. Dumbo the Flying Elephant is quite a popular ride and the waiting time is almost 45 minutes! The children are taking this ride on their own. 爸爸 is bringing the children for rides, while I wait around :P
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| Dumbo the Flying Elephant |
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| Dumbo the Flying Elephant |
Next, it's another ride, the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. All of us took this family ride.
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| The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Photo with Winnie the Pooh at Fantasy Gardens after the ride. |
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| Family photo with Winnie the Pooh. And more Pooh outside Pooh Corner. |
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| Sleeping Beauty Castle |
Then it's off to Adventureland for Jungle River Cruise. It seems on the day we went, there were more English language boats so we took this one to cut short the waiting time :) The Jungle River Cruise took us to see fake mechanical animals which moved (hahahaha!), and there's suppose to be some parts where we got wet (but the skipper probably took pity on us so she skipped that wet part). Last part is where controlled fire flames out with smoke, and it's really smelly and smoky :)
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| Jungle River Cruise at Adventureland, passing by Tarzan's Treehouse |
After that, we move on to Toy Story Land, and the children wanted to have a ride on Slinky Dog Spin. It's about a 40 minute wait as most kids will go on this. We don't allow them to go on the RC Racer as it looks too scary for kids :P
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| Slinky Dog Spin at Toy Story Land |
Then we go to Mystic Point, the ride is at Mystic Manor. The children say some parts of the ride was jerky but it was not scary. I was waiting outside munching on popcorn (HK$38 per pack), it's delicious! There are more photo opportunities here at Garden of Wonders but we gave it a pass. It's here that I saw some children asking the crew for Disney stickers, so I shared this with the children and they start asking the crew for stickers at every opportunity.
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| Magneto-Electric Carriage at Mystic Manor |
Next we reach Grizzly Gulch, and the children went with 爸爸 for Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. There's a minimum height guide of 112cm. 姐姐 got pinched by the seatbelt when the staff helped her put it on, and she bumped her leg here which gave her a bruise so she didn't like the ride. Actually she liked the ride but she didn't like the part where she got hurt. I waited for them at the Geyser Gulch, seeing the bubbling waters (not sure these are real or fake) :P
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Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars at Grizzly Gulch.
This photo is taken the next day :) |
By now, I'm hungry for dinner so we went to Main Street to look for our meal. It's getting dark and cold.
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We had dinner at Plaza Inn by Maxim's. Food portion is large, so we couldn't finish them.
Dinner is HK$505 for 3 big dishes, with Chinese tea and rice. |
After dinner, we went back to Fantasyland, as the children would like to take Dumbo the Flying Elephant ride again, but the waiting time is still 45 minutes. So make to do with taking photo of Dumbo.
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| Around Fantasyland in the evening |
Then we decided to go for photo with Minnie since she is still working. I didn't want to stand in queue so taking a rest while waiting for them. Just our luck as there's a change of shift right before the children's turn so it's another 5 minutes wait while Minnie took a break.
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| Photo with Minnie Mouse at Fantasy Gardens |
There's still time for more rides before Fantasyland closes for "Disney in the Stars" Fireworks so we went for It's A Small World, and Mad Hatter's Tea Cup. No queue at all at It's A Small World at this time. It's a little boat ride and fancy clockwork cute stuff to see during the ride. 姐姐 requested for another go at It's A Small World as she likes it, and gave her painful legs a rest. My ears are ringing of It's A Small World when we finally finished the 2 times ride.
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| It's A Small World at Fantasyland. The lights and mechanical movements of the clock is quite amazing. |
The favourite teacup ride, but 爸爸 gave it a miss as he don't like the spinning (especially after a full dinner).
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| Mad Hatter Tea Cups |
Still a little time left before the fireworks, so we check out Tomorrowland as we intend to go "tomorrow". The children liked this too.
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| Orbitron at Tomorrowland. Looks fancy lighted up at night. |
After that it's almost time for grand fireworks. Maybe the location I was at is not strategic, and I couldn't sit on the ground. I didn't really fancy it but the children enjoyed. We rested a while and went window-shopping for the crowd to clear a little first before going out.
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| The crowd at Main Street |
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| Good night Hong Kong Disneyland! |
We took the free shuttle bus back to Disney's Hollywood Hotel. The children loved it here as there are many touches of Disney everywhere. Me, I get kind of sick of the sight of the friend with big ears :P There is no central heating at the hotel, so they provided us with oil heater (in the picture below). It did provide relief from the cold of Hong Kong winter for us from the tropics.
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| Disney's Hollywood Hotel. The white device that looks like heatsink is an oil heater. |
The next morning, it's Hong Kong Disneyland again for us. We didn't finish the rides partly because of the waiting time during this time of the year, and partly because we didn't really want to rush ourselves. On the second day, we started off with Tomorrowland. 爸爸 and 弟弟 went for Space Mountain, while 姐姐 gave it a pass as she didn't want any more rides giving her bruises. She went for Stitch's Encounter with me. It's just a short show with Stitch making jokes with the audience. The session we went is in Mandarin. By now, 姐姐 already got the idea of asking for Disney stickers from the crew.
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| Space Mountain and in front of Autopia at Tomorrowland |
The ride 弟弟 really wanted to go on is Autopia. But from yesterday and this morning, there is no chance to go yet as the waiting time is 45 minutes or more.
Next ride we went is Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. It's like a computer game where we target the lighted area and those we hit, we will get points (although all is in the name of fun and no actual rewards for the game). It will be closed from 17 Feb 2014 until 2016 for construction of Iron Man Experience according to
Disney website.
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| Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters at Tomorrowland |
After we finished the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters ride, we saw Buzz Lightyear outside, so definitely the children queued for the photo opportunity. Again, our luck that it's Buzz' break time right before our turn, so another wait before he came back to work.
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| Photo with Buzz Lightyear at Tomorrowland |
Then we went for mid-morning snack of Mickey Waffle at Main Street Market. Hehe, taste is so-so only (and forgot the price).
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| Mickey Waffle at Main Street Market |
After that, we went to Adventureland to take Raft to Tarzan's Treehouse. The raft can take many people at one time so there's not much waiting time. But Tarzan's Treehouse is really, how to describe it. Totally man-made. The big tree is man-made. The leaves are fake (probably only a few of the shrubs are real). The baby elephant at the little river is fake :) Anyway, they didn't promote that it's real, it's a theme park ok :P
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| Raft to Tarzan's Treehouse at Adventureland |
Next, we waited for Toy Soldier Parachute Drop at Toy Story Land, sigh, 40 minutes wait. The children thinks it's high and fun, just a little scary. We have to let the children take the ride before lunch so that they don't go on such ride with full stomach.
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| Toy Soldier Parachute Drop at Toy Story Land |
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Lunch at Starliner Diner at Tomorrowland, kids' meal in lunchbox (lunch is HK$282 for fastfood).
爸爸 and 弟弟 saw the parade again. |
After lunch, we went for Mickey's Philamagic. It's a 3D show with Disney characters. Later, we went separate ways as 弟弟 still have eyes for Autopia. 姐姐 and I were going for The Golden Mickeys, not knowing it's a musical. I thought it's a cartoon show. First time we went it's already closed. So we took a short break for snack of Mickey shape jelly, which costs me HK$22 for one. We queued for the next session of The Golden Mickeys just in time. The musical is narrated in Cantonese, so it sounds kind of funny :) There's translation in English on the screen (at the side).
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| Mickey jelly and The Golden Mickeys (a musical). |
Right before the show starts, 爸爸 messaged me saying they did not go for Autopia as the waiting time is 75 minutes! So they waited for us to finish The Golden Mickeys.
While we were passing by Sleeping Beauty Castle, just happen to see Belle in photo session so we queued for photo as well. Terrible, right before our turn the crew interrupted as they say some girl wanted an autograph from Belle (what, is there such a thing).
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| Family photo with Belle at Sleeping Beauty Castle |
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| Children with Belle |
We just took a short restroom break after our photos. Then it was 2 princesses, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty there. But the crew don't let us join the queue as they say closed for queue and the next session is at 5:30pm. So we went for afternoon tea set at Main Street Corner Cafe, one set is meant for two. The children loved it. This set alone costs HK$327, and it comes with 2 drinks of our choice. Only a piece of chocolate cake and a piece of watermelon in Mickey shape. The rest are just normal stuff. But the food actually taste quite good in my opinion.
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| Afternoon tea set at Main Street Corner Cafe |
After we finished tea, we went back to Sleeping Beauty Castle but queue already closed again. Aiyo, really teruk. So we only have photo with one princess. It's difficult to arrange the time between photo sessions and rides, and most photo opportunities are just coincidental for us.
After that, we went for souvenir shopping and got back early from Hong Kong Disneyland to avoid the crowd. Taking our luggage from hotel to the station, it took nearly 1 hour and lots of packing with sardines to reach our next hotel.
Dimsum dinner at restaurant next our hotel.
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| Dimsum |
So is Hong Kong Disneyland one of the happiest place on Earth? Hehe, it's just an advertising gimmick. It's crowded so the queues are long at the time we went. This kind of killed some of the joy, although waiting in the cool weather is not so bad. It seems that the weather at Hong Kong Disneyland is kind of cooler than the city area, I see Chinese tourists (who must be used to the cold weather from their own country) bundled up in full winter gear of puffy jackets, scarves, hats and boots. The Chinese children are even more bundled up. It must not be a nice time to go for Princess make-over as it's too cold for the Princess costume and the girls were layered with sweaters underneath, it takes out the purpose of dressing up as princess, you know. There are plenty of water fountains near the toilets, so getting water is not a problem, but hot water is only available from the food outlets. This being Disneyland, everything is expensive, including food, snacks and souvenirs, so don't ask about prices. Especially our own currency is so low compared to HK Dollar, sigh.
They no longer give out Disney stickers proactively, so the children have to keep asking the crew for it. They became quite well-versed in asking for stickers by the second day. You can even get stickers from the Disney hotels :) Most staff speak Cantonese, Mandarin and English fluently so there's no problem getting around. At the time we visit, most visitors are Chinese tourists, only a very small number of families are other nationalities (maybe it's not travelling season for other countries?). Strangely, there were far more adults than kids visiting Hong Kong Disneyland. For every child, there seems to be 3 or 4 accompanying adults. Later I remembered the one-child policy and one tour guide mentioned Hong Kong locals usually don't have more than 2 children due to the high expense and cramped lifestyle. There are quite a number of couples on dates and groups of friends too. So to 姐姐 and 弟弟, it didn't seem fair as they say the rides are children rides, but they have to stand in queue a long time to wait because the adults occupied their rides. They say children should be given priority in queue and the adults should be waiting instead :P It did seem strange that adults not accompanying children are riding on Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Slinky Spin Dog, Buzz Lightyear Astro Busters. Anyway, Disneyland probably made a lot more money out of adults than children so that's why they didn't prioritize rides for children. Most rides do not have minimum height limitation except those scarier ones like Space Mountain, Runaway Mine Car, RC Racer, Toy Soldier Parachute Drop etc.
Even with 2 days at Hong Kong Disneyland, even though it is not considered a big themepark, we walked until our legs hurt. Probably I'm not much in the mood for walking. Especially with the waiting time for photo session with the Disney characters, it's not published anywhere who is going to be available at what time, so it's quite frustrating for those of us with limited time. Our experience at Sleeping Beauty Castle is the worst, missing all the sessions except one with Belle.
The children being children, still liked Hong Kong Disneyland even though they are frustrated with the queue. Even though in brochures it's already stated entire party must queue together, most of the time those tourists from a certain country will assign someone to queue and then the party will conveniently cut in front of us. When we walk slower in the line, they will conveniently rush in front of us (especially those lines with wide lanes) and stand in front pretending as if queue starts not at the beginning but depends on how fast you walk along the way. There are no staff to stop them as it's already past staff manning points and before the next gate. Even though they are supposed to have 5000 years of culture but that's their style. And man, they are loud and holler all over the park too :D Actually the quality of the crowd killed some of the enjoyment, so hopefully if we go to other Disneylands (in other countries) in the future we will not experience the same unpleasantness.
Maybe it's because we visit on Friday and Saturday (due to our schedule and the way we arrange hotel stay), that's why we face crowds like this. Next time hopefully we still have chance to visit Disneyland themepark elsewhere, and we can arrange to visit on a weekday in the middle of the week, it would not be so crowded and queue times might be shorter.
