Hong Kong Disneyland is one of the most MAGICAL parks in the world and I had the BEST experience here. I visited the park from Nov. 17-19 and it was the perfect time of year (IMO). It was about 60-70 degrees and the crowds were pretty reasonable (even with it being a weekend and Mickey’s 90th birthday).
Before even booking this trip, I knew I wanted to stay on property at a Disney resort. Having experienced both on and off-property Disney vacations, I almost ALWAYS choose on-property for the many perks it provides. This time was no different. I found an incredible deal for the Disneyland Hotel and decided to splurge on a two-night stay there. At Hong Kong Disneyland there aren’t “magic hours” but staying at a Disney hotel did get me 10 extra FastPasses which I could use on all of the most popular rides.
I got in so late on my first night that I pretty much went straight to bed (but not before geeking out over how amazing my room was). The next morning I woke up at 7am and headed downstairs to see what my breakfast options were. The park doesn’t open until 10am which I’m not used to, so I figured I’d get a head start on the day. I headed down to Walt’s Café. Here you can choose off of the menu or you can do the breakfast buffet. The buffet didn’t have much more than some fruit and bakery items so I decided to get the eggs benedict off the menu. They were pretty dang good but it did take about 30 minutes to get my breakfast (I think they forgot about me). From there I headed out to the park.
I arrived outside the park at about 9:30am and got in line for the day. When I got into the park I went directly over to Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Car. It was incredible. I road it three times in a row and then decided to move on to other things – mainly Mystic Manor, and you guys, OH MY GOODNESS is that ride good! Totally lives up to the hype. I went on this one twice in a row too. Not sure my day could have started out any better!
Next up was Toy Story Land, so I headed over that direction to take some photos. I didn’t go on any of the rides since they were the same as the rides in Paris and I wanted to see what else was in the park. I walked through Fantasyland, grabbed a drink at Clopin’s Festival of Foods, and then made my way back down Main Street and out of the park to go back to my hotel. (I had lunch reservations at the Crystal Lotus and was SUPER psyched.)
When I arrived back at the hotel, I took a few moments to relax and grab some new things from my room and then I headed to my reservation. Lunch was sublime. This is the only restaurant in Hong Kong Disneyland where you can get the infamous Disney Dim Sum (the cutest food you’ll ever eat). In case you’re wondering, the Mickey scallion pancakes were the highlight for me.
After lunch I headed back into the park to watch the Flights of Fantasy parade, which was very reminiscent of Walt Disney’s World. Then I headed to Tomorrowland to use a FastPass on the Iron Man Experience. I had heard mixed things about this ride before arriving but I actually really loved it. It uses the same technology as Star Tours but it’s set in the Marvel universe. As someone who is a much bigger Marvel fan than Star Wars (I know, don’t hate me), I personally enjoyed this version a lot more. That said, the ride was a one and done for me because I get motion sickness and felt VERY queasy after getting off of this ride.
After Iron Man, I decided to walk around Fantasyland and found myself in the Fairy Tale Forest right at golden hour. This could not have worked out better and I highly recommend coming here during that time. There are several story retellings throughout the forest and each has an interactive element. It was so magical and unexpected that I actually stayed there for a solid 30 minutes.
Around 6:30/7pm I headed back to Main Street to try and get a good spot for the special Mickey’s 90th anniversary nighttime entertainment scheduled at 9pm. Fans were already starting to claim their spots and I wanted to make sure I was able to get some photos. This was probably the worst decision I made of the day. (I could have used that time to go on some additional rides). Once the show started I couldn’t see ANYTHING because everyone had their cameras and phones in the air. I also didn’t think the show was that impressive (at least compared to some of the other 90th shows I was seeing on social media).
After the show was over I headed to the Royal Banquet Hall to grab some dinner. I was floored by how gorgeous the theming was in there. Sleeping Beauty is my favorite Disney film and I couldn’t get enough of all the nods throughout the Hall. I grabbed some sushi from one of the walk-up counters and then found a table in the Cinderella themed dining hall. This was the last thing I did for the night before taking some nighttime photos and heading back to my hotel to get some sleep.
The next morning I made a reservation at the Enchanted Garden Restaurant for the character breakfast buffet. This was worth every penny, in my opinion. The buffet was the best buffet I’ve ever eaten and had everything from traditional American breakfast items to amazing Asian cuisine (including dumplings, steamed buns, noodles, soups, and more!). The characters also spent a considerable amount of time hanging out at each table and there was always a PhotoPass cast member + a character handler with each character, so lots of people to take photos.
After breakfast I arrived to the park around 9:30am again and this time went straight to the line to meet Santa Goofy. This was my favorite character encounter of my trip (but then again Goofy always is). Goofy was extra playful and creative and I noticed that each family that met Santa Goofy got to spend a considerable amount of time with him. I was with him for at least 5 minutes.
From there I headed to Hyperspace Mountain. This was exactly like Space Mountain ride at Disneyland (which is my favorite Disneyland ride). I then headed to Fantasyland to watch the Mickey and the Wondrous Book on-stage spectacular. This was an amazing retelling of classic Disney tales in both English and Mandarin. There were even some mashups of my favorite Disney tunes. After the show I went on It’s A Small World and it quickly became my favorite version of the ride (that is, until I went on Tokyo Disneyland’s), followed by the Mad Tea Party teacups.
One of the last things on my list was to do Tarzan’s Treehouse. This is a unique experience because you need to take a raft across the water to get to the treehouse and I was told that it was worth checking out. I loved how it was its own separate attraction but it was also very similar to the treehouse at Disneyland so I ended up flying through this experience pretty quickly. I was running out of time before I had to leave and catch my flight and wanted to hit up Mystic Manor one more time. (I wanted to end my day with one of my favorite rides.) I actually ended up doing both Mystic Manor and Big Grizzly Mountain (bonus)! Then I ran over to Tahitian Terrace and grabbed a quick lunch before making my way back to the hotel and finally on to the airport.
The three things I missed were the Jungle River Cruise, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and the Lion King show. If I had skipped the Mickey’s 90th celebration I probably would have been able to get these in. Even without them, I absolutely LOVED my time at this park. I would 100% come back (but think I’ll probably hold off until the new castle is finished in 2020).
Have you been to Hong Kong Disneyland? What were your favorite attractions?
