Hong Kong Disneyland

I arrived at Hong Kong International Airport (Chep Lap Kok) around 10:30 pm. Hong Kong Disneyland is located on Lantau Island, west of the more populous areas. There are three colors of taxis in Hong Kong, red, green, and blue, each color assigned to different parts of the city. We needed a blue Lantau taxi but at this late hour, all we saw were reds and greens. We convinced a green taxi driver to take us to Lantau and by midnight, we were in our room at the Hollywood Hotel. The Hollywood Hotel would be the equivalent of a moderate resort at Walt Disney World. The décor is Art Deco. There is a lot of wood and chrome – very southern California! Amenities at the hotel include take-home Classic Mickey slippers for the whole family, toiletries (the bottles have Mickey ears!), stationery, and free bottled water. There were also robes in the closet to use during our stay. Your other option for lodging is the deluxe Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, a copy of Disney's Grand Floridian Resort.

My hotel room rate was 1100HKD ($142US) per night during Regular season for a standard Garden View room (the other choices are Sea View or Park View). You can purchase park admission at the hotel's reception desk. Unlike the American parks, there do not seem to be legitimate discount ticket brokers and there is no difference in price between advance purchase and gate price. There are three types of park tickets, Regular, Peak, and Special. We visited on Friday, a Regular day. Peak tickets are for weekends and school vacation periods. Special tickets are for specific dates, such as the one-week New Year’s vacation, Golden Week, or Christmas. There are three levels of pricing - Adult (11-65), Child (3-11), and Seniors (65+). Our Regular Adult tickets were 295HKD ($38US).

We woke early and shared a breakfast of chow mein and mango pudding ($4US) at the Hollywood & Dine counter service restaurant. Afterwards, we walked around the grounds, checking out the pool, concessions, and playground, all of them retro-Southern California-themed. It was a bit chilly that morning (<70°F), but there were swimmers, probably just for the novelty of a pool. We left our bags with bell services and using park buses, we made it to the park before rope drop at 10:00 am.

The park is strikingly small. There are four lands: Main Street, USA (which is a truncated version of the American ones), Adventureland (looks familiar), Fantasyland (which is very small compared to Orlando’s jam-packed area), and Tomorrowland (with the familiar Orbitron from Disneyland Paris and the imposing Space Mountain building). What’s immediately obvious is what is NOT there. I kept saying things like, “What do you mean there’s no It’s a Small World? How can there not be a Pirates ride?” Sleeping Beauty Castle is, frankly, stubby in comparison to Cinderella Castle. It’s surrounded by a moat, but there is nothing inside it. The two restaurants in Fantasyland (Royal Banquet Hall and Clopin’s Festival of Foods inspired by “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”) are actually located in side buildings behind the castle. To the right of the castle is Snow White Grotto, with its wishing well. It’s pretty and different, but not much more than a quiet photo op.

As the park caters mainly to Asian tourists (particularly visitors from Mainland China), Disney planned lots of “photo op spots” throughout the park. Interestingly, outside some of the ride attractions, there were ride vehicles for photo ops so that you could get a clear picture without experiencing the ride itself.

We headed for Tomorrowland first. Although they do offer the FastPass system, there was no need for us to use it at all, the park was not crowded. The longest posted wait time was ten minutes. Space Mountain is currently the only thrill ride at the park. It is a smooth ride, really dark (couldn’t see my hand in front of my face), and fast! There is also music that accompanies this ride that I found irritating after a while.

Next we headed to the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, which we did at least three times. We stopped for lunch at Comet Café in Tomorrowland. We had spareribs, which came with rice, steamed vegetables, and tea. There are plenty of places to get food, both counter and table service. Most feature Chinese food from different regions, but the Starliner Diner is Hong Kong’s answer to Cosmic Ray’s. Also located in Tomorrowland, it has the usual burgers and chicken.