Chris and I spent our first full day in Hong Kong at Disneyland.

View other posts in this series:

• Secret Trip Preview
• Destination #1 – Clues
  • Lufthansa A380 First Class
  • Activities in Vienna, Austria
  • Food in Vienna, Austria
  • Park Hyatt Vienna
• Destination #2 – Clues
  • Transit – Vienna, Austria to Florence, Italy
  • Activities in Florence, Italy
  • Day Trip to Pisa
  • Hotel de la Villa (Florence)
• Destination #3 – Clues
  • Transit – Florence, Italy to Milan, Italy
  • Activities in Milan, Italy
  • Restaurant VUN
  • Park Hyatt Milan
• Destination #4 – Clues
  • Transit – Milan, Italy to Zermatt, Switzerland
  • Activities in Zermatt, Switzerland
  • Gornergrat
  • Hotel Matterhorn Focus
• Destination #5 – Clues
  • Glacier Express
  • Activities in Zurich, Switzerland
  • Park Hyatt Zurich
• Destination #6 – Clues
  • Singapore Airlines A380 Suites Class
  • Conrad Maldives Complimentary Food
  • Conrad Maldives Dining
  • Conrad Maldives Water Villa
• Destination #7 – Clues
  • Transit – Maldives to Singapore
  • Activities in Singapore
  • Dining in Singapore
  • Grand Hyatt Singapore
• Destination #8 / 9 – Clues
  • Thai Airways Lounge and First Class
  • Activities in Hong Kong
  • Dining in Hong Kong
  • Hong Kong Disneyland (this post)
  • Ocean Park Hong Kong
  • Day Trip to Macau
  • Hyatt Regency Tsim Sha Tsui
  • Grand Hyatt Hong Kong
• Destination #10 – Clues
  • Cathay Pacific Business Class
  • Activities in Seoul, South Korea
  • Dining in Seoul, South Korea
  • Park Hyatt Seoul
• Asiana A380 First Class

We had pre-purchased our one-day tickets for a discounted price of HKD $450 per adult (cash only) from the China Travel Service Hong Kong Ltd counter (arrivals hall A04 of the Hong Kong International Airport) rather than the full price of HKD $499 from the Disneyland ticket office.

We took the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) from our hotel in the Tsim Sha Tsui area by connecting to the Disneyland Resort Line at Sunny Bay Station. The train was Disney-themed, with Mickey windows, Mickey hanging straps, and Disney characters in display cases throughout the train.

We arrived at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort by 9:30 AM. The gates opened at 10:00 AM, but there were already queues at the entrance. Unlike Disneyland in Anaheim, the security bag checks occurred right before the ticket scan. Once the gates opened, Disneyland attendees raced to their destination. We later realized that these individuals were rushing off to queue for fast passes for Frozen Village. Main Street looked similar to that in Anaheim, but there was no trolley tracks running down the middle of the street. Sleeping Beauty’s Castle also appeared to be smaller in size.

As with any Disneyland trip, I had a plan for visiting the park efficiently and making the best use of our time. We prioritized Grizzly Gulch, Mystic Point, and Toy Story Land, areas not offered at Disneyland in Anaheim (or any other Disneyland parks that we have previously visited).

We started our Disneyland experience with Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars at Grizzly Gulch, which was a mild roller coaster that surprised us with a backwards path on the tracks at the end. We continued with Mystic Manor in Mystic Point, which we originally thought was similar to the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland but was actually a trackless magneto-electric carriage tour of the house and museum of Lord Henry Mystic. Our final priority ride was Slinky Dog Spin (RC Racer was closed for maintenance) in Toy Story Land, themed with Slinky Dog chasing his tail in circles.

We watched a few shows unique (based on our Disney experiences) to the Hong Kong theme park. Chris’s favorite was Mickey’s PhilharMagic in Fantasyland was a 3-D show featuring Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse conducting a medley of songs from popular movies, including Beauty and the Beast, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Peter Pan, and Aladdin. My favorite was the 2:00 PM showing of Festival of the Lion King in Adventureland, which was a live music and dance storytelling performance based on the animated movie.

Because the lines for rides were relatively short (no more than 20 minutes wait for rides in which we were interested), we decided to enjoy a few others, including It’s a Small World in Fantasyland, Space Mountain in Tomorrowland, and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters in Tomorrowland. Fast Passes were only available for two rides, and we used this feature for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in Fantasyland (the wait for Space Mountain was only 10 minutes).

Hong Kong Disneyland Resort food options were theme park priced, but were still cheaper and tastier than similar offerings at Disneyland Resort in Anaheim. We enjoyed a casual lunch from Chopin’s Festival of Foods in Fantasyland. The reasonably priced combo meals included fountain drinks (we did not opt for the premium upcharge for fruit juice). In the afternoon, we snacked on Mickey and Minnie ice cream from the Popcorn, Cotton Candy, Frozen Lollipops Cart in Fantasyland, and Dole Whip from Jessie’s Snack Roundup in Toy Story Land.

We concluded our Hong Kong Disneyland adventure with a ride on the Disneyland Railroad. We disembarked at the Main Street Station, where we saw the end of the Flights of Fantasy Parade before shopping on Main Street.

Hong Kong Disneyland is unquestionably smaller than any of the other Disneyland parks. Since we were done with the park (felt tired and had experienced all our must-do attractions by 4:00 PM), we decided not to wait around until 7:15 PM for Disney Paint the Night Nighttime Spectacular and 8:30 PM for Disney in the Stars Fireworks.