A land of thrilling rides, enchanting shows, and beloved Disney characters, experience the blend of Eastern and Western cultures of Hong Kong Disneyland. Hong Kong Disneyland is the perfect place for seasoned Disney fans or those seeking a memorable adventure for the whole family.
Here are my tips and common questions for a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland:
How to Navigate the Park?
They have their own app where you can use their map, see wait times, and make reservations. The main lands are Adventureland, Fantasyland, Grizzly Gulch, Main Street USA, Mystic Point, Tomorrowland, Toy Story Land and the newly opened World of Frozen. You enter from Main Street USA, as you do with other Disney Parks, and quickly get the famous view of the castle. This castle unlike the others, is not dedicated to one princess. It is the Castle of Dreams, dedicated to all the Disney heroines and princesses.
Do they Speak English?
The park was very “English” friendly, even more so than the Tokyo Disney Parks. Most cast members spoke at least some English and all the music and shows were in English or had English subtitles.
How to Get there?
Getting to the park was very easy from our hotel. We used Taxis a few times in Hong Kong but for the most part we were able to navigate the metro and buses pretty easily. To go to Hong Kong Disneyland we took a the MTR train system and it worked perfectly.
That being said, one of the biggest challenges was initially purchasing the tickets from their website. The website is translated into English, but for some reason the payment would not go through when we tried to purchase tickets. We tried different credit card, restarting our computer and clearing out cookies… all the things we could think of. Finally, we ended up booking with Klook, it was the same price as the regular site. Then I immediately went to the app to upload ticket information and make sure we had the park day reserved.
What kind of Food is there?
A lot of noodle dishes and many asian foods but there are also typical American foods like pizza and hot dogs. You can check most of the menus on the app to see what food options each restaurant has, so you can plan where you want to eat beforehand.
And there’s even a Starbucks location on Main Street USA, which I highly recommend because Starbucks in Hong Kong has some of the best food options of any Starbucks I’ve ever seen.
We went to Tahitian Terrace in Adventureland because many other reviewers recommended it as a quick service option. I had butter chicken with coconut rice and my husband had a super spicy Seafood Laksa. It was pretty good sized portion and we left satisfied but it was nothing to rave about.
One disappointment for me was the popcorn. Although, I am a popcorn lover the main popcorn flavor they had when I was there was caramel popcorn, the only popcorn flavor I dislike. We did find one popcorn stand that had butter popcorn. I didn’t notice any special popcorn buckets like Tokyo Disney.
Can you bring food and drinks into the park?
You can bring in food and drinks, and you should. I loved the food in HK but I did not love the food at Disney. Although they have a Starbucks, the line can get long and its located all the way near the entrance of the park, which can be inconvenient. Main street bakery had some appealing food choices too but it is right next to Starbucks. I was glad I bought sandwiches from the Bakehouse and brought them, because we ate them in line while waiting for one of the shows, which saved us time and Bakehouse in Hong Kong is sooo good, you have to go.
What to do there?
Don’t miss out on the performances and shows in Hong Kong. Many of the rides are repeats of rides found in other Disney parks, however the shows were truly memorable. Check the app for show times because they only show a few times a day. We lined up 45 mins early, we were by no means first in line but we still got very good seats.
Can’t Miss Shows:
Festival of the Lion King –
I’ve seen this show in DW and Paris Disneyland but this show had the best singers I ever heard. I think Disneyland Paris is still my favorite performance but I loved this show and found it very entertaining.
Mickey and the Wondrous Book-
This is the show I recommend prioritizing. I never saw a show like this before and the story was very creative and cute.
Momentous Night Time Spectacular-
You have to watch the fireworks show to properly end a Disney day, DW and Paris are better because DW uses more impressive fireworks and the Paris drone element is unmatched but it was still good and I thought the water feature part of the show was cool, it reminded me of when the first started the World of Color water show in Disneyland California.
Top Rides and Attractions: (Ranked Best to Most Skippable)
1. Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars
This rollercoaster is similar to Seven dwarfs mine train and Big Thunder Mountain in DW, but it goes backwards
2. Hyperspace Mountain
Unfortunately, this rollercoaster was closed for maintenance when we were there but I heard it is pretty similar to Paris Disneyland’s version and that was one of our favorite rides when we were in Paris.
3. Iron Man Experience
This motion simulation ride is like an upgraded Star Tours (in DW, Paris and Tokyo). It was the best version of this type of ride because the backstory was creative and immersive.
4. Frozen Ever After
A boat ride, very similar to the same ride in Epcot, DW. However, the animatronics had physical faces instead of projection mapping like Epcot’s version.
5. Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs
It’s an outdoor roller coaster, it was fun, had great theming but was way too short.
6. Ant Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle!
This is an omnimover competitive shooting ride is similar to the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. The shooting system seemed more precise but my favorite shooting style game is still Disneyland Paris Spider-man WEB Adventure.
7. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
I love this this relaxed indoor dark ride because it’s very cute and this version was pretty much the same as the other Disney parks.
8. It’s A Small World
This indoor boat ride was actually a little different than the other It’s-a-small-world rides The first thing that stood out to me was the costumes which were way more colorful not the usual pastel versions. Also it contained 38 Disney character dotted throughout the ride (like Bambi, woody, Aladdin and Jasmin, Pocahontas, Ariel, and Lilo and stitch). If you are not a It’s-a-small-world fan, then skip it but to me its quintessential Disney like the nightly fireworks show.
9. Jungle River Cruise
I usually love this classic boat ride, found at many other Disney parks, however although Hong Kong Disneyland is very English friendly, this ride was not. Our tour guide did use some English but mainly when giving instructions.
10. Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad
Relaxing train ride around the park, in my opinion it has better views than the train in DW. It’s good for kids or if you need a rest break but pretty forgettable.
What are my Final Impressions?
Hong Kong Disneyland is pretty small compared to other parks so it’s easy to navigate and I feel like out of all my Disney experiences it’s the most walkable without feeling completely exhausted at the end of the day. We went in February, the weather was good (about 70 degrees F or 21 degrees C) and it was not very crowded, so we never waited more than 30 minutes for a ride. It is a very small park but the rides and tech are still new, so everything worked well and we didn’t experience any delays or ride closures from rides malfunctioning or breaking down. The park ticket was cheap compared to DW but I was surprised at how expensive merchandise was, especially since Tokyo Disney merch is relatively cheap. Also, the food was moderately expensive and just ok.
My favorite land was Toy Story Land because it was adorable with so many little creative details. While I was most excited to see the new World of Frozen Land, in my opinion, it was too small and lacked the imagination of Adventureland or Toy Story Land. I wish it had more theming, better food options and a bigger selection of Frozen merchandise. I do think the Frozen attractions are great and shouldn’t be missed.
Hong Kong Disneyland was unique due to newness of the park, the quality of the shows, and the fact that it wasn’t crowded when we were there.
For more Disney park comparisons, check out our other posts.