We had a wonderful trip to Hong Kong Disneyland last weekend! I can’t think of a better way to start off my reviews on the attractions, but I’ve to say it again, I love Disneyland so much! It just doesn’t matter what age you are, a trip to Disneyland is always a magical experience.
We took a super early flight to Hong Kong at 6:30am. Waking up at 4am to go for a holiday is also our first-time, but Little Edison was so excited leaving the house when the sky was still dark. On our way to airport, he kept asking, “Where are we going, Mama?”
We arrived Hong Kong at about 11am, head straight to our hotel for a quick check-in and luggage-deposit, then lunch and into the park. Luckily, all of us managed to catch some sleep on the flight because that’s going to last us for the whole day!
Lunch on Day 1: Crystal Lotus Restaurant at Disneyland Hotel
[From top left: Fried Rice with Crispy Eel and Pickled Vegetables in Golden Nest; Double-boiled Sea Whelk and Stuffed Whole Dried Scallops in Mickey Winter Melon Soup; Combo of Chicken Little Steamed Lotus Seed Puree Bun, Chilled Mickey’s Red Bean Honey Pudding and Chilled Mickey’s Green Tea Jelly; Wok-fried Shrimps and Disney Root Vegetables; Little Pig Barbecue Pork Bun, Little Green Men Pork and Vegetable Bun and Mickey’s Seafood Glutinous Pancake]
Our first meal was at Crystal Lotus Restaurant (in Disneyland Hotel). Our boy was simply fascinated with the Disney-themed dim sum, like “Chicken Little” Steamed Lotus Seed Puree Bun, Little Green Men Pork and Vegetable Bun, etc.
They are too cute to put into our mouth, don’t you think so? But trust me, they taste even better! The restaurant also has a fantastic view overlooking the beautiful Disneyland Hotel.
We entered the magical kingdom of Disneyland after we filled our tummies. The highlight of this trip is that we were invited guests for the Disneyland Tour Services. That is to say, we don’t need to queue up for all the attractions, we have reserved seatings for Theatre Shows, and we have exclusive viewing area during the “Flights of Fantasy Parade” as well as three wonderful Tour Hosts who are well-versed in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.
Disney’s Prestige Tour is available on all seasons, and it is charged at HK$3,888 for 3 consecutive hours for up to 6 Guests aged 3 or above. Child under the age of 3 can join for free. The tour content includes:
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Direct Entrance to All Attractions, including new themed areas: Grizzly Gulch and Toy Story Land
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Reserved Seating for Theatre Shows
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Exclusive Toy Story Land Themed Pin Box Set (1 set for each tour, while stock last)
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Exclusive Viewing Area for Disney Parade
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Fun facts and stories of Hong Kong Disneyland by Tour Host
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Concierge services to pre-arrange priority parking, dining reservations and park tickets
It’s pretty cool as we felt like a VIP during the entire tour. We were admitted to the rides immediately without the need to queue. We got the best seats for Theatre Shows and Parade, even when we were the last few to go in.
Flights of Fantasy Parade
Now, the Flights of Fantasy Parade has started! It’s a magnificent street parade with floats, a marching band, a group of fantastic dancers and their favourite Disney characters. Seated at the exclusive viewing area, all of us got a brilliant view of the entire parade! Happy!
It’s show time!
After the parade, we visited the two latest attractions in Disneyland – Grizzly Gulch and Toy Story Land. Grizzly Gulch, which was just opened in July this year, is exclusive to Hong Kong Disneyland. Toy Story Land was opened late last year, and it is also Asia-Exclusive!
Grizzly Gulch
Let’s talk about Grizzly Gulch first. This western-themed park looks like an abandoned mining town set amid mountains and woods. The most exciting ride here has to be the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. It is an innovative multidirectional terrain-style roller coaster ride. The mine cars will race both forward and backward, suddenly speeding forward, making sharp turns due to the mischief of the resident grizzly bears, and racing backwards.
The mine cars travel around the entire Grizzly Gulch themed land, including the mine shafts of the Big Grizzly Mountain, Geyser Gulch, and all around the township. Can you see the mine cars going up the slope in this picture?
This is the Grizzly Gulch Welcome Wagon Show, a lively musical performance featuring singing and dancing from performers in Gold Rush-era outfits, that gives visitors a rollicking welcome to this town.
Toy Story Land
Next, we walked to the Toy Story Land – which is right next to Grizzly Gulch. I’ve to say that this is my favourite park among all. It’s a themed land based on the Disney-Pixar film series Toy Story. Remember Buzz Lightyear and Woody? Yes, you can find them here!
The park itself is very colourful, it’s made of many themed props and characters from the Toy Story movies such as a giant Woody, a giant Rex, an oversized paper plane and also a large ball from the first Pixar short, Luxo Jr.
Little Edison’s favourite ride here is the Slinky Dog Spin, a gentle ride for the kids. It goes round and round, as Slinky the dog tries to catch his own tail.
I highly recommend the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop. You’ll go way up high in a stimulated parachute drop. When you’re up there, the feeling is awesome and you’ll also get a true bird’s eye view of the park.
If you like something more exciting, you can try the RC Racer. It’s a speedy toy car that will bring you along a 27 meter-high U-shaped coaster at full speed.
“Festival of the Lion King” show at Adventureland
We managed to catch a show on our first day – “Festival of the Lion King”. It is basically a musical show celebrating the movie “The Lion King”. It uses songs, dances, visual effects and puppetries to create an African savanna setting that is filled with lions, elephants, giraffes, zebras and birds.
Set in a theatre-environment, it retells the story of the Lion King, Simba from the Disney animated feature film ”The Lion King”, and his struggle to regain his kingdom. The dances and costumes are really amazing, I would say. There are also fire and acrobatics in this show, which I really enjoyed a lot.
Our boy enjoyed it too, particularly on the acrobatics part. Let’s just say that we were happy to give our feet a break after a long day of walking, with such a fantastic show.
Well, that pretty much summed up our first day at Hong Kong Disneyland. We wrapped it up with a splendid dinner at Plaza Inn and the “Disney in the Stars” Fireworks show at the Sleeping Beauty castle.
In my next post, I’ll share with you on the attractions at the other parks, pictures of our hotel room and more good food in Disneyland. Please stay tuned!
To read all my posts on Hong Kong Disneyland (2012), please go to: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | ALL
