Disneyland Hong Kong. Trip Report/Review/Thoughts from my August 25-26 visit.

I recently took a trip from Indonesia up to Hong Kong with my girlfriend Sheren for the express purpose of going to Disneyland Hong Kong (DLHK). It was a blast.

I'm a big fan of the original Disneyland park in California (DLCA), and I think a lot of you who will potentially be reading this will have some experience with that park, so I'll be using it as a point of reference to compare the two parks. I know, not all of you, my dear readers (haha) have, so I'll try not to rely only on the comparison to make this review.

Like I said, overall it was a good experience. I had a lot of fun. Sheren had a lot of fun. It was a good trip.

But gosh dang if DLHK isn't a lot smaller than DLCA. I swear it was probably half the size of the CA park, and with that huge restriction in size comes some interesting issues. I hate to call them issues, and I think its probably better to review this park as its own entity. I have to say upfront, though, that if you've been planning a trip from the USA to Hong Kong just for Disneyland, maybe pump your breaks a little. If you're already in Asia (as I was and am), then yes, I do recommend it. Maybe, if you're like disgustingly rich or something, you could do a tour of Tokyo Disney, Shanghai, and HKDL all in one long trip. What am I saying, that's crazy, don't do that.

Hong Kong itself is great. Easy to get around using the subway system. If you're going into town, use the subway system. Hong Kong is cool. I only saw most of it through a giant typhoon that actually killed three people in neighboring Macau, but it was still neat.

Disneyland Hong Kong is only a 15-20 minute relatively cheap taxi ride from the airport, so I would say save yourself the time and effort and just get the taxi to the resort. Stay at the resort. They have three great hotels, we stayed at Disney's Hollywood Hotel, but visited the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, which was beautiful, and the Explorer's Lodge, which was rad (and had a delicious Asian restaurant inside). Chef Mickey at the Hollywood hotel has a breakfast buffet with plenty of delicious western and Asian dishes, plus a chance to take a picture with the aforementioned Chef Mickey, so if that's something you're into, I would recommend that. I've heard the dinner buffet was good too, but we were in the parks for dinner.

Okay, the park itself. Like I said, its a lot smaller than DLCA. Main Street seemed comparable to Main Street in DLCA, but the remaining lands were all quite smaller. With the lack of space there were a lot less actual rides/attractions than in DLCA. There's no Matterhorn (or replacement), which really kind of stung as that's one of my favorites.

Another big piece that's missing is the lack of a Pirates of the Caribbean ride, or something to take its place. I understand there are some cultural issues regarding the depiction of the dead in Chinese culture (more on this in a minute), so half the ride being skeletons and such wouldn't really fly. The fact that there is nothing to take its place kind of stings, though, especially since there was some Pirates merchandise in a couple of the shops. It kind of felt like they were rubbing salt in the wound.

What really makes me think that they could have done something in place of Pirates is the fact that, again due to cultural sensitivity, there is no Haunted Mansion, but there IS the Mystic Manor, which though different kind of serves a similar purpose. Its in a similar location in the parks geographically, and its a cool dark ride showcasing the supernatural. Mystic Manor was honestly a highlight of the trip. We rode it both days, and I honestly wish we rode it a couple more times. Its a journey through the manor of one Professor Mystic, who allows visitors to view all the rare artifacts he's collected on his archaeological journeys throughout the ages. His latest acquisition is a magical music box from Bali (shout out to Indonesia) that makes all the other artifacts come to life.
Its sooo good. The animatronics are fantastic. The story-line is great. The music, composed by Danny Elfman, is wonderful. This is an absolute must-ride for any visitors to the park. Like most rides, there isn't a line early in the morning, so go early and enjoy the very immersive and entertaining queue.
Mystic Manor, however, is the only real attraction in Mystic Point, which feels kind of lame, and is going to be a recurring problem.

Another highlight, and another something you can't get in DLCA is the Iron Man Experience. Its the same 3D Simulator type ride as Star Tours: The Adventure Continues. I honestly don't have much else to say about it. If you've been on the updated Star Tours then you know exactly what to expect. That said, it was well done and very fun.

Also in Tomorrowland was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, which was exactly the same as in DLCA, but I hear its closing down soon to make room for an Ant-Man themed ride, as a part of DLHK turning Tomorrowland into a Marvel themed land.

Continuing the theme of Tomorrowland there was Space Mountain, or should I say HYPERSPACE MOUNTAIN! When I was in DLCA last they had the Space Mountain: Ghost Galaxy overlay on, for Halloween. I actually liked Ghost Galaxy quite a bit, but having heard about the Star Wars themed Hyperspace Mountain, I had to watch a video to see how that was. I have to admit, the video didn't exactly thrill me. It seemed fine, nothing special. However, seeing it in person was completely different. The ride, of course, is a super fast, super fun, intense, dark roller coaster. The Star Wars addition just added a tiny bit of extra thrill, and is more engaging in person as compared to a video.

Moving back to the other side of the park, in Grizzly Gulch we have Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, a roller coaster. Again, the only attraction in the land. There is a water play area for young children, but that doesn't do much for most of us. The coaster itself is fine. I enjoyed it, but for some reason it didn't really stick with me as much as others. Its similar to Big Thunder Mountain, but I would say generally not as intense. It does have a cool "gimmick" to it though, that I don't want to spoil for anyone who goes. I want to mention that there are Grizzly Bear animatronics, that kind of take a sort of similar role as the Yeti in Matterhorn. I like them, I thought they looked great and fit the ride well, but it really made me miss Harold (the aforementioned Yeti). We only rode it once on account of the long lines. I might rate the ride higher if we weren't already exhausted and had to wait forever in the sweltering heat and humidity. Worth doing, definitely, but maybe fast-pass it.

There is also a Toy Story Land, and there are three attractions there, all aimed at a younger audience. I would say do them, but do them early. The lines in Toy Story Land were the LONGEST IN THE ENTIRE PARK. We did it smart and didn't have to wait, but for a short two minute, not super thrilling ride, the lines got to over an hour, which was well beyond anywhere else, even the roller coasters or Mystic Manor.

Adventure Land has only the Jungle River Cruise and the rafts to the Tarzan Treehouse, which takes the place of Tom Sawyer Island. I think the Tarzan Treehouse was bigger than the one in DLCA, but it didn't have any extra bits, just a bigger area. Its fun, but do it before you're tired, as its entirely a walkthrough, no sitting.
The Jungle River Cruise is pretty similar to the Jungle Cruise in DLCA, but it has a different layout and has a couple different sections. The best part was near the end there is a bit that doesn't exist in CA that has to do with a Fire God and a Water God. It was neat. There were separate lines for Mandarin, Cantonese, and English, those being the most common languages at the parks. Our skipper spoke decent enough English, but even worse I think he was better than everyone else in the boat (aside from me, the native speaker, obviously) and so no one was really laughing at his jokes or engaging in any way. It was kinda sad, haha. Don't skip it, but don't expect it to be your favorite.

Fantasyland has the Carousel, Tea-cups, Dumbo, and Winnie the Pooh. They are all exactly the same was in DLCA, so that's kind of a disappointment. No Mr Toad's Wild Ride was a big hole in my heart, as that is my absolute favorite of the Fantasyland dark rides in DLCA. The space issue really hurts in this regard. They also had the Philharmagic 3D Show, which if you've never seen I would recommend. It also exists in Walt Disney World in Florida, so if you're more of DLCA fan like me, you probably haven't. Its a 3D show that features Donald Duck in a few musical scenes from various Disney films. Its fine, but honestly the CGI is showing its age. I bet it looked spectacular in 2003 when the show first debuted, but its been a while since then. It was fine, and maybe its only something a nerd like me would really take note of, but it was there.

Just off Fantasyland and on the way to Tomorrowland sits It's a Small World. Man, what do you say about It's a Small World. I guess this version is different from others, but I haven't been on any recently to compare. We rode it twice because we could and it was on a boat. If I couldn't get Pirates at least give me a boat. Seriously though, it was indoors/air-conditioned and the weather outside was brutal.

By brutal I mean hot and humid. I currently live in Indonesia, on a tropical jungle island, in a city that sits right on the equator, and Hong Kong was really freaking humid. The day before there was a typhoon, so that didn't help, but man was the sun relentless. I sweat, a lot. I needed to drink a lot of water. Bring as much water as you can carry, and don't count on self-serve fountain drink stations to refill, because there are none. There are water fountains near the toilets that you can use to refill, but the water wasn't the best tasting, and it wasn't cold. It was better than nothing, but I ended up buying a couple extra water bottles anyway, just because of how dang thirsty I got.

I enjoyed all the food we ate. Sheren was a bit more picky than I was, but she was able to find enough stuff to satisfy her as well. The one shop I found that supposedly sold churros was sold out, so that was disappointing. Really though, all the food was good. It felt slightly more reasonably priced than DLCA, so don't be too worried. That isn't to say it was all as cheap as street food, but it was reasonable.

We saw the Paint the Night parade. I'm not usually one for parades, but it was well done. It originated in DLHK, so that was kind of a neat thing, but whatever. Its made its way to the States so if you've seen it there you've seen it.

In regards to the potential language barrier, honestly, I don't think I really ever had any problems that were related to difference in language while in the park itself. There were one or two little quibbles outside the park, at the hotel or an outside restaurant or whatever, but they were minor. Maybe I'm just used to not speaking the local language, as that's a daily experience here in Indonesia, but regardless I had no problems. Sheren, being a non-native speaker of any of the three major languages, didn't seem to have any problems either, so I would say its fair to not expect this to be an issue.

Again, overall, I had a great time. It was a Disney park, and so the magic that comes with that was present. I just think the park suffers somewhat from a lack of attractions. We were there for two days and there was plenty to do, but honestly if we hadn't spent time waiting in line for character pictures (which Sheren wanted to do), we could have run out of stuff to do. I would honestly suggest that you could only do one day in the park and still be pleased, especially if you're the type to go hard and plan your routes to get the best times and take full advantage of the fast-pass system. If you've got younger children and/or just like to take things slow, two days is still plenty of time to see everything. And if you're travelling all the way to Hong Kong, I would really suggest taking time to see Hong Kong itself too. In fact, I would do Hong Kong first, and stay somewhere cheaper in the city, and do Disneyland on your last day or two in HK, and stay at the Disney hotels, because Disneyland is close to the airport and that is always convenient.

Now I just need to find some time to visit Tokyo and Shanghai...