Whirlwind of Magic: Conquering Hong Kong Disneyland in Just 3 Incredible Hours!

• Instagram
• Twitter
• Mail
• Link

A bit ambicious!

Day 7 of my Round The World Trip. I had done 3 parks already: Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea and Universal Japan, and even though I had a great time in all of them, and accomplished a lot, I did not succeed to do all I wanted to do in all of them. Those parks were busy, maybe because the recent opening of Japan to international tourists? But regardless, I was not going to let that deter me from finishing my fourth and last park of this trip: Hong Kong Disneyland, the only reason I was coming back to this city (also, because it was cheaper to flight to Africa from here). For this park, I wanted to do the main attractions, especially the ones related to Star Wars and Marvel (my Disney obsessions), and also wanted to see the new show: “Momentous” Nighttime Spectacular.

But for now, I gotta get ready. I stayed in the Regal Airport Hotel Hong Kong, inside of the airport, and only a few minutes away from the park. I was able to get some sleep since Hong Kong Disneyland opened at a surprising late time of 10 AM, phew.

Breakfast time!

I went into the airport departures area to see if I could get some breakfast, and some coffee. I got some Starbucks (which for some reason was hideen) and proceeded to pick a restaurant to eat.

I picked a place that looked the most local to me, to save some money but also because I think I ate here before and remember getting a nice duck.

The breakfast did not look appetizing but it was good for the cheap price, so great value for an airport food. I would try to get better food during the day.

Are you sure this is Disney?

I went back to the hotel after breakfast, and waited for an Uber. The ride was going to be just a few minutes. Everything seemed so eerie since I did not see any cars coming towards the park, just me. Completely different vibe than any other Disney Park I had been.

And just like I was suspecting, the parking lot was empty. What was going on? Was it closed and did not notice?

But no, other people were coming in, mostly from the metro station, and buses. So the park was not closed, it was empty! Oh I had a good feeling about this.

I passed security, which was very vague, they barely checked my backpack. I assume this city is so safe that they do not need to check every inch of guests like they do in the American versions of the Disney Parks.

I made it to the main gate 20 minutes before opening, and contrary to Tokyo, there were no long lines. And contrary to any other park, it was not Mickey Mouse the main character on the Train Station, it was Duffy, and I was going to find out that these characters were more popular in this park than any other.

Rope Drop!

Duffy and its friends were everywhere, and it seemed like it was a special event for spring, and not a recurring thing for the whole year.

And there it was, the Castle of Magical Dreams, and its design pays tribute to the 12 Disney Princesses and 2 Frozen queens. It is very unique, not only for the final colors and shape it has, but also because of the mountains on the background, and the newly added Elsa’s castle way on the back for the World of Frozen land that will open soon in this park.

And now I just realized, I had been to 11 Disney Parks:

1. Magic Kingdom
2. Hollywood Studios
3. Epcot
4. Animal Kingdom
5. Disneyland California
6. Disney California Adventure
7. Disneyland Paris
8. Walt Disney Studios Park Paris
9. Tokyo Disneyland
10. Tokyo DisneySea
11. And now Hong Kong Disneyland

Only Shanghai Disneyland was missing and I was so upset that the whole Covid situation in China was deterring me to go to this fantastic country. If they relax their policies and visa situation I could definitely complete the 12 parks in the near future, but it would probably be 2024.

Anyways, I was here, and needed to do what I wanted to do… a lot of rides and shows in a short period of time.

Disney Premier Access

I started walking to the right towards… you guessed it… Tomorrowland. Here I needed to do the Hyperspace Mountain (Star Wars layout), Iron Man Experience and the Ant Man & The Wasp Nano Battle. I bought a DISNEY PREMIER ACCESS – 8 ATTRACTIONS since I thought I was going to have a busy day here, but for me it seemed like I was not going to use it. This ticket can be bought on Klook, and it costs 40 USD, so think twice before buying it. The benefit is it includes 8 of the most popular attractions:

• Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars (Grizzly Gulch)
• Mystic Manor (Mystic Point)
• Toy Soldier Parachute Drop (Toy Story Land)
• Slinky Dog Spin (Toy Story Land)
• Iron Man Experience (Tomorrowland)
• Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle! (Tomorrowland)
• “it’s a small world” (Fantasyland)
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (Fantasyland)

Hyperspace Mountain was not included so I rushed there first.

Tomorrowland

Officially rope dropped this attraction and it was a walk on. There were similarities to the other Space Mountains but you could tell that it was Star Wars themed.

I had so much fun on this internal roller coaster, like always, but theming it as Star Wars was the best idea ever. There was music from the movies, there was a lot of known voices, and projections that took me to a galaxy far far way.

Now it was time to officially start using my Premier Access, and guess what, I did not need it for Ant Man & The Wasp Nano Battle, because it was so empty still. It was a walk on, and the lady in the entrance did not even bother to check my Premier Access ticket.

I had seen videos of this attraction, but I totally forgot that is basically the same as Toy Story Mania in Disney Hollywood Studios or Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters in California, which was weird because there is a whole Toy Story Land in this park. Regarless, any Marvel attraction is very well welcomed. And especially an original one like this one.

After seeing my terrible score, I went now to the Iron Man Experience, another one of the attractions included in the Premier Access Ticket. Tomorrowland was basically a mix with something called the Expo which included the Marvel attractions, but I think there needed to be more separation between both themings.

The attraction was a copy of Star Tours, using the same technology but with a completely different scene showcasing Iron Man and the city of Hong Kong. It was very entertaining and well produced. Like the Ant Man attraction, this one was half in Chinese, but do not let that deter you from riding this attraction.

Fantasyland

I was done with this part of the park, and now I needed to continue the tour passing and skipping Fantasyland.

But first, I needed to stop by the Fairy Tale Forest, and I think that is a great idea and hopefully it will be duplicated in other parks across the world. Also, it serves as entrance in the near future to the almost finished World of Frozen, which will feature attractions from the famous Disney franchise.

The cold never bother me anyway… I would say if it was cold, but for the first time in this trip I was finally wearing shorts. I was so good out, especially after a very coldish and rainy Japan.

Toy Story Land

And just like that after a few steps I was already in Toy Story Land. I had a few attractions here as part of my Premier Access, and maybe it was about time to use it?

Toy Story Land at Hong Kong Disneyland is not as ceremonious as the one in Hollywood Studios, but it is very distintive and self contained. I feel like it could be bigger or maybe have more food options, like the newly opened Roundup Rodeo BBQ.

I decided to ride the RC Race one, and let me tell you, it was a lot of fun. It does not seem like but I feel like this ride finally woke me up, lol.

I did the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop in Paris, so I was not super looking forward for it, and decided to skip it. Oh, but what I was looking for the most in this park was the Mystic Manor. The trackless ride has no references to departed spirits or the afterlife, due to differences in traditional Chinese culture, completely contrary to the other Haunted Mansions or similars in the world.

Mystic Point

I finally got to efficiently use my Premier Access and got to the front of the line with literally nobody behind me on the special line.

I will not spoil the attraction, but it was very fun, and there were special effects as well. The trackless system is very similar to the one in Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in Hollywood Studios.

Grizzly Gulch

I was done with Mystic Point after seeing a bit of the Garden of Wonders, and now I was entering Grizzly Gulch. A version of Adventureland in this park.

Festival of the Lion King

The Festival of the Lion King show was approaching, and now was another time to use my Premier Access ticket for the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, the only exterior roller coaster in this park, and it was a lot of fun. 10/10 would recommend.

I had a few minutes before the Festival of the Lion King show, and wandered around to see if I could buy popcorn or something to eat. The options were very filling and very scarce. They need more variety for the food carts, but also you can blame it to the lack of guests on this day. They would probably not open all of the food options.

The show started and it was very similar to the one in Animal Kingdom, but equally amazing.

WOW. Simply one of the best Disney shows in any of the parks. If you have the chance to visit this park, please do not hesitate to go to this show.

Jungle Cruise

The last attraction I had marked and to finish the park was Jungle Cruise. An unskippable attraction in any Disney Park, that fortunately had English boats as an option. I did the English speaking line, the longest of the day, and after 10 min or so I was already on the boat.

The jokes did not land, I mean some people laughed, but the best part of the cruise were the special effects, especially at the very end with fire and water. It was really cool, and almost reminded me of the unbeatable Tokyo DisneySea. Yeah, it was that good.

Mickey & Friends Street Celebration

After all this running, I had done all these attractions and shows in just 3 hours, and I still had to see one more thing: The Mickey and Friends Parade on Main Street.

Before the parade I stopped at the Starbucks store (called Market House), and got a croissant and a Mocha Frappuccino, for the first time in this trip, yeah it was almost 80 F (26 C).

Finally, the parade started around 1 PM.

Conclusion

The princesses, Donald, Daisy, Mickey, Minnie, Duffy and friends, and some Pixar characters were present. Even Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, which I think I have never seen in person, but I know they have him in California.

After a bit past 3 hours in the park I felt I did everything I wanted to do. I could still do more, like eating in a sitdown restaurant, or seeing Moana: A Homecoming Celebration. But it was enough at least for me. Let’s recapitulate what I did.

These are all the attractions and shows I visited in 3 hours:

1. Castle of Magical Dreams
2. Hyperspace Mountain
3. Ant-Man and The Wasp Nano battle!
4. Iron Man Experience – Presented by AIA
5. Fairy Tale Forest – presented by PANDORA
6. RC Racer
7. Mystic Manor
8. Garden of Wonders
9. Geyser Gulch
10. Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars
11. Jungle River Cruise
12. Festival of The Lion King
13. Mickey & Friends Street Celebration

11 attractions (7 of them rides), and 2 shows. I think that’s impossible to do in other parks, or at least during the days I have visited them. Even with Genie+.

But now I had to leave to explore the city of Hong Kong. And then come back to do one more show: “Momentous” Nighttime Spectacular, and one more attraction: “it’s a small world”. All of this while having in mind that TONIGHT I was traveling to whole different continent. Was it time to get exhausted?