[CareBlair]

We spent three days at Hong Kong Disneyland during the first week of December 2005, staying in the Hollywood Hotel. We had a great time and enjoyed the park very much. That said, it is very small and has only 22 attractions. But our Feb 2005 WDW commando-cure trip ate our lunch, so we were determined to conquer this tiny park, even if it took three days!

While it is not necessary to spend three whole days in this relatively small park, we would have been hard-pressed to have seen and done all we wanted in one day. But it you are a die-hard commando and are willing to miss some attractions, it’s do-able. But it’s definitely worth a day as part of a longer trip to Hong Kong or any other city in southern China.

Since Hong Kong is on the same latitude as Havana, we were expecting balmy weather. It was cold—with temperatures ranging from 60-68F during the day and dropping down to as low as 50F after dark. It was windy, too, which kicked in the wind chill factor. Much Cadbury hot chocolate was consumed when the temperature dropped! But better December than July!

The park was busier than we were expecting and there were a lot of tour groups who tend to tour en masse. There were very few children in the park (granted we were there on weekdays while local schools were still in session) and the guest list was overwhelmingly Chinese—who'd have guessed?

The cast members were friendly and very gracious, with varying degrees of English proficiency. Many treated us like fellow cast members, which they assumed we were, because we were the only guests wearing lanyards & pins! Hint: if you plan to visit HKDL, take lots of pins to trade with eager HKDL CMs. They are even willing to trade their LE & CM-exclusive pins! Their favorite of ours was the EPCOT Spaceship Earth w/ Sorcerer Mickey—we could have traded that one ten times over. Many of the pins available at HKDL are similar to the ones available at WDW, but they have the HKDL logo on the back. And of course there are HKDL exclusive pins, too.

Each of the three “lands”—Fantasy, Tomorrow & Adventure—and Main Street has two restaurants, one serving Chinese dishes and the other western food. Food prices in the park were very reasonable; we regularly ate counter service meals for between $15-20 for the three of us. Main Street also has a nice bakery which reminded me a lot of WDW’s main street bakery. Don’t miss the delicious egg tarts, a Hong Kong specialty.

The giftshops merchandise was very similar to WDW but lacked variety, but lots of stuff with HKDL logos was available. To tell the truth, the merchandise selection is a bit disappointing to me—and there is not a lot of variety from shop to shop. Asian XL is equivalent to US Medium, so don't expect to find Pooh-sized apparel. T-shirts & fleece were mostly Mickey motif'd. There is plush, keychains, mugs, porcelain, toys, pins, magic towels (washcloths), snowglobes, frames, scarves, and one style of men's boxers (white w/ Mickey embroidery). All priced in HK$ (HK$7.70=US$1 or HK$100=US$13). Pressed pennies are HK$10 and the blank penny is preloaded in the machine.

The Chinese guests were enthralled with anything Pooh! Queues for The Many Adventures of Winne the Pooh were 60-120 minutes long by noon and all Fastpasses distributed by 2 p.m. Pooh & Tigger always has a crowd waiting to see them at their greeting gazebo in Fantasy Gardens. All the characters we greeted were tickled to be asked to sign autographs since most guests were only taking pictures with them.

The characters we saw were:

Main Street: Donald, Goofy & Pluto, Mickey & Minnie (Christmas), Santa!
Castle: Snow White, Belle, Aurora, Cinderella w/ mice, Mulan & Mushu
Fantasyland: Alice, Marie, Merlin, Queen of Hearts & the White Rabbit
Fantasy Gardens: Minnie, Mickey, Chip 'n Dale, Pooh & Tigger, Donald
Tomorrowland: Buzz, PUSH the talking trashcan!
Adventureland: Turkina, Timon
Parade: Green Army Men, Dwarves, Ariel, Woody & Jessie
Hollywood Hotel: Donald & Daisy, Santa Goofy

Although Mulan has a pavillion in Fantasy Gardens, she and Mushu are most often found in front of Plaza Inn. A CM told me they are not so popular. Chip 'n Dale in Chinese vests & hats occupy her pavillion in Fantasy Gardens.
Lines for Buzz and Pooh & Tigger were so long, we joked they should make them a Fastpass attraction!

"Festival of the Lion King" is different than the one at WDW. I overheard it said that it is similar to the performance on the Disney cruise ship(s). The dialogue for The Golden Mickeys is spoken in Chinese, but the songs are sung in English. You MUST be at Festival of the Lion King and The Golden Mickeys 45-60 min before the show to get in. They fill up very quickly. Try to go to the first shows of the day (and we were there on a Mon, Tue & Wed). There are CMs who conduct the Jungle Cruise in English—don't miss finding out how to tell difference between the female and male zebras!

The Hollywood Hotel is an art deco gem—all chrome, glass & mint green—and we liked staying there. We were disappointed not to get to use the pool but it was just too cold…until the day we left, of course, when the sun was shining and the mercury rose to 80 degrees! The vintage cars dispersed around the grounds facing the waterfront were pretty cool and made great photo ops. Chef Mickey’s served delicious (if pricey) buffet and a la carte meals for breakfast, lunch and dinner (we paid $100 for dinner one night). But the counter service Hollywood & Dine is very affordable with a good selection—even serving turkey legs! Yum!

The HK Disneyland hotel is a Grand Floridian clone and looks very elegant from the outside, but we did not tour the inside. I have to say that the setting of the resorts and the park are stunning, with small mountains behind the castle and harbor views from the resorts. You don’t get that at WDW!

But just like WDW, your room request may not be accommodated, but since we checked in near midnight, I guess that was to be expected. We were reassigned a room more to our specifications the next day and the bellmen moved our luggage for us. Park admission can be purchased at the hotel front desk, but they can only sell you tickets for two days at a time. Resort guests are guaranteed admission even if the park is sold out (but do you really what to go then? ). Package delivery is available and they can be picked up from the bellmen.

The resort shuttle buses ran on a timely basis and were never full. The MTR train station is on the plaza before the entrance to the park and is not a far walk to the main gate—very convenient if coming in from the city. If you take the MTR from the airport, you can then hop a resort shuttle to the hotels. Tip: taxi fare for two is about the same as MTR fare for two from the airport, but the MTR is better themed.

For the most part the crowd was on good behavior. I know Chinese don't share Westerner's same sense of personal space and we expected some of the behavior we witnessed (queue cutting, a bit of pushing and shoving and running). CM addressed guests smoking in a non-smoking areas and we never saw any public urinating. But they absolutely would NOT move to the end of the row for Philharmagic! C'est la vie!

We tried not to be to put out by their propensity to “get ahead,” but the queue cutting and pushing and shoving did get old after a while, especially when directed at our seven-year-old daughter. An older woman approached us in a standing-room only crowd in the middle of Main Street after the Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. We were standing perfectly still and she used her forearm to try to shove my daughter out of her way. We were shoved out of the way ascending the stairs to the train station, cut off when approaching ride queues, and even shoved out of the way in the doorway exiting the restroom next to Festival of the Lion King!

After a while, we nicknamed it "the forearm squeegie!" They used their bent forearms to squeegie past you, with a fair degree of success! When I spoke up to the woman on Main St, and gave her the "forearm squeegie" back, she looked at me as if I had grown a third eye in the middle of my forehead. Clueless.

I can see how things got out of control over Lunar New Year at HKDL. It is their biggest holiday of the year. While most of us would avoid a theme park with capacity crowds (where's the fun in that?), crowdedness does not seem to be a detractor for them. I have been to Hong Kong and been walking the street at midnight and there is still a crush of people (including young children!) making it difficult to stay on the sidewalk. Hong Kong is a crowded place! Some friends of mine were there for Lunar New Year last year and were nearly crushed to death just trying to leave the hotel because the streets were so crowded! What I find humerous is that they would have know that the park was going to be crowded that day and should have shown some self restraint.

I’m happy to answer any specific questions you might have about HKDL.

[WishUponAStar]

Awesome report, sounds fun there!!!!! I want to see PICTURES!!!!! hehe!

[ingamba]

Absolutely fascinating Trip Report. Thanks for that glimpse at the newest Disney Park, and one that most of us have never visited, and sadly, many of us never will.

I know if I ever do though, and I hope I do, I'll be ready to do battle with those crowds.

[CareBlair]

Thanks for asking for pictures. Here are some we took of the park, parade and characters...
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=...i&x=0&y=uo2iq4

Enjoy!

[brumcg]

Thanks CareBlair! I've been curious what HK Disneyland would be like.

Bruce

[emperisse]

being chinese myself, i can truly confirm that yeah, we are a pushy crowd. being born and raised in the US however, i know that even i'll be a lil put off by the crowds. push back and oh well to "having a third eye". i say three better than two. hmpf.

i'm going in june 06, when it'll be disgustingly humid. better cool than hot, careblair!

great report -- and cant wait to see the pics!

[lovemysons]

Wow, thanks for sharing your trip! What an interesting perspective. I have often wondered about what it would be like to tour HK Disney. Oh, and, welcome to DC by the way!

[CareBlair]

I appreciate all your comments on my trip report.

I totally understand different cultures have different attitudes and habits. I almost hated to mention it in my report, because I didn't want it to sound like we were overly put out, or to put off any potential visitors from enjoying a trip to HKDL. Actually, the vast majority of the guests were orderly, well-dressed, polite and seemed to be enjoying themselves a lot. I guess I just wanted foreign guests to be prepared and hopefully able to tolerate the differences.

It is very unfortunate what happened at HKDL last week leading up to Lunar New Year. It would be good to know which are the three weeks when HK hosts the most visitors from mainland China and to avoid traveling to HK those weeks.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/02/03/news/disney.php

Speaking of differences, this is one I forgot to mention in my trip report. We were surprised at how little applause there was during and after The Golden Mickeys and Festival of the Lion King. I asked one of the CM after The Golden Mickeys and she answered, almost apologetically, that Chinese people are very shy when it comes to public accolades. I was worried that they weren't enjoying the shows, but that wasn't it at all!

[Princess Tessa]

Welcome to Disney Central CareBlair!!!
Your pics are great, sounds like a cool place. Even though it's brand new and fairly small, looks like good thigns are t ocome for this park!

[DisneyTeacher]

Thanks for the great trip report, I've been waiting to hear more about HKDL.

[chastmastr]

We want the song they came up with for it that they played during the New Year's Day parade...

[Peppertink]

Great TR!!! Thanks for sharing your pictures with us and Welcome!!! Oh...and I love the "pooh sized" desctription:)