My Perfect Day in.. Hong Kong Disneyland

I’m super excited to start a new little collab series, and today I’m collaborating with the lovely Hannah from Courage and Kindness, as she shares my absolute adoration of what is possibly Disney’s most underrated park: Hong Kong Disneyland. We both visited the park last year, and I’m so happy to have found someone who I can share my gushing about how much I love this little park, despite it being often overlooked or put down in the Disney community.

The concept is basically what it says on the tin – we’ll both be writing a play by play post on what would be our perfect day in the park, and for me, it doesn’t get any better than this..

A good and bad thing about HKDL is that the park doesn’t normally open til about 10am most days, so there’s no need for a crazy early start. After getting into the park at opening and a gentle stroll down Main Street USA, I’d get a few photos in front of the pretty little pink castle while the park is still quiet, then head right into Tomorrowland and get straight into the Hyperspace Mountain queue early. In most Disney parks I’m very clockwise minded, but HK is an anti-clockwise loop for me!

From Tomorrowland, I’d cut through into Fantasyland and hop on Its a Small World, and then get in line for the first performance of Mickey and the Wondrous Book at 11.15am. After the show, it would be Teacups, then Dumbo, meeting characters in Fantasyland Gardens, and maybe even Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, then I’d head to Royal Banquet Hall for a lunch of piggy pork buns and other delicious offerings, finishing just in time to head through the castle and back to Main Street USA to nab a spot on the route for Flights of Fantasy Parade at 1pm.

After standing in the heat, a sit down in some air-con would be needed, so from Main Street I’d head round into Adventureland for the 2pm performance of Festival of the Lion King, then round to Grizzly Gulch for a wild ride on the Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars and a further cool off in Geyser Gulch. Onwards, I’d take a tour of HKDL’s answer to Haunted Mansion – Mystic Manor – then through the Gardens of Wonder into Toy Story Land!

I love the Toy Story Land rides; it would be Parachute Drop first, followed by RC Racer and Slinky Dog Spin, then back into Fantasyland, stopping off to explore Fairy Tale Forest and meet Tinkerbell, before going back for the 6pm Mickey and the Wondrous Book performance – can you tell I love watching shows?

After another trip into the book, it would be back to Adventureland for a Jungle River Cruise, then back to Main Street USA to sit and wait for Paint the Night parade at 7.30pm. This is definitely my favourite nighttime parade ever, and while it kills me that its left Disneyland CA, it makes me happy knowing that it still lives on in HKDL. After the parade, I’d grab dinner in Starlight Diner in Tomorrowland, then saving the galaxy in Buzz’s Astro Blasters, and back to Main Street for the closing fireworks!

Quite a lot to fit into a day in a little park! Be sure to go and check out Hannah’s perfect day here!

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April 18, 2017Lottie 1 Comment

Hong Kong Disneyland Hollywood Hotel

There is nothing that makes a Disney trip more special than staying in a Disney hotel, and Hong Kong’s Hollywood Hotel is pretty special!

It’s the lower budget of the two Disney hotels at Hong Kong Disneyland, with another currently under construction, but oh my gosh is it beautiful!

Hong Kong Disneyland Hollywood Hotel

As the name suggests, the hotel is theme is old school Hollywood, from the art deco style of the building itself to the hotel reception and every other little detail from the piano shaped swimming pool and neons.

Hong Kong Disneyland Hollywood Hotel

The hotel has two restaurants, Hollywood and Dime – a quick service style diner – and Chef Mickey, a huge buffet which the boss himself visits at breakfast, and there’s also the Studio Lounge bar which shows movies on a big screen in the evenings. There’s also, of course, a souvenir shop in the reception area!

The huge garden area is home to the outdoor pool complete with a slide for the little ones, and there’s a small playframe tucked away in the palm trees and greenery.

Hong Kong Disneyland Hollywood Hotel

The Hollywood theme continues into the rooms – I love the wall art of Mickey and Minnie! – and the beds were so cosy! There’s a mini drinks area with a kettle and ice bucket (ice machines down the corridor!) and there’s an area for hanging clothes but no proper wardrobe, and depending on the side of the hotel your room is on, your view is absolutely stunning across the gardens and the bay!

The hotel has shuttle buses that run frequently to the park transportation centre, each one of which is decorated to reflect a ride or land in the park. Sometimes the buses are shared with the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, but they’re so close together that it doesn’t really take too long to get back from a day in the park!

Aren’t Disney beds always the comfiest?

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September 16, 2016Lottie 3 Comments

Favourite Photos from.. Flights of Fantasy Parade!

Oh I just love doing these parade posts!

On top of loving getting to share these photos with you, it also gives me a perfect excuse to relive the magic, and today the magic is coming from the adorable Hong Kong Disneyland’s Flights of Fantasy parade!

Hong Kong Disneyland Flights of Fantasy parade

This was such a sweet parade – they even stop the parade to let children out to dance with the performers which despite being baking hot in July, was really cute! To my surprise, the parade uses the same soundtrack music as Disneyland’s Soundsational Parade, just with different lyrics, but that just meant I could sing along easily (you know, to everything that wasn’t in Cantonese!) and the cast members were all loving guest interactions which was amazing!

What’s your favourite Disney parade?

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September 2, 2016Lottie Leave a comment

Hong Kong Disneyland – Day 1!

I am so happy today guys! Not only am I in Hong Kong Disneyland, but I’ve finally completed one of my biggest bucket list moments – visiting all of the Disney parks around the world – and I’ve done them all in the last 13 months!

Hong Kong Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland is beautiful too! While it may be the smallest park, it is so pretty; it’s very much like Disneyland California in style and appearance, complete with baby Sleeping Beauty castle at the end of Main Street. It’s also so quiet!!

We got into the park just before opening at 10, and were able to see the rope drop by the castle, before going straight to Tomorrowland for Hyperspace Mountain – hello 5 minute wait! From there, we literally walked onto Buzz, then went back down Main Street for a Mickey waffle kinda breakfast.

Mickey waffle

Tummies full, it probably wasn’t the most sensible idea to go straight to Grizzly Gulch for the Mine Train – a slightly more extreme Big Thunder Mountain – but it was a 5 minute wait so we did it anyway! You’re probably getting a sense of how quiet it is now..

With Mum feeling a little delicate after waffles and rollercoaster, we took a quite walk through Toy Story Land and Fantasyland on our way to the Storybook Theater for the first performance of Mickey and the Wondrous Book. I was hoping for something spectacular, and I was so happy with it! It was like a cross of Mickey and the Magical Map (Cali), Forest of Enchantment (DLP) and had a very small amount of Frozen, making it just the right balance of everything! I love all Disney shows, but that was definitely a top contender!

Mickey and the Wondrous Book

Next stop was Its a Small World – a ride that was lacking from Shanghai, and by the time we came off that, it was time to make our way back to the castle for the 10th anniversary show. It was basically a marching band and Mickey and the gang having a little dance in front of the castle, but it was quite sweet. In desperate need for air con, we took a quick walk through some shops before heading to Festival of the Lion King in Adventureland. The show was a little different to its Florida counterpart, in that it was more of a narrative of the Lion King story, but it was still fabulous and the performers were amazing!

Hong Kong Disneyland 10th anniversary

Now coming up parade time, we shot across to the castle and hid in some shade for a little while, then found a spot for Flights of Fantasy! The parade actually uses the same music as Disneyland’s Soundsational parade, just with a few word changes, so I felt right and home! There must have been some minor malfunction as half way through all the floats stopped and they invited kids to dance with the performers, but it was up and running fairly soon. I’ve found parades both here and Shanghai tend to be a bit shorter than the Western ones, which is a shame because I love parades, but they’re definitely no less spectacular!

Cooking a little, we caught the train from Fantasyland back to Main Street – incidentally the longest queue we’ve been in all day – and ended up in Animation Academy to learn how to draw BB-8. Spoiler alert: I wasn’t very good at it. Having not eaten lunch, we were pretty hungry now, and looking at the map, Royal Banquet Hall seemed like an excellent choice. It had everything from burgers and pizza to sushi and dim-sum, so of course I had a bit of both!

Mystic Manorimage

From dinner, we did Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, then Jungle Cruise and Mystic Manor all in fairly quick succession, and then another galactic mission with Buzz. We also headed over to Star Wars Command Post with the hopes of seeing Chewbacca, but it wasn’t his meeting time so instead we went back to Fantasyland to watch Philharmagic to kill some time before finding a spot to camp out for Paint the Night.

After loving PtN in California back in January, I was so excited for this, and as soon as it began I felt the magic of it. Again, it was a little shorter than its American cousin, but no less fun and spectacular – although sitting on the ground to watch it felt like being stone baked! With not long to the fireworks, we stayed on Main Street and tried to chill out; it’s hard to do in 30C heat.

The fireworks were fairly short and sweet, but I really enjoyed the tribute to Mulan; Shanghai didn’t seem to acknowledge their national princess much so I was happy to see Hong Kong making an effort! I am now totally pooped, and ready for a good nights sleep before tomorrow’s adventure!