Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Hong Kong Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland is the smallest Disneyland in the world. That's the fact. But for us, it was the first in our life, so, we didn't mind to start from the smallest. Going to Disneyland from our hotel was easy- we took MTR from Olympic Station to Disneyland Station, with an interchange at Sunny Bay Station. The whole journey took us around 35 minutes.

We were travelling from Olympic Station (upper left) to Disneyland Station (upper right). We were surprised by the Disney-themed coach, which took us from Sunny Bay Station to Disneyland.

 This is how the coach looks like.

Disneyland is a place with many Disney cartoon characters, designed specially for children, which might drag the visitors away from the real world into the world of fantasy. Those were the good things that we heard about Disneyland. We did hear about the bad things happened in Hong Kong Disneyland as well. However, this is our personal feeling after visiting Hong Kong Disneyland- it is not more than a cartoon-themed park, where we paid to enjoy the facilities inside. Whether it's good or bad, it is pretty much depends on the personal impression. For us, the experience was good. So, we would say that it is a must visit place in Hong Kong, at least for those who haven't visit Disneyland before. The original ticket price for the park was HKD399 per person. However, we managed to buy our one day ticket with 10% discount, as we bought four tickets together and paid with Visa Card.

Hong Kong Disneyland is divided into a few zones, which the junction is just in front of the castle of Sleeping Beauty- Tomorrowland on the right, Adventureland on the left, Fantasyland at the center (just behind the castle), and Toy Story Land is far behind Adventureland. We would like to share our walkthrough the Disneyland with you with our photos taken around the park.

Once getting out from the station, we could see the arch of Hong Kong Disneyland Resort on our left. From the arch, we walked around 100 meters to the fountain of Disney, in front of the ticketing counters. The queue was not too long. Maybe it was early Monday morning. After we got our tickets checked, we saw Disney vintage train station from the outside (lower left). However, we could only get into the train from the inside. Main Street of USA was the first area that we came across.
 
We need to walk through Main Street of USA in order to visit the other parts of the Disneyland. Main Street USA is basically built with the theme following the "vintage" western town.

The entrance of the Fantasyland is right behind the Main Street.

Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Cinderella, Dumbo, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, and some other well-known Disney characters are just right behind this Sleeping Beauty's castle. From where we were standing, we could turn left to Adventureland and Toy Story Land, or turn right to Tomorrowland. However, we decided to go straight into Fantasyland.

Cinderella Carousel (uppermost left and middle) is located at the center of the Fantasyland, surrounded by Winnie the Pooh (uppermost right), the Disneyland train (middle left and center), Dumbo the flying elephant (middle right), and many more. It's a Small World presents eyes dazzling tour around different countries and themes of puppets and decoration (lower left and middle). The Fantasyland is well landscaped.

We grabbed our opportunity to take photo with Mickey Mouse, icon of Disneyland at Fantasy Garden. Other characters such as Winnie the Pooh and Pinocchio were there too. We queued for almost 20 minutes to take this photo. 

Then, we went to Tomorrowland, where Stitch (not with Lilo), Buzz Lightyear, and Autopia were highlighted.

This is the design of the entrance to the Tomorrowland (right). The Orbitron (left) is the center of the Tomorrowland, which encircled by other themed buildings.

The Orbitron and the spaceship (the left column),  Buzzlight Year (middle column), and on the right, the Autopia.

The Flight of Fantasy caught our attention on our way from the Tomorrowland to the Adventureland. The huge amount of crowd gathering at the Main Town area showed us how attractive the parade was.

The Adventureland features the story of Tarzan and Jane and Lion King. We went into the Adventureland at around 5 pm. Unlike "barren" Tomorrowland, Adventureland is filled with dense vegetation. We saw this huge Tarzan Treehouse at the middle of the Adventureland.

 
We crossed the river using the raft to visit Tarzan's Treehouse (upper left). The treehouse is big. After strolling around for a few minutes, we met Tarzan and Jane in one of the chamber on the treehouse (lower right).

 
Then we joined jungle river cruise. Along the river, we experienced "Hollywood-feel" scenes, such as the safari (upper right), the rhino that defeated the evil troops (lower right), and the presentation of fire and water. One thing that spoiled the adventurous mood- the tour guide that apparently drifted our mood away with funny talks. 

 Our last stop was the Toy Story Land. We met several characeters in the story there.

We didn't wait until the fireworks presentation as we were really exhausted, after staying for more than 7 hours in the park. We went back to our hotel around 6:30 pm.

Visited the park in middle of May, the weather was really hot and humid. We could endure the high temperature, but high humidity made us sweated a lot. So, if you visit the park somewhere around summer time, please ensure that you drink enough water to maintain hydrated.  Once we paid the entrance fee, everything inside the Disneyland can be accessed free of charge, except the for the drink and food at the restaurants. However, we can always refill our bottle at the water dispensers around the park, free of charge. We found that the food inside the park is really expensive, so you might wish to bring some food into the park.  

The queuing time was the killing factor inside the park. We spent more than 1/3 of the time in the queue. Well, that was on normal working Monday. So, we anticipate that the queue during the public holiday or local school holiday will be horrible. Umbrealla, confortable footwear, sunblock, hat, snacks, drinking water, hat, and maybe, extra clothes are essential to survive a whole day long of queuing.

More information can be found at Hong Kong Disneyland Official Site. The intereactive map of Hong Kong Disneyland can be found here.


We went to Macau on the fourth day of our trip. However, we wish to share our experience on our Hong Kong Island Trip first. Or know more about our complete 7 days 6 nights itinarary here.



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