Seltzer76
Smiling's my Favorite!
- Joined
- Oct 9, 2013
About two years ago I started a job that requires me to travel internationally from time to time. Prior to that, I had very rarely been outside the U.S. and the majority of my domestic travel was to Disney World for vacation every 1-3 years.
Let me start off by saying I am not really what people would describe as adventurous. I like to plan and know what I'm doing. When traveling to China, typically I go to Shanghai, but this trip was going to put me in Guangzhou for the first time just a short 2 hour train ride to Hong Kong the home of Hong Kong Disneyland! How could I pass this up? Well, I easily could have, but I got some advice on the boards which gave me a push to make this part of my trip happen so thank you everyone! It was not an easy trip for me overall, but definitely WORTH it!
Here was my Itinerary
Sun: Fly from Newark to Bejing
Mon-Tues: Work
Wed: Fly from Beijing to Guangzhou
Thursday: Work
Friday: Take train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong (Metro to Disneyland and spend 1/2 day)
Saturday: Fly from Hong Kong to Newark
Prior to leaving NJ, I had just about everything planned for my trip...except a train ticket from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Since the fun part of my trip (Disneyland), and catching my flight home, hinged on being able to get that ticket, I was a little stressed about it. Plus, I would only have 1 day in Disneyland and wanted to get an early train so I could maximize my time there. Short story is that my minor stress turned into a major stress after my hotel concierge sent me to the VERY busy Beijing train station with a note in Chinese for me to hand to the teller. I wont bore you with all the details, but it took me longer than expected to nail down but it seemed I would be in Disney by 1:30pm on Friday...I hoped!
"I need a ticket from Guangzhou to Hong Kong" (rough translation)
Well, the good news is that once I got to Hong Kong, the metro was easy to navigate. There is a dedicated subway line for Disneyland and it pulls right up to the park. The car is Disney themed also. It was awesome.
When I got to the Disneyland station I realized that it looks (at least to me) a lot like the Disney World Railroad Main street station very cool.
I walked about 15 min to the Disneyland hotel. It was killing me that I had to walk PAST the entrance of the park to get there I was really anxious to start touring as it was already after 2pm and the park closed at 9pm (even though it was a Friday in the summer)
The hotel was nice...looks like the Grand Floridian but maybe smaller? When I checked in, I actually couldn't get my key until 3 pm.( note that they didn't say my room wasn't ready...just that check in time was 3pm so I had to come back for my key at that time). So, I took that opportunity to go to the gift shop and buy tons of 9th anniversary merchandise. I figured that this may be my only trip here and I intended to buy whatever unique things I could. I just decided to ignore the strangeness of a 9th anniversary celebration.
My Loot (check out Chinese Duffy)
The Disneyland Hotel
The Hedge Maze
Soon enough, my key was ready and I went to my room to settle in and change. The room was nicely themed with Seven Dwarf toiletries and decorations in the bathroom. I especially liked the Do Not Disturb sign. Yes I took it home with me. I also took all four pair of the complimentary slippers in the closet (for my husband and kids, of course).
Seven Dwarfs Toiletries
Complementary Slippers
Achoo!
One of my favorite souvenirs
The Disneyland Hotel is walking distance to the park but having walked it already in the heat and humidity I decided to try the bus. It was more comfortable than the ones in Disney World (more like a charter bus) though it had much less capacity. There were only a handful of people on board and it dropped off right outside the entrance. When I got there, it was 330 pm and the park would close at 9pm.
The resort bus to the park
Finally, I was in HONG KONG DISNEYLAND! I had already gotten my ticket when I checked into the hotel so I was ready to GO!
Once I arrived in the park I started to wander around and take in the sights. It felt very familiar with Main Street, and Sleeping Beauty's castle (but with mountains in the background). Since I was there by myself, I wanted to use Photopass to get some pictures of myself that were not selfies but at first I couldnt find any photographers, even on Main St/by the Castle.
So, I headed towards the unique land called Mystic Point which has a new ride called Mystic Manor. There was a 45 min wait which I guess isn't bad for a Friday afternoon in the summer. It was a dark ride involving an explorer, his monkey and an enchanted music box. All the elements needed for an awesome ride. I did enjoy it and so glad I experienced something unique to HKD.
Mystic Manor Ride
Magnetic Ride System
I finally found a Photopass photographer in front of the castle. Although I had read Photopass was different in HKD, the system worked like what I was used to in Disney World where you get a card and the use it throughout the day. The only difference was that at the end of the day I had to buy the digital copies before leaving the park in order to download them. Oh and the other difference was that all the pictures had borders on them and the picture quality is not as good as what Ive had in DW. Oh, and I guess I have to add that the borders were very sloppily applied.
All in all I got 12 Photopass pictures throughout the day and spent about $50 for the digital copies. It was totally worth it to me as I may never have the chance to come back.
Very creative placement of the border
Besides Mystic Manor, I was able to go on 3 other rides: Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and Its a Small World. Space Mountain and Buzz seemed similar to their California Disneyland counterparts, with Space Mountain having side-by-side seating and Buzz having detachable guns and cars you could rotate. I got into the single rider line for Space Mountain (30 min) and I got what is my favorite picture of all time:
While waiting on line for Buzz, I ate a Chinese Mickey Ice Cream bar which was delicious. Maybe my imagination but tasted slightly better than what I'm used to in Disney World (or it could be that I had eaten nothing all day and it was 90+ degrees + incredible humidity so it just seemed that way).
Delicious!
In general, the lines for the rides in general were a bit pushy with people crowding together a lot. I noticed this the least on Small World probably because of the prevalence of little kids or perhaps because it had a shorter wait time (20 min). Small World was also more similar to Disneyland California with many Disney characters making an appearance throughout the ride.
In my wandering I found a character Photospot and noticed the line for "Chinese Goofy" wasn't too long. Also they had Pluto/Donald and Mickey and Minnie. I didn't have the time or energy to wait for Mickey/Minnie since their line was long and they were not dressed in anything too unique. I think they were wearing their "island wear". However, Chinese Goofy looked awesome AND The Photopass photographers were there...this is the only place I saw them besides the castle.
One different land in HKG is Toy Story Land, which had some basic amusement park rides. It was cute but not too interesting for me. Plus there was no shade there and it was HOT. So I took some pictures and video and moved on. Interestingly, the Buzz Lightyear ride is not in this land...it is in Tomorrowland I guess to keep consistent with other parks. Grizzly Gulch is another unique land that I'm sorry to say I didn't spend much time in. I remember there was a roller coaster ride there but the line was long and I just didn't have the time.
The rest of my time in the park was spent shopping and taking pictures. Overall, I only had a few hours in the park but I really enjoyed my time there. And while my mainland China trip was pretty stressful, all that just melted away once I got on site.
Back at the hotel I ordered a very good hamburger from room service and leveraged my free (and fast) wifi to download my Photopass pictures that I had purchased. Then, the next day I had the craziest taxi driver take me to the airport (and that is saying something living 40 min from NYC) but I made it safely (and quickly) to the airport ready for my 15 hour flight home.
Then when I got home it was time to get ready for our 3 night Disney Cruise and 4 night Disney World stay never would I have thought Id experience Disney in THREE different countries within just TWO weeks ☺
While my trip to China was actually for work, going to HKD made me feel like I was on vacation for the last 20 hours or so of my trip then as a bonus, I really went on vacation, had a great time, and decided to buy DVC at Beach Club Villas! I call that a WIN WIN WIN!
Let me start off by saying I am not really what people would describe as adventurous. I like to plan and know what I'm doing. When traveling to China, typically I go to Shanghai, but this trip was going to put me in Guangzhou for the first time just a short 2 hour train ride to Hong Kong the home of Hong Kong Disneyland! How could I pass this up? Well, I easily could have, but I got some advice on the boards which gave me a push to make this part of my trip happen so thank you everyone! It was not an easy trip for me overall, but definitely WORTH it!
Here was my Itinerary
Sun: Fly from Newark to Bejing
Mon-Tues: Work
Wed: Fly from Beijing to Guangzhou
Thursday: Work
Friday: Take train from Guangzhou to Hong Kong (Metro to Disneyland and spend 1/2 day)
Saturday: Fly from Hong Kong to Newark
Prior to leaving NJ, I had just about everything planned for my trip...except a train ticket from Guangzhou to Hong Kong. Since the fun part of my trip (Disneyland), and catching my flight home, hinged on being able to get that ticket, I was a little stressed about it. Plus, I would only have 1 day in Disneyland and wanted to get an early train so I could maximize my time there. Short story is that my minor stress turned into a major stress after my hotel concierge sent me to the VERY busy Beijing train station with a note in Chinese for me to hand to the teller. I wont bore you with all the details, but it took me longer than expected to nail down but it seemed I would be in Disney by 1:30pm on Friday...I hoped!
"I need a ticket from Guangzhou to Hong Kong" (rough translation)
Well, the good news is that once I got to Hong Kong, the metro was easy to navigate. There is a dedicated subway line for Disneyland and it pulls right up to the park. The car is Disney themed also. It was awesome.
When I got to the Disneyland station I realized that it looks (at least to me) a lot like the Disney World Railroad Main street station very cool.
I walked about 15 min to the Disneyland hotel. It was killing me that I had to walk PAST the entrance of the park to get there I was really anxious to start touring as it was already after 2pm and the park closed at 9pm (even though it was a Friday in the summer)
The hotel was nice...looks like the Grand Floridian but maybe smaller? When I checked in, I actually couldn't get my key until 3 pm.( note that they didn't say my room wasn't ready...just that check in time was 3pm so I had to come back for my key at that time). So, I took that opportunity to go to the gift shop and buy tons of 9th anniversary merchandise. I figured that this may be my only trip here and I intended to buy whatever unique things I could. I just decided to ignore the strangeness of a 9th anniversary celebration.
My Loot (check out Chinese Duffy)
The Disneyland Hotel
The Hedge Maze
Soon enough, my key was ready and I went to my room to settle in and change. The room was nicely themed with Seven Dwarf toiletries and decorations in the bathroom. I especially liked the Do Not Disturb sign. Yes I took it home with me. I also took all four pair of the complimentary slippers in the closet (for my husband and kids, of course).
Seven Dwarfs Toiletries
Complementary Slippers
Achoo!
One of my favorite souvenirs
The Disneyland Hotel is walking distance to the park but having walked it already in the heat and humidity I decided to try the bus. It was more comfortable than the ones in Disney World (more like a charter bus) though it had much less capacity. There were only a handful of people on board and it dropped off right outside the entrance. When I got there, it was 330 pm and the park would close at 9pm.
The resort bus to the park
Finally, I was in HONG KONG DISNEYLAND! I had already gotten my ticket when I checked into the hotel so I was ready to GO!
Once I arrived in the park I started to wander around and take in the sights. It felt very familiar with Main Street, and Sleeping Beauty's castle (but with mountains in the background). Since I was there by myself, I wanted to use Photopass to get some pictures of myself that were not selfies but at first I couldnt find any photographers, even on Main St/by the Castle.
So, I headed towards the unique land called Mystic Point which has a new ride called Mystic Manor. There was a 45 min wait which I guess isn't bad for a Friday afternoon in the summer. It was a dark ride involving an explorer, his monkey and an enchanted music box. All the elements needed for an awesome ride. I did enjoy it and so glad I experienced something unique to HKD.
Mystic Manor Ride
Magnetic Ride System
I finally found a Photopass photographer in front of the castle. Although I had read Photopass was different in HKD, the system worked like what I was used to in Disney World where you get a card and the use it throughout the day. The only difference was that at the end of the day I had to buy the digital copies before leaving the park in order to download them. Oh and the other difference was that all the pictures had borders on them and the picture quality is not as good as what Ive had in DW. Oh, and I guess I have to add that the borders were very sloppily applied.
All in all I got 12 Photopass pictures throughout the day and spent about $50 for the digital copies. It was totally worth it to me as I may never have the chance to come back.
Very creative placement of the border
Besides Mystic Manor, I was able to go on 3 other rides: Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear and Its a Small World. Space Mountain and Buzz seemed similar to their California Disneyland counterparts, with Space Mountain having side-by-side seating and Buzz having detachable guns and cars you could rotate. I got into the single rider line for Space Mountain (30 min) and I got what is my favorite picture of all time:
While waiting on line for Buzz, I ate a Chinese Mickey Ice Cream bar which was delicious. Maybe my imagination but tasted slightly better than what I'm used to in Disney World (or it could be that I had eaten nothing all day and it was 90+ degrees + incredible humidity so it just seemed that way).
Delicious!
In general, the lines for the rides in general were a bit pushy with people crowding together a lot. I noticed this the least on Small World probably because of the prevalence of little kids or perhaps because it had a shorter wait time (20 min). Small World was also more similar to Disneyland California with many Disney characters making an appearance throughout the ride.
In my wandering I found a character Photospot and noticed the line for "Chinese Goofy" wasn't too long. Also they had Pluto/Donald and Mickey and Minnie. I didn't have the time or energy to wait for Mickey/Minnie since their line was long and they were not dressed in anything too unique. I think they were wearing their "island wear". However, Chinese Goofy looked awesome AND The Photopass photographers were there...this is the only place I saw them besides the castle.
One different land in HKG is Toy Story Land, which had some basic amusement park rides. It was cute but not too interesting for me. Plus there was no shade there and it was HOT. So I took some pictures and video and moved on. Interestingly, the Buzz Lightyear ride is not in this land...it is in Tomorrowland I guess to keep consistent with other parks. Grizzly Gulch is another unique land that I'm sorry to say I didn't spend much time in. I remember there was a roller coaster ride there but the line was long and I just didn't have the time.
The rest of my time in the park was spent shopping and taking pictures. Overall, I only had a few hours in the park but I really enjoyed my time there. And while my mainland China trip was pretty stressful, all that just melted away once I got on site.
Back at the hotel I ordered a very good hamburger from room service and leveraged my free (and fast) wifi to download my Photopass pictures that I had purchased. Then, the next day I had the craziest taxi driver take me to the airport (and that is saying something living 40 min from NYC) but I made it safely (and quickly) to the airport ready for my 15 hour flight home.
Then when I got home it was time to get ready for our 3 night Disney Cruise and 4 night Disney World stay never would I have thought Id experience Disney in THREE different countries within just TWO weeks ☺
While my trip to China was actually for work, going to HKD made me feel like I was on vacation for the last 20 hours or so of my trip then as a bonus, I really went on vacation, had a great time, and decided to buy DVC at Beach Club Villas! I call that a WIN WIN WIN!
I think we may have been there close to the same time. I went at the end of August. I wanted a little R & R and HKDL and the 
