HKDL One day visit July 2018 Trip Report

[Just-Pete]

Just a quick Trip Report, as it was only a one day visit. But as my signature suggests I have done the Florida parks a lot, and being British I have also done DLRP a lot. So visiting my first new park in an age seemed worthy of a TR. And although it was only one day, I have to say it was probably one of the fullest days I have had in a park in years. I think knowing we only had one day really caused us to focus in and make the most of the day. Also the size and how busy the park was that day played into our favour and allowed us to get a lot done.


Background:

I was on an 11 day trip to Asia visiting my two friends who are a married couple living and working as teachers in an international school in Bangkok. (We have done WDW together before when we were younger as part of a larger group and a few trips to DLRP together) We had spent the first 2 days in Bangkok, then 3 blissful days on the island of Koh Samet. Then back to Bangers for one day before took an AirAsia flight to Hong Kong for three days. Our trip to HKDL was on the second day. The first day was just touristy stuff in the city, and the third day was really just the Ngong Ping 360 Cable Car and the big Buddha and then back into the city to Mong Kok for a look around some markets before heading back to Bangers, where we had two more days before I then flew home.

The trip:

We woke up early but still took things pretty easy as we knew we had time with the parks relaxed opening time (10am). So we grabbed a bit of breakfast for us all from the Starbucks on the way to the MTR station. We were staying at the Renaissance Harbour View, so we had to make a couple of changes on the MTR lines. But as any of you who have been to HK will know, the MTR is a seriously easy Metro system to navigate so we had no problems, and by 9:27am we were safely at Sunny Bay awaiting the Disney Train which promptly showed up.

This bit for me was super exciting, as I am a bit of a transport geek and I had already arranged my whole trip around particular flights for my miles balance, and for the model of aircraft and new types of business class seats (which Cathay Pacific won BTW) and it sounds sad but one of my favourite things about WDW is the Disney Transport options. So this was great, and a really well done transport mode. I loved the little disney touches with the windows, handles and the little character statuettes inside. It really got things off to a great themed start.

So soon enough we had arrived at the Disney end of the line and we were stepping out into a slap to the face of a heatwave.... This was easily the hottest day yet of the trip! It was like walking into a wall of hot humid air!

We hadn't pre-booked or done anything online, as the tickets seemed quite cheap by most standards to us, so we just joined a line and bought tickets at the tickets booth. I just paid with my Monzo card and this was no problem. I got an immediate notification on my phone that I had just spent £60.29 ($78.86) at Hong Kong Disneyland and once my friends had sorted themselves out, we made our way to the turnstiles and into the park....

To Be Continued.

 

[indoshakespeare]

Nice trip. July must have been so hot over there.

 

[Just-Pete]

Nice trip. July must have been so hot over there.

Oh absolutely, and the park has a surprising lack of shade in places! I defy anyone to stand still in their Toy Story land in the kind of heat we were up against. Still it was a good excuse to buy a cap from Main St Emporium as soon as we got in!!

 

[Just-Pete]

CONTINUED:

So we quickly entered, with minimal queuing for the turnstiles, and it was all very similar to other parks, which was very exciting, and even as we were walking from the station to the ticket booths we had all commented how it felt like we weren't in Hong Kong or any country anymore, just "In Disney".

The first thing that I liked was the Bandstand or Pavilion here, it may just be seasonal thing, but really looked pretty with all the flowers.

And then it was time for the first glimpse of the Castle, it was actually better than we had hoped for, as we knew of the refurb works. But hadn't researched what stage it was at or how it looked, and yes when we got closer to it. It was inaccessible and blocked off, but from this distance it actually looked okay. And yes I know it's small, and I can see how it will benefit from a new castle. But I still think it looks great, and it was really nice to see the hills/mountains behind it like that.

Before we continued on any further, our bodies were reminding us that we were pasty white English folk and I was already sweating our more fluid than I could possibly have already taken in, so we diverted into Main St Emporium so I could buy a hat in vain attempt to provide my neck with some shade, and stop my jet black hair from absorbing so much heat and superheating my head. This is obviously standard practice for a lot of folk as the shop had hats galore, and had them on every rack as well as their own big section on the wall. I was immediately overwhelmed with choice, but finally narrowed it down to a lighter blue Monsters University one which I have seen in other parks, and a navy blue Donald one which I ended up getting as Donald was my fave of the "big 5" when growing up and it said Disneyland Hong Kong on it, so felt a bit more special.

(excuse my faces awful attempt at facial hair, but I was on my holidays, so it's allowed).

So with that out the way and a stock up on water bottles we headed off to hit Mystic Point, as the ride I was most hyped about was Mystic Manor and I really wanted to try it first. We walked the way that would take us through Toy Story land, but when we got to Toy Story Land, there was a rope up and the CMs informed us it didn't open till 10:30. By now it was 10:20 so we just took a seat on a bench under the railroad bridge and enjoyed some shade as the crowds gathered around us. When the rope did drop and we went in it seemed the crowds that had gathered were there for Toy Story Land, and as we got to Mystic Manor it was just us.

Here's my friends successfully navigating the masses and into Mystic Point.

We were literally the first guests to turn up at Mystic Manor, and here I am posing with what is now my favourite Disney Ride.

It was just excellent. Really enjoyed it, and loved everything from the Pre-show right through to every part of the ride. I hadn't researched it much, so was just expecting a Ghost free more family friendly version of Haunted Mansion. But this was so much more and so much better. LOVED IT!!!

After this we headed off to Adventureland for a bit of a wonder round, and we had really based the only structured parts of our day around the shows, so we knew we had some time until Festival of the Lion King, so we still had some time to just go with the flow, so as we headed towards Jungle Cruise, we decided we would do it. It said 15 minute queue, but again we got straight on to a full boat. And off we went. I've read a few TR's on here where people kinda of slate the Asian versions of this ride and the CM's on it, but I thought ours was fine considering she was delivering it in another language and the differences between a Western and Eastern audience. Our CM was called "Porsche" and she made us giggle anyway! Here is a little clip if you are interested.

I really liked the ending of the ride with the extra "perilous scene" worked in. It was a bit like Hollywood Studios and Studios Parc Backlot tour Canyon scene ride but on water.

Anyway with that out of the way it was time for a snack and then Festival of the Lion King which I will cover in my next post, as I love me a good show.

 

[BecBennett]

Do you have any photos of the castle up close? I'm curious to see what it looks like under refurb.

I think we're heading over to HK in October, I'm curious whether the Jungle Cruise there is similar to Tokyo, from your description it sounds like they might be.

 

[indoshakespeare]

I actually liked the mountains as the backdrop for the castle. If you look at Neuschwanstein castle pics, the HKDL castle pics match up very closely to Neuschwanstein.

 

[Agent 86]

Nice Donald hat! Will you be posting any pics showing the front of it?

 

[Just-Pete]

Nice Donald hat! Will you be posting any pics showing the front of it?

Hey, so I don't think I wore it front facing at all during the Disney day as it was mainly to keep my neck from dissolving, so it stayed backwards. But here's one from the next day where I had it on in the hotel. It's not overtly Disney at all really, so can still see myself wearing now that I'm back in "Real Life".

 

[Just-Pete]

Do you have any photos of the castle up close? I'm curious to see what it looks like under refurb.

I think we're heading over to HK in October, I'm curious whether the Jungle Cruise there is similar to Tokyo, from your description it sounds like they might be.

So I have this one which is from when you are in the I want to say "plaza" or Hub area in front of it at the end of Main St.

And also this one from behind it when were messing around taking pictures of our Ice Creams.

Not sure how helpful they are?

 

[Agent 86]

Hey, so I don't think I wore it front facing at all during the Disney day as it was mainly to keep my neck from dissolving, so it stayed backwards. But here's one from the next day where I had it on in the hotel. It's not overtly Disney at all really, so can still see myself wearing now that I'm back in "Real Life".

That’s awesome! Thanks for posting. I’m always on the look out for more ... subtle Disney caps, particularly a good Donald one (since Mickey is featured on so many hats). Hopefully they have a similar style in Tokyo which is the Disney theme park I’ll be visiting next.

 

[BecBennett]

Not sure how helpful they are?

Very! Thanks

 

[Just-Pete]

CONTINUED:

Once we had disembarked from the Jungle River Cruise my friend announced he was getting "hangry" and he wanted a treat. So we set off in search of a nice treat and ended up getting a Duffy Doughnut. I wasn't hungry enough to warrant getting something so had a bit of a walk around the shops and good look at the Pandora offering available. I have a sister and 4 nieces through her and I tend to get them a Pandora charm on most trips. But didn't get anything here, they had the same range as the other Disney parks, but their exclusives in HK were all around bloody Duffy and friends? What is the obsession with these guys? It's madness. They do nothing for me and they wouldn't mean anything to my family. So no purchases were made.

Now that some of the group had refuelled, we took a look at the time and realised we were on schedule for Festival Of The Lion King, so made our way back to Adventureland and over to the theatre. We joined a queue, which could have been a lot shorted, but due to the blazing heat, people would only stand on either side in an effort to get some shade, and nobody moved up to fill the middle section. But soon enough they were opening up the doors and letting us into a fairly familiar feeling theatre.

I thought the show was great. We had a great Uncle Scar, (to be fair at WDW, I've never seen a bad Uncle Scar, it's such a good reminder of what a classic Be Prepared is) and the main woman/narrator/Circle of Life lady was great too. I don't know if I liked the way it tried to tell the story of the Lion King. I think I prefer the WDW version where it's just a flat out party with songs and performances. But I did prefer the Can You Feel The Love Tonight performance in this show and the aerial routine. Plus the stage was great with the way it rotated and raised and lowered to different tiers. I think ultimately though if I have to compare the two, then my vote probably goes to the WDW one. But only just!! FOLK at WDW is probably my top live show, but Hong Kong still did a really good job with theirs. Plus at DAK, FOLK normally gets combined with a touch of day drinking at Dawa bar!

After FOLK I was now hungry and it was around 12:00, so we pulled out the Park Map and decided which quick Service to hit up for lunch. We decided on The Explorers Club in Mystic Point, which was just next to Mystic Manor so off we went. It was a fairly similar setup service wise to a Quick serves like Pecos Bills in WDW, but kind of combined with WDW resort food court. With different counters for different options. So we split up and regrouped at a table together. I didn't take pictures of what the others had, but below is my "Deep Fried Chicken Steak With Vegetable Fried Rice Combo" I also ordered the "Korean Deep Fried Chicken" as sharer for us all (it was essentially Chicken Nuggets with a sauce). But we realised quite quickly that the mains alone were quite large portions.

With lunch out of the way and having sat their for a while to let it digest whilst we discussed our thoughts on the park so far (everyone was impressed) we headed back out of Mystic Point, back through the blazing heat and shade lacking Toy Story Land back into Fantasy land. We had a bit of look around the shops here (I'm a sucker for the Parks merch) and then we headed into Philharmagic. This was exactly the same as WDW right down to the Donald stunt at the end, and just like WDW a great opportunity to spend some time sat down in an Air Conditioned environment.

The end of Philharmagic basically bought us out right in time for the Flights of Fantasy, so we found a nice spot right by where it came out in Fantasyland to watch it. By now we had hit the hottest part of the day and the sweat was almost pouring off me. I couldn't imagine how the performers did it, but they did. It was a good parade, but possibly because of the heat? It felt like a shorter parade than I am used to. But it was all good. The picture below was one of my faves. I just thought these guys (Girls) were cool, and they were wearing heelies too, so it was funny whenever the would just roll along.

Once the parade had passed by we were right next to the path down to It's A Small World (I think this was an extension after the park opened, so you kind of head down a path off the main track to this one. You can see below how you pass under the Railroad, which used to basically be the perimeter of the park.

(again everything here looks so much better with the great hills rolling in the background)

This was a walk on for us and off we went. You know what you're getting with It's A Small World and this was exactly what we expected. But still a good time and lots to look at and laugh at. Somehow in the Europe section me and my friends got The Netherlands and Spain mixed up so we were laughing at that and a few oddities as we went round.

Once we were off we realised we hadn't even stepped foot in Tomorrowland yet and it was already 14:00. So thats's where we headed next.

TO BE CONTINUED...

 

[Just-Pete]

CONTINUED:

So we headed away from It's A Small World and through to Tomorrowland, or "Star Wars A Tomorrowland Takeover"?

I'm not sure if that's what you're meant to call it?

And then we just had a bit of a wander around looking at the last area of the park that we hadn't really seen yet. It was pretty, but I think out of the park's I've been to, WDW is my favourite. And I really love the Tomorrowland Transit Authority People mover. So I missed that. We looked at "Hyperspace" Mountain. And this for the first time actually had a sizeable queue (40 Minutes) by the days standards. And having barely queued for anything all day, none of us fancied the notion of now queuing for a ride. It was at this point as we stood near the Fastpass entrance that we realised we had not even considered the notion of a fast pass all day or even looked into how they work here. So a quick chat with a CM revealed that they were running the old non RFID version of fast pass and we just needed to insert our tickets we had bought into the machine near the entrance. We promptly did it and were rewarded with a fast pass for just over one hours time.

With our Fast Passes safely stored we decided to do The Iron Man Experience which had a queue of 25 minutes according to the indicator, but in reality this turned out to be 15 minutes. As a Star Tours fan, I really enjoyed this ride. It was technically obviously the same ride. But I loved the plot line and the way that the city you are flying around is actually Hong Kong. So that felt really cool. One of our party didn't realise it was a motion simulator though, so he dropped out as we got to the front of the queue, as those types of rides are not for him.

After this we were really at the point now where we had done most of the big things, we still had the 16:30 showing of Mickey & The Wondrous book to go and our FP for Space Mountain, but we had some free time. And someone fancied a snack. We found that the snack carts around the park weren't as strong as we had hoped for so ended up going into The Royal Banquet Hall which is the main restaurant in FantasyLand. I don't eat so much myself so I just got a large bottle of water as it was needed in the days heat, whilst the other two got some snack options. I can't remember what they were, but we sat down anyway and had a quick rest whilst they ate. And I snapped some pictures of the restaurant, as I really liked the theming in there.

After this we did our obligatory photo shoot session that we had been doing everywhere we'd been on this holiday, but it was a difficult choice where to do it here as obviously up close to the Castle you had the works going on and the hoarding. And also we couldn't find the Partners Statue in this park, we thought maybe it was behind the hoarding closer to the Castle. But now that I've had a look online it seems HK doesn't have one? In the end we chose the Sorcerer Mickey/Fantasia statue in Fantasy land.

So with afternoon rapidly drawing towards evening we headed off from here in the direction of Storybook Theatre to join the queue for Mickey & The Wondrous Book.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[indoshakespeare]

The Iron Man Experience used to be Star Tours and the Ant Man ride they're building used to be Buzz Lightyear Astroblaster. There used to be Autopia as well but they took it out to make way for Marvel land