Hong Kong Trip Report - FINISHED

[PrincessInOz]

That's a lot of scaffold up. I wonder what they are doing at the top of Jumbo?

From where I'm sitting, it looks like a lovely time. But then....I'm not the one in that heat.

 

[maryr1oz]

We took the tour bus again, this time through Central and Sheung Wan.









We left the bus again at at the Man Mo Temple. We didn't stay long, as we were in search of lunch.



We walked along Hollywood Road until we got to the Mid-Level escalators. Right there we came across a Marks and Spencer food, so we grabbed a sandwich. We ascended to the escalator level, and walked down towards Central.







Even though we were headed downhill, and we were walking as opposed to using the escalators, we still had a nice walk above all the streets below.



Back at Central we walked to the Star Ferry, went back over to Tsim Sha Tsui, and boarded the Kowloon loop of the tour bus. This was a timely decision. Not too long after we boarded the skies absolutely opened up and we were caught in an earth shattering thunder storm. The loudest i've ever heard. Everywhere started flash flooding. We were glad to be on the bus, but it was a slow slog with lot's of car accidents blocking roads and general wet weather heavy traffic.







We got back within 4 blocks of our hotel and decided to make a run for it. The bus driver gave us some plastic ponchos. We were able to use some hotels, some overpass walkways and shops to break the run back to the hotel. We still got pretty wet though

It was still wet into the evening, so we used a delivery service and got food delivered from Pizza Express. It was super easy and reasonably fast. The food was ok.

 

[dollarmite]

After seeing all your photos I really want to go back to Hong Kong!

 

[maryr1oz]

Yay - our first morning at Disney had arrived!

We packed our backpack with lot's of bottled water, wet face washers and the small umbrella our hotel had provided for us.

We walked to Jordan MTR and descended into the air-conditioned comfort of the station.



We caught the red line towards Lai King.





At Lai King we switched to the Tung Chung line, and changed at Sunny Bay for the Disneyland train!





The train was only a short trip, and it was quite full. It was still a great introduction to Disney property though.





At Disneyland station we milled around to take some photos.





Once we got to ground level, we were met by the big welcome banner.





We walked down the entry plaza, towards the fountain.

 

[maryr1oz]

We turned and walked towards the ticket booths.



We had to collect our tickets, i had ordered and paid for 2 day tickets online before we left Australia. The collection kiosks were easy to find, and there were plenty of cast members around to help if need be.



It was then time for us to join join the queue. We actually took some time to sit in the shade before lining up. There wasn't much shade, but we decided to get in line at about 9:20am. They would open the front gates at 9:30am.



As soon as we got into the front gates, we took some photos of the station, and were approached by a photo pass photographer who took one on our camera for us.





We then walked to the right (i always enter through the right and exit on the left ).







We entered Main Street - i was excited!

'

 

[maryr1oz]

We had until 10am to get to the top end of Main Street for rope drop. The first thing i noticed was there were so many building in Main Street covered in scrim...



There were several characters out in the bottom of Main Street for meet and greets. We don't really take much time for these generally, but we do have at least one character pic from each Disney park visit. I saw Duffy with only a couple of people in front of us, so we jumped in line. The photo pass guy took one with my phone. We would later view and purchase a photo from this meet and greet.



We walked through the Emporium, and i made an effort to take some merch photos - you can see them all in my photo thread which is linked in my signature.





I bought these



We went over to the bakery to get some breakfast.







I had the Mickey maple toast.





DH had the Cheesy ring.



We did a slow walk up to the end of the crowd, and only stood there for a couple of minutes until the rope dropped.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Nice update.

Love the food porn.

 

[maryr1oz]

Nice update.

Love the food porn.

Yes we love our food

 

[maryr1oz]

At 10am the rope was dropped, and we were quite a few people back from the front. We had to fight our way from left to right as well to get to a cast member with an English map. I never did see maps available closer to the entrance.

Map in hand we took off back to the left, and into Adventureland. We were on a mission to ride Grizzly Gulch, followed by Mystic Manor.







We waited a couple of minutes in the queue, but we were riding soon after. We were sat in the back row.





We really loved the ride. I think it's so much better than BTM at the other parks. I loved the backwards portion, and the speed at which it changed. It was probably my favorite ride at HKDL.

We walked quickly over to Mystic Point.







I was amused to see that all the ride warning signs said you had to be sober to ride...



Mystic Manor was a good ride. Totally different to anything else i've seen on Disney property - the spinning room was lot's of fun. The queue here is mostly inside, and air conditioned when you need a heat break.





We had ridden the two rides i had on my must-first list, so then we took some time walking back towards Grizzly Gulch for another ride there. Still a very quiet queue.





We decided to have a walk through the splash zone.









We wandered back into Mystic Point, and walked through this time. The train was out of service for our whole visit. The gardens in this area were so nice with the shade. There was plenty of places to sit here too.

 

[maryr1oz]

We entered Toy Story Plalyland from Mystic Point. There were already some crowds here. It was about 10:45am.







We saw Jessie's snack roundup and i told DH i wanted to try the pizza cone. I was asked if i wanted tomato or chicken, chose tomato, then was promptly served a chicken version. Oh well. It was really bad... Lucky i also bought a coke to wash the flavour away We sat here for a little while enjoying the scenery.







We had ridden most of these rides before, at Disneyland Paris, and taking into account the crowds and the heat, we were happy enough to just keep wandering through.





We walked slowly back around towards Adventureland. At about 11:30am I decided that we should get in line for the noon showing of Lion King. We were guided into the first corral area, although not very long after we were, they closed our area and started filling the next. It was hot as heck waiting out there for 30 mins. Inside we got great seats, and we really enjoyed the show.

 

[TheChanClan]

Reading your TR and seeing your pictures really makes me miss Hong Kong!!! Can't wait to go back!

DH and I loved Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Manor as well, both really well done IMO

 

[maryr1oz]

We left Lion King about 12:40, and walked back into the Hub.





Then it was over to Tomorrowland



We had a quick look around at food choices in the area













We decided on Starliner Diner mostly because they had 2 large inside air conditioned seating areas. However, once we ordered and went looking for a table we realised it was going to take awhile and alot of luck to score one. So, we retreated back outside to the other seating areas.

We both ordered the cheeseburger, fries and softdrink combo

 

[maryr1oz]

Reading your TR and seeing your pictures really makes me miss Hong Kong!!! Can't wait to go back!

DH and I loved Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Manor as well, both really well done IMO

Thanks for reading - and yes, i already miss Hong Kong too

 

[maryr1oz]

After lunch we ventured back into the Hub, and took a couple of photos with the castle



Then we walked through...



And into Fantasyland for the first time



Once we got around the carousel, the first thing i noticed was the queue for Winnie the Pooh - 60 minute wait, and all the fastpasses were already gone. This queue, while mostly undercover, is not air-conditioned, so we weren’t about to get in line.





We walked around the area, but the ride lines were just too long for rides that we weren't super interested in.



We did want to check out Small World though, so we headed in that direction





The good thing about this, is the majority of the queue is inside, air-conditioned and it moves pretty constantly.



This is the first time i'd seen a version that had Disney characters throughout, i really liked it

 

[maryr1oz]

When we exited Small World right by the ice cream cart, we knew we had to stop. The heat was really getting to us. We had the umbrella, wet towels, plenty of water and now ice cream, but we kept fading fast.







DH had the Coke Slush with Ice Cream



I had the Choc Banana Basket



We sat in some shade and ate them, but afterwards we decided to just make our way back towards Main Street, and then out of the park.







We walked through the shops, i was surprised how much Frozen merchandise there was around, although it all had '5 per customer limit' signs on it.







We had 2 day tickets, so we knew we would be back. I think we left the front gates about 2:15pm. There were already plenty of people camped out for the parade.

 

[CaliBear]

Really enjoyed looking at your photos. I liked Pizza Express. but the quality for delivery doesn't look as good. Interesting seeing the limit on the Frozen merchandise.

 

[maryr1oz]

Really enjoyed looking at your photos. I liked Pizza Express. but the quality for delivery doesn't look as good. Interesting seeing the limit on the Frozen merchandise.

Yes agree -the Pizza Express delivery was just ok...

 

[maryr1oz]

We got back to Tsim Sha Tsui on the train from Disney and spent a couple of hours at the hotel. Later we showered, and caught a taxi down to the Ocean Terminal Mall. The sun was just setting and the water looked beautiful.









We went right to the other end of the Mall, and got a table at the Dim Sum Bar immediately. It was an ok meal - very westernised dim sum.









Thursday was to be our day catching the ferry over to Macau. I pulled the plug on that though because i was too scared to get stuck on the water during a storm like we'd been experiencing. DH needed some real work time, so i was more than happy to have a 'rest' day. At lunchtime we wandered down to the MiraMall that was a couple of blocks from our hotel, and ate a little cafe inside.





We then walked through the top end of the Kowloon Park, but we didn't get far before the rain set in. There was a superheroes sculpture series here.





We ran back to the hotel in the rain and spent the afternoon inside. Later in the evening we made our way back down to the waterfront for the laser and light show.







We ended up walking back to the hotel which was nice, although it did get quite wet again.

 

[maryr1oz]

On Friday morning we did our same train commute out to Sunny Bay, and arrive at Disneyland station at about 9:00am. The train was a little less crowded this morning.







We didn't want to have to stand in the line in the sun to get in for too long, so we walked slowly, hopping from shade patch to shade patch.





Soon we were surprised to see the lines entering, it was only 9:15am and we had anticipated they wouldn't be opening the gates until 9:30am! This was a good bonus, so we quickly made our way into Main Street. Mickey and Minnie were front and center.



Today i looked at the Mickey waffles, but in the end we went back to the Main Street Bakery for a snack, today i chose the Cheesey Ring.



There was still gaps against the rope for rope drop so i made a beeline. We ended up being front and center! Soon they made an announcement that they would be dropping at 9:45am today - so we only had about 10 minutes to wait! It was a good view from up there.





The family of the day did the cute ceremony...

 

[maryr1oz]

We made a quick walk straight through the castle and to Winnie the Pooh. I refused to run, but there were certainly many people running around us. We had a minute or so wait when we arrived at Winnie the Pooh.





DH was adament about riding Space Mountain today, so we left Fantasyland, went back through the castle and past Snow White Grotto.





We picked up fastpasses for Space Mountain, and decided to cross the park and go ride Grizzly Gulch again while it was still early.

We went the long way, through Toy Story Playland... my gosh there was NO ONE around...







Past Mystic Manor...



We got in line at Grizzly and waited about 1 minute - we rode, then re-rode 2 more times with never more than one ride load wait. It was so great!

I wanted to do Jungle Cruise, so we made our way there.





I was given the ride wait card to hold onto





The ride was fun, but we had a really ordinary captain - her English wasn't very well spoken, and nothing came out clearly over the microphone. It was nice and cool getting splashed a few times though!