EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HONG KONG DISNEYLAND BEFORE YOU GO

When going to Hong Kong Disneyland, there is lots to see and do!  First there are a couple things you should know about the park before you plan your trip!

There are several rides that are available here that are different from the other Disney parks! You won’t want to miss out on Toy Story Land, Iron Man, Garden of Wonders, Mystic Manor, Big Grizzly Mountain Runway Mine Car, Fairy Tale Forest, and the Lion King Show.  Although the park feels very similar to Disneyland, you will be able to pick out lots of subtle differences in the layout, classic Disneyland rides, signs, etc.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

• Download the Disneyland Hong Kong app before your trip. Depending on your phone service provider it may or may not be easy to download the app on the go. Have it before hand so you can study out the park, check out the lay out,  restaurants, and shops.  Get a few ideas of things you really want to see and do while at the park.

PARK OPENING

• Different parts of the park open at different times in the morning! Be aware of opening times of the different Lands when planning your day out! (To see our Disneyland Hong Kong Itinerary guide, check out here) Typically Toy Storyland, Mystic Point and
• Mickey and Minnie come to the park entrance every morning pulling up in a darling vintage taxi. They get out of the car, come and wave to everyone at the gates and take pictures in front of the Mickey flowers with one special family! Make sure to be to the park at least 40 minutes early to ensure you get to see the grand opening for the day. Cast members will pick one lucky family waiting in line to get into the park or around the park gate entrance to come be the special family to meet Mickey and Minnie/get pictures/etc.
• The park typically opens 30 minutes early. You can shop on main street, or take pictures with characters.  Mickey and Minnie will be under the gazebo and their pals will be off to the sides for pictures as well!

CHARACTER MEET AND GREETS

• Character meet and greets are HUGE in Hong Kong! Do not miss out on these! We don’t normally wait in lines and do the meet and greet thing, but it is something you can not miss in Hong Kong! Some how the characters are so animated and engaging, they will make you laugh and so happy! You really feel in the short time you are with them, it is quality time and you get some great pictures! The Hong Kong Disneyland photographers are fantastic!

FAST PASSES

• Fast passes are available for Whinne the Pooh, Space Mountain.  If you have ever been to Disneyland in California, it is the same fast pass system here at the Hong Kong Park.

IRON MAN RIDE

• Iron Man just ride just opened up and that would be a great ride to run to first! It is very similar set up as the Star Tours ride at Disneyland California/Hollywood Studios, but featuring Iron Man in Hong Kong!

TOY STORY LAND

• Toy Story Land is very unique to Disneyland Hong Kong! At the Barrel of Monkeys, you can meet Latso, Buzz, Woody or Jessie.  There is not a photopass spot there but a cast member that can take your photos!
• Check out the fun rides! RC Racer Ride, Slinky Dog Spin, Toy Solider and the Parachute Drop.
• At the cute gift shop, make sure to pick up a slinking dog bracelet.  This is the only place to get one, and its darling!
• Jessie’s Snack Roundup is a great place to stop on a warm day for a churro ice cream sundae.

FREE ITEMS AT HONG KONG DISNEYLAND

• Talk to cast members and say hi! They all have tons of stickers that they had out for free and are fun to collect! There were a few cast members we kept bumming into and we had fun getting to know them a little bit.  Getting to know new friends is always a great part of an adventure!
• Lucky Draw! You get to do a Lucky Draw most of the time when you purchase something from one of the gift shops at the park/hotel. Depending on how much you buy, is how many spins you get. The cast member will display an ipad that has a spinner on it that you press and it will land and let you know what your prizes are! Everyone is always a winner and they give you super cute tsum tsum edition sticky note pads for your winnings. (Yes, technically you have to spend money to get the free items, but it is a darling idea!)

SHOPPING AT THE PARKS

• Check out online the Disneyland Hong Kong Resort website and see how much tickets are for the dates of your trip. We ended up finding a deal on the Disney site for 2 day tickets for $77 US dollars! Talk about a steal of a deal?!?! We ordered our tickets in advance and printed of the confirmation to bring to the park.
• Merchandise deals. Unlike the parks in the USA, Hong Kong Disneyland offers discounts in the stores. Make sure to look for the signs or ask a cast member about the current promotions. When we were there they had buy 3 or more clothing items, get 20% off. Buy 4 or more keychains, get 20% off. And buy 4 or more tsum tsums, get 20% off. We loved the deals, but of course that means you probably end up buying more that you had anticipated! The only negative about the deals is you can not combine the deal between different shops in the park. All the items have to be from one shop.
• Try to purchase your items at the main street gift shops during the day verses closing time. Although closing time is a great time to purchase items, the main street shops get swamped since all the rides are closed. All though you get to stay at the park longer after hours and shop, you might not be able to see all the merchandise and get around easy with the crowds. We ended up waiting in line 45 minutes to just check out at closing time.
• If you are staying at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, anything you purchase at the park, you can have delivered to the bell desk.

FREE ITEMS AT HONG KONG DISNEYLAND

• Talk to cast members and say hi! They all have tons of stickers that they had out for free and are fun to collect! There were a few cast members we kept bumming into and we had fun getting to know them a little bit.  Getting to know new friends is always a great part of an adventure!
• Lucky Draw! You get to do a Lucky Draw most of the time when you purchase something from one of the gift shops at the park/hotel. Depending on how much you buy, is how many spins you get. The cast member will display an ipad that has a spinner on it that you press and it will land and let you know what your prizes are! Everyone is always a winner and they give you super cute tsum tsum edition sticky note pads for your winnings. (Yes, technically you have to spend money to get the free items, but it is a darling idea!)

CARRY CASH ON HAND

• Carry Hong Kong Cash on hand! There are several ATMS at the park, as well as a money exchange for hotel guests at the Disneyland Hotel. Most of all the treat stands, concessions only take Hong Kong cash. We had about 500 Hong Kong Dollars ($70 USA dollars) for two days and felt like that was plenty for the two of us. Restaurants and most fast serve food restaurants took credit/debit cards.

PHOTOPASS

• Photo Pass Options -Take advance of the photopass! Its around $35 USA for a 3 day picture pass. The cast members are great at explaining how it works, how to use the app, and are amazing at taking pictures! There are cast member photographers typically at most character meet and greets, by Sleeping Beauty’s Castle and walking around. We were really surprised at how awesome the photographers were! They took tons of pictures and even though we only were there at the park for 2 days, we felt that was worth our money for the pictures.
• The awesome thing about the photopass as well is within 10-15 minutes of taking pictures, you can download the high-quality photos straight to your phone! We loved being able to see the pictures right away, and the fun boarders they would add to the photos. If we did pictures with characters for each picture that a cast member took would would get all the photos in 3 different versions. They would

LANGUAGE

• All the rides are in English.  They do have instructions in Chinese, but the rides with talking are in English.   On the Jungle Cruise there is an option to enjoy the ride in English, Cantonese and Mandarin.
• All the signs are in English and Chinese.
• All the cast members we ran into were bilingual as well.

WHERE TO STAY

• Stay at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel.  The hotel books up fast so make sure to make reservations in advance! There is another hotel near by called the Hollywood Hotel that is Disney.  They are also building a new Disney hotel that should be available to stay at in the near future.
• While staying at the hotel, make reservations in advance as well for the Crystal Lotus.  There you can get the cutest dim sum you will ever eat!
• At the hotel there is also character dining and tea time which are both must do’s if you have the time!

FOOD

• 3-in1 Meal Coupons are available at this park.  They come with 2 meals and a snack. This is an affordable way to get more bang for you buck at the park while trying lots of tasty foods.  You can get the tickets at the kiosks when purchasing park tickets.  Personally, this is the way to go.  It is $238 Hong Kong Dollars which is $30.67 US Dollars.
• We tried several diffrent eating joints at the park and really loved everything we had.  Our favorite was next to the Mystic Manor at the Explorer’s Club Restaurant.  We got the Indian food options and it was fantastic! No joke, the best Indian food we have ever had!

ATTRACTIONS YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS

• Mystic Manor! This ride is the equivalent to the Haunted Mansion in the states.  Although very diffrent, similar vibe for a dark ride!  Here Lord Henry Mystic and his cute Monkey side kick Alfred show you around their mansion on a mystic ride! This was our favorite ride and kept riding it over and over again.
• Jungle Cruise! See it in your native language if you can! There is fire, explosions and it is just darling!  Same scenes on the original Jungle Cruise, but lots of new differences.
• Iron Man- This is a new ride to the park! More about it above.
• Fairy Tale Garden is located inside Fantasyland is so darling!  Here you can see miniature interactive movie scenes from your favorite Disney movies!  The Tangled scene was our favorite because Rapunzel would pull up Flynn.  If you stopped spinning the dial, Flynn would drop into a pit!
• In Grizzly Gulch there is a rollercoaster called Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars.  It is a fun ride and even goes backwards! There are also cool bears and lots of growling! If you get sick on rollercoasters, this one isn’t super ruff, it would be worth a shot!
• Lion King Show. If you are short on time, I would pass on seeing this if you are more of a ride goer than a show goer.  It is an amazing production with fantastic costumes, music, sets, acting and more!  Also there is a flame thrower, so it doesn’t get much cooler than that.
• Of course Toy Story Land! That is 100% unique to Hong Kong Disneyland and a must!  There is not a ride here I would say you HAVE to go on but its super fun to walk around and see all the cute decor!

PARADES

• Flights of Fantasy Parade is darling! If you have some spare time at the park go see this or the Paint the Night Parade in the evening!  Personally I would say do the day one because seeing the dancers and characters faces during the day light is priceless! Its also fun to see everyone in the crowds singing and dancing along!  Everyone in Hong Kong is so energetic and scream with excitement for all the Disney characters!

OTHER INFO ABOUT HONG KONG

• To go to Hong Kong you just need a passport! So if you are going to Hong Kong just to visit Hong Kong Disneyland you do not need to get a visa.  If you are planning on entering into China, you will need a visa along with a detailed itinerary of where you will be and staying for you visa application.
• Cell phone service was great in Hong Kong! We have Verizon and did the $10 a day international service and it worked great! We were able to download pictures, look online/Instagram, etc. while out and about.

Thank you for stopping by today! If you want to see all of Hong Kong Disneyland in action, here is a link to all our Disney vlogs from our travels there!