Hey Everyone,
Disney has played a huge part of our lives when we were little. When I was 5 years old, all I wanted to be was Esmiralda from Disney’s Hunchback of Notredame and the year after, Belle from Sleeping Beauty. My favourite story book was Cinderella and I still have the torn up book I used to read time and time again. I might not be into Taylor Swift and Nicki Minaj, but I love Disney and it’s a probably a love that will never fade.
I’ve always seen Disneyland as a huge escape from reality. It’s the best park to get lost in the magic of Disney – the sounds, smells, people and characters. I’ve been to all the parks around the world except the one in Paris (simply because I haven’t been to Paris yet) and I’m in love with all of them! With Jacob and I working pretty hard lately, we thought we would share with you our Hong Kong Disneyland adventure! We went for three days in total and to attend the Media launch of the new Hong Kong Disneyland expansion called Mystic Point. I’ve been to Hong Kong Disneyland previously when it first opened and it only had 3 areas so I felt it was quite small. However, that was five years ago and now they are double its size!
We left Singapore at about 5 to 6AM in the morning on a United Airlines flight. It was so early so we didn’t even bother sleeping! We touched down in Hong Kong and took a Taxi straight to the hotel to check-in. Taking a taxi from the airport to Disneyland is the best option – fastest and cheapest. The park is actually really near the airport!
Our Hotel was Disney’s Hollywood Hotel. There are two hotels in Disneyland – the Hollywood and also the Disneyland Hotel. Each have a different take. Hollywood is more of the Art Deco movie era while Disneyland is more Victorian and Princess/Royal.
After check-in, we headed straight for lunch! My favourite. Travelling around the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort is really easy, just grab the shuttle bus that connects the Disneyland park and the two hotels together. We all hopped on a bus ready to dig in! The itinerary called for a Dim Sum lunch at the Crystal Lotus Restaurant.
The Disneyland Hotel is really beautiful and quite “atas” as they call it. You’re talking magnificent chandeliers so we knew the Crystal Lotus was going to be really swanky. It’s a fine dining Chinese restaurant that’s award winning as well. Sometimes when I think of Disneyland, I don’t immediately think that the food is top notch but really this whole trip there again impressed me and blew me away with how good the food is here.
And I guess I wasn’t expecting that our Dim Sum was going to be Disney themed as well. I really think the small details in everything really add up. I just love the Disney touches. You’re not talking about just in the park but if you stay in the hotels, the experience of being in another magical world really is there.
How cute are these Toy Story martians? They had a vegetable spinach filling in them and they were delicious. If you’re more of a meat person, why not grab a Char Siew Pau Piglet? They were almost too cute to eat.
But besides having delicious Disney Dim Sum we also had other main Chinese dishes like this Prawn and Asparagus! This was amazing. The prawns were really fresh and juicy and the asparagus complimented it really nicely. I didn’t know that they could make such a combination. My mom usually makes it with celery.
After a great lunch, we headed straight to Disneyland. I mean why waste any time right? I was ridiculously excited. You know those holidays when you’re constantly being just thrilled at everything you see? Yep. That was me in Disneyland. If you’re that big a Disney fan as I am, you would probably understand. I’m also a big theme park fan so put the two together and you kinda get the picture ;).
Jacob was thrilled too! Behind us is a gigantic fountain with Willy the whale spouting out Mickey on a surf board! By the way I’m wearing one of necklaces from the new roseanne.sg collection! The Ivory Gem Necklace, you’ve probably seen me wearing it a million times and I love it so much.
After entering the park, we heard the famous Flights of Fantasy Parade was starting so we quickly made it to our spots. The parade is better than I ever expected. They didn’t just have moving floats! People were dancing their ways down the streets, trapeeze artists were swinging and bouncing around and almost all the Disney classics had floats to represent them.
Here’s the Pooh float one of my favourites. Just the whole motions of everyone were so in sync. Everyone looked ridiculously happy and I can just imagine the hours of practice they put into this show so they can make smiles on people everyday! It was a great start to the vacation and really put the Disney spirit back in everyone!
We then made our ways to the new land – Toy Story Land! Number one, I’m a huge Toy Story fan. Number two, I’ve never been to this land before despite having been to Hong Kong Disneyland before so it was uber exciting. The whole story behind Toy Story Land is that they want to make you feel like you’re as tiny as Woody and Buzz Lightyear. All the toys tower above you and I love how every single little thing there makes you feel as if you’re part of the movie!
Surprisingly, there are also quite a number of rides in Toy Story land as well!
And of course a huge selection of picture opportunities. The whole place is one big picture opportunity. I really don’t see any other kind of theme park doing so much effort to make people feel like they’re immersed in their favourite childhood show.
The first ride we went on was the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop! What this ride basically does is that it brings you up, and then periodically drops you, brings you up and drops you again.
I’m actually quite scared of heights so I kind of only knew what I was getting into only when I was seated and seat belt-ed. Of course that’s mostly how it happens, eh? I was a little scared at first but thankfully it was more floaty than an actual drop. And it wasn’t the fast kind of drop either. It was alright but I still screamed!
The next ride is the Slinky Dog Spin! This is not for soft stomachs either! You ride Slinky the dog and it goes around and around and up and down. I think the trick is to keep on moving your eyes or you’ll kind of feel a little sick. Overall, it’s part of the ride and it’s fun!
When you look at Toy Story land from afar, you really feel as if you’re part of Toy Story. It’s hard to explain, but look! It’s such an amazing land.
There are sweet treats there too! We decided to get ourselves some Frozen Yoghurt! Perfect for the weather actually. It was hot and pretty humid. We mixed it with mixed berries and it was delicious!
We then tried out the last ride there – the RC Racer! It’s supposed to be the scariest ride in the whole of Disneyland.
It’s actually pretty scary for the scariest ride. I’m not a big fan of roller coasters but everyone insisted we go! Look, it goes vertical! Its basically a viking ship. To be honest, I shut my eyes the whole way so I didn’t see a thing. I did feel myself dropping though and continued screaming the whole way through. Can you spot us?
We then hopped down to Fantasyland for a ride that’s much milder. Winnie the Pooh! Winnie the Pooh is such a favourite and a classic. My sister is in love with Eeyore so I bought her an Eeyore plush toy. I’m still undecided between Eeyore and Pooh. Both are too cute. I think I used to like Piglet too because he was pink.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh takes you in small honey pots and tells you a Winnie the Pooh story about honey as you navigate in the ride. It’s more sight seeing but everything looks so cute. It’s a really popular ride in Hong Kong Disneyland!
Another new land I haven’t been to is Grizzly Gulch so we made our way there. Grizzly Gulch is about a really rich town in the West where gold is abundant so even putting out gold nuggets here and there is the norm! Rent is two dollars and they have a mine there. However, a bear family does come in from time to time and that’s why you see so many Grizzly bears!
Besides so many places to take great photos, Grizzly Gulch is known for it’s most popular ride – the Runaway Mine Cars Ride. It’s about how the family of bears come in and disturb the mine while you’re on it causing a fast moving roller coaster ride!
It is an extremely fun ride. At one point you’re even making your way up a steep slope and the ride releases and drops you back down. The bears rub against road switchers and dynamite so that blasts you into different lanes or even blasts you backwards!
After Grizzly Gulch, we made our way towards Adventureland. I really like Adventureland. The safari, rain forest kind of feel is really cool. Besides the River Cruise ride, there’s also Tarzan’s Treehouse and of course the well-known Lion King Show!
This isn’t just like any other musical though. It is a 360 degree musical and plays from every single angle.
It is an amazing show of mechanical characters and dancers which demonstrate the story of the Lion King from when Simba was just a small lion to how he became King.
It’s a show that I remember when I first came and something that I can’t forget.
That’s Tarzan’s Treehouse in the background but we’re exploring that in the next post ;)
But we did go on the River Cruise too! The River Cruise is a popular ride at Disneyland. The cruise involves you getting on a boat and exploring different areas of the river. From a lazy hippopotamus to a water spouting baby elephant..
To even massive theatrical performances like this one. It really is a ride where you’re bound to be surprised at every bend.
Of course after all that running around, we were getting hungry so we went to the Plaza Inn Restaurant near Main Street to grab some dinner. The Plaza Inn Restaurant is a Chinese Restaurant! You’re probably wondering why we are eating so much Chinese food but it’s because we are in Hong Kong! Hong Kong has great Chinese food and Plaza Inn provided us just that!
We had an assortment of meat and even rice dishes. All were noteworthy.
And ended dinner with this sweet Disney dessert plate of Mickey shaped mango pudding, watermelon, dragon fruit and coffee jelly! It was so yummy.
But no visit to Disneyland is complete with a Fireworks show. This isn’t 4th of July show, it was about fifteen to half an hour long and displayed fireworks that represented Disney classics like Mulan and Anastasia. It was so beautiful and behind the castle, it reminds me of all those Disney films where they start out with a mini fireworks animation behind Cinderella’s Castle. It was a beautiful end to the night. You might want to grab your seats early though as it can be pretty crowded.
Overall, what an amazing day right? It was back to the hotel! Stay tuned to my upcoming post for Day 2!
Thanks for reading! Let me know if you have any questions about Hong Kong Disneyland and I’ll be happy to answer them!
Love, Roseanne