A little bit of background. I live near Dallas, TX. I first went to Disneyland (California) in the early 1970s when we moved to California. I have probably been there 100 times, my first job was working there. I have been to Disney World about 15 times, and Disneyland (Paris) twice (2007 and 2016). This was my first time to Hong Kong, or anywhere in Asia for that matter. Hawaii is as far east as I had been.
I fly a fair amount most years, but much less this year. I wanted to keep my airline status so I could keep getting upgrades and better seats next year, so I started looking for a long and cheap flight to get me the miles I needed. I found one non-stop from Dallas to Hong Kong and picked that one to get my miles and the chance to see another Disney Park. My time was a bit limited, so I left Dallas Thursday (Apr 21st) afternoon, getting there Friday afternoon around 4PM. I had to leave Sunday at 2:30PM to get back to Dallas at 4PM Sunday night. So, basically a little over 32 hours of flying for a full day there on a Saturday and a few hours Friday night. Neither my wife or kids wanted/could do it ... so I went solo.
I decided to stay at the Disney Hollywood Hotel. It looked nice and was less expensive than the main Disneyland Hotel. My plan was basically to get to Disney as soon as it opened Saturday, see as much as possible until about 6, then head into Hong Kong proper, see what I could see there until about midnight, then head back to the hotel. I thought about taking MTR from the airport, but ended up taking a cab. After that long flight, I just wanted to get to the room and a shower ASAP. I had some thoughts about going into HK, but decided to just rest up for the next day and walk around the hotels Friday night.
One oddity, I got into the room and none of the lights worked. I called down to the front desk and they asked if I put my card in the slot. I had never seen anything like that. In general, I thought the hotel and the hotel staff was great. No problem at all, everyone was nice and one of the bellmen was very helpful with my excursion into Hong Kong. I ate at Chef Mickey both mornings and had a nice breakfast. I also ate at Hollywood and Dine when I first got there to just have something quick, it was fine, but nothing special.
Saturday morning, I got up and walked out the front of the hotel to the Disneyland hotel and walked around the lobby, really nice. Then walked along the seaside promenade to the park. Incredibly nice walk, espeically when turning down the park promenade. Just beautiful, I could have spent more time walking around there, but I wanted to hit the park.
Coming into this, I was concerned that the park was pretty small and lacking attractions compared to the others and while that is certainly true to a degree, it was just a really nice park to walk around. Despite being there on a Saturday, it really did not get crowded at all until 2:30. I was by myself, so I used single rider lines. But the regular lines on the bigger attactions were 20 minutes or under. Mystic Manor was 5 minutes at most, I went on it 4 times in a row all in about a half hour.
Grizzly Mountain and Mystic Manor were the 2 main attractions I wanted to see, just because they were unique to HK. Both were fantastic, I wish there was an option to skip the MM pre-show, 4 times in a row was a bit much, but the attraction itseld was incredibly cool. The ride system is the same as Ratatouille in Disney Paris, but the attraction was just do different than anything else. It was nice that they had some Haunted Mansion references in there.
I really won't go into tons of details on the attractions, but will just say the park itself was so nice. Just a nice place to walk around and look at the plants and theming. It was better than I was expecting. I could see if someone was mainly interested in attractions, it would be disappointing. 20-30 years ago me probably would not of liked it as much as current me.
As for the non-Disney side, a bellman gave me some good advice, I took MTR to the Kowloon station and walked around Elemnets and surrounding area for a bit and walked up to the Temple Street open market. I really only had 6 hours to see what I could and wanted to see a nice new part of the city, get a view of the harbor, and see something more traditional in the time I had. I think that was a decent samplig
I would like to go back again and spend a week there, I think a day (maybe a day and a half) in Disney is still probably plenty (a full day from open to close) around this time of year. The weather was pretty nice and the park was not too crowded. Then see more of the city and some of the nature side of Hong Kong. But, I am also trying to work in trips to Tokyo, which I hear is fantastic and Shangai, though I might wait until that park has been open a few years.
I fly a fair amount most years, but much less this year. I wanted to keep my airline status so I could keep getting upgrades and better seats next year, so I started looking for a long and cheap flight to get me the miles I needed. I found one non-stop from Dallas to Hong Kong and picked that one to get my miles and the chance to see another Disney Park. My time was a bit limited, so I left Dallas Thursday (Apr 21st) afternoon, getting there Friday afternoon around 4PM. I had to leave Sunday at 2:30PM to get back to Dallas at 4PM Sunday night. So, basically a little over 32 hours of flying for a full day there on a Saturday and a few hours Friday night. Neither my wife or kids wanted/could do it ... so I went solo.
I decided to stay at the Disney Hollywood Hotel. It looked nice and was less expensive than the main Disneyland Hotel. My plan was basically to get to Disney as soon as it opened Saturday, see as much as possible until about 6, then head into Hong Kong proper, see what I could see there until about midnight, then head back to the hotel. I thought about taking MTR from the airport, but ended up taking a cab. After that long flight, I just wanted to get to the room and a shower ASAP. I had some thoughts about going into HK, but decided to just rest up for the next day and walk around the hotels Friday night.
One oddity, I got into the room and none of the lights worked. I called down to the front desk and they asked if I put my card in the slot. I had never seen anything like that. In general, I thought the hotel and the hotel staff was great. No problem at all, everyone was nice and one of the bellmen was very helpful with my excursion into Hong Kong. I ate at Chef Mickey both mornings and had a nice breakfast. I also ate at Hollywood and Dine when I first got there to just have something quick, it was fine, but nothing special.
Saturday morning, I got up and walked out the front of the hotel to the Disneyland hotel and walked around the lobby, really nice. Then walked along the seaside promenade to the park. Incredibly nice walk, espeically when turning down the park promenade. Just beautiful, I could have spent more time walking around there, but I wanted to hit the park.
Coming into this, I was concerned that the park was pretty small and lacking attractions compared to the others and while that is certainly true to a degree, it was just a really nice park to walk around. Despite being there on a Saturday, it really did not get crowded at all until 2:30. I was by myself, so I used single rider lines. But the regular lines on the bigger attactions were 20 minutes or under. Mystic Manor was 5 minutes at most, I went on it 4 times in a row all in about a half hour.
Grizzly Mountain and Mystic Manor were the 2 main attractions I wanted to see, just because they were unique to HK. Both were fantastic, I wish there was an option to skip the MM pre-show, 4 times in a row was a bit much, but the attraction itseld was incredibly cool. The ride system is the same as Ratatouille in Disney Paris, but the attraction was just do different than anything else. It was nice that they had some Haunted Mansion references in there.
I really won't go into tons of details on the attractions, but will just say the park itself was so nice. Just a nice place to walk around and look at the plants and theming. It was better than I was expecting. I could see if someone was mainly interested in attractions, it would be disappointing. 20-30 years ago me probably would not of liked it as much as current me.
As for the non-Disney side, a bellman gave me some good advice, I took MTR to the Kowloon station and walked around Elemnets and surrounding area for a bit and walked up to the Temple Street open market. I really only had 6 hours to see what I could and wanted to see a nice new part of the city, get a view of the harbor, and see something more traditional in the time I had. I think that was a decent samplig
I would like to go back again and spend a week there, I think a day (maybe a day and a half) in Disney is still probably plenty (a full day from open to close) around this time of year. The weather was pretty nice and the park was not too crowded. Then see more of the city and some of the nature side of Hong Kong. But, I am also trying to work in trips to Tokyo, which I hear is fantastic and Shangai, though I might wait until that park has been open a few years.
