Travelling to Hong Kong Disneyland with a Toddler
The last time we had our family adventure out of the country was May last year. We went to Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea! We obviously had a great time, so this year, we scheduled a trip to go to Hong Kong. The last time I went to Hong Kong was decades ago. I think I was ten! I don’t even think that Disneyland existed in Hong Kong.
Well, we had a wonderful time in Hong Kong. But this article is really for the parents who want to bring their kids to Hong Kong Disneyland. And my point of view and the experience that I will share in this post is really for mothers with kids from 4-6 years old. I’ll probably write one again when Zeeka’s a little bit older and taller (measuring her height here at home has become a “thing” after going to different theme parks).
Okay, so let’s get started. I hope you’re ready for one long article, packed with tips and tricks! haha!
Plane and Accommodations
I actually went ahead because I had to attend a conference for a few days. The conference was at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, which was at near Wan Chai (where I stayed for a couple of nights). The plan was to meet EJ and Zeeka at our Hotel in Hong Kong Disneyland. So to get to Disneyland, you have to take the MTR to Sunny Bay from Central (orange line), then transfer to the Disney Resort line. I left the hotel at around 8:45 am and arrived at the hotel probably around 9:45 am. Taking the MTR in Hong Kong is actually quite easy. You can purchase tickets via the machines or via the customer service booth.
Disney’s Hollywood Hotel
Okay, so when you get to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, you need to go straight and turn right to go to the Bus Station (buses that take you to the three hotels in the resort). Their are buses that come and go every 10-15 minutes. These buses are free. Do not try to walk with luggages and toddlers by your side! haha! Although it’s walkable, your kids may get tired. Ride the bus! Also, when we were there (month of July), it was hot! So be sure to use sunscreen.
So for our our accommodations, we booked directly from this link: https://www.hongkongdisneyland.com/offers-discounts/ We stayed there for 3 days and two nights. We got the package with no meals but with park tickets. We figured out that we would eat in the park anyway, because Zeeka would be so excited to leave (which actually happened). EJ and Zeeka arrived at the hotel around 10 am plus. Zeeka wanted to leave to go to the park as soon as she got to the hotel room so we were all rushing to get to park that EJ forgot his phone in the hotel room the first day! haha!
So we got on the bus to go to the park as EJ shared stories of his stressful morning that involved Zeeka asking him that she wanted to pee the minute they arrived at the airport, waiting in long lines then realizing they forgot to pay TIEZA or the travel tax so they had to go back, waiting in long lines again then realizing again that Zeeka left her small backpack at the TIEZA counter, running while carrying a 5 year old girl so that they won’t miss the flight, and finally boarding last just in time before the gates closed. Haha! You could see that energy was zapped out from him, so him forgetting his phone was just “normal” (at least for that morning).
Anyway, when we got to the park, we realized that the tickets were in Ej’s phone, but it was a good thing that he saved it on Google Drive and had sent me the link to the tickets the night before. I used the FREE wifi at the park, which was convenient by the way, and I saved it on my phone. Whew!
So just a few tips…
- When you’re inside the park, if you come around this time of the year, bring an umbrella, or better yet, buy a cute umbrella (like what we did!) I bought a foldable one with Mickey Mouse on it.
- For your kids, just buy them a cap. We ended up bringing Zeeka’s umbrella. Oh, but buy water for your kids!
- Wear sunscreen!
Inside the park
I highly recommend that you download the Hong Kong Disneyland Mobile Application. You can download it from this link: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id1077550649 Also, once you get inside, head for one of the following rides to get a Fast Pass. Note that you can get a Fast Pass again only after the time indicated in the Fast Pass that you got. These are the rides that I remember that have Fast Pass machines: The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, Mystic Manor, Hyperspace Mountain, Iron Man Experience, etc. (I forgot the rest! Please let me know if I missed anything).
Once you have your Fast Pass, you can start checking out the show schedules, too, in the app. For preschoolers like Zeeka, they will love Mickey and the Wondrous Book (I super loved this, too!), Moana: A Homecoming Celebration, and Mickey’s Philharmagic! They also have parades that you can watch (sad though that we didn’t get to catch the Pixar Water Play Street Party! because we were busy going through the rides and we didn’t get to see the Disney Paint the Night Parade because it rained and they cancelled it.. huhu!). But then again, we had fun riding all the rides.
Zeeka’s top three favorite rides were:
1) It’s a Small World in Fantasyland, which we rode three times
2) Slinky Dog Spin in Toy Story land and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in Fantasy land, which we both rode twice (tied in second place!)
3) Iron Man Experience in Tomorrowland, which we rode twice, too.
Daddy and Mommy’s favorite rides were:
1) Hyperspace Mountain in Tomorrowland, which I rode thrice (BTW, Zeeka rode this, too!)
2) Mystic Manor, which was cool
3)The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in Fantasy land and Iron Man Experience in Tomorrowland (Tied in 3rd Place)
*We didn’t get to ride Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars since we couldn’t leave Zeeka with anyone, but I know we would have loved this. We rode a “sort of similar” ride in Tokyo Disneyland and we loved that, so I think this would have been great, too. Zeeka didn’t make the height requirement.
Meet and Greets
Zeeka loved the meet and greets with the different characters. She lined up for Jessie, Duffy and Cookie. We also saw Mickey and Minnie, Moana, Tinkerbell, and other characters. You do have to check out the schedules though because they only come out at certain times of the day, so you have to fall in line. They close the line after a while.
What I love about Hong Kong Disneyland is that everything is done in an orderly manner. In some rides, they give you numbers, just to be sure that you have seats. The rides’ instructions are in both in English and Chinese. You wont have a hard time communicating with the staff if you have questions.
Dining
For breakfast, we would by at Hollywood & Dine, one of the restaurants in our hotel. Have a budget of around 100 to 200 HKD. They also serve coffee here from Starbucks (just the basic Starbucks variants though). Then for lunch, we would eat in the restaurants inside the park. We ate at the Starliner Diner, which Zeeka loved. We also tried the Main Street Corner Cafe Hosted by Coca Cola. Food there was a little bit pricier but the servings were huge! We should have just split the burger with fries. Food was yummy, too!
We had a lot of snacks from popcorn (which we loved and bought to take to the hotel, too! — that’s how good it was!), to ice cream, etc. And for dinner, we would order one whole pizza from Studio Lounge at our hotel to take to our room while watching Disney cartoons on our TV.
Other tips…
- Make sure that you bring chewy candy for your toddler on board a plane. It relieves pressure in her ears.
- Don’t forget ballpens while inside the plane so you can write on the Immigration departure and arrival cards.
- Slow is fast when it comes to kids. Just relax!
- Zeeka’s tip is to “breathe in and breathe out” when you’re stressed! haha!
- Don’t give your toddlers anything that they need to hold or remember, because they won’t 🙂
- In the airport, the internet is fast. Download shows that you can watch during the flight. Since we went with a budget airline, we knew that we needed to entertain her another way.
And last, but not the least, Zeeka says, “DON’T LEAVE YOUR KIDS!” hahaha!
PS: Watch our videos here!
Hope you have a great time at Hong Kong Disneyland Resort!
