If there was one thing that the kids were looking forward to most for our last Asia trip, it was Hong Kong Disneyland! If I’m being honest, I was looking forward to it too. I love Disneyland and I had heard that Hong Kong Disneyland is great. I wasn’t disappointed!

Disneyland is known as the happiest place on earth and it really can be. There is something so magical about seeing Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, watching a parade or going on the It’s A Small World attraction. It’s cheesy but it’s so well done that it can be impossible to not fall under its charm.

Hong Kong Disneyland is actually the fifth Disneyland and I have visited and the third one I have visited with currently 6 year old S. The boys in our family had never been to one before.

This Hong Kong Disneyland review (and tips!) will focus on what’s great about Disneyland for people who have never been to one before and also the differences for people who have!

Hong Kong Disneyland Review

Hong Kong Disneyland is set up like all the others. The park starts with Main Street USA. This area is full of shops and restaurants and it’s fun to stop here on the way out for a souvenir.

At the end of Main Street USA is a roundabout and this is the place to venture to all the other lands in the park. At Hong Kong Disneyland, there are six: Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Adventureland, Grizzly Gulch, Mystic Point and Toy Story Land.

Every land is home to a unique look and feel and its own attractions, shops and eating establishments. Some are quite small, others are quite large. They are all well presented, fun and feel self contained. It’s fun to just walk around and appreciate the differences.

Tomorrowland

We started off in Tomorrowland as I had heard the rides have the longest queues. It’s a fun land with a couple of great rides.

It is home to what we thought is the best attraction – the Iron Man Experience. This ride is awesome! You feel like you are flying above the Hong Kong skyline as Iron Man takes on various big, bad robots. It’s a 4D experience that feels very real. It’s not very scary but it is breath taking. If you go on just one ride in this park (I’m not sure why you would do that but just in case!), this is it!

There’s also Hyperspace Mountain, a fun roller coaster in the dark with Space Wars theming which is similar to Space Mountain at other parks. We also loved the Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters which is lots of fun with kids. Mr 5 loved meeting Star Wars characters

Fantasyland

Fantasyland was up next and this is where you find all the fairy tale themed attractions. It has always been one of my favourite lands, even before I had kids as it’s the most magical part of the park. Little kids are going to absolutely love it!

There’s Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, a carousel, It’s a Small World, a super awesome 3D show with Mickey, Donald and many other Disney characters, and much more. This is one of the largest areas of the park and we spent awhile here.

Adventureland

Next up is Adventureland. Here, there is a river with a fun boat ride and Tarzan’s Treehouse. There is also a Lion King show which I have heard is fantastic but unfortunately it was not running and the Tarzan attractions were closed on the day we visited.

Grizzly Gulch

Grizzly Gulch is another fun themed land. It’s rocky with geysers! The geysers make for a fun area to play especially if it’s hot as it’s a water play area. There’s also lots of Wild West theming which makes it fun to hang out here for awhile.

It’s home to Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. This is a roller coaster which is so. much. fun! Initially, I thought it was a bit boring but then a bear caused an electric shortage and the ride gave me a huge shock as well!

Mystic Point

This is a very grand looking land with a big mansion at the focal point. Of course, the mansion is haunted and it makes for a very fun ride. So fun, in fact, that we did it three times!

Toy Story Land

Our final land perhaps should have been our first (see tips below) and was the fun looking Toy Story Land! It’s home to a few outside rides, two of which look like possibly the most thrilling in the park which I did find surprising in a land I thought would be for little kids.

Parades

My favourite part of Disneyland is the parades! And I wasn’t disappointed. Hong Kong Disneyland had three on the day we visited.

I love how happy and fun the parades are. I find it elating to watch and the kids absolutely lapped it up especially when Disney characters interacted with them and pulled them in. Don’t miss the parades!

Hong Kong Disneyland vs other Disneylands?

Hong Kong Disneyland is probably the most different to the other parks I have visited. It has many of the old favourites, although often with a twist, like (Hyper)space Mountain.  It also has many attractions I hadn’t seen before. I especially loved how the Iron Man Adventure had such strong Hong Kong theming. It was fun to see Hong Kong like that.

Hong Kong Disneyland is the newest of the Disneylands I have visited (Shanghai opened last year) and it’s easy to tell this. The rides are more modern and updated and this accounts for some of the differences I experienced. This is a big plus for Hong Kong Disneyland.

The biggest plus of all for us was how much smaller the crowds were. I had a much more pleasant experience than my visits to other parks. You can read about our visit to Disney World here or Disneyland Paris here.

Part of this might be when we visited (although we were at this park during Easter school holidays) but I think as a general rule it is a less busy place to visit. Many friends have told me they have visited without having to line up much at all!

Most of the day, line times did not get higher than 30 minutes and we did not line up more than 20 minutes anywhere. Some rides had no line at all. Even when we left when it was at its busiest, the longest time was 50 minutes and that was just one ride. This is such a different experience for me!

I also loved how much English is used at the park. I did not feel like we missed out at all by not speaking the local language which was different to my experience at Tokyo Disneyland where more was in Japanese.

Something that I did not enjoy as much was that there seemed to be a lack of live shows. There was barely anything other than the parades. It’s good to have an excuse to sit down and relax for a minute while being entertained.

The only other negative difference I noticed was the small Sleeping Beauty’s Castle. Usually this is the landmark attraction of the park but it wasn’t as good at this one.

Visiting Hong Kong Disneyland with kids?

Our Hong Kong Disney review took place with our 3 kids aged 5, 6 and 10 months old.

As we expected, our Disneyland Hong Kong review found that it is an excellent place to visit with kids! They loved it which meant we did too!

I loved Disneyland before I had kids but it is extra special seeing the look of wonder on my kids’ faces. We found this a very accessible and easy Disneyland to visit too thanks to lower crowd numbers.

Many rides have no minimum height and when there is, it’s usually 102cm. Our just turned 5 year old could do everything he wanted.

It was definitely more trying visiting Disneyland with a baby and the experience justified why previously I only took our oldest kid and left a toddler Z behind with my husband. There is just not much for a baby to do which means one adult was always left behind looking after baby J. On the upside, he was free.

What is super annoying is that I only found out just before we left the park that they do allow “rider switch”. This is where you can both line up with your child who won’t ride and then take turns going on the ride while the other adult looks after your kid. This means you don’t have to line up from scratch after one adult has done the ride (which is what we did for the better rides!).

I wish we had known this from the start! It’s written in fine print on the map. They say to ask staff at the attraction if you want to do this. Learn from us!

The park is very stroller friendly. We took our own but you can also hire one. There are many stroller parking areas and you are given a strap to write your name on to attach to the pram. There is a baby care centre and change tables across the park.

Something else to look out for when visiting with kids is that the staff have stickers. Your kids can go up to staff members and ask for them.

Tips for visiting Hong Kong Disneyland

• The wait times for attractions get longer as the days go on so get there at opening and do as many as you can as early as you can.
• The longest wait times were in Toy Story Land and Tomorrowland. Start at Toy Story Land as the main rides in Tomorrowland have fast passes.
• Use fast passes for the three rides that have them – Hyperspace Mountain, Iron Man Adventure and Winnie the Pooh.
• Don’t eat anywhere near the parade straight after it finishes! The biggest mistake we made was trying to eat in Fantasyland just after the parade finished. It took 50 minutes to get simple, self serve food! Eat early.
• Food is expensive. Eat something before you enter.
• Go to the parades. They are so much fun.
• Go for two days! Every time I visit a Disneyland I promise myself I will visit for two days next time then never do. You can do a fair bit in one day but it would be much less stressful to visit over two.

We arrived about 20 minutes before the park opened at 10:30am. You are allowed in but only to a small section of Main Street USA.

Getting to Hong Kong Disneyland

We found it easy to get to our Disney Hong Kong review thanks to Hong Kong’s top rate transportation system. You can catch a train all the way to the park.

There is a special Disney train from Sunny Bay station. It just goes one stop and is fun in itself since it is Disney themed with Mickey Mouse shaped windows and hand grips. It also had classic Disney character statues. You use your octopus card as per any other Hong Kong train.

It’s a short walk from the station to the park.

Our verdict

We loved Hong Kong Disneyland!

There is just something so special and magical about Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland captures this well. You only need to see the smiles on the faces during the parade to know this is one great place.

Our kids especially loved Hong Kong Disneyland. It was a bit wasted on Baby J but Mr 5 and Miss 6 were probably the perfect age to absolutely love it. I am so glad we took them.

I especially loved this visit as I found Disney World with Miss S and Disneyland Paris quite stressful thanks to huge crowds and issues with the public transportation in Paris.  Disneyland Hong Kong had none of these problems and was loads of fun with a special dose of that Disney magic.

Find more information on their website.

You can read our full guide to visiting Hong Kong with kids here.

Have you been to Hong Kong Disneyland? Any tips?

Disclaimer: We received free entry into Hong Kong Disneyland in return for an honest Hong Kong Disneyland review. All thoughts are our own.

Tags:  China Travel Blog Hong Kong Travel Blog