My First Trip to Hong Kong Disneyland

In November of 2019, we went on a 15-day trip to Asia, visiting the cities of Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. On this trip we would complete our bucket list of going to all of the Disney parks around the world. Our first stop was Hong Kong. Toby has visited there twice before, but this would be my first trip to Hong Kong Disneyland and I was extremely excited.

After a relaxing flight of almost 16 hours (Thank you American Airlines AAdvantage Miles for the upgrade to business class!), we landed in Hong Kong in the early morning. Fortunately our room at Disney’s Explorers Lodge was ready and we were able to check in early. Please see my post with great photos of the lodge here.

After a quick rest, we took the shuttle bus to Hong Kong Disneyland.

We had free passes for our park entry, but I took a photo here of the ticket prices for comparison. The 1-day tickets are $639 HKD, or about $83 US.

Because of the ongoing protests and unrest in Hong Kong during our visit, the schedule of the subway trains was impacted. This led to early park closure on three of the four nights we were in Hong Kong.

The entrance to the Hong Kong park is very similar to that at Disneyland park: as you pass through the entry turnstiles, you see the familiar floral Mickey face in front of the train station. Due to the construction on the upcoming Frozen-themed land, the train wasn’t running at the park at the time we were there. Past the train station is Main Street USA, which also feels pretty familiar if you’ve been to Disneyland in Anaheim or the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.

The castle is also undergoing a transformation as it is turned into the Castle of Magical Dreams.

After a stroll down Main Street and a few photos of the castle and Christmas decorations, we headed to Mystic Point to enjoy one of Hong Kong Disneyland’s newest and most popular attractions: Mystic Manor. This is their equivalent of the Haunted Mansion, but with a bit of a different storyline. Our concepts of ghosts and the afterlife is different from that of most Asian cultures, so there are no “happy haunts” here. Instead, the storyline revolves around Lord Henry Mystic and his mischievous pet monkey Albert, who unleashes the magic of an old enchanted music box whose sound brings inanimate objects to life! It’s an exciting trackless ride with some awesome projection effects.

We then headed over to Explorer’s Club Restaurant for lunch. The restaurant features fare from India, Japan, Korea and Southeast Asia. Toby had nasi goreng and I had a Vietnamese noodle soup. Decent dishes, but this was far from the best food I’ve had at Disney parks.

After lunch, we took a walk through the Garden of Wonders across from Mystic Manor. This is a neat little area with some unique sculptures that can only be seen “whole” when viewed from a certain perspective.

Next we made our way to Fantasyland and took a stroll the Fairy Tale Forest. This lovely little walk-through garden features vignettes from many of the classic Disney films. Each vignette has a wind-up animation complete with music.

Here’s a short video clip of one of the animations:

After our garden stroll, we decided we would head back to the hotel and then on into the city for some sightseeing. Check out my post about our trip on the Star Ferry to view the Hong Kong skyline from Victoria Peak.

I hope you enjoyed these photos of my first trip to Hong Kong Disneyland. I visited the park three more times over the next three days. I’ll post some more photos of those other visits soon.