Hong Kong Disneyland: Traveling Tips and Tricks

Before you read on, I will have to say the tips are based on my recent trip; I was travelling with a 2-year old and a 6-year old, with a two-day ticket to HKDL.

Day to Visit

1. Try to schedule your visit during the weekdays. We entered the park on a Friday and Saturday – on Friday, the park was kind of empty during rope-drop time (i.e. opening time), there was no queuing time for the first three rides that we rode on. The crowd built up after lunch time.On Saturday the crowd was significantly larger and most rides had at least 15 minutes waiting time.
2. Avoid special dates like Christmas, New Year, Halloween (we went on Halloween, of course there were special attractions built just for the event, but the waiting time was too long, one went for as long as 2 hours, that we decided to skip them. Not worth tugging two children along for two hours).  

Accommodation & Ticket

1. If you’re traveling with children, I would definitely recommend staying at one of the two Disneyland Hotels located 5 mins away from the park. Shuttle buses are scheduled every 5 minutes, in fact we never had to wait for one. A two-day ticket would be a good investment for parents – the park is huge, and with little ones, you have to plan your day around them, their nap time, lunch time, etc or else kids will get cranky and ruin the rest of the visit. That way, all of you can enjoy the park at your pace. We scheduled our first day to try most of the rides and dedicated the second day for characters meet-and-greet sessions, shows, as well as to repeat the rides that our son enjoyed the most.
2. The first day, we entered the park at 10 am, had our lunch at 1245, left the park at 5.00 pm and went for a swim in the hotel, went back to the park at 7.00 pm to enjoy their night parade and fireworks show and dinner. Kids were happy (still very tired), and parents were happy (with terrible back pain).

Planning your rides

As a backgrounder, there are seven main sections in HKDL; Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Toy Story Land,  Adventureland, Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch and Main Street USA. Some people might choose to get on ALL rides in all sections, it’s up to you really.

1. Somehow, a lot of people were attracted to the kiddy rides in Fantasyland, especially The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. So I would say get on the rides on Fantasyland first thing in the morning, as the queues get significantly longer in the afternoon.
2. Fastpass is only available for two rides – the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in Fantasyland and Space Mountain in Tomorrowland.
3. Other famous rides include Space Mountain (one of the two roller coasters here), It’s a Small World, Jungle River Cruise, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. Some of the newer rides are Mystic Manor and Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars (the other roller coaster).
4. DO NOT get distracted by the characters if you aim to finish all the rides. Queues for the more famous characters ie Mickey and the Princesses take as long as one hour.
5. DO NOT schedule your rides or meal times based on the parade times or particular show time, ie queuing for the ride / meal closest to the parade route after the parade ends because that’s what most people would do. You’ll end up queuing longer than you should be. Move as far away from the parade route / show location as possible.

Food in the Park

1. Tahitian Terrace in the park serves Halal Asian food. You’ll have the option of Nasi Lemak with ayam masak merah, Nasi Goreng with Ayam Goreng Berempah (yes, that’s what’s printed on the menu), Nasi Lemak with Ayam Serai (more like roast chicken with gravy macam nasi ayam), Indian Vegetarian dish. You won’t go hungry, I promise you. Each meal comes with a HUGE portion that can feed 2, and it comes with a drink, and would cost you HKD93 – HKD95 (That’s about RM40). 
2.  Alternatively you can also bring your own food since HKDL does not have a no-outside-food policy imposed. On the second day we brought in sandwiches and we were allowed entrance with no issues.