Disneyland was the highlight of our Hong Kong tour. My eldest sister was the only one who had visited a Disney theme park (Tokyo’s Disneyland) prior to this visit, so it should be a wonderful experience especially for my 2-year-old niece.

The theme park opened on 10am; we got there a bit earlier via a shuttle bus from Hollywood Hotel, which is just minutes away from the theme park.

Welcome to Hong Kong Disneyland Resort

Mickey and Minnie’s fountain before the theme park entrance

Based on my eldest sister’s experience, we went straight to the Fantasyland to take pictures with the cartoon characters – Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Winnie the Pooh etc. It could take some time to take photos with these characters if the crowd started to pour in… so it should be a good idea to get to Fantasyland as early as possible.

The Sleeping Beauty Castle, entrance of the Fantasyland

Adventure with Winnie the Pooh (kinda boring though…)

There are some (short) musical shows that are worth watching in Disneyland; we went to “The Golden Mickeys” and “Festival of the Lion King”, and both of the shows were good.

Golden Mickeys was a show mimicking the Oscar awards and introduced the cartoon characters (and films) such as the iconic Mickey, Minnie, Donald and characters from later stories like “The Little Mermaid”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Mulan” and “Lilo and Stitch” etc.

The Festival of the Lion King was a brief story based on 1994 animated movie, “The Lion King”.

The Golden Mickeys

Festival of the Lion King

The Tomorrowland… we didn’t spend much time there

Other highlights of Hong Kong Disneyland include the Disney on Parade in the afternoon and the fireworks show at night.

Merry-go-round at Fantasyland

It was a weekend, and mainland China was celebration their week long holiday to celebrate National Day… so the park was really crowded.

Main entrance of Ocean Park Hong Kong

There are a few attractions in the park; we didn’t go for all of them, but just to see the show, aquariums and the pandas. We were bringing a toddler along, so the rides were out of question. Besides, it was too crowded… it was difficult to see the stuff, and some of the queues were unbearable.

We took the cable cars from Lowland Gardens to the Marine Land; people who are fear of heights should really take the buses instead…

The cable cars, and the ocean and cliff directly below

It was a full house at the Ocean Theater, with dolphins and sea lions’ show. I thought that I could see a killer whale performing, but only found out later that the whale has passed away a few years ago. The show was just ok, but the kids were loving it obviously.

Dolphins and sea lions performing at Ocean Theater

We managed to squeeze into the Shark Aquarium and Atoll Reef; but decided not to wait in the long queue for Sea Jelly Spectacular nor some of the other attractions.

The Atoll Reef includes a huge marine tank with hundreds of marine species… seeing this alone was probably worth the visit.

Marine life at Atoll Reef – fishes, seahorses and squids etc.

We went back to the Lowland Gardens by cable again to see the 4 pandas. It was my first time seeing real life panda in action… these animals were just so adorable. It makes me want to go to the panda reserve in China to get up close with these cretures.

The pandas at Hong Kong Jockey Club Giant Panda Habitat

[Ocean Park official website]