Hong Kong 2016 : A magical day in Disneyland

It's as if it was only yesterday when I went to the magical world of Disneyland. This magical kingdom is probably every kids and kid-at-heart's dream. When I was a kid I used to watch different Disney shows (even up until now, though not as often as before) and never have I imagined that it would come to a point that I'll meet almost all Disney characters in person.

Disneyland is our only priority during our Hong Kong trip, haha. So we decided to spend our second day exploring the majestic world of Disney. We woke up early ate our breakfast and prepared ourselves. We wanted to be there when the park opens up until they close (very determined souls, lol).


We left the hotel around 9:30 AM and we were shocked by the cold weather, but that doesn't stopped us from our goal. Hong Kong itself is very tourist friendly and they have a very expandable mode of transportation so it was kind of easy for us to navigate to our destination.


It was around 10:30 AM when we reached Disneyland and I couldn't hide my joy and excitement. I was overwhelmed and never thought that right there and then I was in Disneyland. haha (sorry if masyadong madrama). There were a lot of people of course as expected.


The ticket booths are around 5-minute walk away from the main entrance. Before entering in the ticket booths are, we passed through the first security check in which our bags were thoroughly inspected up to the last single pocket. We bought a 1-Day Ticket which cost HK$539 each then went through the last security check and viola! a garden with a huge Mickey Mouse smiling face greeted us.


We grabbed a map from the shelves located just as before entering the Main Street USA. I suggest you get a copy of this map as this will be very useful in navigating around Disneyland.The park has 7 lands to explore, Main Street USA, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, Toy Story Land, Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch and Adventureland and yes! we were able to visit and experienced all 7 magical lands.



Each land has it's own unique attractions. The queue for the rides are jam-packed so we were only able to experience few of them. As much as I really want to try all the rides but we don't want to consume all day lining up waiting on the queue. Also, taking a picture with all the Disney characters in each land is kind of impossible because I think they don't have a specific time when they'll come out and when they do, it's only for few minutes then they'll leave again (yeah, they're hiding somewhere and just coming out whenever they want for picture taking, lol and the queue is very long). Luckily we were able to took a picture with the three characters (for one whole day we only took a picture with three of them), Buzz lightyear, Baymax and of course Mickey and Minnie Mouse.


Let me share the story behind this picture with Mickey and Minnie. Around 11:00 AM we saw a very long queue of people patiently standing and waiting on the line, when we checked we saw Mickey and Minnie so we both rushed and went on the line but the Disney staff told us that the meet and greet is already done and that we have to wait for 3:00 PM if we want to have a pic with them then he told us to be there as early as 1:00 PM. We were quite sad and disappointed and somehow lost hope to have a pic with Mickey and Minnie. We already set an expectation to ourselves that we will be leaving Disneyland without a pic with them. But while we are resting and waiting for the 3:00 PM parade we noticed that there are already few people lining up though we're not seeing any Disney character yet so we just followed the crowd and stand on the line only to find out that it was another meet and greet with Mickey and Minnie. Haha So there it is, luckily I was able to take a pic with Mickey and Minnie Mouse. Yey!

Second picture out of luck is with Baymax. While we are busy taking selfie with Mickey and Minnie we saw Baymax and the queue wasn't that long so right after taking a picture with Mickey and Minnie Mouse we ran to Baymax's picture taking area. Haha


This picture with Buzz lightyear is also out of luck. Haha Just right after we finished eating our lunch in a food court at Tomorrowland we saw Buzz lightyear walking towards the picture taking area so we rushed and stand on the line. Wew! Another lucky picture. Haha. So all these pictures with the three Disney characters are all out of luck.

Here are the different attractions in each lands:

A 3-D theater inside Mickey's PhilharMagic

The Disney characters parade is scheduled at 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM. The Disney Paint the Night Parade at 7:00 PM is the one i liked most. There's also a charging station if your phone ran out of battery. Just go to the City Hall located at The Main Street USA, don't forget to bring your own charger and a valid ID and the staff will charge your phone for free. You can even leave your phone there while charging and continue roaming around the park. If you're going to claim your phone and charger just present a valid ID.

Cute Tinkerbell! as if she's really flying

Mickey Mouse

Beautiful Ariel of Little Mermaid

Characters from the movie Monster

Gorgeous Bell of Beauty and the Beast

One of the character from the Disney movie Cars

Sheriff Woody from Toy Story

One of the cool and amazing costumes of the dancers on the parade

The last part and highlight of our Disneyland adventure was the fireworks display. We were already dead tired for roaming around the park the whole day but we can't leave without witnessing the famous Disney Fireworks display. Around 8:00 PM we went in the open area in front of Cinderella's Castle and looked for a spot to sit and rest while waiting for the clock to strike at 8:45 PM (this is the time that the fireworks display starts). There were already a lot of people sitting and waiting so if you want to have a perfect viewing (video/picture) spot, be sure to be there at least an hour before the fireworks display as that area of the park easily gets crowded.

The show started at exactly 8:45 PM and I was again amazed and overwhelmed :). The castle looked stunningly beautiful while it was being illuminated by the sparkling lights (it was my first time seeing a real Disney Castle and fireworks so pardon me if I'm kind of madrama, haha dati sa mga intro ng Disney Movies ko lang to nakikita black and white pa).

Photo taken from google

It was indeed a magical and unforgettable day. My first time Disney experience. I wonder how does the other five Disney's look like. Can't wait to visit em all.