Hong Kong Disneyland And More!
We’re in the city with the most skyscrapers in the world…what are we going to do?!?
We’re going to Disneyland!
I have previously been to all of theme parks in the US and Disneyland Paris. At the end of this trip, I will have been to EVERY DISNEY THEME PARK IN THE WORLD including Shanghai that opens a few days before we get there. Crazy. Tim has previously been to Disneyland Paris so he’ll only have the US parks to go – and clearly once I get my Silver Pass, he’ll be to all of them very soon.
We had a wee sleep in and up and out to Hong Kong Disneyland we went.
I love that even the city subway train that goes to Disneyand is branded. Brilliant. We were welcomed to the park with Mickey surfing on top of a whale’s spout. Mickey!!
We first had a gander at Sleeping Beauty’s castle. She’s a great princess, and don’t get me wrong, but she has a wee little castle. It was still very charming and actually appropriate for this park. This park isn’t the largest. It isn’t the flashiest. But it makes up for all that with oodles of charm. Some great rides, shops, eats and attractions throughout the park.
I was most excited about checking out Mystic Point – it’s a land and attraction that is unique to Hong Kong Disneyland. The ride is FANTASTIC. It tells the story of Lord Mystic and his pet monkey Albert. You get a bit of history on the two of them walking through the waiting lines and then the ride itself is one of those story telling type rides with a bit of action thrown in. The gist of it is that Albert opens this mysterious secret chest and then the mansion comes alive – you see the paintings on the walls come to life, the statues, etc. It’s really a lot of fun and very well done. We may or may not have bought a plush Albert as a souvenir (hashtag sorry not sorry).
One thing they sell here is flattened Korean squid and our friend Brit said we had to try it. Well, we did. Try it. Didn’t finish it. No thank you. And of course I had to check up on Anna and Elsa, my soon-to-be-friends at Frozen. It's A Small World clearly happened - one of my all-time favorites and Tim's first time! It really was a great day and to top it all off…the mouse himself!
We decided to head back into the city and even though the weather was completely overcast, we made our way to Central and then to the tram to head up to The Peak. Hong Kong is built out on a very steep incline and throughout that incline there are various neighborhoods. At the top of that is The Peak, which offers the best views of the city. We made our way up, but not so much on the views. Hong Kong was engrossed in fog and clouds, but we still loved being up there and taking it all in – just a different experience than on a clear day. Still special strolling along the pathways in the eerie fog that seems to hover over us and the city. As the sun set, we watched the fog rolling in from the harbor to cover the skyscrapers before they illuminated for the evening.
We then took Andrew’s recommendation and hit up Lily & Bloom in Soho – a true expat neighborhood – to have a cocktail. Deeeelicious. We then walked the streets – steep themselves – and wandered around the neighborhood. Very quirky; very hip.
Hong Kong is foodie heaven - you could eat out here for a year and barely scratch the surface. But a decision must be made! We decided to have dinner at Yardbird, a yakatori restaurant that came highly recommended from several places, so it seemed like the right choice. No reservations required and we decided to eat at the bar. Yakatori is a Japanese style of eating meat on a stick basically – each stick features a different part of the animal, mostly chicken. The French bartender guided us through the menu and we started with a corn ball and a Ceasar salad and moved onto so many different parts of the chicken with the Achilles being our absolute favorite. We washed it all down with some sake and decided to call it a night. We walked down the various hills to catch a cab home and time for sleep. Disneyland can sure take it out of you!
Down the hills we go...
