Everything You Want to Know About Visiting Hong Kong and Shanghai Disneyland
Calling all Disney lovers! In this episode, I dive into the details of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Disneylands, and why you want to add them to your travel bucket list!
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We LOVED our time at both of the Chinese Disneylands. Let’s get into the details of each park!
Hong Kong Disneyland
Our tickets were just under $90 each! Way more affordable than the States.
We happened to go on one of the “busiest days of the year”, so this price was even marked up from usual!
We only went one day and it was plenty of time for us.
I definitely recommend purchasing the Premiere Access Pass.
You don’t link this pass to your ticket. Rather, you’ll need to download the Hong Kong Disneyland app and purchase the pass in your app.
This pass is $55 and is so worth it in my opinion! This pass lets you cut to the front of the line on 8 rides, each one time.
You will get a QR code that you’ll scan to get in line.
What’s the best time to visit?
We went in February and it was perfect weather! However, if you’re planning on also visiting mainland China, it’s much colder there and you might want to go a little later in the spring.
June-August is not the best time to visit Hong Kong according to locals. It gets very hot, humid, and rainy.
December-February is winter and it’s a bit chilly! However, if you time it right with Chinese New Year, there are amazing decorations, which was super fun!
Where should I stay?
We stayed in Victoria Harbor in the Rosewood Hong Kong. It was so beautiful and we loved it!
We hired a car to drive us to Disneyland, and it was about a 30-40 minute drive.
There are 3 hotels on site! We didn’t stay here, but I have heard that they are great hotels!
Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel
Disney’s Hollywood Hotel
Disney’s Explorer Lodge
What are the rides like?
They have many of the same rides that you love from the original California Disneyland.
They also have some rides that are unique to the park! Some of these rides include Ant Man and the Wasp, Toy Story RC Racer, Geyser Gulch (similar to raft ride in CA Adventure), and Frozen Land!
Frozen Land was a highlight for us at Hong Kong Disney. There are two rides here: Frozen Ever After and a Sleigh Ride.
The Sleigh Ride ride was super cute, but only 35 seconds haha!
Frozen Ever After was so fun! I don’t want to spoil it, but we loved it!
You can also explore the shops throughout Arendelle! It was magical!
The castle in the park is called the Castle of Magical Dreams. It pays tribute to 13 queens and princesses who have overcome diversity and made their own dreams come true. The inside of the castle has murals of each of these women!
Was the language barrier an issue?
No it wasn’t! We really didn’t have to communicate much with anyone.
We did need help downloading our Premiere Pass, but once we showed the workers our phones, they understood what we were trying to do.
Many of the cast members do speak some English. Google Translate is also super helpful!
Food
I highly recommend making a reservation for the Dim Sum lunch at Crystal Lotus at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel! It was adorable!!! All of the dumplings are in the shapes of Disney characters! It was amazing.
Disneyland Shanghai
I loved Shanghai even more than Hong Kong (I loved both)! It was fantastic!!!
Plan to buy your ticket ahead of time! They DO sell out!
You MUST bring your passport!!! They scan it to get you in the park and they do not make exceptions.
Download the Disneyland Shanghai app before going. The app lets you check wait times, order food, and make reservations for shows.
I definitely recommend purchasing the Premiere Access Pass.
This pass was around $80 and we definitely got our money’s worth! We saved HOURS by cutting lines with this pass.
It was so crazy to me that almost NO ONE bought these Premiere Passes! Some of the lines were over 200 minutes, and no one was buying the pass! So we barely waited at all for the rides.
How do I get to the Park?
You can take the metro from downtown to the Park.
We hired a driver to pick us up from our hotel and take us which was super convenient!
What time should I get there?
We went right during Chinese New Year, so it was crazy. We got there right at 10 am when they opened and we had to wait an hour to get in.
I recommend getting there 30 minutes before the Park opens to beat some of the crowds.
What are the rides like?
The rides were so much fun. There were several rides that were brand new to us and they were so cool!
Since the park was built in 2016, the rides are much newer than the California Park with updated technology. I don’t want to spoil the rides, but just know that the classic rides have fantastic updated additions!
The new Zootopia land was so fun! There are tons of great photo backdrops that people were going crazy for! I couldn’t believe how many people were dressed up as Zootopia characters.
Food
The food in this park was so much fun!!! We loved walking around the park trying so many new things.
There weren’t a lot of repeated foods like there are in California (like churros, popcorn, pretzels, etc.).
We loved the dumplings, nutella croissant sandwich, and chipotle beef bolognese puff.
They also had fried squid and quail eggs that seemed very popular among the crowds.
The dumplings were so cute! Keep an eye out for them.
Mickey Avenue is right outside the park and was really fun to walk around. There are some really great restaurants here!
I am so glad that we visited both of these Disney Parks on our trip to China. I 100% recommend both of these Parks if you happen to be on a trip to these cities.
If you have any questions about visiting either of these Parks, feel free to message me on Instagram @thistraveltribe.
China TRAVEL TIPS:
We had VPNs running on our phones the whole time we were there. China blocks a lot of websites such as Gmail, Instagram, and Facebook. Our VPN allowed us to access these websites throughout our trip.
Download WeChat and Alipay BEFORE you leave your home country! Get all your payment methods input ahead of time. These apps are essential for making payments.