Celebrating @ Hong Kong Disneyland

I grew up watching Mickey Mouse and his friends. Disney characters had been a huge part of my childhood from Cinderella to Goofy. I've learned the "bare necessities" of life by watching Baloo the bear in the Jungle Book over and over again as a child.

I swear, I can still sing the whole soundtrack of The Little Mermaid and The Lion King to this day. And don't even get me started on how much I adore Pixar! So it's always been my dream to spend at least one birthday in The Magic Kingdom.

I really made sure our Hong Kong Disneyland visit fell on my special day. It was such a great day, one I will not soon forget. I was so excited meeting my favorite Disney characters, my big sister was a bit weirded out and could not relate, haha.

I even dragged her and our mom to line up so we can have our picture taken with Mickey Mouse and Minnie! I know they are just mascots but it's a great feeling to "meet" my childhood favorites at last.

We took a ride aboard the Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad, an excursion-style train passing through Adventureland and alighted at Fantasyland where the shows we wanted to watch were located.

Mickey's PhilharMagic 3-D adventure is just one of Fantasyland's attractions. It was amazing, I felt like such a part of the show. Smelling the pies, having Donald Duck throw water at us, being a part of Aladdin and Princess Jasmine's magic carpet ride was just... enchanting.

The It's a Small World cruise was also fun. The artistry of the various exhibits representing the different continents was impressive. We sang heartily along with Nikki Gil's Filipino version of the song as we passed by the Pinoy "bahay kubo".

The Flights of Fantasy Parade with most of the beloved Disney characters participating was awesome. I took lots of pictures of the parade and I might share more in a later post. We also went nuts buying souvenirs. Shirts, magnets, key chains... we couldn't help ourselves!

To make the day even more perfect, we had front row (pavement) seats to the "Disney in the Stars" fireworks display at 8:00pm. It was truly stunning with Sleeping Beauty's castle as backdrop. I just wish I brought a tripod for the camera to better capture it.

I honestly did not want the day to end! Alas, it was closing time and we had to go, but it was the happiest of birthdays for sure.

Tips: 

1. Don't forget to grab a map at the entrance.

2. If you can, spend the whole day here (tell your travel agent, if you have one). We arrived at Disneyland at 2:00pm after our half-day city tour. Six hours may seem like a lot, but not enough to enjoy all the rides.

We were stressed out running from one show to another and we missed Adventureland entirely. We just zipped by it aboard the railroad car on our way to Fantasyland. Riding the raft to Tarzan's Treehouse would have been fun if we had the time. Same thing with Tomorrowland, I would have tried out the Space Mountain again.

3. You can bring food and drinks inside the park. The guys at the entrance did check the contents of our bags, but did not bat an eyelash at the bottled waters, chips and sweets we brought with us.

4. Bring a change of clothes if you're traveling in the summer. We had to buy shirts at the Emporium in Main Street USA because we were feeling hot and uncomfortable in the 34 °C heat.

Hong Kong Disneyland
Lantau Island, Hong Kong
Park hours: 10:00am - 8:00pm
(do check their monthly calendar to be sure)