Hong Kong Disneyland resides in Lantau Island, nestled between a tree-laden hillside and the Pacific. Sitting about 20 kilometers from the metropolis that touts being “Asia’s World City”, this castle park feels like a contrasting experience to what you find in the bustling Hong Kong. It’s certainly a contrast to what you find in most modern Disney theme parks. Amid the whimsical green backdrop and the city’s futuristic skyscrapers, Hong Kong Disneyland feels like stepping back in time.

The park opened in 2005, just 2 and a half years after the groundbreaking. Hong Kong Disneyland is a joint venture by the Hong Kong Government (owning 52%) and the Walt Disney Company (owning 48%). With that quick build, the park only contained 4 lands when it opened – Main Street, Adventureland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. It has grown, and evolved, in the 21 years since and has ample room to expand thanks to where the park was built.

Hong Kong Disneyland is consistently one of the least visited Disney theme parks in the world, generally finishing second to last and just above Disney Adventure World in Paris. The smaller build to open, competition from Shanghai Disneyland, the city’s political unrest in the 2010’s, and the heat and humidity help explain the smaller crowds. Future development of the resort does seem to be held back, or at least slowed by the low attendance, but the lower crowd levels are an asset for those that visit.

That’s apparent from the moment you step through the gates and on to Main Street, USA. Whether you’re rope dropping the park, there for an extra early hour, or staggering through hours after opening, walking down an empty street to a unique castle is odd. Refreshing, but odd.

For those familiar with the classic Disneyland, Hong Kong’s iteration of Main Street looks very similar (minus the masses of people). The land is an effective vestige to small town America. What it lacks in grandeur, it makes up for in charm.

At the end of Main Street is the Castle of Magical Dreams. This replaced Sleeping Beauty Castle in 2020 and is an ambitious design, paying tribute to 14 different Disney heroines. More importantly, at least to me, is that the castle is successful in adding an Asian architecture motif inside of a Victorian design. That’s fitting for Hong Kong, and gives the park some needed character.

The castle is tall enough to be seen from a variety of angles throughout Hong Kong Disneyland. With a towering spire and a soft color palette, we were taken with the Castle of Magical Dreams. The new design takes advantage of the surrounding land, seemingly rising up out of the hills.

Another area that benefits from the lush hillside behind the park is the recent expansion, World of Frozen. This new land is effectively an extension of Fantasyland and rests at the very back of Hong Kong Disneyland. World of Frozen features 2 attractions in Frozen Ever After and Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs. The former is significantly improved from the Epcot version of the attraction, with a more complete design and fantastic animatronics. Sliding Sleighs, on the other hand, is a passable but fairly average kiddie coaster with a deceivingly beautiful facade.

While the attractions are needed and vital to Hong Kong Disneyland being a success, it’s the scenery that really stands out. Both the coaster, known as the Arendelle forest section, and the ice palace are pressed up against the tree-lined hillside in a way that makes the land feel endless. It reminds me a bit of DisneySea, where they use some simple visual tricks to hide where the park’s water ends and where the actual ocean begins. In this case, it’s a forest! It’s such a simple choice, but is executed brilliantly.

Water sits in the middle of World of Frozen, reflecting the sights. The Arendelle Village utilizes space well, with shops and a restaurant mixed in with the colorful facades. The whole expansion shows off a great attention to detail and is the type of land that really elevates the whole park.

Mystic Point and Grizzly Gulch are also unique to Hong Kong Disneyland. Both are mini-lands that fit along the outskirts of Adventureland not only physically but also thematically. Grizzly Gulch is essentially the park’s Frontierland but with a larger focus on bears! Naturally, I love it. This little mining town tells a good story and features one of the better rides in the whole park, Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars. There are geysers, great rockwork, and more trees to complete Grizzly Gulch. No Country Bears, or even Fozzie Bear, seems like a missed opportunity but I have no other complaints.

Mystic Point is just beyond Grizzly Gulch and is when we see Hong Kong Disneyland at its most inventive. This land houses the park’s best attraction, Mystic Manor, that features a wily monkey named Albert, an old English man called Henry, and a beautiful mansion atop a hillside. This fully original trackless ride is enough for us to recommend the park on its own.

The rest of Mystic Point is gorgeous too with an excellent restaurant, statues, and enough things unsaid to make you want to come back. This area is theme park storytelling at its finest. S.E.A. is featured prominently in the land and further advances that storyline, if you’re into that! If you’re not then it won’t impact how much you enjoy Mystic Manor, Explorer’s Club Restaurant or the rest of the land.

Not all of Hong Kong Disneyland’s lands are as exemplary as those. Toy Story Land, which opened just before Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point, is filler. There’s nothing substantive about the land and the 3 amusement park-style rides inside of it. The best thing Toy Story Land accomplishes is adding capacity to the park and having a giant Rex on one side of the land. It’s contrast to the lands closest to it, Adventureland and Mystic Point, are jarring. If it was in a different section of Hong Kong Disneyland, it’d be easier to ignore some of the land’s issues.

Tomorrowland also feels pieced together. Some of that is due to the timing of our visit, as the land is transitioning to more of a Marvel theme instead of futuristic theme. There’s an Iron Man attraction that replaced Star Tours and an Ant-Man ride that replaced Buzz. Both are decent (I prefer the Ant-Man attraction) but not enough to move the needle. There’s construction ongoing for a third Marvel attraction that should be the best of the 3.

Hyperspace Mountain is very well done but adds to the mishmash of Tomorrowland IP and style. The whole land feels truncated and I don’t think that’s solely because of construction walls. For now, I’d give the land an incomplete on the fake report card but I’m skeptical of it really coming together as it currently stands.

I don’t want to completely dismiss Fantasyland but it’s somewhere between the highs and lows of everything else. There’s a nice, if not classic, assortment of rides. It could really use a few more dark rides, as not including Peter Pan’s Flight during the original construction of the park was a strange choice. But the Fairy Tale Forest is a very pleasant walkthrough and Mickey and the Wondrous Book is a good show. The whole area looks a little tired but is enjoyable, especially if you include the Frozen extension as part of Fantasyland.

Adventureland could also use more to do, with the attractions being Jungle Cruise and Tarzan’s Treehouse. On the bright side, those are both unique in their own way. Tarzan’s Treehouse is more like Tom Sawyer’s Island, as guests take a raft to it and there’s more to do there than just climb the treehouse’s stairs. Jungle Cruise uses the water surrounding that island as the track. Both are unique takes on familiar attractions and worthy of a ride or walk!

Adventureland also features some fresh entertainment, including a Moana show and Festival of the Lion King. While we visited, the Lion King was replaced by a very impressive Halloween show. Factoring in the nighttime spectacular and parades or street parties, entertainment is a strong point of the castle park.

The same goes for the food. We didn’t have time to try every restaurant in Hong Kong Disneyland (my stomach is only so big) but from what we did have, the food here seemed like an asset. There’s a nice mix of different cuisines and everything we ate was prepared well. I wouldn’t be worried about eating here, as there’s something for everyone.

What we did notice in both the restaurants and a few of the attractions were some confusing hours. Hong Kong Disneyland already has some of the shortest park hours of any Disney Park we’ve been to, opening at 10:30 and closing at 8 during the weekdays. Toy Story Land rides, just as an example, didn’t open until noon during our visit. Other lands opened at 11. This is part of the downside of lower attendance, there’s less dependability on what’s open.

Taking that in stride isn’t so hard though when a theme park isn’t slammed. Over the course of 2 very full park days, we never waited more than 30 minutes for a ride. There was never any consideration to buy a skip-the-line pass, it just wasn’t needed. We completed every ride in the park at least once and hit our favorites at least twice over those 2 days. We went on Mystic Manor 5 times! Even having a thorough itinerary felt like overkill, Hong Kong Disneyland lends itself to just showing up and riding whatever was along the path.

Needless to say, that felt amazing. Yes, I love to concoct itineraries and rope drop strategies. But, you know what’s better than that? Just showing up and not worrying about hour long waits for things! As long as you go to Hong Kong Disneyland during the week and there aren’t any public holidays, this is what you’re likely to encounter and it feels like a lovely step back to a time when theme parks were simpler. There was hardly any need to pull out our phones, unless it was to take photos of our Olu Mel fitting into the adorable miniature ride vehicles.

The longest waits in the park did come in the form of meet & greets. Duffy & Friends fervor is alive and well in Hong Kong Disneyland, much like it is in the other Asian parks. The cute (kawaii) culture isn’t as prevalent throughout the park as it is in Tokyo Disney Resort, but Duffy and his pals are everywhere. We enjoy those characters! Them plus the aforementioned Albert help give the park an identity. That’s something Hong Kong Disneyland is reaching for and is close to finding.

The castle park, at times, feels a bit too close to a knockoff. That probably sounds meaner than I want it to, as a knockoff of Disneyland is still an excellent theme park. But the step back in time does have a negative impact in some ways, as the park can feel nostalgic but also stuck. The experience can feel like an old version of Disneyland, it can also just feel old.

Thankfully, the park has taken steps to make it feel unique and modern while still being simple from a touring perspective. I can’t imagine what Hong Kong Disneyland would have been like without Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point, as those additions were vital in 2012 and 2013. World of Frozen immediately feels integral to the park. The Castle of Magical Dreams, and some of the recent entertainment, has added more of an identity.

We expect more progress for Hong Kong Disneyland in the next decade but it’s already a wonderful theme park. Mystic Manor, Grizzly Gulch, and some unique takes on classic attractions should be enough to have any fan interested. The simplicity is what stood out above all. That can come with some issues but, when you’re walking down an empty Main Street, toward a beautiful castle set against the gorgeous Hong Kong landscape, life should feel simple.

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