I’ve been asked about what we thought of HKDL so thought I shouldn’t clutter the other thread. We just came back from our first visit with 6 days in the park, staying at the HKDL Hotel. I guess I should post a disclaimer that our research paid off and it was relatively quiet aside from weekend, and good weather.
In a word, wow. Show quality is great. The park and resort is spotless. Landscaping is exceptional. But the cast members… from greeters to restaurants, hotels to cafes the cast were some of the warmest, friendliest, most helpful and just genuinely happy we’ve ever met. Cast were also consistently proactive; for example managing queue layouts and adjusting as needed before it became a problem. A joy to watch. Language wasn’t an issue. We may have had more special treatment being obviously foreign tourists, I don’t know, but we were pleasantly shocked with the cast. Amazing wouldn’t be too strong a word. Example, we did the Nightmare Before Dinner show. Dialogue was in Mandarin and Cantonese. So our server came to the table to quietly explain and demonstrate what was being said (mixing the soup in a certain way to change colour) and then the manager came to apologise and explain they didn’t have time to spiel in all languages hence the one to one. Perfect customer service (and the dinner show is highly recommended on all counts) - indeed, we didn’t have a bad meal anywhere. Nor a good one. Every meal from snacks to table serve to buffets were truly excellent.
Thankfully the park itself has grown since opening. Does it need more? Yes. Did we get bored in six days? No. I can’t help thinking the addition of the Avengers E and a (Pirates) flume would elevate it far above Shanghai (which we’ve yet to try). As it is it has to be close - 4 unique rides and variations on a theme elsewhere. Fantasyland would benefit from a second dark ride (Festival of Foods is real estate begging to be converted) and I imagine a very wet day with outside attractions closed would be testing. But as I said we had good weather. Parts of the legacy park were obviously budget challenged and then you have Mystic Point (wow), the castle (beautiful and well proportioned in person) and Grizzly Gulch (basically an entire land with the resident coaster travelling all over, under and around it). Iron Man was a fun variation on Star Tours and we found Ant Man to be preferable to Buzz Lightyear (and thoroughly enjoyable and dare I say clever) - and it is nice both feature Hong Kong. Locals seemed to appreciate the nod. Mystic Manor is simply perfect. Small World is a great version once you get past the bizarre queue design (wants to be Anaheim but ends up like Orlando gone wrong) and I should mention Let’s get Wicked and Mickey and the Wondrous Book; 2 stunning live stage shows with the cast doing anything but going through the motions. If you’ve ever wanted a techno pop version of Happily Ever After nows your chance.
I’m happy to say Premiere Access seemed mostly shunned (again YMMV) so queues kept moving. It was Orlando circa 1990. An absolute joy. Wait times were accurate and more than doable, weekdays 20-30 minutes for the Es at peak time with walk ons at random times. Weekends saw highs of 40 minutes - in Orlando you’d jump at 40 minutes for an E ticket. A great time to return to the hotel and its wonderful pool for a few hours. Food prices were comparable with Paris or Orlando and again quality and portion sizes were fantastic. We plumped for the gold Annual Pass since it made sense for more than 3 days with 10-18% off most food and 10% off merchandise. More great cast help at the hotel front desk checked if we had tickets and insisted they could and would convert the AP voucher into physical cards - complete with photos- there and then to save going to the parks guest relations window. Another note on cast; a cynic would call the restaurants over staffed. But it enabled service better than any we’ve seen before. And did I say same day ADRs? Honestly it was a pleasure to be in the park.
The infrastructure for the castle and area is stunning. State of the art projections, lighting and audio from the hub to Town Square really came into play after Momentus with a carnival atmosphere 30 minute post show. Such a great way to end a day (and a stunning main show too)
Post World of Frozen there should thankfully be more coming to the park (verified with a conversation I had) but as it is was, we were so impressed with the park and resort (and city) as a whole if we didn’t already have plans for next year we’d be back without hesitation. 10/10.
In a word, wow. Show quality is great. The park and resort is spotless. Landscaping is exceptional. But the cast members… from greeters to restaurants, hotels to cafes the cast were some of the warmest, friendliest, most helpful and just genuinely happy we’ve ever met. Cast were also consistently proactive; for example managing queue layouts and adjusting as needed before it became a problem. A joy to watch. Language wasn’t an issue. We may have had more special treatment being obviously foreign tourists, I don’t know, but we were pleasantly shocked with the cast. Amazing wouldn’t be too strong a word. Example, we did the Nightmare Before Dinner show. Dialogue was in Mandarin and Cantonese. So our server came to the table to quietly explain and demonstrate what was being said (mixing the soup in a certain way to change colour) and then the manager came to apologise and explain they didn’t have time to spiel in all languages hence the one to one. Perfect customer service (and the dinner show is highly recommended on all counts) - indeed, we didn’t have a bad meal anywhere. Nor a good one. Every meal from snacks to table serve to buffets were truly excellent.
Thankfully the park itself has grown since opening. Does it need more? Yes. Did we get bored in six days? No. I can’t help thinking the addition of the Avengers E and a (Pirates) flume would elevate it far above Shanghai (which we’ve yet to try). As it is it has to be close - 4 unique rides and variations on a theme elsewhere. Fantasyland would benefit from a second dark ride (Festival of Foods is real estate begging to be converted) and I imagine a very wet day with outside attractions closed would be testing. But as I said we had good weather. Parts of the legacy park were obviously budget challenged and then you have Mystic Point (wow), the castle (beautiful and well proportioned in person) and Grizzly Gulch (basically an entire land with the resident coaster travelling all over, under and around it). Iron Man was a fun variation on Star Tours and we found Ant Man to be preferable to Buzz Lightyear (and thoroughly enjoyable and dare I say clever) - and it is nice both feature Hong Kong. Locals seemed to appreciate the nod. Mystic Manor is simply perfect. Small World is a great version once you get past the bizarre queue design (wants to be Anaheim but ends up like Orlando gone wrong) and I should mention Let’s get Wicked and Mickey and the Wondrous Book; 2 stunning live stage shows with the cast doing anything but going through the motions. If you’ve ever wanted a techno pop version of Happily Ever After nows your chance.
I’m happy to say Premiere Access seemed mostly shunned (again YMMV) so queues kept moving. It was Orlando circa 1990. An absolute joy. Wait times were accurate and more than doable, weekdays 20-30 minutes for the Es at peak time with walk ons at random times. Weekends saw highs of 40 minutes - in Orlando you’d jump at 40 minutes for an E ticket. A great time to return to the hotel and its wonderful pool for a few hours. Food prices were comparable with Paris or Orlando and again quality and portion sizes were fantastic. We plumped for the gold Annual Pass since it made sense for more than 3 days with 10-18% off most food and 10% off merchandise. More great cast help at the hotel front desk checked if we had tickets and insisted they could and would convert the AP voucher into physical cards - complete with photos- there and then to save going to the parks guest relations window. Another note on cast; a cynic would call the restaurants over staffed. But it enabled service better than any we’ve seen before. And did I say same day ADRs? Honestly it was a pleasure to be in the park.
The infrastructure for the castle and area is stunning. State of the art projections, lighting and audio from the hub to Town Square really came into play after Momentus with a carnival atmosphere 30 minute post show. Such a great way to end a day (and a stunning main show too)
Post World of Frozen there should thankfully be more coming to the park (verified with a conversation I had) but as it is was, we were so impressed with the park and resort (and city) as a whole if we didn’t already have plans for next year we’d be back without hesitation. 10/10.
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