Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL), home of iconic attractions like Mystic Manor and Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars, is probably the easiest Disney park to tour. Barring any special events or holidays, you should be able to get through the park relatively easily. While I do recommend spending at least 2 days at the park so you can see and, more importantly, appreciate everything the park has to offer, one day will allow you to see the highlights and also experience some lesser known but equally fun attractions. This 1-day Hong Kong Disneyland itinerary is designed to help you maximize your time at the park.
I’ll be covering what attractions you should see, what order you should see them in, what restaurants you should dine in, and what shows you should experience in your 1 day at the park. So without further ado, let’s dive in!
Early Park Entry Pass Discussion
The first thing we need to discuss is if it’s worth your while to purchase the Early Entry Pass to enter World of Frozen an hour earlier than regular park guests. On my last visit to Hong Kong Disneyland, I took advantage of the Early Entry Pass so that I could skip the lines and ride both World of Frozen attractions: Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs and Frozen Ever After.
Keep in mind though that when I visited, World of Frozen was less than 2 months old so crowds at the land were still busy. With Early Park Entry we got to ride Frozen Ever After twice and Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs once.
I would say that unless you’re coming on a weekend or a holiday, I wouldn’t recommend getting the Early Park Entry Pass. You can still get everything done even without it as long as you arrive early enough (which is what I always recommend whenever anyone goes to a Disney park).
If you can spare it, however, and can afford the HK$199 per person cost, then I say go for it! Knocking out both World of Frozen Rides and Winnie the Pooh, which is also open early if you have the pass, will decompress your day and allow you to hit your favorite rides multiple times. To reiterate: if you’re going on a weekend or on a holiday, absolutely take advantage of this. If not, it’s no big deal.
You can get both a park entry ticket and an Early Entry Pass bundled together via Klook here. This is an affiliate link meaning I will get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Upon booking this ticket, you automatically get a park reservation as well.
What HKDL crowds are like
You might be wondering if you will be able to get a lot done on your 1-day Hong Kong Disneyland itinerary. Well let me tell you, unless a special event is happening or it’s a weekend or a holiday, you’ll have no time touring the park. The only other Disney park in the world with a lower attendance than HKDL is Walt Disney Studios Paris, which has less rides than HKDL so it feels more crowded.
It’s common to see waits for Mystic Manor and Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars drop to around 5-15 minutes on most days, with even the Frozen rides sometimes dropping down to around 30 minutes or even less some days. It’s undisputedly the easiest Disney park to tour, and that’s honestly part of its charm. HKDL is the tiniest castle-style park, and its small, cozy size adds a lot to its unique vibe. So no matter when you visit, you’re in for a treat.
Premiere Access: Is It Worth It?
Personally, unless you want to ride Frozen Ever After more than once, I don’t think the Premiere Access skip-the-line service is worth it. As such, I will not be including it in this itinerary. It’s mostly useless due to the fact that 90% of the year HKDL has low crowds. If this were Disneyland, Walt Disney World, or even Tokyo Disney, I would recommend it. But as it stands, for this park, you don’t really need it.
Meal Vouchers: Is It Worth It?
On the Hong Kong Disneyland website and on Klook, you can find offers for Meal Vouchers that usually include one lunch meal, one dinner meal, and one snack for a set price. I would only recommend availing of this if you plan on only eating at quick service restaurants. This itinerary only recommends quick service restaurants so it could be worth your while to purchase a voucher. Just be sure to maximize the value of the voucher by choosing meals that are sold for the maximum set price. For example, if you’re allowed to order a meal that has a max price of $150, then be sure to get one at that price to maximize the value you get.
Here’s another link to a Klook offer that includes park admission and a meal voucher.
1-Day Hong Kong Disneyland Itinerary
I’m not going to go into too much detail on what the rides are like, as I’ve already done that in my official ride guide! Click here to access my ride guide that will help you decide what rides you want to see and what you want to skip.
Arrive Before Opening
Just like any other day at any Disney park, I recommend you arrive at least 1 hour before park opening. They usually allow people into the park 30 minutes before the posted opening, and will have a rope at the end of main street where you can wait for official park opening time. If you have early entry, arrive 30 minutes before early entry to be sure you’re the first ones in the park.
World of Frozen
As soon as the rope “drops”, or as soon as you get in with early entry, head for World of Frozen. First place you want to hit right away is Frozen Ever After. This is the major attraction in World of Frozen and is an equivalent of an E-ticket (or headliner) in this park, unlike it’s D-ticket status in Walt Disney World.
Frozen Ever After is a boat ride to Elsa’s Ice Palace that includes a pretty intense drop. You won’t get wet though, and if you time it right you should be off the ride in about 15-20 minutes. Immediately after, head for the second attraction in the land: Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs. This is a junior coaster that lasts all of 30 seconds. You should be done riding it in about 10-15 minutes.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
After hitting both World of Frozen rides, it’s time to make your way out of the land and back into Fantasyland. Head straight for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. This ride normally gets at least a 30 minute wait, even on slow days, so the earlier you hit it the better.
It’s essentially a trip through the Hundred Acre Wood following Pooh and friends on a small but visually stunning adventure. It’s a simple, but very effective and entertaining, dark ride. The ride is similar to the Florida and Shanghai Pooh rides so, if you’ve ridden it in either of those locations, you could skip it here.
Tour the Back Three Lands
The back of the park, consisting of Toy Story Land, Grizzly Gulch, and Mystic Point, opens at around 11am every day. If you have early entry, I would recommend heading to the border of Adventureland and Grizzly Gulch as Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars will be our next destination. If you don’t have early entry, head straight for Toy Story Land as soon as 11am hits and walk through both Toy Story Land and Mystic Point to get to Grizzly Gulch.
Grizzly Gulch
Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars is my personal favorite roller coaster in the park. In fact, in my ranking of every ride at HKDL, I ranked it at number two only behind Mystic Manor. You bpard a mine car to get a tour of the mines, but then your trip is hijacked by a family of bears who send you careening through Grizzly Gulch.
It’s a ride full of (literal) twists and turns, as well as a couple of surprises. You shouldn’t be waiting more than 10 minutes for it this early in the morning, and if you enjoyed it, now would be the perfect time to ride it again.
Mystic Point
But if you’d have your fill, head to Mystic Point and experience Mystic Manor! This is the best ride in the park, and possibly the best Disney ride in the world currently. You’re invited on a tour of Mystic Manor by its owner, Lord Henry Mystic, to view the latest addition to his collection: an ancient Balinese music box that can supposedly make inanimate objects come to life.
During the tour, his mischievous pet monkey Albert opens the music box, and as you can expect, chaos ensues. This is the only ride that I will suggest you ride twice, as you notice so many more details after your first ride, which will add layers to your experience.
Toy Story Land
After riding it twice, head to Toy Story Land. I wouldn’t recommend riding any of these rides if they’re posting waits of longer than 20 minutes. And for Slinky Dog Dash, I wouldn’t recommend riding it at all. RC Racer is the only one I would recommend but it is pretty intense and is like every other viking ship ride around the world. So unless they interest you or you’re a big Toy Story fan, I say skip them.
Jungle River Cruise
Leaving Toy Story Land, bear right and enter Adventureland. You’re going to head to Jungle River Cruise for your next ride. This ride is a boat ride through the rivers of the world as you encounter various jungle scenes like an elephant bathing pool or apes overtaking a camp. The appeal of this ride though is its comedy, which kind of gets lost now that they no longer offer English-specific boat rides. But it is still fun and, to me, has the best ending of any Jungle Cruise ride in the world.
Festival of the Lion King
It should be about time for the first showing of Festival of the Lion King, so head over to the Theater in the Wild and line up for it. This show is a retelling of the Lion King story, but it’s told with a lot of theatrical magic. Featuring fire spinners, stunning floats, acrobatics, and so much more, this version of Festival of the Lion King is miles ahead of the version in Florida. And the finale will send chills down your arms. You cannot make a 1-day Hong Kong Disneyland itinerary and miss this.
Lunch
There are four options for Lunch that I would recommend you try, depending on the kind of food you’re craving: Tahitian Terrace in Adventureland, Royal Banquet Hall and Clopin’s Festival of Foods in Fantasyland, and Golden Crocus Inn at World of Frozen. Tahitian Terrace has Asian dishes like Butter Chicken and Beef Rendang and is also Halal. Royal Banquet Hall has Asian and International fare like Pizzas, Korean Ginseng Chicken Soup, and Roasted Chicken. Clopin’s Festival of Foods is known for its Pho, and Golden Crocus Inn has dishes like mushroom pasta, salmon, and lamb shank. You can’t go wrong with any of them, but I would say eat in Fantasyland as that is your next destination.
It’s a Small World, Philharmagic, Fairy Tale Forest
After lunch, do the remaining major Fantasyland attractions, starting with It’s a Small World. I always like saving It’s a Small World for a busier time of day because it’s a people eater (which basically means a lot of people can ride the attraction per hour as compared to most of the other attractions). It’s also a good one to save for the hottest part of the day because most of the queue is indoors at HKDL. The ride needs no introduction. It’s a colorful ride that showcases the children of the world. It’s a Disney classic and a must-ride.
Next, head to Mickey’s Philharmagic! This is a 3-D show on the other side of Fantasyland starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. Surprisingly, they haven’t updated this show since they added the new Coco scene stateside, but the show is still incredibly entertaining and should be nice to do right about now when the heat is intense.
Lastly, you need to do Fairy Tale Forest. It’s a walkthrough attraction featuring miniatures of different locales from Disney movies like Tangled, Beauty and the Beast, and Cinderella, set among well-manicured gardens. It’s a very underrated attraction in Fantasyland and kind of reminds me of the Storybookland Canal Boats in Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, except it’s a walkthrough. Keep an eye out for Pascal from Tangled as he is scattered around the attraction in multiple locations.
Parade
While HKDL doesn’t have a parade currently, rumor is that they will be debuting one for their 20th anniversary in 2025. If that rumor holds then you’ll want to make time to see it. Disney parades are, for the most part, incredibly well done, so it would be worth your while to catch a performance. If you can, get a spot in the no man’s land area between Space Mountain and the Storybooke Theater about 30 minutes before showtime to ensure you’ve got a front row spot.
Mickey and the Wondrous Book
There’s usually a Mickey and the Wondrous Book showing following the parade, so I would encourage you to go see it! HKDL’s entertainment is really a cut above the rest, and this show as well as Lion King is proof of that.
The story is simple, Olaf accidentally “falls” out of the Wondrous Book and Goofy and Mickey take it upon themselves to return him safely to his story. It’s nothing more than a justification to string together performances of Disney songs, but it’s effective and incredibly well done. My favorite sections are the Three Princesses section and the Princess and the Frog section.
Tomorrowland Attractions
Now that you’re done with Mickey and the Wondrous Book, it’s time for you to finally hit the Tomorrowland attractions. I usually recommend saving Tomorrowland for later in the day because it’s the second busiest area of the park in the morning after World of Frozen. I’ve had a lot of success saving these rides for later in the day as guests move onto other areas of the park. Plus this is a land that looks immaculate at night.
Hyperspace Mountain
First ride you should hit is Hyperspace Mountain. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept of Space Mountain, it’s basically a rollercoaster in the dark that’s themed to you hurtling through space on a rocket. Hyperspace Mountain, however, is themed to Star Wars and has the same basic concept as Space Mountain but incorporates lasers and projections of a battle between the empire and the rebellion. It’s a fun ride and used to be my favorite ride in the park. This’ll probably have the longest line, so I recommend hitting it first.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle
Then, head over to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle. This ride is a rethemed Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters, meaning it’s a shooting ride. You pick up a blaster and help Ant-Man and the Wasp battle Arnim Zola and his swarm bots. The ride is scored, so it’s fun to do this one repeatedly when there isn’t much of a line to see who among your group can score the highest. If you like this ride, you can repeat it a couple of times if you wish. But I would do the next ride on our 1-day Hong Kong Disneyland itinerary first to make sure you hit all the highlights.
Iron Man Experience
The last ride you need to hit is the Iron Man Experience. It’s a motion simulator ride that takes you through the Hong Kong Skyline as you go on a mission with Iron Man to keep his Arc Reactor safe from HYDRA. It’s a fun ride, although it doesn’t really have a lot of re-rideability. The queue line of the ride, however, is fantastic and, to me, is an attraction in itself. Be sure to take the appropriate medication for motion sickness if you suffer from it, as I do.
Repeat Favorites
Congratulations! You’ve now seen the highlights of the park. Now it’s time to do something fun: repeat rides! Check the wait times on the app and see what doesn’t have a line. You’ll have about 1 hour to repeat any favorites you liked or try some of the other attractions like Orbitron, Dumbo, the Carousel, the Teacups, or any of the Toy Story Land rides. Consider this “free time” and just be sure you order dinner at around 6:30 pm.
Dinner and World of Frozen Part 2
I will recommend two places for dinner: Golden Crocus Inn and Starliner Diner. I’ve already told you about Golden Crocus Inn, but Starliner Diner is a joint in Tomorrowland that serves American food. I usually end up eating at Starliner at the end of the day because I like how Tomorrowland looks at night, but World of Frozen looks equally spectacular at night, which is why I recommend visiting it at night even if you don’t eat at Golden Crocus Inn. Hopefully you’re finished eating at around 7pm so you can see World of Frozen at night. Once you’re done with both, head to Main Street and get ready to watch Momentous.
Momentous
Get a spot in the hub area of the park around 30 minutes before Momentous starts to get the best view. Momentous is, in short, amazing and totally worth staying in the park till the end of the day for. It’s a light, projection, sound, and water show about the stages of life told through Disney songs. It’ll take your breath away, and would be second only to Mystic Manor if I were to rank all the attractions (rides + shows + experiences) in the park.
Once the show is over, congratulations! You followed this 1-day Hong Kong Disneyland itinerary and just did all the best rides and attractions of HKDL! Pat yourself on the back and then head for the shops on Main Street to get some last minute souvenir shopping done. When you’ve had your fill, exit the park and head back to your hotel.
What did you think of this 1-Day Hong Kong Disneyland itinerary? Comment down below! And checkout my other HKDL posts here: