Welcome back to the trip report series! We’re still chronicling my first day at Hong Kong Disneyland (HKDL) during my recent trip to the resort from June 3rd to June 5th 2023. We left off just after lunch as my sister and I decided that we would go to Hyperspace Mountain next. But, as with any trip to a Disney park, sometimes the best-laid plans never go the way you want them to.

Before we get into it, if you haven’t read the introduction post for this trip report series, I suggest you do so before reading this. Click here to access part one of this trip report series. Also, don’t forget to like me on Facebook and follow me on Instagram and Tiktok!

Failure to Launch

So my sister and I made our way to Hyperspace Mountain, passing through the Tomorrowland Castle exit and entering the parade route no man’s land between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. We had checked the wait times and it said that the line for Hyperspace Mountain was currently 20 minutes long. Considering the other lines we saw that day, that was pretty reasonable! We thought we could just pop in and out and maybe do the other rides in Tomorrowland. Well apparently every person in the park who just came from lunch had the same idea as us cause when we got to Hyperspace Mountain, it was showing a 45 minute wait. I re-checked the app and it also said it was 45 minutes long.

Crowds were really starting to become a problem, but my sister and I decided to pivot and instead head for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle, a ride neither of us have done before, as it only had a 20 minute wait. So we walked the short distance between Space Mountain and the little corner of Tomorrrowland that has been deemed Stark Expo and made our way to the SHIELD Science and Technology Pavilion, which is where the ride is located.

Operation: Defeat Arnim Zola

My sister and I lined up in the outdoor queue area for the ride. After about ten minutes we entered the ride building. Upon entering, you’re immediately greeted by a desk that seems to have been very recently vacated by a SHIELD member due to the invasion by Arnim Zola, the ride’s main villain. The screens above the desk show clips of Ant-Man and the Wasp interacting with Iron Man and Leslie Lam, a SHIELD agent overseeing the whole operation in Iron Man’s absence. They’ve recruited Ant Man and the Wasp to destroy all of Arnim Zola’s swarm bots, which are trying to steal the Data Core, a vital unit where sensitive SHIELD data is stored. Ant-Man and the Wasp can’t do it alone, however, and you are recruited to join them in their fight against Arnim Zola. You’re then ushered into the DAG-R deployment area. Each DAG-R (or ride vehicle) is armed with two EMP blasters (basically this ride’s version of the astro blaster) and you’re sent off on your mission!

Upon seeing videos of this ride in 2019 when it first opened, I was left feeling a little disappointed. And this is a sentiment expressed by other Disney fans as well. The lack of movement and kinetic energy in the ride makes it feel stale and boring, even with the updated targets and ride shooting system. The only thing that moves in the entire ride that isn’t a screen is a spinning Hydra wheel of some sort in the middle of the ride. It’s also frustrating that you can’t independently turn the DAG-R around like the spaceship in Astro Blasters. But after riding it, I will admit that it’s a lot more fun in person. I love that the targets periodically close when you try to shoot them. It adds another level of difficulty to the ride that makes it more fun. Is it better than Astro Blasters? No, it isn’t. But am I mad that it was replaced? Not anymore, now that I’ve experienced it myself. But I’m guessing that locals who go to the park often weren’t impressed as well as it always had the lowest wait times among all the non-flat ride-style rides in the park. 

I scored 500,000 points while my sister was at the 350,000 range. We ended up riding this ride around 8 times during our trip (my family can get very competitive so we love these shooting rides) and I only beat my sister one other time. She was so good at this ride it was kind of baffling how she was able to get the scores that she did. She almost broke 700,000 once! I on the other hand peaked at around 597,000. Maybe that’s another reason I liked Buzz more too, cause I’ve maxed out Buzz maybe 2-3 times in my life.

There are Droppings from the Sky

After riding Ant-Man, we decided to window shop along Main Street before heading to the Moana show that was scheduled to take place at around 4pm. Window shopping was mostly uneventful, save for the fact that we noticed that half of every store was set aside for Duffy and his friends. Duffy is huge in the Asia parks. For those of you who don’t know, Duffy’s backstory is that Mickey was about to set sail on a long voyage, so Minnie handmade Duffy for Mickey to keep him company.

That simple backstory has exploded and has since expanded to 6 other stuffed animals who are now all friends with Duffy. There’s his girlfriend, ShellieMay, the cat artist Gelatoni, the bunny ballerina StellaLou, the baker dog CookieAnn, the ukulele playing Turtle OluMel, and the inquisitive fox LinaBell. Their popularity is so big that they have their own walkthrough attraction and each of their “friend-versaries” are celebrated in the parks. I never got into Duffy, so we never did any of the Duffy attractions, but I feel like some guests went to the park just to do all the Duffy related activities.

After window shopping we headed for the Jungle Junction theater in Adventureland to watch Moana: A Homecoming Celebration. We arrived at the theater about 30 minutes before the show and saw that most of the benches were taken except for the ones in the back row. We quickly got those seats and waited for the show. I left my sister temporarily to get some ice cream bars, which were included in our meal coupons. But while waiting for the show, something rather unfortunate happened to me.

I was minding my own business, waiting for the show to begin when a purple splat landed on my leg. I at first thought it must have been the ice cream of the people behind me cause some people were standing up behind us to watch the show, but then another splat landed on my right forearm. I immediately looked up and saw that there were birds right above where I was sitting. If you haven’t inferred it yet, I was pooped on by birds not once but TWICE. What are the chances of that? So I quickly asked my sister for some wipes, which thankfully she had, and started cleaning myself. For fear of being pooped on again, I kept an umbrella over my sister and I for the entire duration of the show.

The show itself was cute. It was a fairly simple 20 minute retelling of the movie Moana without any of the songs. It was a fun show that I would’ve enjoyed more if I was not fearing for my life that another splat of bird poop would fall on me. The show’s props and costumes were simple but very creative, and the performers were all very entertaining. I wish they played some of the songs, but also understood why they decided not to as if they did, the show would probably be 40 minutes long. It was fun but I wouldn’t recommend it if you only have one day to explore the park.

Follow Your Dreams?

After watching the show, we made our way over to the castle to watch the daytime stage show that takes place there called Follow Your Dreams. This was at around 4:30pm and it was still blazing hot and humid. We had also planned to take photos in front of the castle when the show ended. So we waited in front of the castle and heard the announcement they played before the show where they said that due to unforeseen circumstances, the show had to be modified. We both wondered what they meant by this, but decided to stick around because maybe this meant that the whole show would still be presented.

But boy were we wrong. Basically, they played the start and the end of the show. That’s it. What should’ve been a 20 minute show instead was a 5 minute show. We were a bit disappointed, and this unfortunately would be a theme of the trip every time we would try to watch it. Once the crowd dispersed, we went ahead and took some cute photos in front of the castle. The castle was a bit backlit, but nothing a quick edit couldn’t handle. After taking photos, we decided that we wanted to do another ride. We saw that It’s A Small World had a 30 minute wait, and we decided to see whether that was true or not. So we went over there and quickly hopped in the queue.

The Happiest Cruise that Ever Sailed ‘Round the World

If you know anything about It’s A Small World in Hong Kong Disneyland, you know that the queue is mostly indoors due to the Hong Kong weather. It snakes its way down about one floor until you reach the boats at the bottom of the queue. Usually, at least before this trip, you could walk about 90% of the way down before encountering any kind of line. However, when we got to the inside portion of the queue, we were stunned to find a line that started about 20 steps into the queue. This, at least for me, was the sign that Hong Kong Disneyland had really changed. You’re telling me It’s a Small World, arguably the most people-eating attraction in the resort, had a queue backed up all the way to the top? That was insane to think about, and even though we had to wait in that queue, it was nice knowing that more people were visiting the park that most Disney fans ten years ago would’ve considered a skip.

We ended up waiting about only 18 minutes in that queue before we got to ride. This is my personal favorite Small World among all of them, although I will admit that the Paris and Tokyo ones are probably objectively better. And I love it mostly because it’s the only It’s a Small World that has a relatively large Philippines section (Anaheim has a Filipino doll as well, but their placement is not as elaborate as the one in Hong Kong) and not only that but you can also hear the song It’s a Small World in my native Tagalog, which I also love.

Now that I’m a Disneyland Magic Keyholder, I recognize that the Disneyland version of the ride is similar to the Hong Kong Disneyland version, but I also recognize that the Hong Kong Disneyland version is probably the better version. For starters, the exterior of the Hong Kong Disneyland version is much more bright and colorful compared to Disneyland’s all-white version of it. Hong Kong Disneyland also has expanded scenes that aren’t present in the Disneyland version such as a full Middle East and Rainforest section. The track layout twists and turns in ways that just make the Hong Kong Disneyland version feel more exploratory because the track is laid out in such a way that the upcoming scenes are partially blocked, waiting to be slowly revealed to you.

The whole ride also feels more intimate than the Disneyland version. But the one thing the Disneyland version does better is the finale room with all the dolls in their white traditional attire. Disneyland’s is far bigger and grander, even though Hong Kong Disneyland’s has an overall better color palette. All in all, this is one of my favorite rides in Hong Kong Disneyland and a must-do every day I’m at the park.

Pho Out of Four Stars

After leaving It’s a Small World we realized we were hungry, even if it was just around 5:30pm. So we decided to use our dinner coupon at Clopin’s Festival of Foods because it was the nearest restaurant to It’s a Small World and we were interested in trying their Pho. I don’t know of any other Disney park that serves pho, so we thought we would give it a try. While my sister found a place to sit, I went ahead and ordered our food. We both decided to get the beef Pho dish, which you can see them prepare right in front of you at the counter so you know it’s freshly made. I quickly paid using our coupons and we had our dinner. My sister got a table to the left side of the restaurant and she made sure to get a table underneath an umbrella as I was still scared of getting pooped on a third time.

The Pho was actually really good. They had different kinds of beef in it like meatballs and strips of meat, all of which were really good. While eating, we discussed what we wanted to do after eating and we quickly decided we would give Iron Man Experience a try. My sister and I tend to get motion sickness, so when we decided we would ride Iron Man Experience, I fished out two tablets of Dramamine and we both drank one tablet each. I knew I wanted to try the ride at least once this trip as I had never tried it before, but even at my young age of 26 I could feel myself starting to get dizzy on any ride with a screen. So the Dramamine was a must. After finishing our bowls of Pho, we headed over to Tomorrowland to try and ride Hyperspace Mountain since we saw that the line was around 25 minutes on the app and we needed to kill time before the Dramamine kicked in.

Failure to Launch Part Two

We arrived at Hyperspace Mountain and immediately saw that the line was longer than when we saw it earlier in the day. We checked the wait time and the sign displayed that it was at 45 minutes. I think Hong Kong Disneyland needs to fix how often they update the listed wait times on their app because it takes less than a minute to walk from Clopin’s to Space Mountain and the wait time jumped by 20 minutes. So instead, we high tailed our way back to Ant-Man and decided to ride it again. The line was only 25 minutes long so we decided to go for it and ride it. After riding it a second time that day, I bought some Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle pins to commemorate my having ridden the ride for the first time that day, and then we then made our way to Iron Man Experience for our flight with Tony Stark as the ride only had a ten minute wait at that point.

Stark Tours

Iron Man Experience is tucked away at the back corner of Tomorrowland. It doesn’t look like anything special on the outside, but the queue has so many amazing things to look at. It’s probably my second favorite queue in the resort after Mystic Manor’s queue. You get to see a model of Tony Stark’s new tower in Hong Kong, a copy of his Iron Man suit, and models of his various Iron Wing vehicles AKA the vehicles you’re going to ride in. All in all it was a very impressive queue and honestly it heightened the expectations I had for the ride itself. It was a classically designed Disney queue, giving you plenty of things to look at while you’re in line, similar to the queues of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway or Roger Rabbit’s CarToon Spin at Disneyland or Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission BREAKOUT at Disney California Adventure.

After walking through the queue we ended up in a departure area that looked exactly like the departure area for Star Tours but with more red and gold painted on the walls and floor to match the Iron Man aesthetic. We luckily were able to snag row one (we actually got row 1’s maybe 70% of the time which is extremely lucky) and were quickly ushered into the ride vehicle. As expected, it looked exactly like the Star Tours motion simulators. We were told to put on our seatbelts, but I think some people in the back row got confused or something because we ended up having to do the safety check four times. But soon, we headed off for our tour of Hong Kong.

This ride polarizes a lot of people, mainly because it takes place in the present-day and it doesn’t seem to fit in a Tomorrowland. I kind of agree. I mean I get that it’s supposed to be about advanced technology which is in keeping with the “tomorrow” theme, but HKDL’s Tomorrowland never really focused on the future. It focused primarily on space and space travel, which is why the attractions of Orbitron, Buzz, and Space Mountain made sense because all of them had you “taking off” on a vehicle of some kind to explore space (now don’t get me started on Autopia, which I’m glad is gone in the context of how it made Tomorrowland more thematically coherent) but I guess you can argue that Iron Man Experience also has you take off in a ship or vehicle to go exploring so it could fit.

Now the ride itself, I have to say, was pretty enjoyable. It made me dizzy as heck (which makes me question if Dramamine even works for me) but I thought the storyline was engaging, the action sequences were exciting, and the climax was pretty enthralling. It definitely surpassed my expectations for it, although admittedly my expectations were kind of low. The basic story is that you’ve boarded an Iron Wing to view Tony Stark’s new tower in central Hong Kong and to see the famed Arc Reactor. However, when Hydra invades Hong Kong to try and take the Arc Reactor, you must team up with Iron Man to stop Hydra from stealing it. Fairly simple storyline, but the execution was really good. The fight scenes that took place in the streets of Hong Kong were really good and the finale when you enter the huge Hydra spaceship with the other Iron Wings to destroy the ship before they get the Arc Reactor, is visually stunning. I enjoyed the ride and would probably ride it at least once a trip.

I, however, lost the battle with motion sickness that day and was dizzy from then on until we got back to the hotel. After riding the ride, I felt like I was moving even when I was standing still, and I had the lingering feeling that the Pho I just ate was going to come back the way it came. And the heat was definitely not helping with that. I bought a few Iron Man Experience pins at the Expo Shop and, even after walking around Main Street for a while and browsing the shops for a bit, I still felt really dizzy. It got to the point where I went to the bathrooms near Starliner Diner and was just in a stall with my head over the toilet, thinking I was going to hurl. Luckily, I didn’t, and I told myself to get it together because I didn’t want my first showing of Momentous to be ruined by this. So I sucked it up, met my sister outside the bathroom, and we staked out our spots for Momentous.

The Most Magical Show on Earth

At this point, my sister and I had had enough. We had been awake since 3am and we considered just skipping Momentous for the night and heading back to the hotel to get some rest. But we were 20 minutes away from seeing Momentous and we decided that since we had already spent a whole day at the park, we might as well see it all the way through.

This was the best decision we made all day, because Momentous is one of the best nighttime spectaculars Disney has ever created. I know that’s high praise, but it’s true. It was phenomenal. I can see why Hong Kong Disneyland Annual Passes sales rose after the show premiered in June 2022. Momentous and Wondrous Journeys at Disneyland really set the new standard for nighttime entertainment. With pyrotechnics, projections, fountains, and an affecting musical score, it truly is a home run for the park. At the end of it, I was in tears. Suddenly, all my tiredness and dizziness went away and I was just completely dazzled for 20 minutes. It was breathtaking, to say the least, and was definitely the highlight of my day.

The pre-show of Momentous starts at 8pm and showcases some projections and orchestral scores of some Disney movies including Tangled, Cinderella, and Mulan. Then the show starts with the incredibly catchy tune “Love the Memory”. It’s a powerful anthem, one that sent chills up my spine. The whole shtick of Momentous is that it’s supposed to chronicle a lifetime of memories, from birth to death, using Disney songs. So the show starts off with the section “Time Begins” which showed Disney characters as children and features the songs “You’ll Be in My Heart” and “Baby Mine”.

It then transitions to the “Time of Your Life” section, which is all about childhood and growing up. Scenes of Disney characters as kids, set to the songs “I Just Can’t Wait to be King” and “Do You Want to Build a Snowman” populate the Castle of Magical dreams. It’s followed by the “Time for Change” section which highlights the youthful eagerness to face challenges as someone grows up, featuring songs like “Try Everything”, “Go the Distance”, and “How Far I’ll Go”.

After that is the “Time Stands Still” section which is all about falling in love. This is my favorite part of the entire show. Songs like “Kiss the Girl”, “A Whole New World”, and “I See the Light” set the backdrop for the unfolding of an enchanting love story. What follows after this, however, is the “Test of Time” section which is supposed to symbolize the trials of life. And of course, what would a trial be without the Disney villains. Principal among them is Dr. Facilier, whose “Friends on the Other Side” starts us on our journey of the different trials we face in our lives. The next part of the show is the “Time to Remember” section, which focuses on the end of a lifetime, using the song “Remember Me” to perfectly encapsulate this theme, with the castle turning into a full-on ofrenda. Then the finale comes with the “Love the Memory” song and the whole thing just swells into an emotional climax that is sure to leave tears in your eyes.

I feel so lucky that I got to see the show. I was so awe-struck. When the exit music played, I was dancing my way down Main Street USA just having the best time. Unfortunately, when the music ended, the tiredness and dizziness came back. I needed some air conditioning for a bit before the walk back to the public transport interchange, so my sister and I checked out some of the shops for a bit, then decided to head out of the park after about 20 minutes of looking around and taking note of what we wanted to buy in the coming days.

Rest our Weary Heads

We exited the park, walked past the whale fountain, and made our way to the Public Transport Interchange to take a bus back to the Explorer’s Lodge. Upon arriving at the hotel, we were confused as to where the elevators were. We had to ask a cast member at the bell services desk for directions. After finding the elevators, we made our way to the sixth floor and made our way to our room. Our parents were already waiting for us. The room was HUGE. Definitely the biggest room we had stayed in at the resort. It was probably 1.5 times the size of the rooms over at the Hollywood Hotel, and it even had a little alcove that offered a view of the park. When we arrived, we shared stories of our time at the parks with our parents for a bit, then we quickly showered and settled in for bed, excited for what the next day would bring! And let’s just say we were about to have one of the best days I’ve ever had at a Disney park (heat notwithstanding).

Thanks for reading Part Three of my Hong Kong Disneyland trip report series! If you’d like to read the other parts of the series, they are linked down below:

Hong Kong Disneyland Trip Report 2023 Part One: Introduction

Hong Kong Disneyland Trip Report 2023 Part Two: Humidity, Monkeys, And Magical Dreams

Hong Kong Disneyland Trip Report 2023 Part Four: Spaceships, Cruises, and a Feast for an Adventurer

Hong Kong Disneyland Trip Report 2023 Part Five: Music, Forests, and a Wondrous Book