Yes, we’ve arrived at day 7 of our Hong Kong city trip with kids. So what’s on the menu for today (and tomorrow)? That’s right, Disneyland Hong Kong! Can’t miss this when visiting Hong Kong with kids.
Day 7
When the alarm goes my first thought is “oh no!” We have to leave our beautiful and luxurious suite at the Hyatt Sha Tin… such a shame! This is such a lovely hotel and the room is really amazing! But first, let us enjoy the extensive breakfast buffet. The kids have their trusted peanut butter sandwich while I manage to add a few tomato’s and cucumber pieces to the deal because the past couple of days, vegetables haven’t exactly been in abundance. Kev orders a cappuccino and loads is plate full of croissants, cake, a fried egg, fruit, baguette, cheeses and I even spot a mini doughnut. I stick to 2 eggs sunny side up, some bread, vegetables and fruit.
Disney Explorer’s Lodge
After breakfast we pack the last of our stuff and take a cab to the last hotel of this beautiful trip: Disney Explorer’s Lodge.
This hotel is one of 3 Disney hotels and opened fairly recently. It’s a lovely hotel with an “explorer theme” (what’s in a name). Disney makes me happy and the same goes for Disney hotels. The super-duper friendliness has a positive effect on me and even more so on Floris and Lotte. We are allowed in the room straight away and I’m happily surprised! It’s a large room with two large beds and lots of Disney trinkets; a Mickey and Minnie above the bed, shower bottles with Mickey ears, a tin Mickey bucket with large and small toothbrushes (with Mickey on them naturally) and lots of Disney channels on the TV of course.
Disneyland Hong Kong
From the hotel we take the shuttle bus to the park where we arrive in 5 minutes. As we walk into the park that lovely Disney vibe is everywhere around us. Main Street still has beautiful decorations from Chinese New Year and the happy music is playing from the speakers. Suddenly I hear Flo “Uhm dad, what happened to the castle?!” I turn around to see the castle is half covered in scaffolding and as Kev starts explaining this to the kids Flo says “But that’s not what I meant, it’s so small!” And he’s right, compared to Paris or Orlando the castle is really small. In fact, everything seems to be a little smaller in Disneyland Hong Kong. On the other hand, everything does look a bit prettier and neatly finished too.
Our first stop naturally is “It’s a small world”, the favorite ride of both Lotte and Floris. The queue is no more than 5 minutes so we’re in luck!! After that we go on a loooot of other rides until its 19:00 o’clock and we’re all longing for our beds.
But first it’s dinner time and the Hotel Explorer Lodge has 3 restaurants. We choose the “cafeteria” version. You order and get your food with a buzzer. The food tastes great! And it didn’t take long too so we’re all in bed in time because we have another long day of Disneyland Hong Kong planned for tomorrow including flying back to Holland at night… Oh dear!!
Day 8
The alarm goes off at 08:00. One more day in Disneyland Hong Kong! Before we have breakfast we pack our bags because this evening we’ll be flying back to Amsterdam. Disney Explorer Lodge has 3 options for breakfast; a buffet restaurant (having breakfast with your Disney friends), an a la carte restaurant and a cafeteria.
Breakfast in the Chart Room cafe
We choose the last option. I have churros and fruit for breakfast (so bad, but so good!), Kev has a puff pastry cake with egg, Floris sticks to a croissant and Lotte has Mickey waffles and fruit, yummy!! Breakfast is great and the prices are not that bad (for Disney standards).
Another day in Disneyland Hong Kong
After breakfast we put our suitcases in the luggage room and we take the shuttle back to the park. Our first stop is at one of the shops in Main Street where the kids are allowed a souvenir. Floris chooses a Mickey wizard hat with lights and Lotte falls in love with a “real” Cinderella dress. We’ve been on quite a few rides yesterday. Today’s first ride is the Jungle River Cruise, a must do! You get on a boat and cruise through the jungle where you encounter all kinds of animals, beautifully made!! We go on Dumbo too, the Fairy Tales Forrest, one more time in It’s a small world and so on and so on.
At the end of our second day of Disneyland Hong Kong the kids are exhausted. Lotte falls asleep in the buggy and Floris is too tired to walk. We decide to get back to the hotel at 18:30 to have some dinner and get changed for our flight back home.
So long Disneyland, so long Hong Kong!
After dinner we pick up our suitcases and we are shown into a room where we can freshen up and get changed. In 20 minutes the cab takes us to the airport. The check-in of Cathay Pacific goes smoothly and luckily so does the safety check and customs. In the meantime it’s already 23:00 o’clock and our flight leaves at 00:30. The kids are still awake and happy even, so we decide to have quick snack before we head to the plane.
Ready for take-off
As soon as we’re aboard the kids get an Olaf backpack (from Frozen) with in it a coloring book, pencils and a passport holder, so nice!! Before we even take off they’re fast asleep! The scheduled flying time is 12:50 hours so I really hope they have a good night’s sleep.
Floris sleeps for 8 hours straight before he wakes up and Lotte even sleeps for 10 hours. Flying at night with kids is the best! Both kids have always slept great whenever we took night flights.
It’s a bumpy ride with a lot of turbulence but luckily the kids sleep through it all. They enjoy their kids’ breakfast and closely watch the screen from the camera mounted underneath the plane, even though it’s black as we are flying at night. The kid’s breakfast consists of a pancake with apple compote and syrup, yoghurt, cake, juice and a beautiful curled fish straw. This breakfast is even approved by our “worst eaters ever…”
There’s a very nice steward on board that plays with the kids whenever he can and gives them all kinds of small gifts. The kids are over the moon. It’s fun to see how one person can positively influence a flight, especially with kids.
Hello Amsterdam!
At 06:00 o’clock local time we land at Schiphol Airport. The kids did really well again; had a good night’s sleep, watched a little TV, not a peep! Love the night flight!
Well our Hong Kong city trip has finally come to an end. Too bad!! It was an amazing week. Hong Kong is such a diverse child friendly city. There’s loads of fun things to see and do, there’s loads of playgrounds and they have a delicious cuisine!
I really think Hong Kong is a great destination for a city trip 2.0 but also for a stopover where you can get to know Hong Kong in just a few days before you fly on to your next destination!
Do you like this article “Day 7 & 8: Enjoying Disneyland Hong Kong and back to Amsterdam” you will like these articles too:
Our Hong Kong city trip, day 5 & 6: buying souvenirs, swimming and enjoying our suite!
City trip in Hong Kong with kids: day 3 and 4, The Peak, a visit to the hospital and lots more…
This article “Day 7 & 8: Enjoying Disneyland Hong Kong and back to Amsterdam” is sponsored by Cathay Pacific and Disneyland Hong Kong.
