HK & MACAU Day 3 - Disneyland & Hong Kong (Yau Ma Tei)

Day 3: Disney Hollywood Hotel -> Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel -> Disneyland Theme Park -> 2 bedroom apartment @ Winfield building (Airbnb) -> Ladies Street Night Market

Rise and Shine at 7.30am. Breakfast @ Disney was too expensive for us and hence we actually purchased a loaf of cake and some Cha Siew bun from Maxim Cake shop (Mei Xin) the day before at Central MTR, on our way to Disneyland. Maxim cake shop is also the largest bakery chain where you can practically find its presence at all MTR stations.

Day 3 breakfast

walnut cake

The walnut cake costs around HKD 30 (SGD 5.26). We love the walnut cake since its freshly bake and the taste is really nice. We even bought it for one of our breakfast again.

Cha Siew bun

Not bad either just that a pity, it is not polo crust. Guess they lived up to their standards. Maxim has been pretty famous for their mooncakes too. 

We intend to depart at 9.30am. At around 9am, it rained :(

window view @ 9am

Not exactly clear but if you notice, the carpark ground is wet. What a bad start to our Disney adventure :(

However it seem to be a passing shower, it stop at around 9.15am and we proceed for check out. Since we are intending to spend the day at Disneyland theme park! * Fingers crossed and hope rain will go away and come again another day!

Hotel corridor

There are a few areas where you can deposit your luggage while you have fun in the theme park -

1. Disney theme park counter it self but it comes with a fee

2. Hotel's lobby (luggage room) which is free if you stayed there

Just provide your hotel room number and they will keep ur luggages there safe for you. One cons about this is, you have to still take the shuttle bus back from Disneyland theme park to retrieve your luggages and take the shuttle bus again back to Disneyland park for the MTR train. It can be a little troublesome though.

The staff will tag your luggages with this luggage tag for easy identification.

luggage tag

Once we settled our luggages, we set off for Hong Kong Disneyland hotel first ~ Then to disneyland theme park.

shuttle bus bay @ Disney hollywood hotel

Sun-shined Disney Hollywood hotel @ 9.30am after the rain

In order to get to Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, which is actually a less than 5 mins ride away, we have to take the shuttle bus to disneyland theme park and from there hop on to the next shuttle bus to disneyland hotel. As it is a loop service:

Disneyland theme park bus terminus -> Hong Kong Disneyland hotel -> Disney Hollywood hotel -> Disneyland theme park bus terminus

We reach Hong Kong Disneyland hotel at 9.40am.

Hong Kong Disneyland hotel main entrance

classic/vintage looking

From the lobby, the hotel overlooks the sea and there is also a 'grass maze'.

overlooking the sea

Hotel rooms

As you may notice, most of the hotel rooms comes with balcony which is something that Disney Hollywood doesn't have. Furthermore the architecture of Hong Kong Disneyland hotel exudes a grand victorian elegance while Disney Hollywood hotel has more of contemporary art-deco.

reception area

Hong Kong disneyland hotel lobby

If you towards the right of the picture, it is actually a very retro looking service lift!

Lift @ level 1 - right beside the Enchanted Garden restaurant

Enchanted Garden restaurant

Enchanted Garden Restaurant is where you can have a buffet breakfast with Disney characters like Mickey and Minnie and have plenty of photo opportunities with them. However the catch is it is not cheap. A buffet breakfast then can cost almost SGD 70 for adult. However after queuing up for photo opportunity with Mickey and Minnie at Disneyland theme park, we thought maybe this might be worth it afterall given that we queued up almost half the day to take photo with Mickey & Minnie in the park. More details to come.

Anyways we left Hong Kong Disneyland hotel at around 9.50am and reached the main door of Disneyland theme park at 10.05am.

sunny sunny day!

Though it is a weekday and during the low peak season, there's still alot of people at Disneyland. Can't imagine if it's weekend and during the high season!

Mickey on the whale fountain!

We are a little running late as we wanted to enter the park at 10am sharp. We faster head to the Magic Auto Machine to exchange for our tickets! There are 2-3 machines and there's a staff to guide you if you need help but generally it is quite easy!

We printed the hard copy of our online ticket bought from Grayline so as to facilitate scanning of the QR code at the machine.

redemption ticket from Grayline

We chose to purchase from Grayline because it offers discounted price. 1 day admission to Disneyland theme park costs HKD 499 (SGD 87.50) from Disneyland itself. Even though we are room guests, there's no special discount for us. Grayline offers 12% off Disneyland theme park tickets till 31 Dec 2015. This is a promotion in conjunction with Visa cards. Hence we only paid HKD 439 ( SGD 77), and saved SGD $10 per ticket! *Savings*

Grayline is not the cheapest that we found, but Kkday . As we are not sure of the credibility of kkday web, we decide to stick with the second cheapest - Grayline, since they partner with Visa it should have some level of credibility right?

Auto Magic machine

Just scan your QR code at the scanner below the machine screen, then it will generate the tickets for you almost immediately (less than 1 minute definitely!)

Admission tickets + random stickers

The expiry date of the ticket is 12th Sept 2015, which is about 3 months validity.We were so glad that we made the right choice to purchase from Grayline and get convenience and savings!

The 2day admission ticket as part of our package expires on 12th August 2015, which is about 2 months of validity. Do note that for the 2 day admission, the first admission and 2nd admission must be within 7 days period. And dont bother transferring the ticket to your friend/family after using once, in hope of saving cost as they will track and make sure this ticket belongs to one user. They do so by asking you to scan your thumbprint with them on your first entry (which was our entrance yesterday). Then today when we enter, we have to produce this ticket and scan our thumbprint again to make sure it tallies.

We got a shock when we notice a queue snaking up waiting to enter the theme park. We saw online previously that it will be better to reach before their opening time (10am) due to the queues. But I guess we underestimated it as we thought its off peak season there might not have queue.

queues waiting to go in :(

We finally entered at 10.25am and there's still queue!

view of the crowd outside from inside the theme park

We thought that the size of Hong Kong Disneyland is around the same as Singapore's Universal Studios, if not just a little bigger. But still it's good to know where you are heading towards, so grab a park map with you at the entrance before you continue navigating throughout the Park!

Disneyland guide map

Actually during the period of our visit, some of the attractions were closed such as the Disneyland Railroad. 

When we just reached Main street USA (the first street upon entrance), we saw plenty of visitors queuing up for photo moments with the lovable couple - Mickey and Minnie!

It was extremely hot and sunny but we decided to queue after all what's a Disney experience without photo taken with the classic Mickey and Minnie!

However halfway through, it poured. Heavy downpour :( Sigh what a day. And then its sunny again. An umbrella is a certain must to keep us dry and shelter us from the unbearable sun.

There was a choir that was singing on the steps near the railway and it was so sad that no one seem to stop by and hear them sing as everyone is preoccupied with the rain/sun. Yes they sang from sunny weather to rain and yet they still keep on singing. Kudos to them.

It is quite a long wait till our turn to take photo with Mickey and Minnie as every 20-30 minutes, they will need to rest for 5-10minutes. Furthermore, every person who queued don't just take one photo with them, but multiple shots. That adds on to the time!

Spot Mickey and Minnie in the background!

 Finally after queuing for 1 hour, it is our turn!

There will be a professional photographer to take your photo and you can redeem it at the photo booth later on at a fee. Otherwise, you can also pass your phone/camera to the helper to take photos for you.

Solo shots/couple shots/group shots with the Disney golden couple are welcome too!

Solo shot

Group/Family photo

We decided to buy 1 photo for memory sake, but apparently no one seem to buy their photos. Afterall it is quite expensive. We bought the HKD 168 (SGD 29.50) package where it entitles us to 1 print and 1 digital download. The print is an A4 size print with Disney border. The digital download is valid from their Disney online portal within 14 days of purchase.

price chart

It is near 11.30am when we are finally done and we have yet to explore Disneyland and we only have a few hours left as we are leaving at 4pm. Not enough time. not enough time :(

Main Street USA + Sleeping beauty castle in the background

Sleeping beauty castle in the day

We decide to have lunch first as we aren't too sure if there will be crowd at food joints during the normal lunch timing - 12+pm.

We came upon this food outlet - Festival of Foods @ Fantasyland.

Clopin's Festival of foods

BBQ/noodles delights

wok delights

These are the food we ordered:

Mushroom Rice Combo @ HKD 102 (SGD 17.90)

Receipt 1

3 Treasure rice combo @ HKD 108 (SGD 19)

The 3 treasure rice combo consist of 1 chicken drumstick, pork meat and half salted egg. 

BBQ Pork and chicken leg rice combo @ HKD 105 (SGD 18.40)

Receipt 2

We love the food there. The only downside is that they gave too much rice :/ For the price paid, it is definitely worth it as compared to the more expensive dinner we had last night @ Hollywood and Dine. Each set comes with a drink where you can choose Fanta orange,grape or coke. However do pay special attention if they ask if you want orange juice. As those are more pricey and NOT FOC. 

You get your meal at the counter then proceed to the drinks counter to get your choice of drink, and thereafter proceed to the cashier to pay your bill. 

It is an outdoor food place, and if you love birds - Sparrow in particular, then feel free to eat there. But if you dont like birds or afraid of the heat, then do not patron this food place. 

Plenty of Sparrows flying around

It totally makes you feel like you are Cinderella and the sparrows are your friends. Hehe

We finished lunch at around 12.25pm and we rushed of to The Golden Mickeys Musical! It is just opposite the Festival of Foods. The show starts at 12.30pm. There is only around 3-4 shows per day. So you have to wait till the next time if you missed it.

The auditorium

It can seat quite a number of people however once the show starts it does not admit people in anymore.

The Golden Mickeys Musical

The whole musical lasted around 30 minutes. The musical is like an Oscar Award ceremony and there will be performances by various Disney characters. We love it very much! A must catch musical and do go there early if you want the best seats (in front) since it is free seating.

Next up, we are going to Adventureland after the musical at around 1.15pm.

Adventure Land

The main attractions there are:

1. Rafts to Tarzan's treehouse

Raft to Tarzan's treehouse

2. Tarzan's Treehouse

Tarzan's treehouse

3. Jungle River Cruise

Jungle River Cruise

As there was no need to queue for the raft to Tarzan's treehouse, hence we decide to go there first. There was a very long queue for the Jungle river cruise, and as we would like to catch the 2pm musical - Festival of the lion king, hence we chose Tarzan's treehouse. 

In general, the raft to Tarzan treehouse we thought that it was pretty boring. Feel free to skip it for other rides in the theme park. No wonder there's no queue for it. The raft will bring you to the treehouse opposite. It is a generally calm ride but you may smell motor exhaust smell. 

view from the top of the treehouse

Once you reach the treehouse, be prepared to climb plenty of steps up, afterall it is a treehouse. There will be Tarzan and animals figurines there at the top and that's about it, and you can prepare for your climb down.

sights in the treehouse

Boring. 0 degree of excitement. 

It's around 1.40pm when we are done and we proceed to make our way to the Festival of Lion king musical venue (which is near the start of Adventureland)

Venue for the musical - Festival of lion king

Yup, The centre is the stage where our beloved Simba and the other characters will appear. The show started at 2pm sharp.

Festival of Lion King

4 characters will then appear - Giraffe, wild boar (Pumbaa) together with Timon, Elephant (Ned) and Simba the lion. There will be some interactions between them together with the tribes. This dance and song musical is sure to revive your memories of the classic Lion King. Once again, a must watch for all lion king fans!

It is a 30 minutes musical and ends at 2.30pm.

Thereafter we went to take the Jungle river cruise. There are 3 different guide languages to choose from - Cantonese, Chinese, English. We chose the chinese one. Though Cantonese one seem to have lesser people however the boats doesnt operate as frequent for them too. Like 2 chinese speaking boats to 1 cantonese speaking boat. Hence we decided to stick to the language that we preferred.

We didn't have to wait for long as the boat comes very frequent (1 after another). We queued for around 5 minutes only and we managed to board at 2.45pm.

We are boarding soon!!!

No safety belts needed on the boat since it is generally a very calm boat. So definitely suitable for all unless you have sea sickness/easily nausea due to motion.

In the boat with our guide in front - narrating a story as we venture through

1st stop - Baby elephant!

Baby elephant at fountain!

Family of Chimpanzees

Parade of zebras, giraffes, elephants

Hunters and Rhinocerous

The boat will bring you around the 'jungle' to see statue of animals.

Towards the end there will be a 'volcano' or fire erupting from the caves. Real fire!!! We can feel the heat from where we are.

Fire!!!

The part where the rocks seem to be engulfed in flames is the most exciting out of all. As in contrary to the safari world boat, which we saw real life animals, but over here they are just statues :(

And we come to an end at around 2.52pm. It lasted around 7 minutes.

And we come to an end...

There is a day parade - Flights of fantasy @ 3.30pm. We still have half hour left thus in order not to waste too much time we decided to go for a Winnie the Pooh ride.

Along the way we caught Anna, Elsa and Olaf! The characters from Frozen ~~~

Anna and Elsa in action

When we were there, the Frozen attraction in HK Disneyland has yet to open. It was opened a few weeks after we left.

The many adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride

It is a family friendly ride hence we decide to take it again although if you read our Day 2 entry, you might have realised 2 of us took it the night before. This time round, there was a long queue and we queued approx 30 mins for a 5 min ride :( By the time we are done, it is 3.30pm!

We rushed to the nearest spot - Fantasyland near sleeping beauty castle area. There's PLENTY of people :( Should have came a little earlier but it's alright because we did not miss any! Since the part where we are watching it is not the start of the parade journey!

This Flight of fantasy parade is different from the night (Paint the night) parade. Let the photos do the talking! First up, we have Dumbo the flying elephant!

Start of the day parade - Flights of fantasy with Dumbo the flying elephant! ~

Next, Mickey, Minnie, Donald Duck, Goofy and chips dale?

2nd float

The 4 princesses - Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Beauty from Beauty and the beast ~

3rd float

4 Disney princesses ~

performers ~

performers love to interact with children!

4th float - The Lion King 

5th float - Thumbelina and Tinkerbell?

6th float - Lilo and Stich!

Last but not least, Toy Story ! ~

Toy story characters ~

Performers as Buzz from Toy Story

Toy story characters ~

soldiers ~

And we come to an end of the parade

Similar to the Disney Paint the night parade, parades @ Disneyland ends with children following the whole parade ~

ending off with children

From where we stand, the whole parade ends at around 3.50pm. 

As you may know there's still a lot of places and attractions we didnt get a chance to try out. So we decided to try out the last 2 attractions which are a must visit for us to any theme park - Carousel and Flying Dumbo.

Cinderella Carousel

View of the sleeping beauty castle from the carousel

There seems to be some wizard performing a magic show just outside the carousel. As the carousel can accomodate a lot of people in one go, and the ride is short, hence we did not need to wait for long.

Thereafter we went to the flying dumbo which is just beside it. We queued for around 15 minutes for the Flying Dumbo.

While queuing for flying dumbo

Each flying dumbo can fits a pair or solo person. When its your turn the next round, the park ranger will give each pair of you a 'boarding pass'. Thereafter when all of you are on board, they will collect it back from you. Not too sure the rationale behind it though.

Different colours of Dumbo!

By the time we are done at around 4.30pm, we decide to make our way out by stopping by at the souvenir stores @ main street USA.

Balloons retailer

vintage looking vehicles

The vehicles were roaming along the main street of USA, not sure how to get on one though.

We spent around half an hour in the souvenir shop as we couldn't decide what to get. In the end, we got cookies!

Disney Assorted cookies (Butter and chocolate flavour - 19pcs) - HKD 108 (SGD 18.95)

We love the chocolate flavour cookies with Disney mickey printed on it, each cookie it packed separately, good for distribution but the price for each cookie is like SGD $1 for each small thin cookie. A little expensive :( But the pretty cookie tin is good to keep for memory!

Receipt for Disney assorted cookies

Somehow, the Tin of Disney assorted cookies was produced in Japan instead of Hong Kong. The next tin that we purchased consist of traditional Hong Kong cookies like Almond cookies are produced in Hong Kong.

Almond cookies @ HKD 95 (SGD 16.70)

Receipt 

It was meant as a gift so we did not try this.

We left the theme park at 5pm and we are clearly behind time :( Our next stop is to collect our luggages from our hotel and hop on the MTR to Yau Ma Tei MTR station for our apartment in Hong Kong. Luckily our apartment host is fine with us for being later than arranged.

Bye Disneyland. You will be missed!

Moral of story: Half a day is not enough for Hong Kong Disneyland! If time permits, go at the earliest time possible and stay till night (after the fireworks). We feel that a 2 day pass is not really necessary.

We had to wait for the shuttle bus to Disneyland Hollywood hotel and collect our luggage, thereafter we catch the next bus back to the bus terminus. We got a chance to tap on the hotel's wifi while we are back there to contact our host, since we did not buy any data card as for all of our accomodation, wifi is provided.

We finally caught the Disney Train back to main MTR line at 5.45pm. by then wee are almost behind schedule by an hour :(

Last Disney Train ride

To get from Disneyland Resort to Yau Ma Tei MTR we have to change a couple of lines:

Disneyland Resort > Sunny Bay > Lai King > Yau Ma Tei

Initially we were worried that there will be plenty of people on board the MTR since it's 5-6+pm which is the peak working crowd time. However surprisingly although there's a lot of people (as you can see in the photo below), however there's still space for our luggage and comfortable enough area for you to stand. As compared to Singapore's subway, we thought Singapore MRT is more packed than Hong Kong.

There's plenty of people on board/getting off the train at this stop called 'Lai Chi Kok' on the red line. It is not an interchange but we wonder why there's a lot of working people getting on and off that area every time we pass by that station. Anyone can enlighten us? :)

crowd at Lai King on a working Tuesday @ 6pm

We reached Yau Ma Tei MTR at 6.20pm. The whole ride from Disney Resort MTR to Yau Ma Tei MTR took around 35 minutes.

Thereafter we walk over with our luggages to Winfield building ( Where our accommodation for the remaining 4 nights will be ).

Courtesy of Google Map (Direction from Yau Ma Tei MTR to Winfield Building)

Be sure to get out from the right exit - Exit A1 of Yau Ma Tei MTR. As you can see from the google map above, getting out from the wrong exit means having to walk a longer distance and dont foget you will have luggages with you. 

Along the underground subway to exit A1, we have to climb a series of stairs up with our heavy luggages. Sigh, not sure why we couldn't find the lift to ground level. So do take note if you are carrying heavy luggages or have elderly with you. 

Once outside of Exit A1, walk along Pitt street, do take note of the intersections which you will pass by:

1. Portland st

2. Shanghai St

3. Reclaimation St

4. Canton Rd

Street signs are in chinese and english. Cross the road at 'Canton rd' then turn right, and that's winfield building. You will pass by a curry house and some cha chaan teng along the way.

Winfield Building

Winfield building is a wholly residential area. There's 24 hours security. To enter, there will be a glass door which is protected by a 5 digit passcode.

Once you enter further you will see a security guard there near the lift area. There are 2 service lifts, one serving units on even levels and the other on odd levels.

We met our host from Airbnb at the entrance of Winfield building, thereafter we were brought up to our apartment. To protect the identity of the host, we will not disclose the level of the apartment.

It is a little different from Modern Singapore ones as you have to slide open the metal grill instead of pushing it out and as you can see, the corridor is very narrow.

Rubbish area

lift area

Samsung Digital lock

Our first experience with digital lock where we only need to key in a 6 digit passcode. Say bye bye to keys!

And tadah! Our nice lovely, cosy apartment!

* Disclaimer: Some of the photos below regarding the unit was taken a few days later. However for easier reference, we put them all under this post.

sofa + foldable table - near the entrance

Living room area

It is a 2 bed room apartment, and here's the master bed room~

Master Bed room

As you can see from the position of the door knob, the room literally only have space for a bed. No cupboards in the room due to space constrain. The bed is for 2 people but we feel that the size is between a queen size bed and a super single bed. 

Bed packed right next to the windows

Little space left

Next up, is the normal bedroom where they installed a double decker bed.

Double decker bed

Since it is a double decker bed, there's enough space to include an area to hang our clothes.

For hanging of clothes

There's some cabinets at the side too.

Kitchen

I am sorry to say but I believe if you are a homemaker that cooks meal daily, and spending most of your time in the kitchen, you might end up developing claustrophobia in this small kitchen area!

There is barely enough space for 2 people in the kitchen. From the inner (window side), going clockwise direction is the washing machine, sink, stove and lastly the refrigerator. The kettle was placed on top of the refrigerator.

Toilet

There is a separate bathing area from the peeing area as you can see. The bathing area is pretty small, just enough space for 1 person without having too much movement. While we were bathing, scrubbing, it is inevitable to bang against he sliding doors of the washing area.

Some of the extra stuff that our host provided us:

Books regarding hong kong, coffee maker machine, vacuum cleaner. Our host provided us with a few tea bags too for our breakfast needs.

some of the stuff provided to us

Cordless Kettle

Samsung phone with unlimited data connection

Our host has kindly given us a self annotated map to show the good food and places to venture around the area.

Map

The yellow triangle indicated on the map above is the apartment location. As you can see, it is in the middle of Mong kok and Yau Ma Tei. Our plan for the night was initially to head to temple st night market and try out their claypot. However, we decided that ladies market may be more of a must go (since its a more touristy place).

We left our apartment at around 7.30pm. A place for dinner is more important that night market haha. We happen to pass by this place called Tsui Wah Restaurant. At that point of time we didn't knew that Tsui Wah is actually quite popular in Hong Kong, in the sense you can see many of its chain stores around Hong Kong.

Tsui Wah Restaurant

Tsui Wah Restaurant - Pitt Street Branch

G/F & 1/F, 41-49 Pitt Street, Yau Ma Tei.

Tel : 2771 8080

Business Hours : 07:00-02:00

Inside of Tsui Wah Restaurant

It is a 2 level high restaurant. There's still seats around though we patron it at 7.30pm- prime time for dinner.

They are famous for its Homemade fish paste puff and fish ball. We each ordered the signature dish - Homemade fish ball and fish cakes w/ rice noodles in fish soup.

Homemade fish ball and fish cakes w/ rice noodles in fish soup @ HKD 32 (SGD $5.6)

Yummy! We love it. The soup is rich and the fish balls are nice though it's a little different from what we have in Singapore. A must try if you are in Hong Kong. The best fish ball soup we tried in Hong Kong. We tried something similar the next day in Mong Kok and it's bad in taste and yet more costly :(

We walked over to the ladies market at around 8.20pm.

Ladies Market (女人街) is a famous shopping area in Hong Kong where it's known for bargain hunters. We feel that it is like the Petaling street night market in KL, Malaysia. They sell a lot of goods like (bags, clothes, watches...). It is like a pasar malam and they sell counterfeit goods. You can bargain with them for a lower price so it may be cheap. However if you were to ask me if they are worth buying, I doubt so. Nothing attractive. Clothings are not trendy too. You can get better clothes elsewhere.

Ladies Street Night Market

We spent around 20 minutes there - 10 minutes walking through the ladies street night market and another 10 minute in the Bonjour shop nearby. 'Bonjour' is a chain retail store selling cosmetics and wellness products in Hong Knong. It is similar to Watson.

When we were done at around 9pm, we decide to call it a day. On our way back to the apartment, we saw the popular ice cream van 雪糕车~

Ice Cream van

We think it's popular maybe because of the music it plays out from its van and the shape of its van? But sadly, the ice cream tastes just like any Mcdonald ice cream which you can get for below SGD $1. But the ice cream here costs around HKD 8-9 (about SGD 1.50) for 1 ice cream.

Vanilla Ice Cream from Mobile Softee

But still, it is a sweet ending to our day 3 :)