The Road To Disneyland

In the happiest place on earth - Asia Edition

About an hour away from Macau is Hongkong Island. Land of shopping, theme parks and cultural and trendy attractions alike. Having our 4 year old with us, we naturally planned a day trip to Hongkong Disneyland. If you want to do something similar, here's our Macau to Disneyland route:

1. As the regular park hours at Disneyland (unless specified otherwise) are from 10 AM to 9 PM, you may want to leave Macau right after an early breakfast to maximize the trip. Pack a folding umbrella if you could. Rain or shine, you'll have some shade at least.

FYI: pack these in your luggage and NEVER in your hand carry

2. Ferry schedules seemed to over the whole 24 hours based on what we saw at the terminal which was a tad more than the available sailing schedules on their website.

the ticket prices are slightly higher at night

3. Getting to the Macau Ferry Terminal was a breeze as our hotel's shuttle stops in that area. There are so many ferries that ticket lines aren't that long and if ever they are, they move quite fast too. Children's rates are slightly lower but still vary depending on the ticket "class" you're buying. Ours cost around 125 MOP for MAX and 140 MOP for us adults. The trip takes around an hour on the reliably fast turbo jets. Food and drinks are also sold in the ferry.

Economy isn't bad at all

4. Arriving at the Hongkong China Ferry Terminal at the Kowloon side of Hongkong can be taxing as the immigration lines can be quite slow and terribly crowded. Once you get past that, shops, ATMs and food establishments abound in the floors below.

we rode on a ferry that kinda looked like this

on our way to the dreaded long  immigration line

5. Stay in the building. Walk 3 floors down and watch out for the MTR sign. Take the TST (Tsim Sha Tsui)  MTR station Exit A1. (or exit down near the Macau Jockey Club). Once you get in the train, you'll probably change train lines once or twice  (if you count the Disney line) as you head on straight to HK Disneyland. This takes around 30-40 minutes.We spent around 60+ HKD for the 3 of us, one way.

on board the Disney train

6. It drizzled when we got there, (on a weekday and not a Holiday), but there were still lots of people.

7. As with most theme parks, you could rent out strollers for the little ones. A general admission ticket costs about 399 HKD/person.

see those flagstones? That's where you sit

8. We stayed around til closing time, when the "Disney in the Stars" fireworks show begins at 9 pm. Go to the grounds right in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle 30 minutes before if you want to get good seats (namely the pavement) :P

When Chinese Pirates sounds redundant...lol

9. We took the same route (ish). NOTE: Do not get creative. We somehow ended up walking for almost an hour to get to the terminal :p

despite the heat, we had a lot of fun!

10. There weren't that many people on the ferry back to Macau. The taxi stand is on the side of the street and not on the indicated taxi stand. This was around 11:30 pm already, so as long as we were on our way to the hotel, these things didn't seem to matter anymore.

Thanks Papa! You're the best!

Our 4 year old little trooper had a mighty good time despite all the commuting. Keep your little one well fed and with 1 or 2 change of clothes, and you'll be all set.

From TMW, may all your wanderings be better than ours!