u/Uber-Rich

We visited HK Disneyland last week and had a great time! Was super impressed. We were a family of 6 adults and 2 young kids, here's the highlights and lowlights:

Highlights

• We stayed at Explore's Lodge and I thought it was fantastic, tons of Disney theming everywhere. We stayed in Orlando at Beach Club and Poly this year too but I actually thought the theming was better at EL. We also saw the other two resorts, was surprised Hollywood had a water slide, might try that one next time.
• World of Frozen was great, we didn't get to go to the show because of the long line but both rides are awesome. Although Tokyo has you walk into the castle courtyard which is cool I think the rides were better in HK.
• Festival of the Lion King was great! It's not the exact same as Orlando, I kinda liked HK better
• Momentous was an awesome firework show, I would still rate Paris's Tales of Magic as better but this is second best.
• Haunted Mansion was a nice change! I didn't know it was a newer ride vehicle style, definitely not as scary as the other parks' but still a nice dark ride.
• Everything is in English which is nice when compared to Tokyo.

Lowlights:

• While hotel pricing was good food and merch was very pricy, I think higher than Orlando? It was about $20 USD per adult entrée, not that prices are much better outside Disney within HK. Portions were large though (maybe too large).
• It was super hot lol! Although this benefited us on Tuesday as the park was empty, pretty much all lines were 15 minutes or less. For some reason Wednesday was busier. Also those mosquitos or whatever they are have an itchy bite.
• Tomorrowland was pretty lackluster. Space Mountain was a good classic but Iron Man kinda lame. Orbitron was down and I think they are building something else, but just the general decor of the area could use more to make it more futuristic.
• No real thrill rides, all the coasters were fun but I noticed they all don't even go over a hump quickly to give "air time."

Overall, thanks for a great trip HK Disneyland! Came in thinking this was the underdog of the parks but it was really a great park and delivers a true Disney experience like the others.

I used the Visa benefit to get a free 3GB 15 day global eSIM from GigSky. It worked fine for 8 days but then just shows “No Service” on the bars now. Email support has been no help, I fully deleted the sim and got a new one and still the same issue. Seems like they canceled their Philippine service? Anyone else using them right now in PH?

We have a flight booked coming up in a week AUS>LAX>TPE>MNL booked direct on Eva. The first leg was Alaska but they stopped service on that route so we switched to Southwest. It seems like they booked us a basic ticket (even though I don’t think Alaska was basic) but I have the SW credit card. Will I be able to choose seats at 48 hours? Anyone have any experience flying Southwest with the new Eva Air connection? Other tips to share for these new partnership trips?