I’m married!!! While the wedding was wonderful, I think what newlyweds really look forward to most is the honeymoon. Unfortunately, since we technically had a “destination wedding” (back home in California), money is a bit tight and we used up all our vacation days. Nonetheless, we were determined to have some sort of a (MUCH NEEDED) vacation… a miniature honeymoon, a mini-moon if you will.

So after going over our options, we decided to head to Hong Kong for a 2 day Disney vacay. Hong Kong Disneyland has 3 official hotels to choose from: the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, Disney Explorer’s Lodge and Disney’s Hollywood Hotel. Having never stayed at a Disneyland hotel before, we were both pretty excited even if we did opt for the cheapest option.

BOOKING

We booked our hotel through the official Hong Kong Disneyland website. It was surprising how many affordable deals they had! We took advantage of their “2 Nights Plus” offer. This deal got us 15% of the room rate, a free room upgrade (Standard -> Deluxe) and 2 Attraction Priority Admission Passes for a grand total of HK$3415.50 (USD455.60). We also picked up our “Play, Shop, Dine” passes from the front desk. These passes include a standard 1-Day Ticket and your choice of a HK$50 merchandise gift voucher or a free waffle (Original price: HK$58). ***SPOILER ALERT*** We totally opted for the waffles! The packages run HK$619 (USD82.57) each and need to be purchased online. However, since I had trouble purchasing them online and they had access to the history of my 20 purchase attempts, they were really nice and got everything sorted out for me at the front desk when we arrived.

THE HOTEL

Since we knew we were going to stay at Disney’s Hollywood Hotel (the cheapest option), we didn’t do too much research on the hotel other than a general check to make sure it didn’t have terrible reviews. For the most part we wanted it to be a surprise and what a surprise it was! This hotel has a 1920’s Hollywood theme. Think Great Gatsby, but with a Disney twist. It’s like it was made for me!

The entire hotel is done with an art-deco flare, complete with paintings, statues, grand lamps that sprout from the floor to the ceiling, indicate colorful carpeting and wall murals. All this with a tasteful dash of Mickey. The hubby and I really enjoyed exploring the hotel and taking in all it’s cute little flourishes.

We also took a quick stroll through their insanely lush courtyard. There were lots of hidden Mickey’s and even a few character shaped shrubs. There’s even a really cool piano-shaped pool the center of the courtyard, but it was closed for the season.

HOTEL AMENITIES & PERKS

• If you arrive before the standard 3pm check-in, you can check in your luggage for free. We got there about an hour and a half before check-in, so we checked in our luggage and used that as an opportunity to comfortably walk around the hotel and check out the gift shop.
• Each Disney hotel has its own gift shop. They open at 9am and close at 11pm which is really great for some last minute shopping before heading to the airport. We definitely took advantage of this before heading back to Seoul. The Disney Hollywood Hotel gift shop is a bit on the smaller side, so we went to the one at the Disneyland Hotel which has a much larger variety. They even had a complimentary hotel car on hand to take us there.
• If you have tiny humans, there’ a cute little arcade called Malibu Games. It has a mini air hockey table, ball toss and a few other games plus a matted corner with some play sets, books and stuffed animals. I’ll be honest with you, we totally hung out here for a bit since no one was there. Gotta get the full Disney hotel experience, right?
• Disney’s Hollywood Hotel is the furthest from the actual park. However, with the free 24 hr shuttle service that comes every 10~20mins, it goes directly to the park. First to arrive at the park, but last to arrive back to the hotel… not a bad trade off. It’s also a quick 20 min taxi ride from the airport, so… score!
• When you go to Disneyland, you can enter via “Disney Hotel Guests Entrance” upon arrival at the Main Entrance of the Park. This wasn’t a big thing for us since there weren’t many people in line when we arrived. We just got in the shortest line. I think this perk will be way more useful if you visit during peak seasons or weekends.

OUR ROOM

Since we got a free room upgrade from Standard to Deluxe, we got a beautiful view of the lush hotel entrance. We also got a nice king sized bed as we requested. The bed was so comfy and the pillows were so soft, I totally conked out at the end of every night. To be honest, I wish I had more time to just sleep in that bed.

The room itself was simple, but nice and definitely clean. I am a stickler for cleanliness. It also smelled really good. It came with a table and two chairs, tv, a tea & coffee station, mini fridge, in-room safe, complimentary slippers and even an outlet converter. The tea & coffee station was always stocked with tea bags, instant coffee, creamer, sugar, two large water bottles, cups & saucers and a water boiler.

In the bathroom we found PLENTY of soft towels in a variety of sizes, soap, a blowdrier, body gel, 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner and a cute Mickey backroom package complete with q-tips, cotton swabs, adult & children toothbrushes, toothpaste, comb and shower cap. Everything was great, though we did find that the 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner dried out our hair. Luckily I had packed extra conditioner from home.

Overall we really liked our room and didn’t really have any complaints other than the really poor quality of the television. Realistically though, we didn’t have much time to watch TV anyways.

RESTAURANTS

Finally… the food! The Hollywood Hotel has 3 dining options to choose from: Hollywood & Dine, Studio Lounge and Chef Mickey. Of course with our limited amount of time, we knew we wouldn’t be able to try them all… that certainly didn’t stop us from trying.

Hollywood & Dine has a cute American diner facade and is a great place to get a quick bite while you’re waiting for your room to be ready. They serve baked dishes like pork chops,  spaghetti beef bolognese and vegetarian lasagna along with some daily specials and dumplings. To be honest, there wasn’t anything on the menu that really jumped out at me except for one thing; their adorable pig dim sum!!! These can also be bought at the Studio Lounge, but they only make a certain amount per day and, as you would imagine, they sell out fast! So your best bet would be to get them at breakfast time (like we did). It comes with four pieces of dim sum (2 pork/ 2 shrimp), congee and a jasmine tea and it is fantastic! Worth every penny.

On a last minute whim, we decided to try out the breakfast buffet at Chef Mickey. We arrived at 7:30 (opening) to find an almost empty restaurant which was awesome! They offered a pretty good variety Asian, American and European dishes. Of course the foods to note would have to be their Mickey waffles, Winnie the Pooh banana bread and bbq pork piggy dim sum. All cute and magical must have items. Another cool thing is that you are given a ticket to meet Chef Mickey and take pictures with him. It’s all very organized, so everyone has a chance to get a nice picture with out the chaos of waiting in a mob of people. If you have kids, this is a great opportunity to get that shot with Mickey out of the way before even stepping foot in the park.

VERDICT

Overall it was probably one of the best hotels we’ve ever stayed at. We had absolutely no problems, EVERYONE spoke english and it definitely added some extra magic to our mini-moon. There was quite a bit to do and look at around the hotel, even more so if you have kids. Although I can’t accurately compare it to the other two hotels, I can definitely say it was worth every penny. Can’t wait to go back!