Family Fun at Hong Kong Disneyland - Day 1 Evening

On our way to board the Jungle River Cruise at Adventureland

After a fun-filled afternoon at the Grizzly Gulch and Toy Story Land, we headed next to Adventureland for the Jungle River Cruise. The attraction simulates a riverboat cruise down several major rivers of Asia, Africa and South America. Park guests board replica tramp steamers and are taken on a voyage past many different Audio-Animatronic jungle animals. The tour is led by a live Disney cast member delivering a humorous scripted narration.

One of the elephant squinted water at everyone

Asher was fast asleep throughout the cruise ride, otherwise, Rachel and I were pretty sure he would have enjoyed himself very much like all the other kids did, fascinated by the many sights and sounds. From the Jungle River Cruise, we dashed off to catch the “Festival of the Lion King” show, also in Adventureland.

Entering the giant tent where the show was staged

The show is an original interpretation of the popular Disney animated film, The Lion King, performed as a live stage musical. Here is a short video recording of the opening:

Beautiful display of song, dance and garish costumes

Asher woke up in the middle of the performance and was immediately enthralled by the show, excitedly pointing at Simba and other animals. After the show, we were all hungry after a long day and it was time for dinner at Plaza Inn Restaurant.

Plaza Inn Restaurant in Hong Kong Disneyland

The restaurant serves traditional Chinese cuisines and here are the dishes we enjoyed:

Deep-fried crab claw stuffed with minced shrimps

Diced seafood, bamboo pith in condensed broth

Pan-fried fresh scallops and whole prawns with broccoli

Braised seasonal vegetable with shredded conpoy

Fried rice with dried seafood and vegetable

Asher made three new friends working in Disneyland

To round up the day, we caught the nightly fireworks show, “Disney in the Stars” at 7.30pm. The whole theme park came to a standstill as everyone had their glazes fixated in the beautiful night sky of fireworks:

As we were still excited to be in Hong Kong Disneyland, we did not return back to the hotel immediately after the fireworks. Instead, we headed to the gift shops to do some shopping before returning the rented stroller and calling it a day.