A Day at Ocean Park HONG KONG

Finally, finally, finally! I made my way to Ocean Park - the amusement park of Hong Kong, nestled on the mountainous seasides of southern Hong Kong Island. We went on a Saturday during semi-relaxed social distancing restrictions after a long period of closures, in particular of the Park along with Disneyland. It was decently crowded, many of whom are families with young children 12 years and under.

First impressions: by far the best amusement park I have ever been to. Period! Anywhere! And I’ve been to my fair share of Disney World, Universal Studios, Dollywood, and the numerous locations of Six Flags and Busch Gardens in the USA. The stunner about Ocean Park is two things: its setting in the backdrop of the beautiful seaside landscapes of Hong Kong and the mixture of both a zoo and an amusement park. For instance, while on a roller coaster, if you are brave enough to have your eyes open throughout the ride, you can thoroughly enjoy the lush greenery and turquoise waters that surrounds the Park.

There’s an area of the park that was reconstructed to look like Old Hong Kong and I ABSOLUTELY ADORED IT! I am such a sucker for historical sets and this one was done so well. It even had little vendor shop fronts that sold snacks and a life-size dingding prop to take pictures with!

The reconstruction of old Hong Kong at Ocean Park

The Park is also much bigger than I thought by looking at its map on the website and various blog and social media content. There is SO MUCH to do! It has a nice variation of roller coasters, rides like swings, gravity drops, and other typical amusement park rides. My favorite was the “Hair Raiser” roller coaster, where it was scary enough with a few drops and loops but not to the point where I was having anxiety about it! And I was extremely thrilled to go on a merry-go-round. Something very romantic about riding fake horses with festoon lights all around :D

A selfie to commemorate the romantic merry-go-round ride ;)

The zoo portions of the park was also fabulous with a lot of different kinds of animals. They even have two exhibitions for pandas! Behaving ever so crazily, the panda we saw was pacing around the glass for a few rounds and suddenly put its hind legs on the wall as if to do a handstand twerk! Before I can even register what was happening, it started to pee! My goodness, what a shock! Besides the pandas, they also have arctic foxes, penguins, seals, dolphins (but you have to see them during the shows), there were also baby kangaroos and koalas!

We spent roughly about 7 hours inside and I was absolutely spent afterwards. Here are some tips if you are deciding to go!

Tips for Ocean Park

If possible, go during the cooler months, October - March. There’s limited shade so either way, definitely make sure you stay hydrated and slather yourself with sunscreen!
Check out both the website and OTAs like trip.com and klook for deals. The regular priced tickets are $498 HKD on the official website for single entry but only $298-$320 depending on the day on trip.com; there’s currently also a promo for Hong Kong residents that lasts until May 31 for $400 and it’s multiple entry until the end of May. So be on the look out for deals! We unfortunately didn’t realize this and paid the full amount…
Get the FastTrack Pass. It’s totally worth it for additional $250 per person. While we went during COVID-19 period where I assume most people are just local residents, it was still quite crowded. In addition, they were operating at a 50% capacity, which somehow translates to only 50% of the seats on the rides are occupied, but no limitation on distancing while standing in queue…not sure how that makes sense but anyways, all the top attractions, including the cable car and major rides had at least an hour wait each. No one was really using the fast pass so we didn’t wait at all at any of the major rides, which this pass mostly covers
Bring snacks and water if you want! There are a lot of restaurant options but with COVID-19 social distancing and non-full capacity operations, the lines were a bit long depending on where you go. There is a McDonalds inside the Marine World section if you prefer eating somewhere you are familiar with! We grabbed some food in the fast-food stalls called the “Clown Corner” in the Thrill Mountain section of the Park. It was, as expected, overly priced and not very tasty. I got a chicken curry - which came with no rice or naan and Pierre got a pork chop rice with cheese thing. It was about $70 each, which isn’t too bad price wise but we went with the mentality of just having something to fill our stomach. Although, there was a waffles and ice cream spot we found near the arcade near Whiskers Express next to the arcade games. It was pretty decent - chocolate waffles and 2 scoops of ice cream for $80HKD.

All in all, I was completely impressed with the park and truly think it’s the best amusement park I have ever been to. Absolutely loved the scenery around the park and the variety of things to do! Would definitely go back again.

To close, I share a nice candid photo with a fake phone booth :P