That’s not to say Ocean Park is not worth going. In fact, if you’re in Hong Kong with kids, Ocean Park should be somewhere near the top of your list. We’ve had a membership there for a few years and must have gone there more than 10 times and when you go that often anywhere, it can get a tedious for kids.
First tip about visiting Ocean Park, do not show up there before 10a.m (check opening hours in their website). This is actually when a lot of the mainland China tour buses show up and you’ll be lining up for quite some time. If you show up around 10:30 or 11:00, it can often be way less crowded getting in. Head straight to the Grand Aquarium because the lines here in the afternoon can be absolutely diabolical. By the time you’re done there, the line for the Gondola will be huge. The biggest tip I can give you here is don’t take the Gondola up. There’s a train that’s always (at least in the more than 10 times I’ve been up), less busy and doesn’t normally have lines to get up.
If you insist on going up in the Gondola, expect to wait at least 15-30 minutes, more during the weekends. Don’t panic, you can get the Gondola down. When we’re at the top we usually head to the North and South Pole Encounters, both can be reached by turning left once you get out of the train. The place where the penguins are is absolutely freezing, good for cooling off in the summer. When we’re done there we walk down to Shark Mystique.
There’s usually very few people here in the mornings and more often than not we’ll be the only ones in there. Afterwards you can check out the dolphin show. If it’s the middle of summer you’ll be fried under the sun so sit in the back where there’s a bit of shade. Before the dolphin show and after Shark Mystique, there’a games area where you can win a bunch of stuffed animals. That’s not bad and a good way to spend 15-20 minutes.
And that’s usually it for us, we head down on the Gondola where there will be no lines. Once we get off the Gondola we check out the Pandas at the Giant Panda Adventure. Note this is much nicer and way less smelly than the Hong Kong Jockey Clubs Sichuan Adventure, which also has pandas. The vast majority of tourists go to the later, and it’s way more crowded. Don’t bother going because the Pandas are better and easier to see in the Giant Panda adventure. There’s also red pandas here.
The food at Ocean Park is shite. Expensive and tastes like expired sausages left in the sun for 4 days. Well perhaps not that bad, but I’d give it a miss. If you can be bothered, there’s a nice restaurant about a 10 minute walk own the road outside One Island South. In fact there’s a few restaurant there you can choose from. We only usually spend 2-2 1/2 hours at Ocean park because Grobblers too small to go on most of the rides and we’re not into that anyway.
For most visitors, this is a place you could very easily spend a whole day at. For little kids, like say under 3, there’s a nice little play area near Whiskers Game Zone and Whisker Theatre. That tends not to be too busy so is worth going to if you have younger kids. Of course, there’s shows with seals, birds and other animals, but they’re at certain times and are always usually full (with the exception of the bird show).
This is one of the better aquariums and theme parks in Asia and despite us finding a bit boring now, that’s only because we’ve been there so many times. It’s so big that even when there’s a lot of people there, walking arounds isn’t too bad. I can’t comment on the rides because we’ve never done them but they animal exhibits are all very well done and overall the staff are okay.
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