Even though I can’t ride on most amusement park rides, I have always enjoyed visiting them around the world. There is always so much to do at amusement parks that doesn’t include the just the rides, that it is worth for me to visit and spend the day at. Back in December 2017, two days after visiting Macau, we wanted to dedicate 1 day to visit an amusement park. We were debating on either visiting Ocean Park Hong Kong or Hong Kong Disneyland. Since I just visited Tokyo Disneyland in 2016 and Disneyland Park in 2015, I wanted to visit something totally different and unique to Hong Kong, so we chose to visit Ocean Park.
we stayed at Bishop Lei International House in the Mid-Levels area
Getting There
For the second half of our Hong Kong trip, we switched hotels and moved to Bishop Lei International House in the Mid-Levels area. That hotel was located on a steep hill so it was tough for my buddy to push my wheelchair up and down every time we wanted to go out, so we relied on taxis when we wanted to go out. We used a regular taxi and I was just transferred in with my wheelchair folded up in the back. Ocean Park was about a 12 min drive from our hotel (there is a new MTR train stop that is directly at Ocean Park that opened in 2016).
we had a delicious chicken and meatball dish from this food truck before we went inside Ocean Park
Ocean Park
Ocean Park is not just an amusement park, as it is also a marine mammal park, oceanarium, and animal theme park. They also have great animal production shows and fireworks daily too. Ocean Park opened in 1977 and with Hong Kong Disneyland opening in 2005, there has been major renovations and expansions to Ocean Park to attract more visitors.
Aqua City Lagoon
The park is 226 acres big and is divided into 2 sections by a large mountain, The Waterfront (Lowland) and The Summit (Headland). The entrance to Ocean Park is at The Waterfront and there are 3 ways to get to The Summit. There is a Cable Car (gondola) system, Ocean Express railway or the world’s second longest escalator. Only the first 2 ways are wheelchair accessible. Click here to see which attractions are wheelchair accessible.
Cable Car gondola
The Waterfront
The Waterfront is comprised of 3 sections: Aqua City, Amazing Asian Animals and Whiskers Harbor. There is a lot to see at each section so I will just mention some of the highlights that we saw. I always love visiting aquariums, so one of the first things we saw was The Grand Aquarium at Aqua City. There is almost 5000 fish from over 400 species including the scalloped hammerhead and manta ray. Checking out the 5.5 meter (18 feet) viewing dome was pretty cool too.
underwater viewing dome
In the Amazing Asian Animals section we really enjoyed the Giant Panda Adventure. Besides it being really crowded, the pathways in this enclosure was quite wheelchair accessible. There are 2 giant pandas named Ying Ying and Le Le who live here along with the smaller red pandas. The rare Chinese giant salamander could also be found here.
Giant Panda Adventure
Whiskers Harbor is a huge kids area. We didn’t really stay in this area very long, but there is an amusement park ride called Balloons Up-Up-And-Away that allows wheelchair guests to board and stay in their wheelchair.
Whiskers Harbor
Ocean Express
We chose to use the Ocean Express to connect us from The Waterfront to the Summit. I was able to stay in my wheelchair for the 4 minute train ride that uses multimedia effects to simulates a fantastic underwater adventure in a submarine. People just moved out of the way and saved an open spot for my wheelchair. It was actually cool to see images of fish and other sea creatures on the screens that look like windows. It actually made us feel like we were in a real submarine.
waiting for the Ocean Express
We also took the Ocean Express on the way back down to The Waterfront when we were done visiting The Summit. We did not know the Cable Car was wheelchair accessible until afterwards. This would have been a great way for us to view all of Ocean Park from above and give us another great experience. It would have been neat to try using the world’s second longest escalator to get between the 2 main areas too, but unfortunately it is not wheelchair accessible.
inside the Ocean Express
The Summit
The Summit is comprised of 5 sections: Marine World, Thrill Mountain, Adventure Land, Polar Adventure and The Rainforest. My buddy did get to ride Hair Raiser, which is a floorless rollercoaster in the carnival themed area Thrill Mountain. Checking out the walk-through rainforest exhibit called Expedition Trail was easily accessible as we saw different exotic birds and reptiles.
my buddy went on the Hair Raiser rollercoaster
Ocean Park Hong Kong is another great amusement park that you should put on your bucket list. Even though there are only a few wheelchair accessible park rides, there are so many other things to do like shows, shopping, food and fun. Although, we didn’t have enough time to experience everything, spending a whole day at Ocean Park is highly recommended.
view from The Summit
