Thanks to Ocean Park for providing complimentary tickets for our family to feature this park in this post.
Ocean Park: Is it a zoo? Or an aquarium? Is it an amusement park? Or a carnival? It’s all of these and more!
Why go to Ocean Park?
Knowing we were taking our kids to Hong Kong, we wanted to find attractions they would be interested in seeing and take a break from sightseeing. The well known kid-friendly venue is Disney Hong Kong. But we really hate paying Disney prices. Plus, when we are going out of the country we want to see something we can’t see in America. When I found Ocean Park for nearly half the cost of Disney, I knew this was the perfect amusement park for our family. Plus, Ocean Park is unique to Hong Kong.
What to expect at Ocean Park?
Ocean Park is an exciting mix of an amusement park with rides, zoo, aquarium, animal and water show and carnival.
Ocean Park is divided into 2 sections called the waterfront and the summit. You can get from one section of the park to the other via cable car over the mountain, or train through the mountain. We loved the cable car ride! The view of the ocean with little islands and the shoreline all around as well as the fun rides of the park was stunning. However, the train can get large masses of people through quickly. So if there is a long line at the cable cars, you may consider the train.
The Grand Aquarium
As you enter the park you will see a water fountain with a large colorful building. This is the Grand Aquarium. It has over 5000 fish and sea creatures viewable on multiple levels. You enter at the top of the aquarium. My kids were curious because they couldn’t see anything in the water as they tried to peer into it. As we descended, we saw just how full and busy the waters below were.
The stingrays and starfish were our family favorites. But with over 400 species of fish, you’ll be sure to find interesting and delightful creatures.
Animals
Definitely, the highlight of the animals at Ocean Park is the Panda bear and the Red Panda. We happened upon feeding time and got to see the cute red panda very active. They had some interactive games on an iPad teaching facts and information about the Pandas. I was impressed that it was all in English for our benefit as well as in several other languages. We also saw otters, gators, a bird and butterfly aviary, and sharks. The facilities were clean and well maintained (i.e. there was no nasty animal stench!)
The other animals are divided into zones of habitation. South and North Pole animals, Austrailia, Rainforest and Sturgeon and Jellyfish Aquariums are scattered around the park for your viewing pleasure. We didn’t have time to see them all, but loved that there were so many options to see.
Rides
At the Waterfront, most of the rides are for the younger child. There are a couple Carousels and a whole section of rides, bounce house, and playground for the young child.
As you travel out to the Summit, most of the rides require kids to be 122 centimeters tall. Only one of my kids wasn’t tall enough for the rides, so that was disappointing. Luckily, the large Ferris Wheel was close, so she rode with dad while the bigger kids did the swings, roller coaster, and pirate ship.
Most of the rides are familiar to other rides at carnivals or amusement parks in America. My favorite was the Dragon Rollercoaster. It was situated right on the coast. As we flew around turns and upside down (3 times!) seeing the islands and the water was so beautiful (and a little scary!)
Animal Shows
Ocean Park offers several animal shows, the most popular being the dolphin show. We attended the bird show. As it began, I realized it would all be in Chinese! The storyline and the jokes were all lost on us. But still seeing the birds fly over the audience and interact with the trainers was still fascinating. They do incorporate some English, but I’m not sure my children were able to catch it in the midst of all the Chinese.
Food
As we always travel on a budget, we figured that we would have to spend a lot of money eating dinner at this park. Amusement parks always tend to be pricey. But to our surprise, we found a McDonalds at the back of the park. As I looked at prices it was only slightly more costly than in other locations. We fed our whole family for under $20. The McDonalds is across from the large Ferris wheel entrance. There were plenty of eating options of all variety. But if you do want to save money, they do allow outside food in, so bring a picnic lunch.
Other Perks of the Park
There is free wifi throughout Ocean park. I even went live on IG from the cable car ride in the air! As a foreigner, having wifi to be able to connect with my husband when we split up was essential.
Get the Ocean Park App. The app will navigate you in the quickest route to the place you want to go. It also shows how long the wait is at each attraction as well as the time for the animal shows. As our first and only visit to this park, this was really helpful to make the most of our time there.
Stroller rental and Locker Rentals are available at the beginning of the park.
As you’ve been touring Hong Kong, you may have noticed that everything is modern and updated. In the park, there is a street called ‘Old Hong Kong’. Here you are transported back to what a city street may have looked like years ago. 
I’m not sure if this is a nightly event or just Saturday night when we were there, but at 7 pm exactly a music, light and water show started in front of the grand aquarium. The lights made a figure of dragons and people in the water fountains that were playing out a story to the music (it was in Chinese so I didn’t understand it). The fireworks, water fountains synced to music and even FIRE in the water was mesmerizing! If you get a chance to see this show, stick around for it!
Getting there
Ocean Park is located on the south side of Hong Kong Island. Despite being away from the main city center on the north side of Hong Kong island, it is very simple and quick to reach the park.
The MTR has a station that is literally 100 feet from Ocean Park Entrance. The stop is called Ocean Park for your convenience. We found the MTR subway in Hong Kong to be extremely easy to navigate, absolutely no wait time and very cost-effective. Simply take the light-green line from Admiralty station and your first stop will be Ocean Park.
There are also several buses you can catch to take you to the park. See the Parks info for how to get there by bus.
If you aren’t sure you can navigate these, snag a taxi or Uber. They are everywhere.
Cost:
$480 HKD for adults $240 HKD for kids ($61 USD/ $30)
This price includes access to all the rides, the cable cars, the trains, the shows and the animal and aquariums in the park. It doesn’t include food or carnival games.
Read here for how we went to Hong Kong for 5 days under $500.
Our family had an incredible day at Ocean Park Hong Kong. Our kids were thrilled with the rides, animals, sea creatures and a change of pace from busy city sight-seeing. Any family traveling in Hong Kong should add this to their itinerary!
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4 Comments
Sounds like a ton of fun. My husband travels to HK for work and my twins and I want to tag along. Looks like we have another place to check out while he works!
That a great way to get to Hong Kong! I love to follow along on work trips, but my husband never gets to go internationally
Wow! What a great family friendly place. And free wifi, that is awesome. I went to Hong Kong as a college student in 1991. Sounds like a lot has changed. Time to go back!
It seems like the whole city is NEW! So I bet it would be really different!