We would not have a Hong Kong Disneyland crowd calendar as a result of one isn’t mandatory. It could miss the purpose and be counterproductive many weeks & months, as greater attendance and wait instances aren’t even the largest elements to take into consideration when selecting the most effective & worst instances to do HKDL.
Accordingly, this information explaining when to go to and keep away from Hong Kong Disneyland is extra holistic in nature. Whereas it takes crowd ranges into consideration, it’s a lot greater image in nature that can assist you select the superb instances to go to HKDL and keep away from the terrible ones, which aren’t at all times the identical because the busiest and least busy dates.
The rationale crowd ranges matter much less is as a result of Hong Kong Disneyland is Disney’s least-visited fort park on this planet, with attendance at about one-third the numbers of Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, or Tokyo Disneyland. It has decrease attendance than each single Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort park. It was second to final in general attendance amongst Disney Parks, rating forward of solely Walt Disney Studios Park in Paris–not likely a good comparability since that was a veritable building zone (and is totally atrocious).
This alone makes Hong Kong Disneyland a “decrease stakes” theme park. To make certain, there are busy days, and we’ve attended a couple of which have had heavy crowds. On high of that, attendance is beginning to improve following World of Frozen’s opening.
That is prone to proceed within the years to return as HKDL develops extra of a fan following and phrase will get out about its greatness. Nonetheless, it’s the best park to go to and doesn’t require almost as a lot technique as its counterparts. As long as you comply with a couple of easy guidelines for selecting your journey dates, you need to be wonderful.
Regardless that Hong Kong is a densely populated metropolis and considered as a world metropolis, the native inhabitants is smaller than the Tokyo, Los Angeles, or Shanghai metro areas. It’s extra populous than Paris or Orlando, however each of these profit from being bona fide vacationer locations. They’ve native followers, however the park isn’t reliant on them.
Hong Kong is on this odd spot the place it’s primarily geared toward vacationers, however not a vacation spot resort. It’s additionally not in probably the most handy location, and it faces fierce competitors for vacationer time and {dollars}. From the town itself, close by Ocean Park, Macau, and even Shanghai Disneyland. The opening of that newer park a few decade after HKDL gave mainland Chinese language followers their very own, extra handy Disney theme park, and sapped Hong Kong Disneyland of some momentum.
All of because of this we’ve ceaselessly described Hong Kong Disneyland as charming–like Disneyland in California from a bygone period. For years, Hong Kong Disneyland was a sleepy little theme park many of the 12 months, and one which had 300+ “greatest” days per 12 months to go to from the attitude of crowds and wait instances.
That’s beginning to change (possibly now there are “solely” 280 greatest days to go to if solely taking crowds into consideration), however there are nonetheless a couple of easy guidelines you’ll want to know for visiting HKDL to maximise your enjoyment and decrease crowds.
Keep away from Weekends
Saturday has change into the busiest day of the week at Hong Kong Disneyland, with Friday and Sunday changing into more and more busy. That is an rising pattern that didn’t was once as pronounced. Wednesday is the least busy day at HKDL, which isn’t a brand new pattern. It’s most faraway from lengthy weekends and vacationers taking weeklong journeys are least prone to go to in the course of the center of the week.
We visited Hong Kong Disneyland on the second-busiest day of final 12 months, which was the Saturday at the beginning of the Christmas season. Not precisely an enormous shock, as the primary Saturday of the vacation season is normally very busy at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and many others. (Wait instances knowledge exhibits an analogous spike at the beginning of Halloween and Saturdays all through that season.)
One in every of our greatest observations was the colossal queue to enter the park by way of the Annual Passholder entrance. All through that complete weekend, we noticed a stunning variety of Annual Passholders, together with Japanese APs (simple to clock primarily based on merchandise they’re sporting and plush they’re sporting). This isn’t an enormous shock since Annual Passes are suspended at Tokyo Disney Resort, however the diploma to which HKDL has made inroads in constructing a fanbase was however attention-grabbing to watch.
Suffice to say, we’d extremely advocate avoiding Saturdays if in any respect potential, in addition to Fridays and Sundays, to a lesser extent. Lately gained’t at all times be actually busy, however the pattern is for them to be busier than weekdays. That is very true for Halloween and Christmas, so for those who’re visiting from mid-September by means of New 12 months’s, it’s much more vital to comply with this recommendation.
Keep away from Summer time Trip
In the summertime, Hong Kong is sizzling, humid and typhoon-prone. The climate doesn’t dissuade vacationers and depress lodge charges prefer it as soon as did. So in case you are on the lookout for a deal (or dry climate), look elsewhere.
To be completely clear, we would not have any latest perception to share relating to summer season at Hong Kong Disneyland. We final made the error of visiting Hong Kong Disneyland in the summertime when Shanghai Disneyland opened. The humidity was killer–worse than something we’ve ever skilled at Walt Disney World.
We are going to by no means return to Hong Kong Disneyland between June and August once more as a result of the climate is just too brutal to have a nice time. On high of that, summer season crowd ranges develop progressively from their lows in Might to peaking in early August.
Keep away from Holidays
Avoiding public holidays and the weekends round them is pretty vital. These are typically the busiest days of the whole 12 months at HKDL, with Chinese language New 12 months/Lunar New 12 months/Spring Pageant and the times round it typically being the one busiest stretch.
There are 17 public holidays in Hong Kong every year. These are a mixture of conventional Chinese language and Western holidays, similar to Lunar New 12 months, Mid-Autumn Pageant, and the Dragon Boat Pageant, together with Christmas and Easter. Different public holidays embrace Nationwide Day and Hong Kong SAR Institution Day. The Hong Kong Authorities web site has a listing of dates.
Mainland China has seven authorized holidays per 12 months, together with New 12 months’s Day, Chinese language New 12 months (Spring Pageant), Qingming Pageant (Tomb-sweeping Day), Might Day, Dragon Boat Pageant, Mid-Autumn Day and Nationwide Day. The Chinese language take pleasure in 13 days off in complete for these official holidays, and lots of of them take journeys to Hong Kong consequently.
Japanese nationwide holidays and to a lesser extent holidays and college breaks in Taiwan, Philippines, United States, South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore can affect crowds on sure dates. Other than possibly Golden Week in Japan, it’s pointless to plan round public holidays in these nations, although. China and Hong Kong holidays are the biggies.
Winter & Spring Are Largely High-quality
January by means of April are largely reasonable months for crowds, with the aforementioned (main) exceptions for public holidays in Hong Kong and mainland China. Extra importantly, these months–particularly January and February–characteristic cooler temperatures.
Might is the month when climate warms up, however crowds cool right down to their lowest stage of the whole 12 months. Simply remember that reasonable crowds at HKDL are low by the requirements of each different Disney park on this planet. We might take common January crowds and climate over Might crowds and climate at Hong Kong Disneyland. No query.
The most important motive we’re impartial on these instances of 12 months is the dearth of seasonal occasions. Hong Kong Disneyland does do a Chinese language New 12 months Celebration, however that coincides with the busy vacation itself, so we wouldn’t go to then. As HKDL will increase in recognition and grows a neighborhood fanbase, we’d anticipate extra seasonal occasions all year long.
Go When Climate is Good!
Other than the steps above, we might advocate selecting journey dates primarily based on climate over anticipated crowd ranges. Right here’s a easy overview of month-to-month high and low temperatures in Hong Kong:
Month: Excessive / Low (°F)
- January: 65° / 57°
- February: 65° / 58°
- March: 70° / 62°
- April: 77° / 69°
- Might: 83° / 75°
- June: 87° / 79°
- July: 88° / 80°
- August: 88° / 80°
- September: 86° / 78°
- October: 82° / 73°
- November: 74° / 66°
- December: 68° / 59°
Simply remember that it’s humid in Hong Kong along with being sizzling. Which means that the “seems like” temperatures is usually a lot worse than the temperature suggests. That’s why June by means of August (in addition to parts of Might by means of September) are utterly off the desk for us. A excessive of “solely” 88 levels could really feel like triple-digit temperatures.
Go for Halloween
In a standard 12 months, Halloween Time at Hong Kong Disneyland runs from mid-September to October 31. The beginning date varies by 12 months, however is usually across the second Friday in September. Regardless, we’d advocate visiting in October versus September for the probability of higher climate.
Halloween at Hong Kong Disneyland normally incorporates a not-so-haunted home highlighted by villians, in addition to a stage present, distinctive costumes for character meet & greets, and a avenue occasion cavalcade. There’s additionally trick or treating, particular menus, merchandise, and extra.
This was once the flagship season at Hong Kong Disneyland, and the park supplied a darker twist on Halloween than all different parks. Throughout the first few years we visited HKDL for Halloween, there have been actually haunted homes (on par with Halloween Horror Nights at Common, for reference), a stage present with an unique storyline, and characters that have been non-Disney monsters. It was superior and surprising for a Disney park. Halloween remains to be excellent, simply completely totally different–and arguably overshadowed by ever-improving Christmas festivities.
Go for Christmas
With World of Frozen’s opening, Christmas is now the marquee vacation at Hong Kong Disneyland. It normally begins in mid-November and runs by means of early January, usually starting on a Friday and formally ending on New 12 months’s Day.
Throughout the vacation season, company are invited to hitch a snowy celebration within the kingdom of Arendelle in World of Frozen. One other spotlight is Ye Olde Christmas Market, a European-style wonderland, in Fantasyland with seasonal character meet & greets and lovely decorations. Likewise, Duffy and Pals Play Home is adorned with decorations, and people common characters are in Christmas-themed costumes.
The spotlight of the vacation season is the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, which options performances by Santa Goofy and Christmas Carolers and culminates in a drone present and glowing snowfall on Foremost Road. One other fan-favorite leisure providing is the stage present, “Mickey and Pals Christmastime Ball,” which is one other wonderful leisure providing. There’s additionally particular merchandise, menus, and extra.
Christmas has change into our favourite time of 12 months at Hong Kong Disneyland. A part of that is the superior climate, however the decorations and leisure–together with atmospheric performers–have improved by leaps and bounds within the final a number of years. We’d extremely advocate a go to in late November or early December consequently.
Go When You Go to Japan
Frankly, we might not make the trek all the best way to Hong Kong Disneyland with out additionally visiting Japan.
On condition that HKDL is prone to be an add-on for a visit to Japan, versus the opposite method round, we’d be extra inclined to plan our journey across the greatest instances to go to Tokyo Disney Resort or Japan.
That is doubly true since crowds fluctuate extra at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea greater than every other parks on this planet, making crowd calendars really important for these parks. (See Crowd Calendars for Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea.) These are nice sources for selecting which days to go to the parks when you’ve narrowed down your tough journey dates primarily based upon the season or particular occasions you need to expertise.
Our 3 favourite instances to go to Tokyo Disney Resort are Might (post-Golden Week), mid-September, and mid-November. If expanded to Japan as a complete, we’d alter these timeframes barely, as cherry blossom and fall colours seasons are our favourite instances of the 12 months to go to Japan.
The excellent news is that each one of those timeframes additionally overlap with nice instances to do Hong Kong Disneyland. Plan accordingly together with your facet journey to HKDL tacked on earlier than or after Japan primarily based on what works greatest for you, and when climate and crowds will likely be higher!
For the remainder of your planning wants, seek the advice of our Hong Kong Disneyland Journey Planning Information. It covers the whole lot you’ll want to know for a go to to HKDL, together with evaluations, technique, packing, and extra. In case you’re visiting the town as nicely, please seek the advice of our Hong Kong Metropolis Information on TravelCaffeine, our non-Disney planning web site.
Your Ideas
What’s your favourite time to go to Hong Kong Disneyland? In case you’ve been to any of the Disney Parks in Asia, do you’ve gotten favourite instances to go to, or time-frames you keep away from? Even for those who’ve solely been to Walt Disney World, are there sure months you’d keep away from HKDL given the considerably comparable climates? Do you agree or disagree with our instances to go to and keep away from Hong Kong Disneyland? Any questions? Listening to your suggestions—even whenever you disagree with us—is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
