We would not have a Hong Kong Disneyland crowd calendar as a result of one isn’t crucial. It will miss the purpose and be counterproductive many weeks & months, as increased attendance and wait instances aren’t even the most important components to consider when selecting one of the best & 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 under consideration, it’s a lot larger image in nature that can assist you select the wonderful instances to go to HKDL and keep away from the terrible ones, which aren’t all the time the identical because the busiest and least busy dates.
The explanation crowd ranges matter much less is as a result of Hong Kong Disneyland is Disney’s least-visited fort park on the earth, 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–probably not 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 number of which have had heavy crowds. On high of that, attendance is beginning to enhance following World of Frozen’s opening.
That is more likely 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 observe a number of easy guidelines for selecting your journey dates, try to be high-quality.
Despite the fact that Hong Kong is a densely populated metropolis and seen 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 shouldn’t be reliant on them.
Hong Kong is on this odd spot the place it’s primarily aimed toward vacationers, however not a vacation spot resort. It’s additionally not in essentially 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 couple of 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 that is why we’ve regularly 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 a lot 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 (perhaps now there are “solely” 280 greatest days to go to if solely taking crowds under consideration), however there are nonetheless a number of easy guidelines it’s essential know for visiting HKDL to maximise your enjoyment and decrease crowds.
Keep away from Weekends
Saturday has turn out to be 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 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 more likely 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 firstly of the Christmas season. Not precisely an enormous shock, as the primary Saturday of the vacation season is often very busy at Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and so forth. (Wait instances knowledge reveals an analogous spike firstly of Halloween and Saturdays all through that season.)
Certainly one of our largest observations was the colossal queue to enter the park by way of the Annual Passholder entrance. All through that complete weekend, we noticed a shocking variety of Annual Passholders, together with Japanese APs (straightforward 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 fascinating to watch.
Suffice to say, we’d extremely suggest avoiding Saturdays if in any respect attainable, in addition to Fridays and Sundays, to a lesser extent. As of late received’t all the time be actually busy, however the pattern is for them to be busier than weekdays. That is very true for Halloween and Christmas, so in case you’re visiting from mid-September by way of New 12 months’s, it’s much more essential to observe this recommendation.
Keep away from Summer season Trip
In the summertime, Hong Kong is scorching, humid and typhoon-prone. The climate doesn’t dissuade vacationers and depress resort 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 current perception to share in the case of summer time 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’ll by no means return to Hong Kong Disneyland between June and August once more as a result of the climate is simply too brutal to have a pleasing time. On high of that, summer time 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 essential. These are usually the busiest days of your entire 12 months at HKDL, with Chinese language New 12 months/Lunar New 12 months/Spring Pageant and the times round it typically being the only busiest stretch.
There are 17 public holidays in Hong Kong every year. These are a mixture of conventional Chinese language and Western holidays, equivalent 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 an inventory 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 get pleasure from 13 days off in complete for these official holidays, and lots of of them take journeys to Hong Kong because of this.
Japanese nationwide holidays and to a lesser extent holidays and faculty breaks in Taiwan, Philippines, United States, South Korea, Thailand, and Singapore can affect crowds on sure dates. Other than perhaps 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 Principally High quality
January by way of April are largely average 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–function cooler temperatures.
Might is the month when climate warms up, however crowds cool all the way down to their lowest stage of your entire 12 months. Simply remember the fact that average crowds at HKDL are low by the requirements of each different Disney park on the earth. We might take common January crowds and climate over Might crowds and climate at Hong Kong Disneyland. No query.
The largest purpose we’re impartial on these instances of 12 months is the shortage 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 count on extra seasonal occasions all year long.
Go When Climate is Good!
Other than the steps above, we might suggest 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 the fact that it’s humid in Hong Kong along with being scorching. That means that the “looks like” temperatures generally is a lot worse than the temperature suggests. That’s why June by way of August (in addition to parts of Might by way of September) are fully off the desk for us. A excessive of “solely” 88 levels might 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 suggest visiting in October versus September for the probability of higher climate.
Halloween at Hong Kong Disneyland often includes a not-so-haunted home highlighted by villians, in addition to a stage present, distinctive costumes for character meet & greets, and a road occasion cavalcade. There’s additionally trick or treating, particular menus, merchandise, and extra.
This was the flagship season at Hong Kong Disneyland, and the park provided 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 sudden 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 often begins in mid-November and runs by way of early January, usually starting on a Friday and formally ending on New 12 months’s Day.
Throughout the vacation season, friends are invited to affix 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 Associates Play Home is adorned with decorations, and people fashionable 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 Predominant Avenue. One other fan-favorite leisure providing is the stage present, “Mickey and Associates Christmastime Ball,” which is one other wonderful leisure providing. There’s additionally particular merchandise, menus, and extra.
Christmas has turn out to be 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 suggest a go to in late November or early December because of this.
Go When You Go to Japan
Frankly, we might not make the trek all the way in which to Hong Kong Disneyland with out additionally visiting Japan.
Provided that HKDL is more likely to be an add-on for a visit to Japan, versus the opposite manner 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 another parks on the earth, making crowd calendars really important for these parks. (See Crowd Calendars for Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea.) These are nice assets 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 an entire, we’d regulate 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 along 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 shall be higher!
For the remainder of your planning wants, seek the advice of our Hong Kong Disneyland Journey Planning Information. It covers every thing it’s essential know for a go to to HKDL, together with critiques, technique, packing, and extra. If you happen to’re visiting the town as effectively, please seek the advice of our Hong Kong Metropolis Information on TravelCaffeine, our non-Disney planning website.
Your Ideas
What’s your favourite time to go to Hong Kong Disneyland? If you happen to’ve been to any of the Disney Parks in Asia, do you have got favourite instances to go to, or time-frames you keep away from? Even in case you’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 once you disagree with us—is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
