Any advice for a January trip?

[3monkeys4me]

We will be visiting Hong Kong mid January for a week, we will be spending one day at Ocean Park and one day at HKDL. The rest of the time will be spent doing other touristy type stuff. We are staying in Kowloon. It will be myself, DH, 3 kids (13, 11, & 7) and my MIL. We are pretty active, go with the flow people. DH has traveled in Asia before but has never been to HK. MIL and I have both traveled quite a bit but have never been anywhere in Asia before so tips about HK in general are welcome too. The kids have only been to DL, last trip was about 2 1/2 years ago. DH and MIL and I have all been to DL and WDW. DH and MIL are not huge Disney fans. I think we are planning on hitting HKDL on a Tuesday.

My big questions are

What is the best plan of attack? We will likely spend most of our time on rides and attractions though I may take the 7 year old for a meet and greet or two if she wants to?

When does the park schedule become avilable? Mostly curious about possible refurbishments and park hours. It looks like the park is usually open from 10-8, correct?

Thanks!

 

[Agent 86]

HKDL on a weekday, unless it's some kind of local holiday or special event, shouldn't pose any problems and probably doesn't require any real planning.

Since you have children, maybe ask them to nominated two "must do" rides before you travel to HKDL and just focus on doing those as a top priority. But, in general, HKDL is on the small side and pretty quiet so it's possible to do the entire park in a single day.

I think you'll have more issues with Ocean Park since it's so widely spread out. I ended up getting too exhausted to keep travelling from one area to another to go on different rides (i.e. to try to take advantage of shorter wait times). My husband also hurt his knee on one of the roller coasters, so that meant slower walking as well.

 

[3monkeys4me]

Thank you!

I was hoping that was the case with HKDL. Unfortunately we will likely do Ocean Park on a weekend. I thinks evil probably splurge on the fast pass thing there for the people that will go on the rides. We do have the map and a general plan for that given to us by a friend so hopefully that will help. I honestly would skip it but my 11 and 13 year olds really want to go.

 

[katt789]

We were just there on a Fri/Sat and had NO issue with crowds whatsoever! More passholders at things like Wondrous Book, but thats to be expected.
-Arrive for rope drop, and hit up a couple of rides first.
-Mystic Manor & Grizzly Railway are two that are 100% unique and COMPLETELY AMAZING, though we walked right onto both with a 5 minute wait mid afternoon.
-Mystic Point & their "Frontierland" didn't even open until 11am
-Check out some maps and decide what you/kids want to do first, and head to those rides, many in Fantasyland do end with long waits, but are copies of the ones in Stateside parks! BUT, chances are they might be the only area open, so it's best to hit them first
-Mickey Wondrous Book is hands down in the top 3 Disney Parks shows from ALL the parks around the world, lots of princesses, songs all in English and subtitles beside the stage for dialogue
-They have a FOLK as well that is similar but completely different and just as mind-blowing
-DOWNLOAD THE APP!
-It will have character times out on it, Princesses are out in the Snow White's Grotto area daily, we saw Rapunzel right at park opening, and she swapped with Cinderella I believe, they're also availble at the Hong Kong Disneyland hotel during the day
-Anna & Elsa are on the opposite side of the castle, similar time range, and we waited less than 5 mins for them
-This is the only park you can meet Gelatoni, Duffy & Shellie May's cat,...friend? He's adorable and there's tons of merch to go with it...

-Park schedules come out about a week ish in advance, we just went with the flow and were still able to hit everything in 2 days!

 

[3monkeys4me]

Thanks! Mystic Manor and the Grizzly railway are both on our must do list. Everything else is not as important to everyone as a group and since we will have 3 kids and 3 adults we may split up to make sure the kids get to do everything they want to. I will definitely download the app though.

I do wish we were able to spend more than a day but it just isn't in the cards this trip. Luckily we will be headed to Tokyo next year and will hopefully have 3 Disney days for that trip.

 

[ctc221]

We spent a day there this summer. HKDL is pretty compact and easy to manage. Not sure if the crowds were less in summer because of the stifling heat, but we barely had to wait for most of the rides. We thought one day at the park was enough time.

Mystic Manor is definitely a must! It ranks as one of my all-time favorite Disney parks rides.

If you're into merch, we found that there are a lot of "specials" and discounted items. Way cheaper than back home in the US parks.

The app is helpful, shows all the maps, wait times, etc.

As for HK, some of my favorite things to do:
Take the Star Ferry
Go to the Peak (take the tram)
Eat a fresh egg tart
Drink HK Milk Tea (hot and cold)
Stanley Market
shopping!
food!

HK is super easy to get around. The public transportation system is good, cabs are plentiful, and we also used Uber.

Have fun!