HKDL and SDL October

[KEK1]

So I managed to convince DH to go to China next year , yay! Of course, that includes the 2 parks..
Am thinking of October, after the 1st week of their national holidays. Itinerary in rough: HK, Beijing, Shanghai, Guilin, and possibly the place they filmed Avatar (Very long name). Thinking maybe we might get some autumn foliage.. does anyone have any thoughts about that time of year, park crowds etc? TIA!

 

[gelatoni fan]

Crowds should be lowish after the first week but there may be an uptick on Halloween day. Note that the castle in HKDL should be finished by then so it's possible new shows could cause higher crowds than expected.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

I’d recommend starting in the north and working your way south, leaving HK for last.

 

[KEK1]

Crowds should be lowish after the first week but there may be an uptick on Halloween day. Note that the castle in HKDL should be finished by then so it's possible new shows could cause higher crowds than expected.

Yep, was wondering if the castle would be done /hoping. Hopefully they will still be lower than wdw crowds.. otherwise I will never get DH back to a park! Thanks for your reply!

 

[KEK1]

I’d recommend starting in the north and working your way south, leaving HK for last.

Thanks! I was originally thinking of doing that due to weather.. then was concerned RE expectations as everyone seems to do it the other way round! But you think that would be better for crowds too..?

 

[gelatoni fan]

Hong Kong crowds are negligible compared to Shanghai crowds so you'd mainly want to work around the Shanghai crowds. An advantage of starting in Hong Kong is being able to get a China sim card without mainland restrictions for cheap.

I think a big reason that people prefer to start in Hong Kong is because it's very easy to find cheap international flights to Hong Kong on good airlines. There are occasionally cheap flights to Shanghai and Beijing but they tend to be on bad airlines (airlines based in the US or China).

 

[KEK1]

Ok, th

Hong Kong crowds are negligible compared to Shanghai crowds so you'd mainly want to work around the Shanghai crowds. An advantage of starting in Hong Kong is being able to get a China sim card without mainland restrictions for cheap.

I think a big reason that people prefer to start in Hong Kong is because it's very easy to find cheap international flights to Hong Kong on good airlines. There are occasionally cheap flights to Shanghai and Beijing but they tend to be on bad airlines (airlines based in the US or China).

Ok, thanks. Haven't looked into airlines yet, coming from Western Australia.
Yeah was much more concerned about SDL crowds, that's why was hoping that the week after their week of holidays might be slow(er). And weather hopefully will be reasonable.

 

[supedewoop]

As long as you avoid National Week, crowds should be manageable in October, any day, except maybe a Saturday, and even then, probably not so bad.
Weather in October in Shanghai is still pretty nice, though rain is a concern! Pack a nice jacket! For Beijing, it's more difficult to say, though your original idea of starting North and working your way south is the most logical. After National Week is when it starts to change, but it usually goes a little slowly. You'll probably see some autumn foilage in the northern parts, but it never looks as pretty to me as back home (michigan).

 

[KEK1]

As long as you avoid National Week, crowds should be manageable in October, any day, except maybe a Saturday, and even then, probably not so bad.
Weather in October in Shanghai is still pretty nice, though rain is a concern! Pack a nice jacket! For Beijing, it's more difficult to say, though your original idea of starting North and working your way south is the most logical. After National Week is when it starts to change, but it usually goes a little slowly. You'll probably see some autumn foilage in the northern parts, but it never looks as pretty to me as back home (michigan).

Thank you very much for your input!
Some day I would love to visit New England in the autumn.. Japan looks gorgeous then, too.

 

[bkmanhole]

We went last year end of Oct/early Nov to both parks and found crowd levels very manageable. Weekends were much busier for character meets & greets in Shanghai, with almost no line on the weekdays.
As others have mentioned, avoid national week and it should be very doable.

 

[KEK1]

We went last year end of Oct/early Nov to both parks and found crowd levels very manageable. Weekends were much busier for character meets & greets in Shanghai, with almost no line on the weekdays.
As others have mentioned, avoid national week and it should be very doable.

Thanks! How was the weather?

 

[bkmanhole]

Weather was good - a light jacket or hoodie for early morning/evening but warm at noon. Around 12C/ 54F. There were times when it did drizzle and rain but nothing heavy and only for short stretches. Our little collapsible umbrella was more than sufficient.