HKDL in October

[topsy]

Hi,

I will be visiting Hong Kong in October with a friend and we've tagged on 2 nights at the Disneyland hotel. My concern is our only day in the park will be Halloween. I know it's more of an American holiday but will the park be busy?!

We are also planning to check out of the DL hotel on our last day, leave our luggage at bell services and go to the Buddha on Lantau island as we'll already be near by. Is this feasible? Our flight home isn't until 8pm so I'm thinking we'll try to get back to pick up our luggage by 4pm so we can also have dinner before getting to the airport.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

 

[DreamSweetsLove]

You are so lucky to go in October they have a really good Halloween event! I don't know about the crowds unfortunately since it's still a little too spooky for ds but from our Christmas trip it seemed like people really don't arrive at the gates very early and don't wait too long for shows except for the fireworks. It seems like Grizzly Gulch is popular so you may want to do it early but other than that it's a great park for taking it easy. Definitely check out the Golden Mickeys show and ask for stickers from the CM's! Have fun!

 

[zanzibar138]

I can't help with information about Halloween, but yes it does look like they have a pretty serious Halloween event there!

I can help with your plans to see the big Buddha though... If your flight doesn't leave until 8pm you will have plenty of time! Tung Chung (where the cable cars leave from) is not far from Disneyland at the end of the line from Sunny Bay, where you change from the Disneyland train. The trains over there are fantastic, very easy to navigate and frequent. The cable car station is just over the road from the train station.

I've heard that it gets busy, and going early in the day could be a wise idea. I've also heard that if you go in the crystal cabins (the ones with the glass floor) as opposed to the normal cabins, the queue is much shorter. You'll probably want to factor in a couple of hours up there to check it all out in detail (or you might want to just go up there to see it then basically go straight back - depends on what you're after). If you wanted to, you could be back at the hotel by lunchtime really!

 

[PrincessInOz]

We spent about 4 - 5 hours at the Big Buddha. We went inside the Buddha, went to the Monastery as well as caught both the 'shows' at the village.

You'll have plenty of time to go see and head back to pick up your bags. You could also check with the hotel if you could grab a shower in the pool or gym facilities before you leave for the airport.

Depending on what you want to eat, there are food options at the airport. For what it's worth, I thought the food places inside, after you check through security, were better.

 

[topsy]

Thanks for your advice. I figured we would have enough time but it's always good to get a second opinion!

 

[zanzibar138]

We spent about 4 - 5 hours at the Big Buddha. We went inside the Buddha, went to the Monastery as well as caught both the 'shows' at the village.

You'll have plenty of time to go see and head back to pick up your bags. You could also check with the hotel if you could grab a shower in the pool or gym facilities before you leave for the airport.

Depending on what you want to eat, there are food options at the airport. For what it's worth, I thought the food places inside, after you check through security, were better.

Sorry to hijack

PIO was that 4-5 hours including the actual cable car ride? How long does that part take?

 

[PrincessInOz]

Cable car ride took about 30 minutes. You might want to check when the cable car service starts. We went on Good Friday; so it was opened from about 9 am in the morning. No queue at that time of day.

We got to the top by 9.45 am. The village was just waking up; but most of the shops were opened. We bypassed the shopping and headed for the Buddha.

I think we probably spent about an hour at the Buddha itself...between walking up, around the feet and taking pictures and heading inside (no pictures allowed inside).

We then headed to the Monastery, looked around and had food there. Probably an hour or so if you take your time looking around and stay to eat.

I missed the Getting of Wisdom trail, which I would have liked to have seen/done. Not sure how much time it would have added.

On the way back, we stopped in the village for the shops and also because the ticket we bought included entry into the Monkey "movie" and the Walking with the Buddha experience. This added 1.5 hours to our time there. Not sure I would do either one again.

We were heading back down after 2 pm.