Hong Kong Disneyland - only one day available

[losfp]

Hi all, just after some advice from people who know Hong Kong/have been to HKDL. We've booked a cruise next Jan that's sailing from Singapore to Tokyo, with an overnight stop in Hong Kong. This means we can tick off two more Disney parks off our list!

We will be arriving at Hong Kong 7am Sun 12 Jan 2020, leaving 11pm Mon 13 Jan.

At first I was considering going on the first day, but now I'm thinking the second day might be a better option. Mondays are generally quieter at the USA parks, would the same apply to Hong Kong? The park hours seem to be around 10-8 each day, so we can still pretty much fit in a full day no matter which day we pick. And on the second day, if we stay until 6-7, we will still make it back to the ship in plenty of time for the 11pm sailaway.

So the question is: what are the differences in entertainment, crowds, logistics etc between going on a Sunday vs a Monday at HKDL?

 

[indoshakespeare]

the night parade starts at closing time. so if the park closes at 8, the parade starts at 8, finishes around 8.30 and most people stay 1 more hour waiting for the crowd to disperse. if you go monday, you wont be able to see the night parade.

 

[losfp]

Ah, that's good to know. I'd assumed that 8pm closing time meant a parade time of 7:30 or something.

Maybe the first day is the way to go. Hopefully we'd be able to leave the ship around 8am or so, and at the front gate before opening time.

 

[losfp]

Follow up question.. I am going to look into 1-day touring plans, but it would be good if I could get everyone's input on what you feel are uniquely HKDL experiences. We're quite familiar with DLR and WDW and we've only got the one day at HKDL so we would obviously prefer to do things that you just can't find anywhere else (We will be hitting up TDL for 3-4 days at the end of the cruise though).

Obviously Mystic Manor and Iron Man are top of the list.. what else?

 

[indoshakespeare]

Ant-Man and the Wasp would be open by then. Mickey and the Wondrous Book stage show is similar to Mickey and the Magical Map in Disneyland. Big Grizzly Mountain is Big Thunder with a twist, worth trying. Theres also the Moana Homecoming Celebration stage show which is good for Moana fans. Fairy Tale Forest in Fantasyland is pretty good too. It's like Storybook Canal Boat in Disneyland but a walkthrough. This is also where Tinker Bell meet

One thing to know is the expansions (Grizzly Gulch, Mystiv Point and Toy Story Land) open one hour after the rest of the park and close one hour before the park close so a 10-8 park hour means the expansions open at 11 and close at 7. Essentially, you can have 2 ropedrops. They also lets people into Main Street 30 minutes before opening and Mickey&Minnie start meeting people at this time.

My personal touring plan is (assuming park hour of 10-8)
- Enter park before 10,
- Ant-Man, Iron Man Exp., Space Mountain
- Optional: meet Iron Man and Chewy/R2D2
- Optional: If have time before 11, ride some rides in Fantasyland.
- Fairytale Forest, Optional: meet Tink right at 11
- Optional: Ride the Toy Story Land rides if you want to but I usually skip them. Their lines are usually the longest though so ride them at 11 if you must
- Mystic Manor and Big Grizzly Mountain, explore the 2 areas
- The first showing of Lion King is usually at 12 so you can watch it before lunch otherwise go straight to lunch
- Jungle Cruise, explore Adventureland, watch the Moana show if you want, Meet and Greet Moana (she doesnt have a regular meet and greet in America outside of MNSSHP or MVMCP so this is a good chance to meetbher)
- If you have time before the afternoon parade (usually at 4), grab Pooh FP and ride It's a Small World the ride Pooh. Pooh is the same as America but Small World is a bit different.
- Afternoon parade, then catch Mickey and the Wondrous Book.
- Do whatever is left, do some shopping, meet characters, have dinner, then watch Paint the Night at closing time.

Of course anything can happen in 1 year so things could change.

 

[losfp]

Thank you so much for the suggestions. I have a year to do my research so fingers crossed

 

[fabfemmeboy]

As is our custom, we started with Tomorrowland and worked counter-clockwise around the park. The big things we made sure to hit during our one day were:
*Iron Man (we were bummed to miss Ant Man)
*Grizzly coaster
*Mystic Manor, with Explorer's Club for lunch
*Animation Academy
*night parade

But in all seriousness, we went on New Year's Day, waited in almost no lines (I think the longest was 20 minutes), and had time to do everything in the park AND go over to Tiantan Buddha for a couple hours. HKDL is far less crowded than its American counterparts on most days. Because you're going mid-January and not during a big holiday, I wouldn't worry too much about the crowds.

 

[MouseOfCards]

Hi all, just after some advice from people who know Hong Kong/have been to HKDL. We've booked a cruise next Jan that's sailing from Singapore to Tokyo, with an overnight stop in Hong Kong. This means we can tick off two more Disney parks off our list!

We will be arriving at Hong Kong 7am Sun 12 Jan 2020, leaving 11pm Mon 13 Jan.

At first I was considering going on the first day, but now I'm thinking the second day might be a better option. Mondays are generally quieter at the USA parks, would the same apply to Hong Kong? The park hours seem to be around 10-8 each day, so we can still pretty much fit in a full day no matter which day we pick. And on the second day, if we stay until 6-7, we will still make it back to the ship in plenty of time for the 11pm sailaway.

So the question is: what are the differences in entertainment, crowds, logistics etc between going on a Sunday vs a Monday at HKDL?

Can you share a little bit about this cruise from Singapore to Tokyo? Sounds like a lot of fun! (Hope DCL starts doing Asia in the next few years.)

 

[losfp]

Hi it’s Diamond Princess departing Singapore on 6 jan 2020. Stops at Ho Chi Minh, da nang, nha trang, Hong Kong (overnight), Taipei, Osaka, toba and finishing in Tokyo. It’s really ideal for us in Australia because it’s during our school holidays.

I hope dcl bring a ship or two over to Australia, or even Asia because it’s really not accessible for us right now. We’ve done a dcl cruise out of PC but it wasn’t cheap for us to get there.

 

[indoshakespeare]

Would be nice to have hong kong - tokyo DCL, we can add HKDL and TDR at the beginning and at the end