You better believe: now is a good time to visit Hong Kong Disneyland

[pogo791]

I’ve recently returned from Hong Kong Disneyland (Sept 17 – 21) and have never been able to get so many rides and attractions under my belt. On the Thursday and Friday (Sept 17 and 18), it seemed as if every single attraction was a walk-on, with zero (!) lines. On Thursday evening, I went to one of the newest attractions, the Iron Man Experience, and for five minutes I was the only one in the entire waiting area; before we entered, I was joined by perhaps half a dozen others. The number of guests picked up on Saturday and Sunday, but most rides were posting stand-by times of 10 minutes or so.
My decision to go was basically a last-minute one, since I started to think that the demonstrations (which unfortunately turned violent this past weekend) would deter a large number of Chinese guests from visiting. It is the Chinese who form the large majority of guests, and the word being spread by the Chinese media is that Hong Kong is dangerous for the Chinese. (Unfounded scaremongering, if anything.)
I therefore assumed that the prices of flights would dip, and good packages could be found for the three Hong Kong Disneyland Resort hotels. I was right; I scored four nights in Kingdom Club (concierge) level at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel, for what I regard as a reasonable price, USD 500 per night. (I just checked the site. Standard rooms at the Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel are currently going for USD 200 per night, and they advertise a few different types of packages, with entrance tickets and meals, for example.)
Hong Kong Disneyland is one of the few Disney parks to cut us seniors (65+) a break. The concierge at the hotel told me that instead of buying a ticket for each of the five days I was there, it would be considerably cheaper to buy the annual pass, which has the benefit of securing reductions from the price of meals and, often, of purchases at the Disney stores.
As for the elephant in the room (sorry, Dumbo in the room), the demonstrations, they had zero, zilch, nada impact or visibility at the park. I did spend part of one day (Saturday) walking around downtown Hong Kong, and the subway travel advisory was that one subway station in one remote suburb would be shut down temporarily “due to activity”. When walking around in the central Kowloon and Island areas which are where most tourists would go, I tried to see how many (black-clad) demonstrators and signs of a security presence I could detect. Very much nothing, was my conclusion at least on that Saturday. (In connection with this past weekend, however, the entire subway system was shut down, meaning that the only way you could have gotten from Disney to the downtown area was by a half-hour taxi ride.)
Hong Kong Disneyland itself is located on Lantau Island, where also the international airport is located a ten minutes' taxi ride away, and so it is remote from the demonstrations. After the demonstrators have twice succeeded in closing down the airport for a few hours, the authorities have put up a cordon around it, and you have to show your tickets and passport when entering the terminal building. No biggie.
But back to Hong Kong Disneyland: they are in Halloween mode now, and they do it well. Mystic Manor (with its trackless ride) is several cuts above the Haunted House attractions in other Disney parks. Hong Kong Disneyland now has a walk-through haunted house (Journey to Halloween Town), with jump scares. Hong Kong (and Tokyo, and Shanghai) are spectacular when it comes to live shows. “Let’s Get Wicked”, which celebrates the villains from several Disney movies, was absolutely stellar – I had to go see it twice, and enjoyed every minute of it.

 

[pahoben]

Thank you for this. I hadn’t thought about what a good opportunity this is. How was the park itself compared to the US parks?

 

[MouseOfCards]

We also enjoyed our time at HKDL. We stayed at both the Explorer's Lodge and the DL Hotel. We really liked the Explorer's Lodge but had a subpar experience in the Concierge Club at DL Hotel. Glad to hear you had a good time.

As expected, a side effect of the protests/demonstrations is fewer tourists and light crowds in the park. We incidentally had a trip planned to China years ago that happened right after the Tiananmen event. Talk about empty streets everywhere!

Thanks for the trip report! And the pictures!

 

[pogo791]

Small.
I'm actually working on a pet project, a comparison of the six Disney sites (including twelve parks) around the world. So far, I have a spreadsheet primarily comparing what lands, attractions and entertainment there is at the different sites. (I have no idea what I would do with this; I assume it is much too long to post on DisBoards - if indeed you can even post that spreadsheet I mentioned.)
Hong Kong, which was the fifth Disney site to be opened, is by far the smallest, only 68 acres, compared for example to Walt Disney World's MK at 105. Like the different guides available on the internet tell you, it can easily be done in a day.
However, it has expanded (Toy Story Land, Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch, the Ironman Exprience, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle!), and is expanding further (a Frozen Land and Marvel Land are under construction, to open perhaps in 2020 or 2021, and the entire Castle is under wraps, to be expanded upwards..
But smallness has its virtues. Especially now with the low number of visitors, it is a delight to simply relax, without having to stress about making FastPass reservations several months ahead of time, and then juggling them and re-juggling them, trying to get that perfect alignment. I spent a total of four days at the park, and never got bored; if nothing else, I would zip back to the Nano Battle! to try to improve my score.
If you want me to go off on a tangent, there are also considerable differences in the guest profile at the Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Paris Disneylands, when compared with Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. The two parks in the US are destination resorts, with people visiting them again and again, and staying several days on site, or as close as possible if off-site. These parks will continue to get bigger and bigger crowds. In 2017, the MK passed the 20,000,000 mark in the number of guests during the day (compared to 6,000,000 for HK Disneyland, for example). The other four parks are, for many visitors, "add on" destinations; they will definitely visit the parks, but they will also go see what Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai have to offer - and well they should.
There are of course also differences in the profile of the guests: obviously, Chinese in Shanghai and Hong Kong, Japanese in Tokyo, European in Paris, but also in whether they go as families, individuals, or with friends. (You'll just have to wait for me to complete that project to read all the details!)

 

[pogo791]

We also enjoyed our time at HKDL. We stayed at both the Explorer's Lodge and the DL Hotel. We really liked the Explorer's Lodge but had a subpar experience in the Concierge Club at DL Hotel. Glad to hear you had a good time.

As expected, a side effect of the protests/demonstrations is fewer tourists and light crowds in the park. We incidentally had a trip planned to China years ago that happened right after the Tianmen event. Talk about empty streets everywhere!

Thanks for the trip report! And the pictures!

MouseOfCards, sorry to hear you were disappointed with concierge at the DL Hotel. For me, it was anything but. The rooms were nice, and the cast members at least in my interactions were stellar, one in particular going above and beyond the call of duty in response to some of my requests.
One thing I've noticed is that the concierge-level benefits at the different Disney hotels vary significantly. Over the past year and a half, my wife and I have stayed concierge at the Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong Disneys. Of the three, Shanghai had the greatest range of benefits: in particular, a spectacular buffet of Chinese and Western snacks (substantial enough to satisfy even a big eater like me), and a very nice assortment of strong drinks for the cocktail hour (as compared to only red and white wine in Tokyo, and red wine, white wine and gin in Hong Kong.) Shanghai also had two television sets in the lounge constantly showing Disney films, which was a nice distraction for the kids (and, I have to admit, also a senior like me).
An additional quibble: HK Disneyland doesn't offer early entry for those staying on-site. However, given the low volume of guests, this is no big worry. (There is a dedicated security and ticket line, however, which may save you all of five minutes, max.)

 

[MouseOfCards]

MouseOfCards, sorry to hear you were disappointed with concierge at the DL Hotel. For me, it was anything but. The rooms were nice, and the cast members at least in my interactions were stellar, one in particular going above and beyond the call of duty in response to some of my requests.
One thing I've noticed is that the concierge-level benefits at the different Disney hotels vary significantly. Over the past year and a half, my wife and I have stayed concierge at the Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong Disneys. Of the three, Shanghai had the greatest range of benefits: in particular, a spectacular buffet of Chinese and Western snacks (substantial enough to satisfy even a big eater like me), and a very nice assortment of strong drinks for the cocktail hour (as compared to only red and white wine in Tokyo, and red wine, white wine and gin in Hong Kong.) Shanghai also had two television sets in the lounge constantly showing Disney films, which was a nice distraction for the kids (and, I have to admit, also a senior like me).
An additional quibble: HK Disneyland doesn't offer early entry for those staying on-site. However, given the low volume of guests, this is no big worry. (There is a dedicated security and ticket line, however, which may save you all of five minutes, max.)

Most of the staff at the DL Hotel were great. However, our experience in the Concierge Club was disappointing. The food quality was mediocre (especially compared to the restaurants and even the self-serve areas at Explorers Lodge). And the food offerings were extremely limited beyond breakfast and dinner. We had a late night flight out on our last night and the manager on duty wouldn't allow us to stay for dinner. (That has never happened to us for any of our US concierge stays, including Disney.) For what it's worth, a manager contacted us a few days later to apologize and said he would make sure our next stay there was more pleasant.

Glad to hear that you had a better experience than us.

 

[pahoben]

Small.
I'm actually working on a pet project, a comparison of the six Disney sites (including twelve parks) around the world. So far, I have a spreadsheet primarily comparing what lands, attractions and entertainment there is at the different sites. (I have no idea what I would do with this; I assume it is much too long to post on DisBoards - if indeed you can even post that spreadsheet I mentioned.)
Hong Kong, which was the fifth Disney site to be opened, is by far the smallest, only 68 acres, compared for example to Walt Disney World's MK at 105. Like the different guides available on the internet tell you, it can easily be done in a day.
However, it has expanded (Toy Story Land, Mystic Point, Grizzly Gulch, the Ironman Exprience, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle!), and is expanding further (a Frozen Land and Marvel Land are under construction, to open perhaps in 2020 or 2021, and the entire Castle is under wraps, to be expanded upwards..
But smallness has its virtues. Especially now with the low number of visitors, it is a delight to simply relax, without having to stress about making FastPass reservations several months ahead of time, and then juggling them and re-juggling them, trying to get that perfect alignment. I spent a total of four days at the park, and never got bored; if nothing else, I would zip back to the Nano Battle! to try to improve my score.
If you want me to go off on a tangent, there are also considerable differences in the guest profile at the Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Paris Disneylands, when compared with Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World. The two parks in the US are destination resorts, with people visiting them again and again, and staying several days on site, or as close as possible if off-site. These parks will continue to get bigger and bigger crowds. In 2017, the MK passed the 20,000,000 mark in the number of guests during the day (compared to 6,000,000 for HK Disneyland, for example). The other four parks are, for many visitors, "add on" destinations; they will definitely visit the parks, but they will also go see what Paris, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai have to offer - and well they should.
There are of course also differences in the profile of the guests: obviously, Chinese in Shanghai and Hong Kong, Japanese in Tokyo, European in Paris, but also in whether they go as families, individuals, or with friends. (You'll just have to wait for me to complete that project to read all the details!)

Very neat project and look forward to the results.

 

[doombuggy]

I arrive on November 1. I had this planned since July, I am going to the 10k on November 3. I went through hoops in July to get a room booked at the Hollywood Hotel, with 4 nights working out to about $900 US total. Would have loved to stay at the DL hotel, but the flight is already costing $1500 for a long weekend...

 

[Sandeep1]

I arrive on November 1. I had this planned since July, I am going to the 10k on November 3. I went through hoops in July to get a room booked at the Hollywood Hotel, with 4 nights working out to about $900 US total. Would have loved to stay at the DL hotel, but the flight is already costing $1500 for a long weekend...

I stayed at the DL hotel for 1 night last year and TBH, it's nice but the lack of perks don't justify the cost. If I was getting some sort of early entry, I would feel differently. But, IMO, not enough there to justify the expense.

 

[indoshakespeare]

DL hotel actually has LESS perks than the other 2 because it doesn't have a quick service restaurant for grab n go breakfast