Hong Kong at Thanksgiving

Beckysc

Mouseketeer
Joined
Sep 26, 2000
So, we are planning a trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo for Thanksgiving. All the protests were just starting when we booked and we didn't realize how bad they would get.

So, we were planning on going to the parks and doing some sightseeing....then we decided to just make it a park trip. Now with it spilling over to the airport, we are deciding if we should just cancel the Hong Kong section.

Any thoughts?....no idea if we should wait it out and try to change things later.
 
I wouldn't go to Hong Kong at the moment. I would delay cancelling as long as you can, in case the situation improves, but I wouldn't count on it. This situation is extremely complicated and can take a while.
 
Assuming nothing changes in the next month, I recommend you reconsider your trip because you could get trapped at the airport. There's also a chance of strikes causing attraction closures. You could be completely fine but you still run the risk of something making your trip less than ideal.
 


I would goto and concentrate on Tokyo, the issues that are going on in HK right now are not going to die down anytime soon. The government has given in to one of the protesters demands, which was the one that started all this, but have not brought up the other 4 things that the people of Hong Kong want. This is going to go on for awhile. Hong Kong is a great place and the park was really cool when I was there last year.
 
I know i'm replying late but if you haven't been monitoring things have gotten worse since early September. Protests are turning into riots and the level of violence seems to be ramping up. The entire subway system, which makes up most of the city's transportation, has been shut down the last couple of days due to the unrest.

I grew up in HK and was planning a trip there in november as well and I cancelled my trip. Gelatoni fan suggested in another thread not to visit HK at this time and i agree. I would suggest you spend more time and enjoy yourself in Tokyo instead.
 
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I know i'm replying late but if you haven't been monitoring things have gotten worse since early September. Protests are turning into riots and the level of violence seems to be ramping up. The entire subway system, which makes up most of the city's transportation, has been shut down the last couple of days due to the unrest.

I grew up in HK and was planning a trip there in november as well and I cancelled my trip. Gelatoni fan suggested in another thread not to visit HK at this time and i agree. I would suggest you spend more time and enjoy yourself in Tokyo instead.
I am replying late, too, and you may have already changed your plans.
You didn't say how many days you have. If it's just the long Thanksgiving weekend, absolutely concentrate on the two parks at Tokyo Disney.
But if you have a full week, adding on Hong Kong to your flight itinerary would not cost that much extra, and despite what others have advised you regarding airport closures and general unrest, I went two weeks ago and had no problems. The airport itself has been cordoned off by the authorities to keep the demonstrators from disrupting it (easy to do, since it is on Lantau Island), and Hong Kong Disneyland is only a ten minutes' taxi ride away, on the same island.
Moreover, Hong Kong Disneyland is very doable in one or two days, and my experience was that the lines were the shortest I have seen them in any Disney park since the 1980s.
 


Here is an update on what we are doing.

Our plan is to fly into Hong Kong Wednesday before thanksgiving. Our flight lands early on Wednesday and we will go straight to our Disney hotel, leaning towards Explores Lodge, and then to the parks. Spend the night in the Disney hotel, check out Thursday and leave our bags at the hotel and spend the day in the park. Thursday evening, head to Kowloon to see the harbor light show. My son has found an Ibis hotel he wants to stay at in north point on Hong Kong Island.
Friday morning, check out Victoria Peak. Our flight leaves for Tokyo at 2 ish, so we would head to the airport in plenty of time.

Does that sound like a do-able time line? I'm hoping that we will miss the protests since we wont be there over the weekend.

I also have a few general questions.... do most places in Hong Kong take regular US Visa or MasterCard? We had one issue on our trip to Paris where we didn't have a credit card that had a pin....we were trying to purchase train tickets from a kiosk machine and we did not have a pin that was required.
Also, I'm not sure how much HK dollars to bring...if we are able to use our cards most places.

Any advise is most welcome.
 
Assuming nothing drastic changes, that seems fine.

But you should know that a lot of the restaurants and shops at the Peak don't open till like 11 so there may not be much to do other than walk around outside given your time. While unlikely on the day of your flight, some days the airport express goes down for absolutely no reason and you may be forced to disembark your bus/taxi some distance away from the airport and walk quite a distance to the airport.

Places that take credit card should have no problems with the lack of pin. But a lot of food places don't take credit card or have a minimum spend to take card. So if you eat anything local or at the food stalls/carts in Disneyland, you will need cash. Taxis are also cash only.
 
Here is an update on what we are doing.

Our plan is to fly into Hong Kong Wednesday before thanksgiving. Our flight lands early on Wednesday and we will go straight to our Disney hotel, leaning towards Explores Lodge, and then to the parks. Spend the night in the Disney hotel, check out Thursday and leave our bags at the hotel and spend the day in the park. Thursday evening, head to Kowloon to see the harbor light show. My son has found an Ibis hotel he wants to stay at in north point on Hong Kong Island.
Friday morning, check out Victoria Peak. Our flight leaves for Tokyo at 2 ish, so we would head to the airport in plenty of time.
Does that sound like a do-able time line? I'm hoping that we will miss the protests since we wont be there over the weekend.
I also have a few general questions.... do most places in Hong Kong take regular US Visa or MasterCard? We had one issue on our trip to Paris where we didn't have a credit card that had a pin....we were trying to purchase train tickets from a kiosk machine and we did not have a pin that was required.
Also, I'm not sure how much HK dollars to bring...if we are able to use our cards most places.

Any advise is most welcome.

Beckysc,
I would say your Disney end sound manageable, but you may have to think about switching Victoria Peak to Thursday - which would mean a very crowded schedule.
Let's work backwards on your Friday. You said your Tokyo flight leaves at 2ish (pm). Because of the "civic activity" (the powers that be have a lot of puzzling ways of referring to at times violent demonstrations, this was one I heard a month ago while in Hong Kong), airlines recommend that you try to get to the airport three hours before your flight, which in your case would mean 11 am. That, in turn, would mean leaving downtown Hong Kong about 10 am. Taking the tram up to (and down from) The Peak, including buying the ticket, hiking a block up to where the tram leaves, riding the tram, then climbing several flights up from the tram terminal at The Peak to the lookout level, taking a few photos, and then the whole thing in reverse, would probably require two hours in all - meaning that you will be running yourself ragged, even with a very early start.
I would strongly recommend visiting The Peak on Thursday afternoon. (You can do Hong Kong Disneyland Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning; crowds have been fairly thin recently, and most rides have been walk-ons.) You might even think of trading your anticipated harbor light show for watching the sun set over Hong Kong from the vantage point of The Peak, and admiring the view at evening time. It is quite a sight.
As for arriving in Hong Kong Wednesday morning and heading out for the park, you are the best judge on how well you do with jet lag. As long as you can sleep on the plane, jet lag isn't generally that much of a problem when you have a west-bound flight. The park does close already at 7:30, so you could probably keep going until then, and then sleep soundly that night - to get up for a late breakfast, check out and get to the park gates before rope drop at 10:30.
You are right that the demonstrations have so far been mostly on the weekends. Hope things stay relatively calm for you on Thanksgiving.
Yes, Visa and in particular MasterCard are relatively widely accepted. You can use the ATMs at the Disney hotels and the park to take out a small sum of Hong Kong dollars.
 
beckysc
I agree with others that trying to do the Peak on Friday probably isn't going to happen. I agree with pogo791 that you're better off doing Victoria Peak either on thursday afternoon before the harbor light show or foregoing the light show all together and see Hong Kong from the Peak at night. It is a breathtaking sight.

Alternatively, maybe you can consider landing on Wednesday going straight to the city, take your time and seeing the city, leaving you plenty of time to see both the peak and light show, and staying at the Ibis hotel in North Point Wednesday night. Then spend an entire Thursday at the park and stay at a Disney hotel. That would make your Friday departure a lot easier since you're right next to the airport already.

It sounds like you are interested in exploring HK and personally think it's worth giving up a day at HK disneyland to do it. This is coming from a DL AP holder. Also being in the city on hump day in the middle of week may mean it's less likely that you will run into "civic activities". As much as the protests have torn apart HK, it is still a beautiful city and i would encourage you to explore it.
 
I agree with the other posters that you won’t have time to do the Peak on your last day. Also, prepare to be underwhelmed by the light show. After living in HK for 2 years, in my opinion, it is the most over-hyped thing ever advertised for tourists. I assume you would watch it from TST (Tsim Sha Tsui), and that was one area of Hong Kong that I actively avoided due to crowds. There is some great shopping and restaurants there though.

Is there a specific reason he picked a hotel in North Point? I would suggest finding one closer to the places you’d like to be. Not on the peak, but any place in Central or Sheung Wan would be more convenient to access the Peak. There’s a great little affordable boutique hotel in Sheung Wan, and also an ibis there as well. Or stay in TST so you don’t have to deal with the mtr or a bus after the light show. North Point just seems like a really random location to choose to stay if you aren’t looking to do anything specifically in that area.

Credit cards: as long as it has a chip you should be ok at most places. I would make sure that you also carry a debit card that will allow you to get cash from an atm if needed. Sometimes stores would run the card the wrong way and ask you for your pin, but we just told them no pun and they would re-run it. Living there 2 years we never had issues with our US based cards, once I replaced my old credit card with one that had a chip.

My suggestion: bring more HKD then you think you’ll need. Everything is expensive. I don’t know if you plan on taking the mtr or taxis to get around, but taxis are cash only, and I’m not sure if you can buy mtr tickets by card. Busses are cash or octopus only.
 
I also agree with Zemba's point about staying in North Point. North Point is a pretty straight forward mixed residential/commercial district with not much to do. On top of Zemba's recommendations of Sheung Wan and Central i would add Causeway Bay, which has a lot of shopping and dining options that i think is better than some of the touristy areas.

When i left HK in 2003 there was never a light show and I never thought HK needed one; the city skyline at night with its static lights was beyond beautiful IMO. i would say Zemba is probably right that the light show is probably tacky and underwhelming and designed to get you to go to Tsim Tsa Tsui which is a very touristy area. I would venture to guess that seeing HK from Victoria Peak at night would be better than the light show.
 
Thanks for all the replies. It is really helping me tweak our trip. We will rethink the HK hotel.

My son is 16, loves Disney and he has been doing most of the planning, which he really enjoys. We did Disneyland Paris at spring break and he basically did all the research...picked the hotels, let me know which rail pass to get, did all the math for park tickets, etc. I was basically along for the ride. I've been to HK once, 25 years ago, for a quick weekend trip by myself (we were living in Guam at the time). I remember basic parts of that trip. It was also before the internet, and I had help with the planning by someone on from the travel agency on base,
 
Thanks for all the replies. It is really helping me tweak our trip. We will rethink the HK hotel.

My son is 16, loves Disney and he has been doing most of the planning, which he really enjoys. We did Disneyland Paris at spring break and he basically did all the research...picked the hotels, let me know which rail pass to get, did all the math for park tickets, etc. I was basically along for the ride. I've been to HK once, 25 years ago, for a quick weekend trip by myself (we were living in Guam at the time). I remember basic parts of that trip. It was also before the internet, and I had help with the planning by someone on from the travel agency on base,

Make sure he prices out the Magic Access pass to see if it's worth it. If your son brings his student ID card, he can get a student Magic Access pass. A student Silver pass is only a little bit more than a 2 day adult ticket but you'll likely make up the difference using 25% off dining and 10% off merchandise discounts. Or you may see if you can buy one ahead of time to get the hotel discount if you can't find any better hotel discounts elsewhere.
 
So....any recommendations for where we should stay for one night? It will be Thursday Nov 28, Thanksgiving evening. It will be for me and my son.

I really do appreciate all the suggestions.
 
So....any recommendations for where we should stay for one night? It will be Thursday Nov 28, Thanksgiving evening. It will be for me and my son.

I really do appreciate all the suggestions.

It depends what kind of hotel you are looking for-Hong Kong hotel prices range drastically!

For an affordable stay, I really like Sohotel in Sheung Wan and the Cordis in Mong Kok. Cordis is definitely nicer, but SoHotel was more affordable. For easier access to the peak, I’d choose SoHotel. Small rooms, but very friendly staff, and only about a 5 minute walk to the mtr.
 
It depends what kind of hotel you are looking for-Hong Kong hotel prices range drastically!

For an affordable stay, I really like Sohotel in Sheung Wan and the Cordis in Mong Kok. Cordis is definitely nicer, but SoHotel was more affordable. For easier access to the peak, I’d choose SoHotel. Small rooms, but very friendly staff, and only about a 5 minute walk to the mtr.

Not familiar with the hotels but I would recommend staying in Sheung Wan over Mong Kok. Mong Kok has been an epicenter for some of the more violent protests so i would avoid staying there this time around just to be on the safe side. Sheung Wan is also much closer to Victoria Peak
 
My wife and I were in HK October 12-16th. i never saw any protest. I heard of something on Nathan road near where our hotel was. But I didn’t go that way.
The light show is like going through the driv—thru of McDonald’. You are excited to there, but will be disappointed in the outcome. i really tryed to watch it from my room on the 111th floor of the Ritz Carlton in Kowloon. But then went to take a shower. please see picture of the light show, nothing impressive.
we did enjoy our time at HK Disneyland. Space Mountain and Mystic Manor are great.
Visa, MC, and Amex are all acceptable forms of payment, HK dollar just get it from an ATM.

the Ritz-Carlton is at the ICC and it on the orange line and the airport express in the basemen. Very nice.
 

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Thanks for all the replies. We have moved around our plans a little. Our new plan has us going to tour the peak and the city on our first day, Wednesday. We will come back to spend the rest of the day at the park and then spend the next full day at Disney.
My husband did not want us to stay in the city had risk having an issue getting back to the airport for our flight. He also found he had some hotel vouchers that we will be using during our stay.
 

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