How long needed for the three (HK/Shanghai/Tokyo

[amy56]

Hi all,

We’ve for a long time been planning a bucket list trip to these three (four) parks for our 25th wedding anniversary in 5 years time, but I’m seriously tempted to bring the trip forward!

My boys are only 11 and 14, so literally for the next seven plus years at least one of them will be in a significant period at school and so school holidays are our only option.

I’ve been reading today that Easter is probably a much better option in terms of crowd levels and weather than August (our only two options), but would two weeks be long enough?

Perhaps I should be planning two different trips?

Have any of you done all three parks in one trip? How long were you away? Did you see much else - we are all very excited to visit Tokyo and I desperately want to see the Great Wall, which I know would mean a separate trip to another part of China, so perhaps fitting that in as well is unrealistic? (Though I can’t imagine visiting China and not seeing it!).

Is a longer period of time in August my only option? We don’t mind the heat (we love Florida in August), but would then want downtime/pool time - is that even an option? I’m just worried the August crowds might ruin the experience, as we’d definitely want to try as much as possible in every park.

Sorry I can see that my ignorance is glaringly obvious in this post - I literally haven’t been further east than Italy, so have no clue!

Thank you for any help x

[Pumpkin Pie]

We were in Hong Kong in May this year and it was very hot - can’t imagine what it would be like in August.

Personally, for me, two weeks is nowhere near long enough but that is mainly because I can’t imagine going to any of these places and only going to theme parks. By the time you take travel days into account, pool time and jet lag etc. I don’t think you would see that much of each country.

We are going to Japan next year and are struggling to fit in all we want to see and that is two weeks in one country. We plan visiting Disney Sea one day only and giving the other parks a miss.

We are all different and what makes a good holiday for one family would be hell for another. I just think it’s a shame to go all that way and not see the sights. Your older son will be 19 in five years any may not even want to go!

We were in Hong Kong Disney for one day this year and Universal in Singapore and to be honest once you are in the parks you could just as well be in Florida. I would love to see the Great Wall of China rather than another Mickey Mouse.

We found our trip to Singapore/Hong Kong much cheaper than Florida - have you priced two trips?

[amy56]

Thank you for this. TBH I’ve spent the whole morning researching and you are right - it’s definitely two holidays for us.

I know that we are all desperate to visit Japan (my eldest is in to all things Japanese and having met several wonderful Japanese people in Hawaii, we are all very keen to visit there) - and you’re right - I don’t want to go all that way and literally just do Disney.

So I’m currently thinking a two week break over Easter to just visit Japan. The problem I’m having is that, unbelievably with the ages of my boys, I literally only have one Easter break in the next five, where it works (all of the others clash with either GCSE or ALevel years for one or other of them, and I know how important the Easter break will be in terms of revision).

I’m just trying to see if there is any other time I can feasibly fit in a break to Hong Kong and Shanghai, as I desperately want to fulfil my number one bucket list dream of visiting every Disney Park soon!

[Pumpkin Pie]

I can see it’s a problem re fitting in holidays around exams. My sons were close in age and it wasn’t such a problem. We are also in Scotland and our summer school holidays start end June/beginning of July so that made travel easier also.

Good luck with the planning. Maybe you could take your children to Japan and go another year to China with your husband and leave them at home with granny! (Wouldn’t have gone down well with my sons I must admit!).

[amy56]

Originally Posted by Pumpkin Pie

I can see it’s a problem re fitting in holidays around exams. My sons were close in age and it wasn’t such a problem. We are also in Scotland and our summer school holidays start end June/beginning of July so that made travel easier also.

Good luck with the planning. Maybe you could take your children to Japan and go another year to China with your husband and leave them at home with granny! (Wouldn’t have gone down well with my sons I must admit!).

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Yes that would be the easy answer, but would go down like a lead balloon here I’m sure! 😂

[sweety_pie_747]

Hey,

I did all 3 Asian Disney parks earlier this year.

We did 2 days in Shanghai (using 72 hour visit free), 4 days in Tokyo and 3 in Hong Kong. In that we did both days in Shanghai at Disney, 2 1/2 days in Tokyo Disney Resort and 2 in Hong Kong Disney Resort.

I could have done with another day in Shanghai and another day in Tokyo (with better weather!).

I'm going to do the same trip again in a few years but explore Shanghai and Tokyo more. I've been to Hong Kong twice before so didn't need too much time there

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any questions. I have vlogs too if that is off interest.

Sweety_pie_747

[amy56]

Originally Posted by sweety_pie_747

Hey,

I did all 3 Asian Disney parks earlier this year.

We did 2 days in Shanghai (using 72 hour visit free), 4 days in Tokyo and 3 in Hong Kong. In that we did both days in Shanghai at Disney, 2 1/2 days in Tokyo Disney Resort and 2 in Hong Kong Disney Resort.

I could have done with another day in Shanghai and another day in Tokyo (with better weather!).

I'm going to do the same trip again in a few years but explore Shanghai and Tokyo more. I've been to Hong Kong twice before so didn't need too much time there

Hope this helps. Happy to answer any questions. I have vlogs too if that is off interest.

Sweety_pie_747

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That is really helpful thank you and I’d be very interested in your vlogs too!

[sky13]

I’ve visited all 3 parks but on separate trips (but I live in Singapore!).

There are some Tokyo Disneyland crowd calendars around (might be in Japanese but Google Chrome translate will be your friend). Like www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/ - will give you a good idea of what the crowds might be like or if there are any holidays that will severely impact crowd levels. TDR explorer is a great site for Tokyo Disneyland planning too due to the sheer amount of information they have!

I went to HKDL in July. It was hot and tiring. My sister brought her kids in summer - she said at least one of them was completely miserable due to the heat. Would avoid summer - so August - if at all possible…

In terms of how long for each resort, this is what I felt:
- Tokyo: 3 days wasn’t enough, the parks are big, there is lots to see and do, especially since DisneySea is so different from any of the other Disney parks!
- HKDL: 1 day is enough (but I went before the Mystic Manor/etc expansions, but doubt this made it a multi-day park)
- Shanghai DL: 1 day is probably enough. I had 2 days and felt like that was definitely enough time.

Also - China is huge and the Great Wall is really far from Shanghai, so really not sure you might be able to fit that in as well!

[doombuggy]

We did Shanghai and Tokyo last October. We flew to Shanghai and spent the next day at the park then left the following day on a train to Beijing. So 2 nights at the Toy Story Hotel. Since our train was at noon, we didn't go into the park on the 2nd day. We didn't do everything on the 1 day we were there (I did buy the fast pass set, it was my birthday and we did POTC twice). Because of our schedule, this was what it had to be, but now I would recommend 2 days for this park (they have TS land now, right?)

We spent the weekend at the Great Wall of China at Mutianyu. We spent a very relaxing weekend at this great bed and breakfast, explored the village and of course did the great wall! The best part about that was the luge ride down! Your kids would love that!

We were supposed to leave Beijing on Sunday Oct 22, but a typhoon hit Japan and we couldn't get out of China, so we stayed in Beijing until Wednesday and got to explore the city (palace, Temple of Heaven, pearl market, etc). We arrived in Tokyo Wed Oct 25 and checked in to the Ambassador (not before 3pm, they won't check you in before that) and spent 1/2 day, then full day, then 1/2 day at the parks there before moving on to spend the weekend (and another typhoon) in Kyoto.

So I would say at least 3 weekdays at Tokyo Disney.

HKDL is the only park I haven't been to. I am planning on going there at some point and combine it with a stop at Aulani (hopefully no hurricane this time for me...like when I went in 2014) and maybe DL in Calif. I am in Orlando.