Credit: Inside the MagicIt’s been a busy year for tropical storms, with yet another impacting a Disney resort today.
Disney is no stranger to tropical storms, but this year’s season has been especially challenging. September saw Hurricane Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend, forcing Disney to close Typhoon Lagoon and cancel various park events, including Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party.
Only weeks later, Hurricane Milton swept through Central Florida. Although the damage was fortunately far less severe than anticipated, Walt Disney World Resort shut down all of its parks for the day. Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort experienced minor flooding, with the latter needing to cancel or adjust some vacations due to roof damage.
While November typically signals the end of hurricane season, all eyes are currently on Hurricane Rafael. Fortunately, it’s now veering away from the U.S. and weakening, making it the Gulf of Mexico’s first 2024 hurricane to avoid making landfall on American soil.
But that doesn’t mean the season is over for all Disney parks. Further afield, Hong Kong Disneyland has also faced its fair share of tropical storms this year. Typhoon warnings were applied to the Hong Kong Disneyland area in June, September, and October, forcing the temporary closure of outdoor attractions.
Now, yet another tropical storm is impacting Disney’s smallest theme park resort.
Super Typhoon Yinxing has sparked a No. 3 warning signal in Hong Kong today (November 9) as it approaches the coast of southern China. While it’s not expected to make landfall, the warning will apparently remain in place until at least 10 a.m. HKT tomorrow as Yinxing reaches approximately 186 miles south of Hong Kong between Saturday evening and Sunday morning.
As a result, Hong Kong Disneyland is currently experiencing some closures. While guests are still welcome in the park, a warning has been issued via its app and website:
Inclement Weather Arrangement
Under Strong Wind Signal No. 3, the park will open with limited operations, while all outdoor attractions will be suspended. For the latest show times and attraction availability, please check our official mobile app.
That means that the following attractions are currently closed:
- Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars
- Cinderella Carousel
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Hong Kong Disneyland Railroad
- Jungle River Cruise
- Mad Hatter Tea Cups
- Main Street Vehicles
- Orbitron
- Rafts to Tarzan’s Treehouse
- RC Racer
- Slinky Dog Spin
- Toy Soldier Parachute Drop
- Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs
For those at the park, wait times remain surprisingly low for indoor attractions such as Hyperspace Mountain, Iron Man Experience, Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle!, and “it’s a small world.” The longest attraction wait at the time of writing is for Frozen Ever After at 50 minutes (which is a pretty standard wait time for the World of Frozen ride, tropical storm or not).
As always, meet-and-greets with Duffy and Friends are experiencing the highest demand. The lengthiest wait in all of Hong Kong Disneyland during the storm warning is for LinaBell, with guests waiting 75 minutes to meet the beloved pink fox.
At present, the park’s fireworks display—“Momentous” Nighttime Spectacular—is still listed for 8:30 p.m. According to HK Emporium, the show will still go ahead, but without pyrotechnics.
This may not be the final weather disruption of the season for Hong Kong Disneyland, with another storm expected next week. If this storm triggers a warning, this will mark the first time Hong Kong has experienced two typhoons in November since 1954.
Have you ever visited a Disney theme park during a tropical storm, hurricane, or typhoon? Share your experience with us in the comments!