Tuesday, April 2 Cont. & April 3 - Our Start in Shanghai
Hi guys, I'm going to start this update with some in-depth information about our arrival into Shanghai. Feel free to skip down to where the pictures start.
As US Citizens, we were utilizing the 144 hour transit visa on arrival in China. I was a little nervous about this since I had never done something like this before, but it all worked out. When we first got off the plane, there is a station where your fingerprints are all taken before you even get to immigration. After that, we passed by some booths that had transit visa signs, but I think they were closed for the day because they just had a piece of paper on them that said to continue though to the immigration area. At immigration, there was a sign labeled for us to go to, it either said transit or special. The officer had us fill out a specific paper, and then spent a few minutes typing stuff into the computer. She then had us pass through to another desk behind her, where a different officer spent time going over all of our documents and asked a few questions about our stay. I had printed out our hotel reservation and departing flight information which I highly suggest doing, as the officer needed to see that to enter it into the system. After about 15 minutes total, we were given a visa sticker into our passport and let through.
Then, we followed signs to go to the taxi stand. On the way a very friendly man who spoke great English asked if we needed a taxi. Obviously you should never say yes when someone random asks you this at an airport, so we kept walking and said no thank you. You often hear about this happening in Europe, which we haven't experienced yet, so my DH commented he was surprised it happened to us in China first. Anyway, there was no line at the taxi stand. I pulled up the Google Map of our hotel in Chinese and showed it to the driver and we were off. Another thing to be ready for when visiting China is that you can pay for everything with QR code. I had set up both WeChat Pay and Alipay before our trip, which is how I paid for the taxi ride. The driver didn't speak any English, but showed me how to use it since it was my first time. The driver has a QR code that I scanned, I then put in the amount his meter said, and it went through to him that I paid. The taxi ride was about 20 minutes and $13 USD.
For our trip, we stayed at the Courtyard by Marriott Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone. Originally, I was planning on staying at the Toy Story Hotel, but I was waiting on booking it because I wasn't loving the price. I had heard that others had stayed at the Courtyard, but what made me book it was actually TDR Explorer making a video about staying there when we visited Shanghai. In the end I was really happy with this choice and price wise, the cost of staying at the Toy Story Hotel (room only), would have been slightly more than our stay at the Courtyard where we had breakfast included and had room service and dinner in the resturant.
Okay enough words, let's see the room! It was nicer than a Courtyard in the US and the shower was really nice with a rainfall head.
Downstairs they had a little store with snacks and lots of Disney Merch, especially stuff from past the holidays. It all seemed authentic and had the sales tags and tape from the parks, so if you are looking for something in particular that you missed they might have it. I saw someone in the park with a LinaBell keychain wearing a winter outfit that I fell in love with. They didn't have it in the park anymore but the gift shop had it so I got it! It cost a little more in the hotel shop than it would have in the park, but I was happy.
We perused the snack selection and got a few things. I always like looking at chip options and here they had Mexican Chicken Tomato, Cucumber, and Texas Grilled BBQ. I would consider myself a cucumber lover, so I decided to try the cucumber chips and WOW I hated them. I really don't know why, but it was almost too cucumbery which I didn't know was possible.
The hotel has a full gym so my DH decided to get a run in while I ordered some room service. I got the Courtyard Fried Rice and DH got a Club Sandwich. We thought both were good.
We slept well and woke up bright and early! Where HKDL doesn't open until 10:30am (9:30 with early entry), Shanghai opens at 8:30am, meaning early entry starts at 7:30! Even though we only had one day, that was a little too early for me, so we decided to aim to get there at regular opening time. At 7am, we headed down to hotel breakfast.
Now, this breakfast buffet was the most amazing one I have ever seen at a hotel! In the US, I would gladly pay to eat at a restaurant like this. Some of the things they had were a salad bar, congee station, hot traditional Chinese dishes, multiple types of noodles and rice dishes, charcuterie, fresh fruits, Asian and western pastries, dim sum, custom noddle soup station, oatmeal, western breakfast foods, an Indian station, and every type of egg and potato you could want! Everything was labeled in Chinese and English and there were symbols for different allergies and diets too. They also had fresh juices and so I enjoyed watermelon juice with my breakfast.
One of the perks of this hotel is the shuttle to the parks. They also have an airport shuttle, but our flight landed too late to take advantage of that. Here is the shuttle schedule for our stay. You do need to reserve the airport shuttle the day before you need it, so we made reservations for our departing day. The hotel concierge only spoke Mandarin, but he had a translation device so it was easy to do.
We decided to take the 8am shuttle to the park. It leaves right on time from the front of the hotel, so make sure to be ready at least 10 minutes before departure. Only 8 minutes later, and we were walking into the park!
From the parking lot, you walk over a large bridge into Disney town. There were about 10 people that had wagons and strollers of bootleg merch they were trying to sell. It was really weird because some of them had groups of police officers around them preventing them from selling but then if you walked a little further there would be someone else selling stuff with no problem. It is definitely something that is not allowed, but they must be making money at it to be coming out still. It is definitely a culture thing, because at the end of the Zootopia ride before the gift shop, there was a gacha pon machine labeled "Duke Weaselton's 100% Authentic Merch", which we thought was funny. But I'm getting ahead of myself...
Donald welcomed us to Disneytown.
One thing we learned this day is that everything in China is big. There was a long line we got in at 8:17 to go through security. And by long it wasn't a long wait, but a long winding line. Then, you got into another line to get into the park. To get in as a foreigner, you have to use your passports, which is how they look up your tickets. We walked into the park at 8:43, so less than a half hour at park open to get in!
Duffy and Friends are big here, but Judy Hopps is at the top too! We saw so many girls of all ages dressed up like her this day. And though Shanghai doesn't have a train around the park, you still enter under a train station!
Though I'm really not a fan of cucumber at the best of times lol!
You probably didn't do the meal inside the castle, but for anyone with a bit more time, it was well worth it - beautifully themed rooms and was such fun seeing Mickey and co in their royal outfits!
