A Whirlwind Trip to Shanghai Disneyland!

[Dentam]

Hi Everyone!

As promised, here is my report about my short trip to Shanghai DL! This jaunt to the park came at the end of an amazing two week trip to China, where we gave talks at two conferences, one in Shanghai and one in Yangzhou. Following the conferences we also traveled to Beijing, where we visited the Great Wall, Ming Tombs, Temple of Heaven, and Tiananmen Square.

Since we were flying out of Shanghai to get back home, we decided that visiting SDL would be the perfect way to end the trip. I was really excited to stay at each Disney hotel here, as well as to ride the new attractions, especially the new Pirates ride. Well, that last part didn't work out so well, but more on that later...

Plenty of pics to come and feel free to ask me any questions you may have as we go along - I will do my best to answer them!



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[GusIsaFoxhound]

What- that's it??? Just kidding, really, but I'm looking forward to your report, as it's only 38 days til I get there. we, too are doing it last on our trip- we have an 8 day tour of Beijing and Shanghai first. Disney is the delightful finale to our trip, and just by coincidence that it opened a few weeks after we'd booked our tour. I hadn't even known it was opening!
Anyway......looking forward to your views.

 

[Dentam]

What- that's it??? Just kidding, really, but I'm looking forward to your report, as it's only 38 days til I get there. we, too are doing it last on our trip- we have an 8 day tour of Beijing and Shanghai first. Disney is the delightful finale to our trip, and just by coincidence that it opened a few weeks after we'd booked our tour. I hadn't even known it was opening!
Anyway......looking forward to your views.

Lol! I took a ton of photos of both hotels and the park, and will start posting them tomorrow! I hope you have a GREAT trip!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Can't wait to read all about it!

 

[Dentam]

After visiting the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on Wednesday morning, we hopped on a high speed train to Shanghai for the last leg of our trip. About five hours later, we arrived and our very kind hosts in Shanghai (we were speakers at a conference and they took great care of us throughout the first part of our trip) insisted on coming to pick us up at the train station. Side note: You might recognize the Temple of Heaven from the China pavilion at Epcot - it was a very interesting place to visit and I'd highly recommend it!





The drive to the Toy Story Hotel took about an hour, and there was a bit of confusion with how to get there. We could see the enormous castle from the highway before the exit to the park, which was exciting. We ended up missing the turn for the hotel and winding all through the parking lot and other areas, but we finally arrived!!

We said goodbye to our hosts (one wished us luck, lol - they thought we were a bit crazy for going to SDL because of the crowds they'd heard about) and checked in at the desk. The cast members here were super helpful and eager to practice their English. And there were a LOT of them. I think the hotel was actually overstaffed from what we saw this evening and the following morning. But that's better than the opposite and I'm sure they'll figure out the number they will need based on visitors soon.

Here is the check in desk - cute pics of Toy Story characters all over the walls in this resort!







We got our room keys (heads up that these are your park tickets also) and a map of the hotel in our packet and set off for our room with a bellman leading the way. It was kind of funny, because he was practicing his English and said, "lady, where are you from"? All of the cast members were so nice throughout our stay, even when they couldn't speak much English, they tried their best to help us.





I loved the elevators - Toy Story characters would talk to you as you got off on your floor - "Yeehaw, we're here"! and other cute phrases!



At last, we arrived at our super cute room!! I took a bunch of pics - just loved how bright and clean it was (doesn't hurt that it had been open for less than two months!) and all of the great theming throughout.








More pics of our room in the next post!


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[Dentam]

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[Dentam]

A few more pics of our room!







There was a bag that you could take as a souvenir and also some post cards along with a welcome letter in a folder on the tv stand. I took the letter and post cards, but not the bag. The SDL hotel had a really nice bag that I did end up keeping.



Every hotel we stayed at in China had a selection of teas along with a pot to heat water in.

Since it was already about 9:00pm and we were pooped from our day of traveling, we just headed downstairs to see if the cafe was still open for dinner. It was! There were barely any people down there but plenty of cast members, lol! I will post pics of our dinner later on today!
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[Catvondita]

Following along. This looks great!

 

[MrsTurnerLovesDisney]

following

 

[Feistygirl916]

Any chance you could get a close up picture of the recreation/activities calendar for the hotels? We are staying at the Toy Story hotel in November

 

[Dentam]

The quick service restaurant at the Toy Story Hotel is called Sunnyside Cafe and is really nicely themed with great artwork on the walls and hanging from the ceilings. Flat screen tv's are also located throughout and were showing old Disney cartoons that evening. We almost had the place to ourselves!













There were no western style food options for dinner (though there were a few at breakfast the next morning), which we were fine with since we loved the food in China. I opted for a chicken dish with chestnuts and some sort of sweet pear juice which was pretty good!



After eating dinner, I took a few more pics of the first floor area where the cafe is located before we headed up to our room to get a good night's sleep before hitting the park the next day!






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[Dentam]

Any chance you could get a close up picture of the recreation/activities calendar for the hotels? We are staying at the Toy Story hotel in November

I am home already, but I did bring the welcome packets that we got when we checked in back with me, so I'll see if it is in there!

 

[vettegirl]

This is amazing!!!

 

[Dentam]

Here are a few more pics from the first floor that wouldn't fit on my previous post:









I just loved all of the artwork throughout this hotel!!

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[Dentam]

This is amazing!!!

Glad you are enjoying it! It was a great trip and I was really impressed with both hotels! We actually stayed up until 1am taking pics at the SDL Hotel - we loved it that much!

 

[Dentam]

Any chance you could get a close up picture of the recreation/activities calendar for the hotels? We are staying at the Toy Story hotel in November

I found the activities calendar in my packet - here you go! I also included a close up pic of the hotel map. I'll do the same for the SDL Hotel when I get to that part of the TR.






Another side note: we were located in room 5136 and it was easy to know which way to turn after getting off the elevators since the carpet in each hallway was color coded according to the colors on the map.

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[Dentam]

The next morning I took a couple of pics out of our window - we were facing the bus terminal and off to the right side was the Buzz Lightyear courtyard. We didn't have time to walk around the rest of the hotel, so I don't have any pics of the kids' splash area.





I headed down to grab some breakfast and got a couple of things for Kelly, my travel buddy on this trip - she was a bit slow to get ready in the mornings so this helped to speed the process up a bit. Plus we still had to take our bags down to the bell desk so they could transfer them to the SDL Hotel for us while we were in the parks that day.

I headed to the Sunnyside Cafe for breakfast.



There were a couple of western style options for this meal, along with the typical Chinese options of steamed buns, noodles, dumplings, etc. I was in the mood for more familiar food for breakfast so I opted for the "Western Set". It came with tea or coffee and there was hot water available along one wall in the restaurant for making your tea. I enjoyed this breakfast!







There is also a small market next door where you can get pastries and coffee. I got Kelly a mickey shaped chocolate muffin and the fruit cup you see on my tray above which was sold in the Sunnyside Cafe next to the bottled drinks.









They were still using the Grand Opening bags and there was also still a lot of the merchandise available in many of the gift shops on property.

Next up: We head to the park!!

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[Lisann]

Enjoying your trip report! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip!

 

[GusIsaFoxhound]

This has been great to read so far- thanks!
So, breakfast is not included in your stay, is it? I saw prices on the menu, or is that for people who come in 'off the street'?

 

[bcwife76]

Oh wow, I LOVE the theming of the Toy Story hotel!! They really did a good job it looks like!

Oh my gosh, mickey shaped muffins....adorable!!!

Can't wait to read about your park days!!