An Engaging and Magical Asian Adventure (2017 trip) - New Update 09/12/2021

[Flossbolna]

He must not get out much.

Don't you know that he is one part of an international super couple?! So, of course he does get out. And you should not laugh about him, I do have it on good authority that there are some surprises about to be dispatched to Delaware.

I remember when we arrived at Aulani after 18 hours of being awake and traveling. We were so tired, but got an amazing second wind once we arrived at the resort. Something about Disney.

Exactly!! I am even contemplating a red eye flight next year from Hawaii to California if we can then spend the day at Disneyland using the same line of thinking.

Winter will definitely be better! It has to be.

Everyone says so... I will report back!

 

[Nora03]

I was so excited to see this trip report. I don’t comment much but I’ve been missing your reports. You (and Michael) are such good writers. Congratulations on your marriage! I had secretly been hoping that it would happen someday and you could each spend part of the year in your loved one’s country. Looks like you’re making that work. Good for you! I’ll definitely be following along on this report. Hoping to see a wedding picture, but I know that Michael doesn’t like to publish his photo. Maybe one of you? I’ve recently joined Instagram. Are you on there? Thanks for posting this fabulous trip and coming back to the Dis.

 

[Flossbolna]

Good to know! I wish I had stuck with languages longer in my own education.

Even if you had, how likely is it that you would have learned Mandarin and Japanese to a useful level? I would say only the very specialists would get to the point where they can travel nearly everywhere without issues.

We're off to a good start here!

Uh oh. Dealing with crowds is never fun.

Everyone talks about horrible crowds in Tokyo. But Shanghai was far worse for us (Tokyo was actually very manageable!)

That makes sense. If I lived there, I'd try to do the same thing! Or wait till peak season was over.

Yes, it makes sense. The problem was that with the park being so new, there was no pattern yet and we had no clue about this when planning the trip.

That sounds awful. I don't think I'd do well with that.

It was not nice, but the high from being in a new park did carry us through.

This has happened on our travels before. They really loved seeing a blond-haired, blue-eyed baby boy.

I can imagine! Friends of mine were in China when their kids were 5 and 3 and they came back afraid of how their kids were now totally spoiled for all the attention they got in China.

 

[Flossbolna]

I keep worrying that eventually all of the parks will start making you pay for fast passes.

I think one day this will be the case. They definitely want to, but I think currently they are still too afraid of people then getting angry.

Wow. I'm really surprised to hear that. Read the blog, so I guess it's just a different culture and matter of laws.

Yes, I found the blog gives a good explanation. It also tells you how unique this park is in the fact that Disney is forced to give in to an entity that is more powerful than them (the Chinese Communist Party). I wonder how Disney managers deal with this since they are used to being the most powerful player around most of the time.

I think I agree. It's underwhelming in the photo.

YOu have good taste in castles!

I'm thinking it might be time to retire them.

I offered to have at least one of the two shoes bronzed, like a baby shoe. There actually are services that will bronze anything for you. Michael was against it though.

Leave it to an engineer! But sure, I'll buy a geyser as an explanation.

Wow, this is high praise! I've seen a video of the ride on YouTube and it really does look amazing.

No video can do the ride justice. The great thing about it is howyou are truly transported into a different place. The illusions of the effects work so flawlessly.

Yuck! This would be a very long 70 minutes.

It was long, but there and then when we visited Europapark (a local theme park in Germany) this summer I noticed one thing: wait time that is spend moving forward at a slow speed constantly goes double as quickly as wait time that is spent standing in one spot for a long time. To me this one of the negative effects of fast pass: if you use the stand by line, that's what you do most of the time - stand.

Sounds incredible! I hope I get to see that someday. Or something like it.

I hope you get to see it!! And I hope they will build more attractions of that quality in all their parks.

 

[Flossbolna]

Thank you for the bat signal I’ll be back to read, looking forward to this report.

Great to have you here!

 

[Flossbolna]

I just found your report now and I am all caught up. We have high hopes to make a very similar trip to Shanghai and Tokyo once our two boys are teenagers! I can't wait to hear more!

I think teenagers are the perfect age for a trip like that! There is a lot of modern stuff to see and do both in China and in Japan that would definitely appeal to teenagers.

 

[DnA2010]

Newbie jumping on board we’ve only been to DL and WDW but hope to get to some of the other parks some day.

Wow those are some crowds though!

 

[Colleen27]

Wow, it has been a long time since I wandered into one of your threads. Congrats on your marriage!

I can't wait to see how your Asian adventure unfolds... We're in the early stages of planning a trip to Japan for May/June 2020 so TDR trip reports are my newest addiction.

 

[Flossbolna]

Yes, I do. I had my concerns about the culture shock before our first trip, but within a matter of hours, I was completely won over.

I think culture shock is often over dramatised. If you are a tourist doing touristy things that are not totally off the beaten path and are open to new experiences, you will get through being most foreign experiences without problem. I think it is far more something to be concernec with if you need to stay longer somewhere (for work or such) or go somewhere that is really not a tourist destination at all. And then every place can give you culture shock.

I think we have a similar thing going on here. China completely captured my heart. I like Japan as well, but not to the same extend as China. Graham likes China, too, but I think he slightly prefers Japan.

How funny that you are the other way around!

I get this. We had a kind of bumpy ride on our first Panama canal cruise in 2011 as the crew was ill prepared for such a long cruise so a do over was definitely required.

Yes, I remember that we talked about this. And I am really glad that it worked out for you!

I have been very impressed with the public transport anywhere in China I have been. We have so far sampled it in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen and will soon add Suzhou to this list.

That's good to know!

I really need to do something about this especially as I am going to break the vow to never fly Ryanair again in 9 days time when I fly yo Hamburg for a two day cruise to nowhere.

Ha! I hope you were not affected by the strike? And we do have a very nice Christmas market to visit here in Nuremberg...

I have only ever attempted doing something on the day I landed twice, once at Disneyland and in June in Hong Kong, but that was nowhere near as taxing as a full park day.

I think being in the park is what kept us going. If we had slowed down we would have gotten tired.

That sounds familiar. In June we had up to 34 degrees and high humidity in Hong Kong and Guilin.

Ugh! I read about a heat wave in Asia this summer. But then, we had plenty of days with over 34 degrees here in Nuremberg this summer...

That has been my experience in Shanghai as well. Now Beijing was a different matter, but still no problem. Pointing and smiling goes a long way in China I find.

Yes, if people are willing to help even without understand a word, it's already halfway there.

I think that was the reason why I fell so completely for China. Yes, they have an amazing culture and history, but the people are so warm and welcoming.

There certainly is a feeling of being welcomed there.

Goodness, this looks awful. When we were there in December, we commented that we would not want to visit when all the lines they have set up are full. Looks like you had just the experience.

The lines extended beyond the set up!

That was a steep learning curve for me as well, but I got used to it soon enough.

I viewed it as something that I can't change, so I tried to not focus on it. Sometimes it was difficult. But most of the time it worked.

My mantra in China is that I have been given a pair of sturdy shoulders and I will use them.

Exactly. When in Rome...

My jaw just dropped when this happened for the first time. Graham and I always joke in how many Chinese family albums we are appearing now. Like you, it does kind of make me a little special and definitely makes me feel very welcome.

I knew it would happen from friends who had been to China before, so I was prepared.

I have to say, I never even saw the FP stations. By the time we went, I could get FPs via the app and I liked this approach a lot.

The app definitely is a great improvement!

I really like the Shanghai version whereas I can take or leave the one in Paris. I only tend to go to the one in Paris if I am with somebody who really wants to do this.

I love the one in Paris and drag Michael into it every time we visit.

I am one of the few people who actually rather likes the castle in Shanghai.

We have noted that in the past that we often like different things (see the Alice maze)...

I have joined those ranks in June when I visited Hong Kong Disneyland as the last park still missing in my collection.

Congratulations!!

That is just crazy. In December, we did Seven Dwarfs Mind Train 4 times in less than 30 minutes as the ride was essentially a walk on.

I wonder if my appreciation for the park would have been different with less people around...

Oh, I would have been all over this.

While there was some nice stuff, a lot of it was also things that were really not that nice. Still it was a lot of fun. It made us wonder how much merchandise they made that they thought it would make sense to send it all the way to the US to sell it for 99 cents.

I had not realised that the ride has a single rider line.

Yes, you had to ask the CMs sometimes because it appeared to be closed, but they would open it for you. If you approach the ride, it is the entrance in the middle.

I would agree with this assessment.

I have not heard a single person say that they were dissappointed with this ride. All other new rides you always find someone who says it's nice but not all that great.

I agree with this. I had told Graham as we were walking up to the ride that I had read and heard that this is the best ride Disney ever did. His reaction was that Disney nerds would say this, but when it was our turn, he was absolutely blown away by this. He has agreed to spend another day at the park with me just because of this.

See, that's what I meant: it even wows the sceptics!

 

[Flossbolna]

Crap! I'm so far behind! I may never catch up in the fashion I'd like to, BUT, I AM reading and making headway.

Since I haven't been updating for three weeks, you would have had plenty of time to catch up!

You flew right over Crapistan!! And awww, you thought of me. I'm glad there was no forced landing in Almaty. It's awful there. Reminds me of the time a coal train derailed ahead of some friends' of ours journey and they were stuck on the train for 36 hours before help and supplies came.

I am glad about no landing in Almaty, too!! But I would hope that help would have come sooner than after 36 hours. That sounds like a crappy trip!

We were warned of a pretty elaborate scam going on that people pilfer wallets from under seats and then pass them back to others involved.

That's actually a good warning about not being too trusty with your belongings on a plane. But I don't think that it was that. If I had put it in my backpack in the bag pocket as I thought I had, it would have been very difficult to fish out without much disturbance. But I do think that for future trips I will revert back to my little travel hand bag that has an additional clip to secure the zipper. Or I could get a fanny pack - I hear that they are becoming fashionable again!

 

[Flossbolna]

Looks like the decor is simply stunning! I love these!

The marbles were wonderful and looked very stylish. The rest was a bit more plain as you will see in future pictures.

While I AM all caught up and adored your updates to pieces, this absolutely stood out to me and makes me want to visit SDL a LOT! Maybe someday I will find my way there....

The Pirates ride is truly a masterpiece. Shanghai is also easier to get to than many people think. Not tooo far from Guam, too.

 

[Steppesister]

Since I haven't been updating for three weeks, you would have had plenty of time to catch up!

I did!

I am glad about no landing in Almaty, too!! But I would hope that help would have come sooner than after 36 hours. That sounds like a crappy trip!

Well, to be fair, that was out in the middle of the steppe somewhere around nowhere.

That's actually a good warning about not being too trusty with your belongings on a plane. But I don't think that it was that. If I had put it in my backpack in the bag pocket as I thought I had, it would have been very difficult to fish out without much disturbance. But I do think that for future trips I will revert back to my little travel hand bag that has an additional clip to secure the zipper. Or I could get a fanny pack - I hear that they are becoming fashionable again!

They are, and guess who bought one for her upcoming trip.

The Pirates ride is truly a masterpiece. Shanghai is also easier to get to than many people think. Not tooo far from Guam, too.

Hmmm....

 

[Flossbolna]

They are, and guess who bought one for her upcoming trip.

I have to say that I am secretely considering going all retro on the fanny pack as well. The reason I don't is that it makes me look fat. It did so when it was in fashion and it still does as I do not have much of a waist (narrow hips, wide upper body) and I feel that it does more damage to my personal sillhouette than to the average woman. Still, they are sooo practical!

Hmmm....

Also, with the 144-hour visa-free transit you can get there without having to deal with the expensive visa process. You just have to schedule flights that take you from one country to China to another country. If you would want any planning help, I would be happy to help out!!

 

[Flossbolna]

I was so excited to see this trip report. I don’t comment much but I’ve been missing your reports. You (and Michael) are such good writers. Congratulations on your marriage! I had secretly been hoping that it would happen someday and you could each spend part of the year in your loved one’s country. Looks like you’re making that work. Good for you! I’ll definitely be following along on this report. Hoping to see a wedding picture, but I know that Michael doesn’t like to publish his photo. Maybe one of you? I’ve recently joined Instagram. Are you on there? Thanks for posting this fabulous trip and coming back to the Dis.

to the trip report and thank you so much for your nice comments and the congratulations!

The wedding was not a really big wedding and we did not do lots of pictures. Somehow I ended up with no picture of myself, otherwise I would post that. And I do not want to post a picture that has Michael cut out of it. That would be strange for a wedding picture! But the wedding was lovely. We got married on December 29th and in the evening it started to snow, really lovely big white flakes. Michael had spent quite some time in Germany in winter, but we rarely had decent snow, so he was totally happy about that. My cousin's son made a little snowman for Michael and we have some pictures of us standing in the snowfall holding the snow man. Those are our favorites despite the lighting not being perfect at all, but the memories are!

I am not on instagram, but on twitter. Shoot me a private message if you are interested in following there.

 

[Flossbolna]

Newbie jumping on board we’ve only been to DL and WDW but hope to get to some of the other parks some day.

Wow those are some crowds though!

It took me a long time until I finally got to the Asian parks, but they are absolutely worth a visit! And if you go at other times of the year, the crowds would not be as crazy!

Wow, it has been a long time since I wandered into one of your threads. Congrats on your marriage!

I can't wait to see how your Asian adventure unfolds... We're in the early stages of planning a trip to Japan for May/June 2020 so TDR trip reports are my newest addiction.

And thank you for the congratulations!

I really hope that this trip report will be finished well before you depart on your trip despite the slow start! If you have any specific questions, feel free to ask!

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 1: Shanghai Disneyland

Part 2: A Pirate’s meal and a super cool room!

We left off after being totally wowed with the Shanghai Disneyland Pirates attraction. So, now that we had been on a true E-ticket we felt that it was time to slow down and have a break for lunch. Our choice was this place:

Barbossa’s Bounty. It’s in Treasure Cove, the pirate themed land. If you are familiar with Disneyland you might be tempted to call it the “Blue Bayou” of Shanghai. But it most certainly isn’t that. Yes, some of the seating overlooks part of the Pirate ride. But that’s where the similarity stops. You are eating in a true pirate town, not a fancy restaurant. There are lots of different rooms creating a Caribbean night town atmosphere. Think of the towns that are being plundered at the other pirate rides – but before they were plundered and burned down. It also is not a table service restaurant, but instead a counter service.

This was a place we had decided on eating at before the trip. Menu looked good and early reviews, including one from friend and Disney Blogger to the Stars, Tom Bricker, helped seal the deal. As M said, you are not directly looking into the attraction except in one room, which we wound up in, and it is a very large facility.

SDL has only one full service dining venue, a character meal in the Storybook Castle.

We had heard very good reviews and while there was a line for it, it seemed like the line would be manageable. Well, who knew how long it would take them to serve the 25 people ahead of us… It is set up like a cafeteria, so you can actually see the food you are ordering. Which helps with any language barriers as you can just point to what you want. For the drinks they always had menus at the ordering point with the different drink’s logos, so you could point as well. It seemed like a sensible set up.

Well, one group of about 10 people totally threw the system however. They were unhappy about something. We have no idea what it was, but they were shouting and screaming at the CMs and the manager that came and there was a lot of whatever and then after what felt like 15 minutes, but most likely was only 5, they finally were served some food and left. Once they left, things moved along quickly.

Unlike with me, the Mrs. is being overly kind here. There weren’t that many people in the line at our dining station, but they moved at a snails pace and people kept going up to the counter and were shouting. It might have been funny had we not been tired and hungry. It’s been so long now, but I chalked it up to people who had never been in a theme park and had no idea how the ordering and getting your food process worked.

We finally had our food and found a table to enjoy it:

Michael had some sort of steak and I had ribs. For some strange reason, Michaels ear of corn was ice cold, not just cooled down, but like out of the fridge. Mine was nice and warm and very good. The ribs were delicious. They had some kind of spice rub and/or sauce on it that tasted more Asian than your typical bbq rub. I think I would have appreciated the meal more if we had not been so exhausted from the flight, the heat, the long time in line for the pirates ride and then the ridiculousness of the ordering process. But it was a very good first meal (and no bad meal followed it, we really loved the food at SDL!).

Steak was very good. Rice was very good (BTW, one of the park’s most common smells is rice cooking. It is pervasive as it is in most of China.) Corn might as well been plastic.

Since we were nearing the point of total exhaustion and since it was getting late, we had lunch around 2pm, we decided to head back to the hotel to get settled into our room, relax a little bit and recharge.

One of us was getting quite crotchety and you know it wasn’t me!

I don't remember that, but I am sure Michael is right there. @nodnol will attest to the fact that I have a tendency to become a bit unpleasant when exhausted or hungry.

On the way out we enjoyed some more of the fun Treasure Cove atmosphere:

And walked the long way around the Adventure Isle land so that we got to see more of the park. We looked at another restaurant that looked quite good:

But we never got around to try it.

I liked this rock cat as it made me think of @franandaj:

Rock ducks and a crocodile!!

At the entrance to Mickey’s Avenue there was a little merchandise cart that was like a big suitcase. It had all kind of destination stickers that we thought were kind of cute:

And then we were about to head out, but not with a stop in a shop first! This is the view down Mickey’s Avenue from the one end to the other. Yes, it is that short.

The right hand side in this picture is actually just one big shop hiding behind different facades. This is the “Emporium” of SDL and you can find a lot of things there. Pins, however, are on the other side of the street.

I have heard some Disney people say that Mickey Ave, which repurposes many buildings and facades from Disney parks around the world and has lots of details that are lost on 99.999% of Guests, isn’t all that shorter than Main Street USA in the American parks. That just isn’t true. Oh, and on the right side there is a large QSR that also got good reviews that we somehow never even walked into.

When we were there, they had just celebrated the 1st anniversary and there were some decorations for this as well as a lot of merchandise. The first anniversary merchandise has not yet made it to the outlets, so we still feel good about our purchases that were made during the trip. Here is one of the Mickey’s Avenue decorations:

True, but it has been at Epcot at higher prices than in China since at least February.

We walked back to the bus stop and one short bus ride we were back at the Toy Story Hotel, got our room keys and took the elevator to “It’s The Rootin’ Tootin’ Seventh Floor” – at least that was what we were told every time the elevator arrived at our floor. For the lobby they had the green aliens saying “Looooooooooooooooby”. Very cute!

We did our by now standard routine of getting into a new room and I took a million pictures.

The TV you see even had some English language programs available (CNN or/and BBC Wolrd?). However, they were censored. It was really a bit bizarre as you could tell that there was someone whose job it was to watch that channel and whenever something unwelcomed was talked about, it would go black and after a while when the topic had moved on, it came back. I think it was mainly when they were talking about Hong Kong.

Yes, it was when HK politics came on. And the censors were always a few seconds late, so you knew exactly what was happening. Strange. And, no, no Chinese version of Stacey Aswad on an in-house resort channel. They didn’t have one of those.

Next to the door was a closet with a set up on the wall that had slippers (mens’, ladies’ and kids’ sizes), on the top a folded reuseable shopping bag and at the bottom a normal laundry bag for dry cleaning.

Asian hotel rooms really deliver on the amenities and most of our hotels in Japan had lots of things, too. The shopping bags were really nice actually and you saw quite a few people using them in the park.

Michael’s comment on the bathroom tiles was that he was surprised that the Toy Story Hotel had bathrooms themed to In ‘n Out Burgers…

More goodies:

The metal box had tooth brushes and such. We got four bottles of water every day. Two for the bathroom to brush the teeth with (don’t put the tap water into your mouth!) and two were in the fridge. It was nice to have some cold water available in the room. However, I have to say that bottled water was not expensive at all! I think it was about a little over a dollar per bottle. And in the park they have drink water fountains that are safe and which all have bottle refill taps.

And yes, everything was replaced if it was no longer there. This also seems to be an Asian thing. In Kyoto we had a huge box with stuff in the bathroom and I tried out the hairbrush. I put the hairbrush that I had used and therefore unwrapped on the top of the box where all the things were stored in and in the evening, the box had a brand new hairbrush in its wrapper again. Who would need a new hairbrush every day?

I know I collected a lot of the items and brought them home because... because... I am a hoarder.

The toiletries are the same H2O ones that you have at WDW. With the exception that the body wash is the old H2O Aquatic smell that used to be at WDW before they went to Orange something. I loved that Aquatic! So, I was very happy to have it again!

The best feature of the room? The air conditioning! This room was our little cool haven! I had started a Twitter account (send me a note if you want to find me there, I still post pictures from our travels near and far and random pictures from Nuremberg there) and Michael demanded that I even tweet about how amazing the air conditioning is!

You have no idea how important this is to me. The heat and humidity were just horrendous, having a room that is 68-70 degrees was heavenly.

We both took highly needed showers and tried to relax a bit. Of course, I was far too excited, so I walked around the hotel a bit while Michael was showering and explored the shop, the little café (counter service) and the restaurant.

All in all we were both very impressed by how nice it was. It is definitely not a high end hotel, but it also did not feel like a budget motel. First, interior hallways always make a place a bit more comfortable, everything also seemed fairly well thought out and the décor was a lot of fun. Also, every single CM we encountered there was wonderful.

I had been apprehensive about how much we were paying for staying there because of high season prices. But for us the ability to quickly hop back to the hotel for a break was such a great bonus and I truly fell in love with the atmosphere there.

Yes, we had talked about staying here a lot. For a while we even considered the SDL Hotel, the only other Disney option and higher end property. In the end, this place was perfect for us. But it does have a weird feeling, like much of SDL. The outside of it really isn’t much more attractive than it appears in pictures. But the inside is so much better. So, it sorta is a value resort, if you are using the soon to disappear WDW labels, yet in many ways is more luxurious than WDW moderates on the inside. Very hard to explain, but would recommend the place to anyone. It was our little peaceful haven to retreat to when the heat and crowds got to us.

Up Next: We nearly forget to eat!!

 

[franandaj]

It sure took me a while to get back here and still I'm only partway through your first day! I know there is no way Fran and I could push through sleeplessness, and in that kind of heat we would be done. Sounds like I'm going to need to do a lot of research on China weather. It's evidently very cold in February but burning hot in June. I already asked Fran and she wants to do the full Visa thing and not the 144 hour transit.

I've heard awesome things from everyone about the pirates ride. I'm glad it perked up your day!

 

[franandaj]

OK all caught up now! Barbossa's Bounty would be on my list as well. I've heard their food is pretty good.

I am definitely unpleasant when I'm hungry or tired and don't know how you made it until 2PM! How sweet that the kitty made you think of me!

The hotel looked really cute. I want to stay at the other hotel, but I haven't checked prices ever, so that may change when reality sets in. Odd about how they replace everything even when it's only been used once.

 

[dolphingirl47]

I think culture shock is often over dramatised.

I would agree with you there. I just read and heard so many horror stories about people visiting China that I started to freak out a little. Of course, I came to the conclusion very quickly that they are probably the same kind of people who book a cruise from Shanghai and then complain that the ship is full of Chinese people!

Ha! I hope you were not affected by the strike?

No, we were fine fortunately.

And we do have a very nice Christmas market to visit here in Nuremberg...

I know. I have been there in my teens and I keep telling my customers how lovely it is.

But then, we had plenty of days with over 34 degrees here in Nuremberg this summer...

For once, we had a decent summer here as well.

The lines extended beyond the set up!

Oh goodness.

I knew it would happen from friends who had been to China before, so I was prepared.

My research let me down there. I had no clue what was going on when the first person waved the camera at me.

The app definitely is a great improvement!

I loved it.

This is the view down Mickey’s Avenue from the one end to the other. Yes, it is that short.

It felt very long at the end of the day though.

I love this. The Rubik's Cube nightstand made me smile.

That is good to know. I hope that they have H2O+ at the Hong Kong Disneyland hotel, too. This is one of the few cosmetics brands I can use without getting a reaction to it.

Corinna

 

[Steppesister]

Barbosa's Bounty looks like a ridiculously fun place! What fun theming! The food doesn't look too bad either.

The room looks clean and well decorated. But, I agree with Michael, the first thing I thought of was In 'N Out as well. LOL!!

A new hairbrush every time? Okay, that's just... weird. And pretty wasteful.

I did a bit of research on the hotels there thinking that maybe, MAYBE I'd make it over there before Andrew leaves Guam, (I doubt it, but was curious) and thought the other hotel looks amazing. One can dream... !