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

[BecBennett]

All caught up and following along. We're doing Shanghai and Hong Kong in October

 

[NHdisneylover]

This trip report is so enjoyable---you two have such a fun writing style and sound like a great couple. Congrats on being officially stuck together now

I'm late to the party, having just started to look into Disney Shanghai and found this. If DH's work plans solidify as currently anticipated, he will be working one week in Shanghai and the following in Chang Chung next spring----we've booked a cruise out of Shanghai for just before with 4 days in between for Disney. You have already sold me on the Toy Story Hotel. THANKS for taking time to show and tell all about it and do so in a fun and engaging way.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

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.

That sounds like a fun restaurant theme, actually!

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.

They must have wanted Happy Meal toys or something.

For some strange reason, Michaels ear of corn was ice cold, not just cooled down, but like out of the fridge.

Ew.

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

Uh huh. I've seen your facebook posts.

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.

Do you Hulk out? Because that would be cool. Julie does. This is known as being "hangry".

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.

Interesting. I would have thought they would cram a lot more shops in there.

For the lobby they had the green aliens saying “Looooooooooooooooby”. Very cute!

That's awesome!

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.

Weird, since Hong Kong is theirs again. And has been for a while.

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…

Two for the bathroom to brush the teeth with (don’t put the tap water into your mouth!)

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.

This is unheard of!

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.

I'm glad you were so pleased with the resort.

 

[Flossbolna]

It sure took me a while to get back here and still I'm only partway through your first day!

Hey, you are up to date now, and you had a pretty good excuse for your absence!

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.

You will definitely put some planning into how you want to do things. The visa will help you with seeing other sights in China, too, if that is what you want to do. I would definitely suggest to avoid summer! Somehow we found Japan far more bearable in the heat. I guess it was just that tad less humid than Shanghai.

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

It is so amazing!

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

I can definitely recommend it.

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!

I think because of being tired and hot we felt less hungry. And I have to admit that every kitty makes me think of you - but especially anything kitty and Disney combined (so pictures of the aristocats from DLP yesterday and first thought was how much you would love to see them, not just Marie, but also Berlioz was there!).

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.

Prices vary widely depending on season. For the rate that we payed for Toy Story, you could have stayed at the Disneyland hotel in the off season. So, another thing to figure out with regard to when to travel.

 

[Flossbolna]

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!

I have decided to take all complains about other countries with a grain of salt. I try to disregard all conclusions people draw and look for factual descriptions, i.e. not listen to people who say that DLP CM are rude unless I find out why they think them rude. And then just adjust my expectations accordingly.

No, we were fine fortunately.

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

You obviously need to come back! Hey, you could even try to get on some travel agent trip or so! I know that they have them to promote Nuremberg as a tourist destination.

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

Well, our summer was more than decent. The park turned into a dessert and I sat at my desk with my feet in a bucket of cold water to get at least some work done.

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

What a surprise that must have been!

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

Yes, they were really cute!

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.

Hope it works out for you!

 

[Flossbolna]

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

It's a great place! It was very crowded and is quite dark inside, so not a good place to take pictures of. But even if one would not eat there, it's worth it to have a look around.

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!!

Those red and white tiles are obviously quite a trademark!

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

It's not so bad since if you don't open the packaging, they can still have it in the room for the next guest. I think it is part of the whole perfect service mentality there.

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... !

Yes, we would have preferred the Disneyland Hotel, too. But during the high season prices are crazy. As I said to Alison, during the low season it would be about the same as our Toy Story Hotel room in July.

 

[Flossbolna]

All caught up and following along. We're doing Shanghai and Hong Kong in October

Hope you have a great trip, it's going to be here soon!

 

[Flossbolna]

This trip report is so enjoyable---you two have such a fun writing style and sound like a great couple. Congrats on being officially stuck together now

and thank you for the compliments! I see that you are practically my "neighbor"!

I'm late to the party, having just started to look into Disney Shanghai and found this. If DH's work plans solidify as currently anticipated, he will be working one week in Shanghai and the following in Chang Chung next spring----we've booked a cruise out of Shanghai for just before with 4 days in between for Disney. You have already sold me on the Toy Story Hotel. THANKS for taking time to show and tell all about it and do so in a fun and engaging way.

I think spring will be much nicer weather wise! Sounds like a great plan with the cruise and Shanghai.

The Toy Story Hotel is a good place to stay. It is not as pretty as the Disneyland Hotel. But the price difference is quite substantial.

 

[Flossbolna]

That sounds like a fun restaurant theme, actually!

Yes, this is one of the best themed areas of Shanghai DL all around. There is also a Pirate ship walk through attraction that we never got to do.

They must have wanted Happy Meal toys or something.

I was wondering if they were demanding that they should be getting free meals.

Uh huh. I've seen your facebook posts.

Do you Hulk out? Because that would be cool. Julie does. This is known as being "hangry".

Yup, hangry is me!

Interesting. I would have thought they would cram a lot more shops in there.

There were surprisingly few shops and the ones that were around were small in general. Maybe that's why they had to send all that merchandise to the outlets in Florida?

Weird, since Hong Kong is theirs again. And has been for a while.

Hong Kong is kind of an interesting place. When the Brits gave it back they made China give certain guarantees about the status of Hong Kong. It is a special administrative region and has its own currency and different laws. The policy is called "one country, two systems" and therefore Hong Kong is (somewhat) democratic. The Chinese central government is trying to gain more influence and this triggers protests in Hong Kong regularly. So, Hong Kong politics is not something the people in the mainland of China should be concerned about because they have a different system and I guess no one wants them to see too much about the Hong Kong system because people could get ideas...

This is unheard of!

Actually, water is the one thing I am always amazed at how accessible it is at WDW. I have started to just quickly hop into a CS restaurant to pick up a cup of ice water when I am thirsty. It's free and usually filtered water, so no swamp taste. Better than dragging my own refillable bottle with me.

 

[Flossbolna]

We nearly forget to eat!!

I have to admit that I think we forgot to mention an important part of our first morning at Shanghai Disneyland. Somewhere in there, most likely after lunch, we actually went to see the parade. I don’t have any pictures of the parade and I totally forgot to include it in my trip notes. That might tell you already how impressed I was with it. I have to admit that I properly cannot judge it fairly. It was baking, there was some sun. And if you think that people were pushy in lines, watching the parade was a whole other level of pushy! People were also climbing on everything around. There were literally people in the trees! My whole memory of the parade was that it was not very large, quite elaborate and cute and that everyone cheered when the Mulan float came.

The Storybook Express Parade has been there since Opening Day and likely will for years to come. It is sorta a 'best of' the IP Bob Iger and Co. wants to publicize and sell merchandise based on in the Mainland, so heavy on everything from the Fab Five to Frozen to Little Mermaid to Toy Story etc etc.

I am not entirely sure M is right and that we didn't see this on Day 2. But my notes from Shanghai are not accessible at present. And it really doesn't matter. They have two afternoon showings (or did when we were there) of this (there is no night parade there) and we wound up viewing in a terrible location near where Fantasyland and Treasure Cove connect.

M sorta covered the issue with people. But it is something to witness. Parents sticking their kids on trash cans and in trees (some hanging on lighting cords for popcorn lighting). The floats are large and impressive (yes, as M said, Mulan has a large presence) and the dialogue is about 75% Mandarin/25% English, but you can easily understand what is going on. Compared to some of the parades at WDW ... this would be considered impressive. But compared to TDR, it's just a basic character affair.


We headed back to the park just around sunset, which was at 6 p.m. Of course it was still baking hot outside, but without the sun glaring down on you it became more manageable. However, it had become even more humid since a rain shower passed through while we were at the hotel.

The entrance plaza looked far less crowded when we arrived:



This picture was taken from around the area where we started queuing that morning. See the difference?

And this is past the security check towards the turnstiles (to the left and right of this entrance plaza).



The building that you see up there as the entrance gateway into the park does look like the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland train stations, doesn’t it? That’s what it is supposed to look like. Alas, no train. It is a train station without a train.

As some of you know, I know a lot of people at Disney, including WDI. I still have yet to get a real answer as to why no train was included and how the design decision to have a station facade at the entrance were made. I can tell you to not believe the Internet/fanboy/blogger/urban myth that the Chinese don't like trains and since many immigrants from China died building OUR railroads in the 1800s that it would have been culturally inappropriate (like talking about running water to someone from Delaware) to create in a theme park. That I KNOW isn't true!

While the entrance area is very nice, it does feel strange with the fake train station and the very short Mickey’s Avenue. We are so used to have a whole entrance area to prepare you for the park that is going to come and here you feel like you are falling into the park just after the turnstiles. The only other park where I get a similar feeling is Walt Disney Studios Paris, generally considered the lowlife among the Disney parks around the world.

Lowlife?!?! That is strong. Or maybe just German. Michael has an inexplicable soft spot for Walt Disney Studios Paris. But I have to admit that recent additions have made it gain an upgrade to the poor cousin of the other Disney parks around the world.

They did have a very nice flower Mickey though:



Mickey Avenue is kind of a Toontown/Main Street hybrid. It is very well executed though and has lots of fun buildings to look at.









And if you have been around the Disney Parks empire, you will see items ripped from other parks in a copy and paste fashion here. And I can also tell you for a fact that this was how the land was designed. Young Imagineers were told to go look in the files at work that had been done by others elsewhere and change it a bit.

Between Mickey Avenue and the castle there isn’t a traditional hub, but a more park like area called the Gardens of Imagination. There you find Dumbo and the Fantasia Carousel. There is also an area called Garden of the Twelve Friends which is themed to the 12 Chinese zodiac signs, depicted by Disney characters. For some of the animals represented there, they had to dig quite deep! Yes, four of those characters are here and staring at me now. But some were total stretches to be Authentically Disney, Distinctly Chinese.

Unfortunately we never went through the Gardens of Imagination area. Partly because we were busy trying to get from A to be B, but it was also very little shade in this area (at least that’s what it looked like from outside) and it was hot and we had no intention of walking through the sun more than necessary. But it is a very pretty area to take pictures of!

We did some walking. There are beautiful bridges and waterways. But it also feels like a space designed to give the Chinese ... space. Something so lacking in a city like Shanghai. Thematically, the land is a mess. You have these Chinese gardens and zodiac a single Dumbo (with the design completely taken from when MK's was updated and moved to the circus area), a Fantasia themed carousel that looks lovely (we never rode), a meet-and greet with Mickey and then a thrown in at the 11th hour Marvel temporary attraction in a temp building that includes meets with Captain America and Spiderman, a class where you can learn to draw Marvel characters, a copy of the Iron man exhibit that was in Anaheim on the second level of Innoventions a few years ago (and still could be!) We didn't do any of these attractions do to lack of interest and time. But there is no cohesive theme to the land, much like the park feels thrown together. This park is designed to introduce and sell so many Disney brands and IP to people who may not be familiar with much (or any) of it.





We headed to Tomorrowland first – again. Hoping that we would have a chance to ride the Tron coaster with the single rider line.

Ever since we got to see some of the designs for Shanghai Disneyland at the D23 Expo in 2015 (see this update – and the following – from our 2015 trip report: California Dazzling: A Roadtrip Vacation Spectacular - Last Update and Final Thoughts 11/8) I was intrigued with the Tomorrowland spinner ride they had planned. Instead of in rockets like all the other parks you are going to be seated in some kind of gondola-pod. It looked cool to me and I do have a soft spot for spinners. This attraction is called the Jet Packs. It did look cool. Alas, we never rode it because it never had less than a 40-minute wait. That is fine for a major attraction. Not for a spinner.

It looked cool in person, too:



In front of it you can see one of the empty patches of Shanghai Disneyland. There are numerous expansion pads and they are very obvious. That adds to the feeling of things being very spread out. Disneyland Paris has those areas, too, but they put a lot of effort into hiding them.

Every Disney Park that exists, except Anaheim right now, has expansion pads set aside. Here, they are huge and obvious and being used for tent sales and picnic/seating areas. Think large grassy knolls!

The approach to the Tron coaster is quite spectacular:



The whole thing is two layers with downstairs and upstairs and you cannot get through it without changing from one to the other. So, for most people that involves stairs. There are walkways that avoid stairs, but I found the multilevel design interesting and thought that this was something they would not pull off in the United States with the amount of strollers, wheel chairs in ECVs in the parks. Well, we will see how they deal with it when they put this coaster into WDW’s Tomorrowland.

To be fair, SDL (like all the international parks) doesn't have a stroller or ECV problem. As soon as children can walk, they do. They aren't coddled and pushed in strollers until they need training bras. Their parents don't rent them to carry around everything including the kitchen sink. Likewise, if you see an ECV, it is someone with a disability that requires it. You don't see morbidly obese people chomping turkey legs as they run people over on them like you do at WDW. You don't see able bodied people too lazy to walk or thinking an ECV will allow them to cut the line either. So, you can have stairs and multi-level parks (wait, until we get to TDS where almost the entire park is multi level.

I think to some extent the prevalence of strollers and ECVs at WDW is also due to the fact that the vacation has become so pricey there and that people have so little vacation time in the US. So, every minute inside a park is so valuable that people feel the need to use any help they can get to maximize their time. We experienced something here at Shanghai Disneyland which to me was the Chinese reaction to the same problem: People eating in lines. Nearly every family seemed to have a backpack full of food and as soon as they were in a line, they would eat. Breakfast when lining up to get into the park, lunch when waiting for a show etc. It created quite a garbage problem in lines and they have since banned bringing outside food into the park.

Back to the trip reporting:

I have to say that part of the coaster’s attraction is how it defines the land as you can see in the picture above. I am afraid that with the location of the Tron coaster at the Magic Kingdom in the corner behind Space Mountain and on the other side of the railroad tracks, some of that beauty will be lost. But we will see.

We had hopes of being able to get on it via the single rider line. We saw that the normal wait time was 105 minutes. First it was difficult to find the entrance to the ride. The reason for that was that in order to ride you had to put your belongings into a locker (I seem to remember that I read something that there has been some change, but I am not sure. For us it was a very strict locker rule). However, it seemed that there were not enough lockers. So, you first had to stand in line for the lockers. We were not able to figure out if there was a special locker line for single riders. The locker line in itself looked like it would take about 30 minutes at least as it was huge. So, without knowing how the single rider wait would be afterwards I think I vetoed it and said we should better try to get on other attractions and come back next morning.

That sounds familiar. The crowds were really insane.

So, we went on Buzz Lightyear instead as it had only a 20 minutes wait and on a day like today that was like nothing!



Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue is quite different in Shanghai, it is more dark in the color scheme, lots of black and red.



And they finally have guns that work!! You can point at stuff, you see where you are shooting and you know when you hit something. So much fun!! I was really impressed how they plussed such a simple ride. For me this is a must ride in Shanghai now, but a “you really have to ride this”-ride at the other parks.

Yup, this is more like a D-Ticket at SDL. A really fun ride that is definitely a must do if you visit. I would advise skipping it anywhere else unless it is a walk on or very short wait.

From here we walked all the way over to Pirates again. This time we chose the single rider line which was supposed to have a 20-minute wait as compared to 30 or 40 minutes for the normal ride. It turned out that we had five people in front of us and it was more a walk on! We even ended up in the same boat just behind each other. It was as amazing again, so we just got back on immediately via the single rider line.

Yes, we learned the lesson that is universal. All Disney parks around the world (with the exception of possibly DL on weekends get much less crowded the final 2-4 hours of the operating day. As busy as things were just a little while before, there now were many attractions that could be done with little waiting. And Pirates, again, is so spectacular that you do want to ride over and over and over and ...

Then it was time to make a decision that we more or less had already made before this trip: Whether to see the nighttime entertainment. SDL has a show called Ignite the Dream which is mainly a castle projection show with a few low level fireworks in it. We knew that the largest part of it is also shown at another Disney park: in Paris. There it is called Disney Illuminations. We had been in Paris in May and seen it. We weren’t that impressed. The I was thinking of the viewing area and how we would be in a sea of people who consider personal space an unnecessary luxury and the whole idea of seeing Ignite the Dream was not that appealing. Also, as any experienced park visitor knows: Night time entertainment reduces wait times considerably. So, we decided to see what we could ride while everyone else was enthralled by projections.

One quick correction, the pyro there isn't all low level like in Paris. This was a tough choice for me because one thing Disney does great universally is nighttime spectaculars. They start at good and go up from there. But as M said Illuminations in Paris is about 85% identical to Ignite The Dream, just in English and French, not in Mandarin. We are not big fans of it and decided it could be skipped since it was shown at 8 or 830 with a 10 p.m. close.

Our choice fell on Peter Pan which had long waits all day long (seems to be an international thing). It had a 15-minute wait posted, but we waited maybe 5-10 minutes. Perfect timing!

It has the the same two rows ships as Paris, but other wise the whole ride is much more smoother.



I think it is actually technically a suspended powered coaster. Europapark, a German theme park has a ride that is themed after the movie Arthur and the Minimoys (not sure whether anyone knows this, it is by Luc Besson) and that is kind of a combination of dark ride and coaster. Very well done. And the Peter Pan ride at SDL felt very similar to that ride. Of course the story was classical Peter Pan. I felt that it was plussed a bit in comparison to the DLP and Disneyland versions with a few more effects. Also some scenes were a bit different.

Yes, much like Buzz, I would rate this a D-Ticket and not a C. Most definitely plussed and wonderful. One change, which I hope doesn't forbode others, is that the Indian scene is removed. You see a few teepees, but that's it. There has been strong talk in certain circles about how racist parts of Peter Pan and Dumbo are in the 21st century. Indeed, I would say "What Makes The Red Man, Red" is just as bad or worse than anything in Song of the South and we all know TWDC likes to pretend that film doesn't exist ... unless they are selling Funko toys at 10 a person to eBay sellers. There has been talk that Disney may try to edit these films, these works of art, to make them politically correct. Clearly, there was some reason why this scene that is presented in Anaheim, Orlando, Tokyo (even larger scale here) and Paris was removed for SDL.

From there we moved to the attraction inside the castle. It is a walk-through attraction, but that sounds very simple. And it actually was a very charming experience. It is called the “Once Upon a Time” Adventure and ultimately it tells the story of Snow White.

You start out lining up in a castle hallway:



Then you are let in in groups and get some introduction from a book:



You might be able to see that the book is not totally real, so it changes during the introduction. It is really well done!

You then walk up a spiral staircase which has pictures of all the Disney princesses going from newest on the bottom all the way to the oldest – Snow White – at the top:









Yes, I took pictures of all of them (my boyfriend was making fun of me because of that). Do I know the boyfriend? He has to be a saint to put up with you! And yes, I did not take a single picture of the parade. My excuse is that there was air conditioning inside and we were the only people around!! Yes, we were totally on our own. At some point later on a Chinese family caught up with us, but then overtook us.

You move from scene to scene that is retelling the story of Snow White. It is a combination of real sets and screens, but the effects are really well done!

Here it starts out with getting to meet Snow White for the first time:



And here she is cleaning with her forest friends:



All the squirrels and such in this picture were actually moving around!

All in all we were more impressed with this attraction than we had expected. It was neatly done and maybe even the best retelling of Snow White’s story in any of the Disney parks. The ride always was a bit confusing to me. I also think that it is a great companion piece to the Sven Dwarfs Mine Train coaster, which really does not give you the story of the movie very much at all.

I think it is a better attraction than the overhyped SDMT

We wandered into the castle and looked at the lovely mosaics they had there:





The ceiling there is also very pretty:



And the castle at night has something charming, too.



It was getting close to closing time and we had one big thing to do still. One of the major attractions at SDL is a raft ride called Roaring Rapids in Adventure Isle. It had massive waits all day long and we did not want to do a ride that could soak us first thing in the morning and then walk around all day long in wet clothes. So, our strategy was to do it as the last thing in the park.

We also realised that we kind of forgot to plan a dinner. Neither of us had been horribly hungry yet (amazing if you know us) and we were far too busy to finally ride rides that we did not want to spend time procuring food. We also started to realise that there were not a lot of options. I checked the app at some time and figured out that there was one place that had an official opening time until one hour after park close: Remy’s Bistro in Mickey Avenue. So, that was our dinner plan.

We could have also likely found something at Disney Town, but I think that had no appeal to us after such a long day. I think Michael is wrong here, the restaurants in Disney Town close at 10 pm, too.

We hiked all the way over to Roaring Rapids through a beautiful Adventure Isle at night. We got to Raoring Rapids and it posted a 40-minute wait. That was just before closing time at 10 p.m. We briefly debated how this could limit our ability to still grab dinner at Remy’s Bistro, but figured that we should just make it with a few minutes to spare.

Well, we get in line and walk and walk and walk and there is nobody! The line was empty!! We ended up waiting a couple of minutes until we got into our raft. It is a fun ride, we got soaked, but there is supposed to be a crocodile during the ride which I totally missed.

It is actually a huge crock-dino creature and they have had issues with it working since before opening (anyone know of a similar situation at WDW?) Even if it is operating, because you are in a moving circular raft, you can miss him or just catch a glimpse. The ride was fun. I generally hate raft rides, but to close out a day when my clothes were already funky didn't matter much. Glad we were able to do it. Again, waits during both days were often measured in hours for this. So doing at 945 or 950 was a very smart decision by us!

Everyone in our raft was wearing ponchos and they all had a great time, screaming and yelling. That was definitely really fun that everyone was so into the ride.

We went with a group of Chinese who basically knew no English, yet we all communicated just fine and had fun!

At the exit there was a garbage can for the ponchos and the interesting thing was that it was more used as a recycling bin as people in line just fished out the ponchos to wear them themselves.

With that we felt that it was definitely time find some food and we headed to Mickey Avenue.

By now the park was officially closed (it closed at 10 p.m.), but they had constant announcements that Mickey Avenue would stay open for another hour and people were invited to spend more time there. However, lots and lots of people left. From what I have been told most people arrive on the metro and since that does not operate until very late, they need to go and catch their trains.

Yes, much like at TDR. As far as I know, the park has yet to ever be open later than 10 to allow visitors and workers a chance to catch the Metro.

There was no one at Remy’s Bistro besides the CMs working there and we were relieved that there was still quite a selection. It is mainly a bakery selling sandwiches and pastries (savoury and sweet). We were quite impressed with the offerings and had a hard time to choose.

This is what we came up with to split between the two of us:



It was an Italian sandwich, a pastry with an apricot and a Portuguese egg tart. I had just been in Lisbon earlier that year and thought it was interesting how the specialty that I fell in love with in Portugal was available all over China, but then the Portuguese were the first Europeans to travel to Asia, so it makes sense.

Everything was really good! We sat outside at a table that looked out toward the castle and watched people rushing out of the park. And I think us sitting there was good advertisement for the location as it started to fill up more while we were sitting there.

After our very late dinner, we did some more shopping in Mickey Avenue. And since we had just eaten at Remy, I loved this newspaper stand just around the corner:



We looked at the candy store and at the pin store. Michael had a friend who had asked for some pins from SDL. It was a set of pins, I think with attractions. Nope ... the lands. Dangler pins for each one. We had difficulty finding them, but then in the pin store we finally saw them, but only three out of the set of six. We knew that he would be thrilled about any that we could find for him, so we went to purchase them and the lovely CM at the register chats with us about how this is a set of six pins and we said yes, we know, but we only found these. She said that she would get us the others and went off into their storage area and came back with the missing three! So, we were thrilled that we got the full set for Michael’s friend!

Just one of dozens of great CM interactions we had there. Service absolutely mattered.

And with that we left the park, took the bus back to the Toy Story Hotel and fell into bed at midnight finally with plans to try to catch the 7:15 a.m. bus to get to the park for rope drop at 8!

Up Next: We finally get inside the Grid

 

[Steppesister]

It's a great place! It was very crowded and is quite dark inside, so not a good place to take pictures of. But even if one would not eat there, it's worth it to have a look around.

Perhaps someday!

It's not so bad since if you don't open the packaging, they can still have it in the room for the next guest. I think it is part of the whole perfect service mentality there.

I guess I was more referring to people who would think they'd need a new one each day, but maybe it is there for the once in a while guest who forgets theirs and would only use the one. Nice touch.

Yes, we would have preferred the Disneyland Hotel, too. But during the high season prices are crazy. As I said to Alison, during the low season it would be about the same as our Toy Story Hotel room in July.

I looked up temps in January and it's COLD!! If I were able to go it'd be then (again, just a pipe dream) and I assume that's the low season.

It was baking, there was some sun. And if you think that people were pushy in lines, watching the parade was a whole other level of pushy! People were also climbing on everything around. There were literally people in the trees!

Alas, no train. It is a train station without a train.

That's just... sad. And pointless.

Walt Disney Studios Paris, generally considered the lowlife among the Disney parks around the world.

That just made me giggle the way you worded it.

Very interesting mix of old SoCal mission, with a bit of nautical, Olde World Europe, and Steampunk thrown in. Huh! Very eclectic.

The whole thing is two layers with downstairs and upstairs and you cannot get through it without changing from one to the other. So, for most people that involves stairs. There are walkways that avoid stairs, but I found the multilevel design interesting and thought that this was something they would not pull off in the United States with the amount of strollers, wheel chairs in ECVs in the parks. Well, we will see how they deal with it when they put this coaster into WDW’s Tomorrowland.

Very interesting and I LIKE IT! Nice change of use of space! I hope they do try to make it multi-level just to add some variety and interest.

I have to say that part of the coaster’s attraction is how it defines the land as you can see in the picture above. I am afraid that with the location of the Tron coaster at the Magic Kingdom in the corner behind Space Mountain and on the other side of the railroad tracks, some of that beauty will be lost. But we will see.

I am anxious to see the transition of space and it's storytelling.

You move from scene to scene that is retelling the story of Snow White. It is a combination of real sets and screens, but the effects are really well done!

So, kinda like the dioramas in the castle at DLR.

She said that she would get us the others and went off into their storage area and came back with the missing three! So, we were thrilled that we got the full set for Michael’s friend!

Nice work, CM!

 

[BecBennett]

 

[tiggrbaby]

So glad I found this report!

Congrats on your wedding! You both seem to get along so well!

I am super impressed with how much you were able to accomplish on your first day!

The room looked amazing!

 

[iivye]

I'm loving your trip report! I am especially enjoying the two person report format and all of the knowledge/impressions you guys are including about the park and the people there.

 

[Flossbolna]

I guess I was more referring to people who would think they'd need a new one each day, but maybe it is there for the once in a while guest who forgets theirs and would only use the one. Nice touch.

I don't they many people would use a new one every day. But the service wants you to be able to if you so wish. Ultimately, in Japan we were talking about how you could go on a trip without any luggage if you use the hotel's dry cleaning service because they literally provide everything you need for the night. toothbrush, all toiletries, nightwear. It's amazing! (More to come on this!!)

I looked up temps in January and it's COLD!! If I were able to go it'd be then (again, just a pipe dream) and I assume that's the low season.

I am pretty sure it is low season. I thought I knew about someone who went in January, but Michael says that the people we know all went during other times of the year. I have been to Disneyland Paris in January in the cold a couple of times and it is actually quite manageable. You just wear appropriate clothes and still have loads of fun! Go see the shows to warm up (more on that coming on day 2).

That just made me giggle the way you worded it.

If I make my readers laugh, I feel like I accomplished something! Thanks!

Very interesting mix of old SoCal mission, with a bit of nautical, Olde World Europe, and Steampunk thrown in. Huh! Very eclectic.

I wonder if it is supposed to look "Western"? It also has kind of a Toontown flair going on. As Michael said, they mainly through just other facades that were already designed together.

Very interesting and I LIKE IT! Nice change of use of space! I hope they do try to make it multi-level just to add some variety and interest.

As Michael said: Tokyo Disney Sea is mindblowingly multi-level. It adds so much to the park. I am not sure how much it comes out in the pictures, but it truly makes that space so much more real there.

I am anxious to see the transition of space and it's storytelling.

Yes, I wonder what they make out of it!

So, kinda like the dioramas in the castle at DLR.

Yes, also like in DLP. But moved into the modern age. I think this and Pirates are the two attractions where you felt that they really tried to upgrade the existing castle park model from the analogue age into the digital age. To be honest, I wish they would have done that a bit more.

Nice work, CM!

Overall we really had a lot of lovely CM interactions at SDL. They all were really nice!

 

[Flossbolna]

I see that you are new to my trip reports! They are unfortunately never very fast moving... But new updates should arrive soonish!

 

[Flossbolna]

So glad I found this report!

Congrats on your wedding! You both seem to get along so well!

Thank you very much!! Yes, we do like to laugh about the same things, that helps with getting along!

I am super impressed with how much you were able to accomplish on your first day!

We were determined to make the best out of the time we had! And I am very happy with what we did.

The room looked amazing!

We really felt comfortable there. It's not the Grand Floridian, but we thought it was a nice upgrade from the rooms at the All Stars for example.

 

[Flossbolna]

I'm loving your trip report! I am especially enjoying the two person report format and all of the knowledge/impressions you guys are including about the park and the people there.

Thank you! We started with the two person format on the trip report for our 2014 winter cruise. I had done it with my sister, @nodnol for the 2010 WDW trip report and when Michael complained about me butchering a story about some sundae he had at Vero Beach I told him that he had to chime in if he wants his story to be told. I write the updates, email them to him, he adds his stuff and I post it (with sometimes adding more on my own, this way I always get the last word!). And that way I also get an editor to correct my spelling (at least the mistakes that he catches!). He supposedly has an account for the DIS from a million years ago, but never used it and has no clue what the password is.

I have always loved reading trip reports myself when I first started planning trips to WDW. So, I always try to write them so as I would want to read them. And I like getting a lot of background information. I feel if I understand why a person liked or disliked something, I can use this info to make a decision about whether I would like it myself or not.

 

[franandaj]

You will definitely put some planning into how you want to do things. The visa will help you with seeing other sights in China, too, if that is what you want to do. I would definitely suggest to avoid summer! Somehow we found Japan far more bearable in the heat. I guess it was just that tad less humid than Shanghai.

I saw that PIO went to a place called Siochzo (I know I spelled it wrong), but it was about an hour by bus away from Shanghai. As I looked at her pictures I thought that Fran and I should stay there for a couple nights. I also decided that we should hire an English speaking guide who could take us around in a vehicle that I could store the scooter in the back. While I know that most areas are not accessible, we could work around it with me lifting the scooter up curbs and such.

I think because of being tired and hot we felt less hungry. And I have to admit that every kitty makes me think of you - but especially anything kitty and Disney combined (so pictures of the aristocats from DLP yesterday and first thought was how much you would love to see them, not just Marie, but also Berlioz was there!).

Aww....that's so sweet! You do know that not only do we have white cats that look just like Marie, but we also have cats named Berlioz and O'Malley.

Prices vary widely depending on season. For the rate that we payed for Toy Story, you could have stayed at the Disneyland hotel in the off season. So, another thing to figure out with regard to when to travel.

I read another report where they went in March and it was pretty cold. I'll definitely have to do some research because Fran was telling me tonight that our Family room was cold and to bring her sweatshirt there, and I'm wearing a tank top and Capris and I'm still warm. We have very different body temperatures!

I have decided to take all complaints about other countries with a grain of salt. I try to disregard all conclusions people draw and look for factual descriptions, i.e. not listen to people who say that DLP CM are rude unless I find out why they think them rude. And then just adjust my expectations accordingly.

I do the same thing for Yelp reviews. At least 1/3 to half the people have unrealistic expectations. I mean Michael just posted on FB that Taco Bell was voted the #1 Mexican Restaurant in the US. I heard that on the news before he posted and pointed out to Fran that about 15 years ago "Sushi of Naples" had been voted the #1 Sushi restaurant in Long Beach. We went there once and I was so disgusted, they didn't even make rolls to order, it was basically a "sushi factory" and has since gone out of business. It was then that I realized mass audience polls meant nothing. You have to know the expectations of the people who are rating products and trust that they have the same values as you. Most people don't share my values.

The building that you see up there as the entrance gateway into the park does look like the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland train stations, doesn’t it? That’s what it is supposed to look like. Alas, no train. It is a train station without a train.

This still makes me feel weird. A Disney park without a train. I know they had their reasons, but still....

Unfortunately we never went through the Gardens of Imagination area. Partly because we were busy trying to get from A to be B, but it was also very little shade in this area (at least that’s what it looked like from outside) and it was hot and we had no intention of walking through the sun more than necessary. But it is a very pretty area to take pictures of!

I've seen lots of pictures of this area from other TRs, so I forgive you!

In front of it you can see one of the empty patches of Shanghai Disneyland. There are numerous expansion pads and they are very obvious. That adds to the feeling of things being very spread out. Disneyland Paris has those areas, too, but they put a lot of effort into hiding them.

Every Disney Park that exists, except Anaheim right now, has expansion pads set aside. Here, they are huge and obvious and being used for tent sales and picnic/seating areas. Think large grassy knolls!

Interesting. Since I mostly frequent DL, and WDW is the only other park I've visited so far, I never really thought about it.

Likewise, if you see an ECV, it is someone with a disability that requires it. You don't see morbidly obese people chomping turkey legs as they run people over on them like you do at WDW. You don't see able bodied people too lazy to walk or thinking an ECV will allow them to cut the line either.

I've actually been able to mostly free myself of the ECV at DL, but that's mostly because I don't spend long days out there. If I'm doing a tour, yes, I bring it because I'll never make it through eight hours without help, but when we just go out for a few hours, or stay for the weekend, I've been OK just walking. It seems that my foot injury has gotten stronger since 10 years ago. I don't dare test it for three days or longer at WDW since it caught up with me in 2017.

However, it seemed that there were not enough lockers. So, you first had to stand in line for the lockers. We were not able to figure out if there was a special locker line for single riders. The locker line in itself looked like it would take about 30 minutes at least as it was huge.

That doesn't sound good. I don't think that this will be a ride that Fran can ride unless we do the handicapped accessible vehicle that I've heard about. In which case we might be able to just leave stuff in her scooter.

And they finally have guns that work!! You can point at stuff, you see where you are shooting and you know when you hit something.

That's one of my big problems! I never know if I've hit it or not!

Night time entertainment reduces wait times considerably. So, we decided to see what we could ride while everyone else was enthralled by projections.

I used to do that when I was young and the MSEP was still at DL. I really didn't care so we would all go hit as many rides as we could. Funny how things change when you get older!

There has been strong talk in certain circles about how racist parts of Peter Pan and Dumbo are in the 21st century. Indeed, I would say "What Makes The Red Man, Red" is just as bad or worse than anything in Song of the South and we all know TWDC likes to pretend that film doesn't exist ... unless they are selling Funko toys at 10 a person to eBay sellers. There has been talk that Disney may try to edit these films, these works of art, to make them politically correct. Clearly, there was some reason why this scene that is presented in Anaheim, Orlando, Tokyo (even larger scale here) and Paris was removed for SDL.

Interesting. I was annoyed enough when they made pirates into pirates chasing food rather than women. Are they going to try and say that the Trail of Tears never existed now too?

We also realised that we kind of forgot to plan a dinner.

OK, I'm sorry, but this is something that I would NEVER do!

There was no one at Remy’s Bistro besides the CMs working there and we were relieved that there was still quite a selection. It is mainly a bakery selling sandwiches and pastries (savoury and sweet). We were quite impressed with the offerings and had a hard time to choose.

This is what we came up with to split between the two of us:

And did you starve? Really I mean your lunch looked like good portions, but I would eat that entire sandwich and still be hungry!

And with that we left the park, took the bus back to the Toy Story Hotel and fell into bed at midnight finally with plans to try to catch the 7:15 a.m. bus to get to the park for rope drop at 8!

OMG! That's admirable, and I'm sure I would have similar plans, but they would all fall by the wayside when the alarm went off. I take it Michael's machinery was helping him out because never before on a TR would he have even considered such an early wake up, or was he still on some time zone where 7AM was really 2PM.

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Hi M...….and M! Like all good lurkers I'm marking my spot.