Hong Kong or China First?

[Nomarian]

All,

For those of you that have done both Disneyland Hong Kong and Shanghai, which one should I be going to first coming from the USA? I want to make sure that doing the whole visa thing is easy and smooth. Thanks.

 

[zanzibar138]

As far as your visa is concerned, it shouldn't matter which one you do first. Personally I like to finish off with HKDL as it's a familiar park and a more relaxed way to finish off the trip, but that may not be the case for you.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I agree with Zanzibar. It really doesn't matter which one you do first. It'll come down to personal preference and which way you can get the flights to work for you. Have fun.

 

[Karin1984]

I booked China first due to the cultural differences between what I had read about guests in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo. As the last memory usually stays with you the longest I decided to end in Tokyo and start with Shanghai. I would probably prefer to remember the polite Japanese guests the longest.

(Yes, this doesn't sound very nice and politically correct, I know. But I had to make a decision)

 

[Agent 86]

I would start with Shanghai and finish with Hong Kong.

Shanghai can be pretty crazy and confronting / stressful (e.g. constant attempts to push in line). I found Hong Kong to be more relaxing, so even though it may not have the same "wow" factor, I would elect to finish in Hong Kong.

I recently did Tokyo and Shanghai on the same trip. I really wish that I'd done Shanghai first and Tokyo second. It was a major culture shock going from Japan to China, right from leaving extremely unfriendly customs to find someone trying to steal our luggage!

 

[DisneyRegulars]

We just did all three. I completely agree with Shanghai first. It's an amazing park, but the pushing in line is something else. You really have to be uber territorial or they will push right past you as though you aren't even waiting for the same ride they are.

Hong Kong last because it will be much much less crowded, and a more relaxing way to finish the trip.

 

[katt789]

I agree and say Shanghai first, we did Tokyo, Shanghai then HK and it worked great in that order. Shanghai was HUGE, and there are some customs that you may not be used to, so to #1: get that over with first, and #2: start with it so you don't be accostomed to the super low crowds chill feel of HK to then land yourselves in a gong show of shanghai lol.

THAT being said, we had minimal to no problems in Shanghai, never encountered any super rude people in the parks or in the city (we've dealt with FAR worse at WDW...) YES, there is some "crowding" or "pushing/shoving" but it wasn't too bad.

 

[psakid]

144 Hour Transit Visa is another reason to Shanghai first then Hong Kong.

If you travel using the 144 hour Transit Visa (its free), all you need to show the immigration officer is a boarding pass with confirmed seat (non-rev won't work) to another country other than the one you traveled from when you entered Shanghai (i.e. SFO-PVG-HKG, not SFO-PVG-LAX). Search on-line for the list of eligible countries that participate along with program details. Beijing and other cites have 72 hour Transit Visa's. You could reverse this as well (say HKG-PVG-LAX), but I agree with the others that ending in Hong Kong or Tokyo would leave better memories than those of rude/selfish park guest in Shanghai. My family too had a good time there, but we enjoyed Hong Kong/Tokyo better overall and we rather not go back for awhile.

This is not to change anyone's mind about going, but rather to give you a heads up. Once you 'go with the flow' or accept their behavior, the trip is good. I know we can find some of that line cutting and such here in the states, but it just seems that they have the numbers to push it beyond occasionally to regularly.

PS-The food in the park is ok, but we found more selections and better prices outside at Shanghai Disneytown.

 

[Agent 86]

I agree with both of psakid's suggestions.

In the immortal words of Queen Elsa, "let it go" when it comes to line cutting, etc. I spent far too much of our first day worrying about this and it impacted my enjoyment of the park because I was constantly "tussling" with locals about our position in line. Just accept that people will push past you when in line and try not to fight it unless it's serious numbers (e.g. a group of 10 or more).

I also found the food in the park to be disappointing. The dishes had no real flavour and a lot of the meat was "on the bone" which I don't love. The exception was the Snuggly Duckling / Tangled themed restaurant which had great flavour and great serving sizes. The restaurants do have nice theming and it was nice to eat in their version of "Blue Bayou" cheaply, but the food was definitely better in Disneytown. However, on one of our non-Disney days, we went to Disneytown for lunch and some restaurants were very crowded and it took a while to wait in line for entry, to order, etc. So, if you're pressed for time (i.e. you want to get back into the park ASAP) you may need to be selective about where you choose to eat.

 

[Flossbolna]

all you need to show the immigration officer is a boarding pass with confirmed seat

How would it be possible to get a boarding pass for a flight that is more than 24 hours away? I have never been able to check in for a flight any earlier than 24 hours before departure.

We had a confirmed ticket and that was fine. The agent at the airport in Germany (from where we departed for Shanghai) at first insisted on a boarding pass, too, but then after some deliberation with her supervisor finally agreed that the ticket was enough.

 

[Karin1984]

How would it be possible to get a boarding pass for a flight that is more than 24 hours away? I have never been able to check in for a flight any earlier than 24 hours before departure.

We had a confirmed ticket and that was fine. The agent at the airport in Germany (from where we departed for Shanghai) at first insisted on a boarding pass, too, but then after some deliberation with her supervisor finally agreed that the ticket was enough.

Depends on your airline with some exceptions like the US with KLM & Air France you can check in 30 hours prior. When I have a duty trip of a day, I can even check in for the return flight longer than 30 hours.

 

[Flossbolna]

Depends on your airline with some exceptions like the US with KLM & Air France you can check in 30 hours prior. When I have a duty trip of a day, I can even check in for the return flight longer than 30 hours.

Yes, but even if it is 30 hours, that is still shorter than for example 3 nights in Shanghai. The rules also don't mention the boarding pass, only the ticket. We were flying with Swiss to Shanghai, they check in 24 hours with your first flight (so, yes, my connecting flight out of Zürich I was able to check in earlier than those 24 hours). And then we flew with ANA from Shanghai to Tokyo on a seperate ticket and therefore we could only check in 24 hours before our departure time from Shanghai.

I mainly wanted to highlight that it is not the boarding pass that is necessary, but the ticket (as least to all the Chinese information that I saw and waht I experienced). But since @psakid mentioned that he/she used to work for an airline, I was wondering if there was some info on how to get a boarding pass before the window for check-in opened. Because that would have made our life easier at check in in Germany.

 

[psakid]

I may have mis-spoke. As the others have stated, the ticket/confirmed reservation showing the carrier, flight number, date, time and record locator number is what they are looking for. Since I already had selected our seats, they were listed with our reservation. The print out just happens to look like a boarding pass. I'm sure the authorities will check the reservation for confirmation.