How Long For Each Asian Park?

Coming from Miami, I'm planning 3 days each at TDL and ShDL, traveling this coming June and staying on property at both resorts. I'm hoping for some "cultural inexperience" at ShDL to maximize the FP system for touring efficiency. It's possible, if not probable, that many of the guests visiting the park will not be savvy to the strategies of managing a day at a Disney park. How many times have you strolled past a 60+ minute-wait queue at SpM in MK in June straight into the FP entrance with a FP you acquired literally minutes ago? Happened many times for me, and crossing my fingers for similar experiences at ShDL.
 
Our planning for Oct is:
-4 FULL days in Tokyo, with a half day to check out the downtown disney area
-3 FULL days in Shanghai Disney, with a half day/check in day to check out the shopping/wishing star park/other hotel
-2 FULL days in HK, with again, the half/check in day to check out the fancier hotel & have Disney dim sum!

-Tokyo will take the most time, esp since your first 2 days, there is no park hopping. It's probably also the busiest, esp on weekends, holidays and certain times of year. Take that into consideration before going. DisneySea is also the most unique park of all of them, 4-5 days is what I see being the most recommended
-Shanghai we thought we might have too much time, or not enough time, we have no idea how busy it's going to be come fall, but we do know that it's new, and we want to see everything, at least once. The park is HUGE, and we've got a few people to see on top of rides and parades and shows, to make sure we fit it all in, we did it this way.
-HK some people can do all in one day, but we really want to experience it, and because of things like weather, we figured 2 days would work out the best!
 
Our planning for Oct is:
-4 FULL days in Tokyo, with a half day to check out the downtown disney area
-3 FULL days in Shanghai Disney, with a half day/check in day to check out the shopping/wishing star park/other hotel
-2 FULL days in HK, with again, the half/check in day to check out the fancier hotel & have Disney dim sum!

-Tokyo will take the most time, esp since your first 2 days, there is no park hopping. It's probably also the busiest, esp on weekends, holidays and certain times of year. Take that into consideration before going. DisneySea is also the most unique park of all of them, 4-5 days is what I see being the most recommended
-Shanghai we thought we might have too much time, or not enough time, we have no idea how busy it's going to be come fall, but we do know that it's new, and we want to see everything, at least once. The park is HUGE, and we've got a few people to see on top of rides and parades and shows, to make sure we fit it all in, we did it this way.
-HK some people can do all in one day, but we really want to experience it, and because of things like weather, we figured 2 days would work out the best!

I think all these recommendations are for a disney NUT. If you absolutely LOVE Disney. If you just love Disney, from what I've seen said, 1 day is more than enough at HK. Likely 2 days at SDL, although 1 may be enough if crowds are light. THey don't have a ton of rides there.

As for Tokyo. I absolutely LOVED Tokyo. I went one day to both parks, and rode everything. The TDS day was normal SUmmer crowd. The TDL day was a CRAZY CRAZY HAPPY FUNTACULAR JAPAN crowd day. I waited 45 minutes for a Pooh FP at opening. I guess I didn't get on BUzz, and MOnsters Inc was being built. Plus I skipped lame rides such as Jungle Cruise and such. I rode all the mountains, Pooh twice, Pirates (which was a waste of an hour), saw the Mickey Mouse Review which almost made me cry as I recalled seeing it as a little boy in Orlando, and didn't realize it still existed.

But, neither Tokyo park has that many UNIQUE rides if you've been to DL and WDW. TDL's BTMRR is a unique layout, and Pooh and Monster's are unique. I think Buzz, PP, HM, and Splash, and Philharmagic are all WDW clones. Pirates, SM, and RR are DL clones. ANd for the most part, the TDL rides aren't really "plussed" versions either. But everything works, including hopping Brer Rabbit.

DisneySea has a few unique rides: 20,000 Leageus and Journey are at the top. But both rides are VERY short, especially Journey. THen they have a very long Arabian Nights dark ride, and the whole Little Mermaid area, which is only kiddie stuff, and a small unique coaster that you have to hit early. TSMM and Tower are clones. Yes, Tower has an awesome preshow, but the ride is a clone. Both Indiana Jones rides are clones of DL and Paris. The main dark ride is plussed from DL for sure, but not so much you'll be begging to ride again if you hit DL regularly. Then there are some unique smaller rides and shows.

So, as you can see, TDL is absolutely an amazing resort, but I just can't recommend people spending 4 days there while they are visiting Tokyo and the gazillion other awesome things in that city. And it is waaaay out to the West side, and the train transfer to Disney's train includes like a 3/4 mile walk.
 
I think all these recommendations are for a disney NUT. If you absolutely LOVE Disney. If you just love Disney, from what I've seen said, 1 day is more than enough at HK. Likely 2 days at SDL, although 1 may be enough if crowds are light. THey don't have a ton of rides there.

As for Tokyo. I absolutely LOVED Tokyo. I went one day to both parks, and rode everything. The TDS day was normal SUmmer crowd. The TDL day was a CRAZY CRAZY HAPPY FUNTACULAR JAPAN crowd day. I waited 45 minutes for a Pooh FP at opening. I guess I didn't get on BUzz, and MOnsters Inc was being built. Plus I skipped lame rides such as Jungle Cruise and such. I rode all the mountains, Pooh twice, Pirates (which was a waste of an hour), saw the Mickey Mouse Review which almost made me cry as I recalled seeing it as a little boy in Orlando, and didn't realize it still existed.

But, neither Tokyo park has that many UNIQUE rides if you've been to DL and WDW. TDL's BTMRR is a unique layout, and Pooh and Monster's are unique. I think Buzz, PP, HM, and Splash, and Philharmagic are all WDW clones. Pirates, SM, and RR are DL clones. ANd for the most part, the TDL rides aren't really "plussed" versions either. But everything works, including hopping Brer Rabbit.

DisneySea has a few unique rides: 20,000 Leageus and Journey are at the top. But both rides are VERY short, especially Journey. THen they have a very long Arabian Nights dark ride, and the whole Little Mermaid area, which is only kiddie stuff, and a small unique coaster that you have to hit early. TSMM and Tower are clones. Yes, Tower has an awesome preshow, but the ride is a clone. Both Indiana Jones rides are clones of DL and Paris. The main dark ride is plussed from DL for sure, but not so much you'll be begging to ride again if you hit DL regularly. Then there are some unique smaller rides and shows.

So, as you can see, TDL is absolutely an amazing resort, but I just can't recommend people spending 4 days there while they are visiting Tokyo and the gazillion other awesome things in that city. And it is waaaay out to the West side, and the train transfer to Disney's train includes like a 3/4 mile walk.

we all love Disney that are going, that was the original purpose for the trip. We are also spending a month and a half traveling through Asia to see everything else, we're going to a total of 8 cities not including visiting the Disney parks themselves.

HK, if you frequent DL yes, you could squeeze in one day, but we also factor in weather, if it rains all day we know we'll be missing some stuff, and we want to have time to enjoy ourselves and not have to rush from one thing to the next.

Same with Shanghai, we have 3 full days to make sure we get to see it all, we accounted for the park being HUGE, for it being brand new, with lots of things to see and heavy crowds. There isn't a lot of fp rides/experiences in Asia, so we might have to wait a long time for rides. Tron is super popular, pirates is completely different and popular, the entire park has a "distinctly chinese" feel to it and is something completely different. If you're going to just "go to a disney park" then yeah, you could probably get it done faster, but we want to ride all the rides, and see all the shows.

Tokyo has a lot of clones yes, but they also have the heaviest crowds. And with a 2 day ticket, you cannot park hop, you HAVE to do only 1 park per day, knowing these things, we planned accordingly.

It's also worthwhile to mention that for us, we have a LOT of friends over there that we have to try and see, and accommodate to their schedules, and that we're both avid photographers, so we spend a lot of time going slower, taking a break to take photos and still want to enjoy ourselves without having to rush.
We also figured that if we're going to fly halfway across the world, we may as well spend a good chunk of time there....
 


Likely 2 days at SDL, although 1 may be enough if crowds are light. THey don't have a ton of rides there.

It's true, there aren't a lot of rides at SDL, but if the OP wants to experience everything, it's likely they will need two mornings (if crowds remain huge). Soaring FPs run out early, and you need to join the huge line to get one as the very first thing you do. Likely by the time you've got your FP, wait times have already gone up for everything else. Depending on how early it was when you got your FP, it's also likely that FPs for SDMT and Roaring Rapids will already be gone by the time you can get another one. Tron and Peter Pan didn't seem to run out as fast, and you could get one of them as your second or even third FP of the day. Peter Pan is definitely worth doing as it has a whole bunch of new effects with projections etc. I would definitely recommend 3 days for a Disney fan who wants to experience everything.
 
[QUOTE="Feistygirl916, post: 55661937, member: 162142" Yes, starting from the US, specifically SoCal (right next to Disneyland!) We are buying our air as soon as it comes out, so probably August. I've been looking too, but will probably be booking ours with the long haul international flight separate from the shorter distance ones (HK to PVG, PVG to Tokyo) as we want one of the top airlines for the long haul flight. We are looking at Cathay Pacific, ANA, or Singapore Air. It's looking about $2k per person, which I am okay with (although I would love it to be less!)[/QUOTE]

Check Air China. A friend moved there last year and said he finds some really good deals with them. They're a partner of United and he said he's booked with them and flown on a United plane.
 
We moved our trip up to November, and just bought air last week :) We are flying ANA! Woo hoo! We got all 4 flights for under $800/person
 


We moved our trip up to November, and just bought air last week :) We are flying ANA! Woo hoo! We got all 4 flights for under $800/person
How does ANA stack up against Cathay in terms of economy sections? I've read that Cathay has wider seats (I am over 6'3")...
 
We chose ANA because they have great flight times for us coming from LAX, and the seat pitch was something we factored in, too. ANA seat pitch is 34" in ecconomy, and Cathay looks like it's only 32" for most international flights. That 2 inches of pitch could keep this grown woman from having a two year old meltdown from the lack of space hahaha (just kidding... sort of.)

The wideness of the seats was not something we factored in, but if you are tall, you want the biggest seat pitch possible.
 
We chose ANA because they have great flight times for us coming from LAX, and the seat pitch was something we factored in, too. ANA seat pitch is 34" in ecconomy, and Cathay looks like it's only 32" for most international flights. That 2 inches of pitch could keep this grown woman from having a two year old meltdown from the lack of space hahaha (just kidding... sort of.)

The wideness of the seats was not something we factored in, but if you are tall, you want the biggest seat pitch possible.
Ok. Which plane is that? SeatGuru has the pitch on the 787's and 777's as 31".
 

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