I just booked! Going to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo-update Disneyland Shanghai day 5 - 01/06

[Flossbolna]

We are just back and we did have some issue with the 144-hour visa-free entry (important: don't call it a visa, it is a visa-free entry - two different things legally) at my little airport here in Germany. The issue is that it does not depend on the airline, but ultimately on the individual agent you end up with. Ours had never heard about this, but then called her supervisor and he knew about it. It still took them 15 minutes to locate it in their computer system. Once they had found it everything was ok. I kept telling her that she had to look it up as a transit, but she kept insisting that it would only be a transit if we had a boarding pass for our onward flight. Which of course we did not have.

So, my advise would be to be there early, be insistent that such a thing exists, that it will be in their system and that they should escalate it to a supervisor. Then be patient. And ultimately if they make you miss your flight, they will have to pay you 600 € under the EU air travel regulation.

Good luck and have a great trip!

 

[Karin1984]

We are just back and we did have some issue with the 144-hour visa-free entry (important: don't call it a visa, it is a visa-free entry - two different things legally) at my little airport here in Germany. The issue is that it does not depend on the airline, but ultimately on the individual agent you end up with. Ours had never heard about this, but then called her supervisor and he knew about it. It still took them 15 minutes to locate it in their computer system. Once they had found it everything was ok. I kept telling her that she had to look it up as a transit, but she kept insisting that it would only be a transit if we had a boarding pass for our onward flight. Which of course we did not have.

So, my advise would be to be there early, be insistent that such a thing exists, that it will be in their system and that they should escalate it to a supervisor. Then be patient. And ultimately if they make you miss your flight, they will have to pay you 600 € under the EU air travel regulation.

Good luck and have a great trip!

Thanks for the update!
Amsterdam Airport is a mess at the moment due to understaffing, so I will be there early! I'll take the e-mail answer from Emirates with me in print. Hopefully that helps.

Where were you flying from? If they make me miss my flight, the first option for me to fly to Shanghai from Amsterdam is the direct flight with KLM ;-) Making me arrive 5 hours earlier, hihihi. But then I would have to wait for my friend who flies from Brussels... No, let's not hope for that.

I saw your update about Shanghai in the other thread. I really hope the crowds have died down a bit when we arrive. We will be there 2,5 days, and most likely also skip the fireworks. It's so identical to DLP's Illuminations, we can use our time better.

 

[Flossbolna]

Nuremberg. We flew Swiss and they have only two counters open for check-in. We blocked one for 15 minutes... The problem is that they might only schedule you on the next flight of their airline, not sure how many flights Emirates has. But of course you are far better off with options in Amsterdam. Just make sure that you have a print out of your confirmed flight reservation from Shanghai to the next stop.

I think with 2.5 days in Shanghai you will be fine. And might even have time for the night time show. I think it might be interesting to see with the larger projection area due to the castle being bigger. When are you going again? Hopefully temperatures will be a little lower for you there.

BTW we loved Once Upon a Time in Tokyo! Lovely show! Better than its "cousin" at WDW! And Dreamlights in Tokyo ist just amazing. And I am normally not a parade person, but happily watched it three times.

Also wanted to say that we loved the location of the Hilton and the Sheraton is right next to it, so that really is a great location! We did not feel like we missed anything by staying there as compared to an official hotel. The monorail was so convenient!

 

[Karin1984]

36 days to go till vacation and 37 days till we leave for Shanghai! So we should be arriving the 24th of August, I am preparing myself for the heat of Florida in Aug/Sep. We will have about 2 days in the city. On Saturday we will move to Toy Story Hotel around 2-3 o'clock. Then after we settled in, we will go to the park for Royal Banquet Hall and hopefully Pirates and/or Tron. That's the only plan I have. For Illuminations, you are right about the projection area and that the show was designed for the castle in Shanghai. In DLP we both have one of the new AP's the Infinite one which comes with VIP viewings for parade and night show. We have already seen Illuminations 2 times from a good spot in DLP in front of the castle. Maybe we will check it out on the 2nd night, but that really depends on how much of the rides we have done and whether or not we should go for the Premium FP Access set. I have budgeted it in, just in case. Also because we are there partially during the weekend.

When I used to work at the airport (now work at the head office of KLM), the policy was, and hopefully still is, when a passenger misses its flight it's part of the 'contract' you have with the airline to get you as soon as possible to your final destination. And in case of disruptions you were allowed to book any airline going from the airport, regardless if it's part of the group you had booked with. Not sure if this would count as a disruption, but I would definitely try to get it ;-)

But for now, I'm going with the mantra that nothing will go wrong and this is going to be a perfect vacation.

 

[Karin1984]

Now it's 28 days, exactly 4 weeks before my vacation starts!
I spend my days in working out the best ways to use public transportation from airport to city to airport and restaurant reviews. Reading all the trip reports I have found... It's so weird in one way, time goes incredibly slow and in other respects I can't believe it's almost here!

And I spend my days trying to find Disney Bounding outfits.

For Ariel:
It comes from a website with all kinds of Disney clothes, also more out there with prints of characters. But I prefer Disney bounding like this

And this one is for Belle, without the apron it's almost too perfect. And I love that it's just ready and I don't have to do anything to get the outfit complete.
It comes from a store that sells these mainly for Oktoberfest, but I have found another purpose for this outfit
Love the little stag/antler detail on the bodice ;-)

 

[Karin1984]

3 weeks to go! Happy dance!

Just bought the tickets for Shanghai Disney en Hong Kong Disney! Hong Kong had a special offer, saving 40 euro (47USD) on the 2 day park tickets, plus we decided to go for the meal vouchers of 225 HKD for lunch & dinner & snack, so 2 days at Hong Kong Disney, including food costs us 120 eur (141USD) per person!

 

[Flossbolna]

I had no idea they have meal vouchers at HKDL. Interesting!

 

[Karin1984]

Interesting!! It really could be that with the price hike they changed the system on how to process online orders as well. Or it is indeed different when you order just a couple of days before. We got an email with instructions to print this. I hope @Karin1984 will report back on how it worked for her if she ends up buying tickets before arrival!

To stop hijacking @zanzibar138 's Trip Report with my questions about tickets with @cschaaf and @Flossbolna

I bought my tickets yesterday morning, so little over 3 weeks before we arrive in Disneyland Shanghai.
I have an account on their website, and ordered my purchase, 1x 2 day tickets 1x 1 day ticket. I can see my order in my account.

It looks like this:
https://ibb.co/iMHQsF

It says:
During your purchase, you provided the number of your Government ID, Passport or Travel Document ID. To enter the park, bring this document—along with your order confirmation—directly to the Main Entrance turnstile, where the tickets for this order will be printed. You will not need to first visit a ticket window. The ID or passport holder must enter the park together with all other Guests who will be using a ticket that is part of this order.

If I read this, I will bring a print with my confirmation numbers, go to turnstiles and that's it. Both me and my friend bought our own tickets, so the last sentence is not applicable to us.

FYI, the exchange button lets me exchange the ticket for different dates.

I will let you all know how it went when we get there!

 

[Flossbolna]

To stop hijacking @zanzibar138 's Trip Report with my questions about tickets with @cschaaf and @Flossbolna

I bought my tickets yesterday morning, so little over 3 weeks before we arrive in Disneyland Shanghai.
I have an account on their website, and ordered my purchase, 1x 2 day tickets 1x 1 day ticket. I can see my order in my account.

It looks like this:
https://ibb.co/iMHQsF

It says:
During your purchase, you provided the number of your Government ID, Passport or Travel Document ID. To enter the park, bring this document—along with your order confirmation—directly to the Main Entrance turnstile, where the tickets for this order will be printed. You will not need to first visit a ticket window. The ID or passport holder must enter the park together with all other Guests who will be using a ticket that is part of this order.

If I read this, I will bring a print with my confirmation numbers, go to turnstiles and that's it. Both me and my friend bought our own tickets, so the last sentence is not applicable to us.

FYI, the exchange button lets me exchange the ticket for different dates.

I will let you all know how it went when we get there!

This is exactly the same wording that we had, too! I know that my BF and I debated a lot over whether he would need his passport as well and we figured it would be better to bring it and not need it than having to go back to retrieve it. I think in the end he did not need it on the first day, but they did check it on our second day.

 

[cschaaf]

To stop hijacking @zanzibar138 's Trip Report with my questions about tickets with @cschaaf and @Flossbolna

I bought my tickets yesterday morning, so little over 3 weeks before we arrive in Disneyland Shanghai.
I have an account on their website, and ordered my purchase, 1x 2 day tickets 1x 1 day ticket. I can see my order in my account.

It looks like this:
https://ibb.co/iMHQsF

It says:
During your purchase, you provided the number of your Government ID, Passport or Travel Document ID. To enter the park, bring this document—along with your order confirmation—directly to the Main Entrance turnstile, where the tickets for this order will be printed. You will not need to first visit a ticket window. The ID or passport holder must enter the park together with all other Guests who will be using a ticket that is part of this order.

If I read this, I will bring a print with my confirmation numbers, go to turnstiles and that's it. Both me and my friend bought our own tickets, so the last sentence is not applicable to us.

FYI, the exchange button lets me exchange the ticket for different dates.

I will let you all know how it went when we get there!

I bet mine had the same language, I just didn't read it.

Well, now I guess we know it works either way lol

I checked my phone and I deleted the screenshot I took so I have no way to go back and see what it said lol

 

[Karin1984]

Two weeks to go!!!

But that's not why I am so excited right now!
I was sure, that Halloween would start the week after we left. When I researched, the week between Summer season and Halloween was the lowest crowds-period we could get. And I convinced myself for a first visit, it's not so bad to be between seasons without all the special parades, shows, merchandise...

Only today I saw a press release on TDR Explorer that the first day of Halloween is our last day in the parks!
Which is just perfect, this is our 4th day, so we should have done and seen most of the parks and can focus our last day to see the Halloween stuff!


And in other news: I've ordered some small amounts of local currency, just to get by on the first days. I bought some travel stuff like mini deodorant, shampoo etc. My two Disneybound dresses are in (might still change my mermaid dress for a larger size, it's a bit too tight) Made a packing list and printed all my travel papers.

It's getting so close now!!!

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

Following this as my daughter and I are planning to do this - triple disney vacation with some other sightseeing and a LOT of shopping

 

[Flossbolna]

Great news about the Halloween start date!

As to travel cosmetics: all our hotels in Asia provided us with so many things! Toothbrushes, toothpaste, the usual soap, comb, slippers. In Japan you also get pyjamas to use. The stuff at the Toy Story Hotel is incredibly cute (and will be replenished every morning if you put it away). There is also a really nice reusable shopping bag for you to use,which also is being replenished...

Btw, some things that we loved and did not have on our radar before the trip were in SDL Buzz and Soarin (which we intended to skip as we know the WDW version well, we did it as the last thing of the evening as we could not get a FP and waited 45 minutes instead of the posted 90 minutes), in TDL Tom Sawyer Island and the Railroad and inTDS Sinbad and the King Triton's concert.

 

[Karin1984]

Thank you, @Flossbolna! I am not too worried about cosmetic while in the Toy Story Hotel or the Sheraton in Tokyo, but in the city of Shanghai and in Hong Kong we are staying at budget hotels and it's just a precaution. I like to have some things with me, also during travelling. Some deodorant after a long flight... maybe not necessary, just to freshen up a bit.

For the rides in Shanghai, I find it difficult to judge how much time we need. Looking at the waiting times at the moment, we will probably buy the premier access FP for one day. Although I am still in doubt, is it really that busy or is it because the park is new and the visitors aren't used to FPs? How to judge in the morning if we should or shouldn't buy?
Either way, if we do buy, we will have plenty of time left to do things like Buzz and roam around leisurely. If we don't buy, we will leave it to the last day.

For Tokyo, we will now 'technically' have 3 days to do/see everything, as day 4 needs to be dedicated to all the Halloween entertainment, merchandise and food ;-)
In Tokyo, Sinbad is a must, and I believe the concert is closed while we are there.

 

[Flossbolna]

Deodorant was one thing that we did not get in the hotels!! So, that is always important to have - and I always have that in my little bag of liquids in the hand luggage as well.

We had two days in Shanghai and both days the park was at capacity. We did not get the premier FP, mainly because we just don't like the idea of having to pay for FP and really did not want to spend so much money on it. In hindsight it would have made things a bit easier for us for touring, but I do not regret saving the money and spending it on other things!

Ultimately we had only a few really long waits: first ride on Pirates 70 minutes (because it was mid morning on our first day, everything had long lines and we just wanted to do something and this was our biggest priority, but we had multiple rides in the single rider line and later in the evening with much much shorter waits), first ride on Buzz 45 minutes (kind so similar situation as with Pirates that we were in the area and according to the app everything had long lines), Crystal Grotto 50 minutes because this seemed to never get shorter lines as it closed earlier than the rest of the park and be have a friend who helped to build it, so it was a must for us, otherwise this is really just neat and not worth a long wait, Soarin 45 minutes (and that is not really a long wait for Soarin in Shanghai, we got in line at 9:45pm and it said it would be a 90 minute wait, luckily it was much shorter).

We did not do the Jetpacks (Tomorrowland Spinner), Mine Train (have done it multiple times in Florida), Challenge Trails (forgot to wear closed shoes and were not allowed on it in sandals) nor Ignite the Dream. Oh, and we missed the Pirate Cove walk throughs. We also did not do any character meet and greets as that is not something we are interested in.

We did afternoon breaks back at the hotel both days from about 3pm to 5pm. And we were at the parks not really for rope drop (arrived at 9 am the first morning after flying from Europe to Shanghai, arrived at 7:30am the next day). Both days the park opened at 8am, both days it took us a little over an hour to get inside. The second day we had no problem getting a Tron FP in the morning for the afternoon. But I think that was the only FP we ever got.

The one thing that you really have to take into account in Shanghai is how far everything from each other. Just because two attractions are in Fantasyland does not mean that you cannot spend 10 minuted walking between them. We did most of our rides in the evening. Starting at 6pm the park is getting emptier, you can see lots of people leaving, then Ignite the Dream is pulling lots of people away from the rides and between 8pm and 10pm there is lots that you can do. They tend to inflate wait times at the end by quite a bit (see our Soarin experience, the same was true at Roarin Rapids which showed a 40 minute wait, but was a walk on).

We also did not spend a lot of time eating at all. First of all it was so hot that we were not really hungry and then in the evening most places were closed and we ended up eating dinner at Remy's in Mickey Avenue after 10pm. They had really good sandwiches and baked goods there and are open until 11pm (as is all of Mickey Avenue).

 

[Flossbolna]

Oh and one important thing in both Tokyo and Shanghai: Make use of the single rider lines!!

 

[Karin1984]

@Flossbolna thanks for all the tips! I know the feeling about paying for FP, but then again, when I have the money, I will definitely do VIP tours, which is a form of paying for FP. And in DLP I have an Infinite AP, which indirectly means that I am paying for the reserved spots for the parade and the fireworks...

By the tme we get to Disneyland Shanghai, we have been in China for a few days, so we should have been adjusted to the time zone and should be able to make rope drops. I'm not sure if we will do midday breaks, with 33 degree weather we might. Normally to us a minute out of the park is wasted. Did it take a lot of time to travel back to the hotel?
Other question, how was the a/c and covered queues? Was it possible to escape the afternoon sun?

---------------------------------------

And now it's only 10 days before depature! The countdown has really started!

My table slowly gets filled with all kinds of travel goodies. With a list to cross off everything I plan to bring.

We tried to buy park tickets for Tokyo online, but it refused my Visa and Amex credit card, while the website states it should except it. Jenna (the friend from the US who will join us for the Tokyo part) was able to buy tickets with her Mastercard. When e-mailing with the Sheraton to see if they could have park tickets ready for us at check in, they hey told me that the confirmed access for guests doesn't mean that you will always be able to access the park when it reaches capacity, but also that when it reaches capacity, hotel guests can still buy park tickets. Which is a relief, not that I think the park will reach capacity when we are there, but still nice to know.

I've also got my vaccinations. Which isn't a requirement for our trip, but my mother wanted me to get them, my health insurance covers them and as a precaution... why not, so for the coming year I am protected against Hep A (when I get my repeat shot next year, I will be protected for 30 years) and for the coming 10 years I am protected against diptheria, tetanus and polio. So yay for vaccinations!

Last week, Nikki scared the *PEEEEEP* out of me. I have worked at the airport and I have seen so many people where the name on the ticket doesn't match the passport and I know how strict airlines can be about them. And what a hassle it can be to get it changed. I have send people to the ticket office many times to have their tickets changed. Nikki is of Portuguese descent and therefore has 3 last names. What did she tell me last week, that on her ticket from Shanghai to Hong Kong, she booked her ticket only on her last last name! She wasn't too worried, as she does use her name like this in her daily life and when travelling within Europe... but to be sure she called the airline. She got 2 conflicting answers, one telling her 'çancel your ticket and book a new one' and the other one 'no problem, as long as one of your last names matches with your ticket & passport'. She decided to go with the most positive answer for her.

Luckily we are travelling with one of our partners, China Eastern Airlines, on this flight and I asked a colleague who is the contact for China Eastern to check. And thank God, they checked ith the people at Shanghai Airport, and confirmed it wasn't a problem, but I am taking the e-mail with me, just to be sure. And gave her a lecture that one day, she will get into to trouble at an airport due to names not matching

In the meantime Nikki was done with all her business trips and family trips and could finally focus on our trip to Asia By coincidence we bought the same travel guides, so we spent last week texting at work. Our conversations go as followed
"Can we do page 112?"
"Sure, but let's combine it then with page 124, and it's close by page 84 and that restaurant on page 85."

This was we have finally made a plan for Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Day 1: Arrive in Shanghai around 15:30, go to the hotel, freshen up and then go to the Bund and find something to eat.
Day 2: We will first go to Qibao in the morning and visit the modern part of Shanghai in Pudong in the afternoon.
Day 3: Check out, leave baggage, go to Fuxing Park in the early morning, then onto Tianzifang. After lunch we will go back to the hotel, pick up the baggage and take a taxi to Disneyland. We go into the park for dinner at the Royal Banquet Hall and depending on how much ti,me we have before and after, we will try to ride Tron and/or Pirates.
Day 4: Tour the park, most likely with the FP Premier Access Set.
Day 5: Tour the park
Day 6: Take a taxi to the airport and an early flight to Hong Kong, rest of the day low key, walk around and , explore the neighbourhood, probably the harbour.
Day 7: Go to Disneyland, we decided to switch days to avoid the last day that Buzz Lightyear is open.
Day 8: Go to the Peak, Man Mo Temple, and in the evening Temple Street Night Markets
Day 9: Go to Disneyland again, repeat favorites.
Day 10: Instead of the temple of the 10,000 Buddhas, we decided to go Sik Sik Yuen Wong Tai Sin Temple, which looks absolutely beautiful in the pictures and the Good Wish gardens. Then continue on to the Chi Lin Nunnery and the Nan Lian Gardens.
Day 11: Go back to the airport and have a morning flight to Narita and take the Limousine Bus to the Sheraton hotel, where Jenna should be waiting for us. Depending on levels of tiredness we might relax, go into Disney or go into Tokyo.
Day 12: Shibuya Crossing, Yoyogi park, Meiji Shrine, Harajuku.
Day 13: Go to Disneyland
Day 14: Go to Disney Sea
Day 15: Go to Disney, still open which park
Day 16: Park hop to see all the Halloween shows & parades, merchandise and snack around
Day 17: Check out in the morning , leave baggage. This day isn't fully planned yet, maybe Akihabara and a rabbit cafe. Nikki and I have till about 20:00, then we should make our way back to Sheraton to pick up our baggage and go back to the airport. Our flight leaves 30 minutes past midnight and we should be back in Europe around 14:00. And that will conclude our trip. With 2 travel days that makes 19 days of Disney Asia

Qibao

Pudong

Fuxing Park

Hopefully we shall see locals dancing, playing chess or doing tai chi

Tianzifang (part of the French Concession)

View from the Peak

Man Mo Temple

Temple Street Night Market

Sik Sik Yuan Wong Tai Sin Temple

Good Wish Gardens

Chi Lin Nunnery & Nan Lian Gardens

Shibuya Crossing

Haichiko statue (need to make a picture, as we have a computer program at work called Haichiko )

Harajuku (just wanna see the teens and their fashion )

Yoyogi Park & Meiji Shrine

Akihabara

 

[Flossbolna]

Great plans! But what a scare with the ticket! I got a similar scare when I realised that my BF's middle name somehow did not appear on the ticket even though I had entered it in the booking process. It was not an issue though...

About Tokyo tickets: we got ours the day before we went to the parks at the ticket center it Ikspiari. This was easy to do and we used a Visa Card as well. We stayed at the Hilton and there you had to pay cash for the tickets. It was just easier to pay with a credit card when we passed through Maihama station anyway (this was after we had dropped off the luggage at the hotel).

The bus between Toy Story Hotel and the park ran every 10 minutes, but we never waited more than 3 or 4 minutes for it. The bus ride itself is about 6 minutes or so. Then it is an easy walk to the park - unless it is morning! Then the reroute you and have you walk all the way past the park entrance towards the metro station until you are allowed to turn around and funnel into the park entrance. I think in the morning the walk is about 15 minutes, otherwise not more than half this. So, getting back for a break is really easy and not too time consuming.

The air conditioning is great where it is. But we were surprised how little air conditioning there was! Most of the lines were covered and had fans going, but in a crowd (and people come really close to you in lines) in hot weather it only goes so far. I think most of the indoor rides the indoor queues are about 10 minutes long. Buzz and Tron seemed to have the longest indoor lines. No, Soarin actually is the one with the longest indoor line. All 45 minutes that we waited were inside. Otherwise most of your waiting will be outside under cover. This was quite a contrast to Tokyo where there was far more indoor waiting time and some, like Monsters, even blow cool air onto the people waiting outside! We were rather rurprised about this as it seemed that Shanghai has a climate that would be great for indoor queues. Even a lot of the restaurants have mainly outdoor seating (again with cover, but still no a/c).

 

[Karin1984]

Holy peep! What is going on with those crowds in Shanghai?!
I'm checking the app, it's now about 3:30 in the afternoon on a weekday and I see this:
Soaring: 225 minutes
Tron: 210 minutes
Roaring Rapids: 180 minutes
SDMT: 180 minutes
Peter Pan: 90 minutes
Pirates: 75 minutes
Winnie the Pooh: 75 minutes

When we are there next week there is rain predicted, is it very bad of me that I hope the forecast doesn't change.

 

[califlorican]

Holy peep! What is going on with those crowds in Shanghai?!
I'm checking the app, it's now about 3:30 in the afternoon on a weekday and I see this:
Soaring: 225 minutes
Tron: 210 minutes
Roaring Rapids: 180 minutes
SDMT: 180 minutes
Peter Pan: 90 minutes
Pirates: 75 minutes
Winnie the Pooh: 75 minutes

When we are there next week there is rain predicted, is it very bad of me that I hope the forecast doesn't change.

Yikes...a lot of Chinese families go on holiday in August before kids go back to school. I would definitely go in expecting long lines, but hopefully it is better!

Oh, right before closing the line for Pirates went down considerably. Like from 40 minutes down to 5-10 minutes. A lot of people line up super early for the fireworks, so the park thinned out a lot. We also walked on to the Challange Trail right at closing, and had it all to ourselves! Maybe it will be similar next week!

To stop hijacking @zanzibar138 's Trip Report with my questions about tickets with @cschaaf and @Flossbolna


It says:
During your purchase, you provided the number of your Government ID, Passport or Travel Document ID. To enter the park, bring this document—along with your order confirmation—directly to the Main Entrance turnstile, where the tickets for this order will be printed. You will not need to first visit a ticket window. The ID or passport holder must enter the park together with all other Guests who will be using a ticket that is part of this order.

If I read this, I will bring a print with my confirmation numbers, go to turnstiles and that's it. Both me and my friend bought our own tickets, so the last sentence is not applicable to us.

Mmmm...I think it means "this document" as in your passport. I don't remember if we were asked for our passport when we bought tickets, but we didn't purchase them ahead of time. I would bring your passport. China can sometimes be sticklers for this kind of thing and I wouldn't risk not having it!