Please Talk Me into Shanghai...

[BayouQueen]

I booked a cruise that starts in Tokyo and ends in Hong Kong, with the idea that we could do the AMAZING trifecta of Asian parks: Tokyo, then Shanghai, and finish up in Hong Kong, because we have overnights in all three of those ports.
BUT...doing research, I'm totally losing interest in Shanghai. The reviews are very lukewarm and I'm beginning to think I don't want to give them my precious travel time and money.

Anybody been there who really loved Shanghai DL? I'm soooo torn. I'm sure I'll never pass that way again!

 

[Agent 86]

I can't say I really loved Shanghai Disneyland as a whole. The park itself and the various attractions are pretty amazing. The "reimagined" rides like Pirates are very good.

For me, the other guests, the level and quality of service from cast members and the food were let-downs.

There aren't a lot of "ancient" attractions in close proximity to Shanghai (unlike Beijing), so it's not like you would be missing something astounding if you did choose to visit Disneyland. If you did so, you may wish to consider just going for half a day and buying the deluxe / premier Fast Pass package to quickly ride your most wanted attractions (noting that Pirates isn't a FP ride). That would give you a chance to still see The Bund, Yu Yuan Garden and a few other sights in Shanghai.

 

[BayouQueen]

I can't say I really loved Shanghai Disneyland as a whole. The park itself and the various attractions are pretty amazing. The "reimagined" rides like Pirates are very good.

For me, the other guests, the level and quality of service from cast members and the food were let-downs.

There aren't a lot of "ancient" attractions in close proximity to Shanghai (unlike Beijing), so it's not like you would be missing something astounding if you did choose to visit Disneyland. If you did so, you may wish to consider just going for half a day and buying the deluxe / premier Fast Pass package to quickly ride your most wanted attractions (noting that Pirates isn't a FP ride). That would give you a chance to still see The Bund, Yu Yuan Garden and a few other sights in Shanghai.

You know, that's really a great idea and I thank you for it! Somehow I've just been thinking "all in" or not, but a quick look-see and then Pirates is really about all I'm excited for. I read that Pirates has a single rider line that goes really fast, so that might be possible.

I keep reading reviews where people spend hours just entering the park, and that has me scared off, but maybe that's just first thing in the morning. H'mmm....

 

[Agent 86]

Hours entering the park? That seems unlikely.

Entering the park is certainly ... chaotic (to put it mildly). But, it doesn't take an extremely long time. We arrived at least 30 minutes before opening and I would guesstimate that we were inside the park (and running for those Soaring Fast Passes) by 15 minutes after the (scheduled) opening time, noting that on at least one of our days, they seemed to open the park earlier than advertised.

Maybe people were talking about time taken to get to the park from the city AND enter the park? The cabs will take you the long way - that's unavoidable. But, I don't think they'd take that long. And the train is an another option.

 

[Karin1984]

I was there during high season on hot days, and yes, it was crowded to get in. It took some time, yes, but not hours. Yes, the Chinese don't know personal space, but that's a cultural thing you can also encounter in other parts of Asia.

I think Pirates and Tron are reason enough to go, keep in mind that single riders lines are not always open, not even on busy days. Also enjoyed the parade ad the fireworks show.
So overall, I enjoyed the park very much, it's all new and in perfect condition. It was nice to see differet takes on rides like Peter Pan. I had better interactions with the CMs than I had in Hong Kong or Tokyo. Guests were okay with me as well. Not better or worse than other parks. Same for food, I had some good meals in Shanghai and didn't get the craze about the food in Tokyo. In both parks, also Hong Kong, it was theme park food of average quality, what you might expect.

 

[cschaaf]

We were there on a hot, sold out day in July. It didn't take us hours to get in. Took longer than we would have liked it to, but it wasn't horrible. It didn't feel much different than showing up before rope drop at MK in the summer. We don't do mid-morning entry anywhere, so that may have been worse than what we had.

We bought the FP pack and were able to ride all the FP rides (except we skipped Pooh), plus Pirates and the Challenge Trails (no FP for either of those), and we did Tron twice. We saw the Tarzan show and had plenty of time that we could have done anything else, but a wicked storm blew through and closed most of the park for a few hours, some rides were closed for the remainder of the night, and fireworks were cancelled.

We loved Pirates and Tron was probably our favorite ride. I loved the Challenge Trails - my wife didn't do it. Those three attractions made our trip worth it.

If we were in the area, we'd probably go again, but we wouldn't go out of our way to get to Shanghai just for that. But I wouldn't travel anywhere (outside of our drives to Orlando) specifically for a Disney park.

We didn't run into much of the people getting in front of you in lines or the personal space issues at Disney. It was there to some degree, but we found it worse in other places (airport buses, the metro headed to Disney, and the worst one was in a hotel elevator where people kept. getting. in. long after the elevator felt 'full')

 

[Absimilliard]

The park is quite beautiful, but a bit sparce. On a quiet day in October, we managed to cover all the attractions except the spinners and did one show over a single day. Even managed to find time to eat inside the castle and I ended the night power riding TRON. On a busier day, I can see where two days would be needed.

Download the Shanghai Disneyland app in advance and once you're inside the park, you can connect to the great wifi. This will avoid running everywhere for Fast Pass as you can book them as you soon as you're scanned a second time at an attraction.

My favorite attraction there was TRON Lightcycle Power Run, with Pirates right behind. TRON is coming to WDW in a few years, but as a theme park fanatic, the reveal and show that the ride create when you approach Tomorrowland from the Gardens of Imagination is incredible. Then, you stand under the canopy and then you see and hear the cycles... and even if you don't know TRON, you're immersed and its just magic. The ride

Pirates was as good as everyone said and is worth a trip to Shanghai on its own.

One meal was the lowpoint. Our meals, if you can call that stuff food, at Barbossa's Bounty (Pirates restaurant) were among the worst I ever eaten in and out of a park. Calling it "food that would cause a riot in jail" is appropriate... My sister was so discouraged we were going to snack around the park until my sister asked if there was room at the restaurant in the castle. We could have walked into the place, but we instead went on a shopping spree and then returned 40 minutes later for an AMAZING character meal inside the castle. Great character interactions, amazing food and my sister who struggled with food in China best meal in the country.

The chinese are very to the point and don't BS, so that's how you have to take them. I have a few chinese friends and they took me out in the countryside where I had a blast. Be courteous, open to their food and how they are and you will have a great time with them.

Asians in general don't have much of a concept of personal space like westerners. A "full train" for us is "I can squeeze in a few dozen people!" to them.

 

[swooshbear]

I finally got to ride Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom recently and can say for certain that TRON is the best ride of any Disney Park in the world. It was worth the trip to Shanghai and Pirates comes in at very close second. Seeing how long the lines are for FoP, I can see those long times being doubled for TRON, it's just that cool.

We stayed at the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel so entering the parks in the morning wasn't that difficult, there is a separate hotel-only guest entrance at the end of the Disney Town area. The hotel staff may or may not explain this properly to you, there seems to be fewer English speaking CMs than Tokyo.

Tokyo's merchandise is still #1 but the selection of stuff at Shanghai was decent. Maybe we were lucky but when we went in November, they had a "Buy 4 items, get 70% off" sale and we stocked up on a lot of jackets/sweatshirts for dirt cheap.

 

[cschaaf]

I finally got to ride Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom recently and can say for certain that TRON is the best ride of any Disney Park in the world. It was worth the trip to Shanghai and Pirates comes in at very close second. Seeing how long the lines are for FoP, I can see those long times being doubled for TRON, it's just that cool.

We stayed at the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel so entering the parks in the morning wasn't that difficult, there is a separate hotel-only guest entrance at the end of the Disney Town area. The hotel staff may or may not explain this properly to you, there seems to be fewer English speaking CMs than Tokyo.

Tokyo's merchandise is still #1 but the selection of stuff at Shanghai was decent. Maybe we were lucky but when we went in November, they had a "Buy 4 items, get 70% off" sale and we stocked up on a lot of jackets/sweatshirts for dirt cheap.

We loved TRON, too. And we can't wait to see it in WDW.

The lines will be long, but will be reduced a bit due to a height requirement. The height requirement in Shanghai was 48", but we saw a small boy get on and the part that 'clamps' down on the middle of an adult's back came down on the back of his head. He looked like a turtle poking out of its shell.

We thought, "There is no way they are going to let this go..." and off the train went. I didn't see him standing, so I don't know how tall he really was, but if he was 48", I'd expect the requirement to be higher in the US.

FoP is a 44" requirement, so that would help increase the number of families that can ride.

As much as I like Pirates in MK, I wouldn't be sad to see it replaced with the Shanghai version - it's so good. But I'm sure that opinion would get me roasted over on the WDW boards.

Edited to change the FoP height restriction to 44"

 

[swooshbear]

We loved TRON, too. And we can't wait to see it in WDW.

The lines will be long, but will be reduced a bit due to a height requirement. The height requirement in Shanghai was 48", but we saw a small boy get on and the part that 'clamps' down on the middle of an adult's back came down on the back of his head. He looked like a turtle poking out of its shell.

We thought, "There is no way they are going to let this go..." and off the train went. I didn't see him standing, so I don't know how tall he really was, but if he was 48", I'd expect the requirement to be higher in the US.

FoP is a 44" requirement, so that would help increase the number of families that can ride.

As much as I like Pirates in MK, I wouldn't be sad to see it replaced with the Shanghai version - it's so good. But I'm sure that opinion would get me roasted over on the WDW boards.

Edited to change the FoP height restriction to 44"

Pirates here is definitely a classic ride, but I think most people would change their minds once they ride the Shanghai version. I stayed away from watching any videos before we went so I was pleasantly surprised by everything, especially the last battle scene.

 

[psakid]

I concur with just about everything mentioned above. Chinese don't respect personal space, it can take 30-60 minutes to get into the park, the food at Barbosa's isn't that good (go to Disneytown for better selection and prices) and the shows are in mandarin.

Now, the theming and rides are fantastic and fresh. Camp Discovery Challenge Trails are one of a kind (wear enclosed shoes not sandals), Pirates and Tron are Great, Peter Pan & Buzz use LED to enhance the experience, the Castle and Alice maze are neat along with the Gardens of Imagination. Prices overall are the same or less that US parks, generally. We stayed off site at Novotel Clover (about 4 miles away with shuttle bus service) to save a little and found the service very good. I've heard the Marriott Courtyard has the same setup just a little closer. Shanghai is fun to explore in a day with the Pudong district, Bund and Yu Yuan Gardens (food and shops).

Also, have you looked into using the 144 Transit VISA for Shanghai? You just need to have a ticket to another country from the one you entered from. Flying back from Hong Kong to US with a 6 day layover in Shanghai would work. The best part is that's Free, costs nothing. My family of 4 flew made a stop in Tokyo after 3 days in Shanghai to qualify for the Transit Visa and saved the cost of 4 Visa's. Beijing is about to go from a 72 Transit Visa to the 144 hours just like Shanghai so it must be working. There's plenty of information about the 3/4 requirements on the internet.

If your not going to get back soon, if ever, it would be a shame to be so close..... Take another look.

 

[MommaBerd]

I finally got to ride Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom recently and can say for certain that TRON is the best ride of any Disney Park in the world. It was worth the trip to Shanghai and Pirates comes in at very close second. Seeing how long the lines are for FoP, I can see those long times being doubled for TRON, it's just that co

WOW! That is high praise, indeed!!! FoP is so amazing, I can’t imagine something topping it!