Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneyland March 17 – Day 7 Complete in Hong Kong Proper; 12/04

[PrincessInOz]

Sort of ...
I was in the back so he couldn't see what I was wearing
So ... I took off my t shirt
And passed it over to the front ....
I think I was discreet ....

I'm sure the taxi driver didn't mind. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Fairy Floss should mention that she was actually wearing a singlet underneath

I'm sure the taxi driver minded!!!! Bwa ha ha ha ha.

 

[PrincessInOz]

It is just so interesting all these components of the city. The povety not having insude toilets. I wonder if the have public baths like we did in England years ago. My Mum's house did not have a bathroom. It had an outside toilet full of spiders! They had to go to the public baths to wash.

The noodles at the hotel must have been skillfull glad you got yoir refund!

How interesting a mosque.

Yeah going to Disney!

As much as I love old things, I like having my private facilities.

I don't know how people managed in the old days without a flushing toilet!

 

[PrincessInOz]

All caught up and looking forward to your Disney installations.
I'm also craving dumplings and noodles

So pleased you got your refund back.

Yeah. I keep thinking about those noodles!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Welcome Home


I think we all know the feeling.


The pain we try to ignore and hide away in the far corners of our minds when we are not at Disney. The pain that grows with the passing of time between visits to Disney. The pain that goes away when we finally go home.


Yes, I am among friends here. You KNOW what I mean.


Welcome Home!





There was no time to take pictures whilst we were checking in.


Be prepared for check-in. It starts at the security gate!


I had to show my reservation confirmation and my passport to the security guard before he would open the gate to let the taxi in. So that meant that I had papers in hand plus carry-on/camera bags to deal with when we got to the Porte-Cochere. Our suitcases – we let bellhop deal with.


At concierge, you’ll need the reservation confirmation and your passports for everyone in the room. The Cast Members will check your passports to make sure that there is a China Visa in your passport. Apparently, it is Government policy that they do that at every hotel you check into.

We were handed 2 room cards. The room key/card isn’t a KTTW or a Magic Band, so room charging wasn’t set up for us. We weren’t asked if we wanted room charge either. For the record, I think it’s just a matter of time for Disney to rectify this. Whilst they aren’t KTTW, the room keys do have the standard inbuilt magnetic (chip) smarts so I guess it is possible.


We were also handed 4 other cards. They were our park tickets. At the time we were visiting, the longest ticket on offer was a 2-day ticket. We were hitting the park for 3 days. So, we got two cards each. One card was for 2 days and the other was for a single day ticket.





We were told that the first time we used each card we would need to show our passport to the Cast Member on entry duty. We complied with this on Day 1 and Day 3 and didn’t have any issues. I don’t know what would happen if we didn’t have our passports with us.

I gather that a season pass has been recently introduced at Shanghai Disney. It may be interesting to do the price comparison to see where the Disney Fuzzy Maths shows breakeven point to be. I suspect that it may end up being 3.5 days, with food and merchandise discounts.



We were handed a cardboard pack with the standard resort information in it. We were also handed English version park maps, which we took to the park and used for the duration of our stay. I didn’t test it out but we were advised that the English version might be a rare breed in the park.


My mother and I were very keen to check out our room, so we headed up rather than dawdle downstairs taking pictures. We wanted to unpack and get ourselves ready for some room guests later.


But Disney had other plans for us. So, the unpacking had to wait a bit whilst I took pictures.

My mother’s birthday month is March and I had mentioned that fact way back in December when I booked our accommodation. Look what was waiting for us when we got to the room.





Ok. I’m almost pretty sure that my mother was contemplating how to leave those letters on the bed whilst she slept.






I had no such qualms. I’m almost sure that I could fit myself in the bed and leave the decorations alone.





The buttons? They were in the cardboard folder!





We got the I’m Celebrating and Happy Birthday buttons at check-in. They seemed to fit right in with the rest of the decorations on the bed.





We also got a towel cake. This one made it home intact in my mother’s bag.





Bellhop pitched up with our bags within 5 minutes of us getting to the room. I was still taking pictures!





It’s a standard Disney room size. And yes, the beds are just a double; not a queen.






There is a Murphy bed in the room.





That meant that we had very little cupboard space.





Did you spot the water bottles? We got 4 bottles in the room.





They do replace bottles but if you have some left there, they only replenish up to 4 bottles. They don’t just leave you with 4 per day. I found that between my mother and I, we were consistently going through 3 bottles of water a day. 4 bottles were more than enough for Disney without us having to buy extra water in the park. If you’re into collecting your allocation of 4 bottles, you’ll need to remove some before room service hits.


We also found 2 bottles of water in the bathroom. We did use these for teeth cleaning purposes. They don’t top up the bottles here, just the ones in the room.
After the second day, I moved 2 bottles of water from the room into the bathroom so that mousekeeping would top up the other stash. Call it a 2-bottle buffer. It worked for me.





Being a newer Disney hotel, you’d expect the facilities to be shiny and clean.





It was. The grouting was still sparkling!





H2O products!





We also found the complimentary toiletries in one of the bathroom drawers. It was a generous allocation.





Aside from bathrobes, we also had room slippers, with the appropriate Mickey Head decorations. The slippers are yours to take home.






The room safe is a generous size. It’s definitely not the ridiculously small WDW safe size so you should be able to fit most gadgets and all your important paper stuff in here.





All in all, I was very happy with our home away from home. Very happy indeed.


Postscript.

There were a couple of incidents (which my mother and I didn't experience) that the others experienced. They may not have been as happy with the Disneyland Hotel as I was. Perhaps they can provide their viewpoints to give you a different perspective.


(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

I Only Went Down to get a Quick Snack



After I unpacked, I was feeling a little peckish. My mother....not so much so. So, I headed downstairs solo just to get a quick snack.


This was the quick snack that I picked up. It set me back about 78 Yuan or about $15 in my money.





As Caeser salad’s go, it wasn’t anything to set the world alight. But it hit the spot.


If all I did was go down for a quick snack, this edition would be over right now.









Yeah.









So let’s see what I managed to get with the quick snack.




I may not have gotten pictures of reception earlier. Not so on my second visit.


This is the Reception Desk.






Concierge is directly across from reception.





The lobby area is Disney opulent.





I didn't bring my tripod down with me so that ceiling and I have unfinished business.





There was a pianist in the corner playing Disney tunes. Actually, there were two of them and they were both amazing. They just kept playing a set each and changed over. It was non-stop music from about 5 – 7 pm.





On the Reception side of the lobby, there was a passageway.





I found my snack here.





I loved the Treble Clef doors!





There was even a delicate ballerina marble statue. True Disney style!






Inside, there were Ballet touches everywhere!





Very appropriate for the Ballet Cafe.





I sat here to enjoy my Caeser.





Afterall, this was my view.







(Continued Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

Mickey Snacks at the Ballet Cafe


The park was obviously still opened. There was hardly anyone around. Not that I was complaining.....I didn't have to wait to get served at all.





And....The Cast Members were happy to let me snap away.









They still had Opening Day cups available. I guess it's Opening Year.





For the Aussies reading along, that’s nearly $10 for a meat pie. I don’t know if it comes with the dead horse or not! (And for those that aren’t Aussies, ‘dead horse’ is slang for tomato sauce or ketchup.)





Sticker shock came with this item. At 20 Yuan for the egg tart, I thought this was highway robbery. We were getting 6 small tarts for 10 Yuan in Nanjing Road.





In the cabinets, there was a vast array of Mickey Heads.
























For anyone with a nut allergy, do not lick the screen.






There were Mickeys EVERYWHERE!















There were even Minnie items.





I was super tempted by these popcorn containers.





In the end, I didn’t get them.





It's been a while since I've been in an American Park but I had the distinct feeling that there were more Mickey snacks in this one shop than any of the ones in the US. Happy to be corrected if this feeling is wrong!










(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

You’ll need Drinks with your Snacks (Bacchus Lounge)



Next to the Ballet Café towards the Lobby, you’ll find a watering hole.






It's named after the Roman God of Agriculture, Wine and Fertility.....and general debauchery!





As this is the DisBoards and we are talking about Bacchus, let’s just leave it at that. It was bad enough that I already had to truncate a banned word a number of times already. I'm definitely not keen to incur any points!






I did go in….for research purposes, of course, so that I could take pictures and provide an update here.





I thought the décor was functional. It was almost the same as the Ballet Café only the upholstery is a little different.





If it weren’t for the Mickey Heads on the table, I wouldn’t have remembered that I was in a Disney resort.






Still…..in the important matters, it probably was fully loaded.





I will admit that I was a little disappointed with the functional decor in here. There would have been a lot of scope for Disney to go with an edgy but intimate Art Nouveau lounge style bar here. Oh well.



I had to break off my hotel meandering at this point. For the eagle-eyed among us, you may have spied our guests in a previous picture. And time was getting on and we had a date with my room!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Shame about your first lunch option being a fizzer, but it seems like it all turned out for the best. Those noodles look delish despite being unevenly sized

Not having tasted PiO's gourmet version I can't comment - but we were hungry and they tasted good!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

As much as I love old things, I like having my private facilities.

I don't know how people managed in the old days without a flushing toilet!

When we first emigrated from England to Qld and "the bush" (so in 1973) we had a thunder box (outside toilet to all you non Aussie readers). It was a combined Post Office store with the old timber house attached. The "loo" was by the back fence, down a slippery grass slope, around 20 metres away. We were told "bang on the sides with the stick by the door so the snakes drop out of the ceiling and slither away" - yes seriously! The next morning Mum had us with the spades manually starting to dig a hole for a septic system. Not sure how long it took to get an indoor loo installed - I do remember using the outdoor one for a couple of months. Quite a difference for us Londoners! and yes I visited many a thunderbox over the next few years staying with farming friends and always banged the sides before entering - and yes I did see snakes slithering out once or twice and hearing a thud as they fell on several occasions!

 

[darrenf67]

Mickey Snacks at the Ballet Cafe


The park was obviously still opened. There was hardly anyone around. Not that I was complaining.....I didn't have to wait to get served at all.





And....The Cast Members were happy to let me snap away.









They still had Opening Day cups available. I guess it's Opening Year.





For the Aussies reading along, that’s nearly $10 for a meat pie. I don’t know if it comes with the dead horse or not! (And for those that aren’t Aussies, ‘dead horse’ is slang for tomato sauce or ketchup.)





Sticker shock came with this item. At 20 Yuan for the egg tart, I thought this was highway robbery. We were getting 6 small tarts for 10 Yuan in Nanjing Road.





In the cabinets, there was a vast array of Mickey Heads.
























For anyone with a nut allergy, do not lick the screen.






There were Mickeys EVERYWHERE!















There were even Minnie items.





I was super tempted by these popcorn containers.





In the end, I didn’t get them.





It's been a while since I've been in an American Park but I had the distinct feeling that there were more Mickey snacks in this one shop than any of the ones in the US. Happy to be corrected if this feeling is wrong!










(Continued in Next Post)

Yes we got the popcorn!

 

[darrenf67]

You’ll need Drinks with your Snacks (Bacchus Lounge)



Next to the Ballet Café towards the Lobby, you’ll find a watering hole.






It's named after the Roman God of Agriculture, Wine and Fertility.....and general debauchery!





As this is the DisBoards and we are talking about Bacchus, let’s just leave it at that. It was bad enough that I already had to truncate a banned word a number of times already. I'm definitely not keen to incur any points!






I did go in….for research purposes, of course, so that I could take pictures and provide an update here.





I thought the décor was functional. It was almost the same as the Ballet Café only the upholstery is a little different.





If it weren’t for the Mickey Heads on the table, I wouldn’t have remembered that I was in a Disney resort.






Still…..in the important matters, it probably was fully loaded.





I will admit that I was a little disappointed with the functional decor in here. There would have been a lot of scope for Disney to go with an edgy but intimate Art Nouveau lounge style bar here. Oh well.



I had to break off my hotel meandering at this point. For the eagle-eyed among us, you may have spied our guests in a previous picture. And time was getting on and we had a date with my room!

We went over to the Disneyland hotel and had a look around, shopped in the gift store and had breakfast at Lumiere's - it looked fantastic! Don't get me wrong i loved Toy Story Hotel, but this was a class above. Love the slippers by the way! We got Buzz/Woody slippers!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Umm what I am meant to be adding? Yes we were travelling light so we took the subway out to Disney. Cost us 6Y each (just over Aus$1). From the subway station nearest us (Yu Garden on line 10) my diary says we changed twice but it must have been three times looking at the map. Given we were travelling in peak hour the first part of our journey was a bit crowded but we just stood with our luggage. There were several routes we could have taken. I picked the one that looked the fastest. We went one stop to Nanjing Rd (where PIO and her Mum would have got off) then changed to Line 2 6 stops to Longyang Rd. The interchange between lines at Nanjing Rd I seem to recall was a bit of a walk. At Longyang Rd we took Line 16 2 stops to Luoshan Rd, all above ground and on a nearly empty train then finally Line 11 3 stops to Disney. At Luoshan Rd there was just one platform so no transfers needed and really easy. We only had a small backpack type bag each similar in size to a rolling carry-on bag which would have been just as easy to manoeuvre on escalators plus our "day" bags.

The most confusing part of the entire trip was exiting Disney train station and working out where the Disney resort buses left from. We went right and came to some bus carrels painted blue but there was a bigger bus interchange in front of us further back with orange buses. A security type person told us we wanted the blue buses - which made sense when one pulled up (at the "blue" painted bus stops). The orange buses we worked out later were "city" buses. The first blue bus stop was marked a bit confusingly indicating they were going to somewhere other than the resorts but the rows further along the line were clearly marked - one for Toy Story Hotel and one for Disneyland Hotel - so we waited about 15 mins for our bus to arrive. It was deserted being now around 5.30pm. This was a different spot to where the regular buses from Disneyland that went straight to the hotels left from. I presume this would have been the train station drop off point. We discovered later it was right next to Disneytown. It had taken us around one hour to do the journey. The bus left with us and one other couple and took about 15 mins driving around a maze of circling roads til we pulled up outside our hotel, Toy Story. So really it was easier than dealing with confused taxi drivers! and if you don't have a lot of luggage with you catching the subway (metro) is an option. Direct from the airport you would catch the Maglev to Longyang Rd (and pay the Maglev fare PIO paid) and then (for another 5Y) take line 16 to Luoshan and line 11 to Disney.

As an aside I wish we had had longer in the hotels to sample all the tasty wares PIO is showing above. We had the spinach quiche as a light dinner/snack from the Ballet Cafe and it was very delicious. If I find a pic I will add it later. We tried the very yummy blueberry and the nut muffins for breakfast from Toy Story Cafe (same as PIO's pics) one morning and two types of yoghurts (also good though noticeably dearer compared to our ridiculously cheap food elsewhere!)

 

[WanderlustNZ]

I know I've said it before, but you have such a great way of writing your TRs - the blend of text and photos makes them so easy and fun to read.

While, we loved our visit to China, to be honest, Shanghai was the area that interested us least. I didn't think I would ever have a urge to go back. Yet reading about your visit through your eyes, I am beginning to think differently.

That hotel looks gorgeous. My guess is that the person who designed the decor on the Fantasy and Dream had a big hand in this also.

Those snacks are pretty pricy, but they do look delicious.

 

[dhorner233]

Wow! You are really on top of this trip report! I got behind! But I'm back. I love your photography! You do such a great job of composition and use creative angles. Always an inspiration!

 

[1nfrequent]

PrincessinOz I just want to say that this is an incredible trip report. So useful and informative and your photos ... Man. They are incredible. Truly. I am in awe, ma'am.

I'm cribbing like crazy because I'm off to Shanghai in September. I had planned on taking the Maglev from the airport but your experience has made me pause. I'm one of the whitest people in the world, I walk around like I've got TOURIST tattooed on my forehead and I don't speak any mandarin (apart from ni hao) so I'm a bit worried about being taken advantage of. I think that my hotel does a meet and greet service so I'll look into seeing how much that costs.

I'm actually staying at the Sofitel so it's good to know not to have big expectations from the concierge. I've got 5 days in total in the city and was planning to spend 2 in Disney and the rest wandering around the city and the Bund.

Can I ask, I know that there are scammers in the city but did you ever worry about pickpockets at all? I've got a good bag with an inside zip that hugs close to my body and I can get a money belt but I'm a bit wary given that you need to take your passport with you to the parks.

1F

 

[RachelTori]

Pio - I haven't had much time lately to keep up with this TR (or your Facebook posts), but I wanted to make sure you know I am in total awe of the photos and your commentary! What a fabulous trip!

I have to add, your mother is absolutely adorable!

 

[CaliKris]

What a wonderful tour of the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel you just gave us! With your amazing photos and commentary, I feel like I have been there.

 

[franandaj]

Catching up....again....Just glad that Fran went to bed as soon as we got home tonight, so that I could look at my computer without her evil eye looking over my shoulder. I started reading this report this morning on my phone and was discouraged I couldn't really make out the photos, much better on the computer!

Don’t be fooled by the lack of people in these pictures. I waited AGES for it to clear….on both sides!

I do that too!

In the 400 years of existence, Yuyuan Garden had undergone many changes. During the late Ming Dynasty, it became very dilapidated with the decline of Pan's family. In 1760, some rich merchants bought it and spent more than 20 years reconstructing the buildings. During the Opium War of the 19th century, it was severely damaged. The garden you see today is the result of a five-year restoration project which began in 1956. It was open to the public in September, 1961. The Chinese Government declared it a National Monument in 1982. I guess that makes it one of those must-do’s in Shanghai.

OK, now I KNOW that I have to do a TON of research on China before we go to Shanghai. I'm sure Fran thinks we're just going to Disney, but I'm not flying all that way and not seeing the other sights!

I think this is Yanshan Hall. Don’t get me wrong, I’m usually taking pictures of the names of the buildings to jog my memory. However, there were very few signs in English in this part of the garden....or at least none that I easily spotted.

And this further cements that I need an English speaking guide to tell us what we are seeing!

A pond or lake is the central element of a classical Chinese garden.

Again, more reason that I need to do my homework. I don't even know what a Classical Chinese Garden is! Much less the elements that I should be impressed by!

We kept meandering along. All the while, I kept my eye out for the little details.

And why I'm glad I'm seeing this on the computer, so cool!

In fact, I loved the paving in this place.

If the scooter could even get into that place, this would just kill the battery!

But it really was the roof tiles that caught my attention.

Those are some elaborate roof tiles!

I think we spent close on 2 hours in here and there were way too many details for us to take in and capture in the one visit.

I'm wondering with all the beautiful architecture that you are seeing if you get to overload like we did on our SW Roadtrip

We all had a good look around the City God Temple. Whilst it was busy, it wasn’t anywhere near as busy as outside in the Bazaar. A place away from the madding crowd; and a great pick by Aussie Wendy!

Yay Aussie Wendy for a good choice!

 

[franandaj]

Still catching up. But I've secured you another lurker. While reading I've been FB messaging with @Flossbolna 's BF and sent the link to him. Yes Michael I'm calling you out! He's interested in your trip as well. I'm also taking advantage of the fact that Fran is still asleep and I'm not!

It was here that I realised what a master the noodle maker at the hotel was. The noodles here were tasty; but the diameter of the noodles was not consistent within the strand and between strands.

Those noodles still look good. I'm still craving noodles! Even though my "2nd dinner" last night was Wontons, Tempura Shrimp, and Potstickers (all of the frozen variety), I still want some good noodles!

As China continues to replace the old/historical city landscape with a new urban development, lilong neighbourhoods like this one will head the way of the dodo. I guess (or hope) that new housing will be made available to these residents but that community feel will probably be lost once they move.

Unfortunately unless they really believe in socialist values, they probably will not, or the new housing will be so far outside the city that it will be in accessible. With the recent US/China developents I believe we are going to heck in a handbag. But I don't want to be banned from the DIS so I won't say anything further.

Entry to this historic attraction will set you back 5 Yuan (or about $1 in my money).

Seems like most of these attractions are very affordable.

The wall was built in 1553 during the Ming Dynasty, to defend itself against Japanese pirates. I guess it’s pretty ironic that this relic of the past is surrounded by corporate pirates.

Yeah, and other corporate vultures as well.

And I was even more pleased to find an envelop waiting for me when we got back to the hotel. The bellhop gave it to me when he got our bags. Turns out the hotel staff had managed to refund the 1000 Yuan back to my credit card whilst we were out and about. That was such welcomed news to me!

That's great!

I may not be able to read Chinese but I can definitely read Mickey Head. This was the second such sign we saw on the way.

Yay Mickey!