The 'I survived SDL's Opening Day' TR!

More Adventurous Wanderings

It was close to 10am by the time I finished my second ride on Pirates, and there was a Tarzan show at 10:45am. Based on my experience with shows in HK, and the guide map advising to ‘get there as early as possible’, I decided to head straight there. Along the way, I managed to spot Barbossa’s Bounty, where I was planning to have lunch that day.





And found a bathroom, which was nicely themed as well (of course). I think I’ve already gone into the bathroom set up, but I will again for anyone who missed it the first time around. I know bathrooms were a concern for a lot of people in the lead up to opening, and probably will continue to be for westerners heading over at any time, so I think it’s worth going into again. There are mainly squat toilets in the bathrooms – clean and well maintained looking, but uncomfortable nonetheless for those of us who aren’t used to it. However, keep walking past the squat stalls, and you will find a couple of regular western style toilets at the back, along with a disabled toilet. Although there are only a few western style toilets per block, the locals seemed to prefer the squat toilets, so the western ones were pretty much always empty. I never had to wait in line for one, and they were always nice and clean and sanitary looking.

The Tarzan theatre was tucked away off the path near Soaring. It didn’t look like there was anyone in line yet, so I thought I’d have time to check out the FPs again before joining the line. The line was still too long for my liking (especially since I was on my way to a show), so I gave it a miss and headed back to the theatre. As I entered the area, these colourful musicians appeared from around the bend.





The Tarzan area was still completely empty, and the CM told me I may as well go away and do something else and come back in 15 minutes (which would be about 20 minutes before the show was due to start). Well, I’ll admit that it threw me a bit, but I decided that I could fill in 15 minutes by wandering around the area and taking photos (since I hadn’t gotten many of the general area yet, and there was certainly a lot to see!). I started off my wanderings at the entrance to Soaring, where there was another CM holding a sign to mark the end of the line. This one said 180 minutes!



The queue area certainly did look nicer and better themed than its US counterparts, but I still can’t imagine ever waiting 3 hours for a ride!



The Tarzan theatre was close to the Treasure Cove border. I just loved how visible the huge castle was from every part of the park, and the contrast it provided with whatever land I was in. Some may say it detracts from the theming, but I loved the effect!





So I decided to wander back to Treasure Cove and try to get some of those iconic pirate ship photos over the lagoon. I was so lucky to have beautiful blue skies for these photos! The ship in the foreground is Siren’s Revenge, a walkthrough attraction of a pirate ship. In the background is Shipwreck Shore, which is a kids play area with a couple of wrecked ships. And of course there are the Explorer Canoes in there too. This wasn’t high on my priority list either (but never really seemed to have much of a wait), but from what I heard there was mass confusion with locals when they realised that they were expected to help row the boat, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this attraction gets scrapped or turned into something else.



Barbossa’s Bounty was themed like a small pirate town, and was incredibly well done. It was also incredibly quiet at that time of day. One of the things I really loved about Shanghai Disneyland was that there was always somewhere a bit out of the way to get away from the crowds.







On the other side of Siren’s Revenge there was a nice photo opportunity with the Adventure Isle mountain in the background instead of the castle. There happened to be a PP photographer in this location, who was twiddling his thumbs and came wandering over to offer to take my photo.





I’m still actually not sure what this building actually was, but whatever it was, it was brilliant!



And of course there was the Pirates ride and shop building, which was designed like a massive fort.



Time was getting on by then, and I thought I’d wander back to Tarzan and see what was going on there.
 
Along the way, I managed to spot Barbossa’s Bounty, where I was planning to have lunch that day.

Ah, so that's what that building was! We thought it looked like a restaurant but didn't have time to look around the area more closely. Love all of your pics of this area!
 
Ah, so that's what that building was! We thought it looked like a restaurant but didn't have time to look around the area more closely. Love all of your pics of this area!

Thanks! I would highly recommend Barbossa's for your next trip :thumbsup2
 
And of course there are the Explorer Canoes in there too. This wasn’t high on my priority list either (but never really seemed to have much of a wait), but from what I heard there was mass confusion with locals when they realised that they were expected to help row the boat, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this attraction gets scrapped or turned into something else.
The canoes are actually really popular now, usually a 30-60 minute, as I type this the wait is 60 mins which is longer than Pirates!
 


The canoes are actually really popular now, usually a 30-60 minute, as I type this the wait is 60 mins which is longer than Pirates!

Oh, that's nice I'm glad people seem to be 'getting it'. I imagine it would be a pretty slow loader so if it's the least bit popular it's probably going to be a long wait!
 
Oh, that's nice I'm glad people seem to be 'getting it'. I imagine it would be a pretty slow loader so if it's the least bit popular it's probably going to be a long wait!
It always had a long wait for us, too, but as they close early in the day we decided to hop on before closing and waited a little less than 30 on our last day and I am so glad we did it. It ended up being one of my favorite things to do as the views from the ride were fantastic and we had a nice communal spirit on the boat :)
 
Flounder, as you went on the Canoes, you may be able to tell me about them. We thought they were on a cable which slowly towed the canoes along, meaning the 'rowing' by passengers is more for the experience than the necessity. Would that be right? Can't help thinking that with the wrong group on, someone could be doing much more than they would think fair!
We didn't do them, either, just because we had other things we wanted to do with our limited time. Would be fun to try.
Zanzibar, I don't understand the HUGE attraction that Soaring has- more than 2 hours? It doesn't agree with my head (can't hack the California one, so didn't intend doing this) but the response to this in China still fascinates me.
I've almost finished my whole trip photos- have about 1200 of China, and am going to do my Disney ones tomorrow. I haven't even looked at them, except as I took them to make sure I got what I wanted. I want to keep the surprise up!
 


Flounder, as you went on the Canoes, you may be able to tell me about them. We thought they were on a cable which slowly towed the canoes along, meaning the 'rowing' by passengers is more for the experience than the necessity. Would that be right? Can't help thinking that with the wrong group on, someone could be doing much more than they would think fair!
We didn't do them, either, just because we had other things we wanted to do with our limited time. Would be fun to try.
Zanzibar, I don't understand the HUGE attraction that Soaring has- more than 2 hours? It doesn't agree with my head (can't hack the California one, so didn't intend doing this) but the response to this in China still fascinates me.
I've almost finished my whole trip photos- have about 1200 of China, and am going to do my Disney ones tomorrow. I haven't even looked at them, except as I took them to make sure I got what I wanted. I want to keep the surprise up!

Honestly, the times DH and I have tried kayaking, it hasn't turned out that well lol! We don't seem to have a knack for paddling at all and I've always been having to concentrate and work way too hard to actually enjoy it. That's the main reason I chose to make the explorer canoes a low priority.

I don't understand the big deal with Soaring either. I tend to get motion sickness on simulator style rides and took a couple of kwells so that I could do the one in Anaheim because it was hyped up so much. The effect was cool, but after all the hype I was a bit disappointed, and have never really felt the need to go on it again. I certainly wouldn't wait 3 hours for it! I would have waited an hour for Pirates or Tron if I'd had to, but that was pretty much my limit!
 
Zanzibar138,

Leaving for our China tour in 36 hours! Have scheduled Shanghai Disneyland for Saturday October 22 so we can meet friends. I know it is very crowded on the weekends. Is there a good place to meet once we get inside the park? Thanks.

Kathy
 
Zanzibar138,

Leaving for our China tour in 36 hours! Have scheduled Shanghai Disneyland for Saturday October 22 so we can meet friends. I know it is very crowded on the weekends. Is there a good place to meet once we get inside the park? Thanks.

Kathy

There are plenty of places you could meet. Just have a look at the park map online and pick a spot :thumbsup2
 
Well, I've finally got my photos and journal done. Around 1500 photos, and 20 pages about our whole trip, not just Disney. DH has been away since 3 days after we got back, and I'm waiting for him to get home soon so we can order up 1000 photo sleeves from Jack Ma (ie, AliBaba) to put in binders. Last 2 trips I've glued them into scrapbooks, and it drove me crazy, especially as I then did my sister's too. :crazy2: I'll use some of the leftover sleeves for older trip journals I've done.
If I can get someone to put my photos up for me, I'll pop some on my trip report. I'll have to choose carefully so as not to be totally shown up by yours, Zanzibar!
 
Well, I've finally got my photos and journal done. Around 1500 photos, and 20 pages about our whole trip, not just Disney. DH has been away since 3 days after we got back, and I'm waiting for him to get home soon so we can order up 1000 photo sleeves from Jack Ma (ie, AliBaba) to put in binders. Last 2 trips I've glued them into scrapbooks, and it drove me crazy, especially as I then did my sister's too. :crazy2: I'll use some of the leftover sleeves for older trip journals I've done.
If I can get someone to put my photos up for me, I'll pop some on my trip report. I'll have to choose carefully so as not to be totally shown up by yours, Zanzibar!

I remain impressed by your dedication :thumbsup2 And I'm sure your photos are great! Looking forward to seeing some :goodvibes
 
Flounder, as you went on the Canoes, you may be able to tell me about them. We thought they were on a cable which slowly towed the canoes along, meaning the 'rowing' by passengers is more for the experience than the necessity. Would that be right? Can't help thinking that with the wrong group on, someone could be doing much more than they would think fair!
We didn't do them, either, just because we had other things we wanted to do with our limited time. Would be fun to try.
Zanzibar, I don't understand the HUGE attraction that Soaring has- more than 2 hours? It doesn't agree with my head (can't hack the California one, so didn't intend doing this) but the response to this in China still fascinates me.
I've almost finished my whole trip photos- have about 1200 of China, and am going to do my Disney ones tomorrow. I haven't even looked at them, except as I took them to make sure I got what I wanted. I want to keep the surprise up!
I also think the rowing is not neccessary, but we had a lot of fun on them and we had quite a bit of speed. I loved doing them because it's such a rare opportunity to be directly out in the water and the views were amazing!
 
Zanzibar138,
I have really enjoyed this thread...our trip to Shanghai Disney is 60 days away...we were able to buy our tickets online today - we are staying at Shanghai Disneyland Hotel. We booked the Royal Banquet Hall for dinner as well :). We still have lots to learn about the parks, but a question came up...when we land the first day, we would like to eat dinner in one of the hotels. Do you know how far it is to walk between Toy Story and Disneyland Hotel? Did you try out the Ballet Cafe or Sunnsyside Cafe in the hotels for quick service? Thanks so much! We have two days scheduled for the parks and hoping we can see most of what we want. Have a great day!
 
Zanzibar138,
I have really enjoyed this thread...our trip to Shanghai Disney is 60 days away...we were able to buy our tickets online today - we are staying at Shanghai Disneyland Hotel. We booked the Royal Banquet Hall for dinner as well :). We still have lots to learn about the parks, but a question came up...when we land the first day, we would like to eat dinner in one of the hotels. Do you know how far it is to walk between Toy Story and Disneyland Hotel? Did you try out the Ballet Cafe or Sunnsyside Cafe in the hotels for quick service? Thanks so much! We have two days scheduled for the parks and hoping we can see most of what we want. Have a great day!
You can walk through the wishing star park to the park and from there it looked like to me that you can walk over to toy story. Might be easier though to take the bus an change busses at the park bus station, or at least walk the scenic way through the park and then take the bus to the Toy Story Hotel, it is 15-20 mins over to the park already.
I personally did not try the quick service places in the hotel, but we loved Lumiere's, although it's pricey.
 
Zanzibar138,
I have really enjoyed this thread...our trip to Shanghai Disney is 60 days away...we were able to buy our tickets online today - we are staying at Shanghai Disneyland Hotel. We booked the Royal Banquet Hall for dinner as well :). We still have lots to learn about the parks, but a question came up...when we land the first day, we would like to eat dinner in one of the hotels. Do you know how far it is to walk between Toy Story and Disneyland Hotel? Did you try out the Ballet Cafe or Sunnsyside Cafe in the hotels for quick service? Thanks so much! We have two days scheduled for the parks and hoping we can see most of what we want. Have a great day!

You can walk through the wishing star park to the park and from there it looked like to me that you can walk over to toy story. Might be easier though to take the bus an change busses at the park bus station, or at least walk the scenic way through the park and then take the bus to the Toy Story Hotel, it is 15-20 mins over to the park already.
I personally did not try the quick service places in the hotel, but we loved Lumiere's, although it's pricey.

Although you definitely could walk between the hotels, I probably wouldn't, unless you're up for a nice long walk to stretch your legs after the flight. I would definitely do Flounder's suggestion and walk from SDH to the bus depot through Wishing Star Park, and take the bus from there to the Toy Story Hotel. Personally though, I wouldn't bother to go just for dinner. Sunnyside Café is a pretty basic cafeteria style place with not much atmosphere. I would either stick with the SDH or try one of the places at Disney Town. Ballet Café is also pretty basic, but at least there's a beautiful view of Disneyland over the lake. I would probably go for Bacchus Lounge instead, which is a bit more atmospheric.
 
I would also agree with Zanzibar to try Disneytown for the restaurants, there are plenty of options there! We did Cheesecake Factory on our first night and enjoyed to have some familiar choices.
 
I didn't realize that bacchus lounge had food items. Would you say it is enough to make a meal?

We will be eating primarily counter service restaurants (for budget reasons). Any restaurant recommendations? We are not picky eaters at all! With only two days there, we want to eat the best!

Has anyone been able to find menus online?
 
Although there were more counter service food options at Toy Story Hotel than at the Disneyland Hotel, I agree that it is not worth the walk there. The Ballet Cafe had basic cafe food (muffins, savoury pastries etc) but also did individual pizzas; so if you are too tired to venture out you could survive on that. But as suggested the best option is to head to Disneytown. There are lots of good options at plenty of price points, if money is tight you can load up on bread based treats (sweet and savoury) at Bread Talk, if you want something large and healthy go to Element Fresh (http://www.elementfresh.com/), there are also of restaurants offering good food at higher prices. Hope you have a great time.
 

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