zanzibar138
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 30, 2007
- Messages
- 5,950
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.
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.
I'll use some of the leftover sleeves for older trip journals I've done. 
