TR: SDL 7/5/17

cschaaf

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
We were on a Viking River Cruise - Imperial Jewels of China

We decided to take the first day of the tour, which was to be Yuyan Gardens, and go to Shanghai Disneyland instead.

Short version:
  • The Metro was inexpensive and easy to navigate
  • Locals were very friendly
  • The park was at capacity
  • We bought the Premiere Access Set and, though expensive, it was totally worth it. We got to ride everything we wanted with minimal waits.
  • Pirates and Tron were both outstanding
  • The park is massive
  • The castle is beautiful
  • We experienced very little pushing and littering and no instances of bathroom activities outside of a bathroom.

Detailed trip report below: Warning, no pictures - sorry :(

Getting To Disney

We were staying at the Westin Bund Center.

We got up early and walked to the nearest Metro station, East Nanjing Road. It was about a 10 minute walk. We had asked the hotel concierge about a taxi, but he said no taxi would want to take us that short of a drive.

We walked out of the hotel at 5:30 so we could make the first metro at 6:03. Overall, the Metro was pretty easy to use. Most things are well labeled in English.

The first challenge was to purchase the tickets. We decided to get the 24-hour pass. It was a little more than the round trip would have been, but we figured it might be less of a hassle. I didn’t want to get somewhere only to find that transfers weren’t included or something.

We went to the self-service machines but couldn’t figure out how to purchase the 24-hour pass. We found a manned kiosk and were able to get our passes (the employee didn’t speak English, but it was easy to convey what we needed) and we were on our way.

On the floor of the building, there were arrows that were colored and had the train numbers. Just follow those and you will get to the right track.

You need to know the terminus station for the direction you need to travel.

For example, we needed to take Line 2 to the Longyang Road station then transfer. The terminus for Line 2 in that direction is Pudong Airport, so we had to find Line 2, then stand on the side that said it was headed towards Pudong Airport. Easy to do.

The next station wasn’t as clearly marked and it was a bit confusing. We needed Line 16 towards Dishui Lake. There weren’t a lot of signs that said Line 16, and most that did were paper signs as opposed to something a little more permanent.

We found the track and thought we were standing on the correct side. A train pulled to the other side and everyone got on that. I went to the door and asked, “Dishui Lake?” and a few people in the car said “Yes”, so we got on too. It was the right choice and we made it to the correct station to transfer one last time.

At the 3rd station, there was some jostling as the people trying to get on do not wait for the people getting off. You just kind of go with the crowd. Well, you don’t have much choice; the crowd will carry you.

All of the trains were crowded. There isn’t the personal space that we are used to. We heard a lot about ‘pushing’, but that doesn’t quite seem to describe it to me. Pushing sounds aggressive. No one was aggressive, they were more ‘unyielding’. They walked where they needed to walk; they stood where they needed to stand. Nothing rude or personal about it, it’s just they needed to be where they needed to be. If you need to be somewhere, you just did the same thing.

We made it to the Disney station at 7:15. This was when all heck broke loose. As soon as the doors opened, most of the people RAN. In whatever direction they thought they needed to go, they RAN.

You had to get off the train and walk left or right for a bit to get to the escalators. There was an accordion-style barrier that blocked direct access to the escalators. One guy opened the accordion and slid past, then tried to close it behind him. The crowd tried to push and open it further. He was not having it and was yelling and trying to close it. Eventually, the crowd won and the gate was opened and the crowd poured through. We followed behind the crowd.

Getting Into Disney

We walked from the metro station to the front of the park. There was a large crowd and we weren’t really sure where we were supposed to go - despite reading as many trip reports as I could, multiple times each. I pulled up the image of the ticket reservation on my phone and found a group of security guards. I showed the picture and asked where we needed to go. A female guard from the group stepped forward and said these were the security lines and pointed indicating that we should go towards the left once we got through security.

The security line was crowded and you had no personal space. I should also mention that it was hot and very humid already. We live in south Georgia and are pretty used to some heat and humidity, but this felt hotter and more humid faster than at home. It’s like the humidity stayed constant all day whereas at home, it’s lower in the morning and rises through the day.

You’ll go so far in the security line, then you’ll come across someone just standing there not moving forward, or sometimes even walking upstream against the crowd. It doesn’t take long to figure out that they are selling stuff out of their backpacks.

The security line moved pretty well. When you got to the end, there was a Cast Member that would sacrifice their body and block the line. They would waive a party through, then jump back and block the line.

The security check was easy and without incident.

Next, we had to go to the ticket counter. Pretty much the same deal in line. Crowded, people selling stuff, a CM putting wither life on the line to make sure the line moved correctly.

In this line, a group a few people in front of us grabbed a map of the park from a wall. They looked at it for about 10 seconds, crumpled it, and threw it in the bushes. We figured we were in for a day of seeing littering like this, but this was actually one of the few times we saw that. We’d see people place garbage on top of a garbage can, instead of in it, but for the most part, it felt like what we’d see at any park in the US.

We showed our passport, you only need the one that you used to buy all of the tickets, and got our tickets. We thought we’d have to go to the turnstiles where the crowd that had their tickets went, but it wasn’t that tough. We were funneled to a single turnstile and walked right through.

It was 8:02, so it took 48 minutes to walk from the train until we were in the park.

In the Park

Next, we went to get our Fast Pass Premier pass. To get this, you go immediately to the left when you walk under the entrance sign. You end up going in the exit of the gift shop. There were CMs just outside to help. In line, you fill out a form to pick with FPs you want - you can buy singles or the full set. We went with the full set. The CM helped select that option for us.

Inside, you give that form to a cashier. They give you the appropriate FPs and a receipt. Then you are ushered into another room where they take your picture while you hold up your FPs fanned out.

To use the FPs, you need to show 3 things at the ride - the FP, the receipt, and the picture. Have all three ready when you get in the FP line.

My wife wanted a Pandora bead, so we stopped and got that as well as a pressed penny. We probably saw 5 pressed penny machines and only 2 were working. Later, we returned back to this ship and noticed this machine was now marked out of order, too.

From there, we knew Pirates was our priority so we headed that way. There was still a lot of running everywhere. Even people that seemed to have no idea where they were going would run. They’d run 20’ in one direction, realize that was wrong, then run the other direction.

We got to Pirates at 8:30 and it showed a 15 minute wait. We walked through the outdoor section of the queue without stopping, then made it inside. The outside section would be pretty brutal if you had to wait there.

We asked the CM if we could sit in the front row, she said ‘okay’ then pointed us to a row number which turned out to be the back row. Oh well. We got the row to ourselves and the boat set off at 8:50.

The ride was incredible. The screens looked great. The sets looked amazing. And in many places, it was hard to tell where the screen ended and the set began.

I’ll spare any spoilers, but the first time you see Jack was great, but I thought the effect was a bit obvious due to poor lighting.

The boat movement was so unique. The last scene also had very poor lighting and the effect wasn’t clear at all. Had I not seen an on-ride video before going, I wouldn’t have had any idea of what we were looking at. Still, a very small negative for an amazing ride. So much better than the WDW version of Pirates, IMO.

Next up was the Challenge Trails. On our way there, we saw a small customer service kiosk with a CM and we asked him how to get a passcode to get on the WiFi. He pointed to things as we tapped our way to the login screen then said, “Enter a Chinese telephone number” We said we don’t have one. He said, “I do” and took his phone out of his pocket. He asked for my phone and I handed it to him and he walked through the process. Then took my wife’s phone and got her’s connected, too. Awesome.

We use WiFi to check the wait times via the park app and felt it worked well. There were very few instances where we couldn’t get the WiFi to work - the Downtown Disney area was a dark spot. Later in the day, we used WiFi to check the weather. It was slow, but servicable.

My wife didn’t want to do the Trails, so she held my bag. This entrance wasn’t as clear as I thought it could be and I got in a line. When we turned a corner, it looked like I was in the locker line. I waited about 5 minutes and a CM walked past and I said, “I don’t need a locker, can I go over there?” and pointed to what I thought was the line for the attraction.

The CM said no, for me to stay there. I tried saying that I didn’t have a bag and didn’t need a locker, but it was getting lost in translation.

A second CM walked past and we had the same interaction.

A third walked past and said, “You need to put your phone in a locker.” I said I didn’t have a phone. He said, “You don’t have a phone?!?!” incredulously. Then said, “You don’t need to be in this line” and pointed to the attraction line. I probably wasted 10-15 minutes in the wrong line.

The line for the Challenge Trials was long and slow-moving. In this line, I was getting a lot of looks from the children. I had on a Pittsburgh Penguins hat and a young man yelled, “Let's go Penguins!” when I turned his direction. A few other young children said “HELLO!” and waived.

When I got outfitted for the trails, I walked to the top of the steps where there is a choice to go left or right. A CM was there and said the left side “has the waterfall” and the right side “... is less crowded”. I took the less crowded way. It was really, really fun. One of my favorite things that we did that day. There are three paths at each obstacle and you can choose your path. I chose the hard one on all but one, and that one had the hard path closed.

I don’t know the timing, but it probably took me 45 - 60 minutes to do the attraction. I could have saved 20 or so had I been in the right line.

We continued around the park in a counterclockwise direction to Seven Dwarves Mine Train was next. We got in the FP line at 10:05. The standby wait showed 120 minutes. We waited 12 minutes for FP.

Fun ride. Pretty much the same as Orlando. It felt a little faster, but I can’t be sure. The end scene wasn’t as good, but did have a fun surprise.

There were still FP left for 7DMT, but the line to get the FP had to be 30 - 45 minutes long. It spilled out into the walkways and you had to walk a long way before you even knew what the line was for. I’d bet a good number of people in that line thought they were in line for a ride.

Next was Peter Pan. Got in line at 10:35 and standby showed 65 minutes. We were on the ride at 10:42. The updated ride looked very sharp, but the London flyover wasn’t as fun as the WDW version.

Crystal Grotto had a 60 minute posted wait, so we skipped it. We checked a few times throughout the day, but the wait was never less than 60 minutes and we felt there were better uses of our time.

We couldn’t find the Tron entrance, so we went to Buzz first. Buzz showed a 60 minute standby at 11:09. We used our FP and boarded at 11:20. Again, the updated ride looked great. The laser sight update was great. The ride kept stopping, so that kind of ruined the enjoyment. Still fun, but wasn’t the best ride experience.

The Tron entrance is not under the Tron sign on the building. You have to go upstairs to get to Tron. Once up there, we tried to figure out where to go for the lockers. Once we got the right place, we had to ‘rent’ the locker.

It was set up similar to the lockers in Universal Orlando. You go to a screen and start the reservation. It gives you a locker number and you go find that and put your stuff in. The big difference was that the screens worked for any of the locker banks. At Universal, if you are at the 300 block, the screen lets you in the lockers that are in the 300 block. At Tron, we were at a screen and it gave us a locker 3 blocks away. And the lockers are numbered sequentially, so you had to walk around to figure out which block it was in. And the area was PACKED. Much more difficult than it needed to be.

Once we stored our stuff, we struggled to find the ride entrance. A crowd was walking to the left of the building, so we followed. There was a sign that everyone ignored that said, “Exit only”. So we walked back around to the right and found another door that said, “Exit only”.

Eventually, we figured out that the entrance to the ride was behind us. When you go in to get a locker, you enter the locker area and the ride entrance is just to your right. So, you have to get a locker, turn around and walk back towards where you came in and go to the left a bit.

Once through that door, there was a sign for the FP line, but it looked closed. The stanchion was pulled over to a signpost and there was a guard there. The locals were trying to push past the guard, but he kept waving them off. We made our way to the guard and showed the passes and he indicated that we could go in the line, but didn’t move the stanchion. We had to squeeze past lest we open the floodgate.

I had to take my phone on the ride since we had to show the picture to use the Premier FP.

All day, we noticed that the locals were very confused about the FP system. If that had been our first FP experience, we would have been completely lost.

We walked into the FP line at 11:30 and the standby line showed 90 minutes. We boarded the ride at 11:45.

We loved Tron. When we got off, my wife said, “That was the best ride I have ever been on”. I don’t think I’d put it that high, but it was really good. I think I drooled on the ride vehicle.

Walking off the ride, we decided that we would get a FP to ride again. We wanted to ride at night, but knew we’d be risking not getting a FP if we waited any longer. On the way out, we figured out what those ‘Exit only’ signs were. You, of course, exit through the gift shop and those doors were the gift shop exits. We retrieved our belongings and headed to Downtown Disney for lunch.

The parade was in progress, but there was a sidewalk behind the main sidewalk and we were able to walk that easily.

I don’t remember what restaurant we chose, but the meal was good. It was a simple Chinese place, not one of the fancy places that had the more traditional food.

After lunch, we headed over to Roaring Rapids. I don’t like getting wet on rides and hate rides where everyone gets soaked. If there is a chance of not getting wet, I’m much more likely to ride. I watched RR videos and it looked like there was a chance of not getting wet plus, it was so hot that day, I figured getting wet wouldn’t be so bad.

I forgot to look at the times, but we maybe waited 5 minutes. It was one of the best raft rides I have been on - but I don’t go on too many of that style. My only negative mark was that is spun a LOT and fast.

There were two young girls on the ride. One got pretty wet early in the ride and the other pointed at her and laughed. They both laughed and we laughed at them. Late in the ride, I was on the downhill side when we went down a small drop and my right side got drenched. The girls both pointed at me and laughed. I had to laugh at myself at that point.

Next up was Soaring. We got in line at 2:00 and the standby line was showing 150 minutes. I didn’t jot down when we got on the ride, but we exited the ride at 2:38. We hadn’t seen the new video yet at WDW and thought this one was pretty good. It has perspective issues, but not as bad as I expected. Most of the images were good, but some were bad. Don’t want to post any spoilers.

I stopped tracking our time at this point. All we had left that we wanted to do was the Tarzan and Jack Sparrow shows. Tarzan only had 2 more showings that day, so we went there first. We had about 45 minutes to kill before the show, so we went to a little area right outside of the theater where they had fans and misters.

While sitting there, it started to rain. Light at first, but got harder. When it slowed, we went and stood in the Tarzan queue so we were under cover.

We enjoyed the Tarzan show. I love any aerial shows, so that was my favorite part.

When the show ended, we decided to sit and wait for the theater to clear out a bit before getting up. We started seeing people come back in and put on ponchos. Then more people… then people started running back in the theater.

We could see out the doors across the theater and it was pouring. This went on for about 15 minutes then it slowed a bit. We’re not usually deterred by rain, so we put on our ponchos and made our way to the door. We went about 4 steps and I said to my wife, “We’re not doing this. My shoes will be soaked in less than a minute.” The sidewalks were like rivers.

We went back in the theater and tried all of the weather apps on our phones trying to find a radar view. None had radar in China. We looked over shoulders at everyone else who was on their phone and none were looking at the radar. We found that odd - if that were in WDW, everyone would be checking the radar to see if/when the storm would pass.

It kept raining and raining and more people filed back into the theater. There were some announcements in Mandarin and the crowd sounded disappointed. Later, there was another announcement and the crowd seemed to like it and people started moving out again, only to run back in.

Not my video, but here is an idea of the storm that went through. It lasted for about an hour. Not all of it was this hard, but it didn’t let off too much.


The crowd for the next showing started coming in and soon the theater was packed. People sitting in the aisles and walkways. There was another announcement that was followed in English and they said the next show was cancelled. We were checking the Disney app and all rides showed closed.

Finally, there was another announcement and people sounded very disappointed and started to leave in packs. We waited for things to clear out and we left. The theater was trashed; ponchos and garbage left behind.

The rain had all but stopped. There were branches down and some patio umbrellas had snapped their poles. Cast Members were quickly picking up debris.

We weren’t sure if the park was closed or not and everyone was pushing towards the exit. We started that way as all of the rides still showed they were closed. We wanted to do some shopping, so we went to the stores at the front of the park and it was shoulder to shoulder in there and was hectic trying to get to the cashiers.

We finished that and most rides still showed closed. I think Peter Pan and Pooh were the only ones that showed open.

We decided to head towards Tron anyway. There were announcements playing that the weather service had issued a red warning and more storms would be coming.

We went to the little quick service place that overlooks Tron and found an empty table on the outside where we could hear and see if the ride started back up.

If we had more energy at this point, the smart move would have been to walk back to Pirates to see if we could do that a second time. We saw Tron start back up running test vehicles. We watched about 4 or 5 test vehicles, then started walking over.

This time, the lockers were even worse. Half of the kiosks wouldn’t work. Some were dark, some would get so far then lock up. The ones that did work weren’t clear what was going on and we figured out that all of the lockers were “in use”. Odd since the park was pretty empty at this point.

Then we saw the issue. When you take your stuff out of the locker, you are supposed to push a little hidden button that ends your reservation. We hadn’t done that in the morning, so the locker we had used probably showed it was full all day. And it seemed like no one had pushed that button.

Fortunately, I had a 1 RMB coin, so we were able to get one of the key lockers.You put the coin in, then you can take the key. When you come back and return the key, you get your 1 RMB back.

I think it was about 6:00 at this point and the FP line went pretty fast, maybe 10 minutes. While waiting, a young girl came to me and said, “Hello!” then asked, “Where are you from?” I said, “The United States”. She said, “Do you speak Chinese?” I said, “Sorry, no.” Her shoulders slumped and she frowned. She was hoping that I was bilingual so we could have a conversation and she could test her English or have me help her.

I asked her name and she didn’t get that. I tried telling her my name and she didn’t get that. Eventually, she said something that I didn’t get until we were just about to board. She asked, “Are you scared?” lol

The Tron car before ours had a small boy on it. The ride vehicle kind of closes around you like a clam shell. It’s designed like a motorcycle and you sit on it like a superbike. A part then squeezes your legs and another clamps down on your back. It’s more comfortable than it looks or sounds.

Anyway, this kid was very small. The back part was almost on his neck. He looked like a small turtle going back into his shell. I don’t think there’s any way he rides that if it was in the US.

The ride was awesome again on the second ride. At this point, we were exhausted so we decided to head out. It was probably around 6:15 - 6:20 and the park was pretty empty because of the storm.

Leaving the Park

We headed back to the Metro station and took the trains in reverse order. Again, very easy. Until we tried leaving the Metro at the last stop… my wife was in front of me and tried to go through a turnstile and it didn’t work. I went to the next one over and went right through. She tried that turnstile and it didn’t open for her, either.

She tried a few times and it wouldn’t work. I handed her my card, but it still wouldn’t let her out. We stared at each other for about 10 seconds wondering what to do when a local lady noticed the confusion on our faces.

She held up her Metro card and waived it in the air. I tried to indicate that we were stuck. She came over and scanned her card and let my wife through.

We were thanking her with a lot of xiexie’s and then she tried to exit and her card didn’t work. We didn’t know the words for “I am so sorry!” and we apologized as much as we could in English. She waived us off with a “It’s okay, I got this,” waive.

She walked over to a small boot where there was an employee and they had a loud conversation in Mandarin. After a few seconds, the guy let her through.

Again, we apologize to her as best we could and she just laughed and said it was okay.

We’re so glad we took the opportunity to go to the park. We debated over and over if we should go and it was a lot of money to spend on one day in the park, but it was totally worth it!
 
Thank you for the detailed descriptions! Very helpful!
So absolutely no problems to get the premier FP set, as a foreigner? It sounds pretty easy.
 
Thank you for the detailed descriptions! Very helpful!
So absolutely no problems to get the premier FP set, as a foreigner? It sounds pretty easy.
No problem getting the Premier Set at all - as long as you have a phone or a camera with a display.

Take a hard left once you pass under the entry arch. You'll go in the Exit of the gift shop - they do this because it takes you directly to the registers.

While in a short line, there is a little form you fill out indicating if you want the full set or, if you are getting individual ride FPs, you check mark the rides you want. A CM asked us what we wanted and checked the Set for us.

You'll take that to the registers and pay. The CM had us read some rules - basically saying only the purchaser can use and only on the date purchased - then will ring you up and get your Fast Passes. They come pre-packaged in a plastic envelope and the CM will open the envelope(s) and show you the set. They will also give you back that little form you filled out stapled to a receipt.

Then you get ushered into another line where a CM will take your picture. You'll stand next to a CM who holds a board with writing on it - I can only assume it was the date. They will have you fan out the FPs and hold them up with the receipt. Then they will take a picture with your phone.

That's it... until you need to use one of the FPs.

To use the FP, you'll need A. the FP, B. the receipt, and C. your phone/camera with the picture.

Each ride seemed to be a bit different as to who asked to see the above. Some rides, you just showed your FP to the first person and someone down-queue checked the other 2 items. For others, the person at the front of the line checked all 3 items.

Some rides, several people checked all three items. I think there was one ride where we showed all 3 items 4 different times. Just keep everything handy. A lanyard with a sealable pouch is very helpful. We used our Universal Halloween Horror Nights lanyards ;)
 
Thanks for the tips. We have a short stay in October and plan on getting the fp set for the full day we are there.
 



GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Latest posts







Top