DisneyRegulars
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 20, 2011
- Messages
- 2,602
Holy Moly! I will hopefully be writing a full trip report, but wanted to share a few thoughts about my last few days.
We just spent the last two days at Shanghai Disney, Thursday June 15th and Friday the 16th. The crowds were INSANE!!!! For example, the park opened today at 9:00, and we were at the park entrance by 7:30am, and were waaaaaay back in the line. We only managed to actually make it into the park at 9:20!!!
From there we walked almost straight to the fast pass line for Soarin and Raging Rapids, hoping to get a fast pass for raging rapids, and I encountered the most humongous fast pass line I have ever seen. It must have been over two hours long. At any rate there was no way I was standing in that line, let's just go ride raging rapids right? Nope! It already had a 90 minute wait! So holy balogna be prepared for lines.
If you imagine for a minute the park without insane lines it is incredible. INCREDIBLE!!!! Pirates was every bit as good as everyone says. Tron was fun, like a longer Rockin Rollercoaster without the loops.
Be prepared to hold your ground in lines or people will push right past you. It will be infuriating, but you just have to let it go.
If you get in a photopass line and think "yeah I'm next!" don't be surprised that next is actually ten minutes away as the photopass guys instruct the Chinese guests through 30-40 different poses. It's nuts! As a foreigner you will get one pose plus one with a thumbs up.
Today we did the Challenge Climbs at the mountain. We had a blast. My seven year old loved them.
You can get a white chocolate mickey bar with strawberry ice cream.
Everyone was so friendly. I don't speak a lick of Chinese beyond Nihau and Xie xie (hello and thank you), but everyone was so nice as I used a combination of charades and a translator ap to communicate. I thought the Disney cast members were every bit as nice, if not nicer than the Florida cast members.
There is definitely an interesting cultural difference between the Chinese and American Disney park goers. I saw little kids peeing in a variety of places that were not bathrooms. Trash dropped all sorts of places that were not trash cans. Umbrellas being used as sun shields (advice: wear sunglasses to avoid having your eye poked out). And last but not least, the running!! The second they enter the park, they just start sprinting!
Disney does their best to keep up with these cultural differences and keep it Disney though. The park was spotless. The trash dropped carelessly on the ground was quickly picked up.
Anyways, I give this park an A++++. It was beautiful, huge, the rides were amazing, and it was a great experience even if the crowds were enormous. The only thing I didn't like was the night time show. It was just a castle projection show with a few tiny fireworks thrown in. Totally worth skipping. Although it was interesting to hear the crowd gasp in awe at every tiny firework. I can see why they don't use bigger ones, the tiny ones seemed to impress the audience quite a bit, so why bother with fancier ones.
If you have any questions I'd be glad to answer them, and I will write a full report soon I think.
We just spent the last two days at Shanghai Disney, Thursday June 15th and Friday the 16th. The crowds were INSANE!!!! For example, the park opened today at 9:00, and we were at the park entrance by 7:30am, and were waaaaaay back in the line. We only managed to actually make it into the park at 9:20!!!
From there we walked almost straight to the fast pass line for Soarin and Raging Rapids, hoping to get a fast pass for raging rapids, and I encountered the most humongous fast pass line I have ever seen. It must have been over two hours long. At any rate there was no way I was standing in that line, let's just go ride raging rapids right? Nope! It already had a 90 minute wait! So holy balogna be prepared for lines.
If you imagine for a minute the park without insane lines it is incredible. INCREDIBLE!!!! Pirates was every bit as good as everyone says. Tron was fun, like a longer Rockin Rollercoaster without the loops.
Be prepared to hold your ground in lines or people will push right past you. It will be infuriating, but you just have to let it go.
If you get in a photopass line and think "yeah I'm next!" don't be surprised that next is actually ten minutes away as the photopass guys instruct the Chinese guests through 30-40 different poses. It's nuts! As a foreigner you will get one pose plus one with a thumbs up.
Today we did the Challenge Climbs at the mountain. We had a blast. My seven year old loved them.
You can get a white chocolate mickey bar with strawberry ice cream.
Everyone was so friendly. I don't speak a lick of Chinese beyond Nihau and Xie xie (hello and thank you), but everyone was so nice as I used a combination of charades and a translator ap to communicate. I thought the Disney cast members were every bit as nice, if not nicer than the Florida cast members.
There is definitely an interesting cultural difference between the Chinese and American Disney park goers. I saw little kids peeing in a variety of places that were not bathrooms. Trash dropped all sorts of places that were not trash cans. Umbrellas being used as sun shields (advice: wear sunglasses to avoid having your eye poked out). And last but not least, the running!! The second they enter the park, they just start sprinting!
Disney does their best to keep up with these cultural differences and keep it Disney though. The park was spotless. The trash dropped carelessly on the ground was quickly picked up.
Anyways, I give this park an A++++. It was beautiful, huge, the rides were amazing, and it was a great experience even if the crowds were enormous. The only thing I didn't like was the night time show. It was just a castle projection show with a few tiny fireworks thrown in. Totally worth skipping. Although it was interesting to hear the crowd gasp in awe at every tiny firework. I can see why they don't use bigger ones, the tiny ones seemed to impress the audience quite a bit, so why bother with fancier ones.
If you have any questions I'd be glad to answer them, and I will write a full report soon I think.