Shanghai Disneyland Grand Opening Trip Planning Thread

[Dentam]

At this point I have planned 2 park days at SDL - June 23 & 24. I'm trying to decide what I should do on the 25th. I can fly back to Hong Kong and where we'll be until the 28th or stick around Shanghai. Do you think we'll need another park day? We arrive on the 22nd so I think we can visit Disneytown and Wishing Star Park then. We'll be on a tour prior to returning to Shanghai so I will have already visited the highlights in the area. What would you do?

I think it will depend on how crowded it is. You may want another park day to try to hit everything and you might also want to spend more time checking out both resorts.

 

[wtdanceisthrough]

In case anyone is thinking about transportation arrangements, this sign is posted outside SDH...

 

[zanzibar138]

That's great, thanks for sharing!

 

[wtdanceisthrough]

Does anyone know what "Qimiao Road Station" is? Is this another name for Disney Resort Station?

 

[Hesperus]

Has anyone run into the daily limit exceed error? Is it something imposed by the payment gateway because my limit on the card is higher than what I was trying to charge to my card to make a reservation.

 

[travellertigger]

we are new to this board. We are going to Shanghai for the opening on June 16th and stopping in Hong Kong on the way. We will be there 16th, 17th, 18th June. We wondered if anyone had any information on when the dining reservations will open?? We want to do so many of the awesome looking restaurants but the top of our list is Royal Banquet Hall!! Any Tips??

 

[Hesperus]

Has anyone read this article?

https://t.co/VRuw1pY5BB

I'm hoping this isn't something we would have to worry about... I wonder how they would be able to enforce them to be orderly.

 

[travellertigger]

I had read that today. Unfortunately they can't and usually won't enforce it. A friend of ours who taught English at Hong Kong Disneyland said that unfortunately Chinese people are used to doing what they want without repercussion due to many being only children. She said they frequently had issues with line cutting at both rides and restaurants and that they didn't care abut it. They want what they want now. She said this kind of behavior is often what happens. I really hope the opening days ardent as bad and they can keep it clean.

 

[Hesperus]

I had read that today. A friend of ours who taught English at Hong Kong Disneyland said that unfortunately Chinese people are used to doing what they want without repercussion due to many being only children. She said they frequently had issues with line cutting at both rides and restaurants and that they didn't care abut it. They want what they want now. She said this kind of behavior is often what happens. I really hope the opening days ardent as bad and they can keep it clean.

As we near opening day, I'm kind of getting more and more nervous!

 

[Dentam]

Hmm... I'm kind of rethinking my visit now. I was just in DL and the crowds there were bad enough...

 

[zanzibar138]

we are new to this board. We are going to Shanghai for the opening on June 16th and stopping in Hong Kong on the way. We will be there 16th, 17th, 18th June. We wondered if anyone had any information on when the dining reservations will open?? We want to do so many of the awesome looking restaurants but the top of our list is Royal Banquet Hall!! Any Tips??

You'll be there the same 3 days as me! Which hotel have you got booked?

I'm hanging out for information to open on dining. I won't do much just being on my own, but I thought a character breakfast might be a good way to at least meet a couple of Shanghai characters in case the lines in the park are prohibitive. I'd also like to know what sort of characters we can expect to see with the breakfast and whether they will be wearing Shanghai specific outfits. It certainly wouldn't be worth it as much if the characters are the same you can meet at any character breakfast around the world lol!

Has anyone read this article?

https://t.co/VRuw1pY5BB

I'm hoping this isn't something we would have to worry about... I wonder how they would be able to enforce them to be orderly.

Unfortunately this is something that we will have to deal with. It's not an American park, and there will be many cultural differences. CMs will do their best, but they will have a lot on their plate and won't be able to stop all of this kind of behaviour. Even in HK I've seen a bit of this stuff going on.

 

[travellertigger]

You'll be there the same 3 days as me! Which hotel have you got booked?

I'm hanging out for information to open on dining. I won't do much just being on my own, but I thought a character breakfast might be a good way to at least meet a couple of Shanghai characters in case the lines in the park are prohibitive. I'd also like to know what sort of characters we can expect to see with the breakfast and whether they will be wearing Shanghai specific outfits. It certainly wouldn't be worth it as much if the characters are the same you can meet at any character breakfast around the world lol!

I asked the live chat about dining reservations. They said You can get reservations for dining 60 days out if you ARE NOT STAYING ON PROPERTY AND 90 DAYS OUT IF YOU ARE STAYING ON PROPERTY. I just got a reservation for 6 people on June 17th at the Royal Banquet Hall at 545PM by calling the +862131580000 number. They were very helpful and had tons of availability. If you want any dining reservations you should do it now!! So excited!!!



Unfortunately this is something that we will have to deal with. It's not an American park, and there will be many cultural differences. CMs will do their best, but they will have a lot on their plate and won't be able to stop all of this kind of behavior. Even in HK I've seen a bit of this stuff going on.

Culture shock happens all over. I traveled for 3 years and it was a huge difference in certain places. You just have to handle it and be friendly and courteous.

 

[travellertigger]

I asked the live chat about dining reservations. They said You can get reservations for dining 60 days out if you ARE NOT STAYING ON PROPERTY AND 90 DAYS OUT IF YOU ARE STAYING ON PROPERTY. I just got a reservation for 6 people on June 17th at the Royal Banquet Hall at 545PM by calling the +862131580000 number. They were very helpful and had tons of availability. If you want any dining reservations you should do it now!! So excited!!!

 

[zanzibar138]

Oh, that's great! Thanks for letting us know

 

[travellertigger]

Also, we are staying offsite at the Courtyard Shanghai Central. We are going to the opening ceremony and parks on the 16th as invited guests and then we have 2 day tickets for the 17th and 18th.

 

[zanzibar138]

Wow that's awesome! How did you manage to score invites (if you don't mind me asking)?

 

[travellertigger]

Wow that's awesome! How did you manage to score invites (if you don't mind me asking)?

Our friend works for a PR firm handling the opening.

 

[zanzibar138]

Lucky ducks! Looking forward to hearing about it all from your perspective

 

[zanzibar138]

Wow exciting times now with CM previews happening! Tron is already up and running, so pretty excited that it looks like we'll get to experience that - although I'm guessing we'll have to wait more than the 10 minutes that I saw posted in the photos

I ended up booking a hotel one stop away from the Maglev station. I wasn't quite sure how the Air B&B would affect my visa application and it seemed like it was all getting a bit hard. I estimate it will take me about 45 minutes to get to Disneyland on the metro.

The money for all my hotel bookings/tickets finally came off my credit card, so that's a relief! I called reservations today though to book breakfast at Lumiere's for the 17th. Be aware that the 6:30am time slot has already been booked out, so if you're planning to make any dining reservations I would get onto it ASAP. I ended up with the 6:45am slot so not too bad. Apparently the park will open at 8am in peak times, so I may still decide to ditch the dining in favour of being at the park for rope drop. The park will be closing at 10pm. I also got confirmation that we will be able to drop off our luggage at the hotel before heading to the park on Opening Day.

I have completed my visa application except for my passport photos, which I'll get at lunch time tomorrow and send it off. Also booked my flight to Perth to visit my family on the way to Shanghai, so it's all coming together!

 

[Hesperus]

@zanzibar138 Hii! Were you charged for the restaurant bookings? Because 201 RMB looks to be quite cheap for the castle dining