Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneyland March 17 – Day 7 Complete in Hong Kong Proper; 12/04

[shushh]

As per usual, you've captured the essence of the Disneyland Hotel beautifully. The floral arrangements were stunning. I actually think the hotel is a great place to get shots of the fireworks. We found there were too many obstacles in the form of poles or buildings near the castle to get a clear shot/view.

We made sure that we maxed the room capacity to get the most out of the club level privileges ie the food and drink! Luckily DH enjoys his beer and wine. And I got myself a Bailey's and milk. My teenager has just hit his growth spurt and so we felt that we did get our money's worth on the food provided. We did make sure that we allocated ourselves enough time to enjoy the club lounge. We, like the others, moved from the TS Hotel to Disneyland, but we didn't move across until 4pm. By the time we checked in and enjoyed drinks at the lounge the 5pm "snacks" were ready! If I had known they were so substantial I wouldn't have made reservations at Aurora so we could have eaten more!

Aurora is directly above the club lounge.

 

[shushh]

Here's the link to my blog
http://deliriouslydemented.blogspot.com.au/2017/04/were-off-to-shanghai.html

 

[shushh]

For anyone interested, Aussie Wendy has started her TR!

Link here or head to the "Other Lands" section on the Dis. You should find it there.



Hmmm......Wendy tends to write quicker than me. Hope I can keep up with her!

oh my gosh, Aussie Wendy you're a speed demon!
Love your TR. Short, sweet and full of useful information! It made me realise that I ramble somewhat...

 

[mvf-m11c]

Shanghai looks so amazing at night and the cruise looked fun to go on.

Nice to see that you and your mom had an amazing time together. Having to meet up with a DISer during the trip makes it even special.

The Lion Garden and Yu Garden look so amazing.

Your room at the Shanghai Disneyland hotel is nice as well as the Happy Balloons on the bed. When I saw your window from your room, it was a special one where you got to see the park.

As always, I do enjoy your long exposure shots of the fireworks as well as the nighttime shots. Even though you weren't able to bring your tripod in the park, you always find a way to use your tripod at the max.

 

[Fairy Floss]

For me, a bonus of club level is that I meet people
This visit, I met a lovely lady from Texas, a lady who works for Disney and a pair of lovely boys from Holland who frequent Paris Disneyland
I made sure I was back by "wine o clock " and watched the fireworks from the lounge (with the same view as Pio)
The breakfast offerings were almost as good as Lumier's
... also, Mickey came in his pyjamas after a bedtime story

 

[rndmr2]

Now THIS is cute!!

Joined in on the TR a few days ago and now I am caught up! I really have enjoyed it so far. I would love to do a trip like this someday. The Disneyland Hotel is Beautiful, that view is something else! Loved the fireworks pictures. That garden is really pretty outside too.

Looking forward to reading about the rest of the trip.

 

[Flossbolna]

I am totally behind but just read the last update. I was so behind from the beginning, but then had to see why @franandaj tagged me on this thread (no idea if Michael made it here already or not, but I will tell him about the amazing pictures that I saw just in the last two updates!!) and now I skipped all the Shanghai city stuff to which I need to go back. This is a TR that I do not want to read on my phone because it would not do justice to your amazing pictures! I now feel like there will be no point in me taking any pictures while at SDL since yours are so much more superior...

 

[tiggrbaby]

Beautiful gardens!

Oh my that hotel! How cute they decorated the room! Glad your mom got to keep her "cake!"

Your talent for photography is amazing!

 

[1nfrequent]

Where country are you In?

United Kingdom. If you've got a site, I'd be interested in checking it out.

1F

 

[Fairy Floss]

United Kingdom. If you've got a site, I'd be interested in checking it out.

1F

I've sent you a pm
- I have lists of Disney fabric

 

[disney144]

I noticed you ate a salad. Are uncooked vegetables at the Disney resort safe to eat? Anything we should avoid to avoid tummy issues (obviously we will not drink tap water)

 

[PrincessInOz]

Yes we ate the popcorn and then used the containers to hold socks i think haha

Yeah. I did think about doing that too but sadly, I've completely slowed down on being about to eat sweet things.

Absolutely LOVE your fireworks shots!

... and I'm another member of your lovely mother's fan club

Thanks and I'll let her know!

the fireworks shots are brilliant - fantastic- great job!

Great shots! That view is awesome!!!

Thanks. Yes, I was very happy with my room category choice.

Amazing fireworks shots. For me, a park view room will always be more worthwhile than club level. I'm similar to you, don't really eat or drink enough to get much value out of it. Mostly though, I'll just go for the cheapest room category lol!

Thanks.

I'd like to get to CL one of these days. I just have to find a resort with longer opening hours and also have DS with me. If it were just DH and me, we wouldn't do it justice.

Love your shots from around the hotel too.

And FWIW, I believe the Aurora restaurant is located on level 8, directly above the club lounge.

Thanks. I might go back and update that post with the right level.

 

[PrincessInOz]

As per usual, you've captured the essence of the Disneyland Hotel beautifully. The floral arrangements were stunning. I actually think the hotel is a great place to get shots of the fireworks. We found there were too many obstacles in the form of poles or buildings near the castle to get a clear shot/view.

Thanks.

I thought the same as well. Admittedly, we had 2 nights of rain and that only left 1 night to shoot the park without rain.....so I thought it was just a lack of time to explore and find the right position. But I thought this show was one to be watched and enjoyed in the park; rather than trying to capture it down the barrel of a camera.

We made sure that we maxed the room capacity to get the most out of the club level privileges ie the food and drink! Luckily DH enjoys his beer and wine. And I got myself a Bailey's and milk. My teenager has just hit his growth spurt and so we felt that we did get our money's worth on the food provided. We did make sure that we allocated ourselves enough time to enjoy the club lounge. We, like the others, moved from the TS Hotel to Disneyland, but we didn't move across until 4pm. By the time we checked in and enjoyed drinks at the lounge the 5pm "snacks" were ready! If I had known they were so substantial I wouldn't have made reservations at Aurora so we could have eaten more!

Teenagers! Yes. The equation for CL works out with different people in the room. Sounds like you had a great time there.

Aurora is directly above the club lounge.

Thanks. I will go back and update that post with the correct info.

Here's the link to my blog

Excellent. Saved to my favourites and I'll have to find some clear space and catch up! Thank you.

Shanghai looks so amazing at night and the cruise looked fun to go on.

Nice to see that you and your mom had an amazing time together. Having to meet up with a DISer during the trip makes it even special.

The Lion Garden and Yu Garden look so amazing.

Your room at the Shanghai Disneyland hotel is nice as well as the Happy Balloons on the bed. When I saw your window from your room, it was a special one where you got to see the park.

As always, I do enjoy your long exposure shots of the fireworks as well as the nighttime shots. Even though you weren't able to bring your tripod in the park, you always find a way to use your tripod at the max.

Nice to see you on the boards!

On reflection, I think I may have misunderstood the CM! In any event, with 2 nights of rain, it wasn't pleasant shooting at all.

For me, a bonus of club level is that I meet people
This visit, I met a lovely lady from Texas, a lady who works for Disney and a pair of lovely boys from Holland who frequent Paris Disneyland
I made sure I was back by "wine o clock " and watched the fireworks from the lounge (with the same view as Pio)
The breakfast offerings were almost as good as Lumier's
... also, Mickey came in his pyjamas after a bedtime story

CL makes sense for you too. I know you enjoyed it!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Joined in on the TR a few days ago and now I am caught up! I really have enjoyed it so far. I would love to do a trip like this someday. The Disneyland Hotel is Beautiful, that view is something else! Loved the fireworks pictures. That garden is really pretty outside too.

Looking forward to reading about the rest of the trip.

Thanks for sticking around! Glad you're enjoying the TR and I hope you get to head out to Shanghai (and Hong Kong) sooner rather than later.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I am totally behind but just read the last update. I was so behind from the beginning, but then had to see why @franandaj tagged me on this thread (no idea if Michael made it here already or not, but I will tell him about the amazing pictures that I saw just in the last two updates!!) and now I skipped all the Shanghai city stuff to which I need to go back. This is a TR that I do not want to read on my phone because it would not do justice to your amazing pictures!

*cough* *cough* The pictures might look better on the small screen. It'll definitely hide some of the flaws! *cough* *cough*

I don't know if Michael is lurking....and I don't even know if he's a Dis member.
In any event, lurking is good.

I now feel like there will be no point in me taking any pictures while at SDL since yours are so much more superior...

Aww. Don't say that. You'll definitely want to have your set of pictures at SDL as a memory of your and Michael's time there.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Beautiful gardens!

Oh my that hotel! How cute they decorated the room! Glad your mom got to keep her "cake!"

Your talent for photography is amazing!

Thanks for checking in again!
Yes, that's a great hotel and I was very pleased to see the decorations.

Thank you!!

I noticed you ate a salad. Are uncooked vegetables at the Disney resort safe to eat? Anything we should avoid to avoid tummy issues (obviously we will not drink tap water)

Hmmm. You know.....I didn't even give it any thought at Disney. I guess it was the end of Day 3 of the vacay and I figured if I was going to pick up anything, I would have done so on previous days.
I eat a lot of fresh veg and fruit at home (my DH is vegetarian/vegan) and I was really missing the 'fresh' from my diet. And when I got down to the Cafe, it was the only thing that I was interested to get.


The obvious is not to drink tap water. I was also avoiding any ice in my drinks.

 

[PrincessInOz]

Day 4: Shanghai Disneyland All Day Today


So I’m Awake….but the Sky is NOT Awake!



Adrenalin kept me awake for a lot of the night and since I was awake, I thought it would be cool to look out the window and see if the sky was awake.


At 5.30 am in the morning, it was not.





I was totally enamoured with the Castle and Tron yesterday. Time to look at the other direction. Every Disney Park I’ve been to has at least one mountain. Shanghai gives us Roaring Rapids Mountain.





I had hoped for sunrise colour in the sky. Sadly, the sky was not awake. Sunrise was just not going to happen.





At this stage, my mother woke up and we decided to get ready and head towards the park. With a new park to explore, who can sleep?




(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

Where Exactly Are We?



Disney transportation started running from about 7 am in the morning. We didn’t exactly catch the first bus out….but it must have been the second or the third service out.





We got to the ‘transport hub’ before 7.30 am. We did wait about 5 minutes for the bus to arrive and it took about 5 minutes to get here.




Err….Where are we…exactly?


What caught me a little off-guard was that when we got to the transport hub, I could see Disneytown and signs for Disneytown. I wasn’t sure if I was to get off here or not. We had to check with the Cast Member and he confirmed this was the stop for Disneytown and Disneyland.


Don’t get me wrong. There was plenty of signage at the transport hub….but it’s all Chinese to me and I didn’t have a clue where we were or if I had to get off or not!




Oh, Don’t shake your head at me!
It’s a brand new resort and I hadn’t done much research on what was what. And I didn’t know if there was a separate stop for Disneytown and another stop for the park entrance.

*Hangs head in shame*


I only figured it out after we walked past a block of restrooms at the transport hub. But then again….I’ve always been better at looking at pictures than reading!





Our hotel is the magenta bit at the bottom of the sign. It doesn’t have the distinction of being the closest hotel to the park. The Toy Story Hotel (top left) is a lot closer. That lavender/purple roundabout (on that left side) is the one that our taxi out from Shanghai went round and round and round before finding the right entrance and the right hotel to get to. So, that gave me another landmark for where I was.


The public transportation hub is where we got dropped off. Interestingly, this part of the transport hub is just for shuttles, buses and taxi’s. If you look on the map, you’ll see the drop off for the Wishing Star lake ferry and the Line 11 Metro/train station on the other side. If there are also buses running from the Metro side, I can see why it is confusing for first time visitors and/or visitors choosing to take the train to get to Disney! @zanzibar138 and @Aussie Wendy have already posted about this.

Disneytown is right next to Disneyland. It’s even closer than Downtown Disney Anaheim is to the parks!

And on the far right side…..you can see how large the land footprint for Disneyland is!



Once I had figured where exactly everything was, getting around was a snap. The first time is always the hardest.



(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

4 + 2 = 6 at Starbucks (FireflyFi and her DF)


We headed on around the corner.




Ooh! Look! A Starbucks.





The all ubiquitous Coffea arabica species has made it’s way into the Disney empire. Not that I’m complaining!





At Disneytown, it’s opened from 7 am. It’s about the only establishment opened at this time of morning at Disneytown.





I was pleased to find that Starbucks was a viable option for breakfast compared to the café at the resort.






Even more pleasing….the numbers against the items on offer looked reasonable.









We had time to check out the merch at Starbucks.





This is one of my regrets. I had decided that this set of mugs needed to come home with me on this first morning. It had the name of a number of Chinese cities, including Suzhou on them. I just forgot to buy a set!





Oh well. Something for next time.


At 30-something Yuan for a cup of arabica bean, I reacquainted myself with my qwafee addiction. This was my breakfast.





This was my mother’s.





Even more of a pleasant surprise. We bumped into more of the Aussie Dis-ser contingent here without even having to make any plans. This is @FireflyFi and her DFiancee. They were also having brekkie at Starbucks.





We had a lovely time catching up on their news and the travel day they had yesterday. But as they were lingering over their coffee, my mother and I decided to head on ahead when we had finished ours.





(Continued in Next Post)

 

[PrincessInOz]

1st View of the Park



Anyone that goes to Disney will know the feeling of walking through a gift shop at the exit of every ride. I think Disney has taken this to a new level. Looks like Disney found a way of making sure that their guests walk past the gift shop when they enter and exit the park entrance at Shanghai.





Ooh look! World of Disney! It’s just past the Starbucks. Unfortunately/Fortunately, it was closed. (You can circle the right answer.)




The bulk of the stores at Disneytown can be found to the left of the WoD store. We kept heading along the right fork. Not having been to Paris or Tokyo, this is the first Disneytown I've been to that's right by the gate. It's significantly closer than even the Downtown Disney at Anaheim! Absolute. shopping. heaven.



Aside from the customary bag check, the security gate came complete with walk-through scanners.





As we got our tickets at the resort, we didn’t need to acquaint ourselves with the ticket booths just past security.





It was here that we got our first view of Flower Mickey.






(Continued in Next Post)