DIS Exclusive China 2017

Beijing



During our Beijing stay the Chinese Congress was in session which is a special event. The plane landed on time (or ahead of schedule) which is apparently unheard of. The airport was practically empty. Security was tight though. These were all repeating themes of our time in Beijing due to the Congress. We ate at Duck de Chine. Now in 2014, our dinner in Beijing was mediocre and forgettable at best. And I mentioned so in my review. This time we ate at Duck de Chine which is one of the highest rated Peking Duck restaurants in the city. I thought the restaurant was very good, and a significant improvement from the previous restaurant. The experiences may have been mixed though in our group.



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One thing that I think everyone would agree with is the Rosewood - what a fantastic hotel! The Peninsula Beijing we stayed at before had rather small rooms. All the money and attention went to the lobby. They are finishing up a refurb on the Peninsula and ABD will return there in 2018. The Peninsula was in a better location though. The Rosewood is in the business district. But it’s a lovely hotel and I am glad we stayed here at the Rosewood. We met up again for drinks in a proper, albeit very loud lounge.



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The next morning was the Temple of Heaven. This was new for ABD compared to 2014. It’s beautiful and fun to see the retirees at play in the park. We had a great time and joined in the fun in a few spots.



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The afternoon was at Tieneman Square and the Forbidden City. Tieneman was closed due to the Congress. Security was uncomfortably tight. We saw 2 women getting dragged away screaming. It was an experience. Having said that, what group sailed through security with zero problems? The Adventures by Disney Group. That’s who. The Paddle of Power works. There were many unhappy Chinese who watched us breeze though the multiple security points.



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The Forbidden City was impressive. No way to describe the scale. It’s something that must be experienced.



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I was excited the 9 Dragons Screen was open to view. It’s the first time this year ABD had been able to take visitors there. That was a nice treat!



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It was wonderful, but I was excited to finish up the immense Forbidden City.



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Time to relax before our epic dinner.



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That night a group of us went to eat at TRB Hutong. It’s located in a repurposed temple. We drove in 2 taxis. The first dropped some of us at the restaurant. The 2nd dropped the rest of us a few blocks away and we had to walk it. Welcome to Beijing. Thank goodness for Google Maps!



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We even had our own private dining room which overlooked the courtyard.



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We were soon met with our head server who happened to be Spanish. He spoke perfect English. That’s probably why he was with us. We asked how he got to Beijing. It turns out he was an assistant waiter on the Disney Fantasy and then worked at Epcot. He was very surprised to hear we were from Adventures by Disney. He reminded us of the Rowan Atkinson character in Love Actually.



We could choose between a 3, 4 or 5 course dinner, but there were many other introductory courses and dessert course. It was great. I chose the Waygu for my main. I also had a delicious scallop and a soup. It was all delicious.



Here are but a few of the courses…



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Our head server carving lox (salmon) for Steven in our party.



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About midway through dinner Chandra in our party was served the wrong dish. It was a mess, but funny. The head server tried to hide it, but he was obviously furious with his assistants. His assistants were just outside the room holding the dishes on serving trays, like Downton Abby footmen. The room was all glass so you could see them lined up. When he realized the mix up, he went back to the first assistant server and repeatedly slammed his hands down on the tray. We were sure the assistant server would drop the tray, but he held it and took the abuse. We felt sorry for the guy, but it was a little funny.



A couple of courses later, Chandra was having steak but was given a fish knife. We mentioned it to each other while the assistant servers were preparing the table. The young woman quietly goes over to Chandra and switched her knife with Michael. She obviously overheard us and spoke English. She was very thankful.











Rolling in the cheese cart for Michael’s selection…



















At the end they brought in a “We Love Mickey” plate :)







It really was a fun dinner. Just with some tense but funny moments. The food (and service) were really quite good. Highly recommended. The only downside is it took forever our cabs to arrive. One cab took 30 min, the other took an hour!

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The next day in Beijing we headed north to the Great Wall. This day was largely the same as the regular ABD. But the colors of the leaves had started to change, and it was beautiful. It was much more crowded, but the weather was cooler. The Great Wall is such a spectacular destination. It was no less amazing to see it for the 2nd time. Truly a highlight of the trip.



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A large group of us had dinner reservations at Country Kitchen that evening. The food was fantastic. We shared a variety of things from pot stickers, to noodles, a Szechwan beef dish, more peking duck (which some people felt was the best on the trip), and my favorite was a short rib dish. After dinner we relaxed in the lobby with desserts and some drinks.



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The next morning was our hutong tour. This was similar to the regular trip. I enjoyed the pedicab ride. And I loved visiting 2 actual homes in the Hutong. But I can’t say I’m crazy about the arts & crafts or the yo-yo activity. I think I actually did worse this time on the activities than last time if that’s possible; Kate had the knot tying down. Before lunch we had some time on our own to walk around the lake. That was cool and something we didn’t do last time. After lunch we headed to the airport and caught our flight to Shanghai.



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Shanghai DL here we come!
 
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Thank you so much for posting this TR! We are doing the standard China ABD next May. I'm sure we will have plenty of great ideas after reading your TR for our OYO time activities. Love the photos and that room!!! Wow!
 
@met19 ,
It was cool to see the show from our room. But it’s not that great of a show. Definitely not by Disney standards at least.
 


Shanghai



Our flight to Shanghai was pretty uneventful. Our guides were concerned we’d arrive late. So, they asked us to preorder room service. We ordered a couple of different pizzas - Hawaiian and Szechuan. In fact we arrived at the hotel in record time. Checking in was smooth. Dinner was tasty. The Disneyland Hotel is gorgeous. The lobby reminded me of a Disney Cruise Line atrium with the stained glass ceiling, all the marble, and the bronze statue in the middle. The Hotel has an art nouveau design. There was so much detail in the hotel. For example, the columns in the lobby have an art nouveau style swirl going up the column. They could have just painted it, but they didn’t. It’s all tile mosaic. You see that everywhere in the hotel. The rooms are not quite as fabulous as the rest of the hotel, but the ceilings in the rooms are quite high which I liked.






One of our favorite spots was the Bacchus Lounge which of course is a wine bar. There were a lot of references to Fantasia throughout the hotel. We came here just about every evening to hang out after the Park closed.



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After dinner we headed over to Disneytown (their Downtown Disney) for an hour. It’s adjacent to Disneyland across Wishing Star Lake. We took a ferry across. Their ferries are similar in size to friendship boats at Epcot. Disneytown had a World of Disney equivalent store. There were lots of small restaurants and a few stores as well.



This is the promenade in front of Disneyland



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Inside the World of Disney



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Inside were posters from around the world



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The next morning we had breakfast at Lumiere’s in the hotel.



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Belle and Beast were outside the restaurant with a magnificent chandelier over them.



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Next up - Shanghai Disneyland
 
The next 3 days went something like this. 1) Shanghai Disneyland, 2) Shanghai 3) Shanghai Disneyland day 2. Then Kate and I had a couple of post nights that we’ll get to. The first of our days in SDL we had a 6 hour VIP tour where the guides took us around the entire park and got us on most of the attractions. The second of our days in SDL we had a tour with an imagineer where we examined some of the detail in the Park.



Shanghai Disneyland is spectacular. First, it’s enormous. It’s on a completely different scale than any other Magic Kingdom style park out there. Occasionally we’d have to get from one side of the park to the other. Let me tell you, it’s a long walk. Second, it’s gorgeous. It’s so detailed. It really shows what imagineering can do with a healthy budget. I love the domestic parks. I grew up on WDW. But I’d have to give it to Shanghai as now having the best looking Magic Kingdom. Even the trees are fully grown. The Park has only been open for a year. Third, it has some of the best attractions anywhere. Here are 3 of my favorites.



Pirates. It’s game over. This attraction is amazing and easily is one of the best attractions ever. It runs on a trackless (trough less?) water ride system propelled by magnets. The boats speed up, slow down, spin. It’s incredible. One of the Audio Animatronics is one of the best I’ve ever seen. The screens used are several times the size of Soarin’s screen. And the screen tech is incredibly well done. There’s a scene where it feels like your boat is rising to the surface of the ocean. It feels like you’re really rising out of the ocean. It’s incredible. IMO, even more realistic than Flight of Passage’s illusion of rising or falling great distances. It combines a lot of great achievements that imagineering has been perfecting over the last several years. And it has one of the shortest lines in the park! Go figure.



Challenge Trails. I forget if that is the official name, but it’s another incredible experience. This is a ropes course where you are harnessed in and have to make your way across challenging paths and bridges. There are easy, medium and hard paths at every turn. We had a blast. We chose mostly the hard paths. In one of the paths, you have to make your way past a waterfall with your back up against a wall and moving over a rather narrow foot path. A girl in front of Steven fell off the wall and was swinging to and fro by her harness screaming or laughing (hard to say, maybe a bit of both). Steven had to pull her back to the wall. It’s kind of intense, but it was a blast. There are much easier flat paths that bypass a lot of the challenges FYI. It was one of our favorite attractions. Joe Rohde was there the same time we were, and we were told that Joe was incredibly impressed by the Challenge Trails and said he wanted it for Animal Kingdom. Guessing Disney legal will give the thumbs down on that, but it would be pretty cool if it happened.



Tron. This is an intense (but short) coaster. I think they said it was the fastest Disney Coaster. It felt like the fastest. The esthetics of the lighting inside and outside the attraction is amazing and really make this ride. It’s so cool to see it lit up at night. I’m excited to see this coming to the Magic Kingdom. It’s going to be a massive hit. Unfortunately, unless they do something dramatic to the rest of Tomorrowland, it will make the rest of Tomorrowland look extremely dated.



There are so many other great attractions, but these were my favorites. Even Peter Pan is really the best version ever built. 2 full days here were helpful. I’m frankly glad we had a 3rd (post) day. That 3rd day we spent a lot of time just admiring the details around the various lands. You could easily spend 3 days here.



One word of advice, try to go Mon-Thu. Once Friday hit, the crowds were dramatically higher.



Of course there were some downsides. It’s been reported about guests cutting in line. We saw it several times, but it wasn’t as rampant as I was expecting. It’s best to go with friends and block their paths. When they say that have to catch up to friends, just tell them no. It’s annoying, but not quite as bad as I was expecting. I probably would never go during the summer. And I’d consider 1 day with a VIP guide.



Here are some photos from both days at the Park…





At the turnstiles, they have security officers to control the flow of guests and make sure no one is trying to cut in line.



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They have a railway station, but no train. It was a controversial decision, but ultimately they decided not to build a railway so that future expansions wouldn’t have to work around the tracks.



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The Castle, like the Park itself, is incredibly large. It’s dedicated to all Disney Princesses and has the mix of architecture to match. There are French components, Danish castle elements, almost a Norwegian stave church component. It’s kind of a mess, but it grew on me. After a couple of days, I think I really like it.



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Wandering Moon Restaurant was a great, counter service restaurant. “Authentically Disney, Distinctly Chinese” as Iger says. The interior has rooms that are themed for different regions of China. It was lovely, and the food was good.



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Mickey Ave takes the place of Main St. USA. It’s highly detailed. You could spend hours just looking in at all the detail here. Inside the windows you can find all sorts of references from the other Parks to Disney cartoons.



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Christian was happy to hold everyone’s bags as they went on Tron.



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In Soarin’, the preshow in Shanghai tells a spiritual story. When you enter into Soarin’, instead of being blank, the screen shows a large star field.



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Beautiful vases inside the Castle restaurant



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The Pirates stunt show was another attraction that would never fly in the domestic parks. During one portion of the stunt show, the actors are literally fighting in mid air using those indoor skydiving fans. Pretty cool.



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The Challenge Trails

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In front of the Castle is the Gardens of Imagination where they have the Carousel, Dumbo and a wall of the Chinese Zodiacs Disney style. Here’s my zodiac, Kaa the Snake.



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Eating dinner at Barbosa’s Bounty, they serve ribs with plastic gloves in a Blue Bayou atmosphere. I thought the ribs were pretty good (for being in China).



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Tomorrow, into Shanghai…
 
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I just love your description and photos of Shanghai DL. Unfortunately, we were there in the heat of summer with intense crowds which affected our opinion somewhat. We definitely experienced line cutting as well as people sitting in restaurants, on the floor in the castle and even in bathrooms trying to beat the heat. Pirates is in a class of its own (hopefully the US will get a ride like this in the future) and we waited an hour for the challenge trails but felt it was well worth it. Love the photo of Christian (our guide as well) holding all the bags!
 
I just love your description and photos of Shanghai DL. Unfortunately, we were there in the heat of summer with intense crowds which affected our opinion somewhat. We definitely experienced line cutting as well as people sitting in restaurants, on the floor in the castle and even in bathrooms trying to beat the heat. Pirates is in a class of its own (hopefully the US will get a ride like this in the future) and we waited an hour for the challenge trails but felt it was well worth it. Love the photo of Christian (our guide as well) holding all the bags!

Yes, I think we lucked out going in Oct and on weekdays. The wait for the Challenge Trails was about 20-30 min (not counting the wait for a locker). Restaurants were crowded for dinner but we were still able to find a seat. We were there Fri morning and it was probably twice as crowded at least. Big difference.
 
I am super impressed with the logistics of this trip. It looks to be very well thought out and covers a lot of the important attractions.

It looks like you had perfect weather too.

And the days in the parks and park hotels? AMAZING! Especially Shanghai Disney. Would LOVE to go back there again.

I would consider doing this trip if they offered it in the future and I could talk my son into joining me (if he could get the time off work). Or they offered a good deal on the solo cost.

Any word on if / when this trip will be offered again?
 
I am super impressed with the logistics of this trip. It looks to be very well thought out and covers a lot of the important attractions.

It looks like you had perfect weather too.

And the days in the parks and park hotels? AMAZING! Especially Shanghai Disney. Would LOVE to go back there again.

I would consider doing this trip if they offered it in the future and I could talk my son into joining me (if he could get the time off work). Or they offered a good deal on the solo cost.

Any word on if / when this trip will be offered again?

Weather was near perfect. HK was hot, but the other days were great.

It really was a well run, well balanced trip. But no, I don't think it will be run again.

Love the dancing skeletons...

Aren't they great! Love it!
 
The next day we drove into Shanghai. Today was very similar to the Shanghai day on my previous ABD. We went to Yu Gardens in the morning and the Era acrobat show in the evening. The main difference is, because SDL Hotel is farther away we stayed in Shanghai all day without returning to the hotel. I think there is normally a break mid afternoon. In place of the break, they took us to the Bund and gave us time to walk around. The Bund is one of my favorites parts of China. I was very excited for Kate to see it. I love the contrast between the early 20th century European Bund and the 21st century Pudong across the river.



First up was Old Shanghai.



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It’s beautiful but was very crowded. We squeezed through the mass of people on the bridge to get to the Yu Gardens. Since the Gardens are ticketed, it was less crowded and more enjoyable.



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After the gardens was time allotted for shopping. Since it was my 2nd time here, I was not particularly interested in shopping. I did a lot of damage the first time around. Steven and I took a taxi over to the Disney Store in Pudong across the river. It’s the largest Disney Store in the world. Note, that doesn’t include World of Disney Stores (or Park stores) which are significantly bigger. It really wasn’t anything too special, but it was something different to do. I liked how the Disney Store is below the Pearl Tower - the most iconic building or tower in Shanghai. That was neat to see up close. After visiting the store we took a very psychedelic, tourist tram (lots of multicolor lights in the tunnel) under the river to get back over to the Bund where we met up with the rest of the group.



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That night Kate and I opted out of the ERA show. Once was enough for me and Kate wanted to eat on the Bund. We had reservations at Mr and Mrs Bund - a very nice restaurant overlooking the Bund. We had 7:30 reservations, but thankfully the guides were able to call and change it to 6:00. Otherwise we would have be walking around forever waiting for dinner. Even at 6:00, we still had about 45 minutes, so we walked to nearby Nanjing Road which is a large shopping area by the Bund. We also stopped into the Peace Hotel - a gorgeous art deco hotel.



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The beautiful Peace Hotel…


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Dinner was excellent. Afterwards, we met up with friends at the Peninsula rooftop bar. They ate at Din Tai Fung but skipped the show as well. Hanging out on the rooftop bar with one of the coolest skylines in the world was one of my favorite memories.



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On the way back we were planning on getting a cab, but just then there was a large van that dropped off guests at the Peninsula. So we were able to negotiate a ride back together. It was about the same price 2 cabs would have cost. So, it worked out great. It was a fun day, but long and tiring. We were glad to get back to the resort.
 
The Shanghai skyline really is impressive. It looks like the skyline of the future anticipated by 1950s and 60s American sci-fi (without the flying cars, of course).
 
A note for anyone reading, the last day about to be posted may contain spoilers. So, stop reading now. The final day on the regular China ABD has been discussed before on this forum. However, if you are unaware and want to stay unaware, stop reading.













































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