My thoughts on Shanghai Disney.

[helenk]

In spite of the temperatures being in the 100s I am so glad I took the time to go.
We stayed at the Toy Story Hotel for 2 nights. I loved the hotel the rooms were a nice size. I paid for Garden view room but we could see the Castle and Tron in the foreground. The bus system was excellent. Everything was well marked and we never waited long for a bus going to or coming from the park.
The wait times were not bad except for Soaring which had a posted wait time of 100 minutes but it was really closer to 135, after that wait we decided to skip Roaring Rapids which had a posted wait time of 135 minutes. We did not do any fast passes. Since the kiosk for the fast passes for each land is in the entrance to that land the lines for the
fast passes were ridiculous.
We did the single rider line for Tron and 7 Dwarfs mine. Most of the wait times were anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes.
As others have said the park is huge, on our full day we did nearly 29,000 steps.
My favorite attraction was Pirates of the Caribbean. What an amazing ride. I would have like to ridden on it a second time but it closed at 7:00 the day we were there.
We got to the park around 9:00, it opened at 8:00
Besides Pirates we were able to go on :
Tron- which was really cool but I got a bit of motion sickness on it.
Buzz Lightyear- better than WDW version
7 Dwarfs mine- it seemed to be similar to the one in WDW except the singing was in Chinese.
Peter Pan's flight- very nice, the optics I guess you would call them are more updated
Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh- my daughter and I both agreed there seemed to be more Tigger jumping in this version
Voyage to the Crystal Grotto- very nice nothing in WDW like it although there is a similar ride in Disneyland California.
Pirates of the Caribbean- amazing
Soaring- I loved the attraction it's great but the queue was boring. Even after you get to the section where you look up to the stars it got boring.
I loved the fireworks with the display on the Castle. The fireworks in WDW are better but the projection on the Castle makes the show.
We liked our meals, we both had pizza at Pinocchio Village Kitchen it was yummy and a nice size. I had Peking Duck pizza.
We also ate at Mickey and Pals Market Cafe. I had Shanghai dumplings and my daughter had noodles. Both were very good.
We also ate at the Sunnyside Cafe again good food. We each had a noodle dish.
I wish we had time to walk through the Alice in wonderland Maze well we had time but it was just too hot and the maze is not shaded.
I would love to go back again, in cooler weather. Taking 2 full days would be a perfect amount of time so that I could ride on some of the attractions more than once.

 

[zanzibar138]

Sounds like a fantastic day! Much better wait times than I experienced too.

 

[WebmasterJackie]

Thanks for sharing your day with us!

Visiting Shanghai Disneyland is on my bucket list along with so many other things.

 

[BelleBway]

Thanks for the post! I'm so excited to be going there later this year and I'm really enjoying all the first hand reports.

 

[doombuggy]

Thanks for the review. We are planning a trip next year. I will be sure to take my motion sickness bands for tron!

 

[helenk]

Thanks for the review. We are planning a trip next year. I will be sure to take my motion sickness bands for tron!

I think that part of the issue with Tron was that they make you take off your glasses so everything was a bit blurry, add the lights that are on in the inside part of the ride it made me a bit wuzzy

 

[GusIsaFoxhound]

Thanks, a nice, brief review which says so much. We are also doing one day in the park, 2 nights at TSH. I'm looking forward to Tron, Pirates and Peter Pan, then trying to get to others. I'm going to bypass the 'quieter' stuff unless I have spare time. Looking forward to it a lot! (7 weeks til I hit the park!!)

 

[GabBeFit]

Sounds like you had a really good day!! Im headed there next month, and were hoping to get there for opening so we can score some fast passes before the lines are crazy for them!

I love the sound of peking duck pizza!

 

[kidd_freeper]

Good post. I was there yesterday. I agree with all that you said.
Pirates was jaw dropping amazing.
Tron was amazing
Yes, Buzz was better.

But it was HOT. Most restaurants didn't open until 10:30 and I really needed to sit and have a cool drink. And there weren't enough places to sit and enjoy a meal in air conditioning... Most of the quick service places were outdoor eating.

Yes, the park is really big. Almost too big ... because of the heat I found that I was air conditioning hopping and the heat made the walks between lands uncomfortable
And fast passes seemed useless, for the reason you mentioned.

Go when it is cooler. Shanghai has better rides and it is new. But it's hotter than Florida there.
And bring a strap for your glasses. I had one and they let me wear my glasses on Tron

 

[helenk]

I would love to go back and visit when it's cooler. I was in Beijing visiting my daughter who teaches English. As a Disney obsessed person I just could not pass up the opportunity to visit the park when I was already in the country. My daughter minded the heat more than I did. We went back to the room after dinner. She went to sleep, I recharged by resting a bit and then went back to the park in the evening. But it was still hot, and humid.

 

[Dentam]

Wow, your wait times were much better than ours! Minimum wait time was 60 minutes and I'd say the average was 120. Longest was 210 for 7DMT. Pirates was down all day and had been for the previous two days according to another park visitor we talked to. We also loved the Toy Story hotel and also SDL hotel which was awesome. The heat and humidity during our entire two week stay in China was crazy and I almost got heat stroke on two different days in Yangzhou. By the time we got to SDL the temps were cooler and it actually rained all afternoon. I would love to go back since we didn't get to do many rides. I think the wait times were crazy because so many rides were down like Pirates and a few others were due to the weather on and off all day. There was lightning and thunder at times so the canoes, Crystal Grotto, and Roaring Rapids all shut down. My laser didn't work on Buzz and the ride stopped 2-3 times during our time on it. Definitely need a do over and if so I will make sure to schedule two park days rather than just one!

 

[GabBeFit]

Sounds like you had an awesome trip! Pirates was also my fave ride!!
We were there in September and it was great!
I actually just posted a video of our time in Alice in Wonderland Maze (you saying you didnt get a chance to walk it) and a little girl actually peeing in the walk way right in front of us... We experienced the crowd culture a lot while we were there!

 

[Karin1984]

Sounds like you had an awesome trip! Pirates was also my fave ride!!
We were there in September and it was great!
I actually just posted a video of our time in Alice in Wonderland Maze (you saying you didnt get a chance to walk it) and a little girl actually peeing in the walk way right in front of us... We experienced the crowd culture a lot while we were there!

Just a question: why do you post this video in 3 different threads? I understand your disgust as the behaviour is so different from the Western world, but two of the threads are not about Chinese culture.

I am just curious why you would repeat it over and over. I think, for you to keep talking about what you witnessed is only going to make the memory more intense and more embedded in your mind.

 

[Karin1984]

Hi Helen,

I just re-read your report, I also have booked a garden view room. Do you by any chance have pictures of the room and/or the view? I'm really curious Did you eat in the restaurant Sunnyside Cafe, or got food from Sunnyside Market?

 

[zanzibar138]

Hi Helen,

I just re-read your report, I also have booked a garden view room. Do you by any chance have pictures of the room and/or the view? I'm really curious Did you eat in the restaurant Sunnyside Cafe, or got food from Sunnyside Market?

I stayed in Garden View rooms on both my stays at the Toy Story Hotel. On both occasions, the view was so uninspiring that I didn't even bother taking a photo. It was pretty much a view of the hotel entrance/parking lot. I believe AussieWendy got a photo of the view from her room, which was a rather better angle of the hotel entrance.

I have grabbed a couple of quick bites from Sunnyside Marketplace. They have a small selection of snack type items. I got an ice-cream on my first trip, and an egg tart and hot chocolate on my most recent trip. On the recent trip, I also stopped at Sunnyside Café for breakfast one morning. I was pretty much the only one there at 7am or so. There's actually quite a reasonable selection of food available here. I ended up with a Dim Sum style breakfast which was delish!

 

[Agent 86]

We also stayed in a "garden view" room. It wasn't much of a view - just random factories (?) in the distance. We didn't bother taking a photo.

We didn't eat at Sunnyside Café. The prices were comparable to those in the park, so between the two we preferred to dine in the park. The prices in Sunnyside Market were pretty outrageous from memory so we didn't buy anything there either (even though we looked there for a snack on our day of arrival).

 

[vettegirl]

Thank you for sharing your experience. It is on my bucket list for sure.

 

[HalloweenNut]

We just got back from China last week. We had one day free in Shanghai so of course we decided to go to Disneyland - up until I did a Google search on things to do in Shanghai - up until then I had no idea the park existed! We were travelling with 2 other families and we kept it secret from the girls until that morning. They were super excited but knew something was up as all the adults had their cameras out and pointed at them! Since we only had the one day we didn't get in everything - crowds and as you pointed out the sheer size of the park was a bit overwhelming. We took in Iron (which everyone loved - even my wife who isn't a fan of coasters), Buzz Lightyear (yes, better than WDW), the Star Wars Landing Bay, a bit of the Baymax show before heading to Pirates. After a 40min. wait we were on. Just like you we found it totally amazing! Such an incredible ride - my new all-time favourite! We finished off with the climbing trails which the kids thought were great. One day we'd like to go back one day and see more. Thanks for your summary, it helped with my planning.

 

[ejdmomma]

Can anyone help? I'm going to be in Shanghai for work in a couple of weeks and thinking about staying a night or two at the Toy Story hotel and going to the park on my free day. Did you book online or call? I'm having trouble with their website. I can't seem to get it to display correctly. TIA!

 

[Agent 86]

We booked our stay at the Toy Story Hotel online. Maybe try a different browser if you're having issues? Or they may just be having maintenance issues?