You are absolutely incredible!!!! I cannot thank you enough for all of your detailed info. This is exactly what I was looking for!Time of Year to go:
-Check the regular holidays for China/Japan to make sure that crowds aren't going to be CRAZY. Make sure that your Tokyo Disney days are WEEKDAYS, Shanghai, try to do the same, whereas it doesn't really matter in HK. Tokyo is the busiest of the parks, and a regular weekend feels like a peak time in the states parks
-Tokyo has the most seasonal events going on, you want to avoid the opening/closing weekends of those as well, crowds will also be a little lighter during the week in between events (ie, Frozen Fantasy closes, then there's a week of nothing special before Easter starts). They have daily operational entertainment special for Halloween, Christmas, Summer, Easter, and others.
-Consider weather for time of year too, Tokyo can get cold enough to snow over the winter, but is scorching hot during the summers, spring/fall seem to be the best times (April after the school term starts, before Easter, or the first few weeks of May I believe are the best for crowds). We were there Oct 11-14th, crowds were good, lines were longer for some rides but the park didn't feel congested, and the weather was nice, but we did need layers once the sun went down. Also be careful in the Halloween season, Tokyo has "costume days" and those will be much more congested than the days where costumes are not allowed
Shanghai:
-Starting more details here because this park is the hardest to find information about!
You will find the most culture shock here/anywhere in China specifically, in the crowded situations, there is no such thing as personal space, be prepared for people pushing/shoving and potentially cutting in lines. The worst of this is usually right at park opening/during a fp run. I'd suggest rope drop straight to Soaring, ride Pirates, then circle back to the fp kiosk to pick up something for later. (we wasted the first 30 minutes of park opening getting a soaring fp)
-Squat toilets. They are in majority here, there ARE Western toilets in each bathroom though, and the bonus is most locals don't want to use them, so there's never a line (pertaining to Disney, outside the resort, it's hit or miss, but most places should have at least 1 stall that's Westernized.
-I did touch on food a bit in the earlier post, but again, a few Americanized items here & there, when in the city, you'll have no problem finding chain restaurants, heck my roommate had her first Hooter's experience in Shanghai lol!!
-Fast passes: are the paper fast pass style, there is a kiosk in each land that holds fp's for ALL attractions in that land (that have fast passes). This is what makes the morning fp run so chaotic, and why I'd advise to just ride things standby first, then go back to pull fp's later. This is especially true with Tron, so that you get to ride it at night when it's all lit up!
-Characters: all have set m&g spots! Stitch pops up in Tomorrowland, Princesses are right behind the castle and will swap out every 30 mins, Jack Sparrow si over in Treasure Cove, and over by the Tarzan theater you can find Judy &Nick or Timon & friends/Jungle Book characters. Fab 5 & Duffy crew all on Mickey ave in the morning.
-Shanghai City: we did 2 days, one in Shanghai where we hit the popular spots like the Bund, Pudong (Disney store here is amazing, also where you find the Pearl tower) French Concession, Yuyuan Gardens/shopping bazaar, then did a little trip out to Zhujiajiao Town, a river town with canals everywhere, popular tourist spot, lots of shopping/authentic stuff.
-BRING/BUY FACE MASKS!!! YOU WILL MOST LIKELY NEED THEM! Download an air quality app for your phone (and make sure it's set to American standards, not China lol) If anyone in your group is feeling sick, or has respiratory issues (I've got mild asthma) they're going to be bothered by it when you're spending all day everyday outside. Smog wasn't too much of an issue for us, we were blessed with blue skies for the first 2 days of Disney, but after spending 3 days in a row outside in the parks with no masks, I was definitely feeling it and opted to stay in the next afternoon when my friends went out.
-Transit is pretty easy here, the trains are pretty self explanatory, and English signs are found easily.
-Make sure to have a VPN app on your phone/tablet while in China!! EVERYTHING is blocked, google, facebook, instagram, etc. It's a hot mess, WiFi in general is also legit just the worst thing ever in China, the best we found was at Disney (connection/speed wise, it was pretty readily available). Consider downloading We-Chat simply just to stay connected with your friends if you can't text and the VPN isn't working
-Trains are super cheap in China
-DO NOT drink the tap water, buy bottles, we were staying right beside a grocery store, so I bought a couple huge bottles to fill up a smaller one that I'd take into the parks with me. There ARE fountains that have filtered drinking water scattered around the parks as well!
Tokyo
-This is where you'll have to do the most research on what you want to do, there is simply SO MUCH in the city that you could spend a week in the city and barely scratch the surface! We're in the midst of planning a 2nd trip to Tokyo and we have a week in the city and are doing 100% different things! IT'S INSANE! I suggest taking the time to at least check out the following: -Senso-Ji temple, Ueno Park, Harajuku, Shibuya Crossing/shopping area. There's a Disney store in the last 2 areas, and the Shibuya one is incredible! (you can also buy Tokyo Disney park tickets on the 4th floor, we had major struggles trying to buy them online in advance, so we did this and it worked out great)
-Mt Fuji, there are plenty of places to see it that are an hour or so from Tokyo, we're planning to spend a day in Hakone on this upcoming trip to hopefully get a better view of it than we did last time.
-Depending on time of year, there can either be cherry blossoms you'll see everywhere, or autumn foliage which is equally as beautiful
-Think about if you want to spend some more time in Japan, you can always bullet train down to Kyoto to explore, or over to Osaka, where you can hit up Universal. If you do end up down in that area, I highly recommend going to Nara, it's the small town where the deer roam freely and you can buy crackers to feed them and if you bow to them they'll bow back, super cute and lots of fun.
-Sanrio Puroland is a Hello Kitty theme park just outside of Tokyo, much more kiddie like, but still a potential place you might want to check out.
-Transit is EXPENSIVE, we were in Tokyo for 10 days and in that time spent well over $100 on transit rides, it would've been more affordable to buy the monthly pass rather than load up every time. The nice thing is that if you use google maps to transit plan where you're going each day, it will tell you the approximate cost of the trip so you can try to plan that out in advance on if you should get the monthly pass.
-Pasmo cards (there is another one that I can't remember the name of) are cards you can buy from a machine at the train station that you pay a deposit for (that will be returned when you return the card) and then you can load up money on it whenever needed instead of having to pay each trip individually
-If you're in the city and a sushi fan, check out Hamazushi, it's a chain restaurant, but it's delicious, and a conveyor belt sushi place, and hands down our favorite restaurant! lol
-Also Japan is seriously like, the safest place in the world.
-Fast Passes: Go straight for Hunny Hunt, ride standby, circle back to Monster's Inc, fp it, then ride Space. Hunny Hunt & Monster's will have the longest waits of the park during the day. DisneySea, I would go straight for Journey to the Center of the Earth, ride standby, if you want to ride again, grab a fast pass. Circle over to ToT, then Indiana Jones.
-Show Lottery's: Because of crowds, you have to "win the lottery" to see the shows in prime locations. In DL, the lottery is located next to Space Mtn, it is for One Man's Dream II, and the nighttime projection show. You scan your tickets, and pick a show time, and if you win, you win, if not, you don't. The same goes for Big Band Beat & Shadowland in DisneySea. Now, if you DON'T win the lottery, you can still watch One Man's Dream standby the very first show of the day, BBB, you can watch from the upper balcony standby, and the nighttime show you can watch from further back in the hub.
-Characters: roam pretty freely, they stereotypically come out on the :15 in Fantasyland, and :45 out by the front gate. (I *think* those are the right times, they might be opposite). You'll find ALL sorts of characters, fur, rare in the states, Esmeralda, Princesses, Princes (with or without their respective couple). Pocahontas is found in Critter Country. DisneySea, you can find Ariel in a set meet & greet outside Mermaid Lagoon, Eric (and sometimes Max) either right at the entrance or inside somewhere. Aladdin & Jas on the Arabian Coast (though they meet separately) Stitch & Angel are also found here, Duffy has his own m&g in cape cod (which will have LONG lines) We've seen the aristocats, cruella, and the rescuers wandering around as well, usually in the new york streets area.
Hong Kong
-We spent 2 days in the city, one day we did Victoria Peak/the Peak tram, and went to a couple shopping districts, and also Ozone, a super pricey bar on the 118th floor of the Ritz Carlton, provides gorgeous views of the city. Our second day we took the fairy over to Lamma Island, where we did a hike from one coast to the next & spent some time on the beach & had a seaside lunch of fresh seafood.
-Food & transit is super cheap in HK as well
-English is pretty widely spoken/on street signs and the like.
-Again, only drink bottled water here. They provide you with bottled water in the hotel rooms at Disney if you choose to stay onsite. I believe there were 4 per day? I could be wrong.
-Park plans: -Iron Man first, it's new and will have longest waits
-Head to Mystic Point right at 11 when it opens, ride it, then go to Grizzly Gulch, we then circled through Toy Story land, rode some rides, did Fantasyland and watched some shows before Tomorrowland. There are only like, 3 rides with fast passes here, and I don't think we even used any.
-Characters: there is an app, and it will tell you who's coming out when. Princesses/Alice typically meet beside the castle,on both sides, Mickey & Minnie up by the front of the park, Tinkerbell has a set area in Fantasyland, and Duffy & co have a set spot on Main st in one of the buildings
You are absolutely incredible!!!! I cannot thank you enough for all of your detailed info. This is exactly what I was looking for!
What was your feeling on safety? We will be traveling with our 18 yr old daughter. Her goal is to work for Disney internationally when she graduates from college.
Were you comfortable on the various forms of transportation? Did you use a tour company for your sightseeing excursions?
How did you handle the time change/jet lag? We have traveled to Europe but this is a totally different area for us.
You are absolutely incredible!!!! I cannot thank you enough for all of your detailed info. This is exactly what I was looking for!
What was your feeling on safety? We will be traveling with our 18 yr old daughter. Her goal is to work for Disney internationally when she graduates from college.
Were you comfortable on the various forms of transportation? Did you use a tour company for your sightseeing excursions?
How did you handle the time change/jet lag? We have traveled to Europe but this is a totally different area for us.
Hello!
If anyone still reads this topic,
Is there a suggested Disneyland order for price or convenience?
We're about to take our first wdw trip and are already planning our 2018-2019 vacation. Tokyo Disneyland is looking good, but wouldn't mind taking the full Asian tour with Hong Kong and Shanghai if the price is manageable.
After doing all three I would say whatever makes the flights cheapest. We loved them all and they were all different. Shanghai is definitely the most culture shocky, so maybe save that one for middle and end with either Hong Kong or Tokyo on a high and more civilized note.Hello!
If anyone still reads this topic,
Is there a suggested Disneyland order for price or convenience?
We're about to take our first wdw trip and are already planning our 2018-2019 vacation. Tokyo Disneyland is looking good, but wouldn't mind taking the full Asian tour with Hong Kong and Shanghai if the price is manageable.
I’ve not done much research on Shanghai yet, but at some point in the future I’d like to do this and Hong Kong to “complete the set”.After doing all three I would say whatever makes the flights cheapest. We loved them all and they were all different. Shanghai is definitely the most culture shocky, so maybe save that one for middle and end with either Hong Kong or Tokyo on a high and more civilized note.
I’ve not done much research on Shanghai yet, but at some point in the future I’d like to do this and Hong Kong to “complete the set”.
What is it that’s a culture shock in Shanghai?
It's funny because I have friends who grew up in Shanghai and while I have never been, (Going in June) I asked them if most of these things were true. I heard that the personal space thing is normal as is the umbrella thing, but the crazy stuff like kids peeing anywhere they want and trash all over the place is not the people from the city. They actually blame all the people coming from the countrysides and outside the city for all this. I guess it is the fact that the cities have sprung up so fast and the people living in them have a westernized way of thinking, but not people living outside of them. It's going to be an interesting trip to see this firsthand myself.
Squeezing past would really annoy me - as in queue jumping? Would you block them from doing it?Oh boy... Mainly crowds and people don’t know how to stand in line. They will literally try to squeeze past you any chance they get. It’s really bizarre and can be infuriating. When people do stand in line they stand waaaay to close. Little kids use the bathroom wherever they want. Umbrellas being used for shade on sunny days by people mostly shorter than you so you get poked in the eyes. I could go on...
Yes, like literally pushing past you in a queue for a ride. My husband made it his personal mission to not let anyone by us, but somehow some still snuck past. We split up several couples because one would get past, but hubby would manage to block the second. He found this very satisfying.Squeezing past would really annoy me - as in queue jumping? Would you block them from doing it?