A Whirlwind Trip to Shanghai Disneyland!

[Dentam]

Enjoying your trip report! Can't wait to hear about the rest of the trip!

Glad you are enjoying it and thanks for commenting!

So, breakfast is not included in your stay, is it? I saw prices on the menu, or is that for people who come in 'off the street'?

No, breakfast isn't included in your stay - the price of 75 yuan is equivalent to $11.28 usd, so it wasn't too bad.

Oh wow, I LOVE the theming of the Toy Story hotel!! They really did a good job it looks like!

I loved it too! It was very bright and colorful with great artwork throughout!

Oh my gosh, mickey shaped muffins....adorable!!!

I know, I should have gotten one for me too!

Can't wait to read about your park days!!

We just had one day in the park. I wish we had more, but that just means I need to go back someday! I'll post some pics of our morning at the park next!

 

[Dentam]

After breakfast, it was time to get all packed up again and get our bags down to the bell desk. They would transfer them over to the SDL Hotel for us while we were in the park that day for no extra charge. There was a long line, but luckily they had plenty of CM's working the desk and we didn't have to wait too long.

We headed out front, snapped a few pics, and a bus pulled up almost immediately to take us to the park!



The above pic is of the gift shop, which we didn't have time to check out - just from glancing in the previous night, it looked like it had a lot of cute Toy Story themed items.





On our drive to the park, we passed this cool fountain in the middle of a round about. We had seen it when we got lost trying to find the hotel the previous evening and were impressed with how pretty it was all lit up in different changing colors at night.



We made it into line just as the park was opening and a sea of umbrellas greeted us. We were used to them by now after spending almost two weeks in China. People use them to shade themselves from the sun and when it's raining. Turns out we had a bit of both scenarios during our day in the park, but unfortunately we weren't as prepared!



After getting through the bag check and then ticket check lines, we were finally at the entrance to Mickey Avenue!



Before we could head any further into the park, we were approached by this little boy who was so excited to practice his English with Kelly. And his English was very good! He asked to take a pic with her and one of his friends. So adorable!! This was actually a theme throughout our trip - many people wanted to have their photos taken with us and it happened almost daily I'd say.



Kelly and I were also approached by a photo pass photographer who offered to take our pic with each of our cameras. Nice! As you can see, Kelly was using her guide map as an umbrella, lol.



We knew exactly where we were heading first and veered to the left, taking a few pics along the way.





continued in next post...

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[Dentam]

I loved the details on the buildings and especially the beautiful mosaics - we ended up finding many of these throughout the park and loved them all. They are just gorgeous.





The pathways in this park are very wide, so it actually didn't feel all that crowded, even as the day wore on and wait times grew very long.



Before we knew it, we were entering Tomorrowland, where we made a beeline for our first ride of the day, Tron!!





The wait time was already up to 50 minutes, and I think it ended up being 45, so the posted time was pretty accurate. They had Kelly store her bag in a locker before we got in line. The line was nicely themed and got you in the "zone" for the ride. I have never seen this movie but the gist of the ride was that you were team blue and you were racing against other teams with different colors. That's all I got out of the limited English translations as we were in line.











continued in next post...
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[Dentam]

As we were climbing into our seats, which have you leaning forward on a "bike" with a harness that comes up behind your back, Kelly began to get pretty nervous - I think she actually said that she might hurt me for making her ride this, ha!



The ride starts in a similar fashion to Rockin Roller Coaster - it shoots you out at a pretty good speed! I saw a flash and knew we'd just had our picture taken. After a great ride that seemed a bit too short, we exited through the gift shop and checked out our photo. It was hilarious!! I decided that I had to buy it - it was about $15 and a great souvenir!







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[Dentam]

I took a couple of pics of Tomorrowland as we left Tron. This is a nice, big area that includes some fountains, Buzz Lightyear, Stitch, a rocket ride, and a stage with live music in the evening.





We continued our walk by heading toward Fantasyland where we checked out a fastpass station and got the worst news of our trip...









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[bcwife76]

Oh my gosh that photo is hilarious - Kelly looks like she's hanging on for dear life!!!

NO PIRATES?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Dentam]

Oh my gosh that photo is hilarious - Kelly looks like she's hanging on for dear life!!!

I know, I crack up every time I look at this photo! One of our friends joked that I look like I just found the secret air conditioning vents in SDL!

NO PIRATES?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Pirates!!!!!! I was SO BUMMED!!! It was the ride I was most looking forward to!!

 

[Lisann]

No pirates?????!!!! I would have been so upset.

 

[GusIsaFoxhound]

No Pirates- very disappointing! It was closed when I was at DL last year, so I'm hoping SDL will be open. But most of all, I hope TRON is open, then I will be able to accept any other closures.
Thanks for the photos of Tron- it looks great! And thanks for saying where the photo is taken. I usually take such AWFUL photos, but at least I'll know when to expect it!
(Actually, my photos from California Screamin' are okay- it was my favourite ride, so here's hoping my Tron ones look okay too!)

 

[johnsonet]

Incredible! Thank you so much for the photos and reports

 

[Dentam]

No pirates?????!!!! I would have been so upset.

Yeah, I was extremely bummed but oh well, there was nothing we could do about it so we just enjoyed what we could in the park that day. We talked to a guy who said it was he and his wife's third day in the park and it had been closed every day for them. I did hear that it reopened in time for the weekend...

No Pirates- very disappointing! It was closed when I was at DL last year, so I'm hoping SDL will be open. But most of all, I hope TRON is open, then I will be able to accept any other closures.

I don't think TRON has as many issues as Pirates right now, so hopefully you will be able to ride it!

Thanks for the photos of Tron- it looks great! And thanks for saying where the photo is taken. I usually take such AWFUL photos, but at least I'll know when to expect it!
(Actually, my photos from California Screamin' are okay- it was my favourite ride, so here's hoping my Tron ones look okay too!)

The best photos come when you're not expecting them, lol!

Incredible! Thank you so much for the photos and reports

No problem! Glad you are enjoying my report!

 

[Dentam]

After checking the fast pass kiosk and realizing that I had somehow already lost my room key/park ticket (I've now learned from others who have visited that your room keys don't work to get fast passes, so you will need to get a paper ticket at the front of the park), we were both really thirsty already and headed to the nearest spot to grab something to drink.





Wow, I loved the theming in this restaurant! I never really got to check out the WDW version ("Gaston's", which was always packed with people) the last time we were there, and this one was pretty empty, so it was fun to take in all of the details inside.







We grabbed some drinks and brought them outside to sit and rest for a bit. I asked for no ice but I guess she didn't understand me and I didn't realize it until I had guzzled half the soda - I was being paranoid about drinking the water in China on the advice of a friend who'd been there but luckily I didn't get sick at all on this trip!



It was at this point that it started to sprinkle a bit. We decided to head toward the castle to check out the interior, which I had heard was pretty impressive.



Along the way I took a couple of pics of the maze next to the castle, which looked cute for kids to enjoy. There were whimsical animal and insect statues throughout!





continued in next post...

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[Dentam]

The castle was beautiful and I thought the interior of the ground floor was gorgeous! Unfortunately, we could not figure out how to go up the steps... we saw an exit but no entrance?







We stopped to admire the beautiful mosaics on the walls inside. I ended up finding a coffee mug the next day for my mom that had the scene from Tangled on it - so pretty!









As we made our way back outside, we saw this little princess who looked like she'd just been to see the fairy godmother in Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique. Kelly asked her mom if it was okay for us to take her picture and she said yes. So adorable.



Next Up: Treasure Cove!

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[TheLittleKatie]

Amazing TR, thanks so much for sharing! I'm obviously still unfamiliar with a lot of Shanghai Disney, so this is a great read Those mosaics in the castle are just Can't wait to hear more!

 

[Dentam]

Amazing TR, thanks so much for sharing! I'm obviously still unfamiliar with a lot of Shanghai Disney, so this is a great read Those mosaics in the castle are just Can't wait to hear more!

Yay! I'm so glad you are enjoying it since you are the queen of trip reports - I always love reading yours! This one will be rather short since we just had one park day and then the two hotel nights, but I took a lot of pics to make up for it!

 

[Dentam]

So, I guess I should have posted a pic of the park map to give you all an idea of how we were tackling the day... silly me, the first map I got was in English, but it got soggy in the rain. I grabbed two more that evening as souvenirs and only realized when I was unpacking them at home that I grabbed the Chinese language versions... oops! So, here is an image taken from a quick google search!



We had started in Tomorrowland and were working our way clockwise around the park. After checking out the castle, we made our way over to Treasure Cove, home of the best ride on the planet... or so I'm told by people who have actually gotten to ride it!

Okay, enough wallowing in self pity! There were still plenty of details (some of which I am just now seeing as I look back through these photos - like the skulls in the rocks that are out in the water) to enjoy in this area, and the theme music from the PoTC movies was playing as we walked in, which was awesome!







I loved the directional signage in this area with the skeleton hands pointing the way...



And how cool is this guy?!







Only part of this sign was in English, but it seems that Poor Pirate Pete had at least three strikes against him and was guilty as charged!

Continued in next post...
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[Dentam]

Because I was still having a hard time letting it go, we walked up to the Pirates ride and checked with the CM's standing out front to see if there was any chance it might open that evening. We were told that it wouldn't, and they were working on issues with the "technology".





We consoled ourselves by taking pics of the entire area, which was themed in true Disney fashion with excellent details throughout!





We headed into a gift shop and I was impressed again by all of the details inside.





Next we walked by what looked like another restaurant before making our way back over to the lake area with the pirate ships.





We stumbled upon this dockside stunt show and stopped to watch it for a bit. We couldn't understand anything they were saying, but it was still entertaining!





Next Up: Thunder, Lightning and Rain - Oh My!​

 

[bcwife76]

That castle is gorgeous - those mosaics, so well done!

The theming of Treasure Cove looks soooo cool!!! Still so sad you didn't get to do POTC though

 

[katt789]

I'm in!! looks like you guys were having a great time so far aside from pirates being down!!
Love all the pictures, it's giving us a great idea of what to look forward too! Sad we're not staying onsite anymore though! Toy story looks aweosme!!

 

[Dentam]

That castle is gorgeous - those mosaics, so well done!

The theming of Treasure Cove looks soooo cool!!! Still so sad you didn't get to do POTC though

The mosaics were highlights for me and they were throughout the park! The theming in each area of the park was great, but yeah, the POTC closure was a bummer and kind of set off a pattern of us not doing many rides after that due to closures or wait times. We still had a great time though!!

I'm in!! looks like you guys were having a great time so far aside from pirates being down!!

Yep, we were troopers and enjoyed the day despite the closures, wait times, and storms!

Love all the pictures, it's giving us a great idea of what to look forward too! Sad we're not staying onsite anymore though! Toy story looks aweosme!!

I'm glad you're enjoying the TR! Yes, Toy Story is really well done and I'd highly recommend staying there if you can swing it!