# Shanghai Disneyland VIP/Premier Tour



## AZMama2016

Hi - We are going to be at the park in a few months and have contracted with a local tour company to drive us to the park and back and provide a guide inside the park. They will be buying our tickets for us. We figured this would help with navigation and language, especially since we will only be there for about 5 hours.

I’m now thinking to add a Disney Premier Tour guide on top. I assume this is akin to the plaids at the US parks. We would be paying for our family plus the tour guide already contracted. Just seems like this would help a lot, especially since we probably will miss out on FPs due to mid-afternoon arrival. The Disney guide would be able to help us plan in advance to see the most in the limited time, help to cut down on ride wait times, and get us preferred seating for shows or parades. The cost is very reasonable from a US perspective and totally worth it IMO.

Has anyone done this tour? What did you think of it? Any tips?

Also how much in advance did you book the tour? I need to arrange this through the tour company (just have them contact Disney, set up the tour and pass the cost through to us), but my contact is out on “annual leave traveling” with limited email access until 2/18. Do I need to panic and call Disneyland myself to book it, or is it safe to wait until she returns?

Thank you!


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## indoshakespeare

My cousin has done the VIP tour in both Shanghai and Anaheim.  She said they're exactly the same.  I think theyre quite popular so you should book it as soon as possible.

However, Shanghai has paid Fastpasses so if you miss out on the tour, you can buy the FPs and skip the lines.


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## AZMama2016

indoshakespeare said:


> My cousin has done the VIP tour in both Shanghai and Anaheim.  She said they're exactly the same.  I think theyre quite popular so you should book it as soon as possible.
> 
> However, Shanghai has paid Fastpasses so if you miss out on the tour, you can buy the FPs and skip the lines.



Thank you. I was thinking of getting the paid FP passes, but I’m a little worried they’ll be gone by the time we get there. We are arriving by cruise ship around 12, so I’m guessing 3 pm by the time we disembark, get through customs, and make the drive. The tour would negate this need.

Looks like the only way to contact them is by phone, so that means a very expensive phone call tonight. Hopefully I can reach someone who speaks English as well!


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## Sherry Berry

Call using skype. It's very inexpensive. I tried calling for my March trip but they said you can only book tours a month in advance. On their website, they also offer concierge fast passes that you can buy 10 days in advance. I think they changed tour and fast options on Jan 1, 2019.


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## AZMama2016

Sherry Berry said:


> Call using skype. It's very inexpensive. I tried calling for my March trip but they said you can only book tours a month in advance. On their website, they also offer concierge fast passes that you can buy 10 days in advance. I think they changed tour and fast options on Jan 1, 2019.



If I can’t book until a month out, that works since I can have the tour company take care of it. Wish the website had that info. I also can’t find anything more on FPs to purchase ahead of time, so if you have a link, I’d appreciate it. We won’t be staying at a resort hotel. Thank you so much!


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## Sherry Berry

AZMama2016 said:


> If I can’t book until a month out, that works since I can have the tour company take care of it. Wish the website had that info. I also can’t find anything more on FPs to purchase ahead of time, so if you have a link, I’d appreciate it. We won’t be staying at a resort hotel. Thank you so much!



Look for the fast passes under Concierge Services.


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## AZMama2016

Sherry Berry said:


> Look for the fast passes under Concierge Services.



Found it, thank you. Looks like two packages with the attractions getting FPs making the difference. Price is comparable to the tour guide option, so now I’m wondering which would be better. Considering we will already have a tour guide, maybe the FP package would make more sense. Also with only about 5-6 hours there, I’m wondering if the deluxe is worth it. It would be nice to have all of the options but could we reasonably do all of these rides on FP in that time? The ones I really wanted were TRON and Pirates and would likely want to do them more than once.

Classic Disney Premier Access Set: Soaring Over the Horizon, Roaring Rapids, TRON Lightcycle Power Run, Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue, Peter Pan's Flight, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure 

Deluxe Disney Premier Access Set: Soaring Over the Horizon, Roaring Rapids, TRON Lightcycle Power Run, Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue, Peter Pan's Flight, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, Rex’s Racer, Woody’s Roundup, Challenge Trails at Camp Discovery, Voyage to the Crystal Grotto 

I can book these packages online, which is a plus, but it only gave me options for 5 days out. If I go this route, will have to make sure I can check the site on my trip leading up to the day I need the passes so I don’t miss the window (or maybe I can have the third party tour company take care of it).


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## indoshakespeare

the extra rides on the Deluxe Set are not worth it IMO.


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## Sherry Berry

I'm debating between the Concierge Package and the Premiere tour guide as well. It would be nice to go on ANY ride without waiting. I'm wondering what the wait difference is between a fast pass and the VIP tour access. I'm assuming with the tour guide, you wouldn't have to wait at all whereas with the fast pass, there's still a short wait. Please correct me if I'm wrong.  We're a group of 4, so for us, it would be half the price to just use the fast pass option.


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## AZMama2016

indoshakespeare said:


> the extra rides on the Deluxe Set are not worth it IMO.



Thanks! Cost for classic is about 2/3 the price of Deluxe, so that would make the price more attractive for the concierge package over the Premier Tour.


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## AZMama2016

Sherry Berry said:


> I'm debating between the Concierge Package and the Premiere tour guide as well. It would be nice to go on ANY ride without waiting. I'm wondering what the wait difference is between a fast pass and the VIP tour access. I'm assuming with the tour guide, you wouldn't have to wait at all whereas with the fast pass, there's still a short wait. Please correct me if I'm wrong.  We're a group of 4, so for us, it would be half the price to just use the fast pass option.



I’m curious about waits as well. Another week and I can have the tour company call and find out.


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## Sherry Berry

I called the Shanghai Disneyland tour offices and they are now taking reservations for premier tours 15 days in advance. The concierge fast passes seem to change depending on the day. I've seen them sold a week in advance then other days it changes to a few days.


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## AZMama2016

Sherry Berry said:


> I called the Shanghai Disneyland tour offices and they are now taking reservations for premier tours 15 days in advance. The concierge fast passes seem to change depending on the day. I've seen them sold a week in advance then other days it changes to a few days.



My tour contact is checking on this for me but I haven’t heard back yet. At least I don’t have to panic about booking right away! I think we’ll go ahead with the Premier Tour just to give ourselves maximum flexibility for the few hours we’re there.


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## Sherry Berry

I did some reading online and it looks like the tours get you on rides without fastpasses by entering through the exits. Sounds amazing, but it's too expensive for me.


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## AZMama2016

My tour guide contact confirmed it’s a 15 day booking and I will have to call directly to reserve it. I’m going to do it, especially since our time there has been cut down. We are now arriving around 2 and have to get through customs and the 1.5 drive there, so looks like we may get 3-4 park hours at most. The Premier Tour will ensure we can do the attractions we want with minimal wait. The good news is I don’t have to pay for the other tour guide to go with us on the Disney part, and the two tour guides will be in contact directly to make sure the hand-off happens smoothly.


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## Sherry Berry

Are you applying for a 24 hour transit visa? I've read that they're much tighter with issuing those. If you're going to spend all that money on the tour which is nonrefundable, it will be a good idea to have a visa issued ahead of time just in case.


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## AZMama2016

Sherry Berry said:


> Are you applying for a 24 hour transit visa? I've read that they're much tighter with issuing those. If you're going to spend all that money on the tour which is nonrefundable, it will be a good idea to have a visa issued ahead of time just in case.



We actually got 10-year tourist visas. We’re on a cruise and they told us we could only get the exemption if we were taking cruiseline tours but if not, we were on our own in terms of visa guidance. So we opted to spring for the visas to be safe. We will be in Shanghai for literally 24 hours only. So now we’re exploring coming back on a land tour, maybe with ABD, so we get more usage out of the visas.


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## cynditech

We are headed to Shanghai in a few months too.  We are planning only a day or half day at Disneyland and started looking into booking a tour, since we will not have much time there.  I'm following along taking in all the advice!


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## AZMama2016

I will be there mid-May so will post details as soon as I can!


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## supedewoop

I also strongly suggest Early Access if you're able to go in the morning and limited on time! Similarly, if you have to choose morning or afternoon, definitely go with morning. It wasn't until 1pm or so that the crowds really picked up. My Shanghai-based friend says that's true of a lot of touristy things around, as well. I intend on asking cast members next time I go, but I have to practice the Chinese for it, haha.


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## Sherry Berry

I just returned from our trip. We purchased the Concierge package the first day and just went with the free fast passes on our second day.  The Concierge package would definitely fill up 5 hours of your time. I don't think the premier tour would be necessary. With the concierge package, you can enter through the alternate entrance, can see both the parade and the fireworks shows from a reserved section, get to skip the lines at one specific in-park restaurant, plus fast passes for the biggest rides. I think the premier tour would be a waste of money. You can easily navigate through the park on your own. Most of the vendors speak enough English to get you what you need.  You can also buy it ahead of time so you don't have to get to the park first thing in the morning. I bought mine the same day in the morning and stopped at the theater right before the entrance to pick up my tickets.  My park passes were purchased from the Toy Story hotel the night before. Have a blast, no matter what you choose!


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## AZMama2016

supedewoop said:


> I also strongly suggest Early Access if you're able to go in the morning and limited on time! Similarly, if you have to choose morning or afternoon, definitely go with morning. It wasn't until 1pm or so that the crowds really picked up. My Shanghai-based friend says that's true of a lot of touristy things around, as well. I intend on asking cast members next time I go, but I have to practice the Chinese for it, haha.



Unfortunately we don’t have a choice. We are mid-cruise on a 24-hour overnight stop, docking at 2 pm. Our only option was to go the first day. By the time we get there, it’ll probably be around 4 pm and we’ll stay until close. Hence the hope that the Premier Tour will enable us to see and do the high priority stuff without spending too much time in lines.


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## AZMama2016

Sherry Berry said:


> I just returned from our trip. We purchased the Concierge package the first day and just went with the free fast passes on our second day.  The Concierge package would definitely fill up 5 hours of your time. I don't think the premier tour would be necessary. With the concierge package, you can enter through the alternate entrance, can see both the parade and the fireworks shows from a reserved section, get to skip the lines at one specific in-park restaurant, plus fast passes for the biggest rides. I think the premier tour would be a waste of money. You can easily navigate through the park on your own. Most of the vendors speak enough English to get you what you need.  You can also buy it ahead of time so you don't have to get to the park first thing in the morning. I bought mine the same day in the morning and stopped at the theater right before the entrance to pick up my tickets.  My park passes were purchased from the Toy Story hotel the night before. Have a blast, no matter what you choose!



Thank you! I will go for that option if the tour doesn’t pan out. I compared pricing for both and since we won’t have to buy a tour ticket for the guide we had already contracted, the price is comparable. But good to know I have more than one way to do this! All I want is TRON and Pirates, so everything else is bonus.


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## caramello

Sherry Berry said:


> I just returned from our trip. We purchased the Concierge package the first day and just went with the free fast passes on our second day.  The Concierge package would definitely fill up 5 hours of your time. I don't think the premier tour would be necessary. With the concierge package, you can enter through the alternate entrance, can see both the parade and the fireworks shows from a reserved section, get to skip the lines at one specific in-park restaurant, plus fast passes for the biggest rides. I think the premier tour would be a waste of money. You can easily navigate through the park on your own. Most of the vendors speak enough English to get you what you need.  You can also buy it ahead of time so you don't have to get to the park first thing in the morning. I bought mine the same day in the morning and stopped at the theater right before the entrance to pick up my tickets.  My park passes were purchased from the Toy Story hotel the night before. Have a blast, no matter what you choose!



Hi Sherry Berry!  Thanks for sharing your experience with the Concierge package.  Sounds like a positive one.  We only have one day at Shanghai Disneyland and unfortunately its on Easter Sunday.  Can you tell me more about the reserved section for the fireworks and parade?  Did you have to arrive super early or was there plenty of space for everyone?  Also, were you able to get the free fast passes in addition to the ones that came with the Concierge package?

Thank you so much Sherry Berry!


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## gt5889a

caramello said:


> Can you tell me more about the reserved section for the fireworks and parade? Did you have to arrive super early or was there plenty of space for everyone?



We just did two days with the concierge package - the first day we arrived about 10-15 minutes early to each show with no space issues.  On the second day we only did the fireworks and due to the crowds, and coming from Tron, we didn't arrive to the VIP section until the start.  A cast member brought us down in the dark as the lights are dimmed/off during the show. The second day/night it was pretty busy but we had no trouble with space eve being late.

The reserved section was well worth the price - you are right up front with no crowding.



caramello said:


> were you able to get the free fast passes in addition to the ones that came with the Concierge package



Yes.  As soon as we got into the park we grabbed free fast passes and used these before the ones included in the Concierge package.


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## caramello

Thank you so much gt5889a for sharing your experience!  Glad to hear there wasn't any crowding.  My husband is against us splurging like this, but I know he doesn't like crowds either so hopefully he'll agree after hearing this!

I wanted to confirm that with the concierge package you're allowed to enter an hour early and you use the same entrance in Disneytown as hotel guests.

Did you have any problems redeeming your tickets at the Walt Disney Grand Theater?  Was there a long line?  We're staying off site so I'm trying to gauge how early we need to be at the parks.  

We only have one day to explore so I want to make this as seamless as possible so thank you all for your help!!!!


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## gt5889a

BecBennett said:


> I've seen that you need everyone's names on hotel reservations for the tourist visas, does that include kids? Or just adults?



It is totally worth it - I hate lines!  Since there is so little good info on crowd forecasting like there is with WDW I really liked knowing before we arrived we'd have no trouble hitting every attraction.  For instance, today I took a look at the app and all of the big rides had 120+ minute waits.  I pre-bought the package online when our days became available on the Shanghai Disney site.



caramello said:


> I wanted to confirm that with the concierge package you're allowed to enter an hour early and you use the same entrance in Disneytown as hotel guests.



Sorry - not sure.  We stayed at the Disneyland hotel so just natural went with that flow.  But since you can come in via the Disney Town gate you do get in "ahead" of the rope drop line.



caramello said:


> Did you have any problems redeeming your tickets at the Walt Disney Grand Theater? Was there a long line? We're staying off site so I'm trying to gauge how early we need to be at the parks.



On day one, one person was in line ahead of us, on day two no one - walked right up.  The only wrinkle was since we waited to buy our park tickets at the hotel (extra fast pass!) our concierge tickets were not associated with park tickets.  Both mornings it did take one of the more "experienced" cast members to process them.  I want to say maybe 10 minutes total and then 5 minutes on day one for another cast member to explain all the perks.  We skipped that on day 2.

Good luck!


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## lastone

I'm following this as well. We will be in Shanghai at the end of July and plan a day at Disney. I'm just getting started on my planning but it looks like we have to buy tickets online ahead but they can't be purchased too far ahead. Is that correct? Any major head's up you have for us is much appreciated. I feel like I know tons about both DL and WDW here in the states but I don't want to blow this one time chance at Shanghai. When we did HKDL in 2008 it was easy and felt like home, how does Shanghai compare? I believe it is bigger, is that correct? Thanks for any info you are all willing to share.


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## gt5889a

lastone said:


> I'm following this as well. We will be in Shanghai at the end of July and plan a day at Disney. I'm just getting started on my planning but it looks like we have to buy tickets online ahead but they can't be purchased too far ahead. Is that correct? Any major head's up you have for us is much appreciated. I feel like I know tons about both DL and WDW here in the states but I don't want to blow this one time chance at Shanghai. When we did HKDL in 2008 it was easy and felt like home, how does Shanghai compare? I believe it is bigger, is that correct? Thanks for any info you are all willing to share.



I'd keep an eye on the tickets page on the SDL site.

You should be able to get your park tickets about 30 days in advance.  I found it was a bit random how often they "refreshed" the calendar for the concierge tickets - sometimes you could see 10-14 days out and some times it would get down to only showing the next 4 or 5 days until someone hit the "update" button!

SDL is very big - It ends up losing a bit of that MK feeling due to it, but I also know if Disney could magically expand the MK walk ways and such to the scale of SDL they would.  The area in front of the castle at SDL is mind boggling big to me.  In my experience though it still has that polished operational feel that sets Disney way apart from the general theme/amusement park.

We just got back from our first trip there and are already planning a follow up trip with more time at the parks and the Disneyland Hotel.  We really did enjoy it.


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## AZMama2016

FYI - I called to book the Premier Tour for May 17, so 15 days ahead. They told me the window wasn’t open yet, so they took my email and said they would message me when it opened, likely a week in advance. We will be in Hong Kong at that time, so I will need cell service to be able to call. My phone bill is going to be big this month, lol.


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## AZMama2016

We had our visit yesterday and it was one of the absolute best Disney days ever. We got the Premier Tour for 6 hours with a guide. It was worth every single penny. Let me see if I can remember all the details.

After trying to book 15 days out, I was mildly concerned I wouldn’t get the promised email when the booking window opened. Disney came through though and I got a voicemail a week out. I was in Hong Kong at the time, so I just called and was able to make the reservation. The cost was a little over $300 USD per person, so under $1k - considerably less than the comparable tour in the US. Payment was made by credit card over the phone using an automated system. I was told I would get a call a couple days ahead of the tour to confirm details.

For reference, we are traveling by cruise ship and had already arranged for a driver and local guide to pick us up at the ship to take us to the park. We expected to arrive at 2 pm, then had to pass through immigration. Drive to the park was anticipated for 1-1.5 hours depending on traffic, so we set the tour for 4:30 pm. The park was open until 8:30 pm. We knew it would be short, so the Premier Tour was critical for us to get the maximum out of the time.

Three days before, I got a call from Disney to confirm but I missed the voicemail and didn’t get it until the following morning. I was able to call and everything looked good. They emailed a confirmation to me and I replied with a list of attractions we were interested in.

Two days later on the day of the tour, all hell broke loose: the ship was delayed 12 hours into Shanghai and we would completely miss the day. I spent about 6 hours on email and phone trying to make arrangements to move everything to the next day. The Disney tickets which were purchased as part of the transportation tour were non-refundable so we had to buy additional tickets for Saturday. Disney let us move the Premier Tour, although I had to provide a letter from the cruise ship confirming the delay.

As it turned out, this was a complete blessing. Because of the delay, the ship, which was originally scheduled to leave at 2 pm the next day, was rescheduled to leave in the middle of the night, meaning we now had the whole day! We arranged for the driver and guide to pick us up at 8 am, since we didn’t know how long immigration would last. We breezed through and were at the park in 30 minutes (hardly any traffic on a Saturday morning). Because we had the Premier Tour, we weren’t too concerned with getting right in at open.

We ran from 9:30 to 3:30 and got through our whole list and more. Everything was virtually walk-on. We would go in through the exit, Premier Access lines, or cast member entrances. At most we waited for five minutes. The guide would ask what seats we wanted (front, middle or back) or arrange the best seats (middle top for Soarin’, front for TRON and Pirates). In one case, we had a whole Pirates boat just for us. She was entirely at our disposal - we just told her what we wanted and she took us there. We walked right into the Mickey meet and greet. Lines were 40-60 minutes in many cases and nearly two hours for 7DMT and Soarin’. We rode TRON twice and Pirates three times in a row. We’re not parade or fireworks people, but she would have arranged VIP viewing areas if we had wanted, even for after the tour ended. We also got 20% off dining and in the main store on Mickey Avenue (had to present my passport which caused some confusion at first, until we finally got a manager who knew what I was talking about). Our guide also gave me a special souvenir pin of Mickey and Walt; unfortunately it was only one per group.

The park is so big and there’s a lot of walking, so we still would have been pressed to get most of our list done with our original plans, so this ended up being a dream day. I’ve never done a VIP tour in the US parks, but this one just seemed extra special because the park was all new to us. I would do it again in a heartbeat.


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## indoshakespeare

Can the VIP tours skip the line to meet the Princesses too?


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## AZMama2016

I wanted to add some comments about the park itself:

- It’s massive and sprawling. Plan for lots of walking. We brought a travel stroller along and were so thankful we did. You can also rent strollers at the park. Even on a busy day, it rarely felt crowded because there was so much room. There are no choke points like at DL where you are shoulder to shoulder with people.

- The park is gorgeous. I took more pictures than any other day on our trip so far. It’s very clean too.

- This is the most technologically advanced park we’ve ever seen. The US parks can’t compare.

- Pirates is unbelievable. Trying to describe it is impossible. The first appearance with Jack and when the ships are raised...holy cow. We also really enjoyed TRON, of course. Peter Pan was a nice surprise; much better than the US parks (I can never understand why people wait an hour for that ride!). We liked seeing the audience get into Soarin’; they just love it and get excited over it. The guide said Soarin’ is the most popular, followed by 7DMT.

- Popcorn doesn’t appear to be as prevalent as in the US parks. We only saw one cart the entire time. I collect popcorn buckets and bought the two they had. Caramel corn is also the norm and it’s served warm (and it’s DELICIOUS!).

- Have cash with you; carts don’t take credit cards.

- People do cut in line and crowd. There were moments when waiting to buy things or ordering at window where we’d end up with 4-5 people hanging at our elbows. It’s really disconcerting and irritating but apparently normal here. In many cases though, people were friendly and even let us take their pictures. We saw a lot of young women and kids dressed up.


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## AZMama2016

indoshakespeare said:


> Can the VIP tours skip the line to meet the Princesses too?



Yes, I’m sure. We weren’t planning to do any character meet and greets (the guide took us to Mickey first without us asking for it and we went right in ahead of the 30-minute line). She then asked if there were any other characters we wanted to meet. We said no, but I’m sure you could do that.


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## gelatoni fan

I'm just curious if they would be able to get a reservation to Club 33. I'd be willing to pay for access but just skipping lines for rides would not be worth it to me.
Or if they could get special seating for a once in a lifetime show (ex. Mickey's 90th Birthday fireworks) or a ride grand opening, etc.

I'm also wondering what the pin looks like. Would you be able to upload a picture?


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## AZMama2016

I doubt Club 33 - I’ve been many times to the one at DL and even those members can’t get reciprocal reservations at other clubs, so my guess is the Premier Tour wouldn’t be able to do it. You’d have to ask about the other events.

I can upload a photo of the pin later (just tried it but the picture was too big and I don’t have time to resize right now).


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## gelatoni fan

AZMama2016 said:


> I doubt Club 33 - I’ve been many times to the one at DL and even those members can’t get reciprocal reservations at other clubs, so my guess is the Premier Tour wouldn’t be able to do it. You’d have to ask about the other events.
> 
> I can upload a photo of the pin later (just tried it but the picture was too big and I don’t have time to resize right now).



Reciprocal reservations would not be expected but Shanghai's Club 33 is sometimes included in "Adventures By Disney" trips which is why I ask. It seems to be the easiest club 33 to get into without knowing someone since JCB's The Club credit card is harder to obtain than an Amex Centurion.


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## AZMama2016

gelatoni fan said:


> Reciprocal reservations would not be expected but Shanghai's Club 33 is sometimes included in "Adventures By Disney" trips which is why I ask. It seems to be the easiest club 33 to get into without knowing someone since JCB's The Club credit card is harder to obtain than an Amex Centurion.



If you find out the answer, please let me know! Here’s a picture of the pin. We also tried to get first time visitor buttons but apparently that’s not a thing; they just have generic celebration pins for all occasions.


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