An Engaging and Magical Asian Adventure (2017 trip) - New Update 09/12/2021

[Flossbolna]

I saw that PIO went to a place called Siochzo (I know I spelled it wrong), but it was about an hour by bus away from Shanghai. As I looked at her pictures I thought that Fran and I should stay there for a couple nights. I also decided that we should hire an English speaking guide who could take us around in a vehicle that I could store the scooter in the back. While I know that most areas are not accessible, we could work around it with me lifting the scooter up curbs and such.

I think one of the advantages of travel in China is that there are plenty of private guides one can hire to be driven around and it does not cost thousands of Dollar as the similar type of service would cost in Europe. So, your plan to hire guides definitely makes sense! It might be worth it to look for a travel agency that specialises in non-group China trips and get someone to put it all together for you. Friends of mine went to China with their kids when the kids were 5 and 7 because a family friend was working in Beijing and they wanted to visit. They travelled around quite a bit, all with a guide who would organise everything for them. She said it was actually such an easy vacation because they knew someone else was dealing with the details.

Aww....that's so sweet! You do know that not only do we have white cats that look just like Marie, but we also have cats named Berlioz and O'Malley.

I think I knew that!

I read another report where they went in March and it was pretty cold. I'll definitely have to do some research because Fran was telling me tonight that our Family room was cold and to bring her sweatshirt there, and I'm wearing a tank top and Capris and I'm still warm. We have very different body temperatures!

The TDR Explorer website is a good starting point for all sorts of information, also as to when to go: https://tdrexplorer.com/best-shanghai-disneyland-trip-planning-articles/

I do the same thing for Yelp reviews. At least 1/3 to half the people have unrealistic expectations. I mean Michael just posted on FB that Taco Bell was voted the #1 Mexican Restaurant in the US. I heard that on the news before he posted and pointed out to Fran that about 15 years ago "Sushi of Naples" had been voted the #1 Sushi restaurant in Long Beach. We went there once and I was so disgusted, they didn't even make rolls to order, it was basically a "sushi factory" and has since gone out of business. It was then that I realized mass audience polls meant nothing. You have to know the expectations of the people who are rating products and trust that they have the same values as you. Most people don't share my values.

Exactly! I mentioned this in a comment here yesterday: I do appreciate reading others' experiences and like if I get a good description and reasons for their like or dislike. From that I can form my opinion. Like when you mentioned in your last update that you did not like a meal because it was too spicy, then I know that this would not be an issue for me. But if you had said you did not like the dish because the salad was not fresh, I would know to stay away from that place.

This still makes me feel weird. A Disney park without a train. I know they had their reasons, but still....

I think the worst solution was this train station without a train, it kind of draws attention to the missing train.

I've seen lots of pictures of this area from other TRs, so I forgive you!

I am relieved!!

Interesting. Since I mostly frequent DL, and WDW is the only other park I've visited so far, I never really thought about it.

We will be at DLP next month and I will try to remember to take some pictures of the well hidden expansion pads there to post as a comparison.

I've actually been able to mostly free myself of the ECV at DL, but that's mostly because I don't spend long days out there. If I'm doing a tour, yes, I bring it because I'll never make it through eight hours without help, but when we just go out for a few hours, or stay for the weekend, I've been OK just walking. It seems that my foot injury has gotten stronger since 10 years ago. I don't dare test it for three days or longer at WDW since it caught up with me in 2017.

That's great!! I do get that long days are different from short visits and three days of serious WDW touring tires out the healthy people, too. I sometimes think one of the reasons why we have less ECVs here is that we do have a lot of sick days (up to 6 weeks with full wages, after that you still get a portion of your wages) and therefore people can take more time off to really work on re-gaining mobility after an accident. I recently read something about that this is one of the reasons why we have far less people in Europe taking pain killers as there is less of an economic need to function again as soon as possible.

That doesn't sound good. I don't think that this will be a ride that Fran can ride unless we do the handicapped accessible vehicle that I've heard about. In which case we might be able to just leave stuff in her scooter.

If you go during non-peak season the locker thing will be far less of an issue.

That's one of my big problems! I never know if I've hit it or not!

Same here! Michael and I were at Europapark this summer, a German theme park, and they had a similar ride and there it was even worse! We had no clue how we got our results. Ride was still quite cool, you were travelling to Atlantis and shooting sea serpents.

I used to do that when I was young and the MSEP was still at DL. I really didn't care so we would all go hit as many rides as we could. Funny how things change when you get older!

That's what my sister and I did in 1992 in Disneyland! We went round and round on the Matterhorn!

Interesting. I was annoyed enough when they made pirates into pirates chasing food rather than women. Are they going to try and say that the Trail of Tears never existed now too?

I have to admit that I am lacking some of the cultural understanding as to where the sensitivities lie with regard to certain topics. I watched Song of the South once and thought it was incredibly boring outside the animated parts, had no clue that "tar baby" is something problematic and otherwise thought the film was horrible in depicting poor people as mean and women as stupid. This shows how much context matters for certain things.

OK, I'm sorry, but this is something that I would NEVER do!

I would normally never forget food either. But I think with the heat and the jet lag our systems were just totally out of whack.

And did you starve? Really I mean your lunch looked like good portions, but I would eat that entire sandwich and still be hungry!

The sandwich was really large. And as I just said, the heat and jet lag really did a number on our appetite. I am also wondering if we did not have a granola bar at some point that I brought from Germany.

OMG! That's admirable, and I'm sure I would have similar plans, but they would all fall by the wayside when the alarm went off. I take it Michael's machinery was helping him out because never before on a TR would he have even considered such an early wake up, or was he still on some time zone where 7AM was really 2PM.

No, this was last year, the CPAP only arrived this year and 7am in China was 1am in Germany. There you see where his priorities are! And this was not the the earliest that he got up during this trip!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Hi M...….and M! Like all good lurkers I'm marking my spot.

Great to see you here!! I am happy to see that the rain hasn't washed you away!

 

[GoofyFan1515]

The rain tried...…...but we persevered. Only worked our way through one load of wash to do it!

Sorry but I used my speed reading skills to catch up. I mean after all it's a M and M trip report which means lots of great pictures of sights and food (including a Chinese Pirate this time), and lots of narrative from Magdalene, plus a plethora of smart_$$ remarks from Michael (well actually I "red" those parts, they're usually pretty funny and unbridled, not that I'M like that or anything)! I'm just kidding Magdalene, now look away while I at Michael.

I'll try to keep up when I can, and limit the speed reading.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

We nearly forget to eat!!

That has never been a problem for me.

And if you think that people were pushy in lines, watching the parade was a whole other level of pushy! People were also climbing on everything around. There were literally people in the trees!

Ugh. That reinforces my desire to skip the parades and just go on rides.

That’s what it is supposed to look like. Alas, no train. It is a train station without a train.

Odd. And a little disappointing.

As some of you know, I know a lot of people at Disney, including WDI. I still have yet to get a real answer as to why no train was included and how the design decision to have a station facade at the entrance were made.

I feel like a Disney park should have a train somewhere.

I can tell you to not believe the Internet/fanboy/blogger/urban myth that the Chinese don't like trains and since many immigrants from China died building OUR railroads in the 1800s that it would have been culturally inappropriate (like talking about running water to someone from Delaware) to create in a theme park.

Running water is overrated. Our pit toilets seem to work just fine.

And if you have been around the Disney Parks empire, you will see items ripped from other parks in a copy and paste fashion here. And I can also tell you for a fact that this was how the land was designed. Young Imagineers were told to go look in the files at work that had been done by others elsewhere and change it a bit.

Gotta save a buck somewhere, I guess.

But there is no cohesive theme to the land, much like the park feels thrown together. This park is designed to introduce and sell so many Disney brands and IP to people who may not be familiar with much (or any) of it.

That's disappointing. Maybe it will change over time?

The approach to the Tron coaster is quite spectacular:

That looks so cool. I can't wait to try it when it opens in Florida.

To be fair, SDL (like all the international parks) doesn't have a stroller or ECV problem. As soon as children can walk, they do. They aren't coddled and pushed in strollers until they need training bras.

I think any parent of a 4-year-old who weighs over 50 lbs. and has been walking over 6 miles a day in 95-degree heat and 90% humidity is always very thankful to have brought the stroller.

I have to say that part of the coaster’s attraction is how it defines the land as you can see in the picture above. I am afraid that with the location of the Tron coaster at the Magic Kingdom in the corner behind Space Mountain and on the other side of the railroad tracks, some of that beauty will be lost. But we will see.

Well, it is going to be a headliner for sure. So I'm sure they will make the entrance impressive.

And they finally have guns that work!! You can point at stuff, you see where you are shooting and you know when you hit something. So much fun!! I was really impressed how they plussed such a simple ride. For me this is a must ride in Shanghai now, but a “you really have to ride this”-ride at the other parks.

That was a major complaint of my kids at WDW--they didn't know which "red dot" was theirs. I think it was because I blew them away with my scores, though.

From here we walked all the way over to Pirates again. This time we chose the single rider line which was supposed to have a 20-minute wait as compared to 30 or 40 minutes for the normal ride. It turned out that we had five people in front of us and it was more a walk on! We even ended up in the same boat just behind each other. It was as amazing again, so we just got back on immediately via the single rider line.

Nice! That's a major win.

Also, as any experienced park visitor knows: Night time entertainment reduces wait times considerably. So, we decided to see what we could ride while everyone else was enthralled by projections.

Excellent strategy.

All in all we were more impressed with this attraction than we had expected. It was neatly done and maybe even the best retelling of Snow White’s story in any of the Disney parks.

Sounds like this and the Peter Pan ride were worthwhile. It's nice to see the care and imagination put into the "lesser" attractions.

And the castle at night has something charming, too.

Wait, I thought we didn't like the castle?

We hiked all the way over to Roaring Rapids through a beautiful Adventure Isle at night. We got to Raoring Rapids and it posted a 40-minute wait. That was just before closing time at 10 p.m. We briefly debated how this could limit our ability to still grab dinner at Remy’s Bistro, but figured that we should just make it with a few minutes to spare.

Well, we get in line and walk and walk and walk and there is nobody! The line was empty!! We ended up waiting a couple of minutes until we got into our raft. It is a fun ride, we got soaked, but there is supposed to be a crocodile during the ride which I totally missed.

Another walk-on! You guys did really well.

It is actually a huge crock-dino creature and they have had issues with it working since before opening (anyone know of a similar situation at WDW?)

I looked up a video of this ride on YouTube and it does look like a fun one.

At the exit there was a garbage can for the ponchos and the interesting thing was that it was more used as a recycling bin as people in line just fished out the ponchos to wear them themselves.

Efficiency!

Up Next: We finally get inside the Grid

Cool! I can't wait to see it!

 

[Flossbolna]

The rain tried...…...but we persevered. Only worked our way through one load of wash to do it!

Glad to hear that you got through it ok! The pictures of the flooding are so horrible and seems like always it hits those the hardest that already have the least.

Sorry but I used my speed reading skills to catch up. I mean after all it's a M and M trip report which means lots of great pictures of sights and food (including a Chinese Pirate this time), and lots of narrative from Magdalene, plus a plethora of smart_$$ remarks from Michael (well actually I "red" those parts, they're usually pretty funny and unbridled, not that I'M like that or anything)! I'm just kidding Magdalene, now look away while I at Michael.

I am just happy that you found it entertaining!!

I'll try to keep up when I can, and limit the speed reading.

You will always be welcome, whether it is as a speedy or as a slow reader! I am often struggling with keeping up on other's threads - and then I start talking about veggies instead of about the beautiful landscape @Captain_Oblivious was visiting... Not my finest hour!

 

[franandaj]

I think one of the advantages of travel in China is that there are plenty of private guides one can hire to be driven around and it does not cost thousands of Dollar as the similar type of service would cost in Europe. So, your plan to hire guides definitely makes sense!

Good I was imagining navigating around and two of the TRs I read, someone in the party spoke a little Mandarin. I was thinking that between Fran's mobility issues, her cranky factor and the language barrier, we would have problems. As long as our guide spoke decent English she would do OK and it wouldn't cost a fortune.

The TDR Explorer website is a good starting point for all sorts of information, also as to when to go: https://tdrexplorer.com/best-shanghai-disneyland-trip-planning-articles/

I'll keep that in mind, this is still a long way away.

Exactly! I mentioned this in a comment here yesterday: I do appreciate reading others' experiences and like if I get a good description and reasons for their like or dislike. From that I can form my opinion.

Yes you totally need a baseline. I wouldn't value @CaptainOblivious review of Napa Rose, but I would totally value what he had to say about In-n-Out burger or Five guys. Though I already have my own opinion on both of those.

Like when you mentioned in your last update that you did not like a meal because it was too spicy, then I know that this would not be an issue for me. But if you had said you did not like the dish because the salad was not fresh, I would know to stay away from that place.

Actually I was plenty pleased with my meal, it was Fran who thought it was too spicy.

I have to admit that I am lacking some of the cultural understanding as to where the sensitivities lie with regard to certain topics.

A lot goes back to the fact that the roots of the US were based a lot on puritan culture as an ideal. However, rarely did we ever live up to it. Throughout history Americans have done horrible things and then pretended it never happened. Even as late as the 1950s people tried claim life was idyllic, and housewives loved to greet their bread winning husband at the door when he came home from work with a kiss and dinner on the table. The 60s turned everything upside down, and since then the "politically correct" movement began. We looked back on history through today's lens, anything bad we did, what was said, names we called people came under scrutiny. I'm not saying all the bad stuff should be forgiven, but sometimes we go overboard. Just about any and all past misdeeds are now trying to be minimized or even forgotten.

I watched Song of the South once and thought it was incredibly boring outside the animated parts, had no clue that "tar baby" is something problematic and otherwise thought the film was horrible in depicting poor people as mean and women as stupid. This shows how much context matters for certain things.

I really don't remember much about it either as I was so young when I saw it, plus the African American stereotypes were still prevalent back then. I think it was just what you pointed out, making people mean and women stupid. You'll notice Disney no longer tolerates those values. I was really surprised when I saw Pete's Dragon a few years back, and they had a drunk as a main character, and a production number in a bar featuring beer taps and such!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

You will always be welcome, whether it is as a speedy or as a slow reader! I am often struggling with keeping up on other's threads - and then I start talking about veggies instead of about the beautiful landscape @Captain_Oblivious was visiting... Not my finest hour!

Oh, I was just poking fun at you. Really, I'm grateful anytime you take the time to comment.

Yes you totally need a baseline. I wouldn't value @CaptainOblivious review of Napa Rose, but I would totally value what he had to say about In-n-Out burger or Five guys.

You may not value my review, but I'm pretty sure you'd be entertained.

 

[Flossbolna]

Ugh. That reinforces my desire to skip the parades and just go on rides.

I am not a parade person at all, but then the Disney completist in my always roars its ugly head and I end up watching anyway. Over time I have found some parades that I really loved. Paint the Night in California is one of them. And the other two will be coming up in Tokyo.

I feel like a Disney park should have a train somewhere.

Well, if you think the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train is a train, then there is one is in this park...

Running water is overrated. Our pit toilets seem to work just fine.

Haha! Not my husband's opinion. There was an event this summer that we attended at a hut in the forest. You can guess what the "bathroom" looked like - someone was NOT happy about this!!

Gotta save a buck somewhere, I guess.

While in some places it feels like SDL was built without trying to be too budgetary, some other parts feel really cheep and you wonder why they did cut corner so much there.

That's disappointing. Maybe it will change over time?

I don't think so, it seems that that's the model Disney is moving towards with all their parks now. They consider parks as a vehicle for synergy. Look at what they are doing to Disneyland...

That looks so cool. I can't wait to try it when it opens in Florida.

It will be really great for the MK to get a new E-ticket attraction. I feel that this park has been due one for ages!

I think any parent of a 4-year-old who weighs over 50 lbs. and has been walking over 6 miles a day in 95-degree heat and 90% humidity is always very thankful to have brought the stroller.

Sometimes I think Michael is just envious, because I refuse to push him around a theme park!

Well, it is going to be a headliner for sure. So I'm sure they will make the entrance impressive.

I am looking forward on how it will look - I think some of it might be in view from the train.

That was a major complaint of my kids at WDW--they didn't know which "red dot" was theirs. I think it was because I blew them away with my scores, though.

I agree with your kids!

Sounds like this and the Peter Pan ride were worthwhile. It's nice to see the care and imagination put into the "lesser" attractions.

The nice thing about them was that it felt like it was our little surprise discovery. Everyone talks about Tron and Pirates, but found a lot to like in the smaller attractions, too.

Wait, I thought we didn't like the castle?

Haha!! Some angles aren't too bad. It's a Disney castle after all!

Another walk-on! You guys did really well.

Yes, the late evening was truly the best time!

I looked up a video of this ride on YouTube and it does look like a fun one.

It definitely is by far the most fun raft ride I have ever been on.

Efficiency!

And good for the environment!!

Cool! I can't wait to see it!

oh...

 

[Flossbolna]

Good I was imagining navigating around and two of the TRs I read, someone in the party spoke a little Mandarin. I was thinking that between Fran's mobility issues, her cranky factor and the language barrier, we would have problems. As long as our guide spoke decent English she would do OK and it wouldn't cost a fortune.

Yes, I think that would be a great option to make your trip easier for both of you!

Yes you totally need a baseline. I wouldn't value @CaptainOblivious review of Napa Rose, but I would totally value what he had to say about In-n-Out burger or Five guys. Though I already have my own opinion on both of those.

Actually I was plenty pleased with my meal, it was Fran who thought it was too spicy.

Sorry! I got you mixed up!! I remember reading it and being surprised because I never knew that spicy was an issue. But now I realize that's because I kind of got you and Fran mixed up - kind of like in your screen name!

A lot goes back to the fact that the roots of the US were based a lot on puritan culture as an ideal. However, rarely did we ever live up to it. Throughout history Americans have done horrible things and then pretended it never happened. Even as late as the 1950s people tried claim life was idyllic, and housewives loved to greet their bread winning husband at the door when he came home from work with a kiss and dinner on the table. The 60s turned everything upside down, and since then the "politically correct" movement began. We looked back on history through today's lens, anything bad we did, what was said, names we called people came under scrutiny. I'm not saying all the bad stuff should be forgiven, but sometimes we go overboard. Just about any and all past misdeeds are now trying to be minimized or even forgotten.

Oh, we do have the political correct movement here, too. Just look at my country's past misdeeds... (And I will say that with German history there is no going overboard with scrutiny!).

Michael and I often discuss about how certain things are not thought about twice here and which are an absolute no-go in the US and vice versa. But I think that will be a great topic of discussion over a couple of glasses of wine when we meet up again!!

I really don't remember much about it either as I was so young when I saw it, plus the African American stereotypes were still prevalent back then. I think it was just what you pointed out, making people mean and women stupid. You'll notice Disney no longer tolerates those values. I was really surprised when I saw Pete's Dragon a few years back, and they had a drunk as a main character, and a production number in a bar featuring beer taps and such!

It's sometimes amazing how certain things that were normal to you as a child you see with such different eyes when you are an adult. I had a series of books about a little girl growing up in Berlin around the First World War when I was small. These were old books that my aunt had when she was little and I loved reading them. They were actually considered "modern children's literature" when they came out in the early 1900s because the girl actually gets a high school diploma and goes on to become a doctor. But, then when I was in my 30s my parents got me a set of these books, old editions, like the one I had read when I was little. And I reread them and was quite shocked at how backwards they sounded. About the girl that has to behave while the brother is allowed to be wild etc. They are still written with so much warmth and empathy for the characters that I still think they are lovely books. But if I had a daughter, I think I would only let her read these books with some commentary and discussion about what she is reading to put things into perspective.

 

[Flossbolna]

Oh, I was just poking fun at you. Really, I'm grateful anytime you take the time to comment.

Thanks!

You may not value my review, but I'm pretty sure you'd be entertained.

That was exactly my thought when I read @franandaj's comment!

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 2: Shanghai Disneyland:

Part 1: We finally get inside the Grid

So, remember our plans about rope drop at 8 the next morning after going to bed at midnight? Well, if we had not been in Shanghai, we would have made it for rope drop…

I got up when my alarm woke me at 6:30. I felt horrible, but there was a new park where we had seen far too little the day before. So, I started in the bathroom, woke Michael up at 6:45 and we were in the bus that left the hotel at 7:20 am. The bus was packed!

The literature at the hotel said that the buses run every 15 minutes, but they had two buses going back and forth and since it is not far at all, the buses were more every seven minutes or so. While Michael was getting ready I was watching the crowds that already were walking on the bridge from the parking area to the park. The bridge was full of people! And I knew that most people arrive at the park by metro. So, I was slightly panicking already.

Well, once at bus stop, we walked past Disneytown, but then we were not allowed to turn left towards the park entrance, instead we had to walk further towards the metro station quite a bit until we were finally allowed to make a u-turn and walk towards the park entrance, now merged with the masses coming from the metro.

And they were enforcing this! We saw masses of security people and policemen guarding the metal rails and the natural barriers (planters). They were standing there with locked arms to prevent people from barging through. As soon there was a tiny loophole you saw people scrambling over whatever was in their way. It was madness!

It was China at its typical finest. I admit I can laugh now as I am sitting in the AC in the swamps helping tell the tale. I wasn't amused then. Of course, as M will tell you, I am never amused in the morning.

The result was that we ended in lines that were even longer than the previous day. However, by some luck we ended up in the outer most line. This meant that to our left side there were no people as we were on the edge of the mass of people. The day before we were in an inner line, so we had people on both sides. This made it a bit more bearable as you were able to breathe. This was important as it was a beautifully sunny day today!

It was 8:50 a.m. by the time we were in front of the train station with no train!!

Just to be clear, from my perspective at least, the entrance experience in the morning was BY FAR the most unpleasant aspect of the entire visit. Yes, even worse than the weather because you can always go inside a cool building. Worse than even being in the park at ungodly hours.

Our first stop was Tomorrowland to get a Tron FP! There was a line, but nowhere nearly as horrible as the previous day and we waited maybe five minutes or so until we could select our FPs!

Success!!

And we even had a return time that was fairly close, I guess by now it was already after 9.

We decided to kill the time by going for another spin on Buzz Lightyear. It was still great the second time around. I wish all other Buzz rides would be upgraded to the same ride!

I believe we had a very short, by SDL standards on this trip, wait of 15-20 minutes.

I think it was this morning that two young boys (maybe 11) started talking to us in the gift shop at the exit of the ride. They came over and said hello in English and asked us where we were from and if we spoke Chinese. You could tell that they were excited to try out their language skills. We had quite a few encounters like this, the cutest one coming up tomorrow!

This is typical in China. Kids are taught English from a very early age and they are so friendly and eager to test it out on visitors.

We ended up buying some pins in this shop for another friend and asked about sending purchases to the hotel and they do this here, too. You can even collect them the same evening after 9. I am sure there is a cutoff time in the afternoon, but we were well before that.

I seem to recall a very friendly CM here that we spoke with at length about the crowds and them being worse due to a price increase on tickets coming on July 1st -- the next day!

We tried to visit a Star Wars meet & greet, but that was down.

Sorta. We tried to visit the Star Wars Launch Bay (sound familiar?) That pseudo attraction that is more gift shop, meet and greet and general commercial for the overrated space soap opera. We never made it in here and since then I have heard that it is basically closed 90% of the time. Unlike other Disney IP, or acquired IP like Marvel, there is very little affinity for SW in China. There is no strong attachment to it. It isn't seared in the collective psyches and Disney's efforts to sell it have failed miserably. ... It is also why in Hong Kong, an expansion pad set aside for Star Tours was recently developed with an Iron Man simulator-based ride.

So, we used the Toy Story Land bathrooms again (this and the little food outlet were the only parts open yet) and checked out the building progress there:

The orange track is a ride they have in Paris as well called RC Racers and it is the most slow loading ride I ever experienced. Michael and I went on it on our last trip in January finally because it usually has 60 minute waits. It is horrible slow loading and has a tiny capacity. I have no idea why they chose to add this to Shanghai which already has a capacity problem at rides like Pirates which are people eaters.

Bad menu planning. And it is a cheap addition to a park.

This is the café, it had a temporary décor:

Then it was time for Tron! Or so we thought. At first we were seriously confused as to how to use our FP. Remember that massive locker line the day before. The massive locker line was of course in place again today. I just did not want to accept that I had a FP for a ride and then would have to wait for ages to get to a stupid locker. Not knowing where I am supposed to be is something that stresses me and the whole crowd situation was often frustrating (like spending 1.5 hours to enter a park in the morning). After some searching around, there was indeed a specific FP entrance for the locker area where we did not have to wait. This looked rather makeshift. Once in the locker area we had real trouble figuring out how the lockers worked. I think there were central stations that were allotting lockers to you or so. Anyway, being a non-Chinese confused looking tourist quickly drew the attention of another very friendly CM who helped us get a locker. It seemed like they did not have nearly enough lockers as they had also added in rows of normal coin lockers.

It seemed that this whole entrance plaza set up for Tron did not work at all how it was planned. I think I have read recently something about how this has changed. But when we were there it was really just crazy. I really hope that they learn their lesson and improve this at WDW!

Once we had secured our locker and put all our picture taking devices in it (sorry, @Captain_Oblivious no pictures from inside the grid!), it all went fine. The FP wait was still quite some time, according to my notes we waited 20 minutes. You do get some sort of pre-show where they tell you what happens. But since I have never seen the movie it was all a bit over my head. The design is very cool though. All black with those neon stripes.

The novelty of the coaster is that you are sitting on a motorcycle. If you have been on Flight of Passage at AK, the seat is similar. But on Tron you are very much forced into a typical motor cycle position leaning all the way forward. The train has a certain number of motor cycles all arranged in pairs. So, boarding is a bit different as one of the two riders lined up for the pair has to walk between the cycles to the other side of the train. This appeared to lead to quite a bit of confusion. The ride itself is a very smooth coaster without much excitement. I would say that it’s about as intense as Big Thunder Mountain but because you are tightly fixed to your motor cycle it feels smoother, but is a bit faster. It also has a launch like Rock ‘n Roller Coaster instead of a lift hill. Unfortunately it is very short.

We were very happy that we had finally been on it and would have loved a second ride, but due to crowds that was not possible. I think by the time we got off and could have had a second FP they were gone for the day.

It is a great ride, but too short. For those of us who actually saw Tron in theaters in 1982 and are still alive (about 4,329 total), the idea of traveling the Grid is the stuff of childhood fantasy. And it is pulled off quite well. But as M says, it is too short. It needs at least another 45-90 seconds of ride time. I would have preferred riding this at night as I think that is a defining SDL experience, but we just weren't able to. I have grave concerns about this attraction fitting at the MK.

We strolled through Fantasyland taking in the scenery and checking out the shops there.

The last two pictures were from a shop where Michael bought one of his nicest souvenirs from the trip. A glass mug with an colored engraving for the Grand Opening and a Donald in traditional Chinese clothes. It is really nice! We had that sent to the hotel as well.

Yes, at least the castle has a lovely shop there. WDW did once before, as some online crazy called it once, it was replaced by a Jon-Benet Boutique. TDL also still has their shop, but we'll get to that in time. I will point out this was the only discounted merchandise or Grand Opening merchandise available to us.I believe it was 40% off. There was plenty in that tent. And, as of tonight, there's still some in the outlet stores in the swamps. I love the mug, but it is something to look at. I will never be having a drink in this.

The we wandered through some of the Gardens of Imagination towards the Pirates Stunt Show: Eye of the Storm: Captain Jack’s Stunt Spectacular. This was all the way over in Treasure Cove.

In order to get there we passed through Adventure Isle:

This is a beautiful area, it feels like a cross of Animal Kingdom Lodge and Adventureland:

These geysers are part of the Roaring Rapids raft ride that we did yesterday evening.

And this is the famous Shanghai turkey leg stand!

Supposedly the Chinese are crazy for them and often you have massive lines for it.

We then got in line for the pirate stunt show. It is exclusive to Shanghai and an interesting attraction. It runs quite often during the day and we got there just about 10 minutes before show time, so were at the back of the line. They do have a real line for this and it is quite nice! You have a view of this lovely courtyard:

And there is some interesting art work.

Once we had gotten in line, it started to move as they were letting people into the pre-show. We walked a very long line and the further up to the front of the line we got the more garbage was in the line. It was really quite impressive. You definitely had the feeling that people camped out (knowing that they would be in line for quite some time until the next show time) and had full picnics in this line and then just left everything behind. They had added some additional garbage cans into the line, but those were overflowing already.

Yes, it was sad to see this park start the day in near pristine condition and get trashed so quickly. Some of it is cultural. Some of it is Disney simply not having enough CMs in the queues to both discourage the behavior and clean up from it.

We also witnessed a little boy being held towards the shrubbery next to the line to take care of some business. We had seen another peeing incident earlier in the day while we were in those horrid security lines and I could understand it there better as there really was no chance for the parents to get out of line. We had heard that this was an issue. And the worst thing is that you could smell it at certain points around the park at night. Obviously with the heat and the crowds it left an olfactory trace. I just kept wondering how they were going to go about this. Currently a good clean during the night should help. But over time this will build up and the smell will stick around.

Yeah, you should have been me in 2008 when I moved to Beijing for the Olympics and had my first day off. Off me and my good friend Sandy went to explore the Temple of Heaven (the same thing you see a mini-version of at EPCOT, which is a PERFECT replica! Old school WED knew how to do it!) We finished touring and crossed the street to go to a KFC (my choice) for lunch when a mother of a toddler stopped on the sidewalk, unhooked a patch covering most of his behind and let him defecate on said sidewalk. Again, it's culture. Some people from other nations might have an issue with the man who resides in the White House when they visit, for instance.

For the pre-show you enter the lobby of the theater and you get introduced to the characters and have some interesting stunts already. It is all in mandarin, so not much to understand, but the story is simple enough that it is still fun to watch.

You then move into the real theater and the show is quite impressive with all kind of effects and some really neat stunts.

I will also add here that a good friend of mine worked on the effects for the show. He is FL based. One of the things he did is a show-stopping effect, truly the wow moment of the show. Let's just say it involves fog effects and dry ice and completely changes the environment.

While I would not necessarily repeat this during the same visit, I think it is still a nice diversion to do again on future visits.

Up next: Finding a Surprising Gem

 

[franandaj]

You may not value my review, but I'm pretty sure you'd be entertained.

True! I think just hearing your take on the menu would be amusing!

 

[GoofyFan1515]

Glad to hear that you got through it ok! The pictures of the flooding are so horrible and seems like always it hits those the hardest that already have the least.

The whole city of Wilmington, NC is still blocked from access. Saw a picture of the Interstate 40 that goes into Wilmington and there was no visible road. .....looked like a river. It was a minimal hurricane based on wind speed but it was so huge and moved so slow (2 - 5 mph) that it dumped rain for days especially along the coast.

Pat and I alternated going out in the rain to keep drains clear to keep the water damage to a minimum in the yard. There was a newly created stream running across the back yard.

I am not a parade person at all, but then the Disney completist in my always roars its ugly head and I end up watching anyway. Over time I have found some parades that I really loved. Paint the Night in California is one of them. And the other two will be coming up in Tokyo.

I remember one Halloween parade you enjoyed. .....minus the little surprise you received from one of the dancers.

I'll come back later and comment on the update.

 

[indoshakespeare]

I wish they had DHS' Toy Story Land instead of DLP / Hong Kong's Toy Story Land. I'm guessing their Toy Story Land is really cheap, just 3 carnival rides re-themed to Toy Story.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Wow, what crazy crowds! I am not sure that I could deal with the pushiness.

I am looking forward to the Tron ride arriving at the MK.

 

[piglet1979]

I am joining in. I just caught up. I think the castle looks like the Haunted Mansion on a bigger scale.

 

[Steppesister]

Hi M...….and M! Like all good lurkers I'm marking my spot.

Nice to see you've come out to play again!

The bus was packed!

This sounds... ominous.

As soon there was a tiny loophole you saw people scrambling over whatever was in their way. It was madness!

...like I said...

And we even had a return time that was fairly close, I guess by now it was already after 9.

We decided to kill the time by going for another spin on Buzz Lightyear. It was still great the second time around. I wish all other Buzz rides would be upgraded to the same ride!

I too wish Buzz at WDW would get a facelift. Seeming kinda stale lately.

You could tell that they were excited to try out their language skills.

We had this happen a LOT overseas. It's always kinda cute as they can rarely make it past, "Hello. How are you?"

Then it was time for Tron! Or so we thought. At first we were seriously confused as to how to use our FP. Remember that massive locker line the day before. The massive locker line was of course in place again today. I just did not want to accept that I had a FP for a ride and then would have to wait for ages to get to a stupid locker. Not knowing where I am supposed to be is something that stresses me and the whole crowd situation was often frustrating (like spending 1.5 hours to enter a park in the morning). After some searching around, there was indeed a specific FP entrance for the locker area where we did not have to wait. This looked rather makeshift. Once in the locker area we had real trouble figuring out how the lockers worked. I think there were central stations that were allotting lockers to you or so. Anyway, being a non-Chinese confused looking tourist quickly drew the attention of another very friendly CM who helped us get a locker. It seemed like they did not have nearly enough lockers as they had also added in rows of normal coin lockers.

Ugh!! This just sounds horrible!

e novelty of the coaster is that you are sitting on a motorcycle. If you have been on Flight of Passage at AK, the seat is similar. But on Tron you are very much forced into a typical motor cycle position leaning all the way forward. The train has a certain number of motor cycles all arranged in pairs. So, boarding is a bit different as one of the two riders lined up for the pair has to walk between the cycles to the other side of the train. This appeared to lead to quite a bit of confusion. The ride itself is a very smooth coaster without much excitement. I would say that it’s about as intense as Big Thunder Mountain but because you are tightly fixed to your motor cycle it feels smoother, but is a bit faster. It also has a launch like Rock ‘n Roller Coaster instead of a lift hill.

This really sounds like a very nicely done concept. Glad you guys enjoyed it!

That really is super pretty! It reminds me of what the ToT grounds might look like if they were intentionally kept.

We also witnessed a little boy being held towards the shrubbery next to the line to take care of some business. We had seen another peeing incident earlier in the day while we were in those horrid security lines and I could understand it there better as there really was no chance for the parents to get out of line. We had heard that this was an issue. And the worst thing is that you could smell it at certain points around the park at night. Obviously with the heat and the crowds it left an olfactory trace. I just kept wondering how they were going to go about this. Currently a good clean during the night should help. But over time this will build up and the smell will stick around.

Oy. Yeah, just part of living in Asia. So gross.

 

[pooh'smate]

Congratulations on your marriage. I really am so happy for you. I have read many of your tr's but I don't comment near enough. I am trying to change that though. I am just getting back home from a trip to WDW so I am just marking my place but I will be back to read and comment.

 

[Flossbolna]

I remember one Halloween parade you enjoyed. .....minus the little surprise you received from one of the dancers.

I actually thought about mentioning it here, but then didn't because it is a special event parade, not a normal parade that is part of general admission. And it did not feel fair to compare the two different sets (special events are supposed to be special!).

 

[Flossbolna]

I wish they had DHS' Toy Story Land instead of DLP / Hong Kong's Toy Story Land. I'm guessing their Toy Story Land is really cheap, just 3 carnival rides re-themed to Toy Story.

I can't say anything about Shanghai's TSL as we only saw it being built. But I do agree that the two rides they built at WDW are a bit of an upgrade over WDS. However, in my opinion any Toy Story Land is lazy theming and just the oposite of something being detailed. If you blow up small things (toys) you lose detail. And then toys are already simple things in design very often. That creats a lot of large prime colored surfaces. Also, to me a lot of it looks very plastic.