Postby KeithS » Sun Mar 26, 2017 11:30 pm
Day 2 – 20 March 2017. Shanghai
Today is our first park day in Shanghai Disneyland. This is the first new park we’ve visited since our original trip to Tokyo in 2008, so we were excited. When we opened the curtains, we saw it was overcast and raining. Not a bad thing though as we know Shanghai is mainly attracting locals and with a bit of rain, they tend to wait until the some comes out before visiting.
After getting dressed, we headed downstairs to the Ballet Café in the lobby for some breakfast. This is a little café that is beautifully themed with ballet images and a large sculpture of the ballet dancing hippo from fantasia so it is a lot of fun. We also have to comment on the cast members here, they have all been very friendly and most speak good English. We ate muffins, tea and coffee for breakfast before buying ponchos and heading back to our room to get ready for the day out.
I sent a text to Brian and Patti to let them know we were on our way and we walked to the ferry terminal. This took us across the lake in a short time and we found Brian and Patti waiting for us at the Steamboat Willy fountain. We were all excited to get into the park although we were tempted by the shops in Disney Town. We skipped the shops however and headed into the park. First up was the purpose built security area. You walk up a lane to metal detectors and bag check. It was all professionally done and we were soon heading to the turnstiles for park entry.
There was a little delay getting in due to the people in front of us having complimentary tickets but soon they were through and so were we – we had finally arrived in Shanghai Disneyland!
And what a beautiful park it is. We walked up Mickey Avenue past the shops and meet and greets and headed towards the castle. It is an imposing building visible from across the park. The gardens surrounding it are beautiful and we spent time admiring the work of the greens people. It was also cherry blossom time so they were all out in pink. We were soaking it all in, moving from one sight to another and photographing it. We started moving clockwise around the resort, heading first to Tomorrowland. When we got there, we discovered the TRON coaster only had a 5 minute wait, so we said “let’s do it!”. The TRON coaster doesn’t allow you to carry anything on with you, so there are lockers you can use for free for 2 hours. We grabbed one and hopped on the queue line. As it was only a 5 minute wait, we rushed through the line but what I saw was interesting. The loading area reminded me of Space Mountain in Hong Kong, but the ride and vehicle is completely different. It looks like a TRON motorcycle that you sit astride with a restraint that presses on your back. It is a strange sensation but the ride is good if a little short. When we got off, Brian and I decided to do it again straight away as the wait was so short. The second time we did it, we got front row – yay! And that was awesome!
After TRON, we caught back up with Della and Patti and headed down to the new Buzz Lightyear. That is an amazing upgrade to a fun attraction. It is a perfect example of how to upgrade a ride without changing the character of the ride. The new ride is easier to target and gives a better feel for when you hit something. The sets and scenery upgrades were terrific too. After Buzz, we headed into the Star Wars Launch Bay. It was similar to the one in Walt Disney World and we met with C3P0 and R2D2, as well as Darth Vader who was scary.
After Launch Bay, we headed over to Fantasyland and jumped on Peter Pan. The Shanghai Pan has the two-row ships like in Paris. The ride had also been upgraded nicely and we enjoyed it a lot. After Pan, we went on the Voyage of the Crystal Grotto – another attraction unique to Shanghai. It is sort of a cross between Jungle Cruise and Storybook Canal Boats, but not as good as either. You got on a large boat and sailed through Fantasyland seeing large dioramas of Disney Princess stories. You eventually sail under the castle into the crystal grotto where scenes from movies come to life on the walls before you return to the dock.
After the Grotto, we headed to Tangled Tree Tavern for lunch. The restaurant was basically themed as the Snugglly Duckling from Tangled and looked great inside – it was a fun restaurant with nice food (eat the spicy chicken, you won’t be disappointed).
Next up, we did the Once Upon an Adventure castle walkthrough. This was pretty impressive as it was a walkthrough with some amazing new animation featuring the Snow White story. It was very nicely done though you have to be prepared for stairs!
After the walkthrough, headed to the Mickey Ave stores that we had earlier bypassed in the morning – but not before checking out the mosaics of the Chinese zodiac done in Disney characters. In Mickey Ave, we just wanted to see what was available in merchandise. There were a few unique things that will be coming home with us. We also found a whole Duffy store so Della was excited and she did buy a few things there.
Next up as Pirates! There was just a 10 minute wait, so we got in the queue and managed to get front row for our first experience…and what a ride it was! The technology here was incredible and worth the admission price. Although as Della pointed out, it was a whole new ride and not a retelling or upgrade so it is hard to compare to previous pirates rides.
Afterwards, we found a great spot for the parade at 3:30 and that was a lot of fun. Good music, great costumes and floats, we really enjoyed it. It was cold and damp after the parade, so we grabbed a hot chocolate in a restaurant and while we were sitting there, a Chinese friend of Patti’s named Taryn came around with her friend Melody. They were both really nice girls and Melody gave us her pass to the Kingdom Lounge at the Disneyland Hotel for tomorrow! So Della and I are going there tomorrow to check it out.
The girls wanted to hang out with us a bit, so we all went to the Pirates Stunt Show which was fun. The show is in Mandarin and features Captain Jack Sparrow and some amazing stunts including the use of an iFly system to simulate a storm and a battle in the wind where the characters were flying above the stage.
After that, we all headed over to Disney Town to check out more shops before saying good night to Taryn and Melody. Brian, Patti and ourselves then went to a restaurant called Blue Frog for dinner which was wonderful and highly recommended. After that, we decided to call it a night, with Della and I catching the ferry back to our hotel.
Keith
Trip history:
DLR: 2005, 06, 09, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18
DLRP: 2006
HKDL: 2006 (Mar & Sept), 11 (Apr & Dec), 14, 19
SDR: 2017
TDR: 2008, 10, 17
WDW: 2006, 13 (Mar & Sept), 16, 19
DCL: 2013, 15 (Alaska & Hawaii), 18
Aulani: 2015