A (2019) HalloXmas trip to Asia - Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo! - COMPLETED 5/1!!!

I loved seeing the CMs making these flower Mickeys every morning! They were so precise that they used their pickers to make perfect circles! And someone even used bottle caps to make one!

That's amazing! How long did they last each day?

Oh and I did take photos this one time in the bathroom of the Chinese style toilets (since it was empty). All of the bathrooms had Western style at one end, and there usually wasn’t any wait for those even if the squat-style had a lot of people. It is also very obvious from the outside of the stall which one it is!

Oh wow. I would not have even thought about this being a thing. Thanks for sharing.

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I love that the store literally looks like a waffle!!


:love: :love: that they have Donald waffles. Wow that is really a tiny amount of syrup!


Omg 🥰🥰🥰
 
Wow the PotC is intense I really want to go there now! The bathrooms I’ve experienced and I’ve heard in parts of Europe too you have to squat. I tried once and never again! You have to have major thigh muscle strength and I don’t think I can do enough squats to gain that control; I remember holding onto the wall next to me and praying to God I didn’t slip and fall! Papaya milk is actually pretty good like a creamy version of papaya. Surprisingly, salted cheese milk tea is a popular drink in a lot of Asian/French bakeries in the US and if you like salty and sweet like salted caramel and candied bacon then this is similar style in taste. I can’t wait to hear more, pretty soon I’m gonna be booking a ticket to there!
 




Ok! Caught up.... through the end of the first page haha!

My packing assistants, I was going to miss them so much!

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The worst part of any trip for me is leaving my pets!

Joey had suggested ramen or Chinese food, but my mom said, maybe Lesley would prefer American! So, some fried cheese, tri-tip sliders, and skillet chocolate chip cookie, yum!

Haha, good call! If you're going to Asia for three weeks, you'd definitely want the Americanized food before you leave!

But, today I wouldn’t be exploring the terminal, as instead I was going to have access to the Star Alliance Lounge, which is pretty big and gorgeous!

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Very nice!

Anyways, we eventually boarded and I was greeted with my lovely seat for the next 11 hrs.

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This seems well worth the 15 years of saving points!

I went with the Western menu, starting with Proscuitto and vegetable appetizer (can you tell what movie I chose to watch?)

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That food looks ok! And good call on the movie!

Around 4:30am on Sunday, October 20, we landed in Seoul. Since we left at 11:30pm on Friday, October 18, this meant I never stepped food on ground on Saturday, October 19. I also never saw the sun on this day, since we flew in darkness the whole time!

Crazy! Time zones are weird haha.

After a snack, I got to use the shower facilities! It was so nice and refreshing getting cleaned up and changed after the long flight!

It's always so nice to wash that airport feeling off! I love that you were able to do this on your layover!
 
Yay an update :)
Fab character costumes, really nice. Definitely not enough syrup! Can't wait to ride pirates.. hopefully next year since I have bought a pony lol
You definitely need to get over there! It's so awesome!
That's amazing! How long did they last each day?
Unfortunately not too long! I didn't see many past the early hours. And I think the bottle cap ones definitely were picked up to be reused!
I love that the store literally looks like a waffle!!
I know, so cute!
Wow the PotC is intense I really want to go there now! The bathrooms I’ve experienced and I’ve heard in parts of Europe too you have to squat. I tried once and never again! You have to have major thigh muscle strength and I don’t think I can do enough squats to gain that control; I remember holding onto the wall next to me and praying to God I didn’t slip and fall! Papaya milk is actually pretty good like a creamy version of papaya. Surprisingly, salted cheese milk tea is a popular drink in a lot of Asian/French bakeries in the US and if you like salty and sweet like salted caramel and candied bacon then this is similar style in taste. I can’t wait to hear more, pretty soon I’m gonna be booking a ticket to there!
I didn't even really see handles on the walls! Don't know how people do it?

I think I did see more references to salted cheese milk tea and stuff. I guess it's just weird to me!
Loving reading this TR, I've been so curious about these parks since watching the imagineering story. Thanks for such a thorough report!
I still need to watch that! It's one of those - once I actually watch it I won't have it to look forward to anymore!
Ni Hao!!!! Missed the beginning of this but all caught up. You have me so ready to sign up for business class and Shanghai looks great so far! Can't wait for more!
Welcome!
 
Used their pickers?? Confused.
The trash pickers! Basically they used them as the radius of the circle, spinning it around to mark out the main head (adding a couple flowers and then filling in the rest after the circle was complete)!
I got really used to those in Crapistan and honestly think they are cleaner to use.
Still very weird to me! :P
As for the POTC over there. That is the single attraction that I'd travel there to ride. It looks and sounds amazing!!! Thanks for the POV link!
It really was awesome!
You weren't kidding about the syrup, LOL. That's unreasonable :rotfl:
Haha! I think because most of the people get the options with the weird flavorings (well weird for me), so they don't bother with much syrup! I probably could have asked for more, but I didn't want to bother!
I loved the mosaics of the characters, and seeing Duffy and Friends was so cute!! Darn those Asia parks with all their kawaii goodness!!
I know - so cute!
I stumbled upon your trip report and am joining in! Love reading about the non-US parks. Seems like a great trip so far!
It really was!
The worst part of any trip for me is leaving my pets!
I know! I always apologize but still feel guilty!
This seems well worth the 15 years of saving points!
Definitely!
 
Again, sorry for the longer delay with updates! I'm hoping the updates will speed up from here, but work is sending me up to Vancouver for 2 weeks (that office is slammed and being a dual citizen means they don't have to worry about work permits/visas if I go)! So it could mean either my updates will slow down from being so busy. Or speed up since I will just be hanging in a hotel in the evenings?

Anyways, on with the show!

Part 3 – Challenging myself!

Time to head back to Adventure Isle

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Love the baby duck rock!

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Um, steak popcorn. Weird! (They probably meant BBQ, but it was also weird seeing the onion/bell pepper/carrots on the top!

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This was Roaring Rapids, their version of Grizzly River Run/Kali River Rapids. Its super popular among locals, and apparently has a really good crocodile/monster animatronic inside, but I didn’t end up riding because I didn’t want to bother with getting wet (ponchos are very popular but I didn’t care enough).

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Stopped in this Coco area, where they had the puppet out interacting with guests and taking photos. A little Chinese kid was not amused by him and very scared! I can imagine those family photos would be hilarious (mom and dad smiling, daughter next to puppet, and son hiding behind his dad’s legs on the side of the photo)!

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Earlier in the morning I bought some fastpasses for today. When Shanghai Disney first opened they had lots of issues with scalpers. People who would arrive early, grab all the Soaring Fps and then actually sit on the curb and sell them! (China also has some weird complicated trespassing laws, that Disney can kick them out for the day, but not permanently ban them. Also, security guards would sometimes be bribed by the scalpers to look the other way.) The scalping wasn't just with fastpasses - some enterprising people would go and rent out all the official Disney strollers, go to another area of the park, and then re-rent them for more money! Or others would go to the metro station, which didn't allow balloons on the trains; they would buy the balloons from people leaving the park and then go to the parking lot and resell them to people who drove in! It's pretty interesting to read some of these stories!

Anyways, Disney decided to get in on the FP scalping action and created Premier Access. This gives you an “anytime” fastpass for the attraction, and even is available for some rides which don’t actually have FPs, so it’s the only way to skip the standby line. You can buy sets of 8, 6, or 3 pre-selected rides, or get individual rides. I ended up getting the Family set of 6 and Adventure set of 6, which covered all of the individual rides available (Soaring, Pirates, Roaring Rapids, Challenge Trails etc….). I did make an error in not signing up for the Concierge service, which would have been the same FPs, plus parade and Ignite the Dream viewing, plus some other extras, but I forgot to look further into it once I decided to go ahead and buy some FPs. But in the future, I will definitely go with this option!

Back over at Adventure Isle, where it was time for the Camp Discovery Challenge Trails. This is a full ropes course in a Disney park! Seriously! (Of course I could never see this in any other park – well maybe HK could get away with it.)

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I used my Premier access, which probably saved me about 30 minutes. Definitely worth it as I literally walked onto the ride. You do have to put EVERYTHING in a (complimentary) locker beforehand, including cameras and phones, so I don’t have pictures when I was on the course itself. If you go with other people there are pathways under the course, so I would maybe consider splitting up so someone can take photos from below while the others are climbing around.

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This is someone’s pov I found on youtube (must have been a gopro harness)


You do wear a full harness and they have ropes connected into sets of rails above your head. (Oh there is a weight limit, but I was ok; they didn’t check me the first time I did it, but they did check the second time I did it.) The rails are mostly in 3 parallel tracks with occasional “roundabouts”, so you can slide your rope onto another track if you want. If they don't want you to go down a certain trail the CMs have barriers they can add to the rails preventing you from moving your harness to that position.

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All of the obstacles have 3 routes – easy, medium, hard. And there are roundabouts at the start of each one, so if you get there and decide this one you can do hard, but the next one you are going to need to do easy, that is very simple to do. I probably did mostly medium, but a couple hard and easy too. Most of the obstacles sort of range between climbing up/down, moving from swinging platforms, or crossing large gaps.

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For example this one I picked the one on the far left, which had the narrowest footpath, but also had the rope along the whole side (made me feel better than the middle one which was slightly wider but only ropes a few places). On the far right side it was basically a normal pathway

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There are also 3 trails, so you have to pick 1 and if you want to do the others, you have to re-wait in line. They don’t have a lot of CMs around on the trails itself, so you pretty much are on your own for getting thru the obstacles.

These are some obstacles I never got a chance to try out since it was on Trail 2 and I did Trail 1.

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But I really loved this attraction! Definitely challenged me – as you can tell, I’m not the most in-shape person. But it was great fun and totally different. A couple times I was a bit nervous, as I do have a fear of heights (large ladders even freak me out), but I just kept going!
 
Afterwards I ended up walking around the pathways to get some photos of the various trails. And there is just a lot to explore (though it’s mostly a single path, not like Disneyland Paris and the caves you can get totally lost in)

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So, I highly recommend you do this!

There was also a kids play area with a sand box and slides. One of the trails actually goes right above this, so it could be fun if you have kids who aren’t doing the course to be able to see other adults in the group!

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This was for Trail 3, which has 2 options to shimmy around the inside wall and one to walk around the outside pathway. (I did Trail 3 the next day and tried out the medium path, which was still pretty nerve wracking for me!)

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Stopped for another merch check at Laughing Monkey Traders, which had lots of Chip & Dale, Zootopia, etc)

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More random headpiece photos! (I did end up getting one of these, but not until the next day – can you guess which one?)

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And I did get this pin to commemorate the challenge trails

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Coming up - Lunch and more shopping!
 
Um, steak popcorn. Weird! (They probably meant BBQ, but it was also weird seeing the onion/bell pepper/carrots on the top!

That is really weird. No thank you lol.

A little Chinese kid was not amused by him and very scared! I can imagine those family photos would be hilarious (mom and dad smiling, daughter next to puppet, and son hiding behind his dad’s legs on the side of the photo)!

:rotfl: :rotfl:

People who would arrive early, grab all the Soaring Fps and then actually sit on the curb and sell them!

Whattt that's insane! How'd they even manage to get them all??

Back over at Adventure Isle, where it was time for the Camp Discovery Challenge Trails. This is a full ropes course in a Disney park! Seriously! (Of course I could never see this in any other park – well maybe HK could get away with it.)

Wow! That's amazing. I feel like that would fit in well in AK but I agree that I don't think I see it coming to the US parks.


This is adorable!


Oo I love that pin!
 
All caught up! Business class definitely seems the way to go for a long flight!

You got so much done during EMH! Definitely worth the early morning for sure. I can't wait to ride Tron when MK gets it!
 
Still reading along, Lesley. :) Lots of photos to compare the parks, which look very different that our US ones.
 
but work is sending me up to Vancouver for 2 weeks
Casual...
Hope you have fun! BC is on my travel bucket list, but I'm sure it's a whole different experience when you're there for work vs vacation.

Um, steak popcorn. Weird! (They probably meant BBQ, but it was also weird seeing the onion/bell pepper/carrots on the top!
Did you try any??

Stopped in this Coco area, where they had the puppet out interacting with guests and taking photos.
So pretty!! Coco is just so visually stunning, I love that they really got into it with this area.

Or others would go to the metro station, which didn't allow balloons on the trains; they would buy the balloons from people leaving the park and then go to the parking lot and resell them to people who drove in!
Okay this one is actually pretty clever...

This is someone’s pov I found on youtube (must have been a gopro harness)
Huh I wonder what the GoPro rules are, then. May have to look more into that.

But it was great fun and totally different.
Your recap totally changed my mind on this. From the basic descriptions I've found I wasn't sure what this would be like but OH MAN it looks so cool! Jon is going to absolutely love this.

This was for Trail 3, which has 2 options to shimmy around the inside wall and one to walk around the outside pathway.
That's so Indiana Jones. I love it.

More random headpiece photos! (I did end up getting one of these, but not until the next day – can you guess which one?)
All the cuteness!!! I'm so going home with those Gelatoni ears. I'm trying to remember if you shared on Insta which one you got.... was it the bunny ears??
 
The Camp Discovery Challenge Trails are so unique! What a fun experience to try out!

I love all those different hats and ears! The chip and dale one is my fave so I hope you got that one!
 

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