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

[Steppesister]

WOW! The parades both of them look so fantastic. I'm generally not a parade person except MSEP, but those sure look colorful and full of energy.

Tomorrowland at night is over the top! Holy smokes! Very futuristic and colorful at the same time.

 

[missangelalexis]

I love the pumpkin carvings with Duffy & his friends!

Great nighttime pics! And Donald’s Halloween Treat Calvacade looks so cute!

 

[missjackiemcg]

I am SO excited for Tron to open at WDW!! I hope it's exactly like this

Cute little parade for sure! I'd love to get to WDW (or any Disney park really!) for Halloween!!

 

[franandaj]

Bummer on the family style restaurant scene. I guess Fran and I wont plan on eating there either unless we have someone traveling with us.

That chicken thing you ate sounded weird. I suppose if I go there I'll need to do advance research on food options. Maybe even try some in Chinatown here.

Your Photopass pictures were cute.

Tomorrowland at night is awesome! I like the nice mix of villains in the parade. Cracks me up how much they love their Duffy and Shellie May!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Wow Tomorrow Land is amazing at night!
I love all your pictures
The Halloween decorations are really cool. I love the Vampire Mickey!
Which was the pork bun, the long one or little one? Sorry the other one wasn’t good. I think eating would be difficult there. I have heard the meat like chicken, beef, and pork taste different since the animals eat a different diet.

Tomorrowland was really just spectacular! And I liked the parade - still simple but has promise!

The Pork Bun I liked was the smaller circular one. It was pretty full of meat and I liked it. I guess I didn't really notice significant differences with the meat itself but there was always a bunch of sauce covering it.

So cool! Love your night pictures. I'm so excited for Tron at WDW, I hope they do it justice.

So do I! I hope they are able to get it to work well with the existing Tomorrowland.

I had not. Wasn't even on my radar so I'll have to check that out


Wow, that is really cool. I can see what this was the highlight of the parade


Are you doing the YMCA in Shanghai Leslie. Silly American


I have zero idea what this is but it looks absolutely revolting! Glad you didn't try this


Gorgeous. It's amazing to see a Tomorrowland that actually looks like Tomorrowland and not yesterday land

Haha, YMCA! And yes, it really did feel futuristic!

I love all the Halloween decoration pictures especially the Mickey pumpkin lights!

How frustrating that they wouldn't seat you as a solo diner. Surely there were some parties of 2 they could pair you with??

Tomorrowland and especially Tron at night are amazing! I hope they do it justice in MK!

Yeah, the pumpkin lights were fun! It was annoying they wouldn't seat me, especially because there are large windows so you can see into it and it was nearly empty!

Tomorrowland was just amazing!

Tron lit up at night looks amazing! So incredible. And now I really hope the MK's version has that same look.

Same!

Tron is SO cool at night! I really hope MK is able to have the same thing and I really hope they structure the pathways over there to be as futuristic as they are in Shanghai. The multi levels really seem to add to the effect!

Yeah, it was cool with multi-levels!

It looks so amazing there. I watched you PP video and think it looks MUCH better than WDW. Do you think they'd ever change ours? I'm sure there would be a revolt if they tried, but dare I say, I might be happy if they did!

Your Tomorrowland nighttime pics are so cool. Tron looks amazing! I wonder if our will look as awesome!

I'll tell you what's NOT cool…that restaurant not allowing a single person to eat there

I don't know if they would ever really update Peter Pan at WDW. I hope so, but they probably wouldn't want to invest extra money into a ride which is already so popular! Typical WDW operations!

WOW! The parades both of them look so fantastic. I'm generally not a parade person except MSEP, but those sure look colorful and full of energy.

Tomorrowland at night is over the top! Holy smokes! Very futuristic and colorful at the same time.

It was cool just seeing new and different parades!

And yes, Tomorrowland at night was just great! And the background music made it feel transported!

I love the pumpkin carvings with Duffy & his friends!

Great nighttime pics! And Donald’s Halloween Treat Calvacade looks so cute!

All the pumpkins were adorable! And the parade was very cute!

I am SO excited for Tron to open at WDW!! I hope it's exactly like this

Cute little parade for sure! I'd love to get to WDW (or any Disney park really!) for Halloween!!

I can't wait for Tron! Halloween decorations are super fun in the parks, though I still feel Disneyland does it the best!

Bummer on the family style restaurant scene. I guess Fran and I wont plan on eating there either unless we have someone traveling with us.

That chicken thing you ate sounded weird. I suppose if I go there I'll need to do advance research on food options. Maybe even try some in Chinatown here.

Your Photopass pictures were cute.

Tomorrowland at night is awesome! I like the nice mix of villains in the parade. Cracks me up how much they love their Duffy and Shellie May!

Yeah, the whole dining thing was annoying. But you never know, they tend to make changes all of the time!

The bun was very weird. But it seems to be a pretty popular dish.

I fully went into the Duffy craze! Got a full-size Gelatoni, Cookie Ann, and Stella Lou! Plus sooo many keychains!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Part 11 – Yo Ho, oooOOOOooo oooOOOooo A Ghost Pirate Life for Me!


Map of park:

Before I start this last update for the first day, I'd like to see if anyone can guess how many steps I did this day? I'll give the answer at the bottom!

After the parade I had hoped to try and get a good Ignite the Dream spot, but unfortunately all of the railing spots were taken with everyone who ran over after the parade (or skipped it entirely). Based on reports from other people who had visited, I knew if I didn’t have a railing spot the crowds would possibly end up pushing me out of the way, so after some internal debate, I decided not to wait around all night for a sub-par spot.

Some castle shots (I think there was some sort of Halloween projections)

I was still hungry so I ended up stopping at Wandering Moon BBQ, which is basically skewers and a QS version of Wandering Moon restaurant.

I got the Teriyaki Chicken Skewer and BBQ Black Pepper Beef Skewer. It was ok. Not wonderful. Don’t know if I’d bother going back especially because there are lots of different options in the park.

​

 

[Lesley Wake]

Back to Adventure Isle…

Anyways, it was time for more special Halloween stuff! They had turned the pirate area into "Treasure Cove: A Trial of Darkness", so lots of spooky decorations, music, fog, and better, the actors dressed up and acting along.

I saw these guys (the pirate captain and his first mate) coming back after a break and ended up chasing them around the entire area before I finally caught up and grabbed a photo!

It was definitely fun and great atmosphere.​

 

[Lesley Wake]

More Adventure Isle at night

As I was leaving, a unique CM interaction. There were a group of (young women) CMs standing at the exit of Adventure Isle waving at guests. As I approached, they came running over and handed me a Pirates of the Caribbean sticker and one grabbed my hand to shake it. The other then pulled out a camera and took our photo. Um, ok! I told them thanks and good night!

Afterwards I headed back towards the center of the park to try and see Ignite the Dream. (I didn’t end up going on the carousel but it had gorgeous night lighting)

I decided, rather than find a crowded spot that I wouldn’t be able to see well, I would just hang in an uncrowded area of Mickey Avenue. Of course, still couldn’t escape shoulder kids, especially when the parents move right in front of me…

Someone even brought over a chair and was standing on it!

It started with a Malificient pre-show (the sequel came out around this time)

Anyways, I watched a bit of Ignite the Dream and just realized I was exhausted and didn’t want to bother dealing with the crowds leaving when the show ended. I just wasn’t into it, so I decided to head out.

For something new, I tried taking the boat (which just goes across the lake to the Disneyland Hotel and back), thinking it would be faster… not really, as the boat waited until it was basically full to go and most people take the buses. So, that is not exactly something I’d recommend either.

Back to the hotel, where I got cleaned up and crashed hard!

So, at the end of the day, here’s what I did!

Tron x3 – loved it!
Buzz x2 – loved it!
Soaring – Fine, but didn’t need to repeat
Pirates x2 – loved it!
Challenge trails – Loved!
7DMT – cute; not a huge priority to re-ride though
Winnie the Pooh – cute, again, not a big priority to re-ride
Peter Pan – loved it!
Voyage to the Crystal Grotto – loved it!
Woody’s Roundup – Cute, didn’t care about re-ride
Rex Racer – ok, but too slow of loading
Parade – very fun


26,708 steps! Wowza! And yes, my feet did feel like they were falling off, but yes, it was TOTALLY WORTH IT!

Coming up: Day 2 with a repeat of my favorite attractions!
​

 

[missangelalexis]

The CM pirate actors seemed really cool!

SO many steps!! But you got a lot done so for sure was worth it!!

 

[Lesley Wake]

The CM pirate actors seemed really cool!

SO many steps!! But you got a lot done so for sure was worth it!!

Yeah! They were pretty cool and all totally played it up! I ended up recognizing some of them as daytime actors in a show the next day.

It definitely is a crazy huge park with lots of walking! And that was without needing to hop everywhere to make specific timed FPs!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

The ghost pirate area looks amazing! I wish WDW got something like that!

 

[disneyAndi14]

You really did so many things this day and your steps show this!
I would love the ghost pirate area, very cool. I love the Pirates movies, well at least the first one!
Do you leave for your trip soon?
Is your mom going again or is this a solo one?

 

[Lesley Wake]

You really did so many things this day and your steps show this!
I would love the ghost pirate area, very cool. I love the Pirates movies, well at least the first one!
Do you leave for your trip soon?
Is your mom going again or is this a solo one?

I leave in 2 days! Eeepp! And just me this time! Well, some dismeets, but mostly solo!

 

[Lesley Wake]

The ghost pirate area looks amazing! I wish WDW got something like that!

I know - it would be so cool!

 

[buzzrelly]

Wow, those ghost pirates are super cool!

What a full day you had!

 

[missjackiemcg]

That ghostly stuff on Adventure Isle looked amazing! Love the CMs' costumes for sure.

Bummer that you were just not feeling into the show at the end of the night, but hardly can blame you after 26,000 steps!!!!! I was going to guess 20,000, so way off!!

Have so much fun on your trip in a couple days!!! I'm jealous, I'm about 50 days behind you!

 

[LeiaIsAPrincess2]

Very cool pirate area! I don't think I'd be able to stay for the show either, I'm exhausted just reading about your day!

 

[dolewhipdreams]

So, they wouldn’t take me as a solo diner.

Wow so weird! Is that how they are all the time or was it just during certain times?

Also it was filled with something I couldn’t identify.

Was it actual floss?

I wonder how they will incorporate all of this in Magic Kingdom, because it truly is an important part of the ride experience!

WOW so pretty! I love all those lights.

not really, as the boat waited until it was basically full to go and most people take the buses. So, that is not exactly something I’d recommend either.

Noted! (assuming I ever actually get to go to SDL hahaha)

I loved all your photos, the park is so cool and has so many neat details! And the pirate costumes were amazing!!

 

[amazingact21]

And I thought the live actors on Pirates was a nice Halloween touch....the ghost pirates actors definitely takes the theming to a whole new level!

I was going to guess 21,000 steps; you way exceeded that!

 

[TwoLittlePrincesses]

Wow on the step count!! I’m so surprised that you weren’t allowed to dine at the TS family style restaurant. If they only allow groups in 3,6 or 9 would they have also turned away my family of 4? So strange! Love your parade and nighttime Tron pics!