Asia on a whim ... 'Cause, why not?

rgnok

Earning My Ears
Joined
Mar 19, 2010
Was planning on going to DLR California at Thanksgiving again this year, but just decided on a bit of a whim .... hey, why go to California when we could go to China :)

So as of yesterday we're all booked now to do Shanghai (2 park days) and Tokyo (3 park days) for our Thanksgiving trip!!

Let the countdown begin! :mickeyjum
 
We're back and had a WONDERFUL time (naturally) ... We loved both parks and, other than crowds in Tokyo (more noticeable in Land than Sea), didn't experience any of the negatives some people report.

We flew from Dallas non-stop to Shanghai; with Shanghai as our only stop in China, and heading on to Tokyo from there, we traveled on the 144 hour transit visa/visa waiver, which worked without a hitch! We took a RMB 115 (under $20 US) taxi from the airport to the resort (Disneyland Hotel), perhaps a 20 minute ride.

In 2 park days at Shanghai -- crowds were non-existent. We entered the park more than 30 minutes after opening, and left the park 30 - 40 minutes before closing both days -- longest posted wait time for any ride we went on was 20 minutes (Seven Dwarfs, once). We rode every ride we had any interest in riding. Rode Tron 6 times, Pirates 5 times, and Seven Dwarfs 3 times. Voyage to the Crystal Grotto twice, Peter Pan twice, we also rode Soaring, Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Jet Packs, and took a cold wet cruise on Roaring Rapids. We ate at the Royal Banquet Hall and Lumiere's Kitchen without reservations, and without waiting, also ate at Wandering Moon Teahouse, and Stargazer Grill, plus Ballet Café and Cheesecake Factory, plus ordered dinner from room service (Disneyland Hotel) one night.

We got a few fast passes in Shanghai but never used them, as there was never enough of a line to bother with. Better to keep them as souvenirs.

Lots of drizzle during our 2 parks days in Shanghai, with daylight temps low to mid/upper 40's (f) and after dark in the park (about 2 hours from 16:30 - 18:30) dropping into high 30's. One stretch on day 2 of what I'd actually consider "rain" that lasted for about 90 minutes, but didn't dampen our fun one bit.

We saw one small child urinating against a tree in the park with his mother helping him, and one taxi driver doing the same along the side of the highway. That's all. We saw almost no trash, and far fewer pushy people than we typically see in DLR California. And no actual line cutters.

Left resort to arrive at the airport about 3 hours before our Japan Airlines flight from Shanghai to Tokyo ... through a quick "mini" security point at the door of the airport terminal, then to the check-in counter. We arrived at check-in counter about 20 minutes before they opened up for our flight, and we first in line. This was good since we encountered the closest thing to a problem on our entire trip at this point. There were 4 of us, but JL only had tickets for 3 of us (all flights -- Dallas to Shanghai, Shanghai to Tokyo, Tokyo to Dallas -- were booked on a single itinerary on American Airlines, though only the 2 LONG flights were actually on American operated planes). This took about 15 minutes and 3 airline employees to resolve, and had my 13 year old daughter tearing up a bit (she was the one they couldn't find a ticket for), though I repeatedly assured her no one was leaving her in China!!!!! Once they found the ticket and we completed check-in, it was on to passport control / customs, and the real security line. From that point, it was heavily crowded and took us about 85 minutes to get through to the other side. By then, we had about 40 minutes 'till our flight -- grabbed a couple of final China souvenirs and a light lunch at Starbucks and waited.

Three hours and one JL lunch later and we were in Tokyo.

Since TDR has been around so long and there is so much written and talked about on it, I won't go into much detail here -- we took the limo bus from the airport to resort, arrived at our hotel around 6PM and got checked in. Much larger crowds than Shanghai, but not unexpected. We are usually at DLR California on Thanksgiving weekend and found crowd to be very comparable in our judgement. We had 4 day tickets here. Still didn't enter the parks until at least 30 minutes after open, though in Tokyo we did stay 'till 22:00 closing time on 3 of our 4 days. We used fast passes just a few times, and we rode everything we wanted to ride in both parks, though we didn't REPEAT many rides. We did ride Raging Spirits twice. Waited 70 minutes for Journey (posted wait time was 90 minutes), and waited 55 minutes for Raging Spirits once (FP for the 2nd time).

Similar weather as Shanghai, about 5 degrees warmer during daylight, seemed cooler at night, but "night" stretched out several more hours for us in Tokyo compared to Shanghai.

My daughter and I fell hard for the chicken salad crepes at Café Orleans and were so disappointed on our last night when we reached the door for what was to be our last ones 10 minutes after they closed!! But if that was our biggest disappointment, I can't complain!

Four great days at TDR, back on the limo bus for the airport, and a short 10.25 hour plane ride and we were back in Dallas!

Great trip!!
 


What days did you visit Shanghai Disneyland. I presume you visited on weekdays due to the low crowds, but I was just curious as to which days you actually went to the park.

And did you find the Royal Banquet Hall to be good value for money?
 
What days did you visit Shanghai Disneyland. I presume you visited on weekdays due to the low crowds, but I was just curious as to which days you actually went to the park.

Yes, weekdays, specifically, we were in the park on Tuesday & Wednesday.

And did you find the Royal Banquet Hall to be good value for money?

Well, naturally everything is relative, and I couch everything in terms of "As Disney goes....". That said, A) We thought everything in Shanghai was so inexpensive, it is hard to consider anything to not have been good value; and B) We thought RBH was good value compared to places like Goofy's Kitchen and Storyteller's Café at DLR California and it will make our "every visit" list, though something about that 8,000 mile flight tells me we won't be making a lot of visits!
 


Hello fellow Texan! :wave2:
My daughter and I were st TDR on Thanksgiving and Black Friday too. Maybe we passed by somewhere!

I have heard that local people are not visiting the Shanghai park, because they assume it is too crowded and expensive. It seems that is true!
But the 85 min for the airport security line sounds crazy...I wonder if that is normal at Shanghai airport.
 

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