Crowd Culture in Shanghai Disneyland

[GusIsaFoxhound]

Have you reported about your time in China as well? I'd like to hear what you saw/did, as well as your Disney visit.

 

[Dentam]

Have you reported about your time in China as well? I'd like to hear what you saw/did, as well as your Disney visit.

I haven't... didn't know if anyone here would be interested. I've been posting pics on Facebook though and if you're interested I can add you on fb. I'm just now feeling like I'm recovering from jet lag! The time difference is 14 hours for me - I had no troubles adjusting when I got there but coming back has been a totally different story!

 

[GusIsaFoxhound]

we are only 3 hours ahead- DH suffers from jet lag badly, going both ways, so last time the 3 hours was really good. It meant we were up for early breakfast and ready to go by 8am, easily!
How can we connect on FB? I use DH's FB- it doesn't do much for me, really. Too much of a dinosaur, I suppose!

 

[Dentam]

How can we connect on FB? I use DH's FB- it doesn't do much for me, really. Too much of a dinosaur, I suppose!

I sent you a pm.

 

[hasabigrock]

I'm going to SDL next month, over the weekend, by myself. Honestly, I'm what I'm hearing is anything goes, and I'm okay with that. Plus I won't have my wife with me to be my Jiminy Cricket so... Let's go!

If they want to stand close to this stinky, sweaty (actually very sweaty) middle aged white guy I really don't care. Plus I'll bring my Disney touring skills and run with the locals. Looking forward to it.

 

[Dentam]

If they want to stand close to this stinky, sweaty (actually very sweaty) middle aged white guy I really don't care. Plus I'll bring my Disney touring skills and run with the locals. Looking forward to it.

Oh, they won't just stand close, they'll slip on by you! Have a great trip!!

 

[kidd_freeper]

I'm going to SDL next month, over the weekend, by myself. Honestly, I'm what I'm hearing is anything goes, and I'm okay with that. Plus I won't have my wife with me to be my Jiminy Cricket so... Let's go!

If they want to stand close to this stinky, sweaty (actually very sweaty) middle aged white guy I really don't care. Plus I'll bring my Disney touring skills and run with the locals. Looking forward to it.

Advantage: You can go in the single rider lines. The single rider lines are a lot more comfortable (not as packed together and no one will cut you to join their family). At Pirates, you have to ask for it, but it is way better than standby. At TRON the single rider line was twice the posted wait time, but it was still shorter than standby.
Disadvantage: As a single person it will be easier for them get by you in a standby line. My recommendation: strike a balance between the rudeness that is part of the culture and trying to maintain order. If they are trying to rejoin family, bite your tongue and let them. If others try to cut you, stand in their way. If they succeed, bite your tongue and try not to let it ruin your day.

 

[zanzibar138]

Advantage: Go in the single rider lines. At Pirates, you have to ask for it, but it is way better. At TRON the singe rider line was twice the poste wait time, but it was still shorter tan standby.
Disadvantage: As a single person it will be easier for them get by you in line. My recommendation: strike a balance between the rudeness that is part of the culture and trying to maintain order. If they are trying to rejoin family, bite your tongue and let them. If they try to cut you, stand in their way. If they succeed, bite your tongue and try not to let it ruin your day.

Yes, agree wholeheartedly with all of the above

 

[Pacolovestacos]

I mean should this be a shock to anyone? By and large, Chinese tourists are the absolute worst in the world. There are exceptions, as there are for almost everything, but the general consensus is that Chinese tourists are to be avoided. Unfortunately, when you're in China, that's going to be rather difficult. So you need to observe what the general norms are and adjust your own behavior. Survival of the fittest here.

 

[Dentam]

The Chinese we met were the absolute nicest people I have met in any of my travels. Yes, they have different behaviors when it comes to lining up, etc but all in all I was so impressed with their kindness and eagerness to help us.

 

[califlorican]

I mean should this be a shock to anyone? By and large, Chinese tourists are the absolute worst in the world. There are exceptions, as there are for almost everything, but the general consensus is that Chinese tourists are to be avoided. Unfortunately, when you're in China, that's going to be rather difficult. So you need to observe what the general norms are and adjust your own behavior. Survival of the fittest here.

I live in San Francisco, where we have many Chinese tourists, and the majority of them are very nice and very friendly. The rude ones are the exception, not the rule. They have a different culture with behavior we Americans/Westerners find not normal. Posting a random video that has nothing to do with Disney at all is weird, and generalizing over a billion people into one group (being the "absolute worst in the world") is ridiculous.

 

[GusIsaFoxhound]

Just back yesterday, and will report later, but just adding to this for anyone needing information now. We were there 3 days ago. The park was spotless, the CMs were cheery, and there was very little rudeness in shoving or such, just a few. Of course, you will notice the bad behaviour of one more than the normal behaviour of 100. So, in general, it was fine. I did some 'polite pushing' myself, just to keep my fair place in line, but it wasn't necessary much. I also think it was the older people more likely, and I agree with a previous post that they are probably conditioned to it from fighting for survival, so to speak. Heaps and heaps of nice, friendly, polite people.

 

[Dentam]

Welcome back, @GusIsaFoxhound! Can't wait to hear all about your trip!

 

[GabBeFit]

This was unfortunately our experience last week as well. Lots of garbage left after the fireworks show and even in some lines - for example it was piled up everywhere in the Peter Pan line around the character sculptures. The line cutting was also BAD and made us not want to stand in any long lines after our 90 minute wait for Peter Pan. They have it printed on the guide map that line cutting is not allowed, but they need more CM's to enforce this. We managed to have a great time though and did find that most everyone was happy and friendly. They just have very different behaviors that they consider to be normal I guess... However, I will note that our hosts in Shanghai were surprised we wanted to go to SDL and warned us about the crowds and lines. They had no desire to join us! We also did not really experience these behaviors during the rest of our trip, and we were in lines at three train stations (Yangzhou, Nanjing, and Beijing) as well as the Shanghai airport, etc. We did see people relieving themselves outside though, and I'm happy to say we did not see that in SDL.

We were at SHDL last week... we were very happy with how the cast members handled line cutting, they were very on top of it!! When we were there though the lines were not very terrible. Got on Peter Pan in 5 minutes the first time, Mine Train in 10 minutes. It was great. Even tron we never waited more than 15 for. Roarn' Rapids and Soarn' however were very very long!! Everyone ran to get fast passes for these rides as soon as rope drop happened. It was CRAZY! Day 2 for us was a little busier, but Pirates never had longer than a 20 min line. It was fantastic. The pushing and crowding of personal space was more of an issue for us. We had to tell people to back off frequently, or to get their umbrellas or phones out of our faces.

3 times we witnessed peeing in the park... once on the side of soarin'.. once directly in front of us in the middle of the entrance into the Alice in Wonderland Maze (like legit had to stop walking because the mom was holding her daughter up in the middle of the entrance and everyone had to walk over her puddle to enter after this), and then one very unfortunate time we took a picture in front of the castle and noticed afterwards there is a little boy patless peeing in our picture.... I hope Disney can find a way to fix this.

As for garbage... The only time we really noticed it badly was right after Ignite the Dream. There was garbage everywhere, but everyone was in one area all at once.

 

[GusIsaFoxhound]

China needs to ban the split-pants for toddlers! I didn't see any of it when we were at Disney, in fact, only once while in China (DH suggested not licking the grass over there!) Once again, I think it will partly die out as the next generation becomes more Westernized (not always good, but this time, maybe). And I'm sorry, as it sounds very prejudiced, but the locals going to a place like Disney are more likely to be a bit Westernized already. I saw nappies showing on lots of toddlers, good for the park, but then it gets me wondering about all the land fill if they all started on disposables instead...........not an easy solution for a difficult subject.
Drastically, it might work if Disney put up a sign saying anyone seen doing it will be banished from the park- harsh, but surely this is one thing that needs to be controlled.
I wondered how difficult it must be to stop the kids from doing it once they're conditioned to it.

 

[distravel]

We spent two weekend days in Shanghai Disneyland after our October ABD tour ended. The people were lovely.The lines were the same as in the USA. I did not have to stand abnormally close to anyone and only one time did a father go past us to catch up to his family. The park was beautiful and very clean. I did not notice any garbage on the ground at all. We actually just got back from WDW for the Wine and Dine festival where the crowds were heavier and the lines were longer than what we experienced in Shanghai. I do think the Shanghai DL needs more rides to absorb their crowds. They are already adding Toy Story Land so that will help.

 

[BelleBway]

Spent 3 days solo at SDR last week and was very relieved not to see the prevalence of the line cutting, trash etc that had been described. Sure, there were a couple isolated incidents- but nothing widespread.

I actually visited all 3 Asian parks (I'd been to the others before) and felt that the Shanghai experience compared favorably to the others. Cast members were fantastic- I somehow lost a 2 day ticket on the first day of use and they did a great job of handling that problem (there was a minorecall point of confusion, but it all worked out)