Made it to Shanghai!

You're that close and not going until Wednesday? I'd be losing my mind! I look forward to seeing your pics of it though. Have fun!
Ha! I immediately thought the same thing....would go bonkers waiting that long. Looks like you are filling the time with lots of other wonderful things though.
 
You're that close and not going until Wednesday? I'd be losing my mind! I look forward to seeing your pics of it though. Have fun!

I always like to save things like that till the end of the trip. It gives me something to look forward to and I know that the next day all I have to do is go home. Even though traveling is a lot of fun, there's also a little bit of stress associated with it -- finding where you'll stay, navigating new places, dealing with all sorts of people, good and bad.
 
Please, please, please be sure to share anything you can about the tips, if you used them, and how it worked out.

Here are a few I can remember:
If the park opens at 9:00 (as it will when I go next Weds), arrive as early as possible, as they often let people stream in early.

ALL Fast Passes typically run out by noon. Use them as much as possible up until that point.

Generally, it's always crowded and people push, shove and don't especially respect lines.

Catch the Pirates show as well as the show in front of the castle.

He gave me a park map. I'll post a if later. Not always so easy from here.
 
Here are a few I can remember:
If the park opens at 9:00 (as it will when I go next Weds), arrive as early as possible, as they often let people stream in early.

ALL Fast Passes typically run out by noon. Use them as much as possible up until that point.

Generally, it's always crowded and people push, shove and don't especially respect lines.

Catch the Pirates show as well as the show in front of the castle.

He gave me a park map. I'll post a if later. Not always so easy from here.


Have enjoyed your posts WonkaKid, especially the Shanghai pics. When we were there a couple of weeks ago we only did Disneyland so the photos around the city are great to see. Glad your trip is going so well for you and you're feeling completely well and having a great time.

To comment / add to your tips:

We only used the hotel guest entry in DisneyTown in the morning so can't comment on the main entry. They definitely let our entry in early, about 20-25mins, they advertise this as an on-site perk. Not sure if they opened the main gates early but there was virtually no-one in the park when we entered. They had a rope drop just down the way from the entry point and they let people through there 10-15mins before park opening - you could then go anywhere in the park. You can then head to the attractions but they don't start them till right on opening time: 8am or 9am, but you can line up ready.
We only used the main entrance one time at night and it was a little confusing where to go, given there were no crowds lined up. There was tons and tons of the metal barricades and we had to keep going way, way over to find where to get to the entrance point. It's probably simpler in the morning because people would actually be lined up in those barricades so you would just follow the crowd into the line.

Fastpasses do run out quick - today it looks like they're all gone before 11am and wait times are through the roof - a lot busier than it's been the last couple of weeks. Crossing my fingers for you that it quietens down during the week. FP's have generally been going first for Soaring, then 7 Dwarfs, then WtP / Roaring Rapids / Tron / Peter Pan etc..

We didn't experience any real pushing to speak of. A few people did it when we were waiting at the entry and they shoved through, usually only a single person though so maybe they did have their group ahead. It's different than Anaheim because they have the barricades for the lines and it is very hard to be able to join someone up ahead as opposed to Anaheim where you can easily walk up and join a group in front. Even their fellow countrymen were definitely not impressed with the shoving through though.

We really didn't experience it in the ride queues. More a case of no personal space. They will stand in line behind you about an inch from your back.
If you are staying for the fireworks that's where you have to, dare I say it - aggressively - hold your spot. If there is literally a couple of inches of space they will think nothing of shoving through into it. We got a spot in a raised area on a railing which was great but we still had to press ourselves firmly against the railing to stop people trying to push through.

Both the shows you mentioned were worth watching. The one I'd read was the 'best' worth seeing was Tarzan - not sure how many shows you can fit in if only there for one day though. I am not a 'show' person but we actually enjoyed all of them. They are of course in Mandarin but we found that ok.
The Pirates show has a 'pre-show' bit which goes for ~10mins in an outer room. You know - pirates etc... running around in a type of skit. Being in Mandarin we couldn't understand a word of it but could sort of follow along and understand a bit of it from the crowd's reactions.

My tips to anyone going would be: study the app. We were going on a weekend so I studied the wait times over 2 - 3 weekends near our visit and was able to come up with a plan to follow and it worked well. As mentioned, there is not a lot of current info out there, most reports are from 2016, but taking the tips I got from reading those reports and then studying the app for wait times etc.. we had a great experience.

If you are a fan of Blue Bayou at Disneyland there is a similar type experience at Shanghai but nowhere near as expensive. It is a counter service restaurant near Pirates of the Caribbean called Barbossa's Bounty - you can get ribs, roast chicken, lamb chops etc.. and you can get a table inside and see the boats going past on the ride.

We did the character meal at the Royal Banquet Hall and this was great. We were done in an hour but we only had 2 courses, you can choose to have 3 courses. Most reports say to allow 90mins for the meal. The characters (Mickey, Donald & Daffy) will keep coming through but they do only call on your table once, when they come through again they are only stopping at the tables of the newly arrived guests. You also meet Minnie on arrival and have a photo but we didn't see her in the restaurant.

If you are going you would want to try and do everything but the absolute not to miss would be: Tron, Toy Story Land when it opens at the end of April, Seven Dwarfs and definitely don't miss Pirates of the Caribbean - it is done very differently to the other parks. Pirates would definitely be my #1 : DO NOT MISS.
The Rapids ride is a lot milder than the US one and you really do not get wet so a poncho is not necessary. There are free lockers near the entrance that you can put your bag or anything else in to keep secure whilst you are on the ride which is great.
Lockers at other locations are charged for. You can't take anything on Tron with you. I was too cheap to pay for a locker. When you get on the ride they have a cart that everyone puts their bags etc... in. This is then waiting when you get off the ride. I put my bag in here containing passports / money etc.. and it was fine. Obviously this could go wrong - it's not in any way secure so you are doing it at your own risk. I jumped off the ride quickly at the end so I was usually one of the first to grab my bag but everyone just reaches into the cart and grabs their stuff so I can see how something 'could' go awry.

***MAKE SURE YOU TAKE YOUR PASSPORT TO THE PARK - YOU NEED IT TO GET ADMITTED***
I think you only need to show it the first time you enter the park - if you are re-entering later in the day or for a 2nd day you don't show it again but I kept ours on us just in case. I had read a review about a family of Westerners who didn't have theirs and they had to go back to the hotel to get the passports. With the language barrier it was hard for them to understand what the issue was apparently but anyone entering the park has to show government ID.
 


@WonkaKid and @BecAus - THANK YOU!!! That is all such great info!

@BecAus, did you use your phone to make FPs or did you just opt for paper FPs?

I used my phone. I think the wifi was pretty good in the park, better than Anaheim was anyway, but I had a overseas plan on my phone too. My telco only charged $10/day so it was very reasonable.

I didn’t pay a lot of attention but I think their FP distribution is at a central location in each land, rather than at each attraction that offers it - there are 7 FP attractions + Pirates which only has FP if you purchase the Premier FP option. It did have a single rider option though, not sure if it is open all the time.

Shanghai Disneyland is very spaced out so we tried to work our way around in a loop (and time our FP’s to fit with that) rather than cris cross back and forth across the park - being able to make FP selections on my phone and check wait times was great.
 


Had a great, non-stop day today. Spent a lot of time with a wonderful girl from Germany (she has a bf :-(). She's beautiful, smart and kind -- all that anyone could ask for. She's spending something like nine weeks here.

Something I said to her today was that many of my friends often say I'm very well-traveled. Perhaps I am -- I've been to 30 countries so far, several more than once. But once you get on the road, you start to meet people who really travel: 60, 80, even 100 countries. It's often humbling to meet such travelers. Indeed, I once met a guy in Peru who was walking from the southern tip of Argentina to Alaska over three years. That was seriously serious ;-).

It's cherry blossom season here in Shanghai. I've attached a few pics.

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My street at night.
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Had a great, non-stop day today. Spent a lot of time with a wonderful girl from Germany (she has a bf :-(). She's beautiful, smart and kind -- all that anyone could ask for. She's spending something like nine weeks here.

Something I said to her today was that many of my friends often say I'm very well-traveled. Perhaps I am -- I've been to 30 countries so far, several more than once. But once you get on the road, you start to meet people who really travel: 60, 80, even 100 countries. It's often humbling to meet such travelers. Indeed, I once met a guy in Peru who was walking from the southern tip of Argentina to Alaska over three years. That was seriously serious ;-).

It's cherry blossom season here in Shanghai. I've attached a few pics.

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My street at night.
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Please tell me that is not a lima bean popsicle...
 
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We didn't experience any real pushing to speak of.

We really didn't experience it in the ride queues.

We read a lot about pushing and line cutting before we went and still see a lot of people say that - we didn't see it. We were there on a sold out day and never got shoved. Even on the jam packed metro and when a crowd was trying to knock down a gate to get out of the Metro faster.

We only got line jumped one time. We weren't paying attention and the line advanced in front of us. The people behind us walked past us and filled the space. It wasn't a big deal.

Not saying that those things don't happen, just be aware that they could happen, and you'll be fine.

The Rapids ride is a lot milder than the US one and you really do not get wet so a poncho is not necessary. There are free lockers near the entrance that you can put your bag or anything else in to keep secure whilst you are on the ride which is great.

I got soaked on that ride. So did a small girl sitting a few seats away from me. She got it first and she and her friend laughed about it - and we kind of laughed at them. Later in the ride, a big wave came through the opening next to me and got me soaked. The two girls pointed and laughed at me lol.

There were no falls that you go under, but if the raft spins the wrong way at the wrong time, you can get wet.

We were there last summer and didn't see any lockers for that ride, either we missed them or they are new.

Lockers at other locations are charged for. You can't take anything on Tron with you. I was too cheap to pay for a locker.
The lockers for Tron were free when we were there. There were two different banks: one that used a touchscreen to reserve the locker (like Universal Orlando, if you are familiar), and one that you had to use a coin to open the locker and get the key. When you returned to get your stuff, it gave you back your coin.

ETA: Even if it didn't give the coin back, it was 1 Yuan - or about 16 cents US. Just make sure to have some coins with you.

The touchscreen locker area was, like at Universal, crazy.
 
I got soaked on that ride. So did a small girl sitting a few seats away from me. She got it first and she and her friend laughed about it - and we kind of laughed at them. Later in the ride, a big wave came through the opening next to me and got me soaked. The two girls pointed and laughed at me lol.

There were no falls that you go under, but if the raft spins the wrong way at the wrong time, you can get wet.

We were there last summer and didn't see any lockers for that ride, either we missed them or they are new.


The lockers for Tron were free when we were there. There were two different banks: one that used a touchscreen to reserve the locker (like Universal Orlando, if you are familiar), and one that you had to use a coin to open the locker and get the key. When you returned to get your stuff, it gave you back your coin.

ETA: Even if it didn't give the coin back, it was 1 Yuan - or about 16 cents US. Just make sure to have some coins with you.

The touchscreen locker area was, like at Universal, crazy.

Good to note the difference experiences. We saw no-one get more than a few drops of water on them that day when we were at the ride and exit - I just assumed it had been designed differently. I'd gone all out with a change of clothes on, flip flops and a poncho and afterwards thought 'that turned out to be unnecessary'.
I sat on a bench near the exit there for quite a long time afterwards too people-watching whilst waiting for my son to come back from an attraction he had gone off too.
Good for people to note that it may not be the case for them. They were selling poncho's in the line - 10Yuan I think they were.
The lockers at the Rapids were around to the left from the entry. It was only a very small bank of them and I must have seen a sign to head that way otherwise I wouldn't have known they were there (you do actually walk past them when you exit the ride)

Perhaps there were some free lockers at Tron but we didn't see them. There are banks and banks of lockers there. The one I looked at definitely wasn't 1 Yuan because I wouldn't have baulked at that. I can't remember the amount it wanted now but it was a fair bit and I didn't want to pay that just to go on the ride. Mind you, paying whatever it was would be less hassle than possibly losing all your cash and passports : )
 
I love the narrow alleys and the little restaurant! Thanks for posting so many pictures!
 
A few pics from today's adventures. About the first one: it's relatively common for Westerners to be asked for photos (or at least it's happened to me several times). I often deem it polite to reciprocte. The third pic from the bottom is from the Shanghai DL map.

I'll go to the acrobatic circus tomorrow night. Wednesday is the big Disney day that I've been waiting for since the park opened ;-). The moment I set foot inside the gate, I can then say that I've been to all of the parks once again :-).

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I love the narrow alleys and the little restaurant! Thanks for posting so many pictures!

I love 'em too! Glad you enjoy the pics. Facebook is blocked here (as are Google, YouTube andante other useful sites) so it's nice to be able to post pics where they're appreciated :-).
 
What are the two pics at the bottom of...? It looks like a restaurant maybe?

I think it's a tea house -- I didn't go in. It's kind of at the center of a shopping area near my hostel. I don't recall the name off hand, but certainly I can get it for you if you like.
 
Its a pea-flavored popsicle.... Of course it wasn't good! They are peas. Peas aren't supposed to be a popsicle flavor! Eeeewwww! :crazy2: LOL
Ha! Agreed. But on the other side of the coin, they sell enough to keep them in business so somebody/enough people must like them.
 

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