One day at Shanghai Disney?

cschaaf

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 19, 2013
You may have seen some of my other posts about SH Disney... a quick summary.

My parents are taking my wife and I on a Viking River Cruise in China. The cruise starts in Shanghai. We planned on going early on our own and spending a few days at SH Disney.

Long story for another post, but when I tried to finalize those plans with Viking, all the fees and pricing changes made the plan ... well, not financially viable.

That leaves us with one last option to go to Disney - skip the first full day of the tour and sneak away to Disney. The first day tours are the Yuyan Gardens in the morning and an Acrobat Dinner Show at night.

Unfortunately, that day is July 5th, so just into the Peak season for pricing.

Things we really want to do
Tron, hopefully at least once in the day and once after dark
Pirates - hopefully more than once
Peter Pan
Challenge Trails
Buzz

Moderately interested in:
Roaring Rapids
Crystal Grotto
Once Upon a Time
Tarzan
Ignite the Dream
Captain Jack Stunt show

We can skip:
Soaring
Seven Dwarfs
Alice Maze
Both Pooh rides
Dumbo
Carousel
Character meets

We'll be staying in Shanghai, so I was thinking of taking an early taxi to Disney. I'm hoping to make it for rope drop.

One of my thoughts is to see how crowded it gets and maybe spring for the Premiere Access Set if the lines are too long to get done what we want. That would make it a pretty expensive day, though.

We're also willing to do single rider, though I've seen that it's pretty hit or miss if that line is open... and if it is, if it's being used to its full potential.

We live in south Georgia, so we are used to the heat and humidity, but would probably jump into the shows in the mid afternoon when it gets the most uncomfortable.

Am I insane for thinking this might work?
 
We are doing the exact same thing with our tour on 24 April. Granted, much slower season, but will let you know how it goes.
 
Mostly doable I think. However, at that time of year you may have issues riding Tron at night if you also want to see Ignite the Dream. The park generally seems to close with the start of the show (ie once the show starts they start to do a sweep of other lands and won't let you backtrack), and you won't have too much darkness to play with in the height of summer. Here's what I would plan on anyway.
  • Definitely get an early taxi to the park. Be there at least half an hour before rope drop.
  • Head straight to Adventure Isle and ride Roaring Rapids. If there is already a long ride, grab a FP
  • Go straight to the Challenge Trails and do that. It's worth doing early in the day as it is a slow moving queue, especially when you take into account the extra queue that builds for the lockers.
  • Keep going around the park to Pirates. Try single rider if you want, but it is a pretty fast moving queue.
  • Head over to Tomorrowland. Depending on wait times, either ride Tron or grab a FP
  • Ride Buzz. This is a quick moving queue that shouldn't be too long at any time of day.
  • If you haven't used any FPs yet, or you can get another, grab one for Peter Pan on your way back across to Treasure Isle.
  • Have lunch at Barbossa's and see your two shows.
  • See the parade if you like, and catch anything else with short wait times or some walkthrough attractions. It's very pleasant to explore the cave areas etc around the Challenge Trails when it's hot and crowded elsewhere. Once Upon a Time may be a good one for this time of day too. Keep an eye on FP return times for Tron and get one as soon as the timing looks right for night. You may have to look up sunset times.
  • As the sun sets and people start to ditch the rides in favour of getting a good spot for Ignite the Dream, use that time to ride Peter Pan, Voyage to the Crystal Grotto and Tron.
  • As you exit Tron and head around to the castle for Ignite the Dream, there is a spot near Dumbo that you might be able to still get a decent view from with minimal waiting time. I assume because Ignite the Dream isn't in your highest priorities, that you're ok with a less than perfect view in favour of experiencing other attractions.
Make sure that you download the Shanghai Disney Resort app on your phone and that you either plan to connect to the free wifi in the park (didn't always work for me) or that you have some other way of accessing the internet. This will allow you to keep an eye on things like wait times, FP return times and any unscheduled maintenance (Roaring Rapids, Pirates and Tron are all known for being out of action without warning fairly regularly) without having to waste too much time trudging around the park.

Hope that helps!
 
Mostly doable I think. However, at that time of year you may have issues riding Tron at night if you also want to see Ignite the Dream. The park generally seems to close with the start of the show (ie once the show starts they start to do a sweep of other lands and won't let you backtrack), and you won't have too much darkness to play with in the height of summer. Here's what I would plan on anyway.
  • Definitely get an early taxi to the park. Be there at least half an hour before rope drop.
  • Head straight to Adventure Isle and ride Roaring Rapids. If there is already a long ride, grab a FP
  • Go straight to the Challenge Trails and do that. It's worth doing early in the day as it is a slow moving queue, especially when you take into account the extra queue that builds for the lockers.
  • Keep going around the park to Pirates. Try single rider if you want, but it is a pretty fast moving queue.
  • Head over to Tomorrowland. Depending on wait times, either ride Tron or grab a FP
  • Ride Buzz. This is a quick moving queue that shouldn't be too long at any time of day.
  • If you haven't used any FPs yet, or you can get another, grab one for Peter Pan on your way back across to Treasure Isle.
  • Have lunch at Barbossa's and see your two shows.
  • See the parade if you like, and catch anything else with short wait times or some walkthrough attractions. It's very pleasant to explore the cave areas etc around the Challenge Trails when it's hot and crowded elsewhere. Once Upon a Time may be a good one for this time of day too. Keep an eye on FP return times for Tron and get one as soon as the timing looks right for night. You may have to look up sunset times.
  • As the sun sets and people start to ditch the rides in favour of getting a good spot for Ignite the Dream, use that time to ride Peter Pan, Voyage to the Crystal Grotto and Tron.
  • As you exit Tron and head around to the castle for Ignite the Dream, there is a spot near Dumbo that you might be able to still get a decent view from with minimal waiting time. I assume because Ignite the Dream isn't in your highest priorities, that you're ok with a less than perfect view in favour of experiencing other attractions.
Make sure that you download the Shanghai Disney Resort app on your phone and that you either plan to connect to the free wifi in the park (didn't always work for me) or that you have some other way of accessing the internet. This will allow you to keep an eye on things like wait times, FP return times and any unscheduled maintenance (Roaring Rapids, Pirates and Tron are all known for being out of action without warning fairly regularly) without having to waste too much time trudging around the park.

Hope that helps!
Wow! Great advice. Thank you!
 


No, you are not used to that kind of humidity. Savannah, Georgia has humidity that averages about 60 that time of year. In Shanghai it is 86. And remember, if you want to take a taxi anywhere, you will have to be able to communicate somehow with the cab driver. They will not speak Englsih and may not be able to read a map. So if you want to get back to your hotel by cab, bring a business card of the hotel with you. In lieu of a busimess card, learn how to pronounce the nearest interesection of your hotel. Telling a cab driver the name of the hotel will be of no help.
 
Instead of using a taxi, I'd recommend using the Metro - Line 11. The ride from the Hongqiao area is about an hour. From Peoples Square it was about 45 minutes. A taxi from almost anywhere in Shanghai might take over an hour. A 24 Hour Pass is 18 RMB (just under $3 USD) - if you buy one at the Disney Resort station, you can get a commemorative Disney fare card. A single ride point-to-point was 6 RMB (Just under $1 USD at current exchange rates). When I visited earlier this year, there wasn't really a true rope drop ceremony, the crowd basically swelled and they just started letting people in early, so that's something else to consider.
 
Instead of using a taxi, I'd recommend using the Metro - Line 11. The ride from the Hongqiao area is about an hour. From Peoples Square it was about 45 minutes. A taxi from almost anywhere in Shanghai might take over an hour. A 24 Hour Pass is 18 RMB (just under $3 USD) - if you buy one at the Disney Resort station, you can get a commemorative Disney fare card. A single ride point-to-point was 6 RMB (Just under $1 USD at current exchange rates). When I visited earlier this year, there wasn't really a true rope drop ceremony, the crowd basically swelled and they just started letting people in early, so that's something else to consider.

Unfortunately, we won't be staying close to Line 11. We'll be at the Westin Bund. We'd have to take Line 2 > Line 16 > Line 11. We're not too far from the East Nanjing Station.

From People's Square, did you take the 2 > 16 > 11 path?

Good info about the rope drop. We don't really care about a RD ceremony, just getting in as early as possible to have a step on the later-arriving crowds.
 


I did the 2-16-11. Once you get on to Line 11, beware the little old ladies walking the train trying to sell the knock-off Minnie Ears and park ponchos.

If you have some extra time, get off at Lujiazui on Line 2. It's the station for the Oriental Pearl Tower, but there's also the flagship Disney store their with their animatronic clock tower that puts on a show every hour. They also have some unique Disney Shanghai merchandise that's not available in the park.
 
I did the 2-16-11. Once you get on to Line 11, beware the little old ladies walking the train trying to sell the knock-off Minnie Ears and park ponchos.

If you have some extra time, get off at Lujiazui on Line 2. It's the station for the Oriental Pearl Tower, but there's also the flagship Disney store their with their animatronic clock tower that puts on a show every hour. They also have some unique Disney Shanghai merchandise that's not available in the park.

That gives us an interesting option. Looking at a Metro planner, it shows 53 minutes for the trip from East Nanjing to Disney. We'd add about 10 minutes to that for the trip from the hotel to the Nanjing station.

Google Maps shows a ~40 minute taxi ride from our hotel to Disney early in the morning. So time wise, they look pretty similar. Traffic could add to the taxi time; a missed connection could add to the train time.

The train is definitely less expensive by a factor of 10.

How hard is it to find the right transfer and in the right direction? Seems like the direction would be the hardest part.
 
I've found that you may have to arrange for a taxi with the hotel concierge to make sure you can get one if you decide to go that route. I've had some difficulty spontaneously trying to get a taxi when I've needed to get someplace. Traffic can be a real problem in Shanghai, with a one or two mile trip taking a half an hour or more.

The signs above in the Metro are in Chinese and English, and they have color coded arrows also on the ground to show the directions for the transfers at the individual stations. You will need to look at the signs over the tracks to make sure you have the right direction of travel. There are English announcements on the trains themselves and they regularly announce the terminus of the specific line you are on. But if you miss a train, another is along usually in less than five minutes.
 
I've found that you may have to arrange for a taxi with the hotel concierge to make sure you can get one if you decide to go that route. I've had some difficulty spontaneously trying to get a taxi when I've needed to get someplace. Traffic can be a real problem in Shanghai, with a one or two mile trip taking a half an hour or more.

The signs above in the Metro are in Chinese and English, and they have color coded arrows also on the ground to show the directions for the transfers at the individual stations. You will need to look at the signs over the tracks to make sure you have the right direction of travel. There are English announcements on the trains themselves and they regularly announce the terminus of the specific line you are on. But if you miss a train, another is along usually in less than five minutes.

Thank you very much!

We're still trying to decide if the quick side trip will be worth it.
 
We were just there third week of April and it was packed. I don't even think it was high season. It took over an hour to get through security and then through the ticket entrance. If you're looking for the usual Disney efficiency, forget it! Fast passes go VERY quickly. We were there two days and don't think we went on about 4 rides. If that had been my first ever Disney experience, I'd never do another Disney thing again!
 
How hard is it to find the right transfer and in the right direction? Seems like the direction would be the hardest part.

I didn't have any trouble finding my way around the stations. Just keep your eyes open for signs and maps.
 
Once you get on to Line 11, beware the little old ladies walking the train trying to sell the knock-off Minnie Ears and park ponchos.

And when you get off the bus at the park. And on the walk to the front of the park. And in the security line. And in the entrance line.

It was crazy how many hawkers there were! And despite a lot of people dressed like some kind of "security", they really didn't seem too interested in doing anything about all of the hawkers.
 
How hard is it to find the right transfer and in the right direction? Seems like the direction would be the hardest part.

We caught the train from the airport to Disneyland. The transfers weren't too difficult. The first line was actually two lines (which surprised us when the train started heading back towards the airport). The line was the same colour and number, but you're meant to transfer at a station mid-way. It was quite confusing as in any other country, they would be considered two separate lines. There was an English message which said something about it being a "terminal" station, but we thought it meant that it was some kind of transport hub (i.e. for the train AND bus). I think there was a translation error and the message meant to say that it was a "terminating" station (i.e. that the train terminated at that station).

One of our transfers was also quite confusing as there were two separate platforms which both appeared to have the same information and both appeared to be going in the same direction and both appeared to have people waiting. I think one was meant to be an "express" and one a "non-express", but we couldn't figure out the difference. The station we were going to was a stop for both versions, so we just chose a platform and hopped on the next train.

In hindsight, I wish we'd just taken a taxi from the airport (although that obviously also raises potential issues). I'm really surprised that Disney doesn't offer some kind of "official" bus service from the airport to the resort.
 
We were just there third week of April and it was packed. I don't even think it was high season. It took over an hour to get through security and then through the ticket entrance. If you're looking for the usual Disney efficiency, forget it! Fast passes go VERY quickly.

We were there on 26/27 April and I agree. The security line was woefully inefficient (especially as they didn't seem worried about preventing people with 50+ Minnie Ears, ponchos and other cheap, tacky items in their bags from entering). And the whole entrance process, particularly everyone sprinting to Soaring as soon as they were inside, was pretty crazy.
 
I think that's doable, though I'm not sure about the crowds in July. We found that roaring rapids in the evening had a very short line. I would save that for the night (we waited twenty minutes at 7pm).

Skip the jack sparrow show. It is a lot of dialogue and felt like a waste of our time. We couldn't tell what was going on, and the show was only about 30% stunts and the rest what appeared to be cheesy dialogue, but we couldn't tell.

The line for discovery trails is mostly for the lockers. When we were there, the locker line was 40 minutes and the ride line was 15 minutes. If you are trying to save time, have one member of your party hold the belongings while the rest does the course then trade.

Head straight to tomorrowland for tron. We rode tron twice and buzz once in the first hour. We waited about 15 minutes for buzz, but the rest of the time we found the wait was closer to 5 minutes!

Pirates hovered between 20-40 minutes all day.
 
We just got back from China and had just one day in the park. It was a Friday but crowds were still pretty sizeable. We took a cab direct from our hotel and arranged it the night before with the concierge. The cabs will take 4 max so our group needed 3 cabs. We considered taking transit but from our hotel we weregild it would have taken 1-1/2 and we'd have to transfer busses at one point. It was easier and less stressful just taking the taxi. We got there just after 9:00, made our way through the security and ticket lineups. If you are getting your tickets in advance you need to show your passport so make sure to bring those with you for them to scan.

We didn't rush around the park but managed to take in all your top rides (Pirates was AMAZING!!!) with the exception of Peter Pan which had too long of a wait and we didn't want to criss-cross the park for Fast Passes. Do not underestimate just how large the park grounds are - it was a lot of walking just to get from one land to another. I think my wife's FitBit registered somewhere around 26,000+ steps the day and we left around 6:00pm and didn't stay for the fireworks.

If you are going in July the heat and humidity will be intense. Even now in early May I found it to be very hot and felt drenched shortly after leaving our hotel. Make sure to stay hydrated as the park has little in the way of shade.

One tip with the Challenge Trails that I hadn't seen mentioned is that there are several different routes to take. I was waiting out front for our group to come down and across the rope bridge in front of the big waterfall to get some photos but they went right instead of left and ended up going a different path and never came by the waterfall. I had waited all that time they were in the cue for nothing!! So if you want a photo in front of the waterfall make sure you direct them to head in that direction.

All in all I was VERY impressed with SDL. It was quite clean with lots of cast members going around cleaning up any trash they saw. The food was ok but not great. I think if we were ever to go back we'd plan on 3 days to take it all in accounting for the crowds, amount of walking and old style Fast Passes but we were all glad we went even for the one day. There won't be too many people that can say they went to China and Disneyland in the same trip!
 
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Back with our one day report from April! Had a great time and totally worth doing. Big takeaways: much busier than we expected and even arriving well before opening, security and the ticket check took almost 50mins, so be sure to factor that into your time estimate (the walk from the parking lot ain't short either). Also check the park times as you get closer--when we bought the tickets, it listed as closing at 7PM but found out when we arrived they had extended the closing to 8PM. Like you, we debated the Premier Access Set, and ultimately went for it. So glad we did; made for a stress free day, and were able to see everything we wanted no worries; even squeezed in Soarin' which was originally low on our list but the kids loved. IF you decide to go that route, I can you give more specifics on some of the oddities on how the set works, but the big lesson learned is with the set, your first target should be Pirates, as it is the only major ride without a Fastpass. The wait time started low, but was listed as 45 mins when we hit, and we waited over an hour. If we did over,we would start there, then work our way around counterclockwise. (Other side note: Challenge Trail, the first line you'll see if for lockers ONLY, actual line is farther in).

One other thought for you: we were on a guided tour as well, stuck at an out of the way hotel, and was trying to figure out transportation. We found out once we got there the hotel offered a daily complementary shuttle to Disney! So I would contact your hotel concierge ahead of time, you never know what they offer.
 
Like you, we debated the Premier Access Set, and ultimately went for it. So glad we did; made for a stress free day, and were able to see everything we wanted no worries; even squeezed in Soarin' which was originally low on our list but the kids loved. IF you decide to go that route, I can you give more specifics on some of the oddities on how the set works, but the big lesson learned is with the set, your first target should be Pirates, as it is the only major ride without a Fastpass. The wait time started low, but was listed as 45 mins when we hit, and we waited over an hour. If we did over,we would start there, then work our way around counterclockwise. (Other side note: Challenge Trail, the first line you'll see if for lockers ONLY, actual line is farther in).

Yes, I want specifics and oddities! :)
I had never heard of it before, so I checked the website but not really sure what it is. It's like buying front-of-the-line access for one of the 7 rides listed? And I take the set inludes several or all of the list?
 

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