Travel Plans

[pamcakes82]

My husband and I are thinking about going to Shanghai Disney in 2018 for our anniversary. We are thinking about trying to do Shanghai and Tokyo or Hong Kong Disney. We have never been anywhere in Asia and are planning on staying for up to 2 weeks. Any recommendations for things not to miss or which parks to try and do? Is transportation difficult getting to/from the parks? We are pretty good at planning trips to Europe but this is a different animal. Is this something we can plan or should be find a tour company? Thanks so much for recommendations!

 

[Agent 86]

If you're limited to doing two parks, then I'd recommend Tokyo and Shanghai.

But, if you want an easy, low-stress option, then I'd replace one of those parks with Hong Kong which is much smaller, much quieter and where pretty much everything is in English. I'd really hesitate to replace Tokyo with Hong Kong though as Tokyo is an incredible park and well worth braving the crowds, minimal language barriers, etc.

I haven't been to Shanghai (yet), but Tokyo and Hong Kong are both easily accessible by train.

If you're normally plan your own holidays, then I don't see why you wouldn't be able to plan this one. Tripadvisor is a great resource.

 

[Feistygirl916]

We planned our Asia adventure on our own, and did perfectly fine. Start researching things now, so it's not all at once. I would agree with Agent 86, in that if you are only doing two parks, choose TDL and SHDL. If you are only doing SHDL for a few days, I might suggest starting there and flying from Shanghai into Tokyo, so you don't have to purchase the Chinese Visa

All of the Asia parks are amazing, but SHDL will blow you away with the newness and different attractions they have there.

Transportation was a little hectic at the Pudong airport, as no one spoke English (as to be expected) and we needed two cabs for our party of 4 (and six bags). The taxis are very small there, so pack light. I was a little freaked out after my BFF and her son took off in a cab a few minutes before us and we had no idea if they would end up at the same destination (Toy Story Hotel). We never saw their taxi on the roads, and ended up getting to the hotel before them... Little stressful in a foreign country, but at least we all made it safely! For HKDL, all 4 of us were crammed into ONE taxi, with 8 bags... The trunk held the 5-6 larger bags, and was bungie corded a few times to make sure they didn't fall out. That was an adventure as well! For TDL, we purchased roundtrip tickets on the Airport Limo bus right after we cleared immigration and the bus dropped us off directly at our hotel. That was the easiest thing for us, and it worked out well! We flew into Narita, and it took about an hour on the limo bus. It was a breeze to get the limo bus back the airport as well; the hotel front desk booked the times for us and all was done at check in.

 

[disney144]

Will you be doing non Disney things too? What are you hoping to see? What do you enjoy?

 

[katt789]

-We planned our 6 week Asia and all the Disney parks trip completely on our own

-If you have to choose 2, make sure Tokyo is on that list.
-I would consider time to be a deciding factor as well, you could easily do HKDL in one day, but SDL takes at LEAST 2 days.
-Hong Kong is small, but wonderful, VERY similar to DLR, and has some INCREDIBLE shows, and top notch rides that aren't anywhere else (Mystic Manor & Grizzly Gulch)
-Shanghai is HUGE, beautiful, new, with lots of stuff to do, it's definitely worth seeing.
-Tokyo should need about 4 days, but again, depends on your plans. It's my favorite Disney park from all around the world, hands down!

Transportation for Tokyo & Shanghai is SUPER easy, we were at AirBnB's for both of them and it worked perfectly. Tokyo has busses running from Kasai station, and trains running from all over. Shanghai has a train line that goes right to Disney as well, it took us less time from our Bnb to the park gate than it would to get to MK from All Stars, lol!!

HKDL however, you CAN get there on the metro but it's a bit trickier/takes longer, because of that we chose to stay on site, and really enjoyed it. The park does open later than expected though so you'd have more time from the city to Disney.

Were you planning on doing things outside of Disney as well?