Author: puppetartg

Our trip home was….long. We decided to spring for one more night at The Disney Hollywood Hotel since our flight left at 12:50am and we just couldn’t imagine checking out of the hotel at 11am, spending a few more hot and humid hours in HK Disneyland, arriving at the Hong Kong Airport sweaty, sticky and exhausted. This was a terrific choice for us. Refreshed by a brief nap and a hot shower we got to the Hong Kong Airport in plenty of time for our flight to Haneda Airport in Tokyo on ANA airlines. The plane was an old (OLD!!) 767. What the plane lacked in youth the staff made up for in formality, kindness and brilliant service. 

We had a 9 and 1/2 hour layover in Tokyo. Oof.  Fortunately, we had access to the ANA/Star Alliance Business Class Lounge. 

Perhaps the best shower of the trip was in this lounge. Incredibly refreshing after no sleep on the plane ride here. If only they had yummy food, too. Oh, wait. They do.

They had a noodle bar in addition to some other really yummy food choices. We ate well. 

If you have to spend 9 1/2 hours waiting for your flight you could do a lot worse than sitting in a relatively uncrowded lounge with decently comfortable seats munching on good food. 

Our ride home was the same 787-900 we flew across the pacific in the exact same comfy seats. The shorter (bumpier) ride home got us into SFO an hour early. We flew through customs with our new Global Entry cards and were on the road home with Starbucks in hand by 9:45, home by 11:15am.

Lainey was well taken care of by Rachel but she was happy to have us home. 

Final Thoughts

This trip turned out better than I’d hoped. The order in which we visited the parks turned out to be just right for us, the hotels choices were perfect and we didn’t run into any real snags that weren’t easy to cope with. 

Both of us agreed we are interested in returning to Japan and Hong Kong for a non-Disney related trip. We also agreed that, after using the Japanese toilets, we wanted to install a bidet in our upstairs bathroom (which I ordered during our layover and installed this evening.)

Thinking of a trip to the Asian Disney’s? Here’s our advice. 

1. Visit them in this order: Tokyo, Shanghai, Hong Kong. 

2. It is a lovely splurge to stay at the MiraCosta Hotel and the early entry helped us hit rides more often but you can be far more budget friendly staying at a cheaper non-Disney option that is still on the efficient Monorail line. 

3. Give yourself a minimum of two days at TokyoSea, one day at Tokyo Disneyland, two days at Shanghai Disneyland and one day at Hong Kong Disneyland. If you can do one more day in each country it will allow you to feel a little less rushed. 

4. If you can, give yourself a dedicated travel day in between countries. 

5. Attempt to schedule your travel days on weekends when the parks are usually busiest. This worked well for us. We planned our travel so we only spent one weekend day in a park. 

6. If you are staying at a Disney property in Tokyo, find out which park attractions open early (early 15 minute bonus) and plan your mornings accordingly. 

7. Adjust expectations for Shanghai Disneyland. It’s a great park but it’s only a year old and it’s a unique culture so they are still trying to find that Disney magic you’ll find at other parks with their employees. See if you can leave your western sensibilities behind and embrace the experience.

8. In Hong Kong, you can find cheaper lodgings in the city.  If you’re on a tight budget staying in the city would work since the park opens later (10:30am when we were there) and there’s cheap taxis and trains that’ll take you right to the park entrance. We enjoyed the benefits of dedicated Entry lines and security checks for Disney Hotel Guests bit this probably only really saved us a 10-15 minutes. 

9. Do your research! Find out what and when the holidays are in each country and avoid visited on these dates! The parks will be incredibly crowded. Also, research the weather. We are lock into traveling in the Summer since Mike is a teacher. Summer in Asia can be hot and humid. If you can, find a more ideal weather season. 

10. Pack a duffle bag. We threw dirty clothes into the duffle along the way as we filled up our suitcase with gifts and souvenirs.

11. If you are a Disneyland/Disneyworld fan. Go. Just go. You’ll be glad you did.

Meanwhile, back in Hong Kong…

Rested and refreshed we returned to the park. We were determined to close out the place since it closed at 8:45pm and featured a fireworks show at closing time. It was time to do a few rides we hadn’t done yet like…

…It’s a Small World. Unlike Anaheim Small World this one lets you cue up inside in some high powered air conditioning. 

The ride is very similar to it’s Anaheim twin. 

Can anyone tell what these blue creatures are?

And why are the Tahiti dancers being burned? Mike and I made up a story that the are witches being burned at the stake.​

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Mike wanted to stroll through The Garden of Enchantment which is kind of like Storybook Canals on foot.

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​After doing A few repeat rides we ended up in The Main Street Cafe and had some terrific burgers as we waited for the abomination that is the Paint the Night Parade to pass. (We both just hate that stupid parade.)

Then it was time to scope out a good seat for the fireworks. We opted for a location close to the exit so we could beat the crowds out of the park. The fireworks were ok (nothing like the ones at home) and the fact that they projected stuff on their cute little castle was sweet. 

Day 12

Not much to add here. We pretty much did the same things at the park with the exception of seeing Mickey and the Wondrous Book show. Fun live show where Mickey and Goofy have to help Olaf find his way back to snow before he melts. Olaf was played by a fun puppet. 

We rode the Mine train one more time. Here’s a video of the full ride.​

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We also rode Mystic Manor reveal more times. Clearly our favorite at this park. Here’s a video of the pre-show before you get on the actual ride.​

​Cherie, our Jungle Cruise tour guide from the previous day, was hanging out and recognized us (probably since we gave her one of the gifts from California Disneyland) so we got a picture with her.

If anyone is planning on going to Hong Kong Disneyland staying at one of the resort hotels gives you the perk of using a sort of VIP security screening and entrance to the park. No wait to enter after 30-45 minute waits in Shanghai felt heavenly. Finally, here’s a bunch of videos of us just strolling through various parts of the park. Enjoy!

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As I’ve mentioned in a previous post we heard the way to do the trifecta of Asian Disney Parks is to start in Hong Kong then head to Shanghai and wrap things up in Tokyo. I couldn’t disagree more. Hong Kong Disneyland is a tiny, tiny little park. You could probably fit four or five of HK Disneylands into the space  Shanghai Disneyland takes up. This made HKDL super easy to navigate and made for Way less walking. Also, the park was not even close to being crowded.

Lack of crowds mean no waiting in lines for rides and no having to figure out a fastpass strategy. While we don’t have complete theme park burn out, I’m not sure we could enjoy a huge, super crowded park at the end of this epic trip. Short walks from one land to the next, little to no wait times for rides…this is the perfect park to end our trip.

 I’m sure the advice to do the Hong Kong, Shanghai, Tokyo order was to build from the least spectacular park to the most. There is some sense to the drama of that but while HK Disneyland is the least spectacular of the Disney’s we’ve visited it still really packs a punch.

HK Disneyland has seven lands. Toy Story Land, Mystic Point, Grizzly Gultch, Adventure Land, Main Street USA, Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land. The park hours are from 10:30am to 8:45pm though only a few rides open right at 10:30am. The outlying lands (Grizzly Gultch and Mystic Point) don’t open until 11am and then close around 7:45pm. We could find no rhyme or reason for the weird times but since he park was so empty we went on everything we wanted to multiple times. The longest wait we ever had was 15 minutes but most times we would pretty much just walk on a ride. 

We started the day in Adventure Land with The Jungle Cruise. They had three cues, one for Mandarin, one for Cantonese and one for English. ​​

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Our guide was lovely and we were able to give her one of the gifts we’d brought from California Disneyland. Her reaction to the gift was terrific.

From there we played a game of chance to try and win a prize. I won a cute Pirate Mickey.

By this time Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point were opened sonwe headed over to ride the Grizzly Gultch Runaway Mine Cars. 

This roller coaster is most like Thunder Mountain in Anaheim Disneyland. The story is (there’s always a story) bears have gotten into the mining shafts…

…and begin to cause problems. During the first hill you see a big Grizzly Bear scratching his behind on the device that switches the train from on track to another which, of course, hurdles you down a crazy curving track. As you climb the next hill you hear sounds of straining metal. That can’t be good…​

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You see a cable snap on one of the fly wheels pulling you up the hill and you go careening backwards through more twists and turns. Surely nothin else can go wrong as you back into the area where they store the dynamite…​​

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Unless some pesky momma bear and her cub are trying to reach a string of fish the prospectors have caught only to accidentally push the dynamite plunger…Kaboom!​

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The first two thirds of this coaster is pretty tame but once you get blasted out of the dynamite room the speed is pretty good and the curves get pretty intense. Fun ride!

Off to Mystic Point and to the ride that I’ve been most looking forward to at this park, Mystic Manor!!

Lord Henry Mystic and his monkey Albert have traveled the world collecting antiquities so that you can tour their manor and see their treasures. (Photos below are from the cue)Their most recent find is a music box that may or may not have magical powers. (Spoiler alert…it does.) Albert the Monkey is can’t keep his hands off the box and when he opens it…​

​​ ​This ride features trackless cars (like the Winnie the Pooh ride in Tokyo) called Magneto Electric Carriages which whip you around the manor tour. The animatronics of the Monkey (Albert was super cute), Lord Henry and the statues that come to life were fantastic. The illusions were terrific, too. There were three different paths you could take through the room of the manor depending on which carriage you were on.

We rode this three times today and saw something different each time. Bravo Mystic Manor! 

We were ready to try out HK version of Space Mountain so we began to head in that direction. The path took us through Toy Story Land so we hit a couple of the little rides there. The land is laid out as if the live toys have used the other items in Andy’s toy box to build a carnival in the back yard. 

We tried out the RC Racer first. It looks like it would be similar to one of those pirate ship rides you’d see at the fair where it swings back and forth so our expectations were low. It was much more fun than we thought since the top of the track curves back putting you not quite upside down, but close. ​

​We then tried the Toy Soldier Parachute Drop. Just like Jumpin’ Jellyfish at DCA, you sit under a parachute and the ride takes you up and down. Nothing too special here but pretty there were pretty views of the park at the top.

We made our way over to Tomorrow Land and hit Space Mountain, or Hyperspace Mountain as it is currently called since is has the Star Wars overlay. Have I mentioned yet how hot and humid it is? The low overnight was 81 degrees and the humidity hasn’t dropped below 75%. Every time we’d walk into a a ride cue the air conditioning was a blessing. 

Mike thought the ride track was identical to Anaheim Space Mountain, I thought the curves seemed tighter. We agreed that the Star Wars overlay worked better here. 

While in Tomorrow Land we headed over to The Iron Man Experience. Identical 3D ride technology and ride vehicles as Star Tours, but instead of flying through the Star Wars Universe you actually depart from Tomorrow Land and fly into Downtown Hong Kong. Weird alien robots are trying to steal some sort of Tony Stark Tech so Iron Man comes flying into save the day. Not bad but I prefer Star Tours. 

The heat of the day was demanding that we nap. Who are we to argue with the day? Here’s a fountain outside the entrance of the park.​

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By this point I thought I might have a bit of theme park fatigue. Surprising that is not the case. Our pacing (park, nap, park) has really helped minimize fatigue and our travel days have been a restful break in between the parks. Also, we’ve had one more day in each resort that we needed which allowed our last Park day in each country to be very slow paced and agenda free.

This morning we slept in, grabbed a bit of breakfast and then hung out in the room until our 11am check out time.

Our flight reservation was a little sketchy since it was with China Eastern. Their website is buggy and all we had was a confirmation number. Also, I’d transposed a couple of Mikey’s passport digits so we wanted to get to the airport in plenty of time to make sure we could fix this. Why China Eastern? I found super cheap first class tickets fromShanghai to Hong Kong on Kayak. When we boarded the tired Airbus 320 it was evedent why the tickets were so cheap. The plane had clearly seen better days. The real benefit of the first class tickets were the Sky Priority check in (no problems with fixing Mikey’s passport number) and the first class lounge. 
The lounge was spacious and comfortable. A perfect place to relax while we waited to catch our flight. They had free massage chairs in the lounge. They were torture chambers. I tried one and it just kept. Punching me in the same place on my back. Mikey tried a different one and the leg area inflated around his calves to a painful point and trapped him in to the point where he thought, “should I yell out for help? And how do I do that in Mandarin?” Fortunately, moments later the evil chair released him. Dispite the torturous massage chairs we were super grateful we got so spend our time in the lounge after seeing the very crowded and extremely worn waiting area. We blew the remaining Chinese currency in the duty free store and, after a delay of about an hour and a half we took off to Hong Kong. Shanghai’s airport boards many of its planes right from the tarmac. They cram and I mean cram everyone onto a bus that takes around ten minutes to get to the plane. Standing room only. Another perk of first class was having a smaller limo like bus take is to the plane. It’s the little things.

Hong Kong customs was a breeze (we’ve really lucked out with immigration lines) and we found a taxi to take us to the hotel. The Hong Kong taxis are different colors, green, red or blue. You choose the color of the taxi based on where you are headed. We were remaining on Lantau Island where both the airport and Disneyland are so it was a blue taxi for us. 

We got to the hotel around 11:30pm. It was around 82 degrees with humidity at around 80%. At 11:30pm. Gross. 

Disney’s Hollywood Hotel is really pretty. It’s Art Deco design harkens back to the golden age of Hollywood.

Hong Kong Disneyland opens at 10:30am so hopefully we’ll get a good night’s sleep and be ready to hit the day…and the humidity.

We woke up from our nap around 4pm refreshed and ready to spend the last few hours we had with Shanghai Disneyland. The park closed at 8pm so we decided to grab a fastpass for the Tron ride and then do a good bye stroll through the entire park. We looked for areas we hadn’t seen yet and ran across a walkway that let us check out all of Challenge Trails, a ropes course where you are tethered to a harness that is connected to rope that slides through a metal girder track above you to keep you fall falling to your death. Most crossings have an easy route, a hard route and a really hard route to choose from. In the pictures below look for the three reddish girders then the three pathways below them. The person in the second picture has chosen the hardest path.

The walkway we took led us behind the waterfall and under most of the challenge trail. For me this was challenging enough. Nine days of racking up hundreds of thousands of steps through three Disney theme parks have my legs and feet aching!

As we continued our stroll we ended up in Treasure Cove. We had no intention of riding on Pirates again but saw that the Single Rider line was short so….

This was our fifth or sixth ride on Pirates. Again, this ride alone would have been worth the 11 hour flight for me. So well done. Here’s a little clip of an incredible animatronic of Davy Jones.​

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It was around 6:30pm and our fastpasses were ready for Tron. ​This is a video of the beginning of the ride where you are launched at a super fast speed to the outdoor track. The picture below the video is an on-ride photo taken at the peak speed of the launch.

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The launch starts really fast (think California Sceamin’ from DCA) but then another burst of speed kicks in. That’s when they snap the picture. We ended up riding Tron twelve times in three days. Brilliant ride. This last time we went there was this little Chinese grandmother with her 6 or 7 year old grandson. It was clearly their first time riding it. It was really cool to see someone of an older generation enjoy the ride so much! Her on ride photo was precious.

There’s a moment in the Tron cue where you are standing in front of an opaque window that has digital projections. The window all of the sudden becomes transparent revealing the ride below just at the one of launch. In the video below listen for the crowd’s reaction. This happened every time! Love it.​

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We wrapped up our evening with the Light up the Sky fireworks/projection spectacular. I didn’t shoot any video or pictures (I just wanted to sit back and savor the experience) but you can find plenty of high quality videos of this on YouTube is you’re so inclined. 

I am really surprised the fireworks in the US parks are better than the ones in Asia. I was expecting to be really blown away since the Chinese invented fireworks (right…?) but they were lack luster compared to the regular fireworks that happen in Disneyland, Anaheim. Still, the show was enjoyable and a nice way to wrap up Shanghai Disneyland.

Final Thoughts on Shanghai Disneyland

We both felt a little sad leaving this park since we don’t if know if we’ll ever return. Clearly the winning rides for Shanghai were TRON Light Cycle Power Run and Pirates of the Caribbean, Battle for the Sunken Treasure. Mike’s favorite was Tron mine, Pirates. 

Despite vastly different cultural norms there is a universal joy that was evident here. Kids (and grown ups) giggling though a goofy ride moment, gasps at cool effects, screams at scary moments, the joyful high exiting a really fun ride were all such common human experiences that they, for a few moments erased cultural differences.

The differences in staff between Shanghai Disneyland and the Tokyo parks were vast. The Tokyo staff (or cast members as Disney likes them to be called) are bend-over-backwards crazy polite. For example the security bag checkers in Tokyo were almost apologetic as they checked your bag always asking if they may open it and touch it. The Shanghai bag checkers were very no nonsense, grab your bag, dig through every nook and cranny and fling it back to you. In fact security guards were everywhere throughout the park always looking stern and a little intimidating. The Chinese cast members were trying really hard to be the polite and friendly Disney employees one might expect but they seemed really uncomfortable trying to pull it off. Still, they were excited to test out the bits of English on me and Mike (once they realized Mike didn’t speak Mandarin) and did pretty well, far far better than I could have communicated with them in Mandarin. We had to keep our questions and requests simple and there were a few times we were misunderstood but it was sometimes easier to patiently listen as they answered a question we didn’t really ask and thank them for the information we didn’t really need rather than try and clarify. The employees manning the lines in Shanghai seemed a little disorganized compared to their Tokyo counterparts. In Tokyo, everything was crystal clear since, as they were giving boarding instructions in Japanese, they were miming exactly what to do down to removing your backpack before boarding the ride. It was almost over-explaining in Tokyo. It was the polar opposite in Shanghai. This lack of clarity combined with a population not super familiar with theme parks made for moments of confusion for anyone riding a ride for the first time and a general sense of disorganization. This is unusual for a  Disney park but this is a very young park. I’m sure they were still trying to get their shit together in Anaheim a year after that park opened, too.

We’d heard lots of stories about people in Shanghai cutting in line and breaking other social norms westerners might find offensive. We were braced for the worst after having such pleasant experiences with people’s behavior at the Tokyo parks. (So polite!) 

While there was a time or two when it seemed like someone might be cutting a line, this was very rare. It did seem like if you left an opportunity open someone would take it, but so what? No one else seemed particularly miffed by this so why should we? When in line Mike and I just stayed side by side not leaving an opportunity open. There was nearly always someone moving up the line to meet their party, but this happens in the U.S. with nearly the same frequency. People in line had a very different sense of personal space than we might in Disneyland, Anaheim. This was the same in Tokyo. We quickly adjusted ourselves to that and it was fine. There were huge differences in the volume of regular speaking voices of the Japanese vs. the Chinese. The Chinese almost always talked very loudly to a Westerner’s ears. It seemed like they were always shouting. Mike and I would joke when we would hear someone talking in a regular (still loud) volume that they were whispering in Mandarin. Talking (yelling) into a cellphone with the phone on speaker was also a pretty regular occurrence. We got used to this norm, too. Mostly. When it was getting close to nap time or was particularly hot and humid it became a little harder to take. 

There are a few other differences we noticed that are worth mentioning. First, there was always someone selling what we guessed was counterfeit merchandise outside the park entrance. Park tickets, Minnie Mouse ears, ponchos (when it was raining), discrete vendors, disguised as tourists would push their way through the security line hocking their wares always keeping a wary eye out for the police. When the bus that took us from hotel to Park pulled up to Disneyland it was rushed by five or six guys selling tickets (or maybe fastpasses?), Disney keychains and Mickey Ears. Once we got into the park there were a few times we saw the covert vendors selling their stuff in the middle of a walkway. We were both really surprised by this. Park tickets aren’t as expensive as they are in the U.S. but selling inside the park must really cut into their bottom line since they have to pay to enter. Or maybe not. On our last day there was a large group of adults in front of us trying to use what were clearly counterfeit tickets. There was quite an argument between them and the employees manning the gates. I would imagine there was a real problem with counterfeit fastpasses because, unlike any Disney park we’d ever been to, the fastpass checker would scan a QR code on each fastpass to make sure it was valid. Sometimes they would check the fastpass and your park pass to make sure they matched. Intense FP security!

In Tokyo, nearly everyone had some serious Disney Drag on. Most had matching Disney shirts or other outfits that they’d clearly chosen for their day in the park. (I felt under dressed (aka not having enough Disney Merch hanging of my body) a few times in Tokyo. In Shanghai people dressed far more casually without all the Disney Flair (except maybe a pair of counterfeit Minnie Ears.) Perhaps this was because this was many of these folks first time to Disneyland. It seemed like most had never been to the park before which isn’t surprising since it has only been open since June 12th, 2016. 

Bottom line, Shanghai Disneyland was great. The cultural differences were easily navigated and interesting to observe. The park is fresh and new and the rides are some of the best we’ve experienced in a Disney park. Bravo Shanghai Disneyland!

This was a lovely last day at Shanghai Disneyland. We had a short list of things we wanted to do, some of which we’d be ok with if we didn’t do. 

• Voyage to the Crystal Grotto
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Once Upon a Time Adventure 

Then we had a list of things we really just had to do.

• Tron
• Tron
• Pirates
• Tron
• Pirates

We fastpassed Peter Pan at the Fantasyland FP Center which was right across from the Seven Dwarf Mine Train so we rode that and it broke down right as we were at the end of the ride. No problem. We just chitchated with the dad and his daughter seated behind us. Since their English was limited and my Mandarin even more so the conversation consisted of the little girl saying “how are you?” And me saying, “fine, thank you for asking.” She was a sweet little kid that giggled her way through the ride.​ her dad can be heard “whee-ing” louder than his daughter. Precious.

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Voyage to the Crystal Grotto

This ride is similar to the Storybook Canal ride at Disneyland Anaheim. You board a Willie Wonka looking boat for a spin around dioramas of various Disney movie scenes. In Anaheim the sets are tiny. Here they are lifesized with minor movement and water fountain features. Here’s a video of some of the highlights.​

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We did the Once Upon a Time Adventure which is a walk through up several flights of stairs and then through various rooms featuring scenes from the Snow White story. There were some great little illusions including several 2D animated forest creatures who stare expectantly at you until you wave…then they wave back. Clever.

Peter Pan’s Flight had the two row flying ships like Paris (the Anaheim ride has single row ships) and had several animation additions making the ride seem slightly more updated that it’s Anaheim counterpart. I’m glad we didn’t wait longer than 10 minutes for this ride since it’s so similar to the Anaheim ride.

It was only about 9:30am by this point and the humidity was up to 75% with a temp of 80 degrees. It was gross out. Fortunately, most of the ques had fans to keep the air moving but it was still gross. Knowing it was our last day we hit Pirates and Tron before heading back to the hotel for the required shower and nap.

Rainy Monday at Shanghai Disneyland, surely it will be less crowded than a sunny Sunday, right? Wrong. Drat. The crowds were bigger today for some reason. Fortunately Mike and I hit all of our priority rides yesterday so we felt little pressure to wait in any of the longer lines and we’re content to fastpass our way through the day. 

We managed repeats of Pirates, Roaring Rapids, Buzz and Tron while dodging umbrellas and puddles. 

See if you can spot Mikey. Hint: he’s the Chinese guy.

To take a break from the rain and watch Eye of The Storm, Capt. Jack Sparrow’s Stunt Spectacular. It was pretty goofy except for the huge fan that propelled the stunt men up into the Eye of the Storm.

Looks like fun!

I wanted to pick up a photo of our first ride on Pirates and the cashier was super friendly. She gave us each a Donald Duck sticker. Fortunately, I’d thrown in one of our Disney California Adventure pins I’d brought as gifts in my backpack that morning and was able to give it to her. She was so excited she went running out of the store to show her fellow worker. She was so grateful. It was such a sweet reaction. Best part of the whole day! 

Time for lunch and a nap. Yummy Shanghai Dumplings and chicken chestnuts and rice. The chicken and rice were good but you can keep the chestnuts.

After our nap we headed back to the park for a quick go on Buzz Lightyear and a final ride on Tron. We also walked the Alice in Wonderland maze.

Weird Dog Door in Alice in Wonderland maze.

Castle view from the Maze

Tea Party

We had a bit of shopping to do so we headed to Disneytown (Shanghai’s Downtown Disney) and hit the big Disney Store. 

Our room number. The red light means “do not disturb”

Once locked into the car your body weight is resting on your knees stomach and chest as well as your butt. Your hands hold onto the “handlebars.” This is a surprisingly comfortable way to ride a coaster and probably makes it a more exciting ride. At he beginning of the ride you are launched outside at blazing speed, then you get a kick of ever more speed before shooting up some hills and curves in the outside portion of the ride. You (the blue light cycle) are then thrown into a light cycle race vs. the evil (for some reason) yellow light cycle. Everything looks very Tron like, neon everywhere, plus some fun animation and mirrors to make it look like the yellow Cycle is really out to get you, until you make them crash and thus win the race. We rode this sucker 5 times and could ride it 10 more times without getting tired of it. Such a fun and extreme ride!

Our time in Tomorrow Land included trips to the Star Wars Launch Bay (nearly completely empty. Perhaps Star Wars isn’t that big of a deal here?) where we posed with Kylo Ren and A lonely Darth Vader. 

We also got to sit in a replica of the Millennium  Falcon. All of this with no waiting.

A spin on Shanghai’s version of Buzz Light Year’s Astro Blasters was next. Similar to the Anaheim ride but instead of different shapes targets that “are worth more when they’re lit” you shoot at different sized targets,  the smaller the target the higher the point value. Fun! Mike kicked my butt score wise. Except for this time when his gun was malfunctioning.

Time for a quick nap (quick since the park was only open until 8pm.) We returned refreshed and after another go on Pirates and several Tron rides we explored the lands of the park we hadn’t yet visited. From everywhere you have great views of an incredible castle. The largest castle of all the Disney Parks represents all of the princesses, not just Cinderella. 

The views aren’t as spectacular as Tokyo DisneySea but the castle looks beautiful from most parts of the park.There are several areas that are green spaces meant for picnicking. Its unusual to see this in a Disney theme park. Kind of cool though.

Neither Mike nor I are big parade fans but we caught bits of one walking from land to land. The Mulan horse was beautiful. 

Our final goal was to ride Tron at night. The night lighting on the outside portion of the ride made this a worthy goal. After this we grabbed a meal to go and headed back to the room and called it a realatively early night. 

Shanghai Disneyland is divided into six “lands.” Tomorrow Land, Fantasy Land, Treasure Cove (a land completely dedicated to Pirates), Adventure Isle, Gardens of Imagination and Mickey Avenue (like Main Street USA in Anaheim.) We woke early enough to meander down to Sunnyside Cafe (the on site restaurant in Toy Story Hotel) for a yummy breakfast.

 

We then hopped the shuttle bus to the park in time to line up 1/2 an hour before it opened. Opening time this morning was 8am. 

Unlike all of the other Disney parks we’ve ever visited, Shanghai Disneyland does their fastpass distribution differently. Instead of placing kiosks close to the ride entrance they have three distribution centers in various locations. You line up to enter one of the centers and choose from a list on the screen which ride you want to fastpass. Easy enough. 

Our plan was to hop into the Fastpass center in Adventure Isle and get a fastpass for Roaring Rapids, then hop in line for Pirates of the Caribbean, Battle for the Sunken Treasure. 

There was hardly anyone else in line for Pirates so it only took us 5 minutes to hop on the ride. I just love Pirates of the Caribbean in Anaheim but it doesn’t hold a candle to it’s Shanghai sister. The boats are similar in look to the Anaheim ride but instead of being propelled by water they are on an ingenious track system. One track is connected to the front of the boat and one to the back. By widening or narrowing the track they can rotate the boat and decide which direction you are pointing. Due to the tracking system they can also control how fast you go, speeding up at dramatic moments and slowing down to build tension. You still are floating on water (the track system is completely submerged) but instead of floating in the same direction at the same speed you are rotating, speeding up, going backwards, etc. Ingenious. (There’s a video floating around on YouTube that shows how the boats work if your nerdy about that sort of thing like me.)

Using a combination of huge projection screens (think curved IMAX screens), incredible animatronics, digital and practical sets and scenic lighting the Imagineers take you underwater where you meet Davy Jones who raises his fleet of Ghost Ships to fight other ships in an epic sea battle. Meanwhile Jack Sparow is sword fighting with Davy Jones in the belly of one of the ships. You have a front row seat for every dramatic moment. The ride ends with your boat rushing backwards due to a flood of water. This is where they shoot the ride photo.

Mike and I are in the second row to the left. If you zoom in you’ll see a look of genuine awe on my face. This is the best Disney ride I have ever been on. There are a few nods to the original Pirates ride. For example, at the beginning of the ride you pass the prisoners trying to coax the dog with the key only they are all skeletons, including the dog.

We moved through the Pirates line so quickly that we still had 1/2 an hour or so before our Roaring Rapids ride fastpasses were valid so we hoofed it over to The Seven Dwarves Mine Train. Part dark ride part roller coaster this ride takes you through the jewel mines of the Seven Dwarves. Great animatronics with faces that are animated by projections from within the heads brought the Dwarves to life nicely. The coaster itself was a bit too mild for my tastes. The mine cars were on an axis centered in the front and back which allowed them to sway with the cruves of the track. Neat idea, but didn’t add a whole lot to the experience.

Time for Roaring Rapids. This ride is in Adventure Isle. 

Much like Grizzly Rapids in CDA, you sit in a round boat and careen through the rapids dropping down hills from time to time. This version added an animatronic crocodile type monster (thus the “Roaring” in the title) at one point during the ride. ​

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Just like the CDA ride 75% of the charm of this ride is watching other people get soaked and have fun. We had this darling 6 year old Chinese kid who giggled the whole way through the ride. Especially when Mike and I got soaked.

Off to Tomorrow Land and Tron Light Cycle Power Run!​​

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Tron is a super fast coaster that is part inside Part outside. As you may be able to see from the pictures and video, you sit in the car as if it’s a motorcycle. Instead of seatbeats or shoulder harnesses you are held in by a thing that rests on your back holding you in. (Continued in part 2)

Today was a recovery day. We slept in, ate, took a hot bath to soothe aching feet and legs (we have walked miles and miles!) and went back to bed. Here’s pictures of our new room (we had to switch for our last night due to the popularity of this hotel).

Around noon the bell desk insisted they bring our baggage down and load us into a very fancy taxi. The bell captain then waved and bowed to us while until we were completely out of site. We, of course waved back until we couldn’t see him anymore. This was an incredibly sweet moment. 

The flight to Shanghai was uneventful and smooth. (No first class this time but Delta’s Comfort plus was decent, though the 767-300 was older and showing it’s age a bit. We did a bit of airport shopping and enjoyed a automatic chair massage. Lunch was incredible. Pork and rice on a sizzling platter with miso and oolong tea.

We ate out on the observation deck at Narita Airport watching planes take off and land.

We landed on time and made it to the Disney Toy Story Hotel by around 9:30pm. The room is cute but it pales in comparison to the MiraCosta.

Notice the Sorry game piece table, the Rubic’s cube night stand and the Slinky Dog Lamp. Fun.