I just booked! Going to Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo-update Disneyland Shanghai day 5 - 01/06

I have booked my longhaul flights, so no going back now! For 19 days incl. 2 travel days
Shanghai first, then Hong Kong and then Tokyo!

I can't believe it's finally going to happen, I've been thinking about this trip for so long and now it's 7,5 month away!

We decided to book about 1,5 day longer than originally planned, so now we have to re-think the original schedule, but most likely, 2,5 days sightseeing per city, 2 days for SDL, 2 days for HDL and 4 days for TDL.

 

sounds amazing!

 

We have a very similar trip planned too! We have two weeks in Shanghai and China, then three nights in Hong Kong, and 5 nights in Tokyo. We leave June 10th and just yesterday we booked our China tour. I'm so excited to see all three Asian Disneys in one trip!

 

Two days in Shanghai Disney should be plenty. We did one full day (no kids) and saw everything I'd planned, and a few more too. I loved it there, and hope you will too. Are you going in September? That's when we were there, and the timing (just after Mid Autumn Festival) was great, with good weather and low crowds.

 

We did the exact same trip in November/December 2016 Have fun! Are you going to write a PTR?

 

I'm already working on it, but it's on the Tokyo Board. I've tried to persuade DIS Boards to move my PTR, but they don't reply to my e-mail
https://www.disboards.com/threads/im-going-to-tokyo-and-shanghai-and-hong-kong-ptr.3515338/

 

I was trying to plan this for September but when I go on the Tokyo DL and Shaghai DL websites you can't book past July! Am I missing something?!

 

No, just that you can't book that far in advance. I'm also waiting for Shanghai to release the month of August.
Patience, Iago, patience!

 

Today we finally booked our flights within Asia. Little disappointed by alle the extra's you had to pay for with low cost carrier Hong Kong Express, but at least... it's booked! And still waiting for Disney to release the availability for the hotels for August. I hope it will before my birthday next month, when it will also be exactly 100 days before the vacation starts!

Btw, a friend who is on vacation in Japan went to Disney today on Easter Monday and according to someone who really doesnt know his theme parks, it was quiet.

 

And the last hotel is booked! Today I saw August opened for the Disneyland Shanghai hotels, so I booked! Standard rooms are already gone, so we have a garden view for 3 nights. Adding 150EUR (165USD) I hadn't budgeted for, plus an additional 75EUR (82USD) service charge. It had to be paid in full now and cancellation policy is up to 52 hours before arrival... We decided not to go with the breakfast buffet. Rather snack through the park

Then we are all set, we have our flights, we have our hotels. All we need to do now is to show up on time!

 

Such fun!
Enjoy the planning

 

where are you staying

 

We are doing a split stay in Shanghai, as I read in several reports about the issues of getting the last train back after the fireworks. I don't want to rush after a Disney day, so we have 2 nights first in the Charms hotel and then we move for 3 nights to the Toy Story hotel.

Shanghai:
Charms Hotel (Incl. breakfast)
Toy Story hotel (Excl. breakfast)

Hong Kong:
Evergreen Hotel (Incl. breakfast)

Tokyo
Wise Owl Hostel (Excl. breakfast)

So much fun! As we have very limited time in each city we really have to make decision what we want to see and do. We will never be able to see all of Hong Kong or the other cities in 2.5 day. I am trying to find balance between seeing as much as we can, but without rushing too much.

 

For some reason I had placed my original pre-trip report in the Tokyo board, but as there have been so many changes to the plans I might as well continue here

It's almost 100 days before departure! *Excited*

Shanghai
I am in the Netherlands, my friend lives in Belgium, we will fly separately with Emirates to Dubai, and then transfer together to the flight to Shanghai.
We arrive around 15:30 at the airport, so hopefully no problems with baggage or at customs and we will be at the Charms Hotel around 6 PM. We are doing this trip on a budget and for a 3-star hotel we got a good deal. Probably as we are in a room without windows It has a lot of amenities like a gym, but also a spa-like area with a barber, pool tables and by the looks of it places to play chess and Mahjong. If we have time, I'd love to see their karaoke facilities

Our hotel is near the People's Park and about 20-30 minutes walk to the Bund. Depending on our jetlag we will probably go here to see the Bund at night and find a place somewhere to eat. There is a roof top bar called Flair in the Ritz Carlton which is supposed to be good.

After this we have 2 days to explore the city. To be honest, I haven't looked into Shanghai sightseeing yet. I have a long list, but no shortlist yet. Some options are:
- Fuxing Park
- People's Park
- Yuyuan garden

- The Bund (we might want to do a night time river cruise, anyone here done it?)

- Jade Buddha Temple
- Longhua Temple
- City God Temple

- Shanghai Museum
- Shanghai Science & Technology Museum (My friend, she is an engineer, she might enjoy this)
- China Art Museum

Disneyland Shanghai
Then on the 2nd day we will move to the Toy Story hotel. We have a Garden View Room, mainly because the Standard Rooms were already gone. We should arrive around 5 or 6 PM, I think. Also depends a bit till when the park is open, as this is a Saturday I hope till late. After settling in, we will go into the park for the evening entertainment and hopefully to have a character dinner in the Royal Banquet Hall.

We have 2 full days in DLS, a Sunday and a Monday. It's the end of the summer/vacation season, so it will be hot, no idea how crowded it will be. We love characters, shows, parades, we will probably try to see certain shows twice. And of course Pirates and Tron. I am not a big Soaring fan, I enjoy it, but never understood why it is so popular. I just want to walk around and enjoy the ambiance, little cultural things like Chip 'n Dale doing Tai Chi, the garden of 12 Friends, the Wandering Moon restaurant (this area looks gorgeous on @zanzibar138 's pictures). The entire park just looks gorgeous. Oh, and had I mentioned Pirates? I wanna see Pirates! At least 3 times!

Not too afraid of the cultural differences, my mother has travelled to China several times and I know her stories and pictures . Also working at Amsterdam airport for a few years has hopefully prepared me for all cultural incidents we might come across. I'm not too worried about squat toilets. As a child we went camping in France a lot, this is the 80s I am talking about, many camping sites had squat toilets. I haven't used them for years, but I think I should be fine in case no Western option available.

Hong Kong
On Tuesday we have an early flight to Hong Kong. We plan to take a taxi to the airport. I take it, it will not be much problems to ask Guest Services to order a taxi at the right time? We land at 12:45PM. Hopefully in our hotel (Evergreen Hotel ) around 2:30 - 3PM. Also here a room without windows. Hong Kong was hard to find a decent hotel for a decent price, and near public transportation (read: on the right routes to Disneyland )

On our long list of things to do within 2,5 days:
- The Peak
- Symphony of Lights
- Wong Tai Sin Temple
- Sky100 (This is an Observation Deck with 360 degrees view over Hong Kong and the harbour, looks really nice)
- Harbour Cruise (might combine this with seeing Symphony of Lights)

- Ladies Market
- Temple Street Night Market (this one is close to our hotel)
- Jade Market

Originally, like almost everyone else, we had planned to go see the Big Buddha. But we might exchange that for the temple of the 10,000 Buddhas. It's a little less known, so there should be less tourist. Fun for me is that a few years ago, one of my favorite tv shows had an episode at this temple.

Disneyland Hong Kong
Here we are not doing a split stay, but staying in the hotel in the city. What I've read the subway from DLH to the city goes till late (also as it's on the same route as from the airport to the city) so we don't need to rush too much after closing the park. Really curious about Mystic Manor and Grizzly Mountain. I've never seen Iron Man (it's on the list to see before our trip starts). And as a show person I cannot wait to see Mickey and the Wondrous Book and Paint the Night and the parade.

I must admit, I am a bit worried about visiting DLH, as the entire Toy Story Area is similar to our home park in Paris. Also Buzz Lightyear, I expect this to be almost identical to ours. I love Jungle Cruise in the US parks, but I'm afraid things will get lost in translation here. 2 days seem a bit too long. I don't think we will get bored that quickly, we can always take it slow and the shows do take up time. But still... Either way, really happy to see the old castle before it gets replaced.

Tokyo
Again an early flight to Tokyo, probably will catch the subway to go back to the airport. We fly with Hong Kong Express, a low cost carrier, and the lowest fare was pretty good, but when you look at adding extra options as bags, meals (also a strict warning not to bring your own food!) etc. it's not so low cost anymore

We should arrive around 2:25PM at the airport, baggage, customs, rent Wifi thing, get cash and then go to Wise Owl Hostel, hopefully arrive around 5PM. I hadn't planned on staying in a hostel (I'm over 30 now, I don't mind budget travel, but my days of room sharing with strangers are over ;-) ) but also Tokyo was a bit tricky to find a hotel on the right train route. Also because I am travelling with my friend, not my significant other, we needed a room with 2 single beds, which was a challenge! We do have a private room, which is incredibly small, but it does have a sink. This hostel is fairly new, therefore I hope the condition of the rooms and beds are still good ;-) I like that they have a little cafe in house where you can get coffee and a muffin for 4EUR (4.4USD). Just enough to start the day before we head into town. We stay here for 7 nights.

A friend has just toured through Japan for 3 weeks and brought back some cash and his Pasmo card for me Depending on our mood that half day, we will just explore the area. Walk in the direction of Tokyo Station, we are close to the Ginza district.

Then we have 1 day in Tokyo, 4 weekdays in Disneyland Tokyo and then 1 more day in Tokyo. As there is so much to see and do in Tokyo, this is going to be very hard to make choices on what we will do.
We will probably try to see on our first day in the city:
- Tokyo Museum
- Harajuku area and shopping centers
- Meji Shrine
- Shibuya Crossing

Disneyland Tokyo and Disney Sea
4 full days. In a slow week, according to crowd calendar websites, we should be good. But still we will go in with a plan! Rope drop, utilize fastpass, skip Toy Story Mania, try the lotteries. In Disneyland Big Thunder Mountain and Jungle Cruise will be closed unfortunately, and maybe It's a Small World, as there is no end date mentioned for that. In Disney Sea the Magic Lamp Theater, but looking at it, that's not that important. I'm looking forward to see the Disney Sea, the park everyone raves about. A bit scared it won't live up to the expectations, but we will enjoy every last minute of it. Looking forward to all the shows and classics. See Pooh's Hunny Hunt, Monsters Inc., Journey to the Center of the Earth, Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror I get happy just thinking of all the amazing stuff they have in Tokyo

Tokyo again
After 4 glorious days, we have our 2nd full day in Tokyo, no fixed plans yet. But probably:
- Akihabara area
- Ameyoko
- Go to a Rabbit Cafe! ( we wanted to visit at least one 'unusual' cafe)

We have a night flight, my guess is to go back to the airport around 9PM. Then to return our wifi things, get something to eat and then it's back to Dubai together and then on our own to Amsterdam and Brussel.

 

Congrats on having an awesome trip to look forward to. Your plans sounds amazing.

YAY. Almost in double digits.

I have done the night time river cruise. I highly recommend it at night. It really makes the Bund and the Pudong skyline seem really magical.

You'll find western style toilets in Shanghai itself. All the ladies restrooms I went to would have at least one western toilet towards the back. At Disney itself, there would be several cubicles. Again, towards the back.

If you let Guest Service know what time you want the taxi, they will order it for you. Our flight was midday, so we just rocked up to the concierge desk when we were packed. They ordered it on the spot and we had to wait about 10 - 15 mins for the taxi to arrive. If you have an early flight, you may want to see if you can get a taxi organised the night before so that it's there at the right time.

The DL train station runs on a dedicated line between Sunny Bay and Disneyland stations. You will need to change trains at Sunny Bay and get on the Disney line.
From memory, if you're near the Temple Street Market, you can catch a train from that area and change at Lai King and then change again at Sunny Bay. The MTR system is great. The train services are very regular during the daytime. I expect there may be a short wait between transfers at night if you leave Disney at park close.

All these 5 are fantastic and what makes the park different.
Micky and the Wondrous Book is a similar concept to Mickey and the Magical Map at DLR, Anaheim.

There are 3 queues for JC at HKDL for 3 different languages. Cantonese, Mandarin and English. However, even when I caught the English cruise, I couldn't understand what was being said because our captain was so enthusiastic, she was yelling through the PA system and no one could understand a single word!

HK have introduced seasonality at the park. We were there for Spring and there were heaps of Disney decorated Easter Eggs around the park, and lots of spring decorations. They easily filled in extra time as we would stop to take pictures as we walked between attractions. In addition, there was an extra daytime parade to celebrate Spring. We ended up catching all the daytime parades and nighttime parades each day. So I found 2 days was just enough but still wasn't quite enough for me.



Have fun with the countdown. Looks like you have all the major planning bits done and dusted.

 

And now we are in double digits! 98 days to go!

Do you remember the company, and do you remember the price?

Will certainly do, thanks!

In Paris we have now Mickey and the Magician, also very similar, except there is no book or map

 

Today is my birthday, so I am off and I have plenty of time to browse the internet And TDR Explorer announced a 50% flash sale for Hilton Bay. It's a good deal and about 150EUR p/p (166USD, 225 AUD) more, for 6 nights but quite the upgrade from a hostel room without windows, shared bathrooms and bunkbeds to a 4 star hotel in the Disney area I sent a text to my friend, but she is at work, so she doesn't answer right away. Downside was paying immediately in full and none refundable.

While I wait, I browse on and find an even better deal at the Sheraton Grande Bay hotel! About 130 EUR p/p (145USD, 195 AUD) more for the entire stay at a 5 star hotel!!! And with this rate we could cancel 2 days before arrival without any fee and payment is at check out!

So we are ending our trip on a high note! I am so excited, best birthday gift ever!!! to me

Oh and in other trip-preparing-news: I picked up my new passport and ID card yesterday so all good to go to travel! (Except the confusion of the document numbers contained an 0 or an o... weird printing on both documents, but both are 0 )

 

We walked along the Bund from Nanjing Road down towards Shilupu Wharf. Along the way, there were a few places selling boat tours. They all seemed to be 120 Yuan. We just randomly picked one and got on a twilight/nighttime cruise.

I got on this boat. It was a 50 minute cruise down the Huangpo.





There were boats that looked like this. We just didn't look hard enough at the places selling the boat tours to see what type of vessel we were getting on.

Happy Birthday!

YAY! Congrats. That's a great birthday find!

Awesome!

 

Awesome news and I am getting excited reading your plans and I'm not even going!! We stayed at the Sheraton in Tokyo DL and it was great and handy for the parks except back in 2012 (presume still the same but don't quote me) the monorail linking the hotels and parks and Ikspiari you have to pay for (it feels like it should be free like other Disney transport but you are in the non-Disney area actually). You could buy a set number of days pass and I would recommend doing that. In HK in 2015 we weren't overly fussed on the Ladies Market to be honest but we are not big market people and we get a lot of the lower end stuff from Asia in our markets here in Aus. If you are near the Temple St markets you might like to check out the Jade Markets during the day too. In HK the Temple of 10,000 Buddhas caught my attention too when researching. We didn't get there in the end but do your research as I read a couple of posts that suggested it may not be quite as easy to find as some travel sites suggest. I remember finding one post (maybe in Trip Advisor?) that explained the directions really well. We have been to Paris DL (loved it and the castle is my favourite) but I think you will find enough differences (apart from Toy Story Land) that you will enjoy HKDL and it is nice to be able to spend what feels like less rushed (and less walking) days there -more time to appreciate the little details as well as the parades and shows. I am looking forward to reading your TR down the track!!

 

Thank you for the pictures! Then I know at least one company that is trustworthy

I believe I read somewhere that it is by Japanese law they have to charge for the monorail, same goes for trains. That law states that you have to charge for that kind of transportation. And that this is why Disneyland Tokyo doesn't have a railroad through the parks like the others. (Although... Shanghai also doesn't have a railroad )


I am so excited to stay at a 'real' hotel instead of a hostel! I hope the Sheraton will still have the outdoor pool open the first week of September when we are there. According to the website it's only open in August. I'd love to spend an hour or two here



We might have to re-think our arrival plans. As it looks now we should be at the hotel around 5 o'clock.
Option 1: As the original plan, go to the city, meaning 2,5 day in the city, 4 days in the parks.
Option 2: Go to the parks (We could also use the lockers to store our luggage at the park, get a starlight ticket and go in immediately), 2 days in the city, 4,5 days in the parks.
Option 3: Just go to the hotel and relax for the rest of the evening Maybe go to Ikspiari. 2 days in the city, 4 days in the parks.

We will probably wing it, but at this moment option 3 is the most tempting. Only to be so close to a Disney park and not go in... not sure if we are capable of doing that.
Both parks are open til 10...

I also found a website to the 10K Buddha temple with a very good description, except I didn't bookmark it...

When I look at the waiting times at HDL, Mystic Manor and Grizzly Gulch have 5-minute queues most of the time!

I really hope to write a trip report, I am only a bit worried if I can finish it!