Our two nights at Shanghai Disneyland

JPTexan82

Ever which way but loose
Joined
Feb 10, 2008
This is our second time to China. On this trip we flew into PVG from DFW on October the 10th, 2019. We stayed two nights at Toy Story Hotel. This was the first stop for a muti city tour, Two nights in Shanghai, two night in Guilin, Four nights in Hong Kong/Macau with a day at Disneyland Hong Kong.
When we landed and arrived in T1 at 3:26, went thru customs in about 30 minutes. Walked to the Taxi line waited in line, and I had pre- printed directions to the Hotel from PVG with the Address listed for Toy Story Hotel. Well the taxi stand spoke English, he knew where we wanted to go and told the taxi driver. It was about $18.00 to get from PVG to Toy Story Hotel and about 25 minutes. We arrived the hotel at 4:53, the reason I mention the time as we wanted to go to Shanghai Tower still that night. We Checked in they saw it was only two of us, they offered us a King Bed room at no cost with a view of the park on the 3rd floor near the main entrance gate. (I will talk about this in a minute)
We dropped our stuff off in the room, went back to the lobby. Bought tickets for Disneyland for the next day, chose our fastpass for Tron at 6:30pm so we could ride it at night. Very simple process to get tickets and the fastpass. We walked out front to the bell stand to get a taxi to go downtown at 5:41pm. This frustrated me, to get a taxi at the hotel is about a 10 minute wait as it has to come over from the park taxi stand. Even though there is taxi’s sitting outside in the foyer, they are waiting for people that never came.
We got downtown to Pudong at 6:31pm on a Friday night. Went to Shanghai Tower, saw the sights real quick. We were here 3 years ago. Found a place to have dinner, went to the Disney Store in Pudong, then caught a cab back since we were going to have a very long day the next day at Disneyland. We were back at the hotel at 10:18pm. I don’t remember how much the cab ride was.
So Saturday October the 11th was our Disneyland Day. We were up because of Jetlag and excitement at 5:30. Took our time getting ready. At check-in they tell you the first bus leaves the hotel at 7:35 for the 8:00 am opening. Well were my wife and I were ready to go by 6:40. So our room we on the 3rd floor in the North East Corner of the hotel in the Woody Section. Our room was very close to the front sidewalk/security gate. So instead of walking back to the lobby, we walked to Disneytown. Its only about 11 minute walk from there to Disneytown.
We arrived the main Disneytown entrance area at 6:56, walk down where the shops were towards the early entrance gate. We were the first ones at the Disneytown Entrance Gate for the park. The cast members came out at about 7:15 to start setting up for the day. There is four entrance gates. You do have to show a special pass they give you at check-in that is dated to show you can have early entrance. Well at 7:40, you can tell the first busses from the hotels arrived because that’s when the lines formed behind us. So the park is schedule to open at 8 am. Well at 7:45 they let us in, my wife was the first one in, and I was second. We headed right toward Tron, and while walking I was getting our first fast pass for Soaring which was at 9:30. When we made it to Tron at 7:50, and the cast member led us down the ramp to the cars. As we were walking down the ramp to the cars I was buying the Magical Access pass for us for the day. It was so worth it, we got so much done. Back to the ride, we sat in the first row, and there was only one more person on the ride with us. It was awesome!
After that we at 8:06 made our way across the hub to get some pictures. And at 8:12 we were at the entrance of Pirates of the Caribbean. We were on the boat at 8:17 am. This ride has to be the best Disney Ride I have ever been on, more than TOT, FOP and RS. It was a highlight, something I will never forget. Right after that we headed right over to Seven Dwarfs and was off that ride by 8:38. Then right back to Pirates of the Caribbean at 8:58. After that we went to go meet Mickey at his Pavilion.
The reason I mention the times, because I always wondered how long things take. Its not a far walk from the hotel to the park. I have see pictures of the bus line, I didn’t want to mess with it. They did open earlier than posted. Also to show how much you can get done in the first two hours. We never waited more than 10 minutes for anything all day. The longest waits we saw were in the Toy Story Land area, I wasn’t willing to wait 30 minutes for RC Racer where I know in HK DL it was a walk on.
We did stay all day, the park closed at 8:30. It was good weather. It was worth buy the Magical Access pass for the 8 fastpass rides for about $60 per person. I also bought a another Magical Access for the ropes course as well, I think it was $11.00. Since we only had one day in the park, I wanted to get as much as possible. We also made the most of Fastpass, we may have gotten 5 or 6 for the day. We did eat lunch at Barbossa Bounty and got a table by the water. It reminds me so much of Blue Bayou the way the layout is, food was good and different. Then Dinner at the American Grill in Tomorrowland.
I would like to go back one day. Maybe once another park is open next door. We did see them working on the Zootopia area. Toy Story Hotel was fine, beds are not soft, good service from the Cast Members, cold AC (which is hard to find in China hotels). Everything was clean while we were on property. Cast members were giving out Halloween candy too. Shanghai Disneyland was worth the travel.
 

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Hi JPTexan82 nice report.
Just wondering, why you choosed toy story hotel instead of shanghai disneyland hotel?
I will go to SDL with my family on January. And still not decide, which on site hotel that i will pick for stay.

Thanks
Adit
 
What were the crowds like? We are going Oct 2020- the week after Golden week.
 
What were the crowds like? We are going Oct 2020- the week after Golden week.
We went days before Golden Week, and the 70th--- crowds were starting. But a week after I think will be fine--- it is still largely a local park, so people will be back at work and school.
 
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What were the crowds like? We are going Oct 2020- the week after Golden week.
For a Saturdayn and after Golden Week. I thought the crowds were light. I came to find out since people had the week off before, they were forced to work that Saturday. We rode every ride twice that we wanted to. We did buy the fast pass preimer, and found it worth it.
 

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