Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneyland March 17 – Day 7 Complete in Hong Kong Proper; 12/04

[Aussie Wendy]

The Boring but Critical Planning Stuff aka Being able to Legally Enter China

Note:

The 144-hour transit visa only applies to certain ports in China. You need to check if it applies to your particular circumstance.

The visa is valid for 3 months from application date so you need to apply for the visa at least 1 – 3 months prior to your entry.

There have been anecdotal reports that other travellers have gotten into China despite hubbing in and out of the same city. We could have chanced it but it is far better to be sure rather than sorry.

Just to add for Queenslanders that the home website PrincessInOz posted also has a link to the Brisbane Office and the arrangements are the same. Make an online appointment (only don't try doing it while you are out of the country somewhere else - it won't let you as we found out!), turn up with completed forms and passport photos taken preferably at the Post Office who have a machine that automatically prints your pics to meet the specific country requirements, and travel itinerary including a copy of e-flight tickets and e-hotel reservations. You get a number on arrival and wait to be called to hand over your docs. Simple as and are given a return day a few days later to collect and pay.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Wow!! This is vital information that I DID NOT know about. I was just assuming that I would be able to access the hotel wifi and Facebook from there! A little too western of me??

Now I am concerned about keeping touch with family back home. Any more info would be appreciated.

Just reporting back as we are now home (did not join the others in Hong Kong). We did download and install Express VPN before we left to get around the Great Firewall for our data access and used mostly free wifi at hotels etc. We also used the Vodofone $5/day for when we didn't have access to free WiFi so as to keep in contact with the folks back home and to talk to fellow disers while on the trip. Express VPN worked perfectly-we connected using Hong Kong all the time (you can pick the countries to route through and if one fails try others). Our only issues was not that but at times logging onto the free Disney wifi while there when between hotels, as it wanted to send a password entry code to your phone - which meant activating the $5 Vodofone day to access it which meant we didn't need the free Disney Wifi then - make sense? We bought a month's access to Express VPN for around US$13 and did not set up an auto renewal so it will expire at the end of a month (but we will check it has been cancelled). Hotel wifi was easier to log onto rather than the park and worked fine but I found if I hadn't turned Express VPN on I could not access Facebook or Gmail. We all agreed that access to the hotel and Disney wifi sites seemed a bit random - sometimes wanted an activation code etc, sometimes not.

 

[darrenf67]

Just reporting back as we are now home (did not join the others in Hong Kong). We did download and install Express VPN before we left to get around the Great Firewall for our data access and used mostly free wifi at hotels etc. We also used the Vodofone $5/day for when we didn't have access to free WiFi so as to keep in contact with the folks back home and to talk to fellow disers while on the trip. Express VPN worked perfectly-we connected using Hong Kong all the time (you can pick the countries to route through and if one fails try others). Our only issues was not that but at times logging onto the free Disney wifi while there when between hotels, as it wanted to send a password entry code to your phone - which meant activating the $5 Vodofone day to access it which meant we didn't need the free Disney Wifi then - make sense? We bought a month's access to Express VPN for around US$13 and did not set up an auto renewal so it will expire at the end of a month (but we will check it has been cancelled). Hotel wifi was easier to log onto rather than the park and worked fine but I found if I hadn't turned Express VPN on I could not access Facebook or Gmail. We all agreed that access to the hotel and Disney wifi sites seemed a bit random - sometimes wanted an activation code etc, sometimes not.

Thanks for the tips - it is much appreciated.

How was SDL?

Any tips I might find useful?

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Planning for Shanghai Disneyland

In today’s helter-skelter fast paced world, there are so many options to keep connected and to get connected. The online 2-D in a box world is such that everything is available at your fingertips and anything is possible if you have a means of payment.

With all those e-options, I chose to pick up the phone and call Shanghai Disneyland for all my transactions. All in all, I think I made 4 calls in total to Shanghai.

The first call for the accommodation and ticket booking. Successfully completed. I received email confirmation almost immediately for my room and ticket reservation.

The second call was to make a reservation for Lumiere’s Kitchen and Royal Banquet Hall for our party of 8. Booking for both these table service restaurants was highly recommended so we figured we might as well lock them in. I would say that I was partially successful for this second call. I got a confirmation by SMS and by follow up e-mail of my reservation number for Lumiere’s Kitchen but didn’t receive anything for RBH.

The third call was the follow-up to check up on RBH. Again, that’s a partial successful transaction. I did find out that the system has recorded my booking for RBH and the CM provided me with the confirmation number over the phone. He also advised that he had set the system to provide me with a follow up email and SMS with the number. Sadly, I have yet to receive anything from SDL for RBH. In any event, I do have the number written down….somewhere.

I had to make a 4th call through to Shanghai Disneyland. The email confirmation for my room was addressed to me, and with only my first name. I called them to resend the confirmation to include my full name and my mother’s name as I figured I would need this for our China Visa application. This call was also successfully completed. I received the updated email confirmation almost immediately for my room and ticket reservation. The CM was exceedingly obliging once I told her it was for Visa application purposes.

All 4 times (and selecting the English option), I got through to a Cast Member that spoke reasonable English. Only one of the CM had slight issues understanding me.


The Shanghai Disneyland website does allow you to complete on-line booking for accommodation and tickets….somewhat. As I understand it, you can download a form, fill in the details and FAX it back to them!!

Yeah. Connectivity only goes so far where China is concerned.


I would highly recommend that you call.

Just to add my alternate experience. With PrincessInOz taking care of character meals, I just used the Shanghai Disney online website, created an account as per WDW and other Disney resorts, and made online bookings for our hotel rooms as per American resorts and used my 28 degrees card (no international transaction fees) to pay for it in Chinese currency as we had to pay in full at booking as PrincessInOz has said. The usual range of Visa and Mastercard were accepted. I received an email confirmation within a couple of hours and I needed to produce this when we checked in at both hotels. Like most Disney resorts the room prices are higher on Friday and Saturday nights. I went back a few weeks later and purchased tickets from the same site. I was also amused that I paid a little less for our park tickets than when I was first researching and had noted down draft costs in a budget. So I never contacted the resort directly. All check-ins (split stay between the 2 hotels) went smoothly as did the ticket collection. We just turned up at the entrance turnstyles with our printed off confirmation email and passports and they issued the tickets there and then. It really was no different to booking anywhere else if you are like me and not keen on dealing with international phone calls to potentially non-English speaking sites.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

I should also say that we went in low season and on the day it was possible to get walk-ups to the Royal Banquet Hall lunch. Lumieres breakfast request 24 hour notice. If either of these are must do's for you I would pre-book rather than risk being denied or them being full.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Oh, I am really looking forward to reading your report! We will be in Shanghai this summer (yes, I know it is going to be horrible weather wise) and I always find your trip reports very informative!

This might be a recent change, but we were able to book our hotel at Shanghai Disneyland fully online. No need to fax anything or so. We booked about 10 days ago or so. It was a bit strange with the payment site and how you had to submit your credit card date, but it all worked out perfectly and we got a nice email confirmation. Need to go and check that we are both named on the email now because we will need that for our 144-hours-visa-free entry! Thanks for reminding me of that!

For the regular visa via the office application, we had no issues with only me being named on hotel reservations with a booking for 2 persons but they did require to see both my and my daughter's names on the flight details. They then just asked me to confirm that she was my travelling companion "number 2" on all the hotel reservations. No big deal. I had been a tad worried as I made bookings throughout using hotels.com (we went to Beijing first and had time in Shanghai city) and had no idea how I would get both names on reservations for all hotels if this was required. Luckily it was not.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

China uses a very similar looking outlet to the Aussie one. Hong Kong is completely different.

https://www.travelchinaguide.com/essential/electricity.htm
http://www.tour-beijing.com/blog/beijing-travel/beijing-tour-reviews/plugs-and-sockets-in-china
https://www.travelchinacheaper.com/which-plug-converter-do-i-need-for-china


http://www.hong-kong-traveller.com/hong-kong-electricity.html
http://whatplug.info/from/australia/to/hongkong


There is a view that we won't need an adaptor for China (we will for Hong Kong).

http://www.chinatravelsavvy.com/advice/power-and-sockets/

To be safe, I'm going to get adaptors for both China and Hong Kong.

Oh I have to add my tuppence halfpenny here having experienced it and PrincessInOz will supplement on her return. In our Beijing hotel our Aussie plugs and an older double adapter we had worked fine. In Shanghai city hotel our Aussie plugs looked like they should fit - and didn't. They got half way in and seemed to get stuck. Our older double adapter did fit though (but looked little different plug wise that we could tell, to the ones that didn't) so while that meant only charging 2 camera batteries or 2 phones at any one time we could manage. In the Disney hotels the same story. Most of the disers on this trip experienced major issues in Shanghai with their plugs. PrincesInOz mum had a standard power board (but I think older not new) with her and it plugged in but none of their other Aussie plugs did. One Diser had to go out and buy an adapter as none of hers worked but I think she was able to buy it at the Disneyland Hotel. I think the Aussie 2 pin plugs didn't work but neither did the newer of our 3 pin ones. At the older airport hotel we stayed in for a few hours before our flight home, none of our Aussie plugs worked but our old UK adapter plug did. Research suggested that Aussie plugs should work but some older hotels might only fit the UK plug which was why we brought it. Be warned, taking an assortment of plugs might be the answer. Just taking a powerboard may or may not work. I have no idea if a universal adapter will fit. We haven't worked out the whys and wherefores really.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Thanks for the tips - it is much appreciated.

How was SDL?

Any tips I might find useful?

Will think and get back on again tomorrow night - need to catch up on some sleep still!! We visited Beijing for the first few days, then caught a train to Shanghai, met up with PrincessinOz who had had an extra day or so there before meeting up with everyone at the Disneyland resort then we flew home when the other Disers went to HongKong as we have only recently been there and had to get home before the weekend because of commitments. The great airfare deal gave us open jaw - into Beijing and out of Shanghai and we only paid $550 return leaving and returning on a weekday - BONUS!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

I also received PrincessInOz approval to hack her TR and add some of our experiences (and photos) from Beijing rather than writing my own TR (lazy that I am)

N.B. We had an amazing time and I can't wait to go back to Beijing and Shanghai Disney (Shanghai city less so).

 

[darrenf67]

I also received PrincessInOz approval to hack her TR and add some of our experiences (and photos) from Beijing rather than writing my own TR (lazy that I am)

N.B. We had an amazing time and I can't wait to go back to Beijing and Shanghai Disney (Shanghai city less so).

YAY! Can't wait to hear we leave in just over a week!

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

For the regular visa via the office application, we had no issues with only me being named on hotel reservations with a booking for 2 persons but they did require to see both my and my daughter's names on the flight details. They then just asked me to confirm that she was my travelling companion "number 2" on all the hotel reservations. No big deal. I had been a tad worried as I made bookings throughout using hotels.com (we went to Beijing first and had time in Shanghai city) and had no idea how I would get both names on reservations for all hotels if this was required. Luckily it was not.

We booked our hotels through Expedia (with the exception of Shanghai Disney). In Expedia, I changed my first name to reflect DH's first name space my first name. I was wondering as well how to get both on the itinerary. I had the hotel in Beijing email me and ask if that was really my name. So I explained what i was doing to them. No problems with our Visa.

 

[Aussie Wendy]

darrenf67 Shanghai Disney was amazing. A couple of general thoughts before Disney specific and an important one to start with! If you are travelling to other places apart from Disney do carry tissues to use as toilet paper. Many places did not have loo paper (more of an issue for the girls) but some had a central dispenser that you help yourself to before entering a stall (that we missed til we came out!). Everywhere we went they were clean and had soap and water and hand dryers or paper towels to wash and dry hands afterwards though. Some places require paper to be put in a basket, others not. If it didn't specifically say we generally flushed it - kind of guessed from stall. In Disney toilets have all the necessities. All places including Disney had a mix of squat and what they called in some places "potty" ie western toilets. In some non Disney locations maybe only 1 and a disabled - the disabled is always a western toilet. In Disney the western toilets were always in a group at the back after the squat toilets. There are plenty of conveniences scattered throughout the park. We carried antiseptic wipes with us throughout the trip as standard if we are on hols but actually used them a lot less than we imagined due to ease of soap and water in toilets. In our time throughout Beijing and Shanghai we never needed to use a squat toilet - I would fail!

Those of the group who caught taxis out to the Disney Resort experienced issues. Both coming from the airport and coming from Shanghai. I'll let them tell their stories. Do carry the name and address of the hotel written in Chinese to show them (you can get from website). Despite this do expect the taxi drivers may still be confused. Anything obviously Disney you have wave at them - might help. The group did all make it. My daughter and I did it easy - we were travelling light as catching trains so we just caught the subway from the city out to Disney - 6Y each, no confusion, very straight forward and easy. Took us 2 transfers I think and about an hour. If you have lots of luggage though obviously this is not an option as you need to carry it up and down escalators and along passages between transfer platforms and manage it if the trains get crowded. Though we were peak hour, heading that way we only had a short busy stretch. At the Disney station we then caught the shuttle bus to the hotel which was the most confusing part (as you can also see a public bus station too) but there are signs by the bus corrals you come to first where the big blue buses, which are the shuttle buses, pull in, that tell you where each row goes.

PrincessInOz also got caught up with people trying to scam her at the airport before getting on the Maglev and at the Maglev end station. Again I will let her tell her story but basically stick to whatever transport plan you have and ignore anyone, I mean anyone, who tries to tell you something different. We never encountered any scammers while we were in China - lol!

So electricity - check; toilets - check; tix and reservations - check, transport - check.

The park - tips - download the Shanghai Disney app beforehand and use it to check wait times on the go. Pirates was down several times throughout our trip and we did forget to check and wasted time traipsing to and fro to see if it was open. That being so we rode around 4 times. It was totally, mind blowingly amazing and I am not giving spoilers as it was so good being totally surprised the first time round. There is no real bad row to sit in - we sat front and in the middle and you just notice different things or the effects were slightly different each time.

Make use of fast pass - the old fashioned paper style. All Fantasyland fast pass ride dispensers are in one spot (see map) and ditto for Adventureland and Tomorrowland. You queue up for a machine, scan your entry ticket and it spits out a fast pass with your time on it. You can get a new fast pass in 2 hours or after the first one has expired whichever is earliest. We were there in a very low season and add to that rain the first two days and everything was practically a walk-on but we still got fast passes for popular rides like Soarin, Seven Dwarves, Peter Pan and Tron to save waiting 20 mins. We also could (and did) walk straight on at various times. Some we rode over and over. Our first day we were in a big group and tended to criss-cross the park a lot. It's a big park and it was tiring. I would suggest you organise yourself to focus on certain areas at a time which we all did a lot more the other days.

I like the new Soarin' but others in the group were less impressed. Tron was another amazing ride. You are not clamped in tightly as I feared. There are normal sit-in seats at the back if you wanted to ride not in a motorcycle rider position. You just have to wait as only on eg the third set. The closer to the front the better the ride is. Zanzibar will tell you front row is the best and riding behind her in a second row I have to agree even that was much better than nearer the end. We found we could ask for front row and indicate we were prepared to wait and most of the time the CMs understood enough but be prepared, their English can be halting. We noticed they seemed to call a better English speaking manager if they are really having difficulties understanding or explaining something to you.

The Challenge trails are fun but some obstacles are very scary and the trail to the left, which was the only one open when we did it in the rain, is very hard. Zanzibar says the alternate trail (heading to the right over the kids playground) she did last time was easier. Each obstacle has 3 options, hard, middling and an easy, walk around route though. I thought the connector system for your harness was very clever and you could therefore swop between all three versions at each obstacle. Depending on your skill and personal preference, one person's hard may be another's middling though so we did switch around a bit. After being terrified on a couple of hard ones a couple of us bailed to the easy route. Doing it in he rain and being much more slippery did not help. If you have people with you not doing it (have them hold your belongings rather than getting a locker, ditto Tron), they can walk along the Vista Trail which runs below and beside both trails and get some great photos of anyone on it. Being pouring rain those who sat this one out in our group didn't realise this and we only discovered it our next day when we never got round to having another go. In fine weather, on a busier day, you would need to get here early as it would be very slow so long queues.

Both the Pirate show Eye of the Storm and the Tarzan show were good and worth seeing I thought. Try to sit in the middle section for the best views. The Golden Fairytale Fanfare on the castle forecourt (outdoors) was also good as was the parade. We only saw the last 2 once due to the rain cancelling play.

We found the Star Wars Launch Bay (and Marvel) both quiet. The Chinese don't seem to be up on these, especially Star Wars so you can see stuff and meet the characters with virtually no wait - that's no wait to meet Darth Vadar! Don't miss a photo opportunity with Mickey in his Chinese blue jacket (near Marvel). We enjoyed the castle walk through - it's sweet but not a must-do and does get very long lines (some longest we saw on our last fine day) so if you want to do it, do it early. Alice's maze is lovely at dusk. Roaring Rapids was closed still for winter so if it is open when you go I look forward to hearing about it from you.

For the castle projection firework show it is all about the projections, not many fireworks. Try to get as central and close to the front as possible to see the images projected on water sprays at the very front which aren't visible from many spots (despite having 3 opportunities we still blew it as didn't realise until the last night how much the water at the front was used).

We found in the rain there were limited places to shelter if you didn't go into a cafe to sit down so snacking on the run was hard. They have some great food items - the Mickey Pork buns and Minnie Red Bean buns are delicious, as is the caramel popcorn. You find each outlet tends to sell something specific (its loosely mentioned on the map) so you can't go to one outlet expecting them all to sell the same. We only found only one outlet selling the buns for example (Merlin's Magic Recipe in Fantasyland) though may have missed them somewhere else. Barbarossa's Bounty was good food and wonderful theming - would highly recommend. The Royal Banquet Hall was worth the $. Great food and character interaction and they let us wander all the rooms taking pics after. I didn't join the others for Lumiere's Kitchen character breakfast at the Shanghai Disney Hotel but they said was a ton of food and good. Disneytown is nicely laid out (I think one of the best) with eateries grouped at the top end. There are a couple of good places to pick up breaky supplies (pastries and the like) cheaper and more importantly, a much better range than at the hotels (we also picked up fruit and yoghurt at the hotel cafe but we eat a light breakfast). There is a sneaky exit to Disneytown from the park after the fireworks show. They move people on pretty quickly especially from the back of the park.

Whew!! That's all for now folks.......

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Forgot to say always carry your park ticket with you as when you use fast passes they may ask to see it (as scalpers outside the park are a problem but the CMs can scan it and know if yours is the ticket that was put in the machine to acquire it). This can be an issue if you have it locked in a locker eg for Tron so keep in a pocket. They may also ask to see your passport when entering the park eg on a second day to make sure you are you.

 

[darrenf67]

darrenf67 Shanghai Disney was amazing. A couple of general thoughts before Disney specific and an important one to start with! If you are travelling to other places apart from Disney do carry tissues to use as toilet paper. Many places did not have loo paper (more of an issue for the girls) but some had a central dispenser that you help yourself to before entering a stall (that we missed til we came out!). Everywhere we went they were clean and had soap and water and hand dryers or paper towels to wash and dry hands afterwards though. Some places require paper to be put in a basket, others not. If it didn't specifically say we generally flushed it - kind of guessed from stall. In Disney toilets have all the necessities. All places including Disney had a mix of squat and what they called in some places "potty" ie western toilets. In some non Disney locations maybe only 1 and a disabled - the disabled is always a western toilet. In Disney the western toilets were always in a group at the back after the squat toilets. There are plenty of conveniences scattered throughout the park. We carried antiseptic wipes with us throughout the trip as standard if we are on hols but actually used them a lot less than we imagined due to ease of soap and water in toilets. In our time throughout Beijing and Shanghai we never needed to use a squat toilet - I would fail!

Those of the group who caught taxis out to the Disney Resort experienced issues. Both coming from the airport and coming from Shanghai. I'll let them tell their stories. Do carry the name and address of the hotel written in Chinese to show them (you can get from website). Despite this do expect the taxi drivers may still be confused. Anything obviously Disney you have wave at them - might help. The group did all make it. My daughter and I did it easy - we were travelling light as catching trains so we just caught the subway from the city out to Disney - 6Y each, no confusion, very straight forward and easy. Took us 2 transfers I think and about an hour. If you have lots of luggage though obviously this is not an option as you need to carry it up and down escalators and along passages between transfer platforms and manage it if the trains get crowded. Though we were peak hour, heading that way we only had a short busy stretch. At the Disney station we then caught the shuttle bus to the hotel which was the most confusing part (as you can also see a public bus station too) but there are signs by the bus corrals you come to first where the big blue buses, which are the shuttle buses, pull in, that tell you where each row goes.

PrincessInOz also got caught up with people trying to scam her at the airport before getting on the Maglev and at the Maglev end station. Again I will let her tell her story but basically stick to whatever transport plan you have and ignore anyone, I mean anyone, who tries to tell you something different. We never encountered any scammers while we were in China - lol!

So electricity - check; toilets - check; tix and reservations - check, transport - check.

The park - tips - download the Shanghai Disney app beforehand and use it to check wait times on the go. Pirates was down several times throughout our trip and we did forget to check and wasted time traipsing to and fro to see if it was open. That being so we rode around 4 times. It was totally, mind blowingly amazing and I am not giving spoilers as it was so good being totally surprised the first time round. There is no real bad row to sit in - we sat front and in the middle and you just notice different things or the effects were slightly different each time.

Make use of fast pass - the old fashioned paper style. All Fantasyland fast pass ride dispensers are in one spot (see map) and ditto for Adventureland and Tomorrowland. You queue up for a machine, scan your entry ticket and it spits out a fast pass with your time on it. You can get a new fast pass in 2 hours or after the first one has expired whichever is earliest. We were there in a very low season and add to that rain the first two days and everything was practically a walk-on but we still got fast passes for popular rides like Soarin, Seven Dwarves, Peter Pan and Tron to save waiting 20 mins. We also could (and did) walk straight on at various times. Some we rode over and over. Our first day we were in a big group and tended to criss-cross the park a lot. It's a big park and it was tiring. I would suggest you organise yourself to focus on certain areas at a time which we all did a lot more the other days.

I like the new Soarin' but others in the group were less impressed. Tron was another amazing ride. You are not clamped in tightly as I feared. There are normal sit-in seats at the back if you wanted to ride not in a motorcycle rider position. You just have to wait as only on eg the third set. The closer to the front the better the ride is. Zanzibar will tell you front row is the best and riding behind her in a second row I have to agree even that was much better than nearer the end. We found we could ask for front row and indicate we were prepared to wait and most of the time the CMs understood enough but be prepared, their English can be halting. We noticed they seemed to call a better English speaking manager if they are really having difficulties understanding or explaining something to you.

The Challenge trails are fun but some obstacles are very scary and the trail to the left, which was the only one open when we did it in the rain, is very hard. Zanzibar says the alternate trail (heading to the right over the kids playground) she did last time was easier. Each obstacle has 3 options, hard, middling and an easy, walk around route though. I thought the connector system for your harness was very clever and you could therefore swop between all three versions at each obstacle. Depending on your skill and personal preference, one person's hard may be another's middling though so we did switch around a bit. After being terrified on a couple of hard ones a couple of us bailed to the easy route. Doing it in he rain and being much more slippery did not help. If you have people with you not doing it (have them hold your belongings rather than getting a locker, ditto Tron), they can walk along the Vista Trail which runs below and beside both trails and get some great photos of anyone on it. Being pouring rain those who sat this one out in our group didn't realise this and we only discovered it our next day when we never got round to having another go. In fine weather, on a busier day, you would need to get here early as it would be very slow so long queues.

Both the Pirate show Eye of the Storm and the Tarzan show were good and worth seeing I thought. Try to sit in the middle section for the best views. The Golden Fairytale Fanfare on the castle forecourt (outdoors) was also good as was the parade. We only saw the last 2 once due to the rain cancelling play.

We found the Star Wars Launch Bay (and Marvel) both quiet. The Chinese don't seem to be up on these, especially Star Wars so you can see stuff and meet the characters with virtually no wait - that's no wait to meet Darth Vadar! Don't miss a photo opportunity with Mickey in his Chinese blue jacket (near Marvel). We enjoyed the castle walk through - it's sweet but not a must-do and does get very long lines (some longest we saw on our last fine day) so if you want to do it, do it early. Alice's maze is lovely at dusk. Roaring Rapids was closed still for winter so if it is open when you go I look forward to hearing about it from you.

For the castle projection firework show it is all about the projections, not many fireworks. Try to get as central and close to the front as possible to see the images projected on water sprays at the very front which aren't visible from many spots (despite having 3 opportunities we still blew it as didn't realise until the last night how much the water at the front was used).

We found in the rain there were limited places to shelter if you didn't go into a cafe to sit down so snacking on the run was hard. They have some great food items - the Mickey Pork buns and Minnie Red Bean buns are delicious, as is the caramel popcorn. You find each outlet tends to sell something specific (its loosely mentioned on the map) so you can't go to one outlet expecting them all to sell the same. We only found only one outlet selling the buns for example (Merlin's Magic Recipe in Fantasyland) though may have missed them somewhere else. Barbarossa's Bounty was good food and wonderful theming - would highly recommend. The Royal Banquet Hall was worth the $. Great food and character interaction and they let us wander all the rooms taking pics after. I didn't join the others for Lumiere's Kitchen character breakfast at the Shanghai Disney Hotel but they said was a ton of food and good. Disneytown is nicely laid out (I think one of the best) with eateries grouped at the top end. There are a couple of good places to pick up breaky supplies (pastries and the like) cheaper and more importantly, a much better range than at the hotels (we also picked up fruit and yoghurt at the hotel cafe but we eat a light breakfast). There is a sneaky exit to Disneytown from the park after the fireworks show. They move people on pretty quickly especially from the back of the park.

Whew!! That's all for now folks.......

Wow Aussie Wendy, thanks so much. What an awesome review. This has just made me VERY excited about going now. I was feeling a little blah about it all, I think mainly because there is so little planning and reservations to do. As you know booking fast passes, dining etc at WDW always help build the excitement (well for me anyway). I would check the SDL website and there was nothing to really do - and with park hours only out 2 weeks before too!

The tips are fabulous I shall get those tissues for my wife!

Can I ask about the weather. We have been watching the the temperatures daily and today it is 13 degrees with no days in the next week above 16. This may sound strange, but is that a "cold" 13?? For example in LA 13 is jeans, sweater, 13 in NYC is more layers with the wind chill factor. What can we expect? Is Beijing similar?

I am really keen for the TRON and Pirates ride - they both sound amazing.

Did you have any experience with photo pass? I am wondering if it is worth it?

Thanks again - I am looking forward to the rest of the reports to filter back now.

 

[PrincessInOz]

I got home last night and have yet to download my pictures of the trip. Suffice to say, I've come home with my usual 10 or so thousand images. I hope some of them might be decent, but will not get time to download any till later today.

Any tips I might find useful?

@Aussie Wendy has already shared her great tips.

I will reiterate the power outlet tips. In some hotels, the Aussie 2-prongs slid into the outlet well. At others, it didn't. We had issues at the Disneyland Hotel in Shanghai and it was lucky that my mother had brought a power board with her. The power board fitted at Disney where the other plugs didn't. Go figure!

If you wear glasses and want to keep them on for Tron, get some tight fitting straps for them. I picked mine up from the local optometrist. Got strong stretchy ones - the kids size - and I was allowed to keep the glasses on when I went on Tron. I forgot to put them on for one of the times I was on Tron and was told to store my glasses in the compartment on the bike.

Definitely go meet Mickey inside the park.

We had rain for 2 days at SDL and it was cold at night. Because of the rain, I was wearing 3 or 4 layers, with the rain coat. At night, I had fingerless gloves, which helped.

If you are catching taxis, just ignore everyone. Get the hotel concierge to organise one for you; or get to an official taxi rank at the airport or train station. We never had to flag a taxi down from a street kerb.
I made sure that I had an idea of the taxi cost using that ride calculator in an earlier post. The indicative costs were close enough.


My mother speaks more than enough Mandarin....so we definitely got more value by doing things ourselves. We made it to Suzhou by train and found a local tour. In the end we spent about Aussie $75 each. Booking tours from here or at the hotel concierge would have cost us at least US$130 each.

I think Wendy did equally as well in Beijing without needing any Mandarin.

Did you have any experience with photo pass? I am wondering if it is worth it?

The photo pass plus is definitely worth it. I think I bought it at the character breakfast for about CNY 370. We will probably split this 4 or 5 ways. For most of the character interactions, there will be a photog taking pictures and scanning the card. Remember....there was 8 of us at Shanghai and we had about 2 character meals, plus rides, plus other photo spots.....there are already over 800 photos on the account and I still have to load a few more cards.






If you have any more questions, just ask away. Either @Aussie Wendy, @zanzibar138 or myself should be on regularly to answer them before you leave.

Have a great trip!

 

[darrenf67]

I got home last night and have yet to download my pictures of the trip. Suffice to say, I've come home with my usual 10 or so thousand images. I hope some of them might be decent, but will not get time to download any till later today.




@Aussie Wendy has already shared her great tips.

I will reiterate the power outlet tips. In some hotels, the Aussie 2-prongs slid into the outlet well. At others, it didn't. We had issues at the Disneyland Hotel in Shanghai and it was lucky that my mother had brought a power board with her. The power board fitted at Disney where the other plugs didn't. Go figure!

If you wear glasses and want to keep them on for Tron, get some tight fitting straps for them. I picked mine up from the local optometrist. Got strong stretchy ones - the kids size - and I was allowed to keep the glasses on when I went on Tron. I forgot to put them on for one of the times I was on Tron and was told to store my glasses in the compartment on the bike.

Definitely go meet Mickey inside the park.

We had rain for 2 days at SDL and it was cold at night. Because of the rain, I was wearing 3 or 4 layers, with the rain coat. At night, I had fingerless gloves, which helped.

If you are catching taxis, just ignore everyone. Get the hotel concierge to organise one for you; or get to an official taxi rank at the airport or train station. We never had to flag a taxi down from a street kerb.
I made sure that I had an idea of the taxi cost using that ride calculator in an earlier post. The indicative costs were close enough.


My mother speaks more than enough Mandarin....so we definitely got more value by doing things ourselves. We made it to Suzhou by train and found a local tour. In the end we spent about Aussie $75 each. Booking tours from here or at the hotel concierge would have cost us at least US$130 each.

I think Wendy did equally as well in Beijing without needing any Mandarin.





The photo pass plus is definitely worth it. I think I bought it at the character breakfast for about CNY 370. We will probably split this 4 or 5 ways. For most of the character interactions, there will be a photog taking pictures and scanning the card. Remember....there was 8 of us at Shanghai and we had about 2 character meals, plus rides, plus other photo spots.....there are already over 800 photos on the account and I still have to load a few more cards.






If you have any more questions, just ask away. Either @Aussie Wendy, @zanzibar138 or myself should be on regularly to answer them before you leave.

Have a great trip!

Thats' great thanks.

Sounds like you had a great time - I will keep thinking!

 

[PrincessInOz]

Have an amazing vacation - enjoy every minute - looking forward to all the news when you get back

Have a fantastic time!!

I just found this but Bon Voyage! I'm so jealous and can't wait to hear about your adventures!

Jill in CO

Have a great trip!

Have an amazing time.

I am glad that this arrived in time.

Corinna

Thanks everyone.


We all got home safely last night. It was an amazing trip and Shanghai was amazing. Disneytown is not as large at DTD in Orlando but it is very, very, very good! Lots of wonderful restaurants.

Both Shanghai and Hong Kong have the most wonderful food in the parks. The range of options, with both East and West style, exceeds what you will find in Anaheim and Orlando. However, food is much more limited at Hong Kong Disney. Hong Kong needs a Disneytown or DTD equivalent.


I hope to start the TR shortly.

 

[franandaj]

Take your time! I can't wait to read it, but I have at least four other folks TRs to catch up on before I feel I can start my own and I've been home 10 days now!

I'm hoping to get to it tomorrow! We had a heck of a 36 last hours so perhaps my other half will be asleep most of tomorrow and I can catch up on the DIS!

 

[Aussie Wendy]

Welcome home PIO!

Darrenf67 we found it cold much of the time especially when the wind blew. I know what you mean about eg 13 degrees feeling different in different places. We wore our hiking thermal tops, polar fleece, jeans, hiking shoes, scarf and often our coat, and added beany and gloves at night. It was approx 4-13 when we were there. We found in Beijing when the sun went down the temp dropped rapidly. In Shanghai it was cold even though rainy and felt colder than I expected for the given temp (though I see now the weather map says 6-10 on our very wet cold Monday which was colder than predicted). On our sunny day we left our outer gear (coat etc) in a locker but by mid afternoon when the wind blew it got cold and by dusk we were very glad to have our coat, beany and gloves with us and were cold waiting for the castle projection show. We also had some thermal underwear that we did wear that very wet Monday and one cold day in Beijing and did not feel too hot (but another day stripped off on the wall at Mutianyu as was so hot up there!)

 

[Flossbolna]

Welcome home! Looking forward to reseda all about your adventures!