Notices
Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong Theme Parks Shanghai, Tokyo and Hong Kong Holiday Planning Questions, Suggestions and Tips.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 4 Mar 19, 11:17 AM  
Link to this Post
#1
irnman
Proud to wear my Ears
 
irnman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 13
Shanghai advice/help

Hi all, the wife and I are thinking of going to Disney in January but could do with some advice on costs, days needed, staying on site or off site, best place for flights etc...
Any diggers with personal experience and willing to share would be most appreciated, can tell from the forums posts that it seems to be a lot of people's favourite Disney park!
irnman is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 4 Mar 19, 04:37 PM  
Link to this Post
#2
sky13
Imagineer
 
sky13's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 12
I went in 2017. I live in Singapore so it's a much shorter flight to get to Shanghai, and we only went there for 5 days with 3 nights at the Disneyland Hotel and another 2 nights in a city centre hotel.

Went with the Disneyland Hotel because I decided on-site was easier for spending a couple of days at DL, preferred the look of it to the Toy Story Hotel, and really wanted to try out CL (CL at Shanghai DLH included breakfast, snacks, dinner, and more snacks at night, so we only had to worry about getting lunch). We really enjoyed the stay there - hotel was beautiful, CMs were great, and you could either walk to the park (maybe 15 minutes) or take a ferry to the park. Though the room itself was just OK...

I think staying off-site also seemed like a viable option since there is a metro station right outside the DL entrance, but I'm not quite as familiar with this. DL is a bit of a way out from the main Shanghai city centre though.

You'll need to look into visa and whether you can go on the 144 hour visa-free option for China...

Days needed - I think 1 is enough to be honest if you start at rope drop and stay until close. We had 2 days but this was with plenty of breaks, and didn't really feel like we missed out on much - and I usually try to spend as much time in a Disney park as possible!

There are certain rides which are incredibly popular like Soarin' and 7DMT, but if you're familiar with WDW's version then they are pretty similar (though Soarin' has a different queue and pre-show and a different ending). A lot of the rides have definitely been updated, Pirates being the most notable example (by far the best version of Pirates across all the Disney parks), but even Peter Pan has been slightly updated. And then you have the rides that are currently unique like Tron.

When I was there the fireworks were very projection based on the castle, but I don't remember being very impressed by them.

Hope this helps, happy to answer questions about Shanghai DL although my knowledge is now two years out of date...
__________________
All Disney parks visited! (DL, WDW, TDL, DLP, HKDL, SDL)
Last trip WDW 2023!
sky13 is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 5 Mar 19, 02:12 PM  
Link to this Post
#3
irnman
Thread Starter
Proud to wear my Ears
 
irnman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 13
Getting confused on the visa front
Our plan is
Manchester-munich (3 hours)- Shanghai (5 Nights)
Shanghai- Munich (3 hours) - Manchester

Everything im reading is saying we wouldn't quality for the 144 hour visa as our inbound and outbound country (germany) is the same.
Is this correct?
irnman is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 5 Mar 19, 02:13 PM  
Link to this Post
#4
irnman
Thread Starter
Proud to wear my Ears
 
irnman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 13
How were the queues, the public, choice of food etc..
Anywhere outside of Disney you would recommend visiting?
irnman is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 5 Mar 19, 03:32 PM  
Link to this Post
#5
sky13
Imagineer
 
sky13's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 12
Originally Posted by irnman View Post
Getting confused on the visa front
Our plan is
Manchester-munich (3 hours)- Shanghai (5 Nights)
Shanghai- Munich (3 hours) - Manchester

Everything im reading is saying we wouldn't quality for the 144 hour visa as our inbound and outbound country (germany) is the same.
Is this correct?
Originally Posted by irnman View Post
How were the queues, the public, choice of food etc..
Anywhere outside of Disney you would recommend visiting?
From what I've read about the 144 hour visa... yes that wouldn't work. But I may be wrong.

Queues - can be bad, I remember a lot of queue cutting which was very annoying. And also very bizarre as there were people standing in the middle of queue lines trying to sell knock off Minnie headbands. The only upside is that the CMs seemed to be enforcing a rule that all parties must queue together, which eliminated groups of people trying to cut in front by saying they were joining their friends/family up ahead.

When I went they were doing paid FPs - I ended up paying for a couple of them which made my life so much better. The FP system then was a mess - heard it may have improved now though as they seem to have moved to a digital FP system?

Food - can't help much with food inside Shanghai DL as we mainly ate at the DLH CL lounge. We did have a meal at the restaurant inside the castle which was decent and let us meet Mickey/Minnie/etc without any wait but don't remember the food as being that memorable. There seemed to be a lot of decent chain restaurants in the Disney village right next to the parks though so that looked like a decent option to get food.

And yes there's definitely places worth visiting outside of Disney! We spent a couple of days in the city centre and went around some of the main sights, like Yuyuan gardens (super crowded during the day, much better going in the evening), Nanjing Road, the Bund, People's Square (I think), and also the Oriental Pearl Tower (didn't go up though). Couple of other places I can't quite remmeber. And a cruise along the Huangpu River at night which was quite nice. Lots of good food in the city too - the xiaolongbao from Nanxiang was great, as was the shengjianbao from Little Yang's. There's also the No 1 Food Store (I think) along Nanjing Road which seemed to be a department store dedicated just to food, which has a branch of Nanxiang and a branch of Little Yang's somewhere inside it. Basically we walked a lot along Nanjing Road and along the Bund...
__________________
All Disney parks visited! (DL, WDW, TDL, DLP, HKDL, SDL)
Last trip WDW 2023!
sky13 is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 5 Mar 19, 03:55 PM  
Link to this Post
#6
Cabbie
Imagineer
 
Join Date: May 07
Location: Southbourne, Dorset

Cabbie's Reviews
Hotel Reviews: 1
Originally Posted by irnman View Post
Getting confused on the visa front
Our plan is
Manchester-munich (3 hours)- Shanghai (5 Nights)
Shanghai- Munich (3 hours) - Manchester

Everything im reading is saying we wouldn't quality for the 144 hour visa as our inbound and outbound country (germany) is the same.
Is this correct?
To qualify you need to be travelling from one destination and then onto another so you cannot use it to return to the same destination.

One way around this would be to fly MAN-HKG, HGK-PVG and then PVG-MAN.

-Steve
__________________
Florida-07,08,09,10,11,12,14,16,17,19,21,23 California-06,10,11,15,23,24 Vegas 12,13,15,22 New York- 05,08,12,17,23 Washington DC-09 Boston-07,10 Hong Kong-05,16 Tokyo-05 Dubai-09,14 Jamaica-12 Abu Dhabi-18 Shanghai-18 Toronto-19 Singapore-22

Edited at 03:57 PM.
Cabbie is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 6 Mar 19, 11:56 AM  
Link to this Post
#7
palm
Proud to wear my Ears
 
Join Date: May 12
We are going later this year, to get around the 144 hour visa issue, we are going to hong kong first (having a week there) before going onto Shanghai for a 5 day visit (so only works out 3 days really) before flying back to london .

I know when i messaged the China Embassy when we wanted to do london/hk - hk/shang - shang/hk - hk/london they said we wouldn't be able to do it... (also worked out we have no stopovers, cost a £100 more but didn't need a visa and don't have to worry about changing flights... worth contacting the embassy before booking
__________________
WDW - 1987, 97, 2000, 2008, 2012 - All Star Music, 2013 - Port Orleans FQ, 2018
DLP - 1998 Santa Fe, 2012 - Santa Fe, 2014 - Cheyenne, 2015, 2017,
DLR - 2005, 2006
Tokyo Sea - 2006
palm is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 12 Mar 19, 11:46 PM  
Link to this Post
#8
Tourmaline
Gone all Goofy
 
Join Date: Mar 09
You can only get it if travelling to another country I did it 2 years ago US to Bejing then Tokyo .
Tourmaline is offline Girl Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Old 8 Apr 19, 04:19 PM  
Link to this Post
#9
maclondon
Excited about Disney
 
Join Date: Mar 15
I was there on Saturday, which was a holiday weekend and lovely weather - so it was very crowded, but it's a big park so it did not feel overly busy, except at the fireworks - which I didn't want to watch but had to get across to go to tomorrow land while they were on.

I'm here for work so had no real choice - that was the only day i could go, I bought the 8 fastpast pack, which was £95! but by 10am every fast pass was gone. I'll do a full trip review in a second post. I was alone so did some single rider and got some regular fast passes (rapids and buzz).

I got there for rope drop and left at close - did every ride, some twice. and tarzan/pirates show. i loved it, queue cutting wasn't bad, maybe one person passed by per queue, each time it was to genuinely meet someone ahead. The weird thing is how close everyone stands - they are literally touching you all the time. Just get used to it!

Tron is incredible, day or night (80% of it is indoors anyway)
and yes Pirates (and the whole treasure cove land) is amazing
soarin' is still soarin', I don't get the popularity. This one is at least themed well, rather than being like an 80s shopping mall. you cans see the grid on the screens in the white scenes though which is annoying, and tall towers are wobbly.

7DMT felt a bit faster/twistier, but i may be making that up. The end is rubbish - no house/witch.

winnie the pooh is identical but in Chinese.

peter pan is upgraded, but essentially the same experience.

roarin rapids - is the best (fastest, most fun) of those round boat rapids, I've been on - you don't get soaked (like kali! ) but despite that EVERY SINGLE person buys a poncho, except me!

food is pretty much all Asian, and there are lots to love. I think theres only one place that does burgers. (there's more in disney town - i didnt go there)

I didn't do Camp Discovery, the high wires thing, as I think that's more a thing to do with friends.

the buzz thing is pretty much the same - it seemed a little more accurate.

toy story land is new, small and very well themed. The rex racers was closed for maintenance, i did woodys round up at 9:30pm when it was a walk on - its fun but not something to queue up for.

they aren't really into pins much - I had to hunt them down, less choice than WDW.

they love zootropolis (zootopia) the two characters are everywhere

both shows are great- tarzan is a circus show, no dialog as such and follows the story

pirates show has tons of talking - you won't get any of the jokes, the story is followable (kinda) bad guys, jack, fight, escape, win!

it starts in the queue area then moves into the theatre - and the last 10 mins are all stunts and the clips you will have seen on youtube etc. it's very well done.

One thing you will love - EVERYWHERE takes uk credit cards, unlike Shanghai where paying for things is almost impossible with a CC. Everyone uses wechat pay or alipay (including the fake merch sellers on the metro) some places ONLY take those, no cash, no CC. wechat/alipay aren't really available to uk users - you can use some slightly dodgy sites to activate a wallet, then get Chinese friends to send you money for cash.

so enjoy using your cards like normal in the park.

The parade is good, fairly short.
I didn't watch the fireworks, as I was riding ! no queues, they are on early 8:30pm even though park shuts at 10 (on the day I went) so 9-10pm everything was walk on (except Tron and soarin') tron did drop to 30 mins during the fireworks, soarin' was at 210 minutes when I went on Fast pass. there were no fast passes available for that andi got in at rope drop, registered my card and was trying to get them as soon as possible.

I did have one issue with my fast passes (and premium access passes) disappearing from my app. I went to guest services and they confirmed that they were all linked to my ticket so i just used that to go on the rides, not the app, which also stopped me panicking about running out of battery.

they app was struggling with a capacity crowd, by mid-morning it was all working again and was fine all day. wifi seemed to work everywhere 99% of the time.

that said I went on a holiday weekend, the app was saying no tickets will be sold on the day so I presume the park was at capacity. I think if you go on a 'normal' day you can just use FP and that early hour/late hour to avoid queues.

getting in, DONT take a bag, the bag check queues are over 1 hour.
no bag, walk in.

hope that helps

mac
maclondon is offline Boy Mouse Click to view Members Trip Plans Add Member to Ignore List
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 01:26 AM.


Powered by vBulletin - Copyright © 2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
DIBB Savings
AttractionTickets.com

Get £10 off each Disney Ticket with the code ATDIBB10

Get up to £50 off per room at Disney or Universal with the code DIBBHOTELS


theDIBB Blog
One of the the five worlds found in Epic Universe, How to Train Your Dragon... Read More »
Disney announced that a new nighttime show, “Disney Dreams That Soar,” will run nightly at... Read More »
Walt Disney World Resort guests can get ready to have a “glowing’’ good time when... Read More »


theDIBB Menu


Exchange Rates
US Dollar Rates
ASDA  $1.2354
CaxtonFX  $1.2304
Covent Garden FX  $1.2545
FAIRFX  $1.2350
John Lewis  $1.2380
M&S  $1.2178
Sainsburys  $1.2354
TESCO  $1.2364
Travelex  $1.2353
Updated: 00:00 29/03/2024
Euro Rates
ASDA  €1.1447
CaxtonFX  €1.1405
Covent Garden FX  €1.1510
FAIRFX  €1.1432
John Lewis  €1.1457
M&S  €1.1263
Sainsburys  €1.1440
TESCO  €1.1445
Travelex  €1.1435
Updated: 00:00 29/03/2024

DIBB Premium Membership
Did you know you can help support theDIBB with Premium Membership?

Check out this link for more information and benefits, such as...

"No adverts on theDIBB Forums"

Upgrade Now



X