TRIP REPORT: Day 6 Shanghai Disneyland Day 1 – Thursday 26th September

[NatsyNoo]

I was so excited for the day ahead! I just knew that this would be my favourite Castle park, and for some of the more modern rides within it (and I wasn’t wrong!). We woke at 6.45am, knowing that to stand a chance of getting the first bus, we needed to be out by the shuttle stop in plenty of time. We got down at 7.15am, and were amongst the last to make it on the bus at 7.35am, so our plan worked. By 7.45am, we were in the park (even though it wasn’t due to open until 8am! I wasn’t complaining).

The first job was to link our tickets which we had just collected from the turnstiles to our Shanghai Disneyland App and secure our first Fastpass which was for Soaring for 9.35am. I did this whilst walking to Tron (I already knew that Tomorrowland here was to the left of the Castle not the right, so sort of had my bearings) and by 8.05am, Tron was done! Oh my gosh, we absolutely LOVED it and couldn’t wait to ride it again and again on this trip.

Next to Tron was Buzz Lightyear’s Planet Rescue (like Astro Blasters but more modern and much better!) and I won! In fact, my first ever Galactic Hero (admittedly, it’s much easier to achieve here than in the other parks).

Our next ride was Peter Pan’s Flight which we knew wanted to do because, again, they had modernised it here, but it wasn’t the sort of ride we liked to queue for. It was lovely, the way they had enhanced it.

By 8.50am, we had also ridden on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which was a walk on. The ride here that everyone goes for is Soaring (with a ‘g’) Over the Horizon.

At 9am, we were boarding our boat for Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure. I was absolutely mesmerised. It was incredible. Like, phenomenal. The effects they use are amazing, the combination of screens, staging, lighting and animatronics created the most perfect experience. It deserves the hype and more and is now our #1 dark ride in all Disney Parks (with Mystic Manor a close second; and Tron our overall favourite ride), and Disney need to spread this magic to other parks. Again, we would be riding this again over and over again this trip.

With the Extra Magic Hour wisely utilised, we headed for breakfast at Remy’s Patisserie which is located on the corner of Mickey Avenue (their version of Main Street). We had 2 cinnamon donuts (RMB35/£3.80 each), a Mickey Chocolate Muffin (RMB35/£3.80) and two drinks (RMB15/£1.60 each) which was absolutely delicious.

Whilst we were eating, Chip & Dale were interacting with Matt which was very cute and funny.

Our Fastpass time for Soaring had arrived, and as we were walking to Adventureland, we past a Duffy & Shellie-May model on the floor made of Coca-Cola bottle tops. It was so clever. We were admiring it and taking photos when a Chinese man asked to take our photo. It was so funny. At first, we thought that he was asking us to take his photo, but no, he wanted a picture with us, lol.

Right, onto Soaring then, which we had reached at 9.50am. The pre-ride was different but the ride itself was identical to the versions in Disneyland and Epcot with the exception of the Castle scene at the end, which was replaced with a view over Shanghai itself, and the Pudong area in particular. It was nice to see the Oriental Pearl Tower again.

At 10.35am, our second Fastpass was up – Roaring Rapids. I had brought a poncho will me as I had heard it was a soaker. I was right. They even sell ponchos in the queue line for RMB10/£1 each.

We wanted to get some photos of the Castle next, whilst the sky was lovely and blue. We walked through the Gardens of Imagination to get there, and saw the zodiac row. This was a lovely touch to this Chinese park.

We got some lovely pictures of the Castle too!

The queue for Meet Mickey was only 10 minutes, so we decided to head over to that. The backdrop was lovely! They also had portraits of all of the Castles, it was amazing to think that we would have visited them all by next week!