At Shanghai Disneyland now!

[sky13]

Arrived yesterday but didn't do the parks yesterday, just wandered around Disneyland hotel and Disney town, which are both very nice and pretty!

First day in the parks today and it's crowded! Contemplating buying vip fastpass access now... But there's enough Disney magic in the air and weather is just about perfect...

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Enjoy!
It's going to be around 80 degrees here!

[Hannikins]

exciting!

[dee slack]

have you seen the Minnie ears sellers in the toilets yet? Sorry, sound a bit obsessed with people selling them on the rides, in line, toilets etc but I find it really, really weird!

[candycat75]

How exciting!

[sky13]

So the trip is almost over I'm sat in a (non-Disney) hotel room right now and missing Disney lots, it was such a fun trip! It's such a contrast between downtown Shanghai and Disneyland though, and even though we're staying at a very decent and comfortable downtown hotel it just cannot compare to Disneyland hotel where Mickey Mouse's voice announces which floor your elevator has reached!

Will try to write a list of highs and lows and how I felt about the rides at some point! Not quite sure when I'll have time though as I basically land at around 11pm and go back to work at 7am the next day (and was working 14-15 hour days plus weekends before I left...)

Originally Posted by dee slack

have you seen the Minnie ears sellers in the toilets yet? Sorry, sound a bit obsessed with people selling them on the rides, in line, toilets etc but I find it really, really weird!

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Yes I did! Didn't see them at the toilets but I thought it was really quite strange as well that they were essentially standing in line at Pirates and trying to sell Minnie ears and some light up Mickey keychains. Definitely not something you see in any other Disney park! I essentially just ignored them completely...

It's actually quite depressing that Disney has a lot of additional rules in Shanghai, like having to have every party member line up to get Fastpasses, having to show park tickets when using Fastpasses, etc. I guess it's necessary given how many people we saw who were trying to game the system or cut in line or similar but really a bit depressing actually. Though it's oddly satisfying when a whole family cuts in front of you in the Fastpass return queue only to have the CM stop them dead as they are ages away from their Fastpass time and you then breeze past them (though doesn't stop them standing there arguing with the CM for ages to let them through)...

[dee slack]

Originally Posted by sky13

Yes I did! Didn't see them at the toilets but I thought it was really quite strange as well that they were essentially standing in line at Pirates and trying to sell Minnie ears and some light up Mickey keychains. Definitely not something you see in any other Disney park! I essentially just ignored them completely...

It's actually quite depressing that Disney has a lot of additional rules in Shanghai, like having to have every party member line up to get Fastpasses, having to show park tickets when using Fastpasses, etc. I guess it's necessary given how many people we saw who were trying to game the system or cut in line or similar but really a bit depressing actually. Though it's oddly satisfying when a whole family cuts in front of you in the Fastpass return queue only to have the CM stop them dead as they are ages away from their Fastpass time and you then breeze past them (though doesn't stop them standing there arguing with the CM for ages to let them through)...

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we saw a guy trying to sell fast passes outside mine train and when we went with our FP onto the ride they checked our tickets matched the FP so wonder how many people bought a FP only for it not to be accepted?

Have to admit that was the only ride we were asked for our tickets on, and also DH was allowed to get FP for both of us to save me walking and also he's a very fast walker (runner )

Our first morning, while we were in the crowd for bag check, there was a lady creeping in and out of the line selling ears and a security guard was looking for her and eventually got her and took her away from the line, so I'm guessing it's not acceptable to sell in line - you have to wait until you're in the park lol!

Glad you had a great time tho' and hope the memories will keep you going through your long work days.

[sky13]

Originally Posted by dee slack

we saw a guy trying to sell fast passes outside mine train and when we went with our FP onto the ride they checked our tickets matched the FP so wonder how many people bought a FP only for it not to be accepted?

Have to admit that was the only ride we were asked for our tickets on, and also DH was allowed to get FP for both of us to save me walking and also he's a very fast walker (runner )

Our first morning, while we were in the crowd for bag check, there was a lady creeping in and out of the line selling ears and a security guard was looking for her and eventually got her and took her away from the line, so I'm guessing it's not acceptable to sell in line - you have to wait until you're in the park lol!

Glad you had a great time tho' and hope the memories will keep you going through your long work days.

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I wonder if they actually rejected people with FPs though - the only people I remember seeing them turn away at the FP lines were people who were clearly too early for their FP slot! (They did allow us a grace period a couple of times though where we were maybe 5-10 minutes late for the FP, which I was quite thankful for!)

They kept making announcements saying that everyone needed to queue up together to get FP so we just stuck together. The FP queues were crazy though, I think it must have taken us 15 minutes to get a FP for Peter Pan! And the queue to get Soarin FP at around park opening was complete insanity!

I'm not sure if they are actually closing one eye to the sellers, or if they just don't have enough manpower to deal with all of them... The sellers did seem to pick choice locations in the queues where there were no CMs nearby though! I'm actually surprised they managed to get all the fake Minnie ears past security as well...

[dee slack]

Originally Posted by sky13

They kept making announcements saying that everyone needed to queue up together to get FP so we just stuck together. The FP queues were crazy though, I think it must have taken us 15 minutes to get a FP for Peter Pan! And the queue to get Soarin FP at around park opening was complete insanity!

I'm not sure if they are actually closing one eye to the sellers, or if they just don't have enough manpower to deal with all of them... The sellers did seem to pick choice locations in the queues where there were no CMs nearby though! I'm actually surprised they managed to get all the fake Minnie ears past security as well...

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they weren't enforcing the all at the FP machine when we were there, unless they thought it was harder work telling someone in English than worth it and probably less likely to be selling them on?

Nigel went ahead to get Soarin FP at opening as he can 'walk' much faster than me but then he saw other people running so joined them but being 6ft he's got a bigger stride than most there so got ahead pretty quickly

It's actually quite worrying that they can get all their wares through security - they obviously aren't checking very well if one person has several sets of ears in their bag (wrapped and all the same!) so whatever else could they be letting through? Was certainly an eye opener for us.

[doombuggy]

Originally Posted by sky13

Contemplating buying vip fastpass access now... But there's enough Disney magic in the air and weather is just about perfect...

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Did you end up buying the pass? We are going in October for my birthday and I think I am going to do this, since this trip has been whittled down to 1 full day and 2 small partial days there (going to Great Wall, then on to Tokyo DLR for 4 days...)