Chinese Disney
Adventure
Getting High in Disneyland Shanghai
Shanghai Disneyland Series
10
Day 1
It would be our 5th day in Shanghai and we checked
out of Oakwood as
were are moving to Pudong for
the next 4 days for our Shanghai Disneyland vacation.
We arrived in Novotel
Hotel Clover
in Pudong after an hour taxi ride,
… and the cavernous hotel lobby impressed us-
….as it was breathtakingly beautiful,
with a modernized classic design.
There were numerous registration
counters so checking in was a breeze,
…and we were on our way,
our room at the 21st floor.
This would be our home for the next four days
while visiting Shanghai
Disneyland.
We rested for a while after unpacking, and took the free
shuttle to Shanghai Disneyland to look for a place to eat.
We walked our way,
…to Downtown Disney,
…and stumbled upon Xin Wang Restaurant.
Xinwang is a
popular Chinese restaurant
chain, known for its “cha chaan teng” menu.
As a typical tea restaurant, the food choices comprise
mostly of Hong Kong’s greasy spoon staples,
…we were happy to dine here, as it made delicious authentic
Chinese cuisine available in a western owned Disneyland.
After our very lat afternoon lunch,
…we strolled and window- shopped at Downtown Disney,
…before returning to the
hotel early evening to rest.
Day 2
We all woke up early and had breakfast at the hotel,
...and took the first shuttle to Shanghai
Disneyland from Novotel Clover.
It wasn’t a peak season,
there were very few people,
…and the queue to the
ticket booth was tolerable.
With our horrific
experience for the past five days in Shanghai
and the Chinese locals
seem not to comprehend the principle of
waiting for one's turn. We
decided to upgrade our tickets at the
Guest
Services to buy Disney Fastpass for the major attractions.
This may be the reason why
it is only in Shanghai Disney
where one could buy as
many Fast Pass Tickets as you can.
This would not assure that
no one would squeeze in on the
Fast Pass
lane but shorter lines, equates to longer tolerance.
This is one
advantage of Shanghai Disneyland compared
to other
Disney parks as guests had an option to purchase
as many
Fastpass tickets as they want to avoid the queue.
Our main
goal for our first day in Shanghai Disney
is to
complete all the major Fastpass attractions.
We then posed for few obligatory photos at the portal.
While this area is usually a train station in other
Disney Parks, this one is not, as the Shanghai Disney
does not feature the classic steam railroad locomotive.
We also took photos at the Mickey Avenue.
…the park's equivalent to Main Street, U.S.A.
It was is inspired by Disney’s
popular cartoon characters,
…as well as iconic Disney movies.
At the end of Mickey
Avenue is the Storytellers
statue,
which depicts a young Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse,
…that leads to The
Gardens of Imagination.
We caught the last part of
Fantasyland’s
Mickey’s Storybook
Express musical parade.
…as we turned right to Adventure
Isle-
…counterpart to Adventureland in most
of Disneyland Parks in other countries.
We queued at FastPass lane of the popular Roaring Rapids.
a river rapids ride through the land's towering Roaring Mountain.
We we’re appalled when a group of youngsters still pushed their
way in front by cutting us on line despite that there very few
people as the FastPass lane.Someone also grabbed my
daughter’s raincoat after the ride without asking for permission.
The same thing happened at the Soaring Over the Horizon,
where a family of four cut us on line again in an almost
empty
FastPass lane where it was only my family and them on queue.
Soaring Over the
Horizon is a simulated hang gliding flight
experience across the world. It is an all time favorite Disney ride
for my family, and the counterpart of Soarin’ Over
California
in Anaheim and Soarin’ Over
the World in WDW Orlando.
We then passed by The
Camp Discovery, took our
photos at the entrance but decided not to go there,
…and proceeded to the Treasure
Cove Zone.
Themed to an 18th-century harbor town in the Caribbeans
inspired by the classic movie the Pirates
of the Caribbean.
We immediately queued at the Pirates of the Caribbean:
Battle for the Sunken
Treasure, the zone’s main attraction.
This audio-animatronic dark boat ride is the hi- tech and
modern update
of the classic Pirates of the Caribbean found in other Disneyland
parks.
My son was drawn to Siren's
Revenge,
a shipwreck-themed
interactive play area
set aboard a wrecked French galleon.
We walked around the Shipwreck Shore,
…and watched the Explorer
Canoes sailing by.
We then decided to gp Fantasyland,
…and caught the tail end of the
Magical Disney Parade
along the way.
We then proceeded to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train,
...which was teeming with people and we were thankful
we didn’t have to wait very long as we have a Fastpass.
It was noontime when we finished the ride
so we decided to have lunch at The Barn.
It is a farm themed restaurant at the Fantasyland,
that offers farm style cuisine on the menu.
While theme parks are not usually known as
‘foodie’ destination. but since Disney opened
a Flavor Lab, in WDW Orlando dedicated to
food research and
development for its parks,
Disney dining anywhere in the world has lately
became an awesome culinary experience and
the food at The Barn
was of no exemption.
After lunch we caught Winnie
the Pooh
coming out from a meet and greet kiosk,
…my young son Tim approached the lovable Disney Bear,
…and they walked hand in hand along the way-
…to the Many
Adventures of Winnie the Pooh,
It was already past noon when we passed by the theater
staging
For the First Time in
Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration.
It was a perfect relief fromthe scorching noontime sun,
and turned out to be an awesome musical as well.
After the show, we went to the nearby
Voyage to the Crystal
Grotto,
…a boat ride around and under the castle,
…. that takes guests past scenes
from popular Disney movies.
We then headed to Tomorrowland.
This is probably the most futuristic-themed
land
among Disney Parks around the world with the
ultra- modern looking Tron Lightcycle Power Run
Jet Packs as the most visible attractions at the portal.
The kids got in the Jet Packs ride,
…Shanghai’s more modern take of
Astro Orbiter in other Disney
Parks.
We then tried the TRON Lightcycle Power Run
- an adrenalin pumping re- invention of Space Mountain
found in other Disneyland Parks
around the world.
Unlike the other Tomorrowland in
other Disney Parks,
Shanghai’s
version does not have the Space
Mountain,
and instead is home to TRON Lightcycle Power Run,
an indoor Tron- themed high speed
motorcycle roller coaster.
We then queued ar the Buzz
Lightyear Planet Rescue,
a variant of Buzz Lightyear dark
rides in other Disney Parks,
It was already late in the
afternoon when
we left Tomorrowland and we have
already
visited all the major Fastpass attractions.
We walked our way Mickey Avenue,
…bought bread and pastries at the
Park Bakery
…and settled ourselves on a bench
at the Garden of Imaginations,
…to watch the light and fireworks
display-‘
“Ignite the
Dream, A Nighttime
Spectacular of Magic
and Light.”
After the fireworks display,we walked our way back, to
the parking area, and took the shuttle back to the hotel.
We had our dinner at the Food Exchange,
…Novotel Clover’s
in house restaurant,
…and enjoyed the massive spread of
Chinese and global dishes at the buffet.
We retired to our room near midnight
and all had a good night sleep after an
exhilarating day in Shanghai Disney.
Day 3
We we’re more relaxed on our third day as we have already
completed riding all the major Fastpass attractions the day
before..We woke up late, had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel-
…and took the shuttle to Shanghai Disneyland.
The Disney
Town,
...all the way to the park portal looked deserted.
There were also very few
people at the Mickey
Avenue.
After arriving at the Gardens of Imagination,
we heard the announcement that the Disney’s
Magical Parade was about to begin in few minutes.
So we positioned ourselves at the curbside of
Mickey Avenue
and Gardens of Imagination,
…to watch the parade.
Our place was perfect,
…and we enjoyed watching the
parade without any obstruction.
Mulan has the
most elaborate and
the most ornate float in the parade.
It was preceeded by medieval Chinese Army
marching in a
perfectly choreographed unison.
It was a sight to behold.
Then came the gigantic float with Mulan
astride a huge vegetarian- bodied horse-
… filled with numerous intricate
Chinese symbolic figures and objects.
Without the popular and traditional Disney Princesses
like Cinderella,
Snowhite and Belle in the
parade,
and the emphasis of the more massive oriental float, it
is clear the Mulan takes the lead in Shanghai Disneyland.
After the parade, we crossed
to the Gardens of Imagination,
…to see the Marvel Universe.
It is a meet-and-greet pavilion
featuring Marvel characters,
…and Marvel Super Heroes.
We explored the Gardens of Imagination for a while,
…then passed by the Adventure Isle,
…on our way to Treasure Cove,
…to and queued at the Fandango Theater, to watch the
Eye of
the Storm: Captain Jack’s Stunt
Spectacular,
…a stunt show inspired by the
Pirates of the Caribbean movie.
We returned to Adventure Isle,
to watch Tarzan:
Call of the Jungle,
…a breathtaking live acrobatic stage show.
We then had a sumptuous
lunch at The Tribal
Table-
…a tropical forest themed restaurant where guests
could dine, jungle style in Shanghai Disneyland.
After a heavy lunch, we relaxed
by the at the Shipwreck Shore,
…and contemplated on riding the Explorer Canoes.
We finally decided that to
sit and relax by the shore,
…watching the canoes sailing by.
We then crossed the Fantasyland,
… on our way to Toy
Story Land.
This zone is the Shanghai Disney’s first expansion,
…and the kids queued at the Woody’s Round Up
a horse and wagon spinning Teacups-style ride.
We then tried the Slinky
Dog ZigZag Spin,
which is a modernized caterpillar ride.
From the Toy Story
Land, went to
the Enchanted Storybook Castle.
We explored the largest castle
in any Disney theme park,
… and the only functional castle
as it offers several attractions,
We then rested at a bench, .while the kids
queued at Dumbo, the Flying
Elephant.
It was already late in the afternoon when we called it a
day.
We walked back to the Mickey Avenue,
…just like this morning, it was almost empty.
We decided to shop for some souvenirs.
There were also very
few people at the portal,
…so we took the chance
of taking our photos,
…and walked our way to
Disney
Town to have dinner.
We have been is Shanghai
for the past eight days,
…and today is our penultimate day in the city where we
have been eating nothing but Chinese food for a week-
…so we decided to dine in Wolfgang Puck.
Wolfgang Puck is one of our favorite restaurant,
.so we always take the chance of dining in this
wonderful steak house whenever we see one.
It was a perfect culinary conclusion to our
almost two weeks Shanghai family vacation.
We returned to to the parking area
to catch the shuttle back our hotel.
It was srill early in the evening and we still have a lot of time
to pack up and prepare for our trip back home the next day.
Day 4
It was our last day in Shanghai,
we are all packed and
ready to go for our early afternoon flight back to Manila.
We had breakfast at the hotel and took a
free shuttle to Pudong International
Airport,
…and arrived just in time for lunch.
We had a sumptuous lunch at Acting Café,
…and we were boarding our plane right after.
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This Shanghai trip
was my second time to visit mainland China
after two decades. Despite the country’s leap to first world
modernity Shanghai, I observed lagged in terms of civility.
Chinese locals seem not to
comprehend the principle
waiting for one's turn. Someone
would always try
squeeze in from hotel check- in counters, taxi queues
and subways. Curing our nine- day stay, there was not
a day that we were
not bumped off while queuing.
Chinese people have the are gross penchant
of spitting
anywhere and everywhere even on
trains, hotel lobbies,
restaurants and even carpeted
theater floors. They would
later step on it and rub the
spittle with their shoes probably
in a sickeningly futile attempt to
clean up disgusting mess.
We once took a taxi with the driver who has
been cleaning his
ears non- stop while driving .He later
unrolled his ear cleaner
which happened to be a paper bill
and used it as a change.
Another taxi driver kept on
spitting on the cab's dirver's side window with his
expectoration ending up splattered on the glass of the
car’s backseat window.
Some mainlanders are rude. While
in a restaurant, my wife
went to the toilet for a while and
left her handbag and shawl
her chair to signify that it was
occupied. However and elderly
lady yanked them out, placed on top
of our table and took the
chair without asking for
permission. I was there all the while
I just stared in disbelief for the
brazen display of disrespect.
There was also an instance that my
daughter’s raincoat
was grabbed from her without
asking for permission
as we went out of the Roaring
Rapids river rapids ride.
These Chinese bad manners seem acceptable and normal
like they were part their cultural identity and tourists
should just bear their unpleasant habits, grin and have fun.
Indeed, despite all the unpleasant experience
of vulgar uncivility, we had fun in Shanghai.
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Shanghai Disneyland Series
