Shanghai Disneyland- Saturday, August 6, 2016

     All through the winter and spring as we were planning this trip, we were keeping an eye on news from Disney.  For a long time, the website only said that Shanghai Disneyland would be opening sometime in Spring 2016.  We were getting a little nervous.  When they finally announced the opening date of June 16, we cheered because we knew it would be open when we were here.

     A quick breakfast at the hotel, and we caught the taxi in front, and we were off.  Since we've been here, we've gotten conflicting reports of whether we should have tickets before we arrive at the park or not.  We didn't have any luck when we tried to buy them online, so we put our faith in the plan that you'd be able to buy tickets bu the front gate like at any other Disney park.  You can, and we did.

     The castle at this park seems larger than at others and has a pinkish color to its "stone."  "Mickey Avenue" takes the place of Main Street, U.S.A. here.  It's a little more cartoony and a lot shorter than usual.

     We turned left to Tomorrowland.  The first ride of the morning was one unique to Shanghai- the Tron Lightcycles.  It's a roller coaster where the riders are on motorcycle-like vehicles like in the movie.  Tron seems to be an odd choice for a ride theme.  The original is so old that our girls hadn't heard of it or seen it, and the more recent sequel didn't do that well.  Anna and Emma rode this one, while Julie and Scott waited by the exit.  The girls gave it  a "thumbs up."

     Then in Tomorrowland, we went on "Buzz Lightyear's Planet Rescue," which was fun.  It's basically like the Buzz Lightyear rides at other parks where you shoot lasers at targets as you ride through.  Emma's score was way higher than all of ours.  She's vicious.  Anna then wanted to get her picture with Stitch.  He posed "kissing" her.

     Crossing from Tomorrowland to Fantasyland, we only knew that we had left one part of the park and entered another because of the sign we passed.  Otherwise, the walls and trees and open spaces looked nondescript.  The park itself seems a lot more spread out than most, perhaps to have room for new attractions to be added, but it did seem like things were very far apart.

     "Peter Pan's Flight" was next.  It's a ride that has pretty long lines at any of the parks.  It was similar in its to the other versions in its layout but seemed better done in the details.

     Next up in Fantasyland, we got on to the "Voyage of the Crystal Grotto."  There was absolutely no wait, and we didn't know what to expect, but it is one of the highlights of the morning.  It seems to have been inspired by Anaheim Disneyland's Storybook Land. A "Jungle Cruise" type boat takes you past fountains that recreate scenes from Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Fantasia, Tangled, Mulan,  and The Little Mermaid.  Oddly, the "Crystal Grotto" cave at the end seemed anticlimactic after the rest of the ride.

     The Alice in Wonderland maze seems similar to the maze in Disneyland Paris, but with a few differences.  First, this one is based on the Tim Burton movie, not the classic Disney animated one (and with Johnny Depp's Mad Hatter character conspicuously absent).  Second, it didn't seem as long or as intricate as the one in Paris.  Still, we had fun.

     Julie wanted to go to the "Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh" next.  It was a lot like similar rides at other parks.

     So far, it had been a very enjoyable morning.  It wasn't as crowded as it might have been, but we were all getting a little annoyed at getting jabbed by passing umbrellas.  (Except Emma, who seems immune to them because of her height.)  The Chinese carry them everywhere to keep the sun off.  Even the men carry pastel frilly ones.  If Disney is going to ban "selfie sticks" in California, they should really look into the umbrella problem here.

     But the morning was fun.  It was only around lunch time that our ordeal began.  We're obviously veterans of Disney parks, and we know how to deal with the heat like you can get in summer in Florida.  You keep watered, obviously, and you eat a long lunch in one of the several large air conditioned restaurants.

     Therein lies a huge problem for Shanghai Disney.  There are not enough places to eat.  There is not enough Western-style food available, but even ignoring that, there are not enough restaurants in general.  And most importantly, there are not enough air conditioned places to sit and eat.

     On the map, Julie saw a place that served German-style bratwurst, but it was on the far side of "Treasure Cove," the land dedicated to pirates.  It was hard to find because it's basically just a window like you might buy ice cream from.  Worse yet, when we got there it was closed. 

     Julie studied the map again and found a place that serves pizza back in Fantasyland.  But like the other, it was only a window, with absolutely no place to sit.

     We found a ledge to rest on while we ate the pizza, but we were baking in the sun while we did.  We watched as people were being turned away from the sit-down restaurant nearby that served Chinese food.  Even if we wanted to eat there, we couldn't have, and we were turned away too when we tried to just go in to get more to drink.

     We were all having a hard time from the heat now.  Someone suggested that we shop in the shops on Mickey Avenue, but there still wasn't much air-conditioning, we weren't sitting, and we were hardly able to look at anything because we were so hot.

     If anyone is reading this blog for tips on visiting Shanghai Disneyland, here's one secret you probably won't find anywhere else.  The doors to the Town Hall are not real.  They are located on the west side of Mickey Avenue, and are the first on the left as you enter the main gate, or the last on the right as you are leaving.  In the afternoon, the steps of the porch are in the shade, and since the doors aren't really being used, you can sit there for a long time.  We stayed there for at least an hour and a half, maybe two hours, while we tried to cool down.  Anna went twice and brought us water.  We watched visitors coming in, but we saw a heck of a lot more leaving.  A few asked to take pictures with us, because we looked like Disney characters, we guess.

     Once we felt like we could handle it again, we went back to trying to experience the park.  We got our family picture taken with a statue of Walt and Mickey in front of the castle.  The photographer had Emma pose holding up "peace" signs.  It's a very Chinese pose, but not very Emma-like.

     We wanted to see "Soaring Over the Horizon."  It's an updated version of the "Soarin'" ride that we enjoy so much at other Disney Parks.  However, after we made our way back to the far side of "Adventure Isle" (Shanghai's version of Adventureland), we found it was 180 minute wait.  None of us were interested in a three hour wait.

     We went to "Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle of the Sunken Treasure," which seemed promising because it has a whole "land" built around it called "Treasure Cove."  When we got there we found that the ride was broken down.  We were almost ready to break down too.  We got some Gatorade at "Mickey & Pals Market Cafe," but there were no seats inside to be had.  People who had found some in the air conditioning there did not want to leave and more than a few were taking naps.  We did find a shaded table outside, and Anna even found the energy to jump up and get her picture taken with Goofy and Pluto.  But we were beaten.  Reluctantly, we called it a day.  It was only a little after 3;00 when we left the main gate.  We had planned on probably staying until about 8:00, but we hadn't really done anything since noon.

     We did visit the World of Disney store on the way out.  Scott was disappointed that there wasn't a "Shanghai Disneyland 2016" pin available, but the family still found things to buy anyway.

     We found a taxi to take us back to the hotel.  The driver was a real character.  He didn't speak much English, but he wanted to try to practice what he did know with us.  He noted that Emma was an Asian child because her "What do you call this?" [hair] was like his.  He wanted to talk politics.  "Trump" (which he said as "Trimp"), "Bah-bah-bah-bah" (has a big mouth) and "doesn't like Chinese workers."  He was happy that Julie taught him the word "destination" from the card we had to get back to the hotel.

     We collapsed in our rooms, but Julie and Anna eventually found enough energy to walk to a nearby Subway to bring back subs for dinner.   And that's all we had the time or energy for, here on our last day in Shanghai and our last day in China.  Tomorrow, we make the long trip back home.