I hope this is the appropriate place for my review of the Asian Parks so if it’s not, feel free to move, mods!
Arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport after a 13 hour flight from Chicago. Not too bad of flight on American in their business class (used miles). First two days were spent exploring Shanghai. One of the things I was looking forward to besides Disney on this trip was the incredible skylines of Asia. I’m a building nerd and Asia is full of building , so to speak. Unfortunately, the smog made viewing the skyline difficult. Major bummer! I visited Tai zi Fung (former French concession), Yuyuan Garden, The Bund, People’s Square and had some street food during the first two days. All of this took place under the gloom of China’a smog problem. It’s depressing.
Day 3 and 4 - Shanghai Disneyland-
Shanghai Disneyland Hotel-
We stayed the first night at the lovely Shanghai Disneyland Hotel. Really great service, the hotel staff opened doors, never let us handle our bags, walked us everywhere. Can’t say enough great things bout that. The room was nice, although not over the top. I don’t think the rooms hold a candle to top Disney deluxe resorts elsewhere but it was pretty great. We had a theme park view that, again, was shrouded in the gloomy doomy smog. Tear.
Hotel 7/10
Service 9/10
We had diner at Aurora. A restaurant that has the best service I’ve encounter anywhere. Unfortunately the food wasn’t so. It wasn’t even good. The service made up for it though. It was almost like art. Can’t even put into words how the night went down.
15/10 service
3/10 food
Toy Story Hotel-
Second night was at the Toy Story hotel. This place surprised me. Best “budget” Disney hotel ever. Rate was 82 USD. Room was upgraded. Staff was incredible. Maybe best Disney staff I’ve ever encountered. Reminded me of Disney resorts in the early 90s. You know, when they took care of you...
I love this resort and would easily choose it over the Disneyland Hotel. It’s not luxurious and it’s not my taste but it gets everything right. The rooms, the shower, the beds.
Hotel 9/10
Service 10/10
While we were eating at the quick serve at this hotel, the head of Disney food and beverage company wide, plus the heads of food and beverage for al three Asian Disney parks were touring the resort. We chatted awhile. Great people who gave us a lot of insight and asked us so many questions. Greta experience.
Let’s go see Mickey-
A short ride to the park on the nice bus transportation (WDW, please take note) and we were dropped off outside Disneytown to be greater by Starbucks. Can we not move beyond this place. I love it so much too but I don’t need it as if it were water. Anyway, we walked up to the turnstiles around 2pm, headed into the park for the reason we came.... PIRATES! We waited 45 min as the park was MK on a Saturday during the holidays, slammed. We’re talking 3 hours for Soarin, SDMT and the water ride. Tron was well above 2 hours as well. We bought fast passes. We weren’t about that life. We came to ride rides and see the park. So we did. Lines can’t hold us back!
The park is huge, vast empty open spaces. The castle is giant and beautiful as is the area leading up to it. Disney did a great job in this area. That area before it though is not that good imo. I missed Main Street so much that when I stepped foot in HKDL I breathed a sigh of relief. It’s like Magic Kingdoms 101. It needs to be there Shanghai!
Tomorrowland is nice. I like the change of pace.
Toy Story land is meh. Whatever there.
Fantasyland is the worst of any castle park I’ve been to, which at the time of writing this is all of them but Tokyo which happens tomorrow. There just nothing there. So bland, so boring. Where’s the Disney?
The pirates and adventure isle sort of blend together for me. Some of it is nice but the sight lines sort of ruin this place for me. The entire park is just wide open and the foliage is so small. Disney is the master of brining in larger trees. You’d think 5.5 billion dollars would have bought a few more mature trees. I can see the highway and power lines from inside the park.
Anyway, let’s talk pirates. After all the baby Jesus reviews about this ride and the best ever titles given, expectations were on level 10. The ride is great. Better than great. It’s not Pirates of the Caribbean, though. It’s something else. The ride system is genus. The pacing is not. At times part of the ride feels so next level and at other times it does not. The ride vehicles definitely favor the front row. Tiered seating would have been helpful here! I feel like the ending was rushed and the final sequence is ruined by the lift for the drop. Why not start the ride higher and have the lift after the drop?? That’s how this imagineer wannabe would have done it. Let talks the queue. It was bland, boring, basic and (b)pedestrian. This was not designed by the team that’s been behind the past 5 years of Disney attraction. It’s bad.
Ride 8/10
Queue 2/10
Tron-
My favorite ride at the park. Yes it’s short but the queue is great, the ride experience is unique and the building is awesome. Everything about this ride oozes cool and sophistication. It almost feels like something universal would have built at IOA and it seems like it will be similar but compliments space mountain well at MK. People will love this attraction. Honestly happy that we are getting this over Pirates. I’d like to see that ride with a different theme though.
Ride 9/9
Queue 9/9
SDMT, Soarin and Pan are all the same for the most part. Soarin has a better queue that both US parks but SDMT feels like it was built on the cheap compared to MKs version.
Fireworks show is decent. Not better than HEA though.
Park guests are not great. They cut, the spit, they smoke, they run, the throw trash everywhere.. yea it’s all the things I had heard. It’s not unbearable but it’s not what you’re used to.
This park needs work. Pirates and Tron do not make a park. Soarin is the most popular thing and it leaves one thinking that pandora will come to SHDL who’s in desperate need of more attractions. Toy Story land wasn’t even hardly busy 3 days after the grand opening. Food and Merchandise need major help too. The other notable thing is the infrastructure is huge. Disney planned for this place to be big and they were right. They will build a second park here sooner than most think.
Rides 6/10
Castle 8/10
Nighttime entertainment 7/10
Guests 2/10
Food 3/10
Merchandise 4/10
Overall 6/10
HKDL review coming next...
Arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport after a 13 hour flight from Chicago. Not too bad of flight on American in their business class (used miles). First two days were spent exploring Shanghai. One of the things I was looking forward to besides Disney on this trip was the incredible skylines of Asia. I’m a building nerd and Asia is full of building , so to speak. Unfortunately, the smog made viewing the skyline difficult. Major bummer! I visited Tai zi Fung (former French concession), Yuyuan Garden, The Bund, People’s Square and had some street food during the first two days. All of this took place under the gloom of China’a smog problem. It’s depressing.
Day 3 and 4 - Shanghai Disneyland-
Shanghai Disneyland Hotel-
We stayed the first night at the lovely Shanghai Disneyland Hotel. Really great service, the hotel staff opened doors, never let us handle our bags, walked us everywhere. Can’t say enough great things bout that. The room was nice, although not over the top. I don’t think the rooms hold a candle to top Disney deluxe resorts elsewhere but it was pretty great. We had a theme park view that, again, was shrouded in the gloomy doomy smog. Tear.
Hotel 7/10
Service 9/10
We had diner at Aurora. A restaurant that has the best service I’ve encounter anywhere. Unfortunately the food wasn’t so. It wasn’t even good. The service made up for it though. It was almost like art. Can’t even put into words how the night went down.
15/10 service
3/10 food
Toy Story Hotel-
Second night was at the Toy Story hotel. This place surprised me. Best “budget” Disney hotel ever. Rate was 82 USD. Room was upgraded. Staff was incredible. Maybe best Disney staff I’ve ever encountered. Reminded me of Disney resorts in the early 90s. You know, when they took care of you...
I love this resort and would easily choose it over the Disneyland Hotel. It’s not luxurious and it’s not my taste but it gets everything right. The rooms, the shower, the beds.
Hotel 9/10
Service 10/10
While we were eating at the quick serve at this hotel, the head of Disney food and beverage company wide, plus the heads of food and beverage for al three Asian Disney parks were touring the resort. We chatted awhile. Great people who gave us a lot of insight and asked us so many questions. Greta experience.
Let’s go see Mickey-
A short ride to the park on the nice bus transportation (WDW, please take note) and we were dropped off outside Disneytown to be greater by Starbucks. Can we not move beyond this place. I love it so much too but I don’t need it as if it were water. Anyway, we walked up to the turnstiles around 2pm, headed into the park for the reason we came.... PIRATES! We waited 45 min as the park was MK on a Saturday during the holidays, slammed. We’re talking 3 hours for Soarin, SDMT and the water ride. Tron was well above 2 hours as well. We bought fast passes. We weren’t about that life. We came to ride rides and see the park. So we did. Lines can’t hold us back!
The park is huge, vast empty open spaces. The castle is giant and beautiful as is the area leading up to it. Disney did a great job in this area. That area before it though is not that good imo. I missed Main Street so much that when I stepped foot in HKDL I breathed a sigh of relief. It’s like Magic Kingdoms 101. It needs to be there Shanghai!
Tomorrowland is nice. I like the change of pace.
Toy Story land is meh. Whatever there.
Fantasyland is the worst of any castle park I’ve been to, which at the time of writing this is all of them but Tokyo which happens tomorrow. There just nothing there. So bland, so boring. Where’s the Disney?
The pirates and adventure isle sort of blend together for me. Some of it is nice but the sight lines sort of ruin this place for me. The entire park is just wide open and the foliage is so small. Disney is the master of brining in larger trees. You’d think 5.5 billion dollars would have bought a few more mature trees. I can see the highway and power lines from inside the park.
Anyway, let’s talk pirates. After all the baby Jesus reviews about this ride and the best ever titles given, expectations were on level 10. The ride is great. Better than great. It’s not Pirates of the Caribbean, though. It’s something else. The ride system is genus. The pacing is not. At times part of the ride feels so next level and at other times it does not. The ride vehicles definitely favor the front row. Tiered seating would have been helpful here! I feel like the ending was rushed and the final sequence is ruined by the lift for the drop. Why not start the ride higher and have the lift after the drop?? That’s how this imagineer wannabe would have done it. Let talks the queue. It was bland, boring, basic and (b)pedestrian. This was not designed by the team that’s been behind the past 5 years of Disney attraction. It’s bad.
Ride 8/10
Queue 2/10
Tron-
My favorite ride at the park. Yes it’s short but the queue is great, the ride experience is unique and the building is awesome. Everything about this ride oozes cool and sophistication. It almost feels like something universal would have built at IOA and it seems like it will be similar but compliments space mountain well at MK. People will love this attraction. Honestly happy that we are getting this over Pirates. I’d like to see that ride with a different theme though.
Ride 9/9
Queue 9/9
SDMT, Soarin and Pan are all the same for the most part. Soarin has a better queue that both US parks but SDMT feels like it was built on the cheap compared to MKs version.
Fireworks show is decent. Not better than HEA though.
Park guests are not great. They cut, the spit, they smoke, they run, the throw trash everywhere.. yea it’s all the things I had heard. It’s not unbearable but it’s not what you’re used to.
This park needs work. Pirates and Tron do not make a park. Soarin is the most popular thing and it leaves one thinking that pandora will come to SHDL who’s in desperate need of more attractions. Toy Story land wasn’t even hardly busy 3 days after the grand opening. Food and Merchandise need major help too. The other notable thing is the infrastructure is huge. Disney planned for this place to be big and they were right. They will build a second park here sooner than most think.
Rides 6/10
Castle 8/10
Nighttime entertainment 7/10
Guests 2/10
Food 3/10
Merchandise 4/10
Overall 6/10
HKDL review coming next...