Shanghai Disney with young children - 1.5 days or 2 days?

[qy206]

Hi, my 2 boys will be 4 and 6 at the time of our visit. They are not thrill seekers so will only be interested in the mild rides but will want to see the shows and parades.

We will be flying in from HK on Sunday 26th Oct and the plan right now is to stay 1 night at the Disney Hotel and make Monday 27th Oct our main day at the park. My kids don't have much stamina so I doubt we'll take advantage of early entry so I was wondering if it might be worth buying half day entry on Sunday 26th Oct upon arrival. My worries are that given it's a Sunday, it might be super busy in the afternoon and also that all the DPAs/priority for shows might have sold out by then. Do you think it's worth it to enter the park late afternoon on a Sunday?

I would like to avoid staying 2 nights at the Disney Hotel so the other option I was considering was paying for 2 days access and commuting in from Shanghai centre but arriving after the morning rush on each day i.e. arrive at 9am or 9.30am.

Any advice would be much appreciated. This is our first visit to any Disney park and my main aim is for my kids to enjoy it rather than rushing them around to see everything and making them really tired. Thanks!

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

All I can advise you on is my own anecdotal experience. Not sure if we have any SDL regulars here.

I went on a Saturday back in September last year and I was very surprised at how dead the park was even on a weekend. Pirates of the Caribbean was a 5-minute wait all day for example. I would just check the Chinese public holiday calendar and ensure you're not going during a holiday.

I went for 2 days and I felt it was the perfect amount of time, using the first day to ride everything and the second to re-ride favorites, do shows and take in details. But keep in mind this was for a single adult who is very experienced with theme parks.