The day had come and I was excited to finally get a chance
to visit Disney’s newest park in Shanghai.
I underestimated Shanghai traffic, and arrived at the park
30 minutes late, and eventually got in at 10 AM.
I briskly walked all the way to the Adventure Isle Fastpass area.
An attendant was guiding guests through a roped off Fastpass line.
When I got to the front, the Fastpass ride times were
changing every minute and it was like a scene out of World War Z as the locals
were rushing the Fastpass machines. As I was still use to the Western style of queuing,
I was jumped multiple times by different line cutters.
Just when I finally was about to get my first Fastpass of
the day, the kiosk displayed that all the Fastpass tickets were sold out at
10:15 AM!
Since I was planning
on leaving in the late afternoon due to a prior commitment, I wasn’t upset as I
was planning on giving away my fast pass to a lucky park goer, but I did see
lots of angry faces, with some park goers yelling at the poor line attendants,
who do need to a better job of controlling the line.
I headed to Roaring
Rapids, which had already a 120 minute standby time and asked the line
attendant where the single rider line was. Unfortunately, I was told that the
single rider line was closed for the day! Major Bummer!
Undeterred, I then walked to Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure and tried
my luck again and asked if the singer rider line was open. Surprisingly, the
line attendant said yes and opened up another line for me to pass through. I
briskly walked through the entire queue and boarded in a span of less than five
minutes
You can read my full review of the ride here, but let me
just say It is by far the best amusement park ride I’ve ever ridden on!
I decided to go on Pirates of the Caribbean again with a
similar non-existent wait time. Sadly, they shut down the single rider line
soon after, so I headed to the single rider line for Seven Dwarves Mine Train.
While the ride was enjoyable, I couldn’t imagine people lining up 2 hours for
this timid roller coaster. Blame it on the kids perhaps!
At this point it was almost already noon and the Shanghai
summer humid heat was starting make its presence felt. I’d advice guests to
make sure they bring lots of bottled water as I found myself getting a bit
dehydrated during the afternoon.
I decided to trek all the way to TRON and grabbed my first Fastpass
of the day and decided to take a break from walking in the heat and queue up
for Disneyland Shanghai’s other flagship ride. I soon found the best kept
secret in Shanghai Disneyland, and ended up riding TRON 8 times in 90 minutes.
Feeling like a VIP,
single rider line vs Fastpass & general standby line
Afterwards, I decided to quickly take a look at the Star
Wars exhibit.
Darth Vader, charming
as always with the ladies
For the rest of the afternoon I explored the rest of the
huge park and Storybook Castle, which was a bit of a disappointment compared to
its other versions back home.
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I ended my brief
visit with one more trip on Pirates, and climbing on Disney’s first obstacle
course, Camp discovery.
Soon it was time to get back to downtown for my appointment
and I headed back through the entrance and grabbed a Taxi back.
Overall I really enjoyed my visit to Shanghai Disneyland.
The new rides are simply spectacular and the park is so spread out that even on
a crowded day, the density of the crowd is quite manageable.
One of the biggest positive surprises about my visit was the
relatively manageable standby times with a few notable exceptions. It seems
like the Chinese visitors generally prefer rollercoaster type attractions, with
the notable exception of TRON. Based off some of my interactions, quite a few guests
were terrified of going at speeds of over 100 KM an hour, on what looks like a
ride without any sort of harness.
This means almost all the must see attractions at Disneyland
Shanghai had quite reasonable wait times of almost always under 60 minutes. On
the flip side, as I left the park, the Seven Dwarves Mine Train showed a wait
time of 120 minutes!
Also the single rider line queue at TRON and Pirates of the Caribbean
consistently were under five minutes, so if it’s open make sure to take full
advantage of the opportunity!
No queue at TRON
However, there are a few issues that popped up during my
visit, mainly the lack of line etiquette exhibited by many of the locals.
Instead of an orderly line, what you have a general “keep
pushing” mentality in which people are always trying to get ahead of you in
line. If you leave a gap open for a second, someone will try and jump in. This
can result in some rather uncomfortable queuing, especially in the sweltering
humid afternoon.
The best way to combat this if you are a group is to block
the entire line with no gaps that potential line cutters can squeeze through.
An ideal strategy would be to interlock arms.
If you are alone or in a pair, there is nothing much you can
do about this, except adapt like a local and start pushing yourself. It does get
amusing after a while, but for the uninitiated it will be quite an experience
to say the least.
Interestingly enough,
I witnessed at least five times during my visit announcements in Chinese
telling rowdy line pushers to not tarnish the image of the Chinese people and
present a good face for the rest of the world. I could only imagine what
kind of reaction that would get in the states.
The other major issue is the fact that quite a few tired Chinese
tourists were keen on sitting in the shade, and lay out their packed lunch.
This was pretty bad at Cinderella Castle, as I felt like I was walking through
a neighborhood picnic!
However, don’t let these things deter you from visiting as
the new rides are really on a different level. If you’re an amusement park or
Disney fanatic, there is no doubt this park will thrill and entertain.
I have a feeling future amusement park designers will flock
to Shanghai Disneyland to craft their own pieces of magic.
Next Up: How I rode TRON Six Times in One Hour
Previous Article: My guide on how to see Shanghai Disneyland in One Day
