Sunrise pics are a bit different to the usual ones from around there ; good work!
Thanks.
You'll see some more of the "typical" shots later on, too.
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Day 1 – Shanghai Disneyland
Right then, let’s get to it. First up, Disney.
Any easy (albeit it reasonably long) ride on the metro from where I was staying (fairly central) and I was at the park’s station. Took the advice of the announcement on the train and picked up a ticket for the return trip – turned out to be a good idea as it was rammed later.
The entrance to this park was a bit strange for one so new. They had hundreds of meters of temporary barriers set up channelling people in to the first queue (for the security checks). Fine – I thought – they must take it all down at the end of the day so people can flood out of the park. Turns out that’s not the case, they were all still there when I was leaving. Why haven’t they got something a bit more permanent installed then? Just made the whole thing look a bit scruffy, which is a shame, because once you’re in the park that’s not the case at all!
Anyway, first impressions over it was time to join the scrum of a queue for the security check.
Crikey.
I’d pre-bought my ticket online, although seemingly so had everyone else as the actual ticket booths had no queues. Once I got to the turnstile (just showed my confirmation number) he gave me a ‘proper’ ticket and let me in.
Tip for anyone going – download the app and scan your park ticket (QR code) as soon as you can. It lets you manage your fastpasses and stuff all through the app. You can reserve your fastpass spot right away, which is much easier than making the mad dash to the physical fastpass machines. I did this and bagged the massively popular Soaring for later in the day.
So, here’s some pictures of the entrance and approach to the castle:
I haven’t been to a Disney park in… 15 years (!), so there was something quite ‘magical’ about the approach.
As I’d reserved a Soaring fastpass for much later in the day, I decided to head clockwise around the park, with TRON cred anxiety taking hold a little bit. Walked towards Tomorrowland and was instantly impressed by the feel of the place – the huge canopy and the noises from TRON set a lovely atmosphere.
Buzz Lightyear was on the way to TRON, and was listed as a walk-on, so I headed in to that first. In simple terms just a dark shooter, but I really liked the way the targets were presented and the accuracy of the blasters. I was much less inclined to just spam the trigger, and instead actually focused on trying to hit the smaller (and more valuable) targets. Excellent stuff.
Next on to TRON. The queue was listed as ~10 minutes – perfect! Headed in to the queue and walked through the launch room just as a train was entering. Wow, what a fantastic build up to the coaster! The lights, the sounds, the trains, all of it works so well. It was a very impressive section of queue. I took some better photos later, so you’ll have to wait for now.
Then it was through to the station itself (it was indeed about a 10 minute wait), which also had a lovely aesthetic. I particularly liked how the lights on each bike ‘energised’ individually when the restraint was closed. A small, but nice, touch. Again, better pictures later.
On to the ride itself then. The launch was good, more powerful than I was expecting (especially towards the end), made better by the launch room and associated lighting and audio effects. The outdoor section was nice, but the indoor section is where this coaster was really excellent. The mirrors, screens, theming objects, all made this really impressive. My only criticism is that it would have been nice for there to be a little more of the coaster given over to the interactions between your train and your rivals. There were a couple of wonderful scenes (especially the mirrored wall), but it would have been cool for them to play up on that a bit more. Still, a great coaster.
They were running it pretty well (I suppose as expected from Dinsey), so there were plenty of trains going round for me to take some pictures of.
On the way out I wandered through the catch-ily titled “Chevrolet Digital Challenge” and did their motion-capture thing. Meh…
Made my way round to Seven Dwarfs, as the next major attraction and final cred. Unfortunately, the single rider queue was closed, and the wait time was approaching 60 minutes, but the queue wasn’t too bad and kept moving steadily. Their estimation was about right, however, and an hour later I was on the ride. Another coaster that looked lovely, rode really nicely and was all in all a great ride. It did feel quite short, but it was high quality, so…
After taking some more pictures, I moved on to Pirates of the Caribbean – another hotly anticipated ride for me. On the way, walking past the queue for the teacups. Might be the longest queue for the teacups I’ve ever seen!
Why would you do this for the teacups?!
Now round to Treasure Cove, which has a lovely entrance looking over the lake, and a nice approach up to Pirate of the Caribbean.
No pictures from inside Pirates, but holy ****. That ride…
I mean, in all honesty that’s probably the best non-coaster I’ve ever ridden. The scale, the detail, the quality, all of it is incredible. I can’t really find the motivation to write a huge detailed review, there’s almost too much for me to be able to discuss, but I think everyone who’s ridden it (or maybe watched the POV) will agree it’s spectacular.
By the time I was finished with Pirates (and a bite to eat at one of the small food stalls), the stunt show was nearly about to start, so I took a bit of time off my feet for that. On whole, pretty good. I have to admit it was a little slow going at first (admittedly maybe in part due to it all being in Chinese so the longer sections of dialogue seemed to drag on), but the final few stunts – especially the indoor wind tunnel stunt – were really impressive.
From Treasure Cove I continued my walk round the lake to Adventure Isle. I liked this area of the park – I liked the tropical feel to it all. I’d decided to get a fastpass for Roaring Rapids (the queue was getting up towards 90 mins, but I did want to give it a go), so headed that way next.
Unfortunately the ropes course thing was closed, but it looked excellent!
Roaring Rapids was pretty good. Not too much splashing, I have to admit, but the landscaping and theming details were really nice. I also liked the final big drop – they’re always surprisingly scary!
I had a little bit of time before my Soaring fastpass time slot, so headed towards the castle to try out the “Once Upon A Time” Adventure ride (short queue) and the maze while I waited. Both reasonably pleasant attractions, but I can’t say I’d do them again. Both just felt like lots of walking – I’d already done loads of that – maybe just not my thing.
The castle looks great.
The park was very busy – don’t know if that’s normal or not. Shanghai is massive, so I guess it must be busy often.
Slightly terrifying.
Perfect timing, my time slot at Soaring had just opened up.
Thank goodness I got the fastpass! 165 minutes!
Soaring was excellent – as I had expected. The quality of the screen, the movement and the smells were all really well executed. These rides always impress me in their scale, although I often don’t love the ride experiences themselves (they don’t ‘wow’ me), but I have to admit this was one of the best ones. I’d say it was marginally better than Voletarium, but possibly only because of the absence of the robot and Eurowings!
I headed for another ride on Pirates (single rider again), which was again excellent. A little bit of stacking in the ride though, we did stop in the battle scene for a minute or so for some reason. Still, top quality stuff.
Then it was a quick ride on Peter Pan (thanks to another fastpass slot allocated through the app), before heading back to Tomorrowland.
This coaster looks so good.
This time I got some better shots of the launch room and station. I think you’ll agree this looks fantastic, but without the sound and dynamic lighting it doesn’t really do it justice.
A back row ride this time, which was better than nearer the front. It’s amazing seeing the whole train twisting in front of you, especially with the lighting on the trains. It also gives you a bit more time to react to all of the various off-train effects throughout the ride. Really wonderful stuff.
I spent 10-15 minutes here taking a break and getting plenty of pictures. Quite pleased with some of these.
This turned out to be one of the hardest to get!
Finally it was time to go and get a spot for the closing firework show – Ignite the Dream.
Ah Disney. So iconic.
Now, the firework show. I’m going to add a few caveats here – it was very good. Very, very good. But… but… I have to admit some (not all) of the projection mapping was a bit crap. Some of the scenes didn’t work terribly well projected on to the highly irregular architecture of the castle. That being said, the music and fireworks were very impressive, and the finale was great.
This was during a Pirates of the Caribbean bit, simulated cannon-fire where they just seem to set fire to the whole thing.
Part of the finale sequence – wonderful!
After the show had ended I joined the droves of people leaving the park. Thankfully managed to avoid getting caught up in too much of the crowds, and thanks to having my metro ticket already I skipped straight past the growing lines at the machines. I happened to end up being on a train that was nearly empty, a welcome break from the busyness of the end of the day.
Back to the hostel and almost straight to bed. I was exhausted!
Shanghai Disneyland: As I said above, this was my first Disney park in a very long time. I was very impressed, really. They really are a standard above most of the rest of the parks in the world, and this one was no exception. The layout was good, it was easy to navigate and the rides are all high quality.
TRON Lightcycle Power Run: By far the best coaster at this park. Not that Seven Dwarfs isn’t great, but TRON really is brilliant. The way the theming and effects work together is highly commendable and it makes for a great ride experience.
Pirates of the Caribbean: This might actually be my favourite ride in the park. It’s probably the best non-coaster I’ve ever done. If you have the opportunity – go ride this ride.
That’s about all I can be bothered to write for this park, so hopefully been engaging enough! Next up: Happy Valley.