[Birthday trip] Day 02 : Shanghai Disneyland

Good Morning, Shanghai!

Our room stay was inclusive of breakfast, and we headed down to the café to enjoy a sumptuous breakfast buffet.

Before leaving the hotel, we decided to walk around the premises for some nice bund views. We book our Didi Taxi to Shanghai Disneyland directly from our hotel and the ride was about 45mins and cost us about SGD20.

The biggest reason for us to visit Shanghai was because of Shanghai Disneyland! In order to complete visiting all the Disneyland parks in the world, both Baby and I decided to make our first long trip to China to be Shanghai just for this very reason. We have never been to China for more than 5 days, although we did go to Shenzhen for a day trip during a previous Hong Kong holiday. 

It was also a good thing that our first long China trip was to a big city like Shanghai, as Baby is not a fluent mandarin speaker. At least, people in Shanghai do know how to listen or speak simple English!

I was anxious that going to Disneyland was going to be a challenge, especially with the lack of local etiquette as seen on social media platforms. To our surprise, there were no rude people at all, and my worries were ultimately non-founded.

People in Shanghai were unbelievably polite! There was no pushing or furtive line cutting. Way to go Shanghai!

We downloaded the ‘Shanghai Disney Resort’ app on our phone prior to our trip. This app was useful, as it shows the queuing/wait times required for the various rides & photo-taking with the adorable Disney characters around the park. The app was a boon as it helped to prioritize the rides to fit the schedule. This is especially useful for guests who are not buying premier access passes!

We always love taking the rides at the park, especially the thrilling ones. Since baby got us fast passes, we saved a huge amount of time from skipping the long queues. YES! We completed all the major rides in parks, but we omitted going on some of the kiddy rides as well as going to dine at sit in restaurants with Disney characters photo taking.

I was particularly interested in riding 3 particular rides - the newly updated Pirates of Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure, the highly-raved Zootopia: Hot Pursuit and the TRON Lightcycle Power Run.

Shanghai Disneyland’s Zootopia area was outstanding and pretty well done. Do make sure you visit it both in the day and at night to indulge in the different vibes of Zootopia.

I feel that Shanghai Disneyland was fully committed to craft out Zootopia when designing the place, in order to achieve a perfect replica from the big screen! Everyone who visits Shanghai Disneyland will definitely want to enter the Zootopia World, and this is the sole purpose visiting Shanghai Disneyland. When we were there, it was swarming with people taking and posing for pictures at every corner of Zootopia land.

The Zootopia: Hot Pursuit was a very popular ride in the park, and as expected, the wait time was at least a good 150mins, but with our passes, our wait time was just 15mins!

The ride ends at Gazelle’s concert, which must be the most life-like animatronic I’ve ever seen. The movement of Gazelle was absolutely perfect.

It was a really great area they have created. I really wish I could have seen the land on a quiet day because some of the little details looked amazing. Zootopia land is worth a visit as you will be fully immersed in the experience!

The Pirates of the Caribbean Ride was awesome, which has an updated/newer version than the other parks around the world. Shanghai’s version takes the classic attraction to the next level with a trackless boat system that totally blew my mind. I was wowed by this ride!

We ate at the Stargazer Grill Classic Burger and Chips located in Tomorrowland. The restaurant was filled with an Inside Out theme. The food prices and portions in China were very reasonable.

We loved the Interactive Mugs that featured Angry from the movie - Inside Out and Sulley from the movie – Monster, Inc. The price that we paid for our drinks allowed us to take the mugs home!

We were lucky to catch the parade in time. it was a great opportunity to get close to my favorite characters!

We had an amazing time at Disney.Pixar Toy Story Land!

We enjoyed the outdoor scenic boat ride at Voyage to the Crystal Grotto.

We purchased a Shanghai Disney Passport from one of the souvenir shops and we collected stamps from the stamp kiosks located throughout the park.

We had our dinner before continued our stamp kiosks hunting. Yes! We finally completed our stamp book, and it was almost time for the firework show....

There were many photo opportunities at the Alice in Wonderland Maze!

We walked back to the Didi e-hailing area before the fireworks ended just to beat the crowds! Our time was well-spent at the Shanghai Disneyland.

Baby ordered our dessert supper via Meituan App, and he picked it from the designated Meituan’s locker located at our hotel lobby. 

The dessert was still piping hot even though it was a delivery instead dining at the eatery place! Kudos to all the people involved in our ordering!

These are the things we picked up from the park, and thanks for reading up on my experience in Shanghai Disneyland! Do stay tuned for the next post of my Shanghai vacation!