It’s official! After much planning and preparation (and finding time off work), Stella and I will be heading to the two Disney resorts in China, Shanghai Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland, this April. We’re super excited and can’t wait to visit the two newest Disney resorts and the last two on our list. Once we complete the visit, we will have seen all 12 Disney parks, giving this blog a bit more credibility for all your Disney needs.
What to expect at Shanghai Disneyland? The resort in Shanghai is Disney’s newest resort, which opened in 2016. At just under 1000 acres for the park alone, it is Disney’s largest castle park, and largest overall (the entire Disneyland Resort is around 500 acres).
With its massive size, comes the largest Disney castle, Enchanted Storybook Castle. With a restaurant, walkthrough and a ride, the castle dwarves anything in comparison and is a tribute to all princesses, rather than just one.
The park also hosts a list of state-of-the-art attractions, some that cannot be found at any other Disney park. For example, TRON Lightcycle Power Run replaces the traditional Space Mountain found in other Disney Tomorrowlands (it will open at Magic Kingdom in Florida in 2021). Instead of the slow Pirates of the Caribbean boat ride common throughout the world, Shanghai hosts Battle for the Sunken Treasure, an epic battle through the Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise where the audience actively plays a role.
The park also features traditional rides, such as Peter Pan (although upgraded) and Winnie the Pooh, along with Soarin and Dumbo. For one park, the resort offers a great lineup of rides to bring Disney into the 21st Century. In other words, we are crazy excited to visit and cannot wait. Shanghai has been a no-brainer since it opened with its ride lineup.
Outside of the park, we will be staying at its flagship hotel, the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel for two nights. Upon arrival from Beijing via the bullet train, we will head straight to the hotel to check in, before heading to the park. Shanghai Disneyland only offers one- or two-day park tickets and we will spend a half day in the park on check in day and a full day the next day.
The Shanghai Disneyland Hotel looks gorgeous, with its Art Douveau theme (over the Victorian theme seen at Disney World, Tokyo Disney, Paris Disney and Hong Kong Disney). Strangely, this will be our first time staying at a resort’s flagship hotel, as I am not a big fan of the flagship hotels at the other parks (except Tokyo).
Prices were on par with a deluxe resort at Disney World (minus discounts). I’m not used to paying full price for a Disney hotel due to my passholder or military discounts, so it was odd paying full price for a room. Fortunately, the resort allows you to cancel your hotel room three days in advance with a full refund. So, if a discount does appear and it works for our travel dates, we will go ahead and grab it.
One important note on tickets, they can only be purchased at maximum thirty days out from your trip. They also follow a flexible price structure, with some days’ worth more than others. As a guest of the hotel, we are guaranteed entry and a hotel Fast Pass.
Lastly for Shanghai, we decided to add the Disney Concierge Services to our stay. For about $100, the service gives us early entry to the park, Fast Passes to every ride that offers it, premium seating at the park’s counter service restaurants, vacation planning and reserved seating to Mickey’s Storybook Express show and the fireworks show.
I was planning to buy the Fast Pass package for all the rides anyway (Disney Premier Service). I know you don’t necessarily need them for all rides and can easily get through the day without buying the Fast Passes. But, for the sake of convenience, I would buy it anyway to make our trip that much easier and we can still use the free Fast Pass system for even more ride experiences.
What pushed me to buy the Concierge package was the vacation planning help, which could be useful, and reserved viewing areas for the fireworks show. I’ve read horror stories of the mass of people that gather to watch the show and the need to find a spot at least an hour before the show starts. As we are only in the park for two days, I don’t want to waste time trying to find a spot in the massive hub of the park. I rather just pay some extra money and have a guaranteed spot. I thought about reserving a table at Aurora, the restaurant at the top of the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel, but it costs more than this package and this one offers a lot more perks.
And once we both Chinese parks, we did it. We visited every Disney park in the world. It’ll be an incredible experience; one we can cherish for the rest of our lives. But it won’t be the end. Disney is throwing billions of dollars into its parks, for new attractions and experiences. Which means only one thing, we have to do it all over again! And we most certainly will. On top of our regular visits to the two US resorts, which resort will we see next?
Easy, the Tokyo Disneyland Resort. Hands down the best Disney resort that exists. I doubt the Chinese resorts will top it. Tokyo is just too strong. Plus, by the time of the Tokyo Olympics, the resort’s two parks will have a slew of new attractions and experiences, with all calling us back!
Thanks for reading! I will keep everyone updated on our vacation planning and of course let everyone know about our visit to Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneyland. We are excited to visit Disney’s two newest resorts and finally cross off every Disney park from our list! Stay Tuned!
