Shanghai Disneyland Resort — Attraction in Shanghai

I arrived at the parking lot and walked about 20 minutes to the park entrance. There’s a Mickey fountain at the entrance. Security checks are similar to other Disney parks; selfie sticks and tripods are prohibited and must be left in lockers, while food and drinks are generally allowed.

Entering the park is unique here—you scan your passport, which also serves as your park ticket. You’ll receive a paper ticket with a QR code for reservations, like the Standby Pass for Mickey’s Storybook Adventure. I reserved the 11:40 a.m. show.

After entering, I visited Carefree Corner to confirm my Personalized Magical Photo Session, choosing the 4:00 p.m. slot. I then stopped by Avenue M Arcade to buy some Mickey ears for photos and queued up for Mickey’s Storybook Adventure at 10:40 a.m.

Shows

Mickey’s Storybook Adventure This indoor show takes you through Disney stories with 23 characters. Mickey and Goofy discover a magic book, encountering Olaf, Baloo, King Louie, Moana, Mulan, and others along the way, with live music mainly in Chinese and some English songs.

Golden Fairytale Fanfare An outdoor show in front of the Enchanted Storybook Castle featuring Snow White, Elsa, Anna, Jasmine, Aladdin, Ariel, Merida, and more, with English songs.

Mickey’s Storybook Express A 14-minute character parade with numerous Disney favorites.

ILLUMINATE! A Nighttime Celebration A projection mapping show at the Enchanted Storybook Castle with fireworks, fountains, lasers, and Disney and Marvel characters.

Dining

Mickey & Pals Market Café

• Ma La Tang Noodle Soup with Prawn and Beef (¥119) + Dumplings (¥30) - Spicy, tongue-tingling soup with beef slices and shrimp. • Roasted Spring Chicken with Vegetables (¥129) - Sweet, roasted chicken with a tomato-edamame side.

Barbossa’s Bounty

• Barbossa Feast for 2 (¥299) - Grilled squid, ribs, and chicken with two servings of rice; overall, it has a sweet flavor.

Zootopia Market

• Disney Zootopia Pawpsicle (¥45) - A sweet and tangy fruit popsicle, perfect for a warm day.

Rides

Pirates of the Caribbean Battle for the Sunken Treasure A boat ride through scenes from Pirates of the Caribbean, with forward, backward, and rotating movements. The visuals and sound effects are impressive, and there’s a small wave toward the end, but it’s not intense.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train This ride has a single rider lane, but wait times are similar to the main queue (~1 hour). I bought Disney Premier Access for ¥180, which saved a lot of time. The train takes you through the dwarves’ mine, providing mild thrills.

Soaring Over the Horizon Similar to Disney World and DisneySea, this flight simulation ride takes you over global landmarks with scents like grass and ocean waves for an immersive experience.

TRON Lightcycle Power Run Experience riding a TRON motorcycle. You lean forward on the bike and hold onto handlebars, speeding along a thrilling track that’s still accessible for younger guests.

Zootopia: Hot Pursuit A trackless ride where you pursue runaway sheep from Zootopia. It’s fun, and the single rider line is very short, so I didn’t need to wait.

Photo Session

After the parade at 3:30 p.m., I headed to Carefree Corner for my photo session. The photographer spoke Chinese, so I used Google Translate to communicate. I requested locations like Gardens of Imagination, Castle Area, Castle Balcony, and Zootopia, and we took photos throughout. With 30 minutes left, I requested to visit Treasure Cove. We wrapped up the session with 100 photos, which were available for download that evening. Note: photos must be downloaded within 90 days, or they’re deleted...

I was very impressed with the Shanghai Disneyland Park, and my family had a great time there. Highlights for me were the Tron, the Rapids, and Pirates of the Caribbean rides, which we all absolutely loved. The parades and fireworks at the end of the day were also fabulous. For our older kids, I felt there weren't as many big rides as the Paris resort, but there was plenty to see and do.

We visited on a Friday, and I had a lot of anxiety about our pre-purchased tickets and getting entry to the park. However, it turned out to be quite a smooth process, and I wouldn't have been concerned if the communication was better. Although I had the tickets on the park app, they only seemed to need my passport number to see our tickets. FYI you need to bring your physical passport with you.

You definitely need to have the app downloaded; as well as providing a map of the Park with your GPS location, it provides information on all the ride status's and times which is really useful. It also has a timetable of all the events, but the timings were definitely off, so we missed the start of the parade.

The park was busier than I expected for an off-peak week day in October, but queue times were acceptable. We queued for about an hour for big rides like Tron, but got very lucky with some of the other rides, queuing for maybe 30 minutes or less. A couple of rides had queue times exceeding 2 hours for the entire day, so we chose not to queue for them.

The food at the park is expensive, and you'll need WeChat or Ali Pay to purchase them in most cases. I think I only used cash for smaller purchases like drinks and ice creams.

The toilets are well maintained and clean, but as a warning, they use a lot of the "squat toilets" on the ground, which was interesting...

When we visited, there were a lot of "influencers" there. They are dressed in costumes, normally a Disney princess, and have photographers following them around. They are literally everywhere, but they do highlight some good photo opportunities. They also don't seem to go on the rides!

Leaving the park, you may be wise to leave at least 30-60 minutes before the park closes. Everyone will suddenly leave at once, and the volume of people is staggering. We decided to get a taxi back to the hotel because it was so busy, and it was surprisingly efficient and fast to do so. Google translate and a card for your hotel address is advisable, as none of them spoke English.

I would definitely...

The happiest place in Shanghai! It’s the official Disney palace in China. The mouse kingdom has transformed the industrial area in Pudong, Shanghai into a wonderland.

There are 2 Disney Resort hotels surrounding the area: Shanghai Disneyland Hotel and Toy Story Hotel. Both are not directly attached to the park like Grand Californian. But as usual their occupancy rate is 90% in average.

Normal park opening hours is 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. This park embraces new technology as part of their flexibility. For example, FastPass can only be used and reserved through the Shanghai Disneyland Resort app, and it’s only available once you enter the park. They even have a timer for when you can take another FastPass.

Shanghai Disneyland has 7 themed areas: Mickey Avenue (the mouse king really loves your wallet), Gardens of Imagination, Fantasyland, Treasure Cove, Adventure Isle, Tomorrowland, And Toy Story Land. They are planning to build Zootopia Land sometimes soon.

In the morning you can find Mickey and friends eager to take pictures with you around Mickey Avenue. Whereas there are several places specially designed for characters such as Marvel Captain America and Spiderman. The morning dance at the Enchanted Storybook Castle is pretty neat and happened twice in the morning. The parade is fun and happened twice in a day. But the craziest line time is for the 8:30 p.m. fireworks show.

As for the rides my favorite has to be Pirates of the Caribbean, just an amazing mixture of water ride with projection mapping story telling plus the sunken boats And the battle against the Kraken. No other pirates ride in all other Disneyland around the world comes close. And of course I must say Tron for the motorbike and rollercoaster fans out there. I went three times in a day for this wonderful ride in Tomorrowland. Honorable mention is the one and only Adventure Isle’s Camp Discovery Challenge Trail. I don’t think this attraction will be allowed in any other Disneyland, it’s a rather dangerous one. Soarin is also available here, but the line is crazy. My suggestion is either you do a FastPass early or go in line early for Soarin.

The food in Shanghai Disneyland is absolutely amazing for Disney standards, especially the Chinese cuisine. Don’t forget to grab a bite of Turkey Leg here, they are so juicy compared to...