As the newest park in Disney’s lineup, Shanghai Disneyland is the culmination
of everything that the company has learned from their international
theme parks. Bob Iger said it best himself: “Authentically Disney, Distinctly Chinese.”
It may be easy for many to write this off as a park that they’d never experience or one that
might not be worth their while, but Shanghai Disneyland has a ton to offer and despite being
only six years old easily exceeds the expectations of many other Disney theme parks around the world.
Located in the Pudong district of Shanghai, around 20 minutes drive from the airport
and around 30 minutes from the CBD. The park is easily accessible via the Shanghai Metro train
system with an exclusive stop available at the resort on line 11. As a fully fledged resort,
Shanghai Disney offers plenty of accommodation options for guests.
Those wishing to stay on-site have the choice of either the larger-than-life Toy
Story Hotel or the glamorous Shanghai Disney Hotel which offers unique park-view rooms.
It’s important to remember that being located in China, many tourists are
required to have a visa before entering the country. However, since January of 2023,
Shanghai has offered a 144-hour visa-free transit policy. This allows eligible foreigners from
selected countries such as the United States to enjoy six days in Shanghai so long as they enter
and exit from eligible ports and stay within the allowed cities and regions. Considering
Shanghai Disneyland’s proximity to the airport and its accessibility via public transport,
this would provide more than enough to visit the park as a stop over to another destination,
but be sure to check your own individual circumstances carefully before visiting.
Despite being a Magic Kingdom style Disney park similar to other Disneylands,
upon entering Shanghai the differences are immediately apparent. Firstly,
despite entering under a train-station style building, the park lacks a train and is the
only Magic Kingdom-style park without one. Heading beneath this you begin walking right
down the middle of Mickey Avenue, this park's replacement for Main Street USA,
which is a mixture of both Main Street and Toon Town. This is a rather shortened street though
and the park soon opens up into the Gardens of Imagination, a supersized hub featuring sprawling
walkways and a number of classic Disney attractions such as a carousel and dumbo.
Sprawling and vast is a theme for Shanghai Disneyland. Talking to Imagineers,
rather obviously, this park was built with the Chinese audience in mind. Part
of their expectations when visiting was that Shanghai Disneyland would be big.
Really big. The park itself occupies 287 acres, which is almost three times
the size of Disneyland in Anaheim which has had a 55 year head start.
This sprawling nature of the park continues throughout. While it may not have the most
attractions of any Disney theme park, it makes up for this via its sheer size,
large walkways and spacious lands which enable plenty of room to move. While the guest-accessible
space of the park itself is similar to others, Disney has close to 1,000 acres to work with
in Shanghai moving forwards. This does mean at times though you can walk a long time between
attractions and not really see a whole lot of anything which some Western guests may not enjoy.
Of course, you can’t talk about Shanghai Disneyland for long before bringing up
its centrepiece - an absolutely enormous castle. The Enchanted Storybook Castle is
designed to represent all Disney princesses. It is the tallest Disney castle anywhere in
the world at 200 ft or 60m tall and inside the castle is a walk-through attraction,
a character dining restaurant and a boat ride that travels in and out of the structure. Some
may not be a fan of the boxy design, but you can’t understate that size.
Other than its sheer scale, the park is best known for its intriguing mix of attractions,
from grander versions of classic Disney rides all the way up to groundbreaking original attractions.
Rides such as Peter Pan may follow the same story beats as the classic attraction but with
much larger rooms, more impressive animatronics, tasteful use of projections and a few extra scenes
thrown in for good measure. In our eyes, this is the correct way to take an iconic attraction and
plus it up with modern flourishes and flairs. This additive design can similarly be seen,
though to less praise, in Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue where the classic shooter-style
dark ride is reimagined in what can only be described as a gritty reboot of the attraction.
Of course, the park has a number of original attractions that put it on the map. The Voyage
to the Crystal Grotto is the first Disney ride in the world to take guests inside the castle.
This enchanting excursion travels the waters of Fantasyland, and as you voyage around you are
greeted by Fanciful fountains and sculptures that at times border on the uncanny valley.
The attraction finishes inside the Crystal Grotto itself, underneath the Enchanted Storybook Castle.
Tron Lightcycle Power Run may now exist at the Magic Kingdom but it was originally exclusive to
Shanghai which still, arguably, has the nicest version of this attraction with the land being
specifically designed for it. Tomorrowland is set across multiple levels all building
up towards Tron. The attraction was chosen as the guests at Hong Kong Disneyland didn’t like
the fact that they couldn’t see that Space Mountain was a coaster from the outside,
which is why this indoor roller coaster features the dramatic bursting out of the grid section
in the first place. This attraction helps to cement a completely new version of Tomorrowland,
more modern and sleek and one that will hopefully prevent the Tomorrowland problem. If you don’t
know what we’re talking about, we expand more on the Tomorrowland issue in the icon in the corner.
But for Disney park fanatics, the real draw for Shanghai Disneyland has to be Pirates of
the Caribbean Battle for the Sunken Treasure, a completely new and high-tech take on the
classic Pirates dark ride. We don’t want to spoil what makes this version so great,
though if you do we’ve got a video on that here, just know it’s the reason a lot of
people put this Shanghai Disneyland on their must-visit list. Elsewhere you have Roaring Rapid,
the only water rapids ride in a castle park and one that has an insanely impressive animatronic,
alongside a number of don’t-miss shows including Captain Jack’s Stunt Spectacular,
Mickey’s Storybook Adventure, Illuminate Nighttime Celebration and a whole lot more.
Despite having never visited Shanghai, we can still safely say this park has a ton to offer,
but it still leaves a big question, who is this park best for? If you live outside of China,
its location makes this a difficult theme park for most people to get to. Ignoring politics,
China is a vast and beautiful country, but it’s not near the top of many tourists' bucket
lists. Despite this, I believe Shanghai Disneyland is perfect for those who want
a taste of what the country has to offer in a familiar environment. China is a layover for
many international destinations, and if you’re interested in Shanghai DIsneyland, you could
easily use the visa-free travel to stop into the park for a day or two before heading on your way.
Just be aware that if you don’t speak Mandarin there may be a possible language barrier,
with the only English in attractions being the safety announcements.
Most Cast Members speak essentially no English but in typical Disney fashion all of them are
happy to help if they can and will seek out more fluent speaking cast members if required.
If you do wish to visit right now and can wait a little bit longer the park will soon be home
to the World’s first Zootopia land and trackless dark ride. Officially there is no opening date for
this land but it’s looking close to completion with the giant Zootopia skyline rising above
the park. The few sneak peeks we have had at this land make it look incredibly unique but
let’s just hope it stays unique to China for a while as it really isn’t needed in Animal Kingdom.
Shanghai Disneyland isn’t for everyone and that’s fine, but if you’ve watched this
video and gone “Dang that looks like a place I want to visit” then chances are it’s for you.
For a lot of people this is the last Disney park they tick off on their checklist so is
it a case of saving the best till last or saving the hardest to get to till last,
that’s up to you. But what are your thoughts? Have you been to Shanghai
Disneyland or do you really want to? Let us know in the comments section down below!
For ReviewTyme, I’m Dom. Thanks for watching.