Month: May 2020

By Katy

So I decided some time ago that I wanted to go to Shanghai Disney for my birthday. Unfortunately, Shanghai Disney closed in January for ‘epidemic prevention’. But the other week it reopened so here follows what it is like to go to Disney with epidemic prevention measures in place!

So we are annual pass holders at Disney. We worked out that going 3 times a year was enough to justify this so we bought annual passes in December. Normally this would make going to Disney pretty easy but unfortunately these days we have to reserve in a more complicated manner than getting normal tickets. This resulted in us actually buying tickets as the reservation process was so complicated and we didn’t want to not be able to go. But in the end we managed to both get a refund for those tickets and reserve with our annual passes. Hooray! And of course, being China, the reservation is a QR code.

We got the train over on Friday after work. We were thoroughly prepared for being pulled aside as foreigners but thankfully, perhaps as Shanghai is one of the most multicultural cities in China, that did not happen and so we were able to meet our friends Jane and Ernie in Disneytown before 8. There was a temperature check and a healthcode check and we were required to wear masks but no over the top precautions really. We tried to go to the Cheesecake factory but it was too busy. It only takes one hour to get to Shanghai for us and then one on the subway to Disney due to the magic of bullet trains!

Going to the hotel was more of a headache. It took nearly an hour to check in, partly because of the long queue and also because of apps that we had to inexplicably get. We already had our Shanghai healthcode. Oh and because whenever a foreigner stays in a hotel they have to have their passport photocopied so that they can let the police know where you are. And somehow this took 15 minutes. With Hector running around the lobby like a crazy person. But at least the room was nice! We stayed in a Marriott, somewhat upscale from the kind of places we normally stay but it was my birthday.

So after a pretty relaxed breakfast we got to Disney at about the right time to enter the park at 10.30 (actually we were 5 minutes before our alotted time but we got away with it). They are currently restricting the time that annual pass holders can enter the park and staggering it and we weren’t lucky enough to reserve 9AM. But for as long as this lasts they extend our annual passes making it essentially free to go to Disney. People at this point seemed to be honouring the instructions to leave a gap between their party and the one in front. We hired a stroller for Hector which he seemed pretty happy about in contrast to our trip to Japan where he would constantly try and escape it! I think he has worked out that being in a stroller is a lot less work than walking.

Queues all day were never too bad. The longest queue we stood in was for Pirates at 75 minutes. We managed to do the following rides:

• Pirates (75 minute wait – so much better than the Florida version as it is completely immersive!)
• Tron (60 minute wait but said 40 – but worth it for the sheer joy of this ride!)
• Stitch experience (15 minute wait)
• Dumbo (just Tom and Hector)
• 7 dwarves mine train (FP)

We tried to do the following rides but either queues just did not move or we arrived too late:

• Crystal grotto (apparently 40 minutes but queue stopped moving after that long!)
• Pirates show (arrived too late)
• Frozen show (arrived too late)

Normally shows are not a problem but in the current situation they seem to be operating at 50% capacity. In fact they have only just started having shows at all!

The park is operating at 20% capacity but groups are not allowed to mix meaning that some rides were only loading at about 50% capacity, hence the queues were about the same as normal. This also meant no single rider lines which was unfortunate as this is how Tom and I would normally get so many rides done in one day! The following rides normally have a single rider line:

• Tron
• 7 dwarves mine train
• Pirates
• Maybe some others that I’ve forgotten!

We also had an enjoyable break at the Cheesecake factory. I was thankful all I ordered was one piece of cheesecake even with Hector’s help. Hector also got to go back to probably his favorite part of the park which is not actually in the park. The playground!

Oh and very importantly I finally found some ears to my liking! I have wanted some sorcerer Mickey ones for quite some time but they don’t sell them anymore so these were the best I could do. I love the Fantasmic show which heavily features sorcerer Mickey. All the better for our 20% discount in the shop!

In terms of other epidemic prevention measures Hector got away without a mask and it was possible to have it pulled down most of the time. And most people ignored the ‘don’t stand here’ spaces to the point of bumping into you. But they would not be opening if it was not safe to do so so it’s all really just to make people feel safer in our opinion!

The final part of the day was a buffet dinner at Lumieres. Somewhat stressful as we thought we could get the ferry across to the restaurant but eventually we found the bus. We ate far too much and I got the dubious pleasure of having Happy Birthday sung twice in a row.

One final difference also evident at Lumieres was that characters are not allowed to do photos with guests currently. To us this was pretty welcome as they were only allowed to dance at a distance! We had already seen this with characters in the park waving from the castle instead of doing character meets. No doubt this doesn’t help with queues at other rides as these can be very popular attractions.

I think it is fair to say that we have developed something of an emotional attachment for Disney (particualarly Shanghai Disney). We have both always been into Disney but it really is a magical place! It is our happy place. When asked our favorite castle (ie Magic Kingdom) park we would say Shanghai, perhaps as it’s our home park as well as there being so many unique versions of rides there. So when it was shut for so long, even after we had returned to China, it became something of a symbol of everything that we could no longer do. Being able to go back felt like a sign that the epidemic was finally starting to be truly over.

By Katy

So we finally got permission to leave Hangzhou this weekend. Hooray! So we decided to go to Linhai where you can see the wall. Well, the Southern wall rather than the Great wall but it looks exactly like you imagine the Great Wall to look.

So we arrived on Saturday. Getting to the hotel took longer than expected as we were required to register because we are ‘waiguoren’ ie foreigners. Now the first time this happened it was mildly annoying but not unexpected. However, this or similar things happened at least 3 more times on the trip. When getting tickets to go to East Lake/the Wall, on the train, getting back home. Each time we found the page in our passport showing them we have been here since the 14th of March. I would not call it racism as the people required to do this are just doing their jobs. But it is confusing that people do not seem to know that the borders were shut on the 28th of March. We could only conclude that it is a kind of laziness where they just have not bothered to change the rules. It’s fair to say that by the time we were finally home I was getting very annoyed at the shouts of ‘waiguoren’. For some reason Chinese people seem to think that just because you don’t understanding everything they’re saying you don’t understand some of what they’re saying. Particularly very common words like this. I would not say it makes it impossible to travel, just very frustrating.

On the plus side I had some of the best noodles I have had in China so far.

Generally the food was incredibly cheap in Linhai, cheaper than Hangzhou. I managed to ask for a bowl in Chinese which made me happy. Generally we understood much more Chinese this trip. Frustratingly we cannot always communicate what we want due to tones. Even a simple word like ‘fourteen’ although we did get across ‘March’. But we could understand how to fill in the registration forms so at least we’re getting somewhere. For those not in the know Chinese ‘tones’ change the way you say something but also the meaning. The most common example I know of is ‘ma’. Of course context is important but some Chinese people are unwilling to try and understand foreigners unfortunately even when the context makes it obvious what you are trying to say.

We also went to the old street and to the Pagodas on Saturday. Again this was much prettier than we expected and felt more authentic than Hangzhou.

So on Sunday we went to both East Lake and the Wall. East Lake was rather amusing for us as it is the poor cousin of West Lake in Hangzhou. But actually we both really liked it and its small size made it feel much more peaceful and it was certainly less crowded than West Lake ever is!

The final highlight was walking along the Southern wall. Not the Great wall but pretty much the same thing. Very pretty but lots of ups and downs. Hector was particularly tired.

Until next time!