Park Explosion Day | Shanghai Disney Travel Notes (Part 1)

/ Park Day /

Shanghai Disney Travel Notes (Part 1)

In fact, I have wanted to write this travelogue about Shanghai Disney during the May Day holiday for a long time, but I have been busy (actually due to procrastination) and have postponed it until now. Catching up with the sudden epidemic, I have to quarantine at home during the wonderful summer vacation. Before I forget some details, I will write this article quickly. On the one hand, I will increase the KPI. If it can give some reference to friends who plan to go to Disney during the National Day holiday, Better. I hope that the epidemic will have passed by then and everyone can travel normally.

The original plan to go to Disneyland was last year. I planned to go there while my eldest son was not in elementary school yet and could take time off from kindergarten to avoid the peak tourist season. As a result, due to the epidemic, the eldest son went to elementary school, and my teammates and I didn’t have much time off. We had to take advantage of the epidemic to slow down and make the brave decision to take the two children to Disneyland during May Day.

1. Download the Disney app. This is very important. You can book tickets and bind them to the app. You can also book hotels, purchase exclusive cards, concierge services, receive appointment waiting cards, etc. The most important thing is that we can check the queuing time of each item and what time the performance starts, which can help us save a lot of time.

2. Disposable raincoat. If you want to go rafting on Leiming Mountain, you must prepare a raincoat. Otherwise, you will get wet from head to toe. I prepared a raincoat, rain pants, and shoe covers for full protection from top to bottom.

3. Jacket. During May Day and National Day, Shanghai is very hot during the day and the temperature will drop at night. Especially if you want to watch the light show, you have to stay after 9 pm, so a jacket is very necessary.

4. Make a reservation in advance. Due to epidemic prevention and control, even if you buy a ticket, Disney needs to make a reservation in advance.

5. If you are a family with two children, or have older children, it is recommended to rent a car like this outside the park in advance. You can also put things in it. You can rent it on a certain treasure. Because the cars in the Disneyland park are strollers, older children cannot ride on them. We didn't rent, so the boss suffered a little.

In addition, there are some matters mentioned in the online guide. Here are some of my opinions:

1. Headband. When doing the guide, someone said that you can buy headbands online because Disneyland is too expensive. This varies from person to person, because Disney headbands are very finely made. You can tell at a glance that you bought a headband from outside. You have come here. It is also good to buy a headband inside as a souvenir. After all, you have paid for such an expensive ticket.

2. Regarding bringing food. As for what was said on the Internet, that you cannot bring food to Disneyland, it has been changed to now that you cannot bring cooked food, but you can bring some bread and snacks. You can bring a water bottle and water can be collected in the park.

3. Regarding packet-free channels and single-person channels. It will indeed reduce the queuing time, but it is not practical to bring children, and young people are casual.

4. Regarding various strategies on the Internet to complete all the projects before what time. I would like to say that it is still possible in normal times, but it is unlikely on a park-busting day, and it is not practical to use an early access card, because there are so many people queuing up to get an early access card on a park-breaking day that it makes you doubt your life.

5. Power bank - There are power banks in several fixed locations in the park. It is not that convenient to borrow them. If you have a power bank, you can bring it with you.

Due to time constraints, we only arranged one trip to Disney. Considering that there are so many people, adults and children would be overwhelmed after playing in one day, so we decided to play for two days on May 2nd and 3rd, one day to play the main events, and the other day to stroll around to watch the performances and play other events as supplements.

I looked at the prices of several Disney hotels on Ctrip. Since there were four of us, we either stayed in a family room or got two rooms. Considering that we were staying for three nights, I felt that the price/performance ratio of Disney hotels was really not high. I also compared some family hotels outside Disney and found that the prices were much cheaper. Finally, I found a hotel that looked pretty good in the photos. I did it directly with air tickets + hotel. The round-trip air tickets + 3 nights hotel for 4 people totaled 8,700+. It felt better than traveling around Beijing. It was even cheaper, and I was very happy that I saved money.

Because we had two children and we knew there would be a lot of people, we decided from the beginning that we could avoid queuing as much as possible. By doing some planning in advance, you will know that there are several ways to reduce queues at Disney.

The first method is to purchase the guided tour service, which is a full VIP tour. You can purchase it 14 days in advance. The price on the park opening day is 15,000 yuan for 3 people to enter the park. If there are more people, you need to pay more. I was directly persuaded to leave. But I couldn't buy it even if I wanted to, because the app said it was sold out, and I had to lament that there were still many rich people.

The second method is to get a reservation waiting card for popular items, but since it is first come, first served, it is not safe. Later, it turned out that Disney canceled the reservation waiting card on the day when the park was full.

The third option is to purchase an exclusive card. The Disney app provides package purchases of 6 items, 3 items, and individual purchases. Packages are definitely more cost-effective than single items. The disadvantage is that, for example, in a 6-item package, there may be one or two items that we will not play, because our whole family is afraid of exciting items, and we decided not to play exciting items from the beginning. In this case, we can make a combination and buy a 6-item package. If there are other items we want to play, we have to look at the queue for this item that day, or purchase a single-item or 3-item exclusive card. But the biggest problem with the exclusive card is that it must be purchased on the day of travel, which means that if we cannot get the exclusive card on the same day, we have to queue up.

Another way is to purchase concierge services, which are available in classic and deluxe packages. The classic package includes express admission to the park, exclusive card services for 8 of the most popular events (the deluxe package has 12 types), and reserved viewing spots for daytime floats and nighttime light shows. There are 8 projects, among which there are one or two exciting projects that we cannot play, and there are almost all other projects that we want to play. What attracts me the most is the quick entry and reservation of a spot. You have to know that on busy days, it may take several hours just to queue up to enter the park. The most important thing is that this concierge service can be purchased on the Disney app 7 days in advance. Although it is more expensive than purchasing the exclusive card package - the classic package is priced at 1,420 yuan on the day of the park, and the deluxe package is 2,185 yuan - I still feel that it is a good value. value. So, I decided on a plan. One day I would buy concierge service to enjoy popular attractions, and another day I would buy an early morning pass to skip the queue and use the reservation waiting card to refill it (actually there was no reservation waiting card that day). However, I underestimated everyone’s enthusiasm for traveling and the difficulty of getting tickets.

In the middle of the night 7 days in advance, I took my mobile phone and started to swipe tickets. From 12 o'clock to about 2 o'clock, the page basically reported errors. I could only swipe the tickets occasionally, and I couldn't pay. Finally, after 2 o'clock, it showed that it was sold out. A long time later, I saw online experience that it was impossible to get the classic package, but it was still possible to get the deluxe package. It seemed that the previous guide was not enough.

Since I couldn't get a ticket in the middle of the night, I started looking for guides online and learned that I could find scalpers on a certain website. I asked three stores one after another, and the first one told me that they couldn't get the items on numbers 2 and 3, and then they ignored me. The second company simply didn’t reply to me. I called the third one directly, and the other party told me that it was impossible for me to grab the tickets. The scalpers used dozens of mobile phones to grab the tickets, but they didn’t get the concierge service on the 2nd. They only got the early access card. Let’s see if we can get No. 3. I said I needed concierge service for one day on the 2nd or 3rd and an early morning card for the other day. The other party gave me two prices for the concierge service. One was 1,800 yuan. There was no guarantee that I would be able to get it. If I couldn’t get it, I would give it to me. Arrange early access card + exclusive card + someone to occupy the float position in advance. One is 2,200 yuan, and they are guaranteed to get it. If they can't get it, they will find other scalpers to buy it, because the scalpers who can get it will grab a few more sets for internal transactions. The principle is this, one ID card can buy 8 sets of concierge services at one time, and the process of grabbing one set of tickets is the same as grabbing 8 sets of tickets. For example, my family only needs 4 sets of tickets, and they buy 8 sets of tickets at once, and the remaining 4 sets can be sold to other customers or traded to other scalpers. Later, it turned out that there were four strangers listed under my ticket. We will talk about this later. 2,200 yuan is already more than the price of the deluxe package of 2,185 yuan. It is equivalent to the price of the deluxe package that I paid for the classic package service. However, at the moment, I have no other choice but to agree.

I asked again that I needed an early morning pass for another day, and they said yes. An early access card cost me 300 yuan (149 on the official website). At this time, I didn’t care about the 1200 yuan. After all, most of it was spent. So in the end, the price was 2,500 yuan per person and the total price was 10,000 yuan. Compared with the price on Disney’s official website (1420+149), it increased by nearly 4,000 yuan. This price does not include tickets. In the end, the scalper bought me an early morning card on the 2nd and concierge service on the 3rd.

I did the math and found that I had lost money. If I had stayed at a Disney-owned hotel, I could have at least saved the money on the early access card and enjoyed the service of entering the park at any time. The hotel front desk also provides concierge services and privilege card purchases. I can buy concierge services at the original price. Even if I can't buy it, if I buy tickets at the hotel, I will be given an exclusive card for an item. I can also enter the park in advance and then buy an exclusive card. The hotel also provides corresponding space to watch the light show. From this point of view, almost all the money I saved on booking hotels has been given to scalpers. Moreover, there are many inconveniences in staying in hotels outside, which will be discussed later.

Here is a little tip. If you buy an early access card just to enter the park, you are not in a hurry to play the activities, and you don’t want to be too early, you can arrive at around 7:40 (the park will open early on busy days, and the early access card is at 7 o’clock, which is normal It's 8 o'clock). Because most people who buy early access passes want to play a few popular sports early, so when the park opens at 7 o'clock, they may queue up at 5 o'clock. The park opens to ordinary tourists at 8 o'clock, so 7:40 to 8 o'clock is the time period with the least number of people entering the park.

At this point, the preparations for the Disney trip are almost complete. After all the verbosity, in summary, I did not save money on the trip, but sacrificed the convenience of staying in Disney. As for whether to buy concierge services and exclusive cards, it all depends on your needs. If you can’t get the classic concierge service package, you might as well try to grab the deluxe package. At the same time, please continue to pay attention to the next article in the series. Disney, here we come!