Shanghai Disneyland’s Royal Banquet Hall

You know that big beautiful castle that towers over that Mickey built in Shanghai? Well did you know that it contains a big beautiful restaurant?

Shanghai Disneyland Royal Banquet

Royal Banquet Hall is an absolute must-do for royals and non-royals alike! The entrance is on the ground floor of the castle, but after waiting for your table in the most beautifully decorated reception area, you’re escorted to a side room for a photo with one of the princesses – Aurora was so lovely! – before being lead upstairs to the main restaurant

Shanghai Disneyland Royal Banquet Hall

The restaurant itself is comprised of a few different rooms, each one themed to a different classic princess. We were in the Snow White room, but there was also Mulan, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Princess and the Frog, all of which were just totally stunning, but while the princesses played a big part in the design of the restaurant, the characters were a whole other level of royalty!

Shanghai Disneyland Royal Banquet Hall

That’s right, Mickey and the gang were dressed in their fanciest gear to hang out with us while we ate, and eat we did! The food was INCREDIBLE. Its a set menu, with four options for starters and desserts and six main course options, so plenty to choose from! I had the tomato soup, which was delicious, but I didn’t finish it as I knew I’d want to save myself for my main: pumpkin and chicken stew, which was served inside a real mini pumpkin with a pile of Mickey shaped rice! It was such a huge portion but I managed as much as I could, and I’m still thinking about how great it was! Also, I could stuff myself up because the lovely cast member serving us gave us as much time as we needed before bring out our desserts.

Shanghai Disneyland Royal Banquet Hall

But were they desserts or works of art?

Shanghai Disneyland Royal Banquet Hall

Honestly I could not fault a single part of this experience! As well as three courses, drinks were unlimited (although souvenir cups were available for an extra charge) and included tea and coffee, and the bread basket was forever being topped up by helpful and friendly cast members – all of which were so polite and spoke English really well! The price was 368 yuan per adult, plus 15% service charge, which is around £45, or £30 for a child, which was pricey compared to other restaurants in the park, but not unreasonable compared to character meals in the American parks or Disneyland Paris, and I really think it was good value for money considering the quality of food, and the character interactions involved! I also really loved the fact that although there is a princess meet, the main characters are Mickey and friends, making it suitable for all – I know my family aren’t keen on princesses!

What’s your favourite character meal?

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September 5, 2016Lottie 8 Comments

A Look Around Shanghai’s Disney Store

The Disney Store in Shanghai’s city centre is the largest in the world, did you know that? I certainly didn’t until we arrived in Shanghai, and at that point I knew I had to visit!

Shanghai Disney Store

Shanghai Disney Store clock tower

While the exterior of the building is fairly understated, this incredible clock tower is the centrepiece of a large forecourt full of hidden Mickeys and Disney magic, and as for the interior..

Shanghai Disney Store castle

Shanghai Disney Store

A castle. A real little castle in the middle of the store. I squealed. The whole inside of the store was full of magical details, from chandeliers and trees to hot air balloons and pixie dust, and I could have spent all day wandering around that shop!

Sure, some of the merchandise was no different to what you can find in a UK or US Disney Store, but there were also some adorable exclusive and unique products to marvel over:

Shanghai Disney Store

Shanghai Disney Store tsum tsums

The store was actually celebrating its 1st anniversary with these beautiful limited edition tsum tsums – you may have seen in my Shanghai Disney haul that I got the set of mini Minnie and Daisy, but I’m too scared to take them out of the box, ha! They had a huge area of soft toys and tsum tsums, as well as the standard Star Wars and Marvel merchandise, and a whole wall of Disney princess dresses and toys.

Shanghai Disney Store

Shanghai Disney Store
And at night, it gets even prettier! The store is located right in the city’s centre, next to a big shopping centre – if you wanted to make a day of it!

Isn’t this just the prettiest Disney Store?

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August 26, 2016Lottie Leave a comment

Favourite Photos from.. Mickey’s Storybook Express!

For this month’s Favourite Photos from.. it only seemed right to share Disney’s newest parade, from its newest park, so here’s Mickey’s Storybook Express from Shanghai Disneyland!

Shanghai Disneyland Mickey's Storybook Express

Can you imagine being Slinky Dog’s bum?!

Shanghai Disneyland Mickey's Storybook Express

Mine! Mine! Mine!

Shanghai Disneyland Mickey's Storybook Express

Unfortunately during our visit, the spectacular Mulan float I was so looking forward to seeing was out of action so didn’t feature in the parade, but I absolutely loved the Finding Nemo float – especially the seagulls! It was also obviously great to see my favourite royal couple, Flynn and Punzie.

I was amazed at how uninterested a lot of the guests in Shanghai were with the parade; I’m so used to people sitting and waiting for 20+ minutes before parades, but that really didn’t seem to be the case, with a lot of people rocking up just as the music started.

Take me back?

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August 5, 2016Lottie 2 Comments

Shanghai Disneyland – Day 3!

Today was our last day in Shanghai, and after a lie in I was in a bit of a rush to get into the parks, worrying that we’d lost an hour by sleeping. What I’d forgotten was that being a Monday, the park didn’t open til 9..

Shanghai Disneyland Pirates of the Caribbean

Mum and Hannah had decided not to come into the park today, so once Dad and I caught the shuttle bus over, and after bag and ticket check, still made it in just before 9am. We took a bit of a slow wander through the parks on our way to Pirates of the Caribbean, after which we headed back to Mickey Avenue to grab some breakfast at Remy’s Patisserie. There was a band playing in front of the Walt and Mickey statue, which we could watch from where we sat to eat.

Shanghai Disneyland Remy's Patisserie

Next on the agenda was the Dumbo ride, but with an hour wait, we didn’t really fancy that, instead heading back for a final ride on Pirates. If you’ve read the last two days as well, you’ll notice we’ve done this a lot, but it’s so good!

Shanghai Disneyland food

Only having an hour left before needing to meet Mum and Hannah in Disneytown, we wandered back to Tomorrowland, and finished our half-day with a final intergalactic mission with Buzz.

After leaving the park, we grabbed lunch in The Cheesecake Factory in Disneytown, before heading back to pick up our bags and getting a taxi to the airport for the next leg of our trip: Chengdu!

I’ll be of the radar for a few more days now, then once in Hong Kong I’ll be back with access to social media and will bombard you with updates from there, as well as blogging our time in Hong Kong Disneyland! See ya real soon Shanghai!

July 18, 2016Lottie 2 Comments

Shanghai Disneyland – Day 2!

Shanghai Disneyland castle

After sleeping in the comfiest beds, we were up bright and early for breakfast at 7, before catching the shuttle bus from outside the hotel to the park. With a game plan in mind, and having done Tron last night, we headed straight for the next big queue ride as soon as the park opened: Soaring Over the Horizon. Despite a supposed 60 minute wait, as well as having to deal with the queue jumpers, we were in and out within the hour!

Shanghai Disneyland

From there, we went on to Pirates of the Caribbean, which was only a 5 minute wait and still just as awesome a ride as it was yesterday – totally mind blowing! We wandered on through to behind the castle after that, and did the Voyage of the Crystal Grotto; a boat ride featuring scenes from classic princess stories, before going underneath the castle into the crystal grotto. It was a little bit Jungle Cruise-esque, minus the commentary.

Shanghai Disneyland Tangled boat

Next on the agenda was seeing the Baymax Super Exercise Expo, where Hiro and Baymax lead the audience of Tomorrowland through a Big Hero 6 inspired dance. Baymax was a real party animal! It was then time for Golden Fairytale Fanfare, the castle show, so we went to hang out in front of the castle for a bit before that begun; partly to sit down for a bit, and partly to make sure I got a good spot! The show was totally beautiful; the costumes were all amazing and the singing was a good balance of Chinese and English.

Shanghai Disneyland Golden Fairytale Fanfare

Now lunch time, we headed back to Fantasyland, stopping by the Tangled Tree Tavern – a nod to the Snuggly Duckling – so I could take a million photos, before deciding to eat at Pinocchio’s. I had Peking duck pizza, which was not only incredible, but also Mickey shaped! In the Mickey mood, it was time to go and meet the boss himself. He was suited and booted in his best Shanghai suit and we had a big hug!
That exited right by the Marvel Universe area, so we stuck our heads in – mainly so my sister could see what Captain America looked like – and ended up in a Spiderman drawing class, which actually turned out to be a Groot drawing class.. Long story short, I’m not very good at drawing Groot.

Shanghai Disneyland Marvel

With the temperature getting higher, we ducked out of the park for a little while via the little entrance to Disneytown near Tomorrowland. After a bit of air conditioning and window shopping, it was almost time for our Tron Fastpass timeslot, so back to Tomorrowland we went, only to find it was closed.. Basically, when the queue reaches its total capacity, they have to temporarily ‘close’ the ride, which means they stop anyone even entering the line, to let it work its way down a little.

Shanghai Disneyland Mickey's Storybook Express

So instead we did a quick Buzz and went to watch the parade – Mickey’s Storybook Express – which was fab but seemed to be running shorter than usual; I’ve seen photos of a few floats that we didn’t see today! By the time the parade was over, Tron had reopened, so we finally got to make use of our Fastpasses, although it was still about 40 minutes wait!

I was thoroughly sunburnt by this point, so we headed back into Disneytown so I could by all the things on the list I’d made earlier, then headed back to the hotel to aftersun up – I’m basically lobster coloured..

Today has had me a little tuckered out; it’s been a really hot day and I’ve not nearly had enough to drink so I’m not feeling 100%, so I’m signing out early tonight. We’re going to watch the nighttime show from the viewing platform at the hotel and get a proper night’s sleep so we’re raring to go for our last day tomorrow!

Goodnight!

July 17, 2016Lottie Leave a comment

Shanghai Disneyland – Day 1!

What a magical day!

So this morning we were up at 6.30am to get from our hotel in central Shanghai to the Disney resort area – although there was a bus that ran from nearby, we decided to get a taxi to save a bit of time, which was about £20 to the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel.

From the hotel reception area we could see out across the lake, and there was the castle..

Shanghai Disneyland castle

I cried, obviously.

We caught the ferry across the lake, and spent quite a while in bag checks and ticket check queues, and then we were in! While the park doesn’t have a classic Main Street USA, it has Mickey Avenue which is full of charm and the most amazing little details. The castle show was just finishing, so we headed off to start exploring!

Shanghai Disneyland station

Unlike the classic US park set up, here Adventureland is on the right hand side of the castle, and Tomorrowland on the left, so we started an anti-clockwise loop, with the first ride being Pirates of the Caribbean – a bit of a family tradition. It was a Pirates like no other; completely raising the bar for all the other PotC rides around the world! I won’t spoil it too much, but it was way more than just a boat ride.

Shanghai Disneyland Royal Banquet Hall

From there, we headed into Fantasyland land, did the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ride, and Pooh was actually hanging out outside the exit when we left so we got in a quick cuddle and photo! We then went on to do Peter Pan’s Flight, then went to explore the beautiful Enchanted Storybook Castle, where we were stopped and asked if we were interesting in lunch at the Royal Banquet Hall – the character restaurant inside the castle – how can you say no to that?! It was just the most magical meal; the food was incredible and the characters were in the cutest outfits!

Enchanted Storybook Castle

After feeling thoroughly stuffed, we queued up for the Once Upon a Time Adventure, an interactive walk up and through the castle, with the story of Snow White being told along the way. While I didn’t mind the fact that it was in Chinese – I mean, I know the story! – what really peeved me was the Chinese families pushing in line and children forcing their way to the front..

Star Wars Launch Bay Shanghai

Onwards to Tomorrowland, we queued up for Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue, which sadly meant missing the parade, but the newer technology in the ride made it pretty awesome, and because my mum’s blaster didn’t work on the first go, they let us ride it again! We then headed to Star Wars Launch Bay, which is tucked right out of the way of Tomorrowland, which meant it was really quiet; hello 30 second wait to meet Kylo Ren and R2D2!

With the Tron ride queue over 2 hours, we headed back towards the gardens in front of the castle, with the intention of visiting some of the shops in Mickey Avenue, but instead detoured back into Adventureland to watch the Tarzan show, which was pretty incredible! After doing a few of the shops, we headed back to the hotel to sort out checking into our room!

A few Mickey shaped desserts in our tummies, and we headed back into the park for the nighttime show. We stood in the centre of Mickey Avenue to watch it, with a great view of the castle, but as soon as it began, the crowd just turned into a sea of phones in the air, which was a little saddening as no one was watching it, and none of the rest of us could see it properly, so I moved to the side of the street in the end. The show itself was a classic projection show, like Disney Dreams or Celebrate the Magic, with a few new clips from Star Wars and Mulan.
With most of the crowds heading out of the park, but with an hour of opening left, we pegged it back to Tomorrowland with the hopes of getting into the elusive Tron rollercoaster, and despite advertising a 70 min wait time, we were on and off within 40 minutes and WOW IS THAT RIDE WORTH THE HYPE!! Absolutely unbelievable, such a unique and incredible ride.

Shanghai Disneyland Tron ride

With 5 minutes til park close, we managed to sneak in two goes on Buzz (again) before taking a slow walk out of the park, and popping into World of Disney in Disneytown – the Downtown Disney equivalent area – before catching the ferry back to the hotel!

Shanghai Disneyland castle