Thursday 28th December, 10am, we arrived at the end of subway line 11 “Disney Resort”.
We walked to the entrance, showed the lady our tickets the Disney app and here we go, welcome the happiest place on Earth: DisneyLand.
The first thing to do, it’s of course buying the Mickey Mouse Ear, to show off our style on our WeChat Moment.
So we can say, we are now like Mickey! We continued to the entrance street and were able to see the park’s main attraction: the Enchanted Storybook Castle, the largest castle in Disney history and we can tell you, it is!
Here we are, in front of the Castle, checking on the park map on the app. By the way, let’s focus on it. We can’t deny that apps make life so much easier, and having a Disney app makes a visit to DisneyLand so much better. The Shanghai DisneyLand is very good.
Why? Because it provides interactive maps and waiting time estimations, while also offering you information on where to get Fastpass tickets and providing an online catalogue of Disney merchandise available throughout the park.
Let’s talk about our three best attractions:
Pirates of the Caribbean
Here we are on the boat to discover the “Battle for the Sunken Treasure”. The combination of real sets and virtual projections helps create a richer experience. At some point, the boat as well as some of the virtual armada on the ocean floor seem to rise and pierce the surface of the water, in the most spectacular way.
That’s followed by a rollicking fight sequence, completed with cannon fire and swordplay, between Jack Sparrow and Davy Jones. We clearly were quite literally caught in the middle of the battle. The experience on the boat is on a grand scale and involves technology that has never been used before.
It includes a highly advanced propulsion system that provides unprecedented control over the position and rotation of boats carrying guests through large, dimensional set pieces combined with large-scale media screens.
Tron
Do you like intense sensations? Let’s change world, direction tomorrowland. Who says change of world says total change of scenery and atmosphere.
Futuristic music and attraction of the future, everything is there to make you feel like in 2050! The huge attraction Tron, which contains the latest technology, with an outside side where we can hear passengers and see that they are in a supine position, like on a motorcycle at full speed!
50 minutes of waiting, and we finally arrived in front of his neon blue motorcycles.
First time in this position on a sensation attraction = little (big) apprehension!
3, 2, 1 let’s go! (and it’s mind-blowing!) No looping but good curvatures, we would had liked that it last longer and especially do it again and again!
So that’s what we did at the end of the day, twice! Around 18:30, there was no more than 15-20 minutes of queuing, it was perfect.
Soaring Over the Horizon
As for the two previous attractions, virtual reality is very present, and this is the principle of this attraction!
After a long wait, we arrived in a room where we sat on a seat. We were projected 4m above the ground, in front of a giant screen that scrolls 3D videos of the most beautiful monuments around the world. Seats moved according to the movement of the video and you could even smell the fresh grass!
The illusion is perfect, it’s like flying over the Great Wall of China and rubbing the Taj Mahal!
So a tip, brave the 1:30 of waiting line, it’s really worth it!
To conclude our amazing day, we would like to quote the Disney CEO and Chairman Bob Iger : “Authentically Disney but distinctly Chinese”.