China: May/June 2018

[Rose Of Dawn]

China is an incredible country, filled with many amazing sights, sounds, smells and people. I was very fortunate to spend almost two weeks here. It can be a real culture shock at times, but if you’re prepared to jump in head first you can have an amazing time.

I wouldn’t recommend visiting China just for theme parks. With all the culture, history, food and experiences you wouldn’t get anywhere else, China has so much more to offer than just roller coasters. But I did visit my fair share of Chinese theme parks whilst out there - and that’s what I’ll be reporting on here. There’s too much to talk about if I focused on the country as a whole, so instead I’m just going to discuss my thoughts on the parks out there.

————————

Xiedao Youle Carnival

Date: Sunday 27 May 2018

My initial plan for my first day in China was to check out World Joyland near Changzhou. It’s a park infamous for being a Warcraft/Starcraft/Islands Of Adventure rip-off. But I did have some concerns on visiting the place, as it’s in a part of China where English isn’t well-known. In fact, outside of Tier 1 cities like Shanghai and Beijing, it’s very rare to come across people who understand English, let alone speak it! So getting around would’ve been a huge issue. My flight into Changzhou was due to arrive Saturday evening, so I was going to make up my mind when I got to my hotel.

Fate decided to make the decision for me, however. My flight to Beijing arrived an hour late, and thanks to a delay getting off the plane, Chinese border control and the confusing labyrinth that is Beijing International, I ended up missing my connecting flight. Thankfully the staff at the airport were very helpful, and Air China arranged me to fly to Changzhou the next day, and put me up in a hotel for the night.

My flight to Changzhou wasn’t until the evening on the Sunday. So I had a few hours to kill before I made my way back to the airport. And after checking RCDB to see if anything was nearby, I decided to make the most of the situation and headed to an amusement park very close by - Xiedao Youle Carnival.

RCDB lists the park as ‘Crab Island Resort’. This is technically incorrect - Crab Island Resort is actually an area of Beijing which has many different venues for all sorts of activities, including horse riding, crab fishing, a weird aquarium, several food halls, a sports venue and also a small children’s park which plays Christmas music in the middle of summer and has a very creepy clown outside it making children cry. It had a knock-off Go Gator, but I didn’t want to waste my time on that. After looking around the area, I finally found Xiedao Youle Carnival, which is tucked away behind a weird building which I believe is an indoor swimming pool.

The park consists of nothing but Chinese knock-off rides; from a Top Spin to a Shoot-The-Chutes, and all sorts of smaller rides one would expect. It also had little tanks kids could drive around in, and random dinosaur models plonked in for no reason. Dinosaur models are very popular in Chinese theme parks.

It has three rollercoasters in total, all of which were open. After managing to purchase tickets somehow (my mandarin isn’t great, their English is non-existent), I got on my first ride of the trip - a knock-off SLC imaginatively named ‘Suspended Loop Coaster’.

If a knock-off SLC sounds bad to you, it’s because it is. Suspended Loop Coaster (great name) is the most painful coaster I’ve ever been on. The restraints are god-awful, it’s slow, it’s rough, and going through the inversions was not a pleasant experience in the slightest. It makes Infusion look like Nemesis by comparison, and that’s not a statement I make lightly considering I hate Infusion. But I’ll never complain about Infusion ever again. There is worse out there - and I’ve been on it!

Gliding Dragon - a knock-off Mack powered coaster with a figure 8 track - was also unpleasant, though not as extreme as the SLC. It felt like it was going to fall apart at any given moment, and was very jolty.

Xiedao’s saving grace was Flying Squirrel, a mouse coaster that was smoother than I expected. Not completely smooth, mind, but not something I felt like I would die on. The ride op was about to disappear off somewhere when I approached but he was more than happy to stick around so I could have a go.

Despite the language barrier, the staff at Xiedao were really helpful and friendly. This is something I found to be common in many of the Chinese parks I visited.

Xiedao is a strange park compared to what we have in the West, but is quite typical of your average Chinese theme park. It’s not a park I can recommend visiting unless you’re in the area and have time to kill like I did.

I didn’t stay for too long - after doing the coasters I wanted to get to the airport to be sure I didn’t miss my flight, so I got a taxi using the DiDi app which is essentially a Chinese Uber. It’s very handy as hailing a cab can be quite difficult in China if you don’t speak the language, and you get a good rate through it.

Luckily I made my flight to Changzhou, and the next day I was off to get my holiday back on track with a trip to China Dinosaurs Park!

 

[Skyscraper]

Thanks for sharing, glad you had a good time.
China never ceases to amaze me.

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

China Dinosaurs Park

Date: Monday 28 May 2018

When one thinks of Chinese theme parks, China Dinosaurs Park is probably the first one that springs to mind. Known internationally for Dinoconda - an S&S 4D coaster- as well as just being a weird place in general, I’m sure this park is on many people’s bucket lists.

China Dinosaurs Park was the reason I was flying into Changzhou in the first place, as I wanted to have as little faff when visiting as possible. That being said, it’s easy enough to get to from Shanghai, as you can take a high-speed train to Changzhou and then get a taxi to the park. Depending on where your hotel is located, this could take at least two hours door to door, but is relatively simple to do.

I arrived at the park just before opening - at 9:00. It was fairy quiet, with just a small crowd of people at the front gate. Before getting to the park’s entrance, you need to walk through Dino Water Town - a Citywalk-like area filled with shops and restaurants, including many western options like McDonald’s and Pizza Hut. I didn’t get the chance to look around, but it was surprisingly well themed from what I saw. All the buildings are big and seemed well-maintained.

The entrance has several good-quality dinosaur models, which represent the weirdness you’ll find inside. Getting in was relatively simple, but did involve going through a security check - including a bag scanner. This is common in China; from going on the subway to entering a skyscraper, security is almost everywhere.

Upon entering the park, I headed straight to the headline attraction: Dinoconda. The ride didn’t open until 9:30, but I waited along with a small crowd to be the first in line.

Dinoconda has a weird queuing system; halfway through the queue, you’re held by a ride host, who will then batch enough people for one train to walk through the rest of the queue (as it’s a wing coaster, this is two groups of 12 down two separate walkways). When you get to the station, you’re put in a pen to drop off your bags and tie your hair back. The host in the station will then give a safety briefing in mandarin, and will double check your hair is tied back sufficiently. Only then will you be able to board the train (you’re not given rows so it’s a free-for-all), and once seated the restraints will be checked at least twice. In total, the time to board the train takes at least 10 minutes, if not longer.

To sum up the ride in one word: INSANE. It’s easily one of the most intense roller coasters I’ve ever been on. But maybe a bit too intense. I’m not sure whether it was because I was feeling a bit weird due to the stressful few days prior, but after the second ride I didn’t feel I could do it again. Normally it takes much more than just two rides for me to call it quits. Even after my second ride on Eejanaika I felt like I could do it again (though thanks to Fuji-Q’s infamous queues, that wouldn’t be possible anyway). I’d argue that Dinoconda is actually more intense than Eejanaika. But a bit too intense for its own good. It’s an incredible coaster, certainly in my top ten, but if you want to do an S&S 4D I would recommend Eejanaika over Dinoconda.

The second coaster at China Dinosaurs Park is Dinosaur Mountain, a Zamperla Motocoaster (but without a launch). Like Dinoconda, the batching system was weirdly slow, only this time I wasn’t sure whether the ride host was giving a safety talk or doing some sort of pre-show as she was sitting in one of the cars. Another difference is they aren’t as strict with the hair being tied back (they allowed my hair to be in a ponytail rather than a bun).

It was a surprisingly good coaster! It’s all indoors with many different models - including a huge dinosaur skull. I’m sure there is a story to the ride, as it’s located in the weird area known as Kookasuka - filled with armoured dinosaurs, some of which appear to be guards of some sort. And I think the queue line might make reference to it too. But if you don’t know mandarin, all of this will be lost on you.

Outside of the two coasters, China Dinosaurs Park also has a rather big dinosaur museum, with the focus on dinosaurs found in China (which makes sense, as many dinosaur skeletons have been found here). The museum is almost entirely in mandarin, although it gives English names for dinosaurs as well. It’s not up to the quality of something like the Natural History Museum, but the skeletons are quite impressive and it’s worth a walk-through.

There are a number of water rides, including a log flume which goes through part of the museum building, but I didn’t ride it as I didn’t fancy getting wet. They also have a lot of flat rides, some better than others. I went on one which hung me upside down for almost a minute, and wasn’t particularly pleasant. Another involved sitting in a carriage as it’s picked up by King Kong, who just blows smoke at you and then puts you down. A cool looking ride but very dull.

Dinosaur Park is surprisingly well themed throughout, and the upkeep is really good - as you should expect from a major park. Kookasuka in particular looks great, albeit the most surreal land of any theme park I’ve ever been to. The setup of the park is very Disneyland-like, with the museum acting as the central icon and the other lands surrounding it. There is a Main Street USA-like entrance, but it’s very small and only hosts a shop and some sort of restaurant (and something else involving clams).

Speaking of shops, Dinosaur Park actually has very little merchandise of their own - apart from merch branded with their mascot-of-sorts, Dino Bob and his friends. The only actual Dinosaur Park-branded thing I found was a baseball cap which said ‘Dino Land’, which is what the park is also known as.

One aspect of the park I really didn’t like - and is something you might want to be aware of when visiting China - is that they had elephants you could pay to ride. For the record, I’ve no idea how the elephants are treated. But in China, animal cruelty isn’t illegal. So there’s a chance the elephants are mistreated. I was able to see an area where some of the elephants are kept from Dinoconda’s lift hill, and it didn’t look good (more like a tent in a car park than an actual enclosure). Thankfully attitudes towards animals are starting to change in China, but the idea of elephants being mistreated did upset me somewhat.

The park also has a lack of atmosphere. Maybe it’s because it was rather quiet when I visited (although I would’nt want to go on a weekend due to the poor operations), but it’s worth highlighting.

Before I left, I did witness a rather surreal sight when a band appeared at the top of Main Street that gathered a big crowd. I don’t think the crowd was there for the music - but because everyone in the band was white. Chinese people don’t often come across other races, so white people are seen as a novelty by some (people will ask to take your photo, and have you pose with their children). It’s not racist per se (it’s more out of curiosity than rudeness), but is weird.

I only had a half-day at China Dinosaur Park. I’d done everything I wanted to by half 12, so I ordered a taxi through DiDi (again, a real lifesaver over there and is almost essential for visiting parks like this) and made my way to get a high-speed train to Shanghai, and the biggest park of the trip - Shanghai Disneyland!

 

[Mikw]

Thanks. really interesting reports, would love to one day. Bit chicken though.lol

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

Shanghai Disneyland

Date: 29/30 May 2018

Shanghai Disneyland was arguably the biggest park of my trip. But it was also a park I was apprehensive about visiting.

I love Disney, especially the parks. With the exception of Walt Disney Studios, every Disney park I've visited (Disneyland Paris, Hong Kong Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea) is in my top ten theme parks in the world (DisneySea is second only to Europa-Park for me, and even that's close). But Shanghai Disney has developed a negative reputation due in large part to the guests that visit. From unruly crowds and cutting queues, to selling fake merchandise inside the park and even public defecation, multiple visitors have painted a grim picture of Disney's latest resort. But despite this, I felt this was a park I really wanted to check out.

I'd booked two nights in the Toy Story Hotel - one of two accommodation options on resort, and the budget option. I'm going to write about the resort in three sections: the hotel, Disneytown and finally Shanghai Disneyland itself.

Toy Story Hotel

The Toy Story Hotel was surprisingly affordable on my visit, for on-resort accommodation at least. In total, it was just over £250 for two nights. By comparison, two nights at the Alton Towers Hotel on the same dates was over £500. Disney being half the price of Merlin highlights just how poor value-for-money Towers has become, but that's a conversation for another topic.

I headed straight to the hotel after visiting China Dinosaurs Park. I got the high-speed train from Changzhou to Shanghai Hongqiao, which was just over an hour. From there, it was another hour taking the Shanghai Metro. Disney has a dedicated station at the end of line 11, so is fairly simple to access anywhere in Shanghai. If you're heading in from Shanghai Pudong (the city's main international airport), taking the metro might be a little more complex as it involves heading towards the centre before heading back out, so a taxi might be a better option.

Upon arriving at the metro station, it was a ten minute walk to the shuttle station, which is located towards the back of Disneytown. It's a good location for traveling between the hotels and the park, but is a bit annoying to have to walk all the way through Disneytown with luggage! The shuttles are regular and rarely crowded except first thing in the morning, which I'll touch on later.

The Toy Story Hotel is a rather nice looking glass building, with huge models of Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Bullseye dotted around it. Amenities include Lotso Store, a gift shop, as well as a restaurant and quick-service cafe. I didn't visit either of the food outlets, but I've seen good reviews for them elsewhere.

Check-in was relatively simple, and I was greeted by a very enthusiastic (and totally adorable) receptionist. The English skills of the staff are reasonable, but don't expect them to understand every request you have. I don't feel it's fair to judge them for this; as I mentioned in an earlier post, English isn't a common language in China so it's rare to come across anyone perfectly fluent. The staff were all rather young as well, so I commend them for doing the best they could. Unlike other hotels in China, they took payment upon booking - and there was no deposit either.

The room was nice and clean, and came with lots of amenities, including six bottles of water. As tap water isn't drinkable in China, most hotels provide bottles free of charge. Disney was the most generous with this, and I was able to load my bag up with water to take onto park. Another cool freebie is the small lunch box tin filled with toiletries. They gave me a new one each night, so I had two to take home! The TV has a selection of Disney films you can watch on demand. Most are related to attractions in the park (such as TRON Legacy, Pirates of the Caribbean, Toy Story and more), but it also has Mulan because China.

There's not much to talk about the hotel, as it's relatively basic. But it's certainly nice, and somewhere I can recommend staying if you ever visit Shanghai Disneyland. In fact, I would even go so far as to say staying on resort is essential - and I'll touch on why later.

Disneytown

After checking into the hotel, I went into Disneytown for something to eat and a look around. Disneytown is essentially Shanghai's version of Downtown Disney/Disney Springs, or Disney Village (Ney Vilage) at Disneyland Paris. Comparing it to Ney Vilage, it's worlds apart - and feels like what Paris should have. There's a huge choice of restaurants, and they suit any budget. There's no Nalds, with the majority of restaurants being Asian-focused. Food Republic, a foodcourt chain, is the cheapest option - but it was also very busy. For two of the nights I was there, I went to Xin Wang - a cantonese restaurant - after I found they served roast goose. They ran out on the first night, so I ordered a bowl of spicy beef. The portion was huge and very cheap, also very tasty. The second night I finally got my goose, and whilst it didn't hit the peak of michelin-starred goose I had in Hong Kong previously, it was still delicious. It was 80 RMB for the roasted goose, which is really good value for money.

The last night I was there (before heading to my hotel in central Shanghai), I ate at Dondonya - a Japanese restaurant which was cheap and good. It's great to be able to eat on Disney property and have a good cheap meal that isn't just Nald's.

The main centre focus in Disneytown is the World of Disney store, which sells lots of Shanghai Disney merchandise. If you're looking at getting merchandise anywhere on Disney property, this is the store to go to. It's even better than the one on Mickey Avenue, with lots of variety (although the pin badge choices here are quite limited). It also shows attractions from other Disney parks around the world, but some of them are quite random. For example, it shows Space Mountain from Disneyland Paris, but it also has a poster for Cafe Hyperion which is a dump and a far cry from its original concept. The retro posters are a cool idea and look great.

There are other shops around Disneytown - including a LEGO store - but I didn't really check these out. There's also a theatre which is currently showing a Mandarin production of Beauty and the Beast, which I didn't have time to see.

One thing I need to mention about Disneytown are the 'privateers'. They're unlicensed taxi drivers, and are one of the more annoying sides of China. You'll find them outside airports, train stations and tourist attractions, who prey on naive tourists in the area (both Chinese and foreign). They'll charge an extortionate rate if you take one, and have been known to take people far away from where they intended and then charge more to take them back. Only ever get a taxi that's licensed - they're easy to spot in China. If it doesn't have a meter, don't get in.

Back on topic, there's a number of them near the car park bridge by Disneytown. And they can be pretty annoying, although not that persistent. Just ignore them and walk past; do not engage them.

I also encountered one person trying to sell fake merchandise. But this was a lone woman near the shuttle stop, and I only saw her on one occasion. I could tell the other guests were annoyed by her presence. I feel Disneyland Paris is actually worse for selling people tat outside the parks (the blankets filled with tacky Paris souvenirs by the train station are more full on).

Despite these, I think Disneytown is a really nice area. I can imagine them expanding it in years to come. But what they already have leaves Ney Vilage in the dust.

Shanghai Disneyland Park

Shanghai Disneyland opens at 8:00, so after learning from my experiences at Tokyo Disney I knew I needed to be up super early to beat the crowds.

The hotels at Shanghai Disney Resort give one major advantage, and that's the use of the hotel entrance to the park in Disneytown. This means you actually get entry to the park early (they say 7:30, but I'm sure I got in earlier). Lots of people in the hotel had the same idea, however, and there was a huge queue to get the shuttle. Thankfully they sent around enough shuttles one after another to be sure everyone got to the park on time.

The queue to get into the park did take a few minutes. But this is mainly thanks to the security at the gate. Like China Dinosaurs Park, your bags need to be scanned before you can enter the park. They also have a policy of checking to see you're not bringing in a lot of outside food, and will bin items if they think you have too much. I'm not sure what entry to the park is actually like in the main entrance, although I've heard it's pretty manic. The hotel entrance is quite relaxed by comparison.Quick note: if you ordered your tickets online, you can pick them up from the hotel entrance - so there's no need to ever go to the main entrance if you're staying on resort.

Getting into the park early meant I could get in line for anything I wanted without a queue. They say the rides don't open until 8:00, but they will open the queue earlier than this, and may even send you round before the park is open to the general public. For example, I got two rides on TRON before 8:00 on my second day on park. But on my first, I headed to the ride which I knew would get the largest queues - Soaring Over The Horizon.

Despite being effectively the same ride as the other Soarin' attractions in the USA, Soaring Over The Horizon doesn't just have a different name, but a different theme. The queue takes place within an ancient temple, which looks really impressive. There's also a pre-show involving a woman that looks like a Chinese Carrie Fisher, who turns herself into an eagle. I believe you're meant to be flying with her, although this doesn't really come across in the ride itself.

I've not been on the other Soarin' rides (still not done the American Disney parks), but I have to say that Soaring Over The Horizon is really boring. The film looks nice, and the theatre is great, but it doesn't do much except just glide over different scenes around the world. I actually find Voletarium at Europa-Park to be a much better ride in every way. At least on Voletarium it doesn't feel like you're just gliding in a straight line! I don't quite understand why this had the biggest queues on park - at over two hours at times - especially when you consider all the other headline attractions Shanghai has to offer.

The next ride I went on - which was quite close by - was the one I was easily most excited for: Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle For The Sunken Treasure.

BFTST has become the big 'must-ride' Disney attraction, taking over Hong Kong's Mystic Manor thanks to the impressive Jack Sparrow 'skeleton' trick. This looks incredible in videos, so I really wanted to see it in person.

Despite being a clear E-Ticket attraction, BFTST had relatively short queues throughout my visit, rarely having more than a 20 minute wait. This isn't because the ride's not popular (it is), but that it has a phenomenal throughput, so eats up queues like you wouldn't believe. As a result, I never spent much time in the queue line itself, but I was able to see some pretty cool touches. In particular, a display of various horseshoes that belong to famous Disney horses such as Maximus (Tangled), Frou-Frou (The Aristocats), Horace Horsecollar and Philippe (Beauty and the Beast). As a Disney geek, I loved this.

The queue has a single rider section, but weirdly they were using it as a split for the main queue. So it was always worth going into the single rider queue when at the crossroad, as it was a shorter trip to the main platform - cutting a few minutes from your wait. And trust me, you want to get on this ride as soon as you can.

If I had to describe this ride in one word, it would be 'epic'. The scale of this ride is unlike anything I've ever seen. From the incredible special effects (such as the aforementioned Jack Sparrow skeleton), the great animatronics all the way to the clever use of screens that blew me away every time I rode it, there's nothing I can compare this ride to.

The Jack Sparrow trick is great to see in person. That being said, it's easier to see how it's carried out, but it doesn't stop it from being any more extraordinary. What I found most impressive, however, was the sequence when you leave the Flying Dutchman (which feels huge). Facing a huge screen, it somehow tricks your mind into thinking your boat is rising at great speed - and when you reach the surface, the Flying Dutchman comes out of the ocean (and really looks life-size), then when your boat turn around you see it in full battle with the Black Pearl. I've not seen anything like it in any other ride. It's something truly special.

I'd rate BFTST as my favourite dark ride in the world. Even higher than Mystic Manor - a ride I truly adore. There's nothing like it on the planet, and is reason enough to visit Shanghai Disneyland on its own.

TRON Lightcycle Power Run is the second of Shanghai's two big-name rides. A copy of it is currently being built for the Magic Kingdom which is due to open in 2021, so until then Shanghai is your only option.

TRON rarely had more than a 45 minute wait. The queue moves quickly as it duel loads. But there's some pretty cool parts to the queue; in particular, you go into a room where there's a countdown. When it reaches zero, the glass in front of you clears up and you see the ride launching. It's perfectly timed and looks great. The station itself is really nice too.

For me, TRON is up there with DLP's Space Mountain and Blunder as one of Disney's finest roller coasters. The launch is surprisingly strong, and the indoor section is fantastic. The front row is the best for this ride, and thankfully the cast members are flexible in allowing you to choose where you sit. The last carriage in several trains isn't actually a bike seat, but rather a car. This is for disabled guests, or those who can't fit into the normal seats. It's not as good an experience as the actual bike seats, but at least it means more people can ride it.

Roaring Rapids had the second largest queue in the park, probably due to the the heat. It's a really good rapids ride, with acceptable wetness. But sadly the ride's signature feature - a giant animatronic crocodile-thing - wasn't working any time I rode it. That was disappointing, but it doesn't stop the ride from being good.

Another exclusive ride to Shanghai Disneyland - though not to the scale of Pirates or TRON - is Voyage To The Crystal Grotto. It's an outdoor boat ride that passes several scenes from different Disney films, including Aladdin, Tangled, Fantasia and The Little Mermaid. The finale takes place in the Enchanted Storybook Castle (Shanghai Disneyland's giant centrepiece), and includes some cool projection mapping. It's a pleasant attraction, though not something to wait too long for as the queue moves quite slowly.

With the exception of a few smaller rides (such as Tomorrowland's Jet Packs), most of the rides here can be found in other Disney parks such as Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. These are generally identical to the versions found in other parks (Pooh in particular is exactly like Hong Kong's), but Shanghai's Buzz is very different to any other version - with different targets and a much better shooting system. I got quite high scores every time I rode it. I much preferred it to the other versions around the world (although there's no "Curtain or Buzz" to play in the queue).

Shanghai Disneyland's newest area is Toy Story Land - which is almost identical to the Toy Story Lands found in Paris and Hong Kong, but with a few differences. The biggest being replacing Toy Soldiers Parachute Drop with Woody's Roundup - which is OK, but nothing particularly special. It also had the slowest dispatching of any ride on park, and it wasn't clear why that was. Another ride that's different is Shanghai has Rex's Racer instead of RC Racer. The difference is quite significant, as there's now a statue of Rex holding a remote control outside the ride. The other RC Racers don't have this element - making this the best one out there. Finally, Shanghai's Toy Story Land has a food court-like area with a lot of variety. I never ate there but it looked good.

Speaking of food, I ate at two of the restaurants on park; Barbossa's Bounty in Treasure Cove, and Tangled Tree Tavern in Fantasyland. The food was good - I had the pork ribs at Barbossa's, and "Tangled's Curry" at the Tree Tavern (Tangled isn't a character, but whatever). But it is quite pricey for China. Even taking restaurants in Shanghai and Beijing into account, the meals on-park were amongst the most expensive I had in China. So I can see why there were so many complaints in regards to the pricing when the park first opened. It's not particularly expensive when compared to other Disney parks, but in China it's definitely pricey.

Shanghai's lands I felt were quite mixed in terms of theming quality. Treasure Cove and Adventureland looked incredible, and felt up there with Tokyo DisneySea as amongst Disney's best. But Tomorrowland felt lacking other than the large TRON building, and Fantasyland felt unfinished. Gardens of Imagination is beautiful. And Mickey's Toontown is interesting, but I much prefer Main Street USA.

The entertainment options on park are great. The Jack Sparrow Stuntshow in Treasure Cove is really worth checking out (I won't spoil it). And Shanghai's parade is also really good. It's the kind of quality you would expect from Disney. The fireworks has an almost identical show to what's currently being shown in Disneyland Paris - the only difference is an additional scene featuring Mulan (because China).

But I need to address the park's most infamous feature: the guests themselves. As mentioned earlier, the guests at Shanghai Disneyland have become notorious for rude behaviour. To clarify, I was at the park during the week, on a moderate day - so I can't comment on what the park is like when it's busier. But I'm happy to report there was very little of cutting in queues, minimal litter, zero fake merchandise being sold and the crowds never felt overbearing. One thing I did encounter was toddlers "going to the bathroom" in public. One occasion was on a bridge near the Enchanted Storybook Castle, which was near a bathroom anyway. The other was in the queue for Buzz, and the mess was just left in a plastic bag. This was disgusting on both occasions, and it being toddlers doing it doesn't make it somehow acceptable.

So what are my thoughts on Shanghai Disneyland? I loved it. The park has a great atmosphere, some of Disney's finest rides, long opening hours (8:00-20:00 both days) and when the theming is good, it's really really good. It appears the park has turned a corner since the earlier days, and whilst some of these problems still exist (toddlers urinating on bridges), they are doing a better job in controlling it than previously. Hong Kong Disneyland also had similar issues when it first opened, and they were able to stamp it out. I wouldn't rate it as high as Tokyo DisneySea, but I'd be tempted to put it on par with Hong Kong Disneyland. It's a fantastic world-class resort, and really worth a visit if you're ever in that part of the world.

After two nights at the resort, I spent four nights in a hotel in central Shanghai seeing the sights. But I did visit several places with coasters - and the next I'll talk about is Happy Valley Shanghai.

 

[Skyscraper]

I think that might be a record for the longest post on TowersStreet...

 

[Error]

The theming on some of those rides pictured in Dinosaur Park look freaking amazing, Dinoconda especially.

 

[Plastic Person]

I think that might be a record for the longest post on TowersStreet...

Maybe, but as somebody who's not into Vlog culture, it's great to read a written trip report on a part of the world that I'm not hugely familiar with. Really enjoyed all of these so far!

 

[DiogoJ42]

It's part of a long standing tradition of overly wordy TRs on this fine forum.

Great stuff Ashlee.

 

[AT86]

Really liking these reports, thanks for taking the time to do them!

 

[Skyscraper]

Maybe, but as somebody who's not into Vlog culture, it's great to read a written trip report on a part of the world that I'm not hugely familiar with. Really enjoyed all of these so far!

I wasn't saying that was a bad thing though!

 

[AstroDan]

I am glad to hear you enjoyed SDL.

I didn;t.

I think the resort suffers from Disney's inability to build enough rides for the guests that actually visit. So in other words, you are OK on a quiet day - but anything from medium and over - you're in for a day of misery.

Although Pirates and Tron, I fully agree with you. Fantastic rides. And the food was good, too. And so was Disneytown!

RE: Roaring Rapids - the animatronic didn't work for us last summer either.

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

I think the resort suffers from Disney's inability to build enough rides for the guests that actually visit. So in other words, you are OK on a quiet day - but anything from medium and over - you're in for a day of misery.

I would consider it to be medium days when I was there. It definitely wasn't quiet.

I agree the park needs more rides. But in it's defence, it's just turned two years old. And Toy Story Land, whilst fairly pointless with being close to Hong Kong, has helped boost the ride count there. If they invest in the park as much as they are with Hong Kong (which is all-but-certain, considering its popularity), a lack of rides won't be an issue in a few years.

Fun fact: not including shows, walk-through attractions or transport, Disneyland Paris Park has only one more ride than Shanghai - and that's a park that's been open for 26 years (and a problem that won't be resolved any time soon, what with Disney only building new rides in Walt Disney Studios).

 

[AstroDan]

I think that is more a damning indictment of Disney parks rather than anything else.

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

Happy Valley (Shanghai)

Date: 1 June 2018

Happy Valley is a chain of theme parks in China, akin to America's Six Flags. There are currently seven parks in the chain, with the first opening in Shenzhen in 1999 and a new park opening next year in Nanjing.

Shanghai's Happy Valley first opened in 2009. It's most notable for the strangely-named Wooden Coaster - Fireball (yes, that's its actual name), a Gravity Group wooden coaster that should really just be called Fireball. But it also has a good variety of coasters of all sizes - from a B&M Family Invert to a Dive Coaster and an Intamin Megalite. Whilst it's not the kind of park that would get someone to the other side of the world, I wanted to check it out whilst in Shanghai.

The park itself is easy to get to from central Shanghai. The nearest station is Sheshan, on line 9. This isn't directly next to the park, however, so you'll need to take transport to get to the park. Thankfully, Happy Valley runs a free shuttle bus between the station and the park. This is really important to remember if you visit. Remember the Privateers I mentioned at Shanghai Disneyland? They also operate here - only they're much more pushy than at Disney. They would pull up in various cars and even a van, and seemingly yell at people to get in. Initially people ignored them, but slowly they would get in their vehicles (I'm not sure if they were just worn down by the constant yelling or genuinely thought this was the only way to get to the park). Again, do not get in the car of anyone claiming to be a taxi service unless the car has a meter or the correct taxi licensing. You will get ripped off - and its not needed at Happy Valley as the transport is free anyway.

Unlike the other major parks I'd visited, there was no security scan at the entrance to Happy Valley. This actually felt strange, as I was used to having my bags scanned everywhere I went at this point. The crowds at the entrance seemed larger than I expected, but I soon realised this was because they only had two turnstiles open. TWO. Even Alton Towers can manage at least three. And it didn't help that each person in front of me was an annual pass holder who also needed to scan their government ID - only for something to not work so they had to go to a customer service kiosk.

I eventually got into the park - at 9:45 - but the first rides didn't open until 10:00. The park has staggered openings, and isn't particularly clear on what is open and when. This might be better explained on some of the notice boards dotted around the park, but from what I could understand they seemed to be flogging the annual pass. I believe everything is open by 11 - or at least, everything which will be open.

Wooden Coaster - Fireball (I'm just gonna call it Fireball from now on) already had a sizeable queue thanks to a school trip that were waiting outside the entrance. I thought it would be better to leave it until later to warm up anyway, so the first coaster I went on was the fantastically-named Diving Coaster. It's a B&M Dive Coaster (in case you didn't know) but is also a clone of SheiKra at Bush Gardens Tampa. If you've been on that, this is exactly the same but more grotty. It's a solid ride and worth checking out (especially if you've not rode SheiKra) but SheiKra is just nicer.

Following this, I went to queue for Mega-Lite - but after 15 minutes I came to the realisation the ride was closed. I've no idea why the queue line was open, because occasionally other people would join me in waiting. Eventually I walked off and checked out some of the nearby family coasters. Coastal Ant was the first Golden Horse coaster of the trip. If you've heard of knock-off Chinese manufacturers, Golden Horse is probably the one you're most aware of - due in part to it being a simple name (let's face it, Hebei Zhongye Metallurgical Equipment Manufacturing Co. doesn't have the same ring to it). But of all the knock-off ride manufacturers I tried whilst in China, I've gotta say Golden Horse were the least bad. That's not to say Coastal Ant was good. It was just less-bad than other rides. Crazy Elves was a Zamperla spinning mouse coaster, so nothing special.

One family ride I was particularly interested in, however, was Family Inverted Coaster. Made by B&M, it's their first ever family rollercoaster. I was curious to see what this would be like - and as you'd expect, it's actually pretty good for a family coaster. It's similar to a Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster (think Jimmy Neutron at Movie Park Germany), but packs a bit more of a punch and is very smooth. There are only two of these in the world, with the other being at Happy Valley Beijing (which I went on a few days later). More parks need to have these. It would be perfect for somewhere like Legoland Windsor or even Chessington (as a replacement for Vampire).

Happy Valley also has an Intamin Mine Train Coaster (of course that's what its called), which is pretty fun. The queue for this - like most rides that day - was virtually non-existent. The one ride which did have a queue - and a sizeable one at that - was Wooden Coaster - Fireball.

Fireball was the first wooden coaster to open in China. It doesn't really have much of a theme except for 'wooden clown signs'. The queue for it went up to the entrance, where it said it was a 120 minute wait. It was nowhere near that long a wait - but I'm not sure how that was possible as the throughput was low - at one point managing 278 people per hour.

Despite the wait - and the throughput - Fireball was a very good coaster. This was the first Gravity Group coaster I've done, and whilst it's not quite as good as Wodan, I'd honestly rank it alongside Troy and Zeus as one of my favourites. I just wish they were more efficient at getting people on!

Having done all the coasters, I then checked out what else Happy Valley has to offer. And it's almost exclusively knock-offs, including a Top Scan called Cyclone which wasn't too bad, but did seem to move whilst people were getting on which was a bit strange. There was also a Top Spin which had two separate gondolas, which was a very weird sight.

Happy Valley also had a number of dark rides. And they were hilariously bad. For example, Storm Tour is a 3D ride through a dark building with very dark screens, and the car doesn't even face half of them properly. Soaring Dragon is a knock off Soarin' but with the worst screen imaginable; there's a number of exit lights behind the screen which shine throughout the film, which completely ruin the attraction. The film itself is quite nice - you join a dragon in a flight around china (for some reason the dragon reminded me of an excited german shepherd) and fly over all sorts of sights. But the rest of the ride is just awful.

There are a number of entertainment options throughout the park - including a very loud stunt show in the old Shanghai area. They also have parrots which you can give seeds to.

The theming in the park is very hit and miss. For example, the Shangri-La and Old West areas look quite nice (apart from random multicoloured Zebra which to my knowledge were never in the Wild West), but there's a carnival area called Happy Time that's rather grotty and has some rather racist-looking models.

Shanghai Happy Valley isn't a perfect park by any means. But for what it's worth, I had fun. It has a good selection of coasters, though I really wish Mega-Lite would've been open! If you're in Shanghai, you should definitely check it out for Fireball alone.

My next post will be on Jinjiang Action Park, and I'll also cover some of the smaller rollercoasters you may come across in Shanghai - including the Oriental Pearl Towers (which does have a rollercoaster inside it).

 

[Skyscraper]

Where did you get that throughput calculator from?

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

Where did you get that throughput calculator from?

It's on the App store.

 

[Skyscraper]

It's on the App store.

I have the (Google) Play Store, and cannot find it on there.

I agree with you that more parks need a family suspended coaster. I rode Flight of the Terrasaur at Paultons Park last year and really enjoyed it.

 

[Rose Of Dawn]

I have the (Google) Play Store, and cannot find it on there.

I agree with you that more parks need a family suspended coaster. I rode Flight of the Terrasaur at Paultons Park last year and really enjoyed it.

The Vekoma ones are indeed really good. But I’m specifically referring to the B&M version, which is so far only at two parks - and both are Happy Valleys!

 

[Skyscraper]

The Vekoma ones are indeed really good. But I’m specifically referring to the B&M version, which is so far only at two parks - and both are Happy Valleys!

Didn't know that B&M did them too.
That makes three types then- B&M, Vekoma and S&S!