China Adventure - Shanghai Disneyland Day 1
The day started early, because, let’s be honest, I could barely sleep! I grabbed a Clif Bar and made my way to the shuttle stop. In front of me was a couple who spoke English, one of whom wore an awesome Who Framed Roger Rabbit jacket, so I struck up a conversation. Turns out they were massive Disney Parks fans from Oregon also spending their vacation in China. We chatted on the bus, the walk through Disneytown to the hotel guest entrance, and queued up. Early entrance hours were nowhere to be found, but they ended up letting us in a half hour early.
At first I just walked around the entrance plaza slowly, taking in the massive Enchanted Storybook Castle, thinking I’d run into a rope that would soon drop. Then I glanced over to the Jet Packs ride (the classic vertical spinner present at every Disney park), noticed folks spinning around it with big smiles on their faces, and… I made a bee line for Tron Lightcycle Power Run.
Honestly, I just stood there for a few minutes taking in the superstructure. I’d seen so many pictures of this ride, watched every POV on YouTube, and dreamed of hopping into the front row of the train. Now, I was here, ready to ride! The queue is fantastic, telling the story of the notorious games of the Grid. The details are intricate, complete with Kevin Flynn’s scanner transporting us into the Digiverse. The ride is incredible, launching us into the tracking neon lights of the superstructure then back into the show building for an epic race against the evil orange programs. I couldn’t stop giggling as we rolled up to the offload platform. The ride met every expectation I had (and I had a LOT of them), and I raced back into the Digiverse to get in another ride before the park opened.
As I came down from the dream-ride high, I popped into Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue, the ‘ol standby whose game always entertains me. I always aim to beat my high score, yet I never remember what that high score was, so, I just have fun. It wasn’t quite as entertaining without my sister to totally destroy, but hey (yep, shout out to you, Faith!).
Next I stopped by Toy Story Land, my first encounter of the installment at any park. Seeing all the life-size toys (or did I shrink down to theirs?) and playsets brought a smile to my face, and the recorded character greetings at the entrance scared the heck out of me. However, with Rex’s Racer closed and no interest in the kid-focused spinner rides, I kept it to a walk-through experience, stopping at Al’s Toy Barn to pick up some pins.
Next up was Fantasyland. I generally don’t spend too much time in Fantasyland at my home park – well, none at all, really – but after reading up on a few experiences, I knew I had to spend some time there. Peter Pan’s Flight is always a fun stop, and the simple newness of the ride reminded me of the joy I had while riding as a kid. And hey, the 10-minute wait time was much better than the often hour-long wait over at Disneyland. I followed that up with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and my FastPass ride on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. The queue was so short I ended up riding a second time. I’ve ridden the Disney World version, and while this is an exact copy, the addition of Mandarin lyrics to “Heigh Ho!” made for an exciting reminder I was on the other side of the world experiencing a brand new park!
The unexpected gem of Fantasyland is Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, a river journey celebration of the Disney Renaissance films. Animated statues and fountains synced to classic Disney songs made for a delightful respite from the heat (not to mention the ability to sit down for 10 minutes!).
I wasn’t even remotely ready for what came next. I’d heard this version of Pirates of the Caribbean was different, but Pirates isn’t exactly known for being a thrilling ordeal. What followed was the most technologically advanced, immersive ride I’ve ever encountered. The entrance sets the tone, beckoning us into a colonial era Caribbean fort. The boats are gigantic, dwarfing those at the US parks, and speakers are built right into each row. A big grin leaped across my face as we approached the first scene, a skeleton version of the prisoners attempting to convince the beloved guard dog to give them the keys to their cell. Next we approach another classic scene – the skeleton at the helm of a ghost ship. However, this time, the skeleton transforms into the hallowed anti-hero Jack Sparrow (the well-hidden pane of glass in front of the scene likely means this is a fancy version of the old Pepper’s Ghost trick). He launches into what I assume is the purpose of our journey (I really should look up the English translation of the ride!), and the boat launches forward into the first video show room. The screen is easily as large as those in Soarin’, water splashing as we descend into the depths of Davy Jones’ locker. This is when I noticed we were actually traveling sideways through the room, panning the screens as the animation drew our gaze away from the entrance door to the next scene. This time our friends at Walt Disney Imagineering expertly combine digital screens with practical effects, the animation supplementing the very real set pieces in front of us. The quiet sound of the ocean current rocking the sunken ships mixed with the perfect swaying of overhead seaweed had me in awe, and I practically missed the next scene as I stared, trying to figure out how they managed to get the movement so perfect!
The story begins to build as we encounter Davy Jones himself, playing a dirge on his organ before stopping to yell at our passing vessel. We’re then launched into another room of screens before lurching leftward between two battling ships, complete with canon fire and splashing water. The journey crescendos with a comical sword fight between our hero and Davy Jones, and a surprise backward drop into darkness. Finally, and fittingly, Cap’n Jack greets us with a triumphant singing of “Yo Ho!”
As you can tell simply from how much I just wrote about it, this was the highlight of the park. After a quick stop at the gift shop – yes, even in China, we all exit through the gift shop – I quite literally ran around to the entrance to ride it again, this time focusing in on the ride system. The boat is actually attached to a track, on a swivel, that allows the boat to accelerate and rotate throughout the ride, adding to the story in a way I’ve never seen. The giant digital images are woven together by 36 separate projectors (yes, I counted), and the speakers located both in and out of the vehicle draw the rider to the advancing story as much as the new images. The colors of the corals and sunken treasure are so vivid I saw kids reach out to grab some of it. Honestly, this is the best ride I’ve ridden to date, bar none (I know, Wizarding World fans, but I still haven’t been!). And yes, I rode it 9 times over 2 days. #boomgoesthedynamite