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Day 20 – Disney Shanghai

Maybe this is the reason we came to China in he first place, I think it was actually … Not only are we big kids at heart, but we first visited Disney in Orlando back in 1997 not that long after we were married. Since then alone, and with the kids, we had been lucky enough to have visited every other Disney park, with the exception of Shanghai.

We weren’t really sure what to expect at this park, could be as good as the other parks; well the answer is both yes and no. it’s not the best park we have visited, that accolade goes to Disney Sea in Tokyo. The theming there is on another level, but so are the queues. I recall visiting there and the queues for the popcorn stand were bigger than some of the queues for some of the rides!! Having said that it was as good as any other park, the theming was great and the park was spotless; just what we have always found at Disney parks.

One of the biggest changes we found at this park is how the rides have been improved so much in that they are using more autonomous carts rather than rails. This makes the rides even more immersive, and with the addition of large projection screens, and I mean large, the rides come to life more.

Some of the classic rides are included in this park, and we loved those as much as the first time we visited. On our first visit to Disney back in Orlando Wendy couldn’t do the high speed, adrenaline driven, rides as she was not well afterwards. However, over many years they feeling of being unwell after a ride have subsided and we were able to get a couple of the bigger rides in. The picture above, on the right, is the Tron ride which is a high-speed rollercoaster. (It was on this ride I was asked, after getting onto the ride, whether I had any heart conditions…)

One ride which sticks out with us, and with the boys when we travelled with them, is the Buzz Lightyear ride where from your slow moving carriage you shoot up all the bad guys. This is a ride we have always done multiple times to see who can get the highest score. Well, it was me this time with a blistering score.

The Palace Museum was fun to get to as it was quite a way away from where we were staying. We started off by taking the subway from Taipei Main Station once we’d found the right line. (Taipei Main Station was so difficult to navigate I’ve written its own post!!) From there we exited the...

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In my quest to see a Panda, we ventured an hour by the metro from Shanghai to the Pudong New Area. A short Didi ride took us from the station to the Animal Park. It wasn’t too busy at all so very easy to get up close to see the animals with an uninterrupted view....

Tiananmen Square, Forbidden City, and the Palace Museum; this was a big walking day and time on our feet. We joined a tour to cover off these places as it can be easier than trying to do it yourself, especially getting through all the security to get into the Square and into the Palace Museum....

After a short 45 min taxi ride from Da Nang we entered Hoi An to a warm welcome at a delightful boutique hotel. The receptionist was super informative and provided a map of Hoi An Old Quarter and additional info like a good optician for new glasses/tailors/activities and what prices were fair for tours etc....

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