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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.

We were looking around for an activity other than temples for a day and Nick came up with visiting a Lotus silk farm. It turned out to be a very interesting tour and it was great to hear the operation is providing meaningful employment for vulnerable local women and caring for the environment and sustainability...

This is a super hotel, and we’ve stayed in here twice between 2022 and 2024. Its location is about 90 minutes north of Phuket Airport, and getting here is really easy with an airport taxi which you can book in advance. The pick up at all Thai airports has always been without any problems, although...

Aytthaya once served as the thriving capital of the Kingdom of Siam, from 1350 until it was razed to the ground by the Burmese in 1767. The park has majestic ruins of temples, palaces, and statues and is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site (https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/576/) We had an early start today to jump on the...

Early start today in order to make the high speed train departing at 9:50am. Believe it or not the alarm had to be set for 6am as we knew the short car ride to the station would be in peak morning Beijing traffic and we had to be at the station an hour before departure....