...crossed the International Date Line! That’s a first for me!
Now we get into China. A couple of callouts about getting into the country. We were electronically fingerprinted after we left the plane. Then, before we got to passport control, we walked through a big sensor that was checking whether people needed to be bio-quarantined (I believe it was checking body temperature). I don’t know how standard those procedures are in other countries, but I had not come across them before.
Because I am travelling visa-less, I got to skip the HUGE line for foreigners with visas at passport control and go to the very small line for handling my situation. This was really nice, because all of the lines moved REALLY slow. I think that our line moved even more slowly though. There were probably eight people ahead of me. I think everyone in a tour group of 30 or so made it through their really slow line next to us by the time I made it through ours. Most of the people for my line were being turned away for one reason or another (not permanently, I think, but I wasn’t close enough to hear the explanations). I was so close to making it through without any issues! But the flight attendant on my plane had given me the wrong arrival form, so I had to leave to fill out the right one. The passport control officer said that I could just walk right up to the front of the line again once I had filled it out though. I don’t think that anyone else was told to come back to the front. So maybe I wasn’t quite as wrong as everyone else.
I made it through! On my way out of the airport, I exchanged some money, because something I had read made me think that I would want cash for the taxi from the airport. It had also explained that I should go to a specific place where airport personnel assign taxis to riders. Apparently, that keeps the taxi drivers honest?
I got in my assigned taxi and had the hotel address prepared to show the driver in case he didn’t speak enough English to understand me, but I hadn’t factored in whether he could READ English. When he saw the address, he started yelling things (not angrily...I think) and jumped out of the car again and yelled things until an airport person came over who was yelling things back at him. In the midst of this, the airport person confirmed with me where I wanted to go and apparently told the driver, because the airport guy left and the driver and I got back in the car and the driver took me to the right place. So it all worked out and the cab ended up being surprisingly cheap, about $12 USD. I did pay with cash. There was also an app option, but that’s a horror story for a later time (meaning, in a couple of paragraphs from now).
This stop is similar to Hawaii in that it is a “get in, Disney it up, get out” stop. There are SO many other things to do in China (I’m assuming), but I chose a very narrow focus for this trip.
So, I stayed in resort lodging at the Toy Story Hotel!
A note before I go further. I’ve decided to split off the more review-ish things about the parks and hotel to the end of my posts for the next couple of days, because I can already tell that this is going to go long. I’ll focus first more on what I did and if you’re interested in my thoughts about how I felt about the places, you can read on through the end of the post.
They whisked my bag away to bell services when I got out of the cab and sent me to the check-in line. After I checked in, I was sent to concierge to pick up my park tickets that I bought bundled with my hotel reservation. I also got to pick an extra fast pass for each of my two park days! I had to make the decision for the attractions and time slots that I wanted on the spot, so I was glad that I had read just a little about the hot attractions in the parks so I knew which to pick.
They told me that my bag would be in my room in about 10 minutes when I was finishing up check-in. Getting my tickets had taken quite a while. I wasn’t sure whether you’re supposed to tip the person who drops your bag off at your room, so I decided to just avoid the whole situation and kill some time in the gift shop in the lobby.
When I headed to my room, I found that it was miles away. I mean, not MILES, but I don’t think that I’ve ever had to walk that far to get to my room in a hotel. Or even stayed in a hotel that had rooms that far away from the entrance. When I got off of the elevator on my floor, I walked down a really long hallway following the signs for my room number. Then, I turned the corner at the end and there was another really long hallway. My room was at the end of that.
The room is really fun. SO MUCH theming. Almost too much. But I appreciate committing to your schtick.
The immediate issue that I faced was turning on the lights. None of the switches worked. I figured that it was way more likely that I couldn’t figure out how they worked than that they were ALL malfunctioning. So, I enlisted the help of the internet and found that there was a slot next to the switches at the door that I had to put my room key in. Then, the lights all magically turned on. Maybe this is really common in other countries, but it was the first time that I had encountered it. I was happy that I didn’t have to call guest services or something to figure it out. I’m a little worried about this set up. The key has to be left there. To me, it seems like the perfect recipe for me to lock myself out of my room. We’ll see how that turns out.
There was still some time left in the day, so I decided to take the hotel shuttle to Disneytown. That is Shanghai Disneyland’s equivalent of Disneyland’s Downtown Disney area, which is just a place with food and shopping and Disney shopping.
So this place is VERY smoggy. Getting out and about in the outside, this became very clear, particularly with my contact lenses. They got very grainy and blurry really fast. To be fair, I was also very tired by this point, so that definitely contributed, but the smog was still the biggest factor, I think. It looked foggy and/or overcast when I got off the plane and left the airport and when I left the hotel and was walking around Disneytown.
This is getting very long. I’m almost at the end of the day though and there’s only one other major thing worth mention. I FAILED hardcore at dinner. This was incredibly demoralizing. I couldn’t figure out how to pay for food! I observed the locals and they were all paying with apps on their phone. I downloaded multiple apps, but couldn’t get them set up with my payment accounts. Doing research, I think that you need a Chinese bank account or something to set it up? I tried to offer a credit card at one place and that was not an option for them. I wandered around the World of Disney store for a very long time using their free wifi to try to figure it out, but ultimately ended up grabbing a couple of things from Starbucks using my credit card, caught the bus back to the hotel, still got NO planning done for what is happening on my trip after Shanghai, and passed out before any blogging happened.
HOTEL NOTES
When things are Disney, I really try to give them the benefit of most any doubt. I’m willing to put a bit of effort into liking them if necessary. This hotel...unfortunately, I’ve decided that I don’t care for it. There are things that I like, but as I go through various points, I find even more things of which I’m critical. My main issue is that it feels super utilitarian with a thin veneer of Disney over-branding, but executed in ways that feel off in my world paradigm. It’s kind of like...when Voldemort hugs Draco. He goes through technically the right actions, but it’s really bizarre and a little surreal. That’s REALLY overstating my opinion to a dramatic degree, because I think that ultimately the hotel is fine. But it does get the point across.
The hotel staff is very helpful. When I got out of the cab, an employee took my suitcase from me and gestured me ahead of him toward the door. When we got inside, he sent me to the check-in line and took off with my bag headed toward bell services. There was a person at the beginning of the line for check-in. There was another person at the front of the line directing people to a counter. The counter person was very nice and helpful. Later, when I went out exploring the hotel, I found a restaurant where there were two or three people standing outside the entrance to handle, I think, to-go orders and two or three people to point you inside. Inside, there were people at the counter, but they were past three or four people standing there to point you to the counter. It was a little unsettling. Everyone was very friendly and willing to help. I think that it was just odd because it was like they were staffed for a hundred people to be walking through the door with me, but it was just me there (at the restaurant point).
The lobby is very big and echoey and empty. The restaurant is the same. Outside, there are courtyards, but they are also big and empty except for a central focal point. Like, the one outside the restaurant has a big Buzz Lightyear statue. That’s fun. But. It’s just standing in the center of an empty courtyard that feels like it’s actually a back alleyway. I’m realizing that I didn’t snap a picture of that because there were some parents having their own extended photo shoot with their three-year-old in front of it. I may wrap back around to that topic, but I have to say that I’m a little worried for the youth of the world and how much time they spend standing in front of things posed for their parent’s photographic satisfaction. Wow! I sound really cynical today! Do me a favor and scale back the jadedness and sarcasm that you’re hearing in my tone to a three (out of ten) and you’ll have a more accurate representation of this post.
The signs in the main areas are all done in colorful lettering in keeping with the toy theme, but it basically just looks like a daycare that did its own branding, and not well. Anyway, the lobby and restaurant and outside areas suffered from these things, but as soon as you got into the hallways and rooms, things were MUCH better.
The hallways were carpeted with themed carpet. The elevators talk to you in Jessie’s voice (from Toy Story (not Joan Cusack (the original actress) but clearly Jessie)) when you arrive at your floor. My room has SO much themed stuff. It’s almost too much, but, like I said, I appreciate the commitment.
I was thinking that I would include pictures of all of these things that I was talking about. But apparently I didn't take any? So weird. I'm not sure how that happened.