MTravel China
The Enchanted Storybook Castle lit at night above the crowds at Shanghai Disneyland
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Theme parks · Opened 2016. Avoid the first week of October and Chinese New Year.

Shanghai Disney Resort上海迪士尼

The most expensive Disney park ever built, and the one with the most that is unique to it. The castle is the largest the company has built and is shared between all the princesses rather than assigned to one. Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure is widely argued by enthusiasts to be the best dark ride Disney has ever made — a scale of projection and animatronics that has not been repeated. TRON Lightcycle Power Run debuted here years before Florida got a version. There is also a deliberate design difference: much more open garden space than a Western Disney park, because Chinese family groups are larger and multi-generational and need somewhere to sit.

What to do

  • Go on a Tuesday or Wednesday outside a public holiday. The weekday–weekend difference is enormous.
  • The paid queue-skip product changes name and structure regularly — check what is being sold in the app on the day rather than relying on an old blog.
  • Disneytown outside the gate is free to enter and has the better restaurants.