Travel Halal: Disneyland Shanghai

Ni Hao! We just got back from a week holiday in Shanghai!

We went there with my mom, parents in law, sisters in law and her children. We were 12 altogether: 4 children, 1 baby and 7 adults. We booked out flights about a month before departure via AirAsia (what else?). December in Shanghai is winter time, so the weather was pretty cold with temperature ranging from 2-8C. That was really cold.

We bought a ground tour differently. Basically I was arranging the tentative, accommodation and guide. I found this tour guide from Mr Google: IslamiChina. They offer muslim friendly tour package across China, and also like ours, customized.

Our plan was to spend about 4 days in Shanghai and 3 days in Shaoxing. Initially Mom and I wanted to find cotton textile in Shaoxing, but that will be another story.

We reached Pudong airport around 1am. Our agent, Cici brought us to our Apartment in the city and our trip started off with Disneyland on the first day.  

I booked the apartment myself through Booking.com. I will write more on the apartment later in another post. In short: I dont't like it that much and I don't recommend it to family with small children.


                                    

Disneyland Shanghai recently opened its gate to all in June 2016. So basically it is still fresh from the oven. It is one of the cheapest Disneyland among others.

Entrance fee:

source: www.disneylandshanghai.com

It was about 59USD for adults, and children will be charged by heights. Amal, Amna and Sofeya (their cousin) entered for free and Ayra and Syahmi only 70% of adult's fee. We went on Friday so it was a non-peak day. The rate for weekends is different.

We spent about 10 hours in the theme park. Yet, I still it wasnt enough.

Preparations:

If you are going in Winter time, be sure to bring along you winter gears such as gloves, jackets, leg warmer, winter hat, blankets.
Drinking water is a must! The bottled water in Disneyland is very very costly.
Halal food is very hard to find, so please pack biscuits, and dry snacks. Bread and home-cooked meals are not allowed. Everybody will be checked and scanned before entering. They will throw any cooked meals if found. So dont waste your time preparing one. Just ensure you bring enough biscuits for the tummies. Milk is okay.
Eat a lot before going cause you will be using a lot of energy especially when you are bringing small children.
Wear good comfortable shoes cause you will be walking a lot! it takes 10 minutes to walk from the parking lot to the park. and the park itself is huge!
Strollers. Your children will not make it long on their own 2 feet. so it's either your back, or the stroller.

Activities:
Oh my there are many things to do! to ride on! we only managed to catch about 5 major attractions there: Carousel, Dumbo ride, Snow White Castle, Toy Story, Pirates of Carribean. My sisters in law managed to ride on the Tron. Hub and I wanted too but our kids were tired. So kesian nak tinggalkan with the atok and nenek.

My favorite ride is Pirates of Carribean. It was the most awesome ride I have ever been to! It was full of adventure. Even little Amal had fun in it. It was surprisingly suitable for all ages. I loved the 3D effects that felt so real and the boat ride made you feel like you were a part of the battle. Seriously, this is a must! that was our final ride before the fireworks. it was already dark (night time) so there was no queuing line at all. Our luck that we didnt have to wait at all. I want to share some picture we took but it was too dark. This is from google:

Source: Google

                               

Another highlight of the day was the firework. It was Amazing! Disney was being really generous with the fireworks. It was about 20 minutes and it was really spectacular. Like the one you see during new year. and to watch it in front your very own eyes just add that wow effect.
My kids enjoyed the Dumbo ride, and carousel very much. and of course the Parade. There were Elsa and Anna, Nemo, Winnie, Mulan, etc.

source: Google. It was exactly the same like in this picture!

I wanted to try more but our kids we really tired. I heard the Tron was awesome too.
The weather got really cold towards the evening. So it slowed them down. Nevertheless, it was really exciting and we had fun.
I think going in Summer can be even more tiring. So winter is okay. We didn't sweat and no heat rash etc.

Food:
Our agent told us that there was Halal food inside, but we could not find one. The area was so big that we just didnt have the energy to search through all.
We asked information counter, but they could not speak English at all. nor do they know what halal is. If you must go, please bring along a dictionary for translation purpose (cause we didn't have internet roaming)
However, if you step outside the park, (which is the Disneytown), there is one halal shop in the food court. The food court is called Food Republic.

source: disneylandshanghai.com

Food Republic is located at the back of Disneytown. Once you entered the front entrance, walk straight to the back of the food court, to the last shop on the left. The last shop was the only shop serving halal food. There is no Halal sign in Arabic. But they do have Halal Certificate in Chinese. I forgot to take a picture. but yeah, you can ask them.

After eating, you can always go back inside the Disneyland park. We didnt do that cause we forgot that we could do so. hahaha. I guess the excitement had taken over us. So we stayed in the park and starved. ahahahha. We are waffles and tawakal.

Praying:
Of course, as expected, there is no surau. The staffs in Information Counter (IC) was kind enough to let us use a room in IC to pray. So we managed to pray in peace, in warmth, and in clean place. Alhamdulillah.

Language:
Even though Disneyland is basically an international brand, everything is conducted in Chinese. The princesses were speaking in Chinese. Even Elsa can speak Chinese! The staffs there were helpful and friendly, but they could not understand English. We were using hand gestures to make them understand our concerns. We were like chicken and ducks. Our agent did not follow us inside, so that's why we had communication problem. But we survived, so all is good Alhamdulillah.

Facilities:
They have baby room, so no problem to change diapers, or even to hang out for some warmth.
They even have a nursing room where you can nurse your baby, or pump your milk.
The toilet is very clean and not that smelly. Thank god. But i do noticed some urine smell in some areas. It's either someone peed on the side, or it was to close to the toilets.



So. that's all about Disneyland Shanghai for muslims! I guess this pretty much covers the importants parts of trip to Disneyland Shanghai.

It is worth going, provided you stay until the end of the fireworks.


Ah we miss Disneyland.

Next, Disneyland Tokyo perhaps?