Disney Day 1

June 10, 2017

Disney time can't be condensed into one blog post, so this is the first of three. Samantha and I continued our Mickey ears photos in front of iconic landmarks. In front of Shanghai Disneyland's Enchanted Storybook Castle our ears actually made sense.

I caught up with a couple of old pals and marvelled at the magic.

We spent half our day in Treasure Cove. We expected perhaps a wave from Jack, but he approached us, and he was even talking to us. He asked us if we came by boat and wanted us to remember something, but he forgot to finish his sentence.

Samantha and I sussed out a ship.

I found a way to travel without a car.

Then a woman who barely spoke English, tapped me and said, "Photo." I responded, "Yes," and put my hand out to take a photo. It turns out she wanted me in the photo. There were about 6 of them there. I was in a couple of different photos with different people. Then the woman indicated to Samantha to take a photo, so we could all be in it together.

As all this photo commotion was happening, we hear a, "Not you two again." It was our pirate, Jack. We decided to jump in line, so we could get a photo with him this time. He remembered where we were from and showed us his rum.

Don't be surprised if you find me sailing the seven seas with a bottle of rum soon.

We watched the Pirates stunt show.

It was all in Mandarin, as much of Shanghai Disneyland's entertainment is. While we had no idea what they were saying, apart from the occasional "Jack Sparrow", the show was quite entertaining.

The Pirates of the Caribbean Ride was better than Orlando, with more projections.

Alice's maze was deliciously beautiful.

I'm obviously destined for royalty.

Or perhaps madness.

We checked out Mickey's Storybook Express parade. How would it compare to the other Disney park parades? It was magical!

So many old friends.

Even more interactions with characters. There was a kiss blown from Mickey.

A smoulder from Flynn.

A "hi" from a snowflake and a snow ball from Anna.

Plus a whole heap of high-fives.

Of course Mulan dropped by.

We met some new Zootopia buddies, Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps.

Then it was time for a spin in a Pooh pot.

The Tarzan show was an amazing mix of storytelling and acrobatic prowess.

Feeling a little underdressed for dinner at the Royal Banquet Hall, I bought some new ears. When I spied Minnie's outfit I was glad I'd dressed up.

The other characters looked elegant, although the lighting in the restaurant wasn't great for photographically capturing this.

Dinner began with crab cakes dressed with a mango salsa, then came BBQ pork ribs and grilled vegetables with a hidden Mickey hash brown. The star of the show was the Cinderella slipper with macarons. Samantha was reluctant to touch her slipper, meanwhile I'd already chomped everything but the heel.

We had some additional entertainment. A young girl dressed as Cinderella at a nearby table exchanged smiles at first. By the end of dinner she was right near our table with her Cinderella carriage popcorn buckets and twirling her princess dress.

We attempted to watch Ignite The Magic with very little luck. Just when we thought we'd a semi-decent gap, up goes a kid in an orange shirt onto his father's shoulders and we'd lost the entire castle.