Shanghai Disney conditions

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Amy
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Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by Amy » Jun Mon 20, 2016 10:04 am

I've seen a few blog posts now about the deplorable conditions at Shanghai Disney Resort ~ trash everywhere, people urinating and defecating wherever they are at the moment. I've heard it is also bad at Hong Kong Disneyland, but Shanghai is taking it to new levels of disgusting. :(

cy1229
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Re: Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by cy1229 » Jun Mon 20, 2016 11:21 am

Amy wrote:I've seen a few blog posts now about the deplorable conditions at Shanghai Disney Resort ~ trash everywhere, people urinating and defecating wherever they are at the moment. I've heard it is also bad at Hong Kong Disneyland, but Shanghai is taking it to new levels of disgusting. :(
Oh my. That is a disappointment. I wonder if we can find official news sources or something about it to post. Or a fairly reliable blog maybe?
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Re: Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by Amy » Jun Mon 20, 2016 11:53 am

cy1229 wrote:
Amy wrote:I've seen a few blog posts now about the deplorable conditions at Shanghai Disney Resort ~ trash everywhere, people urinating and defecating wherever they are at the moment. I've heard it is also bad at Hong Kong Disneyland, but Shanghai is taking it to new levels of disgusting. :(
Oh my. That is a disappointment. I wonder if we can find official news sources or something about it to post. Or a fairly reliable blog maybe?
The posts I saw were called out in the comments as always being negative about China so that is what I'm looking for as well ~ more reliable sources. If only I could stay home and do my online searching instead of working today! :lol: (Only online now due to a last minute cancellation ~ ugh)

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Re: Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by Wizzard419 » Jun Mon 20, 2016 4:28 pm

Yeah... that sounds more like the usual xenophobia than anything else. The videos people have been showing of the parks look pretty standard for Disney in regards to cleanliness.

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Re: Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by cy1229 » Jun Mon 20, 2016 7:54 pm

I saw a story about bad behavior at a preview in May. The photos I saw showed trampled iris, trash everywhere, and a young child literally popping a squat in a flower bed. Sounds like there was some truth that was overblown in blog comments.

Unfortunately, it doesn't surprise me... My experience with Asian tourists at Yellowstone who weren't native English speakers was not a good one. That was 5 years ago.
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Re: Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by Wizzard419 » Jun Mon 20, 2016 8:12 pm

So... pretty much the same as American tourists? Though, they are more prone to destroy things. :D

But yeah, the xenophobia hits hard on this one since it becomes "Why do they get cool stuff and we don't?"

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Re: Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by acp » Jun Tue 21, 2016 4:16 am

I saw some comments about this during the test openings last month, but haven't really seen much since. I saw a comment the other day about people leaving litter in Soaring's* queue, but I've not seen much else since opening.

Hong Kong had similar reports around its opening and I kind of expected we'd hear similar around Shanghai's opening. I've heard a LOT less of it than I heard around Hong Kong's opening. From what I can see, Shanghai's was somewhat better handled.

I've also not heard of any problems at all at Hong Kong for a number of years now (basically since opening year). I'm not sure if it does still happen there or not, but I'm guessing not regularly. (although I guess I'll find out in September...)

Honestly, I wouldn't read too much into it. It's being highlighted right now due to the mass interest around the opening. I'd wager a lot of it is exaggerated, too. In all the photos and videos of the last couple of weeks, I've seen a very small amount of this kind of complaint, and as Wizard419 says, it's quite possibly down to Chinese stereotypes more than it actually being a widespread problem.

It's inevitable that during the first few months of operation, it's going to be under a much bigger spotlight than normal, so these things end up being blown out of proportion (usually by American guests, in my experience - I noticed on my previous visits to Tokyo Disney Resort that if someone was complaining about how things worked there, they're almost always American guests** expecting things to be exactly as they are in the US parks (or the US in general), which they obviously aren't ("But they don't do that at WDW" is a reasonably popular phrase I heard multiple times). Same happens in Disneyland Paris (and I fully expect the same will be the case in Hong Kong and Shanghai)).

Now I'm going to go and hide before the Americans start throwing things at me :wink:

* Yes, Soarin' has a 'g' in Shanghai.
** I'm not saying all Americans are like that, obviously, but it does seem fairly common in my experience. "Spot the American tourist" is quite an easy game to play. I could rant for a while on that subject, but I'm going to resist... for now..
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Re: Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by Amy » Jun Tue 21, 2016 8:07 am

I'll be interested to see what you experience when you go acp.
I had no complaints about Tokyo DL or TDS. I was amazed at how nice everything there was, and how polite guests were. I was there in 2003 so things might have changed, but everything was orderly, and so tidy. I was surprised there weren't more CMs that spoke English, but my Japanese was sufficient that I never felt like I had a problem communicating. Although I'm sure the conversations would have gone faster if they had simply switched to English as they were likely far more fluent in my language than I was in theirs.
The only real surprising thing I noticed they allowed there was guests ran to attractions as soon as the gates opened. And yes, I know they do that here in the US parks as well, but CMs do seem to try to discourage people from running here whereas in the Tokyo parks, the CMs almost encouraged people to go a bit faster! :lol:

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Re: Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by cy1229 » Jun Tue 21, 2016 8:09 am

Yeah it's sad when people have a hard time with things being different from one Disney location to another. Just going between DLR and WDW is bad enough.

American tourists, like any other nationality, can suck. Cases in point: the idiots at Yellowstone getting too close to animals or wanting to dip a toe in the hot spring (though I think that guy was not American), the idiots who carved their names at Arches National Park, etc. etc. etc.

But when I was at Yellowstone I can't begin to tell you how many times I was literally shoved aside by a non-English-speaking, Asian tourist. At least, until I shoved back. Hard. That's another story for another day.

As an American tourist, I can promise you that I will at least read ahead to not commit major cultural sins and won't wear a fanny pack. :lol:
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Re: Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by acp » Jun Tue 21, 2016 8:33 am

Amy wrote:I'll be interested to see what you experience when you go acp.
As will I... ;)
I had no complaints about Tokyo DL or TDS. I was amazed at how nice everything there was, and how polite guests were. I was there in 2003 so things might have changed, but everything was orderly, and so tidy.
Yeah, most of what I was referring to were operations things rather than cleanliness, like complaining that the CMs made them take their jacket off before getting into a ride vehicle when it was wet from raining outside so as not to wet the seats for the next guests (which is pretty good common sense, really).
I was surprised there weren't more CMs that spoke English, but my Japanese was sufficient that I never felt like I had a problem communicating. Although I'm sure the conversations would have gone faster if they had simply switched to English as they were likely far more fluent in my language than I was in theirs.
I've always gone on the assumption that any person I speak to in Japan doesn't speak English. After all, the language in Japan is (funnily enough) Japanese. If they do speak some English, thats a bonus, but I certainly don't work on the assumption that they do.

For Hong Kong, I'm taking the same assumption. Although English is the second language in Hong Kong, I'm not going to assume it's going to be ubiquitous.
The only real surprising thing I noticed they allowed there was guests ran to attractions as soon as the gates opened. And yes, I know they do that here in the US parks as well, but CMs do seem to try to discourage people from running here whereas in the Tokyo parks, the CMs almost encouraged people to go a bit faster! :lol:
The cast members at opening have signs saying "For safety, please walk". I thought I took a photo of them last time, but the best I could find was this one, but someone is standing in the way of the sign (CM on the left and you can just about see CMs with signs further back, too). They do try and tell people to walk, but I think they also realise it's pointless trying.
cy1229 wrote:Yeah it's sad when people have a hard time with things being different from one Disney location to another. Just going between DLR and WDW is bad enough.
I don't know about differences in DLR/WDW, since I've not been to DLR, but I don't understand why people go to the other resorts and expect things to be the same as their "home" resort.

This is actually one of the (many) reasons that I don't bother with most Disney "fan" websites/forums/podcasts/whatever (in fact, this is pretty much the only one I bother with, and even this one I don't read /that/ often). I just get tired of reading posts where people have visited another resort to the one they're used to and spend the entire trip report complaining about the things that're different (most often due to cultural differences between where they live and where they visited). I'm sure 99% of them would have had a much better time if they'd done even a minimal amount of research before travelling. But that's another rant altogether :).

Suffice to say I'm at the point now where I don't bother with any Disney related site (other than the official websites for booking/tickets/etc) at all these days and just enjoy visiting the parks for my own reasons, ignoring what everyone else complains about or thinks about the way things are. It works well and leaves me much happier as a result. :mickey:
As an American tourist, I can promise you that I will at least read ahead to not commit major cultural sins and won't wear a fanny pack. :lol:
It does make American tourists easier to spot, though :P

(And I'm not even going to start on the different definition of certain words above in the UK... ;))
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Re: Shanghai Disney conditions

Post by cy1229 » Jun Tue 21, 2016 3:58 pm

acp wrote:
(And I'm not even going to start on the different definition of certain words above in the UK... ;))
Yeah something that has nothing to do with Disney at all but is funny... my sister had a pen-pal from the UK and went to visit during a high school break. They were going to go visit a castle that was quite old and Liz's mom asked my sister what kind of sandwiches she liked. Of course my sister's standard answer was "peanut butter and jelly" and then Liz's mom spent 20 minutes thinking and pondering about how one puts "jelly" in a sandwich. She finally asked my sister about it, whose face lit up with understanding and she said "JAM! Peanut butter and jam." At that point, they all had to try a peanut butter and jam sandwich on the spot because nobody had heard of it. Liz didn't like it, but her parents did. :lol:

Edit: I just now read the link you posted.... Oh dear! :shock: :shock: :shock: :shock: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :oops: :oops:

THIS kind of fanny pack...

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