Ridwana Tasnim
For a little less than a century, the beautiful Disney characters with their attention-grabbing stories have captured the hearts of every little child out there, leaving them dreaming that someday, one day, they will get to meet these mysterious characters. The only drawback of these fairytales is that they aren’t real. And when a little girl is imagining meeting her prince charming or the beautiful dancing princesses, her imaginations remain as mere daydreams. But Disney has taken better care of its fans than that. Disney has built its own world in many of the important cities around the world; lands where the dreams of these children come true, lands which light up the faces and hearts of all those little girls who hold up their skirts in front of the mirror, pretending to be princesses.
The 16th of June this year, yes, the one in 2016, is the opening day of the brand new Disneyland in Shanghai. While the Shanghai Disneyland holds on to Disney’s original heritage, it has that slight edge to it which incorporates Chinese culture into it. Starting with the peaceful Chinese gardens, symbols displaying Chinese culture, animals which represent the Chinese zodiacs, this Disneyland does justice to its location.
To start off with the many reasons why this amazing new park should definitely be visited, the Shanghai Disneyland is home to the Enchanted Storybook Castle, the largest castle among all the Disney castles. This castle itself is an amazing entertainment experience. Besides being the place where kids can meet their favourite Disney characters in person, and dine at fancy restaurants, it is also the location of the famous, “BibbidiBobbidi boutique.” Like the magic words of Cinderella’s fairy-godmother, this boutique can magically tailor any outfit for the little princes and princesses. As if this is not interesting enough, there are two new rides in this castle- “once upon a time” takes the guests into the world of Snow White and “The Voyage of The Crystal Grotto” takes the guests for a magic boat ride where they are entertained with lights, music and surprises.
To add more appeal to the visit,the Shanghai Disneyland is divided into six separate lands decorated in unique themes! Some of these lands are completely new and consist of rides with names as fascinating as the rides themselves. Guests who have visited Disneylandpreviously will not get bored because brand new rides have been introduced. These include the Adventure Isle. A part of this collection is called “Soaring over the Horizon” which takes the guests on a journey to visit some of the Earth’s main natural attractions and architectural must-visits. Another part of the adventure Isle is indeed the adventurous and exciting part, a boat ride called Roaring Rapids where the challenge is to make it safely back to base camp, away from Qaraq the crocodile.
The most interesting part of Disneyland is feeling like you are in the Disney storybook. This time, Disney has decided to build an entire hotel based on toy story, the latest major attraction among children. Starting from the fluffy clouds on the hotel walls, to the columns designed to look like building blocks, the hotel takes the visitors to Woody’s world.
What goes without mentioning is the availability of Disney products such as stuffed toys, and the variety of food places available around the area, ranging from sweet to savory. So visitors can have a good time just by eating and shopping around if they aren’t interested in the rides and Disney products.Besides Shanghai Disney has its own nature park and stadium for visitors to enjoy the beautiful night sky.
When talking of all these features of the Disneyland, the automatic question which arises is how expensive is all this going to be? Well, lucky for any interested visitor, the tickets to the Shanghai Disneyland are cheaper than any of the other Disneyland tickets, starting at as low as 40 dollars. Furthermore, visiting the Disney resort comes with two free parking tickets, so it is convenient to visit with a larger group of people.
To add that final polish to preserving Chinese culture, the lion king musical is played in the evenings in mandarin. And every Disney day ends with a beautiful display of unique colorful fireworks, with the trademark mickey lightening the Shanghai sky.