Shanghai Disney Resort

Park View Room - Toy Story Hotel, Shanghai Disneyland

Image: Disney

Technically, this isn’t a suite, but I’m going to make an exception here to celebrate the arrival of Disney’s most daring new hotel accommodations in many years. The arrival of Shanghai Disneyland Resort has provided Disney’s Imagineers with a rare opportunity to flex their creative muscle in an original setting. Since this theme park doesn’t follow the established standards of Walt Disney’s rules for design, it’s brimming with a new bravado, a verve the world hasn’t seen since the opening of EPCOT Center in 1982 if not the debut of Disneyland itself in 1955.

In order to accentuate all the positives of this new endeavor, Disney added its usual accompanying resorts. This time, they added a bit more specificity than usual. The Toy Story Hotel is exactly what it sounds like, an 800-room resort whose express purpose (beyond providing a solid night’s rest for guests) is celebrating Pixar’s most celebrated franchise.

Whereas Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, the facility referenced earlier, provides a mix of Disney and Pixar animated titles, the Shanghai Disneyland Resort is all Toy Story all the time. The Toy Story Hotel divides tidily into two sections. Fittingly, they are the Sheriff Woody and Buzz Lightyear wings. Fans of westerns can reach for the sky in Woody’s part of town while science fiction aficionados can't quite go to infinity and beyond. They do, however, have the ability to walk in the footsteps of a proven Star Command soldier. Plus, the hotel provides a gorgeous view of Tomorrowland, which hints that Disney Imagineers favor Buzz over Woody.

Walking through the hallways of Toy Story Hotel is akin to visiting Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, which is understandable since the Orlando property is the basis for the Shanghai hotel. The difference is that only one theme permeates throughout the facility. Every wall onsite features some sort of tribute to the three movies in the Toy Story franchise to date. Animation cels are ubiquitous. Some of them are tiny paintings while others are giant murals that could stand as the centerpiece of any (giant) living room in the world. This video walkthrough of the resort shows several of them. You’ll note that even the carpet has a secondary function as a celebration of Toy Story. Similarly, the exterior courtyards feature life-sized statues of Woody and Buzz plus some other franchise curios such as the rocket ship from Pizza Planet.

The primary difference between Toy Story Hotel and Disney’s Art of Animation Resort is that since every room is either Woody or Buzz-themed, Disney hasn’t distinguished its rooms beyond the binary choice of film leads. The “nicest” rooms at the hotel aren’t suites per se. Instead, they’re park view rooms similar to the ones offered at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and the like. For this reason, every room at the Toy Story Hotel is affordable.

The average nightly rate for a Park View Room is ¥1,470 (Chinese Yuan Renminbi), the equivalent of approximately $225 in American dollars. That makes such accommodations roughly the equivalent of a night at Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter in Orlando or Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel in Anaheim. For that modest cost, a theme park tourist enjoys a breathtaking view of Disney’s latest masterpiece. Shanghai Disneyland Resort lives up to the hype and then some, and the accompanying Toy Story Hotel accentuates its many strengths.

Magic Kingdom Suite – Shanghai Disneyland Hotel

Image: Disney

While the Toy Story Hotel is a lovely resort with world class amenities and that special new car smell, it’s the ugly sibling of its more storied twin. The Shanghai Disneyland Hotel embodies Disney’s obsession with five-star properties. This resort is the signature onsite residence for Disney’s latest theme park sensation. As such, the hotel is every bit as dazzling as the original Disneyland Hotel was in 1955. It’s on a par with Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and Disney’s Grand Floridian Hotel & Spa. The primary difference is that it’s brand spanking new.

Debuting in June of 2016 along with the park itself, the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel celebrates classic Chinese temperament meshed with Disney sensibilities. And it accomplishes all this through an Art Nouveau style that will leave you speechless the first time you enter the facility. You’ve never seen Disney characters quite like this before. Mickey and Minnie greet you as you enter the lobby, and their apparel will cause you to feel underdressed as you check in. Their formal attire sets the tone for a stay at the hotel

Other touches will catch your eye throughout the property. Beast and Belle dance eternally as marble statues next to the lobby stairs. Mickey Mouse returns to his roots as a steamboat operator on a vehicle that rises with the watery springs in the courtyard. The entire lobby rests under a massive stained-glass ceiling that might be the greatest achievement in roofing since the days of Michelangelo (or at least the recreation of his work at Spaceship Earth).

Make no mistake on the point. The Shanghai Disneyland Resort is the grandest, most ambitious hotel the company has built in 15 years. It serves as an introduction of Disney culture to Chinese audiences historically blocked from enjoying the Mouse House’s special blend of entertainment. One of Disney CEO Bob Iger’s central achievements is opening the Chinese borders to Disney enterprises, and this theme park and accompanying hotel is the culmination of his triumph. It’s instantly one of the most elegant yet child-friendly properties in China.

To remain consistent with this vision, the suites at Shanghai Disneyland Hotel must stand apart as some of the finest Disney rooms in the world. And they assuredly do. The “cheapest” of these is the Magic Kingdom Suite, which starts at ¥3,270 (Chinese Yuan Renminbi), more than double the best rooms at Toy Story Hotel listed above. That’s roughly $500 a night in American dollars. What do you get for roughly the same price as a night’s stay at the Grand Californian or Grand Californian? A shocking amount.

Technically, the Magic Kingdom Suite is a junior suite. It has two counterparts mentioned below that surpass it, but we’re still discussing an unforgettable room. Every suite onsite includes concierge floor privileges, which any Disney fan who has ever enjoyed them before understands are regal in nature. It’s the reason why the DVC bookings for Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge sell out 11 months in advance. In addition to the concierge privileges, these junior suites also include living room areas, a rarity in a city where every square foot of space is coveted.

Sorcerer Suite – Shanghai Disneyland Hotel

Image: Disney

Fantasia Suite – Shanghai Disneyland Hotel

Image: Disney

These two suites represent the height of modern Disney hotel architecture and room design. This video highlights the majesty of the hotel lobby. If you’re an architecture junkie like me, you can track the actual product against the scale model plans shown in this clip.

Launched in June of 2016, the Sorcerer Suite and Fantasia Suite redefine elegance and luxury. They again face the same issues in terms of square footage, yet Disney worked closely with Shanghai officials to overcome the problem, at least somewhat. These rooms are larger than the Tokyo suites mentioned earlier, which is why they can sleep up to six guests, a vast improvement from the two allowed by The Oriental Land Company.

What’s impressive about staying in luxury at Shanghai Disneyland Hotel is that it’s not as expensive as you might expect. The Fantasia Suite is ¥4,150 per night while the Sorcerer Suite, the nicest room at Shanghai Disneyland Resort, is ¥4,650. These two suites are the equivalent of $629 and $705 per night, which is less than many ordinary suites at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. If you can afford a trip to Shanghai to visit Disney’s state of the art theme park, you might as well go ahead and plus your trip by spending at least one night at the nicest suites Disney offers there. You’ll have a story to tell your grandchildren one day.

Then again, you’ll enjoy bragging rights if you stay at any of these 16 suites. That’s the glory of a Disney vacation. The company works hard to guarantee that theme park tourists can relish in an unforgettable stay close to their legendary theme parks.

Disney park planners have also crafted majestic resorts in foreign lands, some of which are historic in nature. A night at a suite in one of these locations will make you the grand prize winner of social media picture sharing. Your friends will envy you so much that they might explode. That’s especially true of the new resorts at Shanghai Disneyland, the most modern and sophisticated currently available. Interestingly, they’re also not that much more than a night’s stay in a normal suite at a hotel such as Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort of Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

That’s in stark contrast to the hotels Disney licenses in Tokyo, whose suites are expensive enough to price out most potential vacationers. Plus, they come with quirky room size limitations that turn them into couples-only retreats. It’s this sort of variation in the Disney suites inventory that reinforces their desire to satisfy customers of all income levels.