Day 10 (18 Sep 2018) – Chengdu to Shanghai, Adventures by Disney Enchanted China Adults Only Tour

Breakfast was as early as 6 am again and when we met everyone in the lobby at 7:30 am, we were given bags with our lunch in it as, again, as Ralph explained, they couldn’t guarantee the type or quality of the lunch being served on the plane, so we received our final pre-ordered meal of the trip – I had ordered the mozzarella, tomato, and pesto sandwich which came with a container of pringles-like chips. We left the bottle of water at the hotel because we wouldn’t be able to take it past security anyway. I felt like I should have said goodbye to the wonderful toilets we were treated to during our stay at this hotel wishing it would fit into my carry-on.

It took about an hour for us to get to the airport and, by this time, we were getting pretty expert at getting through security and since we couldn’t bring water or drinks past security, ABD treated us to anything we wanted from the little snack shop by our gate. Seth got some “Strange-taste horsebeans” which were actually really good – crunchy, sweet, with a savory bean and just a hint of chili on the inside. A note about all the airports we passed through, there are always a ton of shops selling everything you can think of, and every airport has a place to get both cold filtered and hot water to fill bottles and containers with.

The flight to Shanghai was about 2 hours and 20 minutes. Our lunch onboard was rice with either pork or chicken, half an orange, and a roll. The food was pretty good and since I was still pretty full from breakfast, I never did eat my sandwich from the Ritz.

We made our final meet up at the bathroom near our arrival gate and then started to head out but Ralph stopped us and told us that we would be getting an extra special treat today – he and Daisy decided that we would go and ride the MagLev – the only commercial magnetic levitation “train” (no wheels) in the world. The technology originated in Germany. It wasn’t a really long ride (20 miles takes about 7 minutes) but the MagLev would get up to about 300 km/hr which is about 186 MPH. The MagLev’s top speed is 380 MPH.

We met our local guide, Flo, who led the way (“Go with the Flo” as she said) to the MagLev station. We would ride it out to its destination where out motor coach would meet us to pick us up. When the MagLev got up to it’s final speed of 300 km/hr each family would get up and take a picture under the sign showing how fast we were going. It was fascinating to see all the cars whiz by and when the MagLev going in the opposite direction blew past us, it was so fast we stopped to ask ourselves if that was the other MagLev – all you felt was a “bump” and saw it blur go by.

Here's a video of what the MagLev looked like reaching top speed of 300 km/hr (over 186 mph).

We walked a fair way to where our motor coach would be picking us up. Shanghai was pretty hot and humid and we had to wait just a bit for the bus to come. We were offered towelettes and snacks on the bus. Flo recommended the “Pretz” crackers – pizza flavored – they kind of taste like stick versions of a goldfish cracker.

When we arrived at the Peninsula Shanghai (per Ralph, the highest rated hotel in Asia), we were taken upstairs and offered orange juice and given our “briefing” off how to work the various controls in the room. Ralph highly recommended that we try out the “spa control” button in the bathroom.

Our room was gorgeous, of course, and the Spa Control button in the bathroom turned on nice, relaxing spa music in the bathroom. This final resort completed my room key “collection”.

We met in the lobby at 4:40 pm to depart for our dinner and evening entertainment. We were taken to the Din Tai Fung dumpling restaurant that Ralph said was one of his top 3 meals that he liked the most on our trip. The restaurant was packed with locals and we had some delicious cold appetizers waiting for us when we arrived: wood ear, meat slices, pickled radish, and pickled spongy tofu.

There was a viewing area where you could watch them making the dumplings by hand and placing them in stacks of steam baskets. We were given the most delicious hot and sour soup which, when you added some chili oil to, gave it some heat and, oddly, brought out the sour flavors of the soup.

Basket after basket of dumplings were brought to us – crab, pork, and shrimp. We had been instructed to mix some soy sauce together with vinegar to use as a dipping sauce and to pick up the dumplings without poking them open as each one was like a sachet full of meat and juice. They were absolutely delicious. We were also given fried rice which was simple: rice, egg, green onion, but I had to agree that it was the best tasting fried rice I’d ever had. We speculated that it was stir fried in butter too.

We ate ourselves silly again and then re-boarded our bus to go to the Shanghai circus world and acrobat show which was located near the Ritz-Carlton Shanghai. We took escalators up to the Shanghai Centre Theatre and were seated front and center. The show was a Cirque du Soleil style show with many acts and they were all marvelous.

We were told, again, the wait following the show for everyone else to clear out of the theater but this time, instead of getting up and leaving, we were surprised by the cast members from the show who came out to hand us our pin of the day and to take a group photo with us. Now, there were a bunch of other tour groups at this show, but Disney not only made sure we were sitting front and center but also this awesome special treatment after the show. First class all the way. I was so impressed.

When we returned to the Shanghai Peninsula, we opted to go with Ralph and quite a few other Adventurers on an optional walk to the Bund for pictures. This would be our only opportunity to get some pictures of the lit up Shanghai skyline as the lights typically went off at around 10:30 pm. I’m so happy that my iPhone was able to take a decent picture of the lights – it really was beautiful.

We returned to the Peninsula and went up to the 14^th floor to meet Charlie and Wade at the bar where we could see the skyline from above. We didn’t stay long as Seth had mentioned during dinner that his tummy was upset – probably from the spicy broth at the Hot Pot restaurant – turns out that he wasn’t the only one who was a little queasy the next day.

Ralph had given us the run down for our last day of the tour – we were to bring a separate bag with clothes to change into for our Farewell Dinner – we would be able to leave our bags in Club 33 while we were out in the park.

Next post:  Day 11 (19 Sep 2018) - Shanghai, Adventures by Disney Enchanted China Adults Only Tour