Hello everyone,
In this seventh installment of my Shanghai Disney Resort trip report, we are going to explore the town of Treasure Cove. In case you missed any of the previous parts, I have provided the links for you, below:
Shanghai, September 2016 Trip Report on Two Lost Boys
I shared my experience travelling to Shanghai, arriving at the airport, getting to the resort, and then visiting the Disney Store in the city.
Shanghai Disney Resort, September 2016 Trip Report - Part One on Character Central
In part one of my main Disney report I shared with you all of our experiences at the two Shanghai Disney Resort hotels, Disneytown, and character dining at Lumiere's Kitchen.
Shanghai Disney Resort, September 2016 Trip Report - Part Two on Character Central
In this report I took an in-depth look at Mickey Avenue, with over 230 photos of all the details on the little entrance street to the park.
Shanghai Disney Resort, September 2016 Trip Report - Part Three on Character Central
In this report I took an in-depth look at the Gardens of Imagination, Mickey's Storybook Express parade, the Golden Fairytale Fanfare castle show and the Ignite the Dream nighttime spectacular, with over 210 photos of all the details.
Shanghai Disney Resort, September 2016 Trip Report - Part Four on Character Central
In this report I shared with you the futuristic world of Tomorrowland, with over 150 photos.
Shanghai Disney Resort, September 2016 Trip Report - Part Five on Character Central
In the fifth part of my report, I shared with you our time at Enchanted Storybook Castle and the Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, with over 140 photos.
Shanghai Disney Resort, September 2016 Trip Report - Part Six on Character Central
In the sixth part of my report, I detailed our adventures through Fantasyland, with over 210 photos.
Leaving Fantasyland behind us, we enter the port town of Treasure Cove, filled with pirates, scallywags, ships and adventure at every turn! When approaching from Fantasyland, you will find yourself on more open pathways with lots of surrounding green spaces. If you approach from the Gardens of Imagination, you do get a nice welcome sign - and some more pathways.
From either of these angles you get directed into the main area of Treasure Cove the same way, and along the shoreline whilst entering the town, there are some good views across the sea towards Adventure Isle, and its mysterious Roaring Mountain.
You pass by a popcorn cart and a smoking area, and finally arrive in the town more or less facing the main reason anyone sails into Treasure Cove; to discover the secrets of the sunken treasure, at Pirates of the Caribbean - Battle for the Sunken Treasure.
Pirates of the Caribbean - Battle for the Sunken Treasure is a fantastical boat adventure that takes you not just across the ocean, but under it, too! The best way for me to describe it would be a combination of the classic Pirates attraction and Ratatouille from Disneyland Paris, with brand new scenes, effects and animatronics that are not like anything you have ever seen. The really sad part though, is that for some reason on both of our sailings through it, some of the effects were not working correctly (which was actually a problem on multiple attractions across the park), which is weird and annoying because at the time of our visit, the park was less than three months old. Regardless of missing effects, Battle for the Sunken Treasure is simply incredible and along with Peter Pan's Flight over in Fantasyland, would be worth the price of admission for me alone. Like Peter Pan's Flight, it would be impossible to be able to capture the essence of the attraction in photographs, but I took some regardless, of course.
Exiting the attraction you find yourself in the Doubloon Market - Treasure Cove's only indoor retail location. Here you can find a lot of pirate related merchandise, some of which is exclusive to Shanghai, I believe.
Opposite Battle and the store there is a place called Shipwreck Shore, which is a small water playground for young kids, themed around a shipwreck. I didn't take too many photos here because people were firing water cannons left, right and centre, and I didn't want to get my camera wet!
Continuing along the main walkway through Treasure Cove, on the right there is the Snackin' Kraken. Unfortunately for some reason we didn't get a very good photo of the front of it, but it has a cool kraken themed sign, I can assure you! The side of the building has wooden panels that look like the kraken's tentacles - and that we did get a good photo of!
Next along the shoreline, on the right, there is the Siren's Revenge. Siren's Revenge is a docked ship that you can explore the upper and lower decks of, and get good views over Treasure Cove, towards Adventure Isle, and also the castle.
Just outside and to the right, in the shadow of the ship, is Landlubber Landing, where a pirate crew performs a small show several times per day. Unfortunately I have been unable to find the correct name for this show, so I am just going to stick with "pirate crew"!
In front of Landlubber Landing is Treasure Cove's Guest Services location, where you can get Treasure Cove wait times. The only main attraction in the Cove is Battle, and it does not offer FastPass, so you cannot get any FastPasses at this location.
On the opposite side of the walkway is the entrance to Barbossa's Bounty - the main dining location in Treasure Cove. Like all the indoor dining venues in the park, with the exception of Royal Banquet Hall, it is a counter service place. The interior actually is a collection of buildings that continue the town theme from the outside. The different dining rooms are different town buildings, and you can even sit "outside" (inside), and overlook guests as they sail to their doom in Battle for the Sunken Treasure, much the same as the Blue Bayou/Lagoon restaurants at Disneyland, Disneyland Paris and Tokyo Disneyland - except here you can just wander in and enjoy the view, since it is a counter service place!
Outside and to the right of Barbossa's is a small window location called Pintel and Ragetti's Grub to Grab, which apparently serves bratwurst.
Along the main walkway near Battle and the store, hidden by some trees, you can find a small sheltered location where you can meet Captain Jack Sparrow himself. He is the only character to greet guests in Treasure Cove, and his line was one of the longer ones we saw in the park (though we arrived five minutes before he came out one day, and we still were around second or third in line).
Back on the main walkway, next door to Landlubber Landing there is a small retail cart called the Jolly Gypsy, selling mostly pirate themed items, and flip flops.
Next door to the Jolly Gypsy is another outdoor location - the last one for Treasure Cove - called Tortuga Treats, which serves turkey legs. Honestly, this place probably had the longest line of nearly anywhere in the park at any given time during our visit. Apparently turkey legs are super popular here!
The final port of call at this end Treasure Cove is opposite Tortuga Treats, and goes by the name of the El Teatro Fandango. El Teatro Fandango is home to Eye of the Storm - Captain Jack's Stunt Spectacular. This park has a lot of shows, between the Golden Fairytale Fanfare, the Frozen Sing-Along, the Baymax show, the small story time shows that I mentioned in the Fantasyland part, the Tarzan show in Adventure Isle (which I haven't covered yet), various bands and musicians, and of course this one now. The point being that with all those shows, there has to be the one that doesn't quite cut it, and unfortunately for Captain Jack, it's this show. You are all herded into a room and some performers come out on the balconies above, and just when you think it's a pre-show, you end up standing there for fifteen minutes watching some nonsense as they chase each other back and forward and do all sorts of slapstick things to each other. It is way too long and deathly boring. Then, you get to go into the main theatre and watch the actual show. This is pretty slow going, too, and only really picks up near the end with, at most two, fairly impressive stunts (one involving free falling/flying), and then it is over. I felt as though I wasted an hour of my life investing in this show, and I will not be rushing back to see it!
If we continued along the same pathway, we would find ourselves in Adventure Isle, so we won't do that until the next part. However, if we trek all the way back through Treasure Cove, and swing around to the left instead of exiting back to Fantasyland or the Gardens of Imagination, we find ourselves on a pathway that connects to the other side of Adventure Isle. Before it becomes Adventure Isle on this end though, there is one last attraction that is listed under Treasure Cove - the Explorer Canoes.
The Explorer Canoes navigate their way around the waterways that separate Treasure Cove and Adventure Isle, and while you don't get to see anything that you can't see from the land side, you do get a unique angle, I suppose.
Treasure Cove, like Fantasyland, is a mixed one for me. I actually think it is a little more consistent in its theming than Fantasyland, and tends to keep everything together in one place (with the exception of the canoes). I do think that it could benefit from a couple more solid attractions, as it relies heavily on the popularity of Pirates of the Caribbean and the walk through attractions such as the ships, but other than those, there is nothing to do here. The main show is terrible, and there is only one main store and one main restaurant. With some development Treasure Cove could become a really solid land, but right now it feels like it is missing something.
Have a great day everyone,
Dan.
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