Staff and family members of employees of the soon-to-open Shanghai Disneyland may consider themselves lucky for having the opportunity to try the rides for free ahead of the general public. However, they are unaware that they are the trial balloons of the resort to iron out kinks a month to its opening.
The operator of Shanghai Disneyland is discovering a lot of kinks that need to be addressed, otherwise they run the risk of Chinese customers misbehaving like those who go abroad. Among the issued surfacing during the soft-opening phase are insufficient communications between the resort and the metro authority, expensive food prices and too tight security checks.
Visitors had a foretaste of the food prices when they were sold soft drinks and tea five times higher the normal retail prices at food stalls in shops near the resort.
Now, the visitors just discovered the 60 yuan ($9) they spent on Mickey Mouse souvenir balloons is money down the drain, or up in the air, because it could not be brought inside the metro train, the most convenient mode of transportation for Shanghai Disneyland-bound tourists.
Actually, it is a policy common in rails in many countries, but the operator of the metro line has not communicated it to the resort operators, or vice-versa. Security employees of the train explained that hydrogen-filled balloons could explode inside the coach and disrupt operations of the train.
The result is arguments between the rail workers and resort guests who bought the balloons as proof of their visit, only to find out they can bring it inside the metro station. The security staff said the store selling the balloons should have warned the guests that it cannot be allowed inside the train.