Thank you so much for taking the time to write-up all of this. These tips are gold!

⁃ The layout of the park is not the standard hub and spoke but more random. Furthermore, there are no printed maps available. I strongly suggest you print out a map with English labels and highlight things you want to do.
⁃ The SDL app gives you a map, but unless you are using a MIFI be mindful that your Internet and location services and Wi-Fi are all unreliable. It worked most times, but not always.
⁃ the app is useful, but you can also use your paper ticket to access pretty much everything.
⁃ If you can afford it, the Concierge service or Premier Access is very worthwhile. There are a variety of packages here, some of which include admission, others do not, and choosing between them is a bit complex, but the website is reasonably detailed. You can only purchase these a week in advance.
⁃ There are occasionally difficulties purchasing entrance media with foreign cards, but the support staff at the website are excellent and ultimately had to send me payment links which worked.
⁃ The paid priority access [Premier or Concierge] give you one time access to each of the rides you paid for that day so be strategic about the use. More on this in a moment.
⁃ Even with the premier access, there are some shows you need to reserve a standby ticket for. This is done via the app. If in doubt, ask a staff person at the show to help you. Those who do not know English will find someone who do. They are extremely friendly and helpful.
⁃ Check the weather reports and if you are there during a warmer season be prepared for rain and humidity. Bring an umbrella and raincoat. Be mindful that sometimes it was just too hot to wear the raincoat. You can buy thin nylon raincoats from vendors outside of the park in Disneytown.
⁃ Disneytown is that the local equivalent of the shopping areas at other parks. Restaurants include some Western venues but, if you really want the Far East experience, try some of the local venues.
⁃ Install Alipay or a WeChat pay on your phone and link it to your card of choice. While it is quite possible, that this software tracks you and has spyware, its value in China is excellent. It will allow you to get a cab with a built-in UBER function (called Didi), it will upload (and translate) menus for you, it will act as a Google translate, and of course it allows you to pay for everything. And I mean everything. Street vendors, taxi cabs, fast, food venues, everything.
⁃ If you’re coming from outside the country, you will need to have your passport in order to pick up your admission media. You can get your media at the Grand Theatre in Disneytown (if you have to add to your purchase) or at the turnstile (if you paid for your entrance). Either way you have to show your passport.
⁃ In terms of how to organize your day, I would stay at one of the two local hotels [I stayed at Toy Story, which was more than adequate] or purchase early entry.
⁃ Arrive early. Park opens for early entry at 8:30 and they are very accurate. They do open a little bit beforehand if the line gets too long but never late.
⁃ I would move quickly to Zootopia [at the back of the park] and get in line to do “Hot Pursuit” without using priority access. The preshow is significantly better in the usual queue and worth seeing if the wait is short enough. Keep in mind that you need to queue or use your fast pass to get into the land as well as to get on the ride. These are two separate things. There’s enough in the land to walk around and see that so people wander there for that alone. Keep your priority access for a second ride later on in the day, but be mindful that in the second ride, you will have a very brief preshow and miss a lot of the the gags.
⁃ The next ride I would go to is Pirates of the Caribbean. If there’s not much wait keep your priority access for later, if not use the fast pass. There’s no difference in the preshow, the experience is exactly the same. This ride is superb with, a few nods to the original but very very different.
⁃ The next hot ticket item is Tron. This is a clone of the other parks. There’s no different experience if you use the fast pass or not.
⁃ The Wandering Moon restaurant is shut and is being changed into a shopping venue.
⁃ At Barbosa’s ribs in addition to the ribs that are very tasty you can have a free green tea. Just order it on the menu. You will note that the cost is zero.
⁃ All the restaurants use QR codes posted up front or held by the staff for the menu. This is useful to you not only to get access to the menu, but also because Alipay will translate it into English for you.
⁃ For counter service restaurants, you open the menu with the QR, order on the phone, add items to your basket, check out and pay, and then the app will tell you what counter to go to to pick up your food.
⁃ Premier access also gives you access to prearranged viewing areas for the nighttime show. The projection mapping is significantly better centre stage so if you don’t have the priority access position yourself somewhere where you’re not too far off to the side.

These are my thoughts after just having visited, hopefully they’re useful.

Having just come back from Shanghai Disneyland I wanted to share some tips. There is no specific order here, just bulleted points with things that struck me as useful to know

⁃ The layout of the park is not the standard hub and spoke but more random. Furthermore, there are no printed maps available. I strongly suggest you print out a map with English labels and highlight things you want to do.
⁃ The SDL app gives you a map, but unless you are using a MIFI be mindful that your Internet and location services and Wi-Fi are all unreliable. It worked most times, but not always.
⁃ the app is useful, but you can also use your paper ticket to access pretty much everything.
⁃ If you can afford it, the Concierge service or Premier Access is very worthwhile. There are a variety of packages here, some of which include admission, others do not, and choosing between them is a bit complex, but the website is reasonably detailed. You can only purchase these a week in advance.
⁃ There are occasionally difficulties purchasing entrance media with foreign cards, but the support staff at the website are excellent and ultimately had to send me payment links which worked.
⁃ The paid priority access [Premier or Concierge] give you one time access to each of the rides you paid for that day so be strategic about the use. More on this in a moment.
⁃ Even with the premier access, there are some shows you need to reserve a standby ticket for. This is done via the app. If in doubt, ask a staff person at the show to help you. Those who do not know English will find someone who do. They are extremely friendly and helpful.
⁃ Check the weather reports and if you are there during a warmer season be prepared for rain and humidity. Bring an umbrella and raincoat. Be mindful that sometimes it was just too hot to wear the raincoat. You can buy thin nylon raincoats from vendors outside of the park in Disneytown.
⁃ Disneytown is that the local equivalent of the shopping areas at other parks. Restaurants include some Western venues but, if you really want the Far East experience, try some of the local venues.
⁃ Install Alipay or a WeChat pay on your phone and link it to your card of choice. While it is quite possible, that this software tracks you and has spyware, its value in China is excellent. It will allow you to get a cab with a built-in UBER function (called Didi), it will upload (and translate) menus for you, it will act as a Google translate, and of course it allows you to pay for everything. And I mean everything. Street vendors, taxi cabs, fast, food venues, everything.
⁃ If you’re coming from outside the country, you will need to have your passport in order to pick up your admission media. You can get your media at the Grand Theatre in Disneytown (if you have to add to your purchase) or at the turnstile (if you paid for your entrance). Either way you have to show your passport.
⁃ In terms of how to organize your day, I would stay at one of the two local hotels [I stayed at Toy Story, which was more than adequate] or purchase early entry.
⁃ Arrive early. Park opens for early entry at 8:30 and they are very accurate. They do open a little bit beforehand if the line gets too long but never late.
⁃ I would move quickly to Zootopia [at the back of the park] and get in line to do “Hot Pursuit” without using priority access. The preshow is significantly better in the usual queue and worth seeing if the wait is short enough. Keep in mind that you need to queue or use your fast pass to get into the land as well as to get on the ride. These are two separate things. There’s enough in the land to walk around and see that so people wander there for that alone. Keep your priority access for a second ride later on in the day, but be mindful that in the second ride, you will have a very brief preshow and miss a lot of the the gags.
⁃ The next ride I would go to is Pirates of the Caribbean. If there’s not much wait keep your priority access for later, if not use the fast pass. There’s no difference in the preshow, the experience is exactly the same. This ride is superb with, a few nods to the original but very very different.
⁃ The next hot ticket item is Tron. This is a clone of the other parks. There’s no different experience if you use the fast pass or not.
⁃ The Wandering Moon restaurant is shut and is being changed into a shopping venue.
⁃ At Barbosa’s ribs in addition to the ribs that are very tasty you can have a free green tea. Just order it on the menu. You will note that the cost is zero.
⁃ All the restaurants use QR codes posted up front or held by the staff for the menu. This is useful to you not only to get access to the menu, but also because Alipay will translate it into English for you.
⁃ For counter service restaurants, you open the menu with the QR, order on the phone, add items to your basket, check out and pay, and then the app will tell you what counter to go to to pick up your food.
⁃ Premier access also gives you access to prearranged viewing areas for the nighttime show. The projection mapping is significantly better centre stage so if you don’t have the priority access position yourself somewhere where you’re not too far off to the side.

These are my thoughts after just having visited, hopefully they’re useful.