12 Parks in 16 Days - Disney Parks Around the World Trip Report

[Rimmit]

“Second star to the right and straight on ’til morning.” – Peter Pan

Today I woke up at 7:45AM and feel pretty good. Ironically my body is completely on Asia time just in time for us to leave Asia. This is where those days we lost due to the Air France debacle would have been nice to have back so we could have had more time in Asia without being jet lagged for the majority of our time.

Eventually we all wake up and shower. We take it pretty easy as our checkout time isn’t till noon so we aren’t in a rush for a change.

We still have one last breakfast at Oceano as part of our Vacation Package so we head down at 9AM.

I have some Cocoa Krispies again. Interestingly enough, they have these placemats for the kids that you can pop the characters up.

The characters then stare at you while you eat. I find it kinda cute, but also kinda odd.

I really wanted the beef but every time I went up it was out. It seemed to be a very popular item among the Japanese crowd. Also of note, every time we ate at a restaurant in Tokyo Disney Resort they placed this card on your table. I guess it’s to remind the European crowd that you need to be 20 years old and not 18 years old to have alcohol. They also seem to have a zero tolerance for drinking ANY alcohol and driving and not a blood alcohol level.

Once we finish eating we head back to the room and debate on what to do today. Originally our plan was to do Disneyland for half the day until we left for the airport, but after three straight full park days we decided we needed something a little less hectic. We look into going to the Sky Tower but it’s sold out for the day. One thing that was limiting us at this point was that we will have our luggage wherever we go so we need a place that has luggage storage. We look into some other options like some museums and other things but everything that had luggage storage was sold out, and everything that wasn’t sold out didn’t have luggage storage.

In the end we decide to head to Ikspiari and watch Mufasa. Thankfully, some of the movies playing are in English with Japanese subtitles and this was one of those. This allows us to just leave our luggage at the hotel and we can take the monorail to Ikspiari. We finish packing up and head out of our room. We sadly leave behind all our Vacation Package freebies aside from the blanket as we just don’t have enough room to take it with us.

As we walk to monorail station we get a good view of the hotel during the day. It’s gorgeous and I can’t even imagine the maintenance required for something this intricate.

We arrive at the monorail station and Lucy buys our monorail tickets.

Thankfully, the monorail is just a loop, so it’s even hard for us to get lost.

Ikspiari is the Downtown Disney area of the Tokyo Disney Resort. It’s a large indoor and outdoor complex with stores, restaurants, entertainment, and a movie theater. We get there and use the restroom. I haven’t spoken much about the restrooms in Japan, and I probably should. I guess it’s because growing up we had a bidet in our home and also had the same Japanese electronic bidet system on our toilets both growing up and currently in our home so it’s not really novel to me. The toilets in Japan all come with retractable bidet’s and dryers.

Another fun feature is that it also has a white noise machine for enhanced privacy.

Ikspiari was our easiest option logistically and at this point something easy was very welcome. We wander around and eventually find the movie theater. It’s located in an area themed to a theater district.

The movie isn’t till 2:30PM but we go ahead and buy the tickets for Mufasa. Figure it’s only more than fitting to see a Disney movie on our marathon Disney trip.

It’s about 2 hours till the movie so we decide to go shopping, or really what minimal shopping we can do given we only have carryons. We’ve left A LOT freebies behind this vacation just due to lack of available luggage space.

The Disney store is pretty close to the cinema so we decided to hop in and take a look.

It is just overloaded with cuteness.

Hands down one of my favorite parts of Japan is the kawaii culture.

Lucy begging for the Stitch. Not sure who is cuter to be honest.

It’s past lunchtime and we’re getting hungry and decide to eat before the movie. We were gonna hit up McDonald’s but it’s at the opposite end of the complex so we went to Chubby Airlines which was close by and seemed like a fast food kinda place.

The menu consisted mainly of chicken. We ended up ordering some chicken nuggets, fries and churros.

Much like every restaurant we have encountered in Japan, there is no ketchup available. They did have Mayonaise, spicy mayonaise, cheese and hot mustard as condiments for the fries and chicken. The fries were very long and quite possibly some of the longest fries I’ve ever eaten. The fries weren’t the best, so I guess there is no correlation between fry length and taste. The chicken was just ok as well.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Loved reading every detail of your trip! I was exhausted reading through -- don't think I could do such a whirlwind trip!

I am truly amazed how well you re-create and adapt to challenges that are thrown your way.

Incidentally I had a rather scary fall in Kwa-Zulu-Natal, 100% my own stupidity running upstairs in the dark without having knowledge of my surroundings, which resulted in missing the last step and sliding face-first across a dirt-covered wood deck. Luckily I only sustained a cut front lip, abrasions up my right arm and significant bruising / cuts up the right side of my face. I was very fortunate since I was traveling solo with my teenage daughter and shudder to think about how much worse it could have been. The accident your wife had makes me re-think traveling solo and also about some of the precautions (or rather lack thereof) I take.

Thank you for sharing your grand Disney adventure here!

 

[Rimmit]

Loved reading every detail of your trip! I was exhausted reading through -- don't think I could do such a whirlwind trip!

I am truly amazed how well you re-create and adapt to challenges that are thrown your way.

Incidentally I had a rather scary fall in Kwa-Zulu-Natal, 100% my own stupidity running upstairs in the dark without having knowledge of my surroundings, which resulted in missing the last step and sliding face-first across a dirt-covered wood deck. Luckily I only sustained a cut front lip, abrasions up my right arm and significant bruising / cuts up the right side of my face. I was very fortunate since I was traveling solo with my teenage daughter and shudder to think about how much worse it could have been. The accident your wife had makes me re-think traveling solo and also about some of the precautions (or rather lack thereof) I take.

Thank you for sharing your grand Disney adventure here!

Thanks for reading! I don’t think I could do such a whirlwind trip again either! lol. It wasn’t supposed to be such a whirlwind, but sadly that’s what we were dealt in the end and we had to play the hand.

Unfortunately, over the years for some reason we just seem to be a magnet for problems when we travel. We keep going back to the well thinking our luck has to change. In 2022 I didn’t have a single trip in which I took that didn’t have an issue. Got quarantined in equador with covid, my son was admitted to a hospital in Orlando on a Disney trip, wife run over by a car, completely missed a cruise to due illness, and I left the Inca trail midtrail for a family emergency.

So sadly, I have way more experience than most for thinking of solutions on the fly.

All I could think about when dealing with the issues with my wife, was if she was solo she would be screwed as there would be no one to advocate for her. Not sure if you read the whole thing about what it took to get her out of Zimbabwe, but if I wasn’t running around like crazy trying to make the payments so they would move her, she assuredly would have lost her foot or just died from sepsis. I have zero doubt of that. She never woulda gotten any medical care, as there would have been no one to have found a way to make the payments so they would evac her. Definitely scary to think about.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Thanks for reading! I don’t think I could do such a whirlwind trip again either! lol. It wasn’t supposed to be such a whirlwind, but sadly that’s what we were dealt in the end and we had to play the hand.

Unfortunately, over the years for some reason we just seem to be a magnet for problems when we travel. We keep going back to the well thinking our luck has to change. In 2022 I didn’t have a single trip in which I took that didn’t have an issue. Got quarantined in equador with covid, my son was admitted to a hospital in Orlando on a Disney trip, wife run over by a car, completely missed a cruise to due illness, and I left the Inca trail midtrail for a family emergency.

So sadly, I have way more experience than most for thinking of solutions on the fly.

All I could think about when dealing with the issues with my wife, was if she was solo she would be screwed as there would be no one to advocate for her. Not sure if you read the whole thing about what it took to get her out of Zimbabwe, but if I wasn’t running around like crazy trying to make the payments so they would move her, she assuredly would have lost her foot or just died from sepsis. I have zero doubt of that. She never woulda gotten any medical care, as there would have been no one to have found a way to make the payments so they would evac her. Definitely scary to think about.

I did read your report and it scared me enough to re-think how I travel. Even though I always have travel medical insurance, if something were to happen to me, I wouldn't have anyone to advocate for me. My sister would fly anywhere in the world to advocate for me, but that would likely be too late for serious illness or injury. And who the heck carries significant sums of $$ on their person in Africa? It's not safe to do so.

I do know that I would never travel to Africa or South America solo, just not a risk that I'd take having been both continents twice. I got food poisoning last year in Thailand -- not fun, but thankfully recovered somewhat quickly (I learned that street food in Thailand doesn't agree me). Again, it could've been worse, especially if I had needed IV fluids.

I'm glad that you managed to experience all the parks in 1 trip! What a whirlwind of magic that you got to share with your family. I am a HUGE fan of Tokyo Disney and Tokyo Disney Sea and am already mentally planning my next trip (I just returned from Japan, including 2 nights at FSH).

Your pics are AMAZING! Loved all of them.

I am also team carry-on only -- makes travel so much easier. I also do laundry along the way, making use of wash and fold services whenever possible; there are now app-based services that will pickup laundry at hotels in the morning and return the same evening which I find super handy.

 

[Rimmit]

I did read your report and it scared me enough to re-think how I travel. Even though I always have travel medical insurance, if something were to happen to me, I wouldn't have anyone to advocate for me. My sister would fly anywhere in the world to advocate for me, but that would likely be too late for serious illness or injury. And who the heck carries significant sums of $$ on their person in Africa? It's not safe to do so.

I do know that I would never travel to Africa or South America solo, just not a risk that I'd take having been both continents twice. I got food poisoning last year in Thailand -- not fun, but thankfully recovered somewhat quickly (I learned that street food in Thailand doesn't agree me). Again, it could've been worse, especially if I had needed IV fluids.

I'm glad that you managed to experience all the parks in 1 trip! What a whirlwind of magic that you got to share with your family. I am a HUGE fan of Tokyo Disney and Tokyo Disney Sea and am already mentally planning my next trip (I just returned from Japan, including 2 nights at FSH).

Your pics are AMAZING! Loved all of them.

I am also team carry-on only -- makes travel so much easier. I also do laundry along the way, making use of wash and fold services whenever possible; there are now app-based services that will pickup laundry at hotels in the morning and return the same evening which I find super handy.

Thanks, This was a BAD photography trip for me. We were moving sooo fast, and I have zero control over the times I can take pics, and just have to take them as they come. Some days I'd look back through my camera and realize I took almost nothing. I did the best I could though.

Yeah, after the accident, I don't do a lot of solo travel, but realized in cash based societies, I'd want to be part of a group, so that there is a guide that can at least advocate for you some, and maybe some good samaritans in your group that would try and help and not just let you rot away. So sorry about the food poisoning. That is miserable...

The Tokyo Disney's are amazing and have ruined the US parks for me seeing how things could be run. So clean, and the attractions are incredible.

Argh! Wish I had known about the app based laundry pick up!! That would have simplified our lives. The laundry situation was terrible at times. What countries have you found that type of service in?

Saw in your signature you did the A&K Antarctica Family trip. I've done Quark to Snow Hill Island with the emperor penguin chicks, and then another now defunct company to South Georgia, but curious how A&K was? My daughter's top bucket list thing is to go to Antarctica to see some penguins, and only a handful of companies have the more family friendly voyages. What special things did they do for the kids? Was it that much more family friendly? My family does pretty good with ships, but the Drake is a different beast, and I'd love to just do one of the fly the Drake packages, but those don't come with the family option.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Thanks, This was a BAD photography trip for me. We were moving sooo fast, and I have zero control over the times I can take pics, and just have to take them as they come. Some days I'd look back through my camera and realize I took almost nothing. I did the best I could though.

Yeah, after the accident, I don't do a lot of solo travel, but realized in cash based societies, I'd want to be part of a group, so that there is a guide that can at least advocate for you some, and maybe some good samaritans in your group that would try and help and not just let you rot away. So sorry about the food poisoning. That is miserable...

The Tokyo Disney's are amazing and have ruined the US parks for me seeing how things could be run. So clean, and the attractions are incredible.

Argh! Wish I had known about the app based laundry pick up!! That would have simplified our lives. The laundry situation was terrible at times. What countries have you found that type of service in?

Saw in your signature you did the A&K Antarctica Family trip. I've done Quark to Snow Hill Island with the emperor penguin chicks, and then another now defunct company to South Georgia, but curious how A&K was? My daughter's top bucket list thing is to go to Antarctica to see some penguins, and only a handful of companies have the more family friendly voyages. What special things did they do for the kids? Was it that much more family friendly? My family does pretty good with ships, but the Drake is a different beast, and I'd love to just do one of the fly the Drake packages, but those don't come with the family option.

I liked A&K -- we went over Christmas / New Years so there were a lot of families. In terms of activities for families, there were a few that my dd enjoyed. She was 17 at the time so had aged out of coloring and things like that. Plus you were off the ship for at least part of the day, then there were meals and the changing of clothes, so not a whole lot of time for activities. She attended every lecture with me and even a movie that I didn't (I watched in the room and it was interesting). On Christmas Eve they had Santa take a speedboat to our ship from the Falkland Islands and every child and young adult got called up and given a gift and had a picture taken with Santa, which was really nice! Each guest also had a Christmas gift to open on Christmas morning (an A&K beanie with an embroidered penguin). There was also a NYE party with dancing and party favors to ring in the NY (they had a countdown at 9pm for families). They also published a nice book with pictures of the trip and articles -- they also included an article that my dd and the good friend that she made wrote about some of the sea life that we saw (they mailed it to us when we got home) -- this was a very nice touch.

I would recommend sailing the Drake; neither my dd nor I experienced any motion sickness issues (though we both wore the ear patch and took meds in advance of reaching the Drake). On the way over we had Drake Lake and on the way back we had Drake Shake. I did a fair bit of reading on flying over the Drake and from what I read back then planes can be delayed if the ships making the passage are delayed, so you don't really save any time.

I viewed the ABD itinerary when they released their Antarctica sailings and thought they paled in comparison to what A&K offers. I would definitely recommend seeing as much as you can while you're there; we sent spent Christmas Day on the Falkland Islands (that was pretty high on our list of places we wanted to see), then spent a few days in South Georgia (truly amazing), then a few days on the Antarctica peninsula. If dd wasn't missing a few days of school already I would've loved to spend even longer exploring the region -- it is other-worldly and like nothing we have experienced before then or since.

What I didn't like about A&K was related to the guides. After having done several ABDs I found the A&K guides to be a good notch below what we were used to. They did their job and that was all, no effort to get to know guests (or even pretend to!) or go any extra mile. Funny story: when my dd and I were in Kyoto later that year we saw several of the A&K guides that were on our Antarctica trip (that were with an A&K Japan tour and staying at the same hotel that ABD was); we went over to say hi and catch up and none of them remembered us! I am certain that ABD guides would remember guests that they had been with for 21 days just a few months earlier. We both laughed about it, but it goes to show you their complete lack of engagement (or really bad memories!).

The ship that we were on was outstanding, though the food started to get old after 10 days. By day 19 we were anxious to get off the ship to enjoy food again instead of eating for sustenance. Things like fresh fruit and veggies had run out and appeared to be from cans. However since the kitchen crew was from France we always had delicious freshly baked break and some lovely cheeses. Dd is a vegetarian and got tired of pasta at every dinner very quickly (no other options available for her, though I hope they have changed this in the years since we have sailed).

I see that you have sailed Quark....they tried to royally screw us over with an Arctic cruise that we had booked for June, 2020. Would never use them again and I say that remorsefully since they are a Cdn company and we are Canadian. It was a huge fight with them to get our $$ back. They even went as far as changing their policy and trying to say we were bound to it even though they changed it in April, 2020 and we had booked in the summer of 2019. It took several months to get our $$ back and they were incredibly dishonest and deceitful.

I would travel with A&K again, but wouldn't go out of my way to do so. I hear that Nat Geo runs excellent Antarctica cruises and if (when) I go again I would most likely book with them.

We had a medical evacuation on our trip which meant that our time on Antarctica was cut short by 1 day, which was a huge disappointment, but there is nothing that can be done. We were told that if there is a medical emergency on any of the ships (from any line) in Antarctica at the time (that an evacuation is required) an evaluation is done to determine which ship is the best equipped to take the passenger to the point they can be evacuated, and in this case the sick passenger was on our ship and we were selected. On our way back we picked up another sick passenger from a ship that did not look equipped to be sailing in Antarctica. I was in the main lobby of the ship when the evacuation took place and it was fascinating to watch (when they started the evacuation they made an announcement telling passengers to stay where they were on the ship until the sick passenger was on board and in the onboard hospital). The whole process took only a few minutes but boy did it look scary (the water had 2-3' whitecaps and we weren't what I could call close to the other ship). The other passenger was a man and his wife had to stay on the ship she was on because there weren't any open staterooms on our ship -- I can't imagine how awful that must have been for her. Silver lining was that when we got to the Chilean air base where an air ambulance was going to medevac the passengers (to Puenta Arenas, Chile) we had the chance to go ashore, where dd and I and the friend she made got to visit the Russian Antarctica research station (very, very cool!). Our waiter at dinner told us that on the cruise prior to ours there was a passenger death and the ship kept on going (nothing can be done at that point I suppose), then the doc had 2 full-time patients for a good portion of our cruise.

App based laundry pickup I've used in London; in Shanghai I found a place that picked up our laundry from the concierge in the morning and delivered it back to our hotel around dinner time. I did find a place called Laundry Town in Tokyo that will pickup and drop off laundry, but we ended up using the hotel laundry a few times (ugh), though I didn't find the cost for laundry at the FSH to be too offensive. Most countries in Europe I scour online for wash and folds close to where I'm staying and drop off and pickup (they charge by the kg and a full load usually costs around $15.00, give or take).

 

[mlaw]

I am greatly enjoying your review. We are heading out in about a month for a three week trip to Asia with the last six days being in Tokyo. We have a vacation package with unlimited premier access and you are the first review I have read about it. And boy could I relate to your experience about finding surrounding hotel nights. The entire process was stressful but everyone says it is worth it. I consider myself fairly expert with Disney World but Tokyo Disney has been such a different experience. I am not team carryon so I will be bringing back every free item included in the rooms and in the VP lol. I am packing a foldable duffle for all the shopping including several of those adorable popcorn buckets. Luckily Japan is out last stop. We will be doing laundry so I appreciated the pics of the laundry rooms. I am looking forward to the rest of your report. Thanks again for sharing.

 

[Rimmit]

It was time to see the movie and we head to the theater.

Believe it or not but they had NORMAL popcorn! This was the first time since we were in Japan that we had seen NORMAL popcorn. Kendall and Lucy were absolutely elated and this could be the most exciting thing to happen since we landed in Tokyo.

I’m gonna have a hard time reviewing the movie to be honest as I fell asleep for part of it. I thought I was totally over the jet lag, but I guess not. Either that or the warmth of the theater just knocked me out. Kendall and Lucy really liked it though. My favorite part was the bits and pieces with the original Hans Zimmer soundtrack as I am a huge Hans Zimmer fan.

An interesting observation, but the Japanese watch ALL the credits. Not just a little, not just till they start scrolling, but until the credits are TOTALLY done. The theater was totally full and only one guy got up and I thought he left. NOPE, he likely just went to bathroom as he came back shortly after leaving to finish the credits. We felt super awkward leaving when no one else was so we watched the credits to the bitter end.

There is a small store that is selling snacks across from the theater so we stock up on some snacks for the airport and our flight.

We hit up a small store that sells random stuff to buy some pillows as the airline we fly today, Zipair does not provide any amenities and if we hope to sleep a pillow will definitely help that cause. That being said Lucy is quite adept at sleeping in any position, pillow or not. As everything in Japan has become given the strength of the USD the pillows were dirt cheap. It was only $5 for three pillows. If these were bought in an airport they’d be minimum $10-20 USD.

On the way out we pass a store named mum.

Apparently this store is literally a store devoted to taking selfie’s and for taking pics in photo booths.

Lucy of course takes a pic in the fake phone booth.

It’s starting to get late so we start heading out.

We then get back to the monorail station.

While waiting I notice two things. One, the monorail station is absolutely immaculate with no trash or rubbish anywhere. Two, there are no trashcans anywhere.

The fact there is no trash and concurrently no trash cans is just absolutely mind boggling. You could nearly eat off these floors they look so clean. In the US unless there is a trash can every 10 feet there will be trash everywhere. The Japanese discipline for putting things in trash cans despite the inconvenience of finding one is just incredible. I just cannot believe there is not one trashcan available in this area.

Upon arrival at the Hotel Miracosta we ask bell services to bring out our bags and call us a taxi. The ride to the airport is just 45 minutes and pretty uneventful.

I was a little concerned as to how check in would go given today we are flying ZipAir, a low cost carrier that is a subsidiary of Japan Airlines. We found it very efficient if you didn’t need to check a bag. We just used the check in kiosk and were done in less than 5 minutes. Given the length of the bag check line we were super grateful as the line was forever long.

Security and immigration were super efficient and we went from curbside to the lounge in 30 minutes and we even stopped to buy a Tokyo magnet. Today we went to the I.A.S.S. Superior Lounge -NOA-. We have access to this lounge via our Priority Pass membership via either our AMEX Business Platinum Card or our Capital One Venture X card.

The lounge isn’t bad for a Priority Pass lounge. They had several food and beverage stations, including some cocktails on tap.

They had ample seating, and it was definitely more than ample.

You never know what you’re going to get in regards to the lounges that Priority Pass gives you access to but this one is well above average. The main thing we care about is whether it has edible free food and thankfully we all find the food quite enjoyable. We all ate some noodles. In fact, Lucy liked them so much she ate not 1, not 2, but 3 plates of noodles. Kendall and I also got a beef bowl along with some noodles.

At about 45 minutes till our expected departure time we head to the gate. Boarding is just 30 minutes prior to departure which is kinda short for a 787. I was kinda curious how they came up with that time frame as it’s often even longer for a considerably smaller plane like the 737.

On arrival at the gate I notice everyone has a green zipair tag on their carry on and personal item, likely meaning it’s an approved size and weight to carry on the plane. There was absolutely nothing in any email about needing to have your carry on weighed at the check in counter to be approved for it to be onboard. I go to the gate agent to ask if they can look at our carry on to get a green tag. They say it’s too late. I ask if I can gate check it and they state I cannot. I ask if there is anything I can do at this time, and they say no. They do not have any scales back here. I about die again, as I don’t know what we’re gonna do if our luggage isn’t approved to fly. I guess we could just leave it all behind, as the luggage is just clothes and a couple magnets as that’s all we bought. There is not enough time for me to find a way to ship it as we only have 5 minutes. I’m honestly not sure what we’re gonna do with the luggage.

I then ask “What can we do with the luggage then? Is there anyway we can bring it on board?” She says we can bring it onboard. It’s fine. I almost can’t believe my ears. I feel like we’ve never had anything go our way and for once someone is bending the rules a little. It was a huge win in my mind given our last denial. I’ve been traumatized by airline check in counters too many times and every time I approach one at this point I am flat out paranoid.

We board on time. Zipair being a low cost carrier includes absolutely nothing when you buy your seat. This includes even if you buy a business class seat. There is no priority boarding, no food, no drinks, no amenity kit, or pillow or blanket. Just imagine it as though you are flying Allegiant or Spirit except with a nicer seat that you can lay flat in. That’s pretty much it. While all those extra amenities are nice, the priority is the ability to sleep and get some rest. This is flight number 8 and long haul number 3 in 17 days combined with doing 10 Disney parks so rest and sleep are worth more than gold at this point.

Once we board I now realize why they have slotted only 30 minutes to board. It’s because they use only two doors to board the plane which cuts down on time. The experience is exactly what I would expect from a no frills carrier. They go for speed and efficiency and boarding is impressively completed in 30 minutes and we push off from the gate on time.

 

[Rimmit]

Today we are flying a Boening 787-800 Dreamliner, which is the backbone of the Zipair fleet, and from my understanding, I believe the only plane they actually fly. The seat is very similar to the seat we’ve had on KLM recently minus the small door that KLM has now added.

KLM seat. Nearly identical except for the inflight entertainment system and the small door over the compartment.
They are made by the same manufacturer and airlines can customize them to their own needs. It’s more than ample and most importantly, it lies flat.

This being “budget” business means they even stripped out the screen presumably due to the added weight and maintenance so all we have in its place is a safety card in a net.

Not quite a TV screen
The seat was comfy and spacious enough though. I must say it was kinda odd just staring at a safety card in place of a TV screen. I kinda wish they had at least some basic amenities but given this is more than half the price of a standard business class seat, I am more than happy with the product.

Once we take off we all get some sleep as it’s been a long last couple of days.

Day 17, January 4th, 2025 Step Count – 9,023 Steps

Total Step Count – 281,983

 

[Rimmit]

I liked A&K -- we went over Christmas / New Years so there were a lot of families. In terms of activities for families, there were a few that my dd enjoyed. She was 17 at the time so had aged out of coloring and things like that. Plus you were off the ship for at least part of the day, then there were meals and the changing of clothes, so not a whole lot of time for activities. She attended every lecture with me and even a movie that I didn't (I watched in the room and it was interesting). On Christmas Eve they had Santa take a speedboat to our ship from the Falkland Islands and every child and young adult got called up and given a gift and had a picture taken with Santa, which was really nice! Each guest also had a Christmas gift to open on Christmas morning (an A&K beanie with an embroidered penguin). There was also a NYE party with dancing and party favors to ring in the NY (they had a countdown at 9pm for families). They also published a nice book with pictures of the trip and articles -- they also included an article that my dd and the good friend that she made wrote about some of the sea life that we saw (they mailed it to us when we got home) -- this was a very nice touch.

I would recommend sailing the Drake; neither my dd nor I experienced any motion sickness issues (though we both wore the ear patch and took meds in advance of reaching the Drake). On the way over we had Drake Lake and on the way back we had Drake Shake. I did a fair bit of reading on flying over the Drake and from what I read back then planes can be delayed if the ships making the passage are delayed, so you don't really save any time.

I viewed the ABD itinerary when they released their Antarctica sailings and thought they paled in comparison to what A&K offers. I would definitely recommend seeing as much as you can while you're there; we sent spent Christmas Day on the Falkland Islands (that was pretty high on our list of places we wanted to see), then spent a few days in South Georgia (truly amazing), then a few days on the Antarctica peninsula. If dd wasn't missing a few days of school already I would've loved to spend even longer exploring the region -- it is other-worldly and like nothing we have experienced before then or since.

What I didn't like about A&K was related to the guides. After having done several ABDs I found the A&K guides to be a good notch below what we were used to. They did their job and that was all, no effort to get to know guests (or even pretend to!) or go any extra mile. Funny story: when my dd and I were in Kyoto later that year we saw several of the A&K guides that were on our Antarctica trip (that were with an A&K Japan tour and staying at the same hotel that ABD was); we went over to say hi and catch up and none of them remembered us! I am certain that ABD guides would remember guests that they had been with for 21 days just a few months earlier. We both laughed about it, but it goes to show you their complete lack of engagement (or really bad memories!).

The ship that we were on was outstanding, though the food started to get old after 10 days. By day 19 we were anxious to get off the ship to enjoy food again instead of eating for sustenance. Things like fresh fruit and veggies had run out and appeared to be from cans. However since the kitchen crew was from France we always had delicious freshly baked break and some lovely cheeses. Dd is a vegetarian and got tired of pasta at every dinner very quickly (no other options available for her, though I hope they have changed this in the years since we have sailed).

I see that you have sailed Quark....they tried to royally screw us over with an Arctic cruise that we had booked for June, 2020. Would never use them again and I say that remorsefully since they are a Cdn company and we are Canadian. It was a huge fight with them to get our $$ back. They even went as far as changing their policy and trying to say we were bound to it even though they changed it in April, 2020 and we had booked in the summer of 2019. It took several months to get our $$ back and they were incredibly dishonest and deceitful.

I would travel with A&K again, but wouldn't go out of my way to do so. I hear that Nat Geo runs excellent Antarctica cruises and if (when) I go again I would most likely book with them.

We had a medical evacuation on our trip which meant that our time on Antarctica was cut short by 1 day, which was a huge disappointment, but there is nothing that can be done. We were told that if there is a medical emergency on any of the ships (from any line) in Antarctica at the time (that an evacuation is required) an evaluation is done to determine which ship is the best equipped to take the passenger to the point they can be evacuated, and in this case the sick passenger was on our ship and we were selected. On our way back we picked up another sick passenger from a ship that did not look equipped to be sailing in Antarctica. I was in the main lobby of the ship when the evacuation took place and it was fascinating to watch (when they started the evacuation they made an announcement telling passengers to stay where they were on the ship until the sick passenger was on board and in the onboard hospital). The whole process took only a few minutes but boy did it look scary (the water had 2-3' whitecaps and we weren't what I could call close to the other ship). The other passenger was a man and his wife had to stay on the ship she was on because there weren't any open staterooms on our ship -- I can't imagine how awful that must have been for her. Silver lining was that when we got to the Chilean air base where an air ambulance was going to medevac the passengers (to Puenta Arenas, Chile) we had the chance to go ashore, where dd and I and the friend she made got to visit the Russian Antarctica research station (very, very cool!). Our waiter at dinner told us that on the cruise prior to ours there was a passenger death and the ship kept on going (nothing can be done at that point I suppose), then the doc had 2 full-time patients for a good portion of our cruise.

App based laundry pickup I've used in London; in Shanghai I found a place that picked up our laundry from the concierge in the morning and delivered it back to our hotel around dinner time. I did find a place called Laundry Town in Tokyo that will pickup and drop off laundry, but we ended up using the hotel laundry a few times (ugh), though I didn't find the cost for laundry at the FSH to be too offensive. Most countries in Europe I scour online for wash and folds close to where I'm staying and drop off and pickup (they charge by the kg and a full load usually costs around $15.00, give or take).

Thank you so much for that extensive review. That was super helpful.
That's unfortunate about the med evac. If it makes you feel any better, when we did South Georgia, we did South Georgia alone and did not combine it with Fauklands and Antarctica, albeit we flew to the Falklands from Punta Arenas to catch the ship there, Akademik Vavilov that One Ocean had chartered. We were supposed to have a full 7 days in South Georgia, which was the whole reason for doing South Georgia Alone. Due to weather, we only had 4.5 days due to the weather, including heading back a day early due to weather, so even an extra day at sea rather than just missing landing but that's the breaks of expeditions. They remind you repeatedly when you go that this IS NOT A CRUISE.

We did Quark before they started to go more luxury, and were on the Kapitan Khlebnikov for that one. That ship HAS NO STABILIZERS as it is a true Russian Icebreaker, that only did expeditions in the Russian offseason. The Drake was misery and I honestly never thought I'd say I'd rather be at work, but I honestly would have. I was bunching the ceiling in my bunk I felt so awful. At the time it was the only ship that could break the ice enough and had the choppers to fly you the Emperor Penguin Colony so you could see the baby penguin chicks like in March of the Penguins. They stopped that expedition after a couple years, but resurrected the last two years, but I think they skipped last year, and are doing it again. Sorry to hear about your difficulties. We did them in 2008, and never had to cancel or deal with covid so it was smooth for us.

The food was miserable on both TBH. By the end I was eating rice and bacon bits. I lost weight. The plane delays were definitely a concern from what I was reading, but it was more of the avoiding the utter misery of the Drake as I am still traumatized to this day, but if we had a ship with stabilizers that might be better. Just those 28-30 degree unrelenting lists were just miserable.

With a place like Antarctica that is so regulated there just isn't much extras ABD can get you. We went on the Galapagos Legend which is the exact same vessel that ABD charters for their Galapagos expeditions. I talked to the crew a lot about it, as to do the ABD was double the price vs just doing the regular Legend expedition with the exact same stops. The crew said there is nearly no difference except a pizza party for the kids, and a couple other small differences. They said it's really minimal changes, other than there is an ABD host on board. They said for double the price it definitely isn't worth it for the Galapagos, as due to regulations Disney can't change hardly anything.

My parents have done the Nat Geo one that hit up all SG, Antarctica and Fauklands. They liked it. They do lots of the Nat Geo stuff. The crew definitely knows them at this point, esp. because they are Filipino, and they don't get too many Filipino passengers.

I am greatly enjoying your review. We are heading out in about a month for a three week trip to Asia with the last six days being in Tokyo. We have a vacation package with unlimited premier access and you are the first review I have read about it. And boy could I relate to your experience about finding surrounding hotel nights. The entire process was stressful but everyone says it is worth it. I consider myself fairly expert with Disney World but Tokyo Disney has been such a different experience. I am not team carryon so I will be bringing back every free item included in the rooms and in the VP lol. I am packing a foldable duffle for all the shopping including several of those adorable popcorn buckets. Luckily Japan is out last stop. We will be doing laundry so I appreciated the pics of the laundry rooms. I am looking forward to the rest of your report. Thanks again for sharing.

I had a MASSIVE post about the tokyo hotels in a facebook TDR planning group. I spent 6 months practicing that hotel system and learned everything about it. Like even just small things, like that the iPhone is better than the iPad which is better than a computer when it comes to trying to win a room. The timing for when the system times people out and redumps the rooms back into the inventory and other tiny tricks. I got to the point I could win any room 100 percent of the time for the slow periods and for weekends and peak holidays could win anything about 85 percent of the time. It was just insanity.

The logistics of Japan was so hard, that's why we couldn't change anything else between MIA and Tokyo. Any changes to Tokyo would be brutal after everything it took to book what we wanted. The unlimited VP was awesome!!! I cannot explain how much easier it made our day and was worth EVERY PENNY. We debated buying a luggage in Japan and stuffing it with tons of stuff, but decided in the end it'd probably eventually just collect dust so we just left it all in the room. We did bring one VP blanket back though and one tote bag from each hotel. We left all the amenity kits, slippers, cups, etc. As a warning, the cushions of the VP that you can pick are ROCKS. They are sooo hard. I wish we had picked something else, but we did use them for the parades, rather than sitting on the freezing concrete, but they are about as hard as concrete.

Warning that the FS hotel dryers are ungodly slow. Like slower than any dryer I have ever experienced in my life. DLH was more normal.

 

[Rimmit]

Day 18 - Back to the Future

“Roads. Where we’re going we don’t need roads.” – Doc Brown

Today we traveled back in time to January 4th as we crossed the International Dateline so this is January 4th take two! I did not wake up at all today, as for some reason I just could not sleep on our flight. I think it may be because they never truly dimmed the lights in the cabin the whole way and that may have contributed to me staying up. I’ve never had a cabin in which the lights were kept nearly full brightness on a red eye flight. Kendall and Lucy slept pretty much the entire flight so at least 2/3 of our crew was able to get some sleep.

In keeping with the theme of Japanese toilets, I was impressed that even the toilets on the plane comes with a bidet function.

The Zipair flight was quick and uneventful. I would be totally content to fly them again for the price. The service is exactly what you’d expect as in there is no service so there is no surprise there. They were very attentive to help me get the WiFi working on my phone so I could order some bottled waters. EVERYTHING is done via WiFi, and if you can’t connect then they will bring an iPad to you to help you order. I did miss the service of a true business class, but for the price you really can’t ask for much more. The main goal was to make sure we could get some sleep.

We landed 50 minutes early and thus had a 4 hour layover. Anytime we go international for a couple weeks I always have a mild feeling of relief washes over me when we touch back down on US soil.

There is nothing that can replace the feeling of being back on your home turf. We disembark and are one of the first in the immigration line but it was somewhat confusing as the immigration officers were half hazardly taking people from the Global Entry line and the Mobile Passport Control line seemingly at random and no one knew when it was there turn to walk up to an officer. This obviously created some chaos and some heated disputes of whose turn it was next.

We use Mobile Passport Control, which is nearly if not just as fast as Global Entry most of the time and also free. We’ve wanted to get Global Entry as it comes included with our credit cards, but scheduling an interview is a real barrier in that you have to go to a specific location for that and the nearest for us is in 2.5 hours away in Cincinatti. You can do it on reentry into the US but our connections are always tight and we don’t want to risk not having enough time for a connection to do an interview.

From the time we exited the plane to the time we were through immigration and customs was 22 minutes. It really doesn’t get much better than that.

For some reason Alaska Airlines would not let me check in online and it said to go to the ticket counter. We’ve had some traumatic experiences at ticket counters lately, but I feel very confident this will not be an issue simply because we are in the US and there is zero reason for us to be denied boarding within the United States. They check us in with no problems and the security line is nonexistent so we breeze through and head to the lounge.

The lounge of the day is The Club at SFO which is a Priority Pass lounge.

This lounge is very new just opening 7 months ago. From the online reviews it is one of the best Priority Pass lounges in the US and at a quick glance I would have to agree. We arrive and there is no wait to get in.

After taking the elevator to the lounge, we take a quick look around, and they have multiple drink stations, a bar, a small food selection, a peloton room, some rooms with what I think is some light therapy, and some showers.

We were definitely looking forward to taking a shower. Unfortunately, the showers cost $25 a person. We’d normally wait another 6 hours till we get to the hotel and save the cash, but we are meeting some of my online trivia friends today right when we get to Anaheim, and I’d prefer not to smell and look like a disheveled rat when we see them. We have three hours to burn right now so we suck it up and pay the fee. They at least cut us a break with Lucy and don’t charge us for her.

The showers are very clean and modern and has some decent water pressure so at least for $25 USD the shower is decent.. We then get some food as we hadn’t eaten a meal since the lounge in Tokyo. They have some beef teriyaki which was pretty good and we all enjoyed it.

Lucy used to put socks on her hands as a baby, and she’d go “Sock hands!” Today she has a pillow and she’s going “Pillow Hands!”

We then head to the gate for our flight and on the way we spot a British Airways A380.

It makes me sad that these planes are slowly going extinct. Lucy keeps bugging me to fly on one, and the irony is she has flown on one when she was 3 years old when we flew Qantas to Australia. She of course does not remember that.

We arrive at the gate and wait to board. Lucy is ready to go.

We are flying Alaska Air in Domestic First class this time on an Embraer 175. This is yet another new carrier for us which makes it 7 new carriers in a row as we’ve never before flown Virgin, Vueling, Air France, Cathay Pacific, China Eastern, Zipair, and Alaska. We used our Capital One travel credit to pay for this flight.

The seat was again more than wide enough for me and the legroom plentiful.

I unfortunately lack the leg length to accurately evaluate airline seats.

The flight was a brief 1 hour and 30 minutes. Once we arrive we exit the terminal in less than 2 minutes. Due to where our gate was located, it literally took about the same amount of time to get off the plane and out of the airport as it would take me in Huntington Tri-State Airport, our small local airport with just 2 gates. After flying into and out of some very large airports over the last several weeks this a truly unexpected convenience.

 

[KEK1]

This is an absolutely amazing TR and wow what a trip! Thank you for taking us with you. Your photos are spectacular.
TDR is the one Disney Park we have not done, and I've left it to last as it is so complicated. Which FB planning group did you post in? I've not heard of the unlimited premiere access package, I'm assuming it's crazy $$$$.

 

[Rimmit]

This is an absolutely amazing TR and wow what a trip! Thank you for taking us with you. Your photos are spectacular.
TDR is the one Disney Park we have not done, and I've left it to last as it is so complicated. Which FB planning group did you post in? I've not heard of the unlimited premiere access package, I'm assuming it's crazy $$$$.

I'm not sure, because I seem to be on a temporary ban at this time because someone was asking if I was part of a points and miles facebook group and because we referenced the group within the group we got banned. Kinda random to be honest. It's like Tokyo Disneyland planning or something like that. I have the hotel booking info if you want me to message it to you. It's very extensive, and I could win 100 percent of the time for slower dates and a bout 85 percent of time for peak dates. Actually, I might just post the info in the international park forum, as that would be pretty relevant information I'd think.

The Unlimited DPA is called the "enjoy attractions even more" package, although they tend to change the names everyone and then. It was expensive, but not absurdly so when you compare to US Parks at $3281 dollars for two adults and 1 one child. That included one day at TDS and TDL, unlimited use of the DPA lines, two nights at the Miracosta Venice View room, two breakfasts at oceano, unlimited pop or soup, some freebies like a popcorn bucket and some other stuff and Happy Entry. You can drop the price notably if you don't stay at the Miracosta. Keep in mind this was also from 1/2-1/4 which is the MOST EXPENSIVE time to go, as it's just as busy as WDW during that week if not even more so. It is the highest possible price you could be paying and we also got a room that would cost around $700 a night during that time. I know most bloggers have done the math and you are obviously paying notably more for the VP, and it runs like $1000 dollar premium or around there for the convenience of a VP. For me that extra $1000 dollars was well worth every dime just to ease not having to deal with Happy Entry, potentially not getting the rides you wanted which is a strong possibility for Fantasy Seas rides, and also the ability to sleep in and not have to stand outside the park freezing for 1-2 hours to make sure you get in early enough to book a DPA BEFORE they run out for the day for a ride, and the FS rides don't have a standby queue. You need to either get a standby pass which is free to be allowed to stand in line OR buy a DPA. Both of those can run out within minutes of the park opening, before you ever even cross the turnstile even if you arrived before park open.

Now during non peak times, this is less of a problem, but when we were there, ride times sometimes hit 220 minutes for things like Beauty and the Beast, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Soarin' and some others, so to me it was totally worth it, but everyone has different priorities when planning a vacation so there is no right or wrong answer.

 

[mlaw]

Unfortunately starting April 1st the Fantasy Springs ticket that allows unlimited rides in Fantasy Springs will no longer be available, which is of course the week I will be there. With the Vacation Package, I was able to book a Priority Pass for the three main rides in Fantasy Springs so we are at least assured of doing each of those once. I plan to do Happy Entry our DisneySea day and hope to grab a stand-by pass for Frozen so we can ride that twice.

 

[DianaMB333]

Thank you so much for that extensive review. That was super helpful.
That's unfortunate about the med evac. If it makes you feel any better, when we did South Georgia, we did South Georgia alone and did not combine it with Fauklands and Antarctica, albeit we flew to the Falklands from Punta Arenas to catch the ship there, Akademik Vavilov that One Ocean had chartered. We were supposed to have a full 7 days in South Georgia, which was the whole reason for doing South Georgia Alone. Due to weather, we only had 4.5 days due to the weather, including heading back a day early due to weather, so even an extra day at sea rather than just missing landing but that's the breaks of expeditions. They remind you repeatedly when you go that this IS NOT A CRUISE.

We did Quark before they started to go more luxury, and were on the Kapitan Khlebnikov for that one. That ship HAS NO STABILIZERS as it is a true Russian Icebreaker, that only did expeditions in the Russian offseason. The Drake was misery and I honestly never thought I'd say I'd rather be at work, but I honestly would have. I was bunching the ceiling in my bunk I felt so awful. At the time it was the only ship that could break the ice enough and had the choppers to fly you the Emperor Penguin Colony so you could see the baby penguin chicks like in March of the Penguins. They stopped that expedition after a couple years, but resurrected the last two years, but I think they skipped last year, and are doing it again. Sorry to hear about your difficulties. We did them in 2008, and never had to cancel or deal with covid so it was smooth for us.

The food was miserable on both TBH. By the end I was eating rice and bacon bits. I lost weight. The plane delays were definitely a concern from what I was reading, but it was more of the avoiding the utter misery of the Drake as I am still traumatized to this day, but if we had a ship with stabilizers that might be better. Just those 28-30 degree unrelenting lists were just miserable.

With a place like Antarctica that is so regulated there just isn't much extras ABD can get you. We went on the Galapagos Legend which is the exact same vessel that ABD charters for their Galapagos expeditions. I talked to the crew a lot about it, as to do the ABD was double the price vs just doing the regular Legend expedition with the exact same stops. The crew said there is nearly no difference except a pizza party for the kids, and a couple other small differences. They said it's really minimal changes, other than there is an ABD host on board. They said for double the price it definitely isn't worth it for the Galapagos, as due to regulations Disney can't change hardly anything.

My parents have done the Nat Geo one that hit up all SG, Antarctica and Fauklands. They liked it. They do lots of the Nat Geo stuff. The crew definitely knows them at this point, esp. because they are Filipino, and they don't get too many Filipino passengers.

I had a MASSIVE post about the tokyo hotels in a facebook TDR planning group. I spent 6 months practicing that hotel system and learned everything about it. Like even just small things, like that the iPhone is better than the iPad which is better than a computer when it comes to trying to win a room. The timing for when the system times people out and redumps the rooms back into the inventory and other tiny tricks. I got to the point I could win any room 100 percent of the time for the slow periods and for weekends and peak holidays could win anything about 85 percent of the time. It was just insanity.

The logistics of Japan was so hard, that's why we couldn't change anything else between MIA and Tokyo. Any changes to Tokyo would be brutal after everything it took to book what we wanted. The unlimited VP was awesome!!! I cannot explain how much easier it made our day and was worth EVERY PENNY. We debated buying a luggage in Japan and stuffing it with tons of stuff, but decided in the end it'd probably eventually just collect dust so we just left it all in the room. We did bring one VP blanket back though and one tote bag from each hotel. We left all the amenity kits, slippers, cups, etc. As a warning, the cushions of the VP that you can pick are ROCKS. They are sooo hard. I wish we had picked something else, but we did use them for the parades, rather than sitting on the freezing concrete, but they are about as hard as concrete.

Warning that the FS hotel dryers are ungodly slow. Like slower than any dryer I have ever experienced in my life. DLH was more normal.

Hi.. would you mind pls pointing out to that post on FB about hotels? My window for booking starts in two months and need to start practicing .. thanks!!

 

[Rimmit]

Unfortunately starting April 1st the Fantasy Springs ticket that allows unlimited rides in Fantasy Springs will no longer be available, which is of course the week I will be there. With the Vacation Package, I was able to book a Priority Pass for the three main rides in Fantasy Springs so we are at least assured of doing each of those once. I plan to do Happy Entry our DisneySea day and hope to grab a stand-by pass for Frozen so we can ride that twice.

I saw that. That is a bummer. Frozen is the priority for sure. Rapunzel is short but is beautiful. Peter Pan is like Spidermen in USO. Frozen is the second best dark ride in TDR imo second only to Beauty and the Beast. It’s a great ride. Definitely want to prioritize that.

Hi.. would you mind pls pointing out to that post on FB about hotels? My window for booking starts in two months and need to start practicing .. thanks!!

Unfortunately I was put in temporary possibly permanent ban from that group because me another group member asked me if I was part of a points and miles Facebook group and I said yes, and broke the group rule of mentioning other Facebook groups. It was something like Tokyo Disney Holiday Planning or something like that. It was totally random to be honest as I had contributed a ton to that group in knowledge I built up when planning this trip. I will post the info the international parks subgroup, and link it here. I hope it helps.

 

[Rimmit]

Hi.. would you mind pls pointing out to that post on FB about hotels? My window for booking starts in two months and need to start practicing .. thanks!!

Here. I posted the tips in the Tokyo Subforum. Hope it helps!!!

https://www.disboards.com/threads/tdr-hotel-booking-tips-how-to-win-the-room-you-want.3962292/

 

[Rimmit]

It takes us just 2 minutes to get to the ride share pickup and another 8 minutes for our Uber to arrive.

It is just a short 15 minute ride to the one and only original Disneyland Hotel. After staying at the other 4 Disneyland hotels this vacation and a total of 7 other Disney hotels it was super exciting to stay at the VERY FIRST Disney hotel.

The first thing you see when you walk in is a huge map of Disneyland from many years ago. After circling the globe it’s just kinda neat to be where it all started.

Lucy is fast to spot a tea cup. Sadly, to Lucy’s dismay this one does not spin.

We then start to walk toward our room and pass by the pool on the way. The resort just looks beautiful at night.

We had booked this stay using rented DVC points which saved us a substantial amount of money. Because we are staying with DVC points, we are staying in the brand new Discovery Tower part of the Disneyland Hotel, which is the DVC portion.

We are staying in a Standard Villa room for this stay. It is gorgeous and very modern.

The room is themed to The Princess and the Frog, and like all Disney rooms pays a great deal of attention to details and this one is no different.

Lucy is always trying to find random places to sleep and she tries out the ottoman for a bit. She says the Murphy bed is more comfortable.

We all quickly freshen up and meet my online trivia friends, Dave and Nicole, for dinner at the Pixar Place Hotel which is just a short walk from the Disneyland Hotel.

Most of you are not aware, but I became part of an online trivia community during covid and made some amazing friends via this community. Today was a special day as after about three and a half years I finally got to meet two of my online friends in person, Dave and Nicole.

We go to the Great Maple for dinner which serves like fancier diner food. It’s been two weeks since we’ve had a proper taste of home, so I had some breakfast for dinner and got some eggs, bacon and toast. It was great to get some diner food after two weeks away.

Unfortunately, Dave’s wife, Nathalie, could not make it tonight, but we will meet up with her and Dave tomorrow when we enter the park. Nathalie is using her cast member benefit to allow us to enter the park for free as her guests. We set up a meeting time at 10:00AM to hopefully let us sleep in some, albeit that has rarely worked this vacation due to the jet lag.

We finish up and say goodbye, and head back to the room and get ready for bed. It takes no effort for us to crash out as we prep for our final park day of the vacation in which we complete our goal of visiting all 12 parks in one trip.

Day 18, January 4th, 2025 Step Count – 7,946 Steps

Total Step Count – 289,929

 

[DianaMB333]

Here. I posted the tips in the Tokyo Subforum. Hope it helps!!!

https://www.disboards.com/threads/tdr-hotel-booking-tips-how-to-win-the-room-you-want.3962292/

Thanks a lot!

 

[Rimmit]

Day 19 - Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure

“Here You Leave Today And Enter The World Of Yesterday, Tomorrow And Fantasy” – Walt Disney

This is it boys and girls. The final push. Today we are doing parks 11 and 12, Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure.

Today I actually did get to wake up, as I actually did fall asleep unlike yesterday. I woke up at 6:45AM and I actually feel refreshed. It was the best night of sleep in quite a while and I don’t feel jet lagged at all.

It’s one of the most beautiful days we’ve had this vacation, but ironically of all the Disney hotel room views we’ve had it’s definitely not the most beautiful.

I eventually go and fetch some breakfast from The Coffee House, which is a quick service restaurant/coffee shop at the Disneyland Hotel. I have to walk through the courtyard to get to The Coffee House which is close to the convention center.

Lucy orders two bowls of Fruit Loops, Kendall and I split a breakfast burrito, and I get some milk and a Diet Coke. I am in sticker shock after being in Asia for the last week as the total for that little bit of food was $36 dollars. We aren’t in a hurry as we aren’t meeting up with my friend until 10:00AM, so we all have time to shower and get dressed. We also have time to do the laundry this AM as well so we do our final load of laundry this vacation.

After the endless laundromat debacles this vacation I have never been so excited to get back to a typical US laundromat.

This laundromat was pretty much everything I had ever dreamed a laundromat should be. It has not one, not two, but THREE WAYS TO PAY!! Two options via the phone and one available IN THE LAUNDROMAT. I take nothing for granted after the debacle on our second night at Disneyland Hotel Paris.

It also has large dryers, and for the real kicker, the dryers actually dry in a standard amount of time!!!! It’s a miracle!!!! No damp laundry here!! I can’t imagine a better start to a day… except for maybe Notre Dame beating Georgia.

We leave our hotel at 9:50AM to meet up with my friend Dave and his wife, Nathalie. It’s a short 8 minute walk through Downtown Disney to get to the entrance of the park. On the way we spot a not so hidden Mickey that has sadly had it’s ear blown away.

We meet Dave at the picnic area right outside the park.

Today we are using his wife’s cast member benefit to be their guest in the park for the day. We meet up with Dave and Nathalie and we enter into Disneyland and we do NOT head to wheelchair rental. Yep, that’s right Kendall is gonna go without the wheelchair today. She’s been training for today since the accident 2.5 years ago.

So far this trip she’s walked a partial day at Disneyland Paris, a half day in Shanghai, and a full day in Hong Kong Disneyland, which is a VERY small park and more akin to walking around a small regional amusement park. For size comparison, Hong Kong Disneyland is about 1/5 the size of Epcot. Today is the true test to see just how far she’s come in recovery, in that this is Disney at it’s fastest and finest, with us doing both Disneyland AND Disney’s California Adventure at a VERY fast pace. This would be a hard day for some adults with two healthy feet. This is our final park day, and she had been avoiding pushing herself too much as before if she redlines her foot, we would potentially have had a very difficult time completing the vacation as it can take days for her to recover if she pushes it too hard. Today we are gonna throw caution to the wind and say “Screw it!” as it is our final park day and we fly home tomorrow. The absolute worst case scenario is that we use wheelchair assistance to get through the airport.

After entering we buy the Lightning Lane Premier Pass immediately. I’ve never heard of this selling out in Disneyland unlike Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, but we’d rather not risk it. This pass allows us one Lightning Lane per ride in both parks. Given it is the last day of Christmas break we anticipate it to be super busy and we only have one day for both Disneyland and California Adventure. It is very pricey at $399 per person, but this will help us significantly reduce the zigzagging across the parks in order to make Lightning Lane return times. This normally wouldn’t be too big of an issue, but given Kendall is going without a wheelchair, the Premier Pass will help make the day significantly more manageable from a walking perspective.

We start the day with the traditional walk down Main Street U.S.A. This being our 6th and final castle, it really feels underwhelming to be honest. It’s even smaller than I remember it.

Size isn’t everything though, and it’s beautifully decorated for the Christmas season.

I see the famous Walt Disney Statue and and take the obligatory picture.

For our first ride of the day we elect to go on an absolute classic, Mr Toads Wild Ride over in Fantasyland.

It’s been since 2017 that we have ridden this so the ride feels pretty novel to me at this point. It’s definitely nothing spectacular, but at this point this ride along with many others in Disneyland are basically considered National Historic Sites by Disneyland faithful, just without the actual protection of the National Park system. So regardless if a ride might be underwhelming by today’s standards, the chance of some rides ever being removed or replaced is pretty remote.

This is one of those rides.

Not too far away are the Matterhorn Bobsleds. The last time we were here in 2017 we did it at night, so this is a totally different experience seeing it during the day. We take the Lightning Lane and the wait is about 10 minutes.

I totally forgot just how much fun the Matterhorn was, and I also totally forgot just how long it is. In the current age of ultra fast coasters and launches, the rides have obviously gotten shorter in length. It’s definitely one of the more unique rides this vacation being an entirely downhill ride weaving into and out of a mountain much like a bobsled.

We all love it, and it’s definitely one of our favorite rides this vacation.

Next up is another mountain, Space Mountain.

Disney World being our main home park is our standard for Space Mountains, and as such every other Space Mountain in the world is measured against it. The ride vehicle here is a 2-2-2 arrangement rather than the single file rocket that Magic Kingdom has.

The track here is much smoother than the one in Magic Kingdom.

Aside from that the theming is pretty much identical and unlike the international versions there is no hint of Star Wars anywhere.

In my head it felt just a little faster, but I’m not sure if that’s just because it’s smoother or if it really was.