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

[*WDW*Groupie*]

@Rimmit ITA about the value of the unlimited VP at the Tokyo Parks -- I will be sad if they discontinue offering this VP! We also had it and never worried about lines for rides. We didn't get much value out of the drinks because I prefer to drink water (but the bubble tea at Momma Biscotti's in TDS was delicious and I also had some kind of chocolate strawberry drink from a food truck in TDS near to ToT that was really good). My favorite rides were Frozen (rode 3X), Peter Pan (only rode 2X because motion sickness prevented me from riding a 3rd time) and BnB (we rode 2X). The only frustrating thing we found with the unlimited PPs was in the line for Star Tours after the relatively short 'priority access' (PA) line we were lumped together with the regular line and this resulted in a 40 min wait. I also found the PA line for Splash Mountain frustrating -- I would've rode it a 3rd time but didn't want to wait almost 30 minutes in the PA line.

I'm envious that you got to stay at the Grand Chateau. I wasn't able to snag it when I booked our VP in August and found the FSH rather plain. But the breakfast at FSH was pretty good, much better than what we had at the TDH in 2019. Glad that you had a CSR that spoke English there -- no one at the front desk at the FSH spoke English. I'm going back to Japan next January and hope to snag a VP at the Grand Chateau. Curious how you got your booking -- I was online exactly when the rooms were released and the GC and theme park views at the FSH were already sold out for our dates.

I was going to bring home the blanket, but had no room for it in my carry-on, so we got 2 of the little stuffed Mickey Mouse clip-ons. My ds is going to give 1 of them to his best friend's 6 yr old son. I brought home all 4 shopping bags (we got 2 each night). Interesting that you had the metal amenity kits at the MiraCosta -- the amenities were sealed in little plastic bags at the FSH (makes me glad that I brought home the metal ones from TDH in 2019). Also no body lotion in our room -- I asked at the front desk and was told they don't offer it -- they offered me a tiny bag of Japanese (facial) skin care instead (which would do nothing for my the dry skin on my arms and legs).

I think you'd be fine on one of LePonant's new ships -- the stabilizers are excellent. We had the lowest category stateroom and I chose the lowest deck in the middle of the ship (and our view was amazing -- plus we spent most of the time that we weren't onshore or in lectures in the lounge so why pay for a more expensive stateroom?). The friends that we met booked one of the most expensive staterooms on the highest deck and they had items flying off the shelf in their bathroom during Drake Shake. Actually the ship closed the restaurant and lounge on the top deck because the plates and glasses were sliding onto the floor and breaking. The whitecaps were over the dining room windows and I'd say more than half the passengers (and crew) missed meals for 1.5 days. But neither dd nor I nor our friends experienced any motion sickness (but we took the meds before entering the Drake). I found it kind of fun tbh; yet I can't handle the spinning tea cups so go figure.

My goal is to take the Nat Geo Endurance to the South Pole in one of their single cabins....one day.

 

[Karebear]

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.

I am researching a trip to Japan with people flying from both LA and San Francisco and so was interested in your review of Zipair. I noticed you flew into SF and not LA. Was that just due to point availability or is there some other reason you did not fly directly to LA? Just curious as I am in the planning stages of this trip. Thank you!

 

[Rimmit]

@Rimmit ITA about the value of the unlimited VP at the Tokyo Parks -- I will be sad if they discontinue offering this VP! We also had it and never worried about lines for rides. We didn't get much value out of the drinks because I prefer to drink water (but the bubble tea at Momma Biscotti's in TDS was delicious and I also had some kind of chocolate strawberry drink from a food truck in TDS near to ToT that was really good). My favorite rides were Frozen (rode 3X), Peter Pan (only rode 2X because motion sickness prevented me from riding a 3rd time) and BnB (we rode 2X). The only frustrating thing we found with the unlimited PPs was in the line for Star Tours after the relatively short 'priority access' (PA) line we were lumped together with the regular line and this resulted in a 40 min wait. I also found the PA line for Splash Mountain frustrating -- I would've rode it a 3rd time but didn't want to wait almost 30 minutes in the PA line.

I'm envious that you got to stay at the Grand Chateau. I wasn't able to snag it when I booked our VP in August and found the FSH rather plain. But the breakfast at FSH was pretty good, much better than what we had at the TDH in 2019. Glad that you had a CSR that spoke English there -- no one at the front desk at the FSH spoke English. I'm going back to Japan next January and hope to snag a VP at the Grand Chateau. Curious how you got your booking -- I was online exactly when the rooms were released and the GC and theme park views at the FSH were already sold out for our dates.

I was going to bring home the blanket, but had no room for it in my carry-on, so we got 2 of the little stuffed Mickey Mouse clip-ons. My ds is going to give 1 of them to his best friend's 6 yr old son. I brought home all 4 shopping bags (we got 2 each night). Interesting that you had the metal amenity kits at the MiraCosta -- the amenities were sealed in little plastic bags at the FSH (makes me glad that I brought home the metal ones from TDH in 2019). Also no body lotion in our room -- I asked at the front desk and was told they don't offer it -- they offered me a tiny bag of Japanese (facial) skin care instead (which would do nothing for my the dry skin on my arms and legs).

I think you'd be fine on one of LePonant's new ships -- the stabilizers are excellent. We had the lowest category stateroom and I chose the lowest deck in the middle of the ship (and our view was amazing -- plus we spent most of the time that we weren't onshore or in lectures in the lounge so why pay for a more expensive stateroom?). The friends that we met booked one of the most expensive staterooms on the highest deck and they had items flying off the shelf in their bathroom during Drake Shake. Actually the ship closed the restaurant and lounge on the top deck because the plates and glasses were sliding onto the floor and breaking. The whitecaps were over the dining room windows and I'd say more than half the passengers (and crew) missed meals for 1.5 days. But neither dd nor I nor our friends experienced any motion sickness (but we took the meds before entering the Drake). I found it kind of fun tbh; yet I can't handle the spinning tea cups so go figure.

My goal is to take the Nat Geo Endurance to the South Pole in one of their single cabins....one day.

The unlimited VP was clutch, and they announced it just in time for our vacation. If you read this thread, I have linked to another thread in the Tokyo board where I revealed my booking tips. I practice over 100 times, and really learned some quirks of the system. 12/31 for GC was crazy competitive, but we lucked out and got one. I was getting nervous as I failed the previous day for 12/30 practice run and I had gotten it I think 8 times in a row at that point, so I lost some confidence, but managed to get it. If you don't win it then, watch the cancellations. Lots of buyers remorse I've noticed and GC rooms pop up more often than a lot of other rooms.

There are no VPs with GC. We booked that prior to our VP. I heard FC is kinda bland. I did not find GC bland at all. I was very happy with it, but you don’t get a VP there. From my understanding once the FS passport goes away, they will allow a GC guest to schedule one time each for the FS rides I believe. Either that or you can just buy more attraction passes to cover the FS rides.

Everyone in GC spoke decent English impressively including the restaurant there.

I heard from other people that the tins seem to be hit or miss. Seems another cutback.

The first day 1/1 the DPA lines in TDS were kinda slow to be honest. Typically at least 15 minutes. 1/2 we were at TDL and they were better but still not great and really depended on the ride. Splash mountain was super fast for us. 1/3 they were super fast at TDS, except for our last ride of the day, Frozen and it was 30 minutes.

We left behind soooo much stuff. Probably at least 12 plastic cups, 60 amenity kits, tons of bags, all our VP stuff except the blanket. My daughter really wanted the blanket so we made space for it. I just kept all our room keys from all the hotels and some documents and that was about it. We coulda filled an entire luggage with all the freebies we left behind.

Yeah, every expedition in the south I've been on in the south, half miss dinner at least.

I want to do the 40 years of victory to the North Pole. Also if they ever bring them back, I'd like to do the circumnavigation of Antarctica, but I haven't seen that offered in 14+ years.

I recommend doing the Snow Hill Island if you can. The emperor penguins are soooo amazing to see, especially their chicks. It was the most amazing experience, and it's one of the few things that's on my HAVE to repeat list before I die. They don't offer it every year, but it's truly amazing and I highly recommend it if you can go. Issue is I think Quark is the only operator for that right now, and I know you don't like quark.

 

[Rimmit]

I am researching a trip to Japan with people flying from both LA and San Francisco and so was interested in your review of Zipair. I noticed you flew into SF and not LA. Was that just due to point availability or is there some other reason you did not fly directly to LA? Just curious as I am in the planning stages of this trip. Thank you!

So that is a very long story how we ended up in SFO. I had been monitoring the flights to go live for Zipair for literally 6 months and they released off cycle and I missed the release date. When I realized that they were live so was a day late from release and they were sold out for LAX. I was screwed and no way to get back from Tokyo in biz that was remotely affordable. Then I realized they didn’t release SFO yet or SJC. I set up a web monitoring service, to notify my when the website changed so I knew the moment they went live and managed to book those. Long story short, we messed up and it was the only option that got us back in a lie flat seat without breaking the bank.

What questions do you have about Zipair? Happy to answer any questions.

 

[Rimmit]

Nearby is Star Tours which is the exact same as every single other Star Tours and the very original Star Tours. Dave and Nathalie had basically been graciously serving as our personal guides so far today, and had not been going on many rides due to the lines, but Star Tours was a short 15 minute wait so we all go on it together. The boarding area here definitely pales in comparison to the Tokyo version.

This was the very first time we got the Ahsoka ending with the Purrgils which are the space whales so that was a treat. Per Dave he says that is the same ending every single time right now, so I guess Disney is really pushing Disney+ right now.

We then decide to leave and head over to California Adventure as we plan to end our day in Disneyland as it closes at midnight. We cross the turnstiles, and have officially completed our 12 park challenge.

It felt pretty anticlimactic to be honest, and I think part of that is that we had been to Disneyland and California Adventure before so it wasn’t something new. It was kinda neat to think we did do all 12 parks over a course of 16 days though. I was looking for someone with some buttons so we can get a congratulatory button, but didn’t see anyone and didn’t feel like waiting in line at guest services.

It’s about lunchtime and we are all getting hungry now so we start to walk over to eat at Sanfransokyo Square. We pass Grizzly mountain on the way.

Sanfransokyo is the fictional city where Big Hero 6 takes place.

This area was previously known as Pacific Wharf prior to its retheming in August 2023. It’s basically a big outdoor food court with multiple food options. Lucy and I went to the Lucky Fortune Cookie for some chicken teriyaki and potstickers. Kendall, Dave, and Nathalie went to Aunt Cass Cafe where they all got a bread bowl with mac and cheese. It takes a while to find a table, but we eventually stalk one down and eat our food. The potstickers and chicken teriyaki were pretty good, and I enjoyed it. The mac and cheese and bread bowl did not disappoint either, but it is pretty hard to mess up mac and cheese.

Of note, we are starting to get messages from friends back home that we our area is getting funded with snow. There’s not much we can do about that now, but it could definitely impact our travel plans when we fly home tomorrow. We’re supposed to get between 12-14 inches, but we know just how accurate the weathermen are. We’ll just have to hope the planes keep flying and they can get the roads cleared up enough for us to get home from the airport. I do a quick check of our Ring camera at home, and yep, it’s piling up fast.

Radiator Springs Racers is right next to Sanfransokyo Square so we head there next.

The Lightning Lane lane is only about 10 minutes so we have a short time to check out the queue which has some fun details.

This is basically the same ride as test track with some minor track differences and significant thematic differences.

Everyone has their own opinion, but I find it superior to Test Track in nearly all facets. The beginning is truly stunning and feels just like a drive through the canyons in the movie.

Really the only thing that test track really beats Radiator Springs Racers, is that in the final part of the ride, Test Track tops out at a much faster speed so it is more thrilling in that aspect.

It is just an incredibly well themed and beautiful ride and a ton of fun.

We then walk back through Sanfransokyo Square to get to Pixar Pier.

We hadn’t been to Pixar Pier since it was rethemed from Paradise Pier and I was VERY skeptical how the infusion one Pixar into a Victorian Era boardwalk would work. I thought it would be incredibly cheesy and a cheap way to infuse more IP into the parks. In all honesty, I didn’t hate the retheming. It was actually tastefully done, and minimally intrusive, and for the most part actually made a reasonable amount of sense.

Our next ride is the Incredicoaster.

We have not been on it since it was rethemed from California Screamin’. Much like my skepticism for Pixar Pier, I held a great deal of skepticism for how they were going to incorporate the Incredibles into this coaster.

I must say, I was again wrong. The Incredible theme works way better than I anticipated, and the ride was a blast as always, and one of the best roller coasters in all of the Disney Parks, and at this point, we’ve basically done them all, with only Big Thunder Mountain in Disneyland remaining.

Toy Story Mania is next up as it is also in Pixar Pier.

This ride is probably the most thematically coherent with the Pixar Pier theme, and in all honesty, was probably one of the reasons they thought of the idea as it was here before they ever rethemed the area. It is identical to all the other Toy Story Mania’s with zero differences. I got the worst score I’ve had this vacation. I think despite there being ample time between parks, I could feel my arm fatiguing more quickly. You can only pull that plunger so fast, and I think my fast twitch muscle fibers were just burned out.

Angry Dogs is nearby. We do not buy an Angry Dog, but I find the name and stand quite amusing as does Lucy.

As we continue to walk around Pixar Pier we enter Bing Bongs Sweet Shop.

They have some really cute food items here.

We don’t buy any as we aren’t that hungry right now, but Lucy does buy a slushy and some candy.