A Week Around the Small World! Paris to Hong Kong to Shanghai to Tokyo TR!

[Majide]

Hi everyone I just got back from my dream trip visiting all of the international Disney parks and wanted to write a trip report to help anyone else who might be planning a similar trip!

My husband and I flew from Dallas to Paris to Istanbul to Hong Kong to Shanghai to Tokyo to San Francisco to Dallas, circumnavigating the earth. Almost all of our flights were booked using miles, so let me know if anyone is interested in those details. Our itinerary was:

Day	Activity
Thu. 3/29	Fly to Paris
Fri. 3/30	Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios Park
Sat. 3/31	Morning in Paris, Flight to Istanbul
Sun. 4/1	Istanbul to Hong Kong Flight
Mon. 4/2	Hong Kong Disneyland
Tue. 4/3	Flight to Shanghai
Wed. 4/4	Shanghai Disneyland
Thu. 4/5	Flight to Tokyo
Fri. 4/6	Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea
Sat. 4/7	Cherry Blossoms in Tokyo and Flight Home!

Looking forward to sharing the details soon!

 

[zanzibar138]

Ooh so excited for this!

 

[Majide]

Thursday - March 28
Our adventure began by flying on Air France from DFW > CDG. We live close to the airport and I work from home, so I was able to work most of this day and then just left an hour early, since our flight didn't leave until the afternoon.

Overall, my DH and I like Air France. This was our second time flying with them, and it is really nice that they have a nonstop flight from DFW. They also have great point redemptions and promotions. We would fly with them more often, but Charles de Gaulle is literally horrible to transfer through. They seem to only have one immigration agent working at time for 100s of people, but I digress. Luckily for us, our first stop was in Paris itself, so no transfers need!

Here's what we were served on our economy flight. I had the pasta and my husband went with the chicken.




Overall, it was perfectly fine for economy airplane food. The best part was definitely the slice of lemon cake, but normally isn't dessert always the best part?

Breakfast on Air France is always kind of weird in my opinion being that it is a French airline. The main hot item was a quiche bread that was good, but it was served with a hot dog bun, mixed fruit cup, drinkable yogurt, and orange juice that reminded me of school cafeterias.


But then, we finally landed in France!

 

[Majide]

Friday, March 29
We landed in Paris at 8am local time. The immigration line at CDG was as long as always, but they have added some more electronic immigration gates which helped a bit. From deplaning to out of immigration, it took us almost exactly 45 minutes.

We had landed in terminal 2, so we just had to walk to the train station. After a lot of research online, I had decided that we would take the TGV high speed train to the parks. I normally would buy my train tickets in advance to get the cheapest price, but I had heard that they are very strict on taking the exact train you booked, and I always try to minimize stress in case our flight was delayed. Once we got there, there were ticket machines next to the vending machines that we used to buy our tickets. Weirdly, 1st class was cheaper than 2nd class, so we went ahead with that. Since the train ride is only 10 minutes, we didn't bother spending extra for seat reservations.

Our train was leaving at 9:55am, so we had a few minutes to stop by the Relay convince store in the train station. My DH had been able to sleep a few hours, but I was too excited, so coffee was needed! The Olympics aren't for a few months, but they already had merch out, so I went ahead and grabbed a pin.


Then, it was time for the train! We were able to grab seats for our short journey. I definitely think the fast train was worth the extra cost over the other ways to get to Disneyland, especially since we just had one day.

Once we arrived at the Marne-la-Vallée Chessy train station, we needed to store our luggage. I researched like 5 different options for us and just planned to work my way down the list of options if our first choice was full. Luckily, the train station lockers had plenty of availability at 10 am still. The lockers are located on the top floor of the station. We went for the largest locker, which was plenty big for our 2 carry-on sized suitcases and 2 backpacks.


An important thing to know is that the lockers accepts coins only. There was a change machine, but it only took 5 or 10 euro notes and I just had a 20 and 50 euro bill. My DH stayed with our stuff while I ran down to the Relay in the station. I just grabbed a water bottle and paid with the 20 euro bill and received some smaller notes back that we then were able to get turned into coins. This extra large locker was almost 10 euros for the whole day, but was a lot more convenient then going to our hotel to drop the bags.


And with that, it was time for our first park!

Up next, Starting at the Studios!

 

[SeanSD]

Hi everyone I just got back from my dream trip visiting all of the international Disney parks and wanted to write a trip report to help anyone else who might be planning a similar trip!

My husband and I flew from Dallas to Paris to Istanbul to Hong Kong to Shanghai to Tokyo to San Francisco to Dallas, circumnavigating the earth. Almost all of our flights were booked using miles, so let me know if anyone is interested in those details. Our itinerary was:

Day	Activity
Thu. 3/29	Fly to Paris
Fri. 3/20	Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios Park
Sat. 3/31	Morning in Paris, Flight to Istanbul
Sun. 4/1	Istanbul to Hong Kong Flight
Mon. 4/2	Hong Kong Disneyland
Tue. 4/3	Flight to Shanghai
Wed. 4/4	Shanghai Disneyland
Thu. 4/5	Flight to Tokyo
Fri. 4/6	Tokyo Disneyland and Disney Sea
Sat. 4/7	Cherry Blossoms in Tokyo and Flight Home!

Looking forward to sharing the details soon!
View attachment 849454

Wow made me tired just reading the itinerary! Can’t wait to hear about it all!

 

[Majide]

Friday, March 29 - Part 2!
Our first park of the trip was Walt Disney Studios Park.

Before the trip, I planned out every park and looked at all of the rides and restaurants. The main thing I wanted to get done here was Crush's Coaster. Since the wait times always seem to be long for it, I wanted to get into the park as soon as possible to get a Premeir Access Pass. We scanned into the park at 10:15 am and were able to get a pass for it for a 12pm return time.

So, with some time to kill, we headed over to the Avenger's campus. Our first ride of the trip was Avengers Assemble Flight Force, which is a reskin of Rock 'n' Roller Rollercoaster. We waited about 35 minutes in the Single Rider Line.


At this point, we were starting to get a bit hungry. The lunch restaurants I all had saved were in the Disneyland park, so we walked around a bit trying to decide on a snack. We were really surprised with how small this park was! I think Hollywood Studios is my least favorite of the Florida parks, and this was like a smaller version of it in a way. I know they are working on an Arendelle expansion to the park, but if it's the size of the one in Hong Kong, I'm not sure it will add enough for me. Overall it just seemed like a weird, small mismatched park to me. I have heard there are a couple good shows in the park, but we didn't get the chance to see any this trip.

****
EDIT Wow literally an hour after I posted this, Disney annouced that they will be renaming the park to Disney Adventure World and overalling more of it. I'm not really a fan of the name, but I am really excited to see the changes they make and that I got to see it before this upgrade!
****

Off of that tangent, back to our snack hunt! After walking around the entire park, we decided to eat from one of the food trucks outside Crush's Coaster. I was planning to try a Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bar at every Resort, and this truck's menu had them, along with hot dogs and donuts. The line moved really slow, and when we got up to the front the cast member said he actually didn't have any ice cream After waiting in line for so long, my DH and I both decided to get a Mickey Beignet. Beignet is the French word for donut, so rather than the Disneyland California Mickey Beignets, it was a Mickey shaped donut stuffed with Nutella. We aren't the biggest Nutella fans, but if you are you would love this.


Then, it was time for our Crush's Coaster Premier Access!


This ride was super fun! There is a mix of some show scenes and an inside coaster part where your ride "shells" are free spinning. It was definitely worth the Premier Access Pass for us!


Up next, Pretty Pink Disneyland Paris

 

[Majide]

Sidebar - Introductions
I just realized I never properly introduced myself my and DH, which will help make the choices and how we did this trip a lot more clear as we go on. Feel free to skip this if you're just interested in the trip

I am 27 and I grew up in Orlando Florida, so we were annual passholder for most of my childhood. I have been to the Orlando parks more times than I could possibly count, I think this really changes how I approach a Disney Park. I don't personally feel the need to try and ride every ride or see every show, and you'll see that reflected in this report. Growing up, my parent's favorite park was Epcot, so we would go all the time after school and just walk around, have dinner, and head home, usually without going on any rides. I am happy to just be in a Disney park and walk around, the atmosphere itself is what makes a Disney park to me. Because of this, on our trip we didn't really see many shows, wait in any super long lines, and didn't have any sit down meals in the park, but we were happy with choices.

My husband also grew up in Florida and went to Disney a few times growing up. I am definitely the bigger Disney fan out of the two of us, but even though he plays it cools, I know he enjoys himself. In fact, this whole trip started out as a trip to Japan, until the realized the thing I was most excited for in Japan was Disney. I have always dreamed about doing an around the world Disney trip where I stop at every Disney Park in one trip, so when I came to this realization, I asked my DH if we should continue planning the Japan trip, or switch to all the international Disney Parks, and to my surprise he said Disney!

I am a big planner, so I started planning for this trip about a year in advance. I love using spreadsheets, so I have a master spreadsheet where I planned out costs, ride priorities, restaurants, and even approximate daily schedules. It could definitely be considered a bit extreme, but I have planned out a few trips to Europe like this before and it really helps me out to make sure everything goes smoothly. For every park on this trip, except Paris, I tried to plan out some rest time in between each park visit. From a planning perspective, having some buffer would allow us to visit the park the day after I had planned in case of any flight delays (which miraculously we had none)!

I am really into credit card point hacking, so every flight except for our last leg was bought with points. Excluding the last leg, we spent 96,000 points and $1,100 per person for our trip, with 2 of those legs being in Business Class! These redemptions were available about 6 months in advance. I say excluding the last leg, because this is where we splurged a bit. We went to New Zealand for a conference last year and had an Economy Sky Couch we shared, which is basically a row in Economy that turns the row of 3 seats into a bed. Being able lay flat while flying over the Pacific was so worth it, so we knew we would prefer that this trip. Business Class redemptions from Japan can be kind of hard to come by, and so there were only economy flights available for the dates I was looking at. Instead, my husband voted that we try ZipAir instead. This is a budget airline, and their "Business Class" doesn't include anything (no meals, no bedding, no water even!). However, they do offer lie flat seats for the price of economy on any other airline. I checked for month for them to release the booking for our date, and snatched them up as soon as they became available. This ended up being the right choice, as we both slept through the entire flight back to the US!

Okay, I think that covers everything important to know! Next post will be back to the trip report

 

[zanzibar138]

Really enjoying your TR so far!

Overall it just seemed like a weird, small mismatched park to me.

WDS is generally considered the weakest park in the world. Sounds like they're aiming to do some major improvements

This ride was super fun! There is a mix of some show scenes and an inside coaster part where your ride "shells" are free spinning.

Back in 2013, my Dad and I went straight to CC at opening and ended up spending 90 minutes in line! Was a great ride, but I'm afraid a one and done with that sort of wait. Glad to hear there are now options to minimise the wait.

The Avengers version of Rockin' Rollercoaster sounds interesting too! It was still the original version on our trip.

I love using spreadsheets, so I have a master spreadsheet where I planned out costs, ride priorities, restaurants, and even approximate daily schedules. It could definitely be considered a bit extreme, but I have planned out a few trips to Europe like this before and it really helps me out to make sure everything goes smoothly.

I'm a spreadsheet geek too! I do elaborate spreadsheets for all our trips, plus have an ongoing one for our budget and wedding planning. Nothing better than a good spreadsheet, although mine are so elaborate that my partner can't actually understand them lol!

I am really into credit card point hacking, so every flight except for our last leg was bought with points. Excluding the last leg, we spent 96,000 points and $1,100 per person for our trip, with 2 of those legs being in Business Class!

Totally into points hacks too! For our honeymoon trip, so far we have flights from Perth to Kuala Lumpur to LA and back to Singapore, all in business class for 2. I was online ready to pounce as soon as availability opened up for the long haul ones. So far we've spent just over 400k Qantas points and 300k Velocity points (converted to KrisFlyer), and nearly $800 AUD (just over $500 USD). Still trying to get the remaining flights from Singapore - I should be able to get them for just over 100k Qantas points each, and probably another $500-ish. Yes, I've been saving up points for a long time lol!

96k points each is amazing value for all your flights - well done!

SkyCouch was our back-up option if we couldn't get the business class flights

Looking forward to the next instalment!

 

[Majide]

Back in 2013, my Dad and I went straight to CC at opening and ended up spending 90 minutes in line! Was a great ride, but I'm afraid a one and done with that sort of wait. Glad to hear there are now options to minimise the wait.

Yeah, we really enjoyed it, but agreed it would not be worth the wait in the regular line!

Totally into points hacks too! For our honeymoon trip, so far we have flights from Perth to Kuala Lumpur to LA and back to Singapore, all in business class for 2. I was online ready to pounce as soon as availability opened up for the long haul ones. So far we've spent just over 400k Qantas points and 300k Velocity points (converted to KrisFlyer), and nearly $800 AUD (just over $500 USD). Still trying to get the remaining flights from Singapore - I should be able to get them for just over 100k Qantas points each, and probably another $500-ish. Yes, I've been saving up points for a long time lol!

Isn't point hacking fun? That sounds like a fun trip, and any flight in business class is going to be a great time!

 

[Majide]

Friday, March 29 - Part 3!
Like I said, Walt Disney Studios Park is pretty small so we were more than ready to head over to Disneyland Paris! The walk between parks is only a few minutes and you enter the park under the Disneyland Hotel.


The topiary outside the park when we visited was Minnie Mouse. I think she looked great with the pink entrance. The character topiary outside the castle park became something we begun comparing every visit, and they varied more than you would think!


Walking down Main Street felt kind of weird to me. It had been a long time since I'd been to a "new" Disney Park. Like, it felt like Magic Kingdom, but I could also tell it was different. One thing is there was a lot of smoking in the park, even just people smoking while walking around. I've heard it used to be a lot worst, but it was definitely noticeable to us, especially since the US parks are smoke free now. Another thing my DH pointed out was there was some trash one the ground here and there. Now, it was nothing crazy or something I even noticed on my own, but my DH said jokingly that in the US parks, that would be swept up before it even hit the ground. At the time I thought he was exaggerating a bit, but later in the trip when we were in Shanghai, we noticed so many custodian cast members, and even saw one sweeping up a single white crumb of trash!

One thing in Paris I do really like is the Sleeping Beauty Castle.


At this point in the day, it was almost 1pm and we were hungry for some "real" food. I was craving anything but bread, so we ended up at Au Chalet de la Marionnette. I got the 1/2 chicken and my DH got the pretzel sandwich. Our hunger level might have been a part of it, but we both liked our meal.




Then, we had to check out the Dragon under the castle. People always seem to talk about it like its a big deal, so I was expecting a bit more tbh, but I love dragons so I thought it was cool to see.


One of the attractions I really wanted to do in this park was Hyper Space Mountain. It sounded really cool to me with the outside launch and it looked cool too. WE got in the single rider line and it was about a 30 minute wait. Something to note is the single rider line is entirely outside and it was starting to get a bit chilly out. Also, we thought it was weird the loading platform was outside. I would imagine it is awful having to work this attraction in winter in the cold. Doesn't it snow in Paris?



Unfortunately, this ride was not a good one for us. Maybe the jetlag was a part of it, but my DH and I got so raddled on this one. We would consider ourselves roller coaster people, but looking back I think this was our least favorite ride of the entire trip.

After that, we were definitely ready for a nap, and it was about check-in time at our hotel. Since we would just be sleeping in the room for one night, I choose the B&B Hotel. They are one of the partner hotels and there is a shuttle from the hotel that is shared with like 4 other hotels. You can find the shuttle in the same area as the Disney busses, but you do have to walk around to find the spot labelled for the joint shuttle since they move the letter it is under. Overall, it was easy to grab our bags out of the locker storage and walk over to the bus stop and take it to the hotel. The room was small and basic, but it was cheap and clean so it was good for the one night.

 

[Majide]

Friday, March 29 - Part 4
After a bit of a break, we grabbed some coffee and headed back into the park!


Simba is one of my favorite characters, so I would have loved to grab one of these balloons, but don't think I could have carried it around the world with me easily.


In the main shop, they had this fun pin board.


Next, we jumped in line for Phantom Manor. This was about a 30 minute wait. Again, almost all of this queue is outside and the first part is not covered, so I had to pull out our ponchos since it was raining lightly. This version of the haunted mansion is focused more on the story of the bride, and there is a cool old western part of the ride too.


One of my goals this trip was to try the Mickey Mouse ice cream bars at every park. This one unfortunately ended up lowest in the ranks. It was more like the Mickey bars you can find in the grocery store rather than the US Parks. It was smaller than in the US and had more of a milk chocolate shell.


I was really hoping to stay for the fireworks, but the rain and jet lag were getting to us, so we decided to head out since we still had a full week of Disney ahead of us. We did Pirates as our last ride at the park, and then headed out. The Paris parks, despite being in France, are really not known for having great food. We decided to stop by the McDonalds in Disney Village for dinner. I love trying different McDonalds around the world and the ones in France still have chicken snack wraps, which are my favorite!

One more thing to note, even though we were leaving before park close, getting the shuttle bus back to the hotel was awful. There were so many people crowding and trying to push onto the bus. The buses take a while to come and they definitely did not have enough for the amount of people waiting. In the future, I could see myself staying offsite again, but I would just plan to take a taxi back to the hotel at night to avoid dealing with that mess.

Up Next, Our morning in Paris and travelling to Asia for the first time!

 

[becauseimnew]

Enjoying your trip report! Can’t wait to hear about Shanghai and Hong Kong, those are the 2 parks we have yet to visit.

 

[zanzibar138]

Ooh your DLP photos are so pretty!

Like, it felt like Magic Kingdom, but I could also tell it was different.

The main thing I noticed in Paris was the different attitude - most people just seemed to be there for their kids. We didn't really see many child-free groups, and there was generally a more serious attitude. It's one of the reasons why Paris is my least favourite park so far.

Then, we had to check out the Dragon under the castle. People always seem to talk about it like its a big deal, so I was expecting a bit more tbh, but I love dragons so I thought it was cool to see.

I was underwhelmed by the dragon too! But I agree that it's a cool feature.

Doesn't it snow in Paris?

We were there in March and I can personally confirm that it does indeed snow. A lot of the rides do shut down during snow, but Hyperspace Mountain wasn't one of them.

Maybe the jetlag was a part of it, but my DH and I got so raddled on this one. We would consider ourselves roller coaster people, but looking back I think this was our least favorite ride of the entire trip.

I loved Hyperspace Mountain but it was particularly rattly!

After a bit of a break, we grabbed some coffee and headed back into the park!

Love your nails!

Looking forward to the next instalments, so interested to hear what you think of the Asia parks!

 

[Majide]

The main thing I noticed in Paris was the different attitude - most people just seemed to be there for their kids. We didn't really see many child-free groups, and there was generally a more serious attitude. It's one of the reasons why Paris is my least favourite park so far.

Yes, now that you mention it, this was definitely the case during our visit too! It's funny because in Tokyo, there were hardly any parents with kids groups! It was mostly either groups of adults, couples, or kids without parents.

Unfortunately the Paris parks were definitely our least favorite, but I guess something needs to be! My expectations were low and they met them, which is actually part of the reason why we did our trip starting in Paris and not ending there.

Love your nails!

Thanks, I did them myself! I knew I was going to be taking lots of pictures holding snacks this trip haha

 

[Majide]

Saturday, March 30 - A Day in Paris
My DH had never been to Paris, so my goal for today was for us to see the Eiffel Tower before our flight in the evening. We started our day with breakfast at the hotel. Hotels in Europe, even the basic ones, have much better breakfast than hotels in America! I was impressed in particular at the poached eggs, since they were still a bit runny.


This was my first time seeing a "Suggestion of the Day" on a breakfast buffet! Definitely more food then I like in the morning, but this gives you an idea of everything they had on offer.


The park shuttle runs about every 15 minutes, so after breakfast we grabbed our bags and took it to the train station/park entrance. We then got on the Saint-Germain-en-Laye A train into the city. This also leaves quite frequently. Total travel time from the hotel to being in Paris at the Chatelet Les Halles station was about 45 minutes.

The reason why I picked Chatelet Les Halles station as our base for the day was because it was accessible from DLP with no transfers and had a direct line to the airport for us to take later on. For our bags, I used Bounce Luggage Storage. They have locations all over the city and had one about a 5 minute walk outside of the station. How it works is you book your time in advance and then take it to the location the day of and they scan a QR code on the app to check your bags in and out. Our location was a little convenience store that had two guys working in it. There was a few other bags when we dropped ours off, but they had a lot of them by the time we picked ours up. I would imagine its not as secure as a luggage locker, but it was the best option for the area and they did seem to keep a good eye on the bags.


After dropping them off, we headed to take a bus to the Eiffel Tower. I downloaded the local transportation app and bought a day pass so we could easily get to wherever we wanted to go. I read somewhere that you should take the buses in Paris so you can see the city on your trip, rather than the subway which is just dark and underground. This was actually some great advice, since it was like we got a little tour of the city. Our city bus passed by all of the major sites.


And soon enough, we were at the Eiffel Tower! We got our pictures and then were ready to continue on with our day! When I was in high school, I went on a European trip with my Chorus and we went up the stairs at the Eiffel Tower. Since I had done it before I didn't have much interest in doing it again. The Eiffel Tower is the most notable landmark of Paris, and so when you are taking pictures from it, it's obviously not in your pictures of the skyline. Plus, it was a cloudy and lightly rainy day, but the line to go up it stretched for blocks and I imagine it was over an hour long!


Since we only had time for one meal in France, I wanted to make it count. We went to L’Auberge Aveyronnaise. Whenever I see something cool online, I keep a web bookmark for it. I had seen this restaurant on Instagram like over a year ago, and it looked like it would be the perfect spot for us this day. I made reservations on their website about a month in advance, and we went right when they opened.

This is definitely more of a local spot and was outside of the main touristy area. They are known for their aligot, which is like super super cheesy mashed potatoes. Of course I had to try them, so I ordered the traditional sausage aligot.


Meanwhile, my DH got the beef tartare. That's not my thing at all, but he loved it.


There was a French couple behind us who got the exact same orders, so I guess we made the right choices! By the time we left, it was packed with local families and groups having lunch, so definitely make reservations if you want to try it. From the restaurant, it was a quick bus ride back over to the luggage storage. The buses were definitely busy on a Saturday, but you could usually get a seat.

Then, from Chatelet Les Halles it was a 35 min direct train to the airport. For this leg of the trip, we were flying Business Class on Turkish Airlines. Since we had stood in horrible lines at CDG airport before, we got there extra early. Turns out, if you are flying Business or First class, this isn't needed at all. We had separate premium lines for check in, security, and exit immigration that all had no wait.

Since we had so much extra time though, we got to enjoy the Terminal 1 Star Alliance Lounge. This lounge was really nice, and at the time we were there it was basically empty. Amenities included showers, and outdoor terrace, self serve liquor, a French wine room, and of course a buffet. There was a great variety of hot dishes, salads, breads, drinks, and desserts. After our last day and a half of running around, it was nice to take a few hours and relax.

 

[Majide]

Saturday, March 30 Cont. and Sunday, March 31 - Flying with Turkish
This part of the report covers our experience flying business class with Turkish from CDG > IST > HKG!

This was our second time flying business class with Turkish, so we were excited! Our first time was when we came back from our honeymoon, as they had a great point redemption from Rome to Dallas. All of their flights transit through Istanbul, so our first flight was a 3 hour hop to there.

The seats were like US Domestic First class. Important to note that they had an in-flight entertainment screen in the arm-rest that pulled out and there was free WIFI for Business Class.


We enjoyed our boarding drinks, Raspberry Lemonade and Mint Lemonade.


Then we were served a full meal, complete with a menu we ordered from. I got the pasta and my DH went with the fish. Everything was really tasty!





Soon enough we were in Istanbul! We landed at a bus gate, but it took hardly anytime at all to get through transit security. I'm a bit of a casual Avgeek, so I love getting to be this close to all the planes lined up!


Then it was time to head to the Turkish Airlines lounge! This is one of my favorites and it's definitely worth looking up a YouTube Video on it if you are interested. Our flight landed in Istanbul at 10:45pm local time and our flight to Hon Kong left at 2am, so we had a few hours to relax in here.

Obviously we weren't very hungry, but a grabbed a few little desserts and some Pide.

 

[Majide]

Sunday, March 31 Cont. - Flying with Turkish
Then, it was time for the 10 hour flight to Hong Kong. Our seats for this flight had lots of straight leg room, since they turned into lie-flat beds. I am 5 ft and my DH is 6 ft tall for reference.


On their long hall flights, Turkish Airlines have these "Chefs" in special outfits that take your order and are in charge of the meals. Since we were leaving at 2am, they gave you the option of having your main meal right after takeoff or on request. So, we made our orders and planned to eat later.


Here was our food menu for the night. Not pictured are the drink list and the full separate wine menu.


With how time zones work, we would be landing in Hong Kong at around 5pm, so I didn't want us to sleep a full 8 hours since we needed to adjust. I set a vibrate only alarm on my phone for us to get 4 hours of sleep, and we had our beds made up and went to bed soon after takeoff. This strategy ended up working well since we had had a long day. This gave us enough sleep to be refreshed, but also left us tired enough to go back to sleep at a normal time once reaching Hong Kong.

After our rest, we let the chef know we were ready for our meals. It started with a warm bread basket and the appitizers. Apologies for the lighting, but they kept the main cabin lights off at this time so people could still be sleeping. I got the Turkish Meze and my DH got the seafood.



For mains, I had to go with the homemade pasta with burrata. Pasta is my all time favorite food; I could eat it for every meal. When parried with burrata I couldn't resist and this was really good.


DH went with lamb chops, which also happens to be one of his favorite foods. He said they were good, and it happened to be Easter when we were flying so it was an appropriate choice in that regard lol.


I grew up eating Baklava at the Morocco Pavilion at Epcot all the time, so I got both the Turkish Dessert assortment and the Apricot Ice Cream, while my DH got the apple strudel. The ice cream ended up being the star of the show here.


We spent the next couple of hours watching movies until it was time for pre-landing breakfast. Our internal clocks were out of wack since we basically went to bed at 2am Istanbul time, woke up and had dinner food at 7 am, and were now eating breakfast at 3pm, only to switch time zones and land at 5pm, but we made it work haha.

My DH and I ended up eating the same thing this meal, both ordering the "Sweet Curd Strudel". It was good, but my smoothie I got with it was amazing!



And then finally, we landed in Asia for the first time! Apologies for the lack of Disney this update, but I had to include some details of our overall journey.

Next update will be about getting to the Explorer's Lodge and our first impressions of Hong Kong Disneyland!

 

[zanzibar138]

It's funny because in Tokyo, there were hardly any parents with kids groups! It was mostly either groups of adults, couples, or kids without parents.

I always love HKDL because it's such a fun vibe as a Disney adult! I imagine Tokyo would be similar. Shanghai was definitely more families but definitely a few child-free groups as well.

The Eiffel Tower is the most notable landmark of Paris, and so when you are taking pictures from it, it's obviously not in your pictures of the skyline.

We were actually snowed out of our Eiffel Tower tour when we were in Paris. I hadn't been before, so I was a bit disappointed, but we ended up visiting Arc de Triomphe instead which ended up being better because then our photos had the Eiffel Tower in them

This lounge was really nice, and at the time we were there it was basically empty.

Wow that WAS empty! Lucky you!

On their long hall flights, Turkish Airlines have these "Chefs" in special outfits that take your order and are in charge of the meals.

That is very cool!

And then finally, we landed in Asia for the first time! Apologies for the lack of Disney this update, but I had to include some details of our overall journey.

I've loved reading about the journey, keep it coming!

Next update will be about getting to the Explorer's Lodge and our first impressions of Hong Kong Disneyland!

Can't wait! Explorer's Lodge is my favourite HKDL hotel and I have a real soft spot for HKDL in general.

 

[KEK1]

Great report so far! Looking forward to the rest- we are doing HK and SH later this year so eagerly awaiting your thoughts!

 

[Majide]

We were actually snowed out of our Eiffel Tower tour when we were in Paris. I hadn't been before, so I was a bit disappointed, but we ended up visiting Arc de Triomphe instead which ended up being better because then our photos had the Eiffel Tower in them

At least you got to visit the Arc de Triomphe instead! If we had more time we definitely would have stopped by there too!

Can't wait! Explorer's Lodge is my favourite HKDL hotel and I have a real soft spot for HKDL in general.

Not to spoil the next part of the trip report, but we felt exactly the same way!