Trip Report COMPLETED: BEST (DISNEY) MONTH EVER !! - Dec 2016 - 2 Continents, 2 Resorts, 6 Parks !!

Hello to all the Disney Fans

As the title stipulates the month of December was a great Disney month for me and my family

Quick introduction - I am Max and I have been going to Disney since 1979. This trip report will detail trips 24 and 25 for me. (edit 1/17)
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What: The first leg is a solo trip to Tokyo Disneyland and the second is a family trip to Walt Disney World.
Who: My DW (T) and 2 DD ( S 21 and C 19) and me (Max)
(I am using initials to type less and protect the innocent.
The star over my head in the shot below is awesome!!!
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When: Dec 10 and 11 at TDR and Dec 23-30 at WDW
Why: Business trip from Dec 2-16 in Japan & family vacation in Florida.

This is my first full length trip report that I have attempted. In the past I have asked a few questions on the boards, and then posted a few details but never really went all in. The family has agreed to this one so here goes. I will try to use Doc Disney, Nicole and Longers amazing reports as motivation.

Just a few disclaimers (and I understand if I might lose most of my viewers but I have to be up front and honest)

#1 - I am Canadian (hence the honest and upfront approach - lol). So my viewpoints and opinions come from a different perspective at times. I will try to avoid political comments but sometimes the jokes are hard to pass on. (And I know the hat gives it away - I support the Blue Jays and that is the hat the team wears on Canada Day - Our birthday - 150 Years old in 2017!!)

#2 - I do not take a lot of food pictures - I am on a seefood diet - I see food and I eat it. I do not take the time to take a picture of it - I will have a few though.(The sound you hear is of all the "foodies" running for the exit)

#3 I do not own or use an expensive camera - all pictures will be either photo pass or iPhone. (the sound you now hear is of all the photographers leaving the building)

#4 Having been to TDR before (and being on a solo trip) and having been to WDW a few times I did not take a ton of pictures. Hopefully enough to tell the story. And my night time shots are limited (see point 3)

#5 I did not take a great notes (I know - Rookie mistake) but I will rely on my family to fill in the blanks for me.

Next Up : Background on the two trips and how them came to be
 
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amjt660

amjt660

Premium Member
Original Poster
Thank you for joining in. I hope to keep it entertaining.

"Can't wait to hear all about it!!!! When my sister and I heard that that the Olympics were in Tokyo we both were like we have to go because we can also go to Disney!"

Best of both worlds if you could do Disney and the Olympics - finding a place to sleep and still having enough money to eat could be a problem though......
 
amjt660

amjt660

Premium Member
Original Poster
Background on the two trips and how them came to be:

So as I implied in my first post I have been going to Disney for some time now. ( I screwed up the math - this is actually trips 24 and 25 for me)
I had 3 trips "BK" (before kiddos) and had done 20 after.
T went two times in the mid seventies - long car rides down the I75 with her family that included 2 older brothers- she does not like to talk about them much so as Forrest would say "that all I got to say about that "(lol)

The family trips started in 2002 ( S was 6 and C was 5).
We loved it so much we started going every year, sometimes 2 when we started going to California for the 50th in 2005.
In 2011 we went to France/England and included a DLP trip.
I went to TDR in 2006 while on business ( C has never accepted that excuse for not bringing her along).

So to date I have 23 trips ( 12 WDW, 9 DLR, 1 DLP and 1 TDR)
T has 22 (same as me but no Tokyo)
S and C have 19 ( 9 WDW, 9 DLR, 1 DLP)

Note: This count history is not meant to be bragging - I wish I could brag that my mortgage is paid off but 19 family trips later and I still owe the bank money !!!!

The purpose is to show our love of Disney and to explain how the family dinner table vacation discussion goes (every freaking time!!)

We verbally list up all the potential places we would be interested in.
We start to subtract the ones that really need at least 2 weeks (Europe, Asia, Australia, etc).
Why do we do this step? - 2 girls in University with limited time off - Christmas break it is - only 1 week available for all 4 of us.

Then with the duration and time of year established we narrow the list to Sun/Fun or Touristy?
With it being Christmas and with us being from Canada the Sun/Fun thing usually does not get picked.

To digress on the being from Canada thing
I can honestly only remember 2 "Green" Christmas in my lifetime.
One was last year (2015) and the other was back in the 80s
We live near Toronto (East of Detroit ,North/West of Buffalo, and pretty much due North of Cleveland for the geographically challenged).
You almost always either have snow falling or some snow on the ground.

So going to a beach on Christmas day would seem a little weird to us.

Disney is the ultimate - warmer to hot weather but with all the decorations/ carols/ fake snow, etc.

So for the past 3 years we have done Disney on Christmas Day ( WDW 2014, DLR 2015 and now WDW again in 2016.)
(we went to WDW the week before Christmas in 2010 but were back home on the actual day).

And yes I know how expensive it is, how crowded it is, etc ,etc.
But it is family time and the fact my grown daughters still want to vacation with me is awesome.
(I think it might have something to do with me footing the bill - but we will re-adjust the rose tinted glassed and say it is only because of family time together).

So we booked the trip in May , did the meal planning at 180 days out and had our FPs booked way in advance of 90 days.

The Japan trip fell into my lap near the end of Sept. Two weeks nestled nicely from Dec 2-16 - 1 week before flying out to Florida.
I work for a very large car company headquartered in Japan.(they actually have an entire city named after the company.)
I will give you a hint:
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The trips usually start and end on a Friday so the 2 week duration gives you one weekend in the middle to have some fun.
I knew I wanted to go back to TDL.
Lucky for me the Family trip was booked - if not the frosty reception I would have gotten at home would have made this place feel like a sauna
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It took some work to setup the TDL trip (which I will explain in the report)

Next Up : Part 1 - The land of the rising sun beckons
 
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amjt660

amjt660

Premium Member
Original Poster
BigRedDad said:
Will be watching. I always hope for work to send me to China. If they do, I am taking 2-3 days to visit Disney Shanghai.
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If I get a chance to go back for 3 or more weeks a trip to China might be in the cards for me too!!
We get an allowance for how many weekends we are away from home.
I would need 3 weeks to have enough money to pay for the airfare to Shanghai and/or Hong Kong
I hope it works out for both of us

Max
 
amjt660

amjt660

Premium Member
Original Poster
Part 1 - The land of the rising sun beckons :

Day 1 : Friday Dec 2, 2016

So the trip to Japan started with a flight from Toronto , Ontario, Canada to Detroit.
Left at 11:50am and landed at 1pm
2.5 hours later I boarded a Airbus A332 and flew for 14 hours to Nagoya, Japan.
The good news is that my company pays for business class so I had a great seat/bed.
Watched 3 movies , slept for awhile and ate some pretty good food (sorry no pics)
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So after 14 hours of flight and a 14 hour time change we landed at 8pm on Saturday Dec 2.
So on the way over you basically lose a day (and then when you fly back you almost go back in time)

After a short train ride and taxi I ended up at the Nagoya Hilton.
I do not have any pics of the outside but did find this very cool train setup inside the lobby
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We (I was with a group of 8 others) grabbed a quick dinner at a Hooters (not my choice but it was right near the hotel)
That is pretty much it for day 1.

Next up : Day 2 in Nagoya and travel to Toyota City
 
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amjt660

amjt660

Premium Member
Original Poster
Part 1 Day 3 - Sunday December 4, 2016 in Nagoya

So after a short sleep (I basically woke up at 3:30 am everyday for the first 4 days) we had breakfast in the hotel and planned for a walk around Nagoya.

First stop was Osu Kannon Temple and Market
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After some shopping we walked back through a park and found this
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OK - now is the part of the show when the audience participates...

The large item above in the 3 pictures is
a) A planetarium
b) The Death Star
c) Godzilla's Exercise Ball
d) Other (please offer up an option)

After this we grabbed the 45min train to Toyota city (southeast of Nagoya) where we stayed at the Toyota Castle Hotel from Sunday night to Friday morning.
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I was surprised by the amount of Christmas decorations around the cities. Obviously it was partially for the Gaijin (Japanese for Foreigner) in the city but the Japanese like it too. It is obviously not a religious holiday for them but they just get into spirit of it.

Next Up: Travel to Tokyo after work on Friday Dec 9th
 
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amjt660

amjt660

Premium Member
Original Poster
Zipitidoda said:
I have to admit I've never watch a video or read an article on Tokyo Disneyland so I'm excited to hear about your trip!
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Tokyo Disney is a "different but the same" type of experience from the US resorts.
I will do my best to try to elaborate on it as I go through my 2 days spent there.

Thanks for following along

Max
 
amjt660

amjt660

Premium Member
Original Poster
Part 1 Day 8 - Friday Dec 9, 2016

Okay so we will skip ahead to Day 8 (because Day 4-7 are just work)
On the Friday after work I took a train from Toyota City to Nagoya and then a bullet train (Shinkansen) from Nagoya to Tokyo.
The bullet train travels at speeds up to 280 km per hour (175 mile per hour)!!!!!
Traveled almost 360km in about 2 hours and that included stops.
I looked it up and the distance is similar to New York to Washington DC
Took a cab to the Tokyo Hilton Odaiba (o - die -bah). Below is the tree and the view from the breakfast.
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Now this hotel is on the Tokyo Bay and the view was great.
It is considered a good neighbor hotel and has a Disney hotel shuttle to the parks.
The shuttle ride is long though - about 20 min !
I looked at a Hilton that was closer (Hilton Tokyo Bay) which is actually on the monorail loop of the parks.
But the price was 45,000 yen per night (approx. 450 US). The Odaiba was 25000 per night - which was within my limit from Toyota.
I am willing to pay the premium cost for a hotel at Disney (see Part 2 coming up) but I could not justify it being on my own.
And the Disney hotels were even more expensive. So for a solo trip I decided to be more practical with the hotel choice.
A coworker from Japan had helped me set up a shuttle to the Park for 7am the next day so it was pretty much straight to bed.

Next Up: Day 9 at Disneyland!
 
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amjt660

amjt660

Premium Member
Original Poster
Sillysidewalker said:
I love Paris and I have been slowly brainwashing I mean sharing my love of Paris with my children. DLP is on my wish list. I never even thought of Tokeyo so excited to hear about your trip.
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Paris Disney was also a unique experience.
Artisticaly a beautiful park. Sleeping Beauty Castle is built into a hillside and is breath taking.
However the upkeep of the park is not great and the feel of the park did not seem as magical as others I have visited.
I remember on day one walking past a railing that was being repainted. It was roped off and had sign saying something to the effect of pixie dust at work.
But no one was working and I walked past the rail the next day it looked the exact same.

Thanks for following along

Max
 
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