Trip Report 12 parks in 16 days! Disney Parks Around the World Trip Report

Trip report from 12/19-1/6.

Day 1 - Away We Go
“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

Enough talk. After over a year in planning, over five years since we last tried to do a similar trip, AND Kendall getting run over by a car in Zimbabwe in that time frame we are finally embarking on our adventure across the globe to do all 12 Disney Parks over Christmas break.

First thing’s first and we had to pick Lucy up from school. Given it’s the Thursday before Christmas break we weren’t too concerned about her missing half a day today and a full day Friday because as everyone knows, the week before Christmas break is spent watching Christmas movies and doing Christmas puzzles and worksheets.

After we picked her up, we went home and waited for our taxi. We had never ridden in a taxi in our town so we were already starting our journey with a brand new experience. Ride sharing does not exist in Ashland, KY and taxi’s are primarily used for medical transport so this was a somewhat bizarre experience for us. Traditionally, we typically just park our car at the airport when we fly out of our local airport because if we go out of Huntington it’s on Allegiant for a quick trip to Florida. This is obviously NOT a quick trip and as such we took a taxi for the first time ever as there are no ride sharing services in our area. It costs $10/day to park at our airport, and when you’re gone for nearly 20 days, it just makes financial sense to take a taxi for $82 dollars round trip.

I cannot even remotely convey the amount of joy I have when we have the ability to fly out of Huntington Tri-State Airport. The convenience of flying out of a small regional airport a mere 25 minutes from our house in which the security line if you have TSA precheck is nonexistent CANNOT be understated. It feels like your own private airport. From when the plane touches down to getting home it typically takes us about 45 minutes. When we fly out of Cincinatti or Columbus, it takes 45 minutes or more from the time we touchdown to just get to our car. Add a 2.5 hour drive after a long day of flying just puts a sour taste in the mouth after a vacation. We would love to fly out of HTS more often but it is incredibly cost prohibitive except when using Allegiant or redeeming award flights on American Airlines.

We arrived at the airport 1.5 hours early which for Huntington is just excessive, but we always budget for a flat tire, or some other bizarre occurrence. As always, the TSA precheck line had zero people in it, and from drop off to gate it wasn’t even 10 minutes. We hadn’t eaten lunch yet today, and unfortunately food options are super limited at HTS, in that outside of one vending machine there often are none. Thankfully today the small kiosk that sells pizza and some snacks was open, and Kendall and I split a small pizza while waiting for our flight.

HTS is a small regional airport with two gates. Back in its hey day it had a number of carriers, but these days it’s limited to American and Allegiant. It’s small and efficient and we love flying out of it when we can.

This is the entire terminal. Not the smallest commercial airport I’ve flown out of, but it’s up there.
Today is by far the most pedestrian of the flights we are taking on our trip, being a standard flight on Allegiant. No fancy lounge, no lie flat seat. Just an standard A320, with a seat with about 17 inches of width with no recline that feels like you’re sitting on a 2×4. You get what you pay for and for this flight of just over 1.5 hours it was just $402 dollars for 3 people including the 3 carry on bags so you can’t really complain on the cost front.

I love this airport!
Boarding and take off and were on time and our flight to Sanford was about as uneventful as it gets. We were seated in row 7, Seats D,E,F.

We never pay for seat selection so these were the Allegiant assigned seats. For a 1.5 hour flight it honestly doesn’t matter to us. The seats have the standard 17 inch width and 30 inches of pitch. This is one of the ONLY times in life being 5’3’’ comes in handy.

There are many disadvantages to being short such as a general disadvantage at the majority of sports or a lower lifetime income compared to your taller cohorts in the same field, but there is one advantage that far outweighs any disadvantage. I can fit comfortably in an Allegiant seat! It’s a pretty great trade off in my opinion.

We landed at 5:08PM two minutes earlier than our scheduled arrival time. Thankfully, my parents live in Orlando and as such they are our own personal uber, which definitely saves on cost. I texted them that we had landed, so they could be ready to pull the car around to pick us up and take us to the Disney’s Polynesian Resort where we were staying.

After we landed, we we were picked up, it was getting close to dinner time, so on the way to the Polynesian we stopped at Lucy’s favorite restaurant, Chick-fil-a. I had originally had ‘Ohana booked and timed the reservation for the Magic Kingdom fireworks, but it was pretty hectic couple of days leading up to this trip, so we decided having a quick dinner and early bed time was in our best interest. Just for the record, if you are foodie, THIS IS NOT THE BLOG FOR YOU. We do a wide variety of activities when we travel, but food has never been our priority, and the one area we can skimp on the budget. My food reviews will be composed of words like “Tasty”, “Yummy”, “Standard”, “Adequate”.

Upon arrival at Chick-fil-a we walked in and it was slammed. Chick-fil-a is always crowded but today was excessive in that when we walked in, there wasn’t a free table anywhere and people were even standing around waiting on tables. We didn’t quite know what was going on, until we saw Santa and a Santa Cow in the corner and realized why it was so crowded. Santa Cow and Santa made their rounds to the table like it was a character dining at Disney.

Lucy clearly is enjoying Santa Cow
Unlike Disney however, it was significantly cheaper. Like $250 dollars cheaper. The food was more than tasty, and tasted just like our Chick-fil-a at home.

 

[littleroo]

I absolutely loved this trip report! First of all how beautiful and photogenic is Lucy? I feel like her kindred spirit. I can sleep anywhere, even pavement, too! A giant CONGRATULATIONS to Kendall as well for all of her accomplishments! She is a very brave soul for all she did, not to mention venture out of the country again after all she has been through. I loved all your details, pictures and love of college football. Go Orange! (Sorry)! The lounges in the various countries were as interesting to me as the parks themselves! Lol Only one question left... when is your next vacation? Looking forward to the wrap up and thanks for taking us with you!

 

[Rimmit]

We then pass by Goofy’s Sky School. We debate whether we want to do it, but we have a Lightning Lane for it so figure why not. It’s a pretty short ride, and we aren’t expecting much out of it. It reminded me of Primeval Whirl at Animal Kingdom, with the main difference being that Primeval Whirl spun around as you went through the track. If we didn’t have a Lightning Lane I don’t know if it would have been worth the time, but with a Lightning Lane we couldn’t really complain.

The last ride in Pixar Pier before we move to another part of the park is The Little Mermaid – Ariel’s Undersea Adventure.

This is basically the exact same ride that is in Magic Kingdom with some very minor differences.

The queue and ride building are way better themed in Magic Kingdom though.

It’s not a bad ride, but aside from the “Under the Sea” scene it really lacks any major “WOW!” moments. It’s still a fun diversion, and Lucy loves The Little Mermaid so she enjoys it.

That finishes up our time in Pixar Pier to so we head to Soarin’ next.

After doing the Soarin’ in Tokyo, the queue and theming for this are just sorely lacking.

It is the exact same ride as in Orlando only with a different ending sequence where you fly over Disneyland instead of Disney World.

There are only a handful of rides we still have Lightning Lanes for in California Adventure and they are on the opposite side of the park so we head to Avenger’s Campus to do Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout.

On the way we stop by a snack stand. After spending three days in the Japanese Parks, we pass a snack stand and I am nearly blown away. There are literally 14 DIFFERENT snacks for sale in the same stand. Not only that, but it ALSO SELLS DRINKS!!! DRINKS AND SNACKS in this same stand!!! THIS IS MADNESS!!! We are mindblown by the amount of choices and have decision paralysis at this point. After much debate we choose a Diet Coke and a Sprite.

We eventually make it to Avenger’s Campus and arrive at Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout.

In 2017 we were supposed to do it right after it was reimagined, but missed our fast pass return time due to watching World of Color. To be honest I was super against the retheming of this ride from Tower of Terror. I have found Tower of Terror to be one of the greatest them park rides of all time. It was one of the greatest achievements in Imagineering meshing together theme and ride for a perfect combination. The new overlay on the original tower just felt awkward to me.

For this reason I was very hesitant to see what Disney did to what was one of the greatest rides of all time in my mind. The queue was nice and was rethemed to the Collector’s den well with lots of artifacts everywhere.

The preshow was fun and had everyone’s favorite trash panda, Rocket.

We lucked out and got the animatronic rocket, as my friend Dave was on the other preshow, and apparently they got the B mode where Rocket just appeared on the screen.

I was very impressed with how they rethemed the basement area. They didn’t do too much with the basement aside from add a lot of alien signage and some other props.

It was enough to make it feel alien, despite it obviously still having roots as the basement of the Hollywood Tower hotel.

Well, somehow, they managed to make a ride via retheming that was incredibly, fun, and entertaining and a more than worthy successor to the original Tower of Terror.

The ride was similar to Paris and Tokyo in that there was no track and you started and ended in the same location. Much like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, the song is totally randomized for this ride and we got “Burning Love”. The combination of the music and the Guardians making various video screen appearances throughout the ride just make it for an extremely fun ride.

They totally stripped the ride of any of the “terror” aspect and went for the “fun” side of things which was a smart design choice. Any attempt to make the ride “scary” or a “terror” would have only invited endless comparisons to the Tower of Terror. By completely changing the tone, they totally avoided the direct comparison controversy. For those that love Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, you’ll absolutely love Mission Breakout. Much like Tower of Terror you exit through a gift shop, and Lucy pretends to be a trash panda.

Right on exiting, Star-Lord AKA Peter Quill was outside having a dance off. We stopped to watch for a bit as he had some pretty good energy and was pretty fun to watch.

 

[Wicked Sisters]

It has been fabulous reading your report. It’s been a joy to read and see all your photos of the different parks especially Tokyo as we know we will never get to them. We watched a video of the Beauty & the Beast ride and we agree it looks like the best ride and wish it was at WDW. Thank you again for taking us on your magical vacation.

 

[Rimmit]

It has been fabulous reading your report. It’s been a joy to read and see all your photos of the different parks especially Tokyo as we know we will never get to them. We watched a video of the Beauty & the Beast ride and we agree it looks like the best ride and wish it was at WDW. Thank you again for taking us on your magical vacation.

Beauty and the Beast was awesome, it was like Pooh’s Honey Hunt but even better. I just wish we had something like Pooh’s or Beauty and the Beast here in the states. Closest is Ratatouille but it’s not as good as BatB or Pooh’s.

 

[Rimmit]

Once the mini show ended, we headed to Monsters, Inc. Mike and Sully to the Rescue which wasn’t too far away.

This was a dark ride that replaced one of the worst Disney attractions of all time Superstar Limo. That ride did not last even a year if I remember. I was one of the lucky few that managed to ride it before it closed back when California Adventure first opened in 2001.

We weren’t really expecting much out of this ride, as we hadn’t heard much about it. It was a basic dark tracked dark ride that reused a lot of components from Superstar Limo.

In all honesty it was definitely better than I anticipated. It was not nearly as good as Monsters, Inc. Ride and Go Seek in Tokyo, but as a dark ride, it was pretty enjoyable.

They had some neat ride scenes especially toward the end with all the doors.

It was very cute, and they did a good job improving upon Superstar Limo, but it really takes nearly no effort to improve upon that awful ride.

We the tried to go on Web Slingers: A Spider-man Adventure, but literally right after we scan our Lightning Lane the ride goes down.

We didn’t feel too strongly about this ride the first time we did it to be honest, but it was a ride we’ve only ever done once before so figured we’d do it again. Today we have a Fantasmic Dinner Package at Blue Bayou at 5:50PM so we leave for Disneyland.

Main Street is a little crowded as the parade is about to start so we cut through the Candy Place and Candy Kitchen. They have a beautiful display of treats, but we’re about to eat dinner so we have to resist that temptation.

Dave and Nathalie go off and have dinner elsewhere during our time and we’ll meet back up with them afterwards.

We walk through New Orleans Square, and given Kendall is from New Orleans, we are impressed in that it really does look and feel like the French Quarter, just without the awful smell.

We arrive at 5:40PM which is ten minutes early, but we don’t get seated till 6:30PM.

We are a little aggravated to be honest as what’s the point of arriving on time for a reservation to only wait 30 more minutes. At this point we are starving as we really haven’t eaten much since lunch.

This is a good thing as we are having a four course dinner that includes quite a bit of food.

We had never eaten at Blue Bayou before and felt it only appropriate to eat at one of the original “Theme” Restaurants on our around the world trip. The setting was beautiful and felt like a dinner party out on some southern plantation.

They started out with some bread that was actually very good, and I had to keep myself from getting full from just the bread.

The second course was chicken gumbo, which not surprisingly surpassed the gumbo we had in Tokyo Disneyland. No tomato this time!

Both Kendall and I also chose the Oscar Style Filet Mignon which was very good. In all honesty at this point we had way too much food to where we could only have a couple bites of the filet. We didn’t want any of the sides, but being Filipino we asked for some rice, so they swapped it out for the veggies.

By the time the chocolate tart came out, I literally just couldn’t eat any more.

Lucy got the gumbo, petite steak and a petite sundae. She loved the gumbo and sundae, but the steak was not her favorite.

 

[Rimmit]

Kendall, Lucy and I coulda easily split one meal, but sadly you can’t just order one meal, as in order to get the preferred Fantasmic seating from the dining package everyone has to buy a meal. At the end of the meal the waiter gives us our tickets for the preferred seating area for the 9:00PM Fantasmic show. The Blue Bayou get’s the best preferred seating of all the restaurants with seats that are dead center in the viewing area.

We meet back up with Dave and Nathalie, and it’s just 7:30PM so we still have a while till the 9:00PM Fantasmic show. Pirates of the Caribbean is literally right next door to Blue Bayou, so close in fact that Blue Bayou is actually incorporated into the ride in that the boats float right by the restaurant.

Dave and Nathalie meet back up with us after dinner and we all fall in line for Pirates real quick. Pirates in Disneyland is the very original pirates and aside from the version in Shanghai, still the best version. We start of the ride floating right by where we just had dinner.

It’s notably longer than the other versions and just more elaborate. The scenes seemed bigger and overall the theming of the ride just feels grander.

The only place I felt Magic Kingdom improved was the queue which is better themed in Magic Kingdom, but aside from that, the Disneyland version is just far more impressive than the one at Magic Kingdom or Paris.

Shanghai is a different beast altogether and really can’t be compared to the more traditional Pirates rides. We did not have time to do the Tokyo version so we cannot compare it.

Pirates doesn’t take too long to do so we head over to Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye. The queue is a little different from the Tokyo DisneySea version, but is still an excellent queue and feels like you are exploring a hidden temple.

I remember when this ride opened up when I was a kid and I was DYING to go to Disneyland to ride it. I was obsessed with Indiana Jones as a kid. It opened in 1995, and I didn’t make it to Disneyland till 1998 and I thought it was the greatest ride ever. Twenty six years later it is just as good as ever. After riding it again in such close succession to the version in Tokyo, I’m honestly slightly torn as to with version I like better. They are both amazing rides and nearly identical, with only a handful of differences in certain scenes and effects. Either way they are both spectacular rides and the epitome of Imagineering.

 

[Rimmit]

The 12 parks in 16 days is the part that is really impressive to me!

Thanks! I'm impressed we did it. Thought we were gonna miss Shanghai for sure. It really gutted me there for a bit.

Awesome! I am really enjoying your trip report and so glad you decided to share!

Thanks for reading.

I absolutely loved this trip report! First of all how beautiful and photogenic is Lucy? I feel like her kindred spirit. I can sleep anywhere, even pavement, too! A giant CONGRATULATIONS to Kendall as well for all of her accomplishments! She is a very brave soul for all she did, not to mention venture out of the country again after all she has been through. I loved all your details, pictures and love of college football. Go Orange! (Sorry)! The lounges in the various countries were as interesting to me as the parks themselves! Lol Only one question left... when is your next vacation? Looking forward to the wrap up and thanks for taking us with you!

Yes, she's just a little paranoid when she leaves the US and rightfully so. Lucy is a total ham. The number of times we've been approached about getting her into child modeling.... We were even approached in Copenhagen one time. We are NOT going down that path.

Nothing wrong with Syracuse. I'll never forget when they beat Notre Dame in 2009 on senior day at home. It was my brother's senior season at ND. I think syracuse was 3-9 that year or something not great. Maybe 5-7 and we lost at home in the snow. It was very sad. Syracuse did well this year. Beat Miami at the end which definitely made me happy.

Next is a Star Trek Cruise on Feb. 23rd out of Miami. It's a Royal Caribbean Charter cruise. I'm a huge trekkie. After that we leave on Mar 30th for one week in London. Something nice and easy. Straight shot direct flight from Cinci to LHR. Cinci is 2.5 hours from our house. So no connections. Nothing crazy. VERY SIMPLE. Only ONE HOTEL THE WHOLE TIME. That was the goal for the upcoming trips after this last gauntlet.

 

[Rimmit]

We still have about 50 minutes till showtime, and Haunted Mansion is practically right next to our preferred seating area, so we decide to hop into the Lightning Lane real quick.

The Lightning Lane ends up taking way longer than anticipated and we get a little nervous we’ll be late for Fantasmic but we end up boarding the ride at 8:35PM which should get us out with just enough time to get to the seating area.

The Haunted Mansion has the Holiday Nightmare overlay here as well, which is very similar to the overlay in Tokyo. The main difference is the version here has Oogie Boogie at the end and in Tokyo there was no Oogie Boogie.

Afterwards, we head over to our Fantasmic Seating which is directly across from the main stage area in the Rivers of America. Dave and Nathalie don’t have preferred seating so we’ll meet back up with them after Fantasmic.

Unlike Fantasmic in Hollywood Studios which is in a dedicated Amphitheater with great sightlines no matter where you sit, here the viewing area is just the walkway around the Rivers of America and the sightline aren’t exactly great. Given I’m the tallest person in our party, and I’m only 5’3” I was very uncertain how just how difficult it would be to see Fantasmic, so we decided to buy a the Fantasmic Dinner Package to get a preferred seating area.

Aside from the VIP tour we did at the very beginning of the tour, this is the only time we opted for any preferred viewing package this trip and only the 3rd time in our entire lives we have paid for a preferred seating area in our many years of going to Disney Parks. The only other time was when we saw World of Color in California Adventure in 2017. Typically viewing for a nighttime show isn’t tough to get if you arrive early enough, but I was just not familiar with the layout here so we didn’t want to risk it. Another major difference from the Hollywood Studios version is there is no mountain in the middle which forces the action lower to the ground so I really wasn’t sure just how easy it would be to see.

Our whole family loves Fantasmic and it’s one of favorite things to see when we go to Disney World. We watch the show, and we all agree it just isn’t as good as the Hollywood Studios version. While the majority of the vacation I felt that most Disney World versions of things just are lacking compared to their counterparts around the world, the one area where Disney World definitely wins is nighttime spectaculars. Fantasmic is the best nightshow and Happily Ever After is definitely the best nighttime spectacular.

Unfortunately, the Disneyland version just doesn’t have the same grandeur or scale as the Hollywood Studios version.

It’s also missing the dragon at this time ever since it caught fire, and it also doesn’t have the newer parts that incorporate Moana, Aladdin, and Frozen to keep it a little more modern. It’s still a great show but lacks the sheer spectacle of the Fantasmic in Hollywood Studios.

Another annoyance was that while the preferred seating is in a great location, since everyone is sitting, which I really appreciate, this also makes it such that you need to watch the show through the fence that surrounds the Rivers of America. This made for some difficult photography at times as I am having to raise my camera above the level of the railing.

The one thing that was definitely an improvement in relation to the Hollywood Studios version though, was the use of the S.S. Columbia as a set piece with between Captain Hook and Peter Pan. This was VERY impressive and entertaining to see them utilize the S.S. Columbia in this way.

At this point it’s about 9:30PM and we still have a handful of Lightning Lanes we haven’t used. To be honest though, the crowd today has been moderate at the worst, and I would honestly characterize it as light. We all figured it would have been very busy being the last day before Christmas break ended, but in the end, there were really very few people in the park, and given it was a school night, after Fantasmic the park was nearly dead. In retrospect the regular Lightning Lane Multipass would likely have been enough, I’m just not sure how much more walking we would have been doing. We walk to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad but it’s sadly closed, but the cast members state that it will hopefully reopen soon.

Galaxy’s Edge, otherwise known as Batuu west, since this is the west coast version, is pretty close to Big Thunder Mountain so we head to Rise of the Resistance.

Walking through Batuu west is nearly identical to Batuu East. There are only very minor differences, primarily relating to the size of the walkways, and the location of some of the larger props in the land. We didn’t do this on our VIP tour in Disney World as it is pretty time intensive, and to be honest, so much seems to be broken on Rise of the Resistance every time we go on it, it’s just lost a lot of the magic. We get to Rise of the Resistance and it is literally a walk on. I honestly couldn’t believe it and never thought I’d see the day it was a walk on. We still use our Lightning Lanes as since we bought them so why not? Although it really doesn’t change our wait time at this time of the night. There are some minor queue differences, but it’s otherwise pretty much the same.

We go through the preshow and everything is working in the preshow for a change. There have been times where I have not gotten a preshow at all and another time when BB-8 was not functioning so this was a pleasant surprise.

We then get to board the shuttle, which was great as once I walked through a drywall hallway to bypass the shuttle as it was not functioning that day.

We enter into the hangar bay with all the storm troopers and are quickly whisked to the holding cells.

The First Order officers were particularly brutal to us today and must have gotten up on the wrong side of their barrack. We entered our holding chambers and thankfully the resistance breaks us out and we board our prisoner transport vehicles. Impressively enough, for the first time in a very long time everything is functioning except the cannons at the end, which had been permanently disabled but have just recently been fixed.

It was definitely a pleasant surprise for almost everything to be working and made the trip just a little more magical.

We start walking out of Batuu and back toward Big Thunder Mountain as it is now functioning again.

At this point it’s again basically a walk on, but we still use our Lightning Lane pass. This might be the quietest I’ve ever seen Disneyland to be honest.

Big Thunder Mountain here is the original, and much smoother than the Disney World version. It is basically identical except it has some slightly updated effects in comparison to the Magic Kingdom version, and it has a goat. In general it’s slightly superior to the Magic Kingdom version in our opinion. Really, the general theme of this trip we’ve found is that most of the rides in Walt Disney World for some reason tend to be inferior to their counterparts in other parts of the world. The unique attractions in Disney World are real stand outs, but the ones that have been cloned elsewhere or cloned into Disney World are not as good. Big Thunder Mountain is getting a refurbishment this year, so hopefully it’ll be updated to the standard of Disneyland.

 

[Rimmit]

It’s getting pretty chilly at this point and it’s getting late and we’re starting to get kinda tired so we decide it’s time to do Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.

We left it for last as we didn’t want to be soaking AND cold for the last part of our day. Tiana’s does have a short 5 minute wait. We use the Lightning Lane just because but there really is no difference in time at this point.

It’s slightly different from the version in Magic Kingdom and only has a single file log. From all accounts, everyone states since the conversion to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure that it now has become an absolute soaker of a ride. Ironically, we brought ponchos on this vacation for two reasons. One, was in the event it rained, and aside from 15 minutes that we were indoor in Tokyo, it has actually NOT rained the last 19 days. Two, to use on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. Ironically, the ONE time in 19 days we need a poncho, we left it in the room. Either way, this is our last ride of the day so the worst case scenario is we are wet and cold for about 15-20 minutes until we get back to the room.

Tiana’s ends up being pretty similar in most respects to the Magic Kingdom version with the Magic Kingdom version being slightly better. I felt the show scenes and ride in general felt a little tighter and less grand in Disneyland, especially the portion prior to going up the hill right before the big drop, but otherwise no major changes. I felt this Splash Mountain moves faster, likely due to the single file long.

It DEFINITELY get’s you significantly more wet. After the first small drop, Lucy was absolutely soaked, and Kendall got pretty wet as well.

I managed to barely get wet, likely because I was holding a plastic bag with a sweat shirt in it. For the big drop, Lucy again got absolutely soaked, and was now totally freezing.

We start to head out but right near the exit to Tiana’s is The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and it is a walk on so we decided to do just one more ride.

After doing Pooh’s Honey Hunt in Tokyo pretty much anything else is going to be a disappointment, and not suprisingly this was as well. It’s definitely an improvement from the Magic Kingdom version, but compared to the trackless Tokyo version, it’s not even close. For a walk on though, really you can’t complain.

We pass by Sleeping Beauty’s castle on the way out and it is gorgeous. Lucy say it’s the prettiest castle of the vacation and her favorite.

We end up taking our 6th and final castle picture of the vacation.

Right nearby there is a stand selling a Peppermint Hot Cocoa Churro. Amazingly, there is a choice at this stand. They are selling regular churros as well. Again, after coming from Tokyo Disney Resort, the idea of having a choice of snack at a snack stand is just mind blowing. We buy two of the Peppermint Churros and it is actually pretty good and a great end of the day snack.

Right by the churro stand the double decker bus had just let off a load of people, so we figure we’ll actually make this our last ride of the vacation. We felt it only appropriate to take a true opening day ride as the last ride of this around the world trip. Almost 3 weeks ago we started with Dinosaur and tonight we will end with a Main Street Vehicle.

We say goodbye to Dave and Nathalie and we start the walk back to our room through Downtown Disney.

We decided to make a quick pit stop at the World of Disney Store for some last second gifts.

I’m still having to readjust to the US prices after our time in Tokyo. I’m still looking for an either a zip up fleece or sweatshirt which is the one item I was looking for this whole vacation, but could never find one I liked at any of the stops. Although in all honesty, the international Disney’s don’t have many options at all on that front. Amazingly enough, the World of Disney only has one design as well, which just isn’t to my liking.

Again, I’m not one to buy souvenirs, and I guess I’ll just end the trip with a bunch of new magnets and some room keys. Throughout the whole day we had been looking for stand with buttons, or cast member with buttons. We did not feel like going to guest services to wait in line, but typically, when walking through a US park you randomly see someone with buttons, and we really wanted to get a button. Lucy ends up buying a cup for her teacher and as she is checking out, we finally find someone to make a button. We all get a button saying “I’m Celebrating All 12 Parks!” Better late than never.

It’s about 11:00PM when we arrive back at the hotel.

We make the long trek down the hallway and finally arrive back at our room.

While arriving back at the hotel is typically not a huge deal for most people, today, it is a very huge deal. This is because Kendall just successfully completed walking a true full Disney day logging in over 26,000 steps with ZERO wheelchair assist. There is no asterisk on this one. This wasn’t a half day, this wasn’t a partial day, this wasn’t Hong Kong Disneyland, a park 1/5 the size of Epcot. This was the real deal. A true full Disney park day.

When she first started her recovery journey, one of the very first things I said was “You’ll walk again. I know you’ll walk again. I don’t think you’re ever gonna be walking a full day at Disney again, but I know you’ll walk again.” Well, I’ve never been more glad to be wrong. This was something I never thought possible two and half years ago, but throughout her recovery she just kept moving the goal posts. She can finally stop moving them.

Day 19, January 5th, 2025 Step Count – 29,193 Steps

Total Step Count – 319,122

 

[Rimmit]

Day 20 - The End

“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters in the end.” – Ernest Hemingway

Today I woke up at 6:45AM again so I’m definitely getting back on US time and on a more normal schedule.

Everyone is still sleeping so I go to the gym to work out. I haven’t run since the beginning of the vacation as there just hasn’t been any time. I am pretty confident we’ve gotten our steps in so there is at least has been some exercise the last several weeks.

The gym here is very nice, spacious and has some huge floor to ceiling windows which let in a ton of light.

It was definitely one of the nicer hotel gyms with a reasonable number of cardio machines.

The weight training options were more limited, but it was still ample compared to a lot of other hotels. After a two week break from running, it felt great to get a good run in on the treadmill.

This morning, shortly after waking up, we got a notification that our flight out of LAX was delayed till 2:30PM from 1:40PM so this gave us even more time to relax. Unfortunately, this delay leaves us with just 36 minutes to connect in Charlotte. I’m not super worried as Charlotte is not too big of an airport and they tend to give a buffer on the arrival times, but if it get’s delayed much more it could be a serious problem.

We ask for a late checkout but the best they can give me is 11:30AM which is at least a little better than 11:00AM. Unfortunately, there is no loyalty system with Disney Hotels so there is no way to leverage any status to try and get a later checkout. With Marriott, we are allowed 4:00PM checkout due to our Titanium Status which is super nice, and came in real handy back in Miami when we were stuck there for a day after Air France denied our boarding. Kendall wakes up and I go fetch some breakfast while she wakes up Lucy and starts packing and getting ready for our trip home.

I go back to The Coffee House as that’s really our only quick service option at the hotel. I really enjoy walking around the hotel in the morning. It’s just so peaceful and pretty.

I really wish we had time to make use of the pool, as I know Lucy would have loved it.

I am pretty burnt on breakfasts at this point to be honest. I don’t typically eat breakfast at home and just have a protein shake every morning, so when I see a Core Power protein shake in the drink section I opt to buy one. Kendall sticks with a bagel and Lucy gets the same things as yesterday, 2 bowls of Fruit Loops and milk. That rings up at just over $29 USD. I really miss the prices in Japan. I then walk back to the Discovery Tower.

We finish packing, and chill in the room until it’s time to leave for the airport. We definitely wish we could stay here longer.

The hotel is beautiful and I would have liked to have explored it more.

We call our Uber and head to the airport right at 11:30 AM. Today we are flying out of LAX and not John Wayne so it’ll be a much longer drive.

There is thankfully no traffic, and we are at the airport in about 45 minutes.

We zip through security as the airport is pretty empty today. The TSA and regular lines have zero wait, but we take TSA precheck just so we don’t have to totally empty out our bags. The first Monday after Christmas Break is clearly not peak travel time. It only takes us 10 minutes from hitting the curb to get to our gate which in all honesty is quite possibly the fastest we have ever gotten to a gate in a large airport. None of our bags get pulled for the first time this vacation as well. At least toward the end some things going our way. We are totally going out with a bang.

At this point, we are basically in the clear for achieving what I would consider the greatest accomplishment of this vacation. While most would consider going to all 12 parks in one trip to be an incredible feat, I would argue that is still not our greatest achievement. That title goes to going around the world and doing it with just carryons. And not only did we go around the world with carryons, but we did it IN THE WINTER with TWO FEMALES while also going to 12 DISNEY PARKS.

Just one of those three obstacles would be enough for most people to need to check a bag. Since we did this in December, three of the parks were warmer weather, and three were in middle of winter. This creates many packing challenges unto itself. By virtue of Kendall and Lucy being female there are a variety of items and clothes that I, as a male just do not biologically require. On top of that, anyone that goes to Disney knows that they not only assault you with endless chances to buy souvenirs and other merch, but they also give you a large amount of free goodies ranging from magic wands, amenity kits, bags, cups, and other randomness and the temptation to bring all this home is huge as they do make nice souvenirs.

We consciously had to leave behind large amounts of free stuff at every stop. I have to give mad props to Kendall and Lucy for their extreme restraint in buying souvenirs, and also to Kendall’s absolutely insane packing skills. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure we’d make it out of Tokyo without buying another luggage as the combination of low prices along with the cuteness of items there just makes you want to buy so many things, but we made it.

Unfortunately, despite flying domestic first class for this flight there is no lounge access included, and there are no credit card lounges we can access in LAX so there is no lounge this time. They will provide a meal and snacks on the plane so we don’t need a full meal, so we buy some Dunkin’ Donuts just to tide us over till our flight.

I call the taxi company in our area and attempt to arrange a taxi for pick up at 12:30AM. They state to call later as they aren’t sure they’ll be able to send out a taxi due to the road conditions. We were definitely worried about that since yesterday day as we had already gotten 12 inches of snow and it was still coming down at home.

I check our Ring camera and our road seems to be doing well, but our road is traditionally one of the best in the area, so that is not the greatest measuring stick of the other roads.

I immediately start trying to come up with a back up plan on how to get home. Unfortunately, given we need to be picked up at zero dark thirty with 12 inches of snow on the ground doesn’t leave us with many options. We may have to just sleep at the airport till the roads get better. Either way there’s not much I can do about it now, so that’s a problem for later.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

Congratulations on completing all 12 parks! It's been so fun to read your trip report, thanks for sharing. I've gotten some useful info for my visits to the parks, so thank you for that as well.

How are things going with Airfrance? I emailed the CEO of Airfrance to ask for a refund on my baggage fee after the regular "customer service " denied me, and I was successful.

 

[Rimmit]

Congratulations on completing all 12 parks! It's been so fun to read your trip report, thanks for sharing. I've gotten some useful info for my visits to the parks, so thank you for that as well.

How are things going with Airfrance? I emailed the CEO of Airfrance to ask for a refund on my baggage fee after the regular "customer service " denied me, and I was successful.

Terrible. I am denied on all fronts. They refuse to give me anything. I've been arguing with them for over a month now, and they claim that I never told them about the onward flight to Hong Kong from Shanghai. That is a complete lie, and super frustrating that they are just flat out lying about the whole thing. How did you email them?? I am sending him an email.

 

[Rimmit]

We are flying American Airlines today in Domestic First Class and so for the first time since our Delta flight to Miami we were back on a carrier that we have been on before. The flight boards on time with no further delays and we have seats 2A, 2C ,2D.

The seat is pretty spacious especially for a four hour flight so I can’t complain. After all the long hauls this trip, four hours seems like nothing.

I definitely have ample leg room.

We take off on time without any further delay. Shortly after takeoff they serve some nuts and a beverage.

They actually go ahead and give you an extra small shooter as well. I guess the flight attendants didn’t want to be bothered with you asking for a second drink.

Chicken enchiladas or stuffed bell peppers. Worst possible options for me.

Beggars can’t be choosers and as such I eat a reasonable amount of the chicken enchilada out of hunger. It was ok I guess. Anyone that knows me knows that as much as I like McDonald’s, I have the same level of disdain for Mexican food. Kendall and Lucy love Mexican and they definitely seemed to enjoy it. They did serve some Häagen-Dazs ice cream for dessert which was nice, but of course it was caramel flavored which is not exactly my favorite either.

It was at least better than the enchilada though. I really wish McDonalds would cater these plane meals. Fun fact, in the 1990s McDonalds did offer Happy Meals on select United flights. Sadly I never got to try one.

I rarely get a window seat these days as I normally prefer an aisle due to easy bathroom access or because Kendall and I take the middle and aisle on a long haul flight. I was sitting next to Lucy today and she wanted the aisle for the easy bathroom access. I miss the window seat as I love seeing the sky as it makes for some great photography especially around sunset or sunrise.

We land early with an hour to make our connection thankfully so we aren’t concerned with missing our connection. I call the taxi company right after landing and they state they can’t pick us up due to the roads. At this point, we have kinda resigned ourselves to likely being stuck at the airport overnight until the roads clear up and someone can come get us.

Shortly after landing as we are walking to our gate I get a notification of a delay of our flight till tomorrow morning, likely due to weather, but they never tell us the cause for the delay. Normally, I’d be kinda upset about this, but this was actually ideal as spending the night at Huntington Tri-State Airport is not exactly ideal.

I book a Residence Inn by the airport and we get a taxi. At this point all reasonable travel expenses are covered by our travel insurance policy so waiting 20-30 minutes for a shuttle is just not worth it as we are tired and just want to get to the hotel and sleep. If we had to pay for the taxi, we’d maybe weigh the cost vs time aspect but since it is on insurance’s bill at this point we opt for efficiency rather than cost savings.

We get to the Residence Inn and check in and schedule a cab for tomorrow morning as the shuttle is fully booked from 7:00-8:00 and we get to bed.

The end of our adventure with have to wait one more day.

Day 20, January 6th, 2025 Step Count – 9,057 Steps

Total Step Count – 328,179

 

[Go.Nijntje]

Terrible. I am denied on all fronts. They refuse to give me anything. I've been arguing with them for over a month now, and they claim that I never told them about the onward flight to Hong Kong from Shanghai. That is a complete lie, and super frustrating that they are just flat out lying about the whole thing. How did you email them?? I am sending him an email.

The CEO is a woman, I've attached her email for you.
I often email the CEO's when I am having an issue with a company. The regular customer service usually have limited options and aren't helpful unless it's a standard problem.
Most of the time emailing the CEO works, not because they answer me but because it gets passed along to their assistant or another department that has more brain power and leeway to resolve issues.
Just keep your email short and to the point and perhaps it will help.

 

[Rimmit]

“And so, our journey comes to an end. But yours continues on. Grab ahold of your dreams and make them come true. For you are the key to unlocking your own magic. Now go. Let your dreams guide you. Reach out and find your Happily Ever After.”

Day 21 - The End Redux

So we totally overslept this morning. Whoops! We woke up at 7:23AM as we completely forgot to set an alarm. Typically the hotel calls you when they call the taxi to make sure you’re ready for the taxi, but of all days they did not call, it was today. Our taxi was supposed to be here at 7:30AM and we had 7 minutes to pack and get ready. We’re not really worried about missing our flight as it isn’t till 10:00AM so we have ample time even if we miss our taxi, but would prefer not to miss our taxi.

We wake Lucy up, quickly pack and get downstairs by 7:38AM but our taxi has already left. We end up calling an Uber. While we could wait till the next hotel shuttle but Uber would be faster and we will be reimbursed by insurance at this point due to our travel delay.

At about 9:00 we get to the airport and head through security. We use the TSA precheck line which is notably shorter this time than the regular line. We get to the TSA agent and for some reason Lucy’s boarding pass won’t scan. It’s likely having something to do with them reissuing the boarding pass after our flight was delayed till today. Mine and Kendall’s passes are linked to our ID so we have no issues, but Lucy has no ID to scan and she has to rely on her boarding pass.

Despite everything that has happened this vacation, I have no anxiety regarding this as I just find it hard to believe they would deny a child with a valid boarding pass the ability to travel with her parents within the United States. They just need to get their act together and figure out how to get it to scan or just allow her through security.

The TSA agents have a quick discussion amongst themselves about letting Lucy through. Eventually, they talk about her needing a physical ticket, but one of the other agents states that likely won’t scan either. They reference a list of delayed flights from yesterday and ours is on it, they then look closely at her digital boarding pass and then they just let her through.

We go through security right near Terminal A, which is right by The Club at CLT, which is a lounge we have access to via our Capital One Venture X or Amex Business Platinum. It’s one of the nicer lounges from The Club.

It’s not as nice as The Club in San Franciscobut it’s definitely better than the Atlanta or Cincinatti ones that we frequent.

There isn’t a huge variety of food but it is enough to keep us from having to buy breakfast and drinks at the airport. Along with the continental breakfast options of fruit and cereal, they do have a warm food station where you can order some eggs and grits.

About 30 min till boarding we head to the gate as we are at the opposite end of the airport at Terminal E and it’s about a 20 minute walk. We get to the gate early and wait for our boarding number to be called. Today we don’t really have any benefits on the flight except we get a slightly earlier boarding number as I am an American Airline business card holder.

Today for our 11th and final flight of the trip we are flying on an Embraer 145, which is a smaller regional jet. We have seats 7A,7B, and 7C.

For the AV geeks out there, on this trip we have been on a total of 8 different aircraft this trip which has included an A319, A320, A321-neo, A330-900neo, A350-900, 787-8, Embraer 175, and an Embraer 145. Interesting fact is the A350-900 was our most flown plane this vacation with 3 flights. Two more fun facts. One is that we only flew on a Boeing plane just once the whole vacation, a 787-8. The second, almost just as shocking is that we didn’t board a 777 at any point as those are traditionally the backbone of any international long haul fleet.

Take off was 30 minutes late, but it’s a short 40 minute flight so we will still be on time. As we approach our area we see it covered in snow.

This was our biggest snow in several years with 12 inches over the last 48 hours. We touchdown on time despite the delay.

It definitely looks a little different than when we left on Day 1.

We then wait in the freezing cold for them to unload our gate checked bags as on these smaller regional jets there just isn’t space in the overhead bin for a full size carryon so every single carryon must be gate checked.

Thankfully, today the taxi’s are running as the roads have cleared some. I called while we waited in the lounge in Charlotte to arrange for a taxi pick up. Unfortunately, it was not here yet, and we wait, and we wait some more. While waiting we see a friend that lives in our neighborhood and she offers us a ride as we had been waiting 40 minutes at this point. Ironically, right as her brother arrives to pick her up our cab arrives. There is only one taxi company in the area, so you don’t want to burn that bridge in the rare event you need a taxi, so we go ahead and take it rather than take the free ride home.

The main roads are in decent condition, and we arrive at our home blanketed in snow a short 25 minutes later and our around the world journey comes to an end right where we started, 337,543 steps later. Home sweet home.

Thanks for following along on this once in a lifetime adventure. It’s hard to believe after all that we are right back where we started, albeit with a whole lot more memories. I can only hope that this can help others to plan their dream Disney trip, and help them avoid some of the pitfalls that we fell into. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions.

It’s not goodbye. It’s see ya real soon!

“The end of a journey means the start of another one.”

Day 21, January 7th, 2025 Step Count – 9,364 Steps

Total Step Count – 337,543

Stay tuned for the final stats and breakdown.

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

I'm so sad this trip report is done, it was absolutely amazing! I hope to read another one of your reports in the future.

 

[Rimmit]

I'm so sad this trip report is done, it was absolutely amazing! I hope to read another one of your reports in the future.

Thanks for following along! Whatever is next definitely won't be as exciting, but if I have something worth reporting I'll definitely put it here. We're definitely done with Disney for a bit, or at least till this summer when my daughter has a Dance comp at WDW at Coronado Springs. TBH, I'm not sure we'll hit up WDW even though we're staying there as we really want to do Epic Universe.

 

[MotherofaPrincessLover]

Thanks for following along! Whatever is next definitely won't be as exciting, but if I have something worth reporting I'll definitely put it here. We're definitely done with Disney for a bit, or at least till this summer when my daughter has a Dance comp at WDW at Coronado Springs. TBH, I'm not sure we'll hit up WDW even though we're staying there as we really want to do Epic Universe.

I'm really hoping Universal starts selling one day tickets to Epic because I'd like to go before my cruise in October. My kids' school isn't having an actual spring break next year and it ruined all of my Universal vacation plans

 

[Wicked Sisters]

Thanks again for a brilliant trip report. I just have to say what a beautiful house you have.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Wow what a great adventure! Thanks for taking us all along for the ride!