Trip Report 12 Parks in 12 Months.

Hi,

If you are here for a trip report about WDW, please check back in December. At the moment I'm in Disneyland Paris, the first of the 12 parks I'm planning to visit this year.

A little background about this trip,
This is me Mimi, today, half frozen.

I'm travelling with my sister and we have both taken a year off work to cross some things of our wish list.
Visiting all 12 Disney parks was very high on my list. My sister likes Disney and is happy to indulge my slight obsession.
We started our trip around the world about 3 weeks ago but this is our first Disney Park. The rules for 12 in 12, that I totally made up for myself, are that I have to stay on property and visit each park for 1 day minimum. I'm hoping I can make 1 long trip report about all the parks, if someone is interested I can add some of my other travel as well.

But let's start with Disneyland Paris, First Park, First Day.
We've already been in Paris for about a week so all we had to do was take the subway from were we were staying, change trains once and exit at Disneyland. I woke up before my alarm and we were ready to leave an hour ahead of schedule. In the first subway I opened my big mouth and said we'd probably make Magic Hour as we'd left so early. Literally 1 minute later the subway slowed down to a crawl and an announcement was made. There was an issue and there would be a delay.
Apparently there was a person on the track at the major station we had to change trains at, so no trains were allowed in. Luckily our train terminated at a station where we could get a Metro that took us to a station where we could get on the train to Disneyland.

The extra travel time swallowed up our Magic Hour but I wasn't too upset about it.
I've always wanted to stay at the Disneyland Hotel, as it's right at the entrance of Disneyland Paris, so for this trip that's were we are staying.
Our room wasn't ready when we got to the hotel at 9.30am so we dropped of our luggage and walked into Disneyland. It felt a bit strange to me, very familiar but different as well. I didn't take too many pictures today as I really wanted to just soak it in and get to know the park, also it rained A LOT today and I didn't want want my phone to get too wet. I did take a picture at the entrance.

We were happy to be there, despite the weather.
First stop was Phantom Manor, there was no line so we rode it twice in row. As much I love the Magic Kingdom version I like this one a bit better. I'm going to try and get some pictures/film it tomorrow or Wednesday so I can show you.
We finished our second ride at 10am and walked past a stand where they sold these,

A cappuccino and these churros where €7 I also bought a coke for €4.20. The churros were okay-ish but we enjoyed them as they were warm.
We walked over to the theatre after eating our snack to watch a Christmas Sing A Long.

We got there late so didn't get the best seats but we enjoyed the show, Mickey spoke French but Minnie spoke English. The only other character that spoke English was Goofy. I thought the show was well done and easy to follow for everyone.
When we left the show it wasn't raining so we hopped online for Star Tours, wait time was listed as 35 minutes but ,as we found out throughout the day, the wait times weren't very accurate. Our wait was nearly an hour.

My sister (P) and I really struggle taking nice pictures, we usually just stand there and take a picture. But we see all these, mostly much younger, people doing all these poses and expressions etc. So we decided to mix it up as well and try some new things.
Here's us "being serious" while waiting for the Star Tours doors to open.

When we walked outside afterwards it was still dry and we saw one of my sister's favourites with no line.

He was fun and very talkative.

 

[cgersic]

Ok, please explain the cake? Is it your face? Is the face part the cake part? And how did they get a big bouquet of flowers in there??? Sooooo fascinating and cool and Happy Birthday!!

 

[Go.Nijntje]

Happy Belated Birthday!!! Still loving all this! Keep it coming!

Thank you and I will. Just a bit behind at the moment but Insta is more up to date.

Ok, please explain the cake? Is it your face? Is the face part the cake part? And how did they get a big bouquet of flowers in there??? Sooooo fascinating and cool and Happy Birthday!!

The cake was amazing, not my face but Frida Kahlo's, she's an artist I greatly admire.
Here's one of her self portraits.

The face was printed on fondant and attached to the cake with icing. The flowers had wire wrapped around the stems and were inserted into the top of the cake. It was a super cool cake, I loved it.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

The next day we had tickets to visit Robben Island. It is the island were Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 18 years. The island has a long history as a prison, starting in 1658, when the Dutch imprisoned local people opposing the Dutch invasion.
As it is an island you have to take a ferry to get there.

You can only visit Robben Island if you have a tour booked. The ferry ride was very pleasant and only took about 25 minutes.
Robben Island itself is very pretty, it even has penguins.

Unfortunately it has a very ugly and dark history.
You can't walk around on your own on the island, when you get off the ferry you are assigned a bus with a tour guide. You are than driven around the island while the guide explains the things you see. You drive past the quarry where the prisoners had to work, the church building, the village where the prison staff lived etc. There is one stop, so you can get out and use the restroom, buy some souvenirs or a drink, the second and last stop is by the prison itself. You are met by a previous inmate who gives you a tour and explains what life inside was like.

This is Setho, he was arrested when he was 22 years old for being a member of the ANC. He was tortured and spent 3 years imprisoned on Robben Island. The amazing thing was that he was a very positive person. He spoke about how he realised what true love was, while locked up. His mother and sister would come and visit him, (prisoners were only allowed 30 minutes visits, 3 times a year.) His family had to travel 2000km by train one way, during apartheid, so it was not easy to get a train ticket etc. And often they would get back on the train the day of the visit because they couldn't afford nor where they allowed to stay in a hotel.
Most of the prisoners were in a group cell. We were in the actual cell that Setho lived in for 3 years.

There were 3 toilets and 3 showers for one cell holding 60 men.

We then walked to the isolation unit. This is where the leaders of the resistance were kept in order to try and stop them from inspiring others.

This is the cell where Nelson Mandela was kept for 18 years.

As you can see there wasn't even a bed or a toilet, just a blanket and a bucket.

There was a courtyard for some fresh air and exercise where the prisoners managed to plant this tree.

From the prison we walked back to the ferry. The same route released prisoners would walk, the same route Nelson Mandela walked when he was moved from Robben Island, to house arrest at a different location. You walk past all this barbwire and have to go through a gate to get back on the ferry.

It was an inspirational visit for me, such strength and dignity in the face of cruelty and injustice.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

After our visit to Robben Island we walked back to our guesthouse to pick up Baby Lola and we left Cape Town. P and M both like wine and the area around Cape Town is know as the Garden Route and famous for its vineyards. The next 9 days we drove over 1200km, I say we but it was really just me doing all the driving. As P and M wanted to do lots of wine tastings, there wasn't much point putting them on the insurance of the car. So I was the designated driver for the Garden Route. P and I had visited France a few years ago and visited several vineyards, which I quite enjoyed because you got a tour of the vineyard, they explained how they make the wine, you see the bottling process etc. and P could taste some wine in the shop. It was interesting because I like to see how things are made and it usually lasted an hour max. Unfortunately in South Africa they do things very differently. The vineyards are all just fancy bars/restaurants, a few had beautiful gardens and some interesting history but the majority of our visits was just, walk in, sit down and P and M picked which wines they wanted to taste, usually 3 or 5 different kinds. And than the sommelier comes and explains the process of making the wine, the tasting notes of plum or chocolate, bla bla bla. The whole thing would take 2 hours if not more.
P and M loved it.

One vineyard said the wine had a fresh linen note and brought out a fragrance board to complement the wine.

Wine is not expensive in SA and the tasting glasses aren't small.

I found it all quite boring but I love my sister so this part of the trip was for her.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

I found the wine tastings very boring and driving in Baby Lola wasn't as fun as big Lola. Google Maps is also a bit of a liar in South Africa because it thinks you can drive the speed limit on South African roads. And you most certainly can't drive the limit as most roads are in bad condition. They either have lots of potholes or no clear lines or a combination of both. So Google Maps will tell me it is an 40 minutes drive to a vineyard but in reality it will take an hour and 10 minutes. I did find South african drivers to be polite and considerate in general. Very little honking, people make room to let other cars pass, you thank someone for letting you pass by flashing your emergency lights once or twice. And guess what a traffic light is called in South Africa?

Yup, it's called a robot. I can't help but smile when I see a sign like this, or see it painted on the road.
The food was very very good in South Africa, we only had 2 bad meals and both were at the airport.
Food is also much more affordable than in the Netherlands and the quality was amazing.
We tried several new things, like samp and rooster koek.

Nelson Mandela loved this samp and beans dish. It tasted a bit like a curry with a nice amount of spice.

Twice we went to Kaai4Braai in Mossel Bay. It's a bbq place on the beach. Only South Africans don't call it BBQ but braai, and they take it very seriously. This place had delicious food and it was dirt cheap.
Here you see the rooster koek on the grill.

I know this doesn't look too pretty but boy was it good. The tomato and onion relish was just the best. It was a freshly made hamburger on a warm just grilled rooster koek with that home made relish. Honestly one of the best things I ate in a long while.

They also made a delicious curry chicken with samp and rooster koek.

Some other good food we had was a flatbread with hummus, roasted aubergine and chickpeas.

A roasted beetroot salad with maple glazed carrots and feta. These beets will live in my memory for ever. Who knew beets could be this delicious?

P was hungry so she started on this pizza before I took a picture. It was a blue cheese, salami and honey pizza, sounds weird but was actually tasty.

One of the most expensive meals we had was this cheeseboard at a vineyard. I was hangry so ordered it while the wine tasting was going on.
South African cheese is pretty bland compared to European cheeses but the chutneys and fresh fruit helped to make it taste good. There was also biltong on the board, it's the african version of beef jerky, not something I would eat, P and M said it was okay.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

We handed in Baby Lola at the airport and had a very comfortable 8 hour a flight to Qatar.
I like to tease P. because when we were getting serious with our planning of the round the world trip, I told her I was going to fly business class. And for a long time P said that that was a waste of money and she would just fly Economy.
She also resisted just having carry on bags. This went on for like 2 years, whenever it came up she was always like 'ECONOMY with a Suitcase, bla bla bla'. Luckily two things happened, 1 she went on a work trip to the carribean and flew long distance business class for the first time in her life, and 2 they lost her checked in luggage on a flight from London to the Netherlands.
After those experiences she understood the wisdom of my words.
Here's P on the flight to Qatar from Johannesburg. Apparently Qatar Airways serves very good rose champagne.

And have handsome flight attendants that bring said Rose Champagne.

Personally I love flying business because it makes travel so much easier and fun again. Much less queuing and waiting at the airport and a lot of extra space on the plane. Not to mention better service and food.
Here's me enjoying my extra space and being right.

Before take off, we were offered Arabic coffee, which is very different from western coffee. P had never tried it and liked it as well.

I had some fresh orange juice and beetroot chips right after take off.

The chips were nicer than they look.
When dinner time came around I had the cheese board as an appetiser.

I forgot to take a picture of my main but it was rice with a african tomato sauce that had sultanas and some nuts.
For dessert I asked for the cherry pie and requested it a la mode, but that got lost in translation so I got 2 desserts, the cherry pie and a chocolate and hazelnut ice-cream with brownie pieces. I wasn't going to complain about that.

P hadn't seen Frozen 2 so we both watched that to get ready for Disney Hong Kong. (There will be a Disney Park report soon, I promise.)

P had issues using the remote control and she accidentally started the reading of the Holy Koran.

I had a little nap, some more fresh juice and got some kitkats to put in my purse.
We also got 2 of these amenities kits. If you would like to have one you can DM me on Insta, we are raffling it soon and will send it free of charge to the winner.

Before we knew it we landed in Doha, Qatar.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

While we have changed planes quite a few times in Doha over the years, we have never taken the time to visit the city. Qatar Airways has some amazing deals on hotels, to promote tourism, so we booked a 3 night's stay.We did this probably in April 2024 or so, right after we booked our RTW ticket but before I accepted a 5 months contract in Saudi Arabia. I literally finished working in Saudi the day before P and I started travelling. So I wasn't too excited about being in Qatar.
P however was really looking forward to it.
Here she is on the train at the airport. This train took us from the terminal we arrived in to the terminal where immigration was.

Qatar is a very safe country to travel in, especially for women. No one bothered us or was disrespectful the 3 days we were there. No one tried to scam us or pester us to go in their shop etc.We got a few looks, but we get that in most places we go. People aren't used to seeing two white women on their own.
Our hotel was in the Souq Waqif. It's a market that's over 200 years old but they gave it a face-lift in the not so distant past.

It is still mostly used by locals to buy anything from new shoes to birds. I didn't like seeing birds, bunnies, turtles and kittens in tiny cages but there is a large section in the souq devoted to selling life animals. It's difficult when you come from a country with different customs to understand why they still treat animals this way. I didn't take any photos of the bird market as it made me very uncomfortable. We avoided the life animal section the rest of our stay.

There are porters to help you with your shopping. They have a wheelbarrow and will put all your purchases in there and walk behind you till you have finished and than they will put it in your car.

One of the buildings in the souq was converted into an art gallery, I liked their lights a lot.

In a central part of the souq was this statue, it's very fittingly called the dumb.

It was a landmark we could use to try and find our way, as the souq was like a maze.
Another landmark was this shop with a giant Qatari flag.

Our hotel was very nice and the service was outstanding. The staff was eager to please and always happy to help.
We had a view of this mosque from the hotel hallway.

The call to prayer starts around 4.50am at this time of year but neither P nor I heard it in our room.

Our room was quite a steal, less than $60 a night, and it had a Nespresso machine, 2 big beds, robes and slippers and luxury bath products.

 

[Rimmit]

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Little late to the game as just got around to reading your thread. Looks great! Thanks for taking us along!

Aww. The plane didn't get the Q-Suite. Was it an equipment swap or did they schedule it that way. Will your next flight at least get the Q-suite out of Doha to your next stop? Either way the service is still amazing and I'm sure you had a great time. Shocked they didn't at least send the plane without the 2-2-2 seats. My kids did Joburg to Doha and it was a Q-suite when they did it, after my wife got run over by the car In Zimbabwe and I stayed behind with her in Joburg. We ended up getting repatriated from Joburg at that point back to Newark in United Polaris, as the idea of having to do a layover in her condition at the time was an absolute nightmare.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

Little late to the game as just got around to reading your thread. Looks great! Thanks for taking us along!

Aww. The plane didn't get the Q-Suite. Was it an equipment swap or did they schedule it that way. Will your next flight at least get the Q-suite out of Doha to your next stop? Either way the service is still amazing and I'm sure you had a great time. Shocked they didn't at least send the plane without the 2-2-2 seats. My kids did Joburg to Doha and it was a Q-suite when they did it, after my wife got run over by the car In Zimbabwe and I stayed behind with her in Joburg. We ended up getting repatriated from Joburg at that point back to Newark in United Polaris, as the idea of having to do a layover in her condition at the time was an absolute nightmare.

Thanks for reading my TR, and your not that late, I still have nearly 11 months and 5 castles to go.I'm not really a plane person so I don't know if this was the planned plane or a swap but I was very happy with it. I have flown in the newer ones with the Q-suites for work and actually prefer this older style. While you don't have a little sliding door and a bit less privacy, you do get a lot more room to move around.