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.

 

[Rimmit]

Day 12 - Shanghai Disneyland
“We didn’t come this far to only come this far.”

I was hoping to get a decent nights sleep but I ended up waking up at 4:00 AM due to jet lag so I try and check in for our flight with Cathay Pacific and not too surprisingly it was asking for a visa to finish online check in. This was not surprising as a I knew that was what was required from the beginning, but it does also state that additional documents maybe required to check in and to provide those at the airport. The additional documents in this case were documents proving that we had a flight leaving China within the 240 hours that we were allowed to transit in China.

What did worry me was that as I was checking in I noticed my name was Ramon Ymalay Ymalay.

When I first set up my frequent flyer account with Cathay Pacific a year ago I messed up inputting my name. I tried to fix this back in July of this year and sent in a picture of my passport, but they for some reason they were still unable to change my name. I did not think that would be a huge deal, as I just booked an award ticket as though it would be for someone else except it was for me so I could change my name to my correct name. That’s what I did when I booked our original Shanghai to Hong Kong ticket prior to our itinerary change.

I totally forgot about this when I booked another award ticket, and it automatically used the name listed with my frequent flyer account. 99.9 percent of the time your middle name does not matter on your ticket and it can be incorrect and the airlines will gloss over that error. That being said, 99.9 percent of the time an airline does not deny someone with a perfectly legitimate itinerary, and well above 99.9999 percent of the time people do not get run over on vacation, so I was starting to get REAL paranoid and my anxiety was going through the roof. The fact we were going to China which is notoriously strict with EVERYTHING just sent me panicking. I just rebuilt the itinerary and found a way to still accomplish our goal of doing all 12 parks in one trip and yet here I was again, this time of my own fault, with an error that could kill our goal AGAIN. I just wanted to die. I was pretty tired but I needed to make some phone calls, so I call Cathay Pacific at 4:00 AM.

I talk to the representative on the phone, and he tries multiple ways to change my name, but they all fail. Ultimately, he says since it was an award ticket, he cannot change my name as the award ticket is tied to my name. He says my best option is to go to the airport and hope they don’t care that my name is wrong. If they deny me boarding he says you will have to rebuy the ticket on the spot with your correct name. So at this point I feel better, as the worst case scenario is that I have to buy ANOTHER ticket. Through hell or highwater we ARE getting to Shanghai today. It’s not exactly ideal, but I can live with that, as it was my fault in this situation.

Our taxi was schedule for 7:15AM which will give us 3 hours prior to our flight to check in and go to the lounge. The front desk calls the room and lets us know our taxi has arrived. We finish packing up and I peak outside from our balcony one last time. It’s a beautiful morning.

We head downstairs, and walk outside. Strangely enough there is no taxi to be found. We talk to bell services and they make some calls to figure out what happened to our taxi. Apparently our taxi had mechanical issues and left, so they then call another taxi.

A couple minutes later another taxi arrived. This taxi is definitely on the older side of taxis. There is a single speaker that is playing classical music and it sounds like when in a movie or video game you find an abandoned bunker or home and it’s playing classical music on a crackly old speaker. It was kinda eerie to be totally honest. Our cab driver is nice enough and knows enough English to be able to understand which terminal we needed to go to at the airport.

We head toward the airport and hit heavy traffic. We literally are not moving AT ALL. I am in no way worried as we still have 3 hours till our flight and aren’t even a 1/2 mile from the airport so in the worst case scenario we start walking. As a matter of fact many people actually had gotten out of their car and had started walking.

Thankfully, that was not us. Due to the traffic the taxi was way over expected at $215 HKD. I only pulled out $200 HKD from the ATM at the hotel as bell services said it should never be over that. Luckily he was willing to take the $5 USD which more than covered the difference.

Once we arrived at the airport, we searched for the check in area. This was the moment of truth. We were denied once before 8 nights ago in Miami. If we tried to get to China and were denied again, I think I might just die or at least melt into a puddle of goo at the check-in counter. We finally found the Cathay Pacific check in counter. It’s a younger Asian woman. At this point we have totally optimized our chances to not be wrongfully denied. We figured it can’t get a whole lot safer than booking a Hong Kong carrier out of Hong Kong into China. Probably the only thing safer would be a Chinese carrier out of Hong Kong into China. We handed her our passports, and she proceeded to type in our info. At this point I am shaking as this is the point where in Miami it all fell apart, and I was just waiting for some denial out of nowhere again.

After finding our booking she saw our itinerary from Hong Kong to Shanghai. I confirmed that, and then I handed them the rest of our flight info and they typed it in no questions asked. Literally zero questions. I just handed them a paper copy of our outbound flight from Shanghai the next day and they just typed it in. Not one word about it AT ALL. It absolutely kills me this was all caused due to incompetence of Air France, and their complete inability to listen to reason or ability to read the rules that were not just posted on THEIR OWN WEBSITE, but also the Chinese Embassy and US Travel.gov. They just shut us down the moment it said that a visa was required and refused to read the exemptions.

At this point we are at least past the initial denial. The second hurdle was my name. The worst case scenario is we have to buy a new ticket on the spot. I really don’t want to outlay more cash, but if that’s what it takes I can live with it. As she checks us in, I notice she notices my name does not match. She then brings over a supervisor and they chat in Mandarin for a bit. I have no idea what they are saying. Eventually, she prints my boarding pass, stamps it, and then initials it. She hands it back to me stating that for some reason their system printed my surname twice. She said it’s been ok’d, but just wanted me to be aware. CRISIS AVERTED! We are good to go.

We head through passport control, which is thankfully a pretty short line. They notice the name discrepancy as well, but I guess the stamp she puts on means ok to board, and we have no issues.

We were all pretty hungry and while we had access to one of the top ten business class lounges in the world, Cathay Pacific’s The Pier, we stopped and had some McDonald’s. Anyone that knows me knows this is my one true love, and I try to eat it in every country I travel to.

While Hong Kong is technically an SAR of China, they do have an Olympic team so it kinda lives in a grey zone. For my purposes, I consider it eating in a Chinese McDonald’s.

After finishing the greatest meal we’ve had on this vacation we start the 20 minute walk to The Pier Business Class lounge. I was super excited to see this place as it has gotten so many great reviews and thankfully it just was just conveniently located right next to our gate. Hong Kong is pretty sizable airport, so it could easily have been a 15-20 minute walk from our gate, so we definitely lucked out on that.

The Pier definitely lived up to the hype.

It is by no means the biggest lounge I’ve ever been in, but it’s definitely not small, and is packed with amenities such as sleep spaces, work spaces, showers, tea room and noodle bar.

It had probably the most “homey” feel of any lounge I had ever been in. It was very cozy despite its size and felt like a nice living room rather than business class lounge which is what most lounges obviously feel like.

To me the food was by far the most exciting aspect. They had a room for both Western and Asian options. The Asian options even consisted of a noodle bar and dim sum. They had quite an extensive selection.

Not as good as the McDonald’s McGriddle I had just consumed but pretty good nonetheless. The rooms with food were setup more like a restaurant which was nice.

I was not even remotely hungry but the food was so tempting I still had some noodles.

Lucy absolutely loved the noodles and had several plates. There was also a bar unlike the Air France lounge in Paris.

We chilled here until it was time to board our flight. It was a great lounge overall and definitely in my top 3 lounges I had visited primarily due to the food options alone. Definitely some of if not my favorite food I’ve ever had in a lounge and I loved how cozy it felt compared to most lounges.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

I'm so happy you didn't have any issue with boarding your flight to Shanghai. The HK lounge looks amazing, I'm hoping that will be ours when we fly out but I'm not sure.

 

[Rimmit]

I'm so happy you didn't have any issue with boarding your flight to Shanghai. The HK lounge looks amazing, I'm hoping that will be ours when we fly out but I'm not sure.

We were so glad too. Air France is awful and have been denying my claim saying we “never mentioned or showed proof that we had an ongoing flight from Shanghai.” It’s just absurd. I spent 2.5 hours arguing with them that that’s all we needed. They are just awful and basically calling us liars which is just insane.

What airline are you flying out of Hong Kong on? You need to be flying Cathay Business to access the lounge. Definitely one of my top 3 lounges. Turkish in Istanbul is up there and tops is Al Mourjan in Doha, Qatars lounge. That lounge is insane and there is NOTHING like it.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

I'm in luck than because I'm flying Cathay out of HK and I will also be in Doha flying on a Qatar flight.
And I feel your pain about Airfrance. They are the worst. I hope you get it sorted but it's so much mental energy wasted.

 

[cgersic]

I'm not sure that I've commented yet, but I've been tagging along this whole time - I was holding my breath right along with you at the airport! So thrilled you were able to get Shanghai back on the schedule! You must have a wonderful time taking photos of your beautiful daughter - she looks like a Princess for sure. Can't wait for more!

 

[Rimmit]

I'm in luck than because I'm flying Cathay out of HK and I will also be in Doha flying on a Qatar flight.
And I feel your pain about Airfrance. They are the worst. I hope you get it sorted but it's so much mental energy wasted.

You'll love the Al Mourjan lounge in Doha. It's truly insane and just beautiful. I have definitely been wasting way more mental energy and time than should be needed. I'm in discussion with a consumer advocate regarding the case at this point, and if that fails I'm going to small claims court. It's just absurd they are literally lying at this point to avoid any accountability for their actions. That's what's even more maddening. I could accept the denial, but to just flat say we NEVER told them about our ongoing flights or attempted to show them proof is just madness.

I'm not sure that I've commented yet, but I've been tagging along this whole time - I was holding my breath right along with you at the airport! So thrilled you were able to get Shanghai back on the schedule! You must have a wonderful time taking photos of your beautiful daughter - she looks like a Princess for sure. Can't wait for more!

Thanks! She think's she a princess as well. LOL.

 

[Rimmit]

It was eventually time to board our plane and we left the lounge and walked to the gate which was literally right next to the lounge. This was a short flight, but Cathay Pacific has enough passenger load to use their wide body aircraft for this route, so today we are flying on an A350-900.

For that reason, we lucked out and got the nice pods with lie flat seats.

It was a little worn, but still nice enough, especially for a two hour flight. It was definitely the best seat we’ve ever had for a two hour flight.

Our takeoff was delayed by 30 min, but they build in a buffer on the schedule so I’m not exactly worried. The business class cabin was split into two parts, and I picked seats in the smaller section so it felt very private.

Despite the flight only being 2 hours long it impressively had a full three course meal service on the flight.

After the McDonald’s and the lounge we are all absolutely stuffed. I do order the dessert though, the yule log. They also have some custom cocktails and I order one of those as well.

The yule log was had good amount of taste to it. I feel a lot of these airline desserts lack sugar or really any taste, but this one was actually sweet. I then take a brief nap to rest up for our half park day. Despite the delay, we do manage to land about 30 minutes early. Random note, the bathrooms had a window in Business Class. The only other time I’ve seen this so far was on Qatar in their business class. Definitely one of the best views I’ve ever had while emptying my bladder.

After we disembark, we walk a short bit to the immigration. We then fill out an immigration card and go to an automated machine to do our fingerprints prior to going through immigration. Typically they hand out immigration cards on the plane to speed up the process on landing if they are required, but for some reason Cathay Pacific did not. In our travels, I have found immigration cards to be becoming increasingly rare, and it’s been several years since we filled one out. We then go to passport control. They thankfully speak English well enough to be able to get by without Google Translate. I then hand them my outbound flight and hotel info along with our passports. We have no issues at all. They just stick a sticker in our passport stating 24 visa free transit stamp it and off we go.

No Visa Required!
We walk out into the terminal and unlike in Hong Kong have zero issues finding our meet and greet. Lucy spots the driver with the sign with our name on it immediately. He speaks no English, but we use Google Translate without issue for times we needed to communicate. We then head to the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel which is about a 30 minute drive away.

As the car approaches the hotel entrance, the bell hop team immediately starts mobilizing. The eagerly await for the car to stop to offer any assistance. It was impressive service and the best we had received thus far this trip. We only had carryons and a backpack so we were happy to move our own bags. They truly wanted to do everything for you. Most spoke minimal to no English, but they were always smiling and very courteous, and with gestures you could typically get your point across. We got here right about 3:30 PM and check in was incredibly hectic.

You could start checking it at 3:00PM, and I suspect that’s when everyone arrived. There was a cast member moving through the lines handing out forms you could prefill to expedite the check in process when you got to the desk. She spoke pretty good English thankfully. Once I get to the front of the line I was directed to a Cast Member that spoke some English which made things a lot easier. She explains to me some things about the property and the transportation to the park.

Interestingly enough, she is totally shocked we don’t have a visa. I try to explain the 240 hour visa rule, but obviously things get lost in translation. I eventually show her our visa free transit sticker in our passport, and she then finally understood, or at least pretended too. Apparently, the Chinese are not super up to date on their own immigration laws. I find that totally reasonable, as I am not up to date with our own US immigration laws either. I do expect a larger international carrier like Air France to be up to date on the laws though, as there whole business is moving people from one country to another.

While I was checking in Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Pluto made an appearance in the lobby, which was some added magic to our day.

 

[Go.Nijntje]

That's a lot of space for a 2 hour flight. I'll be slumming it in economy on China Eastern Airlines for my flight to Shanghai. Luckily I qualify for 30 days visa free entry with my Dutch passport, so should be stress free.

 

[Rimmit]

That's a lot of space for a 2 hour flight. I'll be slumming it in economy on China Eastern Airlines for my flight to Shanghai. Luckily I qualify for 30 days visa free entry with my Dutch passport, so should be stress free.

Definitely a little bitter about the totally visa free visit to China. As it looks right now, I'm unlikely to get ANY compensation whatsoever for that debacle.

 

[Rimmit]

I must say the service we receive in the lobby was truly amazing. Everyone we met from the moment we got out of the car was super enthusiastic to assist. We only had carryons and backpacks so we don’t mind moving our luggage ourselves, but they basically refused to let you do it. After finishing check in we were then walked to our room like they used to do on cruise ships.

Also to add a little pixie dust, we were upgraded to a lake view room albeit the lake is definitely a bit far off.

Our room was very nice and we wish we would have had more time in it. It was originally supposed to be 4 nights, but I guess 1 night is better than no nights. What was really cool was our headboard had LED lights that would twinkle. It wasn’t just twinkling though, in that it was like a wave across the headboard. It was a neat effect and definitely looked tinker bell was sprinkling pixie dust over the bed. Lucy and I tried several different things to see if we could trigger it, but we never could figure it out as I really wanted to get a video of it but is a was a really neat effect and definitely added some magic to the room.

There was mini Murphy bed underneath the TV that pulled out similar to the Polynesian. Lucy absolutely loves these beds and was excited to sleep on it.

The room also had some holiday touches like winter static clings on the mirror and headboards and some fun free presents like a plastic cup and wash cloth in a tin. Unfortunately, we have zero space to bring the plastic cup home with us.

It also had the standard amenities like a robe, slippers, and amenity kits. The bathroom was fully stocked as well, and very nice.

We freshen up and then head out the door as we don’t have a lot of time at this point as it’s already past 4:40PM. By the time we get out to the shuttle stop it’s about 4:45PM. Unfortunately, we forgot our passports in the room. This is normally not a big deal, but Shanghai Disneyland on December 23rd, 7 days prior to our arrival started requiring a government ID to enter the park. This was to cut down on park ticket scalping. The ID must match the name that the ticket was purchased for. I remember at the last second right as the shuttle arrived, so I had to run back to the room and get our passports and we have to take the next shuttle.

By the time we get on the shuttle and dropped off at Disneytown it’s 5:30PM. Up until 5:30PM the shuttle will drop you off at the Disneytown stop where hotel guests can enter a more convenient and exclusive side entrance. Disneytown is the Shanghai equivalent of Downtown Disney. After 5:30PM they drop you off at the West Parking Entrance which is a bit of a walk to the main park entrance. It’s an overcast cool day today, but luckily, not painfully cold.

We get to the entrance and there is a bit of confusion regarding our park tickets. I purchased our park tickets on Klook, which is basically a more international Viator. It is VERY well known and established company outside of the US. I show them the QR code for the ticket, and they seem very confused. I attempt to use Google Translate, but they speak a small bit of English and ask if I am staying at the hotel. I say yes. They ask for our room key, and I show it to them. They then ask for our passports, and they scan them. They then tell us to just walk through the turnstiles. They never scanned our QR code or looked at the Klook Ticket. When I bought our tickets on Klook I inputted out passport info and names. I’m assuming that they no longer need your ticket and just use your passport and that it is linked to your park ticket. It was all very confusing, but they let us in, so I wasn’t going to argue.

At this point we only have 4 hours maximum at the park as it 5:30PM, but that doesn’t matter to us. What mattered is WE MADE IT!!! We honestly had just accepted that despite all the planning we were going to somehow come up one park shy of doing all 12 parks in one trip. We had already mourned the loss of our goal, and accepted the death of our dream. While we would absolutely have loved to have more time here that was not in the cards this trip. We were absolutely exhausted and jet lagged, but at this point, the adrenaline just kicks and we were just pumped to have actually made it to Shanghai Disneyland.

Typically the first thing we do after entering a park is to rent a wheelchair, but today Kendall decided against it. We at most had 4 hours in the park, and Kendall had done much longer park days this trip including a WHOLE park day yesterday so we figured she’d be able to make it without one. So first thing’s first and we go and get our castle pic. It is an absolutely huge castle.

The scale is very impressive and dwarves all the other castles we had seen thus far this trip. Given Tokyo is a carbon copy of Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle and Sleeping Beauty’s castle in Disneyland is pretty small, it’s safe to say that the Enchanted Storybook Castle is definitely the biggest of the Disney Castles.

After getting our picture, we had two things on our list that we absolutely had to do in our short time and that was Pirates of the Caribbean, as it’s supposedly the best Pirates in the world and we also wanted to see Zootopia and do the new ride there. Today seems to be a pretty slow day for Shanghai as the majority of rides times are 5-25 minutes at most with a handful of outliers such as Tron. Pirates was just a 10 minutes line when we arrive to the entrance.

The ride system was pretty much identical to the other pirates in that it is a dark water ride.

It was absolutely stunning technologically. The scale of the ride is only matched by Rise of the Resistance.

The set pieces are absolutely huge, and the ride is very long.

This ride was based off the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and included many characters from the movies, unlike the other Pirates that at most have Barbossa and Jack Sparrow.

It was entirely in Mandarin, so I have no idea the plot of the ride, but the effects of the ride are stunning.

The animatronics are incredible and one of the Jack Sparrows truly moves like Jack Sparrow.

It was just overall VERY impressive, and easily the best Pirates in the world. It did not disappoint. I was impressed they built something of this scale in Shanghai to be honest. I was not expecting the set pieces to be as big as they were. I’m honestly shocked they have not tried to incorporate the technology they developed for this ride into newer rides as it is impressive.

At this point it’s time for dinner, so we get some potstickers for dinner from the Snackin’ Kraken right across from Pirates. This is just a snack stand with no place to eat, so we walk over to a Barbossa’s Bounty, a quick service restaurant with some indoor seating to eat as it’s getting a little chilly. Of note, unlike the other Disney Parks this vacation, there is very little pop in Shanghai Disneyland. Your options are primarily water, tea and maybe Gatorade. Occasionally you may find a Pepsi. There is absolutely zero Diet Pepsi or diet drinks in general in Shanghai Disneyland.

We then walked over to Zootopia which is right next door to Pirates. This is a the newest land that just opened up in December of 2023. There is typically a wait to get into the land, and you can see the queues set up for people to line up to get into the land, but the crowd today is very low, so there is no queue and you can walk right in.

 

[Wicked Sisters]

I must say the service we receive in the lobby was truly amazing. Everyone we met from the moment we got out of the car was super enthusiastic to assist. We only had carryons and backpacks so we don’t mind moving our luggage ourselves, but they basically refused to let you do it. After finishing check in we were then walked to our room like they used to do on cruise ships.

Also to add a little pixie dust, we were upgraded to a lake view room albeit the lake is definitely a bit far off.

Our room was very nice and we wish we would have had more time in it. It was originally supposed to be 4 nights, but I guess 1 night is better than no nights. What was really cool was our headboard had LED lights that would twinkle. It wasn’t just twinkling though, in that it was like a wave across the headboard. It was a neat effect and definitely looked tinker bell was sprinkling pixie dust over the bed. Lucy and I tried several different things to see if we could trigger it, but we never could figure it out as I really wanted to get a video of it but is a was a really neat effect and definitely added some magic to the room.

There was mini Murphy bed underneath the TV that pulled out similar to the Polynesian. Lucy absolutely loves these beds and was excited to sleep on it.

The room also had some holiday touches like winter static clings on the mirror and headboards and some fun free presents like a plastic cup and wash cloth in a tin. Unfortunately, we have zero space to bring the plastic cup home with us.

It also had the standard amenities like a robe, slippers, and amenity kits. The bathroom was fully stocked as well, and very nice.

We freshen up and then head out the door as we don’t have a lot of time at this point as it’s already past 4:40PM. By the time we get out to the shuttle stop it’s about 4:45PM. Unfortunately, we forgot our passports in the room. This is normally not a big deal, but Shanghai Disneyland on December 23rd, 7 days prior to our arrival started requiring a government ID to enter the park. This was to cut down on park ticket scalping. The ID must match the name that the ticket was purchased for. I remember at the last second right as the shuttle arrived, so I had to run back to the room and get our passports and we have to take the next shuttle.

By the time we get on the shuttle and dropped off at Disneytown it’s 5:30PM. Up until 5:30PM the shuttle will drop you off at the Disneytown stop where hotel guests can enter a more convenient and exclusive side entrance. Disneytown is the Shanghai equivalent of Downtown Disney. After 5:30PM they drop you off at the West Parking Entrance which is a bit of a walk to the main park entrance. It’s an overcast cool day today, but luckily, not painfully cold.

We get to the entrance and there is a bit of confusion regarding our park tickets. I purchased our park tickets on Klook, which is basically a more international Viator. It is VERY well known and established company outside of the US. I show them the QR code for the ticket, and they seem very confused. I attempt to use Google Translate, but they speak a small bit of English and ask if I am staying at the hotel. I say yes. They ask for our room key, and I show it to them. They then ask for our passports, and they scan them. They then tell us to just walk through the turnstiles. They never scanned our QR code or looked at the Klook Ticket. When I bought our tickets on Klook I inputted out passport info and names. I’m assuming that they no longer need your ticket and just use your passport and that it is linked to your park ticket. It was all very confusing, but they let us in, so I wasn’t going to argue.

At this point we only have 4 hours maximum at the park as it 5:30PM, but that doesn’t matter to us. What mattered is WE MADE IT!!! We honestly had just accepted that despite all the planning we were going to somehow come up one park shy of doing all 12 parks in one trip. We had already mourned the loss of our goal, and accepted the death of our dream. While we would absolutely have loved to have more time here that was not in the cards this trip. We were absolutely exhausted and jet lagged, but at this point, the adrenaline just kicks and we were just pumped to have actually made it to Shanghai Disneyland.

Typically the first thing we do after entering a park is to rent a wheelchair, but today Kendall decided against it. We at most had 4 hours in the park, and Kendall had done much longer park days this trip including a WHOLE park day yesterday so we figured she’d be able to make it without one. So first thing’s first and we go and get our castle pic. It is an absolutely huge castle.

The scale is very impressive and dwarves all the other castles we had seen thus far this trip. Given Tokyo is a carbon copy of Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle and Sleeping Beauty’s castle in Disneyland is pretty small, it’s safe to say that the Enchanted Storybook Castle is definitely the biggest of the Disney Castles.

After getting our picture, we had two things on our list that we absolutely had to do in our short time and that was Pirates of the Caribbean, as it’s supposedly the best Pirates in the world and we also wanted to see Zootopia and do the new ride there. Today seems to be a pretty slow day for Shanghai as the majority of rides times are 5-25 minutes at most with a handful of outliers such as Tron. Pirates was just a 10 minutes line when we arrive to the entrance.

The ride system was pretty much identical to the other pirates in that it is a dark water ride.

It was absolutely stunning technologically. The scale of the ride is only matched by Rise of the Resistance.

The set pieces are absolutely huge, and the ride is very long.

This ride was based off the Pirates of the Caribbean movies and included many characters from the movies, unlike the other Pirates that at most have Barbossa and Jack Sparrow.

It was entirely in Mandarin, so I have no idea the plot of the ride, but the effects of the ride are stunning.

The animatronics are incredible and one of the Jack Sparrows truly moves like Jack Sparrow.

It was just overall VERY impressive, and easily the best Pirates in the world. It did not disappoint. I was impressed they built something of this scale in Shanghai to be honest. I was not expecting the set pieces to be as big as they were. I’m honestly shocked they have not tried to incorporate the technology they developed for this ride into newer rides as it is impressive.

At this point it’s time for dinner, so we get some potstickers for dinner from the Snackin’ Kraken right across from Pirates. This is just a snack stand with no place to eat, so we walk over to a Barbossa’s Bounty, a quick service restaurant with some indoor seating to eat as it’s getting a little chilly. Of note, unlike the other Disney Parks this vacation, there is very little pop in Shanghai Disneyland. Your options are primarily water, tea and maybe Gatorade. Occasionally you may find a Pepsi. There is absolutely zero Diet Pepsi or diet drinks in general in Shanghai Disneyland.

We then walked over to Zootopia which is right next door to Pirates. This is a the newest land that just opened up in December of 2023. There is typically a wait to get into the land, and you can see the queues set up for people to line up to get into the land, but the crowd today is very low, so there is no queue and you can walk right in.

So pleased you got to experience Shanghai Disneyland. We used to get the Eurostar from London to Disneyland Paris for the day and we only had four hours to spend there. We didn’t mind though because we got our Disney fix whilst we couldn’t get to WDW.

 

[Rimmit]

So pleased you got to experience Shanghai Disneyland. We used to get the Eurostar from London to Disneyland Paris for the day and we only had four hours to spend there. We didn’t mind though because we got our Disney fix whilst we couldn’t get to WDW.

Yeah, we really wish we had more time. Intially we had 4 nights in Shanghai. We were just lucky to make it there in the end. It was a big park and we are definitely going back in the next couple years.

Eurostar would definitely be cheaper than a trip to WDW for sure!

 

[Rimmit]

The land is beautiful at night, and definitely feels like the Zootopia from the movie.

There are lots of details everywhere, and lots of advertisements for the Zootopia equivalent of Taylor Swift, Gazelle.

We find the ride entrance to Zootopia: Hot Pursuit and get in line. It’s just a 10 minute wait. The queue was very well done with tons of details and an animatronic Clawhauser.

The line moved sooo fast we had zero time to appreciate the queue unfortunately.

There were some English subtitles in the preshow on a screen that helped understand the plot. Between the queue and preshow, you could get a pretty good idea of what the plot of the ride was.

The ride had pretty much no English, but you could figure it out what was going on for the most part. The ride was fun, and for a trackless dark ride was better than most.

They had some impressive animatronics, especially for Gezelle, the Gazelle impersonator.

Gazelle was just as good if not better.

It was better than Remy’s but not on the level of something like Rise of the Resistance as it didn’t have the same scale. It definitely had some fun moments to it and was cute.

Afterwards, we started walking toward the front of the park. We then went on Voyage of the Crystal Grotto which was a walk on. There is no Jungle Cruise in Shanghai, and this was basically the Jungle Cruise with an entirely different theme.

This was basically a cruise through a river that passed by a variety of different scenes from various Disney movies.

Think of it as like a bigger grander Storybook Canal Boats. they had some nice touches such as lights in ceiling of the boat that changed color based on the scene you were passing by.

Overall it was very cute. It’s not an earthshattering ride, but it was relaxing. It was entirely in Mandarin so not sure if there was any story to the ride at all, or if they have any dad jokes like the Jungle Cruise but there was some commentary throughout the ride.

We debate staying for the nighttime spectacular, but we weren’t sure just how the crowd is afterward, and we needed to be out the door of the hotel at 5:30AM to make our flight per the front desk of the hotel. For that reason, we decided to not wait it out for fear the crowd right after would delay us getting to our hotel for a considerable amount of time as there is just a ferry or the shuttle to get us back and we aren’t sure just how backed up they get at the end of a park day. If it’s anything like Magic Kingdom that can easily be an hour wait after the fireworks show. We absolutely needed to get some rest tonight as we were running on fumes as in the last 62 hours we have flown from Paris to Hong Kong, did a full day in Hong Kong Disneyland, flew to Shanghai, and then did a half day in Shanghai Disneyland. While we would love to have spent more time here we need a little rest. We know we’ll back sometime in the next several years, and figure we’ll just see the rest then.

 

[Rimmit]

The hotel is pretty close to the park just across a lagoon, so we were hopeful there would likely be a place we could watch from at the hotel. I tried to google if they pipe in the music from the show, but there is VERY LITTLE info in English about Shanghai Disneyland. Unlike if I was to google “Does the Polynesian Resort play the music for Happily Ever After?” and get a ton of hits, you get zero for Shanghai Disneyland. Knowing Disney, I figure they almost assuredly would play the music for the show if you are in a place where you can see it.

We shop for a short bit in the Main Street shops looking for our magnet. Unfortunately, the magnet selection is nearly nonexistent. We weren’t excited about the magnet from Hong Kong Disneyland, but the one from Shanghai is even worse. There was only one magnet that said “Shanghai Disneyland” and that wasn’t even the focus of the magnet.

This is literally the only magnet we could find that said “Shanghai Disney Resort”
This was our first time on Main Street as we entered via side entrance. Like other Disney Parks, given its Christmas season it’s decorated for Christmas and it’s snowing. To be honest, this is kind of shocking simply because there isn’t really much Christianity in China. There was even a tree lighting ceremony earlier today.

We then leave about 8:30PM and take the ferry back to the hotel.

We aren’t totally sure where the shuttle pick up is to be honest as it’s totally different than where they dropped us off but we see the dock immediately upon leaving the park, so figure we’ll just use the ferry. We figured it’d be nice to take a different form of transportation anyway.

We get back to the hotel about 9:00PM. The hotel looks gorgeous at night.

The show Illuminate, the nighttime spectacular, is at 9:15PM so we go to the cafe which has quite a selection of Disney themed snacks.

They also serve some pizza and pasta. We order some pasta and Lucy get’s a Mickey Donut.

Conveniently the cafe has a balcony outside that has a GREAT view of the castle, so we go outside and watch the show while we have a late night snack. They pipe in the music as I figured they would and it was a magical way to end the night.

We couldn’t see the projections that well, but we could still see the lights and fireworks great. We really enjoyed the show, however, it’s tough to give a review of it without having seen the projections. Even with just the music and fireworks it definitely stirred some emotions which is what I look for in a nighttime spectacular.

We buy some pastries for us to snack on while getting ready at 4:30AM tomorrow as our taxi will be here at 5:30AM to pick us up for our flight to Tokyo. We walk through the lobby and it’s notably quieter than earlier in the day. Like all the lobbies this vacation it is absolutely beautiful at night.

It’s just a short walk back back to the room. We all get ready for bed, and despite the jet lag, it’s been a crazy last two days so we have no difficulty falling asleep.

Day 12, December 30th, 2024 Step Count – 18,025 Steps

Total Step Count – 195,075

 

[MickeyCB]

This photo is magical all by itself, but combined with the drama of getting there I would assume it means so much more!
I was thinking how cool it would be for you to have a collage of some sort of each of your family castle pics. Such a wonderful experience!

 

[Go.Nijntje]

I'm loving it. I also try and eat McDonald's in every country as they often have a few local items on the menu that I like to try. Shanghai Disney looks beautiful, I'm so glad you made it there, even if only for a half day.

 

[Rimmit]

This photo is magical all by itself, but combined with the drama of getting there I would assume it means so much more!
I was thinking how cool it would be for you to have a collage of some sort of each of your family castle pics. Such a wonderful experience!

You're jumping ahead. That's the final post. =)

I'm loving it. I also try and eat McDonald's in every country as they often have a few local items on the menu that I like to try. Shanghai Disney looks beautiful, I'm so glad you made it there, even if only for a half day.

Sadly it happens less than half the time typically due to logistics of getting to one, but I'm up to 32 countries on that front.
If we weren't so tired at that point we could easily have done 3-4 more rides. The crowd was non existent TBH that day and the majority of rides were walk ons, but we just wanted to walk around, see it, get a bite to eat and do a couple rides. I know we'll definitely go back sometime soon, so we'll spend a full day or two then and really appreciate it rather than rush it. We were just grateful to have found a way to just squeeze it in.

 

[Rimmit]

Day 13 - The Land of the Rising Sun
“不可能を可能にするのは努力だ”

Not too surprisingly we were all up by 3:30AM still feeling the effects of the jet lag. We impressively aren’t too tired. Thankfully, unlike yesterday morning there was no panic involving the name on my boarding pass, as we have no boarding pass yet as China Eastern airlines website for some reason does not recognize our tickets on their website. I’m not worried as I have a confirmation email, ticket numbers, and in the worst case scenario we can always buy a new ticket to Tokyo on the spot. So I am confident we will get to Tokyo today. We’ll just have to stop by the check-in counter at the airport. We eat the pastries we bought from the cafe the night before. I was very excited to try my Mickey Muffin.

It was actually a decent muffin. It didn’t take us long to pack as we’d only been had the room a little over 13 hours at this point. The front desk calls us to let us know our taxi has been called and should be here shortly. We head down to the lobby, and meet our cab. The drive is a quick 30 minutes to Shanghai Pudong. On the way to the airport we fill out our departure cards.

We arrived at the airport on time. It takes a little bit of time to find the international check in counter for China Eastern. We check in, and I ask if they have any upgrades available for purchase. We were flying on a nearly brand new A350-900 and it had these new suites I really wanted to tryout in their business class. The price for economy for all 3 of us was only $304 dollars total for our one way airfare from Shanghai to Tokyo. It would have been about $332 dollars per person to upgrade to business, so about $996 USD. For a two hour flight that was just tough to justify. If the upgrade price they offered was reasonable I would debate purchasing it. Given it was $1298 total for 3 people in business when I booked it initially I was hoping an upgrade would be in the $125-140 per person range. Because of this I can say I was totally shocked when I asked and it was 5000 RMB per person, which is around $685 per person or $2,055 for a 2 hour flight for three people. The price to upgrade at the counter was over double what it would have cost to purchase it when I booked. Considering it was only $304 total for us to fly economy, I just couldn’t justify that cost for a two hour flight.

We then tried to go through security, but we were stopped prior to entering. They then weighed each of our carry ons. In all my years of flying I have never had a carry-on weighed at the security checkpoint just prior to entering the line. They just laid it down across the scale with my backpack still attached. They did not speak English but I understood enough via gesturing to know my carry on was overweight. So I had to go back and check it in. In the end, we decided to check all bags, as we weren’t totally sure if it was just me or all three of us that was overweight and we didn’t want to go through the line again if we were wrong.

Thankfully it was free to check the bags. We then went through security this time with no issue. The security check point was very thorough, and we are pretty good with pulling everything from our bags that could flag the system, but in China they also want your power packs out and we did not realize this so we pull the power banks out and have our bags go through one more time with no issues.

As is always the case in an airport, as you have likely figured out by now, we are always looking for a lounge. Free food and drinks is never a bad thing. Even though we weren’t flying business class today, we still have lounge access via our credit cards. Priority Pass has 4 lounges in terminal 1 in PVG. We chose China Eastern Airlines No. 36 lounge. I hadn’t heard much about it to be honest, unlike The Pier in Hong Kong, which is a very well known lounge. I must say I was seriously impressed and this is definitely the best Priority Pass lounge we’ve ever been in. It was two floors and it was massive.

They had these message chair pods that looked like they came out of a sci fi movie.

Upon further investigation it seems to be the main lounge for those flying business class on a Sky Team carrier in Shanghai. Not only did they have more drink stations than I have ever seen in a lounge, they also have the prettiest organization of pop in any lounge ever.

There is a plethora of food options including a noodle bar, warm food, cold sandwiches. snacks, and dim sum.

The Noodle Bar
I had some noodles, pasta and a steam bun. I was totally stuffed.

They have a self service bar with a small assortment of liquors, some wine and champagne. There is no formal bar in this lounge, however.

I was shocked as I hadn’t read much about this lounge and many said Priority Pass didn’t have any good options in Shanghai, but this was a very good lounge in my opinion.

We left the lounge 5 min prior to boarding time. Thankfully, the lounge was very close to our gate so not a long walk at all. We board without any issues, and as expected it was a brand new A350-900 and it definitely looked the part.

We find our seats and they were nice and had the standard amount of legroom.

One interesting thing about the seats though is that they are cloth. It has been a LONG time since I have been on a carrier with cloth seats. This reminded me of flying in the 80s and 90s back when most planes had cloth seats with some red, orange, blue, or combination of the those colors with some striped pattern.

It was just so odd to be sitting on cloth seats on a plane, as I honestly can’t remember the last time I saw a commercial plane with them. Even stranger, was that these seats were even a light beige so I just can’t imagine them aging well given the inevitable spills, stains and body fluids that will eventually end up on the seats. Either way, not my circus and not my monkeys. This is the first time flying China Eastern and will likely be our last for quite sometime as we don’t come to Southeast Asia too often, so I won’t have to worry about the cloth seats again anytime soon.

Despite the size of the plane, the boarding was swift, but it did take sometime to start taxiing. Of note, we were required to take off our headphones and Airpods during taxi, takeoff and landing. For those of the younger crowd this felt like an absolute blast from the past when you were not allowed to have electronics on during taxi, take off and landing. I’ll never forget around 2012 when they started letting you keep your small kelectronics on during the whole flight and it felt like a whole new world of air travel.

The flight went by fast. Impressively enough, despite the shortness of the flight, they served a FULL WARM LUNCH in economy. It was excellent, and to be honest, one of the best meals we’ve had this vacation.

It consisted of fried rice and sausage, a pound cake, some cheesy Chex type product, and peanuts and a drink. It tastes better than it looks I promise. All three of us ate the fried rice, and that was in spite of us stuffing ourselves with lounge food. I cannot remember the last time I saw a full meal in economy on a two hour flight. Even in the olden days like the 80s and 90s when airlines served meals for free on most flights over 3 hours I don’t think I can ever remember a time that they were served on a 2 hour flight. It was definitely a pleasant surprise.

We land and proceed through immigration and customs. We actually had to pick up our luggage this time, but it was out by the time we were done with immigration so it didn’t didn’t really add anytime. I had scheduled a meet and greet, but since we changed flights due to coming from Shanghai instead of Hong Kong our driver was not there. This was because amongst all the cancellations and rebooking I made, I unfortunately forgot to email them till yesterday about the change in our itinerary. I had received no response to the email. I also texted and called and did not receive a response, so it looks like we will likely have to get a taxi to Tokyo DisneySea.

Today, we will be staying at the first of three different hotels in Tokyo Disney. I will not go into the logistics of everything, as that would be a multitude of blog posts. I will say that if you book a vacation package, and you are staying more than two nights, the chance of getting the same room before or after your vacation package is not great. Tokyo Disney hotel rooms sell out in SECONDS for nearly any date. THIS IS NOT AN EXAGGERATION. I KNOW YOU THINK IT IS BUT IT IS IN FACT NOT. I had an easier time getting Taylor Swift tickets than getting the room we are staying in tonight.

Luckily, I finally get a response after we land from the meet and greet service. They send a different driver to accommodate us which was super nice of them. The only negative is we’d have to wait an hour while they send a replacement driver. We coulda taken a taxi, but this we had already prepaid $155 for this and it was not refundable so we chose to wait an hour rather than paying for transportation twice to our hotel.

During this time, we spent some time just exploring the airport. I’ve been to Japan several times before, but it’s been a while. I forgot how much I love the quirkiness of Japan. While waiting we see an ice cream vending machine, so we all get some ice cream. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Japan and I definitely havent been since the Yen has taken a dive. I was totally taken aback by the price for some ice cream. It was 180 yen or about 1.16 USD which is crazy cheap by US standards. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many flavors in a single vending machine.

Of note, Japan is very well known for their vending machines and they sell almost anything in a vending machine.

Right before we met our driver we all went to the bathroom as it was a 45 minute drive to Tokyo Disney Resort. I was a little shocked to see a map for the bathroom area. I personally think bathrooms are typically pretty straight forward but apparently some have gotten lost before so they installed a map for clarity.

In case you got lost going to the bathroom.
We then went outside and waited for our driver. It was actually a pretty warm day with temperatures in the 50’s with sun. We see a guy waving at me with a sign with the wrong name on it. I was very confused but he had a picture that I sent him of our location so I figured it had to be him. He eventually came back with a sign with my name so that made me feel a lot better that we had the right guy.

 

[Rimmit]

There has been an absolute gamut of transportation on trip, but if all the transportation I must say the Toyota van he picked us up in felt more like a Lexus. It was a Toyota Vellfire which is a model not available in the US. This Toyota van was super nice and had captains chairs with a recliner option that Lucy really enjoyed using to take a quick nap as we made our way to our hotel.

We then arrived at Fantasy Springs Hotel.

The exterior of the hotel leaves much to be desired to be honest and looks a little like it’s out of a Dr. Seuss novel.

The hotel is brand new, just opening this June and it shows. The interior is immaculate and in areas still has that new hotel smell. Fantasy Springs is divided into two parts, Fantasy Chateau and Grand Chateau. We are staying at the Fantasy Springs Grand Chateau. Grand Chateau is part of the newer “hotel within a hotel” concept and only has 56 rooms versus 419 of the Fantasy Chateau section. It also comes with several perks such as 15 minutes earlier entry to the park than anyone else. This is even earlier than those with Happy Entry that grants 15 minutes earlier access to the general population. Also included is an exclusive park entrance, 8 attraction tickets which are basically anytime Lightning Lane passes with the ability to purchase more, an exclusive restaurant, and more.

While the exterior leaves much to be desired the inside is absolutely stunning. Most bloggers have been saying it Fantasy Springs is pretty underwhelming and lacked personality, but I found it pretty elaborate.

The Grand Chateau is accessible only via keycard access, and on arrival they escort you to the lounge where you check-in as it is completely separate from the regular hotel.

You wait in the lounge until it’s your turn to check in and they take you to their desk where you also sit down and check in which was nice. The cast member checking us in spoke excellent English. Really the best I’ve encountered since we left Hong Kong. She then went over our stay with them, and she offered us the chance to buy our park tickets and additional attraction passes, and to make reservations for your included reserved show time and any dining you might have be interested in. Prior to arrival the concierge had made us reservation for the hotel exclusive restaurant, La Libellule, for breakfast tomorrow at 8:40AM.

It felt more like checking into an all inclusive resort than it did a hotel.

The lounge is very pretty and ornate. The windows overlook, Fantasy Springs, the brand new land in Tokyo DisneySea. It was our first view of a Tokyo Disney park so it definitely amped our excitement.

After we finish checking in, they give us all the tickets, passes, room keys, etc. They also bring out the wheelchair that we had prebooked prior to our arrival. It is quite a bit to keep track off and makes me realize how much I appreciate the paperless system all the other parks have gone too.

The cast member starts to walk us to our room. On the way they stop and tell us the story of Fantasy Springs and how the area and hotel came to fruition.

We then walk down a very long and absolutely stunning hallway.

The hallway is lined with these gorgeous princess dresses.

There is also artwork based on various Disney films lining the walls.

It feels more like a walk in Versaille or other European palace than a Disney Hotel to be honest. Conveniently enough our room is very close to the hallway. It was the 2nd room we passed and was on the same floor as the check in. We enter the room and it is gorgeous.

 

[Rimmit]

.

She gives us a tour of the room showing us all the features. Unlike the Murphy beds we’ve had in previous rooms, Lucy get’s her own little alcove here to sleep in.

It comes with the standard robes, slippers, amenity kits, and complimentary mini bar.

The room also came with a free memory book that you could put your room key in, and other moments of your stay, a felt lined card thanking you for your stay, and 4 coins exclusive for staying for New Year’s Eve.

The room really exceeded expectations in all aspects except for the bathroom. The bathroom adhere’s to the design that the bath and shower are all one room with a water tight door. It did come with a half bath though so that was nice. The bathtub was a typical fiberglass bathtub and lacked a luxury feel as did the shower, but aside from that the rest of the room had excellent lighting and very nice furnishings.

After we finished our room tour she showed us the balcony and she offered to take our picture from the balcony overlooking the park.

The view from our room is great.

As we look around we see Ariel doing a meet and greet from our room.

It was truly top notch service to be honest and some of the best service I’ve had of any hotel ever. After she leaves another cast member then arrives to offer us drink service and serve us a snack.

Despite it being December 31st, today is a scheduled rest day, and we have no plans today. We basically haven’t stopped moving since we landed in Hong Kong the night of the 28th, have had minimal sleep and have been pretty jet lagged, so we plan to just enjoy the room and take it easy. We haven’t done laundry since we were in Paris, so we are definitely due as we are basically out of clothes.