A World of Disney - 2019-2020 Pre Trip Reports! - Basic NYE plans

[missjackiemcg]

Evening: 8:30pm Hoop Dee Doo Revue. We have a dozen people for this, so I can't wait to see how much fun we will have! It is my goal to get @missjackiemcg onstage, as it is her birthday! Maybe we'll invade the Wilderness Lodge afterwards?

I'm going to be attempting 4 parks in one day on 5/5, too, but boy wouldn't this be an amazing way to cap off my first WDW birthday celebration!?!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Haha you and me both! I'm calculating in my head when I can do a long weekend with a party on a Sunday night that would work out best for me...I love the Halloween parties and the talk of new overlays, especially on the Peoplemover...plus a new fireworks show...it sounds like so much fun!

I think I may have talked myself down from it! I figure the fireworks show will stick around for years. If the overlays are good, then they will too. So I can better plan and budget for a weekend out there next year!

But I thought you had a fall trip this year? Or was that just DL and DCL?

 

[xlsm]

Following along!

Since I had to bow out of May, I'm curious to see how all that goes.

Very excited to read more about your Asian Adventure - that's one of our family goals. Right now I'm thinking of maybe calling part of it Xavier's graduation present in just a little over three years.

 

[disneyAndi14]

If we enjoy each other’s company in May, I know we will! I would be interested in a quick weekend trip in the fall if the dates worked out, we could room together again for cost savings!

I’m excited for our May trip, it is full of many firsts for me, yay!!

 

[amazingact21]

I almost considered booking another WDW trip this fall. I heard about this report from WDWNT this morning

Whoa! I fail miserably at keeping up with announcement nowadays, so this was exciting to read! It does sound mighty tempting, but it's probably smart to wait until after May to see if you can swing the trip.

lAternate plan: I realized last week there is the potential for me to visit all 6 US Disney Parks in 24 hours. I would need to visit DL and DCA the day before (which isn't too hard to do - I'll just work in Anaheim for the day and stop by for a ride in each park in the evening). It's the WDW part which makes it trickier, and would probably involve Ubers. I'm still undecided, and may just wait until I get there to decide.

This sounds like an incredible feat! I know it can be done, but it sounds kind of exhausting. I'll be curious to see what you decide on when the time arrives.

 

[Woth2982]

We just "panic" booked an ASMu reservation for a long weekend in Sept. When DH and I looked at going there was SO MUCH availability and it wasn't too expensive to stay at the Beach Club. NOW that SWGE is opening, all the discounts are gone and even the mods are over priced (for September). We are HOPING that Illuminations will go to September, so we can see it one last time. The whole purpose of the trip. If it does not we will cancel and save ourselves $600.

Your EPIC trip sounds so fun! I wish it wasnt the first week of the month so I could have joined in! Although given I will be at the 11 week post back surgery mark, it probably wouldn't be the smartest time for me to travel any way.

 

[Cloe Colton]

Wowza! You have so many fun trips planned!! If you are taking a poll for Bahamas versus Aulani, I vote for Aulani 100%! I am dying to get back there! I may try to go there in 2020 as well!

Your plans all sound great!

 

[Dentam]

Wow, you have an amazing lineup of trips to look forward to! I've gone to SDL and that park is massive! Good that you're giving yourself two days for it. I LOVED the SDL Hotel and would highly recommend staying there if you can. The Toy Story hotel was very cute too!

I'm going to DLP this summer after a conference I'm attending in France. Japan is highest on my list after that - I'd love to do a two week trip and include the DL parks there at the end of the trip!

My mom is trying to convince me to go to Aulani with her next January or February. We both struggle with the cold winter months and could use a getaway to someplace warm. My parents own DVC so she'd use some of their points for the trip. We'll see!

Looking forward to hearing all about your planning for these trips! Now, back to your DLP TR - need to get caught up!

 

[lvcourtneyy]

Joining in!

Your line-up of trips sounds amazing and the Disney cruise to Alaska and a trip to the Asia parks are on my horizon for the next few years so I’m going to take as much knowledge from you as I can about them !!

 

[buzzrelly]

First, I almost considered booking another WDW trip this fall. I heard about this report from WDWNT this morning (https://wdwnt.com/2019/03/breaking-...in-2019-along-with-3-different-ride-overlays/). I mean, new fireworks show, ride overlays for BTMR, Peoplemover, and Monsters Inc Laugh Floor! Holy cow, that is like awesome! But I can't really afford to take any other vacation time. But, there is a morning American Airlines flight that leaves MCO at 7:45am, arrives at LAX 10am, which would give me basically a full work day (don't know how productive it would be), which would allow me a short weekend for Food & Wine and MNSSHP... I've decided to make no decisions until this summer. Let me get thru May first!

Omg, that looks amazing! This is the first I've seen this. I love Hallowishes, but I do think it's time for something fresh and new. Mike and I have gone the past two years and decided to skip this year which I'm kind of bummed about now. Will definitely have to go again next year!

It's crazy to think I'll be staying in a room with these ladies I haven't even met yet, but we already feel like great friends via text/email, etc!

It's crazy to all except those of us doing it, including myself! People at work look at me like I have two heads when I tell them

And that is it for my EPIC trip! I really can't wait!

Sounds amazing! Can't wait to meet you and everyone else

 

[Lesley Wake]

Following along!

Since I had to bow out of May, I'm curious to see how all that goes.

Very excited to read more about your Asian Adventure - that's one of our family goals. Right now I'm thinking of maybe calling part of it Xavier's graduation present in just a little over three years.

Yeah, that could be a lot of fun - a longer trip to Asia with Disney thrown in!

If we enjoy each other’s company in May, I know we will! I would be interested in a quick weekend trip in the fall if the dates worked out, we could room together again for cost savings!

I’m excited for our May trip, it is full of many firsts for me, yay!!

Yeah, maybe! I'm more worried about additional time away with the long Asia trip upcoming!

Whoa! I fail miserably at keeping up with announcement nowadays, so this was exciting to read! It does sound mighty tempting, but it's probably smart to wait until after May to see if you can swing the trip.
This sounds like an incredible feat! I know it can be done, but it sounds kind of exhausting. I'll be curious to see what you decide on when the time arrives.

I'm starting to lean away from 6 parks in 24 hours unfortunately. Just don't want to start out the May trip exhausted and stressed!

We just "panic" booked an ASMu reservation for a long weekend in Sept. When DH and I looked at going there was SO MUCH availability and it wasn't too expensive to stay at the Beach Club. NOW that SWGE is opening, all the discounts are gone and even the mods are over priced (for September). We are HOPING that Illuminations will go to September, so we can see it one last time. The whole purpose of the trip. If it does not we will cancel and save ourselves $600.

Your EPIC trip sounds so fun! I wish it wasnt the first week of the month so I could have joined in! Although given I will be at the 11 week post back surgery mark, it probably wouldn't be the smartest time for me to travel any way.

Yeah, probably not the best idea to do Disney after back surgery! But we'll have to think about you in spirit

Wowza! You have so many fun trips planned!! If you are taking a poll for Bahamas versus Aulani, I vote for Aulani 100%! I am dying to get back there! I may try to go there in 2020 as well!

Your plans all sound great!

I am leaning towards Aulani! Though if Su-Lynn gets enough girls together for the cruise, I may get serious FOMO and book it too!

Wow, you have an amazing lineup of trips to look forward to! I've gone to SDL and that park is massive! Good that you're giving yourself two days for it. I LOVED the SDL Hotel and would highly recommend staying there if you can. The Toy Story hotel was very cute too!

I'm going to DLP this summer after a conference I'm attending in France. Japan is highest on my list after that - I'd love to do a two week trip and include the DL parks there at the end of the trip!

My mom is trying to convince me to go to Aulani with her next January or February. We both struggle with the cold winter months and could use a getaway to someplace warm. My parents own DVC so she'd use some of their points for the trip. We'll see!

Looking forward to hearing all about your planning for these trips! Now, back to your DLP TR - need to get caught up!

Yeah, I'm definitely staying at SDLH! I think I read some of your TRs to get some ideas! I've sort of decided for Shanghai I'm not opposed to buying individual FPs for rides. None of the packages interest me enough, but if crowds are bad I'd rather spend a bit more money for less lines!

I went to Hawaii at the end of January 2017 (Maui). So much awesome whale watching! It was crazy seeing whales breeching while I was relaxing on the beach! The water was definitely colder though when I had visited in Sept 2015!

Joining in!

Your line-up of trips sounds amazing and the Disney cruise to Alaska and a trip to the Asia parks are on my horizon for the next few years so I’m going to take as much knowledge from you as I can about them !!

I hope I'm able to give good info!

Omg, that looks amazing! This is the first I've seen this. I love Hallowishes, but I do think it's time for something fresh and new. Mike and I have gone the past two years and decided to skip this year which I'm kind of bummed about now. Will definitely have to go again next year!

It's crazy to all except those of us doing it, including myself! People at work look at me like I have two heads when I tell them

Sounds amazing! Can't wait to meet you and everyone else

I think I probably will hold off until Fall 2020, maybe a brief weekend trip to do MNSSHP! I did it in 2017 and would love to do it again sooner rather than later!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Asia Trip - 29 weeks!


(I have some tickers ready for future trips; couldn't fit them all into my signature though!)

So this is the trip taking up most of my planning energy right now. I am visiting all 3 locations, plus doing some extra sightseeing time in Kyoto and Tokyo.

Some trip history:

Originally this trip was only going to be Japan for 2 weeks (at one early point I thought about adding in Shanghai and Hong Kong but shortly after decided not to do that). Disney Tourist Blog posted about a HalloXmas trip, where you visit TDR in the days right before Halloween, then go away for a week or so (other sightseeing), then come back and experience the Christmas stuff – TDR starts putting up decorations and selling food/merchandise on November 1st. The official entertainment starts November 8th, but there are usually some soft openings of parades and shows in the days before.

This definitely interested me – 2 holidays for the price/time of one – but I realized I needed to do it in 2019. In 2020, Halloween is on a Saturday (DTB already predicts a sell out crowd), plus my schedule just didn’t work as well for it. Also, fall 2020 could be busier with Tokyo still glowing from post-Olympics. And of course, I’m just desperate to see these parks! So that was my plan – the last week of October/first week of November.

Then, last fall some of the twitter people I follow visited Hong Kong Disneyland during their Halloween stuff. And OMG – they looked awesome! Just a different feel but a lot of awesome decorations and stuff. So I considered adding back in Hong Kong for a couple days. And then that made me realize – it would leave me with 1 Disney park left in the world I wouldn’t have visited (Shanghai). And I would never be able to rest until I had visited them all. So, in the end I went back to my original plan and decided to visit all 3 locations. I did make a modification in terms of length of trip, as I cut the day(s) of sightseeing in Shanghai and Hong Kong to focus entirely on the Disney aspect. I know others wouldn’t do that, and in fact others are confused when I say that’s what I’m doing, but it works for me. And doing Disney solo makes me feel more comfortable than doing other areas of China solo. One day I’ll get back there to do a proper China trip.

Airfare:

I ended up booking my trip using Aeroplan miles I’ve saved up for A LONG TIME! Like, I literally have been saving these for 16 years. I originally planned to use them to go to New Zealand, but now that I’ve become a full-blown Disney obsessed person, I decided to use them now. Aeroplan also allows for 2 stopovers on a round trip ticket, so it’s the same price (in miles) to fly LA-Shanghai-Hong Kong-Tokyo-LA as it would be to fly LA-Tokyo-LA (there are slight differences in fees). Another plus – I have enough miles to fly Business class! I think I will appreciate that on the long haul flights!

In the weeks (who am I kidding, months) later last year I scoped out what flights would possibly be available. ​

• LA – Shanghai would pretty much be guaranteed to have a layover; on occasion there was a direct flight, but that was very very rare to see, so I didn’t expect to see it. ​
• Shanghai-HK would also have a layover. That is actually the shortest direct hop, but I only found one direct flight ever available with Aeroplan, and it was not for a reputable airline. ​
• Tokyo-LA would probably be a direct flight, but there was a possibility for a layover. ​
• HK-Tokyo was the biggest one I had to consider. There were 2 direct flights a day, one morning and one afternoon. I had hoped to get on the morning flight so it would arrive in Tokyo earlier, but the very least I wanted one of the direct flights. Both of those were with ANA, which can take a while to load up their awards flights into the Aeroplan system, so I basically decided to monitor availability daily to see when they got loaded in and book my flights then (I would need to call in to do it since there was 2 stopovers). ​

Of course, the day they loaded it in, was a day I was in WDW in December, so I wasn’t able to call in and get it booked. Eventually on December 17, I booked my flights. This is what I got (FYI – LAX: Los Angeles, NRT: Tokyo Narita, PVG: Shanghai, TPE: Taipei, HKG: Hong Kong, PEK: Beijing):



The next day I double checked some things and saw a direct flight had opened up for NRT-LAX. I had to pay a change fee, but the taxes themselves were lower and it was a better airline (ANA vs Air China which has questionable reviews). So even the agent on the phone said it made sense!

New flights (changes in green):

Since then, I had been checking on things. I was concerned mostly about the arrival into Shanghai and Tokyo. Both of those were arriving 8-9pm, and I had plans on doing the parks the next day, which seemed to me like a recipe for exhaustion, especially once you considered I probably wouldn’t be getting into my room until after midnight. So I have done constant checks to see if anything different opens up.

Finally, last week I got to thinking and decided to make some changes:

Overall, I’m a lot happier with this. I will basically leave late late on Friday, which will allow me to sleep through most of the flight (and I will miss Saturday, Oct 19, 2019 entirely… hope nothing interesting happens that day!). Arrive very early into Seoul (ICN), which is supposed to be a gorgeous airport. And fly to Shanghai, arriving 10am, giving me plenty of time to get to the hotel, check-in, buy my tickets, and visit DisneyTown before crashing that afternoon. It is flying on Asiana instead of ANA, which isn’t as highly rated, but still decent, and since I’ve never done a business class long haul flight, I’m sure I won’t be upset with it! The flight from Seoul – PVG is actually economy not business (there was no business availability), but it is such a short flight, only 2 hrs, that I don’t mind. Also I don't even know if the Business Lounge would have been open in Seoul that early (I have heard conflicting reports that it is open 24 hrs vs only open in daytime). If something does open in business, I can get it switched without any change fee.

I decided to arrive in Tokyo a day early. This basically cuts all sight-seeing from Hong Kong, but honestly I don’t know how much I was going to end up doing anyways. And it makes things easier on the Tokyo side. I won’t go to the parks on Sunday, instead maybe try to hit a museum or two in the morning, and explore Iksipari (seems like their version of City Walk), as well as get more settled and prepared for Tokyo Disneyland the next day.

The flight for NRT-LAX also looks good, giving me a whole day to recoup before going back to work on Monday! Eep!

So, this has gotten pretty long and drawn out, so I’ll leave it here and get more into general and day-to-day plans later.​

 

[StarWarsMomofGirls!]

Man! When you say the Asia trip is 29 Weeks, that sounds so close! Ha!

I will def be living through you for that trip for sure.

 

[Gina Starr]

OMG! I am incredibly jealous. This Asia trip sounds absolutely amazing. I will have to live vicariously through you because I don’t think I will ever make it there. Honestly just reading your plans gives me extreme anxiety. Maybe if I can hire a personal tour guide/translator...

 

[lvcourtneyy]

I agree with your logic that if you’re making the trip to Asia you should get all 3 in! That’s great that you were able to use points for all of your flights !

 

[buzzrelly]

That sounds amazing,and what a way to see all the rest of the Disney Parks…all at once! I kind of agree with you about going solo in a foreign country, there's something comforting about visiting the Disney parks by yourself, and it somehow seems safer

 

[missangelalexis]

I think it's awesome that you will be doing all 3 parks! It will be a trip of a lifetime! Glad you got it all worked out with the flights!

 

[missjackiemcg]

I can't believe you will be crossing off every Disney park, and I am still trying to figure out when I will make it to California to get my 2nd one in!!

This sounds like it will be an incredible trip! I'm incredibly excited to follow along when you return and write your TR. The DLP one has been so engaging and filled with all the little details that I feel like I've experienced it myself!

 

[PlutosRHM55]

Wow, this truly sounds like the trip of a lifetime and it looks perfectly planned out. I've also heard not-so-great things about AirChina so I think you made the right choice bumping that off. I'm hoping to do an Asia trip in 2020 so hopefully the rumors about it being busy at TDR thanks to the Olympics aren't entirely true for certain times of the year because I really don't want to wait much longer. I need to use my comp tix ASAP.

 

[Cloe Colton]

Definitely seems like a smart and cost-effective move to do them all at once! lol I think it would kill you to skip out on Shanghai when you are technically so close!

I can't even imagine planning a trip that big! Have you started the visa process for China yet? That's the one thing really keeping me from even thinking of any China Disney's because I'd have to either hire a courier to bring my paperwork to NYC or go there myself lol someday I'll get around to it though!