Category: Asia Disney Trip 2017

Top ten things I am exicited about for this trip in no particular order.

10. Spending time with Mikey.

9. United Polaris Class flights.

8. Pirates of the Caribbean ride, Shanghai.

7. Our room at Tokyo DisneySea Hotel Mira Costa.

6. Mystic Manor ride in Hong Kong.

5. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, Tokyo Disneyland 

4. Tron ride, Shanghai Disneyland.

3. Celebrating my birthday at Magellan’s Resturant, Tokyo DisneySea.

2. Journey to the Center of the Earth, Tokyo Disney Sea

1. Seven Dearfs Mine Train ride Shanghai Disneyland.

I recently saw a FB post of a “test packing” I did for when Mike and I visited Europe (including Disney Paris). Our goal was to travel with just one carrying sized suitcase plus a regular sized backpack since traveling light in Europe is the only way to go when you are traveling to multiple cities. We didn’t mind at all finding a laundry mat half way through the trip and doing a few loads of laundry. And there’s nothing worse than hauling oversized suitcases through the crowded streets of Venice trying to find your Hotel. The test packing was to make sure I could get everything I wanted to bring into my carry-on. (I was). The fact that I did my test packing weeks before our trip shows I am not a last minute person when it comes to packing. 

For our Asia trip we are essentially going door to door from each hotel and airport via taxi so we won’t need to ever haul our bags very far. No need to pack light. We will each use a large four wheeled suitcase (I really like our 4 wheeled suitcases! So easy to wheel around.) plus a backpack. We imagine we’ll be bringing home some souvenirs and gifts so we’ll pack a duffle to chuck all of our dirty laundry in and pack the gifts in the suitcases for the flight home. 

We are only two weeks out and I’ve begun to pack. The clothing will be the last thing to go in the suitcase. So far I’ve packed my international  plug converter, several Via Starbucks instant coffee pouches (I know, gross but I hear he instant coffee in the hotels is worse and I am caffeine junkie), mini bottles of hand sanitizer and several Off Bug Repelant wipes in case there are mosquitos in Hong Kong. (It’s pretty Tropical there.)

I like to use packing cubes to help keep things organized. I also usually use a garment folder for all of my shirts. This compacts them nicely while keeping them less wrinkled. I also use compression bags for dirty laundry.

In the backpack I have prescriptions, Tylenol, Advil, pens, glasses cleaner, spare contacts, a small bottle of hand sanitizer, chargers, and backup batteries. Still to come, iPad, noise cancelling headphones for the flights and a few snacks.

Update: Three days from departure

I mentioned above about the garment folder. Here’s what my Eagle Creek Garment folder can do with 14 shirts:

Tada!

Gadgets!

I’m bringing normal gadget like my iPhone and iPad. Here are some other neat gadgets I’m bringing.

Chilly Pad

Technically not a gadget but several travel sites suggested these for keeping cool when it gets hot. The towel uses the science of evaporation to keep you cool. Get it wet, wring it out and put it around your neck. When we started planning this trip we saw the potential of hot weather and gross humidity. I doubt if we’ll use these for Japan since he forecast is calling for pretty mild weather…

…but the deeper we get into our trip the hotter and more humid it’s going to get. I imagine these will help in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

Back up Battery

This little powerhouse can charge my phone something like 20x before it needs to be recharged. Since we are likely to spend long hours in the parks and since I’ll be using my phone as a camera, video camera, boredom mitigator (when standing in line), and park guide (with he park apps) burning through my iPhone’s battery by midday is likely. Plus it can also charge the GoPro and the Gimble!

GoPro3+

I got this little guy to shoot video while scuba diving. I’m bringing it with me to grab video of any ride where I wouldn’t feel safe using my iPhone…any fast or wet ride. The handle on the GoPro has a strap so it is unlikely that I will drop it and it is waterproof so it can get wet on wet rides!

Smooth Q Gimble

Perhaps the most ridiculous gadget I’m bringing. My iPhone gets locked into the Gimble which has three little motors that make handheld video incredibly smooth. If you decide to check out any of the videos I post you’ll really notice the difference between the jerky GoPro footage vs. the very smooth footage shot with the Gimble.

After the elections in November we began to worry about our trip. Rants on twitter from the man in the White House fanning the flames with our alies in Asia and executive orders restricting travel into our country has us concerned. Of course there is little we can do about the greater political climate. I began to think about how we could leave a positive impression with the people we came in contact with. I thought maybe some form of random acts of kindness would be fun and since we’ll be at Disney parks why not bring a bunch of California Disney trinkets to give to the Asia Disney employees we came in contact with during our trip. Fortunately, I had week where I was training a puppeteer in Southern California so I was able to drop into Downtown Disney in Anaheim and pick a few things up.

It’s surprising how difficult it was to find little items that say “Disneyland California.” Most souvenirs say “Disney Resorts” or just have Disney characters on them. Despite this I’m pretty happy with our haul!

I hope looking for opportunities to give these little items away will make our trip a little more interesting for us and I hope they bring a little California Disney magic  to whoever receives them.

Mikey and I started planning this trip over a year ago. Tons of research on travel blogs and Disney fan sites suggested we book a main round trip flight from the USA to Asia on a major carrier and then book our inner-Asia flights on carriers when we could find good deals. This turned out to be much cheaper than trying to book a multi-city ticket on a single carrier that covered all bases. 
Where do we start our trip? Tokyo? Hong Kong? Shanghai? From what we’ve read the Tokyo parks are the most spectacular followed by Shanghai and then Hong Kong. The right way to do it would be to save the best for last, right? Well, we are doing it the opposite way. Tokyo, Shanghai then Hong Kong. This is due to an upgradable flight we found on United. Thanks to a bunch of miles we were able to get a flight from San Francisco to Tokyo in United’s new Polaris First Class.

I experience pretty decent flight anxiety. Experiencing it in comfort helps. This flight pretty much made the decision as to where we are starting our adventure. We decided on Shanghai as our second destination since Shanghai Disneyland can be super crowded on the weekends and the number of days we planned on spending in Tokyo gave us two potentially slow days (a Monday and Tuesday) in Shanghai. It also allowed us two weekdays in Hong Kong Disneyland. This is some pretty high level math. Fortunately, Mike teaches calculus.

Now that we had the main flight booked we could begin to lockdown the hotels. We decided on the Miracosta Hotel in Tokyo as our biggest splurge. This hotel is located inside the DisneySea park. Yes, inside the park. It’s kind of like the Grand Californian at the Anaheim parks as it creates the boundary of a large portion of Tokyo DisneySea only it is a far more prominent backdrop than the Californian creating the look of classic Venetian and Tuscan cityscapes.

In Shanghai we are staying at the Disney Toy Story Hotel. This is slightly less pricy than the Miracosta while still part of the Disney Resort.

In Hong Kong we will stay at the Disney Hollywood Hotel.

Why did we opt to stay at Disney properties? Close proximity and views of the parks, perks like early entry and it’s a Disney bucket list trip!

Once all the hotels were booked we found our flights from Tokyo to Shanghai on Delta and Shanghai to Hong Kong on China Eastern Air. 

Our final obstacle was to secure our visas for China. We ended up using a service for this rather than waiting in line at the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco. Well worth the $30 service charge!

Trip booked!

Sure. This is Mike’s bucket list trip but I am a big Disney park fan, Disneyland and California Adventure in Anaheim, CA are my home parks. Ive been there more times than I can count. 

My first Disneyland visit was when I was 4 or 5 years old. I have vague snapshot memories of the Jungle Cruise ride, The Electric Light Parade and wearing a plastic Disneyland poncho. 

While I have fond childhood memories of the park my love affair with Disneyland really started in high school. Our jazz band and jazz choir competed in the Fullerton Jazz Festival and they invited me and my friends along to help fill bus. Our visits to the park are some of my fondest memories of high school.  We were the drama club prancing around the park screaming and laughing at the top of our lungs (we were “projecting”) and having an amazing time.

During my college years I regularly visited friends in LA and these trips nearly always included a trip to Disneyland. 

Then came the AquaSmart Live puppet show. In 2000 my puppet company began touring this show all over California. For weeks at a time I was touring elementary schools in LA during the day and spending the evenings at Disneyland thanks to a Deluxe Annual Passport that allowed unlimited visits. I once calculated the approximate number of times I’ve ridden on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and discovered I’ve spent over a day of my life on that ride. No regrets. 

Mikey and Disneyland 

 

Then along came my husband Mikey. He had similar childhood memories of the park due to regular summer family visits. He loved the place as much as I did so it was a thrill to begin to build shared Disneyland memories with him. In our first year together we visited the park on multiple occasions and for several years after that we both had annual passports and visited twice a year. In the last few years  we’ve limited our visits to once a year. Work still takes me to LA pretty regularly but it’s not nearly as fun to be at the park without Mikey so I’ve stopped visiting by myself.

 

We slowly became fans of Disneyland’s sister park California Adventure. It’s been wonderful to watch that place evolve into an incredible theme park. During our more recent visits it’s not unusual for us to spend more time at DCA than Disneyland. 

In 2011 we went to Disney World. I didn’t realize at the time that this was the beginning of Mike’s bucket list. We enjoyed the Parks in Florida but felt like our Anaheim parks kicked Florida’s butt. 

A few years later we visited Disneyland Paris.

 
Anaheim parks, check. Orlando parks, check. Paris parks, check. Asia, here we come.

That’s right. I’m starting this blog 30 days before our trip. Why? I’m just that excited! (FYI I’ve already started to pack.) Also, this is my first attempt at a blog so I want to get used to posting before we begin our journey. So…here we go!

One of the items on Mike’s bucket list is to visit all of the Disney theme parks in the world. Want to follow our journey as we make our way through four different parks in three locations? This is the place!

The parks:

Tokyo Disney Sea

Tokyo Disneyland

Shanghai Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland

I’ve been planning our trip for over a year now. Our journey will start in San Francisco where we will board a United flight to Tokyo. Since I run most of the puppet business expenses through a mileage credit card we were able to upgrade to first class on a Boeing 787-900. United is calling it Polaris First which means we have fancy-shmancy food and amenities (like Sac’s 5th Avenue sheets, blankets and pillows for our lie-flat seats). I’m very excited to experience the 787 for the first time, especially from the front of the plane in a lie-flat seats!

We start our Disney journey at the Hotel Miracosta which is located in the Disney Sea Park. This hotel is nearly always near 99% capacity and can be tricky to book. We managed to land a room on the Venice side of the massive property. I hope we have a view of the Park!

After spending several days at the Tokyo parks we head to the one year old Shanghai Disneyland. There we’ll stay at the Disney Toy Story Hotel. After several days there we jet to Hong Kong where we’ll spend two days at the HK Disneyland while staying at Disney’s Hollywood Hotel.

Our trip starts in just 30 days. I couldn’t be more excited to go on this adventure with Mikey!