Past Trips

Disneyland Paris, June 2025

Pink Victorian-style hotel building at Disneyland Park with a clock tower and sign above the entrance, tourists taking photos outside.
A hand holding a cookie with an image of Mickey Mouse printed on top. In the background, there is a green and blue trash bin and a concrete curb along a sidewalk.
Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland with its pink walls, blue roofs, and golden accents, and a cloudy sky in the background.
A woman with glasses sitting at a rustic, wooden-themed restaurant, holding a coconut drink with a straw and lime garnish, with a bottle of water and glasses on the table.

This was my my birthday trip, and a trip to celebrate 50 years of going to these damn parks, and a trip to celebrate my oldest friend’s very first time going to Disney! I’m originally from Leicester in the UK, and she lives there, so I zipped over to London for a couple of days and she came down to hang out. Then we hopped on the Eurostar and headed to Disneyland Paris for 4 days. We met up with her partner to spend the last few days of the trip in Paris proper, and then I headed back home to NYC.

It was such a fun trip! It was really great seeing it all through her eyes. I was a little worried at first that she would hate it, but she got the vibe - I would say fully embraced the vibe - right away and we had a fantastic time.

One of the many highlights was going to the hotel gift shop and trying on the princess dresses “to see if they would fit [our] daughters.” I don’t think the staff bought it for one second - and mine wouldn’t be seen dead in a princess dress anyway… but they let us try them on nonetheless. For future reference I am a girls age 12 to 14 (they’re stretchy!).

A person wearing a black T-shirt with a Disneyland Mickey Mouse birthday sticker on it. The sticker is red and white with Mickey Mouse wearing a blue birthday hat, surrounded by confetti, and has the name 'Joanna' written on it in blue.
A white coffee mug with a latte featuring a circular logo design on top, placed on a white plate. The plate also has two wrapped cookies, a small square sugar cookie, and a metal teaspoon.
Two women dressed as Disney princesses, one as Elsa and the other as Princess Anna from Frozen, posing inside a store with wooden floors and racks of clothing.
Statue of Mickey Mouse with bees, standing on rocks with buckets, surrounded by flowers, in an outdoor setting at a theme park.
Two women wearing Disney-themed clothing and Minnie Mouse dressed as a queen, posing together at a Disney-themed event.
Decorated restaurant interior with large plates resembling a mouse eating utensils, tables set with red checkered tablecloths and menus, and a colorful cartoon poster with French text and a mouse chef holding a spoon and fork.
A white plate with a gold rim holding three decorated mini desserts: a pink cupcake with cream filling, a raspberry tart with a chocolate crown topper, and a round chocolate cookie with a black logo. In the background, a pink and white layered cake slice and a glass of water are visible.
A table with a Disney themed plush of Minnie Mouse dressed in purple, a decorative glass, a box with an ornate design, a small champagne bottle wrapped in white, with a white cloth tied around its neck, and a silver ice bucket in the background.

Hong Kong/Shanghai/Tokyo, April, 2025

The Big One. The Bucket List. The amount of planning that went in to this was crazy - especially getting the Vacation Package for Tokyo and that one night at Fantasy Springs. They changed the whole access policy for DFS at the beginning of April, which I think made it a little easier. The trick is to understand how queryStrings work - that and treat the whole thing like you’re ordering at a deli in New York: You don’t get to the counter and then decide what you want. You have literally 5 seconds to put your order in, finalize, and pay when it’s your turn. Am I talking about a deli order or booking a Fantasy Springs hotel room online 4 months in advance. The answer is: Both. It’s literally both.

Making online credit card payments to mainland China was not easy either. Alipay worked initially, then it didn’t after the November elections (seriously!). In the end, I was able to use a VPN and a specific credit card but I doubt that still works. My advice if you’re planning to go to either the Hong Kong or Shanghai resorts: use a travel agent who can handle that for you.

Disneyland, Christmas 2024

An experiment to answer the question: “What if we went to Disneyland at the absolute busiest time of the year and spent xmas day there!?”

It was insanely crowded and, yes, we all got sick toward the end!

It’s definitely not something I feel the need to do again, but it was lovely to spend time with family - and I got to hug Bing Bong in the lobby of Pixar Place (nee Paradise Pier) where we stayed for our first night before everyone else arrived.

We did a 2-bedroom lock-off at Grand Californian. Me, C, and L had the studio and my sister and her husband and my neice had the 1-bed. It ended up working out really well. My sister and I got to have a little us time at Sam’s grotto to boot.

Walt Disney World Solo, September 2024

This is The One where I really got into the planning part like it was an olympic sport. Something got unleashed. Up til then I had mostly been winging it, tapping into years of past experience. A reservation here, a booking there… and lots of last minute seeing-whats-available-on-the-app-ing, which usually worked out - especially when I took the kid in 2019 and it was just the two of us. The more people you have in your party, the more difficult it is to just show up - it’s the inverse square law of spontineity. But I’ve never done anything like the level of planning I did for this trip! And I have to say it was almost as much fun as being on the trip.

That’s when I knew… who I really was.

Anyway, the second Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party was cancelled due to heavy winds from Hurricane Irene, which was a bummer because I didn’t see the text until after I had gotten into my Tinkerbell costume and walked over to the Park! After asking some Cast Members if they could bring out the special Halloween merch pieces I missed out on but wanted to buy, which they very kindly did, I walked the 5 minutes back to my room at BLT, changed into an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit bounding outfit, and went to diner at Kona Cafe at the Polynesian instead.

Bonus - met Chewbacca!