Visiting All Disney Parks in Asia in 2 Weeks | Rebroadcast 134

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hey, explorers. We'll be back next week with a brand new episode, but we have another rebroadcast for you. This is episode 134 that was originally released in 2018, where we talk about visiting all the Disney parks in Asia. So of course that includes Japan, Hong Kong and Shanghai. And we talk about all the logistics that needs to happen. Visas, money, flights, all that stuff. So if there's something that you're looking to do in the future, this episode is actually still relevant. There's a couple things we need to update. So if you want us to do an updated version of this episode, please let us know in the comments. Alright, thank you so much for listening and we'll see you next week with a new episode. Welcome to episode 134 of the TDR now podcast, the first english speaking podcast focusing on the Disney parks in Asia, including Tokyo Disney Resort, Hong Kong Disneyland and Shanghai Disneyland. We're coming to you directly from Japan. You can find us on our website, tdrexplorer.com. we're also all over social media, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube, all under TDR Explorer. So make sure you go and follow us, tweet us, pin us, follow us, whatever other verb there is. I'm one of your hosts, Chris, the chief content editor for a TDR explorer, and I am the one eating all the seasonal offerings in the parks. And I ate a lot of food these past two weeks and we're going to talk about that today. And you can find me on my personal Twitter and Instagram explorer Nowge. And that's explorer Nilghe. And joining, as always, is the beautiful Patricia. [00:02:17] Speaker B: Hey, guys, what's up? I'm Trish. I take pictures, I go to the parks, and I'm done with my character box lunches. I don't have to make them anymore. [00:02:27] Speaker A: Woohoo. [00:02:28] Speaker B: Because we had our last sports day. [00:02:32] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So that would mean Mondays shouldn't be as busy anymore at the parks. [00:02:39] Speaker B: No, no, no. Because that was our city. So other cities are still having their sports day. So watch out. Cause I heard the Monday that like, our Monday was really nasty in terms of crowds. [00:02:50] Speaker A: So. [00:02:51] Speaker B: So maybe for the still a little bit, I would watch out. [00:02:53] Speaker A: Last Monday. [00:02:54] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:02:55] Speaker A: Last Monday. [00:02:56] Speaker B: Last Monday. [00:02:57] Speaker A: It was bad. [00:02:58] Speaker B: Like, it was really bad. [00:03:00] Speaker A: Oh, and I was also in the city too. I went to Harajuku and I went there and it felt like a Sunday. And I was like, I'm out. I'm not doing this. [00:03:08] Speaker B: What's going on? Cause not everybody knows that it's like a break. [00:03:12] Speaker A: It was busy. [00:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah, it was. Right. [00:03:14] Speaker A: It was really bad. Yeah. Well, we'll talk a little bit more about that in a bit before we go on. Talk really quick about our Patreon. And thank you so much to everyone who's contributing to Patreon already. You know, we love you. You're fantastic, and you help keep the show running. If you want to support us on Patreon, you could do so by going to patreon.com tdr now. And we have a bunch of perks that you can get a, or rewards, if you want to call them that, too, for pledging. So one of the perks is the two dollar level, which gains you early access to all our newest episodes. So you get them 24 hours in advance before they go live. And who doesn't love getting early access? And it helps the show. So we really do appreciate if you can head on over to patreon.com TDR now. All right, so what are we talking about today? We got, we. We have a little bit of news, some exciting news. [00:04:14] Speaker B: I mean, we have, well, I mean, you just came back from an amazing trip, so we're gonna be talking about that. [00:04:19] Speaker A: I mean, all about that. [00:04:21] Speaker B: It sounds so busy. [00:04:24] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm still trying to recover. [00:04:27] Speaker B: Yeah, I can't imagine. [00:04:30] Speaker A: So, yeah, we have our news. We have our. In the parks. And of course, I'm going to be talking about how we visited all the Disney parks in Asia over two weeks because just got back from our Disney Asia tour. So much fun. Loved it. But before we get into that, let's talk about the news. News. I can't remember. Did we talk about this already in a previous episode? I don't think we did. [00:04:58] Speaker B: Which one? Which one? [00:04:59] Speaker A: The Duffy, the new Duffy friend coming to Hong Kong. [00:05:01] Speaker B: No, you know what? We didn't. We didn't. [00:05:04] Speaker A: No, we didn't. It's been so long since we, since we recorded an episode because we did our previous ones all well in advance because I was away for over two weeks. So trying to refresh our memory here, but there's a new friend of Duffy coming to Hong Kong, Disneyland, of all places, this summer. Dun dun dun. That is so seemingly random because you would think that would come to Tokyo first and not Hong Kong. [00:05:35] Speaker B: They've been getting stuff first lately. They got the character greetings first and everything. So I can. Yeah, it's moving in that direction. [00:05:43] Speaker A: It's pretty cool. [00:05:44] Speaker B: Yeah, they deserve it. [00:05:45] Speaker A: And there's, there's hints. Hints dropped in the park. So we don't know too much yet because they. Nothing's been officially, like, announced on, like, the website, like the Hong Kong Disneyland website or anything. But there's an egg, a different colored egg, like a yellow one with pink paw prints on it beside the Duffy and friends egg Easter eggs. And then there's, like, paw prints on the ground. And then there's, like, this, like, box thing on main street that says new friend of Duffy coming this summer. And there's little decorations on the bakery windows and there's, like, a little chef hat and everything. So they kind of gave us. [00:06:25] Speaker B: They're giving out stickers, too. [00:06:27] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, the stickers. They're giving out stickers, too, that say new friend of Duffy coming. So. [00:06:33] Speaker B: And some cast members have leaked it already what the character animal is. [00:06:39] Speaker A: Yeah. So if you want to go on Twitter and check that out, you'll be able to find it. But that's kind of. It's exciting. We're. Duffy's getting more friends. They're slowly taking over. [00:06:48] Speaker B: There's gonna be an army. [00:06:51] Speaker A: Yeah. So I. Yeah, we don't know for sure what it's gonna be, unless you want to go on Twitter and check. But, yeah, it's gonna be. It's gonna be cute. So, of course, we'll report on it more once we. Once the official stuff is announced and everything like that. We got some seeming, like, almost seemingly random merchandise coming to Tokyo Disney for 35th anniversary stuff. So we have a whole bunch of Coca Cola merchandise, which makes sense. Coca Cola is in the park, so that's kind of neat. There's, like, a range of merchandise coming out, and then there's adidas. So, like, sportswear is coming out. This is on June 7, and I'm kind of a fan of the Adidas merchandise that I've seen so far. [00:07:38] Speaker B: The adidas looks really classy. It's not, like, over the top, which is nice. [00:07:41] Speaker A: Yeah. It fits the Adidas brand. [00:07:44] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:07:45] Speaker A: And it has. And of course, it says Tokyo Disney resort on it and everything. I might have to get a shirt. I don't know. [00:07:52] Speaker B: I think you should. And it's useful. You can wear it to the gym, you know. [00:07:56] Speaker A: Yeah. I'm all about practicality with stuff. And a bunch of merchandise has already come out before Tanabata days, because Tanabata days starts on June 7, same with Donald's birthday. So, yeah, they're starting to come up. So, like, some of the merchandise they released the fruit merchandise or, like, summer tropical fruit merchandise. [00:08:21] Speaker B: Yes. I love it. [00:08:23] Speaker A: We've had that for a few years now, but I think it came out last year, and a lot of the stuff sold out really quickly because they did that to replace the fruit merchandise that usually came out with minis. Tropical splash. Yeah, but, of course, that went away because we had the pirates show last year, and we're getting again this year. [00:08:45] Speaker B: Use those designs that they made, you know. [00:08:48] Speaker A: Yeah. So they're kind of continuing that design, and they're really cute. You know, there's a range of stuff like the plushes. There's towels, shirts, glasses, you know, kind of the whole shebang when it comes to that kind of stuff. [00:08:59] Speaker B: I love all of them. It's amazing. [00:09:02] Speaker A: It's really cute. I might want. I might get the plush Mickey. Mickey's a pineapple, and Minnie's a watermelon. [00:09:08] Speaker B: I want the bag to use as a pool bag. The watermelon bag. [00:09:12] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. It's like a vine. Vinyl, plastic. I don't know. Yeah, something. Whatever. It's waterproof. [00:09:17] Speaker B: It's. Yeah, it's like. It's a plastic bag. It's really cute. It's super colorful, and it's see through, so you can put all your little towels and sunglasses inside, which is nice. [00:09:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's really nice. And then we got some other. Just other random, seemingly random merchandise. There's some new Mickey, Minnie, and some other characters plushes at the home store. They have, like, this kind of, like, old, older style to them. I don't know. It's weird, but, yeah. [00:09:48] Speaker B: I'm in love with a bubble wand. [00:09:50] Speaker A: Yeah, we got all these bubble wands now. There's, like, a tie fighter. [00:09:55] Speaker B: Oh, I didn't. Yeah, Kai saw that. He was telling me about it, but I didn't see it. [00:09:59] Speaker A: Yeah, there's a tie fighter one. And what are the other ones? I didn't. [00:10:03] Speaker B: Little mermaid. The little mermaid lights up, and it shoots out a crazy amount of bubbles, and it plays music and, like, over the top. Like, everyone was buying it. Like, we were this close. We were actually looking for it, and we just. We didn't have time, so we were showing a friend around, so we didn't have time to, like, go, like. Like, hunt it down. But we want it so bad. I think it's gonna sell out. Everybody had it, right? Yeah, everybody. Adults, kids. Everybody had it. [00:10:30] Speaker A: Huh? Then what else is there? Shoot, there was a. There was another new thing. Oh, the. The smartphone. Oh, smartphone cases. The. Did you see the ridiculously large smartphone cases? [00:10:47] Speaker B: Yeah. And they have, like, the little clip. The filter clip. I want the filter clip. [00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah. So if you want, like, a ridiculously large phone case, there's, like, one of Cinderella Castle, and your phone goes in it. It's like. It's so big that it comes with a lanyard so it can hang off your neck. It's ridiculous. And there's also a Mickey Mouse one that looks like nano blocks. [00:11:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:09] Speaker A: So that one's really cute. And then there's also the food merchandise, or they now have them in phone cases. So there's one that's like a Mickey hamburger. And then there's. I think there's, like, pancakes. And then, as you said, there's the camera filters. So it's like this clip in shape of Mickey that goes over your lens on your phone. And there's different filters. And the one kind of looks like a old rotary telephone. Yeah, you just kind of click through it. And there's different filters. There's like a Mickey ear filter, sparkling filter, all that stuff. It's kind of cool. [00:11:46] Speaker B: I want it so bad. [00:11:49] Speaker A: I tried it today on my phone because they have one that you can try. I couldn't really get it to work properly, but I can never get lenses like those kind of clip on lenses. I can never get them aligned properly on my phone. So I don't know. Maybe I just don't know how to use it. [00:12:03] Speaker B: Is it for any phone or, like, does it have to be like, a specific type of phone or what? [00:12:09] Speaker A: I think it's just any phone that has the camera, kind of where the iPhone has this camera. [00:12:13] Speaker B: Okay. [00:12:15] Speaker A: I don't know if it works on the x. I have the eight plus, and it seemed to go over the lens on my phone. So I guess it just kind of depends on your phone model. I didn't read what models it's compatible with too closely. [00:12:29] Speaker B: All right, we'll give it a try. [00:12:33] Speaker A: And then, yeah, we have the new Duffy. There's new Duffy merchandise coming out on the 7th as well. There's a little plush gelatoni holding gelato. [00:12:42] Speaker B: Oh, that's so cute. [00:12:46] Speaker A: And then, of course, we have the Duffy. Or. Sorry, not duffy. Um, Tana bought today's merchandise coming on the 7th along with the Donald. Oh, wait, no, the Donald merchandise is already out. [00:12:56] Speaker B: Yeah, I want the popcorn bucket. [00:12:59] Speaker A: I think the popcorn bucket's out on the 7th, though. [00:13:01] Speaker B: Okay. [00:13:02] Speaker A: But either way, really cute. There's a ton of stuff to buy this month. And this. It's only June and then July. We're gonna have all the summer merchandise, like, for the summer events. [00:13:12] Speaker B: Did you see the Chippendale? Shaved ice. Like the little, like, thing that you hang on your bag. [00:13:18] Speaker A: Yes. [00:13:19] Speaker B: Yes. Oh, my God. Wow. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Yes. No, maybe. [00:13:23] Speaker B: It's so cute. [00:13:27] Speaker A: My money. My money. In other news, we just surpassed a thousand copies sold of our ebook. [00:13:37] Speaker B: Yay. Congratulations. [00:13:39] Speaker A: That is fantastic. I never imagined selling a thousand copies. Like, I was happy when we, like, I was over the moon when we surpassed 400 copies. I was thinking, oh, wow, like 400 copies. That is amazing. And now we're here at a thousand. [00:13:53] Speaker B: I mean, like, it's got all the information right at your fingertips. So if you haven't checked it out, you should check it out. [00:14:00] Speaker A: Like, there's so much information there. It's ridiculous. Like, you could buy that book and never have to look at our website ever. There's that much information in it. So go and get it. If you don't have it already, it's at tdrxplorer.com ebook. A ton of people already bought it. So, yeah, you know, it's good. Well, in the parks, I have a lot to talk about, so let's save it for the next section. But what about you, Trish? What about, what have you been doing in the parks lately? [00:14:32] Speaker B: We have a friend visiting from Canada. She's an opera singer. She's super cool. And we took her to Disneysea and we did everything. All the rides, it was a Sunday, but we did everything. And the only thing was that journey was closed. But other than that, it was fine. And yeah, we had a blast. It was very hot. So if you're coming to the park, summer is here and it's very, very hot. And you should definitely wear sunscreen. But it's always nice to see, like, I think this is her first, like, Disney, like park park. Not just, you know, like a, like Japan Disney. So it's always really cool to see somebody enjoy the parks for the first time and to get to see everything for the first time, it's like experiencing it in a whole new way, which is really wonderful for us as well. So, yeah, it was a whole day at the park, so morning until night. It's tough. I don't know how people do it. Like, people that go for you just had a lot of days in a row, so I want to hear how you survived it because one day wipes us out. [00:15:48] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:15:51] Speaker B: But that's all we did. We were really busy with sports day and going to the Roppongi art night and everything, so we didn't really have that much time for the parks this past couple of weeks. [00:16:03] Speaker A: Oh, I have a thing that's not in the parks I want to talk about really quickly. I'm gonna have a video going on YouTube very soon. So I'm a dog person. I'm not a cat person. Not that I don't like cats. I just prefer dogs. It's always been that way because I grew up with dogs. [00:16:20] Speaker B: Right. They're cute, they're friendly, and they're more loyal. [00:16:23] Speaker A: Yeah. Also, I have, like, stray cats all around my apartment, and they are very annoying. Oh, yeah. Anyway, besides that, I was in Harajuku the other day, and I discovered that one of the cat cafes was turned into a shiba inu cafe. [00:16:45] Speaker B: Oh. [00:16:46] Speaker A: And as soon as I saw that, I had to go. So I went to this shiba inu cafe. It's on Takashida street in Harajuku. So, you know, the big, famous street that everyone goes to to shop. I went there, and it was the cutest thing ever. It was. I was in heaven. I was literally in heaven. It was so cute. It's 780 ¥80 for 30 minutes. And you get one, like, drink from the vending machine. And you just get to sit there on the tatami mat floor and just hang out with little puppies, all for half an hour. [00:17:23] Speaker B: That's so cute. [00:17:24] Speaker A: And it was. It was. It was definitely worth it. It was so fun. I loved it. Oh, and then after that, I had this famous ice cream, Kanazawa ice cream. It doesn't melt. [00:17:38] Speaker B: Ah, I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. [00:17:41] Speaker A: It's ice cream that doesn't melt it. Like, as soon as I saw the sign, I thought, that is the weirdest thing. How does that work? So I went in, I bought an ice cream, and I let it sit there for, like, ten minutes because I was taking pictures of it and everything. And it was like a lollipop shaped ice cream on a stick. [00:17:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:58] Speaker A: It did not melt at all. It just sat there and it was cold. And it tastes really good. I got, like, the mango flavor sounds so yummy. And it's so weird. So I. I don't know what they put in it. I have to do some research. But I thought that was actually pretty cool that they did that. And there was, um. There was a famous youtuber, a japanese youtuber on there doing, like, a whole thing with their ice cream. Like, he went there, bought it, got it in a takeaway bag. It went back to wherever he films his videos. And he just. He just had them on the plates and everything. And they just sat there. They didn't melt it is just the weirdest thing. [00:18:34] Speaker B: When was this? [00:18:37] Speaker A: Last week. [00:18:38] Speaker B: I might have seen the video on YouTube. [00:18:41] Speaker A: Yeah. I don't know how new it is, but it's on Takeshita street. It's called Kanazawa ice cream. It's kind of below. It's kind of hard to explain where it is. It's kind of on the first floor of this building. And on the top floor is the floor where they have the Tokyo story t shirts. You know, the toy story inspired shirts that say Tokyo story instead. [00:19:05] Speaker B: Oh, I don't know. [00:19:06] Speaker A: That's the best way I can describe where it is. Anyway, make sure you check that out, too. If you're in Harajuku, it's definitely worth doing. Okay, really quick, before we talk about our Disney Asia trip, real quick, plug about Klook Kluk is one of our affiliates, and they offer discount tickets for a variety of things in not only Japan, but also Hong Kong and Shanghai. If you use our special offer code, KLK TDrex, you'll save $4 us off your very first purchase of $50 or more. They have tickets for all the Disney parks in Asia, and they also have tickets for San Rio Land, Fuji Q Highland, Universal Studios Japan, the robot restaurant, kimono rentals, SIM card rentals, Wi Fi rentals. They have so much stuff on there, you can pretty much get almost everything you need right through Kloog. So head on over to tdrxplorer.com klook and buy your tickets through there. And if you use our code, it also helps the website as well. It helps us keep running. So we really do appreciate it if you use our coupon code and visit tdrxplorer.com kluke. Okay. Visiting all the Disney parks in Asia in two weeks. [00:20:29] Speaker B: So. Okay, so before we even, like, jump in, like, how did, how did you get everybody together for this? Because it was a pretty big group. [00:20:37] Speaker A: So there was nine of us total, and then there was our travel agent. David and his son were also with us as well. So there was, I guess, six participants, if you want. So six participants, or six explorers, I should say. Plus David and his son were also there. So nine of us total. David from exclusive travel partners. They're based in the US. They're the ones that approached me and asked if I'd be interested in doing a trip like this. And I said yes, of course. And they took, or David took care of all the logistics of collecting payment from all the participants and booking our hotels and the tickets and the. Itinerary the overall itinerary for everything and how we got. Everybody was just through our website, really. So that's pretty much how that went down. [00:21:40] Speaker B: And where were the explorers from? Like, what countries were they mainly from? [00:21:44] Speaker A: Everyone was from the US this round. [00:21:46] Speaker B: Nice, nice, nice. [00:21:47] Speaker A: So most we had people from Atlanta, California, Hawaii. [00:21:55] Speaker B: Wow. All over the place. [00:21:56] Speaker A: Yeah. And also Colorado. [00:21:59] Speaker B: Nice. [00:22:01] Speaker A: Yeah. Or Colorado. Or one of the states in the middle of the US. [00:22:07] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:22:09] Speaker A: I keep thinking Colorado, but I don't have Idaho. Colorado, Idaho. [00:22:14] Speaker B: Those are very different. [00:22:15] Speaker A: I know. Really bad with the us geography. David's probably going to listen to this and he's going to, like, slap me or he's going to send me a message. I apologize. [00:22:26] Speaker B: And so, like, give us an overview of all the places that you went to. [00:22:33] Speaker A: Well, so the trip, how the trip was structured. We started in Hong Kong, then we went to Shanghai, and then we went to Tokyo is that's how we did it. So we had everybody meet in Hong Kong, so everyone flew from wherever they were into Hong Kong, and that's where we started the trip. So everyone kind of arrived on different at different times and stuff. I kind of arrived in the middle of everyone. So some people got there earlier than me, some people came in a little bit later. So our first stop was Hong Kong, and we did essentially one and a half days in Hong Kong, is how we did it. [00:23:14] Speaker B: Okay. [00:23:14] Speaker A: Because some people that got there really early, like, they got there at four, five in the morning. [00:23:19] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. [00:23:20] Speaker A: So those people got there, went to the hotel, and most of them went into the park, because why not? You're there. Might as well. [00:23:30] Speaker B: That's pretty hardcore, Mandy. [00:23:34] Speaker A: Well, I told everyone, don't sleep. [00:23:37] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:23:37] Speaker A: If you can help it. Because if you do that, you're gonna kind of mess up your clock a little bit, and then you're gonna be kind of. You're gonna be tired for a few days afterwards. So it's best if you're arriving really early, of course, try and sleep on the plane, but I know that's easier said than done. Yeah, but if you're arriving, you know, early in the morning of your destination, it's really the best advice is to stay up as long as you can. Don't sleep just because you're gonna go to sleep and not wake up, because you're just gonna want to sleep. Right. Although one tactic I have done in the past is if you arrive at the airport really early, like four or five in the morning, of course, a lot of things aren't gonna be open yet, especially at the Hong Kong airport. Most things don't start going until about seven. You can nap in the airport. It's not the most comfortable thing, so you don't really have to worry about oversleeping. And Hong Kong is safe. Like, the airport's totally fine. I've slept in there many times, so, you know, getting in, like, a little two hour nap is not the worst thing in the world. But definitely once you get to your hotel, don't go to sleep because that's. You're gonna just sleep for hours and hours and I mess everything up. So. Yeah. Again, most people went to the park that day just to stay awake. And then once the entire group was there, we all met the next day for our full day in Hong Kong. And, man, was it hot. And it's not even summer yet. [00:25:11] Speaker B: Yeah, hot and humid. I love the climate there. [00:25:14] Speaker A: It was about 30 degrees celsius. I'm not. What is that in fahrenheit? [00:25:19] Speaker B: It's a lot. It's like. It's like run, like. Like in the nineties. [00:25:24] Speaker A: No, nineties, hundreds, something like that. Yeah, we had a lot of trouble with the Celsius and stuff because I'm canadian, so I know Celsius, but everyone else on the trip was american, so I would say, oh, it's 30 degrees. And everyone look at me like, what? What is that? And I would sit there and. I don't know. I have to convert it. [00:25:47] Speaker B: But, yeah, I'll tell you right now, because Orlando is in the thirties right now. Let me switch it over to fahrenheit. It is. Oh, it's not bad. It's in. It's like almost 90. It's around 89. It's the upper eighties. [00:26:01] Speaker A: Okay. Okay. So that's not. Yeah, it's still hot. [00:26:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:26:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Hong Kong was hot and humidous, but we still had a really good time regardless. The only downside was Mickey and the Wonders book was down for refurbishment or maintenance or whatever they were doing. It just. It wasn't on the day we were there, but thankfully everything else is running, so that's good. It was a fantastic day. I got everyone to buy the Klook vouchers, the meal vouchers, because the food in Hong Kong is actually very expensive. Like, just for a meal, like a standard meal at a. One of the counter service restaurants is going to run you about 14, $15 us. And that's expensive compared to Tokyo, that's very expensive. So the Klook vouchers, which is, of course, on the Klook website, you can get the two in one or the three in one voucher. And what that includes is a full meal up to the value of hk$149, which is about $18. Plus, you also get popcorn or an ice cream on top of that. So you're already saving money because you pay $17 for the voucher for the two in one. So, you know, so you get a meal worth more than that. And then an extra, like, a popcorn or ice cream, which works like an ice cream, is about four or $5. That gets pricey. So you're saving money already right there. And then with the three in one, you get two meals, so you can get a lunch and then a dinner, which is really nice. We got to see the we love Minky show. [00:27:46] Speaker B: How's that? [00:27:47] Speaker A: In Hong Kong, it was okay. It's. It's a temporary show, so I wasn't expecting anything over the top. The projections were cool. It was kind of like a montage of Mickey through the years. [00:28:01] Speaker B: Okay, so this is like a projection mapping show. [00:28:04] Speaker A: Yeah, projection mapping show all along Main Street, USA. And it lasts about 510 minutes. It's not very long. Okay. But Mickey comes out on, like, this platform at. At the end of May or at the beginning of Main street, and he's literally out there for, like, 1 minute, one and a half minutes or something. He comes up, and because the we love Mickey show is supposed to be, like, a surprise party for him, and he shows up, and he's like, oh, you threw me a party. Yay. And confetti flies everywhere. And he's like, oh, thank you. And then he leaves. It's a fine show. Like, you know? Cause right now, the castle's under construction, so they don't have fireworks show. So they're doing this for now. I'd say for that show, you don't really have to wait for it. Just kind of show up. Unless you want, like, a front row view of Mickey to get pictures. But other than that, you can just kind of watch it wherever you are on Main street. That's totally fine. [00:29:04] Speaker B: Like, where would you recommend for people to watch it from? Like, what you think is interesting? [00:29:08] Speaker A: Maybe closer to the beginning of Main street, then that way, you get a better view of Mickey when he comes out. [00:29:14] Speaker B: Okay, cool. [00:29:15] Speaker A: That's probably the best thing to do. We stayed at the Explorer's lodge. [00:29:20] Speaker B: Nice. Yeah. [00:29:21] Speaker A: Which is fantastic, as everyone knows. That's, like, one that's my favorite Disney hotel in Asia. Love it. Not the name has anything to do with it. And there they just celebrated their first anniversary, so they were giving out stickers. Oh, first anniversary stickers. And we also got. I'm gonna mess the name up. The macarons. Mac macarons. You know, the little french pastry, the cookies. [00:29:48] Speaker B: Macarons. [00:29:50] Speaker A: Yeah, those. [00:29:51] Speaker B: Those are so good. [00:29:53] Speaker A: Everyone got one of those, like, they were put in your room. Aw, it was really cute. And they came in a nice little box, says Disney Explorer's lodge, and they each had, like, a little different design on them. They're all different flavors, of course. I think one was lemon, another one was chocolate. Another one was, I believe, coffee. [00:30:13] Speaker B: That's so lovely. [00:30:14] Speaker A: Yeah, it was a nice little. Nice little surprise. Wasn't expecting that. Everybody loved mystic Manor. [00:30:22] Speaker B: Of course. [00:30:23] Speaker A: Of course. It was so good. [00:30:26] Speaker B: Were the people visiting? Was it everybody's first time in Hong Kong? [00:30:31] Speaker A: Everybody except for a couple people. [00:30:33] Speaker B: Okay. [00:30:35] Speaker A: So, yeah, everyone was just in love with mystic Manor. It was so good. Like, going for mystic Manor alone is worth it, to be quite honest. [00:30:47] Speaker B: Sure. Of course. Yeah, definitely. [00:30:52] Speaker A: And we all had dinner together at the main street cafe, which is always really good. I really like their wagyu beef burger. [00:31:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:02] Speaker A: And of course, that's where all the Duffy desserts are. [00:31:08] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Very cute. [00:31:11] Speaker A: Very cute. And that's how they get. Ya. [00:31:13] Speaker B: Of course. Of course. [00:31:14] Speaker A: That's how they get. [00:31:15] Speaker B: You know you need those instagram photos, right? [00:31:18] Speaker A: Mm hmm. So, yeah, it was just one. One full day in Hong Kong, Disneyland, and then the next day was a full day tour of Hong Kong. The city itself. Wonderful. I spearheaded that one, so I took everyone on a nice walking tour. [00:31:37] Speaker B: Where did you go? [00:31:40] Speaker A: So we wanted to do the big buddha, but it was actually closed. The cable car was closed the day we wanted to do it, so of course, we couldn't get up there, so instead, we went right into the city, and we did Tim Ho won for lunch, of course, which was so good. Love, Tim Ho won. We did that. We also went to the man Mo temple, which is a very famous temple in Hong Kong. We also went to the Avenue of stars, so kind of like their Hollywood walk of fame kind of thing. We did that. We went to the Hong Kong Museum, Museum of History. [00:32:23] Speaker B: Oh, great. [00:32:25] Speaker A: Which is really lovely. And it's free, which is the best part. [00:32:28] Speaker B: I did not know that. That's really nice. [00:32:30] Speaker A: It's free, and we could have spent, like, all day there. Like, it's. There's a lot there. We spent about 2 hours there in the morning. That was our first stop. We did that, and I highly recommend it. Because it gives you a really good background of Hong Kong and just how the city has changed and how it started and everything. It's a very fascinating history with Hong Kong. It really is. So I recommend, definitely recommend doing that. We stopped at a couple 711s. Everyone wanted to check out 711. Also, I made sure everyone stayed hydrated because it is hot. Yeah, that's very important. You don't want to get dehydrated, because that's not fun. [00:33:12] Speaker B: No, no. [00:33:13] Speaker A: Also, I'm not a big, like. So tap water in Hong Kong is perfectly safe to drink. It's totally fine. But I don't like the taste of it. It has, like, this really, like, tinny taste to it. I don't like it. [00:33:26] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:33:27] Speaker A: So I just go with. I just buy bottled water all the time. [00:33:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I think we did too, actually. [00:33:35] Speaker A: Yeah, just, I don't know. There's just the taste of the tap water. I don't like it. [00:33:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm the same with Orlando tap water. I'm like, meowden. No, thank you. [00:33:43] Speaker A: Yeah. So anyone that goes to Hong Kong, the tap water is totally safe. It's totally fine. Drink it and you'll know exactly what I mean. What else did we do? Yeah, so we did Tim Ho one, which was fantastic. We got to see some people fight. That was fun, too. [00:33:59] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Wait, what? [00:34:01] Speaker A: I don't know what happened. So we were at Tim Hoan. We were waiting to get our table. There was nine of us, so of course it was a little difficult because with Tim Hoan, they kind of just kind of put you wherever they can fit you. So our group was kind of split up a little bit. But anyway, they were getting, like, a portion of our table ready, and this woman just kind of walks in and sits down. And one of the workers went over to her, and I'm guessing, of course, I don't speak any Cantonese. Told her she can't sit there or whatever. And then she just kind of started screaming at the woman and just thought, okay, this is weird. And then the woman left, and I guess she ordered takeout or something. And the worker was kind of annoyed with her because the woman kept, like, yelling at her and everything. It was just. And then the girl was, like, getting in this poor woman's face, like, the poor worker's face. And then, like, the husband came in and, like, pulled her back and said something to her. I don't know what. And then they took their food and they left. [00:35:00] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. [00:35:01] Speaker A: It was really weird. But besides that the food is fantastic. Tim Ho wan is really good. Dim sum. It's a Michelin star dim sum restaurant. And they have quite a few restaurants in Hong Kong themselves, itself. The one we went to was in the IFC mall, which is right at Hong Kong station. So it's super easy to get to, especially from Disneyland resort. Just get on the train line, it'll go right to Hong Kong. So super easy. And then we ended our day at the Victoria Peak. [00:35:34] Speaker B: I love Victoria Peak. [00:35:36] Speaker A: It was. It was nice. We went there for sundown, which I don't think I would do again, only because, like, it was gorgeous. But the only thing was, it was so busy. [00:35:47] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [00:35:48] Speaker A: And we were there, like, on a weekday, but it was just ridiculously busy. And it was kind of unpleasant just for how busy it was. So I'd recommend, if you don't care about sunset, go later or go really early. I've never, like, I've done the late at night and the early in the morning, and it was totally fine. I've never done sunset, so I want to try. And that was a mistake on my part. But the good thing is we did buy again. I know I'm plugging klook a lot. We did buy our tickets through Klook. Klook offers a fast track ticket, so that means you don't have to wait in the ridiculously long line to buy your tickets and get on the tram. You get a special line. You just bypass the ticket line and get into a special, quicker line to get up on the tram. Otherwise you could be waiting up to 90 minutes to 2 hours. [00:36:38] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Wow. [00:36:39] Speaker A: To get up there. So it's definitely worth paying, getting your tickets through Klook. So if you're doing the Victoria peak, make sure you do that. [00:36:48] Speaker B: I guess the wintertime is less crowded. [00:36:51] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:36:52] Speaker B: And then the other time we walked up by mistake. [00:36:55] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, I remember that story. [00:36:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:36:59] Speaker A: So, yeah, that was Hong Kong in a nutshell. And then from there, we went from Hong Kong to Shanghai. And how we did that. So really important to mention visas, right. For most of us, especially people listening to this podcast, you're gonna need a visa of some sort to visit mainland China. So Hong Kong is not part of mainland China in terms of, like, visas and stuff. So most countries, like, I know, Canadians, Americans, and, I believe, Brits and Australians, most of the most western countries. For Hong Kong, it's just a visa on arrival. But if you're going to Shanghai, you either have to have a visa ahead of time, which is what I have, I went through the whole process of getting a ten year visa, or the other option is doing a transit visa. And what a transit visa is means you're going from point a, and in this case, it's Hong Kong, to point b, which is Shanghai, and then you have to go to point circumental. So point c for us in this case is Tokyo. So you can't go from. As an example, you can't go from Hong Kong to Shanghai back to Hong Kong. That doesn't count. You have to be transiting through to get the 144 hours visa. So make sure you like, depending on what country you're from, make sure you check the visa requirements, because they do differ depending on what country you're from. So for the group, there was three of us that already had visas ahead of time, so we had to go into a different line. [00:38:37] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Okay. [00:38:38] Speaker A: So I was with that group, and for us, it was just. We just went through, like, any other regular line because our visas were in our passports. The other group, David, went with them. They had to go through the transit visa line. And what happens there is you have to show that you're going from point a to b to c, and that you have accommodations in, like, in China. Everyone went through without issue. Just make sure when you do go through again, I'm really emphasizing this. You have to go from a to b, b to c, and then on all your reservations for your hotels, make sure your name is on it and that it matches your passport. [00:39:20] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. [00:39:22] Speaker A: So that is the big thing. And everybody in your party has to be on that reservation, so make sure everyone's on it. [00:39:28] Speaker B: Right. [00:39:29] Speaker A: So. So if you have to phone your hotel, like the Disney hotels, if you have to add people that are staying in the room, make sure their names are on it and everything. I've had to call in the past to add people, and it's. It, you know, it takes a little bit, but obviously you have to do it. So I just want to really emphasize that. I know it's a little scary, but we got through just fine, and everything was smooth sailing from there. I know a big thing for a lot of people is transportation also in Shanghai, because, you know, everyone hears the horror stories about the taxis and stuff. I've heard. I've had other explorers email us and say they. They took a taxi from the airport and the taxi didn't know where Disneyland was, and they got frustrated and just left them. [00:40:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:15] Speaker A: On the side of the road. [00:40:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:16] Speaker A: Like, I've heard those horror stories yeah, you were left on the side of the road too. Like, I've never had that happen, fortunately. But I didn't want to risk that, especially with a group of people. So there's a shuttle service right at the airport. It's green. You're not going to miss it. And they have clean, easy to use hotel shuttles. And they will go to the resort. You just have to show. Just make sure you have the name of your hotel in Chinese, Mandarin, just to show them, just so they can give it to the driver. And we did that. It was really cheap. I, we got a charter because there were so many people. And it worked out to, I think, like three or $4 a person or something like that. It was really cheap and it was painless. And we got, everyone got to the resort and it was totally fine. [00:41:11] Speaker B: Good. [00:41:11] Speaker A: So I highly recommend that. And they also, the same company is actually on Kluk as well. So you can buy your tickets through klook on that. So don't worry, it's doable. I've done it quite a few times now, so I'm pretty good at it. So for Shanghai, when we arrived the first day, we did Disney town because of course, we arrived at like three, four in the afternoon. So we're not gonna go into the park with Shanghai. It's kind of like Tokyo. You need to. You need to be there in the morning. [00:41:45] Speaker B: Yes. [00:41:46] Speaker A: You really need to. [00:41:47] Speaker B: 100%. [00:41:49] Speaker A: So, yeah, the first day, or first half day we did Disney town. We went to the cheesecake factory. I kind of insisted everyone was totally okay with that. So that's good. So we did. That took it really easy. And we were at the toy story hotels where we stayed. [00:42:04] Speaker B: Oh, cute. [00:42:06] Speaker A: And so we did two full days in Shanghai and we got to do the 30 minutes early entry. And wow, what a difference that makes. [00:42:18] Speaker B: I can imagine. Yeah. [00:42:19] Speaker A: I am willing to pay the extra money to stay at, like, the toy story hotel compared to, like, the Marriott Hotel, just to have that extra 30 minutes because it made our day so much easier. Like, it was just ridiculous how much easier our day got because of that. And, like, 30 minutes doesn't sound like a lot, but it actually. It is. [00:42:40] Speaker B: It's a lot for Shanghai. It is. Yeah. [00:42:43] Speaker A: Shanghai is such a large park. And you also go through the Disney town entrance, which is much closer to tomorrowland. So once you go in, you can just book it to Tron and then do Tron. And then how we did it was everyone got in. And then we got everyone to scan their tickets into their. Their phone into the Shanghai Disneyland app so you can get fast passes. [00:43:07] Speaker B: So how's that working? Because that sounds like a fantastic new system. [00:43:11] Speaker A: Yeah. So you download the Shanghai Disneyland app, and then once you're in the park and your. Your tickets activated, you scan it into your. The app, and then you can start booking fastpasses right through the app. [00:43:24] Speaker B: Cool. [00:43:25] Speaker A: Like, right away. Like, we were able to start booking fast passes, right? 830 when we got into the park or. No, 730. We got into 730 park open at eight. But we didn't book them right away because the fast passes were like, you know, for 745. And it's like, well, we don't need. We don't need that yet. [00:43:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:43] Speaker A: So we went and did Tron, and then once we got out of Tron, by that time it was about 08:00 and the park was opening. And then we got fast passes for. Some of us got fast passes for soaring because that soaring is the large longest wait. Same with roaring rapids. Those two are always the biggest weights. So we got fast passes for those. And then we made our way over to Peter Pan because that's another attraction that gets pretty high on the list for wait times. And then we went all the way to pirates, which doesn't have fastpass. So we want to make sure we do that. But pirates doesn't because pirates is such a high capacity ride. [00:44:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:24] Speaker A: By the time we got there, it was like a 15 minutes wait. So it really wasn't all that bad. And another reason why I say the three minute, 30 minutes entry is so much worth it. Besides getting into the park early, you do not have to deal with the horrendous front entrance because that is a nightmare and a half, especially. [00:44:41] Speaker B: Was it hot? [00:44:42] Speaker A: It was hot and it was raining. Yeah. [00:44:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:45] Speaker A: It's just like, it's kind of. Kind of like a free for all the worse in a sense. So, like, I did that once, like, I did that back in November, and it took us anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour just to get into the park. And we got there early. [00:45:02] Speaker B: Mm hmm. Yeah. [00:45:03] Speaker A: And by the time you get in, the fast passes start going up and everything and wait times, you know, I'm starting to creep up a little bit. So spend the extra money. Get in 30 minutes early. [00:45:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Cuz it's a nightmare. Either go early or go later. But don't do that line in the morning. It's the worst. [00:45:20] Speaker A: That line in the morning is not fun, I think. Trust me. Like, after doing the lines in Tokyo, which are, you know, very, like, everyone lines up nice and everything. China or, like, shanghai. It's not like that. They have, like, these large, like, barricades almost like, you know, when you. When you go to, like, a concert, like, back in North America, they have, like, these large barricades that kind of funnel people. That's what they have in the front. And it's just like this long zigzag of people. And it's just like, everyone's kind of like every man for themselves kind of. [00:45:51] Speaker B: Thing in other people's sweat. [00:45:54] Speaker A: It's just. It's not fun. So do yourself a favor. Don't put yourself through that. You'll thank us. Trust me. [00:46:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:46:02] Speaker A: So, yes. Overall, though, like, Shanghai two days, it was fantastic. We loved it. Good. Everyone loved Tron. Everyone wrote Tron a million times. Same with pirates and Peter Pan. And we did a dinner. No, lunch. Lunch at the royal banquet hall in the castle. In the enchanted storybook castle. [00:46:23] Speaker B: Wonderful. [00:46:24] Speaker A: And comparing that, because I did that during the grand opening. And compared to now, it is so much better now. Like, the service is fantastic. The cast members are fantastic. The character greetings aren't a mess anymore. Like I. When we did during the grand opening, I wasn't expecting it to be perfect. It was kind of a cluster lack of a better term. But this time, everything just ran how it should. The characters came around. The cast members kept track of, like, what characters came to your table and everything. And we got a lot of time with the characters to take pictures, and they made sure everyone got their pictures with the characters. So you get Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Daisy, and they're all in, like, royal outfits that are only at that restaurant. [00:47:13] Speaker B: Those are very cute outfits. [00:47:15] Speaker A: They are. And I would definitely eat there again. The food has improved as well, and the menu has changed, too. I think they changed the menu a few times since the grand opening. Yeah. So two days of Shanghai Disneyland. Like, for Shanghai, a minimum. Two days for Shanghai Disneyland. [00:47:37] Speaker B: Right. [00:47:38] Speaker A: Minimum. Like one day. Yeah. But there's a lot to do in this one park. There really is. [00:47:44] Speaker B: It would be incredibly difficult to do in one day. I don't think it's even doable in one day. I mean, maybe if you go in the low season, but it's a lot. [00:47:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And there's a lot of walking, so you get tired very quickly. [00:47:56] Speaker B: Right. [00:47:58] Speaker A: And we got to see toy Story land that just opened up there. So that was really nice. I think it's the biggest one as of now. I haven't been. Wait, I have been to the one in Paris. I don't really remember it, though. It's definitely bigger than one in Hong Kong. Yeah, it was nice. And we did the one that's basically a carbon copy of Mater's junkyard jamboree, the woody's roundup. It was fun. It was cute. It's a carnival ride. Whatever. But the restaurants are actually really good. [00:48:36] Speaker B: Really? [00:48:37] Speaker A: Table service restaurant or, sorry, not table counter service restaurants. They have a whole bunch of different options for food. I got like, this potato chip with sour cream and guacamole, red peppers and fried chicken on top of it. It was really good. [00:48:55] Speaker B: The food in Shanghai in general is really, really good. [00:48:58] Speaker A: Yeah, the quality is up there. They also have a bubble waffle. So, you know, like, though the. It's. It's from Hong Kong, so it's like a waffle that looks like bubble. It looks like bubble wrap. [00:49:14] Speaker B: Okay, I got. [00:49:15] Speaker A: Okay, yeah, this one was lots of theme, so I had, like, a little. Lots of chocolate on it. Oh, and I came with soft serve ice cream. And everything on it is really nice. And they also have, like, the little cups, the little circular cups. I'm sure everyone's seen it on Instagram and stuff. [00:49:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:49:31] Speaker A: These little cute plastic cups. Oh, my goodness, they're so cute. What else did we do in Shanghai? Oh, I tried the. I actually bought the premier access pass. [00:49:43] Speaker B: How was that? [00:49:44] Speaker A: Once, it was very painless. You go through the same process in the app just like you would to get the normal fastpass. So the premier access is the paid fastpass. So I wanted to try it because I never done it before. And in this case, it was worth it because I wanted the seven dwarfs mine train, which usually has a pretty long wait. And it's almost a carbon copy of the one in the magic kingdom in Florida. [00:50:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:11] Speaker A: But it was a two hour wait, and I just thought, I am not waiting 2 hours. [00:50:15] Speaker B: Yeah, no. [00:50:16] Speaker A: So I bought it. It was about $8 for it, but we literally just walked on with it. So it was definitely worth not waiting the 2 hours to ride it. So try. It was really easy. I used my credit card. That's not like it's non chinese credit card or anything. It's my canadian credit card. Worked just fine. Boom. Easy. It's all on your phone. Super simple. Yeah. So Shanghai. We didn't do a day in Shanghai, though, unfortunately. Just, we didn't have enough time for. [00:50:53] Speaker B: That because of the transit visas and everything. Right. [00:50:56] Speaker A: Yeah. So we did. And we didn't want to cut time into Tokyo Disney. So after Shanghai, which was fantastic and everything. Oh, I forgot to say, say we were able to. We were lucky enough to eat at club 33 during the trip in Shanghai, too. [00:51:13] Speaker B: That's right. How was it? [00:51:15] Speaker A: It was brilliant. Brilliant. [00:51:17] Speaker B: Wonderful. [00:51:17] Speaker A: It was so good. Everybody loved it. It was so good. Club 33. It's club 33. Like, how can it not be good? [00:51:24] Speaker B: Right? Right. [00:51:26] Speaker A: It was lovely. We really, we really enjoyed it. And we got to watch the fireworks show from the balcony there. It was really lovely. And before anyone asks, sorry, I not, I'm unable to help get, get anyone into Club 33, so please don't ask because I'm, I'm unable to help. Sorry. Yeah. Overall, Shanghai, fantastic. I can't wait to get back there. I kind of want to get back for this summer because I want to do the summer show. Because I know you went. [00:51:57] Speaker B: I don't know if you want. It was so much fun, Chris, the show is really good. [00:52:01] Speaker A: I want to do the show. I really want to do the show. [00:52:03] Speaker B: It's, um. Yeah, it's really intense in the summer. I I wouldn't go in the summer. [00:52:10] Speaker A: I'll brave it. I'll brave it. Just, just the ones. So then after that, we traveled from Shanghai to Tokyo. And how we got to the airport from Shanghai or from the Toy story hotel is we just got the concierge to book us taxis. And the reason why we did that is because I trust Disney to give us, to get us legit taxis, which they did. And it was super easy, and everyone got there just fine, so there was no issues that way. So for transportation, I recommend using the shuttle from the airport to Shanghai Disneyland, and then just taking a taxi from Shanghai Disneyland to the airport. It works out to about 20 some dollars, which is not that bad. So we flew from Shanghai all the way to Tokyo, and we spent four wonderful days in Tokyo. [00:53:04] Speaker B: Where did everybody stay in Tokyo? [00:53:06] Speaker A: We stayed in the Hilton for this one, just because of the Tokyo hotels. As everyone knows that if you've listened to the podcast long enough, the official Disney hotels, like the Tokyo Disneyland, Miracosta, and ambassador, are kind of expensive, right? So since we were staying, a lot of people were staying like five nights. Didn't really want to pay that in the Disney hotel for that long. [00:53:34] Speaker B: No. [00:53:35] Speaker A: So we stayed at the Hilton and we toured all four days in that. It was, it was a lot of fun and we covered, we pretty much did everything. And everyone loved that. We did a lot of. So how we kind of structured, or how I structured the days was we would all meet in the morning and we would do, like, all the major things in the morning, and then by lunchtime, we'd have lunch together. Then after that, it was kind of free time for everyone. So if you want to go back to the hotel and rest or if you want to do shopping or there's just other stuff you would like to do, everyone had the option to do. So I did stay with some of the other explorers that wanted help with certain things. Like, some people need help with how to ship something from the hotel, or they want to find some sort of merchandise or just want to just generally hang out and pick my brain about whatever. So I stuck around for a lot of that. And then in the evenings, we would meet up for dinner. We did. So for dinners, we did. We did the course menu at Restaurant di Canteletto. [00:54:48] Speaker B: That's a nice one. Yeah. [00:54:49] Speaker A: Which was fantastic, by the way. And there, there was also filming. There was a variety show being filmed on the balcony. I never remember their names, but it's. A couple famous comedians were there. [00:55:02] Speaker B: I. Cool. [00:55:03] Speaker A: I think it's actually airing on tv tonight. I think I saw an ad for it or something. So we did that. We also did a dinner at Magellan's, of course, and I had the 35th anniversary course meal. [00:55:17] Speaker B: How is it? [00:55:19] Speaker A: Brilliant. It was. It was. It was so good. I think it was wagyu beef, right? So it's like, you know, legit wagyu beef. One of the funny things that happened was, and I totally didn't mean to do this, so one of the desserts was inside was like, almost like a cheesecake or like a cheese mousse. [00:55:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:44] Speaker A: And on the outside it was covered in a layer of, like, mango mousse. And it was. It was really good. And I was. I was on video and I was trying to, like, describe it, and I said, the mango really cuts the cheese. [00:56:02] Speaker B: Oh, no. [00:56:05] Speaker A: And I just. I just lost it. Cause as soon as I said it, I realized how bad that sounded and everybody at the table just burst out laughing and I was just beet red because I was so embarrassed from saying that. It was just. It was the funniest thing. [00:56:22] Speaker B: And you should mention you were blogging the entire time so you can. So people can go back and check those videos. [00:56:30] Speaker A: Yeah. So I did a vlog every single day that we were on the trip, so there was twelve total. I know. People were commenting, like, how are you doing this so quickly? I did it on my iPhone eight plus. I did. I had that. And I guess just kind of. It came with practice. I just edited it on my phone. Like, I used imovie. Like, like, if you watch the videos, they're nothing. Like, in terms of editing, they're not that fancy. I just kind of eyeballed how I want to do everything, and one trick that I actually use quite a bit, especially when I'm doing, like, vlog style stuff. If I notice the video was, like, really shaky for some reason. And I'm talking, what I'll do is I'll cover it with b roll so it looks like I meant to do that, but I'm just essentially, I'm just covering up the shakiness is what I'm doing. So that's a trick that I learned. So I would kind of edit throughout the day. So, like, when we would have, like, an afternoon break, I would, you know, take a break myself and maybe start editing the video. Like, editing the video together from the morning, and then when it came to the evening, okay. So I had, like, half of it done already, and then I would kind of finish it, and then if I didn't finish it in the evening, I would go to sleep, wake up earlier in the morning, and then finish it off and then upload it. So that's kind of what I did. [00:57:55] Speaker B: Yeah. And, like, when you got to, like, Japan, how is the jet lag going for everyone? [00:58:04] Speaker A: Everyone was over it by that point. [00:58:05] Speaker B: Wow, that's pretty tough, people. [00:58:07] Speaker A: I think by, by the time we got to Shanghai, everyone was okay with, with the jet lag. Wow, it was good. Yeah, man. We did everything in Tokyo. We did pretty much everything you can think of. [00:58:21] Speaker B: So did you go outside the parks? [00:58:24] Speaker A: So on our very last day of the trip, we did, a half of the group went on a day trip with our friends over at Maxim Planet. Mac, he does tours of Tokyo, so I highly recommend him if you're doing, if you want personalized tours within Tokyo, he also does tours in Kyoto as well. Head on over to maximplanet.com. tell him that Chris sent you. He'll know who you're talking about. He took us on a day tour of Tokyo, and it was a whirlwind tour, but we did so much in one day. [00:59:00] Speaker B: What did you do and how did you get around? [00:59:03] Speaker A: So it was all by train, because in Japan, that's the easiest thing to do. So we went from Myhama, so the Tokyo Disney resort area, and we started in Tsukiji, so the Tsukiji fish market. And for those that don't know, the market's closing this year forever. They're moving it, right? [00:59:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:26] Speaker A: So everyone wanted. Everyone wanted to see the fish market. And we got to walk through, like, the stalls and everything and check that out. We also ate sushi, of course. Like, if you're going to Tsukiji, you have to have the sushi because it's. [00:59:38] Speaker B: Some of the freshest. [00:59:39] Speaker A: Freshest in the world. We went to this little hole in the wall place. Mac asked me not to name it because he wants to keep that to himself. But we went to this place that was, like, totally little hole in the wall away from all the busier places. And it was delicious. I'm not a big sushi person, but this sushi was phenomenal. And it was cheap. [01:00:06] Speaker B: Great. [01:00:06] Speaker A: It was like, we got, like, I don't even know how many rolls or, like, pieces of sushi. Probably a good 1212 or 14. And it was probably just over a. That's very cheap, which is really, like, for that quality of sushi. Fantastic. And while we're doing that, of course, Mac gives a big spiel about everything because he knows a lot about this city. And there's. There's a lot to know about Tokyo. And after that, we went over to, like, the Harajuku, Omotesando Ginza. Like, we kind of did that portion. Well, I guess first we went to Ginza, walked through Ginza and everything. And then from there, we went to Hibiya. Kind of walked through Hibiya and showed where the new Godzilla statue is. [01:00:56] Speaker B: Right. [01:00:57] Speaker A: That's really cute. And then from Hibiya, we went to the imperial palace, which is near Tokyo station. [01:01:02] Speaker B: Right. [01:01:03] Speaker A: Of course, like, everyone needs to see the imperial palace. It's free. You can kind of walk up and you see it, and it's cool. Then from there, then that's when we went to. Went to Omotesando and the Harajuku area. [01:01:14] Speaker B: Right. [01:01:16] Speaker A: We did all that. Walked around and saw all the different infrastructure and stuff. [01:01:20] Speaker B: What did you do in Omotesando? [01:01:24] Speaker A: We kind of walk through some of, like, there's a little shrine in Omotesando just to kind of show the contrast of, like. Yeah, like, Omato Sando is like this big, fancy area, right? You know, with high end brands like Louis Vuitton and Gucci and Ralph Lauren, things like that. But tucked away, there's little. Little bits of culture, japanese cultures, like little shrines and stuff like that. So we got to see that. And then, yeah, we walked down the main street in Emotesando. Of course, I told Mac that we have to stop at all the Disney places that I know. We stopped at Kiddieland, which is in Emotesando, and they have the Disney Avenue there. So a lot of people or everyone that was on the trip with us, the day trip, they spent money there, of course. [01:02:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:02:15] Speaker A: There's a lot of merchandise at Kittyland. The merchandise there is unique, so you can't buy it at the Disney store or at the parks. [01:02:22] Speaker B: It's really fun. Yeah. [01:02:24] Speaker A: So whatever's there, buy it because you're not going to get it anywhere else. And then, of course, we walked through harajuku. We went down the Takeshita dori, Takeshita street, and we tried out a bunch of the different sweets. [01:02:37] Speaker B: Oh, the colorful, colorful. [01:02:40] Speaker A: Like cotton candy. The crepes. Like they're famous for their crepes. We also had Japan's longest potato tornado. It was called. It's like a potato potato that's deep fried and, like, spun. So it like, it looks like a really long spiral. [01:02:57] Speaker B: Yes, I've seen that. Yeah. [01:02:59] Speaker A: Really good. And then there's, it's called, like, saku saku ice cream, which is like the crunchy ice cream. We had that as well. And then, of course, we went to the Meiji shrine. I love in Harajuku there. So everyone goes to Meiji shrine. Of course, if you're in the area, you have to go to it. [01:03:16] Speaker B: Right. [01:03:18] Speaker A: We did that. And then we ended the night in Shibuya, going to the Disney store, of course, seeing the crosswalk. [01:03:27] Speaker B: Right. [01:03:29] Speaker A: And everything. So. And we did that all in one day. [01:03:33] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:03:35] Speaker A: So it is possible to do this stuff in one day. And especially if you have Mac with you, he's going to show you the best place places. Oh, and we also had ramen for dinner. Again, it's in a place he asked me not to mention because it's one of his little secret places that he loves to take people. So we had this delicious ramen, and I'm like, oh, my goodness, I need to come back here. Because it was so good. [01:03:57] Speaker B: What kind of ramen was it? [01:03:59] Speaker A: They do something different with it. They use a different broth. It's something that's kind of like, quote unquote edgy, I guess. Like, in terms of, like, ramen, I if that makes any sense. I could tell you after the show. And then. Yeah, after that, that was our last day. Some people were staying a little bit longer, but most people went home after that. I did get everyone to, or almost everyone on the trip to show everything they bought. [01:04:32] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Wait, I didn't see that. [01:04:35] Speaker A: It's up on YouTube along with all the vlogs. It's a 40 minutes merchandise haul video. [01:04:42] Speaker B: Oh, my God. [01:04:44] Speaker A: So I got everyone to lay out their merchandise, and I just kind of. We went through it all. I asked them about it, what were their favorite items were from all the Disney parks. So from Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Tokyo. It was a lot of fun. It was really good. I enjoyed doing that. And everyone was really happy to. To show everything that they bought. One thing that a lot of people were asking, I think we talked about it in the 35th anniversary show, but the. The customized keychains, right? A lot of people really like those, and I was getting a lot of questions about those. So the customized keychains for 35th anniversary, you can do it at both Disneyland and Disneysea. At Disneyland, it's at Monsters, Inc. And at Disneysea, it's in the lost River Delta in the outpost area. It's right beside Miguel's restaurant. And what it is is these customized keychains that look like Mickey ears, and it looks like a little clock inside. And you get to customize it. You get to have your name put on it and put little charms on it. And the charms will have the logos from all the different major anniversaries on it. And you can put a character, like a silhouette of a character on the back of it and everything. I think it starts at ¥2600, which is about $25. And it goes up from there as you add more accessories to it. And just of note, the Disneyland Disney sea versions, they look different because the Disneyland says Disneyland and it's a gold color, and the Disney Sea, obviously, is a Disneysea on it, but it's like a bronze color, like a darker bronze or, like copper or whatever. So, yeah, just keep that in mind. [01:06:29] Speaker B: What did you learn from your trip? [01:06:31] Speaker A: What did I learn from my trip? That I can walk a lot. That I walk a lot, that I actually know a lot more than I thought I did about the parks and just how hot Hong Kong is. Like, I've known that. But, like, when you're walking around all day and, like, explaining things to people and showing things, people showing things to people, it's just like, you need to stay hydrated. You really need to, especially in Hong Kong. And, like, during the summer at any of the parks here, you have to stay hydrated. Of course, with Shanghaiden, the app is essential, absolutely essential. And of note, the Wi Fi will work with the app like it's not affected by the great firewall of China. I won't go into detail about that. I have it in the travel guide for that. And using the 30 minutes entry is worth its weight in gold. It really is. I don't think I could ever visit Shanghai Disneyland again without doing that. I am willing to spend the extra money to stay at the Toy Story hotel just for that extra 30 minutes. [01:07:45] Speaker B: Cool. [01:07:47] Speaker A: What else did I learn? That we have some pretty awesome explorers out there. Everyone on the trip was lovely. We had such a good time, and everyone really got, like, everyone got really close on the trip. Like, everyone was friends, everyone was talking and everything, laughing and just sharing stories and everything. It was just like, we had such a great group of people. It was really wonderful. [01:08:14] Speaker B: It sounds amazing. [01:08:16] Speaker A: Yeah. It's just like getting fans together that are there to enjoy the parks and sharing these experiences with people that, you know, appreciate it just as much as you. I think it's one of those things that. It's one of those things that's really hard to put a price on. I'd say, like, yeah, you can go to the parks, you know, with you and, you know, your friends or your family as a small group, and that, of course, that's wonderful. But also going with a group of other people that you don't know necessarily, you get to. You get to know them over the course of these days, and it's just like one of those bonding experiences, which I think is just so wonderful. And it's also great, too. Like, if you're someone who does solo trips, maybe doing a group trip, you know, you get to share. It's a shared experience. [01:09:03] Speaker B: And one more question, because I know some people do come as a part of, like, family, like, gatherings and stuff. What would you recommend for people that are coming in a group that's a little bit bigger from the normal group? [01:09:15] Speaker A: You're gonna have to do a lot more planning ahead of time. A lot more planning. You're gonna have to be a little more rigid in terms of reservations, like restaurant reservations and stuff. So that that's probably the most important thing. It's like, make sure you have the reservations kind of, like, picked out ahead of time so you can make them. That's probably, like, the biggest thing I would say. And also allow for breaks because I know a lot of people want to, like, go, go, go. And it's easy that that's easy to do when it's, like, one or two of you together. Because, you know, if you're traveling, you know, together, like, two of you usually, you know, it's like two friends that know each other really well, or a couple or something. So you kind of. It's easier to do it that way. But if you're in a group, you need to have those breaks because not everyone's going to want to go, go, go. [01:10:04] Speaker B: Right. [01:10:05] Speaker A: So that's another thing to keep in mind. That's going to be a little bit slower paced in a bigger group. So just keep that in mind when you're scheduling things, too. So just make sure there's a lot of breaks in there and make sure everyone has backups of their passports. You don't want to lose those. [01:10:22] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Yeah. [01:10:25] Speaker A: Not that we had any issues. We didn't have any issues with that, but it's just one of those things. You want to just make sure you. [01:10:30] Speaker B: Have backups of your passport just in case. [01:10:33] Speaker A: Just in case you don't want to deal with that. [01:10:35] Speaker B: And one last question. I'm sorry. I know I'm asking a million questions. Will you do this again? [01:10:41] Speaker A: That's a good question. And that's part of the listener question. We haven't made anything official yet, but we're in talks of doing another one. [01:10:51] Speaker B: Cool. [01:10:52] Speaker A: So I know we have people on the waiting list already, so if you are interested, just. I'll put a link in the show notes. You can send a mess email to David and stuff, and we can kind of go from there. So once we know more and once we kind of finalize things, talk things over, because, of course, we have to change a couple things. You know, we learn stuff and whatever. So talk about the next one. So, yeah, I would love to do another one because I really enjoyed this. Yes, it was a lot of work, and, yes, I was very tired at the end. It was two weeks, but I loved it. I absolutely loved it. And it was so, like, for me, it was so fulfilling to show everybody these parks in Asia, especially Tokyo, because, you know, Tokyo is near and dear to our hearts. So it's just like, it was just so great to show. Show it to everybody and knowing it's people that want to be there and appreciate it just as much as we do. So, yeah, I guess a park. A park tip. I guess it kind of encompasses all the parks. Like, what order should you do the parks in? I kind of think, like, I know, like, for this trip we started with, we ended with Tokyo. [01:12:11] Speaker B: Mm hmm. [01:12:11] Speaker A: But I kind of think depending on the time of year, it might be better to flip it, mainly because Hong Kong is so hot. It is draining. It just wears you out, the heat. So I feel like if you're doing that at the beginning, you're kind of tired. You kind of go throughout the rest of the trip, and that might be, like, really draining on you. So I'm thinking doing it the opposite way. Get to Tokyo, do that first, because you're gonna be, you know, excited to be there and full of energy. [01:12:44] Speaker B: Draining in a different way, though. [01:12:46] Speaker A: Yeah, it is. But, like, once you get to Hong Kong, if you're really tired, Hong Kong is really easy to do. [01:12:54] Speaker B: That's true. [01:12:55] Speaker A: Like, Hong Kong is the easiest of them all. [01:12:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:12:58] Speaker A: To do. So if you're really tired, like, you can take that three hour nap in the afternoon if you need to, and you're not really gonna miss a whole lot in Hong Kong. [01:13:05] Speaker B: True. What time of year would you do this again? If you do it again, I would. [01:13:11] Speaker A: Probably still do it in May. [01:13:12] Speaker B: Okay. [01:13:13] Speaker A: Just because the weather is favorable in Tokyo and Shanghai, Hong Kong is the only time it's not hot in Hong Kong is, like, december, January. But that's not ideal for the Tokyo or Shanghai because it's too cold for most people, I would say. So, you know, I don't think there's any perfect time to do all three in one go because there's pros and cons for them all, I'd say. But may is probably, like, the best, as the best as you can get. Another one might be, like, September, October. [01:13:47] Speaker B: Oh, that could be really nice. [01:13:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Hong Kong is still really hot. [01:13:51] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah, I. [01:13:52] Speaker A: At that point, but not much you can do in that sense. So maybe that I would say, because if you do it, like, for Shanghai and Hong Kong, if you're doing it, like, you don't want to do it in February. March. No, February, of course, is Chinese New Year. You do not want to do that. That is a bad time to go. So we wouldn't be doing that. And, of course, the weather's nicer, but it's going to be really busy, so. Yeah. Oh, my goodness. [01:14:22] Speaker B: It was a whirlwind trip. [01:14:24] Speaker A: It was a whirlwind trip, and I loved every minute of it. I know I was busy. I was doing videos every day and touring people around, everything, but I just. I had such a lovely time. I really, really enjoyed it. It was so much fun. [01:14:37] Speaker B: That is so cool. Well, I'm glad that you enjoyed the trip, and I'm glad that the explorers also had a really wonderful time. [01:14:42] Speaker A: All right, so before we go, we have to say thank you to our fellow explorers who are supporting us on Patreon, the five dollar level and above. No, $5. Yeah, five level and above. You get a shout out on the show. So I'll start. All right, sounds good. [01:15:01] Speaker B: Sounds good. [01:15:01] Speaker A: All right. So thank you to Bryson, Michael, Timothy, Carrie, Louis, Lee, Benjamin, Sophie, Mama, explore, Carl and Tracy, and big, big thank. [01:15:12] Speaker B: You to holly and Marie and Leanne and Kathy and JP and Jane and Angela and Darren and alex, Claudia, acros, Disney girl, Clarie, Sarah, Amy, David, and Disney it girl. Yay. Thank you to all of you. You're all amazing. [01:15:30] Speaker A: Thank you so, so much. And don't forget to rate review us on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play music. And if you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to us so you don't miss an episode. And if you have any questions, suggestions for us, you can send them to us. Contactdrexplorer.com and make sure you tell everybody about us because, you know, we help you plan your trip. We know what we're doing most of the time. I like to think we do. You can find everything that we talked about on our website, tdrexplore.com. and we're also across all social, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and on YouTube. Make sure you head over to YouTube, YouTube.com tdrexplorer. That's where I have all the vlogs for our trip to Asia. So you can kind of see how it went. You can be there. It feels like you're there. I have a playlist on there and also put a link in the show notes for you as well. I'm one of your hosts, Chris, chief content editor for TDR Explorer, and I am the one eating all the food at every single park in. That's what I do. You can find me on my personal Instagram and Twitter explorer Nowgay. That's explorer nilghe, and as always, is Patricia. [01:16:45] Speaker B: I'm here taking pictures, and I am the one waiting for summer. Like real summer. So excited. [01:16:55] Speaker A: It's already hot. [01:16:55] Speaker B: It's getting there. It's not beach weather yet, but it's getting there. And you can find me on Instagram and on Twitter at dreamsweetslove. And you guys keep exploring and see you next time. [01:17:08] Speaker A: All right, until next time, explorers.