6 in 6 in '26!

For many years, one of the items on our travel bucket list was visiting all international Disney Parks on one trip - and we knew we wouldn't be able to do so until we retired.

While we didn't quite accomplish that (YET!), we did manage something similar!

As we planned our trip to Asia in our quest to finally visit Shanghai Disneyland and Hong Kong Disneyland, we decided to add a return visit to Tokyo Disneyland after having first gone there in 2017. Since we also had annual passes to Disneyland and WDW, we realized that it would be possible get to five of the six international Disney spots in 2026.

Don't tell us "five of the six," because that just means we'll figure out a way for it to be "all six!"

To make that happen, we planned a trip to WDW in late January, a trip to Disneyland in February, and a trip to Disneyland Paris in May, in addition to the three Asia parks in July, to complete the list!

I also came up with the title for this adventure: 6 in 6 in '26! - meaning trips to each of the six Disney castles in six months in 2026!

We planned to visit WDW (#1) on January 24 and then Hong Kong Disneyland (#6) on July 16, with the other four happening in between, which would meet the timeline of six months. Our other criteria was to stay at the Disneyland Hotel on all trips (obviously there is no Disneyland Hotel at WDW, so we opted for the flagship hotel there - Grand Floridian) and we were super excited when we had everything plotted out and all hotel stays secured!

Before this adventure even began, it was almost derailed because of an ice storm in January that forced us to cancel our trip. Luckily, WDW is clearly the easiest of the six for us to get to, so we rebooked the trip for last weekend and were still within our six-month timeframe; Disneyland (#1) was February 21 and WDW (#6) was August 15, with the other four destinations in between)!

While there are six Disney castles, there are a total 12 Disney theme parks: Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, Disneyland Paris, Disney Adventure World, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland. Now that we've been to each of them, we can definitely say that Shanghai Disneyland is our favorite! As far as the castles go, it's a pretty close call between Paris and Shanghai, and in terms of the hotels, Paris is our favorite (although the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim is the sentimental winner)!

wore this shirt at WDW last weekend
and it generated a lot of conversations
with cast members and other guests!

Six Disney Castles:

Six Disney Castles with my rainbow Dachshund:

Disneyland

Disneyland Paris

Tokyo Disneyland

Shanghai Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland

Walt Disney World

Six Flagship Disney Hotels:

Disneyland Hotel
Anaheim

Disneyland Hotel
Paris

Disneyland Hotel
Tokyo

Disneyland Hotel
Shanghai

Disneyland Hotel
Hong Kong

Grand Floridian
WDW

Hotel Keys:

Disneyland

Disneyland Paris

Tokyo Disneyland

Shanghai Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland

Grand Floridian

Six Disney Castles with my favorite Tinker Bell ears:

Disneyland

Disneyland Paris

Tokyo Disneyland

Shanghai Disneyland

Hong Kong Disneyland

Walt Disney World

It was fun to use the apps for all six parks:

As I've said before, whenever we're working on any kind of checklist, it's always a relief when we complete it, since there's an ever-present potential for something going awry and thwarting our carefully-laid plans!

The original bucket list item of going to all Disney Parks around the world in one trip will have to wait a while until we retire (and a Disney Park is opening in Abu Dhabi in a few years, so we'll have to make that part of the trip, too!), but we are extremely pleased with our 6 in 6 in '26! adventure!

Happy Tails to you!

Asia July 2026: Wrap Up

Like I've done before, this is a final recap of our trip that includes the random stats I tracked.

What you may notice about our travel - and this is no shade to anyone who either refuses to pay for anything more than a basic fare or others who refuse to fly anything less than business or first class - but we were really not too particular about flights beyond always trying to fly on aircraft where there are pairs of seats so we don't have to sit with anyone else. When that's not possible, we're happy to deal with someone sitting between us in a row of three if it means a direct flight or a better price or it just works best for our travel schedule. We're just not very snobby when it comes to flights! Of course business-class seats are amazing and when they work for our schedule or within our budget, we'll happily book them, but they are not a "must" for us. While a 14-hour flight from D.C. to Tokyo in economy-class seats might not have been luxurious, it was perfectly fine and got us where we needed to be - and I guess that sums up our feelings about flights.

Hotels, on the other hand, are a different story. When it's a quick trip or a one-night stay in the U.S., we're also not snobby and have no issue with a no-frills hotel, but when we're traveling outside of the country, we're a little more choosy. The location is always a major factor in our decision, since we almost typically want to stay downtown and close to public transportation, so that usually leads to some of the fancier hotel chains. As the years have gone on and we've traveled more and more, I've come to really appreciate nicer hotels that offer lounges and breakfast and such. Because we tend to take longer trips and do a lot of things on those trips, it's such a gift to have somewhere lovely to rest or enjoy down time. I feel like this trip really showcased that, because every hotel we stayed at was amazing!

our hotel keys from the trip
(the key from our Disney Cruise not pictured)

Anyone who knows us is well aware that C does the trip planning and I happily go along for the ride. I was so proud that last year, I was the one who booked both our safari and voyage to Antarctica (although C still worked out all of the logistics in terms of flights and hotels for those trips)! For this trip to Asia, I booked the Disneyland Hotels and figured out options for park tickets, but again, C did the heavy lifting and booked everything else. He is also the one who handles all of the legal paperwork for us - the visas and immigration forms - and the one who makes sure we understand the rules and regulations for each place we visit. This is no small undertaking, because not only does each country have its own policies, but some countries, including one on this trip, are extremely strict. What may appear to be a carefree, smooth, and seamless trip is the result of hours upon hours of research and meticulous planning! He is the absolute best and I'm able to be in a blissful state of mild ignorance because of all of his hard work!

The only major negative we encountered was the weather. It was very hot and humid everywhere we went, and we had some days of very heavy rain! However, that's what you get in July and since July is the only time of year I'm able to take a four-week-long trip, we just dealt with it via raincoats and umbrellas and lots of sunscreen!

On the upside, neither of us got sick, which is always a concern when traveling anywhere...airports, cars, hotels, restaurants, metros, theme parks, etc. bring with them countless germs and neither of us had any issues whatsoever. One health thing that did happen was that I got several bug bites, two of which were very severe and caused a large section of my left calf to turn bright red, itchy, and hot to the touch. At first I didn't pay a lot of attention to it, but it got worse and worse over several days and finally I texted my dad halfway around the world asking for medical advice and what kind of medication I should look for! He gave me some suggestions and we found a pharmacy in Hong Kong and over the course of the following week, my leg healed. Thankfully it didn't impact my ability to walk or anything, and I was able to keep it medicated and covered up as the infection (or whatever it was!) slowly improved.

One thing I wanted to share was that we were blown away by how many people very kindly tried to speak English to us. We made no assumptions about English being spoken or understood in any place aside from Singapore (it's an official language there) and we were ready to communicate by way of google translate and hand gestures. We had hoped that perhaps some staff members at the each of the hotels would understand a little English (and they absolutely did), given that Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong are major international cities. I also thought that the Disney cast members at each of the three Disneyland Hotels would understand some English because of people like us who visit the parks from English-speaking countries. We had no issues in Tokyo or Hong Kong, but the cast member we checked in with at the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel did not speak English and both we and she were frustrated and she finally led us over to the concierge desk where there were cast members who could help us, so in the end every worked out just fine! But in terms of regular, non-tourism-industry-employees, we were so pleasantly surprised by how often people chatted with us in English - in lines at the Disney parks, in cars, at various places on the numerous tours we took, and so on! We were truly so touched that people tried to make us feel welcome or helped us out when we were clearly not understanding something (how to order or how to pay or how to use a machine of some sort)! It's amazing how kind and helpful most people are and how a simple smile or gesture can override language barriers to understanding!

Nights Away From Home: 26
Hotels: 22

Disney Cruise: 3

Red-Eye Flights: 1

Hotel Chains:

- Kimpton

- Tokyo Disneyland Hotel

- Conrad Shanghai

- Shanghai Disneyland Hotel

- Conrad Hong Kong

- Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel

- Four Seasons Singapore

- J.W. Marriott Singapore

- TWA Hotel

New Countries Added to Our Travel List: 2

- China #43

- Indonesia #44

Number of Airlines: 4

- ANA (2 flights: IAD-HND and HND-PVG)

- Cathay Pacific (1 flight: PVG-HKG)

- Singapore (2 flights: HKG-SIN and SIN-JFK)

- Delta (1 flight: JFK-IAD)

Hours Spent in the Air: 41

Miles Traveled by Plane: 20,210

Total Walking Distance: approximately 294,000 steps / 117 miles

Nights Away From Avalanche:

me: 30

C: 29 (he drove up to Canada to pick Avalanche up without me, since I had to return to work!)

Furthest Distance From Avalanche: 9,335 miles

This is the second farthest distance we've ever been from Avalanche!

When we were in Melbourne, Australia and he was in Canada, the distance between us was about 10,100 miles!

Avalanche had a great time summer camp with C's mom and dad and we are so incredibly grateful to them for keeping him for an entire month! While he's a very easy-going dog, it's still a lot to care for, walk, and feed a fluffy 70-pound dog, and put up with his occasional sass!

For now, it's back to work and more planning for future travel!

Happy Tails to you!

Asia July 2026: Shanghai Disneyland

We made it to our fifth Disney Castle!

The last time we experienced a new-to-us Disney Park was back in 2017 when we went to Japan for the first time, so this was a big deal to us! We also weren't sure when we would ever make it to China, for a multitude of reasons, so getting here was super exciting!

My "struggle" was in how to balance just living in the moment and experiencing a new park, trying to take it all in, while simultaneously capturing pictures of things I wanted to remember and as a result, I was overwhelmed in the very best way! I think the pictures in the post capture some of the absolute magic that Shanghai Disneyland offers, although there were probably a thousand more I could have taken!

It's difficult to describe this park because I will quickly run out of words and still fall short! It is INCREDIBLE. The layout, the theming, the castle, the attractions, the nighttime show...I could go on and on. It exceeded every single hope and expectation we had and I literally have only one negative to say about it: the park serves Pepsi products. Very disappointing! LOL!

It's hard to pinpoint the very best thing about Shanghai Disneyland because everything is so well done. The castle is stunning, and I admit I went in with a bit of a chip on my shoulder, convinced it couldn't be better that the Disneyland Paris castle, which was my favorite. I'm more than okay with have been incorrect on the matter! Overall, though, I think I would have to say that it's the attractions that really set the park apart. Pirates of the Caribbean and Peter Pan's Flight are just two that we rode multiple times because of how amazing they are, and we were completely blown away by the entire Zootopia area!

While we were there, it was extremely hot and disgustingly humid, and a literal typhoon was causing some disruptions to park operations - on Saturday, no fireworks with snack carts and attractions closing early, and then a delayed park opening on Sunday. In spite of these things, nothing could dampen our opinion!

We arrived just after noon on Friday, and had a flight leaving Shanghai on Monday afternoon, so we bought an "after 3pm" ticket for Friday (due to our arrival time) and Sunday (due to the park not being open in the morning thanks to the typhoon), and a regular full-day ticket for Saturday. Unlike Disneyland, WDW, Disneyland Paris, and Tokyo Disneyland, there is only one park, so we were able to see and do a lot during our visit!

One interesting thing was that park tickets are associated with your passport (I believe this is for foreign visitors and that domestic visitors can used any government-issued identification), so any time we entered the park, the cast member scanned our passports. If it was our first entry of the day, we got paper tickets after our passports were scanned, but if it was a return visit on the same day, only our passports were scanned, without scanning the paper tickets they'd given us earlier that day or without printing new paper tickets, so I do not at all understand the purpose of the paper tickets. Clearly I'm missing something here because bothering with the paper tickets at all seemed like a waste of time and resources to me!

Shanghai Disneyland is pure magic!

I've loosely organized the photos into groups, so they are not in chronological order, but this made the most sense when I was going through all of them!

Park Entrance:

scanning my passport at the entrance turnstile

the paper tickets were cute, but as far as
I'm concerned, served no purpose!

Enchanted Storybook Castle:

Mickey Avenue (aka Main Street, USA):

Attractions and Things Around the Park:

this Pixar Adventurous Journey
was so great!

you choose a fish type, customize
its colors, and your design appears up
on the big screen so you can watch your
fish swim around!

this was my design!

on Friday night, we felt like
we had the whole place to ourselves!

there were no people anywhere near us!

this was the only let down in terms of
attractions - it was so odd and the queue
was blah and the storyline was a
stretch at best

prior to this, the longest wait time I'd ever seen
was a 300 minute wait to meet Elsa
during the post-Frozen insanity...
this is for the character who is part of the
Duffy storyline and who was created in this park
(and don't get me wrong, the character is adorable
and I love her, but six hours!!!)

Food and Treats:

And finally, I've saved the best for last...Zootopia!

the audio animatronics are insanely good!

the attraction is so immersive!

We absolutely love, love, LOVE this park! We're already trying to plan out when we can come back!

Happy Tails to you!