Best Year Ever!! An International Disney Park PTR

Today's the day, folks!!! In just about 7 hours we'll be heading on a plane to LAX with our dreams and a cardigan. Thanks to everyone who pitched in ideas and advice (thanks @Lesley Wake and @OhioStateBuckeye especially!!) and helped us plan this amazing trip. The weather looks STUNNING and I am so ready to be a California girl for the next 10 days.

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I won't be updating here, but if you want to follow along then check out my Disneygram dolewhipandwishes. And if you're interested in following my personal 'gram for the more LA stuff (versus Disney stuff) then just DM me once you follow the dolewhip account and I'll tell you my personal handle.

Question for you- when I write my TR would anyone be interested to see our pre/post ABD stuff? Or should I just focus on the ABD portion? I'll be taking copious pictures and notes anyway but I thought I would see what the opinion is here.
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Talk to you all next week!
 


Hello friends!! Sorry for the radio silence since our ABD. It's been madness coming back from vacation and adjusting to real life. I promise I've thought about starting my TR, but I always like to go through my photos first and....guys. I have over 2000 photos from this trip. And it was only 9 days. It's gonna take me a while. Couple that with the fact that I realized I was WAY behind on planning for our France trip and I honestly am not even sure I'll be able to start it before we leave for the next adventure! I mean I might be able to get like the intro and travel day done but that might be all.
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Anyway, rest assured that the trip was amazing and you are all in for one HECK of a TR (eventually) where I'll answer questions like: did Ann finally see a celebrity? What's it like going to Disney with Invisalign? (spoiler alert- it sucks big time) and How many times did Ann tear up when normal people were totally fine? Stay tuned. But hey here's a few shots that I've worked on so far that I like to keep you happy:

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In the meantime, I've been busting tail trying to get some details nailed down for France. Usually by now I've got every day of a trip pretty much laid out and I'd be working on details like where we should eat or shops that look fun to stop in. But I'm so far behind that I didn't even have big things like what trains we needed to take to get from city to city or where we needed to book our rental car (don't worry I got those figured out today). Speaking of which, rental cars in France are HECKA expensive, especially for those of us who never learned how to drive manual.

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BUT for those who are interested, here's our rough plans for France!

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Day 1- Travel
  • Our flight leaves our home airport at like 10:15am so it will be nice not to have to wake up super early or anything. You all know my love of evening flights but there just really weren't any that worked well for us this time around. It will make the time change tricky, though. We'll connect in Charlotte and leave for Paris at 4pm and my plan is to try to trick my body into thinking it's bed time and just sleep the whole flight because we're landing fresh at 7am Paris time and we are gonna hit that ground running!
Day 2- First day in Paree
  • We'll drop off our stuff at the hotel I booked for us in the Latin Quarter. It's awesome because it's on a quiet street but is still only like a 15 minute walk from Notre Dame (RIP) so I think it's going to be a great location.
  • Then we're just going to do some self-guided walking tours and maybe pop into a few museums. My original plan was to climb the towers of Notre Dame first thing so I could channel my inner Quasimodo and sing Out There( which I may or may not be listening to right now) to the gargoyles but obviously that can't happen. So I'll just shout it at them from the fence line instead.
  • The plan is to see a lot of the central part of the city around Notre Dame, then explore the Latin Quarter and Saint Germain areas.
Day 3- Paris part deux
  • Today will involve more museums and attractions, notably a tour of the Palais Garnier opera house (I love me some Phantom of the Opera), l'Orangerie to see Monet's Water Lilies (don't hate us but this is the only art museum we'll probably visit. We aren't even going to the Louvre because we are uncultured swine and also #crowds), Les Invalides, and the Trocadero. Then we'll end the night with a sunset trip up the Eiffel Tower.
Day 4- Day trip adventure!
  • So I found this thing that sounds amazing. Every Sunday during the warm season, there's a bus that goes around through this national park area about an hour outside of Paris. You can take it around and visit some sites but it's mostly to drop people off for country walking. So we'll spend the day out and about in the French countryside.
Day 5- What? ANOTHER day trip?
  • So I'm going to level with you. Neither of us are huge fans of big cities (Jon especially). So even though we only have 5 total days in Paris, we're spending two of them out of the city. Our second day trip is to a beautiful royal palace (and no it's not Versaille). We're going to check out Fontainebleau, which is even older than Versaille but much less busy.
You may have noticed that we are intentionally not doing a lot of things that people suggest to do in Paris (the Louvre, Versaille, Montmartre, etc). That's because I realized that I don't want to build vacations around doing things just so we can tick them off a box if they hold no actual interest to us. Honestly, I'm okay not seeing the actual Mona Lisa. Same with Versaille. With our limited time we'd rather try some other things that we know we'll actually enjoy. Anyway, on with the show.

Day 6- Back to Paris

  • Today is a nice blend of wandering and attractions. We'll start at the Musee de Cluny, which is a museum of medieval history. I freaking love medieval history so I'm PUMPED for this one. Then we'll roam Le Marais, check out dead people at Pere Lachaise cemetery, hit up a digital art installation, then end the evening at the Arc de Triomphe.
Day 7- On to Disneyland!
  • We get to sleep in today! Woohoo! (and you're welcome Jon). We're going to take a mid-morning train out to DLP then head straight to the parks! We have a reservation at Bistro Chez Remy for an early dinner but we'll probably spend the most time in Parc Disneyland as opposed to Walt Disney Studios.
Day 8- More DLP
  • Today is focused on Parc Disneyland and we have a lunch reservation at Agrabah Cafe.
Day 9- Last full DLP day
  • This day starts at the Studios and we'll hop around a lot, with lunch at Walt's in there somewhere.
Day 10- Off to the next stop
  • We'll have a few hours in the parks this morning to ride any of our favorites one last time before getting on a train headed toward Provence! We get off in Avignon then we're staying in a small village about 30 minutes away. We'll arrive at Avignon by 3:30pm so we can either spend a little time there and maybe see the Papal Palace (where the Popes hung out before they moved back to Rome), or we can go straight to the village for a quiet evening. Not sure yet.
Day 11- More than this Provencal life?
  • We're doing a fun one day road trip of some villages in the Luberon Valley, which looks absolutely stunning. Like colorful houses perched on hilltops with castles at the top. So excited for today!
Day 12- Catapults, Castles, and Roman villages? Oh my!
  • We get to go back in time to visit some more super old stuff. We'll check out a medieval castle with a catapult demonstration then end the day at an excavated Roman settlement. Chills.
Day 13- Beach please
  • That's right, we're going coastal. The last leg of our trip is in a small resort town on the Riviera. I found a hotel with a diving board. Into the Mediterranean (pinch me). The plan is to relax, ocean swim, then relax.
Days 14-16- Beaches, kayaks, hiking, all of it
  • Okay I'll be honest I haven't planned these days yet, but I know Jon wants me to keep them simple and relaxing. I know for sure we'll do a kayak tour of a nearby cove rock formation thing but otherwise it will be up to what we're feeling that day!
Day 17- We begin the journey home
  • We'll have most of this day at the resort/beach, but we'll leave in the afternoon to get back to Avignon to catch a train to Paris where I booked us a hotel next to the airport.
Day 18- Adieu!
  • Alas, we must travel home eventually. We have an 11:30am flight home so we'll be able to get a lot of rest before hopping right over to the airport to head home. It's scheduled to get us home at 6:30pm our time so we'll probably go straight to bed because we both have to work the next day!
That's all for now (mostly because I'm at work and it's time to go home)! I promise I'll try really really hard to get a TR started before I leave because writing two at the same time sounds like the kind of fun I don't really want to have.
 


Can’t wait to hear about the ABD trip!

However this Paris trip seems perfect to me, honestly I think the plan to do what you want to do and not what’s popular is better! Who wants to do stuff that doesn’t interest them?. I sometimes hate the pressure to feel be able to say I did xyz when I was where ever. Especially if it’s not stuff I’m going to enjoy!
 
Paris plans sound great!

I love the idea of not just ticking the tourist boxes, but doing things that actually interest you.

Seeing the Mona Lisa would be ok, but it sounds like it's so hard to even see it with the crowds. I could die pretty happy having never seen it either.
 
Paris plans sound great!

I love the idea of not just ticking the tourist boxes, but doing things that actually interest you.

Seeing the Mona Lisa would be ok, but it sounds like it's so hard to even see it with the crowds. I could die pretty happy having never seen it either.

The crowds for the Mona Lisa are ridiculous I recommend bringing a baby in a stroller. We got put in front of the crowds and told we could take some selfies. Our tour guide said it was the closest she has ever been.

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Baby in the stroller not pictured she was sleeping, the Louve can do that to ya.
 
I sometimes hate the pressure to feel be able to say I did xyz when I was where ever.
Exactly! I actually feel this from my MIL who is actually a huge art fan. Since we first told her we were going to France she keeps bringing up how we have to tell her how the Louvre is...I still haven't told her we're not going.

Seeing the Mona Lisa would be ok, but it sounds like it's so hard to even see it with the crowds. I could die pretty happy having never seen it either.
Yup, I feel the same. Plus the Louvre has actually been turning people away with valid tickets all summer and there have been a few strikes. I just don't care enough to waste time dealing with it when I could go do something else much more fun, probably involving a baguette.

Sounds amazing !
We are so excited!
 
Great plans for your France trip! We went to Palais Garnier and it was one of my favorite stops. SO pretty!

Can't wait to hear about your ABD trip!
 
Hi everyone! Who else is super glad it's Friday? I've been at work for two hours and I'm already ready to go home. Anyway, as promised, here is my TR for our Backstage Magic ABD! Don't expect too many updates before our France trip since I'm still furiously planning away at that one.

As for France, I've been nailing down the details for each of our days and it's been really fun. Usually I stress about making sure we eat at the absolute best places wherever we go, but I'm not so worried about that for this trip. We'll just eat where we eat and we'll probably enjoy it! Honestly I plan to eat mostly baguettes, cheese, and croissants so I feel like if that's my standard then I'll be fine.

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[Me in France]

I've been focused more on what to wear since the French are known for fashion and all that. Even though I know I won't fit in exactly (pink hair does that) I want to at least try to look like I could belong there. Then there's the added challenge of wanting to Disneybound some days, so trying to find Disneybound outfits that are French inspired and don't require me to spend much money is real #work let me tell ya. Plus I've been trying to nail the effortlessly natural French makeup look, which turns out isn't so effortless and is actually really difficult and requires a fair amount of makeup. Especially when you're as pale as I am.

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Anyway hopefully I'll see you all over on my ABD TR soon! I have a feeling it will be a fun one.
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I'm going to France in a little over a week! First week is a work conference then the next week vacation - the last two days will be at DLP! I'm not worrying about fashion or makeup to fit in - just happy that it looks like they won't be in the middle of a massive heat wave again while we're there... knock on wood!
 
I'm going to France in a little over a week! First week is a work conference then the next week vacation - the last two days will be at DLP! I'm not worrying about fashion or makeup to fit in - just happy that it looks like they won't be in the middle of a massive heat wave again while we're there... knock on wood!
Oh have fun! Yes the weather looks like it will actually be reasonable.
 
GUYS

I've made a simultaneously wonderful and terrible discovery- DLP specific merch (especially ears 😍 😍 😍 ). It's wonderful because I'm so excited to buy it all and it's terrible because of limited suitcase space... Anyway look how cute some of these ears are!

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And my personal faves:

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EEK look how cute they are!! And it's France colors and they're wearing little berets and I CAN'T HANDLE IT. There's a real good chance I'll be walking away with those, the only downside I see is they're so France-specific that it may be hard to find a way to wear them in other parks. But those Oswald ears are for SURE coming home with me.

Update: I also just found the clothes section so I need a whole other post to rave about that.
 
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