Disney March Madness: The Ismert’s Final Four
Do you love March Madness? Maybe by now your bracket is as busted as mine is. Don’t be sad, just keep reading and you’ll have four absolute winners you are going to love! Welcome to my version of Disney March Madness! Where we pick the ultimate Disney dream vacation, a trip that will blow up your bucket list and make you feel like a Disney champion for the rest of your life!
Dream Disney Vacations
We are talking DREAM trips here. In this dream there is a VERY generous travel budget, perfect weather, new luggage full of new clothes, the best moods and happy vibes for you and your family and a cute passport picture. All Guaranteed!!
Here are some basics you need to know about the competition. All of these trips include days at Disney Theme parks! All of these trips require a passport because you are going international! All of these trips are long (12 days to 15 days) and all of them are trips you can really do.
Breaking Down the Disney Dream Trips & Matchups
Let’s break down these trips and determine what is the very best DISNEY DREAM trip of all time!
The trips are seeded according to number of days; the longest trip is the highest seed and the shortest trip is the lowest seed. That brings us to these dreamy trips and the magical matchups.
#2 vs #3
First the 2nd and 3rd seeded trips. The third seeded trip is a strong contender. You will start with a 10 day/9 night river cruise down the Seine River in France. Carefully crafted by Adventures by Disney, you and your family will cruise in the lap of luxury seeing France and doing excursions that bring this beautiful country to life. River cruising is a stunning and immersive way for travelers to be so much more than tourists. You and your two Adventures by Disney guides will walk the Normandy beaches, explore idyllic castles, and even breathe in the Parisian air from the top of the Eiffel Tower as your trip begins with 2 nights in Paris. But, that’s not enough for Disney Dream trips, as you are adding on 3 days in the Disneyland Hotel Paris, a 5 key rated hotel, plus park passes for both Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney Studios theme parks. That’s thirteen perfect Disney days in picture perfect France!
However, the French trip is up against very tough competition. How will Western European luxury compete with west coast style, Pacific beauty and the mystique of the Japanese islands? How about 3 days at the Disneyland Resort, a full 7 days at Disney’s Aulani Resort and Spa and then finish up with 4 days at Tokyo Disneyland? What? Who gets to do that? This trip is sunsets for days as the southern Californian warmth is traded in for Hawaiian sunbathing and then the charm and perfection of experiencing the Disney side of Tokyo. I mean you get to bookend a fabulous, luxurious week at Aulani with ample time for Walt’s original Disneyland and then more than half a week at the first international Disneyland resort, one of jewels of Tokyo!
Ready for details? Well, let’s just check you into the Grand Californian with theme park view rooms, park hopper tickets, some fast passes for Fantasmic and World of Color and Radiator Springs Racers and well everything! Then there’s nothing like heading to Oahu for a week to take the sadness out of leaving Disneyland! When you check into your ocean view villa, it might take a week for you to catch your breath. Your family will have ample time for the pristine Pacific Ocean beach, Aunty’s Beachhouse, Keiki Cove Splash zone, Waikolohe Pool, Rainbow Reef and more – all included! And you can eat! Aulani has the amazing Ama Ama restaurant as well as many other options. Don’t forget your villa has a fully furnished kitchen in it, so just maybe you’ll enjoy a late night snack just like you’re at home! Of course, your off-site excursions such as touring Pearl Harbor and swimming with dolphins and sea turtles will allow you to really maximize your Hawaiian experience. Talk about day after day of fun and family memories! But, just when you’re thinking you just don’t want to ever leave, then you take a plane on over to Tokyo! (only an 8 hour flight!). You’ll recover nicely from the day of travel in your elegant rooms in the Disney Ambassador Hotel, located in Disneyland Tokyo. With 4 days in Tokyo, you’ll have two days for each of the parks, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. There are all of the character meals, roller coasters, shopping and dreaming a family could ever wish for! You know you’re flying first class home with nothing but first class memories to dream about while in the air.
#1 vs #4
Now, let’s look at the next matchup.
This is a very tough number one seed and a scrappy 4 seed. The one seed is a breathtaking 13 day transatlantic Disney cruise plus 2 full days in the Magic Kingdom. There is something about the journey by ship across the Atlantic ocean that stands alone as a once in a lifetime trip. I mean ask any pilgrim if they ever wanted to cross the Atlantic Ocean ever again. Most of them would say no but then again, they didn’t get to enjoy almost two weeks on the beautiful Disney Magic cruise liner. Of course, you start the trip in an Over the Water Bungalow at the Polynesian Resort, as that seems to maybe somehow help you get your sea legs ready. You’re close enough to get to the Magic Kingdom in no time and then hop on the monorail for the easy trip to EPCOT for your first day. Follow that up with Hollywood Studios with the new Toy Story Land and then Animal Kingdom and Pandora – The World of Avatar at night! But, hey, that’s just a suggestion, you can do whatever you want! You can stay up late because a plane is going to take you to South Florida because you are cruising out of Miami. And the boat doesn’t stop until you get to Barcelona. That’s right, Spain! Yeah, you’ll figure out how to get home, but you really can’t be stranded anywhere much better than Barcelona! Your 13 day cruise will make stops in the best locales the Atlantic Ocean has to offer. You get to see the Azores Islands then Lisbon, Portugal, then four stops in Spain. Not to mention seven amazing days at sea! The Pilgrims have nothing on you!
Most top seeds wouldn’t worry about their matchup but if your vacation competition is one of the premier offerings in the Adventures by Disney catalog then you better come to play. The vacation going head to head against the Polynesian bungalow and transatlantic cruise is nothing less than a 12 day Adventures by Disney trip to China. This trip gets a four seed as it is only 12 days long but we all should know that you always run out of days before you run out of Adventures by Disney, especially in China. You begin in Hong Kong and it just gets better. How about Beijing? How about the Great Wall of China? How about pandas, terracotta museums and a river cruise portion and Shanghai for the finale? This trip will give the adventurer and the adventurous family a deeply immersive experience in authentic China and visits at the two Disney Theme Parks in China: Hong Kong and Shanghai! Adventures by Disney guarantees you will have the trip of a lifetime but is it enough to win this matchup?
What’s the winner?!
So how do you pick a winner from this field? This is super tough! All these trips are amazing, breath-taking, glorious, fun, informative, mind-broadening, family-bonding, exhilarating, daring, experiences you can never forget because you will think about them and how they changed you the rest of your life! I would be psyched just to know someone who took one of these trips, I’d pick their brain for hours and look at their pictures for weeks! Speaking of weeks, I’m going to sit on this challenge for a week and really think about the winner of these vacation matchups. Post your comments on who you think the winners are and why. I promise I’ll do my best to eliminate two trips and have a final matchup and final winner next week to celebrate and dream about together!
Interested in booking a Disney vacation for you & your family? Contact me today for a FREE quote!
Lisa Ismert
Authorized Disney Vacation Planner – Platinum Level
MickeyTravels, LLC
1-817-946-3913 (cell)
Lismert@mickeytravels.com
www.mickeytravels.com
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