You may or may not have heard of Typhoon Lan that went through Japan this past week. Everything is fine here in Tokyo, but Typhoon Lan did force me to cancel and reschedule my trip to Shanghai Disneyland.

This is the first time I had to cancel a Disney trip (or any trip for that matter). I thought, in lieu of a trip report I’d talk about what happened in detail and how I dealt with our canceled flight and travel insurance. Things don’t always go as planned, so talking about the not-so-good aspects is just as beneficial as discussing the good.

Before I move on, as you’re able to tell the feature photo is at Tokyo DisneySea. The expression on my face is priceless — the photo was unintentional — and thought it fit perfectly with how I felt as I read about my canceled flight.

Canceled Flights

Our scheduled flight from Tokyo (Haneda Airport) to Shanghai Pudong Airport was at 02:50 on Monday, October 23. Which was right in the middle of the Typhoon as it passed through Tokyo. I was flying with Peach Airlines (haven’t flown with them before) and we received an email two days before indicating our flight was canceled.

Peach Airlines offered to either reschedule our flights, refund the canceled flight, or refund the entire itinerary. We have up to 10 days to make any changes and had to fly out within 10 days of our original departure. I chose to refund our entire itinerary (more on that in a moment). It’s an online process and was painless. Now I just wait for the refund to go through.

Canceled Hotel

Our plan was to stay at the Courtyard by Marriott Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone, which I booked through Booking.com at a non-refundable low price. Thankfully my preferred travel insurance covers this cost. I chose this hotel as a number of Explorers gave this as a recommendation.

I’ve already stayed (and reviewed) the Shanghai Disneyland Hotel and Toy Story Hotel.

World Nomads Travel Insurance

World Nomads is my travel insurance of choice and my recommendation. Always travel with some form of insurance, it’s silly not to. This is the first time I’ll be making claim (for the canceled hotel). Most of the time you’ll never use travel insurance but when you need to, you’ll be glad you have it.

Shanghai Disneyland Park Tickets

Our dated park tickets were through Klook. We’re in the process of working with Klook to change the dates of the tickets for our rescheduled trip.

Reschedule Shanghai Disneyland

We could have gone later in the week, but with prior commitments, it was best for us to reschedule the entire trip. I have re-booked our flights with Peach and the Courtyard by Marriott Shanghai International Tourism and Resorts Zone for later next month.

I am a bit bummed — as I am writing this I should have been in Shanghai — to miss out on the first Halloween event and buy all the cute new Gelatoni merchandise, but sometimes things are out of our control. There’s no sense in dwelling on it.

The biggest take away from this is to always have travel insurance. This is one of the top essentials you’ll need for any trip abroad.

Have you ever canceled a trip?

Have any of you Explorers had to cancel a trip? Share your stories in the comments with me!

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