Day 4 - Tokyo Disneyland
First let me back up a bit and talk of our arrival at the Tokyo Disney Resort and our hotel...
It is noticeably colder as we emerge from the train station. We need to buy monorail tickets and catch it to the Hilton Tokyo Bay. The monorail is not free due to Japanese laws about transportation. Our hotel is huge and very nice and a bit overpriced in my opinion, but it's all about location, location, location. We do not want to hassle with long train rides in the morning to get to the parks on time -- we need to be a short monorail ride away. Our room comes with a little fridge full of water and soda and a free breakfast buffet. I've heard the buffet costs $35 a person and maybe it would be worth it if you could eat all the strange Japanese foods they offer, but for the runny eggs and standard American fare, it's also over priced. But we are thankful to have a quick way to get breakfast and be on our way. If you ever do stay here, make sure you sign up to be a Hilton Honors member, because they seat you first and in a hotel this size there is often a line to be seated for breakfast.
We arrive on Disney property in the evening and easily check into our room. We head over to Ikspiari, which is very much like Downtown Disney with shops and restaurants. We are too tired to do much shopping but we check out the Disney store called Bon Voyage. Luckily I had read in advance about the void of fun Disney Park merchandise to purchase. The shops contains a huge variety of food items in decorative tins. The Japanese buy gifts for their friends and family and they buy these items by the arm fulls. They also seem to like silly hats and little plush characters on key chains. You'll see people with dozens of them attached to their bags. I could not find one single thing that said "Disney Sea" on it. Not a magnet, not a mug, not a pin or a t-shirt. Nothing. I found a magnet that said "Tokyo Disney Resort". They sell very few clothing items, and they don't say anything park specific. We saw many people walking around in the one style of hoodie they seemed to be selling. Even though I had been warned in advance, I was still amazed there wasn't a pin for Tokyo Disney Resort! I guess pin trading hasn't caught on here at all. I did find a plate that said it and I ended up making my own coffee mug using Shutterfly.
We eat in the food court at Ikspiari -- a nice steak dinner -- and then settle into our hotel. The hotel room is huge, big enough for full sized beds but only contains twins. We had requested an ocean view and it did not disappoint. It was simply gorgeous and I wanted so badly to sleep with the curtains opened so I could gaze at the skyline, but my child said it was too bright. We get about 5 hours of sleep and wake to the beautiful Tokyo Bay.
Tuesday October 28, 2014
We head toward the park via the monorail. When you purchase Disney tickets here you have to indicate which parks you'll attend on the first 2 days and we figure we'll start with the familiar -- Disneyland. I had read about the early morning crowds and had seen photos, but it's still a bit jarring to walk up to the gate prior to opening and see not hundreds of people in front of you, but thousands of them. The Japanese are serious about getting to the parks early, 1 to 2 hours early sometimes. Our usual 15 minutes early puts us way at the back of the pack, way behind the ticket booths even. The ticket booths are empty -- if you don't already have your tickets you might not even get in. Some girls are doing makeup in line, gluing on fake eyelashes, even spraying hairspray. I can't believe they carry all this gear with them. We are puzzled by how many are in school uniforms. Do they were them all week even if they are not in school? I can't imagine walking all over a theme park in loafers. We are instantly amazed at the number of people in costume -- this is going to make for great people watching. Luckily the entrance line moves very quickly -- bag check is minimal and fast and there is no bio-reader-fingerprint thing to mess with -- just scan your ticket and go!
We head directly to pick up the hottest fastpass -- Monster's Inc Ride and Go Seek. It's part dark ride and part game and we'll fastpass it both mornings. We head to Pooh's Hunny Hut which is another ride that is unique to Tokyo Disneyland. Sure it's similar to the Pooh rides in America but different enough that it's a must see. The ride vehicles are different and at one point they spin. We are pleased that Space Mountain is the updated, smooth version, like California. It's a great ride and since Big Thunder Mountain is down for refurb it's our only coaster in this park. We head back toward the Haunted Mansion which is done up for the holidays with the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay. We have seen this before in California and just love it. Jack Skellington is a favorite of mine. Unfortunately it's down this morning which derails our plans a bit. Luckily it has fastpass and we'll ride this 3 times over the course of 2 days, twice via fastpass and once in a 60 minute line. At times we see the line grow to over 2 hours and are once again thankful for fastpass.
We will spend 2 days in this park and when I think of all that we didn't do it's kind of surprising to me. I guess it shouldn't be because the crowds are thick which means we spent a fair amount of time waiting. We also saw 3 different parades and 1 show which all takes up time. We also like to ride our favorites over and over. We skip Peter Pan, Dumbo, the Carousel and Small World (which was also closed for refurb). We never rode the train or made it over to Tom Sawyer Island. We didn't drive the little cars. We didn't see the Country Bear show and we avoided the Jungle Cruise because it was newly opened after a refurb and the lines where shocking. It supposedly has some fun nighttime effects now and when we went by there one evening the line was probably 3 hours long -- it was in two tightly packed sections, snaking back and forth both near the ride and then across the way in an open overflow area. Wow!
There's no denying that the park is busy. The crowd calendars had indicated crowds would be thick and I feel with the use of fastpass and a good touring plan we utilized our time fairly well. We ate early at the Queen of Hearts Buffet and the food was fairly good and seating plentiful. We basically walked right in for lunch. It's a beautiful restaurant and the prices are average, but it all adds up and ends up being our most expensive meal of the vacation because we had to have the UnBirthday cake. Alice in Wonderland is amazingly popular here and we see so many dressed as the various characters from the movie. Too many Alice's to count.
The item that surprises us most about Tokyo Disneyland is the amount of people in costume. I guess it shouldn't have surprised me knowing that the Japanese youth culture likes Cosplay (costume play) and since Disney allows adults to wear costumes the 2 weeks prior to Halloween, they take full advantage of this opportunity. We see so many pairs of girls dressed up as Beauty and the Beast. We see groups of girls all dressed up as the same princess. Others are each a different princess. We see groups of villains, groups of Toy Story characters. Not only do the costumes impress, but they often have props. Snow White will be carrying an apple. Belle in the blue dress will have a book. Cinderella in rags will have a wooden bucket. It's impressive!
Some rides have single rider lines and when they do we use it. This allowed us to ride Splash Mountain 3 times over without a lengthy wait. We nicknamed it "Spray Mountain" because there isn't a splash. There is a tiny bit of spray. I wonder in the hot summer months if it would splash more or if the Japanese just don't like that. Riding with other groups is one of the few times that the Japanese try to talk to us. They usually ask me if I am there on business and they too are surprised that I have come all this way to see their version of Disneyland. It's rather interesting but when you ride single rider the cast members ask the party you are to be seated with if it is okay with them. I saw this happen on every ride we rode single. The Japanese are polite and kind and seem to always say yes.
This morning we viewed the Happy Halloween Harvest parade. In Japan the first parade sections are seated and this is so great! Because they are all seated it allows another group to stand behind them essentially doubling the amount of people that can view a parade. I wish all the parks would do this. The Japanese come prepared to wait for shows and parades. The bring little mats and even little folding chairs. We saw them sitting and waiting for shows and parades hours and hours ahead of time. Luckily we were able to walk up right before the parade started and stand behind the seating section and get a great view.
That evening we are able to do the same thing, walk up and stand behind a fenced off garden area and still see the parade because the section in front of it was all seated. Wonderful! Tonight's parade was the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights. It's like the new and improved Main Street Electrical Parade and it did not disappoint. The floats are stunning and it was the perfect way to end our first night at Disneyland.
Our next 2 days are spent at Disney Sea -- check out the other page for details about that park. Our fourth and final day will be spent back at Disneyland. We check out of our hotel, store our bags, and head into Disneyland. It's Halloween!
Friday, October 31, 2014
My daughter is wearing Cheshire Cat ears and tail and drew on a small set of whiskers and a nose. She looked cute.
We had no idea this would be a problem. We had seen girls and guys with temporary tattoos on their face for Halloween, but once I thought about it, we didn't see mice or cats with whiskers. Well, there is NO face painting at Tokyo Disneyland and when we tried to get in the front gate she was handed a baby wipe and told to wipe off the whiskers and nose. She was very disappointed and I felt bad for not knowing this would be a problem. She still looked cute in her Cheshire outfit.
Today we spend some time walking around the hub and World Bazaar, which is what we know as Main Street back home. World Bazaar is plus shaped, like a big intersection, and it's covered. You can enter the park and then turn right and go directly into Tomorrowland or turn left into Adventureland. You don't have to go straight out to the hub. There's a great little waffle place in World Bazaar and we ate dinner there our first night. Since World Bazaar is covered, the parades do not go down this route.
The hub is so huge -- the partners statue is way on one side, right near World Bazaar and the Castle at the other end. There is bench seating in the hub for one of the many live entertainment shows, but it just feels so expansive. On the right and left side are beautiful towers that compliment the castle, a castle that looks exactly like Florida's. All around are cute Halloween displays, and ducks. Disneyland always has ducks!
Today the hub is filled with people in costume mingling, asking for photos. It's amazing! I have been to the Halloween parties in Walt Disney World a few times and it was nothing like this. I absolutely loved it and I could have spent hours there people watching. It was the best costume party ever!
We decide to try and get tickets for one of the shows. First viewing is by standing in line and we see people lining up to get in more than 4 hours before the show. These people are dedicated! For us it will be lottery or no show. You go to the ticket room and there are machines where you scan your park tickets and indicate which show you are interested in and it spits out a response. We are thrilled to get tickets. It's assigned seating so no reason to get there super early. They do some things here with great efficiency. The show is called One Man's Dream and it has many characters and villains and singing and dancing. We enjoy both the rest for our feet and the great live entertainment. There really is a lot of live entertainment here as well as special Halloween shows. There's no way to see it all but we enjoy the shows we do see.
We also see the main daytime parade today, grabbing a seating spot right before the parade starts. It's called the Happiness is Here parade and was very cute. See everyone with their little mats?
Lunch today was at the Plaza Restaurant in Tomorrowland and while it was supposed to be beef and rice, it was mostly onions and rice. I ate the rice and a cute mickey shaped hard boiled egg. My child picked at the beef and rice and we ate salad and dessert too. Thank goodness we can fill up on popcorn! Popcorn stands are very popular and the flavors are kind of fun -- things like soy sauce popcorn. One day we wait 30 minutes in a popcorn line, and thankfully that was our longest line for food. For dinner we find pizza in Captain Hook's Gallery and it's surprisingly good. The salad dressing here is a sesame dressing and it's very, very good. We struggled a bit to find edible food. In Tokyo we were able to find meals way easier than here. Much of the food here is very strange, not your standard park food of hot dogs and burgers.
Similar to California, Tokyo's Castle has a walk through. This one has dioramas depicting scenes from Cinderella using different artistic mediums like paper and metal and plastic. It's really lovely and always a thrill to be inside the castle looking out.
It's time for a few old favorites like the Swiss Family Tree House and the Tiki Room which features Stitch. It's all in Japanese and it sounds like they are saying "Stitchy". Night has fallen and fatigue is setting in. We have a long train ride back into Tokyo ahead of us. We decide to skip the fireworks again. I've heard the show is not very good and it's cancelled often due to the winds off the bay. It was cancelled on us twice so far. We saw a glimpse of the show from the monorail station our first night and it was quite short. It's painful to say goodbye to Tokyo Disney Resort.
Our Tokyo Disney experience has been amazing. We easily filled 4 days with park activity. I probably could have spent a 5th or 6th day. The park lived up to all of my expectations. It was fun to visit someplace so familiar and yet so new. Being in the park at Halloween to see all the costumes enhanced the trip immensely. I really want to return someday.
