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Day One: Disneyland
Day Two: DisneySea
Day Three: Both Parks
Taking a trip to Japan has always been a dream. Having moved to California makes crossing the Pacific Ocean slightly less daunting, and a trip to Australia went off perfectly. Asia, however, is a different ballgame entirely, and not one that I have much confidence navigating. So visiting Tokyo and its neighboring areas seemed like a good place to start – considerably more western, a general familiarity with the culture, and a place where maybe a little English would be spoken. That’s not to say we don’t look forward to one day visiting China, Singapore, maybe even Malaysia, but we’d assured ourselves that Japan would be an ideal jumping off point, so to speak.
Even so, there’s no more accurate way to describe the feeling I get when traveling overseas than surreal. No matter how many hours I spend on a plane, it’s still somehow always a wonder to me when I arrive in a different land. Sure, some places seem more familiar than others, even on a first visit, but there are also others were you stick out like a sore thumb. Let me just say, it hits you pretty strongly when you catch the train from the airport and make your way into the city.
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| Hanzomon Gate at Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa |
Despite some of the increasingly common air travel hiccups, we made it to Tokyo and worked our way to our hotel (our luggage would be joining us the next day). We were staying pretty much in the center of the city, Hanzomon, just on the western border of the Imperial Palace grounds. It was a good base, not at all touristy and easy Metro access. The hotel was the Hotel Monterey (a Japanese chain, it seems), mostly businesspeople staying, but perfectly nice. Our room, an economy double, was as small as we expected, but considering the price we were paying, we found it to be a fair value.
We got started with the immersion right away with dinner at a nearby restaurant. Nothing fancy, but plenty of locals and more pointing and gesturing than actual spoken communication when ordering. That would be the norm for the entire visit, and we got very used to many a server being so accommodating to us despite not speaking their language. Two days of sightseeing went rather smoothly – shrines, temples, museums, parks, gardens – all the stuff you hope and expect to see when visiting. But after a few days, it was time to head to a place where we would be a little closer to our comfort zone – Disneyland.
I don’t want to give the impression that Tokyo Disneyland was the entire reason for the trip, but I certainly can’t deny that it was a highlight. I think setting aside three days for it makes that pretty clear. If you’re reading this than you probably already know how much we appreciate our visits to the various Disney resorts. Given what this resort has to offer, and what we’ve heard in terms of the crowds this place gets, I wasn’t going to take any chances in making sure we would be able to see and do everything we wanted to.
Getting only one day at Disneyland Paris during my last visit wasn’t ideal, but having been to the place twice prior, I had a good idea of what I was missing. Here in Tokyo, we had a formidable Disneyland park to get through, and we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to soak in all the brilliance of DisneySea, a second gate truly in full complement to its first.
The Tokyo Disneyland Resort is made up of two parks, 3 official hotels, and a handful of partner hotels all linked via a monorail line, on the eastern edge of the city on reclaimed land right on Tokyo Bay. What strikes you first and foremost is how close this place is to one of the largest cities in the world. One could compare it to Disneyland being in Anaheim, but feels more as if Disney had a resort set up in Coney Island. So many people are so close to this place. And, thanks to the amazing public transit, it’s so easy to get to.
In another stark difference from Anaheim, this place is entirely self-contained. Anaheim built up around Disneyland, and that resort feels like it’s part of the city. Here, the resort area is completely isolated, almost on its own island. There’s no foot traffic, no surface streets, so city buses. Once you get off the Japan Rail line, you and everyone else are here for Disney. Looking at it that way, it’s quite similar to Disney World – in its own little bubble. As we would see for much of the visit, it’s an interesting melding of the two US resorts.
Avoiding the weekends was a must, and though a mid-September visit is still technically in the summer, we expected to avoid the absolute worst since school was in session. Then again, with the worst being two to three hour waits for most of the headliners, any temperance of the crowds still likely left conditions far worse than we ever encounter at the US parks.
Outside of visiting in January or February, all we could control was our strategy in getting through the parks. We would employ every trick in the book to minimize wait time, and of course the cornerstone in any good day at an amusement park is, say it with me, getting there early. Unfortunately, it seems that the entirety of the Japanese people is more than aware of my playbook.
Day 1
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| Arriving at Maihama, Minnie says hello. Or, more accurately, "Konnichiwa" |
The resort isn’t on the Metro system, but it’s two stops away from one of the Metro line’s terminus stations. From there, it’s about six minutes from Maihama, the JR station serving the resort. Here you’ll find the link to the Monorail (which we wouldn’t need until tomorrow), Iikspari – the Downtown Disney-eqsue shopping, dining, and entertainment area, and the Welcome and Ticket Centers.
I didn’t realize at the time that the Ticket Center I would need was here, because when we arrived at the station, we were eager to head right to the gates and figured the place to pick up tickets would be nearby. It’s less than a 10 minute walk from the station to the front gates of the Disneyland park, which is actually the next stop on the Monorail, and the only two stations that are remotely walkable in between. There was a lot of activity, and it was already quite clear this wouldn’t be one of our deserted Disneyland mornings, not that we had remotely expected that.
Passing through the baggage checkpoint, where we found even less scrutiny than at Disneyland, I asked about the ticket center. The guard pointed me towards the ticket booths, though I had a feeling that wasn’t right. After we had walked a few hundred feet away to find a spot in line, he came running after us and explained that it was, in fact, back by the train station. This was Official Instance Number One of these employees going way out of their way to help.
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| This huge space manages to fill in quite quickly |
Going back against a stream of people heading to the main entrance, I was glad we had gotten our spot and not waited until after picking up our tickets before making our way over. I checked with a cast member outside the Welcome Center as to exactly where I would need to go, and she gestured both where I would need to wait, and that it wouldn’t open until 8am.
Once it did, it was a simple matter to retrieve the actual tickets. All I had received online was a confirmation email, and the purchase hadn’t officially gone through. I’m not sure what would have happened on my credit card if I had been a no-show, but obviously we weren’t going to find out. The tickets work a little differently here, another fun divergence from what we’re all used to. Park hopping isn’t an option until the third day of your visit. Days one and two require you to specify which park you are going to, and you’re “stuck” in that park all day. You also have to use your days consecutively, none of this 14-day window flexibility you get in Florida.
That wasn’t too much trouble for us; the parks aren’t so close that you’d want to do all that much hopping anyway. (Think of the transfer between the Magic Kingdom and Epcot.) It’s not exactly walking across the esplanade in Anahiem, though at least you don’t have to get on a damn bus.
If we had had just one day, our target would have been DisneySea. We all love the Magic Kindgom parks, but even considering their differences, you’re still looking at what are variations on a theme. Not to say that Tokyo Disneyland didn’t have some noteworthy variations, but as we would see the next day, DisneySea is clearly what makes this resort special. Only Epcot with its completely unique take on what a theme park is comes close to how this second gate rivals (if not overshadows) the resort’s original park.
But that had to wait some 24 hours, as we were now an hour away from seeing firsthand how the Japanese do Disney. The last bit of exposition I’ll provide is to point out that Disney doesn’t own or operate these parks. A company called the Oriental Land Company, which originally developed the site, has almost complete control of the resort, save for all the licensing and contract with Disney for design work. Now this may seem like it would impact how the parks are run and what they look like, and you’d be right, but maybe not in the way you thought.
The Walt Disney Corporation is a huge, international conglomerate – with interests in films, music, TV, a cruise line, radio, etc., and most importantly, has stockholders. The parks division is certainly a mainstay of its public appearance, but when it comes to stock dividends and profit share; it’s certainly not the most important entity. Let’s just say this has allowed the US parks, at times in their histories, to get overlooked, disregarded, or simply not given the attention many think they deserve. Quite honestly, it all comes down to money.
The Oriental Land Company, on the other hand, doesn’t answer to shareholders, doesn’t have nearly as wide a range of corporate interests, and is able to focus almost entirely on this resort. What comes out in the end are two parks designed by Disney Imagineers, with seemingly unlimited budgets, who are able to focus so deeply on rich, detailed themes, and impressive, often seamless technologies, in parks operated by employees who are beyond enthusiastic. As fans of Disney parks, we were excited to finally see this recipe firsthand.
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| These are just some of the people we tried to stay ahead of all day |
Opening procedures here also go differently. Given the crowds, everyone is eager to get that first ride in, and that first Fastpass. Through the gates, throngs of people sprint - outright sprint - into the park and towards some attraction or another. I certainly wasn’t going to ask any such insanity of Megan, but that didn’t stop me from joining in. A few moments had passed, and we were through. I grabbed her admission ticket, and I was off to Monsters Inc., and would be meeting her at Pooh’s Hunny Hunt.
Anyone familiar with the US parks would likely scoff at such early morning priorities, but don’t forget, everything isn’t exactly what it seems here. Pooh and Monsters are two of the biggest draws in the entire park, and often stack up waits worse than any of the mountains or other Fantasyland favorites. We’re talking easily two or three hour waits on peak days. Sure, everyone loves Space and Thunder Mountain here, too, but you’re much better off staying ahead of the crowds on these two rides and worrying about the mountains later. Besides, few rides churn through guests like the Mountains.
Immediately into the park, we had our first instance of what I call the dream effect, a sort of coinciding familiarity and unfamiliarity. If you’ve been to Disneyland or the Magic Kingdom, you will have a leg up on orientation here, as much of the park is set out in the same way on the whole. But at the same time, it’s oddly different. It’s much like having a dream about a place you’ve been before; what you thought you knew seems slightly askew. The fact that everything is spoken and written in Japanese only added to the dreamlike state, at least for us.
The effect is in full force immediately through the turnstiles, which radiate in a semi-circle around the entry plaza. There’s a Mickey floral, but no train station, no train underpass, and no town square. This large area leads directly into the park’s version of Main Street, which is different in its own right.
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| What, they totally had soaring steel and glass ceilings in 1900 |
But this first morning pass through was a blur anyway as I ran halfway down the street and took a right into Tomorrowland. I couldn’t say if it’s because of huge crowds – again, Tokyo Disneyland has lower annual attendance than both US Magic Kingdoms (though perhaps packing them in more in the summer considering the winters Tokyo can get) – but the park provides much less in the way of a hub-and-spoke set-up. Taking a right at the middle of World Bazaar, you’re in Tomorrowland, in front of Monsters, and taking a left puts you in Adventureland, right in front of Pirates of the Caribbean. With few exceptions, there is almost always a direct route from one land to another.
I had seen pictures of expansive queues just to get Fastpasses, but as I rounded the corner into Tomorrowland, I saw a pretty manageable situation. I went right up to a machine and got our first pair of the visit. And has the machine completed the transaction, it let out a cartoonish monster giggle. It was the first in an endless number of subtle touches that the Imagineers just didn’t have to do.
I continued my way through the starkly retro Tomorrowland, with the sterile white facades of the 70s style that, unlike the US parks, never got a makeover in the 90s. It even has the Astro Jets, with USA in big letters on the sides, in a refreshing throwback to a time before the cartoonish Astro Orbitors.
It’s a somewhat sudden transition into Fantasyland, but right at the entrance is Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, probably the most delightfully unique attraction in the parks, despite being thematically similar to existing rides in the US. I met Megan outside the entrance, and we were glad to see a nominal wait time.
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| This ride brings shame to America |
Once into the vehicles, open honey pots that seat 4 or 5 people, we were on our way. In addition to being more elaborately themed than the US versions, it’s the ride system here that is the show-stopper. There is no track, there’s no predictable route. Instead the independently controlled vehicles travel through and interact with the scenes seemingly at random. You’re dispatched in a group of three, but don’t worry, you’ll get to see everything, though you may be backwards or zig-zagging when you do.
The ride starts with a quick introduction and set up, and then we’re off to the hundred acre woods. Inside things are getting windy and various effects and scenes are triggered as we proceed through the room. At this point, you’ve likely forgotten everything is in Japanese, but in typical Disney fashion, the animation of the characters tell the story more than adequately.
In the next room, our group meets up with Tigger, and we’re all in for a surprise. As he sings his bouncing song, the entire room bounces. The characters, the trees, the scenery, and even the vehicles hop up and down. It’s not a physically intense sensation, but it’s quite enveloping, beyond clever and executed perfectly.
From there we get the dream sequence, we see Pooh dozing off in his house, and then the entire place becomes a field of stars in the dark. We back out of the room and encounter the crafty heffalumps and woozles in a circus-like setting. Here, the vehicles really take on a life of their own, as the large open room is full of multiple groups interacting with each other and the scenery. We start with a spinning waltz around another honey pot full of animatronic characters. We moved into a reflective video screen next where another character drank from our honey pot. There’s also a cartoonish cannon that shoots smoke when going off right in front of you.
The ride comes to a close as we see Pooh in the honey room, apparently with his dreams of being all but buried in honey coming true. There’s a quick "The End", and we’re let out at the unloading station. All-in-all, it’s easy to see why this ride is so beloved by the park-goers here. All we could do after disembarking is shake our heads, and comment how the Disney parks in the US should be embarrassed. That a ride like this can exist and doesn’t in the US just plain looks bad. As you can imagine, this would not be the last time that exact thought came up.
The plan needed some adjustment on the fly upon seeing Peter Pan still closed. Instead, it would be time to think about some mountains, so we cut through the bulk of Fantasyland to get across to Thunder Mountain. Figuring it would have higher capacity and is further back in the park, we wanted to save our next Fastpass for Space Mountain. More akin to Orlando, Thunder Mountain is set at a dead end, around the left side of the river. But similar to Anaheim, it’s directly across from Splash Mountain, not next to it. In fact, Critter Country is immediately next to Fantasyland.
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| Watch out for critters |
The ride itself is quite similar to the US versions, which is to say great, but not quite up to the Paris version with its island footprint and underwater dives. The start of the ride is a nice change as it winds down to the first lift through the most convincing mine scene of any of the versions. The rest of the ride isn’t noticeably different, though the tradition of trainfuls of passengers waiving at guests in line during a particularly close flyby is a friendly variation. Most of the animals are there, the helix halfway through is there, and it’s pretty close to the ride we all know and love.
With the next Fastpass acquisition window approaching, I darted across the park and got the pair for Space Mountain. Not surprisingly the window was almost two full hours away, in a sign that the Fastpasses were going quickly, but the standby wait was just over an hour, so things weren’t too terrible just yet. With that, we could relax a bit knowing all of the highlights would be taken care of. Certainly Splash Mountain was high on the priority list, but I would be looking to make frequent use of its handy single rider line.
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| Hey, don't I know you? |
Right out of the “different but similar” playbook, there is even a Blue Bayou. Given our tradition of dining there on day one of our usual three day Disneyland visits, we saw no reason not to continue it here. We did want to see the nighttime parade, the local version of the Electrical Parade called Dreamlights, so dinner wasn’t ideal. Instead we substituted for lunch, and before setting sail to the Caribbean, I got us reservations for a 2pm meal.
Akin to Disneyland, the queue for Pirates isn’t much to speak of. But here there’s no underpass entrance beneath the New Orleans Square bridge. Really, there’s isn’t a fraction of the foot traffic here that Disneyland has as New Orleans, Frontierland and Adventureland merge. Instead, you walk from the midway right into the ride building.
You’ll see only empty boats here, because like in Florida, you don’t ride the boat back up the “waterfall”. It’s still got the treasure map and squawking parrot here like in Anaheim, but no riders eager to get off the ride already. The short wait was also another thing in common as it was hardly five minutes before we were on board.
The first portion of the ride remains the same, pushing off through the bayou, next to the restaurant, complete with fireflies and banjo-playing riverfolk. It’s almost startling when the skull and crossbones overhead speaks in Japanese. There is but a single drop into the caves, and a slightly abridged version soon takes us through the Davy Jones mist projection and into the familiar scenes of plundering and pirating. It had received the update from the movies, so Barbossa and Jack Sparrow are there, and the treasure room finale is even closer to riders.
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| Good thing we had this one memorized |
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| Inside is a classic. Outside, it's a little outdated. |
Upstairs from the Jungle Cruise is the Western Expedition Railroad. Seemingly more in common with Westernland (as Frontierland is known here), it only covers a couple sections of the park and provides a round-trip from its single station. As we came to understand, Japan takes public transit very seriously, and they require all railroads that provide transit to charge for the ride. We would see this later on the Monorail, but for now Disneyland’s workaround was to make it a complete circuit. We just had a train’s worth of a wait, maybe 10 minutes.
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| One of the more scenic portions of the railroad's circuit |
Working our way back into the madness of Fantasyland, we took a look around and didn’t see any particularly short waits. I should include Haunted Mansion in the assessment, because the park included it in this section. It makes for an unusual accomplishment, in that this ride is in a different land in all the Magic Kingdom parks – New Orleans Square at Disneyland, Liberty Square at Disney World, Frontierland in Paris, and Fantasyland here. This streak will remain the case when Hong Kong builds theirs, giving it its own unique section. The wait for the installation here was long because of the seasonal Nightmare Before Christmas treatment, something both Megan and I were a little disappointed to see.
Instead we decided to bite the bullet and go for the now operating Peter Pan. It’s a little more than we usually brave, but as Megan smartly pointed out, once you start a streak of "we’ll come back to that later," it’s hard to stop. Besides, it would likely fill up the remaining 45 minutes until our next Fastpass window. Luckily it wouldn’t come to that as again the wait time was overstated, and we had barely a 30 minute wait in the end. Really, if you’re going to complain about waiting half an hour for Peter Pan, you’re entirely too spoiled.
The ride is hardly distinguishable from the Disney World version, with the continuously moving loading area. The inside of the ride is also quite similar, save for the dialogue in Japanese. All the scenes are there, flying out the window over London, the stars, flying into Neverland, fighting with Captain Hook. And just as in the US, it’s something of a short ride.
We had our options for our third Fastpass, as likely most would still be available, but it might be our last. We had already ridden Thunder Mountain and Pooh, and had passes for Space Mountain and Monsters, so it was something of a bonus no matter what. The instinct was to double up on Space Mountain, but as I passed by Winnie the Pooh, and saw the last of the passes being given out for the last half hour of the day, I jumped at the chance. The only downside meant it would be two hours before we could get some more elsewhere, but my suspicion is that would have been true no matter where we went for this round.
With the day heating up and our proximity to Critter Country, it was time for a ride on Splash Mountain, via the single rider option. Megan opted for someplace cool, and found a spot at Sara’s Country Kitchen, a restaurant built into and underneath the mountainside. I headed down through the ride’s exit, as I hadn’t seen any signage, and figured they would handle it just like Disneyland. When I finally worked my way upstream to where riders disembark, I saw that it was an unloading station, and knew this wasn’t where I needed to be. I checked with a ride operator who was understandably confused by my presence, and she replied with “Fastpass” when I questioned “Single rider?”
Back out the exit and up to the entrance, I passed the beginning of an absolutely massive standby queue, and the posted wait of two hours just made me shudder. I indicated my solo status to the attendant at the Fastpass entrance, and he ushered me in. This is one of those queues where you really feel like a VIP as you pass every single inch of the standby line, heading deeper and deeper into the ride building.
I say building, but it’s more like an elaborate set of caverns. Gone is the cute mill-style themeing, instead it feels like you're burrowing underground as if you were Br’er Rabbit, with lights flickering and views into the station, the ride, and other various hollows. It would seem we have another Tokyo upgrade. I was already expecting a version topping Disneyland thanks to the improved 2-abreast seating, but the setting really started the show, quite literally thanks to an animatronic owl in the queue itself.
But I had little time to observe it as I eventually made my way to the Fastpass/Standby merge point. Instead of showing my ticket, I again signaled single rider, and he sent me into a separate line directly into the station. Here even Fastpass holders would have to wait for the home stretch, but I went right to the loading area.
Of course there is always a bit a pause here, as groups seem to be disproportionately even, but it wasn’t too long before I was joined with an odd-numbered group, and got into the log. I hadn’t been in this style log since 1999, thanks to some annual maintenance during our Disney World visit in 2009. I noticed the new lap bars, though I’m not really sure how new they were here. They weren’t noticeably intrusive, and still allowed the comfort that you really get with this style log.
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| Impossible to resist the joy |
Down the first drop, I noticed how suspiciously dry I was, even despite being in the front seat. I figured the worst was yet to come, but started to take in the surroundings in the meantime. It took all of two seconds to realize this version is head and shoulders above Disneyland. Instead of flying through some nicely decorated but otherwise sparse scenes, the pace was slow, akin to Small World or Pirates, and you really had a chance to enjoy the impressive density of details. Just one example – the worms on the hooks of the fishing pelicans have not just smiling faces, but top hats.
Fish jump through broken nets, Br’ers Bear and Fox get caught in their own traps, and the whole cavalcade of characters sing How Do Ya Do, as Br’er Rabbit decides it’s time to be moving along. After what is easily several minutes, and more show rooms than I could count, we see the rabbit hop along, and we head into the laughing place. Here we get that fun down-and-up drop, and the fun continues. There’s even an extra drop halfway through this part of the ride.
Eventually things go south, so to speak, and we climb the lift to get dropped into the briar patch. So far, hardly a drop of water had gotten on me – I’ve gotten wetter on Pirates at Disneyland. I wasn’t too nervous, but this part of the ride always does a great job of ratcheting up the tension. Over the top for a quick view of the park, and then the 50+ foot plunge back down underground.
I certainly got a good misting in my face, mostly because I made no effort to shield myself. But outside of needing a quick wipe with a handkerchief, there was absolutely no other damage. It was easily 90 degrees out, with the humidity just as high, and Splash Mountain provided barely a spritz. I wasn’t about to complain, getting doused is the toll I pay to get to ride a ride like this, so it was gravy to me.
The ride finishes up strongly with the grand finale of Zip-a-dee-doo-dah sung from the river boat, and Mr. Bluebird on Br'er Rabbit’s shoulder. I was quick to unload and share the good news with Megan, though I’d want to play it cool. As for the assessment of the ride, Disneyland’s version, as beloved as it may be, is simply inferior. To be honest, it’s been so long since riding the Disney World installation to make a far comparison, but this still blew me away.
Back out the exit (again), I put my socks back on after I unnecessarily took them off – a preparation that’s more than warranted in Anaheim and Orlando. I found the entrance to the restaurant where Megan had been waiting, and I found a line. Apparently to avoid overcrowding, even the dining places have queues. What this meant for me who wanted to enter and not purchase food, I wasn’t sure, so I just slipped through the entrance and hoped out of line to find Megan. She had found a spot not far away, and we finished up the snack she picked up. It was still a couple hours until our late lunch, but it had been a while since breakfast, so a kid’s meal helped fill the gap.
Wanting to work our way through a little more of Fantasyland, we queued up for Snow White. The hierarchy here is definitely the same, with this less frenzied than Peter Pan but still popular. A full queue sporting a 30 minute wait took only 20, and we found the ride offered a slightly different order – Dwarves’ house and the Mine after the trip through the woods – and a good bit more intensity with the fright. Overall, a slight improvement from the US versions, and it even had the evil queen peering out the window from above during the ride.
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| Possible to resist the joy |
Inside, it’s the same madness you love/hate. I’ve been on four of these now and once you push off from shore, it’s hard to tell one from another. I’m sure there are some differences, but the only things I noticed were that the ride hasn’t been inundated with the stylized Disney characters, which strangely caused some commotion in the US, and that there was no United States or Canada. I’ve got to say, that difference was a little surprising.
We’d been more successful than I was even hoping for in the morning, so we took some time to relax and celebrate a bit with our Blue Bayou tradition. First I took a chance to see if any worthwhile Fastpasses were still available, so I set out and would meet Megan in New Orleans Square. Cutting through Tomorrowland I could see that Space Mountain and Monsters were done for the day – apparently we found a country where the bulk of the guests actually understand the Fastpass system. I was a bit disappointed, but we had a set for a few of the top rides, so I didn’t want to seem too greedy by lamenting.
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| This photo was taken despite Megan's rage |
A few more minutes passed, and there she came, demonstratively frustrated. Turns out she had been trapped by one of the many showings of the Halloween Parade. Because World Bazaar is all confined, the parades don’t go down the main street. Instead, they start in Fantasyland to the right of Small World, wind ¾ of the way around the hub, and cut back into Frontierland to finish up. Not surprisingly, this cuts the park in half, essentially making the front inaccessible from the back, and vice versa. We’d have many annoying encounters with this parade during our visit, though its logistics weren’t nearly as bothersome as its constant refrain. Spookyville, indeed.
The Blue Bayou is another of the places in the park where the setup is eerily similar. On multiple occasions, I had to snap back to the reality that we were in Japan. The menu is different, but not drastically so. I had a green salad and the gumbo and Megan went with a potato cream soup and a seafood gratin. Everything was good, though it was a bit unusual to see the entire menu was a la carte. We’re usually so starving by the time we get to Blue Bayou for dinner back home that we gladly take all sides and accoutrements. But just like normal, I easily got my money’s worth on the free refills. We skipped desert, and all told the check came to about $60.
Having enjoyed the first real respite since the day began, we decided to keep it going with a visit to the Tiki Room. Now that Florida has mercifully gone back to something close to the original version, this Tiki Room is now the only one with a major deviation in the plot from the Disneyland classic. If nothing else, the Stitch theme is considerably less grating than the Gilbert Gottfried takeover Orlando used to have. It skips most of the generic pop music for a more Hawaiian motif as the unpredictable alien creates some havoc. As we expected, it had no wait, was a nice air conditioned sit and fit in somewhere between nostalgic and abrasive. That it was entirely in Japanese (except for the oft repeated phrase, “Big Kahuna”) was inconsequential.
Continuing around the back of the park, it looked like we were going to have plenty of time to fit in some of the secondary attractions. We queued up for PhilharMagic, which we found to be a pleasant surprise during our Disney World visit. The posted 30 minute wait wasn’t exactly what we wanted to see, but the line wasn’t too far outside the show building. It took us one showing to get inside, then one more before we were in the theater lobby.
The film is identical, with its limited dialogue and most of songs in Japanese of course. It’s a nice diversion for sure, skipping most of the typical gags of 3D theater attractions, and focusing primarily on the pantheon of Disney classics.
Another familiar attraction was up next, Pinocchio. The full queue was posted as a 20 minute wait, but it took us just about 10, and we were on. The ride seemed all but identical to the Disneyland version, which is to say a secondary attraction for sure.
Finally cutting back into ToonTown, I was looking for my credit on Gadget’s Go Coaster. Roger Rabbit was back there too, but even with the reasonable 45 minute wait, it just wasn’t worth our time being an exact copy, right down to the detailed queue. We got in the line for the Vekoma junior coaster, and found it to be pretty much the same set up as Disneyland as well, though with just a bit more detail in the themeing. The wait was a bit over 20 minutes, but with two trains running it moved just fine. The only true challenge was the two of us squeezing into the pint-sized car.
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| In the future, people will be blurry |
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| What a mercifully bearable day at Tokyo Disneyland looks like |
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| See? Now we're talking |
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| Get ready for nostaligia overload |
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| They do a nice enough job. I just wish they didn't bother |
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| Now is when we get our money's worth |
Inside the ride building, you’ll see that the station is laid out exactly the same as Disneyland, and the only difference is an alternate treatment for the theme. It’s all about greenish glowing orbs. I never really caught what the story was, though you don’t have to do much to dress up a simulated space flight.
The ride is quite similar, if not identical, to Disneyland’s pre-upgraded version. The same trains, the same right turn up the small lift into the light tunnel, another right up the main lift, and then a U-turn before climbing the final lift, and you’re off. Again, the themeing we passed by along the way is different, a little more subtle, and the main shortcoming is the lack of the great on-ride audio. You still get the star fields during the ride, but you’re stuck with the sounds of whooshing air, cars careening, and the occasional scream. Gone is the entertaining music as well as all the great sound effects during the ride. The finale is the same blinding flash tunnel that Orlando sports, but oddly no on-ride photo. Overall, Disneyland gets the nod here.
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| Monsters all over the world |
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| Compared to nighttime, the park during the day is stupid and ugly |
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| What purdy lights |
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| Day one has clearly been a success |
If you’ve been on the California Adventure version, then you have a general idea of what to expect. It’s a dark ride through Monstropolis as Sully, Mike, and Boo run around and evade Randall. The twist is that it’s interactive. Riders are given flashlights, a la the guns on Buzz Lightyear, except instead of scoring points, hitting targets affects the scenery. Hidden monsters appear, doors open up, a good number of small but clever touches put a great new spin on a traditional dark ride. Hence the verbose full name, Monsters Inc., Ride and Go Seek. I wish they would retrofit the DCA version with this feature. The ride is a good bit longer and more elaborate as well, but it’s this novelty that really makes this one a hit.
Being so close to the front of the park, we cut across the top of World Bazaar, checked out the wait time board, and marveled at how light the crowds were. The worst was Splash Mountain at two hours, Pooh and Space were at 90 minutes, and Monsters, Haunted Mansion, and Thunder Mountain were an hour. Everything else was considerably less. This was a great day to be at Tokyo Disneyland.
With our morning Fastpasses cashed in, we knew we’d have to tough it out for a night ride on Thunder Mountain, or to finally catch the Christmas Haunted Mansion. First we took a quick diversion to the Swiss Family Treehouse, enjoyed the views with dusk approaching, but could really feel how tired we were climbing those stairs. Usually we’re a little better rested before for our first day, this felt like the third consecutive day of touring that it was.
But we weren’t about to complain, and to show our fortitude, we queued up for Thunder Mountain. The slog through each and every switchback of the queue house was rough, especially with it going slower thanks to peak Fastpass redemption. For the first time the long wait posted felt like a long wait, and it was a relief to make it down the ramp into the station. It had gotten considerably darker by this point, so we were happy our patience paid off with one of the best night rides Disney has to offer.
Looking to gain some of our lost efficiency (and to spend more time sitting than in line), we went back up to Splash Mountain, this time with Megan being brave enough to ride. I did my best to show how the improved queue boded well for the ride itself, but all she was concerned about was the wetness factor. I reassured her by offering to take the front seat if our single rider status required it, but it didn’t come up and we were each on the ride in just a few short cycles after arriving in the station. After a second ride, I was even more impressed. Hands down, it's my favorite ride in the park.
There was less than half an hour until the only parade we cared to see, Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights. Don’t let the name fool you, it’s a ever so slightly modernized version of the Main Street parades we’ve known and loved for decades. We tried to kill a few birds with one stone here, finding a place early, but not obsessively early, taking a load off for a bit, finally induldging in some of the flavored popcorn the parks are famous for, and positioning ourselves close to the entrance of Haunted Mansion.
For logistical reasons that are clear when seeing the parade route, it just doesn’t make sense to have the ride operating during this parade, which at 25 minutes, is considerably longer than the Halloween parades. It’s more about crowd control, as the entrance and exit to the ride butt up against the viewing area, and things are already pretty crowded. It looked to work out well for us, as we were just a couple dozen meters from the entrance, and we’d be looking at a minimal wait if we timed our move right at the end of the parade.
The honey popcorn was great, though not especially daring – curry and black pepper flavors seemed the most unusual of what we were able to spot. We had a small box each for a few bucks a pop, skipping the $15 plus souvenir (and refillable) bucket. We just didn’t have room in our suitcases, I guess. The spot we found was at the back of the section, giving us a good chance to escape, but still giving a great view as the parade started, especially once we stood up.
The music is the same synthesized version of the Baroque Hoedown you can probably play in your head, but the floats and lights have been noticeably upgraded. It’s another nostalgic, déjà-vu inducing event, thought the changes do give it some of its own flavor, a la Spectromagic at Disney World, though not nearly as divergent thanks to the classic theme song. Of particular note is the Aladdin float, with the Genie changing form from a deck a cards to fireworks to Donald Duck, all thanks to its impressive set of LED lights.
Like I said, the parade is long, featuring almost 30 floats. It’s so long that they actually put in gaps between the various scenes and allow traffic across the route. I’d certainly never seen that before, but I was glad to see Haunted Mansion still closed and the new foot traffic being diverted away from the paths. We reached the finale, and as the end of the parade went down the route, the crowd started to shift behind it. Seeing our chance, we darted to the Haunted Mansion and found we had easily beaten the crowd, avoiding an hour waiting in line.
I don’t think the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay is the worst thing in the world. It’s clever enough and the scenery is really quite well done and otherwise seamlessly incorporated into the ride. But if you’re like me, Disney has a special place in your heart because of the memories it evokes. There’s no doubt if a more permanent change was made to this attraction, the response would be overwhelming, but I guess this is one we just have to go along with.
The outside of the mansion is the far creepier Victorian style found in Orlando, and what we would have seen on the inside is a version also very similar to that, minus Disney World’s recent upgrades. What we ended up seeing was quite indistinguishable from the holiday overlay that Disneyland gets. It was a nice refresher on what this version has to offer, but same as last time I saw it, my response was that it was fun, and that it should be changed back immediately.
The post-parade crowd has dispersed, and it actually looked like the place was thinning out. In another whimsical tradition of ours, we needed a night ride on the Teacups. The ride is covered like Florida, though placed much more in the center of things like California, which resulted in the experience been pretty much identical to the version in France, minus the graceful glass roof. The attraction is much the same, and the surprisingly free-spinning cups were disappointingly canceled out somewhat by having a governor slow them down. Still, we managed to spin ourselves silly.
With wait times down across the board, we went standby for Space Mountain, a 40 minute wait taking about 30. The mostly unsheltered standby queue was bearable now in the dark, and we were thrilled to be able to double up on the all mountains without that much trouble.
Speaking of doubling up, we had just a short break before our Pooh window opened up, the with the wait time dwindling to 20 minutes, it seemed a little pointless to be using Fastpasses. Still, the second ride was a great as the first, and we found it hard not to be in awe of this ride. Out the exit, we saw that the wait time was down to 10, but we were pretty much at our limit. Unlike Disneyland, it’s not a quick walk across the street to our hotel. Even the buses at Disney World are quicker than the commute we’d need, so with just a few minutes before closing, we called it a day.
The route took less than an hour door to door, Tokyo still teeming with workers traveling in every direction, and we had time to grab breakfast and snacks for the next day at our nearby Family Mart. It wasn’t so much that food was expensive, it was pretty typical amusement park prices, but we wouldn’t always be in the mood to wait in those lines for it. The alarm was set for 7:30am, a little later because we knew the route, though this time, we’d be hopping on the monorail, and finally getting to see the supposed wonder that is Tokyo DisneySea for ourselves.