October 18: Tokyo Disney Sea Part 1
Continuing writing to distract myself from the news of the last few days.
The next day we did decide to sleep in a little, getting up at 7/7:30 am. Andy's friend is a Platinum level member, so she said that we could get a free breakfast with our key card. His friends were still asleep, but we headed out around 8. After going down to the front desk, we figured out that the free breakfast was in the lounge on the Top floor. I was pretty excited, as I love buffets and I was hungry. There was a pretty nice spread that included eggs, sausage, fatty bacon, potatoes, udon, soup, breads, salad, soda and juices. There was also a very nice view of the parking lot, but you could also see the castle and big thunder.
We took the resort line to Tokyo Disney Sea and arrived around 9 am. As we entered, the park was decked out in Villains signs promoting their show. I actually never got to see the shows as I am not too keen on the shows they've had on the water. I know everyone seems to like them, but I remember seeing both BraviSEAmo and Fantasmic, and thinking "meh."
I tried to snap some pictures as we power walked through the Mediterranean Harbor area, but I didn't want to stop walking, so some of the pictures did not turn out great, but I did my best. This park is just so incredibly beautiful and picturesque.
So we headed to Journey of the Center of the Earth, to get fastpasses, and then headed to the Lost River Delta area to do Single Rider on both of the rides there. The single rider lines here are so great because not that many people use them.
First, we went on Indiana Jones and the temple of the Crystal Skull. The queue here is really cool. Love all the skeletons!
The ride itself is pretty much the same as the California version of the ride with just a few minor changes, which make it just a little better than the Anaheim version. I guess I won't spoil exactly what happens, but they have something instead of the rat scene - definitely the weakest part of California's ride.
We then headed to Raging Spirits. As we tried to walk through the Single Rider line, the cast member stopped us. Apparently, they were insisting that I head to the test seat to make sure I fit. Andy was getting exasperated trying to explain that we had ridden it in the past, even when I was like 60 pounds heavier and I fit fine. I was annoyed that they didn't trust us, but also figured that it was taking more time to argue, so I said, "Andy it's fine." We trekked back to the sample seat, made sure I fit and then went back into the line.
I was surprised that there were four or five people in front of us, so we ended up waiting about 20 minutes. On this ride, I noticed how couple centric Tokyo/Japan seemed to be. Every group was a couple, or had even people so it took longer than I expected. I don't feel like I see so many couples at Disneyland here. Also it turned out that the mixed gender rule was only enforced by that one cast member at Splash mountain since Andy was seated with a group of high school girls. Once I got onto the ride, I was surprised at how tame the ride was - I don't seem to remember it like that, but having ridden Goofy's Sky School and coasters at Knotts recently, I was just like, this ride is so slow! Aside from the few drops and the loop, the ride felt more like the outside portion Alice in Wonderland.
It was at this time that one of Andy's friends showed up to the park. Apparently, his girlfriend was not feeling well, so she stayed back
It was finally time for our fastpasses, so we headed to Journey to the Center of the Earth. Andy decided to let his friend use his fastpass, while Andy went to get fastpasses for Tower of Terror.
This ride is so great - definitely the best ride in the park. Even the queue and preshow, where you take the elevator "down" to the journey of the center of the earth. The sets, the designs, the animatronics are just so wonderfully weird, and the thrill at the end of the ride is so cool! The line was about 70 minutes at that point so the fastpass was great.
I was feeling warm, so I picked up a Minnie frozen juice bar - it was very refreshing. Peach/raspberry I think.
Andy and Nolen, Andy's friend, decided to do single rider on Raging Spirits again. I was not feeling like doing that, so I did a little solo exploring, walking to and through the Arabian Coast.
Being away from Andy, I decided to try one of the snacks I had seen on other trip reports...a chandu tail. Very cute and pretty tasty.
The day before I had seen a bunch of people carrying around a cute, huge-headed Donald plush in a clear bag, so I was wondering where'd they get that. I thought it might be a game, so I was hoping to play it there, but never got the chance to play it. They also looked really hard. I love carnival style games, or more like, the competitive side of me loves winning those games, so I was in the search of games in this park. I walked through the Arabian Coast where I finally found the games, but these ones had Stitch and Angel as prizes.
There were two games, one where you had to roll a ball across four rows of plates, and it had to stay on the last row of golden plates without going past them. The other one, you had to roll a ball (skiball style) to land in one of three little perches. Four each game you got four tries and could win one prize. Even if you didn't win, you won a consolation prize/pin. I tried the skiball one, as it seemed the easiest. My first try was to soft and didn't make it anywhere close, but on the second try...
I won! So I got this awesome stitch! And I even bought a shirt the day before to wear to the park the next day, and it conveniently matched Stitch. Yay. The cast members were so nice and congratulatory and they high fived me. I even got congrats from cast members elsewhere in the park.
When I walked back to meet Andy, he said "Yay, you won me a Stitch for me" - I was like, um okay, sure I won it for you. Stitch is his favorite character so I reliquished ownership. We then rode on Indy again with Nolen, doing single rider again.
We took a ride on Sinbad's Voyage, a boat ride about the pace of it's a small world. Andy likes this ride a lot, and it's a nice diversion, but that song still haunts me, hence the title of this trip report. I think it's just an okay ride. Chandu is adorable though!
Decided to ride Indy again, single rider. This time there was a bit longer wait but nothing compared to the standby line.
I wish they didn't put the stupid cross bars over the pictures here, because I'm cheap and did not want to buy the picture or photo key.
At this point, Nolen decided he was gonna leave for the day and meet his girlfriend, she was still feeling sick, so Andy and I asked if we could take her ticket to use for Fastpasses. He agreed, and then Andy went off with him to pick up their tickets. I stayed back and decided to do some more exploring. I wanted to go get a gyoza bun in the Mysterious Island, but I saw the insane line, and decided not to. I have tried to get that bun for three trips now, but just don't want to wait. LOL. The wait for 20000 Leagues under the Sea was only 10 minutes, so I hopped in line.
Andy is not a fan of this ride, so it was a good time to go. I wasn't too impressed by it the last time, or I don't remember being impressed, but this time I liked it quite a bit. Very weird visuals but pretty cool. It would be cooler if it were an actual water ride, but it was fun.
I then decided to walk to the Mediterranean Harbor area to look through some of the stores.
I saw Gaston, as I roamed through the area.
After looking through the stores, I saw the lottery location and tried my hand at that. I was successful at getting two tickets for Big Band Beat! (unfortunately, we didn't get to use it).
Finally Andy returned, and off we went to lunch.