Dreams Unlimited Travel Podcast | Tokyo Disneyland & Tokyo DisneySea | 11/06/17

[belle41379]

Our pet touring group also commented on the lack of “immersion” at Disney Sea. (With the exception of the Little Mermaid and Agrabah areas - totally don’t remember the proper name for them -, which were the opposite.)

I believe we all appreciated experiencing the cultural differences. There was no expectation by anyone on this trip for anything but drastic differences. It was a once in a lifetime trip, and one we are very grateful to have been on.

 

[disneyholic family]

John and Kevin, i'm so sorry you were disappointed with your visit to Japan, a place i have adored my entire life - my second favorite country in the whole world.

I hope that you will be able to visit again sometime on an ABD tour, so that you have the opportunity to experience the country in depth - the culture and the people.

as for jet lag, i feel your pain!! in august, upon returning home from 3 weeks at WDW, it took me over 3 weeks to recover from the jet lag!!!
.

 

[KateP85]

OK...I hesitate to say this, but I think I’m the dissenting opinion here. I love the podcasts, love the team, and usually love to hear about the places they’ve been. I was really interested to hear that John and Kevin didn’t enjoy Disney Sea since I’ve never heard anyone else say that, and I was curious to hear why. I can understand something not feeling like a Disney Park, not finding the themeing to be immersive, and I can definitely understand jet lag influencing how you perceive a place.

What I took issue with was the almost mocking way they talked about the Japanese people, how little research they seemed to have done into the Japanese culture, and how uninterested they seemed to be in opening themselves up to the Japanese way of life. I know everyone travels differently, I think I just expected travel agents to be more excited to explore somewhere new, and I feel like all they did was complain about how different it was to the US. I think the final nail in the coffin for me was when they said they felt like they had gotten a feel for the entire city of Tokyo by being driven around it for a few hours - how can that be possible?!

I think overall I was just disappointed in their attitude. To not enjoy somewhere and explain why is fine, helpful even, to people planning a trip. But to just complain and constantly describe things as “odd” or “strange” when all it was is ‘different to American’ just seemed surprising given how well traveled they are.

 

[DisneyKevin]

I think the final nail in the coffin for me was when they said they felt like they had gotten a feel for the entire city of Tokyo by being driven around it for a few hours - how can that be possible?!

The Tokyo portion of our trip was not part of our ABD Adventure. This was a three night add on that John put together for the folks on our Adventure that wanted to see Tokyo Disneyland as long as they were on that side of the world.

We arrived at late in the afternoon after a tremendous amount or travel and pretty much passed out.

The next day was spent in Tokyo Disney Seas. With all of the research you've accused us of not doing, no where did I read that full grown adults would dress up as a stuffed bear, carry around a toddler sized version of the stuffed bear and then hold said bear out in from of themselves so that he got a better view of the park....or take up seats in crowded restaurants so that the stuffed bear had a seat of his own. I used the word "odd", but your version "different to American" is also correct. Although, Id consider this odd in the US as well.

I think Disney Seas had been oversold. I didn't think it was the most amazing park. I didn't think it was the most beautiful park. It reminded me of Universal Orlando / Islands of Adventure in execution and theming.

Also, I think you are mistaking "fad" with "culture".

We spent 2/3 of the next day in Tokyo Disneyland in the rain.

As we had traveled all that way, we felt we needed to hire a car and driver to see at least some of Tokyo. It seemed shameful to travel to a city / country and only see Disneyland.

We took a very quick 3 hour trip to Tokyo and actually had about 2 hours to explore. We asked to see as many highlights of the city as possible in our short window of opportunity. We did the "tourist" tour. We saw Shibuya, Harajuku, Kabuki Theater, Ginza ...all in the rain.

I got as much of a feel for the city of Tokyo as we could in that amount of time. It was literally all of the time we had.

We left the next morning for Hong Kong.

I have been home since October 26th and i finally think I am over the jet lag I experienced. Im finally sleeping through the night.

Im sorry that you are disappointed and surprised, but as someone that loves the podcast...Im surprised that you expected anything less than our honest opinion.

We only had time for a very short visit. I do not believe I got to see Japan / Tokyo any more than I believe that someone that only visits Walt Disney World gets to see the US....or even the real Orlando.

Im surprised and disappointed that I have to explain that.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

I thought some of the comments were weird. But I do tend to over plan my trip. I feel you could have gone to Nikko, Kamakura and Fuji San.

I am just going to say this In its Michelin Guide there a no un starred ventures . In all others there are ventures of recommendation as well of stars. There are 150 ventures in Tokyo that have Michelin Stars. So there is no shortage of good food. But also there is no shortage of 'cheap' food there as well. Like deep fried chicken Karrage or Katsu. Tempura deep fried fish or vegetables etc. Yakitori Grilled meat etc. With a bit of research you could have found food in Japan that would appeal to you and you could like. I am just amazed that they did not get a guide book and look at the food options.

I would also get a guide book and have the site that you want to see in Japanese with furigana (hiragana above the Chinese Characters ) and have that written on a sheet and show the drivers that.

Has anyone used a dmc for a trip?

 

[DisneyKevin]

We had 66 hours in Japan and two theme parks to see.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

We had 66 hours in Japan and two theme parks to see.

fair enough !!!!!