Tokyo Disney Trip Report - June 2011

[txmama]

We were pretty tired by this point, after our long travel day and walking all over TDL, but DS wanted to go on the Grand Circuit Raceway, of course. We would end up riding this about six times over our visit. It never fails to give him a thrill!


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This guy was giving us a run for our money. Also note DS's wristband - it signals his height to cast members so he did not have to be measured over and over.


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We also visited Toontown briefly - it's really cool here! Great theming. The kids ran into a little trouble when they gave Goofy's car a test drive.


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The next morning, TDL opened at 9am. We got to the park about 8:30, and saw this:


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Keep in mind that this was only one of a half-dozen lines that looked just like this! The good news is that everyone was very orderly progressing into the park - although they did not open the park a minute before 9am. However, by the time my husband made his way to Monsters, Inc. for fastpasses, the return time was already 1:30pm! Insane! And the wait was 85 minutes in the standby line! So, we got fastpasses for Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters instead and headed back to Pooh's Hunny Hunt to ride that again (with about a 25-minute wait).

We then commenced a tour of Fantasyland, riding Pinocchio's Daring Journey (loved it) and Snow White's Adventures (not scary here, theoretically, although we thought it was pretty scary). Here is the carousel.


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And a view of the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, which is elegantly themed. Love the "hedge maze" on the roof!


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We also loved the integration of the ubiquitous drink vending machines in Japan into the theming.

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I should note that by this point in the morning (about 11:30am), Monster's Inc and Pooh's Hunny Hunt were up to 130 minute waits. Buzz Lightyear was running about 85 minutes most of the day, and was actually 120 minutes when we came back to use our fastpasses. This was a weekend day, but during a supposedly slow time of year - for perspective! We had high hopes that our DisneySea time - on weekdays when Japanese children are still in school (through June) - would be better. Would we be right? You will see!

Next we headed back to Toontown, and because the kids begged us we waited in a 25-minute line for Gadget's Go Coaster. It was cute! And, just like the Barnstormer as we had heard.


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The kids, of course, wanted to ride again, but we didn't want to wait in the line again, so we moved on. The kids toured Minnie's House, which is just as cute as in WDW. We wanted to try Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin, but the wait was 35 minutes so we decided to try the Haunted Mansion. We just made it across the street before the parade, which was some kind of Easter spectacular. It was so weird, but the floats were very cool! I got these photos while we were in the 35-minute queue for Haunted Mansion and also as we encountered the parade again walking back through Fantasyland.


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Parades and shows are very popular in Japan. You will see people holding spots nearly 2 hours ahead of time. Everyone sits on plastic or fabric sheets - never on the ground! Our kids regularly plopped down on the curbs and that was clearly just not done! The good news for us, who are not really parade or show people*, was that these times were excellent for riding rides! Our Haunted Mansion wait ended up being just 5 minutes because people bailed out of the line for the parade.

And that is just about all the photos I have of TDL! We also rode Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, and Jungle Cruise. Jungle Cruise was hilarious in Japanese - our guide was quite animated - although of course we had very little idea what she was saying. The storyline seemed just the same as in WDW, however!

One thing we noticed throughout both parks was how sophisticated the animatronics are, compared to most rides in WDW (the parks are much newer, of course). This was especially true on Jungle Cruise, where the animals were really amazingly lifelike. And truly, no expense was spared in either park!

On our way out, it was getting dark. We ate some strawberry churros (mmm) and got a few crepes in Adventureland on our way out - both recommended snacks. We managed to hit the nighttime show/parade (we were never clear which), which seemed to consist of exactly four floats, of which I got a few blurry photos. They were beautiful, if underwhelming in number!


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Night night!


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Up next: The absolutely stunning DisneySea!

*Note that we have changed our perspective after seeing the incredible shows at DisneySea

 

[danceintherain]

Thanks for this report. I particularly like your inclusion of the ride wait times. That's crazy that it is that bad during the slow season on the weekends. I'm going to try to plan park days for weekdays, but I don't know how that's going to pan out.

 

[simzac]

Nice TR so far, looks like you had a great time. Love your pictures. Can't wait for the DisneySea part

 

[ChrisFL]

Thanks for this report. I particularly like your inclusion of the ride wait times. That's crazy that it is that bad during the slow season on the weekends. I'm going to try to plan park days for weekdays, but I don't know how that's going to pan out.

Actually to me its a good sign, after the disaster I kept hearing that the parks once they re-opened were WAY below capacity, so I'm glad the people are starting to come back

 

[scrump]

Awesome trip report! Thanks for sharing!

 

[danceintherain]

Actually to me its a good sign, after the disaster I kept hearing that the parks once they re-opened were WAY below capacity, so I'm glad the people are starting to come back

In that regard, I do think it's a good thing, but that doesn't mean I want to wait in crazy long lines while I'm there.

 

[txmama]

So glad folks are enjoying the report! As I mentioned before, we were park-hopping so clothing, weather, and times of day are going to shift oddly during this DisneySea part. I'll try to make it a coherent narrative though!

We arrived about 30 minutes before rope drop at DisneySea, as we had at TDL. It opened at 10am (can you believe so late?!) on that day, so we arrived around 9:30. To our surprise, they were already letting people into the park - in fact as we came into the shops area and looked out to Mysterious Island,


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we could see people already on the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride, hurtling down the mountain! Shocked, we hurried back to JCE to try and get fastpasses, worried about what our time would be. Actually, I should say that DH raced back there, and I followed along, dragging the kids as best as I could while they were busy looking at all the amazing sights along the way! I told them there would be plenty of time to explore...later! We did see Jiminy Cricket, Geppetto, and Pinocchio on the way and that was cool! Here's a closer view of the mountain with Fortress Explorations in front.


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When we met back up, DH had scored fastpasses with just a 10:45 return time, so we rode 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. First, oh my goodness, the Mysterious Island area has to be one of the coolest lands ever. Here are some pics.


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The 20,000 Leagues ride was simply awesome. Here is a dark shot of the ride vehicle, which was so cool.


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I should note that the kids thought it was scary, for any of you who will have young children! They did not want to ride again. I thought it was amazing.

After that we headed over to Mermaid Lagoon and the Arabian Coast, both of which are also exquisitely themed.

The Arabian Coast

This is the double-decker carousel.


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First we hit Sinbad's Storybook Village, which was stunning! We loved it! Here are just a couple shots that I got on the ride (no flash, promise). By the way, we found out near the end of our trip that a lot of rides have English-language pamphlets that tell you the story - just ask a CM. That would have helped us understand what was going on here! But we enjoyed it nonetheless.


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We also saw the show at the Magic Lamp Theater - which is truly bizarre but enjoyable. It involves live action and 3D-film which are integrated nicely. It's really a 4D show - definitely worth seeing.

Mermaid Lagoon ended up being our kids' favorite place and we spent quite a bit of time there over our trip. They loved the kiddie rides inside, which are nothing special but nicely themed like everything else. We also went on Flounder's Coaster about five times (it's outside the main part). It's a nice kids' coaster.

It's actually hard to describe the beauty of Mermaid Lagoon, and these photos do not do it justice. You feel instantly like you are truly "under the sea."


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Blowfish Balloon Race


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The kids loved this one!

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We also saw the show in the Mermaid Lagoon Theatre - which is absolutely astounding and not to be missed. Be sure to get the English captioning device from one of the CMs. I took one photo beforehand, and then they announced not to take any, so I didn't. But you can see here how the entire theater is meant to be underwater.


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We'd been wondering (my DH is in the arts) how they were going to pull off the characters being undersea and on land. The answer? Fly every character! It's all underwater, so have them "swim" by using all aerial acrobatics! The puppets and performers were just unbelievable. We loved it! I won't spoil it but let's just say that the ending is quite different in Japan! Our only complaint was that we were enjoying it so much it felt too short.

Next Up: Our first DisneySea Mediterranean Harbor show experience - the Legend of Mythica

 

[mikelan6]

Great TR so far! Did you do any shopping?

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

Lovin it Lovin it! keep the photos coming, in fact keep them coming until I leave on my trip which means you have to draw this out for the next three months

For 30 year old child, going to disney by herself with one day in each park what would you recommend as must at each park? and YES (i put no in the first edit, I meant yes) I will ride kid rides by myself I have no shame

 

[txmama]

Great TR so far! Did you do any shopping?

Michael, you may be sorry to hear that no, not really!! We were really saving our pennies by this point in the trip. The only Disney things we brought back were a Fantasmic coffee mug, a tiny TDL monorail car for my son, and one travel coffee mug with Monsters Inc. on it -- for my departmental coordinator at work! Come to think of it, not sure how we managed to not buy a lot more stuff for the kids - but hustling them past the shops always seems to do the trick!

 

[txmama]

Lovin it Lovin it! keep the photos coming, in fact keep them coming until I leave on my trip which means you have to draw this out for the next three months

For 30 year old child, going to disney by herself with one day in each park what would you recommend as must at each park? and no I will ride kid rides by myself I have no shame

Ooo, good question. Let's see.

Tokyo Disneyland
Pooh's Hunny Hunt
Monsters, Inc. Hide and Go Seek
And there are some shows, which we didn't see, that are supposed to be good.

It's possible there are other can't-miss things, which we may have not experienced - but those are the only ones I'd add.

DisneySea
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Tower of Terror
The Little Mermaid show
Fantasmic (night show on the lagoon)
Legend of Mythica (afternoon show on the lagoon)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Sinbad's Storybook Voyage
Fortress Explorations (a walk-through)

 

[txmama]

About 1pm, after a quick lunch at an Italian counterservice restaurant (I think it was the Zambini Brothers' Ristorante - which was perfectly good - they serve pasta, pizza, and salads), we headed to Fortress Explorations, a walkthrough exhibit/attraction at the base of the mountain and right on the large lagoon. I didn't know what to expect, but it was amazing - and my sweet geeky children just loved it!

A good shot of the whole complex.

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You can drive boats!

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And move the planets!

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And pedal whatever this semi-historical object is!

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When we were exploring the many turrets and bridges of the Fortress, we realized that we had an excellent viewpoint for the upcoming lagoon show, the Legend of Mythica - so we grabbed this spot and held onto it for about 30 minutes. It did get crowded up there but it wasn't too bad, and we had an awesome view.


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This central barge was about to do some cool stuff!

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It was packed on the distant plaza on the other shore.

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If you look closely you can see the jetski guys sitting and waiting for their big moment to shoot out!

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Showtime!!

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The jetski guys did this choreographed kite dance that was amazing.


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And just when you thought all the cool stuff was over, here came these unbelievable floats!


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All together now!

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Before you ask, no, I have no clue what the story was about. Although if I had to guess -- I'd say that someone or something was in some kind of peril, and then Mickey saved the day, and then there was a big celebration! DH says the four amazing floats at the end represented elements of the earth. Or something? But who cares - it was amazingly beautiful! And we were then determined to stay through for Fantasmic that night. Up next - the rest of our afternoon and Fantasmic!

 

[BecBennett]

I'm enjoying your report so much!

 

[DISNEYaddict4evr]

DisneySea looks so neat, but does the park still have Disney magic or does it not feel like Disney at all? Are there characters and how log are lines?

 

[danceintherain]

Great pictures! I can't wait to see it for myself.

 

[Luisa]

Loving your trip report- can't wait for December and my trip!

 

[txmama]

I'm enjoying your report so much!

Thank you!!

 

[txmama]

DisneySea looks so neat, but does the park still have Disney magic or does it not feel like Disney at all? Are there characters and how log are lines?

That is a good question. I had to think for a while about how to answer. I would say yes, definitely, it feels like Disney--especially the Mermaid Lagoon and Arabian Coast areas. There are lots of characters out and about especially toward the front of the park. We never saw a long line to see one except for Donald. And the other areas feel like Disney in that they are beautiful, idealized versions of other places (e.g. Venice, old New York) -- kind of like Epcot. So in the sense that being in the park takes you out of the real world and into something magical, it feels like Disney! I do think that parts of the park feel more like Universal's Islands of Adventure--but it is way more nicely themed.

 

[cam&phoebsmom]

WOW!!! I have never really checked into TokyoDisneyland but I think I should. DisneySea lookd AMAZING!!!! What a wonderful trip and experience for your family. I hope you will also include some pics of your travels around Japan

 

[txmama]

Hope everyone has had a nice holiday weekend!

As you'll remember, this trip report is happening all out of order because at the time I thought it would make more sense this way. Not sure whether that is the case but anyway...

After the lagoon show we were pretty tired and it was starting to rain, so we walked down to the Electric Railway for a trip to the American Waterfront. I got some shots of Aquatopia and Stormrider while we waited in line. Both rides were heartily enjoyed by the family - but mostly I'm showing you how cool the theming is here as well.


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The Stormrider queue

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Aquatopia - this ride is nothing special (other than the theming), but the kids loved it.

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A view of the S.S. Columbia and American Waterfront from the Electric Railway

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Once we got there, we walked all around the "American" area and I took a bunch of pics. Here is the amazing building for Tower of Terror!

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DH tried to ride using the single-rider line, but they weren't running a single-rider line at the time, unfortunately - and FPs were gone.

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Then we went up on the big ship to see the view and to have a snack. Here is the view of the American Waterfront and you can see the Mediterranean Harbor beyond.

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And the view off the other side of the ship - a rainy Tokyo skyline!

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We went into the Teddy Roosevelt Lounge for some drinks and snacks. This is the foyer - the fancy S.S. Columbia Dining Room is up these stairs.

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The kids had Shirley Temples (delicious), I had a kir royale (delicious and much-needed), and DH had a beer! We ate mixed nuts and prosciutto, bread, and fruit. It was all great.

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I know these are dark but I really liked the interior. I also loved the bears holding up the ceiling at the bar!

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We then tried to get into a performance of Big Band Beat, supposedly a very cool Broadway song-and-dance show, but had just missed the last call to get in line. So tired, and a bit dejected, we headed back toward the Mediterranean Harbor. We watched the gondolas for a while!


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It looked fun!

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Note that this is the end of the Hotel Miracosta - a gorgeous hotel INSIDE DisneySea. If we ever come back, we are definitely staying there for at least one night! How amazing to see the lagoon shows from your hotel room!

Then we decided we wanted to sit down and have people wait on us again (can you tell that we were getting tired? On the Amazing Race, they call it "killer fatigue" and that is about what we were hitting). So we went to the Ristorante di Canaletto, a table service restaurant nearby, and waited about 20 minutes for a table. They do have priority seating, but we had not gotten there early enough in the day to get a priority seating card (kind of like a day-of ADR) - I tried about 11am and they were all out. But 20 minutes was not bad at all.

The food was great - and DS enjoyed watching the gondolas from the balcony.

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And, lucky us, we even saw Mysterious Island's mountain erupt while we were eating!

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After dinner, we headed back to Fortress Explorations for some more fun and to secure our viewing spot again for Fantasmic. We lucked out and grabbed the exact same spot again. While DH and the kids played around on the Fortress - shooting cannons, repeatedly, was their favorite activity -


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I took some shots of the prep going on for the show. Here's the pyro guy setting up below us! I thought he was cool enough but at one point a lady with a long ponytail came out to talk to him - and he kept bowing very low - so I think the head pyro person at DisneySea is a lady. Pretty cool.

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About 20 minutes before showtime, this scissor lift lighting rig came up out of Venice, which we thought was hilarious.

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The harbor was so pretty as the lights started coming on.

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And before we knew it...it was showtime!

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This thing was not only Mickey's hat, but it fanned water into the sky to project images on. It was amazing. There were also four other barges which shot water up and projected scenes from Disney films onto the water.

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It was absolutely stunning. A fantastic way to end our trip!

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On the monorail back to the hotel, DS was very tired. He also told me, "Mama, I am going to remember Tokyo Disneyland forever." I sure hope that he will.


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I hope you have enjoyed this TR and that you will one day be visiting TDL and DisneySea yourself!