TR--Girls' Trip to Asia---Next Stop: Japan!--updated 10/16--Day 15 --TR Finished

Fantastic trip report so far!!! :thumbsup2

My DH and I also got married at WDW and we have our Disney California, Tokyo and Hong Kong booked for Dec!

Your trip report has us SUPER excited!!

Can't wait to read more!!:goodvibes

Question though, do you speak either Japanese or Chinese? Was there any issues with language at the parks?
 
Then they played "Hooray for Hollywood" in Japanese. This is the theme song for where I work at Disney, the Great Movie Ride. So I had to tape it!

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Then we went to eat at the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall for lunch. I had read about this in Carrie's blog and we were so excited to go there. It was so cute!

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I had a Caesar Salad.

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Up next...a bunch of pictures from the Jubilation Parade!
 


Loving your report Andrea, thanks so much for sharing!

Making me want to plan my Asian Disney experience sooner than I anticipated! Would love to hold out until they are done in Shanghai but I'm not sure I can wait that long...!!!
 
Great show! thanks for sharing.

Thanks!

Loving your report Andrea, thanks so much for sharing!

Making me want to plan my Asian Disney experience sooner than I anticipated! Would love to hold out until they are done in Shanghai but I'm not sure I can wait that long...!!!

Thanks! And we contemplated pushing the trip back until Shanghai was open, but I'm not sure if I would be able to go if we waited longer
 
We watched The Jubilation Parade. It was pretty good. (Warning--this whole post is parade pics! :lmao: )

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We went to Toon Town after watching the parade. Up first was Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin.

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Then I saw Clarice as she was going in (I've never seen her in our parks) so I had to snap a picture.

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And then we rode Gadget's Go Coaster

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We didn't really go into Chip & Dale's Treehouse but they're Cori's fav and my hubby's fav so I had to take a picture of the sign.

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Then we rode Pinocchio's Daring Journey

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and It's a Small World

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We tried to watch the Tanabata Greeting Parade for the Star Festival but it got cancelled due to the weather. Then we went to Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall and went up in the castle.

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It had really neat things to see like shadow box type things

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Photo ops like sitting in the throne and the glass slipper

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And there were these magic photos where pixie dust shows up in the picture because of the flash. Unfortunately, my camera died right before that. I think one of the other girls took pictures but I can't find it. Luckily, Meredith had her good camera and one like mine. She was using her good camera so she gave me her one like mine and I put my sim card in to use for the rest of the night. But we didn't figure out to use this until after we got out of the castle.

Up next...night at the park
 
WOW! Lots to catch up on.


So much seems the same and so much seems different. I'm glad that TDL has its own personality and it does come through in your pictures. They really make me want to go see it soon....someday.


Thanks for sharing.
 
WOW! Lots to catch up on.


So much seems the same and so much seems different. I'm glad that TDL has its own personality and it does come through in your pictures. They really make me want to go see it soon....someday.


Thanks for sharing.

We commented on that a lot. There were so many big picture things that were similar but it was the smaller things that were different.
 
We headed over to the Tiki Room: Stitch Presents Aloha E Komo Mai! I didn't like this version. We got a device to read the English subtitles on, which was fine. But Stitch came out in the middle instead of Aoha, the tiki goddess (or however you spell it). I like our version better.

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Then we ate dinner at Crystal Palace since that was where Meredith worked when she worked at WDW.

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The food was pretty good, but they had a very small selection of drinks..no soda!

Then we used our Fastpasses at Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek. It was kinda dumb. It was movement like Buzz Lightyear but you had to shine your light at the monsters helmets and monsters would pop up. There needed to be points to be won or something.

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We headed to Pooh's Honey Hunt. This was my favorite ride in the park by far, maybe my fav of the whole trip. It is so hard to describe but it's just so unique. I really can't find the words that would make sense. Just know that if you go here, DO NOT skip this ride. It is NOTHING like ours...100 times better. I really wish they would change ours to be like this!

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Then we did a little shopping. I got a Cinderella's Carriage with Mickey & Minnie in wedding clothes and its a ring holder.

Then we watched the nighttime parade "Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights." There were only 4 floats!!! I really hope that it was due to weather, and not that there are always only 4 floats! (once again, please forgive my wonderful photo-taking skills)

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Then the fireworks, "Disney Magic in the Sky" was only 4 minutes and 11 seconds! So crappy! They weren't even over the castle since they share fireworks with Disney Sea. I really hope this was all due to weather!

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After the fireworks, we rode Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters.

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Rebecca and Meredith went to see Captian EO but Cori and I didn't want to so we went shopping. We were supposed to meet up with them right after the show but they took an hour and 15 minutes. None of the lines were that long and we weren't happy. I was so done. The shopping in both Tokyo Disney parks left so much to be desired. :sad: I expected there to be such great, fun things to buy but there wasn't. There were no good shirts (like maybe 5 choices in all) and no keychains (which I collect). But apparently collecting washclothes and these things on strings that attach to bags are popular. After meeting up with the girls, we headed back to the room.

Up next...Disney Sea day!!
 
Aww sounds like a bit of a disappointing evening. Looking forward to seeing the pics though (stupid work blocking photo-sharing websites!).

I've heard Pooh's Hunny Hunt is the best ever :thumbsup2 I'm a big Piglet fan so will have to make sure I visit when we eventually make it to Tokyo! I've only been on the one in HK so far - Critter Country was closed when we went to Anaheim. Is the WDW one like the one in HK?
 
I have heard from many sources that the fireworks are not great - this is so disappointing as I really want to try out my improved photography skills and (unlike yourself) my opportunities for shooting fireworks over a Disney castle are very few and far between!! :(

Did you have to make an ADR for the Crystal Palace - and were there characters?
On our trip to the world last year my kids were adamant that we wouldnt do character meals -(too uncool for them) but there are so many other fun options at WDW, I didnt feel like we missed anything - but maybe at TDL we should do a character meal, just so we can say we have done it :confused3
 
Awesome photo op if you are a Cinderella fan!! Did anyone's foot fit the slipper?
 
Thanks for sharing.


I wonder if the fireworks and the parade are always that short as well....
 
That looks like it must have been a Rainy Day Parade; it is most definitely not Dreamlights. (I saw a Rainy Day Parade in place of the regular daytime parade during one of my trips) Dreamlights is a plussed version of the Main Street Electric Parade with some new floats that have never been seen in the US. Sorry you didn't get to see it. :(

I've never seen the fireworks from TDL; I saw them a bit from TDS but I'd read that they weren't anything special, and they are kinda meh.
 
Aww sounds like a bit of a disappointing evening. Looking forward to seeing the pics though (stupid work blocking photo-sharing websites!).

I've heard Pooh's Hunny Hunt is the best ever :thumbsup2 I'm a big Piglet fan so will have to make sure I visit when we eventually make it to Tokyo! I've only been on the one in HK so far - Critter Country was closed when we went to Anaheim. Is the WDW one like the one in HK?

It was a little. Especially since I love fireworks. Ummm...is it bad to say that I don't remember the HK one...I don't think we went on it..I wonder why not!

I have heard from many sources that the fireworks are not great - this is so disappointing as I really want to try out my improved photography skills and (unlike yourself) my opportunities for shooting fireworks over a Disney castle are very few and far between!! :(

Did you have to make an ADR for the Crystal Palace - and were there characters?
On our trip to the world last year my kids were adamant that we wouldnt do character meals -(too uncool for them) but there are so many other fun options at WDW, I didnt feel like we missed anything - but maybe at TDL we should do a character meal, just so we can say we have done it :confused3

I hope you'll get the chance to take good pics! We didn't make any ADRs...we just walked right up and it was about a 5 minute wait. And I don't remember any characters.

Awesome photo op if you are a Cinderella fan!! Did anyone's foot fit the slipper?

I am a big Cinderella fan! But nope..the slipper was too small ;)

Thanks for sharing.


I wonder if the fireworks and the parade are always that short as well....

I dunno about the fireworks, but from the comment below, it looks like we just got unlucky with the parade.

That looks like it must have been a Rainy Day Parade; it is most definitely not Dreamlights. (I saw a Rainy Day Parade in place of the regular daytime parade during one of my trips) Dreamlights is a plussed version of the Main Street Electric Parade with some new floats that have never been seen in the US. Sorry you didn't get to see it. :(

I've never seen the fireworks from TDL; I saw them a bit from TDS but I'd read that they weren't anything special, and they are kinda meh.

Oh boo! That parade sounds like it would have been so much better!
 
Today we headed to Tokyo Disney Sea. I was the most excited about this park since I knew almost everything was completely different from what we have. We had heard about how crowded the park gets so we made sure to get up early. We got to the gates at 7:45. They didn't open until 9 am so we were one of the first ones there. It was really cold and drizzly and I debated about going back to the hotel to put on jeans but I decided not to.

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Right before the gates opened, some of the main characters came out and did a group huddle and ran around. It was cute. The gates opened and Meredith, Cori and I took off running (yes, we ran with everyone) for Tower of Terror. Rebecca doesn't like that ride so she went to get us FastPasses at Journey to the Center of the Earth. The running was crazy but kinda fun. The back story to Tower of Terror was completely different than ours. This one was about some evil Tiki God statue. It was all in Japanese so we only got the gist of the story. I wish we could have understood more.

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Then we went to ride Stormrider. This was a simulator ride about going into the worst storm of the century. There is a part where you go through rain and they spray you for several second and you get pretty wet. Then at the end, you crash into the water (in the video) and the screen goes black. We're convinced that meant you died. Of course, we couldn't understand anything to know for sure, but that's what we were left with.

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Then we tried our first popcorn of the day--strawberry. It was really good and we would get several refills of this again.

Then we took a picture looking back at the entrance to the park. That's the Mira Costa Hotel. So pretty!

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We did 20,00 Leagues Under the Sea next. It was pretty neat. You sit with your party in a little underwater vehicle with a front window and a window on each side. The ride was built like Peter Pan. There were 2 pieces of glass in front of you with water bubbles in between to make it seem like you are underwater.

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Then we used our Fastpasses at Journey to the Center of the Earth. It's pretty similar to a Dinosaur-type ride but at the end it speeds up suddenly and shoots you up and down the side of the volcano. Unfortunately, a hot drop of water shot into my eye at the point so I spent the last bit with my eyes closed.

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Then we headed to Mermaid Lagoon.

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Most of it was inside. This would be perfect to go to if it was raining.

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We walked right into the Mermaid Lagoon Theater. The show was really neat. Ariel was suspended in air so she could do flips and there were puppets and such. It was really really neat. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let you take any pictures of the show.

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Then we went on The Whirpool which was just like the teacups but you can't spin yourselves. They told us to sit close together in the middle to spin fast.

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I had been looking for a cute princess headband since the day before but couldn't find one. In the lagoon I found an Ariel headband with starfish and streamers coming down. I figured that was the closest I was going to find so I got it.

I forgot what was here, but it's pretty (maybe pictures with Duffy?)

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Then I found one of the popcorn buckets I had been looking for--the Minnie Princess one! So cute! Throughout the rest of the day we then tried milk tea (okay), cranberry (not my fav), sea salt (pretty good), and black pepper (pretty good too). There were no regular butter, only the salt ones.

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Up next...part 2
 
Thank you so much for posting this trip report - my partner and I are going to Tokyo DL and DS and then Hong Kong DL the next week. I can not wait - we booked the trip 9 months ago and it is only 2 months away....

Love all the pictures of food which we tend to take a lot of as well. Sad to hear the shops were not all that good - same as Paris - we must buy more shirts and stuff in USA. There was like one shirt in all of Disney Paris!

Looking forward to a Donald popcorn bucket (thats my name) so excited to hopefully find one. Also excited to hear about the Pooh ride - everyone raves about it, but no one can explain it - it must be something you just have to experience :)

Looking forward to continue reading your report - thanks again for posting!!!
 
Thank you so much for posting this trip report - my partner and I are going to Tokyo DL and DS and then Hong Kong DL the next week. I can not wait - we booked the trip 9 months ago and it is only 2 months away....

Love all the pictures of food which we tend to take a lot of as well. Sad to hear the shops were not all that good - same as Paris - we must buy more shirts and stuff in USA. There was like one shirt in all of Disney Paris!

Looking forward to a Donald popcorn bucket (thats my name) so excited to hopefully find one. Also excited to hear about the Pooh ride - everyone raves about it, but no one can explain it - it must be something you just have to experience :)

Looking forward to continue reading your report - thanks again for posting!!!

You're going to have a blast! And there was definitely a Donald popcorn bucket...several of the stands had it! (although I say that now...hopefully they still have it then. We saw tons of people carrying buckets that they didn't have any more so I'm not sure how often they get new ones)
 

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