loladelorean
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2010
Hello everyone!
I’m back from our incredible 12 day trip to Japan – writing this in the small hours of the morning, as jet lag still has its hooks in me.
Thank you so much for your help in planning my trip – the whole holiday was brilliant, including our 2 days in the Disney parks right at the end. I’ll write up our experiences of TDR first, then add some stuff about the rest of our trip.
Trip Report
Cast: Lisa (27) and Janice (30)
Dates: Wednesday 16th Sept (Disneyland) and Thursday 17th Sept (DisneySea)
Hotel: Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay. We were upgraded to Club Level and had a beautiful big room with stunning views over both parks. Can’t recommend this hotel highly enough! Location, staff, food, comfort – all outstanding.
Points to note: any comparisons will generally be with Disneyland Paris, the park I’m familiar with. We didn’t have kids with us. We agreed at the outset that we wouldn’t be willing to spend more than an hour in a queue for anything – we were more interested in experiencing as much as we could in one day than trying to “tick off” the major attractions. We are vegetarians so our dining options were rather limited.
Day 1 – Disneyland
We turned up at the gates at 8am (for 9am park opening) to find already large crowds. Gates opened at exactly 9am and our pre-bought tickets worked perfectly (printed at home).
I knew I wanted to head for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt to get fastpasses, but it was very hard not to be distracted by the beauty and scale of the park on the way. I was really struck by the sheer space between World Bazaar and the castle – this gave an early indication of the grandeur of this amazing park.
The queue for Hunny Hunt fastpasses was already pretty long but we only had to wait about 10 minutes and we had fastpasses in hand. The smell of the honey popcorn next to the line was tantalizing – we’d be back for some later!
We jumped on It’s a Small World which had no queue, and loved spotting the differences between the Tokyo and Paris versions. They’re subtle but they’re there!
We made our way to Big Thunder Mountain, taking in the park as we went. It was down for maintenance – this would end up lasting most of the day, unfortunately. So instead we headed for the lottery and were delighted to nab tickets for One Man’s Dream later in the day. We loved the awesome Halloween decor in Westernland
Then it was time for the Halloween Parade! We found it a bit strange that people seemed to camp out on the ground for parades an hour or more in advance, when it was easy to wander up and see it just as it started (by looking over the heads of the sitting people). This was a really fun little parade, and you could tell there was no expense spared. It was longer and more elaborate than I’ve seen for a seasonal parade in Paris.
We did plenty of shopping in our time in the parks – including a spree just after this parade that necessitated the use of coin lockers afterwards. We were really pleasantly surprised by the prices throughout the parks – we got lots of bargains.
Now it was time for our Pooh’s Hunny Hunt fastpasses – we still had to wait a bit but only around 20 minutes and it was fun to enjoy the queue area. The technology here is very similar to the brilliant Ratatouille ride at Disneyland Paris, but the Hunny Hunt is totally unique. I’m so glad we were able to ride! I had some of that amazing-smelling popcorn afterwards and it did not disappoint.
We then jumped on Alice’s teacups – something I noticed was that there were a lot less small children around the parks than I would have expected, and the “kids” rides (which are usually some of the busiest/longest queues in Paris) often had little or no wait. Just a different demographic I suppose – the parks seemed full of teenagers, couples and adults.
We had spotted earlier on that the Hungry Bear restaurant in Westernland served vegetable curry, so we headed there for lunch. We had to wait about 20 minutes to be served but as with most things in Japan, the queue was organized very efficiently. The veg curry was delicious and again we felt we got good value for money.
As we were eating lunch we noticed that Big Thunder Mountain started to run again – we weren’t finished in time to jump in the queue but we did grab fastpasses for later. Time for another parade – Happiness on High. Possibly the longest Disney parade I’ve ever seen – every character you can think of was there! Again, the scale and detail of the floats and costumes was really impressive
We still hadn’t made it to Adventureland at all so we headed over there to explore. We rode Pirates with only a 10 minute wait, and again enjoyed comparing it with Paris. 3 Johnny Depps – that’s the obvious comparison. We loved the New Orleans-themed area and enjoyed a short performance from a marching band. Most importantly we had curry popcorn – the best popcorn in the parks (in our opinion!) One bucket between the two of us wasn’t enough…
Time for One Man’s Dream – wow. There hasn’t been a show of this scale and quality at Disneyland Paris for as long as I can remember, unfortunately. It was amazing to enjoy a high quality musical stage show within the park, and due to the clever use of lots of familiar songs, it didn’t really matter what language you spoke. I think everyone who is a fan of Disney would enjoy this.
Another area we hadn’t yet explored was Toon Town – which was decked out brilliantly for Halloween. We didn’t ride any of the attractions but had fun exploring and taking silly photos.
At this point it started to rain so we opted for another indoor activity – Stitch’s tiki room. We were impressed with the English subtitle devices, which worked really well and helped us enjoy the show.
Afterwards it was raining with gusto so we invested in some Minnie Mouse ponchos and carried on, stopping to ride Pinocchio before heading for Tomorrowland to try for some attractions there. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Monsters Inc had a 60 minute queue, much shorter than it had been the rest of the day, so we decided to wait. We think lots of people were having dinner around this time, 6.30pm or so. Monsters Inc was worth the wait – I thought it would be like Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast but it was so much better. It combines the technology of that ride with brilliant animatronics and a fun storyline.
After this we were starving so went to Eastside Café near the New Orleans area, which according to our map offered vegetarian meals. We realized that when TDR says vegetarian it actually means vegan – so good to know there is at least one location in each park where vegans could find a meal. Happily for us there were several veggie options on the menu and we enjoyed our meal a lot. A quicker experience than I’d usually like for a Disney dinner, but time was of the essence with only one day in the park.
It was very dark by the time we finished dinner – my favourite time to ride Big Thunder Mountain! On the way to BTM we caught the end of the electric light parade – something else I haven’t seen at Paris for a long time.
We pretty much walked straight on with our fastpasses and enjoyed the wildest ride in the wilderness. I’m almost happy to say that while we loved this, I think the Paris version tops it
Haunted Mansion looked AMAZING decked out for a Nightmare Before Christmas themed Halloween - but the queues for this were pretty much the longest in the park all day. Worth noting if you're visiting at Halloween
To round of the night, we watched the Halloween fireworks in front of the castle then Once Upon A Time. I should point out that it was pouring with rain by this time, but we had our ponchos and didn’t care.
Once Upon a Time was basically Dreams from Paris, but with totally different scenes which was a real treat for me. Only the Tangled scene was the same – I thought the Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh scenes were incredible.
We wanted to avoid the soggy crush on the monorail so walked back to the Sheraton which took around 15 minutes. We were really pleased to have experienced so much in one day and were impressed with how the park seemed to absorb and manage the crowds well. While Disneyland Paris will always be my home park and favourite, I can’t deny that Tokyo Disneyland is Disney at its best. It was really clear in the quality and frequency of parades, shows and entertainment, as well as the maintenance and detail of attractions, that no expense is ever spared here. A gorgeous park and perfect Disney day!
Up next – a very wet day at DisneySea.
I’m back from our incredible 12 day trip to Japan – writing this in the small hours of the morning, as jet lag still has its hooks in me.
Thank you so much for your help in planning my trip – the whole holiday was brilliant, including our 2 days in the Disney parks right at the end. I’ll write up our experiences of TDR first, then add some stuff about the rest of our trip.
Trip Report
Cast: Lisa (27) and Janice (30)
Dates: Wednesday 16th Sept (Disneyland) and Thursday 17th Sept (DisneySea)
Hotel: Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay. We were upgraded to Club Level and had a beautiful big room with stunning views over both parks. Can’t recommend this hotel highly enough! Location, staff, food, comfort – all outstanding.
Points to note: any comparisons will generally be with Disneyland Paris, the park I’m familiar with. We didn’t have kids with us. We agreed at the outset that we wouldn’t be willing to spend more than an hour in a queue for anything – we were more interested in experiencing as much as we could in one day than trying to “tick off” the major attractions. We are vegetarians so our dining options were rather limited.
Day 1 – Disneyland
We turned up at the gates at 8am (for 9am park opening) to find already large crowds. Gates opened at exactly 9am and our pre-bought tickets worked perfectly (printed at home).
I knew I wanted to head for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt to get fastpasses, but it was very hard not to be distracted by the beauty and scale of the park on the way. I was really struck by the sheer space between World Bazaar and the castle – this gave an early indication of the grandeur of this amazing park.
The queue for Hunny Hunt fastpasses was already pretty long but we only had to wait about 10 minutes and we had fastpasses in hand. The smell of the honey popcorn next to the line was tantalizing – we’d be back for some later!
We jumped on It’s a Small World which had no queue, and loved spotting the differences between the Tokyo and Paris versions. They’re subtle but they’re there!
We made our way to Big Thunder Mountain, taking in the park as we went. It was down for maintenance – this would end up lasting most of the day, unfortunately. So instead we headed for the lottery and were delighted to nab tickets for One Man’s Dream later in the day. We loved the awesome Halloween decor in Westernland
Then it was time for the Halloween Parade! We found it a bit strange that people seemed to camp out on the ground for parades an hour or more in advance, when it was easy to wander up and see it just as it started (by looking over the heads of the sitting people). This was a really fun little parade, and you could tell there was no expense spared. It was longer and more elaborate than I’ve seen for a seasonal parade in Paris.
We did plenty of shopping in our time in the parks – including a spree just after this parade that necessitated the use of coin lockers afterwards. We were really pleasantly surprised by the prices throughout the parks – we got lots of bargains.
Now it was time for our Pooh’s Hunny Hunt fastpasses – we still had to wait a bit but only around 20 minutes and it was fun to enjoy the queue area. The technology here is very similar to the brilliant Ratatouille ride at Disneyland Paris, but the Hunny Hunt is totally unique. I’m so glad we were able to ride! I had some of that amazing-smelling popcorn afterwards and it did not disappoint.
We then jumped on Alice’s teacups – something I noticed was that there were a lot less small children around the parks than I would have expected, and the “kids” rides (which are usually some of the busiest/longest queues in Paris) often had little or no wait. Just a different demographic I suppose – the parks seemed full of teenagers, couples and adults.
We had spotted earlier on that the Hungry Bear restaurant in Westernland served vegetable curry, so we headed there for lunch. We had to wait about 20 minutes to be served but as with most things in Japan, the queue was organized very efficiently. The veg curry was delicious and again we felt we got good value for money.
As we were eating lunch we noticed that Big Thunder Mountain started to run again – we weren’t finished in time to jump in the queue but we did grab fastpasses for later. Time for another parade – Happiness on High. Possibly the longest Disney parade I’ve ever seen – every character you can think of was there! Again, the scale and detail of the floats and costumes was really impressive
We still hadn’t made it to Adventureland at all so we headed over there to explore. We rode Pirates with only a 10 minute wait, and again enjoyed comparing it with Paris. 3 Johnny Depps – that’s the obvious comparison. We loved the New Orleans-themed area and enjoyed a short performance from a marching band. Most importantly we had curry popcorn – the best popcorn in the parks (in our opinion!) One bucket between the two of us wasn’t enough…
Time for One Man’s Dream – wow. There hasn’t been a show of this scale and quality at Disneyland Paris for as long as I can remember, unfortunately. It was amazing to enjoy a high quality musical stage show within the park, and due to the clever use of lots of familiar songs, it didn’t really matter what language you spoke. I think everyone who is a fan of Disney would enjoy this.
Another area we hadn’t yet explored was Toon Town – which was decked out brilliantly for Halloween. We didn’t ride any of the attractions but had fun exploring and taking silly photos.
At this point it started to rain so we opted for another indoor activity – Stitch’s tiki room. We were impressed with the English subtitle devices, which worked really well and helped us enjoy the show.
Afterwards it was raining with gusto so we invested in some Minnie Mouse ponchos and carried on, stopping to ride Pinocchio before heading for Tomorrowland to try for some attractions there. We were pleasantly surprised to see that Monsters Inc had a 60 minute queue, much shorter than it had been the rest of the day, so we decided to wait. We think lots of people were having dinner around this time, 6.30pm or so. Monsters Inc was worth the wait – I thought it would be like Buzz Lightyear’s Laser Blast but it was so much better. It combines the technology of that ride with brilliant animatronics and a fun storyline.
After this we were starving so went to Eastside Café near the New Orleans area, which according to our map offered vegetarian meals. We realized that when TDR says vegetarian it actually means vegan – so good to know there is at least one location in each park where vegans could find a meal. Happily for us there were several veggie options on the menu and we enjoyed our meal a lot. A quicker experience than I’d usually like for a Disney dinner, but time was of the essence with only one day in the park.
It was very dark by the time we finished dinner – my favourite time to ride Big Thunder Mountain! On the way to BTM we caught the end of the electric light parade – something else I haven’t seen at Paris for a long time.
We pretty much walked straight on with our fastpasses and enjoyed the wildest ride in the wilderness. I’m almost happy to say that while we loved this, I think the Paris version tops it
Haunted Mansion looked AMAZING decked out for a Nightmare Before Christmas themed Halloween - but the queues for this were pretty much the longest in the park all day. Worth noting if you're visiting at Halloween
To round of the night, we watched the Halloween fireworks in front of the castle then Once Upon A Time. I should point out that it was pouring with rain by this time, but we had our ponchos and didn’t care.
Once Upon a Time was basically Dreams from Paris, but with totally different scenes which was a real treat for me. Only the Tangled scene was the same – I thought the Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh scenes were incredible.
We wanted to avoid the soggy crush on the monorail so walked back to the Sheraton which took around 15 minutes. We were really pleased to have experienced so much in one day and were impressed with how the park seemed to absorb and manage the crowds well. While Disneyland Paris will always be my home park and favourite, I can’t deny that Tokyo Disneyland is Disney at its best. It was really clear in the quality and frequency of parades, shows and entertainment, as well as the maintenance and detail of attractions, that no expense is ever spared here. A gorgeous park and perfect Disney day!
Up next – a very wet day at DisneySea.
