RachelleBeaney
PrincessShelle
- Joined
- Jun 12, 2012
- Messages
- 1,062
When we woke up the next day we took a peak at our last view of TDS from our Harbour View. The morning light made everything look amazing.
And here is that gorgeous monorail!
On the way to Tokyo Disneyland on the monorail we saw the other two official hotels, the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel and the Ambassador Hotel.
We had a bit of a later call that day as Tokyo Disneyland (TDL) didnt open until 9 that morning. We had decided, since we thought TDL was generally busier than TDS that we would aim to be at the park by 8am. We had no Christmas show distracts that morning and realised our goal and found ourselves sitting on my SeaWorld Australia towel (the closest thing we had to one of the cute mats the Japanese take to the parks to sit on during parades and shows) about 5 or 6 people back from the front gate into TDL. See look how close
Some background on Tokyo Disneyland: It opened in 1983 and was built by the Oriental Land Company (meaning it is not owned or run by the Disney company) who picked the best parts of both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom in order to create this mish-mash of both parks. Its lands include World Bazaar (a covered version of Main Street), Fantasyland, Tommorowland, Adventureland (which has a New Orleans Square included), Westernland (TDLs version of Frontierland), Toontown and Critter Country.
We were let in 15 mins early and I saw a little more running from the early entry guests this day. After our experience the day before though and when we saw everyone running towards Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek we decided we didnt need to worry about running. We made it to our first preference ride, Poohs Hunny Hunt quickly and after gaining a FP for 9:50 10:50 we hopped on the ride with a 5 min wait. This ride is everything it is cracked up to be! By all means it is not a particularly thrilling ride, but it has whimsy and charm to it, coupled with the fact the ride is trackless, that made it my favourite ride at TDL. The randomness created by the trackless ride system is not as random as Ive heard reported (we did ride the ride 4 times though and came to know which path our hunny pot would take depending on which ride vehicle we were in) but the way spinning and twirling and moving through the ride with no visible track helps create more immersion into your environment is amazing. Not only that, every scene in the ride is filled with surprises and utterly detailed and beautiful. There are so many surprises from the bouncing Tigger room to the dreaming starfield in Poohs bedroom to the crazy neon spinning of the Heffalump and Woozles room. It was hands down the best dark ride I have ever been on.
The outside wait is beautiful landscaped
Look hidden Mickey
The Blistery Day room was the only part of the ride we managed sneaky pictures of look at the detail, I felt like I was really in the woods!
After Pooh we walked (quickly as we were noticing a lot of people about) towards Space Mountain. We got on the ride with a 15 min wait.
This was fun, a flat escalator up to the line for Space Mountain
A really good thing about TDL lines and TDS for that matter, is that they were always constantly moving, which meant it never felt like a long wait when you didnt have to stand still for long period of time. Also my feet are really bad and while walking is fine (hurts them, but I can handle it) standing on them for long periods of time with no movement can kill me! The constantly moving lines helped with that.
Anyway Space Mountain was awesome. It was very similar to the Magic Kingdoms version just much much smoother. In fact every ride at the TDR that was a copy of a ride at Disneyland or Walt Disney World felt much smoother than its US counterpart. I know some people feel this subtracts from the thrill but for me it makes the ride feel faster and funner as I always dread bumps and knocks!
We were eligible for our next FP at 9:50 and since Id read Big Thunder Mountain could get ridiculously long waits we headed over to FP that. The wait at that point was about 40 minutes and the FPs were at 11am 12pm so we grabbed a couple.
Since we were running around following my touring plan to a tee we didnt have time for many photos at this point. Small tangent here, I will note that now that Ive tried and tested my touring plans for the Tokyo Disney Resort (if your interested in them they are posted in my pre-trip report which has a link in the introduction of this report) I can safely say they worked quite well. A few things to note though, the crowd levels for our visit, according to the handy Japanese crowd calendar I found (link in pre-trip report) were always between green and orange (FYI the progression of crowd levels by colour goes white, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, burgundy and black). Therefore on a scale of 1 to 8 our crowd levels were somewhere between a 3 and a 5. This means we went at time when the resort crowd levels were middling. The key to getting through our plans successfully were the following things:
A. Arriving at the parks 45 mins 1 hour before opening this was key in order to be at the front of the hotel guests entering the park 15 20 mins before opening
B. Staying on property I really cant stress how useful it was to be able to access a rope drop of sorts before the main stream of day guests entered the park. It saved us running. It saved us fighting hordes of people even in the event we were at the front of the regular entry line. And I think it saved us our sanity. Of course you could still manage the parks without this perk but it may just be a little harder to be ahead of the crowds.
C. Getting as many FPs as possible, as soon as possible - This is key to having access to the rides from late morning for the rest of the day. Even during a middling period of busyness lines were frequently at 60 80 mins by midday or sometimes earlier and the most popular rides, Monsters Inc and Toy Story usually had 2 hour waits. In our case, we would get our first FP of the day as soon as the park opened and could usually get another in an hour. We could usually get the next one in an hour and a half to two hours and the same for the third FP.
D. Using FP wisely - You may only be able to get three or four FPs in a day given how quickly they sell out, so know which rides are your priorities. Have a list of your three top rides each day and make sure to FPs those. Its also good to know Poohs Hunny Hunt and Monsters Inc FPs will go much quicker than other FPs so if those are on your priority list FP them first.
There are plenty of horror stories out there about the busyness of the TDR and how hard it is to tour. However, like any park at a busy time, with a good plan its very doable. Of course since TDR is a Japanese park not owed by Disney there is not a lot of help out there for people planning a trip to it and I relied on the trip reports of others who had visited to gauge my plan of attack. Hopefully, now, Ive payed forward that favour!
So after the complete side bar which will hopefully help someone planning a trip to Tokyo (or else make me sound knowledgeable
) let us move on.
We used our second lot of Pooh FPs next and then made our way to Star Tours, which had a 30 min posted wait at this point. Now we were well aware that to see everything we wanted to see at both parks multiple times, we would have to do a bit of waiting. I had prepared Jared for a few hour long lines each day having heard how busy the parks could get. However, this 30 min wait for Star Tours was actually the longest wait we had on any of our days at the park! This made me very happy and should hopefully ease the worry of those heading to these parks in a quiet or medium crowd level season! Once again, the wait didnt feel very long as we were constantly moving through the line (which was long and convoluted!). This was our view from the line outside:
We used our Big Thunder Mountain FPs yet and I have to say, this was the best use of FP in the whole resort, given the merge point was very close to the loading platform! We almost walked straight on when the wait was about 70 mins I think. I loved the Japanese version of this ride. It was smooth, but felt a lot faster than its American counterparts. And of course, it was awesome to have everyone on the loading platform wave at you as you rounded a bend passing the station!
Westernland and Big Thunder Mountain
Take a look at how wide the pathways are:
This is why (lots of people!)
We had planned to eat lunch next (early as it was just past 11) to avoid the ridiculous crowds the counter service restaurants at TDL were reported to have. And sure enough by the time we got to our chosen eatery, the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, the line was well out the door. We decided to come back after 2pm and just get some dessert which was a good call since when we did go back the line was well inside the door and the wait was still 15 20 mins!
We wandered aimlessly for a while, our plans in disarray and I felt a little depressed that I had failed in one area of my planning to avoid TDR crowds! Jared however spotted exactly what we felt like, as gross as it sounds, which was a simple hot dog and chips and the Refreshment Corner in World Bazaar. It was quick, easy and just what we needed.
Continued in next post...
And here is that gorgeous monorail!
On the way to Tokyo Disneyland on the monorail we saw the other two official hotels, the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel and the Ambassador Hotel.
We had a bit of a later call that day as Tokyo Disneyland (TDL) didnt open until 9 that morning. We had decided, since we thought TDL was generally busier than TDS that we would aim to be at the park by 8am. We had no Christmas show distracts that morning and realised our goal and found ourselves sitting on my SeaWorld Australia towel (the closest thing we had to one of the cute mats the Japanese take to the parks to sit on during parades and shows) about 5 or 6 people back from the front gate into TDL. See look how close
Some background on Tokyo Disneyland: It opened in 1983 and was built by the Oriental Land Company (meaning it is not owned or run by the Disney company) who picked the best parts of both Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom in order to create this mish-mash of both parks. Its lands include World Bazaar (a covered version of Main Street), Fantasyland, Tommorowland, Adventureland (which has a New Orleans Square included), Westernland (TDLs version of Frontierland), Toontown and Critter Country.
We were let in 15 mins early and I saw a little more running from the early entry guests this day. After our experience the day before though and when we saw everyone running towards Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek we decided we didnt need to worry about running. We made it to our first preference ride, Poohs Hunny Hunt quickly and after gaining a FP for 9:50 10:50 we hopped on the ride with a 5 min wait. This ride is everything it is cracked up to be! By all means it is not a particularly thrilling ride, but it has whimsy and charm to it, coupled with the fact the ride is trackless, that made it my favourite ride at TDL. The randomness created by the trackless ride system is not as random as Ive heard reported (we did ride the ride 4 times though and came to know which path our hunny pot would take depending on which ride vehicle we were in) but the way spinning and twirling and moving through the ride with no visible track helps create more immersion into your environment is amazing. Not only that, every scene in the ride is filled with surprises and utterly detailed and beautiful. There are so many surprises from the bouncing Tigger room to the dreaming starfield in Poohs bedroom to the crazy neon spinning of the Heffalump and Woozles room. It was hands down the best dark ride I have ever been on.
The outside wait is beautiful landscaped
Look hidden Mickey
The Blistery Day room was the only part of the ride we managed sneaky pictures of look at the detail, I felt like I was really in the woods!
After Pooh we walked (quickly as we were noticing a lot of people about) towards Space Mountain. We got on the ride with a 15 min wait.
This was fun, a flat escalator up to the line for Space Mountain
A really good thing about TDL lines and TDS for that matter, is that they were always constantly moving, which meant it never felt like a long wait when you didnt have to stand still for long period of time. Also my feet are really bad and while walking is fine (hurts them, but I can handle it) standing on them for long periods of time with no movement can kill me! The constantly moving lines helped with that.
Anyway Space Mountain was awesome. It was very similar to the Magic Kingdoms version just much much smoother. In fact every ride at the TDR that was a copy of a ride at Disneyland or Walt Disney World felt much smoother than its US counterpart. I know some people feel this subtracts from the thrill but for me it makes the ride feel faster and funner as I always dread bumps and knocks!
We were eligible for our next FP at 9:50 and since Id read Big Thunder Mountain could get ridiculously long waits we headed over to FP that. The wait at that point was about 40 minutes and the FPs were at 11am 12pm so we grabbed a couple.
Since we were running around following my touring plan to a tee we didnt have time for many photos at this point. Small tangent here, I will note that now that Ive tried and tested my touring plans for the Tokyo Disney Resort (if your interested in them they are posted in my pre-trip report which has a link in the introduction of this report) I can safely say they worked quite well. A few things to note though, the crowd levels for our visit, according to the handy Japanese crowd calendar I found (link in pre-trip report) were always between green and orange (FYI the progression of crowd levels by colour goes white, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, burgundy and black). Therefore on a scale of 1 to 8 our crowd levels were somewhere between a 3 and a 5. This means we went at time when the resort crowd levels were middling. The key to getting through our plans successfully were the following things:
A. Arriving at the parks 45 mins 1 hour before opening this was key in order to be at the front of the hotel guests entering the park 15 20 mins before opening
B. Staying on property I really cant stress how useful it was to be able to access a rope drop of sorts before the main stream of day guests entered the park. It saved us running. It saved us fighting hordes of people even in the event we were at the front of the regular entry line. And I think it saved us our sanity. Of course you could still manage the parks without this perk but it may just be a little harder to be ahead of the crowds.
C. Getting as many FPs as possible, as soon as possible - This is key to having access to the rides from late morning for the rest of the day. Even during a middling period of busyness lines were frequently at 60 80 mins by midday or sometimes earlier and the most popular rides, Monsters Inc and Toy Story usually had 2 hour waits. In our case, we would get our first FP of the day as soon as the park opened and could usually get another in an hour. We could usually get the next one in an hour and a half to two hours and the same for the third FP.
D. Using FP wisely - You may only be able to get three or four FPs in a day given how quickly they sell out, so know which rides are your priorities. Have a list of your three top rides each day and make sure to FPs those. Its also good to know Poohs Hunny Hunt and Monsters Inc FPs will go much quicker than other FPs so if those are on your priority list FP them first.
There are plenty of horror stories out there about the busyness of the TDR and how hard it is to tour. However, like any park at a busy time, with a good plan its very doable. Of course since TDR is a Japanese park not owed by Disney there is not a lot of help out there for people planning a trip to it and I relied on the trip reports of others who had visited to gauge my plan of attack. Hopefully, now, Ive payed forward that favour!
So after the complete side bar which will hopefully help someone planning a trip to Tokyo (or else make me sound knowledgeable
) let us move on. We used our second lot of Pooh FPs next and then made our way to Star Tours, which had a 30 min posted wait at this point. Now we were well aware that to see everything we wanted to see at both parks multiple times, we would have to do a bit of waiting. I had prepared Jared for a few hour long lines each day having heard how busy the parks could get. However, this 30 min wait for Star Tours was actually the longest wait we had on any of our days at the park! This made me very happy and should hopefully ease the worry of those heading to these parks in a quiet or medium crowd level season! Once again, the wait didnt feel very long as we were constantly moving through the line (which was long and convoluted!). This was our view from the line outside:
We used our Big Thunder Mountain FPs yet and I have to say, this was the best use of FP in the whole resort, given the merge point was very close to the loading platform! We almost walked straight on when the wait was about 70 mins I think. I loved the Japanese version of this ride. It was smooth, but felt a lot faster than its American counterparts. And of course, it was awesome to have everyone on the loading platform wave at you as you rounded a bend passing the station!
Westernland and Big Thunder Mountain
Take a look at how wide the pathways are:
This is why (lots of people!)
We had planned to eat lunch next (early as it was just past 11) to avoid the ridiculous crowds the counter service restaurants at TDL were reported to have. And sure enough by the time we got to our chosen eatery, the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, the line was well out the door. We decided to come back after 2pm and just get some dessert which was a good call since when we did go back the line was well inside the door and the wait was still 15 20 mins!
We wandered aimlessly for a while, our plans in disarray and I felt a little depressed that I had failed in one area of my planning to avoid TDR crowds! Jared however spotted exactly what we felt like, as gross as it sounds, which was a simple hot dog and chips and the Refreshment Corner in World Bazaar. It was quick, easy and just what we needed.
Continued in next post...
