A Disney Trip of a Lifetime... A trip to TDR, WDW, UOR, SWO, DLR - COMPLETED 12 March

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) didn’t 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 (TDL’s 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 didn’t need to worry about running. We made it to our first preference ride, Pooh’s 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 I’ve 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 Pooh’s 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 didn’t 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 Kingdom’s 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 I’d 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 FP’s were at 11am – 12pm so we grabbed a couple.

Since we were running around following my touring plan to a tee we didn’t have time for many photos at this point. Small tangent here, I will note that now that I’ve 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 can’t 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 FP’s 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 FP’s 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 FP’s those. It’s also good to know Pooh’s Hunny Hunt and Monsters Inc FP’s will go much quicker than other FP’s 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 it’s 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, I’ve ‘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 :P) let us move on.

We used our second lot of Pooh FP’s 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 didn’t 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 FP’s 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.

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We took some time now to take a lot of photos of the hub, World Bazaar and the lovely castle and then waited in a very long line (maybe 25 mins or so) to get a photograph from a Photopass photographer!

World Bazaar (yes some of these were taken on our way into the park in the morning but fit better in this part of the report where I show you World Bazaar!)















The Crystal Palace in, well technically Adventureland, but let’s just say the hub!







Pretty castle and surrounds















Our very awesome ‘when in Japan’ post in front of TDL Castle



Next we headed to Critter County to hit Splash Mountain with its wonderful Single Rider (Singaru Rida) line

On our way we saw some of Adventureland







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So this was Critter Country













When we arrived at Splash Mountain to find it had a 70 min wait with FP only available for 7 or 8pm that night. But we weren’t phased as we are fairly happy to be separated as single riders provided we get a shorter wait so we used our wonderful Japanese (Singaru Rida) phrase and were pointed through the FP line. At some point though the Single Rider line got separated from even the FP line and we found ourselves at the loading area in no time with absolutely no one in front of us, even at 1:30 – 2ish in the afternoon! It seems that either no one in Japan knows about Single Rider or they don’t like to do it!







Anyway Jared and I were split up and put in the front and back row of the same boat. A lovely Japanese lady who was to sit next to Jared saw us smile and wave at each other as we are goofily apt to do whenever we can still see each other after being split up as single riders. She asked us if we wanted to sit together in very good English and proceeded to explain that she was there with her mother and father and one of them had to sit by themselves anyway so she didn’t mind swapping with me! It was the most wonderful gesture and I thanked her profusely as we had a quick chat about where we were from and how we were enjoying Japan (wonderfully actually, as everyone was so friendly, polite and generous!). So after walking straight onto the ride skipping a 70 min wait with single rider we ended up sitting together anyway! And thanks to that lovely lady we got this great ride photo! The second of only two photos we purchased for our whole trip (Tokyo Disney doesn’t have a Photopass Plus type system that allows you to pre-purchase all your ride photos and photos taken by Photopass photographers in the parks. Also, their whole photopass website is in Japanese and pretty unmanageable for the English speaker so we discovered that purchasing prints and asking cast members to take pictures of us both was the way to go).



After Splash we needed a break so we sat around in a small corner of Critter Country behind Splash Mountain. It was the TDL equivalent of the area near Lost River Delta and Port Discovery at TDS – so peaceful. Here Jared ate his first ever churro (we are not really snack people and have never bought one in all the times we’ve visited the parks!)



Look it’s shaped like Mickey 



We then posed with some familiar faces









We headed off to the ‘off with his head’ place next – Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, taking in Fantasyland as we went – which was not as old or ugly as reports had suggested, though of course not as beautiful as Disneyland’s Fantasyland (I’m yet to see Disneyland Paris’ which I hear is beautiful) or the new Fantasyland area at the Magic Kingdom.



















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More Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall…








My dessert at Queen of Hearts was very delicious and of course, being heard shaped, very apt but I found myself not enjoying Queen of Hearts as much as I thought I would. It was fun and whimsical to be sure and well worth seeing but not as beautiful as I thought. Also waiting for 20 mins for a tiny bit of mousse was a bit of a downer!

We had sort of accomplished most of what we wanted to by this point and it was only 3pm-ish and we had to stay until 7:30pm for the Tokyo Disney Electrical Parade – Dreamlights plus our Monsters Inc FP at 8:30pm so we decided it was time to shop. I had heard the merchandise at TDR was pretty awful but I thought, hey hopefully I can find something to commemorate my trip here! No, not really! I ended up buying two quite expensive souvenirs, a glass blown Mickey and Minnie and a Swarovski crystal pen. The reason for both purchases was that they were the only things I could find with the words Tokyo Disney Resort printed on them! And park specific merchandise (something that said Tokyo Disneyland of Tokyo Disney Sea) was impossible to find! I would have been happy with a nice magnet but apparently they don’t even have those in Tokyo. What they do have is a lot of character related funky mechanise and I did get a very cute Marie (from Aristocrats – ahh how I loved that movie as a child) beanie as it was cold that day and a Marie phone cover (yes I love her a lot!)





We wandered back out to the entrance next (I think because that’s where the nearest toilet to World Bazaar was!) – we’d been taking a few more pictures of the area as we shopped too:





This was the crowds waiting for the Happiness is Here parade at about 3:30pm! Crazy – so many people but so neatly and patiently seated!



Then, outside the toilets near the entrance we found my Mum’s favourite Disney character – this guy:





And I found my Prince!  Philip is Jared’s middle name and Prince Philip could dance, those are the two reasons he is my Prince 



The parade was still going on at this point and since we had not wanted to sit for an hour to get a good viewing spot, and we aren’t really parade people (other than the Tokyo Disney Electrical Parade Dreamlights – but more on that later) we instead decided to head over to Pirates of the Caribbean. The New Orleans Square looking area, where the ride is located, is actually part of Adventureland though it looks just like Disneyland’s version! It does lose some of its charm though by not being on the Rivers of America like the Disneyland version. In fact, I thought that was one of Tokyo Disneyland’s greatest and only real weaknesses. You couldn’t really see the water from anywhere which made the whole vista of Westernland and Critter Country very different for me.





We arrived at Pirates around 4pm and found only a 5 min wait (which was a miracle considering waits are NEVER that sort at TDR!). I think the short wait had to do with the fact this ride doesn’t seem hugely popular at TDL and the parade was distracting a lot of potential riders! Either way it was great to be able to just get on a ride at TDR! The actual ride itself felt a lot more cramped than the other two versions of Pirates I’ve been on but of course, like everything at the TDR, the animatronics seemed better – though they were probably the worst animatronics I saw in the whole resort.

After Pirates we still had about half an hour to kill until our dinner reservation at the Blue Bayou at 5pm. It was around this time that I discovered I’d forgotten my tablet that I have to take twice daily and so Jared and I worked out how he could pop back to our room at the Miracosta and get the tablet, and be back for the Electrical Parade. We were worried about the timeline as we figured it might take about 45 mins to an hour to do the round trip and we were right. So note, while things seem close at the TDR still allow enough time to transfer between parks and hotels.

Anyway after we’d discussed our plans for after dinner I began to get very cold (a sensation completely foreign to me while at a theme park!) so Jared, like the wonderful man he is, offered to go find me a scarf to buy!

While he was gone I distracted myself by taking more photos of the castle!



And I got the photo I had wanted of my nails with the castle behind them though of course, you can’t really make out the nails!



Anyway in no time it was time for our Blue Bayou reservations.



The one and only time I’d eaten at a Blue Bayou restaurant was at Disneyland last year (2012) and I had felt very sick that day and wasn’t able to enjoy it at all so this time I was very much looking forward to being able to soak up the atmosphere not once but twice (we would eat at the Blue Bayou in Disneyland as well!). The Disneyland version of the Blue Bayou food has never really been described as standout so I was more looking forward to the atmosphere than the food, however, once again TDR stepped up to surpass it’s US forbearer! The food was wonderful! My Salmon Salad appetiser was not only delicious but oh so wonderfully decorated:



The pork with creamy mushroom sauce, which I choose for my main, was also good and my banana crepes for dessert were so yummy. Jared found a little friend on his dessert plate also:



Of course we loved the atmosphere of the place as well, set in perpetual night on the Blue lagoon of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride though I’m not sure it’s atmosphere beats the original Blue Bayou somehow.

Very full I went to wait on a park bench in the hub so that when I could, I could put down our beach towel and save our spot for the electrical parade. Jared, of course, went off to fetch my tablet and I told him around where I’d be for the parade. The cast members were very strict about the use of mats before an hour before parade time. You were allowed to sit on the sidewalk to claim a spot but could not put a mat down to save more room for others! Luckily I had our bag and used it to save a small space next to me for Jared so that when he got back we both had plenty of room.

On his way back to me, this is what Jared saw:











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So after waiting about an hour and a half for the parade to start it finally did. I believe there are over 1 million lights used on this parade and it is awesome! So many lights changing and blinking and sparkling! Now I’ve never seen the Walt Disney World or Disneyland versions of the Electrical Parade but since I know it started in the 70s I’m going to have to say this one is better. The technology used on some of the floats is wondrous (take a look at the pictures of Genie for instance!). I could explain and explain but the pictures will really do that for me so here you are:













































After this we had about half an hour to kill before our Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek FP was good so we decided to go on Star Tours as the wait was only 5 minutes at that point. We walked straight onto the ride which was awesome but once the ride started it was clear it would not be a good one. Though the motion of the simulator was working the picture was not. We’d probably got about half way through the ride when it stopped and we were all ushered off. Now I figured we’d be put straight onto another simulator as there were heaps and it wasn’t busy but the cast member stopped us outside our simulator and then said something in Japanese. A whole lot of the people who had been on the ride with us started walking away, we figured we should follow them as they might be going towards whatever simulator they were putting us on, when we found ourselves heading out the exit! Looking behind us we realised not everyone had left and that the instructions were probably something like stay behind if you would like to re-ride or there’s the exit! But of course we couldn’t understand what was being said. Really, this was the only time on our whole trip to Tokyo that the language barrier was a real problem, mainly because there was a problem and we had no way to communicate that we felt we should be compensated for our dodgy ride. I was fuming a little after about what a waste of time it had been when Jared pointed out it had killed time until our Monsters Inc FP’s were ready and I grudgingly admitted he was right – it had done what we had wanted it to do!

We walked pretty much straight onto Monsters Inc with our FP. I think the wait time was down to something like 90 mins at this point (which for Monsters Inc is very short indeed!). We did really end up enjoying this ride – the animatronics were very well done and the whole thing was really fun. The sets in particular impressed me a lot as they felt really immersive and the spinning of the cars and their fast movement was a surprise to someone who had been expecting a static dark ride! Also the Roz animatronic at the end is great. I probably wouldn’t have minded riding this again but I really couldn’t be bothered fighting everyone for FP’s in the morning and we had other priorities, so we decided once was enough.

The ride on Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek ended our evening so we made our way out to the exit, snapping a quick picture of the 30th Anniversary decorations out the front of the park. We were tempted to try for a photo with them but at any given point during the day there were 100s of guests grouped around this thing with no visible line so we knew it would be madness to waste time trying to get a picture of us with it!



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The next day was our second at Tokyo Disney Seas. The park was due to open at 8:30am and we got to the gate at 7:40am only to discover most of the crowds had been kept away due to the weather. We sacrificed our spot in the hotel guests line for a bit of cover where we could sit and rest our feet and 50 mins later found ourselves getting back into line in almost the same place we would have been had we stood in line all that time! Since it was raining that morning we have no pictures of our mad dash to conquer many rides so Ill quickly give you an overview of how that went.

We walked straight onto JTTCOE and then got a FP for 9:15  10:15am. We rode Indy twice in a row, basically walked on both times.



Our next plan had been to try for the lottery to see the Big Band Beat show but we were unsuccessful. By this stage I was so hungry as we hadnt had breakfast yet and so, after obtaining some ponchos (as the rain was really coming down now) we tried to find some breakfast. It turned out that everywhere within TDS and the Miracosta stopped serving breakfast at 10am and since it was 10:10am we were out of luck! I sat in the lobby of the Miracosta for a short while feeling very hypo and miserable (seriously I think I almost cried because I was so miserable here!) when Jared came to our rescue. He had consulted the TDS map and found the New York Deli, which served sandwiches which could kind of be classed as breakfast-ish (well morning tea-ish anyway). So we made our way over to the American Waterfront and walked into the deli, ordering two chicken sandwiches. Though this place is huge (and beautifully decorated  it really felt like we were in New York at the turn of the 20th century) I had to search high and low for a table. I finally found one and sat down a little downtrodden waiting for Jared to bring our food. Sometimes I really think I am my own worst enemy when it comes to creating drama where there need be none and I had told myself at that point (rather foolishly) that the whole day was ruined from the rain and the hunger and the missing the Big Bang Beat lottery tickets! However, when Jared bought me that chicken sandwich and I took my first bite everything changed! Yes, food sometimes has that effect on me and reminds me that I can choose how I react and act to any given situation, and I can choose to be happy. Right at that moment though it wasnt hard to choose to be happy as the chicken sandwich was so delicious I went into transports of delight. I later though that may have been because of how hungry I was but I did try the sandwich again that night for dinner when I wasnt starving and yes, it is the best chicken sandwich Ive ever had!

A few pictures of the Deli





Jared thought it would be cute to take a picture of me doing what I did every time we took a break in the parks  making my trip report notes so I could tell you all about the trip. Here I am in deep concentration



We had lunch reservations at Magellans in about an hour and not really much to do until then. We went on 20000 Leagues with only a 10 min wait. We thought the ride was even better this time as we had the front seat rather than a side seat and therefore a better view as we went into each scene. We also decided to take a quick peak at Toy Story Trolleyville Park and the wait time for Toy Story on a rainy day  it was still 120 mins as it always seemed to be whenever we were anywhere near it. The area was pretty though







It was amazing to see all the umbrellas around the parks in the rain



Right before lunch the rain cleared a little and we got some more pictures of the lagoon and Mediterranean Harbour (I could not get enough pictures of this area!)





We made our way into the Fortress Explorations towards Magellans for lunch



















Magellans was beautiful. While we were waiting to go in we had a wonderful experience with a lovely Japanese family who were also waiting for their table. The father was very keen to have a chat with Jared in English though he didnt know a lot. He seemed really excited that we were gaijin. They asked where we were from and a few other things and he kept saying something to his daughter with a cheeky grin on his face and Jared interpreted this as a sign the father wanted him to marry his daughter, hehe! Anyway, while Magellans was beautiful and very romantic the food was only ok. The quality of the food was good but the portions were TINY. I think I got half a potato the size of a cherry tomato and two small green beans as a side for the chicken I ordered. However, this made it very easy to eat the three courses we ordered. My dessert was divine though! A Japanese sorbet icecream (I think it was peach) that was so enjoyable.

After lunch we went to see Mystic Rhythms. It was a Cirque Du Soleil type show with plenty of wire performers and acrobatics set to tribal music. I think the story surrounded earth, water, wind and fire type concept but regardless it was really beautiful and the music, which was all played live, was amazingly well done. Since the story was told through the music it was such an important part of the whole production, and since Jared and I love music so much we really got into that! The show also had wonderful effects.

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We had planned to catch TDS’s afternoon Lagoon show Legends of Mythica our last day at the resort and the show had just started as we were walking towards the hotel as, due to the weather and how tired we were, we’d decided to take a nice nap for the rest of the afternoon. As we were walking though a spot opened up in one of the windows on the bridge from the Mediterrean Harbour to Mysterious Island with a great view of the show and since I’d picked up some more strawberry popcorn on our way back from Legends of Mythica we decided to stop and watch the show. I have no idea what the point of the show is but the floats were amazing and colourful and it was fun to watch!



















































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After Legends of Mythica we had decided to call it a day so we went and picked up the key for our last room at the Miracosta – our Venice Side view room. This room actually had a King bed, which was exciting, and the view, though not as majestic as the Porto Paradiso side views, was beautiful!























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We had arrived at our final day at the Tokyo Disney Resort and despite having purchased a 4 day park hopper ticket at our hotel upon check in it was our only day of hopping. This is the best way to purchase tickets at the resort as you get a proper sized ticket for the FP machine’s, otherwise you end up with a paper ticket that’s very hard to use. Also the 4 day park hopper is only available for guests staying on property, otherwise you have to purchase a 4 day ticket that only allows park hopping on the last two days. Of course we could have bought the regular 4 day pass with park hopping on the last two days and been fine but it wasn’t that much more expensive for the park hopper for all days option and we wanted the flexibility. It turns out the parks aren’t hugely convenient for hopping (like Disneyland) but certainly much more convenient that Walt Disney World’s parks. We arrived and were once again greeted by waving cast members who seemed so thrilled to see us!



Anyway, our goal for the day was to hit our favourite attractions at Disneyland again (Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and Star Tours) and to get a lot of pictures of the 2 of us in both parks, as we realised we hadn’t managed to get many in the combined three previous days (it’s hard when you are travelling as a couple to get pictures of both of you!). We also wanted to try find some more characters because, even though I heard otherwise, the characters were not as accessible at TDR as other Disney parks, mainly in my opinion, due to how their lines are managed. People don’t queue they just group around the characters and you have to be pushy and forward and or have a small child to get their attention, all of which are not things I possess! We wanted a picture with Mickey in the morning but had to settle for Piglet as Mickey was impossible to get to (the Japanese do really like their pictures and getting pictures with characters, in front of the main landmarks around the park were some of the longest waits!).



These are the pictures we got of Mickey and Minnie, which didn’t end up being bad, they just didn’t have us in them! I actually love the picture of Minnie, it has such energy to it! Also you don’t really mind when people are in your photos at Tokyo Disney because it just cements the fact you are in Japan surrounded by Japanese!







We had again arrived 1 hour before opening and rushed straight for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, after securing a FP for 9:20am – 10:20am we quickly did Space Mountain, only waiting 5 minutes and by 9:20, when we were able to get our next FP, we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain and picked up our second FP for 11:55am – 12:55pm.

It was at this point that I realised I really think Tokyo Disney’s Westernland is the most beautiful version of Frontierland at any of the parks. It’s wide spaces somehow work in it’s favour, it doesn’t have the confusion of mashing Critter Country and Frontierland into one like the Magic Kingdom, and as much as I love Disneyland over any other Magic Kingdom style park I’ve visited, poor Disneyland’s Frontierland is really awful and probably the weakest area of the park. I especially enjoyed this corner of Westernland which we sat in while waiting for our timeframe to grab Big Thunder FPs





Next we wandered the hub again hoping to get some fun photos of us in the area…

First Jared had fun being arty



And then it was photo shoot time!









This photo gives you a small idea of how big Tokyo’s hub is!







Now the day before we’d seen some kids doing the fun jumping shots in front of the castle and we’d never tried anything like that before so we wanted to give it a go. The results were pretty damn good – and Jared’s picture was awesome – not a person in sight!





It was then time for our Pooh FP and we did that, taking it all in as we knew it would be our last ride! We didn’t really know what to do at this point so we passed by Monsters Inc wondering if the ride would be short and/or if the FP’s were reasonably close but the wait was already 110mins and the FP’s were for later in the afternoon when we’d be back at TDS so we decided to take a break and enjoy a Disney treat. This, is what we ended up getting



I had heard good things about the melon bread but I didn’t really enjoy it and neither did Jared. It was waayy too sweet for us and in hindsight, I don’t really like green melons (I like watermelon but not watermelon flavoured things) so I’m not sure why I thought I would like it! DIS brain washing perhaps hehehe! Anyway, regardless it was something to eat and was visually so cute!

Our next stop was an early lunch at Grandma Sara’s Kitchen. We didn’t really plan that well as we’d just had a snack but the portions in Japan are small and we hadn’t eaten all the melon bread so we decided it would be best to get in before the crowds. I think it was about 10:45am and we got our food at about 11.

Grandma Sara’s was gorgeous and the food was really good too. My chicken au gratin was great, especially the sauce, and Jared really enjoyed his beef stew. It was very much homestyle cooking with a Japanese twist that many call rice.





I’m not sure why but at this point I decided it would be cute to pretend be a rabbit in Critter Country so the next lot of photos all looked like this:







Then we discovered the light was so much better than our previous day at Disneyland for capturing that awesome Splash drop – so we did!





After this we headed over to Big Thunder Mountain to use our last TDL FP! What a great and smooth ride this coaster is at TDL!

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We proceed to hop (dare I say like rabbits – sorry I know, bad pun) back over to TDS for the afternoon





And we finally got a picture of the Aquasphere during the day



Our photo shoot continued, just over at TDS – one thing I will say is that all of the cast members we gave our camera too really knew how to take a picture!





Unfortunately sometimes we had to rely on our own devices to get shots of us both. I do despise ‘selfies’ (what’s the point of taking a photo of you at a place where you can’t see the place just your head!) but unfortunately on this trip they were a little inevitable. If you can’t tell the next two photos were us in the Venetian side of Mediterranean Harbour.





I had expected TDS to be really busy when we arrived (it was 12:30pm on what was supposed to be the busiest day at that park according to the crowd calendar we used). However when we got there we saw some of the shortest lines for attractions we’d experienced for our whole trip (when I say shortest the headliner attractions were still 50 mins, but that’s short for TDR!). We did try the Big Bang Beat lottery again but once again was unsuccessful. So we decided to head to the only attraction in the park (besides Toy Story and Ragin’ Spirits – that coaster looked to unappealing) that we hadn’t tried, Aquatopia. It was a 10-15 min wait which was the shortest we’d seen the wait. Aquaptoia is a fun little ride almost like bumper cars on water but guided by the same trackless ride system used in Pooh’s Hunny Hunt. Without the dark ride components to tell a story though this felt more like a carnival ride, albeit a very beautiful one. But it was relaxing and fun also and offered the best views of the Port Discovery area and Mt Prometheus.





















After our quick ride on Aquatopia we re-visited our goal to get lots of pictures of us at TDS, to prove we were really there, and so we began our quest again

In Mysterious Island





In front of Mediterranean Harbour







This wonderful sweeper cast member took two photos of us. The first one was the photo of the two of us in Mysterious Island. Afterwards we wandered towards the railing overlooking Mediterranean Harbour and he saw us again as he made his way to his next station and offered to help. He seemed determined to have a conversation with us and he managed fairly well, though his English wasn’t perfect and he very sweetly told us if there was anything we needed, anything at all, he’d be very happy to help us. With out a doubt the most wonderful cast member of our whole trip I decided I had to have a photo with him and so I did



Onto Arabian Coast and another unfortunate selfie was all we could manage here



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The next few photos were very important for my husband, who had arranged the music for the Aladdin Musical done at his old high school that year and he knew the kids were expected some picture of him in Agrabah. We hadn’t documented Arabian Coast very well yet either so we decided to do that too.



Proof Jared was in Agrabah!



Perhaps the most beautiful carousel I have ever seen – no expense was spared here!



Genie and Jasmin were out and about but our desire to fight crowds and lines was gone so we settled for these pics





We had a lot of fun with this camel, Jared maybe more so than me!









And then we marvelled at the beauty of the Arabian Coast area – probably my favourite in the park – no detail was spared!



Hiding from the guards



See what I mean about detail – it sort of makes Morocco at EPCOT look cheap (well not really, but I do think it’s infinitely better!). We rode Sindbad again at some point here and really enjoyed it again.







I found this guy too – I do love kittehs



Even the very back of the Arabian Coast section, while much more sparse, is stunning









And now for some pictures of the only ride we choose not to do (other than Toy Story)







One more selfie in front of the Arabian Coast – I love how Jared’s tongue is always poking out when he takes these! The concentration!



We were now in the Lost River Delta – another beautiful area, and couldn’t stop taking pictures



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Fun with the macro setting



You can never have enough pictures of signs in my book!



We decided to wait for the next performance of Mystic Rhythms which we really wanted to see again and I was so tired at this point that this happened.



At this point we heard the transit steamer pulling in after it had a break during Legends of Mythica and we really wanted to see the park from its waterways so we decided to forgo another showing of Mystic Rhythms in favour of a boat trip.

It was great to get some photos from the water













Me with the Chandu teddy I bought for my niece  hes so cute









After we finished a full circle of the park and ended up back in Lost River Delta and we decided to say goodbye to what is, without a doubt, the most beautiful Disney park ever. On the way out we finally got a shot that had eluded us



We then said our goodbyes to this beautiful park













Our trip to the Tokyo Disney Resort was absolutely amazing, full of fun, weirdness (its Disney in Japan after all) and beauty. We enjoyed it immensely and would encourage anyone who is able to, make heading to the Tokyo Disney Resort a must do on your bucket list. Japan itself is also a wonderful country to visit, its so much fun to see and experience such a wonderful culture, with all its history and colour. We felt like we had seen and done so much in 8 days, and believe it or not, we were only about a quarter of the way through our trip.

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I am looking forward to reading this!!
I need to be cleaning house but I would much rather follow along on your exciting trip!
 
Wow! I am just loving the report so far. The drum playing with your husband sounded so sweet and fun! And your tour looked wonderful! I love travel and cultural facts and was happy to learn about Shinto vs. Buddhism! Oh, and I like the photos of the wooden hearts. I have seen lots of similar areas that use locks to keep the love locked together and this was a nice difference. I didn't get very far but I look forward to reading more soon!!
 
Wow! I am just loving the report so far. The drum playing with your husband sounded so sweet and fun! And your tour looked wonderful! I love travel and cultural facts and was happy to learn about Shinto vs. Buddhism! Oh, and I like the photos of the wooden hearts. I have seen lots of similar areas that use locks to keep the love locked together and this was a nice difference. I didn't get very far but I look forward to reading more soon!!

Thanks Sue_88 - I'm glad to hear people are enjoying the report - I like to write them to share the joy! Yes cleaning the house is never fun and always better put off for tales of Disney :P

The drum playing moment was one of those things I will never forget - and I really have Miwa to thank for most of the wonderful facts we learnt about Japan - the Backstreet Guides to Tokyo were really awesome and if you go definitely consider using them if you need a guide :)

Thanks for reading :)
 
After staying 1 night in an airport hotel near Narita Airport we were on our way to the US. That night was very uneventful and the next afternoon at the airport even more so, and I dont even remember the flight so that must have gone well. The next thing I knew we had arrived in LAX and were excitedly anticipating meeting Natalie and Ashley in the lobby. To explain, we were both coming in on different flights, us from Tokyo and Nat and Ash from Sydney so we planned to meet in the lobby of the airport hotel we would be staying at before flying to Orlando the next day. It had become a thing the week before we went away to say that to each other when we weren't sure if we would see each other again before the trip, see you in the lobby. Of course, we did say it a few times more than we should have as we saw each other a few times for unexpected things, but wed now come to the moment where we were actually meeting them in the lobby to start our family holiday and so we were excited!

Jared and I arrived second, getting into LAX at about midday, and we knew we were going to have to fight jet lag and stay away until that evening, which would never have been possible if we went to our hotel rooms, so we booked the Warner Brothers Studio Tour for that afternoon. On our way to the studio we saw this and had to conclude, yes we were in Hollywood!



If you have never done the Warner Brothers Studio Tour before and have a trip to SoCal planned soon I would highly recommend it. Much more real and informative than Universals version of a Studio Tour and so interesting and diverse. We have done the tour once before, but every tour is different. They usually last around 2 hours 15 mins.

Since we had to allow for traffic and travel time our tour didn't start until 3:45pm, so it started to get dark towards the end of the tour, which was weird. We saw the sets of The Big Bang Theory, Ellen and Conan as well as plenty of backlot sets , the props Department, car museum and props museum. Unfortunately (since Natalie and I are such big fans of Gilmore Girls and Pretty Little Liars) we didn't get to go to the studios Midwest backlot set (which has been used to portray Stars Hollow and Rosewood) as they were filming back there well into the evening (on a Saturday too!).

We did see some of the other backlot areas however which looked like this



The Orphanage from Annie



Used as the casino front in Oceans 13, goes to show how much they can change and redress a structure when they need to!



Scene of the upside down kiss in Spiderman





Our cute little tram



The iconic watertower



Our tour guide was great, though half of what he told us escapes me know, but he was quick to point out where many films and TV shows had been shot around the lot.

Our next stop was a few sets which included the sets of the Big Bang Theory, Ellen and Conan. Ellens soundstage was huge, and we were instructed not to sit in her chair and were informed that a security camera had been set up to catch anyone who tried! The talk show sets were really interesting and we even got to go backstage to check out Ellens dressing area and Conans prop area.

After this we stopped at the prop museum where you are unfortunately not able to take any pictures. There were so many props from shows like Friends, Smallville, Pretty Little Liars, The Big Bang Theory , Gossip Girl and Movies such as Harry Potter, The Great Gatsby, Batman, My Fair Lady and more. However, I was the most excited to see a number of props from one of my favourite TV shows of all time, Chuck. For those of you who watched the show we saw his Orion/intersect board, Morgans store manager sign, his intersect glasses, Sarahs giant purple heels, the Jeffster music DVD and more! And if you dont know what any of those things are you should really hire the first season of Chuck and give it a go  such a funny show!

Anyway, we also went into the car museum, where you could take pictures, and found a little Chuck memorabilia in there as well:



In a cabinet next to the Nerd Herder (the car in the picture above) was this





It made Jared and I very excited!

Along with these items we found a number of famous cars including the yellow one from the recent Great Gatsby movie, and a number of batmobiles from the various incarnations of Batman!





Next we did a quick tour through the Props Department (which is apparently the largest of any studio in Hollywood) and once again saw the $3 million dollar standing chandelier that belonged to the last Tsar of Russia and now just sits in the hall gathering dust as its an insurance liability to hire it out! We also took a quick drive through their prop design warehouses where everything from woodworking, metalworking, stoneworking and sculpture is done to create props and sets for movies and TV shows.

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Our next stop on the tour was one that my sister was especially looking forward to. We are both big Friends fans and Ill be there for you is in fact our song. So we were both super excited to visit, yes you guessed it, Central Perk! When we visited the set on our last tour (which has been set up in a spare room next to the Props Department) we had been told that we couldn't leave the wooden floor area at the front of the room or sit on the couch. However, we seemed to have a much more relaxed tour guide this time (perhaps it was because it was late on a Saturday and no one was there to tell him off)! He not only let us sit on the couch but wander into the set which made for much better photos than last time! And here are the million we took (oh I have to say, Natalie would probably like you all to know she had just got off a 15 hour flight and had no make up on and is not happy with the way these photos look!)































That pretty much concluded our tour and it was dark by the time we left the studio at around 5 5:30pm.

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So the day had come for us to finally make our way to Orlando! The flight was at 9:30am and I knew how crazy American airports can get, even for domestic flights, so we got to LAX quiet early. We therefore had some time to stop and have some breakfast, I got a croissant and would forever regret my decision! It turns on that this short 5 hour flight ended up being the worst of all the flights we took on the trip. The reason, well as you may have guessed from the dodgy croissant comment, I threw up on the plane! This has never happened to me before and it was so strange, I felt fine and then 2 hours in I felt awful for about 15 minutes, threw up (yay for strategically placed plane bags!) and then in about 30 minutes felt fine again, though I was a little queasy for the rest of the day. If it was food poisoning it was the quickest bout Ive ever had, but all I can say is thank goodness for that!

We were due to arrive in Orlando at around 4pm and came in on time. We had decided to rent a car for our entire trip (about 16 days) so wed have the freedom to move around Orlando whenever we wanted, even when on Disney property. For the most part having a car was much quicker and more convenient that taking Disneys transportation, except of course when going to the Magic Kingdom which is a nightmare to get to no matter which way you do it, but especially when driving (we did the drive, park, little peoplemover, monorail thing a few times and it would take FOREVER!). Anyway, back to the car. Since we had 4 people and 4 peoples luggage we rented a big Chevy SUV which we soon christened Jareds Magical Express (Jared was the main driver as he has plenty of experience driving on the wrong side of the road now  I think this was our 4th trip to the US). The main complaint about Jareds Magical Express was that, unlike everywhere else at Disney, it didnt have free wifi, which Natalie would use to keep in contact with people back home!

We arrived at Port Orleans Riverside a little after 7 after having issues with our GPS. In the absence of a working GPS we tried to use a tiny map given to us by the car hire place which led us the wrong way down one of the highways! When we arrived (finally), a super friendly the cast member checked us in (I believe his name was Gary). He also left a lovely message on our phone once we got to our room letting us know to make sure to contact him if we needed anything at all! We had booked a Royal Room at Port Orleans Riverside so Natalie and I could celebrate our birthday like Princesses. The room was wonderful and so beautifully details and much more roomy than I thought (we had plenty of room for all our main suitcases and storage for the small ones). Though of course after 6 nights of sharing a room we were all ready for our own space! I really did love the letter from Tiana welcoming us to her special Royal Rooms at the resort.

Heres a few pictures of the rooms.















I loved the exploding fireworks headboards









After checking out the room we headed to the Riverside Mill Food Court for dinner. None of us were super hungry and I was still feeling a little ill after my bad croissant. Most of us ordered the make it yourself pasta and were amazed with the serving size (it could have easily served 2 -3 people depending on how hungry you were!). Of course, American serving sizes were no surprise to Jared and I who have experienced them before but Natalie and Ashley were a little surprised! We decided to have an early night after dinner as we had to be up early for our first theme park day at the Magic Kingdom the very next day.

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Subbing! Less than 24 hours, and already on the third page!

Edited to add: Ah, I see what you did! Uploaded the first 10 days' worth of the trip report, all at once... I'm more used to the standard trip reporting method, of posting an entry or two a day, with time in between for people to comment. Not that I'm complaining, or anything... :-)
 












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