An Asian Disney and Universal Adventure - Trip Report COMPLETED 6/23

[RachelleBeaney]

Day 21 - Part 3 - Dreaming with Mickey

We had another reason to rush through the castle walk through, and that was to get to One Man's Dream early enough to get a seat. We arrived about 30 minutes before the show and the line was already quite long, but they were still allowing people in the line so we hopped in. Though it was a full 30 minutes before the show they were already letting people into the theatre, which was great, so we were able to sit while we waited. We managed to get a spot in the centre section, though we were towards the back. The theatre was really interesting, an open area amphitheatre of sorts, which was semi enclosed by plants and shade sails, and a roof which did cover from the elements.

Another thing I love about Tokyo Disney, aside from the fact that it's incredibly well run, maintained, unique and beautiful, is the respectfulness of it's guests. I would suggest it's something about the Japanese culture, but everyone is considerate of one another! There was an announcement at the show requesting all guests remove hats or ears that might block or impede other guests views, and everyone listened! Not only that, most people had already removed their hats or headpieces in preparation for the show! It's a really small thing, but when you are short like I am it can be the difference between me having a view of the show or not having a view of the show, and I really appreciated being at a theme park where people are thinking of other people rather than just themselves. This seems to be true across Japan, but I will say I have NEVER encountered rude or frustrating behaviour at Tokyo Disney (the same cannot be said for the Chinese parks, and even Walt Disney World - Disneyland guests seem better behaved than Disney World guests in my experience, but that may just be my experience). Anyway, this alone is a reason to visit Tokyo Disney, because it's so refreshing and it reminded me of the important of being polite and considerate when at a theme park too!

Anyway, back to the show, it was cute - nothing really special though. A sort of Broadway music review style mish-mash of Disney songs done broadway style and Disney movie characters. The choreography was great, and the music was really well done, but it didn't make a lot of sense to me. I think Mickey went to Hollywood and that was the premise of the show, but how it connected into the rest of the scenes I don't really know. That being said it seems to me that the Japanese love anything Mickey, and anything Hollywood, so this show is a hit with them. It's still really fun even if you don't understand it - and we were glad we saw it. I was really surprised they allowed photography in the show actually (they don't at most of the shows at Tokyo Disney, due to the impact it can have on guests ability to see the show). Still, everyone using cameras was respectful and didn't raised them above their heads or in the way of anyone's view!



The beginning was pretty cool - Mickey started out black and white and colour slowly made it's way in, in similar way to how Disney's cartoons slowly became coloured!









I really liked this scene where Wendy and Peter fly over the stage!





Of course some of the Disney Villan's get up to no good (don't remember how or why)!



The Prince and Princesses dancing was without a doubt my favourite scene, it was so beautifully choreographed!





There was also a really great mash up of I Want To Be Like You from the Jungle book, and Trashing the Camp from Tarzan.

It appeared at times that the fab five characters were on a movie set, so I guess a lot of what we saw was them 'filming' make believe scenes, and then end sort of seemed like some kind of version of an awards show opening, with all the glitter and glam, and Mickey and Minnie showed up initially in ballgowns before coming back in their dance attire.

Like I said, the whole show as a little baffling, but it did end with a bang!

















When we were done with the show we decided we were done with the park for the time being, as it was time for a nice nap and relax before our early dinner at Blue Bayou that evening. We made our way out through Tomorrowland.





On our way out we were distracted for a time by a 5 piece acapella group singing incredible arrangements of Disney songs. They were doing Try Everything, from Zootopia as we walked past, and they were so good we had to stop and enjoy! They reminded me of Pentatonix in the way the songs were arranged (in particular the use of really bassy bass and a beatboxer) and Pentatonix might be my favourite music group of all time (I love modern accapella music) so I was really excited to have stumbled upon this! We stayed and listened to them perform a few more tunes, and this was honestly the highlight of my day! I love how these little moments that Disney creates can sometimes become so memorable. I think of everything Disney does well, this is one of the best, and it makes each trip unique and special in a way you can't plan or schedule! I'm all for planning and scheduling, don't get me wrong, but I love when these little moments just happen and brighten your day!

Anyway, we spent the afternoon resting and headed back into the park a bit later...

Continued in Next Post...

 

[kmb584]

I don't often read trip reports, but the title of yours drew me in and I wanted to mention that the photos that you've captured are incredible!

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Day 22 - Part 4 - Farewell Tokyo Disneyland

Our last evening at Tokyo Disneyland started later than we planned. We had thought we'd make it back into the park for blue hour from about 5pm, and then head to dinner at 6:30 for our reservation at the Blue Bayou, but as it turned out I didn't wake up from my nap, and apparently my body (still recovering a bit from the awful chest infection) really needed that rest! We arrived back in the park at about 6:10pm and we had some time until dinner, but didn't feel like photographing anything (I know, shocking right) so we decided to ride Pirates.

As much as I love the original Pirates ride, after riding Pirates of the Caribbean, Battle for the Sunken Treasure, I really couldn't enjoy the original Pirates as much. It's still great, a classic, but now that I've seen the 2.0 version it seems more outdated than before. Jared didn't really want to take photos on Pirates (he was really not in the mood to get the camera out before dinner) so we don't have any to show you. Tokyo's version of Pirates is the same as the Disneyland version basically, and it's great, just not great compared with Shanghai's!

That being said I am always surprised (though I probably shouldn't be by now) how pristine everything works inside Pirates at Tokyo Disneyland. As I said before, Tokyo's maintenance levels far exceed those of the US parks and EVERYTHING was working on Pirates, right down to a basket of clucking chickens! It's not something you really notice on the US versions until you do the Tokyo version and see everything moving as it should!

When we were done on Pirates we headed into the Blue Bayou for dinner. I will say that the Blue Bayou at Tokyo Disney doesn't seem as well cared for as the rest of the Pirates attraction. The ceiling looked in dire need of some maintenance! Still it's always a great experience, and for the first time ever we were seated right on the water! It's a good thing we had our priority seating reservation too, as even on a quite day the restaurant was not taking walk ins.

We enjoyed the ambience of the restaurant a lot.







You can see the disastrous ceiling in this picture!







Every sit down restaurant at Tokyo Disney seems to have a set course menu! This got a little frustrating at times (especially when you just wanted a quick meal) and it can be expensive. I'm sure it wasn't like this the last time we visited in 2013, but perhaps they've decided to take advantage of the priority seating restaurants to increase cash flow, hence you have to order at least a 3 course set menu (and at some of the restaurants it's a 5 course set menu!!!).

Anyway, I ordered the hors d'oeuvre's while Jared got vege soup as our started, we then both had the chicken in white cream sauce as our entree and I had a chocolate pudding for dessert, which Jared had an Apple with ice cream. We didn't take pictures of the main courses, but here is the dessert:



Jared's baked Apple was just a little weird! It's just an Apple!



We did enjoy our meal at the Blue Bayou (I'm pretty sure it was improved over the last time we ate there) but it's still nothing outstanding. You really do pay for the atmosphere at this restaurant!

After dinner we had one more Fastpass to use, that we'd gotten just before leaving the park that afternoon, and that was for Pooh's Hunny Hunt. It would be our final Fastpass attraction at Tokyo Disney, and it is one of our favourites at the park, so we were really glad it was to be our last attraction. The Fastpass may not have been necessary as the wait time for the ride when we showed up was only 14 minutes (no I am not joking, it was posted at exactly 14 minutes - not 15, not 10 - 14)! I've never seen such a specific wait time for any attraction ever! Even though we had the Fastpass we joined the regular queue basically as quickly as we would have done had we been in the Standby line. Oh well, still fun to have the Fastpass. Once in line we met a lovely man from Melbourne Australia who struck up a conversation with Jared thanks to his backpack (that thing was really getting a lot of attention on this trip!). He had also bought one, and that led to all kinds of conversations about Disney, the park, our travels and his! I did realise at this point that that is one thing I really do miss when we visit the Asian parks, being able to strike up a conversation with strangers in a line. It's almost as though no one is a stranger at Disney, you all have this shared joy about being at a theme park, and we've had some wonderful conversations with strangers at the US parks. However, with the language barrier at Tokyo Disney, and the Chinese parks, it doesn't happen as often.

Our next attraction was Big Thunder Mountain. We really wanted to ride it at night, as it's so much more beautiful during the evening. We thought the wait times might have come right down, but it was still listed as 25 minutes. Still 25 minutes was much better than then 80 it had been during that day, so we hopped in line. Actually, it was really beautiful standing in line overlooking the park and the castle! We did consider getting a Fastpass for the ride (they were still available for 9:20 - 10:00pm at 8:30 - it serious was not busy at all!), but we didn't want to stay that late, so we had decided just to wait it out. While we were waited we also got treated to the Tokyo Disney Fireworks. These Fireworks aren't really worth the effort for the most part, as they are short, pretty boring, and for some reason shot off somewhere between the two parks (not behind the castle) and most days they are cancelled due to wind anyway (even when it doesn't actually seem that windy). Still randomly getting to see them for the line for Big Thunder was pretty fun!

As we exited Big Thunder we saw a great angle on Splash Mountain, so we set up the camera, hoping we wouldn't get the Mark Twain streak through our shot! Unfortunately by the time we were ready it was on it's way into our composition, though I think it makes an interesting photo don't you?







We headed next to our final two attractions for the evening. The first one was the only attraction on our to do list we hadn't gotten to yes, Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. I seriously dislike this ride after Shanghai's version (where you can actually see what you are shooting at) and I got a measly 35000, while Jared managed a much more presentable 85000.

Our final attraction was Star Tours, and we didn't get the Hoth scene this time for which I was grateful, instead finding ourselves on Tatooine. We did get Coruscant again, so we didn't get every combination, but it was still fun. We only waited 5 minutes for both of these attractions at this time of evening, which was awesome!

There were a few more castle shots we hadn't gotten the night before that I wanted to try get, so we decided to do that and then head out for the evening. While it was probably as cold this evening as the night before, we had dressed more appropriately for the weather and weren't feeling it this time around.







We did have to wait while to be allowed into the Central hub for photos, as the CM's were packing up the benches they put out as seating for the lottery winners for Frozen Fantasy. It did mean there weren't too many people in the area when we were finally let in, which was better for our photos, and watching how well organised the CM's were as they packed up these benches and rolled them out of the area was quite fascinating!

When we were done we decided we were pleased with everything we'd done at Tokyo Disneyland, and that we would say goodbye to the park, as we wouldn't be back. We said our final farewells, so grateful for the amazing time we'd had at the park!





Continued in Next Post...

 

[RachelleBeaney]

I don't often read trip reports, but the title of yours drew me in and I wanted to mention that the photos that you've captured are incredible!

Well thank you so much for joining in - I feel very privileged to have you reading along Thanks for the lovely compliment RE the photos, we do enjoy trying to capture good ones I hope you continue to enjoy reading

 

[wiscbugs]

I'm trying to figure out if Tokyo Disney really looks that great or do your awesome pics just make it look that great?

 

[RachelleBeaney]

I'm trying to figure out if Tokyo Disney really looks that great or do your awesome pics just make it look that great?

I would love to say our pictures make sure it look great, but no it's just awesome! The park itself is perhaps not as beautiful in places as DL or MK, but it has something else about it that's magical - and the way it's run and the different attractions makes it my second fav of all the castle parks (DL wins just to my nostalgia as it was the first park we visited)

 

[disneyAndi14]

Thank you for the info on Tokyo DL, my daughter is graduating in 2018 and she is very interested in visiting Tokyo!

I'm very excited to see and hear about your next part of the trip, is the Sea area in a different location than DL?

Big Thunder looks awesome at night.

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Thank you for the info on Tokyo DL, my daughter is graduating in 2018 and she is very interested in visiting Tokyo!

I'm very excited to see and hear about your next part of the trip, is the Sea area in a different location than DL?

Big Thunder looks awesome at night.

I hope your daughter does get to Tokyo - it's a brilliant place! Tokyo Disney Sea is a different park but it's in the same resort area as Tokyo Disneyland, in face unlike any other Disney resort world wild the parks back onto each other. This means you have to use the monorail to get from one park to the other as their entrances are far removed and not walkable. I'll have a few updates about some of the things we did in Tokyo as well - plus I have previous report in my signature from the last time we went to Tokyo (though the pictures there are not as good - we didn't have a good camera yet) if she wants more info about the things we've done in Tokyo proper.

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Day 22 - Part 1 - Toys and Towers

We checked out of the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel today, and hopped on the Tokyo Disney monorail to head over to Tokyo Disney Sea for the day. It was an incredible beautiful and clear day, and we even saw Mt Fuji from the monorail at one point!



Everything about the Tokyo Disney monorail is adorable - especially these cute handrails!



We arrived at the entrance to Tokyo Disney Sea at 8am, for what we thought was a 9am opening. We were fairly close to the front of the entrance line and thought we were doing really well, except 8:40 came and went and we hadn't even been let through security yet! Turns out we showed up at 8am for a 10am opening! Oops! Funnily enough we weren't even the first ones there, and there was a line when we got there (not a huge line, but a line nonetheless) so it turns out the Japanese are very enthusiastic about getting to their parks early, even in January, when it's not that busy! This brings me to another thing to know about Tokyo Disney. Park hours are released 6 months in advance on the website, but they can change. We had forgotten this, and hadn't checked that day to make sure the hours were what they had originally been planned to be, so this one was really on us!

The wait was long and cold! We were also freaking out as we didn't have our Miracosta room key yet, and we didn't know if we could use the Miracosta early entry gate (we found out later that there was also a Tokyo Disneyland Hotel early entry gate, but we'd only ever been staying at the Miracosta when we did early entry to Tokyo Disney Seas, so we thought that entry was the only one at this point!). When a security guard finally showed up (yes we beat the security guard!) we asked if we could simply show our booking confirmation and he wasn't sure, so Jared headed into the Miracosta to ask the staff there, and they advised the copy of the reservation on our phone should be sufficient for the security people to let us in through the Miracosta line.

Finally, after a long cold wait (where we got wayyy too excited when we were allowed into the small waiting area in front of the entrance gate and there was sunshine to warm us up) we were let into the park at about 9:45. As is custom at Tokyo Disney, the CM's all line up to wave as guests enter (I also suspect they are there to stop people running into the park, and this time they actually had signs in Japanese and English saying don't run, but of course people ignored them, as I mentioned earlier). One particularly excited CM gave us multiple Hi-Fives as we walked in the park! I think she was excited someone stopped and took the time to wave and get excited about being there (rather than just running to their first attraction of the day) and we were excited because she was so lovely, and so friendly!

We were heading to the most popular attraction in the park first, Toy Story Midway Mania. We had debated lining up for the attraction, but so many people were doing that, and with only 15 minutes before the regular crowds descended we thought a Fastpass would be smarter. There was a line, and I got separated from Jared as the crowd of people was corralled towards either the Fastpass line or the Standby line. I could see him, I just couldn't get to him, and I ended up in neither line, just in the main Toystory Trolleyville area, so I made Jared pass me the camera and off I went to take photos! As it turns out there was an incredible sunburst poking through the top of Toy Story Midway Mania, so I ran around capturing as many shots as I could while Jared waited for the Fastpass.





It really was a perfect day!













Though the Fastpass line for Toy Story looked long, Jared got one in no time, and we managed to get to our next destination, the Tower of Terror, before the main crowds were even let into the park! While I was waiting for him I took some shots of it as well, as the sun was right behind it too!









I was having the best time soaking in the atmosphere and beauty of this area of the park. American Waterfront really feels like you could have stepped back to New York, Maine and the Atlantic Boardwalk at the turn of the 20th century, it is so incredibly detailed and beautiful! I love the transitions, from the New York city area, to the Toy Story Trolleyville area (which evokes a turn of the century boardwalk), to the docks area, which the transitions into Cape Cod and an East Coast port town, it's just SO well done! The thing I think I love the most about Tokyo Disney Seas is not that it has an incredible line up of attractions (though it has some great ones though other Disney parks do better) but simply that it has been created is such a way that everywhere you look you see more detail, more beautiful and more realism in the Fantastic environments created than any other Disney park! It takes creating a world or environment to a whole new level, and you feel as though you've visited America in 1900, or a village among the ruins of Mexico, a Arabian town, an Italian Harbour or a world under the sea, or in the centre of the earth! It does all of this so well that you really just want to walk around and look, like you would in a beautiful country town, or fascinating city. It's just a place you want to be, and spend time, regardless of whether you are doing any "theme park" type activities. Anyway, this is one of the many reasons I love the park, and if I lived in Tokyo it would be my go to place for a lunch catch up with friends or a romantic date with Jared .

Anyway, back to our day, we got to the Tower of Terror and the wait was posted at 10 minutes, but we pretty much walked on. Actually, we let people pass as as we took pictures of the incredibly beautiful line!









If you don't know the backstory of the Tokyo version of the Tower of Terror, here it is (briefly). Harrison Hightower, a member of the S.E.A (Society for Explorers and Adventurers - of which Lord Henry Mystic, owner of Mystic Manor at Hong Kong Disney is also a member), travels the world to collect interest artifacts for his collections. He is a greedy and arrogant man and when he finds a cursed idol called Shiriki Utundu he chalks up it's power as myth and steals it from the natives who protect the idol. Of course, the idol comes to life and curses him, and his elevators, and therefore all of us, and therefore we have a backstory for the drops and lifts! Apparently Disney thought the Japanese audience wouldn't necessarily be interested in, or understand, the Twilight Zone backstory, so this new story was written. Both stories are fun, but I love the theming here, I think it really adds to the attraction.

Here is Harrison! A bit scary looking isn't he!



And here is the idol!



It creepily comes to life, and the disappears completely, and incredible trick that I am still not sure how they do!





Back in the line after the pre-show you move through Harrison Hightowers collection vaults







And then you are loaded onto your elevator, and the fun begins. The actual ride is basically the same as the California Adventure version, which is obviously not random and nowhere near as good as the Walt Disney version, though the theming here makes up for it to an extent. Still I think I prefer the Walt Disney World version slightly more, but this is definitely my second favourite of the Tower of Terror attractions (can't say I'm looking forward to the Guardians of the Galaxy version at California Adventure, not a fan of the movie, but perhaps they will do it well and win me over regardless!).

Continued in Next Post...

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Day 22 - Part 2 - The Hidden Cellar

As we came off the Tower of Terror the wait had jumped to 100 minutes! And this was at a quite time of year! We were pretty happy we'd got that, and Fastpasses for Toy Story Midway Mania, whose wait had risen to 120 minutes, out of the way first!

We headed to the back of the park next to ride Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull. When we got there the wait for Indy was already 30 minutes, but we figured that was an ok wait, so we hoping in line (we were prepared to wait for something that day!). Also we were in a pretty good mood as Jared had just been Hi-Fived by Mr Incredible (it seemed to be the day of the Hi-Five for us!) who was on his way somewhere and passed us on our way to the ride as we walked through Port Discovery. You'll find that we only ever walked through Port Discovery on this trip, it's the weakest area of the park, and with Stormrider closed while it's changed to a Finding Nemo attraction there really wasn't a lot of reason to stop!

Anyway, back to Indy, we love this attraction at Tokyo Disney. It's slightly different tot he Disneyland version (in that it's a skull you aren't supposed to look at, rather than an eye) but basically it's the same. It just seems to be better somehow than the Disneyland version, perhaps it's the maintenance, or perhaps it's the incredibly grand Aztec temple the rides sits inside, and the incredible line theming (I have pictures of this but we took them on our second day in the park). Whatever it is I always love this attraction at Tokyo Disney Sea. Anyway, by the time we were done on Indy, the wait had soared to 80 minutes, so we were fairly please with ourselves for choosing it as our second attraction! We were also able to get our second Fastpass at this point, so we headed to Journey to the Centre of the Earth and grabbed Fastpasses for it. The wait was at 90 minutes already, so lines were definitely longer here than at Tokyo Disneyland the previous two days! The Fastpasses we got were from 1:20 - 2:20pm so they were clearly going fast too! After we had secured Journey Fastpasses we headed over to Toy Story Midway Mania to use our 10:40 - 11:40am Fastpasses. When we arrived (about 10:50am) Fastpasses were already gone for the day and the wait was 80 minutes, not bad but certainly not something I would be willing to wait for Toy Story! The ride here is no different to the US version, it's just incredibly popular with the Japanese guests. We had fun, and our scores were ok (91,100 and a rabbit for me and 119,700 and a beaver for Jared). My issue I think is I always try to be accurate, rather than just randomly letting loose and hoping that I hit some big targets (as it Jared's goal!).

At this point it was just past 11:30am (an hour after opening) and we had ridden three attractions and gotten two Fastpasses, so we were pretty please with ourselves and we decided now that all the headliners were out of the way (or Fastpassed) we could do my favourite thing at Tokyo Disney Sea, sit, eat flavoured popcorn, and take in the beauty and atmosphere of the park! We choose American Waterfront Plaza as our siting and relaxing location, and white chocolate popcorn (they had gotten rid of my favourite flavour, strawberry popcorn, which devastated me slightly). I should mention, Jared had been feeling sick all morning and had a cough and sore throat! I was very concerned Jared had caught the awful chest infection I'd had off me. This alone reiterated to me how bad the infection was, and Jared is basically superman, he never gets sick and I think in the time we've been together he's only been really sick twice (and only gone to the dr once), so I knew if he'd caught this thing it had to be bad. I also felt awful for him, knowing what was in store for his next few days, and concerned that it meant we might have to cut our Tokyo Disney days down! I was also worried because the next day was his birthday, and it's never fun being sick on your birthday! Never fear though, because Jared is superman, and because (as you'll see later) we decided to leave early this day so Jared could sleep all afternoon and evening, his virus lasted a day and a half (as opposed to my two weeks) and then he was fine again! I was slightly jealous about this, but also very relieved! Anyway, as that pretty much covers what was going on with him you'll hear no more about it! He was a trooper for me that day, and managed to keep going until we'd done everything we wanted to do. It was good that we had plenty of time to take it slowly now though, as that suited Jared just fine. We sat for a long time, and at about 12:30 made our way towards Magellan's, where we had a 12:40pm lunch reservation.





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Magellan's is the crown jewel of restaurants at the Tokyo Disney Resort. It has been themed as a intricately decorated 17th century club for the Society of Explorer's and Adventures (S.E.A). It is incredibly beautiful, the food is wonderful and everything about it feels you like are dining in an opulent and exclusive club restaurant. If you've heard of Magellan's you may also have heard that there is a secret dining room within the restaurant, the wine cellar. I thought it couldn't hurt to ask to be seated in the wine cellar, and to my surprise, our request was granted and we were lead to the secret room! It's enclosed behind this bookcase:



One press of a secret button (I was able to guess which wooden carving was the secret button) and the doors open to reveal the wine cellar! This was me opening the doors!



The room is small, and it appeared we had scored the last available table. It is beautifully decorated too. The whole area is very intimate with so few tables.













Dining at Magellan's we discovered yet another set menu (though at least only three courses this time). I had salad for starters, and Jared had soup, our entree was a red wine roast beef (we both ordered that) and for dessert I ordered the sherbet sorbet and Jared the creme brulee, and we shared. The food was excellent, and very enjoyable. Portions are small so you can easily fit in three courses. I also ordered a speciality drink with a souvenir cup. The souvenir cup was beautiful, and I'm really glad I ordered it, it was the perfect keepsake from Tokyo Disney Sea. The best part about all this is that this three course menu was only about $40 AUD per person, which is really reasonable! Here is my lovely souvenir glass.





The other side reads "Tokyo Disney Sea" and that made it one of the only souvenirs for sale at the resort that actually had one of the parks name on it!

Between courses I wandered out into the main dining area to take pictures, as it's so beautiful!











Look at those carvings!











Our dining experience at Magellan's was definitely our best at the Tokyo Disney Resort, and we had a great time relaxing and enjoying a slow paced meal!

Continued in Next Post...

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Day 22 - Part 3 - Journeys of Mystery

After lunch we were able to use our Journey to the Centre of the Earth Fastpass. The wait was less than 5 minutes, and I think the regular standby line was still around 80 or 90 minutes, so it was a useful Fastpass to have!

This is my favourite ride at Tokyo Disney Sea. It isn't perfect (it's a bit short), but it's so much fun. The incredible themed underground carverns, the lava monster animatronic, the fun speeding through the dark and then out inside the mountain make it a really classic Disney attraction telling an incredible story while thrilling and awing you. Like I said, it is a little short, and you feel like you maybe want a little more out of it, but as it is unique to the park, and is done so well, you really don't mind too much! The ride was also a lot faster than I remember from our last visit in 2013!























After we did Journey we headed to the other attraction on Mysterious Island, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea. It's a really fun little dark ride that makes you think you have been submerge under the sea, where you find your way to the lost city of Atlantic past really cute little green aliens and giant squids! The only annoying part about the ride is the windows in the ride vehicle limit your view, the front is definitely the best view, and the side views can be a little more limiting.

















Back out in Mysterious Island it was a beautiful day, we took in the unique atmosphere of the area for a while. It's an interesting land as far as Disney lands go. It acts as the hub of Disney Sea, connecting to most of the other lands in the park through tunnels in the mountain crater, but it is completely isolated from all the other areas of the park. When you are inside Mt Prometheus' crater it's like no other world exists, and you really feel like you could be in a Victorian Steampunk version of a base inside a mountainous crater lake. It's so unique too, it seems dull at first,there isn't a lot too it, but as you look closer at the details in the mountain, and the details of the 'base' you see more and more! It's a really easy area to spend a lot of time in, as it's quite easy to get turned around as to what tunnel you want to lead you to one of the areas of the park!





Continued in Next Post...

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Day 22 - Part 4 - Arabian Storybook Adventures

After our time in Mysterious Island we made our way towards Arabian Coast, to one of the best Disney dark rides, Sindbad's Storybook Voyage. Before we got to the ride, which is at the back of the Arabian Coast area, we passed this beautiful example of Kawaii Japanese fashions at the park!



I had told Jared the next time I saw a group of visitors dressed in Kawaii matching outfits I wanted to ask if I could take a picture, because I wanted a record of it! These adorable girls were all dressed as Shellie-May (Duffy - Mickey Mouse's teddy bear's - girlfriend). Everything, from their hats, to the coats to their adorable ripped jeans matched! It was so well done! And this is something you see all over Tokyo Disney, guests (and not just kids but young adults too) spend a lot of time creating outfits to wear to the park, or outfits for their Duffy and Shellie-May's, whom they love to bring to the park! It's almost like Disney Cos-play, and it's so incredibly well done and really fun to see!

Anyway, we made our way to Sindbad and hopped on with no wait. This adorable attraction never seems to have much of a wait. I'm not sure if it's because it is tucked away in the back corner of the park, or because it's not popular with the Japanese, but I LOVE it! It has this adorable catchy song "Compass of your Heart" (which is all in Japanese except the Compass of your Heart part, so Jared and I would find ourselves humming and then singing that part loudly, cos they were the only words we could pronounce!). It also has the benefit of having an adorable mascot in Chandu, the little Tiger who accompanies Sindbad on his Journey across the seven seas! Chandu is adorable, and very cheeky and cute and adds great personality to the read. I've heard the ride described as a cross between it's a small world and Pirates of the Caribbean, but I'd say it's a lot more like the latter. While the characters are cartoon is design (like it's a small world) rather than attempting to look realistic (like Pirates) the ride is much more like Pirates. The sets are incredible, every single character has incredible animatronic movement, and the story told (about the adventures Sindbad has, the friends he makes and the treasure he is given) is really fun! It's not as adult as Pirates, but it is adorable!

Anyway, we pretty much photographer the whole thing so here is the ride:





















This guys is HUGE! And so impressive! His movement is amazingly fluid, he reminds me a little of Ursula in the Little Mermaid Dark ride at California Adventure and the Magic Kingdom, except that he is 10 years older!









Chandu is really the cutest!



















Back out in Arabian Coast we took a few pictures of the gorgeous views from the back of this area!





Out next stop was to see Out of Shadowland, one of the shows at Disney Seas. It replaced a show we had loved on our last visit, Mystic Rhythms. Mystic Rhythms was a lot like Tarzan at Shanghai Disney, but without the Disney movie tie in. It showcased wonderful acrobatics and beautiful dance, all themed around nature and the four elements, earth, fire, water and air. We had really loved the show. We had thought Out of Shadowland would be similar, and we surprised when we were warned, as we entered, that the show was in Japanese (Mystic Rhythms didn't really have any dialogue). We didn't think much of it at the time but as it turned out, the show was a musical! With very little acrobatic greatness, bar one really cool but of wirework. The show relied heavily on projections, which were really well done, but with the show being all in Japanese, it as really hard to enjoy it. You could easily get the gift of the show, a young girl goes camping with a group of scouts and ends up lost in the forest and gets lost in a world of her own fear, her own 'shadowland', if you will. I guess the show was about overcoming fear, as she makes her shadowland beautiful in the end, but it was a bit lost on us! It's clear to me the show is popular with a Japanese audience, who love anything broadway style, but I do lament the loss of the old show, which fit much better in the Lost River Delta area, and was more accessible to those who didn't speak Japanese. Still, with 99% of guests to Tokyo Disney being Japanese, it's not surprising that they went for something like this in place of Mystic Rhythms.

Anyway, after the show Jared was simply too sick to carry on, so we decided to check into the Miracosta and he slept for the rest of the afternoon while I did something (probably edited photos). We didn't want to go out anywhere for dinner so while Jared was checking us in to the hotel I made reservations at the hotel's restaurant Oceano. Turns out that they forced a 5 course menu on us and because of my allergies to shrimp, prawn and gluten the entire meal provided was very "meh" and cost us $70 AUD per person! We wished we had just stayed in and had room service! Oh well live and learn!

That brings us to the end of our first day at Tokyo Disney Sea. Our second day was luckily a lot longer, but we still managed a solid 10 hour sleep that night - which was great, as Jared really needed it!

Continued in Next Post....

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Day 23 - Part 1 - Italian Finery

We were sadly about to embark on our last theme park day of our entire trip, always a sad moment, but it was also Jared's birthday, and he was feeling much better, plus we would be spending the day at Tokyo Disney Sea, so all in all not so bad!

We checked out of the beautiful Miracosta hotel which we had explored a little the night before.

This was our room, they've been upgraded since our last visit and were much better decorated than on our last visit, though the beds were still as rock solid!













This was the view from our amazing harbour view room as the sun set...





It's so much fun to sit comfortable in your room overlooking all the "little ants" aka people still in the park which you can view easily but don't have to fight through people to see! These Harbour View rooms cost an arm and a leg, and are super hard to secure, and we probably shouldn't have spent so much money on one night in a room (it was more than some of our 3 or 4 night stays at other hotels!) but when you see the view it is so completely worth it!





Finally night set in and this was what we saw!





I think I could have stayed up all night just to look out the window if I wasn't still so tired from being sick, and if I didn't have to do an entire day of theme parking the next morning.

I still can't decide which hotel I prefer out of the Miracosta or Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. They are both incredibly beautiful and ornate and so close to the parks! The Miracosta's views are better than Tokyo Disneyland Hotel's, but I prefer the look of the Tokyo Disney Hotel. That being said the Miracosta is so opulent. I've never been to Europe, but from photos I've seen the design looks like it is replicating the look of some Italian relic or temple! It actually has a dome in the ceiling! With a hidden Mickey in it (our bell hop on our first trip was kind enough to point this out). These hotels are probably the most luxurious I've ever stayed in! I remember the first time we walked into the Miracosta on our first trip and Jared, who doesn't do crazy research like me, couldn't believe his eyes - and couldn't believe we actually got to stay at such a beautiful hotel! Anyway, here are a few pictures of the lobby area.



The hotel's Cupola (I think that means Dome in Italian!)







The Mediterranean colours are very prevalent throughout the hotel, as is the beautiful brown marble you find everywhere!













Out the front of the hotel the view was a little disappointing, as it was mostly under scrims. Still the front view reminds me of the first time we pulled up the hotel on our first trip. We'd take a cab from the city and when we pulled up he, who had surely been to the Miracosta plenty of times with passengers, gasped loudly (I assume to bolster our excitement) and then begun to hum it's a small world! It was an adorable moment I will never forget and I love being reminded of it.











Continued in Next Post...

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Day 2 - Part 2 - Welcome to where Adventure and Imagination set sail

Anyway, back to our actual last day at the park (I had forgotten to do that Miracosta update for the previous day!), we arrived to line up about 9:10am, having slept in a little, and the line was much further back than the day before. Still we made it into the small holding area in front of the gates (only so many people do before you are held at bag check because only so many people fit as the area is completely surrounded by barricades and ticketing booths). We were in the park 15 minutes early and were happy we'd chosen the day before to rush to Toy Story and Tower of Terror, as most of the crowds headed that way and we were able to take it easy.

While we waited for rope drop to end we took a few photos. The day had come across a bit cloudy, and we wondered whether we were going to have our first bad weather of our trip to Tokyo Disney. Luckily this grey haze didn't last long, and we saw blue sky before long!









We also found the dedication plaque for Tokyo Disney Seas. It reads:

"Welcome, One and All to a world where Adventure and Imagination set sail.
Tokyo Disney Sea is dedicated to the spirit of exploration that lives in each of us.
Here, you chart a course for Adventure, Romance, Discovery and Fun and journey to exotic and fanciful ports of call.
May Tokyo Disney Sea inspire the hearts and minds of all of us who share this water planet earth."

Dedicated on September 4, 2001 by Michael Eisner, then Disney CEO.

I actually was so excited to find this, and I think the dedication plaque perfectly sums up everything that Tokyo Disney Sea is! It is adventure and romance, it is exotic and fanciful and in someway really does seem to showcase places that could really have been or are found on planet earth. It's probably my second favourite Disney dedication now, one that i'll try remember! Of course nothing beats Walt's original words for the original Disneyland (my favourite part's include "here age relives fond memories of the past and youth may savour the promise and hope of tomorrow" and "Disneyland is your land") but it's up there!



Our first stop would be Journey to the Centre of the Earth. We grabbed Fastpasses for 10:40 - 11:40 and then rode with a 5 minute wait. We love this ride, and we really wanted to do it twice today.





Also, we really wanted a picture of this cute blue thing, we didn't really get it on last time through!





Our second stop was Indy, and the wait was still only 15 minutes!

Here are a few shot of the incredible line for the attraction that puts it over the top of the Disneyland version (which has a pretty good ride line too).







The whole thing is just much grander and larger than Disneyland's version.

After we'd ridden Indy the wait had soared to 80 minutes, and we were pretty happy we'd got in when we did. We headed back to Journey to use our Fastpass. As we boarded our car to ride the next group of young Japanese guys began waving to us, saying "hi" and telling us "Tokyo Disney Sea is awesome". We hadn't quite left yet so we told them how much we loved "their" park and how much fun we were having. It was a really fun interaction, they were obviously really excited to try out some English and to get across the excitement of their Disney to us gaijin (westerner). It also really increased our excitement for a ride that we had done many times before. I think we enjoyed both Journey and Indy a little more today, Jared was in better spirits, and we seemed to be taking more in, perhaps because it was our last day, but either way we were so happy at this point of the morning.

We had wanted to see the next showing of Big Band Beat next (the first 11:30 showing is the only one where the entire theatre, not just the balcony, is filled with people without lottery tickets, and of course, we didn't win the lottery!), but by the time we got to the theatre they were full for the 11:30 showing. We decided we'd do some other things, have lunch and try again for the 1:00pm showing. I had really wanted to check out the views from the deck of the S.S.Columbia, so that's where we headed next. If you really want to appreciate the beauty of the American waterfront this is the place to go! The views were spectacular, and luckily the clouds were moving and we could see some blue sky!























Continued in Next Post...

 

[katt789]

SO MANY UPDATES! SO MUCH HAPPINESS! also inspried me to get my butt moving and working on the updates I need for our Asia trip! Lol. Great updates! Bummer that y'all weren't still 100% but glad you got better pretty quickly! The resorts both look so amazing, we saw the lobby's but that was about it lol!
Can't wait for more!!

 

[RachelleBeaney]

SO MANY UPDATES! SO MUCH HAPPINESS! also inspried me to get my butt moving and working on the updates I need for our Asia trip! Lol. Great updates! Bummer that y'all weren't still 100% but glad you got better pretty quickly! The resorts both look so amazing, we saw the lobby's but that was about it lol!
Can't wait for more!!

I'm glad you are happy with the number of updates, the last few weeks I've gotten a bit busy and haven't done as much... I would love to read your Asia trip report so yep, get it started and post the link here - yes it wasn't great being sick but at the end of the day we still managed to have a great time! The Tokyo Disney resorts are INCREDIBLE! I don't think I've ever stayed in such nice hotels, though of course you do pay for that! Can't wait to hear more about your trip

 

[tac08]

I just spent the last two days reading your trip report. Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous!! I can't wait for the next update!

 

[RachelleBeaney]

I just spent the last two days reading your trip report. Your pictures are absolutely gorgeous!! I can't wait for the next update!

I'm so glad you are enjoying ready along! Thank you for the lovely compliment re the pictures - we really love to capture things well I'm hoping to get to the next update soon - was actually in hospital yesterday (I'm fine, but a bit weak and exhausted) so may have to rest and see how I go but hope to be back to it asap!

 

[tac08]

I'm so glad you are enjoying ready along! Thank you for the lovely compliment re the pictures - we really love to capture things well I'm hoping to get to the next update soon - was actually in hospital yesterday (I'm fine, but a bit weak and exhausted) so may have to rest and see how I go but hope to be back to it asap!

Oh no! I hope you feel better soon!

 

[RachelleBeaney]

Oh no! I hope you feel better soon!

Thanks - am getting there slowly