An Engaging and Magical Asian Adventure (2017 trip) - New Update 09/12/2021

[Flossbolna]

Day 7 – July 5, 2017: Tokyo Disneyland

Part 2: A Campy Lunch

There it was lunch time! Just a little before our trip a new restaurant had opened up, Camp Woodchuck Kitchen. Camp Woodchuck is where Donald’s three nephews spend their summers. Here in Europe the Disney comic books are very popular and I spent my childhood reading comics about Donald, Daisy, Uncle Scrooge (called Onkel Dagobert in German) and the three nephews. When I first visited Disneyland in 1992 I was so disappointed that that aspect of Disney was not really represented at all. And I still think that they made a real mistake to not have it at Euro Disney when it opened, I think it would have made the park far more popular in an instant. So, this new restaurant that tied into those comics was a place high on my list. And just in case you are interested, Huey, Dewey and Louie are Tick, Trick und Track in German.



We both had the fried chicken waffle sandwich they had on the menu here:





While the packaging was nice, the food was just so-so. M is being kind. It was lousy. Worst meal at TDL. Worst meal in Tokyo. Worst meal in Japan. Worst meal on trip. ... But the US bloggers who can afford to actually travel, and aren't afraid of scary places like Japan, seem to love it.

But the restaurant was incredibly cute!











Our next stop was picking up a FP for BTMRR.



This picture was taken at 2 pm. While 25 minutes is really not a bad wait, we saw no point in standing in line if we could pick up a FP for 55 minutes later.

At one point we had three FPs at once and one was for Big Thunder. One was for Pooh. I know you took a pic of this. Might have been our first day. This is what happens when you write Trip Reports four years and two weddings and countless days in theme parks later.

We wandered a bit through Frontierland:





During Tanabata Days a lot of Japanese people dress in traditional dress, mainly yukatas. Those are more casual and lighter versions of the traditional kimono and both men and women wear them. There were many very pretty ones to be seen around the parks. Including traditional shoes that looked very very uncomfortable. I was far too shy to take pictures of the people in those lovely outfits, but here the guy was walking just in front of us and I took a quick picture. I thought especially the men looked so smart in these outfits!



And yes, all the men had purses to go with the outfit! Men seemed to have more geometric patterns and duller colors, while women’s outfits had more flowers on them.

Up next: The one where we finally get popcorn!

 

[brookelizabeth]

And Michael wrote that when there was no idea that we would end up going there together so soon!!

Isn't it funny how all that happened? I had hoped that for Henry's "Spring Break II" (as the school calls it), we'd be able to go to EP! But weeks ago, I had little hope with the awful covid numbers and lack of vaccine... but gosh, what a few weeks has done! A month ago things were far, far different!

Here in Europe the Disney comic books are very popular and I spent my childhood reading comics about Donald, Daisy, Uncle Scrooge (called Onkel Dagobert in German) and the three nephews.

That is very interesting. I LOVED those comic books when I was a kid as well! I had only 3-4 of them I had picked up somewhere and read them over and over again. Are they still popular here?

While the packaging was nice, the food was just so-so. M is being kind. It was lousy. Worst meal at TDL. Worst meal in Tokyo. Worst meal in Japan. Worst meal on trip

What a shame, it looked good! But, I guess one bad meal out of many isn't too shabby.


TODAY IS THE DAY!!! And my apartment is clean, so I have an easy day in front of me!! I was stupidly worried last night about the dog though and had trouble sleeping.

 

[tink2424]

Can't wait for more trip report!!

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 7 – July 5, 2017: Tokyo Disneyland

Part 3: The one where we finally get popcorn!

Our next stop was Adventureland:











Adventureland here includes a New Orleans themed area which has a theater.









This was a lovely little store selling scented things. I got some sachets to put into your linen drawer and I am always getting a smile on my face when I see it again in my closet!



One of the most popular souvenirs in the Tokyo parks are those "badges", tiny plush that you can actually wear like a badge as they have a safety pin, or use as a keychain.

These are huge there, but tiny. But the price isn't tiny. I bought a few, but since they're in the Florida home, I can't recall which ones now.

In Adventureland they had It’s Tough to be a Bug:



And Trader Sam! Wasn't he just cancelled?



They had just come out with a whole Jungle Cruise line, which was perfect for a friend of Michael who is a great Jungle Cruise fan.



And then we went on the Jungle Cruise.







At the loading dock they had these lovely signs to tell cruisers how to behave:



Don’t feed the lion, I get that…



Oh oh, maybe this is not the right cruise for me…



And who the heck would pack such a huge toothbrush for a trip to the Jungle?? Totally impractical! Certainly not anyone from the UK!



That’s why I don’t like monkeys.

The cruise itself is very much the same as in the US. Better maintained though, everything looked like it just came out of refurbishment. The skipper was talking Japanese, so we did not understand her jokes. My trip notes say that the projections inside the temple were very good, but I don’t remember them. They were good. They also have plussed a few scenes and added a Lion King flourish to the lions watching the zebra sleep scene.







Our next stop was the Tiki Room. Here it has been taken over by Stitch. And if you are a non Japanese guest, they give you little handheld devices that translated what was being said into English.









In the waiting area, there are notices up that Stitch went missing…





Do you see that Stitch was there in the above picture?





This is the device:



And here is a better clue about Stitch’s whereabouts:



The show was quite cute! I am not sold on the handheld thing for translation as you had to keep looking at the screen instead of the attraction to understand what was going on. It was not tough to understand what was going on even if you didn't have the machine, but I wanted to try it out because I didn't on my prior visit. BTW, this is the third version of Tiki Room in Japan.

We then went back to BTMRR, which is not far from the Tiki Room to use the FP. We then headed back to Pooh’s Hunny Hunt as our FP time for that had come up. According to the app the ride was down, but they started up again just as we got there. It is such a lovely little ride!

We then decided that we were already in the parks for our third day and still hadn’t gotten the snack that is so quintessential for TDL: popcorn! We had been checking out the different available flavors and finally were in the neighborhood of a stand that sold soy sauce and butter flavor. We got a box (neither of us saw the appeal of a bulky bucket):



Yes, it looks like popcorn. We thought it was delicious! We also got some bottled drinks. This was the first time that I got the Aquarius sports drink. It had less calories than soda and was supposedly having lots of electrolytes. Since we had been sweating for nearly a week now, I felt that this might be good for me. And it was actually very tasty!

We decided that it was time for a break at the hotel, so that’s where we headed.

Continued in next post

 

[Flossbolna]

Day 7 – July 5, 2017: Tokyo Disneyland, Part 3 continued

This shows the system and the timetable for the TDR Monorail:



As you can see, if you add up the travel times on the loop, it is only 12 minutes for one loop.

After a refreshing shower, we headed to the lovely lounge for drinks and snacks. I caught the sunset over the bridge across the bay from the lounge terrace:



And can offer some more lounge food pictures:





The green stuff in the glasses was pea soup. Cold pea soup. I love peas, but this was one of the few things in the lounge that just were not tasty at all.





A really nice selection of beers and wine:









Afterwards we headed back into the park. Michael made us go on Buzz Lightyear. Which was a massive letdown after the one in Shanghai. I think all Buzz Lightyears need to be upgraded to the Shanghai version. Otherwise they have no raison d’être anymore…

Detail left out that this attraction is one of the most popular in the park. I don't get it. I don't get the love for any of them except for the new SDL version. BUT ... the reason we went on it was when it came time to leave we contemplated getting another FP and we were in Tomorrowland and didn't want one for Space Mountain (or maybe the time was not good), so I decided to be a Buzz completist and grab some FPs. I don't want to say it's identical to Anaheim, but it is very close. And now, like living in a pandemic, I can check it off my list.

I took a picture of Sonny Eclipse’s Japanese cousin:



And we admired some of the Tomorrow aesthetics at night:





We watched Dreamlights again. This time I did not bother with taking any pictures and just enjoyed it! I think I might have run back to the soy sauce and butter popcorn stand just before the parade to have a snack while watching it (I do remember the popcorn rush and think it must have been that evening). After the parade we went for another ride on Splash Mountain and Snow White and Peter Pan. The last one we got on even after park closing. We had managed to get into Snow White without any wait time just before the park closed. When we got off, the CMs at Peter Pan waved at us that we should go and ride their ride now. It was such an unexpected bonus!

This is where I am thinking the old gal's memory (or poor note taking) might be coming into play. We definitely did those rides. But I recall it as us closing out the night with Snow White and getting off at like 10:03 and the CM asking if we wanted to go again, which we did. I'm fairly certain this is how it played out because we would have hit Pan first because it is something we both prefer. And it looked great there as it had just had a major rehab ... that left all those racist scenes in it.

I don't like to admit this, but I think he is right there...

On the way back to the hotel I picked up a bottle with a drink from one of the many vending machines and chose a Coca Cola Plus: It turned out that it had extra added fiber in it!



And with that we fell into bed very tired, but happy with another fantastic day.

It was. Other than the awful meal. Good thing I ate about 32 pounds of food at the Hilton lounge.

Up next: A bear goes exploring!

 

[tiggrbaby]

Lovely pics! Seems like you were able to accomplish quite a bit!

 

[soniam]

Coke with fiber. Yuck!

 

[franandaj]

Germany has yelp, but it isn't used much and you won't find a lot about little places in the country. Sadly, Google reviews might tell you more about a place.

That's too bad. Lots of people in the US use Yelp and I rely on (mostly pictures) that site for choosing restaurants. When we try a new place I will look at the pictures for hours before we go trying to figure out what to order!

People would tend more to go to one place and stay for a full week or two every year than do road trips.

I guess the road trip is a truly American kind of thing!

Just make sure that you plan the trip so that Michael can show you around. He will not pleased if you come to Germany while he isn't here!

Well, we're not going anywhere anytime soon.

I will be looking forward to that!

We're you able to check it out? We've been back quite a few times now!

That's very fitting and yes, while they are very different, I find that there is a similarity in their music being so pretty without being boring. Have you seen the Howard Ashman documentary on Disney+? I thought it was really great, but so sad!

I have not. There is just so much on Disney+. We just finished Captain America and the Winter Soldier last night and started on Loki. We have to catch up on about half a dozen movies as well. We were supposed to do that this past week when we were at my parent's house but one of our kitties broke her leg, so we didn't feel comfortable leaving her under the car of our cat sitter.

Even if Disney would release it, it rightly deserves to be hidden away just for being such a horrible movie.

Honestly it was 40'-50 years ago that I saw it. I just remember it was Uncle Remus telling stories and that it was rather disjointed.

There it was lunch time! Just a little before our trip a new restaurant had opened up, Camp Woodchuck Kitchen.

Sounds like a fun place!

And just in case you are interested, Huey, Dewey and Louie are Tick, Trick und Track in German.

Interesting...

We both had the fried chicken waffle sandwich they had on the menu here:

We usually like to pick two different things between us.

While the packaging was nice, the food was just so-so. M is being kind. It was lousy. Worst meal at TDL. Worst meal in Tokyo. Worst meal in Japan. Worst meal on trip. ... But the US bloggers who can afford to actually travel, and aren't afraid of scary places like Japan, seem to love it.

And this is why. Perhaps something else on the menu may not have been so bad.

This picture was taken at 2 pm. While 25 minutes is really not a bad wait, we saw no point in standing in line if we could pick up a FP for 55 minutes later.

Makes total sense.

Adventureland here includes a New Orleans themed area which has a theater.

It looks nearly identical to DLs NO Square. Is Club 33 located above Cafe Orleans there too?

This was a lovely little store selling scented things. I got some sachets to put into your linen drawer and I am always getting a smile on my face when I see it again in my closet!

I love those kind of memories, but I can't do scents. My clothes detergent has to be unscented, and I have to avoid stores selling heavily scented Christmas items. It just bothers my sinuses.

The cruise itself is very much the same as in the US.

I found the scene with the Rhino and the pole interesting. They just revamped ours and I just posted the new and old on my latest update.

Our next stop was the Tiki Room. Here it has been taken over by Stitch. And if you are a non Japanese guest, they give you little handheld devices that translated what was being said into English.

Interesting about the device....

Do you see that Stitch was there in the above picture?

Nope. I looked for a while. Then again I'm posting from my phone.

popcorn! We had been checking out the different available flavors and finally were in the neighborhood of a stand that sold soy sauce and butter flavor.

Soy sauce and butter? Very interesting! Now I want to try it. I just learned about putting M&M's on your popcorn, but it needs to be hot.

After a refreshing shower, we headed to the lovely lounge for drinks and snacks.

That looks like I could make a meal out of it!

After the parade we went for another ride on Splash Mountain and Snow White and Peter Pan. The last one we got on even after park closing. We had managed to get into Snow White without any wait time just before the park closed. When we got off, the CMs at Peter Pan waved at us that we should go and ride their ride now. It was such an unexpected bonus!

Sounds fun.

This is where I am thinking the old gal's memory (or poor note taking) might be coming into play. We definitely did those rides. But I recall it as us closing out the night with Snow White and getting off at like 10:03 and the CM asking if we wanted to go again, which we did. I'm fairly certain this is how it played out because we would have hit Pan first because it is something we both prefer. And it looked great there as it had just had a major rehab ... that left all those racist scenes in it.

I don't like to admit this, but I think he is right there...

But then Michael basically called you a liar!


I wish I would be seeing you two soon, but we don't dare travel to Florida with the state of their hospitals right now. I'm sure you two will be fine, but Fran I worry about. I hope things improve by February so we can take the trip we have planned.