Easter and The Year of Wishes… food allergy princess goes to Tokyo Disney! -June 2016 TR

[MomoMama]

Hello!

I just came back from 2 weeks Japan trip, which included a short stop at Tokyo Disney! And now I would like to share our experiences by writing this TR.

My daughter and I spend 2 and half days at Tokyo Disney. Only 2 and half days out of 2 weeks? Yes, because the main reason we went to Japan was to see our relatives who live there. This was not our first trip to Japan and will not be the last, but it was our first to Tokyo Disney! I actually never considered going there until recently...because I have heard about the high crowd level. I did not want to spend 2 hours staying in the line for each ride. Also I have read the Japanese people complaining the recent increase of foreign visitors were ruining their experiences because they do not follow the rules. Many also were complaining the CMs were not as good as used to be... So I thought Tokyo Disney was not a place for us. But then I read here on DIS that Tokyo Disney is considered the best Disney parks of all, and that the crowd level is not too bad for off-seasons. I did some research and decided to give it a try...and so glad I did!!


The parks were beautiful, the CMs were super nice, and the crowd really was not as bad as I feared. And sure I saw some misbehavior from other guests, but they were not just limited to the foreign visitors, and I only saw few instances.

We visited in early June, and experienced the Easter celebration at the Disneyland, and the Year of Wishes (15th anniversary) celebration at the DisneySea!

 

[MomoMama]

DD, 6, and I both love Disney. But I probably would not plan a park visit if it was not for her. I love the magic we feel at the parks and see her eyes sparkle. And DD, who has multiple food allergies, can always find food to eat at Disney. Her food allergies is one of the reasons I write TR, so I can share our food allergy related experiences to the others who is looking for the information.

DD is mainly allergic to wheat/gluten, eggs, and peanuts. She can tolerate small amount of wheat (like few bites of bread), and will not go into shock because someone opened a bag of peanuts in an airplane. But we do must carry Benadryl and epi-pen wherever we go. Though her food options are limited, we can still enjoy traveling and eating out thanks to her tolerance.

 

[MomoMama]

Going to Japan in May would have been better weather-wise, as June is the rain season. But we live in Texas, where taking kids out of school is not easy. I don’t think it matters much for a kindergartener, but I wanted DD to finish the year and have the celebration with her teacher and the friends, so scheduled the flight the day after the school was out. I hoped that the rain season would be delayed, and maybe it was…because we did not get as much rain as anticipated. I did not want to schedule to go to Japan in July or August, as it gets really hot there and the kids are out of school starting the middle of July to the entire month of August.

We took Air Canada to Japan this time. Going through the custom in Canada (Calgary) was an extra step, but it was smooth. At the security check, they noticed a bottle of liquid in DD’s backpack…it was her Benadryl. I packed a new, un-opened bottle, so as soon as they checked it was DD’s medicine, they let us go. At the U.S. and Japan airports, this bottle never got us stopped. But at Canada, we got stopped both times.

At the airport there was nothing much DD could eat, so I got her a smoothie. I think the place was called Jugo Juice or something. I asked the lady at the counter if they used peanuts for smoothies, and she replied they have a peanut-free juicer. We shared a big cup of berry smoothie, and soon we were called to board the next flight.

 

[MomoMama]

DD knew we were going to Japan, but did not know about Tokyo Disney! I thought this was one chance I could surprise her with the Disney trip. I normally do not keep the trips as surprises, because I must remind her to wash her hands and to stay away from sick kids at school before the trips. A couple of years ago we had to cancel Disney cruise because DD got a fever one day before the departure… that was a devastating experience, and since then I am more careful than usual before any trips. So I was reminding her those things because we were going to Japan… just did not tell her the “Disney” part yet. On the flight they had the Little Mermaid movie, and princess-loving DD of course watched it…I did too, to get into the “Disney” mood.


After about 10 hours, we got to Narita airport. We were catching the airport limousine bus directly to our hotel. When I bought the bus ticket, I found out we had to wait for about 1 hour because the bus had just left. So I used that extra time to go downstairs to the train station, and got Suica cards for both DD and me. DD has not technically started the first grade yet in the U.S., but is considered the first grader in Japan and must pay the fare.

 

[MomoMama]

I picked Oriental Hotel Tokyo Bay as our hotel. This was not my first choice, but I ended up really liking this hotel. Originally I invited my parents to join us for this Disney trip…this was supposed to be a 3-generation trip. I would have loved to stay at the Disneyland hotel, but the room for 4 was going to cost me a fortune. So I picked another Disney partner hotel, hotel Emion. Their rooms are larger, seem to have great views, and my parents liked that they have onsen (hot spring) bath. But then my parents had to backout of this trip… By then it was too late to book the Disneyland hotel for DD and me. I switched to Oriental Hotel as DD and I did not need a bigger room or onsen. I would have loved to stay at Hilton but it was not available, and Sheraton was not opening its pool until July. Oriental Hotel had a good deal through Expedia. It was a small double room. They also have bigger rooms for families, but small room was good enough for DD and me, as we just needed a place to sleep. All their rooms are non-smoking, and as a Disney partner hotel, they have shuttle bus to Disney that operates frequently. Good neighbor hotel would have less frequent bus service, and may require signing up for the bus in advance. And the Oriental hotel is connected to a train station (Shin-Urayasu), which is convenient especially when it rains.

The hotel was small, and that turned out to be a good thing because we did not have to walk a lot once we were at the hotel. The front desk was nice and polite…almost too polite. Once I called and asked for a blanket, and was told it would take time because they had to “make” it. Make the blanket? I thought they must have mis-heard me. It turned out, they would put the blanket in the sheet cover. And they were at my door in 3 minutes!

The hotel lobby was much darker than the picture they show on their website, but it still had a fountain and looked nice for a small lobby. The only photo I took is this Easter tree decoration they had.

 

[MomoMama]

The room had the Disney newsletter on the desk. I quickly hid it so that DD would not see it. I was still hoping to keep Disney as a surprise. DD had seen the Disney gift shop in the lobby, but still had no idea there is a Disneyland in Tokyo!

The hotel has 3 restaurants and a bar, and their buffet restaurant displays the major allergens for each dishes. We did not get to try so I am not sure if they had enough for DD to eat, but it was good to know we had the option at the hotel. I thought about trying out the restaurant the first night we got there…but we were not hungry enough for buffet. So we went to the nearby shopping mall(Aeon) to see what’s available. I searched for “family restaurants” that offer low-allergen meal, but could not find any nearby. I was a little surprised, as the train station and the shopping mall were fairy big. But I found Mr.Donut, which sells allergy-free donuts. Then we picked up our dinner from the grocery store next door and went back to our room.

DD’s dinner: sekihan(mochi rice cooked with red beans), cooked pumpkin, mini tomatoes, and yogurt drink with Alice on it!

I do not have allergies and picked up yakisoba noodles for myself.

After shower I told DD that we were going to bed and sleep as much as we wanted the next day. We were not going to Disney the next day… I planned it that way so that we could take it easy and let our bodies get adjusted to the new time schedule. The last time I took DD to this long flight was when she was 3, and she was tired and cranky after the flight. I was not sure how she would be this time, and wanted to give both of us enough time to rest. Days, or rather weeks before the trip I had been busy and was not getting enough sleep, so I needed the sleep too!

 

[MomoMama]

Monday

So this was the day we were going to sleep in late… and that just did not happen. DD woke up early. She was fine, not tired. And just too excited to sleep. So I woke up too. The bed was firm but comfortable, and I really wanted to sleep in…but DD would not let me.

We went downstairs to the convenient store (Lawson) to get coffee. The room had the pot and tea bags, but no coffee maker. I drink tea, but I need coffee in the morning. Having the 24-hour convenience store in the hotel was nice. We picked up milk for DD, coffee and a donut for me. We went back to the room and had the breakfast. DD had the donut we bought from Mr. Donut. The allergy-free donut is made without the major allergens. 2 small donuts come in 1 pack, sold for about 400yen. They are sold frozen and we were asked to defrost them at the room temperature for 2 hours. They were plain donuts, but DD was so happy! They were not home-made, but actual store-bought donuts!!

 

[MomoMama]

We finished the breakfast, and it was too early for any stores to be open (except for the convenience store). So I decided to take DD to the nearby park for a walk. I was going to meet my friend who lives in the area that day, but we have not decided on the time yet. I took the pocket Wi-Fi I had rented and delivered to the hotel, so I could get in touch with her via email.

Just a short walk from the Oriental Hotel, there is Wakashio park. It’s not Disney but let me talk about this park a little since it is located close to this Disney partner hotel. This was a nice park and well maintained. They did not have slides or swings, but there was a hill to climb up, rocks to sit on…

DD pretended to pull a sword from the huge stone.

And animals! They had goats, bunnies, capybara, and kangaroos!

They offer pony rides and there was a traffic course kids can ride toy cars and bicycles to learn the traffic rules (I assume the kids must understand Japanese). But they were closed that day. We still got to see the animals, just could not go in to touch them. I just hope they have more than the cages we saw to live in, because they were very small.

 

[MomoMama]

So I was letting DD play, to have her burn some of those unlimited energies she has… wondering when my friend was going to email me. Then I checked my pocket Wi-Fi and noticed it was not working. We went back to the hotel, and I used the hotel’s Wi-Fi to check the email. Sure enough, I had missed her emails and we decided to meet up later in the afternoon. After restarting the resetting, the pocket Wi-Fi was working, so we went out.

I took DD to Odaiba. I was interested in the trick art museum there. Getting there from Shin-Urayasu was easy. I used “Japan Trains” app to check which trains to catch. I found this app easier to use than HyperDia.

After enjoying the museum and the area, it was time for lunch. Since I did not find anything at Shin-Urayasu, I decided to eat at Odaiba before coming back to the hotel. I found Jonathan’s, one of the “family restaurants” that offer low-allergen kids plate. It was curry and rice, and DD ate it so quick that I did not get a picture. The waitress was very friendly and helpful checking the ingredients for me. There was few dessert options DD could choose from the regular menu, and she picked yogurt with acai sauce.

It was not sweet and DD did not like it… well the dessert was meant for adults, I guess.

 

[MomoMama]

We came back to the hotel, and we still had time before meeting my friend. I asked DD to take a nap, but she did not want to… I could not get her to sleep, so I just let her doodle and color. And when my friend got to the train station, we just went downstairs…very convenient.

We tried to go to nearby coffee shop my friend said was well-known and good, but there was a waiting list. We did not want to wait for coffee… so we looked for another option and ended up at Mr.Donut again. Since they would not use microwave to defrost the allergy-free donut for DD, I ordered what they call “Cotton Snow Candy,” which was fluffy shaved milk/ice with strawberry sauce. While I talked to my friend I had not seen for years, I let DD watch Frozen on my kindle. DD kept herself quiet, but other kids at the store were constantly screaming. I was a bit surprised their mothers were not stopping them, and my friend, who has lived in Japan for a while, told me those are “normal” those days…that the parents are letting their kids do whatever they want. Japanese people are usually known to be polite, but what happens when those kids grow older? Japan I know and love will be gone…?

Anyway I was enjoying the chat with my friend, but I could see DD was finally getting tired. She looked sleepy, but we stopped by the grocery store to pick up bananas and onigiri (rice balls) in case she wanted to eat.

When we got back at the hotel I left DD with my friend and went to talk to the front desk about getting the park tickets. I was going to buy the 2-day tickets for the next day park visit, but then I found out that at the hotel they could not sell the advanced tickets. Basically I needed Tuesday-Wednesday tickets, but if I were to buy the tickets on Monday, they could only sell me Monday-Tuesday tickets. I also asked about the option to upgrade the tickets to 3-day tickets later, and was told I could do that in the park. Lastly, I was told they only accept cash for the park ticket at the hotel.

When I went back to my friend and DD, I realized DD had been watching the Disneyland promotional video on the giant screen in the lobby…there goes the surprise!

After my friend left, DD asked me about the Disney video she saw. I had only told her that I would take her to somewhere special if she had been a good girl… Now she wanted to know if the “special” place was Disney! I did not give her the confirmation…

 

[MomoMama]

Tuesday

Again too excited to sleep, we woke up early, and went downstairs for coffee and breakfast from the convenient store. The park ticket sale was starting at 7 am, and there was no line. I was unsure about the 3rd day, so just bought 2-day tickets specifying to visit Disneyland on Tuesday and DisneySea on Wednesday. Disneyland was opening at 9 am and DisneySea was opening at 8 am, so I thought about switching the visiting days, but I just wanted to go to the “Land” first.

The first shuttle bus was leaving the hotel at 7 am. I think we got on the one at 7:30 or 7:40. The bus driver was very friendly and gave us some information about the parks, opening hours, and the closed attractions, but only in Japanese. And of course there were monitors in the bus showing the Disneyland/Sea videos! DD said “I knew it! I knew we are going to Disney!!” Oh, she was one happy girl. When we saw the Disneyland hotel while riding on the bus, she got so excited.


The bus ride was 10 to 15 minutes, I think. It would stop at Disneyland first, and then at DisneySea. We got off the bus, and even though we had more than 1 hour before the park opens, I could see many people were already there in front of the gate.

 

[MomoMama]

I did not think it was necessary to wait there for 1 hour, so we went to the Disneyland hotel. The hotel was beautiful…I was more impressed than the first time I saw the Grand Floridian.

 

[aussie shaz]

I'm loving your report so far. Looking forward to more

 

[MomoMama]

I'm loving your report so far. Looking forward to more

Thank you! I will be back tomorrow for more update!

 

[MomoMama]

We checked the hotel grounds and the shop, then went to line up at the gate. My happy little girl kept on singing and dancing since we got off the bus. Yeah, that was the reaction I wanted! She checked on the map and told me everything she wanted to try…that did not include Haunted Mansion, but she agreed to go with me.

Here is the information on Easter events from the Newsletter. It shows they have the Easter theme parade, egg hunt (for extra fee), and they sell those bunny ears headbands.

 

[MomoMama]

Opening of the gate was one thing I feared about Tokyo Disney, as I heard about people running to get to the attractions. I wonder how bad the things had gotten, as now so many CMs are standing everywhere asking people not to run. When the gate finally opened, many were walking very fast, some I would consider “running.” But it was not too bad. Greeting with the smiley CMs, DD and I walked to Tomorrowland, and got the FastPass to Monsters, Inc. Ride&Go Seek! Then we went inside Stitch Encounter.

When we decided to go to TDR, I did my research…especially regarding the food. But not so much for other things. I just wanted to go with the flow and did not want to micromanage our day, and wanted to leave some surprises for myself too. I was not sure what this attraction was about, but there was no wait and DD and I love Stitch, so we went in. They had front row seats for children. I let DD sit there and I sat in the back. Then I saw many parents were sitting at those children’s’ seats with their kids…

When the Stitch appeared, I knew this was an interactive show like the turtle talk. Stitch was of course speaking Japanese, and I wondered how DD would react if she got picked to talk. But she did not. I thought the show was funny, and though DD does not understand Japanese, she enjoyed it too.

 

[MomoMama]

Then we walked towards Fantasyland. We were seeing the popcorn stands, and the one with R2-D2 bucket already had a long line! DD loves popcorn, and the flavors she could eat there were plain salt and caramel only. I promised her I would let her have it in the afternoon, and also let her choose any bucket she wanted.

In Fantasyland we saw the first character.

The cat from Pinocchio came to DD, and I was going to take the picture…but DD did not want to. She said “That’s a bad guy!!” and held onto me tight. I told her the cat was fine and not going to take you away, but she still did not want to get close to it. Oh, well, I was not going to force her. I said good bye to the cat.

 

[MomoMama]

Neither DD nor I are Pooh fan, so we skipped Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, even though there was no line yet and I have heard good things about this attraction.

DD could not decide what to try, so I took her to Haunted Mansion. I think the wait time posted was 20 minutes, but I don’t think we waited that long. The CMs at Haunted Mansion were all smiley and friendly, which felt odd to me…except one that was standing by the ride. She kept her cool face on, she was in the character! DD said she was scared, so I assured her those ghosts were not real. And after the ride I promised her that I would not take her to this ride again until she is older and she asks for it...

We saw Alice, Mad Hattrer and the gang all walking together. I love Alice and wanted to meet them, but they were leaving. I hoped we would see them again later in the day, but we did not…

Then we walked by Westernland and noticed a show going. It was a puppet show by Mickey and the gang. Later I checked and learned this was called Super-Duper Jumpin’ Time. We did not watch the whole show, and left before it was over, but it felt very child-ish and seemed to be meant for preschoolers.

 

[MomoMama]

We walked through the Cinderella’s castle. DD just love going through the castle.

When we came out of the back of the castle, we saw a photographer in front of the Mickey stature. She was not busy, so DD and I had the picture taken together. The photographer took the pictures using my camera and her camera. And I asked for the Photokeycard. It’s a TDR version of PhotoPass.

Here is the picture of the Photokeycard, along with our park tickets.

Then we went on to Snow White’s Adventures. There was this warning sign and CM asked if DD would be okay. Well I was sure this was going to be less scary than Haunted Mansion, so I said she should be fine. And she was. I saw kids smaller than DD were riding fine too.

 

[MomoMama]

Then we saw Baloo and the monkeys from Jungle Book. One of the monkey saw DD and gave her a squeezing hug. Then another monkey joined. 2 monkeys got DD to pose for the photo in monkeys’ way.

It was fun meeting those monkeys. I asked DD if she also wanted to meet Baloo, but she said no.