NashvilleMama
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2013
Hello! We're returning back to the States today from a week in Tokyo, and thought I'd pop in for a quick update on our day yesterday at Disney Sea since these boards were invaluable in planning.
Halloween day in the park was incredibly fun. The Japanese don't mess around with their costumes! It was mostly all adults given it was a school day and half of the fun was people watching. It was a gorgeous day and we had perfect weather, luckily!
Biggest takeaway: I had been really prepared for high crowds based on everything I've ever read about TDL parks, but....that isn't what we experienced at ALL.
We arrived around 7:30am for an 8am park opening, and there were probably a few hundred people waiting to get in. I've seen way worse at WDW rope drops. I had really messed up in my research and thought the FP kiosks were ones like in the US parks where they're for any rides - but no, they're specific to each ride at it's location. Oops. So our park opening trek to the FP kiosk near Soarin' meant we'd gone there for no reason since we hadn't planned to ride that ride. We instead headed to the back of the park and got a FP for Indiana Jones, but the line was 10 minutes standby so we just popped into standby and then once off the ride used the FP to ride again as the line had increased slightly by then. (Side note: we all LOVED this ride - I'd forgotten how much fun it is to have NO idea what's coming on a brand new ride to us!)
From there we bounced around to the various lands and walked onto most rides - literally 5-10 minute waits at most. I went to Tower of Terror to grab a FP before we stood in line for lunch at Ristorante de Caneletto (line took 20 minutes), and the FP time was only 1.5 hours later! It was so easy to walk around, save for some crowds around the showtimes in the main harbor viewing area.
The day really made me realize how nice it was to be able to wing a day in the park. Not having to book FP or ADRs in advance (because I literally couldn't) and it not ruining our chances to do any of the rides or restaurants was so, so nice....it kind of makes me think the other parks have gone too far with those advance planning tools.
Everything people have said about the cast members is 100% spot on and also shone a spotlight on how our US parks differ. They were so, so genuinely friendly, energetic, and passionate about their jobs. It was pretty amazing to see. The last few WDW park visits I've been keenly aware of how this is just a normal job for some of them and it shows. And the park was spotless (as was most of Tokyo.)
All in all, a great visit - we were highly impressed with the park and how unique it is. All this to say that if you have the chance to visit last minute, don't stress! Maybe what we experienced was an anomaly, but it was an incredibly pleasant, relaxed day for us and we made a lot of great memories.
Halloween day in the park was incredibly fun. The Japanese don't mess around with their costumes! It was mostly all adults given it was a school day and half of the fun was people watching. It was a gorgeous day and we had perfect weather, luckily!
Biggest takeaway: I had been really prepared for high crowds based on everything I've ever read about TDL parks, but....that isn't what we experienced at ALL.
We arrived around 7:30am for an 8am park opening, and there were probably a few hundred people waiting to get in. I've seen way worse at WDW rope drops. I had really messed up in my research and thought the FP kiosks were ones like in the US parks where they're for any rides - but no, they're specific to each ride at it's location. Oops. So our park opening trek to the FP kiosk near Soarin' meant we'd gone there for no reason since we hadn't planned to ride that ride. We instead headed to the back of the park and got a FP for Indiana Jones, but the line was 10 minutes standby so we just popped into standby and then once off the ride used the FP to ride again as the line had increased slightly by then. (Side note: we all LOVED this ride - I'd forgotten how much fun it is to have NO idea what's coming on a brand new ride to us!)
From there we bounced around to the various lands and walked onto most rides - literally 5-10 minute waits at most. I went to Tower of Terror to grab a FP before we stood in line for lunch at Ristorante de Caneletto (line took 20 minutes), and the FP time was only 1.5 hours later! It was so easy to walk around, save for some crowds around the showtimes in the main harbor viewing area.
The day really made me realize how nice it was to be able to wing a day in the park. Not having to book FP or ADRs in advance (because I literally couldn't) and it not ruining our chances to do any of the rides or restaurants was so, so nice....it kind of makes me think the other parks have gone too far with those advance planning tools.
Everything people have said about the cast members is 100% spot on and also shone a spotlight on how our US parks differ. They were so, so genuinely friendly, energetic, and passionate about their jobs. It was pretty amazing to see. The last few WDW park visits I've been keenly aware of how this is just a normal job for some of them and it shows. And the park was spotless (as was most of Tokyo.)
All in all, a great visit - we were highly impressed with the park and how unique it is. All this to say that if you have the chance to visit last minute, don't stress! Maybe what we experienced was an anomaly, but it was an incredibly pleasant, relaxed day for us and we made a lot of great memories.
