11/25 - Tokyo Disneyland!
It's crazy to think this was pretty much just a week ago. I'm back in California and it seems miles away already
We woke up at our hotel and walked to the subway station around 6:45. I wanted to get to the park by opening, so I was kinda pressuring my mom to get ready fast. Having a pocket wifi makes touring Japan so much easier than the first times I went. I easily used google maps for the trains and getting around. We arrived at Maihama station a little before 8 am and headed to the Tokyo Disney Resort Welcome Center, so we could check in to the Sheraton Grande. We were staying there three nights. The line to check in for Sheraton was pretty long - longer than any of the other lines. We finally got to check in and they took our luggage. We got out of there around 8:50 and headed to the park.
I already purchased our tickets online directly from TDR, so we had the printout tickets that we just folded in eighths. US sized paper is slightly different than the paper they ask you to use, but it worked just fine when they scanned us in and when I was getting fastpasses.
Since I was worried my mom might have trouble getting around and standing/walking for long lines or times, I had put in a request for a Guest Assistance Card about a month ahead of time. I believe you can do this 30 days in advance directly through the TDR website. The first thing we did was head to the Main Street House to pick up the GAC. They already had it there and waiting, after I showed them the email confirmation. I didn't have to explain what was needed - I assumed it was already printed on the card, but I don't know.
They didn't really give us instructions but I figured it wouldn't be that difficult.
Once we got that I headed to Monsters Inc to see if they had any fastpasses. They did! So we got them for around 7 pm. Then I headed back to main street where my mom waited so we could get a wheelchair rental. It was actually a good deal - 1000 yen for 2 day rental, and it allowed us to take the wheelchair back to the hotel overnight. They really are trusting as they didn't keep any sort of deposit or information on me. Since I was pushing my mom the entire Disney trip, I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked to actually.
The first thing we did was head to Pooh's Hunny Hunt to reserve a time with the GAC. It took a while to figure out what was going on or how to get the time. At first the CM saw the card, and sent us to the return line. But then we saw a short line of people, talking to cast members to get a return time. The cast members ask if they are familiar with the ride, if they can walk or climb stairs, if they are ok with dark, close spaces and so on, before they give you a return time. For us, since we are ignorant English-only gaijin, we sometimes had to wait for an English speaking CM or at Pooh, they used an iPhone with Google translate. I find it kind of odd to ask these things, just because someone is in a wheelchair doesn't mean that they would be claustrophobic or afraid of the dark any more so than the people in the "regular" standby line. Anywho, we got our return time, which was pretty much equal to the time listed on the standby wait time. One nice thing is that the CMs usually factored in how long you had been waiting to get ther reservation time. So I think we got in line around 10, but it took about 15 minutes to get our reservation time, and the wait was about 100 minutes I believe, but rather than 100 minutes from 10:15, they put the time from 10 am, so that our reservation time was 11:40.
In the meantime, we decided to walk around and get some food. We headed to China Voyager, a place I had always wanted to eat at but never was able to since I was traveling with an annoying proselytizing vegan. The line took about 10 minutes and was pretty long, but it moved quickly.
My mom ordered a Ma Po Tofu Noodle special set, and I got the Black Pepper Pork Noodle and Nikuman steamed buns.
OMG this was soooooooooooooooooooo good. I cannot believe I have been missing out on this every visit. And it's a great value - less than $40 for all this food. I wish theme park food like this was available at our Disneyland (which admittedly does have good stuff).
We finished our food, and continue walking around adventureland. Then I realized - ooh, I can find the popcorn bucket I've been wanting! So I pulled out my map and pulled up TDR Explorer to find where the popcorn bucket was being sold. It was right at the end of World Bazaar. We got to the line and the awesome CM told us it would be a 50 minute wait. So wait we did! As we waited, the parade was passing by.
After an hour of waiting, we finally got it!
I love it! The popcorn flavor was caramel - which mas meh. I had seen this bucket online and knew I had to get it.
It was 11:40 by the time we got the bucket, so we walked over to Pooh to use our reservation time.
We just had to go through the fastpass line, and I was able to push my mom until we got to the ride loading area. My mom got out and the CM took the wheelchair to the ride unloading area. The ride as always was amazing! I think my mom loved it as well. Before she went to TDR, she asked, "How can the Winnie the Pooh ride be the best ride?" But now she knows!
Upon exiting we spent some time in the gift shop, and got some adorable things - more on that later.