I disagree with you, because I said "I think."
I was on Tokyo for business primarily, and so I wasn't staying at one of the on-site hotels. But the hotel I was at did happen to be a good nieghbor hotel, with a free shuttle bus, which left at 6:30. So I was at the gate with a ticket about 7:10, with the park opening at 8.
When it opened, I walked (unlike my Japanese compatriots) to Journey to the Center of the Earth; it was about 10 minutes stand-by wait when I got there. After that, I got a fast-pass with a 10 O'clock return to 20K leagues. During that time, I rode Sinbad, which still had a short line, and Storm Rider, which was still only about a 45 minute stand-by line, because most people were in the Chaldea. Then I rode 20K leagues, and got a fast-pass for Indiana Jones with a 1:00 return. During those three hours, I walked through the shops in Mediterreanean Harbor, the Fortress Exploration, ate lunch at Vulcania around 11:30. Around 12, my fast-pass two-hour window was up, and I got one for Magic Lamp. Then I walked through Mermaid Lagoon (now I didn't ride the kiddie rides here. Just as I wouldn't wait for Dumbo on a busy
Disneyland day, I didn't wait for the kelp cups or balloon race or jelly fish. If you have kids, YMMV here of course), and returned to Indiana about 1:00, but it was broken down. The park was starting to get really crowded now. I was really glad that I ate at 11:30. By now fast passes were gone for the day for 20K leagues and Journey, and the standby lines were worse than the sausage bun line. With Indiana down, I walked back through discoveryland, and into Cape Cod and America Land, and looked around there for a while. About 2, I thought about going to the Teddy Roosevelt Lounge and having a beer, basically because this is what I would have done if I was in wdw and it was this busy. But the Teddy Roosevelt lounge isn't a lounge in the sense that we are used to (see the Contemporary deck thread) it was a restaurant, with a line out of it and stretching out of the ship. But I got to look around the ship this way.
At this point, if I had been at disneyland CA or WDW, I would have left. There is no question in my mind about that. I almost left anyway, and I spent about an hour sitting and watching the aquasphere talking myself out of it. To me, that is as much of a 1/2 day park as anything in WDW, because it was 1/2 day (2:00)and I was ready to go. I talked myself out of it, because I don't get to Japan every day.
I walked around and looked in more stores and stuff. I watched the afternoon water pagent thing which was amazingly goofy. After that, I thought about the Encore show, but after the water thing I wasn't too sure about it. I was standing there looking at the line, and I thought "I can wait here an hour until the next show and watch Japanese intrepretations of scenes from Broadway musicals, or I can go outside the park, call a cab, and go to a Japanese dentist." I'm sure the show is very good, but I was pretty sure it wasn't my thing, so I didn't wait to see that.
I wondered around until about 6, watching people. So from 2-6 I really didn't do anything. I guess I "walked around and explored" the same things over and over. I had dinner, went back to Indiana Jones, I had picked up a fast pass for little mermaid show which I watched at about 7. Then I went back to Arabian Coast and Magic Lamp Theatre and waited standby until about 9, then I rode Aquatopia (I'm so glad I waited until almost closing when the line died down on this instead of waiting for a few hours, it is pretty lame).
The only thing I didn't do were the kiddie rides, and the "transportation" rides. I don't ride main street vehicles in wdw or disneyland. The transit steamers had long lines at each station, were packed, and only go from station to station until you get off. This seemed more punishment than fun to me, and I declined. Same with the trolly, which goes from America to port discovery. Though I did sit underneath it for a while in a quieter place, and I did watch the transit steamer boats for quite a bit. This is my opinion, but these aren't much of rides - the reason they took those boats out of DAK was because they were packed, long waits, and just went from one station to another - just like the ones at TDS. In America, people would complain. For me, I had been on enough crowded Japanese public transportation already.
With the crowd levels, it could easily take a whole day to do everything.
I would compare like this:
Indiana Jones > Dinosaur
Safari > Journey
20k leagues = Kali
Shows = shows (without seeing encore, so fwiw)
stormrider >= trails: pangoni and asia and prehistoric trails (both simulated experiences. As far as time, it would take much longer to do the trails than stormrider. As far as simulated experiences, neither set is very convincing. Both are fun though).
primeval whirl = aquatopia
conservation station, camp minnie mickey, dig site= mermaid lagoon exploration and fortress exploration
mermaid lagoon kiddie rides > triceretop spin (big tds win here)
Tough to be a bug > alladin
tree of life > aquasphere
train ride = electric trolly
There was only the day time show the day I was there (a Saturday), which would = the mickey jungle parade
I don't know about evening show, there wasn't one.
cool places to walk around and explore (other wise known as big honking empty places with nothing to do
= cool places to walk around and explore
Gondola wasn't operating while I was there so I don't know.
TDS has Sinbad, and DAK doesn't have a dark ride, so TDS wins here.
But you are right, since DAK dropped the boats, TDS has that, and DAK doesn't have a carousel. It seems like a lot of people consider DAK a 1/2 day park, so I'm not sure that boats and a carousel would go from a 1/2 day park to a whole day; would adding a kiddie land like a bug's land, a dark ride (along the lines of a more modern version of its a small world) and a carousel, and re-opening the boats "fix" DAK to a whole day park? Would those additions satisfy folks? If so, I guess they can do it much more cost effectively than I thought, and I guess they can go ahead and scrap those e-ticket plans
Just as something like beastly kingdom or forbidden mt. would help DAK fill out, a roller coaster and TOT would help TDS fill out. That was my point. I only wish that they would announce two e-tickets for DAK
They really need an attraction in American Waterfront, and a second e-ticket in river delta could really help balance out that land with the other lands. There is a big loop of walkway to nowhere, on the other side of Indiana Jones, so I'm guessing they will add it to this area.
I'm glad that they announced these for TDS because this gives me a reason to come back in a few years. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't.
DR
