Hi all,
I enjoy reading other Trip Reports, so I thought I would have a go at doing one of my own.
I'll try to add some photos once they've all been sorted.
Summary:
Dates Visited – 8 to 10 September 2015
Parks Visited – Disneyland (9am to 10pm, Tuesday), DisneySea (8:30am to 10pm, Wednesday), Disneyland (9am to 1:30pm, Thursday) and DisneySea (2:00pm to 10pm, Thursday)
Restaurants Visited – Disneyland: Great American Waffle Company, Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, Blue Bayou and Grandma Sara’s Kitchen
Restaurants Visited – DisneySea: Magellan’s, Sailing Day Buffet, Ristorante Di Canaletto and Teddy Roosevelt’s Lounge
Rides – Disneyland: Monsters Inc, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, Haunted Mansion (x 2), Splash Mountain (x 3), Big Thunder Mountain (x 2), Space Mountain (x 3), Star Tours (x 4), Buzz Lightyear (x 2), Pirates of Caribbean (x 2), It’s a Small World, Dumbo’s Flying Elephants, Alice’s Tea Party
Rides – DisneySea: Toy Story Mania (x 2), Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones (x 2), Jasmine’s Flying Carpets, Voyage of Sindbad (x 2), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Electric Railway, Transit Steamer (x 2)
Closed Rides – Disneyland: Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan and intermittently other rides due to the weather (e.g. Big Thunder Mountain)
Closed Rides – DisneySea: Journey to the Centre of the Earth and intermittently other rides due to the weather
Shows – Disneyland: Once Upon a Time (obstructed view), Stitch Encounter, Happy Halloween Harvest Parade (partial), Electrical Dreamlights Parade
Shows – DisneySea: The Villains World (partial), King Triton’s Concert
Character Meetings – Disneyland: None. We saw Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket and Gepetto
Character Meetings – DisneySea: Captain Jack Sparrow. We saw Duffy, Shellie Mae and the Artistocats
Success with Lotteries for Once Upon a Time: No
General Thoughts:
I previously visited Tokyo Disney in 2009 (during the Global Financial Crisis) and 2011 (after the earthquake and tsunami). In hindsight, it appears that when I previously visited attendance at the parks has been drastically impacted by the surrounding circumstances. During previous visits, I spent one day at each park and managed to go on almost every ride (some multiple times), attend almost every show and parade, exploit the fast pass system all day and generally move freely and easily around the park.
This visit was very, very different. Although I still had a wonderful time, the crowds were insane. Absolutely insane. Even though the weather was terrible on all three days, with rain being our constant companion, especially the full day spent at DisneySea, this did not deter the crowds at all. Nor did visiting on weekdays. I don’t know whether the trip was simply timed wrong, especially given the overlap with the commencement of various Halloween events, or whether this is simply “normal” for Tokyo Disney.
I had to drastically lower my expectations in terms of the number of rides which we would be able to enjoy and the number of shows and parades which we would be able to view. To be fair, during previous visits, we visited on weekdays, the weather was generally poor and we chose all counter/quick service restaurants (as opposed to table service restaurants). But, if this had been my first visit to Tokyo Disney, I would have left very disappointed. The fact that there appeared to be only a single board displaying the various ride closures, wait times and fast pass status (i.e. all gone or still available) in each park made it very difficult to effectively plan our time to accommodate the crowds. Even with what I considered to be a decent amount of pre-planning, we spent a lot of time walking back and forth around the parks visiting different rides only to find that the wait times were very long (i.e. an hour or more), the rides were closed due to the weather and/or the fast passes were all gone.
For anyone planning a visit, I would recommend that you short-list maybe five rides and two shows/parades as “must haves” and treat anything in addition to that as a bonus.
Being a massive Disney fan, I think it would be impossible not to have a great time at Tokyo Disney. Even with the rain and crowds, it was still a pleasure to experience “Disney” and to appreciate the great theming and attention to detail in both parks, especially DisneySea.
Day 1 – Disneyland:
Wow! What a long line. We arrived just after 8am. We had tried three times to purchase our tickets online before we left, but failed each time. There seemed to be a lot of people reporting similar failures when using “foreign” credit cards. We purchased our tickets at the gate with ease and then joined the very, very, very long line for entry. In the rain. We did have some fun admiring the various Halloween costumes worn by visitors, but we were mostly shocked by the number of people lining up and what it would mean for our day in the park.
Upon entry, I went to make dinner reservations at Blue Bayou while my partner headed to Monsters Inc for Fast Passes. I made it to Pooh’s Hunny Hunt first as my partner was in line for Fast Passes at Monsters Inc for around 10 minutes. We then joined the standby line for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt which was around 20 minutes.
After that, we headed to Haunted Mansion and joined the standby line for around 30 minutes. Then it was time to grab our next fast passes. We assumed that Big Thunder Mountain wasn’t running due to the weather, so we opted for Space Mountain. There was a massive crowd around Space Mountain, but we made our way to the Fast Passes area. Which we then discovered was actually the Fast Pass area for Stitch Encounter! What a waste of a Fast Pass given that neither of us speak Japanese. The Fast Pass area for Space Mountain has been obscured by a sea of people lining up for Space Mountain standby and/or Fast Passes and we didn’t realise our mistake until it was too late.
We used our Fast Passes for Monsters Inc and then ride Star Tours which only had a 5 minute wait time. Then we decided to have an “early” lunch, only to discover that the Queen of Hearts already had a long line! We joined the line for around 40 minutes.
After lunch, we went looking for the board with information about wait times. I think we missed it and we ended up riding Pirates instead which only have a 5 minute wait time. We then grabbed Fast Passes for Space Mountain and went to Stitch Encounter. After that we checked Buzz Lightyear, which we’d been keeping an eye on all day, but the standby line was still over an hour. So, we rode Star Tours again which seemed to have a 5/10 minute wait time all day.
We then grabbed a waffle, which again involved a long line. We then grabbed Fast Passes for Buzz Lightyear, only to discover that we had made another mistake and that the Fast Pass time conflicted with our reservation at Blue Bayou! We joined the standby line, which was posted as 30 minutes, but realised that the line was moving much, much slower than that (possibly due to an influx of Fast Pass holders after the parade ended) and that if we stayed in line we would potentially miss the time slot for Space Mountain and/or be late for dinner (and they had warned us that we needed to be there on time or they would cancel the reservation).
We used our Space Mountain Fast Passes and headed to dinner. We had dinner at Blue Bayou and it was such a pleasure to be out of the rain that we really took our time. We then rode Pirates again. After that, we checked Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear, but they both still had long wait times. We then headed to Splash Mountain, but it also had very long wait times. And Big Thunder Mountain was still closed.
I’m a little fuzzy on the rest of the evening, but it consisted of watching the Electrical Dreamlights Parade, riding Dumbo and the Tea Cups, both of which were walk ons by that late stage in the evening, watching Once Upon a Time with a partially obstructed side view, riding Splash Mountain, with a 20 minute wait time and squeezing in a second ride on Haunted Mansion at 9:55pm.
By the time we rode Haunted Mansion and got to the front of the park, a lot of the shops were already closed. We looked in one of the shops, but were basically shuffled along section by section as they were each closed. On previous visits, I thought that all of the shops had remained fully open for around an hour after the park closed.
Day 2 – DisneySea:
Wow! Another long line. We arrived just after 7:30am. We had tried to arrive even earlier, but after not getting back to the hotel until after midnight, we needed at least 5 hours of sleep.
After entering, I headed off to make lunch and dinner reservations and my partner headed to Toy Story for Fast Passes. The Magellan’s reservation was quick and easy – I was the second person in line. I then went to the Sailing Day Buffet to find a very long line for reservations. I was in line for around 40 minutes and my partner was also in line for Fast Passes for Toy Story for around 40 minutes. After almost an hour in the park, neither of us had done anything other than wait in line (in addition to the hour spent in line to enter the park)!
By that stage, the standby line for Tower of Terror was over 2 hours, so we headed to Indiana Jones and joined the standby line for around 45 minutes. After that, we checked our Raging Spirits, but skipped it due to the 90 minute wait time and rode Jasmine’s Flying Carpets and Sindbad’s Voyage. We then checked the Fast Pass times for Tower of Terror, only to discover that they conflicted with our lunch reservation, so we grabbed Fast Passes for Indiana Jones.
Before lunch, we again checked Tower of Terror only to discover that the Fast Pass times now conflicted with our dinner reservations!
We then had lunch at Magellan’s where we took our time to appreciate the food and atmosphere and the chance to dry out from all of the rain. We then checked Tower of Terror for Fast Passes only to find that they were all gone and that the standby line remained over 2 hours.
It was then finally time to use our Fast Passes for Toy Story!
I’m a little fuzzy after that. I think we spent a lot of time wandering from area to area trying to find any ride or other attraction with a wait time under an hour. There was a ride on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which only had a 5 minute wait time. And some time spent debating whether King Triton’s Concert was worth an hour long wait in the standby line. Once again, we had encountered an issue where the available Fast Pass time for the concert conflicted with our dinner reservation. There was also a second ride on Sinbad’s Voyage.
We had dinner at the Sailing Day Buffet which, due to the Halloween celebrations, would feature the following:
In a themed greeting, recruiters working for the villains will approach Guests to show how wonderful the villains are and attempt to lure Guests to the world of the villains. These recruiters have been turned into attractive human beings by the magical power of the villains. In a themed entertainment program, other loyal servants of the Disney Villains will check what the Guests are wearing and give them advice so that the Guests can dress themselves in a proper Disney Villain way.
We chose this because it sound like a more “adult” way of enjoying a character themed dining experience. None of the above happened. AT ALL. There were no themed recruiters. No themed entertainment. Nothing special whatsoever, apart from some themed food. And it wasn’t just that we were avoided by cast members because we were foreigners. There were no recruiters and no entertainment for anyone in the restaurant. At some point in the evening, I asked a cast member when the special events were planned and I was told that we were “too late”. After lining up for 40 minutes in the morning, the earliest reservation time available had been 7:30pm which I booked. I was very disappointed about this and feel that it should have been explained when I was waiting in line that morning or at least when I made the reservation.
Being a buffet, we took our time. Then we used our Fast Passes for Indiana Jones. After that, I think we just tried to find something worth doing that wouldn’t involve a long time spent in line. With no luck. So, we joined the 50 minute line for Toy Story. After that, we headed to the shops a little before 10pm to make sure that we could view them all and purchased some souvenirs.
Day 3 – Disneyland/DisneySea:
Wow! A slightly shorter line. So short that we actually found a line which we could join and be under cover from the ever present rain for the hour before the park opened.
We had put together very short “must haves” for our final day. We headed straight to Buzz Lightyear for Fast Passes and then immediately joined the standby line. Then we headed to Big Thunder Mountain and rode it twice in a row. And then we headed to Splash Mountain.
After that, we went back to Buzz Lightyear to use our Fast Pass. Grabbed Fast Passes for Space Mountain. Then we had lunch at Grandma Sara’s Kitchen, rode Space Mountain using our Fast Passes and had a final ride of Star Tours.
We then headed to DisneySea. Fast Passes for Tower of Terror were all gone. From memory, all rides which interested us also didn’t have Fast Passes available. The restaurants were no longer taking reservations for dinner. So, we decided to watch the Halloween show in the harbour. To be fair, they did announce that it was an “amended” show due to the weather, but it was terrible. We left early to try and beat the crowd to the standby line for Tower of Terror. When we joined the line, the wait time was supposedly 80 minutes. We spent over 2 hours in line! But, it was a “must do” for DisneySea. After that, we went to dinner at Ristorante Di Canaletto.
After dinner, we checked the wait times for Toy Story, Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones and Raging Spirits which were all well over an hour. We used various combinations of the Transit Steamer and Electric Railway to make our way around the park. We tried to ride Aquatopia, but it was closed. We ended up lining up for King Triton’s Concert for around an hour. We missed the evening fireworks. This was particularly unfortunate as it was the only night that the fireworks were set-off due to the weather. We then basically gave up on any more rides and headed for a drink in Teddy Roosevelt’s lounge which required, as per normal during this visit, a long wait in line!
Then we admired the view from the deck of the SS Columbia and made our way to the exit when the park closed.
Positives:
The Cast Members as per usual were all wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
The dining experiences at Magellan’s Ristorante Di Canaletto and Blue Bayou were all wonderful, particularly Magellan’s which far exceeded my expectations.
The general appearance, particularly the cleanliness and tidiness, of the parks.
Negatives:
Rain and crowds. Neither of which Disney can control of course!
Ride maintenance. On previous visits, every ride operated perfectly. I’m not sure whether it was due to the weather or the attendance level, but we had a few issues. During our second time on Indiana Jones the ride stopped and started multiple times. Given that this ride is meant to be an exciting escape, the fact that we were in a “stalled” car multiple times during the ride definitely took away from the experience. We had the same issue with one of our rides on Splash Mountain.
We’ve encountered similar issues on all of our visits to other parks, but this was the first time we’d experienced it at Tokyo Disney. To be fair, all other aspects of the rides seemed to be perfect, particularly the maintenance of the animatronics, animations, backgrounds, etc.
Merchandise. It was probably due to all of the themed Halloween merchandise, but the selection in each store seemed to be very poor and inconsistent. I always buy a t-shirt at every Disney park that I visit, but I couldn’t find anything that I liked in my size (Medium). And the stores were typically so crowded and chaotic that I couldn’t find a cast member to double-check availability. The t-shirts in particular were all very … garish. Which I don’t mind, but my other tees from Tokyo Disney have pretty simple/plain Mickey designs and it was a shame that the designs (and quality) of the Disney tees at Uniqlo appeared to be better than those in the actual parks.
Sailing Day Buffet. This was "sold" as being something much greater than what we experienced. I was happy with the buffet itself, but very disappointed by the lack of expected interactions and entertainment.
Recommendations:
Plan, plan and PLAN! And short-list! Even with proper planning, I don’t think it would be possible to see and do everything during a single day in each park.
If possible, try and download one of the wait time apps. I really wish that I’d researched the available apps, figured out a cheap way to use the internet overseas and downloaded one of the apps before we left. We seemed to waste so much time wandering back and forth across both parks trying to find the shortest wait times, the availability of Fast Passes, the Fast Pass times and whether or not some of the rides were even operating. I don’t think there is an official app, but anything has to be better than wandering around a crowded park in the rain without having to visit the single information board available in each park.
The single Park Information Board in each park is woefully insufficient. I didn’t think either board was in the best position, being near the entrance of each park. And on our third day, the board at Disneyland wasn’t even open the multiple times during the morning that we checked it to see if Big Thunder Mountain was operating.
If it is a first visit or if you favour the rides over other aspects of Disney, then I would skip all of the table service restaurants. They are wonderful, but the two hours (or more) spent on a meal would be better utilised on the rides.
I enjoy reading other Trip Reports, so I thought I would have a go at doing one of my own.
I'll try to add some photos once they've all been sorted.
Summary:
Dates Visited – 8 to 10 September 2015
Parks Visited – Disneyland (9am to 10pm, Tuesday), DisneySea (8:30am to 10pm, Wednesday), Disneyland (9am to 1:30pm, Thursday) and DisneySea (2:00pm to 10pm, Thursday)
Restaurants Visited – Disneyland: Great American Waffle Company, Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, Blue Bayou and Grandma Sara’s Kitchen
Restaurants Visited – DisneySea: Magellan’s, Sailing Day Buffet, Ristorante Di Canaletto and Teddy Roosevelt’s Lounge
Rides – Disneyland: Monsters Inc, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, Haunted Mansion (x 2), Splash Mountain (x 3), Big Thunder Mountain (x 2), Space Mountain (x 3), Star Tours (x 4), Buzz Lightyear (x 2), Pirates of Caribbean (x 2), It’s a Small World, Dumbo’s Flying Elephants, Alice’s Tea Party
Rides – DisneySea: Toy Story Mania (x 2), Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones (x 2), Jasmine’s Flying Carpets, Voyage of Sindbad (x 2), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Electric Railway, Transit Steamer (x 2)
Closed Rides – Disneyland: Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan and intermittently other rides due to the weather (e.g. Big Thunder Mountain)
Closed Rides – DisneySea: Journey to the Centre of the Earth and intermittently other rides due to the weather
Shows – Disneyland: Once Upon a Time (obstructed view), Stitch Encounter, Happy Halloween Harvest Parade (partial), Electrical Dreamlights Parade
Shows – DisneySea: The Villains World (partial), King Triton’s Concert
Character Meetings – Disneyland: None. We saw Pinocchio, Jiminy Cricket and Gepetto
Character Meetings – DisneySea: Captain Jack Sparrow. We saw Duffy, Shellie Mae and the Artistocats
Success with Lotteries for Once Upon a Time: No
General Thoughts:
I previously visited Tokyo Disney in 2009 (during the Global Financial Crisis) and 2011 (after the earthquake and tsunami). In hindsight, it appears that when I previously visited attendance at the parks has been drastically impacted by the surrounding circumstances. During previous visits, I spent one day at each park and managed to go on almost every ride (some multiple times), attend almost every show and parade, exploit the fast pass system all day and generally move freely and easily around the park.
This visit was very, very different. Although I still had a wonderful time, the crowds were insane. Absolutely insane. Even though the weather was terrible on all three days, with rain being our constant companion, especially the full day spent at DisneySea, this did not deter the crowds at all. Nor did visiting on weekdays. I don’t know whether the trip was simply timed wrong, especially given the overlap with the commencement of various Halloween events, or whether this is simply “normal” for Tokyo Disney.
I had to drastically lower my expectations in terms of the number of rides which we would be able to enjoy and the number of shows and parades which we would be able to view. To be fair, during previous visits, we visited on weekdays, the weather was generally poor and we chose all counter/quick service restaurants (as opposed to table service restaurants). But, if this had been my first visit to Tokyo Disney, I would have left very disappointed. The fact that there appeared to be only a single board displaying the various ride closures, wait times and fast pass status (i.e. all gone or still available) in each park made it very difficult to effectively plan our time to accommodate the crowds. Even with what I considered to be a decent amount of pre-planning, we spent a lot of time walking back and forth around the parks visiting different rides only to find that the wait times were very long (i.e. an hour or more), the rides were closed due to the weather and/or the fast passes were all gone.
For anyone planning a visit, I would recommend that you short-list maybe five rides and two shows/parades as “must haves” and treat anything in addition to that as a bonus.
Being a massive Disney fan, I think it would be impossible not to have a great time at Tokyo Disney. Even with the rain and crowds, it was still a pleasure to experience “Disney” and to appreciate the great theming and attention to detail in both parks, especially DisneySea.
Day 1 – Disneyland:
Wow! What a long line. We arrived just after 8am. We had tried three times to purchase our tickets online before we left, but failed each time. There seemed to be a lot of people reporting similar failures when using “foreign” credit cards. We purchased our tickets at the gate with ease and then joined the very, very, very long line for entry. In the rain. We did have some fun admiring the various Halloween costumes worn by visitors, but we were mostly shocked by the number of people lining up and what it would mean for our day in the park.
Upon entry, I went to make dinner reservations at Blue Bayou while my partner headed to Monsters Inc for Fast Passes. I made it to Pooh’s Hunny Hunt first as my partner was in line for Fast Passes at Monsters Inc for around 10 minutes. We then joined the standby line for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt which was around 20 minutes.
After that, we headed to Haunted Mansion and joined the standby line for around 30 minutes. Then it was time to grab our next fast passes. We assumed that Big Thunder Mountain wasn’t running due to the weather, so we opted for Space Mountain. There was a massive crowd around Space Mountain, but we made our way to the Fast Passes area. Which we then discovered was actually the Fast Pass area for Stitch Encounter! What a waste of a Fast Pass given that neither of us speak Japanese. The Fast Pass area for Space Mountain has been obscured by a sea of people lining up for Space Mountain standby and/or Fast Passes and we didn’t realise our mistake until it was too late.
We used our Fast Passes for Monsters Inc and then ride Star Tours which only had a 5 minute wait time. Then we decided to have an “early” lunch, only to discover that the Queen of Hearts already had a long line! We joined the line for around 40 minutes.
After lunch, we went looking for the board with information about wait times. I think we missed it and we ended up riding Pirates instead which only have a 5 minute wait time. We then grabbed Fast Passes for Space Mountain and went to Stitch Encounter. After that we checked Buzz Lightyear, which we’d been keeping an eye on all day, but the standby line was still over an hour. So, we rode Star Tours again which seemed to have a 5/10 minute wait time all day.
We then grabbed a waffle, which again involved a long line. We then grabbed Fast Passes for Buzz Lightyear, only to discover that we had made another mistake and that the Fast Pass time conflicted with our reservation at Blue Bayou! We joined the standby line, which was posted as 30 minutes, but realised that the line was moving much, much slower than that (possibly due to an influx of Fast Pass holders after the parade ended) and that if we stayed in line we would potentially miss the time slot for Space Mountain and/or be late for dinner (and they had warned us that we needed to be there on time or they would cancel the reservation).
We used our Space Mountain Fast Passes and headed to dinner. We had dinner at Blue Bayou and it was such a pleasure to be out of the rain that we really took our time. We then rode Pirates again. After that, we checked Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear, but they both still had long wait times. We then headed to Splash Mountain, but it also had very long wait times. And Big Thunder Mountain was still closed.
I’m a little fuzzy on the rest of the evening, but it consisted of watching the Electrical Dreamlights Parade, riding Dumbo and the Tea Cups, both of which were walk ons by that late stage in the evening, watching Once Upon a Time with a partially obstructed side view, riding Splash Mountain, with a 20 minute wait time and squeezing in a second ride on Haunted Mansion at 9:55pm.
By the time we rode Haunted Mansion and got to the front of the park, a lot of the shops were already closed. We looked in one of the shops, but were basically shuffled along section by section as they were each closed. On previous visits, I thought that all of the shops had remained fully open for around an hour after the park closed.
Day 2 – DisneySea:
Wow! Another long line. We arrived just after 7:30am. We had tried to arrive even earlier, but after not getting back to the hotel until after midnight, we needed at least 5 hours of sleep.
After entering, I headed off to make lunch and dinner reservations and my partner headed to Toy Story for Fast Passes. The Magellan’s reservation was quick and easy – I was the second person in line. I then went to the Sailing Day Buffet to find a very long line for reservations. I was in line for around 40 minutes and my partner was also in line for Fast Passes for Toy Story for around 40 minutes. After almost an hour in the park, neither of us had done anything other than wait in line (in addition to the hour spent in line to enter the park)!
By that stage, the standby line for Tower of Terror was over 2 hours, so we headed to Indiana Jones and joined the standby line for around 45 minutes. After that, we checked our Raging Spirits, but skipped it due to the 90 minute wait time and rode Jasmine’s Flying Carpets and Sindbad’s Voyage. We then checked the Fast Pass times for Tower of Terror, only to discover that they conflicted with our lunch reservation, so we grabbed Fast Passes for Indiana Jones.
Before lunch, we again checked Tower of Terror only to discover that the Fast Pass times now conflicted with our dinner reservations!
We then had lunch at Magellan’s where we took our time to appreciate the food and atmosphere and the chance to dry out from all of the rain. We then checked Tower of Terror for Fast Passes only to find that they were all gone and that the standby line remained over 2 hours.
It was then finally time to use our Fast Passes for Toy Story!
I’m a little fuzzy after that. I think we spent a lot of time wandering from area to area trying to find any ride or other attraction with a wait time under an hour. There was a ride on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which only had a 5 minute wait time. And some time spent debating whether King Triton’s Concert was worth an hour long wait in the standby line. Once again, we had encountered an issue where the available Fast Pass time for the concert conflicted with our dinner reservation. There was also a second ride on Sinbad’s Voyage.
We had dinner at the Sailing Day Buffet which, due to the Halloween celebrations, would feature the following:
In a themed greeting, recruiters working for the villains will approach Guests to show how wonderful the villains are and attempt to lure Guests to the world of the villains. These recruiters have been turned into attractive human beings by the magical power of the villains. In a themed entertainment program, other loyal servants of the Disney Villains will check what the Guests are wearing and give them advice so that the Guests can dress themselves in a proper Disney Villain way.
We chose this because it sound like a more “adult” way of enjoying a character themed dining experience. None of the above happened. AT ALL. There were no themed recruiters. No themed entertainment. Nothing special whatsoever, apart from some themed food. And it wasn’t just that we were avoided by cast members because we were foreigners. There were no recruiters and no entertainment for anyone in the restaurant. At some point in the evening, I asked a cast member when the special events were planned and I was told that we were “too late”. After lining up for 40 minutes in the morning, the earliest reservation time available had been 7:30pm which I booked. I was very disappointed about this and feel that it should have been explained when I was waiting in line that morning or at least when I made the reservation.
Being a buffet, we took our time. Then we used our Fast Passes for Indiana Jones. After that, I think we just tried to find something worth doing that wouldn’t involve a long time spent in line. With no luck. So, we joined the 50 minute line for Toy Story. After that, we headed to the shops a little before 10pm to make sure that we could view them all and purchased some souvenirs.
Day 3 – Disneyland/DisneySea:
Wow! A slightly shorter line. So short that we actually found a line which we could join and be under cover from the ever present rain for the hour before the park opened.
We had put together very short “must haves” for our final day. We headed straight to Buzz Lightyear for Fast Passes and then immediately joined the standby line. Then we headed to Big Thunder Mountain and rode it twice in a row. And then we headed to Splash Mountain.
After that, we went back to Buzz Lightyear to use our Fast Pass. Grabbed Fast Passes for Space Mountain. Then we had lunch at Grandma Sara’s Kitchen, rode Space Mountain using our Fast Passes and had a final ride of Star Tours.
We then headed to DisneySea. Fast Passes for Tower of Terror were all gone. From memory, all rides which interested us also didn’t have Fast Passes available. The restaurants were no longer taking reservations for dinner. So, we decided to watch the Halloween show in the harbour. To be fair, they did announce that it was an “amended” show due to the weather, but it was terrible. We left early to try and beat the crowd to the standby line for Tower of Terror. When we joined the line, the wait time was supposedly 80 minutes. We spent over 2 hours in line! But, it was a “must do” for DisneySea. After that, we went to dinner at Ristorante Di Canaletto.
After dinner, we checked the wait times for Toy Story, Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones and Raging Spirits which were all well over an hour. We used various combinations of the Transit Steamer and Electric Railway to make our way around the park. We tried to ride Aquatopia, but it was closed. We ended up lining up for King Triton’s Concert for around an hour. We missed the evening fireworks. This was particularly unfortunate as it was the only night that the fireworks were set-off due to the weather. We then basically gave up on any more rides and headed for a drink in Teddy Roosevelt’s lounge which required, as per normal during this visit, a long wait in line!
Then we admired the view from the deck of the SS Columbia and made our way to the exit when the park closed.
Positives:
The Cast Members as per usual were all wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
The dining experiences at Magellan’s Ristorante Di Canaletto and Blue Bayou were all wonderful, particularly Magellan’s which far exceeded my expectations.
The general appearance, particularly the cleanliness and tidiness, of the parks.
Negatives:
Rain and crowds. Neither of which Disney can control of course!
Ride maintenance. On previous visits, every ride operated perfectly. I’m not sure whether it was due to the weather or the attendance level, but we had a few issues. During our second time on Indiana Jones the ride stopped and started multiple times. Given that this ride is meant to be an exciting escape, the fact that we were in a “stalled” car multiple times during the ride definitely took away from the experience. We had the same issue with one of our rides on Splash Mountain.
We’ve encountered similar issues on all of our visits to other parks, but this was the first time we’d experienced it at Tokyo Disney. To be fair, all other aspects of the rides seemed to be perfect, particularly the maintenance of the animatronics, animations, backgrounds, etc.
Merchandise. It was probably due to all of the themed Halloween merchandise, but the selection in each store seemed to be very poor and inconsistent. I always buy a t-shirt at every Disney park that I visit, but I couldn’t find anything that I liked in my size (Medium). And the stores were typically so crowded and chaotic that I couldn’t find a cast member to double-check availability. The t-shirts in particular were all very … garish. Which I don’t mind, but my other tees from Tokyo Disney have pretty simple/plain Mickey designs and it was a shame that the designs (and quality) of the Disney tees at Uniqlo appeared to be better than those in the actual parks.
Sailing Day Buffet. This was "sold" as being something much greater than what we experienced. I was happy with the buffet itself, but very disappointed by the lack of expected interactions and entertainment.
Recommendations:
Plan, plan and PLAN! And short-list! Even with proper planning, I don’t think it would be possible to see and do everything during a single day in each park.
If possible, try and download one of the wait time apps. I really wish that I’d researched the available apps, figured out a cheap way to use the internet overseas and downloaded one of the apps before we left. We seemed to waste so much time wandering back and forth across both parks trying to find the shortest wait times, the availability of Fast Passes, the Fast Pass times and whether or not some of the rides were even operating. I don’t think there is an official app, but anything has to be better than wandering around a crowded park in the rain without having to visit the single information board available in each park.
The single Park Information Board in each park is woefully insufficient. I didn’t think either board was in the best position, being near the entrance of each park. And on our third day, the board at Disneyland wasn’t even open the multiple times during the morning that we checked it to see if Big Thunder Mountain was operating.
If it is a first visit or if you favour the rides over other aspects of Disney, then I would skip all of the table service restaurants. They are wonderful, but the two hours (or more) spent on a meal would be better utilised on the rides.
