Turning Japanese: A Disney Nut Does Tokyo Disney!

[CriminyCrafft]

Yo DIS dudes! Me and my DH are leaving next Friday to go to Tokyo and Singapore, and our Tokyo trip will include two days in Tokyo Disney. Specifically, our trip will include one day at Tokyo Disneyland and one day at Tokyo DisneySea (a super cool-looking park that can be found nowhere else on earth!). I thought everyone would be interested to see what Disney Japanese-style is like, so I've decided to start my first trip report!

A little background first. My DH and I went to Japan for our honeymoon, and spent about five days of it in Tokyo. DH worked at a law firm in Tokyo for a month last summer. Clearly, he's obsessed with Japan, and I'm obsessed with Disney - so when he found a deal with Singapore Air for our spring break I said I would only go back to Tokyo if we could do Disney up right! Marriage is all about compromise, right? Especially if Disney is part of the deal! I've never been to Singapore so I'm excited about that, but sadly not as excited as I am about a whole new unexplored DISNEY!!! I do know that the Japanese LOVE Disney - Tokyo Disneyland is the most-visited theme park in the WORLD, with DisneySea a close second. It's comforting to know that I will soon be surrounded by like-minded people. : )

Here's an introduction to your friendly cast!

ME - Amanda, 31 in years but 12 in mind, third year law student, and general Disney nutbag. I've been wacko obsessed with Disney since early highschool. My last trip to WDW was October 2006 and whooboy was it a blast. But alas, I was too shy to do a TR. Now after many months of reading and lurking, I've decided to take the proverbial plunge! I've already booked a one week trip to WDW for October and I will definitely do a TR for that guy. I'll be there from October 21-28 with my DF, and we're staying at the Dolphin. CAN'T WAIT!

DH - Canon, 28, also a third year law student. I wouldn't say he exactly HATES Disney. He's only been TWICE (the horror!) and the second time was our October 2006 trip. He had a great time on that trip - it was the first time he'd ever ridden Space Mountain (blasphemy!). But he gets very sick of my constant Disney ramblings and daydreaming. He also bought me a very cool and expensive pair of sneakers to wear on this trip - no, not out of the goodness of his heart but BECAUSE HE WAS EMBARRASSED TO BE SEEN WITH ME IN DISNEY CROCS!!! Gawd. But who am I to turn down a free pair of cool shoes. I can run my Crocs into the ground during my October WDW trip.

DF - Asami, 29, Japanese law secretary. I haven't actually met her yet, but she's a friend of DH's from his summer in Tokyo and also loves Disney. Sounds like good people to me! She's taking two days off work to go with us to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea. That's dedication to Disney - Japanese peeps work extremely long hours, and Japanese law firms work absolutely soul-crushing hours with very little vacation. I'm sure she'll forget all her work stress as soon as we cross the threshold into Disney.

We will be spending March 12 and 13 at the parks. Here's a breakdown of my plan, complete with some tiny, fairly crummy Tokyo Disney photos!

DAY ONE - TOKYO DISNEYLAND

ATTRACTIONS! (at least the ones I'm interested in):

Big Thunder Mountain

Enchanted Tiki Room, Now Playing "Get the Fever!" (hopefully they're not referring to bird flu?)

Gadget's Go Coaster

Haunted Mansion

The Mickey Mouse Revue

MicroAdventure! (known to American heathens as Honey I Shrunk the Audience)

Peter Pan's Flight

Pinocchio's Daring Journey

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pooh's Hunny Hunt. This is a ride unique to Tokyo Disneyland, and it's supposed to be the most popular attraction in the park. Can't wait to see what this is all about.

Snow White's Adventures (are they not scary in Tokyo?)

Space Mountain (CLOSED for renovation!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT! Oh well, atleast it's not one of the rides unique to Tokyo Disney.)

Splash Mountain

Star Tours

FIREWORKS! Winter Magic in the Sky

SHOW! Cinderellabration: Lights of Romance

PARADE! Disney's Dreams on Parade “Moving On”

DINING!

Tokyo Disney only has ADRs for a few restaurants, and they can only be made the day of attendance. YEESH. So we'll see what happens. Here's my tentative plan:

Lunch at Grandma Sarah's. This place is a little burrow carved out of a tree near the Splash Mountain area, presumably for woodland animals.

Dinner at the Queen of Hearts Buffet. This place is themed to the extreme.

DAY TWO - TOKYO DISNEYSEA
ATTRACTIONS!

Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster

Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull

Journey to the Center of the Earth. Also unique to Tokyo Disney.

Jumpin' Jellyfish

Raging Spirits (rollercoaster unique to Tokyo Disney)

Stormrider (also unique)

TOWER OF TERROR - YESSSSS! Isn't this one BEEEEYOOOTIFUL:

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

SHOW! The Legend of Mythica

FIREWORKS/WATER SHOW! BraviSEAmo!

DINING!

Lunch at Vulcania - built inside a (fake) mountain!

Dinner (hopefully) at the S.S. Columbia Dining Room. It's inside a SHIP!

There will also be many snacks along the way and some serious shopping for the perfect hokey Tokyo Disney gear!

I'm super pumped about my trip and I hope you all will enjoy reading my TR. I promise lots o' photos!

 

[PrettyInTink]

subscribing!!!!!

 

[Eoywin]

I'm subscribing too!

Sounds like it will be a blast!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Oooh, I can't wait! I've hardly seen any Tokyo reports! Hope it's a great trip! Sayonara!

 

[mlill]

I can't wait to read your TR!!!! I hope you're having a great time!

-Michelle

 

[kona-kraft]

OMG, so subscribing.....you are doing the trip of my dreams !!! Can't wait to read all about it

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Hi readers. I've been back since Monday but the jet lag and a recurring cold have kept me from updating. Well, those things and how flippin' long it takes to download pictures, resize them, and upload to photobucket! I now have even more appreciation for people who do the long trip reports that I so enjoy.

First things first - can anyone tell me how to move this to the Completed Trip Reports section? I guess that's what I'm supposed to do?

Anyway, I'm back and ready to begin my TR. I hope you enjoy it and that it inspires you to go to Tokyo Disney Resort someday. I really liked Tokyo Disneyland, and I absolutely LOVED DisneySea. So here goes!

Pre-Disney - the Trip and Ticket-getting!


We flew from RDU to LAX on Delta, which was totally crap of course. But then we flew Singapore Air from LAX to Tokyo Narita airport. Singapore Air is AMAZING. Absolutely the best airline I've ever flown. It's one of only 4 airlines in the world to receive a 5-star rating from Skytrax (the others being Malaysia, Qatar, and Cathay Pacific). My other international trips have been via American Airlines, United, and US Air, i.e., pretty miserable flights. Singapore Air has an unparalleled level of service. The flight attendants were so nice, the seats were as comfy as possible (mostly due to extra-strength flaps that keep your head from lolling around and a nice footrest), and the food was better than any flight I've been on. And of course they have a personal video system in every seat with on-demand movies. So, if you get the chance, fly Singapore Air!

We arrived in Tokyo on a Saturday night, and the first order of business on Sunday was - GET DISNEY TICKETS! Tokyo Disney doesn't sell tickets online (why, I dunno) so we went to the Disney Store in Shibuya to get our 2-day passports the day before we went. Here's me outside the Tokyo Disney Store:

You can't tell from this picture but the store is located on a very very busy street. The inside of the store was pretty impressive. Well-themed with a few nice touches:

Note the sparkly lights leading up the staircase.

So we went to the third floor and got our two-day passports - first day would be Disneyland and second day would be DisneySea. Here's the ticket area:

I was so pumped...the next day it was off to Tokyo Disneyland!!!


Tokyo Disneyland


Tokyo Disneyland opened at 8:00 am on Monday March 12. I had the best intentions of being there well before park opening. Then, jet lag hit. To make it to the park by 7:30 am I'd have to get up at 5:00 am. My lazy self got up at 6 am and hurried to get ready. I knew it would take AT LEAST an hour to get from our hotel in Shinjuku to Disney, which is actually a bit outside Tokyo. We had to take the subway to Tokyo station and then another train to Maihama station, which ended up taking an hour and a half because an accident on the Keiyo subway line. ARGH! We ended up getting to Maihama at about 8:20, which I thought was a decent time. Tokyo Disneyland is a very short walk from Maihama station.

Usually I'm very pessimistic, but I figured Tokyo Disney wouldn't be very crowded, even though it's the most-visited theme park in the world, because 1) it was a MONDAY; and 2) because it was pretty chilly outside (in the low 50s). As soon as we got to Maihama station, I knew I was horribly mistaken. The station was SLAMMED FULL of teenagers all trying to get to Disney. Arrrrrgh. We quickly found DH's friend, Asami, who was meeting us there, and sprinted to the gates!

Here's the entrance to Tokyo Disney:

Here's a photo looking back on the crowds following us:

WHHHHY is it so crowded? I whined. Asami said she had been to Tokyo Disneyland about six times and had never seen it this crowded. Then she said it was a SCHOOL HOLIDAY - spring break, just like us!

We soon passed under the monorail that connects Disneyland, DisneySea, and the Disney Resort Hotels. We would be riding this the next day to get to DisneySea...

FINALLY we passed security and scanned our tickets (which were crappy PAPER tickets, not the nice credit cards they give you at WDW)...and we were in!!

I was happy to finally meet Asami - she was very nice and we got along swimmingly!

Tokyo Disneyland doesn't have Main Street USA - it has World Bazaar instead. A lot of the same shops but under an "awning," sort of. Here it is:

Marie from the Aristocats is a very popular character in Japan apparently - note the balloons. I saw loads of Marie merchandise while I was at Tokyo Disney.

And then finally...the castle!!!

I was desperate to get to Pooh's Hunny Hunt - would I find teeming crowds inside???? Would I be able to ride ANYTHING??!!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Tokyo Disneyland Continued


We quickly turned left and headed through Adventureland towards Fantasyland where Pooh's Hunny Hunt was located. I was very excited about this ride because I read that it was the most popular in the park and we don't have it in America. I knew I was in serious, serious trouble when we passed through "Westernland" and saw the HUGE lines for Big Thunder Mountain. I couldn't believe it. We couldn't tell where the line began or ended, it was so mobbed. The fastpass line stretched so far back we couldn't see the end of it! I'm upset I didn't get a picture, but we were in such a hurry to get in some lines and get some fastpasses. I resolved then and there to not let the crowds spoil my fun. I adjusted my 'tude and hauled DH and Asami over to Fantasyland. I saw that the wait for the Haunted Mansion (which, yes, is in Fantasyland in Tokyo) was already SIXTY MINUTES, so we went ahead and got fastpasses for that. Here's the Mansion:

We could use the fastpasses in about an hour, so we hopped in line for Peter Pan. The wait for that was about 30 minutes.

It was in the line for Peter Pan that I noticed something. A TON of people at the park had on Disney character ears. Throughout the day I saw all kinds of folks with ears on, including teenage boys with white cat ears (presumably Marie) and a sixty-something man with Mickey ear barettes on the top of his head. I realized I had a fantastic excuse to look silly, and DH couldn't do anything about it! Remember I said he was embarrassed by Disney crocs? Certainly ears had to be more embarrassing, but not in Japan where everyone has them!

Here's a photo of some Marie ears in line for Peter Pan:

Peter Pan was great of course - it seemed to move a lot faster than the one in WDW. I went to Disneyland in California in 2001, but I honestly can't remember much about the individual rides so I can't compare Tokyo Disney with them.

We then decided to get a snack until time for our Haunted Mansion fastpass. We got hot cocoa and "Mickey Smiles" - which are Mickey shaped cakes with either banana or cheese filling.

The Mickey Smile was passable, unfortunately one of the best things I'd eat in Tokyo Disney. Note the small size of the cocoa cup - in Japan a small drink is VERY SMALL and a large is the size of an American small. So this gluttonous American was left thirsty most of the trip.

We then rode Haunted Mansion - definitely more like the one in Disneyland if I recall correctly. Very cute to hear the Ghost Host speaking Japanese. Funnily enough, Madame Leota and the one ghost who screams "Lemme outta here!" were both speaking in English. And Grim Grinning Ghosts was in English too. Interesting how the exterior is like the Mansion in WDW.

While strolling through Fantasyland we came across the place where I wanted to eat dinner - the Queen of Hearts Buffet!

I would soon learn that it was actually a "buffeteria," which is not the same thing as a buffet!

We then rode Pinocchio's Daring Journey, which was the same as Disneyland if I recall correctly, and then it was on to Snow White. Here's some Dumbo and Tigger ears from the Snow White line:

I then decided to go get fast passes for Pooh's Hunny Hunt. Our return time was 3:30 to 4:30, so at least I knew I'd get to ride it! Whew! But... would I ever get to ride Big Thunder Mountain???

Up Next - A Stroll through Adventureland, Dissed by Stitch, and Lunch!

 

[juju]

Hi! We just returned from a trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo. As it turns out we were at TDL and TDS on the exact same days. Disneyland was crazy busy and I was cold ( I also returned to the US with a cold). TDS didn't seem quite as busy, but we picked up our fastpasses to Tower of Terror first thing and our return time wasn't until 7:30pm. It was fun to look at your pictures! What is it with the headgear there? I can understand some of the cute females, but the young men? just fyi, Hong Kong Disneyland was so dead, there was hardly anybody there. What a difference from Tokyo.

 

[Eviie]

Omg i'm officially addicted. POST MORE MORE! I can't get enough !!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Hi! We just returned from a trip to Hong Kong and Tokyo. As it turns out we were at TDL and TDS on the exact same days. Disneyland was crazy busy and I was cold ( I also returned to the US with a cold). TDS didn't seem quite as busy, but we picked up our fastpasses to Tower of Terror first thing and our return time wasn't until 7:30pm. It was fun to look at your pictures! What is it with the headgear there? I can understand some of the cute females, but the young men? just fyi, Hong Kong Disneyland was so dead, there was hardly anybody there. What a difference from Tokyo.

WOW what a coincidence. Did you totally love DisneySea? I was just blown away by how beautiful it was. I was SO UPSET that BraviSEAMo! was cancelled that night - I was most looking forward to that. I really really want to go back to DisneySea and stay at Hotel MiraCosta.

How was Hong Kong Disney? I'd definitely like to go there, but I thought I'd wait awhile because it doesn't seem to have many attractions yet. I read that the CMs were rude, amongst other, more interesting problems there, on wikipedia.

You should totally do a trip report of your Tokyo and Hong Kong Disney trip!! I'd LOVE to read it!!

 

[WDW Poly Princess]

Oooh, Tokyo Disney looks like so much fun so far! Great report! I can't wait to hear about DisneySea!

Those crowds look crazy! Thank goodness for fastpass!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

After we rode Haunted Mansion, Pinocchio, Peter Pan, and Snow White, we decided to backtrack to Adventureland to check out Pirates of the Caribbean. We passed "Critter Country" on the way to Adventureland, so I paused to check out the line for Splash Mountain, and we also passed by Westernland, so of course I had to check the line for BTMRR again. The area around both attractions was just MOBBED with people - I couldn't discern a line at all. ARGH! DH hates rides where you get wet so he won't ride Splash Mountain OR Kali, plus it was pretty chilly out, so I wasn't upset about skipping Splash Mountain. But Asami said BTMRR was her favorite ride, so I knew we had to brave the fastpass line at some point soon before they were all out. Anyway, onto Adventureland...

The Tiki Room is in the building with the "spire." To the left of that is a restaurant, Polynesian something or other. That's my head near the bottom.

Here's some more Adventureland with some food carts and crowds. Behind the "Skipper's Galley" food stand is Western Railroad.

We headed toward New Orleans Square and came across a pirate band! Note the ears in the photo!!

Yay, the band must be beckoning us to Pirates, and we'll be able to hop right on, right??? WRONG! We headed to Pirates (which, as a side note, is situated like Pirates at Disneyland California (in New Orleans Square and has the Blue Bayou restaurant looking onto the first part of the ride)...

We got to the entrance of the ride and the CM told Asami in Japanese that the ride was closed, probably for the rest of the day! ARGGGHH! I knew Space Mountain was going to be closed, but Pirates too??? My positive 'tude was starting to waver.

***Side note: I noticed very little Pirates merchandise in the parks, and got the impression that the Pirates movies aren't very popular in Japan. I could be wrong.

I figured now was a good a time as any to try and get fastpasses for BTMRR. BUT as we were heading back toward Westernland I saw one of my favorite characters - STITCH! I knew that Japanese peeps love Stitch, as I've seen a decent number of Japanese folks with Stitch cell phone danglers and I know they had a whole parade devoted to Stitch at TDL not too long ago. I was starting to get worried that I wouldn't get my picture made with any characters - I hadn't seen any and it was around noon. But NOW was my big chance! I happily approached Stitch. I realized that unlike how they do things at WDW, the Stitch handler just let crowds of teenagers and kids mob Stitch and didn't ask people to form any kind of orderly line. So for about 15-20 minutes I tried to fight to the middle of the throng surrounding Stitch and get my picture made with him. Stitch would just randomly grab people and pose with them, and he did not want ANYTHING to do with me! Everytime I would get really close to him he would put his arm around someone else! I was like LOOK, clearly I'm not Japanese, I've traveled a long way to be here (at least at some point) - throw me a bone, dude! I was feeling sad and getting sick of fighting the mob so we decided to take off. I did get a picture of Stitch with other people he liked better than me (sniff):

We headed over to BTMRR and got into the now-diminished fastpass line, and only had to wait about 10 minutes. Our return time was around 6:45, if I recall correctly! At least I knew we'd get to ride it.

We were getting hungry, so it was onto lunch. I wanted to eat at Grandma Sara's Kitchen because the pictures on the TDL website looked so cute. It's right near Splash Mountain in Critter Country, and is carved into the side of a fake little mountain. Apparently Grandma Sara is a possum, judging from the sign outside. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of the exterior.

Unlike the rides, Grandma Sarah's wasn't crowded. We hopped in line and I ordered a mushroom pasta dish, a side salad, and "Critter Cake." Here's a photo of the place where you pick up your food. It's hard to see, but the napkin dispenser is a big plastic loaf of bread.

We got our food and sat down. The place was like a big cave inside with homey touches. It was very very cute.

I was super excited to eat some yummy Disney food. I LOVE the food at WDW (well, 95% of it), so my expectations were high. But YIPES - my food was pretty terrible. The pasta dish had some limp rotini noodles and mushrooms over LETTUCE with ranch dressing! The side salad was just iceberg lettuce and carrots, and the Critter Cake was just astoundingly bad - like a tasteless brick. SIGH. Oh well, I figured I'd have some yummy snacks later.

Here's me and DH at Grandma Sara's.

After a crummy meal, I was ready to head towards Toontown and Tomorrowland, and was SUPER ready for Disney's Dreams on Parade - Moving On, which started at 2:30!! Don't worry, things do get better in this TR!!!

Next up - A parade can cure all woes, some Stitch ears, and POOH'S HUNNY HUNT!!!

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Oooh, Tokyo Disney looks like so much fun so far! Great report! I can't wait to hear about DisneySea!

Those crowds look crazy! Thank goodness for fastpass!

DisneySea was amazing, just breathtaking. I look forward to writing about it.

I'll be at WDW the same time as you - I'll be there Oct. 21-28! I LOVE Halloween at WDW and I cannot WAIT! How are we going to make it through the next seven months?

 

[CriminyCrafft]

Omg i'm officially addicted. POST MORE MORE! I can't get enough !!

Hee, I'm in my last few weeks of law school and I have plenty of time on my hands...so I don't plan on dragging this one out! Expect frequent updates! Thanks for reading!

 

[pumba]

this is so wonderful to be able to see another Disney .........thanks so much for those wonderful photos too.......

 

[serendipity]

Oh no, have I reached the end already? I love your TR. It's so interesting seeing a different Disney. I love all the pictures and your descriptions of everything. Sorry that you had so many early difficulties....hope things will perk up!

 

[NurseW2Kiddies]

I've also been to Tokyo Disney. It was in 2000 and I don't think DisneySea was built yet. We enjoyed it IN THE RAIN, as was the weather the majority of our trip to Tokyo....but the park was EMPTY! So nice! In Tokyo you learn to go, go, go weather (hehe) it's raining or not!!! Great city, great park and great Trip Report!!! I have to say that I was STARVING the whole time we were in Japan. My husband was coming from being in Korea for a year, so he was more acclimated to a diffrent ethnicity of food...but I was sooooooo hungry...... Thank god for McDonalds!!! Shame on me huh???

 

[thptrek]

Great trip report. It is awesome to have you describe another Disney park.

 

[Credit Man]

Enjoying your report. Thanks for posting.