Before I get back to the TR, allow me to pass on some potentially useful info. A few folks have expressed a desire to go to Tokyo Disney
- if you're one of them let me suggest Asian Affair Holidays -
http://www.asianaffairholidays.com/. They're Singapore Air's official
travel agency and we purchased our trip through them. We found them through
www.budgettravelonline.com - a great site. They have a deal going now that's 5 nights in Tokyo at the Tokyo Hilton in Shinjuku and flight on Singapore Air from LAX to Tokyo's Narita airport...for $949 -
http://asianaffairholidays.com/package.cfm?package_id=50
This package includes bus transportation to and from the Hilton (which would be about $30 one way), as well as a half-day tour of Tokyo!!!! Pretty great deal, in my opinion. You can add days in Tokyo since five nights really isn't much. We did the Tokyo/Singapore package and added nights in Singapore, and we stayed at the Tokyo Hilton and it was very, very nice. The Hilton is about an hour away from Disney by train and bus, but it's close to Shinjuku station which is a main subway hub. And, as I mentioned earlier, Singapore Air is AMAZING. Anyway, just thought I'd pass on the good deal. I promise I'm in no way personally affiliated with Asian Affair holidays - I'm just a humble Disney fanatic who wants to pass on the magic.
And now...BACK TO THE TR!!!
Tower of Terror was so cool we thought we'd go get a fastpass and do it again later. We found the fastpass machine...and it took us about three minutes to walk to the end of the fastpass line!! It stretched all the way back to Cape Cod - a goodly ways. We couldn't believe how long the line was. So, oh well, we said. We'll try back later, or one ride will have to be good enough.
Here's the view walking away from TOT. The ship is the SS Columbia, where we had dinner reservations (kindly made by Asami the previous day).
Here's another shot of American Waterfront.
As we headed through American Waterfront, DH got a photo of Mount Prometheus over in Mysterious Island. Prometheus houses the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride, and spews smoke and sometimes fire.
As we walked through American Waterfront and were still marveling at how beautiful the park was. We came upon the "Cape Cod" area of American Waterfront. It has a restaurant (Cape Cod Cookoff), a shop (Aunt Peg's Gifts I think), and Donald's Boatbuilders, which is another show we didn't get to see. This area is so cute - I loved it. By this point even anti-Disney DH was saying again and again "WOW this place is SO COOL!"
Soon we were in Port Discovery. Again, super cool with astounding detail and theming.
The building in this photo with the gold dome behind the structure with the oars is Stormrider, which we would be visiting later!
One of the rides in Port Discovery is Aquatopia, which apparently uses similar technology to Pooh's Hunny Hunt. It looks like little bumper boats that sail around in an obstacle course. We didn't get to ride this either. Sniff!
We saw that the wait for Stormrider was only 20 minutes, but we really wanted to get to Indy and Raging Spirits, so we decided to come back to Stormrider later.
As we were leaving Port Discovery we got a photo of the Disney Transit Steamer Line, which travels around the whole park and actually goes through Mount Prometheus - AND which we ALSO didn't have time to ride!! We really wanted to ride this because the park is so beautiful. Clearly I need another trip to Tokyo Disney SOON!
From this exact same point, to the left we saw the top of Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull over in Lost River Delta.
We made it to Lost River Delta, and immediately came upon INDY!
The wait was 70 minutes! So we decided to see what the wait at Raging Spirits was. Raging Spirits is right next door to Indy.
I wish we'd gotten more pictures around this area.
It wasn't as elaborately themed - it was kind of jungle-y. The wait for Raging Spirits was 70 minutes as well, so we got fastpasses for it and decided to wait out Indy on standby. By this point I noticed my 2 day passport PAPER ticket was getting pretty wrinkly, and the fastpass machine spit it out twice before it accepted it. From Raging Spirits we were able to see Arabian Coast:
On the way back to Indy we stopped by Expedition Eats and grabbed hot chocolate and snacks - for me a pretzel stuffed with "coffee creme" and for DH a pretzel stuffed with curry. Nothing for Asami - no wonder the Japanese are so much thinner than Americans.
Like a complete moron, I didn't take pictures of these - and they came in cute little "RAGING SPIRITS" sleeves! DH liked his pretzel, I didn't like mine so much. I promise I'm NOT a picky eater who likes hifalutin' restaurants - the only things I won't eat are meat and beets. Anyway, the line for Indy was pretty cool - we did get some pictures of the interior queue but they didn't come out. ARGH! The ride was cool, similar to the Indy ride at
Disneyland California, which is similar to Dinosaur but not as bumpy. I hate to do this, but I like the Mummy ride at Universal better than both Indys I've been on. It's more thrilling. Don't hate me! We would be back to Indy TWO MORE TIMES because we discovered - THE SINGLE RIDER LINE!!!
It wasn't time for our Raging Spirits fastpass return, so we decided to check out the rest of the park!
Up Next - We do a preliminary stroll through Mermaid Lagoon, Mysterious Island, Arabian Coast, and Mediterranean Harbor!
Your pictures are amazing and I feel like I was there with you - you're doing a wonderful job! My daughter has taken 4 years of Japanese in school so far, and we hope to take a family trip to Japan in the next few years. Thanks for sharing your Tokyo Disney vacation with us!!!!!
I've seen pictures of IOA online and got the same impression. However, IOA does look more highly themed, with Seuss Landing and all, so perhaps it is more like Tokyo Disney? I'll let you know in October! 
