(Updated 6/10) Gonna Have to Buy a New House! - Jan 2025 TR

[Araminta18]

I love your TRs and would LOVE a Tokyo Disney TR!!!

thank you for reading, and the nice compliment! I'll definitely write up the Tokyo Disney one

 

[Araminta18]

We definitely need a Tokyo trip report.

Not gonna lie I was definitely leaning towards writing one...there are surprisingly (surprising to me at least) few TDR reports on the dis!

 

[Araminta18]

YES!!! A full Tokyo and Tokyo Disney report please!

I have to confess that I didn't actually spend any time in Tokyo - only did Disney! I'm kind of sad about that but honestly had such fun at Disney I'm not toooooooooo sad about it

 

[Araminta18]

Please do a Tokyo Disney report! I would love to see it-I go back and binge all your old reports when I'm missing the parks.

aw that's such a nice compliment! thank you for reading!!

 

[Araminta18]

Yes, please do. I would love to hear about it.

I underestimated the interest! I'll definitely make it my next TR

 

[Araminta18]

Honestly, if I went to Japan I'd probaby just want to go to Disney too!

makes me feel a little bit better!!!

 

[Araminta18]

Spooky Bayou! - Thursday January 30th 2025 (part 4)​

I got stuck a little bit at the piano in the Haunted Mansion and took one of my favorite Haunted Mansion pics that I've ever taken:

creepy!

Trevor was having his own creepy time, poking around the new tribute store at Universal with spooky bayou theming!



This type of theming isn't my cup of tea but no lie that Universal is definitely stepping up their theming game. Super cool!




LOL there's the gilled man!

Trevor even took a short clip of the theming:

The one funny thing is that since it was the first day for the store, Trevor was seeing all the vloggers and social media folks, both in real life and on their social media. But the one vlogger we really like (Tim Tracker) we saw on instagram but Trevor kept missing him in real life! Oh well

Meanwhile, I finished my ride with a hitchhiker:

And then I found a photographer right there at the exit, so of course I stopped.


I like my spooky more classy than the bayou

 

[Araminta18]

Hello Tom Sawyer Island - Thursday January 30th 2025 (part 5)​

After riding Haunted Mansion, I got super lucky with a fastpass for Tiana's! So I headed over to ride that again - so fun!

It was only a five min wait in the fastpass line - gotta love it.

Trevor was riding his own ride, though his featured fire instead of water:

The Mummy! Trevor's in the second to last row on the right hand aisle.

After riding Tiana's, I was at a bit of loose ends and decided that I should go explore Tom Sawyer Island before it went away for good. The weather was pretty good - not too hot - over I went!

Also anyone else a sucker for maps like this? I love a good map.

I realized once I started exploring that while I've been on the island a number of times, I've really only stayed in the area by the (closed) quick service, where we used to take naps. I'd never really explored the whole thing. And there's a lot there! Some awesome views too -


I got to go over the fun little bridges, and then ran into something I literally had NO IDEA was there:

Fort Langhorn! I was really surprised at all the theming out there:



There had guns you could fire up in the lookout towers, with a pretty loud sound effect!

Trevor was riding Men in Black in the meantime - he got what seems to me to be a pretty good score?

Men in Black is still one of the Universal rides I've never ridden, so... no idea.

 

[Araminta18]

Escape Tunnel! - Thursday January 30th 2025 (part 6)​

I was finishing looking around the Fort and I found this:

an escape tunnel! This was pretty cool - I realize it's just another way out of the fort but it was really neat.

going through caves and everything.

Honestly the whole thing was cool, with all the little caves and bridges, and then with all the foliage it was cool temperature wise too.


barrel bridge!

There was this little playground too - I can't imagine it gets much use.

Mystery mine!

Jewels!

Mine tunnel...

Like honestly, so much theming and way more tunnels than you'd think just from looking at it. I realize it makes sense to replace it cause there aren't many people over there, but it's a bit of a bummer that we'll lose this whole thing.

And who can resist this fun little reference to the classic "painting the fence" from the novel?

Sometimes I'm bad with words, hence my struggle with describing the island. It was really just this fun little peaceful interlude walking around and exploring the tunnels and caves and such, and finding things that you couldn't see til you were practically on top of them and you'd never know were there til you found them. Again, I understand why it's going away, but it is a bit of a shame.

They were running a ton of boats - when I was ready to leave, I arrived just as a boat did. So that was convenient. My plan was to stop by the Pirates gift shop to buy a couple things Trevor wanted, and then to Fantasyland to look in the gift shop there by Gaston's Tavern, and then over to Tomorrowland. But I was getting a bit hungry...where to go for lunch?

Trevor was apparently also hungry: he got a hand pie!

He said this was yummy, but didn't tell me what kind it was. Oops!

He'd also watched Megatron out meeting and greeting earlier too -

Megatron is a meet and greet that's up there with the evil stepsisters for me - just hilarious!

 

[dizneedoll]

Lucky you did TSI when you did. I thought it would stay open until the end of the year. I figured I had time for that and the riverboat but now all of a sudden it's closing so soon! I won't be down until October. I should have done it last time we were there but I thought I had time. I agree it's a shame it's going away but I'm not mad about Carsland either.

 

[Wayland10]

There was this little playground too - I can't imagine it gets much use.

You’d be surprised! While Disney is a wonderland for kids, it’s also really constricting in a lot of ways, with all the “Hold my hand! Where’s your sister? Do NOT run away from me? Wait, what? Why are you carrying mouse ears? We didn’t buy those for you! Honey, honey, stop making LL reservations and take her back and try to find out where she got these ears from and DO NOT BUY HER MORE CANDY! What? Older Kid needs the bathroom? Well, I’ll take her, you take our little shoplifter back that way and… crud, they’re both crying. Hey kids, how about if we get some ice cream and go to the playground on that little island?”
Word. For. Word. I swear.
Edited to add, we did return the ears before we got ice cream. TSI was just such a great place to let kids run and decompress

 

[Dismomalita]

My kids loved the island when they were small. It was a great way for the, to blow off steam and for us to sit for a minute. It’s sad but I get it. Glad you got to explore before it goes away for good. Love your trip reports. Thanks for sharing

 

[alohamom]

Hey all! So sorry for the long delay in posts...Trevor and I each had a work trip, but my work trip was to Asia and Trevor had a bunch of airline points so...we decided YOLO and went to Tokyo Disney!

WHOA-that is so cool!


I love that pic you got of the piano in the Haunted Mansion, it is creepy but beautiful all at once.

 

[Araminta18]

Lucky you did TSI when you did. I thought it would stay open until the end of the year. I figured I had time for that and the riverboat but now all of a sudden it's closing so soon! I won't be down until October. I should have done it last time we were there but I thought I had time. I agree it's a shame it's going away but I'm not mad about Carsland either.

yea, not gonna lie, I didn't really expect it to be real! So I feel the same way - like it's closing all of a sudden!

 

[Araminta18]

You’d be surprised! While Disney is a wonderland for kids, it’s also really constricting in a lot of ways, with all the “Hold my hand! Where’s your sister? Do NOT run away from me? Wait, what? Why are you carrying mouse ears? We didn’t buy those for you! Honey, honey, stop making LL reservations and take her back and try to find out where she got these ears from and DO NOT BUY HER MORE CANDY! What? Older Kid needs the bathroom? Well, I’ll take her, you take our little shoplifter back that way and… crud, they’re both crying. Hey kids, how about if we get some ice cream and go to the playground on that little island?”
Word. For. Word. I swear.
Edited to add, we did return the ears before we got ice cream. TSI was just such a great place to let kids run and decompress

Good points! I guess it kind of felt like a hassle to get there, so I didn't expect that many families would make their way over there. But you make a great point about letting them just run and play. Also, your writing is hilarious - so vivid!

 

[Araminta18]

My kids loved the island when they were small. It was a great way for the, to blow off steam and for us to sit for a minute. It’s sad but I get it. Glad you got to explore before it goes away for good. Love your trip reports. Thanks for sharing

Sounds like MK needs more runaround areas for the kiddos! But yea, I'll be curious to see how Carsland actually plays out. Thank you for reading!!!

 

[Araminta18]

WHOA-that is so cool!


I love that pic you got of the piano in the Haunted Mansion, it is creepy but beautiful all at once.

thanks!!! I really like it too (obviously)

 

[Araminta18]

How Long for Tron?! - Thursday January 30th 2025 (part 7)​

So Trevor got the hand pie, but I went for cheeseburger spring rolls!

It was only like a 3 minute wait, so not bad at all. These are waaaaaaaaay overpriced, but delicious. Course they were hot enough that I was like "I need something frozen/cold now!"

I ate these as I was walking towards Fantasyland, looking in the gift shops. I didn't find anything in particular in the Beauty and the Beast gift shop this time around, but as I walked out I saw a photographer out by the King Triton statue! Literally never saw a photographer there before.

Had to take a picture with the castle though, of course.


Then I checked the app and realized that Tron was posting only 40 min, so I decided to hop in line!

The line was here but it was only 8 minutes to the inside hallway -

I love that they did replace the decorations here so you have the lighting effect. Thanks Disney!

I also really like the view you get from the line, of the launch - so cool!

23 minutes later, this was my view:

Not a bad wait time! And since Trevor wasn't here with me to take a blurry selfie, I tried to take one for him:

Didn't turn out great but I'm putting it here for completion's sake.


Sleeping on the launch! I went for the car instead of the bike cause 1. more comfortable and 2. I like the g forces in the back!