Japan Without Sushi - Part 7

On Places - DisneySea & Disneyland

Tokyo DisneySea

We booked our Disney Parks Tickets online and printed it on our own, therefore saving us time to queue at the ticket counter. We bought 2-day passes, and chose to visit DisneySea on first day followed by Disneyland on second day (the park had to be chosen upon ticket purchase). It turned out both days were cold, but first day was sunny while it was raining on second day.

We arrived at the entrance 15 mins before DisneySea opened at 9am. The queues were long but it moved fast. First we queued to get in, then to get our bags checked. Following the crowd, we immediately proceeded to Toy Story Mania to get Fast Passes. It looked like half the people were doing the exact same thing. We managed to get the passes for 4.10pm.

Although the number of crowds at the entrance looked intimidating, it was actually a non-peak period for Disney parks, according to some statistics. We did not believe it ourselves until we found out how manageable the queues were (Toy Story Mania aside).

Rides we took: Stormrider, Aquatopia, Indiana Jones Adventure, 20,000 leagues Under The Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Transit Steamer Line, Toy Story Mania, Electric Train, Ariel's Playground. Seen one show: Fashionable Easter at Medditerranean Harbour.

To me, DisneySea was more exciting compared to Disneyland as it's unique to Japan. And they did really well in selling Duffy the Disney Bear, and his girlfriend Shellie May exclusively in DisneySea. A lot of people were lugging around the merchandises around the park. Disneyland items could still be found in shops outside Disneyland, like in hotels and Ikspiari, but it looked like Duffy and Shellie May were really exclusive.

Indiana Jones adventure and Journey to the Center of the Earth were good. Indiana Jones allowed single riders to queue together with Fast Pass holders, so it's great. But no such concept was available for Journey to the Center of the Earth, so I queued for about half an hour there - which was still okay. Initially the ride was quite boring until the vehicle picked up speed and took a short plunge down the track. But then it ended there :p

And now I understand the appeal of Toy Story Mania. In there, we rode vehicles around wearing our 3D glasses and play shooting games just like in carnivals, to collect scores. There were interesting effects too.

Our visit in DisneySea ended abruptly when the little one accidentally bumped himself to the uneven walls in Ariel's Playground. A staff approached us and brought us to the central first aid office. In there, he was asked to rinse his mouth. Then we were asked to fill out our details (names, hotel we stayed in, whether we're travelling in tour group, the exact place where the incident happened), and that's it. No medicine or anything given, except for a piece of paper with (I supposed) medicine name written in Japanese and instructions to go to hotel's pharmacy. So we went back to our hotel and took some sugar syrup from a cafe there.


Tokyo Disneyland

The day we went to Disneyland was a cold, rainy day. Although showers were predicted from 10 am onwards (with 100% probability, mind you), we were lucky that it started only around 4pm, when we were already half way through the park with most of the rides we're eyeing covered.

Rides we took: Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Space Mountain, Grand Circuit Raceway, Goofy's Paint and Play House, Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin, Monster Inc. Ride & Go Seek, Castle Carousel, Mickey PhilharMagic, It's a Small World, Alice's Tea Party, Pinnochio's Daring Journey, Pirates of the Caribbean. Seen the Hippity Hoppity Springtime parade and Happiness on High fireworks.

Somehow, Space Mountain here was better than Hongkong Disneyland's. I loved Toontown, where we could tour around Donald's Ship, Minnie's House, Goofy House, Chip 'n Dale's Treehouse. It's so cartoonish, so cute. Childhood dream came true!

Hippity Hoppity Springtime Parade

I was also impressed with Mickey PhilharMagic show, although everything was spoken in Japanese :)

We were stuck for about 3 hours inside Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, as it was raining and the little ones were fast asleep. So we had tea break followed by dinner there.

Braved the rain after dinner, and managed to see the fireworks, followed by Pirates of the Caribbean ride and some Disney-merchandise shopping.

... Where dreams come true