Day 2 - DisneySea
Two days later, on a Wednesday, I was back at it. After the experience I had at Tokyo Disneyland, I was kind of dreading doing it again. This time I visited the resort's other park, DisneySea. The resort does not offer a 2-day park hopper ticket, so I had to devote one day only to each park...but more on that later.
The morning started the same as Day 1, with me arriving at the park prior to opening time. Since it was the middle of the week and there was rain in the forecast, I was hoping that the crowds would be smaller. DisneySea is located farther back on the resort's property than Disneyland, so I rode the monorail to make things faster. (Plus, I wasn't certain if it was even possible to walk to the park from the train station.) The monorail was packed with people, mostly what appeared to be teenagers. (Does anyone go to school here?) Other than for the Mickey shaped windows and hand grips, there wasn't anything special about the monorail. Oh, and you actually have to pay to ride it.
Hidden Mickey.
As we rode past the entrance gates to Disneyland, I noticed that the lines were significantly shorter than they were on Monday. This was a good sign! Upon arriving at DisneySea, the lines there were longer, but not too bad.
The lines at Disneyland. Why couldn't it have been like that on Monday!
Lines at DisneySea.
Making use of the time by strategizing.
Entering the park. (I didn't stop to look around.)
Everyone walking toward Toy Story Mania.
The line in front of me.
The line behind me.
Getting closer. At least I can actually see the ride now!
By this point, the standby wait time was already 100 minutes. After a 30-minute wait, I was finally at the Fast Pass machine. When I left, the line was still ridiculously long.
Almost there!
The line was still just as long when I was done getting my Fast Pass.
My shrimp salad sandwich was good, but unfortunately had bits of bacon that I had to pick out. (I should have expected that would happen. There's meat added to everything here, especially ham and bacon.)
Hi old friend!
Let me take a minute here to explain the concept of DisneySea. Some people misinterpret it as an Epcot-style park. This is not correct though. The park's lands are all themed around water, not International locations, although there is some of that too. It is a very visual park, and I believe I read that it was the most expensive park ever built anywhere (not just Disney.) They definitely did a great job, as there are amazing things to look at everywhere. (FYI: This is the park's 13th year.)
View from one side of Mediterranean Harbor to the other.
After looking at the park information board, which actually had some good wait times displayed, I wandered toward the other side of the park. I ended up in Mysterious Island and went on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. This ride is fairly new, and is not the same as the old one at California's Disneyland (CD) and Disneyworld (DW.) The submarine capsule seats only 6 people and the entrance is indoors, kind of like how the haunted mansion is set up. So, you never see actual water when getting onboard, but get the impression that the capsule sinks into water. The ride was alright, but the best part was that it was only a five minute wait!
Pleasantly surprised!
I have no idea what these squash looking plants are, but they were real.
The exterior of the ride. (Very deceptive.)
The actual ride contraption.
Next, I continued through the park into Arabian Coast to ride Sinbad's Storybook Voyage. This ride, like many here, is unique to this park. It is set up like It's a Small World. I do not know the story of Sinbad, so the ride did not have any significance to me, unlike the girls sitting behind me. They were singing along with the song on the ride (in Japanese) almost the whole time.
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As I kept walking through this land, I passed through what could have been a scene right out of Aladdin, which was of course done on purpose. Aladdin is my favorite Disney movie, so it was pretty cool to walk the streets of Agrabah. I even saw Abu as I was leaving!
I thought I took more pictures of Agrabah, but I guess not. :(
It drizzled slightly as I walked through Mermaid Lagoon, and I hoped the rain wouldn't get worse since I was having a great day so far. One of my missions in both parks was to try to find Dole Whip. (If you are an unfortunate soul who doesn't know what it is, please click this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dole_Whip) From my pre-travel research, I learned that Dole Whip is not sold at the Tokyo parks, but I wanted to check for myself just to be certain. I passed a refreshment cart that sold something called "frozen mango." On the off chance that this was actually a Dole Whip (since the Dole Whip sold at Hong Kong Disneyland was mango flavored), I bought one. Turns out, the name of the product is 100% accurate. It was a piece of frozen mango. Not the sweet treat I was hoping for, but it was still refreshing.
Ariel's home.
It was time for me to get my next Fast Pass. Since the standby wait time for Journey to the Center of the Earth was 120 minutes, I chose that. Then I walked to the very back of the park to check out Lost River Delta, which is made to look like Mexico. The whole park was decorated for Halloween, and this land above all had more of a "Day of the Dead" theme, but they called it "Fiesta de los Esqueletos."
The closest to a Mexican temple that I've ever been.
My plan was to ride Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull as a single rider to save time. It felt so nice to bypass the long line, and even the people with Fast Passes. After only about a 10-minute wait, I was on the ride. It is very similar to the ride at CD, with some of the same scenes but a different story...and Indiana Jones speaks in Spanish. Very fun!
Now this is what I'd call a "Fiesta de los Esqueletos."
I fit right in.
Then it was onto Port Discovery. Another ride unique to this park is Aquatopia. It doesn't look like much of a thrill ride, but once I was on it I realized that it whips and spins quite fast. I almost started to feel a little nauseous. Definitely didn't feel the need to ride that one more than once. (Wait time was only 20 minutes, so I could have rode it again if I wanted to.)
Hoping that I don't throw up.
Then I rode the Disney Electric Railway (10 minute wait) into American Waterfront, where I had started the day. I decided to walk through the rest of the park that I hadn't passed through yet. I realized that the American Waterfront was huge. It overlooks the actual ocean, so it was cool to see barges and ships out on the water in the distance. (For some dumb reason, I did not take a picture of the ocean though.)
View looking down from the elevated railway.
These janitors perform impromptu shows.
Of course, the salad had bacon bits in it, that I once again had to pick out. (Fast food shaker salads seem to be a popular thing in Japan.)
Another restaurant's idea of a "healthy" salad.
So, another thing you'll notice at the Tokyo Disney parks is that these people LOVE Duffy the Bear. I mean this with all sincerity. They LOVE him. You will see children, teenage girls, and adults walking around holding their Duffy the Bear stuffed animal and wearing a Duffy backpack or purse. (If you look close enough in my pictures, you will spot him.) Some even have Duffy dressed up in special outfits. And others will pose Duffy and take pictures of him enjoying a snack on a bench. (True story.) FYI: I don't think I saw a single person with a Mickey stuffed animal.
Side note: I wonder if Duffy has become a popular baby name in Japan.
After lunch, there was no line so I took a ride on the DisneySea Transit Steamer Line. (Just a fancy name for a boat.) After returning, it was time to use my Fast Pass for Journey to the Center of the Earth. This ride is also an original and is located in the volcano visible from everywhere in the park. It was pretty cool. It starts of slow, but at the end it speeds along and sort becomes like a roller coaster.
I cannot handle true roller coasters, so I did not ride Raging Spirits, which is a coaster with a loop. My travel companion was able to ride it quickly as a single rider though. While I waited, a daytime "Fiesta de los Esqueletos" parade passed by, and it was interesting seeing Asians dressed up as Mexicans.
Next, it was back to Arabian Coast to ride the Caravan Carousel. This is a two story carousel, so it's pretty cool!
As if you couldn't tell, this day was much more relaxing than my day at Disneyland was. I don't know if it is always like this, or if the crowds were just smaller that day. I was very happy about it though. The day wasn't even halfway over and I felt like I accomplished almost everything at the park already. Instead of rushing off to another ride, I walked around the Fortress in Mediterranean Harbor and stumbled upon Captain Jack Sparrow. He was a Caucasian cast member (possibly from Australia, but I'm just guessing) and I think he was as happy to talk to me as I was to talk to him.
It was finally time to ride Toy Story Mania. With the Fast Pass, the wait was very short. I loved the way the ride entrance was decorated. It was made to look like Andy's room. After that, the ride is exactly the same as CD. If you have never had the opportunity to ride this at a Disney park, this should be your new goal in life!
Andy's bed.
Andy's bed, dresser, and night stand.
Nothing makes you look cooler than 3D glasses!
I was player 2. :(
Next up was dinner at Ristorante di Canaletto, which was perfect timing because it started to mist with light rain. The priority seating didn't end up being necessary since the restaurant was not crowded at all. Thankfully, there were a couple vegetarian options to choose from, so I dined on margherita pizza and veggie pasta. Both were pretty good.
The Venetian Gondolas line was right outside the restaurant, but I decided not to ride because it was still raining lightly.
It really did look just like Venice!
At this point, it was about 4:30pm and there wasn't anything left in the park that I was dying to check out. As I mentioned earlier, there is no 2-day park hopper. There is however a Starlight Pass, that provides entrance to a park after 6pm for a discount price (about $39.) So, I went to Guest Services to inquire about this ticket in the hopes that I could pick up where I left off on Monday at Disneyland. After they located an English-speaking representative, I was told that the ticket had to be purchased at the main park gate, and that it could be used right away. (I was confused by that last part since I thought the ticket was only valid after 6pm.)
Walt and I. Bye-bye DisneySea.
Day 2.5 - Tokyo Disneyland
I rode the monorail over to Disneyland and purchased the ticket. The sales person did not speak English very well. I asked when I could enter the park, and she made a motion that implied I could enter now, which was 4:45pm. So, I went to the entrance. Of course, after scanning the ticket, the machine beeped and I was told that I could not enter the park until 6pm.
With an hour to go, I did not feel like riding the monorail yet again to return to DisneySea for such a short while. Plus, I was really tired and sick of walking. There was a shopping area near the train station (about a five minute walk away), so that's where I decided to go to kill some time.
An Oreo on top of a muffin. Yum?
I was back at the Disneyland entrance a little early and was surprised to see that there were a lot of other people also lined up to enter with the Starlight Pass. My first stop upon entering was the information board. I was also surprised to see that most rides had long lines! (My happy day was starting to take a turn for the worse. This just reaffirmed my belief that Tokyo Disneyland is hell on earth disguised as heaven.)
The dark blob at the bottom is the crowd of people.
Why!!! :(
Still, I wanted to make the most of my bonus four hours in the park, so off to Grand Circuit Raceway I went since it had one of the shortest wait times (15 minutes, but actually more like 25.) The raceway has four lanes that all follow the same path, so in essence you could potentially try to race someone (at 3mph.)
Night action shot while moving. (The worst kind of picture to try to take.)
After that, I wanted to walk through the inside of the castle to see what it was like. I was really disappointed when I arrived at the entrance just as they were closing it for the nighttime festivities.
From what I was allowed to see, it looked very pretty.
I contemplated what I should do next, and even though I was dreading the idea of waiting in a long line, I decided to head over to the Jungle Cruise. The wait time was not posted, but the line was very long. I ended up waiting at least one hour, and by this time it was dark. Ideally, I did not want to ride this at night, but I had no choice. The boat captain only spoke Japanese, so I could not understand any of the commentary. It did not seem as if she told as many jokes as they do on this ride back home. Overall, the ride was the same but in the middle there was a cave the boat entered that had "magical" walls.
Our Skipper. I had no idea what she said the entire time.
Next, I went to the shooting gallery yet again and scored 5 this time, my best yet! It started raining which dampened my spirits a bit. I decided to climb the Swiss Family Treehouse just cause it was there. (It has never been an attraction that I liked, and I was surprised that they hadn't coverted theirs into something else yet. I'm sure they will soon, because it was super boring.)
I went back to Tomorrowland to ride Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters and was very happy that the wait time was only 15 minutes. Afterward, it was about 9pm and the park was open for another hour. I had finally gone on all the rides I wanted to. My feet and back were aching so much that I chose not to ride anything for a second time. Getting back to the hotel and laying down sounded like the best plan. I looked through the shops again on the way out and was still disappointed in the selection.
I am very glad that I visited Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, especially since it completed my visits to all the Disney parks world wide. While the Tokyo parks were beautiful and had many unique rides, as a whole this place was my least favorite Disney resort of all, mainly due to the long lines, crowds of people, and poor food selection. I recommend that Disney lovers check the place out if it is on their wish list, but do your homework ahead of time and be prepared for some "unmagical" moments.
Mission completed!
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