Tokyo Disneyland- Day 1

 

 This Spring I had the opportunity to visit Tokyo Disneyland!  Tokyo Disney consist of two separate theme parks, Disneyland and Disney Sea.  

Here is how our trip went.

To Tokyo: We flew from the Newark Airport ( in the United States) to Narita Airport in Tokyo. Our first choice of airport would have been Haneda Airport, because that is where our hotel was going to be, but that didn't work out. Once we landed in Narita, we had to take a bus to our hotel at the Haneda Airport, which was about an hour ride. 

To Disneyland: The next day we were headed to Disneyland. There is a bus stop at out hotel that takes guests directly to Disneyland. The bus was free but the ride was about 40 minutes. 

We bought our tickets online the night before our visit. Just like in the States, the price does vary dependent on the day/time of year. Prices range between 7,900-10,900 yen. My ticket was about $68 American dollars.

We arrived at the gate before park open and waited about a half hour. 

I was very excited to enter this new to me park. However, it was very cold and I hoped it would warm up soon. 

As we entered, the first order of business was to get a Mickey waffle at the Great American Waffle Company in World Bazaar.

I got the the Mickey waffle with mint whipped topping, custard whipped topping,
and maple sauce.  

                              This particular flavor was a seasonal flavor, they change them out often.

                               On the way out, I saw the custodian make a Minnie and Mickey.

A unique aspect of  Disneyland Tokyo is that what we would call Main Street,  here in Tokyo is called World Bazaar.

  This section of the park is covered.  I suppose this makes sense since Tokyo experiences all sorts of weather. 

We didn't have a lot of time to browse on Main Street because we had a "fast pass" time for the Beauty and the Beast attraction.

  These "fast passes" are like individual lightning lanes at Disney World. We did have to pay for these. The prices per ride varies based on the popularity of the ride just like at Disney World.  If we hadn't had the "fast pass" we could ride the ride for free, but the wait in line was over 2 hours.  This was going to be our only day at Disneyland, so our time was precious.  

I was looking forward to this ride because neither of our American parks have this attraction. With our "fast pass" we waited about 20 minutes.

 

Enchanted Tales of Beauty and the Beast is a dark ride where guests ride in a teacup. 

The teacup slowly rotates around the different rooms in Beasts' castle as the story is narrated in both English and Japanese. 

 There are a lot of animatronics and some video. The story really comes to life. 

Next we headed to Baymax. At first I thought this was a little kid ride, but it really whips you around. This was similar to Alien Swirling Saucers at Hollywood Studios, which I've never rode, but now I think I should. 

Next it was time for a snack already. We stopped at the Pan Galactic Pizza Port.

You can of course get pizza here, but it is known for it's Mochi.  Mochi are sweet treats made from a rice paste and filled with flavored cream/custard.

One order gave me three Mochi, one chocolate, one strawberry, and one custard. They were very good and later I found out that it was Tokyo Disney's most popular treat!.

My first character sighting was Mr. Incredible.  Most characters here just walk around to engage with the crowd, there is not a line for a meet and greet.

After the picture, we went to Pirates of the Caribbean. 

This ride is very similar to the U.S version, but the que is very different. I often felt like the que for Disney World's POC is down in a dungeon. This que was in a house and it even had a chandelier.

Now it was parade time! This parade was called Harmony in Color!  Cast members here make the guests actually sit down to watch the parade, no standing. People usually bring mats for this reason. We came prepared.  This is a good idea, unless you get stuck sitting behind a stroller, then you're out of luck!

The parade was a mix of music with both English and Japanese lyrics.

                                                                                                                

I finally got a picture of the castle. Just like at Disney World, this is Cinderella Castle! 

Pooh's Hunny Hunt was next.  This is also a dark ride that is narrated in Japanese. The concept is similar to the one at WDW, but the animatronics and props are quite different ( From what I remember. It has been a while since I rode the WDW version of Pooh)

We had lunch at the Hungry Bear Restaurant located in Westernland. This place had plenty of seating inside and we didn't have much of a wait.

 This restaurant served Curry.

I had chicken curry and my friend had curry with a sausage patty and hard boiled egg. I ordered mine medium spicy but it wasn't very spicey, which was nice. The dish doesn't look appetizing, but it was tasty.

After lunch we headed to Tomorrowland to Showbase, an outdoor but covered theater, to see a show called  Club Mouse Beat. 

The Disney Characters and cast sang and danced to different songs.  There were four different showtimes and you had to pick a specific time. If you didn't have a show time, you couldn't just show up. The show was about a half hour. Remember earlier how I said that it was cold out? Well, I was wearing a knit beanie hat with a small pom pom on the top of it, and a cast member made me remove it during the show!  I'm not tall, so I don't know what the problem was, but I took it off and my head was cold for the next 30 minutes. 

When it was time for another parade, we watched it off the main drag and were able to stand, which allowed us to have a better view since we were further back. 

After the parade we headed to Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. 

While in Tomorrowland I spotted a pressed penny machine. My sister and I have gotten pressed pennies from WDW and Disney Cruise Line so I thought it would be appropriate to get one from Tokyo! 

Another new to me ride was Monsters Inc, Ride & Go Seek. This is a dark ride where you ride in a little cart ( like Buzz Light Year Space Ranger Spin) and instead of having an Astro blaster, you have a flashlight and you have to find the monsters (indicated by the "m" on different items). This one was fun!

At this time the nightly fireworks were about to start so we tried to find a place to stand. The current show is called "Reach for the Stars". The lyrics to the music was both in English and Japanese. Of course even in Japanese, we knew what song it was. They had some really cool overlays on the castle that went along with the music. 

Now you would think that our night would be coming to an end after the fireworks, but we had more to do and see.

We headed over to Mickey's PhilharMagic. This  attraction is a favorite of ours in WDW and the Japanese version did not disappoint. 

The Electrical Parade was starting so we found a seat to watch. This was spectacular and I am now excited for WDW to bring their Electrical Parade back. 

I thought the Haunted Mansion was going to be different than the one in WDW but as far as I could tell, it was very similar from the stretching room to the statues of the busts ( and the one that fell over).

It's a Small World was also similar to the WDW version with one change, which is a good one.  Some of the countries had dolls that represented certain Disney characters from that country. 

For example, the characters from Peter Pan were displayed in England, and Merida from Brave was displayed in Scotland. I thought this was very cool and hope it is something WDW will incorporate the next time they refurbish It's a Small World. 

It was now time to call it a night!

I would say that we got a little sampling of what is in this park but in the one day we had, we didn't get to do everything.  Tomorrow we would be going to Tokyo Disney Sea. Stay tuned! 

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