Tokyo Disney & Disney Sea Series Part 3
Sunset near the Castle
Let me preface this and say I personally have always found 'Disney' to be overrated but the kids enjoy it so that's why we go :)
Getting to Tokyo Disney:
You can drive with directions provided by New Sanno or ITT, but be forewarned the directions do not include reverse directions. With that being said we were easily able to follow the directions to Disney at 8:30 am and it only took 30 minutes (despite being told it would take an hour) the way back in the evening (around 5 pm) it only took 20 minutes and that was without reverse directions! We drove in April 2007.
Another perk about driving is that you park so close to the park (unlike in CA or FL) that it would've been easy to go to the car to get food/snacks ect. It was nice to be able to have the car there and the kids to have a snack on the way back to the New Sanno...parking was $20/day.
The 2nd time we went, April 2008, we stayed at the Palm & Fountain Terrace Hotel and the provided a free 15 minute shuttle to the park. This was a great option! We literally got on at the lobby of the hotel and got off right at the entrance of the parks. The shuttle ran every 15 minutes and were nice big comfortable buses. It was a nice relaxing ride after a long day at the parks.
You can also take the train/subway, which fortunately we did not have to do. Depending on the time of day it can get crowded. Another thing about the trains that I don't like using with kids is that the Japanese are literally silent on the trains, most of them nap, when the kids were talking and pointing out things, we were getting some stares...I can only imagine if they had been acting up!
At the Park:
Cinderella's Castle
You are not allowed to take food/drinks into the park and they do search your bags before the entrance line.
When we went April 2007 they were doing a Find Stitch theme with hidden Stitches' all over the park, the Japanese sure LOVE Stitch!
Entrance at night with lighted up Stitch
Stitch flower face at entrance
Tokyo Disney was much more packed then DisneySea!! It was amazing at such the huge difference! But it was more younger kid friendly ride wise and Bea (almost 4 at the time) was able to go on every ride including Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain...although those were a bit scary...she just barely made them heightwise but asked to do them again after they were over, so I'm assuming she wasn't scared for life. It was great buying the Splash Mountain pic that had all of us on it.
Bea displaying her wristband allowing her to ride Splash Mountain
We were at this park until 7 pm since it was bigger than Disney Sea with more to see and unfortunately longer lines. The bummer about all the shows, ect is that they are all in Japanese so it takes some of the fun out of it...I guess we know how they feel when they (the Japanese) come to Disney in the states.
Bea & I hanging out in Toontown
The Japanese were cracking us up with the Characters (people dressed up as characters) because they were jumping up and down, yelling & screaming, and waving madly just to get a character to LOOK at them! It was like they thought they were famous or something...very interesting to observe! We also noticed a lot of 'man purses' going on at Disney. And lots of character ear wearing in the hair with clips or headbands, even on the guys! One great thing about the Characters was that when they seen American kids they made sure we got a picture with them and that we didn't have to wait long. They would come through the masses of Japanese surrounding them to make sure our kids got a turn, talk about Customer Service in action! We never even had to wait in line to see a character here!
Bea with Belle
The Winnie the Pooh ride is not worth it if you have to wait. We used a FastPass and still had to wait 1 hour in line! The stand-by line was a 4 hour wait...I kid you not! The ride was slow, boring and lasted a whole 1 1/2 minutes! So if you miss this ride your not missing anything!
Or should I say Winnie "ther" Pooh?!
We ate at Tommorrowland Terrace which is the only restaurant in Disney that serves hamburgers. Most of the restaurants serve Japanese cuisine which was not so appealing to us or the kids. We also had soft serve ice cream after the Star Wars ride at the Soft Landing, it was yummy!
Hidden Mickey Lock
Great website for Hidden Mickey's and Info on Tokyo Disney:
Boo in Toontown
Bubby in Toontown
Labels: Hidden Mickey, Tokyo, Tokyo Disney
posted by Mrs. B @ 4:32 AM
1 Comments:
Intriguing sunset photo at the top of this post, interesting photos of Japan, always nice to see things outside one's bubble.
Regards,
Jeff
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