マイク＆サム·ヘッド東！- A journey to Hong Kong & Japan - May 2014 - Day 12 - TOKYO DISNEYSEA (DAY 2)

[soarinfan]

Day 12 - Friday 16th May - Tokyo DisneySea

Nooo! Our final day at Tokyo Disney had arrived We didn't want to get up this morning because we had had such an awesome time at Tokyo Disney and didn't really want it to end. It had been like Orlando on a whole different board game (all be it much smaller!) and we loved it. But we knew we had to get up to enjoy the day.

I did some packing this morning and got most things into my case so I could enjoy this evening when we got back from the park, and then the usual ritual ensued of me going to get the breakfast (I don't think once on this trip did I get breakfast brought to me! ) and we were soon ready to leave the room. Today we were going to spend one more day at Tokyo DisneySea, probably the most unique of all Disney parks.

When we arrived and were through the turnstiles, we decided the first thing we should probably do was Toy Story Mania. We knew it was even more popular in Tokyo than in Orlando (Is that even possible?!?). However, we were greeted with this...

This was in fact the queue, for both fast pass and standby at Toy Story Mania. Needless to say we didn't ride... ! The standby queue time was already 240 minutes and the park had literally opened 10 minutes ago. Forget it!

The Tower of Terror was just next door in the same area so we decided to grab a FP for this and come back later. We knew it was going to be different but again the queues in this area of the park seemed pretty long - obviously the Japanese flock to the big rides first! We managed to grab a pre lunch ride time which wasn't too far away. Sam wanted to go on it now but I said the FP time was only just around the corner so it would be silly to waste time queuing for an hour! So she decided to be a bit disobedient

I had been eyeing up a place to eat over the past few days from studying menus and maps etc - for our final dinner in Tokyo Disney, and Sam said she was more than game. Japanese cuisine was running a little dry with Sam, and she was ready to get back to some good old Western food, so we decided to make an ADR (yes here in Tokyo Disney you don't actually have to make them 6 months before you sit down at the table!) at the Sailing Day Buffet. Typical ship launch kind of theming, American, lots of flags, buffet - you can't go wrong! Except it seems when they tried to spell my surname! Later haha! I said to them I'd be back later, they didn't get the joke I don't think but they did smile and wave

We hadn't actually been on a ride yet and it was approaching 10am, so we decided to head around towards the back of the park. Unfortunatly it seemed this was closed as well with all (or as much as possible!) of the water drained - shame as we both quite enjoyed this the other night. So we had to head around this beauty...

STORM RIDER!

Quite simply the best ride in Tokyo DisneySea merely for the reaction of the locals! The ride is a simulator ride, which runs 2 vehicles at a time from this main pre show loading room. It's all to do with storms and this science experiment - I won't go into the full details, but theres a part where it all goes wrong in the simulator and whatever you've shot out into the clouds comes back to haunt you - followed by ear drum bursting screams from petrified Japanese theme park go-ers! The simulator is enormous, probably holding about 100 people at a time, how they manage to move a room like that is amazing but they managed it! Apparently its being replaced by a Finding Nemo overlay May 2016 which is a shame. We loved it - Sam filmed it just for the reactions haha

It was approaching lunch time now, so we decided to hop into an eatery right next to a place where you could queue to meet that awful additional - Duffy! The queue was enormous and we didn't know whether this was for lunch or for Duffy - it was thankfully the latter, so we dived in for lunch. We both ordered a burger and chips, and I got a little cake to go with it and drink. It was reasonably priced and typical American type food - however not with the portion sizes!

Just round the corner is Indiana Jones which we OBVIOUSLY wanted to ride again (who wouldn't!?) so we grabbed a Fastpass for soon afterwards, and as the line was fairly short we rode once, and then rode again with the FP. Didn't take any photos on the inside this time as we had taken so many on previous rides! But we were definitely excited to learn this was in California as well (and in English!) as we were already starting to think of next years holiday!

Whilst we were around this side of the park we figured it might be a good time to head back towards the Aladdin themed area of the park and explore there. We hopped on Sinbad's Storybook Voyage whilst we were there, which we really didn't have a clue what it actually was. It turned out to be a Sinbad version (and a bad version at that!) of Its A Small World, on a boat, roaming along the story of...well I guess Sinbad, listening to the same tune all the way around. I took the time to take a few photos for the purpose of the TR and then had a little snooze and told Sam to wake me up when it was over! Didn't really float my boat I'm afraid! (Pardon the pun)

We exited out into this courtyard which was still nicely decorated for the Spring Voyage festival TDL was currently celebrating across both parks. It had a bit of a mash up of Flower & Garden too, with a few topiaries and flower displays along the way, but by far the most impressive was this huge Genie (unfortunately - holding a Duffy bear...) which was pretty neat. It was sitting directly outside The Magic Lamp theatre which seemingly held a similar show to that held in California - Aladdin! We knew it was probably going to be in Japanese but we thought we might as well go and watch! It was pretty cool and Sam enjoyed it, though I think the version in California would probably beat it hands down from what I'd seen on YouTube! Either way, the sun was scorching by this point and we were absolutely roasting, so it was marvellous to get inside to the air conditioning and shade.

The heat was really getting up now, so we decided to take a rest back at the hotel again. It was pretty nice being able to get back to the hotel within about 20 minutes or so, and it did start us thinking about whether a resort stay at WDW next time we ventured out there would be worth while (as it is something we had never done before). However first, we zoomed over to JTTCOTE (work it out ) to grab a FP for later when we returned - we certainly didn't want to miss one last ride on this unique experience!

Sam was pretty keen to get some more Krispy Kreme's (I wasn't going to say no - went pretty well with the gin over the last few days siestas! ) so we headed back out to Ikspiari, where I happened to notice a poster on the wall. Although we had seen nothing in the parks, it had seemingly infected Japan as well (or at least the beginnings of it had shown here! )

Sam bought us several Krispy Kreme's and we headed back towards the room. I cracked open the gin, kicked off the shoes and we relaxed on the balcony again watching the arrivals into Tokyo Haneda and discussing our holiday so far. We had both really enjoyed Tokyo Disney so far, and it certainly was on our list to come back again in a few years to see how it has developed. I said that I was keen to see Shanghai Disney, but Sam had reminded me that before when she had been to Hong Kong, she had chosen to bypass the Disney there because it was new and was small - and we should probably do the same with Shanghai for a few years. Needless to say...I wasn't paying much attention as I was too busy devouring this

After a short rest, we headed back into the park where we noticed the queue for Tower of Terror was almost non existent. We hadn't used our Fastpass from earlier as we were too hot and tired to trudge back across the park to get there, but it was of course something we had to experience - so we thought now was the time

If you don't wish to endure some spoilers on the ride, please skip down a paragraph now

The story to the Tokyo's Tower of Terror is actually somewhat unique and requires a different kind of introduction (see what I did there ).The Twilight Zone was never syndicated out to Japan so the story line would have meant absolutely nothing to the local clientele. So a brand new story was devised around what is an identical ride system to that in California and Paris. Basically Lord Hightower (I think was his name) was an explorer who went on this expedition into a jungle and found this mysterious idol which he brought back and put into his hotel, but then lots of things started going wrong and well...you get the picture! The pre show I found stunning - although it was in Japanese they had this massive idol sitting on a column at the front by the screen. After a glow of green light, its eyes lit up green, and started moving its head looking around the room laughing... and as the eyes dimmed away, the house lights came up and the idol was gone - it was amazing Disney magic right there!

Unfortunately they weren't allowing people to take photos inside the queue line or during the ride which Sam was told off for but it was amazing and certainly a must ride! A nice refreshing change to the usual story line!

It was fast approaching dinner time and our ADR, but first we had a Fast Pass to use back over at JTTCOTE, so scooted back over there and got there just in time to ride. Absolutely loved this ride, and as much as I'd like them to bring it to one of the other Disney properties, it just wouldn't fit - so I'm glad Tokyo has something completely unique there. We grabbed another FP for it for the end of the night - we were surprised they were still dishing them out! Literally the last time slot of the day!

Anyway, the time had come for our ADR at The Sailing Day Buffet restaurant back over by ToT. We entered fairly quickly and were seated quite near to the food counters, which was amazing for me and my love of all things edible . The theming inside of the restaurant is early 20th century, typical cruise ship launch - think Titanic in the bars and dock side and you get the right idea! Lots of flags and cargo everywhere.

All of the seating is in the middle and to the sides, and in the middle of all of this is a horse shoe of food counters which host a number of different dishes (I think I counted about 25 hot dishes, plus countless sold sides and salads etc) which was absolutely awesome. Me being me entered into carb overload whilst Sam took a more reserved approach.

I like a little pasta with my cheese

Twilight was descending on Tokyo as we left the restaurant - we had been in there for just shy of 2 hours (and we told we had a 2 hour limit on being in there as we sat down - I had said to the waitress of course we won't be longer than 2 hours, but I was surprised at how close we had come!). We had a gentle stroll around some of the shops and boutiques in the area (still laughing at the queue line which was still fairly evident for Toy Story Mania), before deciding to stake out our spot for Fantastic again. We opted for the same area as before as we knew it was a good spot, and our space was free as it was before. The wind was picking up but it really didn't seem as bad as the night previous. The floats were brought out onto the water. Speakers and lighting systems emerging from rocks and boulders around the lake. And then...15 minutes before show time an announcement was made in Japanese, and everyone started just leaving their seats! What was going on I thought? Then I heard the translation...

"Due to inclement weather in this area, tonights showing of Fantastic, has been cancelled for the safety of our performers and our guests... "

NOOOO!

Ahh well - there was nothing we could do about it... apart from head back to Indiana Jones for one last spin! Of course on the way back from there, we still had our FP's to use on JTTCOTE, and managed to get 2 rides on it by running round back into the Standby queue just as they were about to close it up for the night - think we got onto one of the last carts!

As we headed out of the park we went into all the gift shops and the spending spree began! Unforutnatly there were no pins on sale due to the apparent banning by TDL after fights had broken out for pins a few years ago, so there were a few T Shirts bought, and Sam bought much Pascal related merchandise before we headed back to our room to unwind of the night. We had such a blast at TDL, we couldn't believe our time there had come to an end...

But tomorrow - Tokyo lay awaiting us!

Thanks for reading Day 12 comments appreciated as usual! Stay tuned for Day 13 coming in a matter of days!

[lovedisney89]

Another great day at DisneySea, a shame you didn't get to see Fantasmic again but lots of rides of JTTCOTE

[kevin_cambs_uk]

Brilliant you have inspired me to go to Japan. So looking forward to Tokyo.
Thanks for sharing.

[Capt Wilko]

Have just read your whole report up to Day 12 in one go and you have definitely sold Hong Kong and Japan to me. I've always thought they would be difficult places to get around but you have made it look so easy.

Great to see some different food options in the parks. Shame you didn't get to ride TSM but always an excuse to go back.

Your latest countdown is really small. Looking forward to reading about the rest of your time in Tokyo and also about your trip to the West Coast.

[Dissie]

Another great day. Tokyo Disney/Disney Sea looks amazing. Loving your whole report

[Guest]

I'm aghast that you didn't enjoy Sinbad's Voyage! The score is incredible and quite operatic. It was written by Alan Menken of Aladdin and Tangled fame. It's shades above It's a Small World. We must have ridden it half a dozen times. Still, each to their own.

[Bobsledwheels]

They don't sell pins?! Whaaaat!

Great day - the buffet looks great, will have to look that one up!

Thanks for sharing