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Old 4 Aug 19, 05:10 PM  
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Gr8WideSomewher
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When you gachapon a star: Tokyo Disney and Japan 2019 - Travel Day and Day 1

Travel Day and Day 1: Flights and first day in Tokyo DisneySea

Travel Day

Welcome to the first day of my trippie! As a bit of background to this, I should tell you that Bex and I live together, but that she was in China for work in the run-up to our trip. She arrived in Tokyo airport in the evening of the day before I did and then had a tense few hours waiting to hear that I hadn’t managed to get on the wrong plane or something.

I had spent the week worrying about exactly the same thing, along with whether I would remember not to leave the gas on, or the windows open, or forget to pack underwear or my passport or any of the other thirty or forty things on my packing list. Needless to say, I needed a holiday! Most of all I had been worrying about how I would deal with the time difference; Japan is 8 hours ahead of us. What this meant was that when I arrived in the early morning, it would be the middle of the night before, according to my body clock...and we wanted to spend the whole day in Tokyo DisneySea.

My strategy for dealing with this was to get up earlier and earlier during the week leading up to my flight. I was flying on Saturday, and by Friday morning was happily boogying around the house at 4 in the morning. My colleagues thought I was mental. However, it meant that when the alarm went off at 3:00 the next morning, I was actually already awake!

My taxi was booked for 5.15 so I had lots of time to potter about, emptying the dishwasher and taking out the rubbish and ticking the last few items off my packing list. I even sat and watched a bit of TV for a bit.


Glamorous travel outfit!

The taxi arrived right on time and after checking that I had indeed turned the gas off I loaded my suitcase in and off we went to Birmingham.

The taxi driver was actually a lot more worried about timing than I was. The motorway was basically empty and the trip to Birmingham Airport is relatively easy from my house at the worst of times. Still he kept up a running commentary, telling me how much further we had to go and that we seemed to be making good time etc. I was definitely in holiday mode by this point and just nodded along.

We arrived at 6.15, with my flight not due to leave until 8. I went straight to the check-in desks to drop my suitcase, noticing that my case was a couple of kgs over the limit. Oops. The check-in lady didn’t comment though, so I skipped off. I had left lots of room in my (very large) rucksack, just in case they did ask me to take anything out of my suitcase (and of course for merch), but I was very glad I didn’t have to use it.

I was through security in about 10 minutes. It was quite busy, but they were extremely organised. Then I went to sit in the departure lounge for a bit. It was weird looking round at all the bleary faces of people not used to getting up so early - I’d been up for hours and was trying to convince my body that it was somewhere around midday already.

My plane left a bit late at 8.30 but I arrived in Charles de Gaulle (BOO! HISS! Read my other trippies for thoughts on CDG ) without incident. Once there I had to go through security again, which was annoying, as I had filled my water bottle and now had to drink all my water in one go, while a rude airport security lady watched me and tapped her foot. Apparently going through security again before your connecting flight is a thing now.

This was doubly annoying as of course CDG didn’t seem to have such a thing as a water fountain anywhere (Chanel perfume? Of course. Swarowksy crystal nonsense that no one could possibly afford? There’s two separate stores just in that one area. But water? No ), and the water coming out of taps in the bathroom was lukewarm. I didn’t have any euros and there was no way I was paying for a bottle of water with my debit card. I sat grumpy and thirsty for a couple of hours.


Wooh Tokyo Narita! This was before it got delayed...

Eventually I boarded the flight and it left, about 45 minutes late, at 14:15.

My seat was comfyish. I had paid extra (just for this one flight) to select my seat, because I wanted to sit by the window. I therefore had somewhere to lay my head, as I began to calmly tell my body that, even though it seemed like it was only mid afternoon, it was in fact late in the evening and I should really start thinking about bed.

I killed a few hours watching A Star is Born, which was really excellent - Lady Gaga was a revelation - and eating tea when they brought it round. I asked for the Japanese dish, as opposed to the Western one, and got pork and rice with a cup of miso soup. It was really nice. I also had a bottle of red wine and a couple of Becky’s extra-strength sleeping pills. Oh yeah, I know how to party.

I then watched half of Spider-man Into the Spiderverse, which I also enjoyed very much, before putting on my eye mask and turning in. By which I mean piling up my pillows and my hoodie and trying to find as comfortable a position as possible in a 40cm-wide aeroplane seat.


Day 1

I didn't sleep too badly in the end, though I’m not sure how much of it was just me lying with my eyes closed telling myself I was asleep. But all my tricks to convince my body it was later than it was definitely sort of worked, and when I allowed myself to open my eyes it was about 6.00 in the morning, Japanese time.

I can’t remember whether there was any breakfast, though there probably was. I finished watching Spider-man just before the plane reached its destination and then it was time for a whole new country!

I had no trouble at all getting through customs and immigration - they had handed out cards to fill in while we were on the plane and it was just a matter of giving the right one to the right person, as there were separate cards for each. I was glad I had my hotel details though, as they had to be filled in on the cards.

I picked up my suitcase and went into the arrivals hall to find Bex, who had told me she would be waiting by the exit. She wasn’t, which caused me a momentary panic, but then I saw her wandering around about fifty metres away. We had a big reunion hug (we hadn’t seen each other in quite some time) and then it was straight into the serious business of holidaying!

We found the transport desk and picked up bus tickets that would take us to our Disney hotel and then walked straight to the bus stop. We waited perhaps 15 minutes and I filled Bex in on my flight. She asked me if I was up for a day in Disney and I cautiously responded that I was. I felt relatively well-rested; mostly I just felt gross and in need of a shower.



This wasn’t to be however. The bus journey took about an hour and when we arrived at our hotel - Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel Club Resort (Guesthouse Inn Lodge B&B the villas etc.), we were able to check in and buy park tickets, but not go up to our rooms. They have a strict policy on this in Japan (as they do on most things), and dreams of a shower and the chance to do something with my hair before hitting the parks were dashed pretty quickly.

While we were waiting to check in I took this picture of the clocks showing the time in various parts of the world. Like most of my pictures for this trip the quality is awful (sorry about that), but I wanted to give you guys a sense of how confused my body was about time at this point. It was 10:00 Tokyo time and 02:00 in the morning my time!



We had put money aside to buy park tickets at the hotel, as if you buy them online you have to arrange a place to pick them up and it gets complicated, and if you buy them at the parks you have to queue. We bought a four-day ticket, which allows you to spend one day in one park and one day in the other, after which you can mix it up how you like. We decided to spend the first day in DisneySea (as it was going to be such a new experience) and the second in Disneyland.

Unable to go up to our room, we instead dragged our unwieldy suitcases into a bathroom so I could at least get a change of clothes. I had to open my suitcase all the way and start rummaging around in packing cubes, and I’m sure we got in lots of people’s way, but it couldn’t be helped. My notes on this incident simply say ‘nightmare!’ so I may have been in a bit of a mess (Bex certainly was, as her shampoo had exploded all over the contents of her bag), but I managed to find some shorts and a Pixar t-shirt, slapped on a bit of makeup and liberal amounts of deodorant and, feeling a it more human, eventually pronounced myself ready to go.


Bathroom selfie!

We dropped our suitcases with bell services, who told us they’d take them up to our rooms while we were out, and went downstairs to catch the bus to the monorail. This was a weird thing about Tokyo Bay - the reception was on the third floor and you had to go out of the building and down an escalator to get to the bus stop.

The bus was completely fantastic. Though it’s not an actual onsite hotel, Tokyo Bay is one of Disney’s partner hotels meaning that it has all the advantages of Disney hotels, especially the incredible transport links and the proximity to the parks, while being very reasonably priced. The bus that took us to the monorail was gorgeously themed and definitely got us in the Disney mood.




It was also, of course, completely free. It turned out taking the bus was not strictly necessary, as walking would have taken about 5 minutes, but it was nice to know it was there to save the feet, if we needed it.




Was an adult woman ever so happy to be on a bus?

At the monorail station we bought a four-day pass for 1400 yen (£10.40) each. A single trip cost 260 yen, so with the amount we were going to be riding it this was brilliant value.



A moment please to rhapsodise about the Tokyo Disney Monorail (or Resort Line as it’s officially called): it is possibly the most fantastic form of transport I have ever taken.



It has four stops, connecting the two parks with all the onsite and partner hotels, and Maihama Station and Ixpiari (the Tokyo Disney version of Disney Village, sort of). The whole loop takes 15 minutes, meaning that wherever you’re going you’re going to get there absurdly quickly. We also never waited more than 5 minutes for the monorail, and most of the time they are every 4 minutes. That means you can nearly always find a seat and they are wonderfully un-crowded and comfortable, even at peak times like when the park has just closed.



What’s more they are gorgeous to look at; each one is themed to Mickey Mouse or to Duffy, meaning that they are adorable and photogenic. I can’t say enough good things about the monorail - I wish we had this type of transport in real life!

Me oohing and aahing over various aspects of the Tokyo parks may become a bit of a feature of this trippie (in fact the whole thing is likely to become a series of rapturous descriptions of Disney mixed in with complaining about the awful weather), so stop me if this gets boring, but give me a moment first to introduce you to Tokyo DisneySea, the best Disney park in the world.



I know, I know...but hear me out.

Arriving at DisneySea was quite simply jaw-dropping. Admittedly the entryway with the spinning globe (very similar to the Universal one, but DisneySea actually had it first) isn’t Disney’s best - that’s got to go to DLP and the Disneyland Hotel).






But as soon as you enter the Mediterranean Coast your breath gets snatched away.




No forced perspective here - the buildings that loom over you here are full size. In fact, they’re real buildings as the Hotel MiraCosta is actually part of the park - what I’d give to stay there!

The lake is huge and provides a perfect centrepiece for a coastal-themed park. As I walked around the park I couldn’t help wondering if John Hammond had had a hand in its development because it was clear no expense had been spared .



Every area was unique and perfectly realised, every ride and ride queue was packed with detail, every cast member and character and music loop, every plant and building and moment of street-mosphere was quite simply perfect. Love and care and attention to detail is everywhere, and for a Disney fan, well it’s enough to bring a tear to your eye.






Which of course is exactly what happened to me as we wandered out into the Mediterranean Harbour that morning. We had no specific plan for the day, after all we didn't know how long I was going to last, though we had a couple of must-dos. The first of these was to do the show lottery and try and get tickets for Big Band Beat.

The lottery allows you to enter once per day for one of the performances of the immensely popular shows, meaning that if you win you don’t have to queue and are guaranteed a seat. Unreserved seating for shows is either non existent or incredibly limited and since we saw people queuing (in both rain and scorching sunshine) two hours before shows were due to start this may in fact be your only way of seeing them, especially if you’ve only got a few days. We had heard that Big Band Beat was perhaps the best show in any Disney park so we were desperate to see it. We knew it was by no means guaranteed though, and we certainly didn't want to queue for as long as it would take, so we simply crossed all our fingers and toes and put our tickets into the machine with baited breath.





We won! Yes! I never win anything, so this was very unexpected. We got tickets for the 3.40 show, and Bex made me promise I would stay awake at least until then. Of course the adrenaline was kicking in at that point, so I said ‘No problem!’ with the confidence of a much less tired woman.



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Old 4 Aug 19, 05:48 PM  
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When you gachapon a star: Tokyo Disney and Japan 2019 - Travel Day and Day 1

Continued...

Our only other must-do for the day was to ride Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage as it would be closing for refurbishment in a few days’ time and we didn’t want to miss it. We were in no hurry however, so we wandered over via the bridge that looks a bit like the Ponte Vecchio in Florence (the Mediterranean Harbour is like a beautiful dreamworld mixture of Venice and Florence) and the Mysterious Island area.

Mysterious Island is themed to Jules Verne, steampunk aesthetics. It was the part of the park I was most looking forward to seeing, as it’s so completely unique, and it did not disappoint.The weather (as per usual on this trip) was terrible, so our pictures really really do not do it justice, but believe me it’s awesome.






The queue for the big ride in this area, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, was somewhere around 80 minutes. We could see that, in general, we’d probably be queuing a long time if we tried to do any of the big rides today. If you want to do the popular rides in Japan you have to get there early and fastpass very strategically.




That wasn’t possible for us today of course, so we contented ourselves with taking in the atmosphere, which was yet another revelation; the atmosphere in DisneySea is...relaxing . Can you imagine a relaxing Disney theme park? Even though it was insanely popular and every ride seemed to be going at full capacity, something about the way everyone was so polite and considerate of each other, the fact that DisneySea was aimed at a slightly older crowd, the music and just the general pace of things made this park an absolute joy to be in, with none of the stress that you sometimes get in other Disney parks.

We saw Ariel’s Undersea Kingdom from across the bridge and vowed to go and explore it later.




We ended up in the Arabian Coast area, which is loosely Aladdin themed round about midday. Of course neither of us had had time for breakfast or even a drink so far, so even though it was a bit early for us, we decided to have lunch.





After wandering round and taking a few pictures we ended up at the Casbah Food Court. It was a lovely cool area and beautifully themed. We both decided to go for the curry medley and took our food to a free table.





The restaurant was quite busy, but everyone seemed to be able to find somewhere to sit. What was more, the queue at the food counter was barely 10 minutes long, and it was peak lunch time at that point! It was so well organised and chilled out. It reminded us (with a shudder) of the 50 minute wait we had for food at the Cowboy Cookout at DLP last Halloween - ouch!

The food was absolutely delish. The curry was a medley of shrimp, beef and tandoori chicken, with rice and naan.



We quickly decided it was some of the best quick service food we’d ever had. The meat was tender and juicy - they don’t often provide knives at restaurants in Japan, so we had to use a spoon, but we only needed a spoon to cut it. The shrimp curry was sweet and mild, while the beef was gingery and a tiny bit spicier. The meals cost 1260 yen (£9.36) each and we each had a coke costing 350 yen. It wasn’t cheap, but this was Disney after all, and it was masses of food. We ate gratefully - I hadn’t realised how much my energy was fading until a shot of curry made me feel miles better! Overall it was a very relaxed lunch and we both felt great afterwards.

The Sinbad ride was also to be found in the Arabian Coast area, so we went there next. The posted wait time was only 20 minutes, but we waited even less than that. Maybe 12.





If you’ve ever heard of the Sinbad ride, you’ve probably heard of its star, the completely adorable Chandu. Chandu is a baby tiger that goes along on Sinbad’s journey with him and steals the show at every moment. Seriously, it’s hard to imagine how much personality an animatronic tiger can actually have, until you see it.






The ride is great in lots of other ways too, of course, notably the song that plays throughout (written by Alan Menken and enormously catchy even when you don’t understand a word) and the fun and colourful visuals. It’s a dark ride in a boat, similar to It’s a Small World in some ways, but with a story and less cutesy. The animatronics are all great, and both Sinbad and Chandu manage to have heaps of personality, which comes across even though the one speaks Japanese and the other doesn’t speak at all.






We both emerged big fans and made plans to buy something Chandu-related before leaving the park at the end of the holiday.

After this we walked over the Lost River Delta area, which is sort of jungle and Central/South American-themed. We wanted to ride Indiana Jones, which I believe is a copy of the one in California and uses the same ride system (and vehicles) as Dinosaur in Florida.







We didn’t check the wait time because we knew it would be long and we wanted to single rider. There was no actual single rider line, but Bex had read that if you joined the fastpass queue and told them you wanted to ride separately they would be fine with it. This wasn't a good system, as of course you had to queue up for a significant portion of the line with the fastpass people (meaning they missed out on lots of opportunities to fill ride vehicles with single riders), but it was obviously much better than joining the ordinary queue.






The queue still looked really long however. We missed out the queueing outside but inside the temple the queue didn't seem to be moving at all. The ride must have gone tech however, because we waited for maybe 15 minutes almost at a standstill, but did eventually get moving. Needless to say the queue was awesome, especially the main temple room. There were human skeletons draped all over everything and everything had a brilliant, shabby and creepy look.

We ended up waiting about 30 minutes, none of which were in the single riders only part of the line. We were in different jeeps and both thought the ride was fabulous! It was very big and suitably scary and exciting - a bit like a more kid-friendly Mummy. I personally probably prefer the Dinosaur ride a tiny bit, just because I love dinosaurs so damn much, but this ride is probably technically better. Some of the effects were awesome and creative and I liked that you could see a lot of the ride area at once and get a sense of the scale of the ‘Temple of the Crystal Skull’.

After this we decided to take another walk and take in some more of the park. We walked round to the American Waterfront area, which seemed to be the most popular in the park - there were massive queues for everything and the area doesn't even have any rides! It quickly became clear why: the American Waterfront is the home of Duffy and the gang.






Now I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been sniffy about Duffy and begrudged his presence at DLP. He’s not a real Disney character - he doesn’t appear in any of the films and, as far as I can see, has very little in the way of personality beyond being cute. The Japanese very much do not share my feelings. Duffy, ShellieMay, Gelatoni and StellaLou (or Rigatoni and SkippyLou as I kept calling them to Becky’s irritation ) are by far the most popular characters in the parks. Not only do they have a whole area where they’re supposed to live, but there are spots all throughout DisneySea where you can position your plushies in order to get the best pictures of them. And I would say at least 40% of the people you see walking around will be carrying at least one of the plushies or some other kind of Duffy and friends paraphernalia. Dressing for the parks is a big deal in Japan and we saw multiple groups of teenagers and young adults who had dressed in suitable colours to represent their favourite of the Duffy friends. Some groups were carefully coordinated so that each of the characters (Duffy, ShellieMay, Gelatoni and StellaLou) was represented by one of the group. And this isn’t just children or teenage girls - it isn’t even mostly children or teenage girls. It was just as common to see men carrying around their ShellieMay plushies, or Duffy popcorn buckets, or StellaLou passholders.

Duffy and friends are a big part of people’s enjoyment of the Tokyo parks, especially DisneySea, and seem to have become a way for people to express themselves and their personal style in the parks too, which I think is lovely. In general you didn't see people wearing too much off-brand or brand-inspired merchandise in Japan - when you saw people wearing Disney clothing or accessories (and you saw this everywhere) it always seemed to be official merchandise from the parks - but people did seem to be inspired by the colours and general kawaii-ness of Duffy and Friends to venture beyond this and create their own outfits.

I’ll shut up about this now and continue with the trippie - it’s just something I noticed and which added to the atmosphere of the parks for me personally.

Anyway the American Waterfront, though not my favourite area in the park, epitomised the chilled out atmosphere that makes it so unique. There was lovely, folksy music playing (I need to find that loop on Youtube) and everyone was having fun taking pictures with their Duffies.



It’s a very big area and encompasses a lot of things, moving from a Cape Cod-style seaside town (the Duffy bit) to a New York-inspired area. This was where the Broadway Music Theatre, the home of Big Band Beat, was to be found, so we headed there next.





We arrived at about 15:15 and went to find our seats, which were near the front of the theatre and a bit off to the right. The theatre was gorgeous - very plush and art-deco-looking - and we felt a bit underdressed (not to mention sweaty and gross ). It hadn’t actually rained at this point I don’t think, but it had been grey and muggy all day, which doesn’t leave ya feeling fresh as a daisy!

I was also very much on my last legs at this point. During the 20 minute wait before the show started I actually started doing the falling asleep head jerk! Bex told me to just stay awake for the show then we could go back to the hotel. Our rooms opened up at 15:00, which was the official check in time.

There was certainly no chance I could have fallen asleep during that show! DisneySea kept outdoing itself over and over again throughout our stay, and Big Band Beat was one of the most memorable moments. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos during the performance! This no-photos rule came up again and again throughout our stay in Japan and, though we always respected it, we often found it quite frustrating. I know that taking photos can be very off-putting, especially when people are inconsiderate, but there are some moments that you just long to capture! Anyway Japanese people are so considerate of each other that you know they wouldn’t abuse the privilege. Maybe it’s foreigners they’re worried about! Sobering thought.

Anyway, it means I can't share any pictures of this incredible show with you and you will have to take my word for it that this is THE BEST SHOW IN ANY DISNEY PARK EVER!

Big Band Beat is a tribute to big band and jazz songs from the 20s to the 40s. There are multiple musical numbers, all played by a live band and sung live by the performers, and dance routines involving a huge and unbelievably talented cast. The singers were total pros and sounded perfect, and the dancers were having so much fun I found myself completely unable to stop smiling. It’s also the most brilliant use of Disney characters that I’ve ever seen in a show. In many shows Mickey will be wheeled out somewhere near the end to say ‘Howdie folks’ and look adorable, but there’s not too many where he actually performs. In Big Band Beat Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Daisy Duck all take part in the singing and dancing - that means tap, ballroom and even a bit of ballet while wearing those massive heads . Minnie and Mickey dance together to Cheek to Cheek! Goofy conducts the live band! Mickey even plays the damn drums in a brilliant duet with the band’s drummer! These people are so talented you can’t believe it. Admittedly I was very tired (which tends to make me emotional) but I shed a few tears of joy while watching that show.

After that it was definitely time to head back to Tokyo Bay.




It took about 30 minutes total to get back in total (walking to the entrance, monorail, bus and then walking up to our room) and our bags were already in our rooms when we got there.




We took some quick pics before we could mess everything up and then I went off to have a shower.





I discovered that Japanese hotels provide you with all the toiletries you could need and more and set about trying them all out. Terrible for the environment of course, but great if you forgot anything! I also discovered that the hotel had a view across both of the parks, taking in all the iconic landmarks, from the window of the bathroom. We could even hear the music from the parks in the evening.



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Old 4 Aug 19, 06:18 PM  
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When you gachapon a star: Tokyo Disney and Japan 2019 - Travel Day and Day 1

Continued...

Japanese hotels even provide you with nightwear, which in this case was an uber-sexy purple and grey tent affair. I changed into this and slipped on an eye mask for a snooze. It was absurdly easy to go to sleep and I ended up snoozing for a couple of hours.

I woke up around 18:30, showered and got dressed again. Bex had been enjoying the view of Disney while I slept.



At this point we exchanged the presents that we’d bought for each other (just because holiday-time, ya know?). I had bought Bex a Kiki’s Delivery Service t-shirt (which there may be a picture of her wearing later in the trippie) to celebrate her love of the movie, and for her to wear when we went to the Ghibli Museum, and she had bought me (and herself) some things from Shanghai Disney! She bought us both Zootopia t-shirts (one of our favourite favourite Disneys) and also some plushies.

Hers was a Duffy dressed as a bull to celebrate the Chinese year of the bull (her birth year)...


There was a Duffy for every zodiac animal themed to a particular character - all exclusive to Shanghai Disney.

...and mine was this dog...do you get the reference?



They were both such cool and unique bits of Disney merch - I was thrilled. Bex said that the merchandise in Shanghai Disney was next-level, and it had been all she could do to limit herself to a couple of presents each!

We debated going to Ixpiari to get some food but it felt like a waste of the park ticket not to go back, so we headed back to DisneySea.


The lobby of our hotel all lit up.

It was a very short walk to the monorail (seriously, you could see it go past from our window) and then another few minutes on the monorail.



The DisneySea version of Fantasmic, which takes place out on the lake, was finishing up as we entered the park. It looked incredible! We would be seeing it in a couple of days, so made our way past the crowds to the Mysterious Island area.

It was easily 20:00 by this point and we were both starving, so we settled on Volcania to eat our tea at. Bex had looked it up and it had gotten great reviews, plus the theming was awesome.

We both ordered the same thing (again): cold pork noodles in miso soup with a tea smoked egg and seaweed garnish. We also got a portion of spring rolls to share and 2 cokes.



The whole thing came to 2,930 yen (£22), meaning that with the two meals and bus tickets we’d gone a bit over our 5000 yen each (£37.53) budget for the day, but that was fine. Most days we didn’t, and Japan turned out to be a lot more affordable then we had always thought. The food was absolutely delicious (and unlike anything we’d ever had in a Disney park before) and the setting was really atmospheric.




We finished eating about 20:50 and went to see if we could get on some rides, now the park was a bit less crowded. Our first stop was Aquatopia which is in Port Discovery. This area continues the steampunk theming of Mysterious Island but brings it a bit more up to date.




Aquatopia was a 15 minute wait so we were soon on. It’s a really cute, fun ride, where you move around on the water in a two-person ride vehicle. Every so often some water threatens to splash you (like, you go round a whirlpool and up close to a waterfall and things like that), but always stops just before you get there. It’s random and quite old-school, but is still relaxing and nice.

Next door to Aquatopia was the Nemo and Friends Searider, which is actually one of the fairly big-ticket rides in the park, and always has a long queue. This evening it was only about a 15 minute wait though, so we were glad to get it out of the way.



It’s a bit like Star Tours but not in 3D. You get shrunk down inside a fish-shaped ride vehicle and go exploring with Nemo and friends.




It was OK, nothing special. I certainly wouldn’t queue longer for it than we did. It is very kid-friendly though, in a park without quite as many rides aimed at kids as other Disney parks, so that’s probably why it’s so popular.

Once again, I wasn’t able to take pictures on either of these rides, or even in the queue areas. I got told off for the pics above and these were taken before we got into the ride area!

It was getting late at this point, and the park closed at 22:00. We decided to catch the electric train from Port of Discovery Station to the American Waterfront - it runs back and forth between those stops all day. It was a nice way to get a view of the park from higher up, especially of Port of Discovery. Unfortunately, none of our pics came out, so you’ll have to take my word for it.

From the American Waterfront Station we walked to the exit, along with all the rest of the crowds.





It was now 22:00 and the park was closing. We caught the monorail (not busy because it comes so frequently) and then walked back to our hotel from there.

Back in the hotel room I finished off my notes and we both showered and went to bed.





I took half a sleeping pill and was out like a light. Can’t believe we stayed till park closing on our first day, on so little sleep!

Next up...Day 2 in Tokyo Disney!

See you soon, lovelies
Rosie
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Old 4 Aug 19, 06:38 PM  
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Fantastic start to your trip and well done for packing so much in on so little sleep but obviously changing your sleeping pattern in the run up to your trip worked well.

Looking forward to reading along on your adventure as your plan sounds very varied and interesting.
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Old 4 Aug 19, 08:35 PM  
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Great report, so looking forward to reading more 😊👍
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Old 6 Aug 19, 08:11 AM  
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Rae21
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Great report, looking forward to the rest. 😄
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Old 6 Aug 19, 07:12 PM  
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#7
Alidoll
Chilling at Carribean Beach
 
Join Date: Mar 18
Great report and will be following along with your adventures (and taking notes).
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Old 12 Aug 19, 07:19 AM  
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#8
AntonyJ
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Join Date: Sep 08
Location: Carfin, Motherwell
Loving it!

I was there in May and also did a park the day we arrived, we gave up and went to bed about 21:00 thought lol.
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Old 12 Aug 19, 07:41 AM  
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#9
StorybookCircus
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Mobile

Best name for a trip report EVER!
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Old 1 Sep 19, 09:17 PM  
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#10
Gr8WideSomewher
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Excited about Disney
 
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Originally Posted by Mel49 View Post
Fantastic start to your trip and well done for packing so much in on so little sleep but obviously changing your sleeping pattern in the run up to your trip worked well.

Looking forward to reading along on your adventure as your plan sounds very varied and interesting.
We certainly packed it in and got swept up in the magic on that first day - as you tend to do in Disney.

Thanks for reading, and it's also so nice when people leave comments!
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