When you gachapon a star: Tokyo Disney and Japan 2019 - Day 2

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Hello chums,

Sorry this has taken a v long time to get out! I've had most of it written for a while, but I just needed to find the time to sort out the photos, and wait for Bex to sort out hers.

I'll try and do better in the future!

Day 2 - Tokyo Disneyland

Our second day was a Monday and we were hoping the Tokyo Disneyland main park, which was where we were going to be that day, wouldn’t be too insanely busy. We woke up at about 7 (I actually felt pretty good and rested) and got ready to go.

We were out of the hotel by about 7.40, only to discover that it was raining really hard! We were both relieved that we’d made the last-minute decision to buy cheapo anoraks before leaving the UK - and boy, would we be grateful for that decision in the days that followed! Although the weather hadn’t been great on our first day, this day marked the first of the really wet days we experienced.

This being the case, we got the bus to the station and rode the monorail from there.

I wish I’d taken a picture from above once we got to the park because the umbrellas really were a cool sight. We arrived at 8.05, an hour before the park was due to open, and the queues were already substantial. And since it was chucking it down, everybody had their umbrellas out - it was a colourful sea.

We joined one of the queues and waited along with everyone else. As usual, the Japanese were exceptionally good at waiting. We British may have invented queuing, but the Japanese perfected it. Even the kids were extremely well-behaved, which was doubly amazing considering how weighed down a lot of them were. Accessorizing is definitely ‘the thing’ in Japan, and most kids carried not only a popcorn bucket and a passholder, but often a rucksack and a shoulder bag as well. Not to mention whatever soft toy they had brought along for the day. Often literally every one of these things would be in the shape of Duffy or Shellie May.

When the park gates opened we (unencumbered by Duffies) speed-walked to Monsters Inc. The Tokyo parks are all about getting there early and grabbing fastpasses whenever you can. Fastpasses for the big rides run out very quickly, so you have to get those first. We had done our research and opinion seemed to be split between Pooh’s Hunny Hunt and Monsters Inc (the two big-ticket rides in this park) as to which you should try and ride first. The queue at Monsters Inc looked temptingly short, but we decided to stick to our original plan and get a fastpass for it, before running to Pooh.

This we did with very few issues. We waited about 5 minutes for the fastpass, eventually ending up with one for 10.20 and then walked to Pooh through many many puddles. Seriously, the rain was still coming down in sheets and the ground was all level, so water wasn’t draining away. The walkways were flooded!

It should perhaps be noted that on Day 4 we came to this park in the morning and did things in the same order, but had to wait much longer for the Monsters Inc fastpass. I just thought people should know that, if you’re looking for tips in this report. I think the order we did things in was a good one - but be prepared to join some crazy fastpass queues!

Pooh was still a walk-on when we got to it, though the queue was definitely starting to build already. We didn’t get a chance to really appreciate the brilliant queue area this time, though we did on other occasions. We were blown away by the ride though!

As some of you may know, we spent much of the last year watching every Disney animated film and reviewing them, which included all of the movies from the Poohniverse. This being the case, my expectations of the ride weren’t extremely high as most of those movies are decidedly meh; I’d heard how good it was, but really, how great could a Winnie the Pooh ride really be? The answer of course is ‘completely spectacular, Rosie, don't you ever doubt Disney again you dunce! ’ I have no idea how they do some of the effects in that ride and I am happy not knowing. The ride uses a trackless system, like Ratatouille at DLP, and is very smooth, but it’s the visuals and the effects that take your breath away. The bit with the heffalumps and woozles is particularly fun and totally bonkers.

After Pooh we walked round to Toontown. As we’ve only been to DLP and Disney World we’d never seen the Toontown area before in any form...unfortunately today was not the day to see it for the first time! I tried to get some pictures, as you can see, but the weather made even this colourful, wacky little land look a bit grim.

We also wanted to escape the rain, so we went straight into Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin. This was a walk-on too, though I actually wish it hadn’t been. We never got to ride this ride again, because it’s pretty popular, and it would have been nice to appreciate the queue a bit. It looked like it was wonderfully witty and packed with references to the film, which is one of our faves.

The ride itself was a trip ! Kind of your basic dark ride, with the addition of a spinning vehicle, and over far too quickly. There were lots of wacky visual gags with things that are possible in the cartoon world, but not in the real world - just like in the film. It was awesome!

After that we walked back to Fantasyland to ride It’s a Small World. I’m certainly not the biggest It’s a Small World fan - I usually only submit to riding the one at DLP when it’s too cold to be outdoors any more - but I was actually quite looking forward to this one. I’d seen a ride-through on Youtube and loved the way they incorporated Disney characters among the other dollies.

Well, this was certainly the best It’s a Small World I’ve ever been on - in fact I sort of loved it. The art-style has really grown on me over the years and now, seeing the beloved Disney characters mixed in with the others and representing their parts of the world (Moana in the South Pacific, Mowgli in India etc.), I was able to embrace the twee-ness and appreciate the beauty of the ride. Even that insistent little tune was less irritating. Overall, the whole thing was delightful, and especially good because we had the boat to ourselves and I didn’t feel guilty about taking pictures. Not that any of my pictures came out of course!

Next we walked round to Discoveryland - round the edge rather than through the castle to avoid the crowds. We wanted to ride Space Mountain so we could compare it with the other two Spaces we’ve ridden (three, I suppose, if you count Space Mountain and Hyperspace Mountain as two different things), but unfortunately it was down.

We waited around for a few minutes until our Monsters Inc fastpass opened and then went in at the beginning of our slot.

This was the only time we rode Monsters Inc unfortunately, but I can pretty decisively say it was my favourite ride in the park. It was so much better than other point and shoot types of rides, with the competitive element removed, and the main focus being on uncovering all the visual treats the ride had in store for you. It was also so much in the spirit of the film that I almost felt a bit teary-eyed when we got to the end of it. You certainly didn’t need to understand any Japanese to enjoy it, and it’s the type of ride that kids and adults will just adore. I wish every park had this ride!

It was now about 11.00 and, as you can imagine, we were quite peckish. We walked back in the direction of the World Bazaar (the entryway to the park) in search of some breakfast.

As was the case pretty much every time we went through this area there were characters out and mingling. Characters don’t have to be consigned to specific areas, or roped off or even queued for in Tokyo, because everyone behaves so beautifully. Even the characters you’d think would be mobbed, like the princesses, just tended to wander around chatting to people, without a minder in sight.

On this occasion it was the kittens from Aristocats, and each of them had a neat little circle around them, of people who were very patiently waiting to take pictures, or just enjoying the interactions between the kittens and the guests.

Even Marie, who is as kawaii as you could want and therefore very popular, wasn’t completely mobbed. See kids, this is why we can’t have nice things!

Afterwards we briefly popped into the ice cream parlour because the displays were so pretty. It wasn’t quite the moment for ice cream, however, so we went next door to the Sweetheart Cafe, promising ourselves to be back!

We went into the Sweetheart Cafe because we had seen it was one of the places to sell Mike Wazowski melon bread - one of the signature foods of Tokyo Disney. It also sold many many other delicious-looking things, making it extremely hard to choose!

We ended up with a melon bread and a custard-filled Mickey pastry...thing. Also I had an iced coffee and Bex had a normal coffee. I don’t seem to have written the prices of anything down individually, except for the melon bread, which was 300 yen (£2.30). The whole thing together cost 1,210 yen (£9.40).

It’s probably not overstating it to say that this melon bread was my favourite thing I ate the entire holiday. Melon bread isn’t actually supposed to taste of melon - it’s usually got a sugary crust on the outside that makes it look like a melon, but it usually just tastes sweet and light and delicious. This melon bread had all that going for it but it also tasted mildly and deliciously of melon and, crucially, was in the shape of Mike Wazowski! Both of us fell in love with it straight away, and though we ate melon bread quite a few more times throughout the holiday, this first taste of it, sitting under the awning and looking out at the rain-drenched park, was the best.

The other pastry was also pretty delicious, though maybe a smidge too sweet. Sorry, yummy pastry, you got overshadowed by that melony goodness.

After breakfast we headed to Adventureland, which in this park has a sort of New Orleans/bayou sort of feel, and is simply beautiful. Even on this grim day!

Pirates of the Caribbean is on the edge of this land so we went there first. It doesn’t seem to be incredibly popular and had a 15 minute posted wait time. It was probably about that and we were soon on.

It was a nice version of the ride, with some good little touches and cool effects. It’s certainly better than the Florida version but not what DLP’s used to be. They just had things in the wrong order and it ruins the ride! It should be calm and peaceful, then pirate shenanigans then skeletons and treasure - it just makes more sense and tells the story better.

Next we walked to the Jungle Cruise where I think we had about a 20-minute wait.

We had a nice little CM interaction just before boarding our boat (Irawaddy Irma); most of the CMs only seemed to know a little bit of English but it didn't stop them trying to make you feel really welcome. We told this nice lady that it was our first time visiting Tokyo Disneyland and she was absolutely thrilled. She gave us both stickers, which she signed and drew a little picture on, but mine soon washed off my increasingly damp clothes. Bex attached hers to her purse, which was safely in her bag, and she actually still has it!

The cruise itself was very good. Of course we couldn’t understand any of the jokes, but the CM was so enthusiastic and physically comedic that it didn’t really matter. Also the effects and animatronics were top notch and way better than in Walt Disney World.

We wandered through Adventureland - snapping pictures as we went and bemoaning the fact that none of them were going to be very good because of the awful weather - towards Frontierland, which is Tokyo Disneyland is called Westernland.

We headed to Big Thunder Mountain to get a fastpass, where the situation was a bit weird. The queue for the ride was extremely long, but they had fastpasses available for only 10 minutes later (12:35-13:25). So we picked up a fastpass and then took some pictures.

Our Space Mountain fastpass had now opened up, so we went back to Tomorrowland. The queue was still about 15 minutes long, even with the fastpass, but was quite a good queue. The ride itself was pretty good - it’s a fun, non-upside down coaster, which is better than Disney World’s, but nothing on DLP’s. It was good enough for us to walk round and get another fastpass for later in the day however! We ended up picking one up for 16:35-17:35.

Next we went back to Westernland to redeem our Big Thunder Mountain fastpass right before it ran out. This ride was really fun. We rode at the back, and I’ve often wondered whether this really does make the train feel faster, but it certainly felt like it did on this occasion. It’s fairly similar to the Disney World version, with some slight differences. Again, I think it was at least as good as the Disney World Big Thunder Mountain, but not as good as DLP’s.

It sounds like I’m criticising everything at Walt Disney World and in love with DLP doesn’t it? That isn’t the case really - I just think a few of the classic rides are at their best at DLP, and Big Thunder Mountain at DLP is my favourite ride in the whole world. And even though I know objectively that Disney World is the best (it’s the most extensive, has great food, merch etc etc), DLP will always be My First Disney Park, and therefore my favourite. Though DisneySea had challenged its supremacy definitely!

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Cont.

It was now about half an hour before the afternoon parade was due to start. We love parades and definitely wanted to get a view for this one, which looked awesome. We found a seat on a bench and waited under Becky’s umbrella. Of course it wasn’t ideal, but what can you do? And we were very lucky to get the spot on the bench. When it started raining hard, a few people sitting on the ground in front of use started getting to their feet, but were motioned back down again by the CMs. Everyone sat down again. On the ground. In the rain. People in Japan are so polite and sweet that they’ll sit on the ground in the rain just so the people behind them can have a good view.

Once the parade started it was fabulous. There were some really awesome floats and as usual the music was catchy as all hell. The princesses were wearing transparent waterproofs to protect their ball gowns! It was so cute.

These pictures of course don't do it justice because they’re too dark and there were rainy splotches on the lense!

After the parade we were absolutely starving. We wanted to try the famous Mickey glove sandwich for lunch, so went to Plasma Ray’s in Fantasyland. It was about 14:15 at this point and there was no one else queuing for lunch, so we got our food quickly. Two Mickey sandwich meals (with fries and a drink) cost 980 yen (£7.60) each.

The sandwich was delicious! It was a deep fried piece of chicken inside the glove bun, with a lovely, sweet, peanutty sauce. The bun was a Chinese-style one, with a slightly plasticky surface - it went perfectly with the chicken. Yummy!

We were pretty beat at this point and decided it was time to go back to the hotel for a bit. Obviously the sun came out just as were leaving!

We wandered back to the entrance through some of the shops and happened upon what probably would have been the character spot of the century, if I could have got my camera out in time! Just as were about to go from one shop to another, we were stopped by a CM and literally about ten characters proceeded to come out of a door and go right past us in a few seconds. There was definitely Chip and Dale and whoever their lady friend is, Pinocchio and Gepetto, Snow White, Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother (her mask was the stuff of nightmares) and Belle and possibly the kittens too, though I don’t remember. Anyway, as you can see, my pictures were woeful.

And no better once we got out of the shop and into the World Bazaar, as the characters were mobbed (in the genteel, Japanese sense of the word). We’re not really character people though, so we didn’t hang around and try to get better pictures.

We caught the monorail and were back at the hotel by about 15:30. It had been a wonderful morning, but a very wet one. Bex had gotten extremely wet feet quite early in the day and was pretty uncomfortable and cold. She had to throw out her socks and went to have a bath to warm up.

I got in the shower after she was done, washed my hair and then rested for a bit.

Apart from Bex’s wet socks, we’d dressed pretty well for the weather. Things got a bit damp, but nothing too bad, and considering how awful the weather had been, we got off pretty lightly.

We left for the park again at about 10 to 5 and arrived 20 minutes later.

We wandered slowly through to Discoveryland to use the Space Mountain fastpass that we’d gotten earlier. Again we waited about 15 minutes for the ride, and had a blast.

Next up we headed to Star Tours, which really didn’t seem to be that popular in Tokyo.

We waited for 20 minutes (rides for other things were way longer). The queue seemed to be pretty much the same as the other two versions of the ride we’d seen, apart from this cool little detail.

I don’t know how well you can see as this picture is so dark but...hitch-hiking droids!

The clips we saw were the ‘old faithfuls’ Kashyyyk and Otoh Gunga (I call them this because they seem to be the two planets we see about 70% of the time) and it was Ackbar who came to tell us about the spy.

As we came out of the ride there was a lovely bit of streetmosphere going on below us. A really good acapella group were doing a fantastic Disney medley and we watched them for a bit before moving on. They were very cool, making the noise of the instruments with their voices as well as singing the lyrics - a few of them weren’t bad looking too!

It was time now to start queueing for the Electrical Parade - even though it was some time until it started, we really wanted to get a good spot, and the streets were already lined with people waiting. People in Japan have way more patience than me!

Before we started queueing I insisted on getting some popcorn to munch on while I waited. Popcorn is the big thing in Tokyo Disney and the different flavours are very cool. I’m not a massive flavoured popcorn person (I basically just want it to be so salty it burns my tastebuds off!) but I thought it was part of the experience and we had to try some. I chose the flavour I thought sounded most interesting, soya sauce and butter, and we found some in a stall on the edge of Discoveryland. You can only get each of the flavours in one or two locations, so you need to plan ahead if you want to try a particular flavour. Without one of the elaborate popcorn buckets it cost 400 yen (£3.10). It was nice, but not amazing. I think I’ll stick to ‘salty’ from now on.

We found a spot to wait (and for me to scoff my popcorn) on a bench near the hub, but had only been doing so for about 20 minutes when we heard that the parade was cancelled! It wasn’t really surprising considering how wet it once again was, but we were disappointed. I adore the Main Street Electrical Parade and hadn’t seen it in years. We hoped it would be running on our next evening in this park. The parade was to be replaced by an alternative version called Nightfall Glow, which we decided to just keep waiting for, even though there was still quite a while to wait.

I saved our seats and finished my popcorn while Bex went off to get us some Big Thunder Mountain fastpasses for later in the evening. I think she just didn't want to ‘waste’ any time in Disneyland!

It slowly got dark and finally the parade began. It was extremely beautiful and definitely worth the wait, though it was quite short. We loved it though, and could hardly believe the Electrical Parade would have been better.

Once again the lovely people stayed seated on the ground, even when it started to really rain!

It was around 20:00 when the parade finished and we were definitely hungry for some tea. Bex had been really looking forward to going to the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall (a quick service) so we headed over there to find something to eat. This ended up probably being my favourite place we ate in Disney, though it was also probably the most expensive.

As you can see, the restaurant was wonderfully themed and absolutely beautiful. It was also a bit crazy, which worked perfectly for an Alice in Wonderland-themed restaurant.

The food options were fairly standard though, with nothing massively calling out to us. They were also really expensive and looked and smelled a bit like school dinners. But we wanted to eat here, so we decided to just keep the price down by sharing a main. We decided to share the caesar salad (700 yen - £5.40) and the chicken main course (1450 yen - £11.20). Our main extravagance was the Unbirthday cake (1200 yen - £9.30), which Bex had seen online and was desperate to try. We also got a coke for Bex, and I had tap water. The total was 3660 yen (£28.30) so definitely much more expensive than the other places we’d eaten.

We took our food to a table and tucked in, splitting the chicken and the caesar salad between us. The chicken itself was nicely cooked, but everything else was just sort of OK. The chicken came with mashed potatoes and some other veg, all of which was a bit watery.

The standout was the cake! We’re not usually big dessert people, but this cake was something else! It was really light with tons of fluffy icing and real fruit on top and in the middle. It was definitely enough for two people to share, being about the size of my hand. I still think about that cake sometimes…

We took some pictures in the restaurant, because every inch of it was just so cool, and then left.

We headed to the Haunted Mansion, which looked awesome in the dark and was a walk-on. As usual we adored this ride - it’s very like the Disney World version, with a couple of different details. It was nearly all in Japanese, but we were finding that that almost never affected how much fun we had on a ride.

By this time it was about 21:20 and our Big Thunder Mountain fastpass had opened up, so we went to Westernland. We were on the ride in about ten minutes and, of course, riding in the dark was fantastic!

It was getting on for park closing, but we took our time leaving the park, looking in a few shops along the way.

Although we thought one or two things were pretty cool, there was no merch that seemed like a must-buy.

Of course getting home was super easy - even though we left at the same time as everyone else, the monorails weren’t too busy as they were so frequent - and we were back by about 22:30.

We showered and got ready for bed and then chatted to our mum, who was on a work trip in Tanzania at the time. We got off to sleep about midnight and, of course, slept like babies!

Thanks for reading, friends X

[DisneyDaffodil]

Loving your report, what a great day. Shame about the rain but it certainly didn’t stop you enjoying yourselves 😀 .

How nice to see orderly queues and no one pushing in front or obscuring your view of the parade etc I do wish all Disney parks were like that. The queues for the rides seemed really good too, you certainly managed to go on loads today

I love the look of the Mike melon bread, the way you described it made me want to book the next flight out for some 😀

[Goldia]

Seems like the rain did you a favour as it looked very quiet in all the photos and so perhaps it was less crowded.

Such a fab day and I always love your detail and all the photos.

[JudyC]

Really great report, I enjoyed it a lot.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

Loving your report, what a great day. Shame about the rain but it certainly didn’t stop you enjoying yourselves 😀 .

How nice to see orderly queues and no one pushing in front or obscuring your view of the parade etc I do wish all Disney parks were like that. The queues for the rides seemed really good too, you certainly managed to go on loads today

I love the look of the Mike melon bread, the way you described it made me want to book the next flight out for some 😀

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Hi, thanks for commenting! I've missed our chats on the marathon thread!

We had a fantastic day, despite the rain. Day 3 is up now and the weather was a bit better that day - I really want people to see Tokyo Disney looking its best, because it's so gorgeous!

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by Goldia

Seems like the rain did you a favour as it looked very quiet in all the photos and so perhaps it was less crowded.

Such a fab day and I always love your detail and all the photos.

See more...

Thank you, and thanks for reading and commenting

This was probably the least busy day we had, but Tokyo Disney is nearly always pretty mobbed. They love their Disney over there!

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by JudyC

Really great report, I enjoyed it a lot.

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Thank you, I'm so glad. Thanks for commenting!

[shona]

Really enjoying your report and seeing all the differences to other Disney parks.

[Gr8WideSomewher]

Originally Posted by shona

Really enjoying your report and seeing all the differences to other Disney parks.

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Yey I'm so glad, thanks for commenting. Yep, the Tokyo parks are really different in a lot of ways, but still quite like old-school Disney too in their design.