Two week trip to Tokyo and Tokyo Disney - Day 3

[fifi500]

Day 3 – Tokyo Disneyland- Friday 31st August

Today was to be our first day at Tokyo Disneyland and we were excited. So, after another unsettled night we woke to our 9am alarm and got ready as quickly as we could. I had breakfast in the room a melon bread and a banana, DD had already reverted to her normal breakfast of a glass of apple juice and nothing else.
We set off from the hotel, stopping via 7-Eleven to buy a prepacked sandwich for me to have with my fries at lunchtime and a grape Fanta drink. My choice of sandwich was egg and ham but there was a huge variety including some weird ones. I did try rum and raisin later in the trip but just the once and also chocolate and whipped cream which DD likes. Apparently, it’s a long-standing collaboration between a Japanese bread maker and Baskin Robbins from the USA.

Then off to the train station to start our now usual route - Higashi-Ikebukuro to Shin Kiba and finally to Maihama station.
As you come out of Maihama station and turn right, go past the Bon Voyage Disney store and through the red arch way. I think it is a meant to be a bag but its maybe more obvious from other angles. You can walk directly to Disneyland without needing to use the monorail but there is a monorail station here.

You are then led down an open walk way with small statues of Disney characters and through the entrance archway.

Then it leads onto the entrance plaza with bag check and the ticket turnstiles in front of you. Usual procedure for entrance and again bag check is directly before the turn styles.
We took in various food and drink items on our Disney days and DD continues to do so with no issues at all, however it does specify no picnics are permitted. Again, this is where we found the maps and Today guides, both of which are different to Tokyo DisneySea. There was also a stand containing the park maps to the left just before you entered the covered main street area World Bazaar.

This Plaza area past the ticket entrance and before Main Street also contains storage lockers, toilets and guest relations. It also hosts a character Meet and Greet area. Mickey, Minnie, Rapunzel and Flynn, Prince Phillip, Thumper and Miss Bunny, Belle, Tigger, Evil Queen, Prince Charming and Pinocchio have been spotted by DD during various trips. Meet and Greets in Japan are different to WDW. There isn’t a queue, instead everyone crowds around the character and waits to be picked at random, and despite some pushy parents this did seem to work.These characters are not accompanied by a photographer. Instead the minder will happily use your phone or camera to take one for you. The Disney photopass system we are used to in WDW isn’t present in Tokyo.

Then into World Bazaar or as DD calls it Main Street in a warehouse. It feels like it should be familiar but is so different. Lots of similar shop facades but you cannot quite see the castle, but it contains a huge 35th anniversary monument that plays music and lights up every so often. Also, lots of balloon sellers as both Tokyo Disney parks are very windy due to the coastal position so balloons seem to be sold inside. There are cross roads half way down that would take you to Adventure land or Tomorrowland, but our mission was to see the castle. Several times when passing through here we also saw a marching band, they were really good but attracted a huge crowd making the area difficult to walk down.

You are led out to a fantastic view of the castle and then can choose to go left or right to the hub which is similar to WDW.

We admired the castle for a while and then set off to Westernland as the phone app that DD had was still showing fast passes available for later in the evening on Thunder Mountain.

After securing fast passes, as per the old way, park ticket into the machine and a paper fast pass pop’s out, we made our way to Fantasy Land. Most wait times were huge, but we did manage to have a spin on the Carousel Horses which was a good way to have a look at Fantasy Land. We also went into Philharmagic which is identical to the Magic Kingdom version, except it was all in Japanese, although a little updated as the images were clearer. This happens to be one of DH favourite attractions in WDW, so I did end up in tears as it made me miss him, but the show was as lovely as usual.

Lunch and a bit of time for me to collect myself was next on the list. The options for fries in Tokyo Disneyland are Refreshment Corner (Casey’s) at the end of World Bazaar, Camp Woodchuck Kitchen in Westernland, Huey, Dewy and Louie’s Good time café in Toontown, Plasma Ray’s Diner or Tomorrowland Terrace which were both in Tomorrowland. The next place we wanted to visit was Toontown so Huey, Dewy and Louis would have made sense except for the fact that today the temperature was in the mid thirties and this counter service only has outdoor seating, so it was not for us today. Instead we made our way to Plasma Ray’s whose character is apparently the cousin of Sonny Eclipse of Cosmic Rays Magic Kingdom.

Toontown. I was a huge fan of this area in WDW and so upset when they tore it down, so we were keen to visit Minnie and Mickeys houses, so we made our way there. We were not disappointed, in fact it’s so much better than Florida was. Minnie’s house had a shortish wait, so we visited there, lovely with lots of interactive bits. Mickeys house is actually a Mickey mouse meet and greet, a traditional queue style Meet and Greet and always had queues of 90 minutes plus. So instead we went into Chip ‘n Dales Tree house and Donald’s boat, both of which were super cute, Goofy also has a house which is an interactive playhouse with huge queues.

We really did notice here the importance of getting the right photograph is to the Japanese, even Minnie Mouse’s mail box at the front of her house had a huge line for photographs. It is not a quick shot and move on, each member of the group poses separately and then for the toys they have with then pose again. This area also contains the Roger Rabbit area which is all so brilliantly themed, and a great photo area. For those who remember the Epic Mickey game – this area is a little reminiscent of that.

We then bought milk chocolate flavor popcorn in Toontown and then went to grab our spot for the parade due at 16.45, Dreaming Up! it was about 4 ish now so we got a good spot.

Sat to watch parade just outside Toontown with our popcorn, 2nd row back. A cast member gave us maps to sit on. Other side had a large hedge, so all characters were looking our way, it was a great place for us. We felt that some of the non-Japanese native CM’s on the floats – Alice for example were able to spot us in the crowd and gave a good wave. I guess we stood out a little, but we were by no means unique.

The parade was fantastic with great music, although it was announced shortly beforehand that due to weather conditions it would be a reduced parade. Now it was a warm and dry day but very windy day, so we assume that the wind was the issue and reduction seemed to be no dancer’s just floats, but Peter Pan and Wendy continued to fly around? We really enjoyed the parade, fabulous floats, a good range of characters, fabulous music and it was generally well worth the wait. To be honest we were not disappointed even with this reduced parade. The parade route is printed in the Today guide, there are preferred viewing areas in the hub that you need to enter a lottery draw in the morning for at Tomorrowland hall, but we were very happy with our viewing spot.
The lottery system works for admissions to preferred viewing or reserved seating at some popular shows or parades. We did not use it, but I believe you enter your park ticket in a fastpass type machine and you may or may not be allocated a ticket. There appears to be an ability for family submissions as well. The available shows are Lets Party Gras in Adventure land, Dreaming Up! Celebrate Tokyo Disneyland (projection show in the hub), and “One Man’s Dream - The Magic lives on”.

Back to Fantasy Land with plans to do unique things during my visit, so we wanted to go inside the castle - unfortunately it closed at 5pm and it was now 5.30pm. Instead we decided to explore the area around the castle, and one particular area we loved was the Snow White Grotto area to the left of the castle – it features a wishing well and waterfall. It is a really lovely area and Snow White sings intermittently, it looks particularly beautiful at night and easily missed as it is not marked on the park map.

We also had a snack from the Pan Galactic Pizza Port in Tomorrowland – some Darth Vader mochi with cream fillings berry, custard and caramel. They were lovely with the caramel filling being my favourite. They cost yen 400 and although we did not order the souvenir bowl they came in fairly sturdy Star Wars bowls which DD continues to use for snacks. We sat on the upstairs terrace and as it was by now dark it was very atmospheric.

At this point all of the rides were showing long waits, so we decided we would be best served by returning to the hotel for an earlier night with a plan to stay until closing tomorrow night in an attempt to ride some rides.
We were too tired by now to use our Thunder Mountain fast pass and decided to call it a day. So, we wandered through some shops in World Bazaar, which were extremely busy. Onto the busy trains and arrived back at the hotel about 9pm.

Our first impressions of Tokyo Disneyland where it has a very familiar but different feel. Although it was super busy and wait times were huge the general lay out and wider paths made it easier to navigate. The music playing was also familiar songs but always played at a much louder volume, this seemed to be a common theme in Tokyo, generally everywhere played music super loud. The shops were disappointing compared to Florida and we didn’t purchase any merchandise today (DH will be shocked!) But we really enjoyed our first taste of proper Disney.

Coming soon – Day 4 – Ikebukuro for a Power Puff Girls drink and Tokyo Disneyland (Nightmare before Christmas overlay at Haunted Mansion and The Electrical Parade)

[Guest]

Wow great day! Thanks for taking the time to write up!

[AntonyJ]

Loving it! In the first pic, that the rum / raisin one?

[fifi500]

Thank you and yes the first picture is a rum and raisin sandwich.

A white bread sandwich with a rum and raisin frosting filling is certainly interesting and I am glad I tried it but once was enough, I will be looking to try another Baskin Robins sandwich next time I visit Japan.

[AntonyJ]

I am not vegan / vegetarian but am a fussy eater, so am really interested in "fall back" food I might eat if it turns out there is not too much Japanese food I will like when i get there. So knowing there are really excellent egg sandwiches etc and the convenience stores, is really good to know.

[AntonyJ]

How is your daughter getting on now?

[fifi500]

Thank you asking. Unfortunately homesickness has been a struggle for the past few weeks but by managing to spend many hours a day with her on Skpe and Whatsapp she is now hopefully past the worst and starting to enjoy her days again.

Sorry it has been so long since I managed to get a day posted on my trip report but between supporting DD and other commitments time has disappeared. Day 4 is now up and day 5 written and just needs the photographs adding.