James & Gemma do Tokyo Disneyland - Day 1 / Day 2

[James&Gemma]

James & Gemma do Tokyo Disneyland - Day 1 / Day 2

Morning all,

After an interesting nights 'sleep' of doors banging, fireworks and general noisy merry people we were up at 6am for the usual morning routine before heading off to the airport.

After a quick drive (only 10minutes) we parked up in the long stay car park and got on the bus to terminal 5.





We dropped off our bags, speeded through fast track security and headed straight to the galleries lounge for breakfast.



We enjoyed some bacon rolls along with the usual accompaniments you would associate with a continental breakfast and then relaxed in the lounge until our gate came up.





We left the lounge and headed for the underground train as our plane was departing from gate C54. We got on the train and waited, and waited, and waited! Nothing happened, in this time another train had turned up on the other side of the platform and left again. It was then announced that there were technical issues and we need to get off the train and go to the other side for the next train. We all moved over and just as the new train arrived the old one started working taking all of the three passengers it still had onboard. This had cost us some time but we still made it to the gate (just) with a little bit of time to spare.

We got on the plane and were shown to our seats before being offered a choice of orange juice or champagne before take off. Our coats were then taken away to be hung up and we settled down for the long 12hour flight to Narita Airport.

We have never flown business before and I've got to admit we were very impressed with the service and overall experience. It was certainly a weird experience taking off backwards.





Not long after boarding lunch was served. Gemma didn't have a starter and just had a salad



I had the Five mile goats cheese with blood orange dressing which was a strange combination but worked really well.




We both had the Seared tenderloin of Angus beef with thyme sauce, basil tangliatelle, sautéed fine beans and piquilla peppers for main.



For dessert I opted for the Toffie apple crisp delice with apple jus while Gemma went with fruit.




After Lunch we watched a film and then settled down for a nights sleep. We managed to get a few hours kip before breakfast was served.

For starters Gemma went for the fresh fruit while I went for the West Country Granola with fruit compote and natural yoghurt.




There were then a selection of warm breads and breakfast pastries followed by traditional English breakfast of scrambled eggs, crispy bacon, sausage, tomato and hash browns.

[James&Gemma]

Our flight landed 15 minutes early so we were through customs and collected our bags by just after 9am. This was good but unfortunately the next bus to Disney wasn't until 11.05 so this left us with about 2hours to kill in the airport. There isn't much to do there so after buying the tickets for the bus (unfortunately its not free like the magical express in Florida but only costs 2400yen or about £18.50 each) and walking the full length of the terminal we got ourselves comfortable and waited for the bus.





As we expected the bus was running perfectly on time, it arrived at 11am and left spot on 11.05. We had a good run through to Disney but did have a slight mishap when we arrived, unknown to us the bus is supposed to stop at all the Disney Hotels and official Hotels (including the Hilton Tokyo Bay). However, as most of the messages were both written and spoken in Japanese we were not fully aware of this. So when we stopped at the main entrance of Disney we got off the bus and the bus driver (who was extremely helpful but spoke almost no English) told us we needed to pick up another bus to the resort.



So here is our first handy tip for anyone planning to go to Tokyo Disney and use the airport shuttle. As the bus arrives to pick you up some people from the bus company will greet you and they will ask where you are going. Make sure you have a piece of paper of something with the hotel written on it. The reason for this is that as they load your bags onto the bus they will tag your luggage with the hotel name so the bus driver knows where to take off your bags. If they are not 100% sure they will just mark it with Disney and your bags will be taken off at the first stop like ours were.

Anyway it didn't matter and we simply bought a 4day pass for the monorail as we were going to be using it anyway and headed over to our hotel. Again unlike the monorail at Florida the monorail is not free as under Japanese law they are required to charge for public transport.

By this time it was about 12.20 and our room wouldn't be ready until 3pm so we left our bags at the hotel, bought our tickets and headed straight for the Disneyland park via the shuttle bus and monorail.

[James&Gemma]

We got into the Disneyland park at 1.30pm and had a wonder around World Bizarre (Main Street) before grabbing a hot dog for lunch.













We then headed straight over to the Haunted Mansion as this was due to be closed the next day to be converted back after the Christmas theming

[James&Gemma]

While in the queue line one thing we noticed straight away is that it is very normal here to wear Disney merchandise and for women to all Carry around Duffy bears with them all the time.

We managed to get through the queue line in about 60minutes, which was one of the shortest in the park according to the wait time board. To put this in perspective the longest queue was for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt and this was 4 hours.

Anyway after haunted mansion we had a short wonder around the park to get a feel for the place before deciding it had been a long day and decided to head back to the hotel for an early night.






We arrived at the hotel at about 8pm, checked in and shown to our room. The room, as you can see, was amazing.

[James&Gemma]

While we unpacked we ordered room service for tea before heading to bed ready for the busy day tomorrow.

Tomorrow... Disney Sea

[scoobyz2312]

Looks impressive, taking off backwards though! Cannnot wait until the rest

[sweetemotion]

Lovely hotel room. I'm shocked at those wait times, I've heard they're always quite long in Tokyo. Can't wait for the next part

[James&Gemma]

Originally Posted by scoobyz2312

Looks impressive, taking off backwards though! Cannnot wait until the rest

See more...

lol Ive just re-read our trippy and it sounds like the plane took off backwards...
I actually meant to put that it felt like we were taking off backwards as the seats we were in were facing the opposite direction. It was a little strange!

[Guest]

Fabulous! Thanks for the note about your case! Wow it looks busy! 4 hours for Pooh? I dread what Toy Story is! Glad the toilet is in English ;-)

[Guest]

Looks great my son and DIL did Tokyo Disney a few years ago they enjoyed it That completed the full set of all in the world for them