Spirit Inspiried Faux 1% Visit to Tokyo Disneyland

[david10225]

I'm finishing up a 4 day visit to Tokyo Disneyland today. This is a bucket list trip, never to be repeated and I appreciate all the hints I have received from the online community on how to have a good trip. I'd like to share a few thoughts. I don't usually post, so I hope that this is appropriate in this location.

- The advice of getting to the part one hour before opening is spot on. I did it the first two days and there were hundreds of young people in line already sitting on the ground waiting patiently to get in.

- I hate the run to get a fast pass after opening. And by running, I mean running. I walked to Pooh and by the time I got there at about 810, my Fast Pass was already for 1030. By 815, the standby line for Space Mountain was 45 minutes and 75 minutes for Monsters Inc.

- Lines were like Disneyland Christmas week crazy...and this was for a Monday in late September.

- Cast members were amazing. Smiling from ear to ear and helping out this guy who speaks not one word of Japaneese..

- Entertainment at Disneyland was amazing. I wish Disneyland had some kind of indoor theater. It must be brutal in the summer

- Their electrical parade (I think it was called Dreamlights) had so many floats with sophisticated lightning effect. So much better than Florida. In one day I saw the Halloween parade twice, a Happiness parade and they also had an electrical parade. That's 3 different parades for the price of one day's admission.

- Oh my good ness - Orlando is ripping us off. My 4 day ticket was 16,500 Yet which is about 150 dollars!

A few negatives

- The color pallet throughout the park seems washed out. Everything looks..well a bit faded.
- Lack of vegatation compared to Florida.
- I can't get used to World Bazaar. No parade coming down main street is hard to get used to.
- Shopping here is not that great. Most of the stores have the same merchandise and very little park specific stuff. The World Bazaar shops are one big store in most cases...so Orlando is not much off the mark.
- The most bizarre thing for me was that huge concrete area between the end of World Bazarr and the Castle. It seems like a giant concrete plaze. It was quite striking for me and totally lacking in any charm.

I'll drop some thoughts about the most amazing theme park in the world in a separate post.

 

[BrerJon]

I'm finishing up a 4 day visit to Tokyo Disneyland today. This is a bucket list trip, never to be repeated and I appreciate all the hints I have received from the online community on how to have a good trip. I'd like to share a few thoughts. I don't usually post, so I hope that this is appropriate in this location.

- The advice of getting to the part one hour before opening is spot on. I did it the first two days and there were hundreds of young people in line already sitting on the ground waiting patiently to get in.

- I hate the run to get a fast pass after opening. And by running, I mean running. I walked to Pooh and by the time I got there at about 810, my Fast Pass was already for 1030. By 815, the standby line for Space Mountain was 45 minutes and 75 minutes for Monsters Inc.

- Lines were like Disneyland Christmas week crazy...and this was for a Monday in late September.

- Cast members were amazing. Smiling from ear to ear and helping out this guy who speaks not one word of Japaneese..

- Entertainment at Disneyland was amazing. I wish Disneyland had some kind of indoor theater. It must be brutal in the summer

- Their electrical parade (I think it was called Dreamlights) had so many floats with sophisticated lightning effect. So much better than Florida. In one day I saw the Halloween parade twice, a Happiness parade and they also had an electrical parade. That's 3 different parades for the price of one day's admission.

- Oh my good ness - Orlando is ripping us off. My 4 day ticket was 16,500 Yet which is about 150 dollars!

A few negatives

- The color pallet throughout the park seems washed out. Everything looks..well a bit faded.
- Lack of vegatation compared to Florida.
- I can't get used to World Bazaar. No parade coming down main street is hard to get used to.
- Shopping here is not that great. Most of the stores have the same merchandise and very little park specific stuff. The World Bazaar shops are one big store in most cases...so Orlando is not much off the mark.
- The most bizarre thing for me was that huge concrete area between the end of World Bazarr and the Castle. It seems like a giant concrete plaze. It was quite striking for me and totally lacking in any charm.

I'll drop some thoughts about the most amazing theme park in the world in a separate post.

Thanks for the great report! Please post more thoughts on your trip, I'm so keen to know what you thought of DisneySea!

And well done for having the guts to give Tokyo a shot, too many people dismiss it out of hand, then spend thousands going to WDW for the millionth time instead!

Also, as for the concrete... get used to it, the new Hub at Magic Kingdom seems to be pretty much a clone of how it is at Tokyo!

 

[david10225]

So a few thoughts about the most fantastic theme park on the planet - namely Disney Seas

It's pretty much everything everyone has said about it. It seems to have such a massive scale in area and the buildings are just beautiful. I'll try and post a few pictures, but they are likely the same as all others have done, but let me make a few general comments:

- The shows are very entertaining. Again lots of hard working people. Lots of performers in each show. No Orlando style cutbacks here. It was so nice to sit in a fully realized theater to listen to some big band music. I could have done with all the visits from the Disney characters, but the crowd seems to love it. I also saw another show that had a sort of nature/jungle theme. Again, nice theater with lots of very sophisticated sets (water, fire, etc). Funny cultural observation, but the people over there don't really cheer or applause, except for some tepid applause at the end.
- My favorite ride was The seven voyages of Sinbad. The showrooms were enormous and the animatronics were excellent. I would like to have that score. This was the only ride I chose to ride twice and I could have easily done it a third time. It has a huge queue that was not in use so I guess its popularity was over estimated.
- My only negative comment is the lack of unique shopping. It was basically the same generic Disney merchandize in every highly themed store. If I never see that Duffy bear and his cat fiend ever again, I'll be a happy man. They had store after store stuffed with Duffy, and they had a Duffy meet and greet and even some kind of Duffy show! The only thing I found interesting to buy was a plastic model of the voodoo doll from the tower of terror. Speaking of which....
- I'm sorry but I don't buy the storyline. While the preshow is impressive, I just didn't think the whole elevator part fit in to the rest of the story. Its like they had to shoehorn the ride into the story. And of course the Orlando ride is still the best of the lot with its third dimension
- I was amazed how the people listen to the preshow spiel. I noticed in this park, much of it was done live and I think this culture is much more respectful. We have a lot to work on in our country. This was particularly evident during the preshow for the weather ride (I forget the name now), but the preshow was done by a live cast member and you couldn't hear a pin drop during the whole thing.
- I'm so glad I got to experience it. As others have said, don't go to WDW for the 10th time - just skip a year or two and see a Disney park like it used to be!

This is TOY Story Midway Mania - very nice looking. I didn't ride it as the line to get a fast pass in the morning was way too long.

Check out the crowds at 656 in the morning. The park opened at 8. They say to get there early and they were not kidding

This is the line of people from two different ends of the streetwaiting to get a fast pass for Toy Story at about 840 AM in the morning. By then I had walked to get a different fast pass, then walked back to visit the TOT.

Check this out - at 8:32 in the morning about 30 minutes after the park opened, the wait for TOT was 70 minutes!

Their TOT. I liked the preshow with the idol, but the ride was...ordinary. Orlando is still the best. That hotel looks really weird doesn't it

Growing up in Massachusetts, I had to take this picture of their Cape Cod area. No rides there and plenty of Duffy, but I thought it was nice to walk through!

Kind of a cool picture of the inside of Ariel's kingdom - yes it was carny rides and the main show was closed till the spring, but man..the inside area is freakin huge!

I uploaded this just to give you the size of the scale of this place...amazing isnt it!

My favorite picture of the park - just the sense of water, and how it entices you to move forward to the next land.

My one selfie to show I was actually there!

I hope you enjoyed my pictures. I took them all with my Nexus 5 phone. I am happy I only lugged that and my wi fi hot spot around as it was hot!

I know this board doesn't get a lot of traffic, but if anyone has any questions about making a solo trip, please feel free to ask!

 

[david10225]

And to finish off, just a few pictures from Tokyo Disneyland.

So...their version of our main street. Clean as you can imagine. But the stores were just meh..same merchandise and most stores opened to another store, like one big shopping mall..just like Orlando. Kind of a miss for me. And no parade!

Who doesn't like Pooh! Speaking of Pooh....

I bought this snack...but couldn't ummmm..finish it....the do say that looks are part of what makes food appetizing!

Their castle - they had a sort of walk on exhibit in there, but the lines were just too long,

I ate at the famous Queen of Hearts restaurant. It was nice and I got to sit down. Nothing fancy but nourishing. I'm a people watching and when you are by yourself there was lots of see here.

I thought their Small World was interesting. The outside is sort of like Disneyland, but you load on the inside like you do in Orlando.

The famous MI ride. Doesn't look crowded but I waited 50 minutes at 8 PM at night in the standby line. Lines during the day were enormous. It was OK - I'd give it a nice D ticket rating.

I hope this picture works. I wanted you to see how advanced their floats were...

Not sure what to eat - just look at the plastic food outside the restaurant

OK - I get up at 350 AM to head to work so that's all for now!

 

[BrerJon]

So a few thoughts about the most fantastic theme park on the planet - namely Disney Seas

Thanks for the great trip report and photos - makes me want to go back soon! I'm so glad you weren't disappointed after making all that effort to visit.

 

[dennis-in-ct]

thanks for taking the time to share your impressions and photos. I really enjoyed reading your posts.

 

[rioriz]

Thanks for sharing!!

 

[Greenkai3000]

Awesome trip report and pictures. Thanks for sharing!