I was very lucky to visit Japan for three weeks of September. We visited parks all over the place and saw lots of other exciting things too. I went with my friend Nic and we're both posting our entire trip report over on coasterforce.com [url=http://www.coasterforce.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=36823]LINK[/URL]. I thought I'd post the Disney days up on here...
Day 5 – 11th September
We got up at silly o’clock to get over to TOKYO DISNEYLAND for opening. Due to all the nightmare stories we had heard about crowds we were prepared and joined the masses waiting at the gates way before opening. I think we arrived about 20-30 minutes before opening and there were already huge queues. There were also loads of people in costumes as the resort’s Halloween season had begun and during selected dates it’s ok for adults to turn up in fancy dress. Being Japan this pretty much turned the entire park into a giant Disney cosplay event – we thought this was awesome and always added that extra amusement to our time at the park.
You can't see them very well but there are three girls dressed as the three caballeros (a very popular bunch of characters in Japan)
The weather wasn’t fantastic, it was overcast and a little wet but we were at a very magical park during its Happiness year (the theme of their 30th anniversary). We also didn’t have to faff with tickets as we had purchased ours online and printed our e-tickets. These were fantastic as they also allowed you to use them for getting fastpasses etc. As soon as the gates opened everyone became very excited and the shuffling towards the gates began.
Tired. Damp. Still more excited than a small child on Christmas day
Glad we arrived when we did. Also, the monorail windows <3
Once we were through the gates there was just a sea of people heading into the covered Main Street area. Their Main Street (actually called X) is really nice and feels massive, I like the two avenues down into other areas about half way up the street. Amongst the masses of guests there was an army of happy staff members trying to keep everyone calm and not run. Speed walking it was then
The masses enter
Sorry for the blurryness of these pics, I wasn't going to waste time to get a steady shot
Staff member telling peeps to keep calm
All of the advice we had read told us we should run to Monsters Inc and attempt to get a fastpass with the rest of the park. So unlike all the advice we had read about we went straight to Pooh's Hunny hunt. We walked straight on and we both just fell in love with the ride, it really lives up to its reputation. The ride vehicles just seem to glide through the attraction seamlessly, really impressive. The room where you ‘dance’ around with all the other vehicles is definitely my favourite, it’s just really fun and there’s so much going on. We both left the ride with huge grins on our faces so we then went and grabbed some fast passes for the ride.
SO EXCITED I MIGHT WEE
It was then over to the other side of Fantasyland for Haunted Mansion with its Nightmare before Christmas makeover for the holiday season. I’ve wanted to experience the Holiday layover ever since I found out they did it. After about a 5-10 minute wait we were on. The pre-show lift was AWESOME, probably my favourite thing about the layover. Obviously everything was in Japanese which slightly tainted the epicness of the attraction but it was still incredible. The Jack Skellington animatronics were just perfect <3 The sheer amount of effort they put in for the Holiday version is just ridiculous and I love it.
With loads of time to spare before our next go on Pooh's Hunny Hunt we checked out Toon Town. Just as it was there and we didn’t know much about it we went in the Goofy’s Paint and Play house. We had to wait about 5-10 minutes again. It’s a cool little attraction and a bit different. Basically Goofy has invented a bunch of gizmos to decorate a house. You get to use these gizmos to decorate his living room. It’s fun but I wouldn’t want to queue any longer than we did for it.
Day 5 – 11th September
We got up at silly o’clock to get over to TOKYO DISNEYLAND for opening. Due to all the nightmare stories we had heard about crowds we were prepared and joined the masses waiting at the gates way before opening. I think we arrived about 20-30 minutes before opening and there were already huge queues. There were also loads of people in costumes as the resort’s Halloween season had begun and during selected dates it’s ok for adults to turn up in fancy dress. Being Japan this pretty much turned the entire park into a giant Disney cosplay event – we thought this was awesome and always added that extra amusement to our time at the park.
You can't see them very well but there are three girls dressed as the three caballeros (a very popular bunch of characters in Japan)
The weather wasn’t fantastic, it was overcast and a little wet but we were at a very magical park during its Happiness year (the theme of their 30th anniversary). We also didn’t have to faff with tickets as we had purchased ours online and printed our e-tickets. These were fantastic as they also allowed you to use them for getting fastpasses etc. As soon as the gates opened everyone became very excited and the shuffling towards the gates began.
Tired. Damp. Still more excited than a small child on Christmas day
Glad we arrived when we did. Also, the monorail windows <3
Once we were through the gates there was just a sea of people heading into the covered Main Street area. Their Main Street (actually called X) is really nice and feels massive, I like the two avenues down into other areas about half way up the street. Amongst the masses of guests there was an army of happy staff members trying to keep everyone calm and not run. Speed walking it was then
The masses enter
Sorry for the blurryness of these pics, I wasn't going to waste time to get a steady shot
Staff member telling peeps to keep calm
All of the advice we had read told us we should run to Monsters Inc and attempt to get a fastpass with the rest of the park. So unlike all the advice we had read about we went straight to Pooh's Hunny hunt. We walked straight on and we both just fell in love with the ride, it really lives up to its reputation. The ride vehicles just seem to glide through the attraction seamlessly, really impressive. The room where you ‘dance’ around with all the other vehicles is definitely my favourite, it’s just really fun and there’s so much going on. We both left the ride with huge grins on our faces so we then went and grabbed some fast passes for the ride.
SO EXCITED I MIGHT WEE
It was then over to the other side of Fantasyland for Haunted Mansion with its Nightmare before Christmas makeover for the holiday season. I’ve wanted to experience the Holiday layover ever since I found out they did it. After about a 5-10 minute wait we were on. The pre-show lift was AWESOME, probably my favourite thing about the layover. Obviously everything was in Japanese which slightly tainted the epicness of the attraction but it was still incredible. The Jack Skellington animatronics were just perfect <3 The sheer amount of effort they put in for the Holiday version is just ridiculous and I love it.
With loads of time to spare before our next go on Pooh's Hunny Hunt we checked out Toon Town. Just as it was there and we didn’t know much about it we went in the Goofy’s Paint and Play house. We had to wait about 5-10 minutes again. It’s a cool little attraction and a bit different. Basically Goofy has invented a bunch of gizmos to decorate a house. You get to use these gizmos to decorate his living room. It’s fun but I wouldn’t want to queue any longer than we did for it.