Hey guys, visited Tokyo Disneyland Park when I was visiting Tokyo a week or so ago. I wrote a blog for it on my website but thought you guys might be interested to read it here as a sort of trip report?
The YouTube links are not mine but were put there for friends/family who had not ridden or really know anything about the rides.
The YouTube links are not mine but were put there for friends/family who had not ridden or really know anything about the rides.
I had hoped to arrive for the Rope Drop (Park opening) but missed it by about 20minutes. As I walked through the gate and into Tokyo Disneyland `Main Street` the buzz was crazy. The amount of people that visit seems to be much higher than those in the American Parks. I thought, being as clever as I am, the rule of thumb is always, get a FastPass for the second biggest attraction immediately, then standby the next.
However, this went out the window when the newest attraction - Monsters Inc Ride & Go Seek - had a standby queue of 200minutes and FP was already down to 4pm in the afternoon. I thought I should leave the ride till later in the day when hopefully the standby time will have gone down. I thought I`d do the same for AstroBlaster and head to Splash and Big Thunder Mountain. On my way by spotted Haunted Mansionwhich turned out to be a walk on so I went for that. Great classic ride. Was pleased to see the singing Busts and the catchy tune in English.
After that headed I for Splash Mountain to pick up a fastpass and then walked to Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road
. Standby was already on 90minutes but since I assumed all the other rides would be the same, I thought I might as well go for it. When I went to WDW when I was 7, I never went on BTMRR so I was quite excited. To be honest, I left a bit disappointed. There weren't any great falls or air time and thought thought it came across pretty tame. Yes I know its Disney but still. Kinda disappointed.
By the time my 90minute (which turned out to be 60minute) experience at BTMRR finished, I headed to Splash Mountain
After Splash it was about 11.30 so I headed to the stage area of Tomorrowland to watch One Mans Dream 2:The Legend Lives On
After the show I remembered I had a FP oppertunity which wasn't being used (Len Testa would not be impressed) so I walked around to Space Mountain
After Space I walked past Star Tours and totally forgot the ride existed in Tokyo Disneyland. Wait time was 5 minutes and yet they have enough queue space for about 4hours worth of queue. How popular was this ride ever? I thought the ride was rubbish. Never been a fan of Star Wars but I assumed I would enjoy a simulator nonetheless. I suppose I lost a lot because it was in Japanese but still. After being on the Simpsons Ride 4 weeks ago, this looked rubbish. I even remember the good ol` Body Wars being better. Did the speech really take away from it? The woman beside me was holding on for grim death. Bless. I think a Star Wars 2.0 is desperatly needed.
Went into Adventureland for Pirates Of The Caribbean
After Pirates I headed to Jungle Cruise where the standby was at 35minutes. I asked if the infamous skipper spiel was in English and was told it was Japanese. I also asked if it was just the English jokes in Japanese but was told it was original Tokyo Disneyland spiel. I speak no Japanese but I *think* I could tell there were certainly some of the jokes used in the WDW/DL versions. Somebody can maybe confirm this.
After Jungle Cruise it was time for one of the shows. 'Cool The Heat'
The show only featured 4 dancers, Goofy and Minnie which made me wonder if there were any places I could meet Mickey. They don't seem to have many Meet and Greets - or they aren't advertised as much. I saw Cinderella, the Fairy Godmother and another Princess walk about but that was about it for the day. Then it occurred to me the best place to find Mickey would be his house. After a 50minute wait in his garden (with lovely cool sprays to kill off the heat) I met Mickey. Woop! Obviously I havent met Mickey personally when I have been this tall but he is really is quite small. I'm 5ft 11 and he must of only reached 5ft 6 maybe? He was cool though and I managed to get 2 photos by faking I had forgotten to put the Flash on. Oooh yeah! They placed us in groups of around 12 and you all have the chance to have a photo and conversation (as much as you can with a mouse who is saving his voice for the parade).
After Mickey I went to Space Mountain and had to play the confused `My Fastpass has run out but can I still use it?`-card. Luckily they have the same policy as they do in WDW and I queued up expecting not to feel as scared at being decapitated. I was wrong.
After I came out the Jubilation Parade was going by. Some pretty cool floats. Music was semi-catchy (Not as good as Dreams Come True Parade) and it had no parade stops. All the characters that you expected to be there, were so that was good. No complaints.
Since I was in Fantasyland I went to hit up Pinocchio`s Daring Adventure. I'm not sure if WDW ever had this but I wanted to see what it was like. Pretty standard Snow White/Peter Pan ride. Clever effect of you going into a cage which was pretty cool. Bog standard ride - again all in Japanese.
By this time I had totally forgotten about Pooh`s Honey Hunt
. This is a pretty cool ride as it is completely trackless and one of the first rides to use this technology in any of the Disney Parks. It uses a LPS system which allows many trains to be in the same scene and zoom about happily in what appears to be a random way but is infact totally controlled. You really need to see the YouTube video to understand what I mean. I LOVED this ride. Probably my favourite in the park. It was so so clever, the efforts were great and every ride is kinda different as you get a different ride depending which one of the 3 trains you jump in. Great ride. I went back at the end to ride this again. When you see tiger bouncing, your train actually bounces too. This doesnt come across on the video to well.
The evening show - Monsters Inc - Its Laugher We`re After - had two shows. It takes place infront of the castle and there is a huge seating area which is drawn randomly for seats using your park ticket in a lottery-type scheme in Tomorrowland. (I'm not sure how many people actually lose, though I did see a few people leave without tickets). I won a seat at the side but turned out with a great view. I had to be there at 9pm or my seat would be inaccessible so I figured I should go try get on the Monsters Inc Ride & Go Seek
As I left Winnie I hit the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade (with usual Electrical Parade music). Some fantastic floats. Went on for about 30minutes possibly with loads of characters including some which I thought shouldn't have really been there and infact, the character had to introduce himself. Peter`s Dragon anyone? The only odd thing was that the loop for the characters speech and the floats was really short. Maybe it was from where I was standing but I could just hear the first 20secs of the start of the loop again as they began to go out of earshot. Great parade overall though. I'm always in two minds as to whether to put Mickey first or last. With this parade the major 5 (except Pluto) all passed before the end, leaving the last float as a bit of a weird mix of ChipNDale and Pluto.
After this I hit up Snow White. I remember as a child in WDW being a bit scared and I could never remember why - I still don`t.
I made it with about 3minutes to spare before the Monsters Inc Show - Club Monsters - It's Laughter We're After
As in WDW I was counting on the fact that if you are in the queue before the park closes, you get to ride. I couldn't decide if I should try Buzz Lightyear or one I had already done. I went for Winnie the Pooh again.
That`s my day, now for a few random thoughts.
- Everything is Japanese. I was surprised and just HOW much stuffed had been dubbed into Japanese. I`m fully aware it is for the Japanese market but I was surprised at the length they had gone to in all aspects of the park. It appeared the only attractions that had an optional English extra was the Microadventure (aka, HISTA). I passed on that. Luckily they did have `this is the wildest ride in the wilderness` which made me smile but for the other 99% it was entirely in Japanese. Most of the castmembers I came across in fairness could understand what I was saying. I speak no Japanese but still had a good day. Plus I know understand "How many is in your party?" which leads me on to my next thought.
- Ride Capacity. One major complaint is the sheer size of crowds that visit TDL and the lengthy waittimes. I now know why. I'm not sure if it is a cultural thing but the castmembers do nothing to fill up trains. I was travelling as a solo person and for the most part got my own train. During Snow White and Pinocchio there was a 4 behind and infront so got the entire train to myself for the ride. In Pirates I got an entire row! Suitable for 5 people, all to myself. There was a couple behind me as well. With Splash, BTMRR, Space x2, Haunted Mansion and Monsters Inc I got my own row as well. They have no SingleRider facilities at TDL and not once did they take somebody who was further back in the queue to fill up space. Good in a way, but not great when trying to reduce queues.
- I thought maybe I would get a few mental looks as I was completely by myself and going to Disneyland by yourself is not really what the average person does, however, I didn`t feel out of place at all. Maybe it was the large crowds I just blended in or they assumed I had friends at other attractions - I'm not sure. The only awkward time was when a man asked if I was holding the space for friends. When I said `no` he asked me if I was by myself, and then again to confirm I was by myself in the entire park. We didn't talk much after that.
- Tokyo does a great job with themeing - as all Disney Parks do, but they really do.
Overall a pretty great day. I know people will probably think I wasted a day in Japan but I really enjoyed myself. The ticket was around 38pounds, I spent 4 on lunch and 5 on popcorn and drinks. A full fun day from 9 till half 10. I`ll try get some of my photos and videos up soon. The ones used here have been taken from a variety of sources.
