Figured I'd post this here as @
WDW1974 was interested. I am currently at TDR and just spent the late afternoon/evening at Disney Sea. I'll be at the resort for three more days and then will head for things beyond theme parks and Disney for a while (but I am stopping into Universal...)
Sounds great. I am jealous, so keep the reports coming.
I successfully managed to leave my backpack on the Airport shuttle bus in a flurry of excitement I suppose so there will be pictures later. (In addition to my DSLR there was a Macbook Air, iPad, 3DS, Eurail pass + tickets and a Japan rail passes. Oh AND some money just for good measure). Needless to say I had to truck on and hope the hotel staff would get it back for me when the bus returned a few hours later. It obviously nagged on the back of my mind but I am happy to say it returned to me safe and sound. I thanked the concierge incessantly as I proceeded to show them everything in the bag. I will NOT be making that mistake again in China or basically any other country I'm visiting. Only in Japan (and Canada occaisionally).
So some quick thoughts Spirit style (but with bullets). Within reason I'll make sure to check things out or answer any burning questions for people.
Second time I've come to this resort (I've only been to WDW 3 times in my life 95, 06 and 12, Cali twice in the last year or so, Hong Kong a year ago and I'll be dropping in as well as Euro Disney later this month and in August). So I don't really have my own unique park that I've over visited and am sick of, nor is TDR the most novel thing ever in the world to me.
You sound like a Faux Top One Percenter. I like that.
Staying at the Sheraton hotel, apart from them finding my bag it's also a really nice hotel. I'm on the club level (got an upgrade) and have a decent view of both parks. Looking at the backside of Indy (which is still pretty nicely themed) and of course all the major structures are clearly visible.
BUT - Disney Sea is the best Disney park and truly theme park in the world, hands down! Every single portion of the park is absolutely incredible.
Nothing to add. I just wanted to make sure people read that! Especially the folks who go to WDW 3-4 times a year and stay at Disney resorts and eat every meal there and then say they'd never have the $$$ to visit TDR.
I got on most of the major attractions this evening apart from TOT. Mid-week before the schools let out for the summer seems to be a really ideal time to visit. Wasn't exactly planned but it worked out well.
-20k leagues is better than I remember. It was nice having a vehicle to myself (which are actually suspended like Peter Pan and seat six). It's a very good dark ride.
-Indy I *think* is an exact clone but the outside theming is different somewhat. It was running better than the Cali version.
-Raging Spirits is fun but not a real thrilling coaster. Still not for the kids.
Loved 20K and did it probably six times with little or no waits. Too bad I couldn't buy a damn thing from it.I would have taken anything!
Indy is similar, but not an exact clone. It has the smoke ring instead of the fire effect in the temple. I like the queue in Tokyo more because the lawyers haven't gone and made it bright as day as in Anaheim. It feels like what a temple dig site would.
Not a big Raging Spirits fan, but with single rider line I never waited more than five minutes to ride. It is worth that. And it looks very kewl at night!
-Sindbad does not receive enough praise. Like Small world except a lot more dialogue, far superior animatronics (that all seemed to work), a much, much, much better song. It's kind of easy to see everything that is wrong with Mermaid. Every scene is chock full of great animatronics and none of the plastic spinning or singular motion that passes as an animatronic. It is also much longer than I remember. Case in point there is a scene that reminds me of Mermaid with Sindbad riding a whale (cardboard silhouette type thing in the last third of the ride). Just like Ursula getting zapped at the end. I figured the ride was ending but instead you round the corner to a massive whale animatronic with Sindbad and Chengdu that was quite impressive. That definitely would have been value engineered stateside. And there was still several more scenes to follow. Anyways, without rambling too much it doesn't get discussed as much as it should.
It does from me. I LOVED it!!! I think we rode this more than anything at the resort. It is fantastic. A quality immersive family ride that isn't over in two minutes. It is a classic in the best sense of the word. I wonder if it gets more ridership now that the spinner has opened. it was in a dead corner of the park.
-Jasmine's flying carpets turned out really nice and is really well done for a spinner (I shudder for my first visit to WDS...)
-TSMM is under reno this week, I hope it might randomly open but the actual innards are just a clone. Of course the whole area is the best themed as you all know (not that OLC would deliver anything less).
-Love all the transportation (water that should have been at Animal Kingdom), the New York train, tons of "New York vehicles" and of course the Venetian boats.
-Triton's kingdom looks a lot better in person than I remember. Serves a good purpose of tons of things for kids to do (in an air conditioned building no less). Similar purpose as Bugs Land but much, much, much better.
If I were there unless I got to walk on, I wouldn't do TSMM. Buzz Lightyear had a 110-minute wait my first day at TDL and 70 minutes my second day. Just walked by and laughed.
-Storm Rider is a bigger version of Star Tours, with 3x the cheese. Needs to get updated. Has water a spray effect which it uses quite liberally. You actually are kind of wet (not soaked) but wet. The area is fantastic, even if Aquatopia is just a big middle finger to the US parks by using LPS on a C-ticket.
-Definitely have the best version of Fantasmic. Forgive me because I'm not totally sure, but does all of the speaker poles etc. hide away when not in use at any of the parks in the states (not just fantasmic)? That's just another huge expense to preserve the park beauty!
-I had a gyoza dog amongst other food, the line was like 2 people long (I am rather lucky with my date choices).
-Oh and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Yup it's fantastic as always. BUT - I think Cars in DCA is definitely the better dark ride and arguably the better overall attraction. Mysterious Island as a whole is a better land/park weiny what-have-you. Journey also packs a bigger punch with the race portion, but the dark ride is slower moving and not as impressive. Of course Mr. Lava monster is great. Anyways, you can stone me shortly for this opinion.
I wasn't going to ride Aquatopia, but my friend's 5-year-old loves it so we did it multiple times and I thought it was sorta fun, especially on a gloomy December day with Tokyo Bay looming in the distance.
Fantasmic wasn't there when I was in 2010, but look forward to seeing it. Never had a gyoza, but the cart in MI always was at least two dozen people deep (even when the park was almost empty).
I honestly can't say whether I prefer JTTCoTE or RSRs more. I love them both and they are favorites at their respective parks.
One last thing, the merchandise throughout the park is fantastically AWFUL! Keychains, nail clippers, pens, towels, toothbrushes... literally dollar store crap with year of happiness represents probably 90% of the entire park merchandise. I can't remember if it was better without their 30th anniversary. Any given mall Disney store has better merchandise than the entirety of Disney Sea. So there you go, it is not infallible after all if you aren't content with amazing photos as the majority of your souveniers.
Oh I lied - the napkins aren't themed (not that I care).
Sadly, the merchandise is an issue unless you like cute stuff ... I do know they opened with fantstic merchandise that fit the area it was in, but that lasted about as long as it does in the States sadly.
Thanks for the updates, keep them coming and have a MAGICal time!
