The Spirited Seventh Heaven ...

[the.dreamfinder]

That's just Tumblr's social justice warriors, not indicative of animation fans as a whole. In fact the "____ looks like Rapunzel" became a meme after the whining began.

If they knew their Disney history, they would know it all goes back to Freddy Moore.

 

[Mike S]

(-)14 hours for me... and somehow feel like I'll power through and be up in 6 or so hours for round two...

Also will follow up with my thoughts for @WDW1974. I'll try and keep a random list on my iPhone for when I settle back down with internet, sleep and the pixie dust high wears off.

You just HAVE to rub it in my face, don't ya? Can't wait to see your report. The pics you posted of Hong Kong were great

 

[the.dreamfinder]

I think @WDW1974 will appreciate this.
http://thedissolve.com/features/one...ummers-the-lone-ranger-proved-too-weird-to-t/

 

[Jose]

FOF running twice, is confirmed yet? @WDW1974

 

[Hula Popper]

It seems that ESPN suspended Stephen A Smith for his comments about domestic abuse. @PhotoDave219

It seems more accurate to say that ESPN suspended Stephen A. Smith for the reaction and backlash to his comments about domestic abuse. He's paid to give opinions and be controversial, and he's made similar comments before without suspension.

 

[manutdfan1]

Please keep it that way.

And if your economy tanks again please don't involve the rest of the world this time. We're doing just fine now.

Thanks.

Lol. The UK wishes it had growth like the US.

 

[Absimilliard]

I did a TR, but it is in french on another forum! I did not think there would be that much interest for a TR since I have a particular writing style and got odd tastes. I'll do observations...

Basically, this whole Japan trip was a spur of the moment booked two weeks before thing. My objectives were very simple:

1- Do a video game crawl through Akihabara and visit Artnia, the Square Soft store/Cafe next to their HQ in Shinjuku.

2- Go to Tokyo Disney, to clean my palate and get a real Disney experience, as my visit in november 2013 to EPCOT brought me back dark memories of the worst days of Six Flags in early 2000.

3- Go ride the Veil of Dark at Sega Joypolis.

I completed all those objectives in 4 days. I did two days at Tokyo Disney with a day at each park and spent my 3rd day visiting a friend, going to Akihabara and spending an evening at the Joypolis. I stayed at the very nice Comfort Hotel Kiyosumi-Shinagawa. Very good single rate (65$ US a night) that included a breakfast and convenient location. Great made from scratch Ramen noodles from the stand of a nice lady between the hotel and subway entrance. It is also right on top of a Family Mart, one of those awesome japanese convenience store.

To get to Disney from my hotel was 25 minutes with two transfers. Cost 6$ each way in subway and JR train tickets.

My first day was Tokyo Disneyland, since the great free english crowd calendar correctly predicted it would be slower at that park that day. I misread the website, so I arrived at 7:30am for a 9am park opening. I was the only one there and got in line for tickets. At 8 am, bought a two days magic passport (1 day each park for first two days, park hopper on 3rd and 4th day if you buy that much) for 110$ and was the 5th in line at a turnstile. Shortly before park opening, the characters come out on the park side of the gate and start doing mini shows and just goofing around. So much fun!

At 9 am, I ran to Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek and got a 10:30 am fast pass. So, I stayed on that side and rode Space Mountain (first ride was smooth, second ride was brutal. The ride itself got the best loading station, but it was interesting to ride old school with no music playing during the ride) and Star Tours 2 (Awesome waiting line and great Hitchhiking Droids gag!). I got a buzz lightyear fast pass at 10:30 am and rode it later... What a dissapointment! It is a poorer version than DL, DLP and HKDL. Too short.

Crowds were actually reasonable that day and Monsters Inc. did not run out of Fast Pass until mid afternoon. The line for it also died down to 15-20 minutes in the evening, so I rode it 3 times that day. I LOVED the attraction. The interaction complimented the ride and the animatronics are amazing. Boo is so life like!

Did Splash Mountain as a single rider twice later. Wow, what a tight fit! From what I could gather, they changed the lap bars from what it had originally, which are the ones that WDW retrofitted to their Splash Mountain, to Everest style individual lap bars. Problem is, I am 6'3 and got long legs and getting the bar to go over my knees was a challenge, but it was not uncomfortable. The best news through is that the ride has a 36 inches height restriction cause of the lap bars.

Did Big Thunder Mountain twice and the first time, gave a Fast Pass crash course to a nice family from Canada who were at the park. I ran into them later and they thanked me, as they cut their waits a lot with it. They through at first there was a fee for it. Big Thunder Mountain also got modified since my last visit in 2009. They added those feet guards that were retrofitted to all the others (after that incident at DL where a kid lost his foot because he tried getting out of the train before it was parked) and also added soft seat dividers to the seat. That effectively mean you can't ride 3 to a row anymore. Ride itself is still my favorite version, thank to its themed first and last tunnel and great drop at the end.

Pooh's Hunny Hunt and Jungle Cruise were closed for rehab.

Food wise, I had a great Calzone at the restaurant at the exit of Star Tours, which is the Pangalactic Pizza Port. Stuffed full of seafood and quite delicious! On the recommendation of a friend, I tried a slice of pizza from the Captain Hook Galley in Fantasyland. Not a large slice, but for the price and quality, I was satisfied. My last meal that day was at the Eastside Cafe in World Bazaar. This is a sitdown italian restaurant and I had their special "Easter Set Menu" where for 25$ US, I had a 3 course meal with non alcoholic beverages. I was a walk in and got seated right away. The food was pretty good with scallop-prosciutto appetizer, bacon-palm hearts spaghettini and a white chocolate mousse with Amaretto sauce as the dessert. It was the best meal I have had at a Disney park since I went to the Napa Rose in California in 2013.

The Disneyland Hotel is interesting. Pretty, but that thing is huge! It feels a lot bigger when you're inside then when you're looking at it from the monorail station.

Best daytime parade I have ever seen? Their temporary for 3 months Easter parade! "Hoppity Spring Parade" was full of energy, the floats were amazing, characters had custom costumes and the music was amazing.

Best parade ever? Still is the Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights. Nothing come close!

Next day was Tokyo Disney Sea. Crowds were a little heavier, but I managed to have a great day.

I arrived at 7:30am for a 8:30am park opening. I was a bit further inline, but I powerwalked and got a 10:45 am fast pass for Toy Story Mania! Line was INSANE for fast passes and in the morning, the street leading from Mediterranean Harbor to the ride was actually divided in 3. Left line for those leaving the ride, middle line for Fast Pass ticketing and right side for Stand-By. Ride is still very popular. For the ride itself, I through the ride portion was a little more themed than the US versions. The waiting line made more sense, as you transitioned through a large bedroom door and the ride "was under the bed".

Tower of Terror is better than even the WDW version for me. The haunting music and the creepy Shiriki Utundu won it for me.

The only ride merchandise I found at the resort were some t shirts and blue helmets at the exit shop of Monsters Inc. and some items at the exit of TOT. I bought great t shirts from TOT and even bought a small Shiriki Utundu bobble head.

Was great just walking up to characters and getting pictures. Loved the Steam Punk outfits for Goofy and Chip n Dale over at Port Discovery.

I'll continue later...

I will continue with Tokyo Disney Sea.

They have added WDW style character trails for the "Fab 5" in Lost River Delta. I walked by the Donald Duck entrance near the Cantina restaurant right as when they were reopening after a 30 minutes break, so I only waited 10 minutes.

Indiana Jones Adventure, Tower of Terror, Sindbad and Journey to the Center of the Earth are my 4 favorite rides in the world.... all in the same park. How can you beat that?

Raging Spirits was not as rough as the last time I rode it. Instead of adding garbage like Dinorama... why didn't they add a pretty well integrated ride like this instead to the Magic Kingdom? It would remove pressure from the two other coasters in the park and finally get a real thrill ride to the Magic Kingdom. Also, they finally moved to a 46 inches minimum-78 inches maximum height restrictions for the ride. In 2009, they brought me to the exit and made me try the restraint before allowing me to enter the waiting line due to my 6'3 height. Now, it is fixed at 6'5 max plus, you need to lower the shoulder restraint to a certain point. The cast members have small rulers they will place next to the restraint and that it has to reach or else you cannot ride.

Fantasmic is wonderful. I watched it mostly to have a look at the Dragon coming out of the mirror scene. Wow... on the technical aspect, it is un matched. Also love the mix of characters in the show.

The Easter show in American Waterfront Central Park looked great, but I have a feeling most of the people in the park were either in line to get in or were watching it! Crowds were reasonable that day.

I had lunch at Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen in Mermaind Lagoon and a light dinner at Yacatan Base Camp Grill in Lost River Delta. I had the seashell fried chicken sandwich at the Kitchen with a souvenir plate. I had chorizo sausages with a soup at the Base Camp Grill. My reaction to both restaurants: You'd have a two hours line out of the door at WDW for either restaurant... The theming is much better than the "Be Our Guests" high school cafeteria at WDW.

Journey to the Center of the Earth is still for me the perfect ride. The best attraction Disney has ever done and Radiator Springs Racers just pale in comparison. The whole transition from outside, the entrance, the waiting line, the Terravators and then you board those awesome steam cars. Wow... Plus, the Lava Monster work unlike her Disco dancing WDW friend.

Indiana Jones Adventure is better than the DL version, even with the improvements at DL.

Aquatopia was closed for rehab.


Now, for the non Disney part.

Artnia is owned by Square-Enix, the company responsible for the Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts video game series. They have a small shop with a nice area in the back for jewelry and more expensive items. There is also a cafe, where they sell themed food to their game. I paid 10$ for 3 amazing "Slime Crepe" with premium vanilla ice cream. As a funny note, they also include chocolate pieces patterned after the menu that you got when fighting monsters in Dragon Quest!

I had a great Tiramisu on a souvenir plate and had a "High Potion" as a drink. It was a delicious mix of ginger and lime.

In Akihabara, I got myself an awesome Metal Slime plush, like the colored ones in the picture, but silver.

I found stores selling retro video games and got myself a handful of Famicom (the japanese version of the classic Nintendo console) games, such as Rock Man 3 (Mega Man 3 here) and the never released here Final Fantasy 2 and 3.

I ended the night at the Sega Joypolis. Located in the Tokyo Beach area in the Decks shopping center, it is an indoor theme park owned by Sega. So, I got a picture with Sonic and then tried out their latest attraction, the Veil of Dark. Veil of Dark is a custom roller coaster that replaced their original coaster that was pretty bad. It opened in 2012 and picture if you will: you start off like Toy Story Mania, then your car start spinning and you get launched like Rock n Roller Coaster and it ends like Space Mountain! There is a shoulder restraint and mounted in front of the restraint is a small joystick with a button. You have 4 screens to start where you shoot zombies and monsters, including a clever screen that move back as your car goes forward. You go up a steep lift hill in a horror themed environment and then face the final screen with a large tentacled monsters. Your car turns a corner, the spinning unlock and then you're launched around a sharp turn and then do this:

After that, you're in the back of the park and do small drops and turns. What a fun ride! The shooting aspect was more fun than Toy Story Mania and you got a cool coaster after!

Another fun attraction there is a driving simulator. You're basically sitting in a near life size car and you're drifting through the streets of Japan. It is called Inital D arcade stage.

The Tokyo Half Pipe is an interactive musical attraction. You're standing in the same arrangement as a stand up coaster. As the ride start, you move back and forth like if you were a skateboarder on a halfpipe. Then, as the ride "start", you need to tap your feet at the good moment in order to spin your skateboard to make points! There is like 18 songs randomly played by DJ/operator. The song I got was this:



There are some japanese language only attractions. The subject for most of them was rather scary! Such as the House of the Living Dolls or "The 45th story--- Invitation to Death". The only one that made me sad I could not experience was the Ace Attorney scavenger hunt. Like in the game, you need to investigate a murder game, only difference here: you need to run around the park hitting consoles like this to figure out who did it.

Lines can be a problem for the park due to the low capacity of the attractions, but I got lucky and the place was deserted.

 

[Mike S]

I will continue with Tokyo Disney Sea.

They have added WDW style character trails for the "Fab 5" in Lost River Delta. I walked by the Donald Duck entrance near the Cantina restaurant right as when they were reopening after a 30 minutes break, so I only waited 10 minutes.

Indiana Jones Adventure, Tower of Terror, Sindbad and Journey to the Center of the Earth are my 4 favorite rides in the world.... all in the same park. How can you beat that?

Raging Spirits was not as rough as the last time I rode it. Instead of adding garbage like Dinorama... why didn't they add a pretty well integrated ride like this instead to the Magic Kingdom? It would remove pressure from the two other coasters in the park and finally get a real thrill ride to the Magic Kingdom. Also, they finally moved to a 46 inches minimum-78 inches maximum height restrictions for the ride. In 2009, they brought me to the exit and made me try the restraint before allowing me to enter the waiting line due to my 6'3 height. Now, it is fixed at 6'5 max plus, you need to lower the shoulder restraint to a certain point. The cast members have small rulers they will place next to the restraint and that it has to reach or else you cannot ride.

Fantasmic is wonderful. I watched it mostly to have a look at the Dragon coming out of the mirror scene. Wow... on the technical aspect, it is un matched. Also love the mix of characters in the show.

The Easter show in American Waterfront Central Park looked great, but I have a feeling most of the people in the park were either in line to get in or were watching it! Crowds were reasonable that day.

I had lunch at Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen in Mermaind Lagoon and a light dinner at Yacatan Base Camp Grill in Lost River Delta. I had the seashell fried chicken sandwich at the Kitchen with a souvenir plate. I had chorizo sausages with a soup at the Base Camp Grill. My reaction to both restaurants: You'd have a two hours line out of the door at WDW for either restaurant... The theming is much better than the "Be Our Guests" high school cafeteria at WDW.

Journey to the Center of the Earth is still for me the perfect ride. The best attraction Disney has ever done and Radiator Springs Racers just pale in comparison. The whole transition from outside, the entrance, the waiting line, the Terravators and then you board those awesome steam cars. Wow... Plus, the Lava Monster work unlike her Disco dancing WDW friend.

Indiana Jones Adventure is better than the DL version, even with the improvements at DL.

Aquatopia was closed for rehab.


Now, for the non Disney part.

Artnia is owned by Square-Enix, the company responsible for the Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts video game series. They have a small shop with a nice area in the back for jewelry and more expensive items. There is also a cafe, where they sell themed food to their game. I paid 10$ for 3 amazing "Slime Crepe" with premium vanilla ice cream. As a funny note, they also include chocolate pieces patterned after the menu that you got when fighting monsters in Dragon Quest!

I had a great Tiramisu on a souvenir plate and had a "High Potion" as a drink. It was a delicious mix of ginger and lime.

In Akihabara, I got myself an awesome Metal Slime plush, like the colored ones in the picture, but silver.

I found stores selling retro video games and got myself a handful of Famicom (the japanese version of the classic Nintendo console) games, such as Rock Man 3 (Mega Man 3 here) and the never released here Final Fantasy 2 and 3.

I ended the night at the Sega Joypolis. Located in the Tokyo Beach area in the Decks shopping center, it is an indoor theme park owned by Sega. So, I got a picture with Sonic and then tried out their latest attraction, the Veil of Dark. Veil of Dark is a custom roller coaster that replaced their original coaster that was pretty bad. It opened in 2012 and picture if you will: you start off like Toy Story Mania, then your car start spinning and you get launched like Rock n Roller Coaster and it ends like Space Mountain! There is a shoulder restraint and mounted in front of the restraint is a small joystick with a button. You have 4 screens to start where you shoot zombies and monsters, including a clever screen that move back as your car goes forward. You go up a steep lift hill in a horror themed environment and then face the final screen with a large tentacled monsters. Your car turns a corner, the spinning unlock and then you're launched around a sharp turn and then do this:

After that, you're in the back of the park and do small drops and turns. What a fun ride! The shooting aspect was more fun than Toy Story Mania and you got a cool coaster after!

Another fun attraction there is a driving simulator. You're basically sitting in a near life size car and you're drifting through the streets of Japan. It is called Inital D arcade stage.

The Tokyo Half Pipe is an interactive musical attraction. You're standing in the same arrangement as a stand up coaster. As the ride start, you move back and forth like if you were a skateboarder on a halfpipe. Then, as the ride "start", you need to tap your feet at the good moment in order to spin your skateboard to make points! There is like 18 songs randomly played by DJ/operator. The song I got was this:



There are some japanese language only attractions. The subject for most of them was rather scary! Such as the House of the Living Dolls or "The 45th story--- Invitation to Death". The only one that made me sad I could not experience was the Ace Attorney scavenger hunt. Like in the game, you need to investigate a murder game, only difference here: you need to run around the park hitting consoles like this to figure out who did it.

Lines can be a problem for the park due to the low capacity of the attractions, but I got lucky and the place was deserted.

Man I'm jealous. Did you go to Kyoto to see the Nintendo HQ?

 

[the.dreamfinder]

@Absimilliard , will you be making a visit to the Ghibli Museum?

 

[Cesar R M]

Does this include monitoring which bathroom I frequent the most? I'm serious, the arm band makes me extremely uncomfortable. I took it off every chance I could, which caused me to be locked out of my room more than once.

of course not.. the magicband linking on bathrooms will be for the exclusive 60 fastpass+ on your themed bathroom of your choice.
So you can happily reserve your bathroom visit 60 days in advance!

 

[Cesar R M]

That's just Tumblr's social justice warriors, not indicative of animation fans as a whole. In fact the "____ looks like Rapunzel" became a meme after the whining began.

they sometimes have a point.

If you seen the comparison.. Dreamworks broke the mold on face differences and styles.
Disney seem to be rehashing the same face style since Tangled.

As for Hero 6.. that is a valid point as well... not on this movie, but of the movies in general.

Have you seen the insane whitewashing of the movie "Exodus: gods and kings" ?

 

[Tigger1988]

they sometimes have a point.

If you seen the comparison.. Dreamworks broke the mold on face differences and styles.
Disney seem to be rehashing the same face style since Tangled.

Can someone post the "Dreamworks face" meme? I'm on my phone.

Disney princesses have had similar facial styling for decades upon decades. Notable exceptions are those of different ethnicities.

 

[Gabe1]

So I was reading a post on Theme Park University

"This week, Walt Disney World is trying a new system to accommodate extra-long wait times for certain experiences. In addition to the free FastPass+ that is already available, guests who wish to visit Anna and Elsa at Princess Fairytale Hall in Fantasyland will be handed a standby return time card instead. This return time card will give a window of time for the guests to come back and re-enter the standby queue where they will experience around a 30-minute wait instead of the two-to-four hour wait often to see the stars of Frozen at the Magic Kingdom.-7/24/2014"

TPU

I remember as FP+ was coming online I pondered if this was going to overwhelm the stand-by queues. Guess it did.

 

[flynnibus]

So I was reading a post on Theme Park University

"This week, Walt Disney World is trying a new system to accommodate extra-long wait times for certain experiences. In addition to the free FastPass+ that is already available, guests who wish to visit Anna and Elsa at Princess Fairytale Hall in Fantasyland will be handed a standby return time card instead. This return time card will give a window of time for the guests to come back and re-enter the standby queue where they will experience around a 30-minute wait instead of the two-to-four hour wait often to see the stars of Frozen at the Magic Kingdom.-7/24/2014"

TPU

I remember as FP+ was coming online I pondered if this was going to overwhelm the stand-by queues. Guess it did.

They tried this at Soarin' too... I don't peg this on FP+ as much as them trying to work out other models vs people standing in standby for hours.

According to Dr Disney, the Soarin' test went poorly when guests were upset about being turned away from standby because all the return slips were used up.

 

[Gabe1]

They tried this at Soarin' too... I don't peg this on FP+ as much as them trying to work out other models vs people standing in standby for hours.

According to Dr Disney, the Soarin' test went poorly when guests were upset about being turned away from standby because all the return slips were used up.

As were all the FP+ reservations, subsequently the FP for Stand-by.

The more Disney attempts to Fix things that are not broken the more mess'd up it becomes.

 

[71jason]

They tried this at Soarin' too... I don't peg this on FP+ as much as them trying to work out other models vs people standing in standby for hours.

According to Dr Disney, the Soarin' test went poorly when guests were upset about being turned away from standby because all the return slips were used up.

This is blowing up on Twitter right now. Apparently the the standby line was cut-off by 5 pm. Surprised there's not a 50-page thread already, to be honest. This board is weird some times.

 

[Mike S]

This is blowing up on Twitter right now. Apparently the the standby line was cut-off by 5 pm. Surprised there's not a 50-page thread already, to be honest. This board is weird some times.

Yeah, I've noticed it's been pretty slow around here lately.

 

[Gabe1]

This is blowing up on Twitter right now. Apparently the the standby line was cut-off by 5 pm. Surprised there's not a 50-page thread already, to be honest. This board is weird some times.

lol true And we both are part of the weirdo's that had to also add our comments about it too. Guilty of what we mock.

Even during Christmas break prior to FP+ I never had a standby time of 4 hours for Soarin' nor was I ever stopped from entering a standby queue, funnier that it happened by the dinner hour. When Disney closed off the queue access to the ride at 5pm, golly gee what did they think the response would be?

Yes the board can be weird at times but Disney supplies us with endless what were you thinking 'material' to sound off on. So we do.

 

[PhotoDave219]

As were all the FP+ reservations, subsequently the FP for Stand-by.

The more Disney attempts to Fix things that are not broken the more mess'd up it becomes.

The more you tinker, the more it breaks.

 

[cw1982]

This is blowing up on Twitter right now. Apparently the the standby line was cut-off by 5 pm. Surprised there's not a 50-page thread already, to be honest. This board is weird some times.

I think the thread here hasn't quite made it to 50 pages yet, but it does exist lol. The Anna and Elsa passes and Soarin' passes are in the same thread.

Given the way so few around here bother searching before posting, I'm shocked there's only one thread that covers both attractions so far lol. I've gotten to where I won't even go to certain areas of the forums because the posts are about the same handful of questions over and over.