Tokyo Disneyland
My final Disney park! 12/12 completed. I spent two days here. First day, we rope-dropped Beauty and the Beast and waited around 45 minutes, our ride through had a technical stop for a couple of minutes just as the beast was transforming. Was a bit disappointing, but we got marched straight back on (through the unused single riders line) to go on again, and it was perfect! A really great attraction I thought, although I don’t think “Something There” was the best number for a full long scene. Of course the rides focus is in the castle but I’d of loved to have had “Belle” or “Gaston” or even “Human Again”. Did premier access on my second visit.
On second visit we rope dropped Pooh and waited about 20 mins, then did all the fantasyland dark rides with minimal wait.
We managed all major attractions, with plenty of time to get a seated spot for both parades. On my second day, we had the reduced daytime parade, and yeah, the full production is miles ahead.
I really love the Splash Mountain. Far superior to Disneylands for sure (can’t say of MK, it’s been 8 years). I thought Pirates was very good here also, as was the unique Poohs Hunny Hunt. Snow White was odd as the ride just kind of ends with the witch on top of the rock. Ride and Go Seek was… fine? I had expected to like it more. Space Mountain could do with a soundtrack. Didn’t go on the Baymax Happy ride but it looked like people were having fun dancing on the sidelines.
Couldn’t get into Mickeys Magical Musical World on both attempts through the access pass, and an hour before the general entry show was already full. Next time maybe! Club Mouse Beat was pretty bad.
The park is very “East Side heavy”, especially with Jungle Cruise closed for refurb. There is very little to do on the West side of the park.
DisneySea
Our day
Some background, I had been here before about 9 years ago on an incredibly busy day (26/12). I had enjoyed the park but the queues were very long. On my trip this time, I was taking a colleague who had never been to a Disney park before!
On this trip we reached the gates at approx 8am to an already relatively large crowd. Gates opened 8:30. I had read that most people go straight to Soarin’ or Toy Story, so we decided to go straight to Journey, where we pretty much walked on. By starting here and working our way around the back of the park first, we seemed to be a step ahead of the crowds all morning. We managed 9 rides (Journey, Aquatopia, Nemo SeaRider, Indiana Jones, Raging Spirits, Sinbad, Carousel, Scuttles Scooters, 20k Leagues) and the magic lamp show in our first three hours!
After the busy first few hours, we took it more relaxing for the next few. A ride on the Gondolas, some shopping, some lunch and an ice cream! We then watched Big Band Beat before heading to Soarin (Premier Access). Following this we had a few more big rides and waited 55 mins for Toy Story Mania and 45 for Tower of Terror. The lines looked very long but moved so quickly!
Following this we took another ride on Indy and Raging Spirits (thanks to single rider), Sinbad and 20k Leaghes. We still managed to find a pretty good spot for the evening show at 7pm - really enjoyed that.
We then headed back for another ride on Journey (20 min wait), and then a final ride on Indy to finish off the day. The park looks absolutely beautiful, but particularly at night - wow.
Thoughts on DisneySea
I’m going to be very curious how Fantasy Springs totally changes the dynamic of this park. There was definitely an older crowd here than Disneyland and I’m wondering if that might change with the new land opening. Also with Fantasy Springs right at the back of the park, it will totally change the flow of people into the park in the mornings, most likely with a majority heading back there. The Frozen and Tangled attractions are sure to be fairly high in capacity, not too sure on the two Peter Pan ones. I’d imagine some may open with premier access, and at the same time it would be dropped from Journey and maybe Tower?
I’m curious, does Soarin’ have two or three theatres here? If only two, they could definitely do with a third. And if three, they could probably use a fourth. Those queues never really let up.
It really is a world class park, and Fantasy Springs is going to make it even better. I’ll be very curious to see how they continue to expand over the years. I’d quite like to see a river rapids type ride - it was a very hot day!
General thoughts
My final Disney park! 12/12 completed. I spent two days here. First day, we rope-dropped Beauty and the Beast and waited around 45 minutes, our ride through had a technical stop for a couple of minutes just as the beast was transforming. Was a bit disappointing, but we got marched straight back on (through the unused single riders line) to go on again, and it was perfect! A really great attraction I thought, although I don’t think “Something There” was the best number for a full long scene. Of course the rides focus is in the castle but I’d of loved to have had “Belle” or “Gaston” or even “Human Again”. Did premier access on my second visit.
On second visit we rope dropped Pooh and waited about 20 mins, then did all the fantasyland dark rides with minimal wait.
We managed all major attractions, with plenty of time to get a seated spot for both parades. On my second day, we had the reduced daytime parade, and yeah, the full production is miles ahead.
I really love the Splash Mountain. Far superior to Disneylands for sure (can’t say of MK, it’s been 8 years). I thought Pirates was very good here also, as was the unique Poohs Hunny Hunt. Snow White was odd as the ride just kind of ends with the witch on top of the rock. Ride and Go Seek was… fine? I had expected to like it more. Space Mountain could do with a soundtrack. Didn’t go on the Baymax Happy ride but it looked like people were having fun dancing on the sidelines.
Couldn’t get into Mickeys Magical Musical World on both attempts through the access pass, and an hour before the general entry show was already full. Next time maybe! Club Mouse Beat was pretty bad.
The park is very “East Side heavy”, especially with Jungle Cruise closed for refurb. There is very little to do on the West side of the park.
DisneySea
Our day
Some background, I had been here before about 9 years ago on an incredibly busy day (26/12). I had enjoyed the park but the queues were very long. On my trip this time, I was taking a colleague who had never been to a Disney park before!
On this trip we reached the gates at approx 8am to an already relatively large crowd. Gates opened 8:30. I had read that most people go straight to Soarin’ or Toy Story, so we decided to go straight to Journey, where we pretty much walked on. By starting here and working our way around the back of the park first, we seemed to be a step ahead of the crowds all morning. We managed 9 rides (Journey, Aquatopia, Nemo SeaRider, Indiana Jones, Raging Spirits, Sinbad, Carousel, Scuttles Scooters, 20k Leagues) and the magic lamp show in our first three hours!
After the busy first few hours, we took it more relaxing for the next few. A ride on the Gondolas, some shopping, some lunch and an ice cream! We then watched Big Band Beat before heading to Soarin (Premier Access). Following this we had a few more big rides and waited 55 mins for Toy Story Mania and 45 for Tower of Terror. The lines looked very long but moved so quickly!
Following this we took another ride on Indy and Raging Spirits (thanks to single rider), Sinbad and 20k Leaghes. We still managed to find a pretty good spot for the evening show at 7pm - really enjoyed that.
We then headed back for another ride on Journey (20 min wait), and then a final ride on Indy to finish off the day. The park looks absolutely beautiful, but particularly at night - wow.
Thoughts on DisneySea
I’m going to be very curious how Fantasy Springs totally changes the dynamic of this park. There was definitely an older crowd here than Disneyland and I’m wondering if that might change with the new land opening. Also with Fantasy Springs right at the back of the park, it will totally change the flow of people into the park in the mornings, most likely with a majority heading back there. The Frozen and Tangled attractions are sure to be fairly high in capacity, not too sure on the two Peter Pan ones. I’d imagine some may open with premier access, and at the same time it would be dropped from Journey and maybe Tower?
I’m curious, does Soarin’ have two or three theatres here? If only two, they could definitely do with a third. And if three, they could probably use a fourth. Those queues never really let up.
It really is a world class park, and Fantasy Springs is going to make it even better. I’ll be very curious to see how they continue to expand over the years. I’d quite like to see a river rapids type ride - it was a very hot day!
General thoughts
- The queue and crowd management across both parks was exemplary. Wait times within the app were generally accurate to within about 5-10 minutes.
- Get used to waving - I felt like this is what it must feel like to be a member of the royal family.
- Everyone is so friendly and will do their absolute utmost to make you feel welcome.
- The maintenance of everything is wonderful. I didn’t see anything that looked wrong or out of place at all.
- If you go with a can do mindset, the language barrier is no issue. Lots of visual cues from cast members when you need to do something
- They do love those parades! I saw people queueing for their spots from an hour after opening.
- Pick your parade spot based on what you want to do immediately following. This is the time when the queues are shortest. We got straight onto Big Thunder after the day parade as we were right by it.
- The food is very good and very good value.
- The shops are very good value, but a lot of the merchandise is quite generic.
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