Tokyo June 2008
We had a good but very tiring trip, cos the kids were out almost the whole days so as to maximise the days we were in Disneyland and DisneySea.
In summary, I'd say that Tokyo Disneyland was great fun because it is a bigger park than HK Disneyland and the Japanese are very polite and not rude, but it was tiring also because we hit Disneyland on a MOnday and that was such a crowded day filled with so many locals that we even thought HK Disneyland's crowd we experienced last year was much bearable! However, because there are more theme parks in Tokyo Disneyland, we had a lot more to do, and as it is summer, and coincides with their 25th year park celebration, they had 1 mini parade just before noon, and one full parade in the afternoon at 3pm, as well as the night parade, the Electric parade.
DisneySea was not so enjoyable because IT RAINED! The whole day! And because the islands are pretty far apart, to walk to each island from one island involved trudging in puddles, it was not so great. Also, because of the height restrictions, Shann could not go on many rides. Lorraine obviously too. So one day on DisneySea itself was good enough.
Here are pictures to do the talking.....
Day 1 : We arrived at 7am and checked into the Hilton Tokyo Bay at noon. As it was a Sunday and already half a day had gone, there was no reason to spend the day in Disneyland itself. So we went to the nearby mall Ekspari to catch a late lunch and had an enjoyable show displayed by some entertainers (Caucasian entertainers speaking in Japanese) outside Planet Hollywood.
Day 2 : Monday : The crowd in Disneyland was horrendously large! This is just the entrance and it was filled with so many people entering the theme park. But the Japanese are very polite and very socially conscious and never did we have to squeeze with them in queues that were very orderly.
I remember taking such a family photo with my own family 10 odd years ago, just in front of the castle.
We braved through the crowds, and went straight to FantasyLand, knowing that our girls would want to take all the rides there first.
First off, for Lorraine, the carousel. Only the outside horses are to take a kid plus an adult.
Do you know how long we queued for Dumbo the flying elephant ride? a record of 80 minutes! I'm not kidding. I should have taken a photo of the queue. Plus because the ride can only seated a limited capacity each time, the queue moved so slowly my hubby was asleep waiting for us during that time.
You can see in the background, a mini float making its appearance. In light of its 25th year park celebrations, Tokyo Disneyland has 3 parades this summer. Once at 11am, but a mini one, just this commemorative float. The main one at 3pm, and a night electrical parade, which we thoroughly enjoyed, at 7.30pm. We had a spectacular view from Dumbo when the ride started, coincidentally with this mini float passing by. So it was well worth the 80 minute wait!
Next ride was a mistake for me to bring Lorraine. Snow White's (scary) adventures. I covered her eyes but didn't cover her ears. She was petrified after that and sat out a lot of rides as she said she was scared. Steve told me later than he had read the reviews online that it used ot be called Snow White's Scary Adentures!
We thought bringing her in its a small small world would rectify the situation, but no, she was still scared in the boat during the dark moment. I like this picture of the Japanese scene in its a small small world.
We got the chance to take many pictures with the characters because........uhm... the Japanese don't push at all. In fact, my kids pushed through, and they got in front of most locals. So pai seh.
Toon town. Smallish, no rides in there, just donald duck treehouse and some others which we didn't have time to venture. But we saw uncle scrooge.
2 things about Tokyo Disneyland to comment :-
(1) The locals love popcorn so much! Every season, they have 2 (or so) different designs on the popcorn containers which you can buy with popcorn in it. Different theme lands have different flavoured pop corn. We tried the chocolate popcorn first, which Shannon had the Chip and Dale container. It opens up at the top so you can dip your fingers in to take the popcorn. Once you are finished, you can queue up to buy refills.
We saw some nice designs which were not for sale that season and concluded that the locals bring the container back with them the next time they visit, to refill.
Along the way, we saw coffee, curry, cinnamon, honey popcorn. But we didn't like the designs, so Steve decided to buy only one here, and the other one at DisneySea the next day.
(2) Fast pass - Not many fast pass rides. This was also at disneysea where a few fast pass machines were closed.
My kids loved this guy -
The piano guy! We were on our way in central bazaar area when we saw him mount his piano tricycle and he started to sing, and just like the pied piper of hamlin, the kids just followed him as he cycled around. He finally stopped and played a few nice familiar tunes, in Mary Poppins.
Lorraine and Shann were so enthralled and encaptured by his piano playing, they both didn;t want to leave, kept clapping to his songs.
We had our lunch and dinner in Disneyland itself that day, aborting our plan to go back to the hotel for an afternoon rest. Dinner was a very good Japanese meal, and my kids loved the udon there :)
Late at night, on our way at the monorail station, against the backdrop of the new Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. Which opens only on 8 July. I wish we could have stayed there, but always a next time! The hotel looks very magnificent, and if it's like the HK Disneyland Hotel itself, I'd definitely not hesitate!
that's the logo for this year's 25th year.
DAY 2 : We woke up bright and early on the Tuesday to hit DisneySea, using the "Early Entry Pass", issued to the official disneyland hotels' guests. We were just within park grounds before 9 to enter at 9. But it was drizzling already and the whole day!
The disneysea characters were out to greet us early too.
Since it was drizzling, we headed first off to the Mermaid Lagoon, that was sheltered. We didn't have a chance to go on any of the rides above Triton's undersea kindgom as they were closed due to the rain. In the Undersea Kingdrom, Lorraine still had some phobia of the dark from the day before, so she didn't take any rides. But Shann enjoyed the jellyfish (Jumping Jellyfish) ride and went up many times. As it was still early, there was hardly anyone, plus, throughout the day, we noticed less people, probably also due to the rain.
We did a lot of shopping at the shop in mermaid lagoon because of ariel-themed merchandise and paraphenalis available there.
We entered Ariel's playground too, and it was fun for Shann to sort of experience what life was like, under the sea...
As it was drizzling, it was not too easy getting from port/island to port /island, as it involved a lot of walking in the open. We bought Lorraine a kid sized raincoat, Shann had hers from Singapore (thank God i brought it along) and the adults used hats and we bought 2 umbrellas too.
We tried the ride : 20,000 leagues under the sea, it was quite fun! But to walk all the way to Mysterious Island, and only take one ride (the other ride was closed due to the weather) was quite a bummer.
Next, we went to Aladdin/Sinbad land, known as Arabian Coast. Sinbad's Storybook Voyage is almost like Its a Small Small world, on a boat, and you travel through different countries.
We went to Jasmin's garden, and for Lorraine, we specially sought out the carousel ride at the CARAVAN CAROUSEL which she loved.
one could also ride on the genie.
See the sea of umbrellas?
Because we had a three day pass, of which you have to use in this order : Disneyland or DisneySea first day, second day is the other. And for the third day, either. So, unless you can plan in advance to avoid rainy days, like us, no choice , just enjoyed it to the best we could.
That;s my little one in the yellow raincoat. She is the independent traveller, no need for stroller, no need to hold her hands. She can walk and walk the whole day. She is adaptable where food is concerned, and hence, an enjoyable travel companion, SAVE ONLY where the scary rides were concerned.
At the Lost River Delta, we went on the river cruise (DisnesySea Transit Steamer Line) quite similar to that in HK Disneyland too.
Through the rain, we saw the sights of DisneySea.
The haunted house of terror (our friends, the other family we went with, whose older kid went for that, said it was all in Japanese, and before the free fall, the guide was building up the suspense in Japanese for which they couldn't understand, so they didn't really feel frightened at all.
See the ship in the backgroud? It's the place to go if you are looking for fine dining.
.
We decided to get out of the rain for a while and grabbed an early lunch.
Followed by the electric railway train ride
We took the electic railway to Port Discovery and in the rain, managed to enjoy the rides on Aquatopia (highly recommended!!) . Shannon went on this ride 3 times.
After that, we walked back slowly to the entrance, and along the way, caught the water float parade.
now see the sea of people around the sea? we didn;t see that many pple around the whole day actually.
As Lorraine loved the splash around in the puddles, her shoe was soaked through, and even though we bought 2 pairs of socks for her, these didn't stay dry. So we went back to the hotel to change her shoes, and came back for dinner at the buffet restaurant and caught the night water parade too, but only glimpse of it as, lorraine was so scared of the lights. But Shann loved the night lights and declared it was the best parade she's seen.
Here's us at the DisneySea train station.
back to Bayside Station where most of the hotels are located.
Back to the hotel after a tiring rainy day, back to Starbucks coffee!
Day 4: Disneyland
We started the day with the Grand Prix car ride, which we missed in HK Disneyland last year due to the long queue then. As it is quite a far walk into TomorrowLand, most locals had stopped by the earlier rides, so this ride was just waiting for us!
The next ride was the Star Jets - very fun! Scarier than Dumbo cos this was a lot higher in altitude, and faster, and steeper. Shann and her friend thoroughly enjoyed the thrill! If not for re-queue-ing that involved taking a lift up, we'd have gone a second ride.
We then made our way to Adventureland and en route, saw some friendly characters.
and caught the mini parade float again.
The jungle cruise was quite fun. And I particularly liked this.
I think Q will like this, dont you think Lily?
After Adventureland, we thought since we're going to be out the whole day again, we'd go rent a stroller.
There was a short parade which we caught jus tbefore lunch.
the float is quite pretty right?
Shann and Steve then went for some rides - Pirates of the Carribean (I don't know what it was like as I sat it out with Lorraine).
After lunch, hubby parked himself to chope the place for the 3pm parade, as early as 1pm, and was told by the park attendants to vacate as their rule was you can only start to reserve an hour from the parade time. But hubby was firm, and used language as a barrier, and stayed put, so we had a nice bench.
Shann and I went to Fantasyland for more rides, and picture taking!
We saw 6 dwarves minus one (bashful) and no Snow White at all, only at night during the Electrical Parade. So i'm thinking, maybe they can't get enough actresses to doll up as the disney princesses.
On her way back to the parade square, she got herself an ice cream. You can see the people parked on the roads waiting for the parade to start.
For the 3pm parade, there was the usual flow of floats, characters such as peter pan, buzz lightyear, woody, pocahontas, the monsters inc, tinkerbell, the princesses (but not as extensive as the HK Disneyland ones on princesses), and some of their funny looking dance costumes.
Shann loved the Peter Pan flight ride and queued for 45 minutes for the second ride that day, only to be told at the end of that time, that the ride was then closed for maintenance. She was so disappointed and they issued her a priority ticket for use in other rides, but when we went around, even the priority queues took a long time!
So it was timely that Peter Pan arrived to cheer her up. After a while, the ride re-opened, and she was happy again.
This is the other popcorn container hubby bought for lorraine, a pooh bear hunny pot one.
Finally, i leave you with the only picture in my camera, cos we were so trigger happy that i ran out of space for the night parade.
On our last day in Tokyo, we took the train out to LaLa Port land, but it 's just a huge shopping mall, nothing much to shout about.
In summary, I'd say that Tokyo Disneyland was great fun because it is a bigger park than HK Disneyland and the Japanese are very polite and not rude, but it was tiring also because we hit Disneyland on a MOnday and that was such a crowded day filled with so many locals that we even thought HK Disneyland's crowd we experienced last year was much bearable! However, because there are more theme parks in Tokyo Disneyland, we had a lot more to do, and as it is summer, and coincides with their 25th year park celebration, they had 1 mini parade just before noon, and one full parade in the afternoon at 3pm, as well as the night parade, the Electric parade.
DisneySea was not so enjoyable because IT RAINED! The whole day! And because the islands are pretty far apart, to walk to each island from one island involved trudging in puddles, it was not so great. Also, because of the height restrictions, Shann could not go on many rides. Lorraine obviously too. So one day on DisneySea itself was good enough.
Here are pictures to do the talking.....
Day 1 : We arrived at 7am and checked into the Hilton Tokyo Bay at noon. As it was a Sunday and already half a day had gone, there was no reason to spend the day in Disneyland itself. So we went to the nearby mall Ekspari to catch a late lunch and had an enjoyable show displayed by some entertainers (Caucasian entertainers speaking in Japanese) outside Planet Hollywood.
Day 2 : Monday : The crowd in Disneyland was horrendously large! This is just the entrance and it was filled with so many people entering the theme park. But the Japanese are very polite and very socially conscious and never did we have to squeeze with them in queues that were very orderly.
I remember taking such a family photo with my own family 10 odd years ago, just in front of the castle.
We braved through the crowds, and went straight to FantasyLand, knowing that our girls would want to take all the rides there first.
First off, for Lorraine, the carousel. Only the outside horses are to take a kid plus an adult.
Do you know how long we queued for Dumbo the flying elephant ride? a record of 80 minutes! I'm not kidding. I should have taken a photo of the queue. Plus because the ride can only seated a limited capacity each time, the queue moved so slowly my hubby was asleep waiting for us during that time.
You can see in the background, a mini float making its appearance. In light of its 25th year park celebrations, Tokyo Disneyland has 3 parades this summer. Once at 11am, but a mini one, just this commemorative float. The main one at 3pm, and a night electrical parade, which we thoroughly enjoyed, at 7.30pm. We had a spectacular view from Dumbo when the ride started, coincidentally with this mini float passing by. So it was well worth the 80 minute wait!
Next ride was a mistake for me to bring Lorraine. Snow White's (scary) adventures. I covered her eyes but didn't cover her ears. She was petrified after that and sat out a lot of rides as she said she was scared. Steve told me later than he had read the reviews online that it used ot be called Snow White's Scary Adentures!
We thought bringing her in its a small small world would rectify the situation, but no, she was still scared in the boat during the dark moment. I like this picture of the Japanese scene in its a small small world.
We got the chance to take many pictures with the characters because........uhm... the Japanese don't push at all. In fact, my kids pushed through, and they got in front of most locals. So pai seh.
Toon town. Smallish, no rides in there, just donald duck treehouse and some others which we didn't have time to venture. But we saw uncle scrooge.
2 things about Tokyo Disneyland to comment :-
(1) The locals love popcorn so much! Every season, they have 2 (or so) different designs on the popcorn containers which you can buy with popcorn in it. Different theme lands have different flavoured pop corn. We tried the chocolate popcorn first, which Shannon had the Chip and Dale container. It opens up at the top so you can dip your fingers in to take the popcorn. Once you are finished, you can queue up to buy refills.
We saw some nice designs which were not for sale that season and concluded that the locals bring the container back with them the next time they visit, to refill.
Along the way, we saw coffee, curry, cinnamon, honey popcorn. But we didn't like the designs, so Steve decided to buy only one here, and the other one at DisneySea the next day.
(2) Fast pass - Not many fast pass rides. This was also at disneysea where a few fast pass machines were closed.
My kids loved this guy -
The piano guy! We were on our way in central bazaar area when we saw him mount his piano tricycle and he started to sing, and just like the pied piper of hamlin, the kids just followed him as he cycled around. He finally stopped and played a few nice familiar tunes, in Mary Poppins.
Lorraine and Shann were so enthralled and encaptured by his piano playing, they both didn;t want to leave, kept clapping to his songs.
We had our lunch and dinner in Disneyland itself that day, aborting our plan to go back to the hotel for an afternoon rest. Dinner was a very good Japanese meal, and my kids loved the udon there :)
Late at night, on our way at the monorail station, against the backdrop of the new Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. Which opens only on 8 July. I wish we could have stayed there, but always a next time! The hotel looks very magnificent, and if it's like the HK Disneyland Hotel itself, I'd definitely not hesitate!
that's the logo for this year's 25th year.
DAY 2 : We woke up bright and early on the Tuesday to hit DisneySea, using the "Early Entry Pass", issued to the official disneyland hotels' guests. We were just within park grounds before 9 to enter at 9. But it was drizzling already and the whole day!
The disneysea characters were out to greet us early too.
Since it was drizzling, we headed first off to the Mermaid Lagoon, that was sheltered. We didn't have a chance to go on any of the rides above Triton's undersea kindgom as they were closed due to the rain. In the Undersea Kingdrom, Lorraine still had some phobia of the dark from the day before, so she didn't take any rides. But Shann enjoyed the jellyfish (Jumping Jellyfish) ride and went up many times. As it was still early, there was hardly anyone, plus, throughout the day, we noticed less people, probably also due to the rain.
We did a lot of shopping at the shop in mermaid lagoon because of ariel-themed merchandise and paraphenalis available there.
We entered Ariel's playground too, and it was fun for Shann to sort of experience what life was like, under the sea...
As it was drizzling, it was not too easy getting from port/island to port /island, as it involved a lot of walking in the open. We bought Lorraine a kid sized raincoat, Shann had hers from Singapore (thank God i brought it along) and the adults used hats and we bought 2 umbrellas too.
We tried the ride : 20,000 leagues under the sea, it was quite fun! But to walk all the way to Mysterious Island, and only take one ride (the other ride was closed due to the weather) was quite a bummer.
Next, we went to Aladdin/Sinbad land, known as Arabian Coast. Sinbad's Storybook Voyage is almost like Its a Small Small world, on a boat, and you travel through different countries.
We went to Jasmin's garden, and for Lorraine, we specially sought out the carousel ride at the CARAVAN CAROUSEL which she loved.
one could also ride on the genie.
See the sea of umbrellas?
Because we had a three day pass, of which you have to use in this order : Disneyland or DisneySea first day, second day is the other. And for the third day, either. So, unless you can plan in advance to avoid rainy days, like us, no choice , just enjoyed it to the best we could.
That;s my little one in the yellow raincoat. She is the independent traveller, no need for stroller, no need to hold her hands. She can walk and walk the whole day. She is adaptable where food is concerned, and hence, an enjoyable travel companion, SAVE ONLY where the scary rides were concerned.
At the Lost River Delta, we went on the river cruise (DisnesySea Transit Steamer Line) quite similar to that in HK Disneyland too.
Through the rain, we saw the sights of DisneySea.
The haunted house of terror (our friends, the other family we went with, whose older kid went for that, said it was all in Japanese, and before the free fall, the guide was building up the suspense in Japanese for which they couldn't understand, so they didn't really feel frightened at all.
See the ship in the backgroud? It's the place to go if you are looking for fine dining.
.
We decided to get out of the rain for a while and grabbed an early lunch.
Followed by the electric railway train ride
We took the electic railway to Port Discovery and in the rain, managed to enjoy the rides on Aquatopia (highly recommended!!) . Shannon went on this ride 3 times.
After that, we walked back slowly to the entrance, and along the way, caught the water float parade.
now see the sea of people around the sea? we didn;t see that many pple around the whole day actually.
As Lorraine loved the splash around in the puddles, her shoe was soaked through, and even though we bought 2 pairs of socks for her, these didn't stay dry. So we went back to the hotel to change her shoes, and came back for dinner at the buffet restaurant and caught the night water parade too, but only glimpse of it as, lorraine was so scared of the lights. But Shann loved the night lights and declared it was the best parade she's seen.
Here's us at the DisneySea train station.
back to Bayside Station where most of the hotels are located.
Back to the hotel after a tiring rainy day, back to Starbucks coffee!
Day 4: Disneyland
We started the day with the Grand Prix car ride, which we missed in HK Disneyland last year due to the long queue then. As it is quite a far walk into TomorrowLand, most locals had stopped by the earlier rides, so this ride was just waiting for us!
The next ride was the Star Jets - very fun! Scarier than Dumbo cos this was a lot higher in altitude, and faster, and steeper. Shann and her friend thoroughly enjoyed the thrill! If not for re-queue-ing that involved taking a lift up, we'd have gone a second ride.
We then made our way to Adventureland and en route, saw some friendly characters.
and caught the mini parade float again.
The jungle cruise was quite fun. And I particularly liked this.
I think Q will like this, dont you think Lily?
After Adventureland, we thought since we're going to be out the whole day again, we'd go rent a stroller.
There was a short parade which we caught jus tbefore lunch.
the float is quite pretty right?
Shann and Steve then went for some rides - Pirates of the Carribean (I don't know what it was like as I sat it out with Lorraine).
After lunch, hubby parked himself to chope the place for the 3pm parade, as early as 1pm, and was told by the park attendants to vacate as their rule was you can only start to reserve an hour from the parade time. But hubby was firm, and used language as a barrier, and stayed put, so we had a nice bench.
Shann and I went to Fantasyland for more rides, and picture taking!
We saw 6 dwarves minus one (bashful) and no Snow White at all, only at night during the Electrical Parade. So i'm thinking, maybe they can't get enough actresses to doll up as the disney princesses.
On her way back to the parade square, she got herself an ice cream. You can see the people parked on the roads waiting for the parade to start.
For the 3pm parade, there was the usual flow of floats, characters such as peter pan, buzz lightyear, woody, pocahontas, the monsters inc, tinkerbell, the princesses (but not as extensive as the HK Disneyland ones on princesses), and some of their funny looking dance costumes.
Shann loved the Peter Pan flight ride and queued for 45 minutes for the second ride that day, only to be told at the end of that time, that the ride was then closed for maintenance. She was so disappointed and they issued her a priority ticket for use in other rides, but when we went around, even the priority queues took a long time!
So it was timely that Peter Pan arrived to cheer her up. After a while, the ride re-opened, and she was happy again.
This is the other popcorn container hubby bought for lorraine, a pooh bear hunny pot one.
Finally, i leave you with the only picture in my camera, cos we were so trigger happy that i ran out of space for the night parade.
On our last day in Tokyo, we took the train out to LaLa Port land, but it 's just a huge shopping mall, nothing much to shout about.