Day 16: Bye bye, Gelatoni~
We had tickets to go to Disney Sea today, so that's what we did.
There is a certain rhythm to our Disney park visits, I think. We've developed routines and certain rituals we need to follow to make our stay complete. For me, Sea is all about the park. The rides and snacks are just an added bonus. It's truly such a beautiful park, I love walking around soaking up the atmosphere and listening to the park music.
A day at Disney Sea typically starts with picking out a place to have breakfast. I'll order something, dump my stuff and then run off to the Mysterious Island area of the park to grab Fastpasses for The Journey to the Center of the Earth. Then I head back to finish my breakfast, and we go off together to make reservations at Magellan's, which for better or for worse has become our restaurant of choice at Disney Sea. It is a fancy restaurant, full table service, three to four course meals ..... But it's such an amazing place, and the food is to die for. So what can you do. We've always been able to get priority seating, and today was no exception, even though we ended up being named "Arisennto". Wonderfully fake Italian sounding - which goes well with the theme of the Mediterranean Harbor area of the park, I guess. Haha!
It's impossible for me to pick a favourite area of the park, but two of my favourite rides are in the Mysterious Island area, so I guess we end up spending a lot of time there. Both the attractions are based on Jules Verne novels. They are wonderfully crafted and thrilling in that wonderful way that only Disney attractions can thrill you. The wait for Journey to the Center of the Earth averages at about 110 minutes, so rushing off to get a Fastpass is always a good idea. The ride is Splash Mountain's steampunk-y sibling. You ride a little drilling car through Prometheus Mountain, Disney Sea's most prominent weenie. The final drop gives you a brief (but beautiful) view of the park from the mountain.
We tried two new attractions this time. We still had some time to kill before using our Fastpass to ride the Indiana Jones ride, and I noticed that the Magic Lamp Theatre still had Fastpasses left. This is a theatre style attraction, it mixed live performance with 3D film elements and physical gags. It was a fun show, and I really enjoyed the performers.
The second attraction we tried for the first time was Leonardo's Challenge. You are given a map with riddles (Japanese only), after a brief introduction with instructions you are sent off to explore the fortress in the Mediterranean Harbor area, solve riddles, and learn the secrets of Prometheus Mountain. This was actually a lot of fun. I got super hyped up running around solving the riddles xD I am glad my Japanese was up to it. Haha! We made it to the goal, and got to keep the map as a souvenir.
We completely geeked out over Disney Sea's newest character. Duffy and Shellie May are extremely popular characters at Disney Sea. You can only get the Duffy themed merchandise at Disney Sea. And now they've added a new Duffy friend character, Gelatoni. He is an adorable cat. Who uses his tail as a paintbrush.
Here we are after riding Aquatopia (where you get really wet in summer xD)
I later discovered that Gelatoni's hat is actually a hair clip accessory!!!
Kyaaaaaa. We'd get more Gelatoni stuff, but everything except that particular size stuffed toy was sold out. Every. Single. Other. Gelatoni themed. Thing.
Completely sold out. Whuuuut.
Today's magical moment happened after dinner at Magellan's. Our waitress had talked to us a bit during dinner, we talked about Norway and the Northern Lights. Then when it was time for coffee after dinner, I did the most ridiculous thing. I can't even. I still laugh thinking about it. This is a really fancy restaurant type of place. I was given a delicate porcelain cup of piping hot coffee, and I wanted some sugar in my coffee. So I took the lid off the fancy porcelain sugar bowl, put a spoonful of sugar in my coffee, then our waitress came over and started explaining where and how to pay, and as she's standing there, I slowly and calmly drop the sugar bowl lid into my coffee. I just. I have no idea what happened. It was one of those moments where you see it happening, think slowly "hm, this isn't right", but still continue doing it anyway. It was first when our waitress exclaimed ":0 did you burn yourself, are you okay?", and I notice the porcelain lid sinking to the bottom of my cup that I realized what I'd done. Aaaahaahahahah. It was the most embarrassing thing. And I just couldn't stop laughing. Our waitress said she'd bring me a new one, and seconds later I had a new cup of coffee and a new sugar bowl in front of me xD let's just say I didn't sweeten my coffee this time.
When we left, our waitress ran on over and handed us some stickers as a special gift, and she wished us a pleasant evening. It wasn't until we got back into the apartment that I noticed she'd written a personal message on the back of one of them.
"Enjoy your stay in Japan! - Takemura"
Aaaah. If this isn't what Disney is all about, then I don't know what is :)
There is a certain rhythm to our Disney park visits, I think. We've developed routines and certain rituals we need to follow to make our stay complete. For me, Sea is all about the park. The rides and snacks are just an added bonus. It's truly such a beautiful park, I love walking around soaking up the atmosphere and listening to the park music.
A day at Disney Sea typically starts with picking out a place to have breakfast. I'll order something, dump my stuff and then run off to the Mysterious Island area of the park to grab Fastpasses for The Journey to the Center of the Earth. Then I head back to finish my breakfast, and we go off together to make reservations at Magellan's, which for better or for worse has become our restaurant of choice at Disney Sea. It is a fancy restaurant, full table service, three to four course meals ..... But it's such an amazing place, and the food is to die for. So what can you do. We've always been able to get priority seating, and today was no exception, even though we ended up being named "Arisennto". Wonderfully fake Italian sounding - which goes well with the theme of the Mediterranean Harbor area of the park, I guess. Haha!
It's impossible for me to pick a favourite area of the park, but two of my favourite rides are in the Mysterious Island area, so I guess we end up spending a lot of time there. Both the attractions are based on Jules Verne novels. They are wonderfully crafted and thrilling in that wonderful way that only Disney attractions can thrill you. The wait for Journey to the Center of the Earth averages at about 110 minutes, so rushing off to get a Fastpass is always a good idea. The ride is Splash Mountain's steampunk-y sibling. You ride a little drilling car through Prometheus Mountain, Disney Sea's most prominent weenie. The final drop gives you a brief (but beautiful) view of the park from the mountain.
We tried two new attractions this time. We still had some time to kill before using our Fastpass to ride the Indiana Jones ride, and I noticed that the Magic Lamp Theatre still had Fastpasses left. This is a theatre style attraction, it mixed live performance with 3D film elements and physical gags. It was a fun show, and I really enjoyed the performers.
The second attraction we tried for the first time was Leonardo's Challenge. You are given a map with riddles (Japanese only), after a brief introduction with instructions you are sent off to explore the fortress in the Mediterranean Harbor area, solve riddles, and learn the secrets of Prometheus Mountain. This was actually a lot of fun. I got super hyped up running around solving the riddles xD I am glad my Japanese was up to it. Haha! We made it to the goal, and got to keep the map as a souvenir.
We completely geeked out over Disney Sea's newest character. Duffy and Shellie May are extremely popular characters at Disney Sea. You can only get the Duffy themed merchandise at Disney Sea. And now they've added a new Duffy friend character, Gelatoni. He is an adorable cat. Who uses his tail as a paintbrush.
Here we are after riding Aquatopia (where you get really wet in summer xD)
I later discovered that Gelatoni's hat is actually a hair clip accessory!!!
Kyaaaaaa. We'd get more Gelatoni stuff, but everything except that particular size stuffed toy was sold out. Every. Single. Other. Gelatoni themed. Thing.
Completely sold out. Whuuuut.
Today's magical moment happened after dinner at Magellan's. Our waitress had talked to us a bit during dinner, we talked about Norway and the Northern Lights. Then when it was time for coffee after dinner, I did the most ridiculous thing. I can't even. I still laugh thinking about it. This is a really fancy restaurant type of place. I was given a delicate porcelain cup of piping hot coffee, and I wanted some sugar in my coffee. So I took the lid off the fancy porcelain sugar bowl, put a spoonful of sugar in my coffee, then our waitress came over and started explaining where and how to pay, and as she's standing there, I slowly and calmly drop the sugar bowl lid into my coffee. I just. I have no idea what happened. It was one of those moments where you see it happening, think slowly "hm, this isn't right", but still continue doing it anyway. It was first when our waitress exclaimed ":0 did you burn yourself, are you okay?", and I notice the porcelain lid sinking to the bottom of my cup that I realized what I'd done. Aaaahaahahahah. It was the most embarrassing thing. And I just couldn't stop laughing. Our waitress said she'd bring me a new one, and seconds later I had a new cup of coffee and a new sugar bowl in front of me xD let's just say I didn't sweeten my coffee this time.
When we left, our waitress ran on over and handed us some stickers as a special gift, and she wished us a pleasant evening. It wasn't until we got back into the apartment that I noticed she'd written a personal message on the back of one of them.
"Enjoy your stay in Japan! - Takemura"
Aaaah. If this isn't what Disney is all about, then I don't know what is :)