Posted by Jess
24 October 2010
After Jason arrived back in Tokyo on Wednesday night, it was finally time for the highlight of Kiki-fest (at least in a four year old's eyes) - Disneyland! Thursday we spent the entire day at Tokyo Disneyland. It was a busy day so I'll try to sum it up, but forgive me if this post is a little long...
We took the train to the Disney Resort area. It took 3 trains to get there and the transfers were a little long, but we made it in just under an hour of travel time.
Disney has two parks here- Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea. Disneyland is the classic park with the usual suspects for rides. Disney Sea is a sort of combination of California Adventures and Epcot Center - more shows, rides like Tower of Terror, an area to explore different parts of the world. Disney Sea does have Nemo and Ariel though (since they live in the sea of course). We decided that since our girls are little, Disneyland would be better for us.
The park had all the same things as Disneyland in the States, except Frontierland is called Westernland here and Tomorrowland is called Futureland. The rides are all pretty much the same too with just a few additions/subtractions.
Futureland has Rockets, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Autopia/Grand Prix, Space Mountain, and then two additions - a Monsters Inc. ride where you have to shine your flashlight around Monstropolis and try to find Boo. If you put your flashlight on a Monsters Inc emblem, a monster appears. Not scary though- it's not like they pop out at you - more like Oscar the Grouch coming out of his garbage can. The other addition is Captain EO, which is a George Lucas/Michael Jackson show that used to be at the parks. It was just brought back to this park a few months ago. We did Monster Inc and Space Mountain in this part of the park - both had over an hour wait. Ella was tall enough for Space Mountain by about 8-10cm - no problem! The cars are classic roller coaster style so 2 people in each row. Her and Jay sat in the very front which is the darkest spot to sit in Space Mountain and she loved it! No fear of roller coasters for that girl (but people in costumes, that's another story...).
We didn't spend too much time in Adventureland and Westernland. We did go on Thunder Mountain, which again Ella loved although I had to hold on to her the whole time - I thought she was going to slide out of her seat. I thought this ride was really good - better than I remember from the other parks. Thunder Mountain's wait was about an hour as well. Splash Mountain was 80 minutes - too long for us and the fast passes were already gone for the day by mid-afternoon. Other attractions in this area are the mark twain steamboat, tom sawyer's island, the tiki room and the country bear jamboree (which we didn't know if they would be in Japanese so we didn't try them) and then a railroad that goes around this part of the park.
We spent most of our time in Toon Town and Fantasyland as the day went on. Around 5pm or so these areas started to clear out and rides that had an hour wait in the morning were now down below 30 minutes or less. In Toon Town, Ella and Jason rode Gadget's Go Coaster while Abby played on a little kids playground. Then we caught the Halloween Parade.
After the Halloween Parade we had some fast passes to go to Pooh's Hunny Hunt. We grabbed fast passes as soon as we came into the park because this is a big attraction for this park. Waits were about 90 minutes almost all day. We still waited about 25 or 30 minutes to go on even with the fast passes. It was worth it though. The Pooh ride in Disneyland CA has got nothing on this one. You sit with 5-6 of you in a honey pot and go through Pooh's world. Along the way, you meet Tigger and then go into this room where you actually bounce. The floor moves you up and down and Tigger is on the screen in front of you bouncing too. Really cool effect. Then you go into Pooh's world which is slightly psychedelic of course. Your honey pot goes in front of silly mirrors, over to bees that drink honey and act a little crazy, and a few other things to see. It was a good ride and we could all ride it together so it was definitely the right one to get the passes for. A 90 minute wait would have been hard to swallow.
After that we headed back to Toon Town to grab some pizza for dinner and then got in line to meet Mickey Mouse. The line for that was about an hour too. But it was Abby's first visit to a park and Ella was all about meeting Mickey so we got in line. We met Mickey and Abby wasn't so excited (some of you will remember Ella's pictures with Mickey Mouse when she was 11 months old - this wasn't far off!). Kiki did snap a few shots though.
After Mickey we headed back to Fantasyland. Ella wanted to ride on Its a Small World (which never has a long wait) so Jason and I took her. By the time we got back to Fantasyland - about a 5 minute walk, Abby was asleep. Poor thing was tuckered out. But her and Kiki had gone on Its a Small World earlier in the day so she didn't miss anything!
We hit up more of Fantasyland after this - Dumbo was next, which had about a 35 minute wait, but by that time it was great because the Electric Light Parade came out while we were in line so there was entertainment - plus when we got up in Dumbo (Ella and I went on) we could watch the parade from up there. Great view of what was going on below us.
We watched the rest of the parade and then Ella and Jay headed on Peter Pan - the wait was only about 10 minutes. And Ella was entertained by the group of high school girls in line in front of them that were enamored with her. They asked her all kinds of questions and took her picture. After that Ella and Jay headed to Snow White, which had very little wait while Kiki and I headed back to Futureland to get some popcorn. Popcorn is a popular treat here at theme parks and you can get different flavors at different places in the park. There was Honey popcorn by Pooh's ride, Curry popcorn in Adventureland, Caramel and plain of course, but then in Futureland, there was Soy Sauce popcorn, which Jason had been eyeing up earlier in the day. Everyone else thought it was great - I wasn't a fan. We did a little shopping, watched the fireworks show and headed home for the night around 9pm or so.
And of course we met some other characters throughout the day (which Abby was not so always fond of and Ella didn't really want to see if they weren't princesses).
For the most part it felt like Disneyland at home. But here's a quick list of what I found different or interesting about this park versus the US parks:
1. The number of adults that wanted pictures with characters or went on kids rides but didn't have kids with them.
2. Princesses are not as big of a deal here. Girls were dressed up as princesses and there were princesses out and about and in the parades, but merchandise wasn't really about princesses - more of mickey/minnie and then dumbo, bambi, and other classic cartoon characters.
3. The restaurants were very similar to the US park restaurants. I would have thought that it would have been a bit more Japanese. Although we did have rice and beef and sandwiches on chinese buns for lunch.
4. There aren't embroidable ears here. People just get headbands with ears on them or these hats that are the head of the character with a little plush body attached. The number of grown men wearing Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse stuffed animals on their heads was insane.
6. Shopping was not so great. Almost all the stores had exactly the same things and even then there was not much variety. I was really disappointed as I was hoping to find some of the great Disney toys that we usually find in the states. Couldn't even find Ella a wand for her Halloween costume.
And I'm pretty sure we were the only foreigners at the park.
Kanpai!
Jess
24 October 2010
After Jason arrived back in Tokyo on Wednesday night, it was finally time for the highlight of Kiki-fest (at least in a four year old's eyes) - Disneyland! Thursday we spent the entire day at Tokyo Disneyland. It was a busy day so I'll try to sum it up, but forgive me if this post is a little long...
We took the train to the Disney Resort area. It took 3 trains to get there and the transfers were a little long, but we made it in just under an hour of travel time.
Disney has two parks here- Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea. Disneyland is the classic park with the usual suspects for rides. Disney Sea is a sort of combination of California Adventures and Epcot Center - more shows, rides like Tower of Terror, an area to explore different parts of the world. Disney Sea does have Nemo and Ariel though (since they live in the sea of course). We decided that since our girls are little, Disneyland would be better for us.
The park had all the same things as Disneyland in the States, except Frontierland is called Westernland here and Tomorrowland is called Futureland. The rides are all pretty much the same too with just a few additions/subtractions.
Futureland has Rockets, Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Autopia/Grand Prix, Space Mountain, and then two additions - a Monsters Inc. ride where you have to shine your flashlight around Monstropolis and try to find Boo. If you put your flashlight on a Monsters Inc emblem, a monster appears. Not scary though- it's not like they pop out at you - more like Oscar the Grouch coming out of his garbage can. The other addition is Captain EO, which is a George Lucas/Michael Jackson show that used to be at the parks. It was just brought back to this park a few months ago. We did Monster Inc and Space Mountain in this part of the park - both had over an hour wait. Ella was tall enough for Space Mountain by about 8-10cm - no problem! The cars are classic roller coaster style so 2 people in each row. Her and Jay sat in the very front which is the darkest spot to sit in Space Mountain and she loved it! No fear of roller coasters for that girl (but people in costumes, that's another story...).
We didn't spend too much time in Adventureland and Westernland. We did go on Thunder Mountain, which again Ella loved although I had to hold on to her the whole time - I thought she was going to slide out of her seat. I thought this ride was really good - better than I remember from the other parks. Thunder Mountain's wait was about an hour as well. Splash Mountain was 80 minutes - too long for us and the fast passes were already gone for the day by mid-afternoon. Other attractions in this area are the mark twain steamboat, tom sawyer's island, the tiki room and the country bear jamboree (which we didn't know if they would be in Japanese so we didn't try them) and then a railroad that goes around this part of the park.
We spent most of our time in Toon Town and Fantasyland as the day went on. Around 5pm or so these areas started to clear out and rides that had an hour wait in the morning were now down below 30 minutes or less. In Toon Town, Ella and Jason rode Gadget's Go Coaster while Abby played on a little kids playground. Then we caught the Halloween Parade.
After the Halloween Parade we had some fast passes to go to Pooh's Hunny Hunt. We grabbed fast passes as soon as we came into the park because this is a big attraction for this park. Waits were about 90 minutes almost all day. We still waited about 25 or 30 minutes to go on even with the fast passes. It was worth it though. The Pooh ride in Disneyland CA has got nothing on this one. You sit with 5-6 of you in a honey pot and go through Pooh's world. Along the way, you meet Tigger and then go into this room where you actually bounce. The floor moves you up and down and Tigger is on the screen in front of you bouncing too. Really cool effect. Then you go into Pooh's world which is slightly psychedelic of course. Your honey pot goes in front of silly mirrors, over to bees that drink honey and act a little crazy, and a few other things to see. It was a good ride and we could all ride it together so it was definitely the right one to get the passes for. A 90 minute wait would have been hard to swallow.
After that we headed back to Toon Town to grab some pizza for dinner and then got in line to meet Mickey Mouse. The line for that was about an hour too. But it was Abby's first visit to a park and Ella was all about meeting Mickey so we got in line. We met Mickey and Abby wasn't so excited (some of you will remember Ella's pictures with Mickey Mouse when she was 11 months old - this wasn't far off!). Kiki did snap a few shots though.
After Mickey we headed back to Fantasyland. Ella wanted to ride on Its a Small World (which never has a long wait) so Jason and I took her. By the time we got back to Fantasyland - about a 5 minute walk, Abby was asleep. Poor thing was tuckered out. But her and Kiki had gone on Its a Small World earlier in the day so she didn't miss anything!
We hit up more of Fantasyland after this - Dumbo was next, which had about a 35 minute wait, but by that time it was great because the Electric Light Parade came out while we were in line so there was entertainment - plus when we got up in Dumbo (Ella and I went on) we could watch the parade from up there. Great view of what was going on below us.
We watched the rest of the parade and then Ella and Jay headed on Peter Pan - the wait was only about 10 minutes. And Ella was entertained by the group of high school girls in line in front of them that were enamored with her. They asked her all kinds of questions and took her picture. After that Ella and Jay headed to Snow White, which had very little wait while Kiki and I headed back to Futureland to get some popcorn. Popcorn is a popular treat here at theme parks and you can get different flavors at different places in the park. There was Honey popcorn by Pooh's ride, Curry popcorn in Adventureland, Caramel and plain of course, but then in Futureland, there was Soy Sauce popcorn, which Jason had been eyeing up earlier in the day. Everyone else thought it was great - I wasn't a fan. We did a little shopping, watched the fireworks show and headed home for the night around 9pm or so.
And of course we met some other characters throughout the day (which Abby was not so always fond of and Ella didn't really want to see if they weren't princesses).
For the most part it felt like Disneyland at home. But here's a quick list of what I found different or interesting about this park versus the US parks:
1. The number of adults that wanted pictures with characters or went on kids rides but didn't have kids with them.
2. Princesses are not as big of a deal here. Girls were dressed up as princesses and there were princesses out and about and in the parades, but merchandise wasn't really about princesses - more of mickey/minnie and then dumbo, bambi, and other classic cartoon characters.
3. The restaurants were very similar to the US park restaurants. I would have thought that it would have been a bit more Japanese. Although we did have rice and beef and sandwiches on chinese buns for lunch.
4. There aren't embroidable ears here. People just get headbands with ears on them or these hats that are the head of the character with a little plush body attached. The number of grown men wearing Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse stuffed animals on their heads was insane.
6. Shopping was not so great. Almost all the stores had exactly the same things and even then there was not much variety. I was really disappointed as I was hoping to find some of the great Disney toys that we usually find in the states. Couldn't even find Ella a wand for her Halloween costume.
And I'm pretty sure we were the only foreigners at the park.
Kanpai!
Jess
2:00 AM |
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