Following the compass of my heart! Tokyo trip report OCT 13-22, 2016. UPDATED 11/30 - COMPLETE

[MomoMama]

That stinks! I tried my luck at another Disney Gacha machine. It had little squeeze toys that I thought were bouncy balls. I wanted the Pooh one, but got Woody THREE TIMES IN A ROW!

Do you have any little nieces or nephews? They would make great stocking stuffers and they will not complain whose toy is better!

 

[disneyobsessed808]

Do you have any little nieces or nephews? They would make great stocking stuffers and they will not complain whose toy is better!

No nieces or nephews. They will just end up rolling somewhere around my house lol.

 

[disneyobsessed808]

October 17 - Tokyo Disneyland Part 1.

Since we wanted to get to the park at 7, we left our house at around 6 am to make sure we made it on time. At that point it was already raining. Fortunately, Andy had looked up the forecast, and we got some umbrellas and ponchos at Don Quijote the night before. We arrived at Maihama station around 7 am. Andy's friend got a room at the Sheraton Grande, so at that point, Andy's friends caught the TDR monorail line to the hotel to check in and we walked to line up for the Park.

We huddled under the covering of the ticket booths during this time, because we didn't want to get even more wet. I tried on the poncho and I was too big for it, so I was definitely staying under the covers. The cast member was insisting that everyone move up, but most people did not listen. Andy's friends finally got back and were able to find us in line.

Once we got in, we planned for Andy to get Fastpasses to Monster's Inc, and the rest of us would head to Pooh's Hunny Hunt and get in line. So as soon as we passed the gates, we powerwalked to Pooh, along with everyone else.

It turns out that Andy got in line before us to Pooh, so he was already in the queue looking for us when we got there. We pretty much just had a five minute wait for this. Being a fan of Winnie the Pooh, I was so excited to ride this again!

I love everything about this ride - the Disneyland version of this ride is completely dead to me! Even having ridden it on previous trips to Tokyo, there were things I was still discovering (like the weirdly creepy eating noises that Pooh makes at the end of the ride). The level of detail in the ride is amazing too. Just thinking about it makes me want to go again.

We then headed over to Haunted Mansion Holiday. I rode this on the previous trip as well, but the wait was 50 minutes. Today we only had to wait five or ten minutes. I do appreciate the differences between the Anaheim version and the Tokyo version. I like how DLR made a big deal about the new Sally, when Tokyo has at least two Sally figures/animatronics. DLR does have a much better Gingerbread House though.

Next up, we went for a ride on Peter Pan's Flight. I know I might sound like a broken record, but I like Tokyo's version better than Anaheim's. What's great is that you fly really close to the sets and it really feels like you are immersed in the story. We then headed through Tomorrowland to go use our Monster's Inc FastPass. On the way, we stopped for this.

Really we got it just for the cup. The scrump mochi was good - it had fruity cream fillings - I liked the coconut. I believe it was 880 yen. For some reason, things seemed so much reasonably priced at Tokyo Disneyland, but maybe that's because I was more open to paying more. The cup is so cute - speaking of cute things, we also ended up doing a little shopping at the two stores. Can I just say that the US Disney parks seriously need to hire the Tokyo Merchandise people. I walked through World of Disney the other night just thinking this stuff is so lame compared to Tokyo!

Before getting onto Monster's Inc, we grabbed Fastpasses for Space Mountain. We used our Monster's Inc Ride and Go Seek fastpass.

As much as I love Pooh, this might be my favorite ride in the park! Again, the level of detail is amazing, and the interactive component is so much fun. I remember reading once that someone didn't that this ride was any better than the DLR version. I can unequivocally say they are flat out wrong! LOL. This ride is exceptional - the animatronics are fully animated, mouth include - rather than just being large dolls/figurines.

At the end of the ride, Andy tried to eat my face.

We then decided to walk over to Adventureland. On the way there, Andy's friends and I wanted a snack. They got the mickey steamed pork bun, while I got the sparkling tapioca drink. It had crunchy red and yellow bits in there, along with boba balls. I think the drink was just Kirin Lemon.

After our snack, we went to visit Stitch in the Tiki Room. I don't really understand the point/storyline, but it was a fun show. I love Stitch, and think he's horribly underrepresented in DLR, so I like that they have an attraction with him. I think it's weird that the four main birds are not the same as those in Anaheim.

We tracked back to Fantasyland to get fastpasses to ride Pooh again later. While Andy did that, we got a Tipo Torta. I got the purple sweet potato flavor. My first reaction was that it was dry and weird, but as I ate more, I started to like it.

Then, it was time to see Mickey's Philharmagic. I love this show! The first time I had ever seen it (or attempted to) was in 2007 when I went to WDW. Unfortunately, as it was our first day, and we saw it during extra magic hours late at night, I ended up falling asleep and not seeing any of it. The next time I saw it was my last trip to Tokyo, and I really enjoyed it. Even though its in Japanese, the story line is pretty simple to follow without knowing anything. It's just so funny and enjoyable. Andy said it was the time during our trip that it looked like I was having the most fun.

 

[jelloarms]

I totally forgot to try the Scrump mochi! I did get the Alien ones though.

I agree, the Tokyo Disney merchandise is WAY better. Though I must admit, I was disappointed in the women's clothing selection. I feel like the US parks have blouses with more feminine cuts, whereas Tokyo Disney was mostly just T-shirts. I have a ton of t-shirts but in the last year or two, I have been trying to limit myself to only buying more femnine clothing.

 

[disneyobsessed808]

Next up it was time to use our Space Mountain fastpasses.

Space Mountain was pretty much similar to Disneyland's version. I do remember that the seats were a little tight, so it must be really uncomfortable for tall people. The main difference was the lack of music, so it was a little strange to just hear the coaster noise.

At this time it was time for lunch. We wanted to find where they had the Little Green Mochi, and we finally found it at the Pan Galactic Pizza Port. Andy's friends decided to get a pizza or calzone from there, but Andy and I had prepared food at the AirBNB to bring for lunch which we ate there. The vegan options at Tokyo Disney are pretty sparse. Only two restaurants have any options for vegans and the sets are pretty expensive, so we made some fried rice and pasta.

The videos they showed on the screens above the food service area were pretty hilarious.

While I had food, I figured that I needed dessert, so I just had to have this souvenir cup too. Look at the little pumpkin on his antenna!

Andy's friends decided at that time to split up with us, and we would meet up later. We didn't have set plans until our fastpass, so we headed towards the castle

We walked through the castle and saw the line for Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall. I was curious about going in here, so we decided to get out of the drizzle and wait in the 20 minute queue. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but basically it was a little hall with different artworks about Cinderella, another room with a little surprise appearance from the mice, and a room with different sets to take pictures with.

Some of the diorama artworks were really cool...

Some were really creepy.

We entered the ballroom or the throne room or whatever. But it was pretty beautiful.

Now this next picture I was a little embarrassed to take, but for the sake of a good picture and a funny picture I knew I had to take it. Here I was this big grown man in line flanked by little girls with their parents, so I did feel a little weird. But I think it was worth it.

It won't fit! Guess I'm still looking for my prince. LOL. After taking the pic, we headed outside and found more great picture opportunities as we walked over to Frontierland.

We decided to go on Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. We thought it might be closed because of the rain but fortunately it was open. Yay. I love the track at this version. Even the load area here is pretty cool. It seems a bit longer than the Anaheim version and there are a few more scenes.

We hopped over to Splash Mountain and decided to use the Single Rider line. Even though it was raining, the line was about 40-50 minutes long. What's nice about the Single Rider is that very few people use this option. We did have to wait a bit, when we spotted this hidden mickey. Well, Andy did

When we were at the front of the line, we noticed that several single seats were being left open. Maybe about 5 or 6 before we finally asked what was up. Andy asked the cast member, and she wouldn't tell us, but after he kept asking, she said that she can't put mixed genders next to each other, which is ridiculous - and also turned out to be not true, since we rode other rides with single riders and this again, and there was no issue. I have a suspicion that it was because we were "weird looking" foreigners. It was the one time I felt discriminated against as a non-Japanese person the entire trip.

After exiting the ride, I saw a snack bar with churros. I had seen Mickey shaped churros online before and wondered if they were the ones from here.

And they were! Flavor wise, they were just ok, but being shaped like mickey made them taste better.

Speaking of mickey shaped things, we found these cool hand washing stations next to the snack bar. What was so cool you ask? The soap dispenses into little mickeys! I could never get the shape right though, but Andy did.

We then went over to Haunted Mansion Holiday, and got a few more pictures before riding one more time.

Then, we headed over on to the Jungle Cruise.

This is one of my very favorite rides at DLR, when the skipper is good. I just love cheesy jokes. I wondered if the jokes were the same. Andy said he would do my best to translate the jokes for me, so we decided to ride it. It turns out that most of the jokes are not the same, nor are they that cheesy according to Andy. I assumed the backside of water joke would make an appearance - alas it did not.

Our skipper.

I really liked the extra scene in the temple here.

 

[disneyobsessed808]

October 17 - Part 3

Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry that there are so many posts and I'm spending too much time with little details! After Disney Sea, I'm sure the posts will be a little more interesting.

Back to the report.

So at some point, we met with Andy's friends. One of them wasn't feeling well and they decided to head to the hotel for the rest of the day. I told them, well, give us your Pooh fastpasses, and before you leave, let's get more fastpasses for Monster's Inc so we can ride two more times. Savage, I know.

Anyway, after that, we headed to Toontown. It's pretty much like the one at Disneyland, though there are a few differences.

There is one thing that is unique to Tokyo, the Goofy's Paint-N-Play house. I didn't get a really good picture of the building, but here's a nice picture courtesy of the Disney Parks Blog, clearly taken on a much less dreary day.

I had wanted to visit this place on my previous trip to Tokyo, but it had just opened and the wait was something crazy like 90 minutes. No, thank you. Fortunately, there was only a 10 minute wait. The queue and the "garden" here were really fun, very punny visual gags.

Squash...get it?

Anyway, the point of this attraction is that you get to paint the walls of Goofy's house using a gun that sort of reminded me of the Toy Story Mania guns.

Andy was a little perplexed by his gun, as instead of pulling a string, he had to spin some sort of knob. It was a pretty cute attraction. Once an image was covered in paint, the screen would change so that the wall was different, so the artwork and screen changed every 15 seconds or so. Overall, you probably get a minute or so to "paint." It was a cute side attraction, though I'm glad I didn't have to wait over an hour for this.

After that, it was time for Pooh again. Yay! We took a few more pictures here in the queue too. There are just so many good photo opportunities.

The exit of the ride empties right into a store featuring tons of Pooh merchandise aka heaven. Seriously, why does the Pooh Corner at Disneyland not have this stuff. Shopping here was one of the things I was looking forward to the most for this trip, and I was not disappointed! I plan on doing a post just on my merchandise, but for now, just look at all the amazing stuff.

One thing I'll show you is that I bought this adorable Pooh headband!

After spending a lot of money here, we decided to head to the hotel. We got our tickets for the Tokyo Disney Resort line. So for all those used to the US parks, the resort monorail is not free, so we bought a three day pass for the line, knowing that we would be using it quite a few times. It's also not really convenient to walk (as far as I know) between the hotels and the two parks, so you have to buy tickets.

At least the monorails are really cute.

The handle bars are in the shape of Mickey, and they even had little witches hats on in celebration for Halloween.

We stayed at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay, and because Andy's friend is a frequent traveler, she was able to get a larger room. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture of the room or the hotel grounds. Basically it was a L shaped room with two queen beds in the long side of the L, and two small single beds in the short part of the L. We were sort of relegated to the small beds, and actually those were pretty hard, and not all that comfortable. The bathrooms were really nice - they had a huge bath, but I didn't get a chance to use it. We had a great view of DisneySea, as the view looked over the park. We could see the "eruptions" from the volcano in Mysterious Island.

We took a nap in the room, and then headed back to the parks to take in a few more rides.

I snapped a quick picture of the floral mickey at the front. It is a bit jarring to me that there is no train station as you enter the park. I understand why that is, but I still think that the train station is as much a bit of a icon for the Magic Kingdoms as the castles are.

We had a few fastpasses for Monster's Inc and one more for Pooh I believe, so that's what we went on. First, Monster's Inc.



A display case showing Sulley as the employee of the month. This was in the store at the end of Monster's Inc - even the stores here are richly detailed.

As we walked toward Pooh, Once Upon a Time was playing. I'm not one for shows, so I caught what we saw during our walk over. It did look like a lot of fun though. I sort of wish I had stayed a little longer, but I'll enjoy it next time hopefully .

After going on Pooh for one last time of the day, we headed back to World Bazaar, aka Main Street to do some more shopping. Here's one of the pumpkins on Center Street.

I loved the shirts that they have at Tokyo Disney. They are just so cute. On my last visit, they didn't even carry any shirts in my size, and didn't even bother to look. But this time, they had a lot of options, so I was able to buy a few shirts for myself to wear to the parks on the subsequent days.

It was time to head back to the hotel again, so we jumped on the resort line to Bayside Station - basically the hotel station. Now, our hotel was literally right across the street from the station. So close that it was less than a five minute walk. However, there are buses that run from the station to the hotel, and the buses were so cute that I wanted to ride it back to the hotel and it just happened to be there already. Yay.

We went to bed and it off to dreamland before our next big day in Tokyo Disney Sea.

Next up! Tokyo Disney Sea

 

[MomoMama]

The Pooh headband is so adorable!

Sorry to hear about your incident with the single rider line. I don't think this is an official rule, but I have read that some CMs try to avoid mixed genders. Also have read that CM would ask those who are from the regular/FP line if they mind someone sitting next to them. Some guests do not mind, some do mind, and some females guests only accept if the single rider is female too. I can't tell what exactly the situation was for you, but sorry you felt discriminated.

 

[disneyobsessed808]

October 18: Tokyo Disney Sea Part 1

Continuing writing to distract myself from the news of the last few days.

The next day we did decide to sleep in a little, getting up at 7/7:30 am. Andy's friend is a Platinum level member, so she said that we could get a free breakfast with our key card. His friends were still asleep, but we headed out around 8. After going down to the front desk, we figured out that the free breakfast was in the lounge on the Top floor. I was pretty excited, as I love buffets and I was hungry. There was a pretty nice spread that included eggs, sausage, fatty bacon, potatoes, udon, soup, breads, salad, soda and juices. There was also a very nice view of the parking lot, but you could also see the castle and big thunder.

We took the resort line to Tokyo Disney Sea and arrived around 9 am. As we entered, the park was decked out in Villains signs promoting their show. I actually never got to see the shows as I am not too keen on the shows they've had on the water. I know everyone seems to like them, but I remember seeing both BraviSEAmo and Fantasmic, and thinking "meh."

I tried to snap some pictures as we power walked through the Mediterranean Harbor area, but I didn't want to stop walking, so some of the pictures did not turn out great, but I did my best. This park is just so incredibly beautiful and picturesque.

So we headed to Journey of the Center of the Earth, to get fastpasses, and then headed to the Lost River Delta area to do Single Rider on both of the rides there. The single rider lines here are so great because not that many people use them.

First, we went on Indiana Jones and the temple of the Crystal Skull. The queue here is really cool. Love all the skeletons!

The ride itself is pretty much the same as the California version of the ride with just a few minor changes, which make it just a little better than the Anaheim version. I guess I won't spoil exactly what happens, but they have something instead of the rat scene - definitely the weakest part of California's ride.

We then headed to Raging Spirits. As we tried to walk through the Single Rider line, the cast member stopped us. Apparently, they were insisting that I head to the test seat to make sure I fit. Andy was getting exasperated trying to explain that we had ridden it in the past, even when I was like 60 pounds heavier and I fit fine. I was annoyed that they didn't trust us, but also figured that it was taking more time to argue, so I said, "Andy it's fine." We trekked back to the sample seat, made sure I fit and then went back into the line.

I was surprised that there were four or five people in front of us, so we ended up waiting about 20 minutes. On this ride, I noticed how couple centric Tokyo/Japan seemed to be. Every group was a couple, or had even people so it took longer than I expected. I don't feel like I see so many couples at Disneyland here. Also it turned out that the mixed gender rule was only enforced by that one cast member at Splash mountain since Andy was seated with a group of high school girls. Once I got onto the ride, I was surprised at how tame the ride was - I don't seem to remember it like that, but having ridden Goofy's Sky School and coasters at Knotts recently, I was just like, this ride is so slow! Aside from the few drops and the loop, the ride felt more like the outside portion Alice in Wonderland.

It was at this time that one of Andy's friends showed up to the park. Apparently, his girlfriend was not feeling well, so she stayed back

It was finally time for our fastpasses, so we headed to Journey to the Center of the Earth. Andy decided to let his friend use his fastpass, while Andy went to get fastpasses for Tower of Terror.

This ride is so great - definitely the best ride in the park. Even the queue and preshow, where you take the elevator "down" to the journey of the center of the earth. The sets, the designs, the animatronics are just so wonderfully weird, and the thrill at the end of the ride is so cool! The line was about 70 minutes at that point so the fastpass was great.

I was feeling warm, so I picked up a Minnie frozen juice bar - it was very refreshing. Peach/raspberry I think.

Andy and Nolen, Andy's friend, decided to do single rider on Raging Spirits again. I was not feeling like doing that, so I did a little solo exploring, walking to and through the Arabian Coast.

Being away from Andy, I decided to try one of the snacks I had seen on other trip reports...a chandu tail. Very cute and pretty tasty.

The day before I had seen a bunch of people carrying around a cute, huge-headed Donald plush in a clear bag, so I was wondering where'd they get that. I thought it might be a game, so I was hoping to play it there, but never got the chance to play it. They also looked really hard. I love carnival style games, or more like, the competitive side of me loves winning those games, so I was in the search of games in this park. I walked through the Arabian Coast where I finally found the games, but these ones had Stitch and Angel as prizes.

There were two games, one where you had to roll a ball across four rows of plates, and it had to stay on the last row of golden plates without going past them. The other one, you had to roll a ball (skiball style) to land in one of three little perches. Four each game you got four tries and could win one prize. Even if you didn't win, you won a consolation prize/pin. I tried the skiball one, as it seemed the easiest. My first try was to soft and didn't make it anywhere close, but on the second try...

I won! So I got this awesome stitch! And I even bought a shirt the day before to wear to the park the next day, and it conveniently matched Stitch. Yay. The cast members were so nice and congratulatory and they high fived me. I even got congrats from cast members elsewhere in the park.

When I walked back to meet Andy, he said "Yay, you won me a Stitch for me" - I was like, um okay, sure I won it for you. Stitch is his favorite character so I reliquished ownership. We then rode on Indy again with Nolen, doing single rider again.

We took a ride on Sinbad's Voyage, a boat ride about the pace of it's a small world. Andy likes this ride a lot, and it's a nice diversion, but that song still haunts me, hence the title of this trip report. I think it's just an okay ride. Chandu is adorable though!

Decided to ride Indy again, single rider. This time there was a bit longer wait but nothing compared to the standby line.

I wish they didn't put the stupid cross bars over the pictures here, because I'm cheap and did not want to buy the picture or photo key.

At this point, Nolen decided he was gonna leave for the day and meet his girlfriend, she was still feeling sick, so Andy and I asked if we could take her ticket to use for Fastpasses. He agreed, and then Andy went off with him to pick up their tickets. I stayed back and decided to do some more exploring. I wanted to go get a gyoza bun in the Mysterious Island, but I saw the insane line, and decided not to. I have tried to get that bun for three trips now, but just don't want to wait. LOL. The wait for 20000 Leagues under the Sea was only 10 minutes, so I hopped in line.

Andy is not a fan of this ride, so it was a good time to go. I wasn't too impressed by it the last time, or I don't remember being impressed, but this time I liked it quite a bit. Very weird visuals but pretty cool. It would be cooler if it were an actual water ride, but it was fun.

I then decided to walk to the Mediterranean Harbor area to look through some of the stores.

I saw Gaston, as I roamed through the area.

After looking through the stores, I saw the lottery location and tried my hand at that. I was successful at getting two tickets for Big Band Beat! (unfortunately, we didn't get to use it).

Finally Andy returned, and off we went to lunch.

 

[jelloarms]

I didn't know the Goofy House was different in Tokyo! Darn, if I had known that I would have gone in there! We just kind of did a quick walk through of Toontown because it looked just like Disneyland's one.

I was so bummed, I didn't get to ride Journey to the Center of the Earth! It was under refurbishment... think it opened the day after our last Disney day.

The cross bars over the photo bugged me too. I'm pretty sure its that way by design though! They're trying to force you to buy the picture!

 

[Kyjin]

THERE IS A GASTON IN THE PARK WHAT???
I didn't know this and you literally just made my day. I am going to have to hunt him down next time I'm in the park.

Sorry you had to relinquish Stitch. I won mine a couple years ago (they've changed his outfit since then) and he lives on my sofa in the US. I hope you had another chance at Stitch, or you can get him in the future!!! (I'm seriously tempted to play again and get my Stitch another friend...)

 

[disneyobsessed808]

The Pooh headband is so adorable!

Sorry to hear about your incident with the single rider line. I don't think this is an official rule, but I have read that some CMs try to avoid mixed genders. Also have read that CM would ask those who are from the regular/FP line if they mind someone sitting next to them. Some guests do not mind, some do mind, and some females guests only accept if the single rider is female too. I can't tell what exactly the situation was for you, but sorry you felt discriminated.

Thank you! I love the headband and even wear it to the parks here in CA.

I wouldn't have minded had the person been asked and said no. It wasn't a big thing for me, but Andy was really upset by it, especially having had not happy experiences as a foreigner (like being detained by the police for no reason)

I didn't know the Goofy House was different in Tokyo! Darn, if I had known that I would have gone in there! We just kind of did a quick walk through of Toontown because it looked just like Disneyland's one.

I was so bummed, I didn't get to ride Journey to the Center of the Earth! It was under refurbishment... think it opened the day after our last Disney day.

The cross bars over the photo bugged me too. I'm pretty sure its that way by design though! They're trying to force you to buy the picture!

Oh no! I'm sorry you missed out! And yes, they are definitely by design, but I am too cheap to buy photos! At least they aren't as bad as Knott's who have huge watermarks and don't let you take pictures.

THERE IS A GASTON IN THE PARK WHAT???
I didn't know this and you literally just made my day. I am going to have to hunt him down next time I'm in the park.

Sorry you had to relinquish Stitch. I won mine a couple years ago (they've changed his outfit since then) and he lives on my sofa in the US. I hope you had another chance at Stitch, or you can get him in the future!!! (I'm seriously tempted to play again and get my Stitch another friend...)

Gaston was roaming in the Mediterranean Harbor area in the paths to the right when you enter park. There were about 6 women around him and he was interacting with all of them, one at a time. It was cute.

It was okay that I had to relinquish Stitch, I really just want to win the game. Do they always have stitch and angel as the prizes?

 

[Jade-Elise]

Thank you for sharing! We are only 16 days away (OMG!!!!!!!!!)

 

[MomoMama]

Looks like DisneySea day was nice and sunny!

Oh, that Stitch...he is so cute! I would have hold on to him tight, but you are so nice to give him away! I think they had Mickey and Minnie Wish version when I was there in June. I did not try the games, as the lines looked so long!

I wouldn't have minded had the person been asked and said no. It wasn't a big thing for me, but Andy was really upset by it, especially having had not happy experiences as a foreigner (like being detained by the police for no reason)

Detained by a police? This happened outside the Disney Resort? That sounds a really scary experience. I am not sure if your friend is fluent in Japanese, and if not, that must have made the situation harder.

 

[disneyobsessed808]

Thank you for sharing! We are only 16 days away (OMG!!!!!!!!!)

How exciting! Have fun! Thanks for following along!

Detained by a police? This happened outside the Disney Resort? That sounds a really scary experience. I am not sure if your friend is fluent in Japanese, and if not, that must have made the situation harder.

It was a really bad experience apparently. He is fluent in Japanese, but he had to call his Japanese friend to vouch for him and pick him up.

 

[Kyjin]

Gaston was roaming in the Mediterranean Harbor area in the paths to the right when you enter park. There were about 6 women around him and he was interacting with all of them, one at a time. It was cute.

It was okay that I had to relinquish Stitch, I really just want to win the game. Do they always have stitch and angel as the prizes?

Thanks! I'll look for him next time I go.
They always seem to have Stitch and Angel in the summer at least. (Been mine and my friend's experience over our assorted summer trips in the last four years.) They do change the outfits though, and the pins change much more frequently.

 

[disneyobsessed808]

October 18: Tokyo Disney Sea Part 2

I was starving at this point, so I suggested to Andy that we go get food. I was saying, let's just go to Ristorante di Cannalleto. It's expensive, but I didn't want to have to ask about vegan options and we knew we could get food there. Andy did not want to pay 4000 yen for a dish of spaghetti, so we tried to go to the other more affordable places and see if he could get anything. No good. After debating a little, we went to Ikspiari to see if we could get anything.

They had a cool resort map at Ikspiari station.

We had read that there was a place with Acai bowls, but again no luck. We also saw there was a small grocery import store, and we thought we might make our own meal, but it ended up being more expensive. Finally, we went to Saizeriya. I have to say, I was pretty impressed. We both had Spaghetti with garlic/olive oil, and I added an egg to mine. I also added on a drink bar - all you can drink soda! Yes! It was good and so cheap. Our meals came to only $11 for the both of us!

We arrived back at Disney Sea and took some pictures in the entrance plaza and looked through the shops again.

We looked through the shops in the Mediterranean Harbor shops for a while.

After 20 minutes of looking through the stores, I realized that I had dropped hand towel, aka sweat rag that I had bought the day before. We backtracked our steps to see if we could find it, but no luck. I had pretty much given up hope, but Andy said we should check with lost and found. I was like, it's only been 20 minutes, they won't have it by then. But we went anyway, and Andy was able to speak to the cast member in Japanese...and voila, they had it! I felt sorry for whomever picked it up and that women who helped us because it was covered in sweat. LOL

I'm not quite sure what we did after that exactly but my camera roll seems to be telling me that we went to the Mermaid Lagoon.

Most of my time was spent looking through Ariel's playground. Andy had to make a call to the post office and/or luggage pick up service to take our bags to the airport. During this time I explored! First I got caught in the net, basically a few rope bridges.

We didn't actually go on any of the rides here. We then headed back to the Arabian Coast because I was wanting to see one of the shows - the 3-D Genie movie. I don't remember what it was called. People always seem to rave about the shows, so I figured I should give them a chance. There was only a 10 minute wait until the next show

The show was basically about a magician who had worked with Genie, but decided he wanted to go on his own, so he locked up Genie's lamp and hid it away. After a long preshow, you go into the theater that combines a 3D movie and live actors. The movie was just okay, though I loved the live actors. It was pretty funny, and even without knowing what they were saying, a lot of the humor was physical humor.

I think we had a fastpass for Journey to the Center of the Earth again, so we rode that. After that, I waited in line to try a potato churro. I was not really a fan, and I can't really even describe it.

 

[Agent 86]

I'm really enjoying this trip report and I'm finding multiple things to add to the "to do" list for my next visit to Tokyo Disney, including meeting Gaston (apparently he has biceps to spare), the castle walkthrough and Goofy's house.

 

[nycdisneygal]

Even the lost and found in Japan is better and more efficient!!!
The Tokyo sea pics are really amazing.. So beautiful!!

 

[disneyobsessed808]

October 18 - Tokyo Disney Sea Part Three

Since we also had Andy's friends tickets, we also had fastpasses for Tower of Terror and the time had arrived to use them so we hiked off to the American Waterfront. We did have few minutes so I tried to snap some pictures. We also went on the hunt for some strawberry popcorn, but alas, we couldn't find any .

We finally got to enter the Hotel Hightower aka Tower of Terror. I tried to get some quick pictures, but the fastpass line was moving so fast.

So I won't go into detail about the storyline or preshow, since I assume everyone knows it. Let's just say, I really love the preshow, and there is a trick that I can never seem to figure out. Andy tries to say that he figured it out, but I am still skeptical. We tried to get some pictures to remember the queue and ride but were quickly scolded.

In terms of the actual ride, it is a bit like California's version, though the visuals are a different storyline obviously.

I had a grand old time. Andy on the other hand was still annoyed - to be honest, we are both pretty easily irritated, and Andy had a stressful trip, so I don't blame him.

We had no set plans at this point, so we decided to walk toward the back of the park to get on the single rider lines again. As we walked, we decided to check out Mermaid Lagoon again.

I was curious about the minor rides here, so we decided to go onto Scuttle's Scooters. The shells were small, and I'm big, so Andy and I couldn't fit into one of the ride vehicles. It was a lot of fun! It's funny how the simplest rides can be so fun. I think it went forward and backward, and the cars themselves spun around.

We thought, "What the heck?" and decided to go onto Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster.

This was actually a lot of fun too. Part of it was because the seats were so small for my big fat butt, that I ended up spilling into Andy's seat. I swear I took up 1.333 seats. The entire time I was just laughing at how small the seats were. The lap bars went down though, so it wasn't a problem. This coaster actually felt pretty intense for a kiddy coaster. I was surprised.

We decided to do the Lost River Delta rides one more time. I think we went on Indy again and raging spirits... actually, we may have had a Fastpass for Raging Spirits. Before Raging Spirits, the fireworks show played, along with the special song for the 15th Anniversary. I wasn't too impressed by the Fireworks, as they seemed really short. I'm spoiled after Disneyland Forever and Remember Dreams Come True at Disneyland, I guess

Raging Spirits looked really cool lit up at night, so Stitch, Andy and I took a picture.

Now, we went right into the Fastpass line for Raging Spirits. We got to the point in the ride where the Fastpass and the standby line, and shortly after that, a cast member followed us and approached me again asking to test if I'll fit into the ride. I was pretty embarrassed as the people standing around me seemed to be staring after she asked me. I wish they had been more discreet.

Another thing I remember from this queue was that we were playing Heads Up! to pass the time in the queue, and the Japanese people watching us seemed really intrigued. Andy was saying that he should develop a similar app in Japan and make a killing (I rolled my eyes at him because he has no tech experience whatsoever).

Once we got off the ride, it was about 9:20 pm so we went to see if we could get on Toy Story Mania. Alas, even after power walking there, they had closed the standby line, so it would have to wait for another day.

So it was time to head back to the AirBNB.

Next up: October 19, both parks!

 

[disneyobsessed808]

October 19: Both Parks. Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea.

Once again, we woke up bright and early to get to the parks before park opening. We left our AirBnB around 6:30 and got there around 7:30.

This day definitely seemed like the busiest day of the week, even though it was just a Wednesday, the crowds were huge. We went Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - I'm glad we didn't go on the weekend as it would have been a madhouse. We tried to find the shortest line, though we were a bit further back than we were on Monday. We also knew that we would be park hopping, so we were trying to get in as much as possible. We decided to stick to the same plan for fastpass - get a Monsters Inc fastpass, and then get in standby for Pooh.

I walked ahead to Pooh while Andy got the Fastpass. Captured this picture as I power walked to Pooh

Got in line once again for Pooh and took another selfie and pics of the queue.

Now one thing I noticed is that we had been riding on the third hunny pot for most of the times this trip. This ride we were placed in the first hunny pot. I was glad that we got a different pot, because it offers a new experience, especially in the first room. I tried to sneakily take some pictures in the ride, but was afraid to get in trouble, so none turned out great.

Next we headed over to Frontierland and rode Big Thunder

I am sorry if I have repeat pictures or similar pictures. Didn't remember to take photos of everything but also took pictures of the sames things many times over.

We headed towards Adventureland, and I bought myself a Kirin Lemon. I love this soda. I wish they had it in the US. They even had stitch on the bottle.

As I said earlier in the report, on the first day, I had kept seeing Donald plushes that I figured were prizes, leading me to find the games at Disney Sea and winning Stitch. I had seen the games on our first day at Disneyland, but it was already late and the line was still long. So we headed this day to games to try our hand at them. Again, two games.

The first one you had to try to catapult a barrel into one of the holes. This was way harder than it seemed.

We both tried and both lost. You can see a video of Andy playing the game unsuccessfully here: https://flic.kr/p/NtcNoR.

In the second one, you had to try to balance the ball on the path so that it made it to the end.

You can see a video of Andy trying unsuccessfully here: https://flic.kr/p/MpNSnC. I wasn't too hot either.
Fortunately, after I took the video, Andy was able to get the ball in on his next try! Yay, so I won Stitch for him so he won Donald for me! I was pretty pleased, though the competitive side of me was annoyed that I couldn't win it for myself. (I told you that we are easily irritated). I was overall pretty happy as I had been wanting one since the first day at Disneyland.

We took Donald on a celebratory train ride on the Western River Railroad. This was a nice calm and peaceful ride around parts of Frontierland

It was time for our Fastpasses so we headed to Monsters Inc Again. We walked by the castle as we did.