JAPAN: Lots of food, creds and lols

[Nic]

Day 6 - Thursday 12th September

With a reputation for being one of, if not the, best themed parks on the planet, DisneySea was definitely one of the most anticipated parks of the trip.

We made the trek across town once again and arrived at Maihama. Unlike DisneyLand, DisneySea cannot be reached by foot - the only way to get there is by the Disney Resort Line. This takes the place of the monorail at other resorts. However, due to some crazy rule, they apparently "have to" charge for each journey taken. The train runs on a loop stopping near the train station, DisneyLand, the hotels, then DisneySea before returning back to the station. Each journey costs 250 yen (Just under £1.70) no matter how far round the loop you travel. Therefore, the round trip from the station to the park and back will set you back 500 yen.

Initially, the entrance is underwhelming. You're greeted with the usual fare of tree-lined concrete plaza full of queues. Unlike its sister park, the queues to actually buy tickets here are very short indeed. Presumably most people choose to use the first day of their tickets at the other park, meaning it may be a good option to do Sea first if you plan to pay/collect on the gate and want to beat the queues.

Once the gates open and you head into the entrance plaza, you're greeted with a giant globe. It's a bit too much like Universal's signature entrance for my liking. Oh well.

We headed from there towards the park, and it quickly became apparent that, although the layout was familiarly Disney, this was not like any other park. We walked through the "Main street" area which itself is beautifully themed and built. Again, they had cast members everywhere reminding you to calm down and not run! haha!

As we emerged on the other side, we were greeted by the view that gives the park its reputation. It really is absolutely stunning. The lake with the Mediterranean style buildings surrounding it is somewhat reminiscent of Port Aventura, but is just in a completely different league. The Volcano and fortress buildings overlooking the lake on the other side are imposing yet beautiful. It really doesn't take a lot of imagination at all to completely suspend your disbelief and totally forget that you're actually stood in the middle of a theme park.

Not really having planned a strategy in the same way as for Disney, we decided to head for the bigger rides at the back of the park and work our way forwards. On the way, we got a bit distracted by Aquatopia. This was the park's test of a trackless ride system, but sits in several inches of water, and is surrounded by fountains and other features. Already being boiling hot, we decided to opt for the "Get Wet Version". It's essentially like being on a splash battle, but without the water pistols. We got totally soaked, and it was a fun little ride.

Being an Indiana Jones goon, John was eager to head there first. I loved the one in Cali, so was also looking forward to it. Determined not to miss out on anything, John wanted to join the queue, so we went and grabbed a Raging Spirits fastpass first to make the most of our time. Now, I'm not condoning this behaviour, but the fact is that the fastpass machines there still have override buttons. Occasionally, they're still enabled

Anyway, back to Indie and into the main queue. This was still only short, so after a brief wait in the cool station building (I spotted my first hidden Mickey in the wall, yay!) we were on. This is the same as Cali's, and equally good. Where the main park had disappointed me with an English speaking Johnny Depp, Sea delivered with Japanese Harrison Ford. Lol. I do love that ride.

There was still a short wait before our return time for Raging Spirits, so we wandered round to the Arabian area and rode Sinbad. This is an original ride for DisneySea and as such has divided opinions. The most noticeable thing about it is that every single model of a person or animal is animated. Really well animated too, with modern programmed systems, not just the mechanical cams etc of more traditional dark rides like Small World. This does mean that there's a few less models than other rides, and some scenes do look a little sparse, but its still beautiful. The ride also goes on forever. Whilst its not going on the list of my all time favourites, I do approve.

We headed back to Raging Spirits and went straight into the fastpass queue. We pretty much walked straight onto the ride, and into the front row. The theming around it really does add to the experience and makes it a really fun little coaster. The smoke effects (how the hell do they manage to make it actually warm?! - Take note Nemesis: Inferno!) were particularly effective. We went to grab a fastpass for Indie before coming back to re-ride it again. Good cred.

Mystic Rhythms was just about to start, so we grabbed some of the tropical Mickey ice lollies (OM NOM NOM NOM!) and rushed over there, not knowing what to expect. This is essentially the park's answer to Cirque Du Soleil with a combination of dance, gymnastics and acrobatics set to live music. Whilst it was pretty spectacular, it was a bit arty-farty and didn't feel very Disney. Good if you like that sort of thing.

We re-rode Indie, then took our places ready for the Skeleton Fiesta. This is a small Halloween parade through the South-American themed area of the park. Whilst all the performers were on foot, the combination of live bands, characters, puppets and dancers made this an entertaining extra.

Here, have some pretty pictures from our walk back across the park...

Having been unsuccessful in the ticket lottery for the show at the main park the day before, we decided not to bother here, and joined the queue for the non-ticketed performance of Big Band Beat. We left it rather late, but squeezed in. It was ok I guess. The band was great, and the singers were alright, but I found the choice of songs a bit odd. The bits with the characters were also a bit cringe, and I wasn't keen on the choice of which ones to include. They basically went for characters that are popular in Japan, rather than ones that actually make sense in the show. That's how you end up with a New Orleans themed show without any mention at all of Tiana or any of the other Princess and the Frog characters. Eugh.

Whilst faffing looking for lunch, we accidentally caught another short skeleton based parade through the New York area. Whilst it was only small, and similar to the one over the other side of the park, this was a cool little surprise. After much faff, we eventually settled on lunch in the NY Deli Sandwich place. It was ok.

We headed out to find a spot to watch The Legend of Mythica. This is DisneySea's signature water pageant show and (aside from the Halloween stuff) takes the place of a main parade. The sun by this point was ridiculous, but the viewing areas were starting to fill and it was hard to tell where would be best. We eventually settled on a spot on the terraces just below the main bridge and struggled to squeeze into any scrap of shade we could find. As its not an advertised viewing platform as such, it seems to be less busy than just about anywhere else. Despite that, it gave a pretty good view overall - probably better than some of the busier spots. The show itself is very good. The floats are spectacular, and there's plenty of effects etc to keep it interesting. Its just a shame that I have no idea what the story was. Ah well, there were lots of pretty things and fire and stuff. Yay.

Not having a clue what to expect, knowing nothing about the ride, we headed over to Journey to the Centre of the Earth. I'd spotted the ride vehicles coming down the side of the volcano outside, and thought it might be a splash ride. John thought it might even be a cred. After a long queue (through a very nicely themed cattle pen), we got inside and eventually worked out we were both very wrong - it's essentially Test Track in a very posh frock. Ok. It starts out like any old dark ride really. I actually thought some of the scenes in there were a bit below-par and dated looking, but others were very good. Before you know it, you're launched at what feels like a fair speed, and find out why the outside drop is always accompanied by screams. It was a good ride, but I wish the first section could get an update, and that the second section was longer.

Considering how late in the day it now was, it's somewhat surprising that we still had one more cred to get. On we went to the Little Mermaid themed section of the park, and rode Flounder's Flying Fish coaster. It's really odd. It also has a really pointless splash effect that you can't see from on the ride, and can barely see from off it. What?!

The indoor section of the area is really nicely themed. There's a ton of little spinny and jumpy things that we couldn't be arsed with.

Gavin had mentioned that the Little Mermaid show was worth a watch, so we headed in not really knowing what to expect. The first surprise was the theatre's seating arrangement - the stage is very small in the middle, with seats all the way around. As the show starts, you soon find out why. The majority of the action takes place in the air with Ariel "swimming" above the audience. The show makes use of some very clever puppets both on the ground, and in the air. Ursula is a particular highlight. We once again got the translation screens, and once again found them pretty distracting. That said, the story didn't quite go the way I expected it, and the ending was somewhat sudden, so I may not have worked out what had just gone on without it (yes, I am a bit thick like that). Good show, definitely worth a watch.

From there we headed back round to the Arabian themed area. Whilst waiting for the Genie show, we couldn't help but notice how immersive the main square is. It's pretty much impossible to see any other part of the park whilst stood there. It's really impressive, especially as the sun goes down and the lights start to come on. The shadows created by the reflections of the fountains are very pretty.

Having found them rather distracting, we decided to do without the translation screens for this, even though it is the only other attraction in the resort that has them available. The show is part 3D video, part live action involving a mixture of well known and original characters. I do feel like this one lacked something from not being able to understand, but I don't think the screens would've helped much as the timing of the jokes would've been lost anyway. It was interesting to see something different done with a well known IP though.

Having picked up one earlier in the day, we used a fastpass to ride Tower of Terror next. Whilst this one uses the same ride system as Paris and Cail, it has a completely original theme and story. The theming in the entrance is not too dissimilar from other versions, although the different theme is apparent. You're eventually batched into a small room where a cast member tells you the back-story (in Japanese, obviously) whilst pointing at a board with some photos and stuff on. This isn't a great start, and I get the feeling that even the people who understood what was being said weren't particularly interested. From there, you go into the pre-show room. This has a legendary effect that, no matter how hard we tried, we could not work out how it is done. That effect is pretty much the only thing of note though in what was a surprisingly short pre-show. You're then spat out back onto the queue for the actual elevators. Usually themed to the hotel's boiler room, here you find yourself amongst storage of a load of historical artifacts. Each batching area for each of the lifts is themed differently, which is a really nice touch. Once you board the lift, there's another subtle difference - 3-point seat belts. Eugh. Really?! The ride itself is the same as ever, and contains a ridiculous amount of airtime on the 2nd drop. I adore it.

Overall, I was a bit disappointed in this version of the ride. I love the different theme, but the fact that it's a hotel really doesn't make any sense to me at all. They'd have done much better to take the whole hotel thing out of the equation, and just have it as a manor house or something. I love the idea of the artefact storage, and the differently themed batching areas, but why does it all exist in a hotel? I just don't get it. Whilst *the* effect in the pre-show is stunningly good, the rest of it is totally lack-lustre.

It was then time to take our places for Fantasmic. Whilst not my favourite show at Cali, it was pretty spectacular. As DisneySea has a new, updated version, I was still very excited to see it. All of the floats moved into position as we took up our places, and preparations were obviously underway. 8pm came and went with still no sign of the show starting. A few minutes later, and an announcement was made in Japanese. The crowd made a huge noise, then people started to move. The show had been cancelled. Whilst this was hugely disappointing, we still had an opportunity to try again the following night, and had only been waiting for about 15 minutes. We'd seen some people camped out 2 hours before, so I can't imagine how annoyed they'd have been.

We'd made the decision earlier in the day to try a table service restaurant for dinner. Not being made of money, we decided on the Italian, as the prices weren't totally obscene, and it's in the Venice themed area which is gorgeous. Opting for an outside table on the edge of the canal, we were seated after a bit of a queue. John had pasta and I had a pizza. The food was good, but not as spectacular as the price-tag warrants. Oh well, what do you expect from a place like that.

That left us with just enough time to queue for Tower of Terror again before the end of the day.

After a look round the tat shops, it was time to head back for a few hours sleep before yet another long day at Disney.

 

[Gavin]

Unlike DisneyLand, DisneySea cannot be reached by foot - the only way to get there is by the Disney Resort Line

Why are you such a filthy **** ing liar, Nic? WHY?! You can walk between the station and the park; it takes about 15 minutes. There are plenty of buses as well.

Whenever I see pictures of DisneySea I always feel a bit frustrated that they never seem to capture the atmosphere and scale of the place. That's not 'avin' a go at the pictures in this report at all; it's just a sad fact of life.

 

[Nic]

REALLY?! Balls. Totes didn't know that. We were lied to by a PTR we read elsewhere and didn't bother to fact check. More fool me I guess. Meh.

 

[furie]

Did the PTR also tell you how bad Fuji-Q was, which is why you enjoyed it so much- YOU FOOLS!!!

 

[Nic]

LOL! Nah, it was some Disney blog written by some woman with a terrifying obsession with Disney weddings.

 

[peep]

Day 7 - 13th September

It was yet another early start to catch the other eager Disney guests at the long queues waiting to get into the Disneyland Park.

So gross

Once in a queue we were able to spot loads of people dressed up again.

Before long we were back inside the World Bazaar being told to not run. We had a different approach to our last day at the park, it felt a lot more relaxed with half a day in each park. We were able to really explore both parks a bit better, it's the way I like to experience Disney parks. Anyway, we started by going off to the left and into Adventureland.

We started our day by walking straight on to Pirates of the Caribbean. It's still fun despite my minor issues with it and it's always nice to walk straight onto any ride.

Moving our way up the left hand side of the park we then came across Big Thunder Mountain. It was advertising a small wait despite the area looking rather busy. We joined the ever-moving queue and before long we were on board. As I mentioned previously, this Big Thunder Mountain is really good fun.

We then ventured to the back of the park for Splash Mountain.

I can't remember how long we queued but it didn't feel too long once inside the mountain (just being out in the heat of the Sun can just make a queueline feel really long and horrible). I really loved the one in Florida and was expecting this one to be a complete replica. I think the only thing that was different was that loading was indoors and the indoor queue was more interesting.

I think the only other difference was that everything worked and just looked great. Yay for Splash Mountain and it's ridiculous amount of drops.

We then headed into Fantasyland where we decided to do Haunted Mansion again. Most of the queue is in the sun which is rather burdenous considering how hot it was out. (No idea on specifics but from what we gathered from weather reports on the trains it was reaching mid-30s every day). The queue felt like it was taking forever too, pretty sure it kept breaking down. Anyway we finally made it on the ride and it was still pretty cool.

We then went back over to Splash Mountain to use the single rider queue. Not only did we get to by-pass a massive queue but I was then put in amongst a group of 3 girls. Hilarity then ensued as they fought amongst themselves as to who would get to sit next to the English guy. Lots of school-girl giggling then happened for most of the ride. I couldn't stop smiling, I found the whole situation hilarious. After we got off the ride they all turned round to me, smiled and kept saying "thank you" and then as they were walking up the ramp one of them shouted "thank you" and they all waved goodbye and giggled away. Made my day.

We decided to use up the rest of our time in the Disneyland park in the Tomorrowland area. As we headed over there we got distracted by more amazing costumes...

Lovely castle

I really like the design of their Tomorrowland

Oh yeah, it was time to visit the classic Captain EO. It was just as amazing and cheesy as always. The seats didn't dance though which was a shame.

Another 30th anniversary interactive thing

We went in search of food and we were going to try one of the more expensive places in the Bazaar but we found them a little lacking in interesting food and the queues were quite long. We ended up at the Refreshment corner. Nothing too exciting, just hot dogs. I had a world of cabbage, cheese and avocado. It was actually pretty spectacular as hot dogs go lol. Look at some pictures...

Snow White and her twin were also thinking of eating there

Umm, so, Sulley, Mike and Boo were just mincing around the bazaar

The World Bazaar also has an old school penny arcade which we thought was pretty awesome.

They also have a magic shop filled with Disney-themed magic trick items. I loved it. The man behind the counter was also awesome and got out his puppet as soon as he noticed my camera.

We then headed back into Tomorrowland for Star Tours II. It's still awesome and this time we had my favourite ending (the one that totally makes it worthy of the 3D projections).

On our way over to Space Mountain we bumped into some storm troopers...

It was then up the escalator towards once more go on Space Mountain.

I spot awesome things on the horizon

So Space Mountain was still cool. And with that we had to say goodbye to Disneyland and make our way over to DisneySEA.

|The hotel looks fantastic

I'm going to leave the report there for the time being.

Once again, thanks for all the comments etc.

 

[Nic]

Day 7 - Friday 13th September

I’ve just realised that it was Friday the 13th! Ah well, we didn’t notice at the time, so it’s all good!

This was the final day of our 3 day Disney passport. In case you were wondering, they do things a bit differently at Tokyo Disney Resort. For the first 2 days of your ticket, you can only visit one park per day, and must specify which you will do on each day. Only once it comes to the third (or other subsequent days if you buy a longer ticket) can you hop between parks on the same day. However, given the faff to get from one part to the other, you’re not likely to want to swap parks too often. We decided to start the day in Disneyland, moving to DisneySEA around lunchtime.

I think this was the day where the late nights and early mornings finally got the better of me and I slept through the alarm. By the time we’d got to the park and eaten breakfast, the gates had been open a few minutes. The only ride either of us really wanted to do and hadn't managed on day 5 was Splash Mountain. Therefore, our strategy for the morning was to grab a fast pass for Big Thunder Mountain, then join what would hopefully still be a pretty small queue for Splash Mountain.

We got distracted on the way by a walk-on PotC. I still don’t particularly ‘get’ these rides, but much prefer this version to Paris’.

After that distraction, the first part of our original plan was back on track as we picked up a BTM fast pass. The second part of our plan did not go so well. By the time we got to Splash Mountain, it already had a queue 110 minutes long. We decided to grin and bear it and join it anyway. I can’t remember how long it actually turned out to be, but I don’t think it was much more than an hour. From what I remember, the ride isn't any different from Cali’s *waits to be shot down in flames* I can’t get that excited about it, but it is obviously still miles better than your average flog lume.

We then went and used our BTM fast pass before joining the queue for Haunted Mansion. By this point, it was hideously hot and I was starting to struggle.

We decided to go and re-ride Splash Mountain, taking advantage of their single rider queue. The seat configuration, and majority of even-numbered groups meant there was a bit of a wait for an available seat. As with the proverbial buses, we waited ages then two turned up at once, meaning John and I were on consecutive boats. I was sat amongst a family, next to a Dad behind his two young girls. John ended up in amongst some young teenage girls. The looks on their faces (and amount of giggling) once they realised what was going on was hilarious. The fight not to be sat alone very quickly became a fight to sit next to the mysterious western man. It also became a competition to see who could impress him with their best Engrish. Hahahaha

Have some random photos

We decided to head for Tomorrowland next, and grabbed a fast pass for Space Mountain. While we were waiting, a showing of Captain Eo was just about to start, so we dived in. Both of us are slightly in love with this so didn’t need much of an excuse to go and see it again. The pre-show was all in Japanese which was a bit odd. Thankfully though, the main show wasn’t. So much cheese <3

We still had a bit of a wait for our return time, so headed into Star Tours 2 which still had an inexplicably short queue. Finally it was our turn to ride Space Mountain, and we managed to get the front seats. It’s an OK ride, but isn’t a patch on Cali’s without the sound system.

By this point, it was already a bit later than planned, so we waved goodbye to Disneyland for the final time, and jumped on the Resort Line. Destination: DisneySEA.

On Thursday we’d seen maps for a walkthrough attraction called “Fortress Explorations” but hadn’t had a chance to go and have a look, so that was our first port of call. It’s a number of ornate buildings built into the side of the volcano overlooking the lake. You know, all the ones with the gold and blue turrets and that? Yeah, that. The map guides you round one exhibit after the other, each with a vaguely science-y theme. It did appear that some of the effects weren’t working though which was a bit of a let down, and the only time we found anything even vaguely uncared for in the whole resort. Whilst we were up there, the volcano erupted, which was cool.

As we finished up there, it became clear that there was a show soon to begin. We decided to head down and find a spot. We ended up in a great place at the front of the standing area, near one of the little stages that had appeared around and about the place. It turned out we were also right next to the point at which some of the cast members come “on-stage”. This meant we had a great view from all angles. The show itself was called “Halloween Dreams” and is basically a Halloween themed version of Legend of Mythica. For that reason, it didn’t feel particularly original or groundbreaking, but it was still pretty cool.

Cosplay is not allowed by adults at DisneySEA at any time. However, that didn't mean there weren't some interesting fashion choices to look at. First were these beauties whilst waiting for the parade/show/thing. They're amazing, I want them.

The next may require a little bit of explanation. Duffy is Mickey Mouse's teddy bear. They've tried to flog him in the US and Europe, but he's never really caught on... that's definitely not true in Japan. They're crazy for him. So much so that, over here, he has a girlfriend - Minnie's teddy bear, Shellie-Mae. Everywhere you go (not just at the parks), particularly in Tokyo, you will see people with various Duffy/Shellie-Mae paraphernalia. The most popular is to have a mini one (or several) dangling off your rucksack/handbag/briefcase etc. Nobody is immune to this, with even middle aged men getting in on the act. At the park's, it seems to be pretty common to just wander round holding a large one, like some kind of creepy dead baby. His 'n' Hers Duffy and Shellie-May combinations are also commonplace.

Anyhoo...

As we were walking round to he back of the park, we stumbled across the Skeleton Fiesta mini-parade again. Even more mini than the day before, presumably due to its proximity to the water show? Anyway. We took the opportunity to ride Sinbad again which had only a very short queue. Such a cool dark ride.

From there we abused Single Rider some more and walked straight onto both Raging Spirits and Indiana Jones. I miss the days where people in the UK ignored the existence of single rider queues. Now, everyone uses them to the point that it’s rarely worth the bother. Thankfully, no so in Japan. Hurrah!

The one ride we hadn’t managed to do the day before was Storm Rider, so that was next on the agenda. The pre-show goes on a bit, but the way they’ve organised it is something a bit different, and therefore a bit more interesting than usual. The effects in the main show are really cool. So much more interesting than your average 4D show.

By this point, it was coming up to time for Fantasmic. After the cancellation the night before, we were somewhat apprehensive as we took up our places in pretty much the same spot as we’d been for the Halloween show earlier in the day. Thankfully, there was no repeat of the issues that had caused the cancellation, and the show got under way as planned.

A bit of background incase you need it. Florida and Cali both have a version of Fantasmic, and have had for donkey’s years. By the time it arrived at DisneySEA a couple of years ago, it had undergone a massive modernisation which we couldn’t wait to experience for ourselves. We weren’t disappointed. Oh. My. God. The whole thing is INCREDIBLE. Lessthanthree doesn't even cover it. By the end we were both left pretty speechless.

After a gentle walk to recover from the awesome, we headed to Journey to the Centre of the Earth to use the fastpasses we’d picked up earlier. Yeah, the fast bit needs to be longer.

We caught the electric railway back to the New York area for one last ride on Tower of Terror before heading home.

It was a full and busy day that once again proved that you can beat the queues at Disney if you just think it through.

 

[davidm]

Greatly enjoying these reports; keep 'em coming...

...were you spited by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ?

 

[Nic]

Yeah. It was closed for routine maintenance whilst we were there and re-opened the day after our visit. We toyed with the idea of going back for an evening later in the trip, but didn't really have the time in the end and decided it wasn't really worth it.

 

[davidm]

^ BEST RIDE EVAAAAHHHH....

(OK, just another dark ride, but the vehicles are quite cool )

 

[peep]

Day 7 continued...

Here is a pic of the map for the monorail. It's a very simple layout...

One thing I didn't mention previously is that annoyingly as the monorail passes the back of DisneySea all you can see is the back of Indiana Jones which is just a giant shed, does detract from it's awesomeness somewhat.

Anyway we were back in the most beautiful theme park in the World.

The crowds were thin in the entrance area this time which is how we noticed the interactive shop display window for the 30th anniversary. I think you popped or created the balloons that appeared. It was a really nice touch.

I loved the way they had done these lamps up

It was so stupidly hot that we decided to chill and explore the amazing Mediterranean Harbor area. We grabbed some more of the fab Mickey Mouse tropical ice lollies. By the time we got them out of the packaging they were already melting. It was a pretty much impossible not to get half of it on the floor and trying not to make a mess distracted away from it's lovely taste. Such a shame.

Anyway we were exploring the area and came across some random characters.

Oh, the towels. I don't think I've talked about them yet! Basically everyone in Japan was also struggling with the immense heat so they all had towels around their necks. I thought this was genius and so the night before we purchased some Disney ones (pretty much every park we went to sold them, wish I got more </3 ). They come in really handy.

After bumping into the characters one of the 'park cleaner' entertainers appeared out of nowhere and started to put on a little show. He even got a little kid to help finish his picture of Goofy which got the crowd all happy and excited.

I'd love to see them come to the other resorts. Have some more pictures of the beautiful park...

Loads of people were staring at this wall and I couldn't work out why. Nic then realised they'd spotted a hidden Mickey. Ha, I very much doubt you'll find it in the photo I took.

We grabbed some fastpasses for Journey because it's cool. The fastpass machines were even amazingly themed...

We were heading towards the fort which we missed out on the day before. It's a massive fort made purely for exploring. It's even got a very heavily themed remote control boat room. The fort also has it's own map and is themed to famous explorers of the Mediterranean. There's also a separate "Leonardo Challenge" which a staff member informed us we could give a go but basically we wouldn't have a clue. You have to follow clues which are written only in Japanese to get around. It sounds fun, I hope at some point in the future they find a way to translate this into other languages.

Anyway, the fort is full of awesome things and while we were climbing lots of stairs and going in every room we could find there was a rumbling sound. "wtf is that?" - the answer of course was the volcano erupting!

Da Vinci and friends

Amazing RC boat room

Yeah, it had a storm in one area.

MORE stairs?

Oh, cannons, cool.

Of COURSE you can 'fire' the cannons

To the right is a restaurant which looked incredible but the menu wasn't very enticing and was very pricey

It was then back to near where we found the characters to watch the proper daytime Halloween show on the lake. This was a much better place to be to see the show compared with where we'd been the day before. The cast for the show was just huge, everywhere you looked, whether on land or on boats there was just loads of dancers and characters. It was really good fun. And like the Halloween parade in the Land park they taught a little dance before the show began.

Cast member doing the dance

A lot of the floats were just from the Mythica show but with a different bunch of characters on them.

Mickey and Minnie had a special float just for this Halloween show

We decided to head to the back of the park after the awesome Halloween show. In the beautiful Arabian coast area we wandered through an area we didn't get to the day before. What we stumbled upon I didn't think I would ever see in the park. We found a bunch of side show games set up within an Arabian market theme. The oddest thing about it though was that it had a long queue! From what I could work out it was because it was fairly cheap to have a go and you could win large plushes and I'm pretty sure I also saw pins (maybe exclusive ones?).

The area itself, well, I fell in love with it.

We found ourselves heading towards Sinbad but got distracted by the other Halloween parade.

We then walked straight on the fantastic Sinbad before using the single rider queue for both Raging Spirits and Indiana Jones.

Another crazy 'magic moment' thing

We then arrived in the Port Discovery area where we had yet to ride the Stormrider attraction. My knowledge of the ride was that it was a simulator and that was it. Amusingly it looked like a storm was gathering over in the distance as we were waiting to go in. Added to the atmosphere.

The pre-show

I really liked the design and look of everything in this attraction and although the video is looking a little dated the effects are brilliant and help make it stand out from most of these attractions. The pre-show was also pretty good, I liked the way they had a live broadcast of the cast member on screens so those a bit further back could still see her addressing everyone in the room.

Aquatopia looks amazing at night

We then headed into Mysterious Island for foodage times. The Vulcania restaurant is a described as a buffet but it's not, it's more like a canteen with people serving different parts of your meal. I can't describe how fantastic this restaurant is, not only does it look really great with it's inside a volcano setting but the food is also incredible. We got the 'everything' deal which was great value for money (especially when compared to the other options available). I got a bowl of rice, some spring rolls a drink and (I think) sweet and sour chicken. It was really filling and delicious.

It was then time for us to find a spot for Fantasmic. We were praying it wouldn't be a no-go like the night before. We went in a similar spot to earlier in the day. There was no need to worry as the show went off without a hitch. Absolutely phenomenal. I was a little disappointed when I saw Fantasmic in Florida last year so to see a modern version was just more special. It's just like a mash-up of the Fantasmic story with the advancements of Legends of Mythica and World of Color. I just loved how they did everything from the central tower/screen/everything with Mickey and some other characters to how they introduce the dragon. I think when the volcano blew up as part of the finale I just melted with joy, soooo much awesome in one show. I really loved the Stitch section too, that was really cool and upbeat. <3 <3 <3

Cinderella joins in the fun

Annoyed this is blurred but the face in the mirror bit was just genius

Party time

Well, that was certainly worth the wait. Slightly annoyed I only got to see it once though but that was beyond our control. We then went to Journey to the Center of the Earth to use our fastpasses. It still felt like we were waiting forever which was annoying. I still love the ride though.

Themed defibrillator?

After our journey we grabbed the tram (which is really cool) to the American waterfront. We then joined the queue for Tower of Terror which I think was somewhere around the 40 minute mark. I still really like this version of the Tower but I was sad that it was to also be our last ride in the Tokyo resort.

Amazing artwork in the tram station in Port Discovery

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHCN4mtlPas[/youtube]

Tower of Terror actually has an amazing projection effect on the building before an elevator falls, I could sit there for hours watching it.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHa5F15Lmmk[/youtube]


We then visited a few more shops before leaving the resort

So if you haven't been able to tell, DisneySea is now my favourite park in the World. It's just too beautiful (photos will NEVER do it justice) and the attractions are fantastic and extremely well looked after. Oh and the staff are amazing <3

I'll be back soon with another instalment of the trip report.

 

[furie]

Tell everyone in the Theme Park competition thing - DisneySea is too delicious for words

 

[peep]

Day 8 - Saturday 14th

We had planned a more touristy day which would end in us riding a cred with Nic's friends. So we woke up a little later than planned because we just needed the rest. We went in search of food in the local area and found a chain of restaurants which have their own take on some more Western dishes. I had a glass of Melon Fanta (which is radioactive green but tastes amazing) and a beef burger with a whole bucket of cheese in the middle, it was very tasty.

We then made our way over to Harajuku, an area which has the largest Daiso shop in Japan. Daiso is a chain of 100Yen stores. We started by walking in the wrong direction and found ourselves in more of a fashion shopping area.

More Condomania!

Cool entrance

After harassing some lady carrying a Daiso shopping bag (who replied in perfect English) we made it to the shop.

No photos are allowed to be taken inside (there were signs everywhere) so you'll just have to make do with the above image. I personally don't get too excited about cheap shops, always tends to be a load of tat I'll never want/need or I'd get and it'd end up sitting on a shelf gathering dust forever. I do love the awful kids rubbish but I found that section rather boring (maybe it's a UK thing?). The food section was fun though, lots of crazy looking sweets. I did get some but I haven't tried any of them yet. I also got a chocolate dipping pot thing because it had a panda on the box and it also had sprinkles inside! More on that later.

Nic obviously loves these stores more than I so while she wandered around a bit more I went and got a cold drink from McDonalds. They were advertising these ice drinks with ice cream on top so I just had to try one. First off, none of their menu is in English. So it ended up me just pointing at the green one and going "the green one". The guy behind the counter was like "melon?" and I was like" hai, sounds good" lol. Basically he got some syrup, added some carbonated water and then some soft serve ice cream on the top. It was very tasty.

When we headed back over to the station we decided to check out the shrines which hide in a dense forest behind the train station. We walked for a long time and saw several shrines and cool buildings. When we made it to the main Meiji shrine we noticed there was a ceremony going on, from what we could gather it was a wedding ceremony, loads of people were taking pictures of the procession. That's not too surprising as the video on the flight out said that taking photos of weddings etc is a thing in Japan. Have a shed load of photos.

A LOT of sake

LOTS of wine

The Meiji shrine

Doors were huge

The procession that I was on about

After really tiring ourselves out on that long walk we made it back on to the train to Shibuya. Made famous by the massive crossing. Once again we started by going off in the wrong direction but we soon clocked and ended up in the area with the famous dog statue.

Some sort of show or something was going on

Tommy Lee Jones is always watching

The crossing was huge and very busy

The dog statue

Outside every train station were these smoking areas

Oh look, we found the Disney store

We didn't go in search of it, honest This is one of the better stores I've been in, each floor has a different theme and the staircase that goes up changes theme as you ascend. At the very top is Tinkerbell and it's all starry. I think my favourite floor is the one where it's all different bedrooms from Disney films. So one room is Toy Story where some of the Toys were sat watching Toy Story 2 <3 One is the Darling household from Peter Pan so you have his shadow and portraits of the family and then Pinnochio. It's like a little slice of the parks, I loved it. You could also buy tickets for the parks at a designated till which had quite a queue. Oh and all the shopping bags were rubbing the fact that we were missing D23 (the first outside of the US) by just a couple of weeks, so much spite.

We had spent a lot more time than we had planned to and we were now going to run late for meeting Nic's friends Jon and Sara. Where were we meeting, Tokyo Dome City of course. As soon as you exit the train station Thunder Dolphin is just there looming over everything.

We were very late by the time we made it to meet up with Jon and Sara but they understood. Sara was just coming off but decided to go again with us. Jon had been on years ago so had decided to be a baglady. After a small wait we were sat at the back of the train. Sara told us to watch the operator as he demonstrates what is going to happen. After a lot of talking and checking restraints and general faff the operator raises this small dolphin plush and then drops it, so simple but we were highly amused by it.

It's a very odd coaster. The first drop is ridiculous (especially as it was night) and going through the ferris wheel is cool. However what you can't see anywhere is the mass of 'oh, there's a building in the way, let me meander in mysterious ways'. Just loads of really random banking and short dips and hills. It does leave a smile on your face though because it's just so bizarre. So overall it's an enjoyable coaster, if a little odd.

Sara showed us her mass of Purikura photos that she had made over the past week. Purikura is basically photo booths where it tells you to pose in various ways before letting you edit the photos by putting a whole World of random rubbish all over it. She had loads and they were all ridiculous. We then went down to the arcade so we could do a group one. Annoyingly the new 45 degree one was in use so we had to make do with the milky one. Wow it's random. I don't think any of us really knew what was going on, Jon and I just left it to Nic and Sara to play with in terms of editing the pics. Here is the end result...

Yeah, they are full of amazing Engrish <3

After that we played on a few arcade games. Nic and Sara played a bunny hop type game which I have a video of somewhere and will upload at some point.

In most arcades they provide plastic bags so if you win any toys you can just carry them home, I love this.

No idea

We then went in search of food and ended up at the ramen chain restaurant we had been in earlier on our trip. We all ordered way too much food but there was plenty of gyoza <3 It was a really nice meal and it was great to meet up with fellow English speaking peeps and we were able to swap tips on what to do etc, really good night.

It was then back to the hotel where we chilled out for a bit and I ate my panda biscuit and chocolate thing.

Thanks again for all your comments and I'll hopefully have the next part up soon.

 

[Nic]

Day 8 - 14th September 2013

This was a bit of a faffy day really. We got up and took the opportunity to do our laundry. Whilst waiting for it to finish, we headed out to find some lunch near the hotel. We ended up at Cafe Gusto - one of Japan’s big chains of “Family restaurants”. Not the most exciting food in the world maybe, but well priced and definitely tasty!

After some more laundry faff, we were eventually ready to head out for the day. Our first stop was Harajuku. This is seen as being an area for young hipsters - Tokyo’s answer to Camden I guess. I can’t say as I really got that impression from the place, but there certainly was plenty going on. Our first mission was to find Daiso - a 100 Yen shop. After much research, the Harajuku branch is apparently one of the largest in the chain of Japan’s answer to Poundland. Sadly enough, this was one of the things I was most looking forwards to on the trip. After spending hours in there and eventually being dragged away, I had bought a large sack of tat. Yay

Harajuku sits right on the edge of a fair size park. We took a wander through the park following the crowds until we eventually reached the Meiji Shrine. Again, the grounds and architecture were beautiful and peaceful.

Next up was a stop in Shibuya. There were three sights to see here - the first of which being the ridiculously huge and busy zebra crossing. This is probably one of the most iconic sights in Tokyo - often being shown on TV as a go-to image of what a busy and bustling city it can be.

Second was the Hachiko statue. In the 1920s and 30s, Hachiko was an Akita dog who would meet his owner at the station at the end of each day. After the owner’s death, Hachiko would still turn up at the same time each day to wait for him. He became a symbol of loyalty and somewhat of a local legend. As such, his statue is a well known attraction, and is a popular meeting point for friends trying to find each other at the station.

Finally, we went in search of the only Disney store in Tokyo to have it’s own street entrance (the rest are all inside shopping malls) Not only that, but its themed. I got us horribly lost, but we eventually found it. Hurrah!

We’d arranged to meet Sara and Jon at Dome City. Due to all the faff, we were horribly late, but got there in the end. We arrived to find Sara on Thunder Dolphin, having got bored of waiting. A few minutes later, she re-rode with John and I.

The cred is odd. The near-misses are noticeable, but nothing special. There’s a section where it travels in a straight line along the top of a building, but kind of bobs from side to side, presumably to simulate a Dolphin swimming. It’s just weird. Oh well, another iconic cred to add to the list.

Whilst discussing what we’d done in the week since we last all saw eachother, it became clear that Sara had acquired something of an addiction to the photo sticker machines! Keen to share the joys with us, we all piled into an arcade, and into a booth called “Milk Beauty”. These things are everywhere in Japan and are all totally ridiculous - but, as it turned out, utterly hilarious! You start in one side of the machine where there’s a green screen. A screen infront of you tells you where to stand and what poses to make whilst it photographs you. Once complete, you move to the other side of the booth where you use a touchscreen to edit your photos. This is where most of the hilarity ensues. We took the “plonk loads of random **** all over it” approach. The end result is amazing, I’m sure you’ll agree! haha!

Could've been worse, we could've gone in this one...

After buggering about on various other ridiculous arcade machines, we went in search of dinner. After much faff, we eventually settled on Hidakaya. Much food, including many gyoza, was consumed. It was then time to head our separate ways after a great evening.

 

[Gavin]

Our first stop was Harajuku. This is seen as being an area for young hipsters - Tokyo’s answer to Camden I guess. I can’t say as I really got that impression from the place

The main area for the hipsters is **** Dori, a narrow pedestrian street that starts opposite Harajuku station, and the smaller streets around it, which have loads of independent fashion shops. It's where a lot of the cosplayers buy their stuff. The main roads of the area, as you said, don't seem drastically different to any other city centre shopping area.

On Sundays, the cosplayers come out in large numbers and hang around on the bridge at the entrance to the Meiji shrine, and the park that you mentioned.

 

[Gavin]

^Haha, stupid autocensor.

The road is called Takes**ta Dori.

 

[peep]

Day 9 - Sunday 15th

We had originally planned to go to Yomiuriland but decided to head over to Yokohama because it was easier to get to and the weather wasn't meant to be great. However before that we decided to head over to Ginza which is one of the more up-market shopping districts. It's also where the massive Sony place is and being a Sony fanboy I just had to go. We had arrived in the area a bit early so most places were closed. So we grabbed some food and more radioactive soda.

Can't go wrong with pancakes

The Sony store was just about to open so we waited with the rest of the Sony goons and as soon as the doors opened we all poured in. There are lots of floors each specialising in a different range of Sony products. Most of the place was showcasing the new Z1 phone that they had just launched. This meant we got to play with it quite a lot and since coming back to the UK I now own one #Sonygoon

Annoyingly you weren't allowed to take photos inside so you'll have to make do with an exterior shot.

Masses of glass blocks

The Mentalist likes to stroke horses

We went in search of somewhere that would be able to mend Nic's broken glasses. We ended up in a huge department store. We headed to their glasses department and we found a guy who went out of his way to mend them and did it all for free! What a nice gentleman. We then spent a very long time meandering their giant food court. A lot of their cakes looked incredible but we didn't get any.

Nic Cage stares into your soul

We also popped into the Nissan place. It wasn't as exciting as the exterior and was literally two cars and a merch shop. Disappointing.

It was quite rainy in Ginza but by the time we got over to Yokohama it was quite sunny. I liked a lot of the buildings in the area, reminded me of Canary Wharf in London but better because it had creds.

The closer we approached Cosmoworld the more it looked very closed, or at least the creds did. After wandering the whole park it would appear everything was shutting up, we're not sure why, maybe they were getting paranoid over approaching weather?

Spite

Yep, all looks rather dead

Oh well, that wasn't the only reason we were in the area. We ended up in a shopping mall for food based activities. After getting lost inside the maze that called itself a shopping center we finally ended up in a Chicken cutlet place. The food was nice but I was so confused when I was given a piece of tree on a plate and then a bowl full of seeds. Luckily the guy next to me was also given these random items. I just followed what he did which was grind the seeds up with the tree and then pour some soy sauce in to create an extra coating for the chicken and pork.

Inspiration for the Smiler?

After some food we then went over to Orbi. It's a very new interactive thing made by Sega and BBC Nature. It hides in the top of a very hipster shopping center but that didn't stop like a billion people going (silly us for going on a weekend). The main attraction is a huge theatre which screens a special film which will change over the course of time. When you buy your entry you're also given a specific time slot to see the film. Everyone is also given a RFID wristband to gain entry and all your photos are stored on there etc. It's a nice way of doing things.

They gave out free hats so Nic had to wear one

See, very new, hadn't even been open a month yet

Earth burger anyone?

Nic and her wristband

Entrance

No photos allowed inside so this is the last you'll see

So the queue for tickets moved really slowly despite loads of staff members. We then went inside to discover the place was rammed. Urgh. We started by going to the right and watching a soarin' like film over famous natural areas in the World (so like Grand Canyon etc). It was surprisingly effective considering your just standing watching a curved screen. Outside of that was a huge screen which you 'interact' with. The idea is that random shadows of animals go across the screen and you can like select the animal and it will tell you about it. However there was a queue for it and it didn't seem to work so well.

I think the next thing we did was like a green screen room where you choose which animal you want to act like (choice of 6). It then films you in slow motion and broadcasts it onto a screen at the back of the booth. This was quite a crowd pleaser.

I think we then went in to watch the underwater show thing. Basically a film with the occasional mist with projection effect which shows you unusual creatures that you'll find the further down in the Ocean you go. It was quite short and a bit random.

It was then time for "Ice Worlds" in the large theatre. There was a bit of a pre show but it felt like everyone was really crammed into the space, that room should have been just a bit bigger imo. The theatre is huge and there's like 5 projection screens. The film itself is really random and we just didn't understand what it was trying to do, very disappointing.

Afterwards we decided to bite the bullet and queue for some of the other attractions. The first was the one about Wildebeast. The queue barely moved, basically everything has a really turd capacity apart from the main theatre. You stood on this platform with projections of the Wildebeast migration all around you. It was a very meh experience.

Next was the Komodo Dragon 4D show. This also had a long wait because it was a good 10 minute film. This was definitely one of the better attractions the place had to offer. I was pretty scared during the dark bit where they just play audio, who knows what could have come next? Still, it was very effective.

We were quite angry about queues and how pants everything was by this point so we decided that the insect walkthrough would be our last attraction in the place. It's all pretty dark inside and screens turn on and tell you about insects as you walk around. I don't think we were fans of this either.

I think the best thing I'd seen the entire time we were there was when we were leaving and I saw a guy in front had made a vine video of the 'be amazed' logo, them walking around miserable and then ending with them saying something to the camera (I assume something along of the lines of 'I wasn't amazed').

The shopping centre had a Toys R Us and the big kids that we are we decided to go and have a play around in there. It was a good one and we spent a good amount of time in there. We then left and went back on the trains to the hotel. As this was our last night at this hotel we needed plenty of time to pack and make sure we were ready for the next day. We did go somewhere for food but I can't remember where we ended up, possibly Yoshinoya again? *shrugs*


Anyway, thanks for reading and I'll be back at some point for the next instalment.

 

[furie]

Nic's magical floating light-hat in the third picture down is amazing!!!

 

[nealbie]

PRISONER ZERO HAS ESCAPED!!!

 

[Nic]

Day 9 - 15th September 2013

Another somewhat faffy day. We’d intended to do one of the bigger parks (Tobu Zoo, or Nasu Highland maybe? I can't actually remember) but the weather when we woke up was appalling. Therefore we took the decision to tick some more shops off the To Do list before heading to the indoor sanctuary of Orbi in the afternoon.

Being a massive Sony goon, John was desperate to visit the massive Sony showroom in Ginza. We got there just as it opened, and joined a small group of other goons heading into the store. It’s arranged over a lot of floors, each covering only a small footprint. They’re connected with small staircases, meaning you kind of spiral your way up through the showroom. It’s less shop and more exhibit. Each of their latest products has its own section, and is displayed in a way that encourages you to play around and have a go at it.

Sony’s flagship new mobile phone, the Xperia Z1 had only been released a day or two before our visit. As a result, there was a special exhibition to demonstrate the new device. This was pretty cool, and they gave everyone an Xperia notebook as you left. Nice

A couple of days earlier, one of the screws from my glasses had disappeared meaning I’d spent quite a while wandering round with them held together with a bit of string. On day 8 the string had finally given way, so it was definitely about time I got them fixed. Not knowing any Japanese optician chains, the only way to find one would’ve been to wander round until we literally bumped into one. As we were deciding what to do, I saw a huge branch of Mitsukoshi, a Japanese department store. I knew that the branch in London had an optician counter, so we decided to head in there and see. We found the optician counter, waved my glasses at the first staff member we saw who said something along the lines of “Oh dear!” before disappearing off out the back with them. A few minutes later he returned with them all fixed. When I asked how much, he said “free” which led to a string of much thanking and bowing on my part. Result!

We decided to go and explore the food court next, and got somewhat lost in there. It was ridiculously huge, and the food was so varied. We could’ve spent hours wandering round looking at and tasting everything in there.

Time was ticking, so we decided we’d better head for Yokohama. Whilst waiting for one of our trains, I decided to continue the “weird looking vending machine drinks” game and buy a bottle of Pocari Sweat. It was **** disgusting.

We eventually arrived in Yokohama, at the station nearest to Cosmoworld. We wandered towards the park, which takes you on a slightly convoluted route across a bridge. As we got closer, it was painfully obvious that not much was operating. Once we got in, the only thing operating, in fact, was the flog lume and a couple of dark rides. Eugh. We decided to faff in the arcade for a bit and see what happened. After a short time it became clear that, despite being advertised as opening until 10pm, the park was actually about to close - at 3pm. Oh well, we had banked on not riding anything due to the weather today anyway, so we’d not actually lost out.

By this time, we wanted food. After much wandering round various malls getting horribly lost, we ended up at a katsu restaurant. John’s came with a stick in a basket. Mine came swimming in raw egg. :?

From there, we finally found our way to Orbi. This is the first attraction of it’s kind in the world in what is hoped will become a popular franchise. Opened earlier in the summer, Orbi combines BBC nature documentary footage with modern technology to create an interactive and immersive experience. Or so the theory goes.

For starters, a Sunday afternoon where the weather had promised to be a bit crap was not a great choice, as the place was heaving. It took us ages to queue up to pay a disproportionately large sum of money to enter. But you do get to wear a funky RFID wrist band, and I did get an awesome cardboard hat

Once inside, it’s essentially one massive room next door to the main theatre, with a number of attractions inside and smaller theatres around the edge. We started by wandering into the flying film thing. There’s two screens giving it fairly decent capacity, and it’s just on a loop in an open room so people can wander in and out as they please. It’s alright, I guess.

My favourite attraction was the slow motion thing. You stood in a photo booth with a screen infront of you which showed you what to do. You picked one of 6 animals that performs a particularly quick action to imitate. We went for a bear shaking its head. When the screen says go, you perform the required action which is filmed. Once you come out of the booth, the video of you looking like a tway is played back in slow motion on a screen outside.

The main theatre was HUGE but turd. The freezer thing sounded ok, but had too long a queue to bother with. Everything else was crap. Yeah.

By the time we gave up, it was dark outside. The ferris wheel was pretty.

We had a quick wander round. They have TGI Fridays with plastic food, a hair salon called Gorilla Biscuits, and some cool manhole covers. Hmmm.

On the way back to the hotel we just grabbed some snacky food rather than actual dinner. This was my first experience of konbini steamed buns. I got a Pizzaman. It wasn’t quite what I expected, but was nevertheless very nice.