Tokyo Disney

Hi all,

We’ve had a wonderful day at Tokyo Disney. Anyone that knows me well knows I love visiting Disneyland. I’m lucky to have now visited all the Disney parks except for Shanghai: California, Hong Kong, Florida, Paris and Tokyo. Eight visits in total as I’ve visited the California one four times. I love comparing the parks and seeing how some of the rides, layouts etc are done in different ways. Tokyo was the first Disney park to open outside of the USA, which it did in April 1983. Interestingly, it and its neighbouring park Tokyo Disneysea are the only Disney parks to not be owned by the Walt Disney Company directly.

The start to the day was the toughest. The train ride was easy, but once we arrived, despite being here at 7.40am for a 9am opening, there were HEAPS of people. We had to wait in the already blazing sun until the gates opened. And once they did, figuring out the fast pass system was a bit stressful and took a sec (you can’t book any until you enter the park). For whatever reason though, I’m really good at scheduling fast passes and organising wait times efficiently. So despite Tokyo Disney having a reputation for huge queues and long wait times, I got the hang of it quickly and we didn’t wait more than 20 minutes for a ride all day.

We went on all of the rides we wanted to, and got to do about 20 total which was a great effort. We fast passed all the busy ones and walked right in, and then kept our eye on wait times for rides without fast passes. And the only one we had to pay for was the very popular ‘Beauty and the Beast’ ride. It opened in 2020 and is the only one of its kind at any Disney park, so it’s always a 60+ minutes wait. And we could see why - it was wonderful. The castle it was inside of was beautiful, and so detailed. And the ride was in a huge teacup using the magnet track technology. We loved it!!

We went on lots of classics - Splash Mountain, Peter Pan, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain (Mum and Dad only - not pregnancy suitable!), Dumbo (I queued here while they were on Space and we pulled off a magnificent queue jump!), It’s A Small World, Pinocchio, Carousel, Thunder Mountain and the Jungle Cruise. We also went on the Western River Railroad which is unique to this park, and was a really enjoyable steam train with great views of the river, Splash and Thunder. As well, we enjoyed two shows - ‘The Country Bears Jamboree’ and ‘The Tiki Room’.

One of my favourite parts of today was enjoying rides and attractions that no longer exist at the best Disney park - Anaheim, California. Splash Mountain is no more, the redhead scene in Pirates is still going strong here, and Country Bears hasn’t been at Disneyland since 2001 so I had never seen it. Mum and Dad hadn’t since the 70s. We all loved it!!

We also enjoyed walking around and taking in the park. The castle here is beautiful (I think it’s the second best for me behind Paris!), and the food and souvenirs here are so cheap compared to the USA thanks to the fab exchange rate. We enjoyed some sweet treats throughout the day such as churros, icy poles, and then some sandwiches and pastries from a bakery later on. Just to give you an idea how cheap everything is, a 600mL bottle of Coke was $2.50. At home it would be $6 at the footy, and in the USA at Disneyland $8+ I reckon! It was a nice surprise having everything be so affordable. It was also nice having so much open space, as the pathways etc in California are quite a bit narrower than in Tokyo.

Then was the highlight - The Electrical Parade. I hadn’t seen this since 2005 when I went to Anaheim with Mum, Dad and Adam as it’s been retired in California and made a special return ending three weeks before my visit in early 2017. It went for 25 minutes and had probably 15 floats, with a total of over one million light bulbs! It was so beautiful and even had the original ‘Main Street Electrical Parade’ music in some sections, which always reminds me of Nan and Pa due to a video of Disneyland they had that they used to play for me as a kid. We sat on the curb right at the front and absolutely loved every second. I think we smiled the whole time!

The benefit afterwards too was that a lot of people left, so we walked right onto ‘Snow White’ and then into the castle walkthrough which was Cinderella themed. We ended the night by using our final fast pass on the ‘Winnie The Pooh’ ride, which was like the Disneyland version but heaps better due to using the magnetic track technology again, which made you really feel a part of the story. Loved it!!

After 12 hours in the park, we boarded the train and made our way home. I am so proud of how I went and how my hip held up today. My brace helped a lot. I also think we were smart with how we did the rides and rested in between and it definitely paid off. I’m so glad we got to come here. In 2020 we only had two weeks in Japan instead of three, and we wouldn’t have had time. All three of us had a great day, and Dad said “I didn’t think I needed to come here, but I had a really fun day.”

We will sleep well tonight!

Love to all

Claire

Xoxox