We didn't plan this trip long ago, but as soon as we decided to do it, Disneyland Tokyo was #1 on the hit-list. I went to the LA one as a 10 year old and absolutely loved it, and with Willow adoring so many Disney movies lately, I knew she/we would have a blast. Excitedly, we set off at 7:30am on the subway. Of course it was peak hour, so it was an enriching cultural experience getting on 3 trains with 3 adults, a 3 year old and a stroller at that hour. But Disneyland was calling, and we got there at about 8:45am. Whether it actually opened at 8am like we originally thought, or at 9am like Ryan googled as we lined up to get in, we will never know but it didn't matter as we walked through the gates with the swarms just after 9am.
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| Heading into Disneyland |
With the huge numbers of people that visit Tokyo Disneyland every day (couldn't find out daily numbers but some quick calculations I estimate an average of 50,000 every day), we had done some research on how best to avoid the queues for the best rides. They offer a Fastpass system, which is I think a genius idea which allows, for free, everyone to access 2-3 Fastpasses each visit so they can skip the queues for the most popular rides (it isn't uncommon to wait 1-2 hours for popular rides!). So our plan was to first of all hightail it to get a Fastpass for the Winnie the Pooh ride. It was like being on the Amazing Race, briskly walking through the gates, trying to find the park map, trying not to lose each other, then trying to work out where the Pooh ride so that we could get Fastpasses for it. (Oh, and once you get them, you can only use it 4-6 hours later, and you can only access a Fastpass every so often. It must be quite a complicated algorithm, so respect).
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| The Disney Castle - under construction, just like La Sagrada Familia |
So successfully obtaining Fastpasses for the Pooh ride which meant we had to come back at 1pm, we set off for Tomorrowland and lined up for the Buzz Lightyear ride. Being early in the day the line was only about 30 minutes! It moved quickly and before too long we were in there... You had laser guns and had to aim for targets to shoot the bad guys and help Buzz save that day!! Hitting a target gave you points, but Kirsty only realised that was a real aspect of the ride halfway through! And Ryan was with Willow who controlled the joystick so was spinning their cart round and round but Ryan's sharp eye still netted him a lot of points. It was a great ride - so much fun! And Willow was immediately sucked in to the magic that is Disney.
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| Lining up for the Buzz Lightyear line |
Just around the corner we lined up for the Monsters Inc ride. The lady at the front of the line had a little notebook with some English phrases, so had to flick through a few pages to make sure that we were OK with Willow going through some dark passages, with jolty movements and some loud sounds etc. We nodded enthusiastically to everything and we joined the end of the queue. It was about a 45 minute wait, but it was worth it!! Such a cute and funny ride, with all the familiar monster faces. On this ride you had flashlights that you had to aim at targets so that the monsters would pop out from all kinds of hidden places. Willow hopped off the ride and was jumping up and down with excitement. Of course, you have to exit every ride via the gift shop, so that was always a bit of a challenge with a 3 year old, but Willow is pretty good with that kind of stuff overall. Because we all loved it so much, we got some Fastpasses for it so that we could come back at 6pm and skip the queue.
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| Disneyland!! |
Because it was Halloween, we were basically the only ones (no joke!) in the park that were not in fancy dress! The Japanese love their cosplay, and I am pretty sure that some of the adults had gone to so much effort with their costumes that their only aim was to parade around the park all day and take some photos for their Instagram. They all looked fantastic though, so much that we weren't sure who worked their and who were just visitors. Willow loved seeing so many Elsas and Annas and was waving to them, even though they were just normal people. Oh and they dress up the little Japanese babies in hilarious costumes like little Buzz Lightyears or little Donald Ducks with fluffy bums. It made the day even more awesome (only later did I read the
strict rules that everyone had to adhere to regarding their costumes.
Off we went to Toontown for the Roger Rabbit Car Toon Spin ride we didn't have a long wait. Again we had to check the rules from the lady's notes to confirm we thought Willow could handle the darkness, vigorous turns and loud bangs. Why they don't just have a permanent sign in English that they can point to rather than pointing to their personal notes beats me... So another hilarious ride of zooming through the cartoon tunnels with familiar faces that Disney does so well. It was so awesome seeing Willow loving every second of it, even if there was the occasional look of shock and surprise and uncertainty in the strobe lighting haha.
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| It's A Small World |
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| About to set off on the boat for It's A Small World |
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| It's A Small World |
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| Finding Nemo |
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It's A Small World
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Willow was starting to get a bit sleepy after all this excitement, but turning around the corner into Fantasyland we joined the short line for It's a Small World. I thought this may be a bit lame, being such an old classic Disney ride, but they had totally revamped the whole ride. It looked brand new, and you travel through each continent and they had included characters from their latest movies, like Frozen, Moana and Finding Nemo, which Willow was ecstatic over. Such a beautiful boat ride! Finally it was 1pm and our turnto go on to the Pooh ride!! The normal line was about a 50 minute ride, so with our Fastpasses it still was a 10 minute wait, but better than 50! It was obviously a newer ride - the buggies seemed to float on air, without tracks, and they didn't follow each other around, they seemed to dance in and around each other like a choreographed dance, it was quite amazing! Another very cute ride - Pooh, Piglet and Tigger have long been favourites.
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| Watching the parade |
Next, a quick stop so that Kirsty could buy Willow some Minnie Mouse ears, and then on to the Pinocchio ride! This was obviously an older style of train ride, especially just having hopped off the Pooh ride, and really brought me back to my visit in LA in 1990. Still a winner (had to cuddle Willow though when that big whale popped up!). Next up, straight on to the Alice's teacups ride. Willow has been on a few teacup rides in her short time, but this one was next level. All 4 of us bundled into a teacup, and each cup rotates in 3 different revolutions. Ryan went nuts on spinning our cup around so it was actually super fast and we were all laughing so much! Willow absolutely loved it! I hope she doesn't turn into an adrenalin junkie!!
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| On Alice's teacups! |
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| Pure joy! |
We all stumbled off the teacups, and would you believe it, before too long Willow was in the pram and asleep. Excellent! Time for the adults to grab a quick lunch (a steamed pork bun in the shape of Mickey's gloved hand of course) and then Kirsty and I were desperate to go on the Pirates of the Caribbean, which our whole family went on 3 times in 1990! It didn't disappoint - it was exactly the same (except for some Jack Sparrow updates). With Willow soon back up, we headed back up to Fantasyland and stumble across one of the parades along the way. Willow absolutely loved seeing all the old favourite Disney characters up on their floats, and this one was Halloween theme! It was awesome. It was about 4pm and the sun was already starting to set, so we had another go on the teacups (as crazy as the first time) and another go on It's a Small World.
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| Pirates of the Caribbean |
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| Halloween Parade |
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| Halloween Parade |
We were getting pretty tired by this point, but we soldiered on!!! So we caught a 3D movie of Donald Duck, where you put on 3D glasses. It was great - they have little jets which puff out air, or smells or even water so you feel like you are literally in the movie. Willow was standing up and reaching out because she thought she could touch it. So clever! Then back to Toontown, but not to Mickey's house where there was an 85 MINUTE WAIT to have your photo taken with Mickey.... note to Disney, just have a few different Mickeys wandering around different corners of the park because that is ridiculous). So yes back to Toontown for another spin on Roger Rabbit's Car Toon spin, then back down to the Monsters Inc ride to use our other Fastpasses (we basically got straight on - the poor lady though that had to check Willow would be fine on it had handwritten notes!!).
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| Outside the Polynesian Terrace |
And after one last ride of a jungle safari boat ride (which was fun, although a bit hard in the dark to see things and I don't think Willow knew if all the animals were real or not!) and for the finale caught the night electrical parade. And golly, do they put on a show! It went on for about 40 minutes with the most amazing floats, with all of Willow's favourite characters, and I think her mind was almost literally blown when she saw the Frozen float coming down the street. That was worth the visit alone! After that we headed home (with Willow asleep with her new Elsa doll in hand before we exited the gates), which despite the crowds was easy and efficient. What an amazing day - Disneyland is worlds above all other theme parks (well especially for kids). But it was incredibly (and surprisingly) good value and efficient, considering all the people. I support Disney's take over of the entertainment world.
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| Take me back to Disneyland! |
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