DISNEYLAND 💓
Breakfast; Verdure Super Dining, Tobu Hotel
It was another early day! Disneyland opens at 10am that day and our complimentary shuttle service was at 8.20am. As we wanted to try the hotel's breakfast, that was a pretty good day to sample their buffet (¥2200 per pax). The variety is similar to that in Hokkaido hotels and egg/sausage/bacon are always in the menu. Other than plain congee, they served Chinese congee which includes side condiments like century egg and shredded chicken. I usually like the plain congee for breakfast but this one here does not have the creaminess and Japanese rice flavour. What I like about the buffet is the many choices of drinks and that includes their homemade vinegar drinks and fruit juices. The drinks at the dispenser are not dispensed in a fixed amount, so you can taste a little of every drink.
At 8.20am sharp, the bus left for the Disney parks. It dropped people off at Disneysea first, and then Disneyland. There were more passengers on board the bus that day. As usual, we arrived earlier than the opening hour at 10am that day. There were more people and queues formed in Disneyland compared to Disneysea. It was drizzling while we waited, so heatpacks were summoned. Visitors rushed in when the gates opened. Their staff were situated everywhere holding a card to remind people not to run.
For Safely. Please Walk.
We headed to Tomorrowland first. The fast pass time for Monster Inc was 11.50am which means a handful of people have already gotten their fast passes. You really got to plan your time! So we queued directly for Monster Inc at 20 minutes wait time after we got the fast pass for space mountain. Monster Inc is a cute ride in which you have to shine your touchlights at the monster logo to seek the hidden monsters. This is one of the popular rides so don't miss it.
Next up was Star Tours - The Adventures Continue, which had given us both some nauseatic moments. At 10 minutes wait time, it felt more like 20 minutes with a long walk into the actual ride. We wore 3D glasses that looks like skii-ing goggles and entered a flying machine. With the robot as our captain, we drove through the galaxy at high speed! It really felt like the real thing and it is quite thrilling. But I have never watched Star Wars, so I have no idea what the story is.
ALOHA!
We moved on to meet Stitchy! Maybe it is the Japanese accent but it sounds like Stitchy when he says it. At Stitch Encounter, we waited for the next show to start and sat in a hall with a big screen. Although it was all in Japanese, it was quite interactive with Stitch asking for names as the camera displays their faces on the screen. He also identified a lady and called her his girlfriend. We also had a photo taking session with him with the camera capturing snapshots of the audiences. The show is probably about 20 minutes long and it is interesting, especially to children. Quite afraid that we would miss our space mountain fast pass time if the show still continued on.
Space Mountain is one special roller coaster ride in which I spent my entire time there screaming hysterically. Enclosed in the dark, you travel in high speed through the space with colourful bright lights. Due to the fear of the unknown, from being unable to know what would be coming next, I just kept screaming. Brace yourself for the constant twists, turns and jerks, but there's no huge climax for this roller coaster. Please enjoy it!
At that time, it was drizzling. It did not exactly feel like water droplets, but more like ice. Tiny bits of ice was falling down the sky. Thankfully, the weather got better later in the day. Star Jets will be closed permanently in October this year, so we have to go for it! This is similar to Orbitron in HK Disneyland but this ride is at a higher elevation. The 20 minutes wait was worth it as we took the lift up one level for our flying session. It is a very squeezy jetplane with him sitting behind me but we forgot about that as we flew. At a higher level, the view is splendid. In addition, the cold breeze in our faces added to the enjoyment of this ride.
With the fast pass of Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, we breezed through the crowd with a shorter queue. As like before, I was not good with the laser shooter and my score was miserable. Depressing moment calls for some food (Nah just kidding, I was so energized with excitement!). We ate at Tomorrowland again this time! But the food (¥2290) at Tomorrowland Terrace is far from satisfying. Will not eat the ratatouille chicken burger again.
Finally, we were going to Fantasyland, it's a small world! The outlook and ride is quite the same as the one in HK, but I guess the first experiences are often more memorable. We sat on a boat and traveled through different countries and various languages of the same song were played along the way. However, the Japanese version of the song is the dominant one and I can hardly hear the other languages.
"It's the happiest cruise that ever sailed!"
At Toontown, there are many cute places to visit and take pictures. Great for kids here. Note the Japanese teenager posing for my photo at Chip and Dale's Treehouse 😆. We took the Gadget's Go Coaster which is a speedy kids roller coaster. Roger Rabbits's Car Toon Spin is one ride that we queued for quite some time. We sat in a car, where we can control the spinning direction and speed, and drove through the streets avoiding the "enemies". Fun!
Pinocchio's Daring Journey takes you through the story in moving pictures as you sit in the mine car with other passengers. Next up was Mickey's Philhar Magic, a theatre show with 4D effects, where Donald duck brings you through his quest of getting back Mickey's magic hat. It is exactly the same as the one in HK, just in a different language, so we could follow the whole story. Donald visits several Disney animation characters, which I now understand better after watching the movies. It's interesting to hear the famous Disney songs in Japanese.
Our fast pass time was here for Splash Mountain! Still, this ride is so popular I think we waited for 30 minutes. I was quite afraid of the plunge! We sat on a log boat and moved through the story of the "Song of the South" classic film. I was not aware that it is a 10 minutes ride and so I panicked. At the first short drop, I screamed. At the second higher drop, I thought that was it, and I screamed again.
"NO, it is not this one!"
I shouted out to my boyfriend after that drop, and he laughed so loudly at me. It seemed like the Korean woman in the front seat wanted to open her umbrella to shield from the water when it goes down. My bf warned me about dodging it if that umbrella flies towards me. The time was here as I saw some sunlight at the exit; the plunge was here. Before I know it, we reached the bottom, looking like we just ran a mile. I like how relaxing and long this ride is, with the nice music playing. But I was too focused and fearful of the end 😞. Please don't be like me. Enjoy the journey, not just the destination, you know the quote haha.
We did some serious arm exercise after that, you know to burn the calories from all the eating! It was my first canoe experience with Beaver Brothers Explorer Canoes. It would have been much tougher if not for the front and back rower. The lady in front of me could not sync her rowing and kept knocking on my oar. We had a fun time overtaking the canoe which was initially in front of us! Our arms were left sore afterwards.
It was getting dark at about 5 or 6pm. I was all along hunting for my popcorn bucket design, and when I finally decided on Stitch after seeing all the other designs, that particular popcorn booth was closed! Unsure of what time those booth closes, and thinking that they were probably all going to close soon, I decided on purchasing Dumbo design instead from another booth. However, we did not want milk chocolate flavoured popcorn, which was the flavour that was available there. We realized that we could buy the Dumbo bucket, request for a popcorn voucher, and redeem it from another pushcart. SO WE RAN TOWARDS OUR CURRY POPCORN BOOTH, and successfully got to taste another addictive popcorn which taste like Twisties, but the lite version. Well, the pushcart remained open for a long time, so we actually ran for nothing 😓. At least we got our popcorn!
It was getting dark at about 5 or 6pm. I was all along hunting for my popcorn bucket design, and when I finally decided on Stitch after seeing all the other designs, that particular popcorn booth was closed! Unsure of what time those booth closes, and thinking that they were probably all going to close soon, I decided on purchasing Dumbo design instead from another booth. However, we did not want milk chocolate flavoured popcorn, which was the flavour that was available there. We realized that we could buy the Dumbo bucket, request for a popcorn voucher, and redeem it from another pushcart. SO WE RAN TOWARDS OUR CURRY POPCORN BOOTH, and successfully got to taste another addictive popcorn which taste like Twisties, but the lite version. Well, the pushcart remained open for a long time, so we actually ran for nothing 😓. At least we got our popcorn!
Sat through a scary dark ride at Snow White's Adventures and met the hideous evil witch upfront. Beware kids! What did mum say about accepting food from strangers? We queued to visit Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall and it is pretty grand. There is no rides here but just a free and easy tour around the castle. I could try on the glass slippers and have a shot at being the real princess but oh well, boots were hard to take off.
Pooh's Hunny Hunt is such a popular ride that we did not even manage to get a fast pass. Before we started queuing, we refilled our bucket with honey popcorn which was right outside the ride. Honey popcorn is amazing as well! Lightly sweetened crunchy popcorn that we finished while waiting for 25 minutes. There were two friends behind us who were discussing who is Winnie, pooh and Christopher. They sounded so genuinely confused so I answered them that Winnie is the bear, the pooh HAHA. They were from South Korea but living in Australia, so we could communicate in English.
4 of us were in the same honey pot and we moved around in a haphazard way. It was like Mystic Manor, with no obvious tracks. We just turn anyhow and anywhere. There was one part whereby Tigger was bouncing about, and it felt like we were doing the same too. Then, we entered into Pooh's dream and played with whimsical elephants. It was really fun! Our friend thanked us for driving the honey pot as we bid goodbye.
It was very cold then probably about 2 or 3 degrees celsius at night! We went into hiding in the Country Bear Theatre for about 15 minutes looking at different bears singing different songs. Some in Japanese, some in English. We saw another show of Stitch at Tikki Tikki with the help of a handheld translator.
Our last ride was for Peter Pan's Flight which was at a 20 minutes wait time. While the name seems to state the obvious, I was not expecting myself to fly in a pirate ship! Love it!
Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Mountain were closed when we visited. I watched the youtube video and took a virtual ride on them. It would have been so fun! Much regrets for not going for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride as well. The cold made me unable to think clearly. There was a fireworks performance but not above the castle due to the cold weather. So it was not that fantastic.
Till we meet again Tokyo Disneyland!
Disneyland definitely has more magical feel than Disneysea.
Dinner; 双面
I had gastric before I even felt hungry. I thought we had so much popcorn, where were they digested to? Our hotel shuttle bus came to pick a bunch of us and we had dinner at a ramen place nearby. This ramen place has a handsome ramen chef 😏. We ordered a Shoyu ramen (¥750) and a Miso dipping ramen (¥880). The noodles are like those Chinese La Mian and the soup is piping hot. The garlic taste is strong but it enhances the taste of the soup. His Miso dip ramen is slightly spicy and great too but the noodle is cold before the dip. A bowl of hot stuff is always better.
No comments:
Post a Comment