Tokyo Disney Day 1

I was a bit worried about making the last bus to Tokyo Disney Resort (did NOT want to take the subway in Tokyo at rush hour!) But we made it just in time!

We stayed our first night at the Ambassador hotel. It was so cool and we were happy to have our long plane flight behind us!

 Like all hotels in Japan, the toiletries were awesome...

 And there were even PJ's for us to wear!

And the Disney details were fabulous:

 The hotel is art-deco style and the lobby, halls and even the door to our room were really cool!

 They had a globe in front of the elevators that showed a golden Mickey icon each place on Earth where there is a Disney park. These guys are of course pointing to 2 of our favs:

 The lobby. Check out the constellation ceiling with characters from Peter Pan!

 We had to change money so we headed out to the shopping district. ATM's in Japan are few and far between. We had to hike quite a ways to find one. But we did find a Disney store.

 The next morning we woke up and saw that our room had a view of the castle and BTMRR!

We jumped on the shuttle bus to Tokyo Disneyland. Check out the cool bus details!

 Can someone please tell me how they pull off Palm Trees in this climate??

 Last time I was hear I missed this detail. All the monorail stations have gorgeous paintings showing scenes from different attractions in the park. They are AMAZING!

 We jumped in one of the lines to hold a spot for our group. Of course I had to do all the holding. These guys just ran all around.

 The Japanese sit down whenever they have to wait for anything. Even parades! They all bring little mats to sit on.

 Finally our friends arrived. We raced into the park and rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

 Splash was next. Me and the kids:

 Mom's and Charlie!

Tried in vain the entire trip to get a photo of all 8 kids actually looking at the camera. Here's 7 out of 8 and Teddy's back:

The whole gang!

The shuttle buses are amazing and were all decked out for Christmas.

Even the brake lights have the Mickey shape!

After a rest back at the hotel we headed back into the park. We ate Dinner at Grandma Sara's Kitchen which is like an animal burrow under the ground. We entered the restaurant through the exit and got right in line for food and only then did we realize that there was a massive line one floor up where they were only letting people down into the ordering line one group at a time. Massive Queue-jump. We felt OK about since we didn't do it on purpose and didn't figure it out until after we ordered. But it did become something of a manta for Tokyo Dis: When in doubt, enter through the exit!

We had time for a ride on Space Mountain before finding a great spot to watch the Main Street Electrical Parade:

It was a great first day! 4 Moms and 8 kids and no one even got lost!