Tokyo Disney Day 3 - Disneysea Again!

 On Wednesday we had breakfast at the hotel. Usually when we go to Disney I pack ziplock "Breakfast Bags" for each day with oatmeal squares, granola bars, dried fruit and nuts or whatever, and then we get up and grab a bag and race out the door so we can be there for park opening. We eat while we are waiting for the park to open or while watching the morning show. In Japan this probably saved us more than $500!! It also makes room for souvenirs in our luggage. On Wednesday though TDS didn't open until 10am so we had planned to actually eat a sit down breakfast. The kids had place mats with character pop ups which Sasha absolutely loved!

 I am a big fan of Mickey-shaped foods. Outstanding!

 

 We finished by 9am and didn't need to line up for the park yet, as the Miracosta has a special hotel entrance that guests can use to enter the park 15 minutes early (swanky!) so we explored the hotel. Here's the princess outside the main entrance:

Our side of the hotel was the "Port Paradisio" side: an Italian Harbor, but there is also a "Venice" side to the hotel, complete with canals and gondolas:

Another shot of the "Venice" side of the Hotel:

In the interior of the hotel there are panels all down the corridors showing scenes from Pinocchio:

Another one:

At 9:30 we got in line to go into the park. We moved through the Mediterranean harbor and into the American Waterfront. There are 2 sections to the American Waterfront, a turn of the century New York Harbor area and a Cape Cod fishing village. Here's looking down a New York Street. Check out the "L" train!

Love the coin fountain in front of "McDucks Department Store":

Cape Cod. It's just like home in New England! (I mean except for the massive volcano in the background....)

We nabbed fastpasses for the Tower of Terror on the way through the American Waterfront and then headed to Port Discovery to ride "Aquatopia" We were the first family on it that day! These cool little boats zip randomly all around the harbor and almost run you into other boats, waterfalls, even whirlpools. Same magnetic ride technology as Pooh in TDL.

We did the Storm Rider, a motion simulator akin to Star Tours or Mission Space, and then went back to America to ride the Tower of Terror! The ride in Tokyo has a different storyline about a greedy archaeologist and a cursed Idol. The best effect is during the intro where you are in guy's study and the idol vanishes right in front of your eyes! Teddy wouldn't go near this ride last year. This year he rode it 5 times! The Japanese thought we were crazy going on with a 3 year old. The drops are much tamer in Tokyo though.

Next we headed to the Lost River Delta. Mayan Jungle theme. The boys wanted hot dogs back in the USA so we split up. Sasha and I rode Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull. It's under that temple you see in this pic:

Then we went on "Raging Spirits", a roller coaster with a 360° loop!

We took a picture of some cars going through the loop:

Sasha conquered this ride! Rode it 3 times and loved it!

Next the girls headed over to the Arabian Coast for some curry lunch. I promised you some better pics of this area. Here's a big picture:

And closer up! The music was awesome and you expected to see Jasmine or Aladdin around every corner! We ate at the Casbah Cafe and had 3 different kinds of curry and some Naan. It was excellent!

Then we walked back through Mermaid Lagoon and into the Mysterious Island:

You have to walk through a hole in the side of the Volcano to get back to Mediterranean Harbor. I love this shot:

Back to the Harbor:

We put the kids down for a nap and it was my turn to go out and about a bit in the park. Took this great shot from the bridge with all the little structures on it. This area is called "Castle Explorations". It's a really neat Leonardo DaVinci style castle and a couple of ships. You can run all around and explore and there are rooms with neat little interactive things like remote control ships to sail or planets to move around. So cool....

Then there was a show called "The Legend of Mythica". Not sure what it was about but there were Egg Boats, jet skiis, fireworks, stunt kite flying, and Mickey so what more do you want?

Mickey high up in the center of his boat getting pushed even higher by a jet of water:

I took some time to just stroll around "Italy". There were all these little nooks, side streets and Dead-Ends. They gave the area tons of depth and really made it feel authentic:

Am I in Italy or Tokyo?

Hmmm, where does this lead?

Even in the back alley ways there are little nooks with benches, beautiful gardens, and flowers:

Meanwhile back at the ranch:

When the kids woke up we watched the Fairies show again, but this time from up close down in the Harbor:

Some of the performers, giving it their all:

Sasha and I then split off again and went to a great Broadway tribute performance show called "Big Band Beat" (it was excellent) while the boys went for a few more rides on 20,000 leagues under the sea. We met up for dinner at the Sailing Day Buffet Restaurant in New York Harbor. The restaurant looks like a wharf warehouse and the theming was excellent. The food was just OK.

They did have lots of Mickey shaped things so the kids loved it:

After dinner Teddy wanted to do Tower of Terror again. Here's a shot of the lobby of the hotel from the queue line:

This was our ride picture. We HAD to buy it. Check them both out, they're sooo brave and hard core in line, but the picture tells a different story:

Tokyo Tower of Terror at night is Awesome! Each time an elevator drops there is a bolt of green lightning that starts at the top of the tower and then shoots across the face of the building to the elevator that is about to plummet. Then the screaming begins!

We decided to take a break from touring and go swim that night. We had the pool all to ourselves! The pool area had a long lap pool with a round hot tub to one side and a round kid pool to the other. We all loved it!

I am such a fan of well-done indoor pools:

This was the women-only soaking spa in the ladies area of the pool complex. It was empty so I took a picture. The Japanese are really into public baths. Everyone showers first so it's very clean

Later that night I got to go out into the park at 9pm while Jeff put the kids to bed. (He got to do this the first night). I had one hour before the park closed so I decided to see if I could ride all the height restricted headliners twice each. Ted is too short for these rides so it's harder to work them into our touring plans. I did Journey to the Center of the Earth twice first. The queue lines for this ride are EPIC! I was racing through them but I can only imagine how long the lines must be on a peak day.

It felt like I jogged about a mile before I hit the elevators that take you down to the ride vehicles:

Next I did raging spirits twice, and then moved over to Indiana Jones. Again, the queue line for this ride is fantastic but LONG!! You just walk forever to reach the jeeps and that's once you enter the temple! There is about a 1/2 mile of roped off line potential that I bypassed before you even get inside! Just can't imagine waiting that long for a ride. Here's a shot of an incredible statue inside the temple:

Mayan Murals I jogged past in the queue area:

There is a hole in the side of the temple where the "Sun" shines in and hits this mirror. Even at 9:30 PM!

After that I went into a shop and bought something and then ran around to Aquatopia. Got on at 9:58 and was the last rider of the day. That means I was the first AND last rider on a Disney attraction that day. Hoooah! Also I did 7 attractions and bought a necklace in one hour. That's 7.5 minutes per attraction including the sprint to the next one. It was not possible without running but I did it anyway because I AM A DISNEY COMMANDO!

After that the park was closed so I walked slowly to the hotel just absorbing all the scenery and the music. Love this statue of the Mouse that they have in Cape Cod. Total copy of the "Man at the Wheel" statue that sits in Gloucester, MA. Love that kind of attention to detail...

Final shot of the day (Anyone still with me? Bueller? Crispi?) of the ship all lit up. It was a long one and after touring and eating and shows and swimming and my evening power hour I was pooped, but sooooo happy!

Tokyo Disney Day 2 - Disneyland!

 On Tuesday we headed out of the hotel to take the monorail over to Tokyo Disneyland. We left at about 8am and there were already lots of people lined up outside of the Disney Sea park which didn't open until 10am!

Sasha and Teddy brought their personalized ears that they made at the Magic Kingdom last year. They don't sell these ears in Tokyo so their hats got a lot of attention!

 We participated in a rather scary stampede to the main attractions, got a Pooh fastpass, and then rode "Pooh's Honey Hunt" - the most popular ride at TDL! Then we headed to Dumbo, where else? They were nice enough to give Jeff this instruction sheet in English about how to ride Dumbo. Cast members can always spot the ones that need extra help......

 Cycle rides: gotta get to 'em early am I right? Dumbo is one we just can't pass up. It makes to me so sad to think of how few years I have left to ride Dumbo with these 2. Before I am ready they'll be pulling the "Aww Mom, that ride's for babies, lets go straight to the Haunted Mansion Dude!". Then I'll have to wait for grand kids to ride Dumbo. Or I can take Timmy's kids - SWEET!

 Next we did Peter Pan, then the Haunted Mansion. Sasha LOVED the mansion last year at WDW. She went on the ride about 7 times. This year she was terrified. Go figure. Then we did the Carousel, The Snow White Ride and a Pinocchio Ride.

 Next we used our Fastpasses to ride Pooh again. Good thing because the standby line was 90 minutes! The fastpasses for this ride were GONE by noon - that's how popular the ride is. Why? The ride is unique to Tokyo first of all, it's not a copy of the US versions. The theming is AMAZING - you have to walk through the pages of the storybook to get to the ride vehicle:

 The ride is also track-less. You ride in a big Hunny Pot and the ride vehicles are controlled by magnets in the floor. This makes them go all over and it's really cool. Sometimes you pass the pot ahead of you and sometimes take a completely different route through the ride. I wish we had this version of the ride in the US.

 We ate at the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall in Fantasyland. This has the best theming of any counter service restaurant I have been to in a Disney park. All Alice in Wonderland. Pretty darn great!

 We grabbed fastpasses for Space Mountain, and then headed back to the Miracosta for a mid day rest. Here's a shot of one of the other Resort Hotels, The Disneyland Hotel. Looks pretty swanky:

 Here is a shot of Team Stolasz about to go on Space Mountain for the first time! (it was closed for refurbishment when we were at WDW last year) Teddy looks terrified but he is just lobbying for "no pictures let's DO THIS!" so he was pretty psyched. No one was disappointed. Space Mountain was my favorite ride when I was 5 and it's still pretty great!

 After Space we rode Star Tours and ate Dinner at the Eastside Cafe which turned out to be a really nice table service restaurant. Then we staked out a parade spot and the kids and I nabbed some honey popcorn and rode "Small World" while Dad saved our spot for us. That ride triggers Jeff's gag reflex so it was a good arrangement for everyone. Here's my 2 fantastic kiddos in front of the castle:

 Another night shot:

 The Japanese sit for parades. This is fantastic as you don't need to stake out a spot as far in advance as you do at the US parks. Also even many rows back you get a great view of the parade. It's nice to sit and take a break for 20 minutes instead of standing on your tip-toes with a kid on your shoulders!

 "Dreamlights" was a total blind-side. When I was 5 my parents gave me to strangers so the strangers could take me to Disney as a buddy for their only-child. GEEZ Mom, I can hear you from here.... OK, OK they weren't exactly strangers - I had met them like once the week before at a dinner party and I guess they took a shine to me and then wanted me for a week. So my parents handed me over and off I went with the strangers. Now they turned out to be very, very nice strangers and not traffikers or anything so the story has a happy ending. One of my favorite things I saw on that first trip was the Main Street Electrical Parade. I loved it so much that the strangers bought me a record of the soundtrack. The record was the coolest thing ever because it was covered in designs and colors all the way to it's edges and it still played. I loved it. And I listened to it a TON so I knew the music pretty darn well. (Mom do we still have this anywhere? It's probably worth about a thousand bucks now...). So when the music for "Dreamlights" started it was like a magical blast from the past. The music is the same, the first part of the parade is the same. I mean there was a "Pete's Dragon" float! Seriously! It was wonderful and literally made tears come to my eyes. (Ok, I usually tear up at Disney parades and fireworks anyway, sucker that I am, but this one was really special).  I have some video of the parade as well:

Dreamlights!

 Steam boat:

 After the parade we hit Toontown. We decided against doing this at lunch time after Jeff's report and I am so glad we waited until night. The kids both had great naps so we were all feeling fresh. We did Rodger Rabbit's ride, The Go-Coaster, and explored all around Toontown. Everything was a walk on and we almost had the place to ourselves!

All together now! 1, 2, 3, Pull!

 Exploring Chip and Dale's treehouse:

 We rode the astro-orbiter on the way back to the entrance and then headed back to the hotel at around 9:30. Back at the hotel I took some pictures of the great details in our room. One of the things that I love about the Disney hotels is that they don't rub your face in primary colors and kiddy decor. If you looked at a room at the Miracosta you would think it was just a really nice, fabulously decorated hotel room. It's only when you look closely that you notice the Disney details. Hidden Mickey's in the wallpaper:

 Frosted glass on the door to the shower room showing Cleo in a fishbowl:

 The wallpaper has all the Pinocchio characters. Click on this one and you can see Cleo again, Jiminey Cricket, and Guipetto:

It was a crowded but wonderful day, but the longest we waited for any attraction was 25 minutes so we felt like TDL champs!