My first day of a five at the resort.
Staying the Hilton, nice as ever, with a beautiful ocean view. While it was raining last night as I took the Airport Limousine Bus from Narita to the Hilton, it is a beautiful sunny 75 degrees today. With all the air conditioning at a minimum in the shops in the parks, it's pretty hot when shopping.
While DisneySEA was originally supposed to open at 9am (and Tokyo Disneyland at 8:30 am, which told me they were expecting large crowds), DisneySEA also opened at 8:30 am--I was online at the park gate at 7:30 am and not too far from the front.
When the gates go up, Toy Story Mania sucks the entire crowd toward the left--you can walk leisurely to any other ride and walk right on. TSM had a 210 minute wait time within an hour of park opening and all FastPasses were gone. I took advantage of everybody running to the left and went to the right, to Journey to the Center of the Earth, which was down, but they were allowing us to get FastPasses. Got one, then hit 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I was the ONLY person on the ride. Very strange.
Then, after checking that Journey was still down, walked over to Tower of Terror and got a second FastPass after lingering for a few minutes in the Toy Story Mania area, which is stunning. Watched the Mr. Potato Head show (very clever to make this separate from the queue for the attraction), but since it was all in Japanese it made little sense to me. The audience seemed to love it, but I'll take Don Rickles in English. Went to the shop where they make the custom Japanese Halloween charms and placed a rather large order.
Got my TOT FastPass and took the DisneySEA Electric Railway to Port Discovery and waited an oddly long 25 minutes for Aquatopia. Rode on the right side. Usually ride on the left side, so it made for a nice change.
Walked back to Mysterious Island, where Journey was still down. Hit the Nautilus Galley for an early lunch of heavenly gyoza. Came out of the Nautilus Galley and Journey was now running, so did that. WHAT a great ride! (Was at Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando about two weeks ago and did both the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride and Spiderman. Harry Potter left me cold. Spiderman still rocks. But neither compare to Journey to the Center of the Earth.)
Went to Arabian Coast and hit the shops, then walked through and went on Sindbad. I love this attraction--what a piece of workmanship on the part of WDI, yet it had only a 5 minute wait.
Came out and waited 15 minutes in line for Jasmine's Flying Carpets. Walked over to the Magic Lamp Theater and got a FastPass for that. Walked back through Arabian Coast and then to Lost River Delta and got a FastPass for Indy, then did Indy with Single Rider. I should note that Indy is now the only ride in DisneySEA with Single Rider--they no longer offer it at the Tower of Terror.
You may be wondering how I was able to acquire so many FastPasses in only three hours. The reason is that the return times were very close to when I obtained each pass, and so was able to obtain yet another pass in only 30 to 40 minutes. Haven't encountered exactly this circumstance before, but I attribute it to Toy Story Mania sucking up a huge amount of the people in the park for the first two hours.
By 1 pm my tootsies were crying, so back to the Hilton to put the old feet up for a few hours and type this. Despite what I was expecting, DisneySEA was not very crowded today. Taking the Resort Line (monorail) back to the Hilton, I took at look at Tokyo Disneyland's parking lots and could clearly see that it wasn't a very busy day because all the rear parking lots were empty (as opposed to last night when I arrived--Sunday--when they were packed).
So, that's the first half of my day. The Halloween merchandise I've seen so far isn't nearly as interesting as it has been in the past--but I haven't been to Bon Voyage or Tokyo Disneyland yet, and that comes tomorrow.
Staying the Hilton, nice as ever, with a beautiful ocean view. While it was raining last night as I took the Airport Limousine Bus from Narita to the Hilton, it is a beautiful sunny 75 degrees today. With all the air conditioning at a minimum in the shops in the parks, it's pretty hot when shopping.
While DisneySEA was originally supposed to open at 9am (and Tokyo Disneyland at 8:30 am, which told me they were expecting large crowds), DisneySEA also opened at 8:30 am--I was online at the park gate at 7:30 am and not too far from the front.
When the gates go up, Toy Story Mania sucks the entire crowd toward the left--you can walk leisurely to any other ride and walk right on. TSM had a 210 minute wait time within an hour of park opening and all FastPasses were gone. I took advantage of everybody running to the left and went to the right, to Journey to the Center of the Earth, which was down, but they were allowing us to get FastPasses. Got one, then hit 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. I was the ONLY person on the ride. Very strange.
Then, after checking that Journey was still down, walked over to Tower of Terror and got a second FastPass after lingering for a few minutes in the Toy Story Mania area, which is stunning. Watched the Mr. Potato Head show (very clever to make this separate from the queue for the attraction), but since it was all in Japanese it made little sense to me. The audience seemed to love it, but I'll take Don Rickles in English. Went to the shop where they make the custom Japanese Halloween charms and placed a rather large order.
Got my TOT FastPass and took the DisneySEA Electric Railway to Port Discovery and waited an oddly long 25 minutes for Aquatopia. Rode on the right side. Usually ride on the left side, so it made for a nice change.
Walked back to Mysterious Island, where Journey was still down. Hit the Nautilus Galley for an early lunch of heavenly gyoza. Came out of the Nautilus Galley and Journey was now running, so did that. WHAT a great ride! (Was at Universal Islands of Adventure in Orlando about two weeks ago and did both the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride and Spiderman. Harry Potter left me cold. Spiderman still rocks. But neither compare to Journey to the Center of the Earth.)
Went to Arabian Coast and hit the shops, then walked through and went on Sindbad. I love this attraction--what a piece of workmanship on the part of WDI, yet it had only a 5 minute wait.
Came out and waited 15 minutes in line for Jasmine's Flying Carpets. Walked over to the Magic Lamp Theater and got a FastPass for that. Walked back through Arabian Coast and then to Lost River Delta and got a FastPass for Indy, then did Indy with Single Rider. I should note that Indy is now the only ride in DisneySEA with Single Rider--they no longer offer it at the Tower of Terror.
You may be wondering how I was able to acquire so many FastPasses in only three hours. The reason is that the return times were very close to when I obtained each pass, and so was able to obtain yet another pass in only 30 to 40 minutes. Haven't encountered exactly this circumstance before, but I attribute it to Toy Story Mania sucking up a huge amount of the people in the park for the first two hours.
By 1 pm my tootsies were crying, so back to the Hilton to put the old feet up for a few hours and type this. Despite what I was expecting, DisneySEA was not very crowded today. Taking the Resort Line (monorail) back to the Hilton, I took at look at Tokyo Disneyland's parking lots and could clearly see that it wasn't a very busy day because all the rear parking lots were empty (as opposed to last night when I arrived--Sunday--when they were packed).
So, that's the first half of my day. The Halloween merchandise I've seen so far isn't nearly as interesting as it has been in the past--but I haven't been to Bon Voyage or Tokyo Disneyland yet, and that comes tomorrow.
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