Gakusei Travels

ディズニーの日

We finally went to Disney! 

My journey in Japan is starting to wrap up but I can’t leave without of course visiting Tokyo Disney. I went with Sam along with Sienna and her mom. 

Tokyo Disney has two parks. Disneyland and Disney Sea. I’m not too sure what the difference is other than the fact there are some different rides. Everyone says that Tokyo Sea is better, but I didn’t really care to be honest which we went to. I just said let’s go to Disneyland so I can say I’ve been to 3 different Disneylands: Tokyo Disney, Disneyland in California, and Disneyworld in Florida. 

The night before we spent the night at Sienna’s because early Saturday we got up (around 5 am) to get ready. Sienna and I actually decided to Disney bound with our outfits. She dressed as Minnie Mouse and me as Ariel. Around 7 we left for Disney. Shoushawana drove instead of us taking the train. That way we could park and stay all day and not worry about missing the last train. Driving on the highway was lowkey fun lol. It’s backwards compared to America so it was just…different. However there’s a lot of tolls on the highway which makes driving kinda pricey. One toll was like 1950￥ or $12! It’s like driving to Chicago. The highway exits in Tokyo are also kinda confusing with like 3 different exits in one way. It took us about an hour to get there and we thankfully didn’t get lost or rerouted. 

We got there around 8:30. Even though the park didn’t open until 9, there were already so many people there. I had heard on TikTok that you need to arrive SUPER early because the lines will get so long, but in all honesty, the lines moved fairly quickly. Once the park opened it took maybe at most 10 minutes for us to get in, so you truly don’t need to worry about getting there several hours before the park even opens. And we went on Saturday too so it was way more crowded. 

When we first entered the park we walked through World Bazaar, which is kind of like Main Street in Disney World Florida. It’s a long street with many shops that leads all the way to Cinderella’s castle. I took so many pictures and wanted to take so much more, but everyone wanted to hurry up and ride the roller coasters.

We first went towards Westernland that’s Wild West themed. It’s kinda cute but depending on the area you’re in, the staff have different outfits. So in this area they were dressed like cowboys. Our first ride was Big Thunder Mountain. The wait was about 80 minutes, but it honestly moved fairly quickly. Come to find out as we’re waiting in line, Sam is afraid of roller coasters…she screamed the entire time while the rest of us were just laughing. In my opinion, the ride wasn’t even that fast nor were the drops that big. It’s Disney after all. It has to be kid friendly. But needless to say she was done after that. 

Afterwards we grabbed a quick bite to eat at the giant turkey leg stand so we could get to the next ride quickly. While we ate, a little parade went by. It was called Baymax’s Mission: Cooldown. So this little float of Baymax passed through where we were, playing music and spraying water. It was so cute. I didn’t realize that in Japan, Baymax was such a popular character. 

The next ride me, Sienna, and Shoushawna went on was Splash Mountain. I don’t remember too much of Splash Mountain in Orlando, but here in Tokyo, you go down what looks like a mine. They had these old Disney character animatronics from Song of the South with this bear, crocodile, fox and what not. It’s an old old old Disney show from the 1940s and honestly kinda problematic…

Sienna and I got lucky and got to ride front and center in the first row. The ride honestly was mostly like a boat ride where you see the singing animatronics with a couple drops in between. It was honestly so surprising because it went dark for a split second and you couldn’t even see where you were falling. The last drop was the largest where it caused that big splash everyone knows about. 

Because Sienna and I were in the front, we got just a face full of water. It was like water gun to the face, and my eyes were open. Shoushawna didn’t get that went and I’m like yeah cause we took most of the blow lol. My biggest mistake was wearing eyeliner today. After that ride I looked like a raccoon. Honestly though, it was so hot and humid that day that my shirt dried fairly quickly. 

We then rode a few smaller rides like Haunted Mansion and Its A Small World. They were honestly kinda boring to me just cause they were like boat rides instead of actual rollercoasters. So you just sit and went around the attractions. The animatronics and decorations were cool, but coming from a a fast paced ride like Splash Mountain to the slower rides was like a drop in adrenaline. 

Fantasyland leads to Tomorrow Land which is where we got lunch. I had to order for everyone since I’m the only one that speaks Japanese. Well, Sam does too but was content letting me speak on behalf of the group. Imma be honest, the cheeseburger we got was pretty bad (T_T) Shoushawna said it tasted like meatloaf and that was not a bad comparison. The cheese also had a weird texture. Like it didn’t melt all the way so I could just easily peel it off. Honestly do not recommend. Tokyo Disney did not have many snack options. In America, you could get cotton candy, Mickey shaped elephant ears, and all sorts of ice cream. Here, we just got popcorn and that was it. We know next time to pack our own snacks.

Next we rode the famous Beauty and the Beast ride that everyone talks about on social media. Due to its popularity, we waited for over an hour to board the ride. But I personally think it was worth it. The ride was beautiful and the animatronics were so cartoonishly lifelike. They had so much expression to only be robots. What I actually didn’t expect for the ride to be similar to a spinning tea cup. We were in this large boat shaped like a cup that would spin around, almost as if it were dancing with the characters. It was funny though. All the rides are in Japanese so we’re just singing along in English cause we don’t know the Japanese lyrics lol. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon going on some of the smaller rides, such as Jungle Cruise, Star Tours, Stitch Encounter, and the Western River Railroad. It actually rained a little bit, but no heavy rain thankfully. Sadly, a few of the rides weren’t operational that day. I really wanted to ride the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction but it was closed. We continued back to Tomorrowland, through World Bazaar to buy some souvenirs, and back to Adventureland which we accidentally skipped over when we first arrived. I didn’t spend as much money as I thought I would on souvenirs. I mean, it was a lot lol but it was less than I budgeted for. 

I knew I wanted ears and I ended up getting one based on the little mermaid and one with Stitch. I also wanted a Tokyo Disney T-shirt which I found two that I liked. I got a keychain of my Ariel ears along with some Tokyo Disney keychains shaped like dango. I also got a Winnie the Pooh popcorn bucket and a Simba stuffed animal. Lion King is actually my favorite Disney movie and the animal was too soft to not get. lol I figured also since I’m leaving soon and I don’t know when’s the next time I’ll come to Tokyo Disney it’s best to just get what you want now. 

The last thing we ended up doing was riding Space Mountain. That ride was honestly my favorite. There were warnings ahead of time that it was a high speed roller coaster with lots of stops and jerks. But it was so much fun. The catch though was that it was a ride completely in the dark. No lights except for the occasional flashes for dramatics and effects. So you’re at the top of what I think was a spiral tower, you can’t see anything, but you can hear the other roller coaster cars roaring underneath you and people screaming. Definitely would have loved to ride it again but unfortunately the wait was massive all day. 

What we found out and I’m passing this advice on now, for most of the attractions you can get something called a Priority Pass. On the Disney app you select your party’s or your ticket and you pick what attraction you basically want to cut the line for. The only catch is that you have to schedule a specific time to go. We ended up doing that for Space Mountain but we couldn’t go until 8 PM. So we spent the whole day doing other stuff and saved that for last.  But the original wait for Space Mountain was 100 minutes. We got in with our pass and on the ride in 15 minutes. I HIGHLY recommend utilizing this feature. We should’ve used it more than we did. You can use this feature at both Land and Sea fyi. 

The other catch is, after you book a Priority Pass you have to wait like two hours before you can book another. You can’t book the rides back to back. So really pick the one you want to do the most first. For your Disney trip, if you’re going with friends or family you can create a group on the app when everyone signs in and scans their ticket. That way you can apply the pass to everyone in the group, because they do sell out. 

The other thing you can do is buy a Premier Access Pass. The Premier Access passes at Disneyland were for Splash Mountain, the Baymax Ride and the Beauty and the Beast Ride, with the last one being the most expensive at 2000¥ per ticket. It’s just something to think about and plan ahead so you aren’t spending your whole day waiting in lines. 

As I’ve said, I’ve been to both parks in America and now Tokyo. I think there’s two big differences between America and Japan. I think the American Disneys have more actual roller coasters than rides. Japan though has better animatronics and their rides are still enjoyable because of how lifelike the characters are. 

The second difference is character meet and greets. I think in America, the big deal was getting all the character’ signatures. You can meet the princesses, the villains, Mickey Mouse and friends, etc. In Japan, it’s not really the case. The only meet and greets that I saw in the app were Donald, Daisy and Mickey. Throughout the day though sometimes we randomly saw some characters interacting with guests like Stitch, Gaston, and Alice. 

I also think what characters are popular are different in Japan. In America, there’s more focus on the princesses. In Japan, the characters with the most merchandise were Winnie the Pooh, Baymax especially, Stitch, and Toy Story. I also saw quite a bit of stuff for Dumbo and Peter Pan. A lot of the older Disney movies I noticed. 

Nonetheless, the day was so much fun. We closed out our day by watching the last parade in front of the illuminated Cinderella’s castle. I was beyond exhausted afterwards and immediately crashed upon returning home. We opened and closed the park from 9:00-21:00 after all.  

I’m really sad to be going home soon, but I truly hope that I can come to Japan again and next time, visit Tokyo Disney Sea.