PHOTO REPORT: Tokyo Disney Trip Report (Splitting My Day Between Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea) Pt. 5

Alicia

BREAKING: Tokyo Disney Resort to Spend $2.7 Billion on Further Expansion by 2025

PHOTO REPORT: Tokyo Disney Trip Report (Splitting My Day Between Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea) Pt. 5

When we were planning our nearly three-week trip to Japan, we had scheduled one full day in Tokyo Disneyland, and that was it. Towards the end of the trip, after traveling all around Osaka and Tokyo’s major cities I snuck away and decided to visit Tokyo Disney again.

Tokyo Disneyland

Since we already covered the majority of the park in my last article, this time we’ll go over everything that I missed the first time I went. I have to admit that I was hesitant about visiting the park by myself, I had never gone to any theme park by myself before. I actually found the experience to be relaxing, because I could go at my own pace and re-ride all of my favorites. It also gave me a chance to walk around with my camera and take pictures of the park.

Tokyo Disneyland Partners Statue daytime
Tokyo Disneyland Partners Statue

I started my park adventure with rope drop and headed for Adventureland. After a morning ride on Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise: Wildlife Expeditions, I hopped onto the Western River Railroad. I love riding the train in Florida, and since I won’t be riding it any time soon (thanks, Tron) this will have to do for a while. Like any train, you get excellent views of the park and it was such a relaxing experience. It really is a must do, in my opinion.

Views of the Mark Twain and Big Thunder Mountain
Views of the Mark Twain and Big Thunder Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain Tokyo Disneyland
Big Thunder Mountain Tokyo Disneyland

Located next to the Western River Railroad is The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents “Aloha E Komo Mai!”  I entered the queue area and sat on one of the benches outside of the theatre, and a few minutes later a cast member came over to me with an odd smartphone looking device. She explained to me that the whole show was in Japanese, and this was a translator, so I could read the words on the screen and know what was going on in the show. While this seemed like a great idea, it wasn’t entirely practical. I found myself during the show looking up more to see all of the tiki room birds and Stitch, more than looking down at the device. Neat idea, though. The show itself was cute though, and Stitch actually fit into it nicely.

Enchanted Tiki Room Tokyo Disneyland
Outside facade for The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents “Aloha E Komo Mai!”
Enchanted Tiki Room Tokyo Disneyland 2
Entrance sign for The Enchanted Tiki Room: Stitch Presents “Aloha E Komo Mai!”

Next came Critter County, an area we completely skipped the first time. This is where you can find Splash Mountain and the Beaver Brothers Explorer Canoes. The wait for Splash Mountain was a posted seventy minutes and it felt like I waited every single one of those minutes. The ride was similar to Florida’s, though theirs felt nicer- all of the lighting was working, the animatronics looked and worked great and everything felt fresh. Tokyo Disneyland as a whole felt this way- nothing was broken or dirty or looked like it needed a refurbishment. The Oriental Land Company, who actually owns this park, does a great job and I wish Disney would take their attention to upkeep and detail and bring this stateside. (Maybe then we wouldn’t have monorail issues!)

Tomorrowland Terrace Food Review

Tomorrowland Terrace in Tokyo Disneyland
Tomorrowland Terrace in Tokyo Disneyland

For lunch I didn’t want to spend a lot of time eating, especially because I was by myself, so I popped into the Tomorrowland Terrace. The menu here isn’t incredibly extensive, so I ended up getting the Cheese & Beef Patty Mickey Bread Sandwich set for 980 yen ($9.00 USD.)  A “set” includes French Fries and a small beverage. For comparison, the 1/3 lb Angus Cheeseburger at the Florida Tomorrowland Terrace in the Magic Kingdom is $11.49, and that doesn’t include a drink.

Tomorrowland Terrace Tokyo Disneyland menu
Menu at Tomorrowland Terrace in Tokyo Disneyland

The food wasn’t great. The burger was cold and rather flavorless, and I felt like the fries were extra salty. However, the bun was Mickey shaped and I thought that was cute. Were there better options in the park? Absolutely. But, this was quick, cheap and did the job.

Tomorrowland Terrace food Tokyo Disneyland
Cheese & Beef Patty Set at the Tomorrowland Terrace in Tokyo Disneyland
Tomorrowland Terrace food Tokyo Disneyland
Cheese & Beef Patty Set at the Tomorrowland Terrace in Tokyo Disneyland

Dreaming Up!

Shortly after lunch the Dreaming Up! parade was starting. Parades at Tokyo Disneyland are a big deal- people will camp out very early for good spots. I happened to be in front of the Crystal Palace when this was starting and managed to get a spot by a flower garden. This turned out to be great because I managed to get parade photos with the castle in them. The show itself is cute, I loved seeing different characters get their own floats and attention- like Winnie the Pooh, Big Hero 6 and Pinnochio. You can check out our video of the debut of the parade back in April of 2018 here. 

Dreaming Up! Parade
Mickey and Pluto in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 2
The Mad Hatter in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 3
Pinocchio in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 4
Minnie Mouse in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 4
Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Snow White in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 5
Chip and Dale in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 6
Belle in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 7
Winnie the Pooh and Piglet in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 8
Tigger in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 9
Donald and Daisy in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 10
Hiro (Big Hero 6) in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 11
Mary Poppins in the Dreaming Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 12
Peter Pan and Wendy flying in the Dream Up! Parade
Dreaming Up! Parade 13
Peter Pan and Wendy in the Dream Up! Parade

The Tokyo Disney Monorail

Tokyo Disneyland Monorail Station
Tokyo Disneyland Monorail Station

Around 5:00 PM I said goodbye to the castle and Tokyo Disneyland, and hopped onto the Tokyo Disney monorail. These monorails require a ticket you must purchase to ride, or you can use your Suica or Pasmo metro card. The inside of the monorail looks similar to a subway car you would find in Tokyo, but they are super clean and play Disney music, so that’s a plus.

Tokyo DisneySea

volcano at tokyo disney sea by weezalgurl

Both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea offer a type of ticket called the “After 6 Passport.” This ticket allows you to enter the park after 6:00 PM on weekdays, and it sells for 4,200 yen ($38.56 USD.) For comparison, a full day ticket is 7,400 yen ($67.94 USD.) After you purchase the ticket, the cast members organize a separate line outside of bag check, where you wait until it hits 6:00 PM. I recommend getting there early because these lines can get rather long.

Tokyo DisneySea, like everyone says, is beautiful. It’s unique, it’s so pretty, and there’s water everywhere! It was also really refreshing to actually need a park map. While I picked one up at Tokyo Disneyland, if you’re familiar with a castle park, you can get around Tokyo Disneyland just fine. However, I was lost once inside DisneySea.

Knowing that it was later in the evening, I knew I wasn’t going to be able to ride much. If you plan to ride all of the rides and see everything, you’ll need a full day or two at this park. I was content to just walk around the park, ride what I can and take lots of pictures.

My first stop was Port Discovery, which holds the Aquatopia attraction, the DisneySea Electric Railway, and the Nemo & Friends SeaRider. I didn’t know what to expect with any of these rides as I purposefully didn’t do any research, I just wanted to be surprised. So, I saw the Marine Life Institue from Finding Dory and I was curious. This ride is like Star Tours, instead with a Finding Nemo theme. You ride in the EAC with Crush and Squirt, join in on the Stingray migration from Finding Dory, and see all of your favorite undersea friends. It was fun, but not worth the forty-minute wait.

Marine Life Institute Tokyo DisneySea
Marine Life Institute at Tokyo DisneySea

Next was the Lost River Delta. This is where you’ll find Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, DisneySea Transit Streamer Line and Raging Spirits. This area might be my favorite of the whole park. The adventure/temple theme was everywhere you looked, and well done. With Dinosaur being one of my favorite rides ever, I knew that I had to ride Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull. I joined the standby line, but just a few feet inside the entrance is a sign with a gate leading to the FastPass line. This gate is meant for single riders. Instead of giving a cast member your FastPass ticket at the end of the line, they’ll guide you to a different stairwell to wait in until you’re needed to fill in a ride vehicle. This cut my wait from ninety minutes down to fifteen and I highly recommend it. Especially because you’re probably going to want to ride this ride over and over again. It’s honestly one of my favorite rides I’ve been on in my entire life. While Dinosaur is amazing, this takes the movements from Dinosaur and dials it up to eleven. This ride will whip you back and forth, multiple times I felt like I was going to fly out (in a good way) and it even went backward!

Have you ever wanted to visit Agrabah? Once leaving the Lost River Delta area, that’s exactly where you’ll end up. With the name technically being the Arabian Coast, everything is Aladdin themed. Here you can ride the Caravan Carousel, Jasmine’s Flying Carpets, Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage and visit The Magic Lamp Theatre. While I didn’t ride anything in this area, I loved walking around.

Arabian Coast in Tokyo DisneySea
Arabian Coast in Tokyo DisneySea

Keeping with the princess theme, the next section of the park is the other area tied for my favorite: Mermaid Lagoon. While this is technically an area for children, I loved every second of it. The Little Mermaid was one of my favorite movies growing up, and it felt like a dream come true to actually walk inside the castle. You truly feel like you’re a part of the environment from the movie, and I found myself wandering around, looking at all of the details. There are also rides here, like Jumpin’ Jellyfish, Scuttle’s Scooters, Flounder’s Flying Fish Coaster, the Blowfish Balloon Race, and The Whirlpool. There is also Ariel’s Playground, caverns to play in filled with Ariel’s treasures and the Mermaid Lagoon Theatre. While I love the Under The Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid in the Magic Kingdom in Florida, I really wish they could re-theme that area to look like this and then stick the ride inside.

Mermaid Lagoon in Tokyo DisneySea
Mermaid Lagoon in Tokyo DisneySea

Mysterious Island is the last part of Tokyo DisneySea that I visited, and this is probably the most popular due to rides in this area being 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth. I really, really wanted to ride Journey to the Center of the Earth, but the wait time was 110 minutes and since the park was closing soon, I decided to skip out. Instead, I rode 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which was a walk on. This ride is unique, the vehicle hangs from the ceiling like Peter Pan but the portholes use technology to make it look like you’re underwater. We actually have a POV ride video up on our YouTube channel that I highly recommend checking out.

Final Thoughts

I wish that I had more time to check out all of the unique rides that DisneySea offers, and this park really deserves a full day or two to fully enjoy. But, if you don’t have the time for that, the After 6 Passport is a great option.

I’ll be writing a full recap in my next (and final) segment in this series, so, for now, I’ll leave us with a ‘see ya real soon!

5 thoughts on “PHOTO REPORT: Tokyo Disney Trip Report (Splitting My Day Between Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea) Pt. 5”

  1. Hi Alicia! Thank you for the review. I am heading to Tokyo in September and want to visit one of the parks. I am a Disney world veteran so wanted to know which park is better to visit.

    In addition what attractions are a must, esp to avoid the queues?

    Any tips would be most helpful. Thanks

    • If you have only one day at the Tokyo Disney Parks, you should visit Tokyo DisneySea. Tokyo Disneyland has mostly rides that are duplicates of rides at other Disney Parks around the world, although Pooh’s Hunny Hunt and Monster’s Inc. Ride and Go Seek are two rides you can only ride at Tokyo Disneyland. Whereas Tokyo DisneySea had mostly rides you can’t ride anywhere else, like Journey to the Center of the Earth, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage, etc. And the theming and atmosphere of Tokyo DisneySea is just amazing, especially the volcano that’s the centerpiece of the park. Look up Disney Park rankings and DisneySea is consistently #1. Have a great time!

  2. thank you for your trip reports. I noticed there didn’t seem to be any children or strollers in your videos or pics any reasons why ? just curious looking forward to your recap of your journey. wish wdw pricing was that low

    • Yes, I agree. Both times we’ve gone, we went straight to Journey to get a Fast Pass, then rode 20,000 Leagues, then Sinbad. By the time we were done with those, it was almost time to use our Fast Pass on Journey.

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