Disney Adventures, Part II

After our not so exciting experience on Saturday, we were a little hesitant for our Sunday trip to Tokyo Disney Sea. Still we were excited for the possibility of experiencing something new and we prepared ourselves for the crowds and the lines. We were, however, looking forward to the popcorn flavors that awaited us. We set our alarm for early so we could get a head start on the crowd... but as Murphy is our constant companion, we were of course delayed. Because Sunday night would be our last night in the Shinagawa Prince Crown Hotel, we needed to arrange for the majority of our baggage to be shipped... so we spent the first part of our morning packing up. In the end, we ended up getting to Tokyo Disney Sea at the same time as the previous day... For those that know me (Fawn) this is my lot in life...

To get to the entrance of Tokyo Sea Disney, we had to board (and pay for) the Disney Park Tram. The tram is a subway look alike, all the way from it's floor heaters and handles for standing passengers, with a unique Disney twist (of course). Everything was in the shape of Mickey! (Surprised?) We quickly settled into our seats with the anticipation growing... shortly after we boarded two youngish Japanese girls (12-13 years) sat down next to us. One of them was very inquisitive. She began the trip by just eying us, and before long she was visibly leaning over and staring at our faces, our clothing, our feet, and the Disney garb we were already wearing. Finally near the end of our very short trip, she and her friend asked Ed if we were Americans (apparently we were very obvious!). He said that during the examination period she had been exclaiming over our blue eyes with her friend. They then told him that he was very nice and they liked our blue eyes. At that moment we arrived and as we got off the train with our new friends waving goodbye to us enthusiastically.

DisneySea was more than we could have ever imagined! Right off we knew we were entering something new. Overall the park was amazingly well-themed and conceived. We had such a good time! The park even included two of our favorite rides from Anaheim Disneyland, but with their very own Japan flavor... and now we like them even better than the US version!

The day starts out at the DisneySea AquaSphere which is a beautiful art piece with all of the favorite Disney characters pouring water into a fountain in the middle of which spins a globe. We then traveled on through the Mediterranean Harbor where all of the big shops are located... From there we headed to the American Waterfront. Here we found a ridiculously long line for a show called Big Band Beat... up until this point we were wondering where all the people were. Even with this lengthy line, there just seemed to be a lot less people in DisneySea. The American Waterfront introduced us to Strawberry Popcorn (imagine popcorn flavored like Frankenberry cereal) and housed The Tower of Terror... one of our favorite rides in the US and even more so with the Japan version. The story behind this ride is about the hotel's owner, Harrison Hightower III, a great adventurer who took one too many artifacts. He acquires a little god statue of Shiriki Utundu who gets loose and causes him to fall to his death in the elevator of the hotel... We love the little god statue angle and they did some phenomenal special effects in the story set up where they actually make the little statue disappear in front of your eyes. We even got video of this and I still can't figure out how its done. We were fortunate enough to sneak a second trip in with this very popular ride!

Ed's favorite areas of the park were called Port Discovery and Mysterious Island... both of which had these really dark, nautical themes.

Port Discovery was cool to look at, but the only major ride was merely ok...StormRider was our least favorite. It was the only simulation ride in the park. It did have the feel of turbulence down though! And this is also where we finally broke down and tried the chocolate popcorn... even though it smelled awful the taste was heavenly! It was like Count Chocula cereal! At one point we had both the Strawberry and the Chocolate going... because Ed had to buy one of the collapsible popcorn containers. By the end of the day the variety of popcorn containers had reached a total of 26. Ed had such popcorn container envy! Other popcorn flavors offered (and passed on) included black pepper and sea salt.

Mysterious Island was hands down the coolest part of the park. Located inside a series of cave entrances, the whole area felt like it was hidden in the middle of the mountains. It had two of the coolest rides, Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. With the recent movie we didn't have very high hopes for this ride, but it was actually really cool. We waited for 60 minutes for the ride and the whole time we felt like we were in this huge underground cavern. At the end of the line we got in this really cool elevator that makes you feel like you're going even deeper below ground. Of course it's just a little mini-ride so you don't mind waiting in line again... finally you board these cool looking cars and drive at a fairly slow places into the different underground levels... as you get deeper it gets scarier and finally there's this really scary caterpillar monster and suddenly your car shoots forward into the cave and then it shoots out into the open air over this cool volcano. And then as soon as it starts... its over. Still it's a really cool ride... we went on it twice (with very little wait on the second trip).

We really didn't know what to expect with 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea... we were really afraid it would be like the submarine ride at Disneyland, but it was really neat! After another 60 minute wait, we were boarded into little individual submarine ships with three large bubble windows (person sized not porthole) and benches where only two people sit... so only six people tops per little submarine (not 25 like Disneyland)... and the rest of the ride, well lets just say the replication of ocean life was seriously cool. Even the huge squid attacking was well done. At certain parts it even had a little light you could direct to look at things. We really enjoyed this ride and rode it twice too.... Our first time only one of the seats aside from ours was filled and on the second trip it was just us (and no wait in line).

And still there's more... areas that were cool but we didn't spend much time were Mermaid Lagoon and Arabian Coast. Both were very well-themed, but catered more to the shoppers and the kiddies. Mermaid Lagoon was almost a perfect replica of the under sea world in the Little Mermaid and even had an indoor kiddie park with this really neat under the sea feel... and of course it played "Under the Sea" theme music. We really enjoyed taking pictures of this area because it was so visually stunning.

Finally, we spent a bit of time in the Lost River Delta. This was the Mexico/South American area where of course we found the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull ride. This of course was quite a popular ride so we fast passed it and in the meantime took a ride on the roller coaster that boasted of a 360 degree loop (ooooo... ahhhhh!). We waited 30 minutes in the rain for this ride and it was seriously the tamest roller coaster I've ever ridden. Our disappointment might have been more in this ride if not for the theming and the awesome effects in the front of the ride where fire burns in a large fountain. Also we met up with our friends from earlier in the day and they recognized us and greeted us with very enthusiastic smiles and waves and a shouts of "hi"! They were really very sweet and very comical with their excitement at meeting the Americans.

This actually brings up something else... where Tokyo Disneyland had been so packed with people that we kind of blended, DisneySea was empty enough that we stuck out. Especially with Ed's Stitch hat... Stitch is VERY popular here, plus this hat is so outrageous and hardly anyone has one. People pointed and laughed all day at his hat. And if it wasn't his hat getting the attention was me and my blond hair. At one point we saw a little girl point me out to her dad and the next thing I know I've become a part of some one's home video. Sheesh! We are definitely not used to all of the pointing, staring and attention... so you can understand why we so thoroughly enjoyed the pleasure our mere presence seemed to bring our two young friends. Anyway... I digress...

Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull was AWESOME!!! Sooooo much better than the movie and so much better than the Anaheim ride. There are definitely some similarities in how it's all put together, but the little additions and differences were just so well done. At one point your car reaches this idol that blows a fire ball at you... it is truly fantastic and so real looking. We got video of this too and it looks cool even on the video! We rode this one twice too.

Even with the rain for most of the day our spirits were not dampened. The lines were long to begin with and our dogs were tired by the end of the day but we stayed in the park until almost 9:45pm (park closed at 10:00pm). We were able to ride all of our favorite rides twice, and we even saw the volcano erupt. As we walked out of the park, we were so wrapped up in the magic of the day that we actually exited without getting our stuff out of our locker. We had to rush back and communicate as best as possible that our brains were missing to get back into the park. Fortunately they understood and all was well. We returned to our hotel with renewed faith in the magic of Disney.

Tomorrow we'll catch up with a blog on Osaka (where we currently are) and the wonders of Japanese food... that which we've been brave enough to try. It's after midnight there and Ed's already snoring, and I'm beat. Hope all is well in the states. Goodnight!