Tokyo Disneyland

The next morning we got up early and made our way to Disneyland. It was our last day in Japan, and I knew it was likely to be busy at Tokyo Disneyland, but we pressed on. We ate dinner outside of the park at the train station before heading over to the front gate. When you enter, there’s no familiar hill with a train station for you to pass under, but you are immediately standing on a covered version of Main Street U.S.A. (Still not sure why the covered main streets are all the rage in Japan, but it does cover you from rain). The castle in the distance, however, is all too familiar.

Japan Day 14 Disneyland 2017 by C. E. Beavers, on Flickr

The park was quite busy. We made our way to the right first to their version of Tomorrowland (or, more aptly titled, we need to upgrade it all land). Tokyo's Tomorrowland has the familiar Space Mountain, and we were able to snag a fast pass for it for later. But it also has a version of Star Tours that never seemed busy (I'm not a fan, so we never bothered), Stitch Encounter (Stitch is pretty big in Japan, but again, I'm not waiting for 2 hours for that ride), Buzz Lightyear's Astroblasters (ditto), and a version of the twirling rockets that is being removed soon for their version of New Fantasy Land. This part of the park is in desperate need of a make over.

One ride that I've heard is nothing short of amazing, and had yet to reach a 90 minute wait time was Pooh's Honey Hunt, so we got in line with 82 minutes to wait. The queue is very well done, mostly outdoors. They should incorporate the queue entertainment from the ride at Magic Kingdom. Having said that...

Japan Day 14 Disneyland 2017 by C. E. Beavers, on Flickr

Pooh's Honey Hunt-This was everything I'd heard of and more. Another ride that uses embedded RFID pucks to move the trackless cars around. You are grouped as 3 cars at a time, all three going thru seemingly random (though not really) jaunts thru each room. The ride is capable of spinning, stopping, swerving, and everything else Aquatopia was (without the water). One large rooms sees several different groups of threes as the cars spin and dance around, adding a custom character vehicle into the mix that stays in that room. The whole ride was great. I like Pooh, and this was the best use of the IP I've seen to date.

We walked around the park some, checking out the lines and lay of the land. Splash Mountain (which supposedly has a single rider line) was already up to 3 hours. No thanks. I knew going in that its a small world, Big Thunder Mountain, and Jungle Cruise were all down, which really hurt capacity.

Japan Day 14 Disneyland 2017 by C. E. Beavers, on Flickr

Since Splash Mountain was likely a bust, we headed back over towards Fantasyland, and found a Haunted Mansion with a 50 minute wait (that ended up being less than 20 minutes). The ride was set up for Haunted Mansion Holiday, which was my second year in a row seeing that in another park all together. This one is slightly different than the California version of the ride, from what I remembered. After Haunted Mansion Holiday, it was time to head to Space Mountain for our Fast Pass.

Japan Day 14 Disneyland 2017 by C. E. Beavers, on Flickr

Space Mountain-The queue needs a good overhaul (much like all of T). The station is fairly identical to the California version, but the ship hanging in the 'bay' is much different. As for the ride its self, it was a lot of fun. This is the side by side train like California. There are quite a few drops, turns, and some decent laterals. Not much in the way of theming outside of music and a projected star field on the interior of the dome, but the ride was fun. It could use the California upgrades, though.

We went back over to Splash Mountain in a second attempt to find the single rider line, to no avail. So we went over to Tom Sawyer's Island for a bit instead. I'm not sure if this one is different, but seemed much larger than what I'd been on before (and that's before Disneyland California's was shortened). After hanging out over there and having an iced coffee, we headed back to shore. A parade had just started, so we took this opportunity to head to Adventureland, grab a bite to eat, then hit up some attractions. After our sandwich and bubble tea, we did something I'd never done in any Disney park before, the Enchanted Tiki Room (Featuring Stitch, because he's huge in Japan). We had little translators that gave us subtitles, and it was cute. Also, it was a nice chance to sit down.

Japan Day 14 Disneyland 2017 by C. E. Beavers, on Flickr

After some shopping and a couple of pit stops, we saw that Pirates didn't have much of a line, so we did Pirates of the Caribbean next. This was much like the version with Cap'n Jack and an updated soundtrack of characters from the movies. Tokyo Disneyland also has a Blue Bayou restaurant that the first part of Pirates winds around, but the wait was 2 hours without a reservation, and I'd forgotten to make a reservation before heading to the park when planning our trip.

Japan Day 14 Disneyland 2017 by C. E. Beavers, on Flickr

We walked back to the very large and well done Toontown to see about Car-toon-spin, but the line was a couple hours for a fun ride that I can hit up in SoCal next time I'm there. Then we went back over by Splash Mountain (still at a 3 hour wait) on our way to ride the Mark Twain, which ended up being our final ride of the day. We walked around the park afterwards for a few more photos, and once we were back at the front of the castle, Isaac made the suggestion that we get a cheaper dinner outside the park, and actually make our way to Yokohama Cosmo World, since the lines were way long at Disneyland.

We actually had dinner where we ate breakfast (it was good), and after I picked up a few gifts for back home, we headed to the station and caught our trains to Yokohama, which wasn't far from our hotel.

Japan Day 14 Disneyland 2017 by C. E. Beavers, on Flickr

Japan Day 14 Disneyland 2017 by C. E. Beavers, on Flickr

Japan Day 14 Disneyland 2017 by C. E. Beavers, on Flickr