35. Disneyland!

Disney shuttle with Mickey handles and windows

The Hilton Tokyo Bay is one of the Disney resorts so to get there we took the Disney Resort Train which goes from the public train station area to Disneyland to the hotel area where we exited. It continues on to DisneySea, and back to the Train Station area. It is SO DISNEY! The windows are Mickey head shaped, the rings to hold onto are Mickey heads. All the tram workers wave and smile like crazy! We instantly knew we had been transported to a whole different world.

at Disneyland!

Check in went great at the Hilton Tokyo Bay. Buffet breakfast had amazing variety though average quality. They obviously catered to families with kids so they had cute child plates with Disney characters on them and a chocolate fountain with marshmallows and other sweets. We rushed off to try to get to Disneyland close to the 9am opening time. The tram first stopped at DisneySea and we were disheartened to see the sea of people waiting to get in. When we got to Disneyland we were surprised to find it not nearly as busy though still busy. We got through the gates around 9:30 and saw lots of people taking pictures near the Donald Duck floral display. I guess he is very popular here. We were still trying to get our bearings when we saw the “Pirates of the Caribbean” so we hopped into line since it was short and within minutes we were seated in boats with smiling Disney workers waving at us. It was kinda fun listening to pirate accents in Japanese! The intro was in Japanese but I think the songs were the same ones in English from the original Disneyland ride in Anaheim. Almost everything is in the Japanese language but often it doesn’t matter as you can usually figure out what’s going on.

Disney buffet with chocolate fountain

breakfast

buffet

Hilton Tokyo Bay buffet

I like how the windows don't fog in the middle

long lines for Disney sea

Disney app shows wait times

Disneyland is thankfully less busy

people choosing places to settle

From there we went to Beauty and the Beast since we knew it was a popular ride and we wanted to beat the crowds. It took a bit of time to find it and as we stood in line we asked how long the line was. The worker said “3 hours.” What? We jumped out of line and after that we downloaded the Tokyo Disney app which had a map showing the wait times of all the rides. Beauty and the Beast showed 160 minutes. Pooh’s Honey Hunt showed no times at all and unfortunately we discovered it was closed as was Robinson’s treehouse. They were mine and Julia’s top “to do” respectively. We looked for fun stuff nearby with wait times of 30 minutes or less and came up with Monsters Inc and Star Wars which were right next to each other.

photo with elastagirl

As we walked around the park we thought it was cool how people settled into areas with blankets and all their stuff, establishing a home base for the day, sometimes right in the middle of the road though the roads are huge so they weren’t in anyone’s way. It is another cool cultural thing the Japanese must do. They had fun Disney characters walking around and we took our pictures with Elastagirl from the Incredibles. We also saw 3 tiny robots walking around with a park worker following them to make sure no assistance was needed. Star Wars was in 3D with the audience belted into seats with the whole section of about 30 people moving, tilting up, down, and sideways depending on the “ride” we were taking. It was one of the coolest rides we did. My favorite was still “It’s a small world” which may be nostalgia as it was my family’s favorite growing up. We did more research and found out we could buy express line passes for Beauty and the Beast for only $15 each though the only spots available were between 7:00 – 8:00, we snagged seats.

monsters Inc

Dumbo ride

it's a small world

a whole store devoted to Winnie the Pooh

I needed to buy a Winnie the Pooh plushie for my friend and was pleasantly surprised to see a WHOLE STORE devoted to him called Pooh’s Corner. There were tons of Pooh stuff there though not the particular stuffed animal with bunny I was looking for. I asked a store worker and she so kindly looked it up and then used google translate to tell me it was only available outside the park at a Disney Store (as opposed to a Tokyo Disney Resort store) and she explained that there was a Disney store at the train station where we got off from the public train. I did pick up a few items as did Julia.

poohs ride was closed

Pooh store

lunch with Big hero 6 guy

We had been googling the best rides to do and people’s reviews of the park. For lunch I had found someone online who had gotten this super cool (and tasty) curry with rice in the shape of Baymax from Big Hero 6. It was so cute was had to go there! It was a little challenging to find the place, however we were determined and eventually we got there. Half the dish was the delicious curry and the other half was beef stroganoff, one of my favorites! And prepared in Japan where food prep is prestigious. As a bonus, the prices were reasonable especially for Disney. With full bellies, we lost our energy and headed home for a nice rest before round 2.

beauty and the beast castle

entering beauty and the beast

We made it back in time for our Beauty and the Beast show and it did not disappoint. The details were incredible. The castle was huge with an
actual waterfall outside. The castle entrance was just like the movie and they did a quick summary in Japanese using the stained glass window as a movie screen showing how and why the Prince was turned into a Beast. From here we were led into a long hallway where the animation of the clock and candlestick characters was top notch (see video). Next we boarded moving teacups that danced, rotating and tilting to the music. We got to view some of the critical scenes from the movie such as spinning around a table with Belle seated at one end and lots of activity with animated cups and plates. We’re not sure how they did it since all the cup vehicles were surrounding the table, but it was pretty cool (see video)! The technology they use on this ride is one of the reasons it is the most popular in the park.

beauty and the beast

beauty and the beast before the ride

end scene at beauty and the beast

the real reason people are sitting in a spot all day... the parade

We learned that the people sitting with all their stuff in the middle of the road weren’t just settling down for the day, they were staking out spots for the parade! They sit there all day setting out blankets, chairs, and other stuff from 9am until 7:15ish when the electric parade begins. It had better be good for someone to wait around all day! We actually missed it since we had tickets to Beauty and the Beast, but we both agreed we are not “parade” people. Maybe it’s a kid thing. I think I liked them better then. Or perhaps I never saw this one and it would have been lifechanging, I’ll never know.

Doing the mickey hand wave with a Disney worker

The cool thing about Disney Tokyo is that all the workers seem happy and cheerfully wave at you with the “Mickey wave” which is hand with spread fingers then you move your hand back and forth like you’re cleaning a window only your arm doesn’t move, just your hand. If they are really enthusiastic they will wave both hands. This is fun and cheerful though it does get confusing as it also resembles a “no, stop, stay away” gesture which gave us trouble at the “Jungle boat ride.” We were walking in and a boat was just about to leave but we hesitated and stopped thinking maybe they were done for the night when they were just greeting us. We missed the boat, but it was just a handful of minutes before the next boat left so no worries. Like most rides, we understood nothing the guide said as it was all in Japanese, but her exclamations and reactions told the story as we were threatened by fake crocodiles and entertained by adorable fake elephants. Other rides we did included the train ride, steamboat ride, and the haunted house. On the way out of the park we did one last “Pirates of the Caribbean” as it had no line and we had just enough time before closing. Afterwards I took a picture with the greeter doing the “Mickey hand wave”

big hero 6 ride

train ride

last splurge to use my credit

For dinner that night I still had $80 of resort credit to use on my Hilton aspire card. This $200 semi-annual credit can ONLY be used at specific Hilton resorts around the world. Roku Kyoto was one and Hilton Tokyo Bay is another. We had managed to use $120 at Roku, and I was hoping the Disney gift shop here would let me charge items to my room but they are separate. Instead we got a fabulous dinner. I got sushi, Julia got a burger, and we both got delicious mocktails. We had a little more to spend so even though we were pretty full we added a cake for dessert. I thought I’d have just a bite but it was so good I wolfed down my share. That should have exactly used our credit; however, when we got the bill, they gave me a 25% discount for being diamond! Now we still had another $20 to use Perhaps a mocktail before we leave the next day?

dessert was fabulous

bus to airport from Disney hotels

The next morning we grabbed breakfast and then took the tram to the Disney Store where we bought tons of cute items. Their store is more reasonable than the ones in the States AND they had special release plushies so I was able to get my friend a Winnie the Pooh with a cute snake wrapped around him for the Year of the Snake. Every year they do a new one for that year’s zodiac animal. I thought the pink snake was cuter but the store employee said the white snake was the limited edition so I got that one instead. We now had two stuffed full suitcases, one stuffed full duffel bag, 2 full smaller backpacks, plus one Disney tote bag with a couple stuffed animals in it. If we were taking the trains with transfers to the airport we’d be toast! Fortunately last night we heard about a bus that goes directly from the hotel next door to the airport. We asked the front desk in the morning and found out it stops at our hotel as well so we just had to buy tickets online. Perfect! The bus was full of festive tourists on their way home from Disney so everyone was in a good mood, even the small children who were probably hopped up on sugar from the breakfast buffet chocolate fountain. It was an easy trip to Narita where Julia left for home and I headed to South Korea to continue my travels.

thankfully on a bus straight to the airport with all our luggage

girl with tons of little bears clipped to her bag