Tokyo Disneyland: The Happiest (and most crowded) Place on Earth

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Today was our day at Tokyo Disneyland, located just outside of the city. Rusty and I met up with Eve and Jason downtown and made our way over to Disney. We purchsed our tickets in advance because we were told that Disenyland often reaches it's capacity in the morning so it was best to buy tickets in advance so not to be disappointed.

The minute we stepped inside the gates it became a bit surreal: it is EXACTLY the same as DisneyWorld in Florida....except everyone is speaking Japanese and people are wearing yukatas and kimonos. It was a little weird at first as we walked through the Crystal Palace to the New Orleans-area where Pirates of the Caribbean is located. That's where we got our first surprise of the day- the wait fo rthe ride was only 10 minutes long!
We made our way through Adventureland and Critter Country in the blistering heat, and of course, I had to buy a pair of Minnie Mouse ears, but opted for the plastic ones instead of the fur-covered ones- It was about 35 degrees C by 11am and the furry ears reminded me of earmuffs...

Our good luck with line-ups ran out by the time we got to Splash Mountain and settled in for our 80 minute wait. one good thing about waiting in line is that it's all indoors and air conditioning, so it was a welcome break. By the time we were finished with Splash Mountain, it had started thundering and lightning. Next thing you know, it's pouring rain and people are running for cover. Well, everyone was running for cover except us. We kept walking in the rain to try and cool down. The park was pretty packed at this point with a lot of Asian tourists and a few foreigners like us...and everyone spoke English which was a welcome break.

I've been to DisneyWorld a few times and its been about 5 years since my last trip to DisneyWorld in Orlando (I seem to go to Disney every 5 years, so maybe it'll be EuroDisney in 2009!), and my favourite rides are still the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean...even in Japanese they are still fun. Most of the rides spoke in English and Japanese so the pirates in the Pirates of the Caribbean would yell at each other in Japanese, then switch to English pirate-speak, which in itself was amusing.

We were able to make it on all of the rides we wanted by the end of the day, so we were happy about that. We even caught a bit of the nighttime Electrical Light Parade and the fireworks display over the castle in the centre of the park. We did note that the It's a Small World ride doesn't represent North America in its depiction of the countries of the world. Since we were a group of 3 Canadians and an American, we were curious to see how they would show our countries. After cruising through Asia, Africa, and South America, there weren't any igloos or Mounties in sight...we assumed that the ice field with dancing penguins was meant to be North America. But that did answer a lot of questions about why children here keep asking me if I am really hot here in Japan and what I think about living in a land with four seasons...

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Photos

Welcome to Disneyland
Wearing my mouse ears with pride

Disney
Rusty, me, and Jason

Rachel and Eve
Happy to be at Disneyland

Castle
The view from the Swiss Family Robinson's treehouse

Jungle River boat
Rusty, me, and Jason on the Jungle River Boat Cruise...

Dumbo ride
Me, standing in front of the Dumbo ride I never made it onto as a child...

It's a Small World...
...and it doesn't include Canada

Parade
The Electrical Night Parade

Comments

[Chris]

thanks
Thanks for the cool photos of Disneyland.. Funny stories too :)