Ken's Random Adventures of 2013 Trip Reports Thread

They have never advertised ToT or Journey for Single Riders.

It's just hit and miss, and when they think it's applicable at the time.

But Indy and Raging are the two they do put on the map about SRL.

Perhaps the map changes the ride available list with each new map? I wouldn't say never but when I visited they 100% advertised ToT on the back of the map along with spirits and Indy but there was 0 mention of journey which is why it was my first fast pass dash (I wish I hadn't lost that map when I moved house). Although the handy guide to all the pop-corn flavours on the back of the map was just as helpful since some flavours only had 1 stand and i'd have completely missed it , Also before I went I made this guide for people to find links to help them out, although it may be a bit dated now: http://themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1142982#p1142982 since not all websites had a refurbishment list in English (like Fuji and Universal) and the reason I was able to list the single rider rides for disney sea on that list was before the website had a slight re-design, they actually had a section under guest services titled single rider so you could see in advance of going which rides were offering it.

Wow! In all of the trip reports I have ever seen on TDL, I never noticed until this one...their Jungle Cruise is backwards! Is that the only one that loads from the left?

Wow! In all of the trip reports I have ever seen on TDL, I never noticed until this one...their Jungle Cruise is backwards! Is that the only one that loads from the left?

Hong Kong Disney loads from the left too.

It is time for Tokyo DisneySea!

Once again we woke up early to beat the crowds to the gates. As we ate breakfast the wind and the rain was already hitting the window so we knew it was going to be a wet day but it worked in our favor and kept the crowds down a bit.

We made our way down to Bayside Station and it was just one stop over to be dropped off at the park gates. We waited for about 45 minutes till the park opened.

Journey to the Center of the Earth Once inside the park some split off to grab Tower of Terror Fastpasses and we met them at Journey's entrance for our first ride of the day on the park's signature attraction.

It was a very short wait before we boarded our elevator to travel down to the cars that will take us to the center of earth.

The ride starts out gentle with a trip through the gem filled caverns of the earth coming across the occasional creature. Eventually things start to go horribly wrong as you are diverted off course and end up in the middle of a huge storm as the lava starts to flow and you come face to face with the horrific LAVA MONSTER! You than make your daring escape as you pop out of the earth before diving right back into before arriving safely at the end of your trip.

This ride kicks a$$!

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea This was the next ride we came to. It was a walk on which was really nice. The ride is just as the name makes it out as a journey deep under the sea. you will pass shipwrecks, treasure, and merpeople! It is not crazy but it is neat.

Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster Honestly this was the most "boring" or "bland" ride here. Every other attraction is impressive with amazing theming but than you have Flounder's... a roller skater with very little theming. But it does have the famous fish no-smoking sign and it is at DisneySea so it is automatically 150x more awesome than any other roller skater!

Raging Spirits Next we got the other credit at the park. I missed this at Disneyland Paris so I had no idea what to expect but really it wasn't that bad! Add some fire and fog and you got a pretty sweet ride!

Indiana Jones Adventure We got Fast Passes earlier so this was our next stop. I have never been to Disneyland so I knew very little about this ride besides the ride vehicles.

It had some of the famous scenes from the movies including snakes, insects and many booby traps especially the giant stone ball!

Electric Railway It was almost our time for our Tower Of Terror Fastpasses so we made our way to the other side of the park via the very convenient railway.

Tower of Terror Shiriki! That is all........

Ok no. But if you flash back to my Hong Kong Disneyland report I mentioned about the connection between Mystic Manor and Tower of Terror. See the Hotel Hightower is owned by Harrison Hightower III who is a member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers along with Lord Henry Mystic who owns Mystic Manor.

During one of Mr. Hightower's trips he returns with an idol named Shiriki Utundu along with the curse in it. One night it comes to life and takes over the Hotel and is responsible for Mr. Hightower's mysterious disappearance.

So first you come to the preshow room where (In Japanese) you learn the back story and you get your first introduction to Shiriki. Next you board your elevator after passing through "the hallway". During your ride Shiriki causes all kinds of mayhem and you run into Mr. Hightower one last time. If you want to skip it because you think it is the same as the other towers DON'T.

One thing that was weird was the ride operators here would not even let you take photos in the queue and would ask you to not use your phone if you were texting in the queue. Very weird especially when considering Disney is the most relaxed for on ride items out the industry.

Our group on Tower of Terror.

Aquatopia Next we did one of Tokyo DisneySea's most famous attractions Aquatopia! It uses the trackless system on the water as you follow a very random course! It is weird and it is awesome!

Stormrider Next up we caught Stormrider. It is a really weird simulator but it wasn't terrible. Do not miss the different endings.

Under the Sea Next we headed into Mermaid Lagoon... It was impressive right away. It had several family rides and was themed really good to look like you are on the ocean floor!

Our destination was the Mermaid Lagoon Theater. We were told that this show would be getting a complete revamp soon so we made it a point to see it. The entire show takes place above your head and it is really neat to watch the performers swinging (swimming) above your head and dancing. The giant Ursula was neat too.

Next our group split up for dinner as we wanted to eat different things. Me and Anthony grabbed some pizza in the Mediterranean section followed by a Turkey Leg and a frozen beer in the mysterious island section. Sadly the frozen beer was nothing more than a frozen head. But it was beer so yay!

Sindbad's Storybook Voyage After we met back up we took on Sinbad's Voyage. The ride is a small boat ride like small world but was a lot better than I expected it with some really cool animatronics and a fun story and characters defiantly check it out!

Next we walked around exploring the park for a bit until I retreated back to my hotel for a bit before returning later in the evening to grab another ride on Journey, TOT, Indy, 20,000, and ofcourse some night rides on Aquatopia. We also checked out Toy Story Mania all lit up which I was surprised to see the park do since it was down for it's annual maintenance.

We tried for one last ride on Indy but one thing the park does that is inconvenient is they shut down the queues 30 minutes earlier than the park closing.

Eventually we headed back to the hotel for the night. It was a great day at an amazing park! I defiantly understand now why people love it so much! Get to Tokyo NOW!

To enter the park you must first pass under the park's hotel.

Eeeee!

YAY we made it!

Mount Prometheus!

A look over at the New York harbor area

First ride of the day!

Next up was 20,000 Leagues under the Sea!

Mysterious Island

Captain Nemo's submarine

More of Mysterious Island

My Jaw was on the floor at this point! No seriously a park sweep came and picked it up!

The park also had a great transportation system of boats.

GYOZA!!!!!

First credit of the park!

Just felt out of place?

But this sign is awesome!

The park is really beautiful anywhere you look!

Looking toward the Arabian Coast area.

Raging Spirits is next!

I loved this sign!

The loading platform.

Fog makes anything better!

Walking through Lost River Delta

It is pouring and we have a long walk.... let's hop on the Electric Railway!

Aquatopia!

We will get back to it later.

Heading into New York

Beautiful! (Besides the fogged windows)

The other side of the park.

Tower of Terror! But more important... Shiriki!

Actually it is the Hotel Hightower...

I thought we were at Disney not Six Flags?

Watch out for Icebergs and stuff...

I really loved the ship!

Heading back toward Mount Prometheus

A look at the Mediterranean Harbor

Still dragging my jaw!

What is the point of this thing? That's right! There is none!

Finally time for Aquatopia!

Back toward Lost River Delta

That's my flight out of here in the next few days! But this area felt very empty and there is a large plot of land behind those trees? Future expansion maybe?

This ride was awesome!

Mount Prometheus again!

Let's go check out Mermaid Lagoon

The exterior is impressive!

Is it Mermaid Lagoon or is it Triton's Kingdom? What ever it is it's awesome!

Under the Sea!

Whale mouth gift shop!

Back in the Arabian Coast

Magic Lamp Theater

Looking back at the entrance to the section

Arabian Sequester?

Daisy Duck!

Next up was Sinbad! Was way better than I was expecting!

Stitch was awesome and while we waited for the rest of the group he grabbed a seat next to me.

You see this great statue on the way in.

Tokyo DisneySea's version of the Universal Globe

Looking back at the park entrance on our way out.

Who wants the front right seats?

Loading platform

The queue

Queue theming is just as impressive as the ride theming

Hey guys!

I love this quote!

The onride photo caught me at a really weird time. Seriously I look like a ghost! But look for our special rider!

The area is impressive!

Tokyo DisneySea is an amazing park and it should be on everyone's bucket list. Thanks for a great day! A trip through Tokyo is next!

New York harbor at night

Night time at Disneysea is something special

This ride was really cool and the Lava Monster is my third favorite Disney ride character behind The Jade statue at Mystic Manor and Shiriki.

Time for another ride! Let's go!

Mysterious Island is beautiful at night.

Time to try this out! It was really good.

Aquatopia is even more awesome at night!

A shot of Toy Story Mania all lit up even though it was closed....

One thing that was weird was the ride operators here would not even let you take photos in the queue and would ask you to not use your phone if you were texting in the queue. Very weird especially when considering Disney is the most relaxed for on ride items out the industry.

I'm glad it wasn't just me, it really confused me that the lady got really upset with me and my camera when I was in the ToT single rider line, I wrote this in my TR

Tower of Terror seemed to have a very thorough cast member, she kept yelling at people taking pictures in the line which seemed strange because i'd been allowed to take a non flash photo in the pre-show, every-time one person was asked for would walk up and down the main queue to check first and also sometimes took a group of two out of the line who were happy to split up, I don't know if this was common for the ride or just a lady who takes her job very seriously, there was only 10 people ahead of me but I waited around 45 minutes (still better than 3 hours)

It struck me as so weird that this was the only place it happened not just in the whole park but any disney park i've visited, i've always been allowed to take pictures no other parks would if i agree to put away the flash (such as inside all of mystic manor) although despite being allowed to take pictures of the journey cars and line details on my first ride, I did get told off for taking pictures of the cars the second time which I found odd since i'd seen so many pictures talking about how awesome the cars were before I went.

We tried for one last ride on Indy but one thing the park does that is inconvenient is they shut down the queues 30 minutes earlier than the park closing.

This was the other thing that I hadn't seen before in other parks, I mentioned it in my old TR but the day I did Disneysea was a day after heavy snow, I'd had Disneyland all to myself on the thursday but it seems that due to that the park was extra busy on the friday, lines were 3-4 hours all day even just before Fantasmic, when I went by as soon as fantasmic had finished, I found all the big rides had closed with no warning despite being before the fireworks and there being just under 90 minutes until closing. I get with 3 hour lines they don't want to be there until 1am but at least even Fuji-Q announced when the rides would close super early to give you a last minute chance to get there. It just kind of took me by surprise.

I really do need to get out to have a normal-ish day at Disneysea, I know it will always be a very busy park but I think my day probably wasn't normal operations, the lines were overspilling that people had to be out holding signs to show not just where the rides started but the food cart lines which actually would end up having to weave around each other in the journey area and at some points and by mid afternoon, they were asking people in line what they wanted and checking it off an inventory because they only had so many of each food left.

Oh, there's never too much to read about Tokyo Disney Sea.

Great shots of everything you saw, Ken.

And you noted that un-used space, too! That is such a big piece of land,

I am so hoping whatever they decide to put there, I am still around, LOL!

DisneySea is awesome. Great pics man! Is it bad to say that one of the best things there was marathoning Aquatopia when it had no lines?

The park was a beautiful as they say, without a doubt.

God, DisneySea looks so freaking beautiful

It has been on the top of my bucket list for a long time

Thanks for posting those Ken. Great pictures of a great place. I really want to go back sometime. I think Mysterious Island is my most favourite part of a park ever. The size and amount of theming is totally over the top (in a good way!).

Toy Story Mania was a good ride to be closed during our visit as it was pretty much a clone of the others. Good ride though, oh and the oversize toys and the theming in TSM's station is great too.

DisneySea really does have some of the best park ride characters: Shiriki Utundu, Chandu and the LAVA MONSTER!

Did you have a wander around the SS Columbia or go into the Fortress Explorations? I can't blame you if you didn't as there is so much to discover in this park.

Great report once again!

I have to get to Japan some day! Disney Sea is definitely on the top of my list of must sees in Asia. For that matter, top theme parks to visit anywhere!

Awesome pictures, Ken.

This was the same day we went on Raging Spirits, and I was doing my best to look short because they have a 6'4" height limit. The woman monitoring the line took me to get measured, and she was very, very happy to let me know I'd be able to ride. She was also quite short

Hooray, Tall American Can Ride!

^ Heh heh, great photo there!

Tokyo DisneySea... *sigh*... Awesome report, took me right back there. I totally forgot about that ToT onride pose!

Awesome time and great memories!

Thanks for sharing Ken.

Some really fantastic pictures there, many thanks! Can't believe I was there just 5 months ago, I still chuckle thinking about the hugely efficient (almost frantic) loading procedure on Journey and being pushed in to the cars, brilliant.

Love the picture Matt, and seriously love the Japanese people!

I got the old "crossed arms/no pictures" sign in the "museum" section of the ToT queue, as well, back in 2007. I can understand why they don't like people having cameras out on the ride because of safety concerns, but the restriction in the queue is a bit odd.

Then again, I was told to put my little camera away at Backdraft at Universal Japan, too--while Dan stood right next to me with a camera the size of a bazooka, snapping away, and they didn't say a word to him.

Raging Spirits was a pleasant surprise. Not the greatest ride ever, but smooth and well themed.

Sigh! Must get back to DisneySea.

Did you have a wander around the SS Columbia or go into the Fortress Explorations? I can't blame you if you didn't as there is so much to discover in this park.

I wondered all over the SS Columbia but only walked through the fortress. I got one or two more updates to do which will cover some more.

Awesome pictures, Ken.

 

This was the same day we went on Raging Spirits, and I was doing my best to look short because they have a 6'4" height limit. The woman monitoring the line took me to get measured, and she was very, very happy to let me know I'd be able to ride. She was also quite short

Wish I would of been there to witness that! Too bad the lady who measured you our last day wasn't as excited.

This photo report makes me miss Tokyo DisneySea so much! My trip in 2017 can't come soon enough!

Thanks for sharing with us though!

This next update takes us away from the Disney resort for awhile ( ).

A group of us met in the lobby at 11 to head into Tokyo to sightsee which was good because we were hearing that Fast Passes were already gone for the day! From the monorail you could also tell the parks were busy so leaving turned out to be a good idea.

It started a little rough as we figured out the rail systems we needed but once we got going it was a really nice trip.

Shibuya Crossing Our first stop was the Times Square of Japan and a spot I was really looking forward to checking out. It is a lot more exciting at night but I was excited to see it anyway.

Our first stop out of the station was the statue of Hachikō. Hachikō was a dog who used to meet his owner out side of the station everyday after work until one day his owner passed away in 1925 but Hachikō still waited for him every day for 9 years outside the station. This was not the original statue as that was scrapped in WW2 but this was a recreation and is still a favorite meeting spot.

Next we headed to the crossing it self. We waited a few seconds before we crossed trying to dodge the many people in a hurry going every direction. Once we made it across we went down a back alley where we grabbed lunch at McDonalds. I finally got to try Shaka Shaka Chicken. Cheese was pretty good. Some got the Gold quarter pounder with the 5 pounds of packaging. It was pretty weird.

Next we crossed Shibuya once again and grabbed a train to our next stop.

Harajuku District Harajuku is famous for fashion but also home to a Japanese dollar store which we wanted to check out. We took a quick walk around before doing some shopping. The Dollar store offered many different types of snacks as well as souvenirs and random Japanese finds. It was worth a stop.

Roppongi Tower Next up we headed to Roppongi Tower. Tokyo Tower used to be the best place to go for views of Tokyo but now they have Skytree which towers over the entire city but Roppongi Tower now towers over Tokyo Tower.

When we approached we were nervous because of a HUGE line wrapping around the building which we thought was to get to the top. In a way it was. See the Harry Potter exposition is in town and it is at the top of the tower (Yes it don't make sense). So it was a several hour wait (I see why Universal Studios Japan is building WWoHP) to get to the elevators to the top.

Luckily though if you are only going to the top for the view there was only a small wait to buy your ticket and none for the elevators. We got our tickets and took a lap admiring the views and taking a bunch of photos. We also took a quick walk through the "love" art museum.

Akihabara District Next up we headed to the Akihabara District where they are famous for all things electronic. We walked through several arcades and took in some of the "side stops". Plenty of cosplay going on in this area.

Next we headed back to Disney were we took a short break before me and Robert headed back over to DisneySea. First we grabbed some dinner in the cape cod area before finding a spot for Fantasmic unfortunately the show the day before was canceled due to weather but this show was going on! It had many floats, dancers, pyro and a giant dragon! Mount Prometheus was even included in the show. It was awesome and we even scored a great vantage point!

Next up we met with Steve and Priscilla at the lounge in the SS Columbia where we hung out and chatted for awhile. I wasn't hungry but the food everyone else had looked great. The lounge itself is really nice with some very friendly staff. We also took walk on the ship's top deck. It was a really well done bulding and felt exactly like a cross Atlantic steamer.

We than walked back to Indiana Jones at about 930 but it was already closed for the night. We ended up taking one last spin on 20,000 Leagues under the sea before heading out.

It was a really great day of exploring however the next day was my flight home. But I still managed to pay one more visit to both parks! That small update is next!

Nice little lighthouse

The Arabian section

Cape Cod is really beautiful at night

"The Grand Staircase"

A look at New York Harbor

The Little Mermaid section

The entrance to the Arabian section

Well that is it for this update. One more coming in a few days.

Awe no Gyoza

The Double Carousel

The main square of the Arabian section

Looking from the bow of the ship with TOT looming the distance

Next we headed into the SS Columbia

Simba!

That's means it's time for Fantasmic!

Sunset over Tokyo Disneysea

The New York section at night

Fire!

The Dragon!

Let's take a stroll around

Robert enjoying his drink in the lounge

The Princesses and chip and dale!

The finally

Suddenly we were transported back to Disney Sea!

Getting away from Disney for a bit we end up in Tokyo!

Akihabara District is next

So much to see I wish I had more time

More of tokyo

This was a really cool section of the city

Be careful when poking your head in some of these DVD places

Who doesn't love some Donkey Kong?

Mario!

Some old school games

One last photo

Roppongi Tower dominates everything!

Taking a side street to lunch.

Hachikō

I think Hachikō is bigger than the Godzilla statue.

Some serious wrapping for a burger....

Ryan and his Gold Quarter Pounder

An overview with Tokyo Tower and Skytree off in the distance.

You can buy some heads at the dollar store.

... than there is chaos.

A seriously awesome city!

Tokyo Tower again from the top of Roppongi Tower

The infamous Intamin half pipe that never opened.

Mhmm... what's that?

Tokyo Tower

Roppongi Tower

Giant spider!

Hey I know that name!

Lady Gaga does her shopping here

Ok really creepy.

What's that?

Kinda creepy...

This sounds better!

Sounds.... tasty...?

Harajuku District

Shibuya Crossing

It's all calm...

The "Times Square of Japan"

^ Ah, more Disney Sea.

And all that off-park Tokyo sight seeing! Awesome!

All the time, I am so into Tokyo Disney, I often forget

what a really great city Tokyo is!

And your report certainly caught me up on that, lol.

Thanks!

But... sardines with your seeds and nuts?

All the details of Disney Sea fit together beautifully

I really need to get my butt to Japan one of these days

That Gold Ring burger was easily the best thing I've ever had at a McDonald's (and with so much packaging!). It looked like they were doing a different fancy Quarter Pounder every few weeks.

It was funny, after you guys went back to Disney, I found a bunch of models from Disneyland CA in one of the Akihabara model/toy stores.

Welcome to my last day in Japan First of all thanks a ton to Robb and Elissa for a great trip! You guys did great pushing all 38 of us through a very busy country and figuring out all the busses, trains, taxis, and planes for this trip! Looking forward to my next trip!

Ok so I only had a few hours to spend but I knew I didn't want to spend my last day in the hotel so I opted to add a 4th day at Disney (For only $25!).

So me and Matt knew we wanted a last ride on Pooh so we made our way to Disneyland. Crowds were already heavy but we made a b-line to Pooh and got our fastpasses and even hopped in the short queue. Since we had time to spare till our Fast Pass time was up we went into Toon Town to do Rodger Rabbit but it already had a line so we went over to Fantasyland to do one more ride on the Haunted Mansion.

Finally our time was up for Pooh so we did it than made our way to DisneySea for one last visit. We opted to head to Indiana Jones to use it's single rider line followed by our last ride of the trip on Raging Spirits. After such we took our time walking through the park taking it all in one last time and even stopped for one last Popcorn.

It was than time for us to leave so we grabbed the monorail and returned to our hotel to grab our bags and wait for the bus. It was an easy 45 minute bus ride to the airport even with a checkpoint before the airport to check Passports (Do anywhere else do this?) We were dropped off at our respective terminals. We grabbed lunch before splitting ways to head to my gate.

The TVs all over the airport were showing the news of the tragic San Francisco crash which happened a few hours earlier. The plane was a 777 which was the same as I was taking and they had let to learn the cause so you could tell some people were nervous. The crew was making announcements about evacuation procedures every 5 minutes and again before we landed. The flight was nice I got an upgrade and caught up on some newer movies (Seriously why doesn't Delta do this???)

After a quick layover in Chicago I made my way home. It was off to bed and to work the next morning.

That is it for Asia guys thanks for reading! Still to come are Kennywood, and a bunch of LA Haunts and Parks!

Back at the hotel

Walking into Toon Town once more

Rodger Rabbits

Time to go...

Time for one last Pooh

You are walking right into the story book

Pooh's Ballon

Rabbits Howse

The castle looks beautiful today!

See that plane? It is a sad reminder it's my last day in Japan

World Bazaar one last time

Decorations were everywhere for the 30th anniversary

DisneySea!

New York

Can never have enough pictures of the Mountain

Last ride of the trip

Congo Area

Random map of the Transit Steamer Line

So beautiful!

One last popcorn for the road (Or air)

Goodbye DisneySea hopefully we meet again

Our last morning got us a beautiful view of Tokyo Bay!

Heading into the park you could tell it was going to be a little busy

Waiting for the bus

That is it for Tokyo Disney Resort and Japan! Thanks a ton for reading!

The resorts main gift shop

Awesome updates! The Tokyo resorts are absolutely amazing. I need to get back there soon!