Photo TR : Tokyo Disney - September 2010

[la2lvtom]

So I just got back from my trip to Tokyo and am a little jet lagged but I figure I will try to condense 900+ pics into a reasonable post for all to see. I suggest everyone visit Tokyo Disney for Halloween 'cause they really take it seriously but it is a blast. Enough of my gabbing on to some pics.

Ahh, the fantastic 747 awaiting my arrival

Me in my first class suite

For dinner filet mignon (airplane style) while watching A Nightmare On Elm Street on the 15" monitor (the movie was actually pretty bad, do yourself a favor and just rent the original)

After a 12 hour flight I arrive in Japan

My home for the next 5 nights the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel

This is the front desk clerk Etonomo, I asked her "anatano sha-shin-o totemo desu ka" (can I take your picture?) and she came running out from behind the counter and took me to the Mickey statue. Really cool and very friendly

My room (the bellhop is not included... what kind of a Japanese hotel do you think this is???)

Two queen beds with a trundle bed under the right bed... nice

An ammenities tray on the bathroom counter in case you forgot something at home

I found the hard liqueur drawer, it's a good thing I don't drink 'cause the stuff is expensive (880 yen or $10.25 for the 50ml bottle of Chivas)

My artsy shot of the fountain in the garden

The snack rack in the gift shop. I have no idea what any of this is

This is the view from my balcony. They advertised this as a non-view room, I love the view, I wonder what a view room is

The monorail station with the Disneyland hotel in the background

The Tokyo Disneyland entry, the park was all decked out for Halloween and it looked amazing

THE iconic shot, Walt with Mickey and the GYNORMOUS castle in the background

Space Mountain - A clone of the Disneyland version without the cool soundtrack

Unlike Disneyland in California guests are encouraged to come to the park in costume, here is Snow White and Prince Charming

The Alice In Wonderland gang

I'm guessing here but I believe a New York city dance crew

Naughty Alice in Wonderland

Mary Poppins and the Dick Van Dyke character

The girl in the red dress had an amazing costume, the dress was made from velour, silk and lace and the flowers in her basket were real, definately not something you wake up in the morning and say "I'll just throw this on". There was alot of work in this costume

This was a group of friends who had these very elaborate costumes on. Notice the big guy in the rear has on a home made Emporer Zorg costume, very very detailed

There was a rumor that the naughty Minnie Mouses and the Naughty school girls were going to rumble but it never happened... so sad

The Halloween theme carried over into every land

These girls posed like this for their friend but stayed in this position for a few minutes so everyone could get their picture. Japanese people are fun

The Halloween theme even carried over to the trash cans

There was a 20 minute wait to get a good picure of this statue... I diid not wait

Mickeys house decorated for Halloween

They had a Halloween parade that ran 4 times daily, you had to grab a spot at least an hour before the start of the parade. The Japanese people are really serious about Halloween

The Haunted It's A Small World float

The performers in the parade wore very elaborate costumes

It's A Small World ride op

Mark Twain river boat, the canoes and Tom Sawyer Island

Big Thunder Mountain is a clone of the layout in the states except it has this big drop at the end which was a really nice element

Haunted Mansion Holiday featuring Nightmare Before Christmas. Come on Florida get on the ball and add this makeover

Haunted Mansion garden

Tokyo Disney has a lot of employees per ride so they run very efficient. Load/unload times were amazing

Splash Mountain is a clone of the Florida version including the side by side seating

Good 'ol American railway. The train only goes around Adventureland and Westernland but it runs 3 trains and the wait time was never more than 10 minutes

Main Street

Main Street

Main Street

Main Street

Me with a princess. Here is my only complaint about the park, all the "live" characters were "white" why not a Japanese Snow White or Cinderella? Just my thought

The pirate band performing

The attraction wait time board, if you look closely you will see Mickey Mouse meet and greet had a 120 minute wait and that was not incorrect, the line was huge

[la2lvtom]

I will add LAQUA and Disneysea later on tonight

[jarmor]

I think disney wants the characters to be "as is" regardless of the country.

[la2lvtom]

On to the second part of the update

So now it's time to figure out the subway system, if you don't know what you are doing it is extremely confusing and contrary to belief at the JR line Maihama station there are no english speaking employees (or they had the day off) so I had to wait 20 minutes for an American to exit the station so they can explain buying a ticket to me. You just buy in incriments of yen and hope you buy enough to get out of the station at your stop... or just buy a day pass for 1000 yen

The world famous Tokyo Dome, any wrestling fan from the 80's knows this place well and for me it was exciting to see it. The bridge was lined with women holding these signs in Japanese, I didn't know if they were looking for husbands or what

I finally make it to LAQUA at Tokyo Dome

The main event of my Tokyo trip, Thunder Dolphin. Not my favorite coaster but I had a blast on it anyway

The first drop, it does not look that steep but it sure felt steep

Making the first turn over the roof of the mall

Being spit out of the building after traversing the mall roof

Traveling through the center of the creepy ferris wheel

Heading up to the roof of the mall again to perform the bizarre slow speed side to side track element thingy

Obtaining a ticket for Thunder Dolphin is extremely easy considering the ticket machine has no english on it anywhere. Deposit 1000 yen ($11.69) and out pops the ticket, very easy

The elevated carousel with the water chute ride traveling underneath

Linear Gale was closed due to the rain in fact half the park was closed due to the rain which kinda sucked

Spinning coaster Maihime, a standard spinning wild mouse

This vending machine dispensed sushi and noodles and rice, Mmmm

Hey look at that KFC served beer and only $2.92. I wonder how big the glass/cup is

Yay, a McDonalds in the Korakuen (Tokyo Dome) subway station. Finally a meal I could eat

You could get your haircut in the subway station and the best part they were using flobee's (its a haircutting device that connects to your vacuum such as "as seen on tv")

Random shot of people on the subway

Back on Disney property and I am greeted by Mickey, Yay

Just a reminder it's Halloween time

heading to the monorail staition

My interpritation of the Disney monorail, enjoy

On to Tokyo Disneysea an amazing park with so much detail

Heading under the hotel Miracosta archway to get to the park

The park has also been treated to a Disney Halloween makeover

Mount Prometheus the icon of the park houses Journey To The Center Of The Earth

Even the water fountains are treated to the nautical theme

Nothing was missed when it came to Halloween decorations

Journey To The Center Of The Earth broke down so we had to EVAC and this was the best picture I could get of the ride vehicle

Tower of Terror, theamed differently than the ones in the states but same ride except they use over the shoulder seat belts so you lose some of the airtime during the drops

So this Duffy the Disney Bear is HUGE in Tokyo, almost everyone (female) was walking around with at least one (this girl was carrying 3 in front of her plus a Duffy backpack which had a Duffy bear sticking out of it). They are launching them in the states but I don't know if they will catch on like in Japan. The one bad thing is this has taken over the pin trading business in Tokyo because pins are almost non-existant out there

The electric railway takes you from American Waterfront over to Port Discovery

Port Discovery, this area only has 2 rides but they turned out to be two of my favorite rides of the whole trip, Aquatopia (a crazy out of control boat ride, with no rails) and Storm Rider (what a motion simulater ride should be, lots of things happening inside)

Aquatopia... spin spin spin

This was the best smelling popcorn anywhere. The aroma drenched the entire Port Discovery area

They had these "oversize" cars driving around everywhere. They were built "oversize" to fit us lazy fat Americans hahahaha... oh the world hates us

This restaurant is over by the gondola ride and is the only place I could find non-fish pizza

This Mayan temple houses Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull, it is a clone of Disneylands version but Indiana Jones is Mexican...HUH???

When riding Indiana Jones please remember no Turkey legs and no ceramic cups of coffee, thank you

Raging Spirits is a compact coaster with a loop (which they warn about probably 10 times by the time you get to the ride) plus SINGLE RIDER line, score

Here is the scary loop on Raging Spirits

Some watercraft just chillin' on the water

Archway to Arabian Coast

Flounders Flying Fish coaster, hey a credit is a credit

On this coaster you are not allowed to bring your smoking fish. Sorry them are the rules

Triton's Kingdom is an indoor kiddie section

Now that is one happy snail. It's probably because Disney Paris is where they eat snails

The crowds were actually not that bad

Old luggage wagons used to take bags to the Columbia sailing ship

The Cape Codde section of the park

A Cape Codde lighthouse (I'm not misspelling codde that is how it is spelled out on the signs)

Yay all American hot dogs (if you like black peppers in your hot dog)

It was a stormy day which I thought would be a great backdrop for Tower of Terror

Floats from Braviseamo making their exit

Hey when your tired you just gotta take a nap to refresh yourself

"Fish so fresh your mother would slap it" Hmmm are they talking about milfs?

I really did not know there was more than one kind of rope, good to know

The three Tokyo Disney icons, Cinderells castle, Mount Prometheus and Tower of Terror

Disney good neighbor hotels all right next to each other

Cool Disney transportation busses

Universals Portifino hotel... Sorry that's actually the Mira Costa hotel. Seriously they look the same

Disney's Ambassador hotel, this is the lesser of the three Disney hotels but it is actually quite nice you still get the free monorail passes but you just do not get the 15 minute early entry into either park. Next time I might stay there

Avatar in Japanese coming October 6

So this VW R32 just casually comes driving by me so I gots to get a pic of it, it's one sweet ride

The last day here and the sky is finally clear and you can see downtown Tokyo clear as a bell it was actually quite impressive

The flight home was on a 777 with its 20 year old ghetto seats. I want my 747

[CoasterBill04]

Quick correction, the floats you see coming out in the TDS photo portion are not for BraviSeaMo. They are actually for The Legend Of Mythica, their daytime water show.

[la2lvtom]

Quick correction, the floats you see coming out in the TDS photo portion are not for BraviSeaMo. They are actually for The Legend Of Mythica, their daytime water show.

 

Yep, your right, so much stuff to remember from this trip it's all like a blur to me right now. When I go back it won't be all new for me and I will be able to take it in better. Looking forward to my next trip to Japan and checking out more of the culture (and other parks of course)

[BeemerBoy]

Excellent report! I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

[la2lvtom]

Excellent report! I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

 

 

Thank you very much, this was my first trip report that I have done on here. These parks were numbers 18, 19 & 20 for me in the 2010 season (and none on a TPR trip ) maybe I should have done more reports.

[Kyle Coleman]

Nice report I always enjoy seeing tokyo disneyland even if it is so much nicer than any of the parks we have here it's kind of depressing.

[vkc]

Nice Report Thomas - thanks for taking the time to post it. Brings back memories of Japan and those great theme parks!

I quite enjoyed Thunder Dolphin although the queue was quite slow moving I remember.

[la2lvtom]

Going through all my hordes of pictures I found some miscelaneous and random stuff so here goes

Soy sauce and butter popcorn, Mmmm

Caramel popcorn, it actually smelled like pancakes

Curry popcorn, Mmmm

Black pepper popcorn

Honey popcorn, Pooh would be happy

Milk tea popcorn ???

Halloween tapestry - Mickey Mouse

Minnie Mouse

Donald Duck

Daisy Duck

Chip and Dale

Goofy

Tokyo Disneyland hotel lobby

Tokyo Disneyland hotel gazebo

Disney Ambassador hotel lobby

Monsters Inc. Ride and go Seek lobby

Space Mountain line... not to ride but to get a fastpass

This mist machine was a great idea unfortunately it was the only one I found in the park

Mickeys mailbox nicely detailed

Finally Roger Rabbit gets some Disney love

You can't have Roger Rabbit without Jessica Rabbit being far behind

Gadgets Go Coaster in action

Big Thunder Mountain - from this point the wait was 90 minutes

Big Thunder in action

The peaks of Big Thunder Mountain

For all the UP fans

Disneyland mail service

"To all who come to this happy place - welcome" in both English and Japanese

On one of my mornings the rain was coming down in buckets but as you see it kept the crowds away

Even 15 minutes after the park opened to the public Pooh was a walk on (this ride normally had a 90 minute wait no matter what time day or night)

Pooh's Hunny Hunt... words do not begin to describe how amazing this dark ride truley is (watch one of Robb's videos that feature this ride to get an idea), I easily rank it at the top of my favorite dark rides next to Spiderman and Harry Potter at Universal

Christopher Robbins bedroom

Inside the attraction

Tree of pumpkins outside of Haunted Mansion Holiday

Dumbo

Found at the exit of Splash Mountain... get it? Thanks for dropping in... I'll stop now

Mickey as the Sorcerers Apprentice

Pirates Of The Carribean never had more than a 10 minute wait, even with the movie makeover

We are random statues here to take the soul of anyone who pays attention to us, wait... is that someone taking our picture, boogie boogie boogie you are now under our control... wait, where are you going? Oh well there goes the only person who will notice us today

So the Jungle Cruise is in Japanese but the boat drivers are so animated you can't help but laugh at them

Photo spot

This is the crowd on a Wednesday morning, 45 minutes before Disney Sea opens, these poeple are serious about getting into Disney Sea

No unfortunately not a submarine ride like at Disneyland

Disney Sea has a lot of fountains and waterfalls

The American Waterfront station for the electric railway

For all the TPR members who enjoy a little liquid refreshment

This traquil body of water is located under the electric railway track in Port Discovery

New York facades

This is one of my favorite pictures, the electric railway traveling in front of Mount Prometheus

POV shot on Aquatopia heading for the geyser, if you look closely you will notice no tracks on this ride

So scary, found in Indiana Jones

Instead of looking for hidden Mickeys at DisneySea you look for hidden references to Harrison Hightower, the owner of the Hightower hotel (tower of terror) I found 3 references around the park, this crate was located at Raging Spirits with the label reading "deliver to Hightower Hotel"

The 2 story carousel

Lots of different types of fountains

Electric railway with the sailing ship Columbia in the background

The little tug that could

Wow, historically important

Oh good, I thought he went out of business

Inside the Sinbad boat ride you follow Sinbad on his voyage to find wealth for his home, here he is freeing a geanie with a magic feather

Once free the geanie and Sinbad sing a song you will not get out of your head for days

Inside journey to the Center of the Earth the lava theaming carries over into the water fountain

Sign for the gift shop in Tritons Kingdom

This is the shopping area in downtown Disney

The Disney store in Ikspiari

They have a Rainforest Cafe with menus for us geigings

And in the food court they had the California Diner. I ate here alot, they had a small burger, small fries and small drink for only 680 yen ($8.01) wait that was actually kinda expensive now that I think about it

Here is the Cirque De Soleil theater on property where the show ZED is performed

There was this GIGANTIC ferris wheel just off Disney property in a park like setting, it would have been nice to go to but the JR line did not stop near it

On the other side of Tokyo Bay they were building (or dismanteling) this large bridge

All the rides at Laqua travel over the roofs of the mall, unusual but I guess a good use of space

Inside the mall at Laqua, just like a mall you would find in the states

They had American stores like Eddie Bauer

They had a fountain show at Laqua, not as fancy as the one here at the Bellagio hotel but neat none the less

Outside of Laqua, apartment buildings surrounded by office buildings

If anyone can read Japanese could you please translate this sign, I am real curious as to what it says

Found this statue in downtown Tokyo when I ventured from the subway station to see the buildings

Downtown Tokyo

The day I went to Laqua I was greeted by this torenchial downpour when I woke up. This is from my balcony and visibility was maybe 1/8 mile

Saw this sweet Merc wagon Downtown. The Japanese cars are so much cooler than their American counterparts

While waiting for the bus to go back to Narita airport this left hand drive Hummer pulls into the hotel

[la2lvtom]

Nice Report Thomas - thanks for taking the time to post it. Brings back memories of Japan and those great theme parks!

I quite enjoyed Thunder Dolphin although the queue was quite slow moving I remember.

 

 

The Thunder Dolphin load time was murder, because of the rain only me and 6 other people rode it (this ran in the rain but Linear Gale was closed due to the rain) and between the time the train entered the station and we were sent up the hill had to be 8 minutes, you have to put everything from your pockets into a locker then they made us pull our pockets inside out to show nothing in them and since I was wearing cargo shorts the ride op put her hands into my lower pockets to make sure I had nothing in them (I did not mind this part) it was crazy I can only imagine in the summer when they have a 2 train operation and a huge line.

[vistaway]

Thanks for the great TR! I am planning a visit back to Tokyo for next year and still deciding between spring and fall. The parks seemed busier than I would have expected for September. Would you say the Halloween festivities are worth the crowds?

 

I have previously been in December and September, and found the crowds to be manageable, but that was 10 years ago, and without kids in tow.

[la2lvtom]

I would have to say with a resounding YES it is worth going for the Halloween holiday, both parks are transformed for halloween in a very unique way plus both parks feature halloween themed shows and the parade at Tokyo Disneyland is not to be missed (but start camping out early for it because space fills up quickly). I did not find the crowds to be bad at all of course the major attractions had large lines but use the fast pass system for the major rides and you should be fine (I bought a 4 day pass, on the first day I was at Disneyland open to close and did every ride big and small, the second day Disney Sea open to close did every ride big and small then park hopped the next 2 for many rerides but depending on the age of your kids the open to close might be asking a little bit much plus Disney Sea has hills). One thing to remember in September there are 2 major holidays, first is Kiero no Hi or respect for the elders which is the 3rd Monday in September and Shubun no Hi or autumn equinox which is around September 23rd, the park is extremely packed on holidays and weekends so plan accordingly (I was at the parks Tuesday through Friday on the second week of September) I hope this helps a little and if you have any more questions feel free to ask

[Wes]

Dammit I miss Tokyo.

[jynx242]

Soy Sauce Popcorn?? Sign me the heck up!!

 

Thanks for taking the time to post from your trip. Looks like you had an awesome time. BEAUTIFUL parks.

 

A little jealous now

 

David

[nay]

Ahhhh, this is making me so excited for the Japan trip next year! Great photos - Tokyo Disney looks amazing for Halloween!

[Nrthwnd]

It's all about the popcorn flavours.

 

Really.

 

Thanks for sharing your trip there.

And Halloween at TDR looks great, as usual.

[la2lvtom]

I was kinda bummed about the popcorn flavors, I watched one of Robb's videos from TDR and there were so many other flavors there but I went to every stand and these are the only flavors I could find. I really want to go on one of the Tokyo trips in 2011 and see more of Tokyo but I have no time off left so I don't know, I hope I can do at least one of them.

[larrygator]

Well at least the Milk Tea is a new flavor.

 

We keep track of those things here at TPR:

Popcorns of Tokyo Disney

[Hhappy]

Ahhhh, this is making me so excited for the Japan trip next year! Great photos - Tokyo Disney looks amazing for Halloween!

same