It’s said that Disneyland is the ultimate amusement park in the world –wherever it is located around the world, it’s one of the most sought-after attraction … And I realized it very well when I visited the Tokyo Disneyland few days back.
Two of my Japanese colleagues, Kobayashi-san and Yoshida-san planned for Disneyland visit with us, Me and my Indian colleague, Suhasa on 23rd Nov, 2011 as it’s a holiday in Japan. ( After we came to Tokyo , they promised, to accompany and guide us for Disneyland trip as they ‘re staying nearby it). They waited for this holiday as during weekend Disneyland becomes very crowded. But actually it didn’t help us much because when we reached there by 8 AM, just at the opening time, found there was already a huge line for tickets and far bigger lines on the gate who already booked the ticket beforehand and waiting to gate to open. My Japanese colleagues were saying it’s a usual scenario in Disneyland.. I felt very amazing that for a pleasure trip like this one, so huge Japanese crowds turned up so early in the morning – while planning for the trip when Kobayashi-san suggested that we should reach there at 8 am , I really got bit disappointed as I wanted to enjoy my sleep on this holiday and then wanted to start in the mid morning in a holiday mood….but, I forgot that it’s Japan – So, for pleasure trip also I need to work hard ….I had to wake up by 6:00 AM , got ready , prepared & had a quick breakfast , then with Suhasa, took the train from Mitaka station near our apartment, at around 6:40 AM and reached JR Myhama Station after changing the train at Tokyo station by 7:50 AM.
At Myhama station we saw, both Kobiyashi-san and Yoshida-san were already waiting for us though the meeting time was 8 AM….What a learning experience!!!
Whenever a Japanese gives you time to meet , you should reach there Before time….
From Myhama station, it's just 2 minutes walk to Disneyland. We took some snaps after reaching there and then Kobayashi-san lined up for buying the ticket whereas we queued for entering the gate. After buying the ticket Kobayashi-san joined us …the ticket price was 5800yen per head, with the discount coupon(Another colleague Yamakawa-san gave me and Suhasa discount coupan of1000yen for Disneyland trip), it took 4800 for each of us.
Anyway, around 8:30 AM, we managed to enter inside the Disneyland.
There was already huge crowd inside …And there’s a big X-mas tree nicely decorated inside the entrance of Disneyland.
Kobayashi-san first guided us to collect the fast-pass first for an attraction. It’s nice system to save time just like our token-system in Tirumala Tirupati temple in India where you'll get a pass with a time allotted to you to visit the particular attraction bypassing the long queue and meanwhile you can check out other attractions.. And once you avail this fast pass for one attraction, there’ll be some gap to collect the next fast-pass. But the problem is, it’s limited and by the time your next turn comes up, you may find that all fast-passes are already exhausted. That’s exactly what, happened to us, we managed to collect only 2 fast passes. First, immediately after entering, we lined up for collecting one popular Attraction, Buzz lightyears’s Fast pass—there also, after standing around 15 minutes we got the fast-pass with time allotted at 1:20-1:40 PM and next fast-pass collecting time 10:40PM. But, at around 10:45 AM when we went to collect another popular attraction Splash mountain’s fast-pass, we found that it’s already exhausted, so we collected the fast-pass for Space Mountain- luckily it was available. Next around 1 PM, when we're allowed to take our 3rd Fast-pass, we didn’t find any fast-pass available for any other attractions—by that time, all were already taken up.
Anyway, after collecting our first fast-pass for 'Buzz lightyears’s attraction' from an automatic machine using our main ticket, we went to Splash Mountain and lined up in the normal queue. Here, there’s one very good system is , the expected waiting time will be displayed to the guests in front of each Attraction. So, checking this expected waiting time, you can plan accordingly I mean to stand in that queue or try other less crowded attraction. We saw 120 minutes waiting time for Splash Mountains –So Kobayashi-san checked out that Big thunder Mountain had 90 minutes waiting time. So, we switched to Big Thunder Mountain’s Queue at around 9 AM. When we reached near the gate of Big Thunder Mountain , it’s waiting time also updated to 2 hrs.
Around 10:45 AM , we managed to enjoy our first Attraction – it’s a runaway mine train –kind of roller coaster ride – but not so scary or fast.
Naturally, I felt bit dissatisfied – because after waiting 2 hours, standing in big queue, got a chance to ride a soft kind of roller coaster for 2 minutes – This very fact, in fact made me bit cynical whether the energy, time & money spent for this Disneyland trip really worth it or not?
Anyway, we collected our 2nd fast-pass for 'Space Mountain' Attraction, where the time allotted is 3:30-3:50PM. While we were going towards Space Mountain, we saw the famous morning parade of Disneyland.
Dancers and Mickey's characters with beautiful costumes were dancing with a music along with nicely decorated cars along the main roads of the Disneyland.
Next, we went to ‘Pirates Of Caribbean’ attraction where the waiting time displayed as 20 minutes.
Sure enough, after around 20 minutes standing in the queue, we got chance for this boat ride. It’s a small boat ride –the boat movement was remotely controlled , initially as our boat moved little further, it had fallen bellow little and then moved around in the same level through dark, underground like water-area , the environment depicted the Caribbean sea and the era when pirates roamed around the seas with the help of nice decoration, models, dolls, lighting and Sounds –As our boat was moving, we could see the decoration of convincing display of a busy port -- with people rushing around, band of musicians playing music and some people in jolly mode.
Then our boat was passing through burning ships, fighting, band of bandits, pirate, destroyed port town by the pirates and more interestingly the famous or infamous Captain Jack Sparrow with his sparrow.. it’s like going back to the era of pirates -- It was really a nice theme.
Next we went to ‘Jungle Cruise’ attraction where we had to wait for half an hour to take the ride around 12:25 PM –
This was also a boat ride through a big pond full of jungles and wild animals - of course artificial one (except some real ducks in the water) but in the first look, all seemed to be amazingly real … The jolly boat driver also doing the guide’s job by showing us the wild animals as the boat moving along…
Just beside this Jungle cruise attraction, we could see the entrance for another attraction ’Western River railroad’ –it’s a small steam train ride, but we didn’t find it so interesting and skipped it for our next attraction ‘Mark Twain Riverboat’. It’s a very big boat, seemed to be run by steam engine and can accommodate more than 100 people –so naturally the waiting time was just few minutes here.
We went to the terrace of the 2 storied ships and could get a nice overview of whole huge Disneyland area. The Boat cruised around a Lake, in middle of which there’s an artificial island.
Entry to that island could be made only by a log raft ride through another attraction called ‘Tom Sawyer Island Rafts’. We skipped it because of time shortage. Another interesting attraction in that lake was ‘Explorer Canoes’ –paddling around the lake by canoes, which we wanted to take. But in evening when we came again there to take it, it was already closed – it closes at dusk as per Disneyland rule, may be because of safety reason.
Anyway, it was 1:15 PM and we rushed to the other side of Disneyland to use our first fast-pass for ‘Buzz lightyear’s Astro Blasters’ –
This attraction is a dark ride through a shooting gallery ---it’s actually video-game-inspired attraction based on the Disney/Pixar film ‘Toy Story 2’. Along with the seat a laser gun is attached for each guest and the game is to fire or connect to the target by the laser gun while on ride. There’re 4 different shaped targets worth different amounts of points: round (100 points), square (1,000 points), diamond (5,000 points), and triangle (10,000 points). Each guest is photographed once during game play.
After this game at around 1:30PM, we took our lunch.There are lot of restaurants an refreshments spread around Disneyland – But unfortunately, it seems, there’s only one which serves vegetarian dishes. And as Suhasa is a vegetarian, we went to that only option available.
It’s a 3 course meal with starters, main course and desserts -- alongwith this meal there’s piece of bread and unlimited juice/soft drinks – choice of both vegg and nonveg items available in each course - Yoshida-san had full course and we 3 opted for simple meal which excluded Desserts and it cost 1800+ yen . With desert it’s 2k+ yen.
I opted for a starter with boiled vegetables with olive oil dressing. There’s one Japanese vegetable which I haven’t eaten earlier but I liked the sausage came along with it – I got a smell of dry fish in it but it was very tasty. In the main course I had opted for a non-veg Pasta dish .
Kobayashi-san was checking in his internet enabled mobile phone which attraction had the less waiting time and accordingly we headed for ‘Star Tours’ after our lunch.
It’s actually a motion simulator attraction, based on the successful Star Wars film series created by George Lucas, and it's the first Disney attraction based on a non-Disney produced film..
After around 15 minutes wait we entered inside a room with some rows of seats. Luckily, we all 4 got the front row seats. In each seat , there’s a seat belt and we were asked to tighten it properly. Then the lady instructor left the room, closed the door and started our journey to the outer space world!! Our seats started shaking violently and In front of us, there was a big 3d screen and we could see outer space items passing by like giant ice crystals, comet debris. And I was really getting the feeling and thrilling of a outer space journey --Thanks to the simulated vehicle, 3D video, audio characters and in-cockpit special effects. Then we hit by a galaxy-war and our space shuttle nicely avoiding the laser-blasting fighters and then it moved through some planetary city and then ended the space journey by landing back to the mother earth.
Next we went to ‘Space Mountain’ just located besides the previous attraction. We had fast-pass for this attraction, so we by-passed the long queue and directly entered inside it through another way - just waited around 5 minutes in the advanced queue and got chance to board a rocket shaped vehicle –
The ‘Space Mountain’ attraction is just a variation of roller coaster ride in dark to give the impression of outer space darkness and with a small vehicle which has 3 rows of seat and each row has 2 seats – so, maximum 6 guests can seat in each rocket vehicle.
Anyway, our rocket shaped vehicle moved into total blackness of the dark universe and then started moving very high speed. As it’s zooming past twists and drops, I started to feel the real thrilling of rollercoaster ride ..the impression of the dark universe was nicely created alognwith shooting stars, satellites …After exiting this thrilling rocket-journey, we passed though a moving runway, passing scenes of futuristic homes and businesses.
It’s 3:40 PM and we could see the nice beautiful afternoon parade as we’re moving towards the splash-mountains area. The dancers costumes were different from morning show (i could not get if the dancers also changed or not -- There were huge crowds along the road sitting and standing to watch the parade show.
In the 'Splash-mountains' the waiting time still displayed as 120 minutes but that’s the only popular attraction left for us , so we stood in the queue. It’s a long queue and really very boring but there’s no way out. At around 6PM we got the chance to ride the Splash Mountain.
The 'Splash-mountains' attraction is also a controlled boat ride on water by small boat which can accommodate 8 people in 4 row seats ..it’s long, lazy typical boat ride (around 15 minutes)that moves around the splash mountain , goes through caves and there’re animatronics with special effect for voice, music and nice sceneries with dolls, cartoon characters… and the boat track has roller coaster effect , each round it drops down to lower level and the final drop is really a huge one and a breathtaking free fall.
After taking this ride, I found out, the final drop was 52½ feet free-fall — It was really a very big splash , but thanks to the boat's design, our dress didn't get wet. And during this final plunge, our photo was taken and displayed near the exit gate of this attraction and it was really a very funny picture with different type of reactions – Kobayashi-san and Suhasa were screaming with hands upwards, I was holding the handle in front of the seat very tightly and bit scared.
As we moved out of Splash Mountain, we found that it’s raining slightly … But it’s good for us as the crowd became thinner. Yoshida-san left after Splash Mountain ride but we 3 wanted to cover as much attractions as possible till the end (10PM) and Kobayashi-san informed the night parade and fireworks are also very popular attraction of Disneyland and not to miss out. So, we stayed back and proceeded to the next attraction “It’s a small world” which had only 10 minutes waiting time –
It’s also a boat-ride –the remote controlled boat was moving from one room to another and in each room was nicely decorated with many dolls, models – nice soothing music was playing, and we could see different fantasy world with happy, merry go round mood as our boat was passing by – a perfect attraction and great time pass for children.
Next we went to ‘Captain EO’ -- it’s a 3D musical show based on space adventure, starring Michael Jackson. After around 15 minutes wait we entered inside the movie hall, we’re given 3D goggles.
It was a short movie clip of around 15 minutes and enjoyed the typical Michael Jackson dance & song…
After this, Kobiyashi-san suggested for another popular attraction Haunted mansion..As we were going towards it , we saw another attraction ‘Grand Circuit Raceway’ without any queue in front of it ie. Zero waiting time…So we made an entry to it—
The ‘Grand Circuit Raceway’ Attraction as the name suggests, is a racing car driving (like controlled go carting) in a small circular circuit – it has accelerator and break and driver can steer the car but it cannot go off-track because there is a rail in the middle of the track and the car is set over it. So, the car always move over this rail, cannot deviate from it. Multiple car can move over the same track, but if it comes too near to another car, car will automatically stop , thus preventing any chance of collision. Unfortunately, a small kid was driving the car in front of me, and was miserably slow, so I could not pick up the accelerator much to check out it’s maximum capacity. Kobayashi-san was driving car along the track just parallel to mine and took couple of snaps of me while on the wheel.
After this attraction, we found another attraction, ‘StarJets’ with only 5 minutes waiting time on the way- So, we tried that also. Here the guest can sit in a rocket which spins around a central tower for about 2 minutes.
Through a lift we went up to a dais and from there we ride to this attraction.
Photography was prohibited but still I could not resist myself to take a snap while riding on the rocket above.
After that at around 8:10 PM we went to ‘ Haunted mansion’ where the waiting time displayed as 40 minutes. But within half an hour we were able to take it up. It’s also a dark ride along the ghostly inhabitants..But I didn’t find it scary at all.
When we came out of Haunted mansion, it’s already time for night parade and fireworks –but unfortunately, both were cancelled because of the slight rains in the late evening. So, we went to one last attraction ’Monsters Inc-Ride & Go seek’ -- Kobayashi –san informed that it’s newly added as he had not found it in his last visit few years back --
t is again a dark ride and based on the 2001 Disney·Pixar film ‘Monsters, Inc’..…along with the seat there’s a flashlight and the guest needs find out hiding monsters as moving through different dark room c- a tiny red-light will be flashed on each monster’s helmet as identification mark and guest needs to point the flash light on the monsters’ helmets .
Here, at the closing time also we found a bit long queue and we had to wait for half an hour to take it up,
When we came out , it’s almost 10:pm , closing time of the Disneyland, and we headed back home.
After this Disneyland trip, what I feel is, it’s a very good outing for a whole family specially for kids, very imaginative, well planned for all age group - but hard core adventurous young may not feel most of the attractions so adventurous – and, one day is not at all enough to cover all attractions. If somebody wants to visit for one day only, he or she has to plan it properly before hand to cover at least all the major attractions in one go. We were lucky that 2 Japanese colleagues were with us to guide there but other outsiders might not be so lucky. And the entry fees seemed to me little exorbitant but then it’s expected in Tokyo, being one of the costliest city in the world. Also, the foods inside are bit expensive -- So, to save some extra bucks guests can bring snacks to have it while standing in the long queue for hours .. I had brought ready to eat ‘paratha’ packet … and we had it with butter while in queue as evening snacks. And just outside the main Gate, there’s a picnic area, where the guests can have their lunch in case they bring lunchbox as well.
We stayed there whole day from 8Am to 10PM and covered 14 attractions -- It’s really a big achievement of sort as it was on a public holiday rush. Among those attractions, I liked Splash Mountain and Space Mountain most – I enjoyed the theme of the ‘Star tour’ and ’Pirates of Caribbean’ also—And overall, I must say, I’m satisfied though I’ll not be interested to visit it second time..
