I didn’t even clock the thin layer of underlying anxiety I’ve had this whole trip until I got here. Am I going the right way? Am I gonna be able to figure out how to order food from this restaurant? Are people staring at me? Why are people staring at me? There’s a problem, do I try to address it or just suck it up and drink this coffee they gave me because I can’t explain it in Japanese? (Happened twice. At two different places. I don’t drink coffee. Both times I was trying to order iced oolong tea.) My point is, there’s just been, like, a constant, mostly unnecessary, almost undetectable fight-or-flight protocol running in the back of my brain this whole trip, and I only noticed it once I got here and it was gone, because no matter the language, I know how to Disney.
Staying at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel lets you enter Tokyo Disneyland fifteen minutes early. At any other Disney park, this would accomplish next to nothing, but–and no one warned me about this–Tokyo Disneyland is tiny. It’s way smaller than Anaheim. I’m pretty sure their entire Main Street (it’s called World Bazaar, same thing though) would fit in Magic Kingdom’s Emporium.
So, at this park, fifteen minutes was enough to pass through World Bazaar,
Wait for the inexplicable marching band to pass (oh, hey Pluto),
Get on Star Tours
Take pictures in the totally empty Star Tours queue (how often do you get that chance?)
Ride Star Tours, and queue up for the Monsters Inc ride.
I got some of the new Star Tours scenes, too! Mando, Grogu, and Ahsoka all stopped by.
The Monsters Inc. ride was so cute. It’s a dark ride that basically takes you through the story of the movie, and each seat is equipped with a flashlight. The idea is that monsters are hiding within the scenes, and any time you see a Monsters Inc. helmet you shine the flashlight at it and there’s a little noise to tell you you found the monster and the monster pops out of hiding. It was way more fun than Space Ranger Spin.
It was only 9:45 at this point, but I was hungry and lunch time is an illusion so I stopped for a beef bowl and why don’t we have Mickey eggs in Florida?
There’s some kind of Donald Duck celebration going on in the park right now. I don’t think there’s a particular reason other than ‘we took down the decor from the last holiday and there isn’t another one any time soon’.
The moat here is very shallow.
And they’re building something in Tomorrowland-ish. Anyone know what that is?
There’s a cute li’l Baymax area with a cute li’l Baymax ride that looks a lot like the Alien ride in Toy Story Land at the Studios.
Now this feels familiar. The little town (it’s a quiet village) is laid out just like back home.
…Except they have more cute Beauty and the Beast stuff than I’ve ever seen at home. I had to sit down and do some suitcase math.
Unlike the US parks, the Beast’s castle here in Tokyo has a ride in it. An AMAZING ride. Mechanically it seems very similar to Mickey’s Runaway Railway in that your ride vehicle is a completely free-moving giant teacup. I loved it so much I rode it twice.
(Here’s a gratuitous cameo from my two besties Lumiere and Cogsworth.)
Next door was ToonTown, which seems very similar to Disneyland’s ToonTown.
And then on to Fantasyland and it’s a small world. Tokyo’s version is extra cute because it works in the Disney characters as geographically appropriate.
On top of that, right now for a limited time, Groot and several other Marvel characters are also visiting the ride.
The rest of the park, and the rides therein, were pretty much laid out identically to how they are in Walt Disney World except, you know, closer together. Unfortunately, there is an alarming lack of Dole Whip. The closest I could come here in Tokyo was this mango sundae.
Through what I’m assuming was a combo of short lines and shorter walking distances, I had finished pretty much everything I wanted to do by mid-afternoon, at which time I randomly stumbled across the 3:00 parade, a tribute to Donald.
I did my second ride-through of Beauty and the Beast, did some shopping, and decided to call it an early day. Fortunately, my pals were there to welcome me back to my nice, cozy hotel room.
Tomorrow I get to finally see Tokyo DisneySea!
Laura Writes 