Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Disney Sea
Well, I can and one more Disney park to my list of Disney parks visited. While Heather was here, her, Janet, Tiffany, and myself all decided to spend a day and Tokyo Disney Sea. What is Disney Sea? Well, its like a big kid version of Disneyland, one of which happens to be located right next to Disney Sea and is also on my list of places to visit. But the four of us opted to make this trip Disney Sea only.
Janet, Heather, and I left Yamanashi early and trained our way over to the park, which is actually not it Tokyo, but Chiba. It took about 3 hours to get there. Tiffany didn't join us and she had plans in Tokyo that morning, but said she would meet up with us at the park around noon. From the train station closest to the park you take this cute Disney themed tram to the entrance. You have to pay for the tram just like you would for a train. I really dug the Mickey shaped windows and hand holder things (note the pants...cute!). We got there as the park was opening, but had to wait in a rather lengthy line to get tickets. I would highly recommend purchasing them in advance if you can.
Once through the gate, the first thing you notice is a giant globe. It is also a fountain and the water parts of the globe have actual water running down it. There is also a cute golden Mickey you can take your picture next to but the line for getting your picture taken was outrageously long. Said long line did not make me feel very optimistic about the lines for rides that we would soon be facing.
Once past the globe, the next thing you notice is the giant volcano. It would erupt about every hour or so and shoot out flames and smoke. From the volcano, we went straight to the ride that Janet, who had already been to Disney Sea, most wanted to ride. It was new since the last time she had been and thus she was really excited for it. So we wondered over to the Tower of Terror ride to check out the line, and lets just say, OMG, was it long!
Before I get to far into my Disney adventure, I need to tell you about the fast pass system. Maybe you know about it, but it was my first time visiting any sort of amusement park that had this kind of system. You basically can get a pass that will allow you to pass the main line. You can get them at machines located near any attraction, including stage shows. The ticket will display a time that you can come back and get on the ride. The only problem is that you can only have one at a time and there is no way to cheat the system.
Now, at the tower ride, we faced a dilemma. The line to get a fast pass, looked almost as long as the regular line to get on the ride. Thus, Heather and Janet made the decision to get in the regular line as it might prove to be fast. I decided to pass on this particular ride as, while I'm a huge roller coaster fan, I had straight fall rides and tower drops. They're just no my thing. So I decided to wander around the park and take some pictures and maybe see a stage show while they were in line.
Now here is where the fun begins. If you can call it fun. After walking to the other side of the park, Janet calls me and says that it probably would have been a better idea to get the fast past as there was a huge chunk of the normal ride line that we couldn't see. But, since they were already in line, they decided to stick with it. She called because she thought it would be a good idea to get fast passes for another ride while they were stuck in line. Thus, I trekked back over to the Tower, grabbed their card things, and went to go get fast passes for my favorite ride, Indiana Jones. I then went back to give them their tickets (and yes, this involved a lot of line hopping on my part) when Janet pointed out that one of the 3 wasn't valid. Somehow, I managed to mess up using the machine and didn't realize it. So I had to go back and get one more ticket, which ended up not being for the same time as the other three. Grrr. At around this time, Tiffany also texted me to say she would be here soon, which also led me to realize that she wouldn't have a fast pass for the Indiana Jones ride. Trouble. Anyway, I after my ticket mishap, I didn't have time to catch a show, so I just waiting at the front of the park for Tiffany to arrive. At about the time she got back, Janet and Heather had just finished up at the Tower ride after having waited in line for almost 3 hours. We then began to hit up various other rides while getting fast passes in between them.
In total, I ended up riding, Indiana Jones, Journey to the Center of the Earth, some water ride, and a few roller coasters. I also went to see the Little Mermaid show, which was actually pretty interesting as a lot of it was done with puppets and high wires.
In between all the rides, we picked up some food as well. On of the most interesting and popular snacks available at the park is flavored popcorn. It's available at both Disney Sea and Disneyland in multiple flavors. Disney Sea had plain butter, salt, caramel, black pepper, sesame, chocolate, and my absolute favorite, strawberry. You could pick some up in a small bag for about 300yen or a large cutesy bucket for about 1000yen. I also tried a curry dog, which the park is also famous for. For lunch we stopped at one of the many restaurants and all ended up getting a kids meal. Seriously, who could pass up a Mickey shaped blob of rice?
As the night came to a close, we stopped to try and get some group pictures. However, the spot we chose to try and take pictures at must have been cursed or haunted or something because none of us could manage to get a decent picture, and it was not due to lack of trying on our parts!
Janet, Heather, and I left Yamanashi early and trained our way over to the park, which is actually not it Tokyo, but Chiba. It took about 3 hours to get there. Tiffany didn't join us and she had plans in Tokyo that morning, but said she would meet up with us at the park around noon. From the train station closest to the park you take this cute Disney themed tram to the entrance. You have to pay for the tram just like you would for a train. I really dug the Mickey shaped windows and hand holder things (note the pants...cute!). We got there as the park was opening, but had to wait in a rather lengthy line to get tickets. I would highly recommend purchasing them in advance if you can.
Once through the gate, the first thing you notice is a giant globe. It is also a fountain and the water parts of the globe have actual water running down it. There is also a cute golden Mickey you can take your picture next to but the line for getting your picture taken was outrageously long. Said long line did not make me feel very optimistic about the lines for rides that we would soon be facing.
Once past the globe, the next thing you notice is the giant volcano. It would erupt about every hour or so and shoot out flames and smoke. From the volcano, we went straight to the ride that Janet, who had already been to Disney Sea, most wanted to ride. It was new since the last time she had been and thus she was really excited for it. So we wondered over to the Tower of Terror ride to check out the line, and lets just say, OMG, was it long!
Before I get to far into my Disney adventure, I need to tell you about the fast pass system. Maybe you know about it, but it was my first time visiting any sort of amusement park that had this kind of system. You basically can get a pass that will allow you to pass the main line. You can get them at machines located near any attraction, including stage shows. The ticket will display a time that you can come back and get on the ride. The only problem is that you can only have one at a time and there is no way to cheat the system.
Now, at the tower ride, we faced a dilemma. The line to get a fast pass, looked almost as long as the regular line to get on the ride. Thus, Heather and Janet made the decision to get in the regular line as it might prove to be fast. I decided to pass on this particular ride as, while I'm a huge roller coaster fan, I had straight fall rides and tower drops. They're just no my thing. So I decided to wander around the park and take some pictures and maybe see a stage show while they were in line.
Now here is where the fun begins. If you can call it fun. After walking to the other side of the park, Janet calls me and says that it probably would have been a better idea to get the fast past as there was a huge chunk of the normal ride line that we couldn't see. But, since they were already in line, they decided to stick with it. She called because she thought it would be a good idea to get fast passes for another ride while they were stuck in line. Thus, I trekked back over to the Tower, grabbed their card things, and went to go get fast passes for my favorite ride, Indiana Jones. I then went back to give them their tickets (and yes, this involved a lot of line hopping on my part) when Janet pointed out that one of the 3 wasn't valid. Somehow, I managed to mess up using the machine and didn't realize it. So I had to go back and get one more ticket, which ended up not being for the same time as the other three. Grrr. At around this time, Tiffany also texted me to say she would be here soon, which also led me to realize that she wouldn't have a fast pass for the Indiana Jones ride. Trouble. Anyway, I after my ticket mishap, I didn't have time to catch a show, so I just waiting at the front of the park for Tiffany to arrive. At about the time she got back, Janet and Heather had just finished up at the Tower ride after having waited in line for almost 3 hours. We then began to hit up various other rides while getting fast passes in between them.
In total, I ended up riding, Indiana Jones, Journey to the Center of the Earth, some water ride, and a few roller coasters. I also went to see the Little Mermaid show, which was actually pretty interesting as a lot of it was done with puppets and high wires.
In between all the rides, we picked up some food as well. On of the most interesting and popular snacks available at the park is flavored popcorn. It's available at both Disney Sea and Disneyland in multiple flavors. Disney Sea had plain butter, salt, caramel, black pepper, sesame, chocolate, and my absolute favorite, strawberry. You could pick some up in a small bag for about 300yen or a large cutesy bucket for about 1000yen. I also tried a curry dog, which the park is also famous for. For lunch we stopped at one of the many restaurants and all ended up getting a kids meal. Seriously, who could pass up a Mickey shaped blob of rice?
As the night came to a close, we stopped to try and get some group pictures. However, the spot we chose to try and take pictures at must have been cursed or haunted or something because none of us could manage to get a decent picture, and it was not due to lack of trying on our parts!
