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April 19, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 12 Tokyo DisneySea

Here comes the happiest day of our trip, day 12 we finally went to DisneySea! Having seen some parts of the park from our hotel room window, it felt surreal to finally set foot in there. The Happy 15 entrance gate should be opened at 8.15 am and we went to the line at around 7.45 am. There was already crowd every where, noticeably more on the regular entrances. The Happy 15 entrance also had a fair long queue and I thought to myself the 15 minutes may not be that much help at that rate. Really have to give to the Japanese for their motivation to line up for theme parks so early! The same case happened when we visited Universal Studio Japan, although then we made an effort to came at least one hour before the opening time.

Anyway, let’s talk a bit about DisneySea. As far as my knowledge goes, there is only one DisneySea theme park in the world and it is only in Tokyo. Currently there are seven ports: Mediterranean Harbour, American Waterfront, Port Discovery, Mysterious Island, Mermaid Lagoon, Lost River Delta, and Arabian Coast. So yes, the park is massive and there is no way to enjoy everything thoroughly in one single day visit. But, a good planning ahead and choosing a right day to visit can help to maximise our visit.

As many others have suggested, try to come on either Wednesday or Thursday, avoid public holidays or weekends or school holidays. Make sure to check the crowd calendar to avoid heavy visitors days. If you do not read Japanese like myself, you can translate the page when opening it on Google Chrome. When we went there on December 6th, the predition was going to be well crowded (39,999 people) and sit on the mid range of the crowd prediction. I think the crowd calendar was quite accurate on the day, it was crowded but not that bad. And with the Happy 15, we managed to do all the rides I wanted to try.

Day 12

As soon as the Happy 15 gates opened, the line moved very quickly. The staffs browsed our bags only very briefly then off we went in. Our first destination was Toy Story Mania located on American Waterfront, as were many other people. Along the way, there are many staffs whole waves and smiles and remind people to not run 🙂 As we got to Toy Story Mania, there were already a big line. Hubby went to get the fast pass for 11.30 am and we went straight to Port Discovery for Nemo & Friends Sea Rider. Luckily there was almost no line and we went right in. It was a fun kids-friendly ride despite we do not understand Japanese 🙂

It is also a good advantage to familiarize yourself with the map and locations of rides that you want to try. Because of the huge land size, it is easy to lost yourself in all the other attractions. Getting lost and distracted will leave you with shorter time do the rides you want. They have maps on the show schedule stand and I believe you can always ask the staff for a copy. Also take note of what time your have-to shows started on this notice board near the entrance plaza.

After that, we tried our luck at Lost River Delta for Indiana Jones Adventure. Again, the waiting time from entrance to actually got into the ride was perhaps only 15 minutes. I love this ride, all the little details was meticulous and amazing with a tiny bit of adrenaline kick.

Finishing that ride, we still had more than one hour before we could use our fast pass for Toy Story Mania. So, we went to Mysterious Island for Journey to the Centre of the Earth. This one was a long wait ride, it took us approximately 90 minutes to finally get to the ride. It started as easy ride with beautiful props then it started roller-coaster-like and out of the blue we were out of Mount Prometheus and turned downward right away. I did not see that coming, but I enjoyed the ride and would definitely do it again if not for the long wait!

Next was Toy Story Mania which we agreed is our favourite ride and no wonder as many people would also agree. It is such a fun ride while shooting at stuffs then at the end of it, you get to compare your score to the person you share the seat with. I would absolutely ride this again and again and again, but man, the queue was long. Even to get a fast pass, it already run out so early! 🙁 So, despite we would love to ride few times, we only got one chance. Before we joined the fast pass queue for Toy Story Mania, we actually went to grab another fast pass for Tower of Terror.

We then walked back to Mysterious Island for 20,000 Feet Under The Sea. I had no idea what that was, it sounded cool, right? Turned out it’s such a kiddie ride 😛 But, it was pretty and felt like we were really under the sea. Anyway, there was almost no queue on that ride when we went there. After that, we went for our fast pass queue for Tower of Terror. It was meant to be one of the rides at DisneySea with most adrenaline kick and frankly, we were quite anxious about it. The actual ride was fairly short, but definitely turned our stomachs upside down 😀 I am not a fan of such ride where you get dropped suddenly from height, so I would not look forward to do that again.

Another kiddie ride we took while at Tokyo DisneySea was Aquatopia which we did twice, not really because it was super exciting. Just because we wanted to ride something before the day ended and it was one of the few with significantly less queue 🙂 But regardless, the ride was fun and enjoyable enough. We also did Jasmine’s Flying Carpet and Flounder’s Flying Fish Coaster which the latter we also did twice and I quite fond of. It was a mini coaster with just enough adrenaline kick, a tiny scale in comparison to Raging Spirit. Raging Spirit with its 360 degrees coaster was probably a little out of our league, so we didn’t go for it. Maybe next time going there, I would join the single rider queue for this ride 🙂

The only shows we did at Tokyo DisneySea were Magic Lamp Theatre and the infamous Fantasmic! Looking through the website now, I regret not doing Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage – in fact, we did not pass that at all. Anyway Magic Lamp Theatre was nice even though not understanding Japanese.

The buildings on the background is Hotel MiraCosta

The Teddy Roosevelt Lounge at American Waterfront

Fantasmic was so magical!!! I could not recommend this enough to anyone going to DisneySea. You’ll see people started taking up best seats for the show like two hours before it started. We joined the crowd taking our seats about 90 minutes before it started and sat there in cold. A lot of the Japanese people came here really well prepared, brought their own mat and blankets. We definitely should do so next time, especially during the colder season. But, all that waiting in cold was so paid off when Mickey came to life! The show was magnificent and absolutely made you to be kids again. Love how it ended with the Disney characters parade on the boats, dancing and singing – total highlight of the day!

By the way, getting to restroom after the show finished was somewhat a challenge, all of them had super long queue 😀 We walked around the park once more time and by the time we went back to Mediterranean Harbour, the Christmas Tree Show was just about to start. We stayed for that and realised this was what’s on when we checked in to Hotel MiraCosta last night. Beautiful show complete with fake snow 🙂

Also, do not forget to ride the Transit Steamer Line or Electric Railway to get from one port to the other. It’s fun and you get a glimpse of the theme park from different perspective than walking. We tried to ride the Venetian Gondola, but it was not started yet when we were there. And we did not come back on the time they supposed to run again, so we missed it. We also missed out on the highly recommended Big Band Beat show.

Make sure to drop by inside Mermaid Lagoon, it is very pretty. All the colourful and lighting and underwater-themed truly brings mermaid cartoon to life! And there are also many child-friendly rides here, so if you come here with little kids, I am sure they would totally in love with Mermaid Lagoon.

Inside Mermaid Lagoon – ain’t that pretty?

I thought we did a lot that day and yet we still miss out on so many! It truly was an extremely happy day, being kids again, forget about all the worries in our lives and just enjoy the magical moments. We miss Tokyo DisneySea so much and wish if only they made one in Australia, which I would definitely buy the annual pass then 😀

Anyway, the Christmas Tree show wrapped up our day at Tokyo DisneySea and off we went to Tokyo DisneyLand hotel for the night.

What We Ate Here

There were a few snack food I wanted to try even before came here: weirdest flavoured popcorn, the gyoza steamed bun, and lastly those mochi with ice cream fillings. In fact, I deliberately looked for those mochi here until we found it in a small cart with long queue 🙂 It could be very easily missed but we got them at last. Some of the food we tried were surprisingly yummy. Some others were not that nice and I would definitely not bother with them again next time. Without further ado, here are what we ate at Tokyo DisneySea:

Delicious mochi with ice cream filling (chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavours) – ¥360

Attracted to this snack bar, Barnacle Bill’s, for the nice smoky smell and crowd in front of it

disneysea food — Sausage (with bone) – ¥370. It’s a bit salty to my liking, but cute eh 🙂

Another one that smelled good! – Liberty Landing Diner

Pork roll rice, yummy and hearty! – ¥500

High Tide Treats – saw some crowd in front of it and we got curious – smells sweet and chocolatey

And we got the chocolate Tipo Torta, yummy! – ¥360

Mickey castella cake with caramel cream ¥350 – this would be our least favorite snack at DisneySea.

Delicious gyoza sausage bun from Nautilus Galley – ¥500

Tiramisu Ice Cream ¥310 – was good but did not blow us away

Milk chocolate popcorn ¥310. We did not buy the container package, thinking it would be too much.

Curry naan with rice from Casbah Foodcourt, it was actually pretty good. Worth to try if you come here

The mango lassi, nice and refreshing. Total spent for two servings of food with one mango lassi was ¥2,140

We also got a sausage roll and some hot drinks after Fanstasmic! show which we forgot to take the pictures. The hot apple cinnamon drink, I believe a seasonal menu, was really good. There were actual chunks of apples in it and goes really well with subtle cinnamon flavour. The hot chocolate, on the other hand was so so – but it served the purpose to keep us warm 🙂

Obviously we missed many other good food here, for example spring tail from Sultan’s Oasis; Seaside bun; Gondolier’s snacks and Magellan’s. Let’s save them for our next trip!

April 10, 2018April 16, 2018

Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta

As mentioned in previous post, we left booking for a room here until about three months before our trip. The reason being, we did not plan to stay at any of the Tokyo Disney hotels at all. The plan was to stay at an AirBnb throughout our time in Tokyo and made a day trip to Tokyo DisneySea. That all changed when I researched for DisneySea strategy. While reading on a good strategy to plan for our day there, I bumped into some blogs about the hotels. And there went our initial plan, we decided to splurge and stay just one night at either DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta or DisneyLand Hotel. And as it turned out, we ended up staying one night at each hotel (✿´‿`) But, it was going to be a once in a lifetime splurge (we said at that time, pretty sure we will make up excuses in the future).

Anyway, being three months away from our trip, mostly all the rooms have been booked. And only then I realised majority people actually booked their room six months before, as soon as the booking window become available. The only rooms available when I first looked at it was the suites, which costs range from ¥250,000 to ¥500,000 per night! As much as we liked to, we just could not justify spending that on accommodation just for one night 🙁 So, yeah that was devastating – but as some people suggested, just be persistent and check out the availability page every day as many times as possible. And one day, finally a room became available; even better a Porto Paradiso Side Superior Room with Partial View. Woohooo…

Earlier when we checked in at Tokyo Disney Resort Welcome Centre, Maihama Station, we were also given 3-day monorail passes. DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta is on the third stop of the Mickey-themed monorail ride. We got to the hotel at almost 8 pm that night and were rushing to the lobby; hoping that we could see some fireworks or show from our room or the lobby at least. Our first impression was how grand the hotel is, even from the outside to the lobby! Every details inside the hotels was stunning; especially the ceiling of the rotunda which features paintings of each ports of Tokyo DisneySea.

Check in process took a little longer, I guess because they need to print our customised room key cards. I love how everyone here (staffs and guests) all wore a big smile on their faces 🙂 I am sure it’s true what they say about DisneyLand (or in this case, Sea) is the happiest place on earth, hey? After getting our key cards, we were told to wait a bit in the lobby for the staff to fetch our luggage and walked us to our room. While waiting, I could hear the sounds of fireworks but could not see clearly pass the glass windows. I could only see a giant Christmas tree with a huge crowd all over the place.

miracosta lobby — View of the lobby from upper level

Anyway, eventually we were escorted to our room 4147 and it was amazing with sea themed! I think it shows some signs of ageing but still in great condition. Of course the first thing I did once entering the room, was rushed to the window to see our view. The view was partially blocked, but we could see Mount Prometheus so clearly. And Hotel MiraCosta being the only Disney hotel that is located within the theme park, I could see all those happy faces of the park goers from my window.

The perk of staying at one of the Disney resorts is getting the 15 minutes earlier admission to theme park. You might think 15 minutes does not sound like a long time at all – but it could mean whether you get the Toy Story Mania ride or not. I did not know how true that statement would be until we went to DisneySea the next day! We did not get to try any of the restaurants in this hotel; but our stay was awesome. We had a really good sleep here and we left the windows slightly open through the night so we could hear the Disney songs played from the theme park. Another unverified tip when staying here is to get your park entrance ticket directly from the hotel as well. You may purchase the ticket online after booking your room or do so at check in. I have read that they might offer you a special ticket that can be used to access both DisneySea and DisneyLand; or a free half day ticket. This is unverified because we already purchased our ticket before we decided to stay here, so do let me know if that is true 🙂

Check out process was quick and smooth. We told them we would be transferring to Tokyo DisneyLand Hotel that day and they arranged for our luggage transfer. Oh by the way, they also gave me an “early” birthday card! Inside was the birthday card with a birthday sticker. I did not expect this at all and was overwhelmed with such a lovely gesture 😊

My early birthday card from Hotel MiraCosta

Yes it is pricey, but if you could spare some budget for it, I think you should try staying here to complete your Tokyo Disney experience. It was exciting wake up to DisneySea view so close and seeing the staffs preparing for the day. Then you get to enter the park via a special entrance 15 minutes ahead of the other people (there was actually a pretty long line for the express entrance as well, but it moved very quickly).

Stay tuned for how we spent our day at DisneySea and review on Tokyo DisneyLand Hotel \ (•◡•) /

Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta

Tokyo DisneySea

1-13 Maihama, Urayasu, Chiba Prefecture 279-8519, Japan

www.disneyhotels.jp

March 31, 2018March 30, 2018

2017 Japan Trip – Day 11

On day 11, we would be travelling out from Takayama to Tokyo. We used the free shuttle bus facility by Takayama Kanko Hotel that morning and waited only about 20 minutes or so for our train. The journey consisted of a train ride to Nagoya and another train to Tokyo station. Note: when reserving a shinkansen train from Kyoto or Nagoya towards Tokyo, remember to request seat on the left side. That is because Mount Fuji will be on the left side, and vice versa get seats on the right side when travelling out from Tokyo to Kyoto. This time we actually forgot to ask that when made the reservation, but thankfully the kind officer gave us seats on the left side 🙂

Day 11

Again, do not fall asleep on the train from Takayama to Nagoya. I only managed to take some footage from about half way through the ride. We were so grateful for able to see Mount Fuji with its snowy cap clearly on the ride to Tokyo. Before our trip, I have read many people say that often it’d be too cloudy to see that snowy cap. So, I kind of not letting myself too hopeful about seeing it, but there it was! 🙂 When we first got a glimpse of a mountain with white tip from far distance amongst many other mountains, hubby commented: “Are you sure that one is Mount Fuji? “. And, I had to admit he was correct, I wouldn’t know for sure. But as we got closer and it came to full view, everyone started to take pictures then you know it is indeed the majestic Mount Fuji. We also got another glimpse of it on our way to Haneda Airport before departing the country, truly grateful for these chances.

Mount Fuji viewed from the train to Tokyo

Anyway, our plan today was to get to Tokyo around 1 pm then went straight to Disney check in counter at Maihama Bay. The first things we noticed as we got to Tokyo were it was noticeably warmer and huge crowds in the station. Because it would be too early to check in to the hotel, but we could leave our luggage there and have them delivered to our hotel later. We were super excited to spend the night at Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta that night. We had left it until too late to book accommodation here and I had to literally monitor the web everyday to finally be able to get a room. So, we had our expectation up high on this – but anyway, I’ll do another post just for the accommodation next.

Once we left our luggage, we went back to Tokyo Station then to Asakusa. Our mistake was we used the JR to get to Asakusa-bashi instead of taking the subway to Asakusa which is closer to Sensoji Temple. Oh boy, that was a long walk from Asakusa-bashi to the temple, in which half way through I almost wanted to walk back and gave up. But, in the end we persistently walked to Sensoji Temple. And to make thing worse, we did not have pocket WiFi to access Google Maps. A really big thank you to all the convenience store chains in Japan where they provide free WiFi connection. We stopped at couple of convenience stores to get drink, access to Google Maps, and screen shot our walking journey 😀

asakusa tokyo skytree — Spotted Tokyo Skytree on the way to Sensoji Temple

Some streets in Asakusa near Sensoji Temple

What a relief to finally get to Sensoji Temple, but we actually did not spend long time here. Took a few pictures, walked around the market stalls then headed back towards subway station. On the way to the subway station, we stopped by a ramen shop for quick dinner. Then we made a quick stop at Akihabara, where hubby browsed some shops quickly before headed back to theDisneySea MiraCosta Hotel.

What we ate on Day 11

We had our big breakfast at Takayama Kanko Hotel, as can been on the previous post. When we got to Nagoya, we bought these ekiben for lunch – total ¥2,474. Hubby said his unagi bento was the least delicious unagi he had in Japan. My karaage chicken was delicious and generous portion as well. We also bought a pack of chocolate Pocky for ¥162 for dessert 🙂

ekiben unagi bowl — Unagi rice bowl with (what we think as) shredded fried eggs topping

ekiben special karaage set — Special karaage chicken set

While exploring the market outside of Sensoji Temple, we bought one rice cracker with seaweed ¥120 – but totally forgot to take picture of it 😅

And, these were our delicious warming dinner. The broth was such a delight and the owner was very friendly. The gyoza were delicious with crispy skin. The restaurant detail can be found below and we recommend this ramen place if you are nearby.

Ramen Asakusatai

2 Chome-19-12 Kaminarimon, Taitō-ku, Tōkyō-to 111-0034, Japan

I could not find their website, but this page have a great reference on the restaurant. They even have details on how to put your order through the vending machine. I wished we had learned about this before we came to Japan 🙂

Lastly, we bought this from a vending machine at Maihama Station before proceeding to the monorail to our hotel. I thought this was melon juice, turned out it’s soft drink with melon flavor 😅 Actually we also bought some bread in the convenience store at the station for breakfast the next day, but forgot to take pictures also.