August 4, 2016

Ah, Disneyland. The place where childhood dreams come true. The place to go to cap off life events with a retreat back to your youthful days. Where do you go after graduating high school or college? Disneyland. Where do you go after winning the Superbowl? Disneyland. Where do you go for a bachelor party trip? Cancun . . . (or something like that).

Ok, so a bachelor party gets capped off with a marriage, so I guess we can let that one go.

I grew up near Las Vegas and had relatives living in southern California. I recall making the 4 hour or so car ride to LA and visiting Disneyland while we were there. It was practically a staple of every visit we made. As a child, I remember small rides like Dumbo, the teacups, and It’s a Small World. As I grew into an adult, my preferred rides changed to more exciting ones, including Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.

When I was in high school I was able to travel to Florida and visit Disney World. The Magic Kingdom there was very similar to Disneyland (although larger), but the rides were similar.

While now in Japan, we decided to also visit Tokyo Disneyland. Sasha informed me that this would again would have similar rides as we’ve seen in the US, but there were some new ones and things had to have been updated in the last 10 or so years since I’d stepped foot in a Disney park, other than DisneySea the previous week.

Sasha’s cousin M took a day off from work to go with us, and Sasha also managed to convince her other cousin, K, to join us. K wasn’t too enthusiastic since he had to work the night shift just before, but agreed because he wanted to spend more time with us. K would meet us there once he was done with work, and told us he had not been to Disneyland in over 30 years.

We again got up early and jumped on the train headed for Urayasu, observing all the Duffy stuffed bears in the arms and on the backpacks of the people headed to DisneySea. We arrived at the entrance gate about 30 minutes before opening and stood at the end of a mob of people that somehow managed to form into lines once the doors opened.

There were pretty much all the same rides as we have in America, but definitely some new and updated rides since we had last visited. Notably, these were Pooh’s Hunny Hunt (which appears to be similar but completely different from California’s The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh) and Monster’s Inc. Ride & Go Seek.

The Pooh ride was awesome, I will admit. There were three cars in each tour, which took different tracks. The lead car changed between scenes, so no group really had a better view than another. In one room we were combined with three other groups, and there were nine cars spinning and traveling around the room, intermixing. In the Tigger room, the entire floor bounces the cars up and down. You can clearly see how far the designers have come with incorporating new ideas and technology into the rides. The only downside to this ride was that it is in Japanese and the voice of Pooh sounds like a really old man!

Monster’s Inc was enjoyable, but very similar to the Buzz Lightyear ride, and I love and hate these rides at the same time. There is a lot to see in every room, but I don’t feel like you have an opportunity to follow the story. Each rider is so occupied with finding and lighting up (or shooting) the targets, that you miss everything else. I came out of the ride wanting to go again to just observe and not play the game.

Star Tours has been updated since the last Star Wars movies came out, and it’s much better than the old one. C-3PO now drives the transport and you go through various scenes from ALL the movies. There are 3-4 scenes and each has several options that you can experience. I think they are random. This means that each ride is more than likely going to be different from the previous one, which makes it worth waiting in line for again. I also didn’t get the same motion sickness as I did with the old ride.

Here are a few other observations about the park in comparison with those in the US:

Tokyo Disneyland is much larger and spread out than the original in California. There is more open space, more plazas, and a lot more walking. But it is more crowded so you will wait in line longer. Definitely plan on utilizing the “fast passes”, which have a learning curve but if you can get the timing right, you can maximize your ride count.

The rides are slightly different than the U.S. counterparts, but the theme, the highlights, and the general design is typically the same.

The waiting areas along the lines don’t seem to have been paid a lot of attention. I noticed this at DisneySea as well. There are the random objects to look at, the artwork on the walls, etc., but I seem to recall there being a lot more at the American parks. Considering how much time you spend in line, I wish there had been more to see.

In any case, we had a great time, walked a LOT, ate popcorn out of a plastic R2-D2, and slept really well that night.

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