Wednesday, 23 December 2015

Tokyo Day 5 (Part 1): Tokyo Disneyland

You can't see it but I was beaming when I went for breakfast this morning. We're off to Disneyland today, a day I had been dreaming of for more than 20 years!

The hubby was less enthusiastic though and moaned that it would be the last decent breakfast we were going to have in Tokyo since there is no complimentary breakfast at the Disney Hotels.

My daily breakfast of french toast, ham, scrambled eggs and Japanese curry

Our hotel advised us to take a bus to Tokyo Disney Resort from JR Highway Bus Terminal Bus Stop at JR Yoyogi Station. As it wasn't very far, we decided to hop on two cabs to get there so that we don't have to lug our luggages and two kids to the Shinjuku railway station to take the train. Best 2000 yen (1000 yen per cab) we ever spent!

We think there's a typo on this information sheet. The station should be JR Yoyogi Station and not Shinjuku. Price and timings should be correct though.

When we arrived, a kind bus terminal staff helped me with purchasing the bus tickets from a machine (thank God for him otherwise I wouldn't know how to buy the tickets). The tickets cost us 800 yen per adult and 400 yen per child. Much cheaper than taking the cab.

Clockwise from left: The machine where we bought our tickets;
Interior of the bus;
Exterior of the bus, after we had arrived at Tokyo Disneyland.

Thankfully, we managed to catch the bus just minutes before it left so we weren't behind schedule by much. The journey took approximately 50 minutes and we arrived at Tokyo Disneyland around 9.30am.

We had to drag our luggage all the way to Tokyo Disney Resort Welcome Center, which was located next to the JR Maihama Station (Level 2 for guests staying at the Disney Hotels and Level 1 for guests of the other official hotels).

Tokyo Disney Resort Welcome Center

Services provided at the Tokyo Disney Resort Welcome Center include:
  • Pre Check-In (not available in some cases)
    • For guests who arrive earlier than the check-in time
  • Baggage Delivery Service 
    • Guests can have their luggage brought to the hotel free of charge
  • Sale of Park Tickets 
    • We bought the 3-Day Magic Passport (which allows us to visit the parks for 3 days) for 16,600 yen per adult and 10,700 yen per child (4-11 years old)
    • Click for more information on Ticket Prices and Multi-Day Passports

Anti-clockwise from top left: JR Maihama Station;
The busy counters for Disney Hotel guests (relatively short queue for a peak period like ours);
Our many bags to be sent to our hotel! Thank God that we don't have to lug it to the hotel ourselves!

After we had deposited our luggage, we made a short stop at Ikspiari (the shopping mall located beside the welcome center) to buy some bread before heading to the entrance of Disneyland.

Ikspiari
On our way to Tokyo Disneyland

We cleared security, had our tickets scanned and this Disney fanatic has finally, FINALLY come HOME!!! *exuberant grin*

Clockwise from left: A nice family photo at Tokyo Disneyland;
The first building you see when you first enter the park;
Can you sense my excitement? =D
The streets of World Bazaar has been beautifully decorated for Christmas!
A big Christmas tree right in the middle of the World Bazaar

What is Disneyland without its trademark castle?

Cinderella's Castle *whoots*
(technically it is not hers 'cos she married in but who cares? *laughs*)

We were just in time to catch the Christmas Fantasy parade at the Main Street.

Mickey and Minnie parade float
Clockwise from top left: Toy Story parade float;
Lilo and Stitch parade float;
Frozen parade float;
Beauty and the Beast parade float.

The parade will stop for about 10 minutes while the characters dance and wave to the guests. As we were standing somewhere near to Belle and the Beast and not Elsa and Anna, my girl was really upset that we were standing in the wrong spot! I assured her that we would probably watch the parade again since we were going to come back to Disneyland on Christmas day (little did I know that we'll end up watching this parade three times!).

We skipped most of ADVENTURELAND and WESTERNLAND and headed straight for my favourite FANTASYLAND.

The queues were really long because it was the Emperor's birthday (and likely a public holiday in Japan) so we had to be focused on which rides we wanted to spend our time queuing for. Our general rule of thumb when queuing: anything more than 60 minutes is a big no-no, especially when we weren't allowed to push our stroller into the queue. I really cannot imagine having to carry my heavy 12kg Baby Boy for an hour in the queue (we forgot to bring my carrier). Crazy!

Anyway, I'll let my photos do the talking.

Dumbo The Flying Elephant
This was a no-brainer because the queue time was only 20 minutes. Even my baby enjoyed it =)
Snow White Adventures
It was a pretty dark ride which spooked my kids out quite a bit. My girl got over it soon after though and clamoured to go on the ride again (which I declined because I'm not going to queue for it twice!)
Mama's home!!
Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall
Located within Cinderella's Castle, this was a must-visit for the girl and I even though the queue was 60 minutes long!
Taking pictures of the beautiful murals while waiting in the queue
Left: Disneyland takes their jobs very seriously. They're not staff, they're Royal Attendants!;
Right: Girl with one of the many art pieces/exhibits.
A model of the mice making Cinderella's dress
My girl with full size paintings of the Cinderella movie
Cinderella's glass slipper! So pretty ain't it? =)
Trying on the glass slipper... it fits!
The grand chandelier hangs in the middle of an elaborate ceiling. So much attention was given to the details!
Cinderella's throne room
This is where the royal princess sits.
One of my favorite photos of the trip! =)

It would have been nicer if my girl was wearing her Cinderella dress but unfortunately, that was packed up in our luggage on its way to our hotel (forgot to take it out) *sigh*. I guess there's always next time (Hong Kong Disneyland maybe?).

Alice's Tea Party
Basically very colourful spinning cups
It's actually more fun than it looks! My girl had a blast! =)
It's a Small World
The queue was more than 60 minutes long! Sadly, we just didn't have time to queue for this. Maybe I'll get to ride it in another Disneyland (I'm told that this is core ride that is available in most Disneylands).

We moved on to TOONTOWN, possibly the cutest land in Disneyland.

Welcome to TOONTOWN
Left: Even the lamp post is decorated with Christmas elements!
Right: Very cute post office.
Having fun in the post office
Felt like we walked right into a cartoon! My girl enjoyed herself a lot =)

There was a popcorn pushcart in TOONTOWN that sold caramel popcorn with a Minnie Mouse container (there are those with Donald Duck, Stitch, etc), which was simply too cute to resist!

Popcorn in a Minnie Mouse container
(cost around 1600 yen)
Cute and practical isn't it? There are very few people who did NOT buy one hehe

If you bring it back the next day, you can get a top-up of popcorn for just 500 yen.

We had wanted to spend more time there but it was time to head to Disney Ambassador Hotel to check in (part 2 coming up).


Continue to >> Tokyo Day 5 (Part 2): Disney Ambassador Hotel
<< Back to Tokyo Day 4: Tsujiki Market & Tokyo Tower


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