Days 11 - Tokyo Disneyland, Part II

On Wednesday we had absolutely beautiful weather. Since our first day in Tokyo Disneyland was so rain-soaked we decided to spend another day here. There is also more to do here. Today we planned to focus a little more on the parades and shows. We once again showed up around an hour before the park opened and we were kind of middle of the pack to enter the park. Our plan today was similar to yesterday. We grabbed a FastPass to Monster’s Inc. before riding Pooh’s Honey Hunt. We really loved Pooh’s, Honey Hunt. It is such a unique and immersive ride. They really bring the story of Winnie the Pooh and the hundred-acre woods to life. The ride queue consists of giant pages out from the books by A.A. Milne. Every detail – is incredible.

We grabbed a fast pass for Space Mountain before looking for breakfast. We ate at the Great American Waffle. They make large Mickey waffles. We got two, one was strawberry and cream and the other was mango and ice cream. Both were delicious. One of our goals for the day was to eat as much good food as possible – these were a good start.

We rode a few more rides until it was time for the first parade. We found a spot in Frontier land. Here the first three rows of people will sit and one final row will stand. People bring plastic mats to sit on. We did not have a plastic mat so when we found a spot a helpful cast member brought us a couple of fold-up maps that we could use to sit on. People are so kind here. While Alison waited at our spots I went to find a few more snacks. I came back with cheesy potato bites and two slices of seafood pizza. It might sound unusual, but it came highly recommended. It was such a good combination of flavors. I would highly recommend it.

Our first parade of the day was an Easter parade. Alison told me the premise of the parade is that Mickey and Minnie were painting Easter eggs when the eggs began sprouting legs and bunny ears and running around. It was a really high-energy parade with a crazy song and elaborate floats. Alison is a little more into the Disney parades and she quite enjoyed this one. It truly exemplifies Japanese Kiwaii culture – it’s very cute, however, we didn’t feel it would be quite as popular with American audiences. The crowd really got into this parade, singing and doing actions to the songs.

After the parade, we rode Big Thunder Mountain. It was too wet yesterday to ride this one so we held off. This is even more fun in Tokyo. It seems a little longer and was just different enough to be really enjoyable. The other ride we did not ride yesterday but we rode today was the Jungle Cruise. It was all in Japanese, but we have ridden it enough to be able to mostly follow along – even in another language. This version was similar to the one in Disney World.

We ate another great popcorn flavor today – milk chocolate. We saw this flavor in DisneySea, but the line was always very long. Today we found a shorter line and figured it was worth the wait. Milk chocolate and strawberry were our two favorite flavors. We also found this random chocolate treat. It looked kind of like a chocolate churro, but it was filled with chocolate pudding. It was interesting – we thought it would be sweeter, but it wasn’t really sweet. It was still pretty good.

We went to another parade. This was the normal day parade. Once again a cast member gave us maps to sit on. I went to buy water from a nearby drinking station. Some ice was keeping the bottles cold. I paid and grabbed a bottle. Before I could take it the cast member asked me to hand it back. She took the bottle and wiped off the water from the ice before handing it back. Every cast member here is so considerate. This parade was also fun. Alison loved it. She is hoping they bring it to the US to replace the current parade. Although we love the Soundational parade at Disneyland, the parades in Tokyo are longer and the floats are much more elaborate.

We had dinner at China Voyager. This is another counter-service restaurant. We actually read this is the best counter service restaurant at Tokyo Disney. While it has a Chinese theme the food it serves is more Japanese in style. We both had Japanese-style noodle dishes along with a shared pork rice bowl. It all really hit the spot.

We continued exploring the park. We wandered into a glass shop where we watched a craftsman creating a glass Mickey. I could have stood there and watched him work for hours. It was mesmerizing. We also did the castle tour – which was mostly a bust. Inside they told the story of Cinderella, but it was not really worth the time. We did get some great views of the park while the sun was setting.

We wandered around the castle as the sun set until it was time to find a spot for our third and final parade of the day. Alison was very excited about this one. It is called Dreamlights and is Tokyo Disney’s take on the electric light parade. It was spectacular. As with everything else in the park, each float looked like new. There was not a single light or anything out of place. The floats were huge and elaborate. The presentation was a mix of Japanese and English. I think it was easily Alison’s favorite Disney parade.

The parade started with the classic Electric Light Parade music and train and then advanced to beautiful electric floats that included millions of lights and LED screens. The pirate ship float had screens for the sails, so they would change with the dialogue. Alison’s favorite float was the genie from Aladdin which constantly changed from a tourist to a playing card, to a million other costumes. The parade ended with a sequence of floats set to “It’s a Small World.” As we sat and watched the parade in Tokyo, it was easy to see how small our world really is. Traveling the world constantly teaches us things about other cultures and how we are far more similar than we are different. During this trip we were inspired to be more kind and accommodating to people.

We had enough time after the parade to ride Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain. Then we bought some pastries to eat the next morning and made our way out of the park.