After a night of resting, I woke up on park-hopping day
still feeling quite tired, but determined to enjoy my last planned Disney day –
with a big break this time! This was also an important day for me, as it was my
last planned day at Disney, so this was the day that I would allow myself to
actually shop! I had spent a lot of time looking around the stores, so that I
had seen all of the different styles and types of item on sale, and wouldn’t
therefore buy one item then find a better version later. I was fairly certain I
had a good grasp of what I wanted, what I could afford to buy and what I would
hold off on buying (no matter how hard it seemed!). I had my full Disney
shopping budget in my wallet in cash, and was determined not to overspend it.
I decided that I wanted to try to get on Star Tours and Pooh
one last time, so Disneyland was the natural choice for the morning. I arrived
at the gates around 7:45-8am, sat down in line and ate the bagel I had brought with me while planning my day. The
moment they let us through the gates I was off again to the Star Tours fastpass
queue, and thanks to being well-rested and knowing my way around better, I was
able to get a fastpass for 10am! Wasting no time, I quickly jogged out of there
and headed for Pooh’s Hunny Hunt as fast as my asthmatic body would let me. The
wait was still only 5 minutes, so I was able to have one last chance on the
ride that always makes me smile. I knew the lines for this would be large by
the time I got off and would stay that way for the rest of the day, so I did my
best to sit back, smile, and soak up everything I love about this ride to
remember later.
By the time I got out of Hunny Hunt, the ride lines were decently
long and the park was in full swing. Since it was my last day and I’d already
done all my favourite rides once, I felt comfortable now focusing on my
shopping. I went back into the shop at the end of Pooh’s Hunny Hunt and had my
first proper look there (there’s a door you can take to skip the shop when
leaving the ride, I’d taken it or rushed through the store the other times).
The shop is gorgeously decorated, simply covered in fake honey pots and
honeycomb, and with Pooh related souvenirs EVERYWHERE. Pooh is a big favourite
in Japan. I had a look around, but nothing truly took my fancy more than other
products I had researched or seen previously, so I decided I would return and
buy later if I couldn’t find better. Proud of my first attempts at frugality, I
continued on.
As I left the ride and continued through Fantasyland, I
noticed there was no line at all for Snow White, and the ride attendants were
smiling at me and encouraging me to enter in an oh-so-cute way, so I decided I
would. Snow White’s Adventures is one of the park’s older rides, so it doesn’t
have much to offer in terms of technology. It does however tell a fun little
story, and it serves as a fantastic reminder of how far ride technology has
come when you compare it to the rest of the park.
A WORD OF ADVICE TO PARENTS: This ride is called ‘Snow White’s
Scary Adventures’ in other parks, and I feel the omission of the ‘Scary’ in
this case was a mistake. [MILD SPOILER] The ride is themed around the wicked
witch, who often jumps out or cackles loudly at you throughout the ride. There
is also a haunted trees area that unnerves some people [END SPOILER]. The rides
elsewhere toned down the scary theme of the ride a little in subsequent
renovations and kept the name, whereas here the ride is in its original form
and lost the scary name. In previous rides I have seen smaller children upset
by the ride due to not realising it would be creepy, so please keep this in
mind if you choose to ride with young children.
I managed to get my scaredy cat self through the ride and
out the door in record time, emerging to see a 5 minute wait for the Haunted
Mansion. Being ever the Haunted Mansion fan, I took the opportunity to give it
one last ride. No matter how often I see it, I don’t think I’ll ever stop being
amused by the fact that the Haunted Mansion staff are the only Cast Members that
don’t smile at you like it’s their birthday and YOU just took THEM to
Disneyland. Everywhere else in the park you can’t escape the smiley Japanese welcome
of the Cast Members, but here they all maintain a spooky deadpan. There really
is little that is more amusing than watching a cute little Japanese girl with a
bob cut try to convince you she really is very spooky and doesn’t at all want
to smile. I enjoyed their efforts as I went through the ride, appreciating one
last time the amount they clean the Tokyo version and how you can’t see the mechanisms
of the ride like you can in some versions. That and, you know, giggling like a
little girl at all the attempted jump scares and singing ghosts.
After this I wandered in to Westernland, as I realised that
it was not too long until my Star Tours fastpass window, and I was right near
the Big Thunder Mountain fastpass machines. Big Thunder fastpasses don’t sell
out nearly as fast in Tokyo as they do in other parks as long as there is a
vaguely new ride available. As most of this park’s visitors are locals, new
rides will always trump rides that are good but they’ve ridden several times
before. As such the Star Tours and Monsters Inc. passes were gone by this
point, but lucky me could still get a reasonably timed fastpass to one of my
favourite rides. To waste time until the window I wandered through some of the
more unique Westernland shops checking there wasn’t anything I needed. Most of
it was either stuff that I could get later at the front of the park, Toy Story
toys I could get at DisneySea later if needed, and fake ‘Western’ clothing and jewellery
that is not nearly as exotic to me as it is to the Japanese. So I took some
pictures of Westernland for a while, nabbed my new fastpass and started heading
back toward Tomorrowland.
By this point it was 10am and the Star Tours line was huge. Luckily, my fastpass meant I could skip most of that. I took a nice brisk
VIP walk past all the people waiting in the standby queue. Later suckers! I
waited in the small queue after the fastpass merge point, but the line moved
fairly quickly and yet again I was plucked out by a Cast Member for being a single rider
and skipped a large wait at the end! The ride I took this time was
different than the last one, as the ride randomises each ride from a huge
amount of possible scenes (no Vader this time, but many awesome planet life scenes
instead). Childishly happy with my ride and thrilled with how quickly I got on,
I was back in the courtyard by 10:20am.
At this point I could ignore the siren call of Tomorrowland
shopping no longer, and I was drawn over to the Monsters Inc. shop. Monsters
Inc. is a favourite of mine and I have a great weakness for the merchandise. My
last trip (when I had a lot more spending money) I spent about an hour in this
shop, buying all sorts of things. One thing I remembered from my last trip is
that this store is one of the only places in the world I’ve ever been able to
find blue Monsters Inc. hard hats in adult sizes. They’ve done them for Disney
on Ice shows and promotions, but usually only in the smaller sizes. Here
though, it is expected that young adults in their 20s (and beyond) will want to
wear ‘cute’ things, so the hats are for us too. Last time I should have bought
one, but went with a warm fuzzy Minnie hat instead as it was so cold in
January, and I had regretted not getting the hard hat ever since. I made a
beeline straight for the hats and tried one on. For a moment, it didn’t seem to
fit on my big head, and I was about to get quite sad when I realised that it
was adjustable on the inside and had been adjusted too tight. Crisis averted!
My giant gaijin head only just fit in the highest setting, but it fit me darn
it! I proceeded to wear the adorable, but surprisingly heavy, hat around the
store while I also selected a Mike Wasowski pen, hair ties with Mike and Sully plushies stuck to them, and a few other themed products. Deciding it
was best to stop there before I bought one of the hats that made it look like
Mike was eating your head, I checked out with the lovely Cast Member
who thoughtfully asked if I wanted fragile objects like the pen and the hat
wrapped in bubble wrap.
I then made a little tour through the other Tomorrowland
stores, buying a set of Disney characters as Star Wars characters notebooks for
my friends back home, who are doubly amused by the concept now that Disney has
bought the rights to the Star Wars films. I also picked up a badge that proudly
declared I had travelled on Star Tours, and a couple of sets of 30th
anniversary pens and keyrings for friends and co-workers back home. I decided I
would get out of there without buying any more Disney-as-Star-Wars merchandise,
despite the temptation, as I had decided that the popcorn bucket and the badge
would be enough Star Tours souvenirs for me personally, and I had bought enough Star Tours stuff for others. Once upon a time deciding that and sticking to it
would have been really hard for me, so I did a little victory dance outside the
store and received some ‘Hee hee, silly foreigner’ looks from passing
families.
I then had to head out to Guest Relations at the front of
the park for several reasons. Reason number one, I had heard that you can ask
them for ‘Story Papers’ and receive an envelope of nicely decorated English
language fliers about the story of each ride. I had never had real story papers
in previous visits, and I really wanted to see them. Reason number two was that
after returning home from my last trip to this park I had realised I lost my
scarf, probably leaving it at the parade after sitting on it as a blanket. Back
home I wouldn’t bother going to lost and found as the first person who saw it
would probably keep it themselves, but here in Japan, the land of the honest
passerby and the land of heavy cultural shame at petty theft, I thought I might
have a shot. Reason number three was that I had now visited all of the
anniversary ‘Happiness Spots’ with my ‘Happiness Pendant’, and I knew from
reading Micechat that if you visited three or more you could collect a special
prize, but I couldn’t work out where or how! Reason number 4 was that I knew
there were coin lockers nearby, and I was now carrying quite a few souvenirs
and a heavy hat.
I found a locker for my purchases and got in line at Guest
Relations. Soon enough I had a lovely Cast Member who spoke a little English
ready to help me. I asked ‘Sutori Paipasu o kudasai’ and received my Story Papers
easily. I then explained (with some bad Japanese/miming when needed) that I had
lost my scarf two days ago. The Cast Member then pulled out a special lost
property form and proceeded to help me fill it out. She got me to point on a
map to where I think I lost it. She asked, in carefully thought out English,
for some descriptions of the scarf. ‘Colour?’ ‘Does it have pattern? Stripey?’ ‘Fringe
or no fringe?’ ‘Square shape?’ ‘What brand?’ She then had me fill out my
details, and sent the card out the back for others to look at. Finally I showed
her my Happiness Pendant and how it had the right number of lights etc. She
pulled out one of the tags that was on the pendant when I bought it and asked
where mine was. When I explained it was at home, she told me that I need the
tag to redeem the prize, and showed me a little map on the tag that shows where
you can collect the prize, if you can read Japanese better than I can. She then
asked me to take a seat in the waiting area while they looked for my scarf.
Sitting there, I was a little sad that I probably wouldn’t
get a chance to find my tag and get my happiness medal, but I consoled myself
that the ridiculous, giant Mickey face of lights that is the Happiness Pendant is
a pretty good souvenir on its own. It even talks in Mickey’s voice if you push
the right button, though his voice makes it nearly impossible for me to
understand what he’s saying in Japanese. I also didn’t think they would find my
scarf, but it wasn’t that expensive so I told myself it wouldn’t be that big of
a deal if my carelessness cost me a pashmina. Lo and behold as soon as I made
my peace with this, a very happy looking Cast Member came out with my form and
presented me with my scarf! She then got me to sign the form to say I had received
it, and I bowed and directed several ‘Arigatou gozaimasu’s at the Cast Members
as I left, a grin plastered to my face.
Walking back through the World Bazaar I took my chance to
pop in to the Disney Gallery and see all the amazing concept art for the early
Disney cartoons. I took a couple of pictures before a Cast Member gently
informed me ‘No photo’. I felt a little guilty after that, but I can’t say I’m
not happy with the pictures I now have of some of the concept boards.
The really great find in the gallery however was not the
gallery at all, but the gallery shop. The shop focuses on early Disney feature films, and
while I could have spent the rest of my budget in there, I was happy to come
out with a little box disguised as an old Snow White book, and a card with an
ornately crafted cardboard Alice in Wonderland frame as the front, allowing you
to put a photo in it, or just leave it as is with its adorable artwork.
By now it was almost time for Big Thunder Mountain, so I
headed back out to Westernland, making sure to pass as many delicious smelling
snack carts on my way through as I could. That smell, more than anything,
reminds me of Tokyo Disneyland even years after visiting. Just before this trip,
and years after the last one, I had gone to a Japanese cultural fair in my home
town where a crafty booth had decided to sell ‘Tokyo Disney-style Caramel
Popcorn’. Passing by that booth and smelling that smell was like being slapped
in the face with memories, and it left me smiling all day.
Once I reached Big Thunder it was time for my fastpass, so I
quickly climbed the queue and waited in the small merged queue section before
the ride. Directly in front of me was an American family, one of the only groups
of native English speakers I had seen on my trip so far. It was a father and
his two children, a girl of ten or eleven, and a boy of twelve or thirteen. They had both been on the ride before, but their father hadn’t, and
they spent the entire queue telling him why it wasn’t scary, but was really
cool. Their father was playing hard to get and playfully insisted he wasn’t
sure it was that good, prompting even more excited hyperbole from the kids. It
was cute to watch, even more so when I was put in the back of their ride car.
This ride is fun on its own, but was made even more so by watching these kids
throw their hands in the air and turn their father into a Big Thunder convert. As
we got off the ride and out the exit, it was the father excitedly talking up
the ride to the kids!
After leaving Big Thunder I took my last chance to head over to Tom Sawyer Island and explore. It’s a bit of a time warp looking at this version of the island, as all the other parks have updated and upgraded theirs, whereas Tokyo Disney maintains the original (I’m sure not in small part due to the fact that the racial issues of some of the statues and ‘Injun Joe’ are completely lost on the Japanese).
After leaving Big Thunder I took my last chance to head over to Tom Sawyer Island and explore. It’s a bit of a time warp looking at this version of the island, as all the other parks have updated and upgraded theirs, whereas Tokyo Disney maintains the original (I’m sure not in small part due to the fact that the racial issues of some of the statues and ‘Injun Joe’ are completely lost on the Japanese).
I got on a raft and was ferried across to the island, using one of the English language maps at the raft stop to find my way around. I laughed with other park goers as we stumbled across the barrel bridge, climbed the rocks, and avoided the stream of water occasionally spat by a rock that looks like a skull. I quite liked exploring Fort Sam Clemens, and although lactose intolerant me could not partake of the much lauded milkshakes sold at the canteen here, I did find some immaturely amusing signs.
Heading back to the mainland I wandered over to Toontown to
take some last minute photos, high fiving a few Fantasyland and Toontown
characters on my way through. I also took this opportunity to do some shopping
at the Five and Dime, finding a set of pens topped with Mickey in his
anniversary outfit for each celebration since opening, and a set of mechanical
pencils each topped with Minnie wearing the Cast Member’s uniform for each area
of Disneyland and Disneysea!
Captain Hook's hobbies include photobombing Smee. Also this is the second time this trip that Smee initiated a high five with me!
After this I had done everything I had wanted to do at the
Disneyland park, and I was feeling both tired and hungry. I decided it was
about time for a break, so I wandered out of the park, making sure to say my
goodbyes to everything in my mind, and headed for the Becker’s near the station
to try these burgers I had heard about.
That’s all for today, but please stay tuned for Day 3 Pt 2:
DisneySea Again!
No comments:
Post a Comment