The next day both my mom and I were very excited, because on this day we were going to Disneyland! We had breakfast downstairs, put on our Disney ears and went on our way~!
I was honestly a little pissed off at first. We had deliberately chosen the Wednesday to visit Disneyland, because the weather would be really nice. But when we took the metro to Tokyo station it was super grey outside! I was afraid our day would be ruined by the weather, but luckily the sun started shining soon and it turned into a nice day after all! ♥
It took us a while, but finally we arrived at Tokyo Disneyland! ‘Again Disneyland and not Disney Sea?’ you might ask. Yeah, well… maybe someday. x)
We left Maihama station and followed the path to Disneyland. Of course, a traditional picture had to be taken underneath the ‘Dreams&Magic – Tokyo Disney Resort – Imagination’ gate.
We walked on, walked underneath the second, futuristic looking gate and could see the amazing Tokyo Disneyland hotel in the distance. This blue-roofed hotel never ceases to amaze me! ♥ But I think my mom likes it even more. She gets so excited every time she sees it. ^^
We arrived at the bag check, which went quick and smoothly, and then arrived at the ticket gates. We clearly could have just bought tickets there and then instead of going all the way to Ikebukuro: it wasn’t crowded at all (yet)! Oh well.
Our cute tickets (a Mickey one and a Pluto one) got scanned and we were in!
We already spotted several Disney characters and of course the Halloween decorations. Since our first two trips were in October as well, Disneyland was all decorated in Halloween-style. During our last trip, which was in April, Disneyland was decorated in Easter style and filled with pastel colours. I really loved the fact Disneyland had looked so differently for the first time, but I didn’t mind the Halloween decorations again at all of course. ^^ Disney is cute in every style!
I went to ask for a map and programme. I had set my mind on the parades this year: I really wanted to see the two day parades if it was possible!
We also spotted lots of dressed up people already. What makes going to Disneyland in Japan fun for at least 50% is just looking at all the dressed up people. So many visitors, no matter their age, really make an effort to look nice! Sometimes it’s just small details, other times it’s whole groups of unison dressed people. It’s amazing! One little boy just wore a Duffy bear suit, but he was so cute! >0<
We decided to look around and find a Disney character to take a picture with it. I ended up posing with Robin Hood.
Since it wasn’t crowded yet, I suggested to my mom to try and see whether the Monsters Inc. ride’s line was acceptable, so we went on our way. We had wanted to try this ride for at least three years, so maybe this would be our chance! We soon arrived at the ride and the line was more than acceptable, as far as we could see. I tried to check when fastpass time was, so we could avoid it and entered the line. At first we moved along quite well, until we got inside. The line there was very short, however somehow I had missed it was fastpass time after all and we ended up waiting super long! I cannot tell you how much I hate this stupid ticket system. I don’t care how convenient it can be, I think it’s stupid. They let so many fastpass people through at the same time, causing the ‘normal’ people to having to wait for so freaking long. I will never cease to hate this system. x)
By the time it was finally our turn, my mom and I almost didn’t feel like doing the ride anymore! However, it was actually super fun: we both got a flashlight and had to point it at Monsters Inc. logos we spotted, causing all kind of things to happen. From monsters jumping out of lockers to Boo hiding in a pile of laundry. It was quite nice, so at least that made up for the long wait. ^^’
We left the ride and walked around the shop next to it for a bit. When we got outside, I went to check where I could spot the fastpass times for a ride (in case I needed to know for another ride). Suddenly, my mom called for me and when I got back to her I suddenly found myself posing with a cute couple wearing Tigger ears who apparently had been snapped by my mom earlier. Ok then, haha!
My mom and I started walking again when we passed Star Tours, the Star Wars-themed 3D ride. To my great surprise, my mom suggested to try it! My mom is not particularly a Star Wars fan or a 3D fan, but since it was her idea I was eager to participate! I had done this ride with my dad as well during our very first trip and I had enjoyed it tremendously, so I hoped my mom would too.
Star Tours is not only a really cool ride, the waiting line is also amazing. They want to make it seem like you’re going on a journey with an airline from the Star Wars universe, so there are departure and arrival signs everywhere, suitcases and robots fixing things or messing things up. Then, when you finally arrive at the actual movie theatres, they are built like actual space ships! It’s really amazing!
We received our 3D glasses, put on our seatbelts (I was the last one who got it fixed, whoops) and then the ride started. Whooaaa, was it cool! The concept of the story was tiny: our plane was about to leave when Darth Vader showed up, apparently looking for a criminal on board (hilarity ensued when a picture of a Japanese man I sadly don’t know appeared on the screen. I guess he was a politician or something), but of course the plane escaped and zoomed past all kinds of landscapes and planets. It was especially great, because the movements seemed so damn real! Plus, all the Japanese people around us squeaked and squealed with every movement! XD
I couldn’t tell at all whether my mom enjoyed it. The story was different from the ride my dad and I did and was much extremer than I remembered! But it turned out my mom absolutely loved it and it was one of the highlights of her day! We really should have done that ride again, haha! I actually read they recently updated the ride and created several storylines, so we could have gotten a different story! Oh well. ^^
We left the ride and decided to find ourselves a good seat for the first parade of our day. We were a bit early, but this gave us the opportunity to find a bench and to get some food. We soon found a nice spot with a view upon the Disneyland castle.
I suggested I’d get some food while my mom did some people watching. During our previous Disneyland visit, my mom and I had eaten this delicious rice, meat and fries (?) at a restaurant and since you could also get takeaway, it was the most obvious choice of course. ^^ When I walked to the restaurant, I spotted a little stall. I went to check out what the lady sold and it turned out to be the adorable cups of edible Toy Story aliens! I had seen them on pictures many times and wanted to try them so badly, so I decided to get them on the way back. I stood in line at the restaurant, got us two meals and went back for the aliens. Luckily, the stall was still there and I got a cup. The kind lady helped me stack everything on top of each other and I went to find my mom, which didn’t take long luckily. An older man had joined our bench and there were quite a lot of people sitting on picnic blankets, but I managed to get through.
We calmly ate our food (which was so good!) while waiting for the parade to start. I was very excited, since I had been looking forward to the parades a lot! This parade would be the ‘normal’ parade. Disneyland is always decorated in a theme, depending on the season, and has a special parade to go with it (in this case Halloween). There is also a parade with no particular theme, usually featuring as many Disney films as possible. When we went to Disney with the three of us, we wanted to see the Halloween parade, but accidentally sat down for the normal parade. Which turned out to be breath-taking! So I was eager to see what they did with this one. And I was not disappointed. :3
The parade featured dozens of big and minor characters and the cars were beautiful and super colourful. The dancers were jumpy and wonderful and the music was great! I really enjoyed myself and so did my mom. ^^ I will show you some pictures here, but you can see more in my video at the end of this post. Please take a look if you’re interested!
Argh this parade was just too much fun, but cannot share all pictures I have with you! I hope you will enjoy these anyway. ^^ I especially loved Rapunzel, she was so beautiful! ♥
The parade ended and while everyone was getting up, my mom and I tried to the little alien candies. All three of them turned out to have different fillings and were really squishy, I loved them! ^^
My mom and I got up and decided to just walk around for a bit. We spotted a cute stall selling popcorn when we suddenly realised they were selling… the bow boxes! When you buy popcorn, you can also always buy a cute box in the shape of a Disney figure in the theme of the season or some other fun shape. During our previous Disneyland visit, we had spotted one or two people wearing an adorable bow-shaped popcorn box, but we couldn’t find any stall selling them. And now we just walked right into them! You can probably guess what our first purchase of the day was! I even took a picture with the popcorn lady, haha!
We continued our way, walked around the waffle restaurant we know quite well by now and returned to the square in front of the entrance, to see if we could spot some more Disney characters. We did see some, but instead I ended up taking a picture with another cute couple dressed head to toe as Donald Duck. They were quite happy that I asked for a picture with them. ♥
My mom and I wanted to try and ride another attraction, so we decided on It’s a Small World. We walked all the way to the back of the park, passing the beautiful castle in all its glory.
Luckily, as is common with It’s a Small World, the line was very reasonable and we sat down in a boat in no time. The ride was fun as usual, it’s so cute! ^^ I especially love the last ‘room’, where all the children of different countries sing together in sparkly white clothes.
After the ride, we checked out a stall across from the ride where they had a lot of cute Disney ears and other items. We also checked out the Winnie the Pooh shop, which was cute and yellow as ever.
We wanted to try and see the Halloween parade as well, but since there was still time we walked into Toontown. It was quite crowded there, so we didn’t stay for long, but my mom and I did take a nice picture together in a Toontown tram.
We went to find a good seat for the parade (I spotted a really cute girl wearing a Triple Fortune outfit already waiting). The benches were all full unfortunately, so we made ourselves comfortable on the ground.
My mom asked whether it was ok if she walked around for a bit until the parade would start. My mom enjoys all the dressed up people in Disneyland the most, so she asked some people whether she could take a picture of them. Almost everyone was ok with it and some kids immediately posed in the cutest ways! My mom was all happy when she returned.
Before the parade started, the Disney staff showed us a small dance that would be performed in the parade. It was only meant for your arms, so you could do it while sitting down. When my dad and I watched the Halloween parade back in 2011, they also taught us a special dance and the parade was really fun! Unfortunately, this parade couldn’t really please me. It was ok, but the cars weren’t that spectacular, nor were the costumes the Disney characters were wearing. Oh well, it was fun anyway. ^^
After the parade, my mom and I decided it was time to go shopping! We were very close to the roofed shopping street near the park entrance, so we headed that way. The stores were a lot of fun, but were also very crowded. I did see a lot of nice things, too many to describe, but the cute macaron jewelry I had hoped to find again wasn’t in stores anymore. However, I did buy nice things that you can see at the end of this post. ^^
My mom however went wild, haha! She had really been looking forward to shopping at Disney and she really wanted to buy a cool Disney vest again. She ended up with two! She even persuaded me to buy a vest as well (although she didn’t need to try hard, since I found an adorable coloured Halloween vest that was on sale for half price, plus I was cold. XD)! My mom bought quite a lot of nice things, hehe.
Suddenly, I spotted a girl walking around in one of the shops, wearing the most amazing light up shell-shaped necklace! I thought it was so amazing, I gathered the courage and asked her where she got it. At first she almost looked scared, but then she got really helpful and told me she got it at the Mermaid Lagoon at Disney Sea. Disneyland and Disney Sea do have different merchandise, but I wanted to try and see whether I could find the necklace somewhere after all. I even went to ask at one of the shops and when the kind cashier ladies finally understood me, they even went through all the trouble of calling for me! Unfortunately, the necklaces were apparently sold out! I was honestly quite sad about it, but oh well. You can’t have everything. ^^
Our shopping was done and we entered the park again.
My mom and I had decided to not go see the Electrical Parade, since we both had seen it several times. The darkness had fallen, so we just roamed around the illuminated park. The castle looked so beautiful and all the trees had little lights in them. It was like a fairytale!
When we walked past the Philharmagic attraction, I suggested to ride it again though! It’s really my favourite attraction in the whole park and there was no line! The waiting with our 3D glasses on for the show to begin took longer, haha!
Ah, this 3D movie is just so great. I can’t stress it enough. Every time the Lion King part starts I get all emotional, I can’t explain it! The kid next to me didn’t enjoy it so much at first though. x)
We exited Philharmagic when I realised I wanted to see the Electrical Parade after all and my mom agreed, so we went to find a spot. It was quite difficult, since almost everything was full! But we managed. And the parade was so pretty! Apparently they did an update, making the blue fairy even prettier, the pegasuses ridden by knights were replaced by more beautiful models and they added a new car! Rapunzel’s flower-decorated tower with Rapunzel and Flynn passed us by and it was so beautiful… ;_; ♥ I am so happy we watched the parade after all. We barely took pictures this time, but here’s one anyway.
Since it had been my wish for several years to watch the fireworks as well, we waited for them to happen. It didn’t take long and I was so happy that after so many years, I could see them! I love fireworks.
There was actually another show a bit later, showing beautiful projections on the Disney castle, but since we wanted to try and avoid the crowd we decided to leave. It looked amazing even from afar though… Maybe one day!
My mom and I walked towards the exit and took some last pictures. Then we officially left the park.
We briefly visited the shop near the exit, where I tried to find the light up necklace one last time (they didn’t have it) and bought an overpriced pencil (don’t ask).
We took the train back to Tokyo station and the subway back to Shinjuku station. When we arrived there, my mom and I realised we were quite hungry. We had been so busy, we hadn’t eaten in a long time! So we decided to have a quick meal at McDonald’s (where I noticed they had the cutest Sanrio Happy Meals, I totally should have ordered that, haha).
I had spotted a poster showing a huge soft ice cone for only 200 yen, so we decided to try it and see how big it really was. It was big alright. x)
We returned to our hotel and went to bed. It had been an incredible day!
And to end this post with, here is the first video I made about our adventures in Tokyo (there are two parts)! I filmed a lot and tried to make the best videos I could about our trip. I hope you will like it! ♥
You can find day 12 from 6:42 until the end. Please take a look if you want! ♥
Thank you for reading! ~☆~
Everything is sooo pretty and cute ;_; very inspiring!
ReplyDeleteDisney is a very inspiring place! *o*
DeleteIt's so nice to read this since we went there too! :3 The regular and electrical parade seems to be the same. How long was he Halloween one? We had just a New Years greeting parade, which was really short! I was also kinda sad that we didn't manage to see any of the characters around the park. ;_; Was it easy to find them and was there many? I guess they are mainly at he main entrance, right?
ReplyDeleteI also missed those alien candies, damn! Need to go back. XD I also bought that plush macaron thingy, twiiins! :D
I am so glad you like it. =D
DeleteAh the normal parade and the electrical parade are actually quite different. ^^ The Halloween one was really short. I guess it's a lot of work to study all the new dance routines for every new parade, so maybe sometimes they're shorter?
This time I didn't see that many characters either. Usually they hang out all day at the square in front of the entrance indeed, so if you return several times during the day you should be able to meet some. Maybe there are also schedules, but I don't know.
TWIIIINS! <3
Ah I meant that they were the same parades as we saw too, I wonder how often they change it. :D I really want to go back.
DeleteThere seems to be a scheduled Donald Duck meet that you have to get a ticket to, but it seemed that they didn't have it on the day we tried. :< Super disappointed. But good to know! We only returned to the main entrance square once and no-one seemed to be there. Gotta go several times next time! So nice you got a photo with Robin Hood. :3
Hahaha sorry, I am so dumb!
DeleteI guess they don't change the big parades much, as it takes so much time.
Going back several times will surely help! We once went back like three times and we spotted new characters every time! ^^
Haha thank you! <3
Haa Tokyo Disneyland seems to be so much fun ♥
ReplyDeleteIt is~! *o*
Delete