There are three Starbucks on our way to the park so that makes it a quick and easy start to the day. The park opens at 9:00 but as Disney Hotel guests we get to access the park 15 minutes early. You'd think that wasn't very much but you get to be in the first 10% of the park entrants which allowed us to get our first ride done before 9:00a as well as get a fast pass to another ride in the early morning. The line up experience was much more orderly then the US. They had attendants getting people into lines and people were sitting on the ground waiting patiently to get in. The only real issue was the heat. There weren't many trees and it's been the hottest days on record in Japan for the past few days.
Main Street was a slightly different experience as the entire area is covered with a skylight. Tokyo weather is much like Vancouver with everything from rain to snow so having the cover for such a large area gives people a place to hide if things get wet. We've been 'lucky' so far when it comes to rain but I wouldn't say the weather has been great. We've started our days at 30 degrees with 70% humidity. I don't really mind the heat as long as I can be out of the sun, however with the humidity you start sweating within seconds and just walking between rides you end up soaked in sweat. I think I may need to throw out some of my clothes.
This particular park is very similar to Disneyland and Magic Kingdom and many of the rides are almost exact copies including Big Thunder, Splash, Pirates and Jungle Cruise. Things are of course a bit different in Jungle Cruise since all the jokes are in Japanese. We have no idea what he was saying but people seemed to laugh the most when he struck what appeared to be a boy band dance pose. Pooh bear was a bit of an oddity with all of the signs in full English including the pages of the books. They even had English for much of the sound track. The ride itself was much better as the cars moved freely rather than on rails and there was more animation.
I headed back to the hotel soon after lunch as per usual and it's standard to check out the confectionary on the way out. I wasn't expecting to see the usual American treats and I was even okay with everything being a bit lower in sugar however what I did find was very disappointing. Rather than fresh food behind glass to choose from the entire place was just stacks of boxes of prepackaged treats. The boxes were also very light for the size, meaning there was just a few small packaged items in each box. A confectionary almost by definition should be freshly baked. Luckily I was able to hit the Godiva chocolate store in the mall.
We headed back to the park for 5:30p as we had a pass for Monsters Inc. Toon Town is much like it was when it was first added to California with the Gadget Coaster and Roger Rabbit. I've never really understood the appeal of Roger Rabbit. I honestly think he was only big because of that sexy red headed character. You don't hear about him at all outside of the parks. Or maybe there is a whole fan base out there that I don't even know about. After Toon Town we went into Small World. The entrance was very different but the inside was the same. I feel they must have recently refurbished because I couldn't see a single speck of dust.
I finished up the evening with Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan before heading back to the hotel. Haunted Mansion had a whole additional component in the graveyard that was very well done. When I got back to the hotel I decided to ask the front desk about where I could get a power converter to work between my computer and the local plugs. Without it I can't charge my laptop to do blogs which isn't the end of the world but is something I enjoy doing. After some hand waving and international sign language for power converter they figured out what I wanted and delivered it to my room successfully.
Monsters inc, Gadget Coaster, Rogers
Smallworld, Haunted, peter pan
Hotel for charger and learning arigato
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