The land of all things cute and where Mickey Mouse lives! So on the 2nd day after our yummy buffet breakfast at the hotel, we got on the monorail to Disneyland. Actually when I was getting ready in the morning, I saw outside our window at 8.30am people were already heading towards the monorail, presumably going to Disneyland or Sea to wait till opening time. And on our last day we actually did see people sitting on the ground outside the gates waiting for the park to open! Die hard fans! We got there about 30mins after opening and it was already packed.
This is even before they open!
First thing we did was to get a Fastpass for Monsters Inc. because it being a new ride I knew that this queue would probably be one of the longest in the park. And I was right as waiting time was already at 70minutes that morning. Everyone else must've had the same idea as us because our Fastpass timing was for sometime way late into the afternoon like at 6pm or something. We also managed to get a Fastpass for Space Mountain after the allowed timing.
If you're going to Disneyland, I think you really need to go there with a plan. Get yourself familiar with the park by downloading the map online before you come and work out where you want to start and most importantly which attractions/shows you might be willing to miss. And don't forget to factor in the timings you'll get stuck watching a parade that you hadn't planned on watching just cos you ran into it right in front of you.
FANTASYLAND
If you have young kids with you, you'll probably spend most of your time at Fantasyland. All rides at Fantasyland are pretty much suitable for young kids with the exception of 2 and that's Snow White's Adventure and Haunted Mansion. Snow White's Adventure is waaay too scary for kids as the main focus of the ride was the wicked witch . There was a lot of cackling sounds and scary lightning sounds etc. I had to cover Caelyn's eyes the whole way and I saw kids coming out of the ride in tears. Haunted Mansion I already knew she wouldn't be able to take it, so she went to ride other tamer rides while we rode it. TDL's Haunted Mansion is slightly different to the US versions and seemed a lot longer too. Seemed more intense too in terms of the scare factor with ghosts unexpectedly popping up.
Haunted Mansion attendants
TOON TOWN
This is probably another place you'll spend lots of time at if you have young kids. It's pretty boring for adults, but the whole area was packed. Long queues at Mickey's and Minnie's House, so we only managed to go to Minnie's House. It was disappointing that the Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin was closed.
All the rides here will have a long queue except for Star Tours (found it a bit boring...I think simulation rides don't hold my interest anymore). Grand Circuit Raceway can have a substantial line, but it moves pretty rapidly. The ride is pretty boring (but the kids like it) because there's not much up and down and landscaped garden to look at. HK Disneyland's Autopia which runs on the same concept was much better. Space Mountain was fun as usual, the difference between HKDL's one is that this one has an Alien theme and the HKDL one has a solar system theme in the waiting area. And at TDL they loaded the cars so fast it was like a production line.
In contrast to HKDL which had no line for Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, TDL's one had a long line. Fastpass this if you can. At HKDL it was nice to be able to get off the ride and just come back on it again immediately.
Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek was ok, not as fun as astro blasters I thought. The ride felt short.
ADVENTURELAND
We went to take Pirates of the Caribbean with Caelyn. From memory of the US one, I thought it was pretty tame, like It's a Small World ride with Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate Life for Me! repeated over and over again. But the TDL's one was on a bigger scale and the ride went longer. There was a surprise drop which kinda freaked out Caelyn and then there was a few more intense scenes with the bigger almost human like animatronics.
We missed out on so much of this area...wish we could've done more.
WESTERNLAND
Here we missed out a bit too. We did get to go on Big Thunder Mountain which was awesome.
At Critter Country we got to ride Splash Mountain, this ride seemed longer than the US version too. We sat on the front of the 'logs' but was glad that we didn't get too wet. And one of the great things I found with TDL is they don't mind that you take a photo of the photo they took of you on screen.
view from Splash Mountain line
Tokyo Disneyland is pretty huge and did you know it's the only Disney park in the world that isn't run by the Disney Corporation, they just get a cut of the profit that's it. The entrance to the park itself is pretty unique in that the whole shopping area which in other parks is known as Main Street is known as World Bazaar and is covered with a sun/rain cover. It's an interesting design but I guess it's really to cover you from the rain and pull you into the shops if it's raining. On the first day at TDL it was actually raining, and a lot of ppl just milled around the shops and bought (expensive) Mickey or Minnie ponchos.
World Bazaar. Ppl wearing Mickey and Minnie Ponchos (they were like 2300Yen each!)
window displays at World Bazaar. So cute!
You can also rent strollers at all the Disney Parks, but the ones they had here are pretty ugly and they don't recline. The HK ones were much nicer and sturdier, wonder why they never swapped over to the new strollers.
Hong Kong Disneyland Strollers
Disneyland, like DisneySea, has a few parades. I think the one not to be missed is the Electrical Parade. It's very pretty.
No comments:
Post a Comment