Anyone Reading It?

Spent forever blogging about our recent holiday to Tokyo. Wonder if anyone's really Reading it....?

Oh! And I'm loving the new look of my blog. Much better than the previous overly Girly fuschia colour. The banner photo of the sunset through the woods I can proudly say was taken by me on a moving tour bus in 2005 on our holiday of New England...can't remember which state it was at. But I love the photo. It makes you feel calm and serene.


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Food at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea

Food at Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea is not incredibly expensive, comparable to most theme parks around the world. In general the food we had was pretty good. And don't forget the flavoured popcorns!

Cute drinks vending machine at Tomorrowland.....the only one in the park. Same price as the carts vendors tho.

Lemon Churro....not very nice.....cinnamon better

Soy Sauce and Butter Popcorn

from Pan Galactic Pizza Port at Tomorrowland. This was terrible! The bread was stale and was filled with strawberry jam. Came with potato chips and choice of drink. You can get the same lunch box at Toon Town with better choices!

Foot Long Hot Dog

The Tortilla Sandwich and Smoked Turkey Leg was good. Terriyaki Chicken not so good. 

Pretzel with Sweet Cream Cheese filling....not so yummy

Hilton Tokyo Bay and Ikspiari

For our 3 nights at Tokyo Disney Resort, we chose to stay at the Hilton Tokyo Bay hotel which is an official Disney partner hotel. If we could've afforded it, an official Disney hotel such as Mira Costa or Disneyland Hotel of course would've been much nicer. But those hotels cost an arm and a leg! Hilton Tokyo Bay itself already costs quite a bundle but we did get an online special which included daily buffet breakfast. The Sheraton was also of the same rate, but theirs didn't include breakfast. A few other hotels were slightly cheaper such as the Sunroute Plaza Tokyo, but we were triple sharing with my Mum plus bed sharing with Caelyn, so we wanted a bigger room to fit us and all our stuff in. For the minor difference in price, hence we chose Hilton. Plus we thought their breakfast would be pretty good. 

Our room was on the 13th floor which was the highest floor and had sweeping views of -  mainly the carpark - but we could also see the Bayside Monorail Station clearly and we could also see Cinderella's Castle and Space Mountain at Disneyland. And on the other side you can make out the mountain from Mysterious Island at DisneySea and also Tower of Terror. You could also ask for the sea view, but I'm not sure if it would've been any nicer especially late at night as the waters would be all dark. Whereas if you get the park view you can see the fireworks nightly (if you happen to be in the room at that time) and you can also enjoy the changing colours of the roof of Space Mountain and Cinderella's Castle being illuminated. 

Hilton hotel is within walking distance to the Bayside Monorail Station, but if you get tired, there's always the free Shuttle Bus that runs I think every 10-15 minutes. The bus is quite cute - keep your eye on the indicator signals on the back of the bus, when they light up it's in Mickey shape. Bus capacity isn't much tho, so at the end of park opening, it will get pretty full.

The rooms itself is not bad, decor was a little outdated, but didn't bother us. , we had one King Size Plus bed and one foldout sofa bed. The King Size bed was ultra comfortable and fit the 3 of us (could probably even fit 2 small kids) very comfortably. The pillows were a bit uncomfortable tho. The foldout sofa bed also didn't look too comfy, but Mum said it was very comfortable, so I guess it was (or else she would've complained of sore back). Bathroom was standard, except the bathtub was great, the length was longer than your average bathtub, so it's great for tall people like us. 

With the vouchers we got for the breakfast buffets, we were allowed to choose whether we wanted to use it for Breakfast or for Lunch buffet. We choose to do 2 breakfasts and on the last day we used it for lunch just before we took the Airport Limo Bus back to the airport (Yes you can take the Airport Limo Bus booked at the hotel departing directly from the hotel lobby to the airport - very convenient). The breakfast buffet spread isn't as big as most 5 star hotels I've been to. There was ample choices, just that it was 'overflowing' with choices. They have a Japanese section which had miso soup, porridge, pickles, etc. And waffles and omelet station. And also a big ass sign saying Kid's Breakfast where they had Spaghetti, french fries, sausages, bacon, scrambled eggs and curry. The curry was really really nice. Bacon not so great, sausages was alright. There was also a salad bar, fruit bar, beverages bar and bread bar. The croissants were lovely. 

This is what the lunch buffet looks like. It was pretty darn good! The funny thing is they only provide small plates. Even the sushi was only 1 piece on 1 plate and the dim sum was one piece in one little basket. Feel sorry for the dish washers. 

What I loved about the hotel is the 24 hour convenience store where their prices were actually very reasonable. Not jacked up like most hotel convenience stores would be. They also had Onigiris and other ready to eat foods which they can heat up in their microwave for you. The food is pretty much what you'd get in Tokyo convenience stores. It was really great. There was also a small Disney Store there and a ticket booth for your to purchase your Disney Tickets. 

If you decide you don't want to eat hotel food, venture out to Ikspiari near the Disney Welcome Center. Not only does it house tons of clothing shops, tucked away in level 1 is a supermarket and a mini food court. I was so excited when I found the place. There are also various restaurants at Ikspiari as well as a large Disney Store. Nearby there's another disney store called Bon Voyage, sells different stuff to the official Disney Store. Bon Voyage mainly sells stuff you'll find at the stores inside the parks. 

Ikspiari

Bon Voyage store behind (the red building)

NEXT: FOOD AT TOKYO DISNEY RESORT

Tokyo 2010 - Day 7 & 8 - Tokyo Disneyland

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. 

TOMORROWLAND

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.

Caelyn and Daddy also went on the Star Jets ride. I decided to skip it...had enough of spinning rides. The ride was pretty high up, guests had to go up elevators to reach them. I'm sure the views would've been real nice from up there.

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. 

CRITTER COUNTRY

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.

NEXT: HILTON TOKYO BAY AND IKSPIARI