Tokyo Disneyland

Unlike Universal Studios Japan, we just could not get up early enough to queue up at the Tokyo Disneyland entrance to try to beat the crowds and get priority passes to top attractions and rides. Instead, we had a late breakfast at the hotel, then took the free shuttle to Disneyland. On the bright side, we avoided the breakfast crowd and long lines waiting for the shuttle. It was another sunny, hot and humid day in Tokyo.

After arriving at about 10:30 am, we went to the visitor center to figure out the Disney Resort app to sign up for priority passes. The staff spoke very little English, but we managed to understand each other. Some of the rides, like the highly recommended Enchanted Tale of Beauty and Beast ride, could only be obtained by paying for premium passes, at 2,000 yen per person, which we did for the available time slot of 6:45 pm. We also managed to sign up for Big Thunder Mountain ride using the free 40th anniversary pass. A few rides, like It's a Small World and Splash Mountain, were temporarily closed.

My impressions of Tokyo Disneyland? Crowded, crowded, crowded. About as bad as Universal Studios in Osaka, and this was supposed to be a less crowded weekday. A lot of young people in elaborate costumes, lots of princesses, anime characters and the newest craze, characters from Disney's Twisted Wonderland, a mobile game which is very popular in Japan, and only recently released in the US.

We mostly walked around the different parts of the park, got on a few rides with short wait times, watched a street parade in the afternoon from the back of the crowd (people pay for access to the front, sitting on the ground of the sidewalks. Everything was in Japanese, although a few rides had announcements in English and Mandarin.

The high point was having lunch at the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, the line to get in was short, prices were quite reasonable and the restuarant was nice.

The food was pretty good, 8,410 yen ($56.40) for both of us. We also opted for two different desserts in a commemorative cup and a saucer respectively. They even gave us some honeycomb packing paper to protect the souvenirs. Both items got home in our luggage without any issues.

We stayed long late enough to watch the electrical parade, which was nice, but decided to skip the fireworks at 8:50 pm, just 10 minutes before the park closed which would mean very crowded lines at the shuttle stops. Let's hope that tomorrow's visit to DisneySea is a better experience.