Mason had s short TDY assignment come up at Yakota Air Base in Japan, and since he invited us to go along with him. I was excited, because we had gone back and forth discussing a short vacation this summer and decided against it, but when this opportunity came up it was pretty straightforward and easy for the kids and I to join in on. I was very excited that Mason had agreed and even suggested Disney, because that had been in our travel discussions. Mason and the kids have never been and we had heard from many friends that it's a great experience-and it was.
We had an early flight Sunday morning out of Guam. We were up and out the door by 4:30am with not too many grumbles from the kids. When I was impressed that we fit 1 week of gear into 2 large bags and 2 backpacks. Maximus surprised us with an early morning blowout, but fortunately it was discovered when we arrived at the airport and not on the plane, so I was able to clean him up and utilize the spare onesie I had packed in the diaper bag, although I was hoping this was not an indicator of how the day was going to go. Woodrow was super excited to be getting to fly on an airplane and Theo had already revved up his mouth for a full day of talking.
Mason was given an upgrade to one first class seat and he decided whoever took Max would get to sit in first class. He volunteered to sit in coach with the big boys, so Maximus was spoiled on his first airplane ride ever by riding in first class. I'm spoiled too, because if Mason keeps giving me his upgraded seats, I'm never going to be able to go back to coach, especially on a 16 hour flight back to the states. Theo and Woodrow got plugged into to their ipads and didn't cause any trouble, although apparently didn't want to eat any of their french toast. Maximus did great and despite some wigglyness, he eventually fell asleep which allowed me to enjoy my breakfast and watch "The Girl on the Train". The flight was just over 3 hours and very smooth. It's about my tolerance for air travel.
We arrived at Narita airport and found our luggage quickly, saw a couple from our squadron that was on the same flight, and then made our way to the counter to purchase our Narita Express Bus tickets to Disney. We read that this would probably be the best option from the airport to Disney and it worked out well. The only snafu we ran into later was that we should have taken some time to exchange our money in the airport, but the bus was leaving in 7 minutes so we decided to grab it instead of waiting another 40 minutes for the next one. The bus ride was smooth and took just under an hour and dropped us at our hotel door. Fortunately it was a pretty empty bus so the kids could spread out and have space in their own rows.
We stayed at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel for Sunday and Monday night and the accommodations were very nice. Staying on the property was great because the monorail pass was included with our hotel stay. The monorail station was right outside of our hotel and the entrance to Disneyland was just feet away as well. After checking in and checking our bags we regrouped, washed up, organized the backpack for Disney and set off on the monorail for Disney Sea. I think it was about 11am because we went back an hour traveling there.
With the Disney tickets you have to specify which park you want to go to the first and second day, and then our third day we could split. I decided we should do Disney Sea on Sunday because they had an evening show and I thought we would want our full Disney day at Disneyland and it worked out perfectly. Disney Sea is based on a nautical theme with seven "ports of call" Mediterranean Harbor, American Waterfront, Lost River Delta, Port Discovery, Mermaid Lagoon, Arabian Coast, and Mysterious Island. I would say that while this park does have rides and things geared for all ages, this was a great park for older kids and adults. Two of the main symbols in the park are the DisneySea Aqua Sphere (a water fountain model of earth) and the volcano, Mount Prometheus, in the center of the park. Woodrow thought it was very cool to see it "errupt."
I of course had read about which rides to definitely try to go to because of lines and all that. Having our map was super helpful and we just decided to play things by ear. I decided that we should try to go to the Toy Story ride first because I'd read that sometimes you have to wait oven an hour and the Fast Pass option can sell out. I think we waited about 45 minutes and I was super nervous Mason would not enjoy the lines, plus it was HOT! Everyone was super friendly and Maximus (an American baby with light hair and blue eyes) was a hit!
It was nice that so many rides we were able to take Maximus on, but sometimes we'd have to pair off and take turns with the boys and the height requirement for a lot of rides was 102cm and we joked that Woodrow is about 103cm, and he was so proud he got to wear a special band to show he was tall enough to ride.
We all went on the Toy Story Mania 3D ride and had so much fun! Taking my kids to Disney is truly a memory I'll never forget, they were so excited and got off each and every ride completely animated and wanting to talk all about it. Mason and Theodore rode on the Tower or Terror while Woodrow, Maximus, and I checked out the Turtle Talk with Crush. Theo had a blast although ended up being a little scared about the "Tower of Tear" and Woodrow and I could have done without the Turtle Talk wait. I thought it was more of an aquarium experience but it was an animated turtle interacting in Japanese with the audience. They all thought it was hilarious, we just chuckled and made sure to not get volunteered to participate.
We ended up grabbing lunch at the Zambini Brothers Ristorante and while they took our credit card we realized we'd need yen eventually. Mason had gone a few places to try find an ATM, but it didn't work out for that day. Anyways, after our meal we were ready to explore!
We walked through the Lost River Delta but this had bigger rides and shows that we decided to skip. We tried the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride in the volcano, but it was closed. Our favorite area and the one most focused on little guys was the Mermaid Lagoon, which was based on the Little Mermaids home. I almost peed on myself when I took the two big boys on a small roller coaster. Theo screamed the whole time (happily) and Woodrow kept yelling, "I love this ride". They had such a blast and were cracking me up! After some outside rides we got to cool off inside that Lagoon and get a break from the sun while doing some of the rides inside.
Another one of the big attractions there was the Finding Nemo ride. It was tough because they sometimes wouldn't let one adult go with both kids, but we didn't want to wait forever times two. Fortunately for this ride, the ride attendant gave us an alternate rider card which meant that when Mason and Theo finished the ride Woodrow and I could go straight to the front without waiting. I know they didn't like to do this too frequently or for many of the rides, but it worked out great for this ride and it was pretty cool!
We ended up grabbing another American dinner and ate it by the Mediterranean Harbor while we waited for the evening Fantasmic show to start. This show was at 8pm (remember we got up at 4am). The kids did AMAZING! They were so good. We stayed for the show and headed back to the hotel and were there by 9:00. We had to gather our luggage and head up to the room to get settled. The bellhop was this tiny woman who wanted to tell us every detail of the hotel and hotel room, and I think she was smaller than our baggage. Also she's trying to tell us this in limited English. Mason joked that it felt like an SNL skit. Finally we were settled in our room and we all crashed pretty quickly. We decided that we were just going to wake-up naturally the next morning and not be first in line for Disneyland.
More Pictures:
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