After such a long day on Sunday, we decided not to rush out to Disney in the morning and just do when everyone woke up. Fortunately the kids slept well (although they are pretty noise in the night). Our hotel was about 2 minutes from the entrance of Disney. We walked over and the kids and I waited in the entrance area while Mason ran to the train station ( 5 minutes away) to try and get some Yen. Lucky for us there were several characters walking around where we were, and even after trying to make a line/wait our turn, the attendants basically told me they don't do lines and to just step in when we can. I was imaging the chaos and rudeness that would occur in America, and because everyone is so polite in Japan, the kids got the opportunity to meet quite a few characters. Eeyore, Fairy Godmother, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum to name a few. Mason eventually met up with us and hadn't had luck getting money, so we took our cash (glad I had left that in my wallet) and exchanged it in the park. While he was doing that the kids got to meet a few more characters and then we set off to try the rides!
After checking out the map and thinking plans over, we decided to pretty much work our way around the park instead of aiming for certain rides. We hit up Pirates of the Caribbean first and it was a hit! I was shocked that the wait for this ride was only 15-20 minutes. It's such a fun experience to go to Disney with the kids. They loved it and their smiles were amazing! After that we hit up the Jungle River Cruise which was pretty funny all in Japanese. After that Mason and Theo went to the Tower of Terror, while Woodrow, Max, and I went to a Turtle Chat with Crush from Nemo. I thought this was going to be more of an aquarium experience, but we found out the hard way that it was an animation who was doing a completely interactive audience show, all in Japanese, so we basically understood none of it.
It was hard to not make comparisons with how things might be in the US, but we left our small umbrella stroller several times in the stroller parking and there were no issues. Many people left lots of belongings with their strollers and I got the sense it was perfectly safe, although we carried our backpack with us. The two more challenging parts of the park which really were not issues at all, were finding food that everyone (mainly the kiddos) would eat and figuring out how to work the rides. Sometimes we could all ride together because Max could sit "unassisted". Since Theo was 5 and not 7 he usually had to go with an adult. On the shorter wait lines we'd just switch out, and for some of the longer rides we were given an alternate rider pass which allowed Mason and a child to ride and then myself and the other child could go right to the front and ride without waiting. We did utilize the Fast Pass on Splash Mountain which worked out great. I guess I should have explained that feature was free to Mason earlier on and we would have used it more. Woodrow was tall enough to do almost every ride that Theo could, and they were so brave! There were some times that Mason got to go with both boys and that was nice because we didn't want to have to wait in line twice, but not everyone wanted to go on each ride, and Max couldn't go on some.
Parades. We lucked out! I had planned for us to checkout the late afternoon parade since they weren't supposed to have the electrical lights parade and the kids were so excited to see so many characters all at one time. Plus, it's Disney, so it's just a good time! I think even Mason was impressed with the grandeur of the parade. We then got lucky later in the evening because they were setting up for another parade and it turned out that it was the electrical light parade which wasn't supposed to open until the next night. It was very cool! We watched that parade while eating our dinner on the parade route and again, the kids had so much fun. The parade ended around 8:45pm and since the park didn't close until 10pm we decided to check out a few rides that were supposed to have a longer wait. We ended up doing the Winnie the Pooh ride, we went back to the PeterPan ride, teacups, and Mason and the kids rode the Star Tours Star Wars ride. This is where the guide books are quiet. They all say get there early, but no one says stay late! There were no lines and it was fairly quiet because so many people left after the parade. We were disappointed and Theo had a few tears that the Monsters University ride was shut down for maintenance. I was bummed too! It's a Small World and the Carousel were also closed during our visit, so I guess we'll have to go back another time.
One of the fun things in the park are different flavored popcorn vendors. We did not try soy sauce or herb, but Theo and I did share a small box of milk chocolate popcorn. Yum!
There were so many ride highlights, that I don't know if I could pick favorites. Everyone enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean, Splash Mountain, and the boys like Star Tours. Maximus did so great considering how much time he was attached to the stroller and barely got naps. Rockstar kiddos!
Tuesday morning we followed the same plan of waking slowly, checking out of the hotel, and then heading to Disneyland. We figured it was worth it to go there for a few hours instead of back to Disney Sea. Who knew we'd stay until 5pm!!! We went and got a Fast Pass for Mason and the boys for Space Mountain first thing, confirmed Monster's Inc was still closed and then waited forever for a Buzz Lightyear ride. We could tell that the park was more crowded than Sunday and Monday, but we basically had two areas we wanted to explore most. We did the rides in Tomorrowland and headed to Toon Town for lunch, some character visits, and some smaller ride. We saw "the REAL Mickey Mouse", and caught the end of the parade before hitting Pirates of the Caribbean as the voted on "one last ride" and heading to the hotel to pick up our bags.
We had to make it to Yakota Air Base that night and whew, what a snafu! Basically I'll BRIEFLY summarize a super stressful night. Full Day of Disney, 2 hours on the train (with a transfer in the BUSY Tokyo Station), getting a little lost walking to the base from the train station (one past where we actually wanted), broken suitcase which Mason basically ended up carrying, hungry kiddos (it was now near 8pm), gate closed when we got there (after about 1.5 miles of walking with kids and suitcases), have to walk to different gate (1.5 miles), meltdowns, taxis won't give us a ride on base because we don't have carseats, have to walk to hotel, two men pity us 2 minutes from lodging and give us a ride, we get a shuttle to our room on the opposite side of base, it's 8:50 all food is closed excpet for pizza, Mason orders pizza, we arrive at room around 9:00. Thank goodness for a 3 bedroom TLF! BATHS and FOOD for all!
More Pictures:
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