taste is normal only lor. bananas are already normal for us. can just buy one box enough la.

asakusa rusk

Tokyo Disney Sea Part 1

Summing up my Tokyo series would be a visit to the world's famous DisneySea which can be only found in Tokyo, Japan. In other parts of the world there are only Disneylands, which makes this theme park visit even more so special.


DSC06657 by zstan, on Flickr



Before coming to Japan, I've reserved my tickets on the DisneySea website so that I did not have endure a long queue to get my tickets.The whole process was pretty straight forward and all you need is a credit card. You don't have to pay immediately while reserving. It can be done on the day you visit itself. However if you did not turn up then they will charge your card.


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To get to DisneySea, you first have to board the train towards Maihama station. The crowd leading to this station is really packed so be prepared to squeeze your way in. Once I reached, I then headed to the Tokyo Disney Resort Centre located on the 1st Floor of Ikspiari to redeem my tickets. Do note that it only opens at 8.30 a.m so I had to wait under the hot summer sun for awhile before being able to get my tickets lol.


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The ticket costs ¥6, 200 for an adult. I would say it's extremely worth it for the sheer size and attractions offered by the whole theme park. Generally the food and shopping inside is also quite reasonable compared to Sunway Lagoon, Genting Highlands and Universal Studios Singapore.


Disney Sea Monorail entrance by zstan, on Flickr

To get to the actual park itself, you would have to board a monorail in, which costs ¥290 per entry, regardless of which station you drop off. This was really, really expensive for a 2 stop journey.


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The first thing that we did was to store our luggages in the lockers. There are a lot of lockers for rental on offer here ranging from different sizes. Rental fee is only ¥700 for the biggest luggage locker! Quite cheap. Since this period (31/8) is considered a low season since the Japanese high school students' summer holidays have just ended, numerous storage spaces are still available. During winter & spring the competition may be much higher though.


Disney Sea Storage Lockers by zstan, on Flickr


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The lockers can easily fit huge luggages like the ones here.


Upon settling all our heavy luggages we then finally proceeded to the main entrance of the DisneySea theme park.

lol my blog post isn't strictly following chronological order. i didnt go disney sea on my last day at tokyo. i headed to kyoto after tokyo actually so there was no need to catch the flight to haneda

nah still an undergraduate.. yeah no more disount tickets :/

USS is not worth to go at all if you've been to Disney Land/Sea in Japan. USJ should be much bigger i guess.

My Webpage

As we cross the entrance gates we were extremely overwhelmed by the size of the theme park. It really does make Genting Highlands pale by comparison. To make a full round of the whole park may take about 1.5 hours.


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Our plan for the day was quite straight forward: getting the fast passes for all the famous rides and try to catch as many performances as possible. A Fast Pass is a special pass which allows you to skip the long queues and join another special queue line, which technically has a much shorter queue. It's also really convenient thing that they have a notice board which tells you the waiting time for each ride so you can really plan your journey properly.



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It was kinda hard to stick to the plan at the beginning since the park was really beautiful. So we explored it a little bit before proceeding to get our fast passes.


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Crazy, crazy queues at the new attraction, Toy Story. Didn't manage to try this ride though.


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Spotting some of the Disney characters.


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We also explored the nearby souvenir shops in the mean time while waiting for time to pass. The prices here are relatively affordable, if you don't factor the conversion rate. I bought an extremely bright pink Minnie Mouse T-shirt for myself which costed ¥1900.


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Our first enjoyment of the day would be witnessing the performance of DisneySea's very own marching band. The whole show was really energetic and the musicians interacted well with the crowd gathering around them. It was no easy feat considering the fact they were wearing thick costumes on a hot summer's day. Most of the songs are expected, related to the Disney movies. 2 thumbs up!


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Tokyo Disney Sea Part 3 (Minnie's Summer Splash!)

The highlight of the morning was none other than Minnie's Summer Splash which only happens during the summer in Japan! At least half of the park-goers were anticipating for this event. We were told it would be a very wet event and it was evident that most people were well prepared with their rain coats. I was quite defenseless and hence chosen to stay slightly further away from the front line. =3


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In general, the whole event was having fun with the Disney Characters as they dance on their boats muttering in Japanese. Staff's on the ground added on to the fun by guiding to crowd to dance along with the music. It was really a fun filled moment. With the scorching summer sun, we got dried up pretty quickly despite being semi-drenched in water.




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After all the early morning partying we then went to a nearby American styled restaurant nearby the American Waterfront for our breakfast. I ordered a Salmon Bagel which costed ¥620 which tasted really nice for theme park food standards. Though the bagel was a bit tad small.


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lol there's a front view on the girl on the left , no?

21mbps good enough liao la. u want to stream movies mer?

mine was 42mbps and shared with 5 people. no issue at all

hokoso ryokan in osaka about rm150 per person. just right in front of tennoji station. but u have to call them directly to fix a booking.

some might argue its not authentic ryokan though. but sleeping on tatami mats in a japanese styled room is good enough for low budget people like me

well it's a ryokan to me not a 100% authentic one of course

http://www.hokousou.com/e/p01.html

since you've been to tokyo before i suggest you add more days for kyoto. kobe and nara already take one day each. need at least 4-5 days to really cover kyoto.

Tokyo Disney Sea Part 4

After the hearty breakfast we then continued to explore the park. Claiming the Fast Pass has not been a priority yet so far for us lol (though I really wanted to get my hands on the pass for Tower of Terror). We finally tried our first ride which was the train ride that brought us from the American Waterfront all the way to Port Discovery.


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The sight of the theme park on higher ground was simply beautiful. We were also very lucky that it did not rain that day although it was forecasted to. The ride took about 10 minutes to reach its destination. From this you could imagine how big is the theme park that the owners think its worthwhile to build a train ride for just one part of the theme park.


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Port Discovery by zstan, on Flickr

And we explored the area even more as we left the train station. We found a popcorn stall selling strawberry flavoured popcorns and they are really nice. There are other popcorn stalls located across the whole park selling other different flavours.


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And we made our back to the American Harbourfront for Tower of Terror..


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Kawaii-desu


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A showcase of Japanese discipline. Baby prams arranged nicely outside an attraction.


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Finally we secured our Fast Pass for Tower of Terror! The time stated on the pass indicates that you are eligible to use the Fast Pass queue at that interval before it expires. There's another time which indicates the time that you obtain the pass. With the pass you can really plan your time on what to do in the theme park. For us we just lingered around to rest while waiting for time to pass after all the walking in the morning.


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Very nice life band performance using kitchen utensils

depending on stations. best to check with hyperdia.

yes.

yeah preferably. transportation around japan is expensive. you'd want to plan places that are close by.

Omg. Why? Tsukiji is so accessible

Tokyo Disney Sea Part 5 (Tower of Terror, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the Center of the Earth)

Personally, Tower of Terror tops as one of the best rides in DisneySea. The queue for these 2 rides is quite long, even with Fast Pass. We had to queue for a good 30 minutes before entering the ride. The ride itself is actually really plain, but it was the whole setup, decorations, animations that made this ride surprising and thrilling.

On a side note, queuing times are displayed for each ride so you will know roughly how long you have to wait. Good for planning the sequence of the rides and usage of Fast Pass.




Crazy queue without the Fast Pass

After the exhilarating ride we proceeded to the next area and decide on our next ride. Without much contemplation we took the Fast Pass for the 20, 000 Leagues Under the Sea Ride, which we regretted. The ride was nothing to shout about and the Fast Pass could be used for other rides instead. Having said that, it's an experience to try out a simulated submarine ride.







Frozen mango! really nice!





Upon exiting the submarine we then joined the queue for the next ride in the vicinity - Journey to the Center of the Earth. This is also another amazing ride which holds lots of surprises at every bent. Really should have used to Fast Pass for this. Had to wait for almost 1 hour with an empty stomach. Nevertheless it was really worth it.