Living in Color (TDR Report Summer 2023)

[Kestryl]

I agree with the times posted, they are really on point. the parks are spotless, as well everywhere we went in Tokyo was clean, even in the train stations, and trains are clean. As well the weather reports are accurate.

For real, it was nice getting accurate times and made planning way easier!

 

[Kestryl]

We recently returned to Australia from Tokyo. In our first few days back home, when out at the parks, etc our toddler kept pointing out litter and asking "what's that". During our time in Japan, she had obviously become very accustomed to a standard of cleanliness and tidiness that is not matched at home!

Tell me about it! Coming back, the second we landed in the Detroit airport, it was like welp, here we are. Instant standard changes!

 

[Kestryl]

So excited for the rest of your trip report! You have already started answering questions I have been having haha

Thanks for tagging along! I'm unfortunately pretty slow with typing this one up, so I appreciate the patience!

 

[Kestryl]

TDR Day 2: WELCOME TO TOKYO DISNEYSEA

In the morning, we headed down to Guest Services and bought our tickets to Tokyo DisneySea, which were about $62 each. We then hopped on the bus and off we went! We arrived at the gates at 7 am, with park opening scheduled for 8:30 am. There was an announcement that played over and over and over that said “WELCOME TO TOKYO DISNEYSEA” and now it’s ingrained in my brain forever.

For the record, I had heard that Tokyo Disney would open its parks earlier than the listed time. This was NOT true for any morning we were there, at least as far as we could tell. We had the 15-minute early entry passes for staying onsite, and they let us in exactly 15 minutes before the park’s official opening time.

So there we were, lined up for entry, and I realized- there’s no way this is the right entry, there are too many people and how would they turn away those who didn’t have a pass? Turns out we had been waiting in the standard line THE WHOLE TIME. The actual 15 minute early entry was beyond the first security checkpoint to the far right, over by MiraCosta. Thankfully we realized this before our early entry passes would have been useless. (We also realized that there was no reason for us to get there that early before park opening- an hour and a half was way overkill with the 15 minute early entry passes.)

In we went, to be greeted with… a giant globe. This isn’t Universal, right?

If you have never been to DisneySea, and you’re wondering if all those people who talk about the beauty of the park are telling the truth, I can assure you- THEY ARE. DisneySea is GORGEOUS. Absolutely gorgeous. And I say that even though parts around Magellan’s were covered in scaffolding. The attention to detail and theming in this park is unmatched. It’s the best of Pandora, Wizarding World, Batuu, whatever, but on steroids. I joke that this park (and Tokyo Disneyland) has wrecked me for all other theme parks, but it’s not totally wrong. The bar is risen.

The entry area is Mediterranean Harbor and themed to an Italian port city. There are a lot of shops and some dining places. The “land” stretches around the harbor itself. It kind of reminded me of Portofino at Universal Orlando, but, you know, MORE.



Most people seemed to make a beeline for Soaring, but we got distracted by characters in front of Mediterranean Harbor! Specifically CLARICE. Clarice isn’t much (if at all) in the US parks, so it seemed like a great idea to stop for a photo with her. Other characters were Mickey, Pluto, Goofy, and I think Minnie. The characters don’t stay out for long at all- I think they leave right around the actual park opening time, probably because they’d get swarmed otherwise. It’s also a bit chaotic compared- there are no official lines, so you kind of have to force yourself to the front (without being rude) and try to get the character’s attention (again, without being rude- the character will “skip” you and go elsewhere). While we lost our benefit in getting first on a ride, I’m glad we did this.

We then headed to Soaring, which had about a 30-minute wait at this point. To be honest, I wasn’t super pumped for this because it’s not a totally unique ride, but I do have to admit that the queue and preshow make this worth it. Instead of a terminal, you go through a museum dedicated to aviation. You know the moving portraits in Forbidden Journey at Universal? The preshow has that, but better. The ride is the same as EPCOT, expect you get Tokyo and DisneySea instead of Paris and EPCOT.

 

[Kestryl]

TDR Day 2: Lost River Delta

We headed over the Lost River Delta, which is generally themed like an archaeological site in a tropical rainforest. We went on Indian Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, which no relation to the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie (thankfully). This is a lot like the Disneyland Indiana Jones ride, just with different scenes.



This area features a Disney character greeting spot for Mickey, Minnie, and Donald. These are all separate lines, and their meets are themed to an archaeology dig or explorer’s camp. As you may be able to tell from my profile pic, I love Donald Duck. He is my #1. So of course we had to meet him.

A few notes on lined character meetings at Tokyo Disney, at least from what we experienced. Number one, you need to hold your bags or whatever throughout the meet and greet. They do not want you to set stuff to the side. Number two, you can only get one posed picture shot. This isn’t a situation where the kids take a picture, then the whole family, then the parents… it’s just one. Number three, the cast members will take your phone to take pictures, and you’ll probably get some interacting pictures and your main shot. Number four, the cast member who took your photo will go to the exit with you and have you check your photos before you leave- which is a super great idea!

Anyways, we met with Donald, he was fantastic as always.



And then I just had to buy a little plush badge of the Explorer Donald we just met. You know, the pin trading culture at Tokyo Disney seems to be very mild (if almost non-existent), but the plush badges? The plush badges are EVERYTHING. When I say plush badge, these are little plush characters that are a combo keychain and badge or pin. People will buy these and pin them to bags. One person we saw had at least 20 different Donalds and Daisys attached to a tote bag.

 

[Kestryl]

TDR Day 2: Arabian Coast

Speaking of Donald, we were there right before his birthday celebration, and Tokyo Disney had just released a Donald Duck collapsible popcorn bucket. The bucket was available at a cart in the Arabian Coast, which is heavily themed to Aladdin and Arabian mythology. So we headed over to there, and thus began our popcorn adventures.

There are many flavors of popcorn at Tokyo Disney. Some are available at both parks, some are available at only one park, some are available at a single park. Off the top of my head, we saw salt, honey, strawberry mille-feuille, milk chocolate, caramel, matcha, garlic shrimp, curry, black pepper, soy sauce, cheddar, and berry cheesecake. And there are many popcorn bucket options- again, some at both parks, some in a single place. These buckets are not your boring standard popcorn buckets. Oh no. They light up, they have moving parts, they collapse. You can buy special tongs to clip onto your bucket so you can daintily eat your popcorn without getting your hands coated in spices. It’s amazing.

Anyways, we picked up a Donald bucket and tongs at the curry popcorn stand. And wow, was it good! (And wow, was I glad we bought the tongs.) The bucket, tongs, and popcorn were $24.45- very reasonable! We sat on a bench, stuffed ourselves with popcorn, and then headed to the best ride at Tokyo DisneySea…

Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage. I’m not even kidding, this was my favorite ride. It is 10 minute of adventure and happiness packaged into a boat ride. It’s about Sindbad, who travels the world with his adorable tiger friend Chandu, saving birds, freeing a Giant, gathering treasure, and making friends with monkeys. But the most important thing? Life is the greatest adventure and your friendships are the greatest treasure. The song called “Compass of Your Heart” and it's by Alan Menken and it is fabulous. This is a do-not-miss attraction.



The rest of the rides in the area are Aladdin-based. We hit up the Magic Lamp Theater, which is a combo 3D movie (with the Genie) and live actors (a magician and his assistant). It’s comedy and theatrical, but understandably entirely in Japanese, so we didn’t get a lot out of it. But it was air conditioned, and at this point in the day a welcome break!

We also went on the Caravan Carousel, a double decker carousel. I wish we would have requested to be on the top level, but I didn’t want to make waves, so we ended up on the bottom level. I think the top level would give a really great look at the land.

 

[Seltzer76]

Following along. Thanks for sharing . I am planning a trip to Japan in June 2024. I'm thinking of 4 or 5 nights at either the Ambassador or Disneyland Hotel (if we can get it of course). I'm also looking at the Hilton Tokyo Bay or Grand Nikko as back ups.

I’m also doing a trip in June! Staying at Hilton Tokyo bay (just booked!) but hoping to change last 2 nights to Mira Costa

 

[Wallyworld81]

TDR Day 1: A Few Notes

I want to comment a bit on operations in the parks.

First of all, whatever the wait time listed is likely correct. Our experiences in the US parks were that the wait times are inflated. In Paris, they could be too much or too little, which made planning pretty difficult (especially when the actual wait time was more than the listed wait time). But in Japan, there were only a few times where the wait time was more than five minutes off.

Second, the general premise for rides in the US is that you just need to get in line before the park closes. It’s our favorite way to do headliners we’ve done before- jump in at the end of the night, two minutes before close, and stroll our in a near-empty park. This does not work at TDR. They close the lines early. Nominally they should close the line so that the last person to ride gets on at closing, but this burned us really bad for Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage on our last night, where the wait time was listed at five minutes, and they closed 20 minutes early. So I’m not sure what the official policy is, but just keep in mind that your approach to rides with longer waits may need to change from your US park style. They also close the shops right at park close. There may be a few exceptions, but don’t count on it. If you want something, buy it then.

Many ride cast members would repeat basic load instructions in English, but this didn’t always happen. Thankfully we are well versed in how ride loading works that we never ran into a problem. To be clear, I did NOT expect them to do everything in English. We are the visitors here, it’s on us to acclimate as best we can!

Also, we experienced zero line cutting, well-defined queues, efficient loading, and exceptionally clean parks.

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Isnt the zero line cutting, well-defined queues, efficient loading, and exceptionally clean parks such a nice drastic change from WDW ?? The first time we went to TDL in 2017 were SO amazed at how much better it was than our home parks and kind of also made us sad that we can't have the same things here ! lol

 

[Kestryl]

I’m also doing a trip in June! Staying at Hilton Tokyo bay (just booked!) but hoping to change last 2 nights to Mira Costa

Yeah, I hear it’s been tough to get onsite reservations. That wasn’t our experience, but we were booking while restrictions were still being relaxed so maybe that’s why?

 

[Kestryl]

Isnt the zero line cutting, well-defined queues, efficient loading, and exceptionally clean parks such a nice drastic change from WDW ?? The first time we went to TDL in 2017 were SO amazed at how much better it was than our home parks and kind of also made us sad that we can't have the same things here ! lol

I think TDR is always going to be in the Disney vacation mix now! Really it was just the flights that were “negative,” but for us it wasn’t that much more than going to Disneyland…

 

[Kestryl]

Note: I haven’t abandoned this, I’m just being particularly lazy about writing this up, ha. Sorry for the slow additions!

 

[helenk]

Than you for the description of your Donald Duck room. I booked the same type of room. I will be arriving this Sunday the 8th and I appreciate the information in your report.

 

[Kestryl]

TDR Day 2: Mysterious Island and Magellan’s

After our trip to the Arabian Coast, we took a quick walk over to Mysterious Island, the central area of the park with Mount Prometheus. It’s inspired by the works of Jules Verne- and, like every other land, absolutely fabulously themed. We only had time to hit up one ride before our reservation at Magellan’s, so we quickly got in line for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a dark ride that sends you “underwater” to Atlantis. Like everything else at DisneySea, this ride (and queue) was very, very well themed, and well worth a couple rides if you can.



Now on to Magellan’s, a fine dining restaurant themed as the meeting place of SEA (the Society of Explorers and Adventurers). As such, it’s themed with old-school exploration décor- paintings, intricate woodwork, and giant globe. Seriously, a giant globe.



This is supposedly one of the tougher places to get into- it’s a lengthy experience in itself. I think we were able to score the reservation because of the allotment for those stay on site. Anyways, if you like lengthy sit-down meals and have the time, this is worth it.

Once we were allowed in- again, they are very time prompt you can’t show up too early- we were brought to an area to sit while they set up our table. We waited maybe 10 minutes before we were brought downstairs to sit next to the base of the giant globe. Our waitress came up to explain the process and the menu. I should mention that this cast member had a translating device, which was incredibly helpful. She wasn’t the only cast member we saw on our trip with this device, but this was probably the one we interacted the most with through it. I’m incredibly grateful that the cast members were so accommodating.

We each ordered one of their multi-course meals (appetizers, main, dessert), and I ordered one of the souvenir drinks. Our total cost was $156.03.

The food was fantastic- though I’m not entirely sure of what everything was. This may not be a great experience for picky eaters. I had read ahead of time to order straight from the menu, no substitutions or changes. We’re fairly adventurous eaters, so that wasn’t a problem. There was some kind of gelatin with a flower in it- you know what, I’ll just post some pictures.









The service was, likewise, fantastic. I will warn again that this is a lengthy experience- we were there for just over two hours. Not that we wanted to rush through it, since the ambiance is incredible and we felt so relaxed.

I should point out that there’s a “hidden” dining area accessed behind a bookcase. It’s themed to a wine cellar. We did not request this- I wanted to let chance decide where we sat, especially because I didn’t want to be a burden for requesting it. It does look super neat though, and I’m hoping to make a return trip at some point to request this space.

 

[Kestryl]

Than you for the description of your Donald Duck room. I booked the same type of room. I will be arriving this Sunday the 8th and I appreciate the information in your report.

I hope you had fun on your trip! I should have asked you to steal that bow pillow for me. (I kid, I kid!)

 

[Kestryl]

TDR Day 2: More DisneySea and Believe! Sea of Dreams

After Magellan’s, we decided to just take a stroll through some of the different areas. While doing this, the we were able to catch the “Harbor Parade” for the 40th anniversary. It’s just one boat that sails around the central area. The boat held Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, Pluto, Duffy, and ShellieMay as they danced to “Living in Color,” the super catchy theme for the 40th. I love this song (hence the title of the trip report). It’s a poppy earworm. (But for those who read my DL Paris report- I still love “Ready for the Ride” and “Un Monde Qui S'illumine” more.)



We also took the time to meet with Mickey and Minnie over in Lost River Delta. The waits for each were about 30 minutes. Like Donald, they only allowed one pose per group, but they did take pictures of us interacting with them as well and had us check to make sure we were happy at the end.

We then staked out an area for the night event- “Believe! Sea of Dreams.” We did not opt for the Premier Access for this night. (We did for Day 4- more on that later.) Much of the prime areas are blocked off for vacation packages, Premier Access, or lottery. I don’t know how you win the lottery- we never won it for anything and found the lottery experience frustrating, so I don’t have any advice there. We ended up on the bridge connecting Mysterious Island to Mediterranean Harbor, which was nice enough. Be warned that people will start staking spots out hours ahead of time, and if you are not in a designated area you will be asked to move along.

The show is marvelous. (Shocking, I know.) The theme is charming- “Every Wish Deserves a Dream.” It features characters from Peter Pan, Tangled, Frozen, Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Moana, and Tangled- the usual suspects lately. The mashup of Moana/Frozen II was particularly stunning. The show is primarily in Japanese, but of course it’s easy to follow. There’s a lot going on with the floats and projections, so I think it’s well worth it to try to catch this multiple times in different places.

 

[Kestryl]

TDR Day 2: Mermaid Lagoon and Some Other Notes

After Believe! Sea of Dreams, we took another spin on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and then headed to Mermaid Lagoon.

We had walked by Mermaid Lagoon earlier in the day and decided to take the night to explore.

The outdoor area has a roller coaster and a “caterpillar” style flat spin ride. We tried out the roller coaster, Flounder’s Flying Fish Coaster, which is basically a kiddie coaster. The seats are pretty tight, so be aware if you’re an adult that you’ll have to cram in.

We then entered Triton’s Kingdom, an indoor area with some smaller kiddie rides and thematic playgrounds.



You guessed it- it was gorgeous. I mean, my jaw literally dropped once we entered. There is a lot to explore here. I will say that we dipped in here on our other DisneySea day, just earlier, and it was much more chaotic than it was at this point, under an hour before park closing. I wouldn’t say we had the place to ourselves, but it was pretty close. There weren’t a lot of other groups there, which made it a great time for us adults to explore the playgrounds (and not feel like we were taking space from an actual kid). I don’t think we saw everything- I would think we were done, and then surprise, another area for us to explore.



A bit about merchandise, since I did quite a bit of shopping this day (and every day, to be honest): I picked up a Linabell plush and ears for $40.98. A Donald Duck Believe! Sea of Dreams plush was $40- the most expensive plush on this trip. A Donald explorer badge was $17.98. Pins ranged from around $7-10 (or more for a set). Pin trading isn’t a big thing at TDR though, so the selection is limited. I’ll re-iterate that if you see something you like, get it, because there’s no guarantee you’ll be able to find it later.

After our day at DisneySea, it was back to the Ambassador Hotel to rest up for another day.

 

[Agent 86]

I don’t know how you win the lottery- we never won it for anything and found the lottery experience frustrating, so I don’t have any advice there.

I don't know whether it was purely coincidence or not, but the only time we had luck with the lotteries during our recent trip was after first buying a Premier Access pass. I'm not sure if buying Premier Access somehow increased the likelihood of winning the lottery (or it was just chance).

 

[Kestryl]

TDR Day 3: Breakfast with Mickey

I am a sucker for character dining. I love the theming and I love the interactions. When we were there, the only character dining offered at the entire resort was at Chef Mickey in the Ambassador Hotel. And since we were staying there, we had first crack at reservations. I’m told this is difficult to get and breakfast is only available for guests at the Ambassador- but the rules seems to be constantly changing.

We checked in for our breakfast. It seemed like they did “shifts” of breakfast, where everyone was sat quickly, did the breakfast, and then cleared the room. It wasn’t the constant turnover we see at the US parks.



Food: The food was served buffet style, with lots of Americanized and Japanese options. Some of the food included pancakes (shaped like Mickey’s head and Donald’s foot), a noodle miso soup, a curry dish, fruit, salmon, bread, pastries, yogurt, rice shaped like Mickey, pasta, French fries, chicken, and DIY cake pops. Yes, this was supposedly breakfast! The food was ok. Nothing amazing. I think this was our most “meh” buffet we’ve had at Disney, I’m sad to say.



Ambience: It seemed like the restaurant was only about a third filled- I’m sure this had to do with limitations from covid. The walls are lined with sketches of Disney characters, and the overall feel is like a slightly classy Chef Mickey. Another fun note: the music was pretty much pulled from the Disney Mania CDs, which made my Millennial soul happy.

Character: The only character at this character dining is Mickey. In the past, they used to have Minnie, Daisy, and Donald. Instead of walking around to each table, Mickey is stationary, and you are brought over to him at a designated time, group by group. Like other character meets, it’s one “official” picture only- so nothing with just the kids, then the whole family, you pick one shot. (Not that it mattered to us as two childless adults in our 30s.) But they did take pictures of us interacting with him, and they had us check our posed shots before we walked away.

We were offered a photo package for about 2000 yen. They took our photo at our table, not with Mickey, and gave it to us in a frame. Not worth it in retrospect, but hey, we were curious, and it was sub $15.

Total cost for two adults: $71.82- including the photo package. Not bad!

We wouldn’t go out of our way to go back (unless they brought back Donald to the meet and greet), but if you’re already staying at the Ambassador Hotel, it’s not a bad deal at all for a buffet.

 

[Kestryl]

TDR Day 3: When the Animatronics Work

Before we headed to Disneyland, we bought our tickets from the front desk (two adult tickets for $120.66 total) and arranged for luggage transfer to MiraCosta. They said we could either eave our luggage in our room, but we opted to bring it down so I could get a paper receipt with a count of our bags. This was a free service offered to us and allowed us to spend the day in the park.

A quick bus ride to Disneyland and we were pack to the parks.

Our first ride of the day was Splash Mountain back in Critter Country. Now, I’m not an avid fan of Splash Mountain. I’m pretty ambivalent to the changes being made in the US parks. I understand why people are excited for the change, and I understand why people love the original ride. But I think we can all agree that the US park versions had a lot of maintenance problems. Can I tell you how amazing it is to ride a Splash Mountain with fully functioning animatronics? Also they have an owl animatronic in the queue. And a significant chunk of the queue as well as the loading area is indoors, so the vibe just felt great. It would definitely be the best of the three Splash Mountains.

(Another thing we noticed: while the theme parks as a whole were the places in Japan where we ran into the most fellow foreign travelers, it felt like the Splash Mountain line was particularly… well, filled with North Americans. There’s a certain novelty, I guess, in seeing a ride that used to exist in the US.)



We headed over to the Woodchuck Greeting trail to meet Donald and Daisy (separate meeting lines). The Junior Woodchucks- not something you see every day! I continued to be impressed with the character meets, which felt efficient but very personalized, despite our inability to speak Japanese. (I remain incredibly grateful for all of the Cast Members who learned English to help our sorry selves out.)



Next up was the Country Bear Jamboree. And once again- what a delight it is to see animatronics not just working but working fluidly. Many of the songs were in English, but there were some in Japanese- the Davy Crocket theme, the main Country Bears theme. Unfortunately, this was probably where we saw the most blatant rude guest behavior. Someone up in the front tried taking photos with flash and full video- the poor Cast Member has to shut them down several times during the show. Still, it was a lot of fun, and most people were respectively and clapped along as appropriate.

 

[Kestryl]

TDR Day 3: Skipping a Line and Waiting for Popcorn

We wandered around for a bit, taking pictures at the castle, and then got some honey popcorn ($2.88 for a single). The line for the honey popcorn cart was LONG. They also passed out pieces of paper so we could write our orders down- I’m assuming to help cut down on mistranslation issues. The honey popcorn was delicious. I practically inhaled it.

And then I did something I had never done at a theme park. I bought a skip the line pass.

Specifically, I purchased two Premier Access Experience passes to the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast for $28.73. I’m not super proud of it. I just knew it would be the best way to spend our time. So instead of waited the two hours to ride, we went straight to the castle.

My gosh, this ride is gorgeous. The queue is gorgeous. Everything is gorgeous. The animatronics are so life-like, the transformation scene is incredible, the movement of the carts is smooth. It’s amazing. But like I said before, I think Pooh’s Hunny Hunt is a better balance of ride and time waiting.



Feeling the Beauty and the Beast spirit, I got in line for more popcorn- the Beauty and the Beast light-up bucket with strawberry mille-feuille popcorn ($24.42). I opted to get the bucket from the Big Top, which had the strawberry popcorn, instead of the cart next to the ride. The lines for both places were long- really, this was a common theme for popcorn places. In retrospect, I’m surprised the popcorn vendors aren’t more efficient overall. Though from what I saw at the Big Top, the guests don’t help. Even after waiting all that time in the line, people were getting up to the front and asking about what this was and what that was. (In English… specifically, American-sounding accents. So, fellow Americans, please try to do your research more before you get to the front.) Yes, the bucket is as pretty as the pictures show. I do not understand how the US parks haven’t brought this one over. It would be a major hit.

With our fresh batch of popcorn, we staked out an area by Tomorrowland to watch the parade. This was about 40 minutes before the parade start, and the sections were already filling up. These sections were sitting sections. From what we gathered, people are expected to sit for parades, which allows better views for everyone. Cast members were quick to redirect people away from trying to squeeze in and they gestured to make sure everyone was sitting.



The parade was the Harmony in Color Parade and heavily featured the “Living in Color” catchy theme. I didn’t love it as much as I did the “Dream… and Shine Brighter!” parade and show from Paris, but I didn’t regret waiting for the parade!

Interestingly, about halfway through the parade during a gap between floats, cast members allowed guests to walk across the parade route. Everyone was super respectful about it too- no one stopped or slowed down, it was a quick process that kept the traffic flowing.