Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea
July 02, 2006
The lady and I, along with another couple, embarked on a three day Disney weekend. The magic I felt as a kid when I went to Anaheim is definitely gone but I still enjoyed the busy sites and amazing planning at Disneyland and the beautifully constructed sets at Disneysea. I favor Disneysea over Land because a lot of care was made in the design of the sets. It really felt like I was walking through a European city or into an Arabian complex at times. Disneyland had parades every 5 minutes and characters and bubble text all over the place. All told, a very tiring but satisfying weekend away from work and the bustle of real life.
Possibly the most exciting ride at Land
Somehow I seemed to remember the rides in Anaheim were exciting and scary. Not anymore. Every ride we went on ended too quickly and offered more yawning opportunities than thrills. Even the coasters were a bit weak. At the coolest-looking ride, Journey To The Center Of The Earth in Disneysea, you can see the car drop from outside. During the ride we went down a quick fall and the lady turned and asked, “Was that the big drop (that was seen from outside)?” I replied, “No, that was just a warm-up drop. The big one is coming soon.” Right after that, the car pulls in and we have to get off. From outside the ride seemed a lot more exciting.
They built a volcano!
The weather was as agreeable as it could be given it was late June. We had a nice cloudy day, a sunny day, and then a cloudy/sunny/rainy day to finish. On Friday, I think the average wait for every ride was about 30mins, on Sunday, that shot up to about 100mins. I can’t believe Japan’s population is going to shrink. The number of kids at Disneyland on Sunday was just mind boggling.
Surprisingly concession prices were not bad. I didn’t feel any more ripped off than I normally do. Be prepared to buy extra drinks – standing in a line for an hour in the humidity really takes it out of you. I would also suggest a smoked turkey leg (400yen) at Disneyland. They were good eating.
Journey To The Center Of The Earth – [download]
July 6th, 2006 at 14:20
That video freaks me out. When I came to your page, it played automatically and I scrolled down to see what was the commotion. I saw the video just in time to observe what looked like a creepy giant mountain beast climbing out of a cave only to disappear quickly while the crowd below milled about, completely oblivious to the danger. It took a few seconds before I realized that it’s just a roller coaster.
But think about it. If you didn’t know it was Disneyland (or Disneysea), you wouldn’t know it was a short film of a ride. You’d think it was an ominous monster sighting caught on digital flim. I’m not that out of my tree, am I?
July 6th, 2006 at 19:07
Hmm. Weird that it would start automatically. I set autostart off. Anyway yeah that ride looks quite dangerous but it was rather disappointing. Sadly, crowds milling about oblivious to any sort of danger pretty much sums up any big Japanese city. Hehe.
I have a close up of the ride on video as well. Maybe I’ll post that later.