Tokyo Disney Sea

I heard that Disney Sea is geared more towards adults, mainly couples (from the supposed romantic feel), but I think perhaps we may have a different concept of what is considered "for adults." I will acknowledge that some of the rides were definitely not meant for kids. The Tower of Terror for example, and there are no equivalent adult-level rides in Disneyland. And I'll also acknowledge that some parts of the park have a romantic feel to them. But there were also tons of children's rides everywhere, and the Little Mermaid section was definitely for the kids. Like a giant underwater playground...without the water. Not that it stopped us from enjoying it (especially Lindsey, but I'll get to that later).

Also, some might say that Disneyland is better, especially because it has more rides. But I personally didn't see much of a difference between the number of rides, unless you only count the roller coaster types as rides, and the only difference I really saw was that Disney Sea seemed to have more live shows and performances. But when we went to Disneyland, it was pouring rain all day, so I'm not sure how well I can really gauge that either.

Nevertheless, I had fun and my recommendation is to take a weekend and go see both. Each has different rides, themes, and shows, and it would be silly to simply choose one over another. I am glad I got to see both. It was awesome.

Anyway, with all that said, let's get on with it!

So we took a smaller group than the one I joined in Disneyland. Misa, Haruna, Lindsey, and me. I woke up early with the intention of getting to the park around 7:00, as recommended by my kaiwa (conversation) partner, Misa, who actually works at Disney Sea, and was kind enough to come with me and lead us around. Apparently, I chose one of their busiest weekends, the one before Halloween. I was to meet Lindsey and Haruna at Nishi Funabashi station, and we both (Lindsey and me) ended up being late. I felt really bad because we were supposed to meet Misa at Maihama station at 7:15. I arrived at Nishi Funabashi at 7:15. -_- Though it turned out she wouldn't be at Maihama til 8:30, so, I guess we were all late anyway.

It had been at least 3 weeks since I last saw Haruna. She has been busy with work and school, and it has been hard to find a time to hang out together. When I found her among the throng of people rushing who knows where on a Saturday morning, she came up to me and said just about the nicest thing I have heard in a long time.

"Thuong! You look thinner!"

Haruna, you are, at this moment, my new favorite person.

Once Lindsey arrived, we got on the next train to Maihama. And because Disney Sea is on the other side, we got to ride the monorail to get there. Look! The windows are shaped like Mickey! My inner child was freaking out.

And the rings that you hang on to for balance (if there is an actual term for them, I don't know it) are Mickey-shaped too! Too much awesomeness!

This giant globe fountain greeted us right inside the main entrance.

I think this is my "the sun is blinding me!" face.

Misa, me, and Lindsey

Random marching band!

This will be our first fast pass ride, which turned out to be fun, but really short. I may not have thought the wait worth it without the fast pass.

A souvenir shop in the middle of the Mysterious Island area. I started to notice a very steam punk feel to the style of the architecture in most of the park. Lindsey also noticed it, commenting that many of the Disney movies they used here also seem to have a steam punk feel so it made sense.

The drill digging into the mountain from Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Our first ride. The ride was designed to look like you were going underwater in a submarine. It was pretty convincing. Even if I knew we weren't, I found myself forgetting at times.

Decorations inside as we waited in line.

Arabian Coast area. We went to one of the rides later but didn't get much chance to explore.

Little Mermaid's castle.

We got to meet Genie! We learned you had to be pretty aggressive to get a character's attention, as they're always surrounded by crowds wanting a picture. Stop looking at the kids, look at me! >_>

Our next ride. It was more meant for kids, flying in circles on a carpet, kind of like the well-known Dumbo ride in America's Disneyland but with carpets, but it was a short wait and I enjoyed finally getting that full Disneyland experience, even if it was 20 years late.

Cute little tile murals as we waited in line.

I think this would be my "trying to smile while trying not to drop my camera" face. But at least Misa looks cute.

As we walked to another attraction, we happened upon Chin 'N Dale's Skeleton Fiesta parading down the street.

We next saw a jungle show called Mystic Rhythms, which reminded me a lot of Cirque du Soleil. Misa said it was ok to take pictures as long as there wasn't a backlit LCD screen or flash from the camera, which I could do, but the low lighting would have resulted in bad pictures anyway.

Ah, finally time to journey to the center of the earth.

Very steam punk.

The ride started slow, showing us very well-done animatronics of underground creatures glowing under UV light. Then we went deeper to encounter a pretty nasty looking creature, only to be very suddenly propelled into a roller coaster ride for the next 10 seconds or so (too short in my opinion) to be returned to the surface and the end of the ride. Haruna was quite scared and her head ended up in my shoulder, it was really cute.

Afterward, we headed to Miguel's El Dorado Cantina for some Mexican food. Skylar wouldn't have been very impressed though. But it is the first taco I have had in quite some time.

Misa and Lindsey ordered the special plate.

My teriyaki pork taco. Not bad, and the tortilla was nice and fresh.

This came with the special plate. I am thinking it's maybe a chocolate bread filled with sweet potato whipped cream and a chocolate bat. Japanese sweet potatoes are purple or yellow, not orange.

We then explored Triton's Kingdom, waiting for our next fast pass.

Another kiddie ride.

Walking across net bridges. A bit rough on my knees.

The area was full of maze-like tunnels for you to explore and find different rooms, some from the movie, and others, like this one, with interesting effects.

This wall appeared to be a simple UV glowing color, showing shadow figures that appeared to tell a part of the Little Mermaid story.

Every time the lights flashed, a new scene would appear. But Lindsey discovered something very interesting as she pressed herself like a crazy person against the wall.

Some kids copying Lindsey. Sorry for the blurry shots, but considering how dark it was, the camera did a decent job of capturing the images.

Stay pressed to the wall until the lights flash, and you'll leave a temporary imprint on it. What magic is this?!

Another group of Japanese people hoping to make a human spider-like imprint.

Successful? Hard to tell, they were all crowding around it to look so I didn't get a very good shot.

Oh look, we found Ariel's Grotto.

Oh Lindsey.

A two-way mirror.

Thingamabobs!

Checking out Prince Eric.

Lindsey caught with her perv face.

Ursula's Cave

Ursula talking to us through her mirror.

Lindsey, crawling through one of the tunnels.

Goofy held my hand!

No idea why this was here, but I thought it was cute.

Tower of Terror. I kinda wish we had time to go to this one.

Not the Titanic, but the Columbia. This was located in the American Waterfront.

A female chipmunk. I didn't know there were any, but maybe I am just thinking about Chip 'N Dale, Rescue Rangers. Whoever she was, she had some hips on her.

Lindsey decided she wanted to run through that. I think it would have been more suspenseful, though, if she did it as the spouts were shooting out randomly. Oh well.

Taking a break for some delicious gelato. I got blood orange and chocolate. Yummy.

Lindsey enjoying her chocolate and strawberry.

Everyone gathering for the Halloween Daydream show. We arrived a bit late, so we didn't get the best seats, but it was fun to watch. I kinda wished I brought the telephoto lens, but I didn't want to be lugging around that camera bag all day. Hard to carry it and ride roller coasters at the same time.

Here's a short video of the first part of the performance. Sorry for all the shaking, I am not comfortably situated and had to raise my camera above the heads of the women in front of me.

Stuff was happening all around the Mediterranean Harbor.

Chip 'N Dale show up.

With the rest of the Disney characters.

More skeletons fill the streets.

Some kind of escape pod or something.

Getting in line to enjoy a ride on the water in these steam punk style contraptions.

Look, there's Lindsey and Misa.

More steam punk goodness.

Riding the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull. Maybe the movie wasn't that great, but at least the ride was fun. The Indy animatronic looked just like Harrison Ford. Very convincing.

We came to realize that Lindsey still needed some practice driving manual transmission.

The picture of us on the ride. They don't seem to have a problem with us taking pictures of it on the video screen if we don't want to spend the money to buy it. Misa knew when it was coming so she made a funny face.

Lindsey showing off her masquerade mask they were selling in the gift shops as part of the Halloween special.

We learned our lesson from the first show to come early for better seats for the evening show, Fantasmic. Misa's job let's her be a part of this production, playing one of the animals dancing on the boat. Coolest job ever.

Anyway, my camera, maybe because of the limitations of the memory card, can only take about 20 minutes of video at once. So the video was split into two parts. I was really hoping it was last through the show, but reached 20 minutes less than a minute before it ended. I didn't want to miss recording the big finale so I started the recording again and was able to get the last part.

We got there an hour before the show started, which was fine because I was too tired to keep moving around anyway. We managed to get seats in the arena sitting on one side of the harbor, though I ended up stuck behind a taller man who kept getting into the shot. It's only the bottom edge, but it still bothered me. But about 30 minutes before the show started, they played their nightly fireworks show, with a Halloween twist to it.

Again, sorry for the shakiness of all the videos. Even if I brought my tripod, it wouldn't be tall enough, nor would it have been allowed in the park (safety concerns, the pamphlet says).

And here's the final show before we headed out. I had to split it into 3 parts for youtube to take it. -_-

Fantasmic Part 1

Fantasmic Part 2

Fantasmic Part 3

Heading to the exit. So sad it's all over now. ;_;

One last picture before leaving the park. Goodbye Disney Sea! So much awesome! Can't wait to come here again with Skylar for our honeymoon. We must get one of those weekend passes or something so we can do both and go to Tower of Terror.

Also, a special thank you to Misa and Haruna for accompanying us silly Americans to the park and making animal noises while waiting in line. (A dog in Japanese says "won won.") We had a lot of fun and I am so glad I got to experience it with you both! ^_^

Now that I have spent a ridiculous amount of time writing this, I am going to try to get back to my studying. -_-