Disney - Tokyo Style!

Of the things that Mom and Dad wanted to see, Mom really wanted to go to Tokyo Disney. So we decided to take two days and go to both parks. We planned to go to Tokyo Disneyland on the first day and then Tokyo Disney Sea the next day, staying overnight at a Hilton hotel nearby.

Now as all things Japan tend to be.. it was CROWDED! As we approached it was all cars and busses as far as the eye could see... But - thanks to the hoopty van... we were able to bypass the long carlines and pull right into the handicapped parking areas. Gotta love those handicap stickers on the side of the car!!

Mom and Dad really enjoyed being there - we dropped mom off in the shopping area and she was able to shop and shop and shop while we went off and rode some rides. At Disney, one of the big snacks is popcorn in various flavors. Everyone gets a popcorn bucket and carries it around refilling it at the different kiosks. Flavors range from salted, caramel, strawberry, or chocolate, to more exotic flavors of black pepper, soy sauce, curry, and honey (outside Pooh's ride!). Lines for the popcorn can be 20 minutes or more! Papa and Denny got their own bucket - but oddly enough, Dad said he didn't want to try the Black Pepper! We have all decided that our favorite is the caramel.

The funniest part of the day had to have been when I took them to the Country Bear Jamboree - not sure what they were expecting but when the show started and the songs were in Japanese - mom started laughing so hard she was crying - we understood no words except the occasional "Tennessee." Believe me, you haven't lived until you've seen the Country Bears sing Davy Crockett in Japanese! There was an occasional song in English - but the majority was in Japanese. It was pretty funny!

We were able to see both the afternoon and evening parades which are amazing - the night parade is at least 25 minutes long and the lights are beautiful! 

We stayed the night at the Hilton Tokyo Bay. Japanese hotel rooms are small and often have a maximum occupancy of 3. Nicholas offered to stay with Denny and Papa and we were able to reserve two rooms side by side in the "Happy Magic" rooms... we came up with many ideas as to what we would find in the Happy Magic rooms... but, fortunately for us, the rooms were all designed as if we were in the forest with a fairy princess. The walls were painted with trees and each room had an animal painted around the room - Mom and Dad's room had a frog.. Chris and I had a donkey - wondering if they were trying to tell us which one was the jackass??

The next day we got up and enjoyed a Starbucks breakfast and then headed off to Disney Sea. This park is designed with all of the different harbors of the world in mind - the Mediterranean, New York, Cape Cod, the Arabian Sea, etc. Again, those stickers paid off as we were able to go into the already full lot and get a parking spot that was literally a stone's throw from the entrance! 

Again the park was very full and we were amazed to see that they actually had a line to get tickets for the fast pass - so there literally was a line, to get tickets which would allow you to come back later and stand in line again - this line had to have been 40 - 50 minutes - just to get the ticket. The actual line for the ride was about 60 minutes - wouldn't it have been smarter to just get in line for the ride???? Chris, being the smart and savvy guy that he is, walked right up to the front of the line, told them he was trying to find his wife, and cut to the front to get us our fast passes. There was that American ingenuity  - always figuring out a way to move past the insanity!

Mom was able to do some more shopping, but the stores were very full and we began to see that the way to get around is to either shove or be shoved. Mom quickly learned how to do some shoving of her own... Sydney also became a pro and pushing her way to where the characters were and be able to get her picture made with every single one. There is no line for the characters - they just move around and people swarm around vying for a photo. There were several people that took pictures of Daddy with Chip and Sydney with the various characters.

We left this park after the sun went down - we had had enough of Disney and the hordes of people - plus once the sun went down it was COLD!

As we left, Mom said she had a great time but asked that we please not go anywhere the following day! She was exhausted and needed to rest!