One weekend in the autumn of 2012 I went to Tokyo DisneySea. Going on a weekend rather than a weekday made for a pretty hard day. So honestly I did not particularly want to go.. but things in life do not always go the way you want.
From Tokyo Station on the Keiyo Line to Maihama..
It does not take as long as you would think, but even though it was a train at around 7 in the morning, it was packed with people carrying Disney character goods. On weekends the park opens at 8, so I thought I was leaving fairly early, but it turned out I was not early at all.
Arriving an hour before opening
This is the line that was waiting ahead of us. It looked like several hundred people at the very least.
A Fastpass for Toy Story Mania!
The moment we got in after opening, the morning marathon began. Everyone was running in the same direction, towards the new attraction, Toy Story Mania!. So I ran hard too, and the Fastpass I got after standing in line for an hour was a ticket starting at 9:10 at night. The people behind me could not get one at all, and riding Toy Story Mania! without a Fastpass meant a wait of around 5 hours. I suppose I should call myself lucky. I had no idea DisneySea would be this crowded.
Indiana Jones
Having secured the Fastpass for the one thing I most wanted to do, I could relax a bit. Besides Toy Story Mania!, the must-see attractions (or rather shows) for the day were Big Band Beat and Mystic Rhythms, but Mystic Rhythms was not performing that day, and I lost the seat lottery for Big Band Beat, so I would have to line up for it anyway. So we decided to kill time riding whatever attractions we could until the evening, and the first one we went to was Indiana Jones. Maybe because it was morning, I think we waited about an hour and a half T_T
Raging Spirits
An attraction with a roller coaster that does a 360-degree loop, but this time the line was long and for various reasons we could not ride it.
A Persian palace
There were a few attractions that did not require a long wait.
The midday show
Disney shows and parades are of course more spectacular in the evening, but there was plenty to see at midday too.
The boats leaving
After the show we saw The Little Mermaid and wandered around here and there (the flying Little Mermaid show was well worth seeing), but I did not take many photos.
The sun going down
It is such a good place to pass the time that I did not even notice evening had arrived.
The sun going down
What a lovely view.
The lighthouse
The sun sets in an instant and night arrives. There were fireworks too.
Christmas decorations
There were trees everywhere. There was also a pretty large fireworks show, but again, no photos.
Fantasmic!
The night show on the harbour began. It has a different flavour from the one at Disneyland.
The area around the Big Band Beat theatre
Before Fantasmic! ended we got in line for Big Band Beat. The moment Fantasmic! finished, people came flooding in like a tide. Had we been a few minutes late, we would have waited another hour.
The sign
Everyone danced and sang so well that it was a really fun time. Apparently it did not even need lottery tickets before, but DisneySea was so crowded that we had to go through the trouble of standing in line outside on a cold day, which was a bit of a shame. Anyway, I am really glad we saw it.
The tree
After the Big Band Beat show we went to the plaza and found a huge tree. Beautiful.
Toy Story Mania!
At last, after 9 at night, we went to Toy Story Mania!. It was a fun 3D shooting attraction, well worth the wait. Good thing I ran that morning.
The way home
From 7 in the morning until 10 at night, about 15 hours in total, and it was truly exhausting. I need to work harder on my fitness from now on.