Today was our big day off and we had a couple of choices open to us about what we could do. We could head out to Mt. Fuji or stay in Tokyo. We decided against Fuji because it was too much time on a train and not enough time doing stuff.
Out targets for the day were the Imperial Palace and various museums in the area. The Imperial Palace was a very impressive place from the outside but when we went in, it was under massive reconstruction and almost everything interesting was closed.
Over lunch, we decided our initial plan wasn’t working so we decided to head out to DisneySea and buy a discount Starlight Ticket there. Needless to say, it was a great decision on our part. We had a total blast there!
I was worried for a while about what kind of crowds would be there. It was the first weekend in June, on a Saturday, and there were a million or so cars in the parking lots. I just assumed there would be a ton of kids and parents there. We were pleasantly surprised though, there were quite a few people there but it didn’t seem overly crowded. I guess that a year round school year and school on Saturday kept the number of kids on hand low.
Since our time was limited so we planned to hit as many of the popular rides as we could. It required careful planning and a whole lot of running.
We first started out with Journey to the Center of the Earth (wait time 40 minutes) after snagging a Fast Pass 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea ride for later. The Fast Pass allows you to get into an express line so you don’t have to wait as long. You can only have a limited number of Fast Passes at any one time however so we had to add that factor to our plan .
Journey to the Center of the Earth was pretty fun. After taking an elevator ride down who knows how long, you were ushered aboard a mocked up tunnel car. The attendants said something to us in Japanese. I’m pretty sure it was something like, “please keep your hands in the car” but it could have been anything. The car took us past some of the monsters that showed up in Jules Verne’s book. I know it sounds cheesy just to see some animated whatsits, but at some point you just let go and let yourself be absorbed into the ride. Then you can really enjoy the twists, little detail effects, and surprises that the ride throws at you. The ride ended with the best part, the long, screaming, drop down Prometheus Mountain, the highest point in Disney Sea.
We had hoped that we could get out of Journey to the Center of the Earth in time to go to the Disney-tainment show. When we left the ride and got to the show, the place was already packed and we would have to stand out side the seating area to watch the show. Even in Japan we would have stand up on our tiptoes to see over the gates and crowds. We decided against waiting for the show so we killed time in some nearby stores and restaurants and got a few pictures of Pluto until we stood in line to Encore!
While shopping, I tried on a pair of Mickey ears. A Japanese girl asked us if she could take our picture with her phone. I guess foreigners with Mickey ears are unusual for a picture. We naturally said yes but I think I surprised her when I pulled out my business card and asked her to email me the photo. She eventually did and it turns out she was an English major in college. Wherever you are lovable-dog.7.8.9@docomo.ne.jp, thanks for the photo!
Encore! (wait time 35 minutes) was a show featuring a collection of famous Broadway songs with accompanying musical and dancing numbers to go along with it. The show was in a beautiful theater in the corner of the park. We got great seats right in the middle about the 8th or 9th row. One of our fears about coming here is that everything, including the music, would be in Japanese. Fortunately, only the I recognized many of the songs but couldn’t place them with their accompanying musicals. There was music from Cats, West Side Story, Cabaret, and Oklahoma sung and danced wonderfully. Much fun was had by all.
Our next target was the StormRider just north of us. We knew it was going to be a popular ride since all the Fast Passes for it were already used up when we got to the park. True to our fears, there was an 80 minute line so we decided to go to the Indiana Jones ride to get a FastPass for later and catch a show in the meantime.
The show we went to see was called Starlight Jazz. We arrived fairly early (25 minutes) and got decent seats where we could see and be comfortable. We had to wait for about 10 or 15 minutes and the jazz band came out and played for us before the main event. They were pretty good and a nice set up for the main event.
The Starlight Jazz show hit a lot of the standard jazz tracks from the early jazz era. The host of the show was probably an American who was supposed to be channeling Cab Calloway but he didn’t really sound like he had jazz training. He had a great voice but it was too clean. The lady that sang a lot of the jazz songs, and who was also probably American, was a different matter. She had some great pipes and belted out some great music. The backup band, again, was great and they had some good dancing as well. We very much enjoyed ourselves.
After Starlight Jazz, we hustled to 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. We were proud of ourselves when it took us only 12 minutes to take our seats on the next ride. That was even after stopping to snap a few pictures of the Nautilus below us.
20,000 Leagues Under The Sea was a pretty neat ride. You sat in a tiny replica Nautilus in front of a bubble window. The window was filled with water so it looked like you were underwater all the time. It was a pretty convincing illusion since they pumped bubbles into when you were submerging and when you looked at the car in front of you it looked like the entire thing was underwater.
Next we headed to Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull ride. We had FastPasses to this ride but it still took us 30 or so minutes to get on, not too bad. You boarded a ‘jeep’ and headed out to follow Indy on his adventures. The jeep passed by some perilous places like a old rope bridge that collapses at the last second that had us screaming. Occationally, Indiana Jones would pop up and tell us something in Japanese. Oh well you can’t have everything. The ride ends with the big boulder coming down on your jeep, and that’s where they take the commemorative picture. Yup, I looked really funny screaming like a girl.
After the ride we waited on one of the Lost River Bridges for about 15 minutes for the nightly firework show across the way in nearby Disney Land. Unfortunately, we waited in vain since it was canceled due to weather. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with the weather just a large cloud moving in the distance. It was our major bummer of the day.
It was getting late and we only had time for one more ride, StormRider. So we split up, Shannon stayed in line at Storm Rider and I went after the delicious Strawberry popcorn that we had been smelling all day. When I got back to the line, an act that would get me yelled at in American, nothing happened. I guess I just played the stupid foreigner card just right.
StormRider was a lot of fun if a bit confusing. When we finally got into the building where the ride was, we got a lecture in Japanese about what StormRider was. I didn’t get much from the lecture except that StormRider is supposed to be a large aircraft of some type, that flies into storms and uses a transformer-like device to blow the storm up.
After boarding the ride, Disney again worked their magic making the experience incredibly enjoyable. Everybody entered a little auditorium and strapped into their chairs. The set was the observation deck of the StormRider so you could see everywhere the aircraft was going. You had the standard swooping too close to something in the air, but this time, the entire room moved to match the movements on the screen. At one point in the ride, after the StormRider had entered the storm, the hull became breached. When it did, little drops of water rained down on the entire crowd and really surprised us. This an other little details made it the best ride of the day.
After StormRider the park started closing down and we really didn’t really want to leave. We stayed as long as we could in the various shops near the exit and I picked up a few last minute gifts for friends and family.
Sadly at some point we had to leave. We boarded the monorail and headed back to the train station and our ride home. It turns out that we had perfect timing that night. We caught the very subway back to our hotel.
In retrospect, I wished we had spent the full day at DisneySea. Next year y’all make sure you do this or Fuji on your day off!
Tomorrow, the last trip to our home away from home.