Disneyland
We went to Disneyland for Jade’s birthday, and as advertised, it is the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’, and 100% the best place to spend your birthday. If it is your birthday, tell the cast because it makes for the best day. Personalised birthday stickers! Hand drawn lovingly by the cast. Every time they saw Jade, they would clap and say happy birthday (we felt like celebrities with all the attention)! Neither of us had been to Disneyland before so we didn’t have anything to compare it to, but it was so good that we stayed from open to close and had the time of our lives.
The day was a bit of a rollercoaster at the beginning. We’d read that the best thing to do first was go and line up to get fast passes for the Monster’s Inc. ride, which we did. Then we thought it’d be a good idea to go line up for fast passes for another ride, not knowing that you have to wait a couple of hours after you get your first pass before you can get another one. We went to check our Monster’s Inc fast pass times…..and they had vanished! We had no idea how we’d lost them and it was a bit of a downer. I said we should just forget about it and go do something else but Jade insisted on asking one of the cast members at the ride to see if we could get new ones. As we can’t speak any Japanese and most of the people spoke little English, this was very challenging. After a difficult conversation with two cast members, we finally understood each other and the cast member said she’d go find some new passes for us. Yay! While we were waiting, Jade told the other lady that it was her birthday and she was so excited and told us to wait while she gave us a present. It was a fast pass that we could use on any ride whenever we wanted, wooo! That whole encounter really turned the day around and we were ready to go have fun! (But first, coffee.)
All the staff that we met were so enthusiastic and wanted to make us happy, which made the day so much better. We were taking photos of each other in front of the Cinderella castle when a man came up and offered to do a full photoshoot for us for free. He even gave Jade another birthday sticker!
Best Rides
I was blown away by the amount of detail that went into everything, and absolutely loved every single ride we went on. All the rides had the same kind of set up, where you sat in a cart and it moved around, kind of taking you through a scene of the movie.
Space Mountain – we aren’t rollercoaster people, but we decided to use the birthday fast passes to go on this. It was so good that we went on it twice.
Monster’s Inc Hide and Go Seek – this is one of the most popular rides, we ran to get fast passes for this first thing.
Pooh’s Hunny Hunt – lined up for 75mins for this and it was so worth it.
Haunted Mansion – like stepping into the imagination of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas
It’s a Small World Cruise – the detail. OMG. Although ‘it’s a small world after all’ was stuck in our heads for the rest of the day.Peter Pan’s Flight – set up so that it feels like you’re flying through the movie.
Pirates of the Caribbean – so realistic, I was genuinely scared half the time.
Food
Mickey Burgers – went back for seconds they were so good! And we were surprised how affordable all the food here was. For a burger, chips and drink it was about 1000 yen or $12 AUD, which felt really cheap for an amusement park.
Soft Serves – a staple on the trip, the one below came with a cute little Disney Souvenir spoon for about 1000 yen.
We ended the day with the ‘Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights’, which was amazing! All the characters were there on floats singing songs. All the Disney vibes.
DisneySea
DisneySea was my favourite. It was sooo pretty. I spent most of the day just admiring the views. The ‘Arabian Coast’ was stunning as was ‘Venice’, both giving me the biggest wanderlust. It poured with rain half the day, but everything was so amazing that it didn’t matter at all – in fact it made it better because heaps of people left early so the lines were shorter!
We were exhausted from Disneyland the day before because we’d literally been there from open til close – about 14hrs. So we were a bit slower getting up the next morning. Luckily, DisneySea opened half an hour later (8:30) which was still early but better than 8.
Best Rides
Toy Story Mania! – if you want to go on this ride without having to wait for two hours, you need to go straight to get a fast pass as soon as the gates open. The line for fast passes was ridiculous. This is the best ride ever. It was an interactive game where you moved around and had to shoot targets.
Journey to the Centre of the Earth – ran over to here after getting our fast passes and only had a 20min wait woo!
Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull – went in the single rider’s line for this which got us through in less than 5mins, even faster than the fast pass line! It was scary but another amazing ride.I’d really wanted to go on the Venetian Gondolas too, but they don’t run in the rain.
Tower of Terror – if you love dropping 10 stories in an elevator, must do! If you love not understanding anything that’s going on (and as a result have no idea that you’re about to drop 10 stories) because you can’t speak any Japanese, also a must do!
We won tickets in the lottery to see the show ‘Big Band Beat’, which was set up like an Opera Broadway show – super cute (bonus: was entirely in English).
Food
Green Alien Mochi Dumplings – these are the most instagrammed food from DisneySea, so you have to try them! They were surprisingly cold and sweet and really nice. Three little dumplings, chocolate, strawberry and cream flavoured.
Chicken Curry and Naan – at Arabian Coast for breakfast (this needs to happen every day) – soo yum.
Chicken Curry Buns – (like pork buns) in the shape of Simbad from Aladdin.
Maple Buns with Soft Serve – I still dream about these.
Disney Resort
We stayed at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay for 3 nights. Disneyland and DisneySea are on their own train loop, and this was part of the loop. 10/10 recommend this hotel. It was the most expensive place we stayed at but so worth it to get in line early and not have to travel far at the end of the day. You can stay right opposite the parks, but those hotels are even more expensive. To get to Disney Resort, you need to catch the train to Maihama Station. You can buy 2, 3 or 4 day train passports for unlimited access to the Disney Resort Line. We got the 4-day passes, for 1400 Yen each (you even get to choose your own design for the ticket). As soon as you get of the train and out of the station at Maihama, you’ve entered the world of Disney. We thought the first day at the resort would be uneventful but we ended up spending hours just wandering around and exploring the area. We stopped for lunch at the ‘Rainforest Cafe’ and it was unexpectedly one of the coolest experiences ever. It felt like you were literally in the middle of the rainforest with giant aquariums and life size animal statues everywhere.
I wouldn’t change anything about these days (even the rain). Everything was perfect, from the accommodation, food and the parks themselves well exceeding expectations. I have heard that Japan has the best Disneyland in the world and now I want to go to all of them but feel like we might be disappointed!
Like this post? Pin these images to Pinterest.
Leave a Reply