I got suckered in to including DisneySea despite my lack of enthusiasm for Disney parks, because the Interwebz said I should. ‘Most expensive park ever built,’ ‘one of the world’s busiest parks,’ ‘best theming of a park’ came up regularly. I was happy to skip Tokyo Disneyland because it seemed very similar to the US models, but DisneySea gave me hope for a great day out.
Justine and I enjoyed the Mickey Mouse monorail to the park, and upon arrival were instantly taken by the magnificent structures around the nautically themed park. Straight ahead was a harbour, behind which sat a giant volcano (Mount Prometheus). There were ships everywhere, and just so much colour and creativity.
We were also instantly interested by mathematics – how many people could you fit in each square metre of the park? The answer was clearly a lot. I had never seen so many people packed in to a theme park before, so we mentally prepared ourselves to wait…a lot.
We made our way to Mysterious Island first, where we waited for over an hour for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. You got to sit in a cute little bubble submarine, exploring fake stuff under a fake sea. To rub salt in to the wounds caused by waiting for a lame ride, we then discovered the fast pass machines next door. These are free, and you just select the ride you want to go on. It would have made the waiting for 20,000 Leagues more bearable if we knew it was killing time until we got on a good ride. The downside with the free fast pass system is that they are so popular, that it doesn’t provide any real benefit. For example, at lunch time Justine and I selected a fast pass for the Indiana Jones ride, and it spat out a ticket that we could use to jump the queue between 7-8pm. We weren’t planning on hanging around that long so it was useless. Oh well, Journey to the Centre of the Earth was next and I knew that one had some speed and would be worth a wait…
EXCEPT IT WAS BLOODY CLOSED! We didn’t see anything about this being closed on the internet, nor did we notice any signs at the front gate. It is never a great day when the best ride at the park is closed. We tried to console ourselves by tasting a couple of different types of Disney popcorn, which the park was also well known for. The different stands and flavours were actually marked on the map. I tried the white chocolate and the curry flavours. They were both kind of stale but the level of salt sure got my heart started. It will not surprise you to know that there were lines for the popcorn too – around 45 minutes long. I also enjoyed eating my feelings by tasting as many Kit-Kats as I could. Everywhere we went in Japan had different flavours. I highly rate the Halloween ones, but the green tea blergghhh!
Justine was understandably over the crowds by this point, and I wasn’t far behind her. So at the Lost River Delta I ended waiting in the Indiana Jones adventure line like a sucker for close to 1.5 hours, while Justine got some sun and had a wander around the whole park. Indiana Jones was a step up from 20,000 Leagues, and had lots of cool things to look at in the queue system. The ride itself doesn’t really count as a coaster – you just sit in a jeep that gets pulled along. It had some fun little dips in parts, but the storyline flew over my head because my understanding of the Japanese language was so poor.
Around the corner we both lined up for the Raging Spirits coaster. At last we had found a roller coaster! Set among some ancient ruins, we sucked up the hour long wait for a fairly traditional enclosed train experience. One loop and a few little bumps later we were done. Decent coaster, but not enough to improve our moods which were taking a hammering. I don’t think patience is in our DNA.
There were a tonne of kiddy rides that we skipped in the Mermaid Lagoon – ain’t no jumpin’ jellyfish worth an hour long wait! Like every area, the Arabian Coast was also very pretty to look at, without a lot of substance. The seaside areas of Port Discovery and the American Waterfront offered some great photo opportunities and food options.
The Waterfront also provided a little sparkle of happiness, thanks to the Tower of Terror! This is probably the ride that I laugh most on in the whole world – I just love it! The sudden rises and drops, weird stomach feelings, a lot of darkness, and a helluva lot of fun. I had been preparing Justine for this ride for most of the day as she was really hesitant. I tried begging, bribery, peer pressure, and all the bullying tactics that I knew, but she wouldn’t budge. I was so disappointed because I knew she would have loved it if I could have gotten her on the silly thing. It wasn’t to be, so I waited in the line twice, for about an hour each turn. Being a single rider did not speed up the process at all. I was expecting a Twilight Zone experience like the one in the US, but instead I got some weird monkey god thing. Oh well, I didn’t need to understand the story line to enjoy the ride. The Tower of Terror was the highlight of my day. I do try and find positives where I can. I guess another positive is that my sister and I waited in lines for hours and hours without killing each other. Mum and dad would be proud.
Once again I felt really let down by Disney (will I ever learn??) Out of the four Disney parks I have attended, I have only really liked California Adventure. DisneySea was undoubtedly stunning to look at, but next time I think we will just wander around the city and save some money!
Roller Coaster Ramble 