Our day began at 6:05am. I know that seems oddly specific for a Trip Diary, but that was the time our hotel room was shaken by another aftershock from Saturday’s quake. This one was 5.6 which was not that large – especially since it was still distant from Tokyo, but it was enough to make us wide awake and a reminder that we are in an active quake sequence. We have seen the news reports of the damages and injuries and something about a road getting buried by a landslide, but again we don’t have access to any english news so not sure what exactly is happening.
Today I am super excited to head to Tokyo Disneyland to get to ride the new Buzz Lightyear attraction. I had confirmed we are still on track for our meeting on Wednesday with one of the project coordinators for the ride and as this was an attraction I will be working on soon, it added to the excitement. Daniel, of course, was excited to see all of the Halloween decor and parade. It was important for us to get to the park early as we wanted to get Fastpasses for two new attractions – Buzz Lightyear as well as Haunted Mansion Holiday.
We managed to get the tickets for Haunted Mansion Holiday fairly easily and then we headed over to Tomorrowland to see the massive lines for Buzz. It was insane and seemed like every last inch of space in Tomorrowland was filled with people getting Fastpasses or trying to get in line. We got into the line for Fastpasses as it seemed to be quite long. Luckily our timing worked out and we were able to get the Fastpasses right when our window was available for another Fastpass. Our Buzz Fastpass wasn’t until later in the afternoon, so we headed back to Mansion to go on the Holiday version. Its a weird combination of Florida’s layout with the California overlay. It was cool to see what was different than the Holiday Mansion we have back at Disneyland.
We then headed over to World Bizarre and Guest Relations to get me a birthday sticker. We had forgotten about it at TDS, but I wanted to take advantage of getting a sticker to see how the Cast reacted to it (spoiler alert – lots of great interaction and cute “Happy Birthdays” in English). After wandering some more it was time to check out the Halloween Parade. We found a spot at the hub and sat on the ground with the other Guests. It is still amazing to me how organized the Guest Control is here at Tokyo Disneyland, but also how the Guests do what they are told and behave. (The lone exception was the Buzz Fastpass line where people were a bit pushy but it reminded me of the subway during rush hour so I’ll give the guests a pass). Like all entertainment I didn’t really understand the whole thing, but it was a great show with lots of energy and hand dances and candy being thrown in the audience. I loved it.
After the parade it was off to the Mark Twain Riverboat to get a ride in the wheelhouse. As a former driver of the Mark Twain at Disneyland, I wanted to see how this Mark Twain compared to the original at Disneyland. Its mostly identical, but nautical regulation in Japan requires the whistle to be a bit different than the one in the US. But I had a great time in the wheelhouse waving to Guests down below. We got to sign the logbook as well as pose for a photo with our Pilot. It was one of my favorite memories at Tokyo Disneyland.
It was then time to redeem our Buzz Fastpasses so we headed back to Tomorrowland. Buzz is fantastic and I can’t wait to see more on our tour as well as work on the attraction in the future. The removable blasters is definitely an improvement over the Walt Disney World version of the attraction. As the evening progressed we enjoyed the Enchanted Tiki Room “Get the Fever” and also rode some rides in Fantasyland. Finally, it was nightfall so we took our spots back on the hub for our viewing of the Main Street Electrical Parade Dreamlights. The parade was just as great (and long) as I remembered it and a great way to end our night at the Resort.
We did some shopping in World Bazaar as we waited for the crowds to leave, but finally we headed back to our hotel. Tomorrow we will be back for our first of two park hopper days.
