Culture Shocks and Disney Magic... in Asia!!! A TR on all Asia Disney Resorts! [Update Dec19!]

Time-wise I could do both, but, honestly, after 40 years of going to WDW (mostly) and Disneyland, it doesn't excite me the way it used to. I know I shouldn't even entertain the thought while on a Disney message board, LOL, but I've been kind of bored with the rides and the experience the last few times. I've done most of it before and it's starting to feel like that.
I really dislike the crowds and queueing for upwards of 45 min. for a 3 minute ride, and the prices have really gone through the roof lately. I think Asia Disney sounds like more of the same with the exception of a few rides, so I'll only go for one or the other. I feel like I've actually been there reading your TR - which is great! There's so many other wonderful adventures in the world - which I've also been doing - and I'm leaning more towards them ATM. BTW, I live in Vancouver, so we're almost neighbours.
Hello neighbour! Hahaha, I actually lived in Vancouver for 6 years before I finally moved back home to Edmonton!

If crowds and prices are what bugs you then I'd probably say Hong Kong! Especially on a weekday and during off season. The first day we were there we didn't wait in any lines more than 10 minutes!
 
Loving the photos of Tokyo Disney! I just got back from Disneyland Paris. It definitely was so detailed, so I can't even imagine what DisneySea is like! I want to go, but it'll probably have to wait a bit longer!
 


Loving the photos of Tokyo Disney! I just got back from Disneyland Paris. It definitely was so detailed, so I can't even imagine what DisneySea is like! I want to go, but it'll probably have to wait a bit longer!
How exciting!!! Disneyland Paris is our last park to check off. Not sure if we'll get a chance any time soon! Timing hasn't worked out for us yet. Did you enjoy it??? Jenna and Brian from this trip report just got back from Paris and they had fun!

Hope you get a chance to Tokyo! I definitely think it's a must do!
 
Just starting to read your report! I am really excited for it as I am really interested in the Asian parks and especially Tokyo as I am planning a trip there in two years time!

our agent who didn’t want to help us

Ugh, Air Canada is the worst and this guy must be their employee of the month.

At first I thought omg how rude

:laughing: You would have gone crazy on my flight from Istanbul to Toronto. It was packed and so many misbehaving/rude people.

Unlabelled car… omg we’re pretty sure we got hustled into a cab scam

That sucks. At least you got where you needed to go.

I honestly have no idea what our wing was called. But basically there are two themed wings. One side is the Western side and the other is the Buzz lightyear space ranger side. I’m really glad we got the (I’m going to call it Galactic) Galactic side, because it was all bright and blue and green. In that photo you can see the green lights. On the Western side, it’s all Woody and Jessie cowboy themed… and with red lights. Yuck! I would much rather have green lights than red!!

I probably would have liked the Galactic side better as well.

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Nice to see it is H2O in Shanghai as well!

In Asia, almost all the hotel rooms only have double sized beds haha.​

Nice and cozy! :laughing:


Love the details.

We were quite overwhelmed and excited to be in the park.

I don't blame you!


:laughing: Love the sign

But first… we stopped off at a washroom. And Glendon wanted to share with everyone in case you don’t know what they look like… a squatty potty
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Ugh, I hate those things, I've encountered them several times in Italy and Turkey.

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This one is beautiful, the lanterns go up and down with the fountains. My favourite fountain effect!

Beautiful! Tangled is one of my favourites!


This scene is really beautiful as well.


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Lovely! I saw a small "sample" of this mosaic at the Shanghai exhibit in EPCOT on my recent visit.


So cool!


Love his outfit!
 


I would have been the same way and you were right, definitely worth it to wait for the lights!



So cute!!!!



So beautiful! Common sense tells me I should stay at the Sheraton when I go to Tokyo Disney but my heart says Disneyland Hotel.
Thank you so much for following along! Sorry it is taking me a little longer than I've been wanting to take to continue and finish this guy up. Lots has been happening.

In regards to Sheraton vs Disneyland Hotel... I don't think you could go wrong with the Sheraton to be honest. You have to take the monorail to either park but the views are gorgeous of the Bay. That being said, Disneyland Hotel is Glendon's favourite disney hotel EVER ahahahaha.
 
Day 6 [part 1 and 2 continued]: Missing photos


Oops, I forgot about these photos so I’ll add them on here!



Here was the view from our morning day sleep at the Sheraton Tokyo Bay!
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The view of the Bay is GORGEOUS! Imagine this during better weather seasons! Wish we could have had time to tour he grounds. Looks like an outdoor pool, a cute chapel thing, great pathways.


Here we are… riding the 2 minute ride on the resort liner to the monorail station haha
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Arrival at the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel!
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A better photo of Glendon’s food at Vulcania
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And then, our silly photos inside the submarines at 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea!
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I think these two photos inside the submarine kind of gives you a better sense of how big the insides are (not very big haha)







Up next, officially: Your table is waiting, Intro to snacking, Wanderings!
 
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Day 6 [part 3]: Your table is Waiting!


Right as we were walking towards the SS Columbia, we noticed that there was a HUGE crowd in front of the ship. Turns out a stage show had just started!




This show was called Your Table is Waiting! It’s a … strange show. About food. Hahahaha. They had characters dancing around with food. There was a bit in there where actors were dressed in hamburger parts and they stacked on top of each other to make a burger! Literally, imagine someone as a bun, someone as a patty, someone as a lettuce, someone as a cheese, someone as a tomato… and another bun… and people just flop on top of each other!!! Very interesting hahahaha.


Anyways.. Walking onto the SS Columbia:
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We walked by an open window deck, and you can see the crowd watching Your Table is Waiting. It’s PACKED!!
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We basically just walked around and explored. It was extra fun for Glendon and I because it was basically like walking around the decks of a mini cruise ship! There were interior hallways (that lead to washrooms and the restaurants) as well as an outside top deck!


Look! Shuffleboard!!! (You couldn't actually play, but I liked that they included it on the deck haha.)
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The ship is situated along the outside of the park, so you have a view of Tokyo Bay from the decks
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Almost sunset!
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Then views back at the DisneySea park!
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Truly, DisneySea is an extraordinary park. It has an entirely different feel than any other Disney park.


Now it’s starting to become sundown. We decided we really really wanted to try some of Tokyo Disney’s famous flavoured popcorn. We passed a popcorn stand on our way to the SS Columbia, and we all agreed it would be a good flavour to start our flavoured popcorn journey!


BLACK PEPPER POPCORN!!!
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First popcorn selfie!
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YEAH!!! BLACK PEPPER POPCORN!!! I LOVE black pepper flavoured things, and this did not disappoint! If you like things like cracked black pepper chips and such, you would enjoy the black pepper popcorn! We blasted through the box very quickly. (If you like the popcorn buckets in the states, the Japanese have SUPER CUTE ones!!! I wish I took more photos. Mind you, the states has started to get in some of the good ones. Prior to our trip here, most of the buckets in the states have been the regular plastic bucket bin with a different design, and a plastic lid. The Japanese ones are full on characters or ride vehicles. But yeah, recently the American parks have definitely been adapting these kinds of popcorn buckets. Like the Green Alien ones in California during Pixar Fest)


Alright, here go to towards the Cape Cod area in American Waterfront
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They have this cute Mickey statue by the water (Sorry it’s a terrible blurry photo!!)
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All of the Duffy everything (This is a restaurant with a Duffy and ShellieMay meet and greet I think)
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Funny sign


We went into the shops! LOOK WHAT WE FOUND
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This is where you can buy the Duffy sweaters.


We got our first Medallion (their version of pressed pennies. No penny required haha)
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After wandering the Duffy shop we went back outside… and night has settled! We’ve officially hit night time in our very first Tokyo Disney Park!


Right by the shop there’s this photo op spot
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There was a huge lineup for taking photos here before we went into the shop, so we didn’t stop to look until after we finished with the shop. It looks cute, but definitely understood why everyone was so eager for photos while there was still light out. It’s not lit GREAT for night time photos


After Cape Cod, we moved onto the next part of the park: Port Discovery. It’s designed to look like a future marina. We couldn’t see too much since it’s dark out now, but they were in the process of changing part of the area to be “Marine Life Institute” from Finding Dory. The two main attractions in this port-of-call are Aquatopia and StormRider. During our visit, StormRider was closed as it was part of the “Marine Life Institute” change, and being converted to Nemo & Friends SeaRider!


In line for Aquatopia!
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If you like no-fuss, no-character random rides… you’ll love Aquatopia. Very simple, but cute! The vehicles are “floating” in the water, and are not on a track. They’re on a programmed direction if I’m using the right terms. I wish we got on in the daylight so I can explain it better haha. Imagine like, bumper boats that are on a pre-programmed random track. It’s cute, you sit in these bumper boats that don’t bumper, and you are taken around on the water weaving in and out of the other boats, a spin here and there, some “near misses” with fountains, etc. It’s just silly! Glendon calls it a “controlled chaos” but he likes it too haha. It was basically a walk on at this time so for sure we said why not! (After we got off the line jumped up to 20 minutes)


After Aquatopia we wandered into another shop! There were things that we’d seen on other people that I was really really wanting to find. (For instance, everyone has these plush zip pouches with a character’s head that has a ticket holder slot, as well as a change pouch… I was obsessed with finding an Oswald one. I’d seen other people walking around with them and NEEDED one for myself.)


Cute … but NOT what I’m looking for!!
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(Also, not sure how I feel about that Olaf yet haha. I guess it's cute? But it's also kind of... creepy looking)


Here are some light up thingies
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Cute lip balms!
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Then we decided… time for our FIRST CHURRO. Glendon and I found a stand that sold CHOCOLATE churros!
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And look who we found on our way out of Port Discovery!
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(So silly! Too bad we couldn’t see all the Finding Dory stuff finished.)​










Coming up next… blasting through Lost River Delta to Arabian Coast! Mermaid Lagoon!
 
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Day 6 [part 4]: First Night in Tokyo DisneySea!!!
[If you guys are getting lost… here is that reference map of the park again!]


Since it’s officially night time now, I just wanted to take photos of everything but being as it was so cold (we seriously were not prepared for the temperatures to be so low! Did not anticipate what a difference it would be to be right on the Bay.) … All my night time photos ended up being sooo blurry. It’s actually embarrassing haha. Anyways! From Port Discovery we decided to just continue on walking. And so the next port of call was Lost River Delta, where they have the two rides: Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, and Raging Spirits. The Indiana Jones ride is kind of… “the same but different” to the original one in Disneyland, California. The ride itself is basically the same, but the overall story is a little bit different. Which basically makes the scenes a little bit different. Raging Spirits is the only roller coaster in all of Tokyo Disney Resort with an inversion. It’s pretty much the same coaster as the Indiana Jones ride in Disneyland Paris (Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril.)


Walking into Lost River Delta
The Indiana Jones ride is housed inside that Aztec pyramid
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(Don’t try to walk and take photos in the dark, folks. It doesn’t turn out well.)


A closer view of the pyramid!
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(You would think that I would have at least tried to check to make sure these photos weren’t terrible)​


We decided not to do either of the rides though, as the lines were hovering at close to TWO HOURS for both of them. Glendon kept insisting that Raging Spirits is not even worth a 10 minute wait. We decided that we’ll definitely try and get a fast pass for at least Indiana Jones though! (Indiana Jones in California is one of my FAVOURITE rides at Disneyland, so I definitely really wanted to try it out in Japan!)


So, since we weren’t going on any rides, we decided to continue walking through over to our next port of call: Arabian Coast. It’s as you would imagine… kind of like Aladdin everything! The atmosphere you can tell is inspired a lot by Indian culture, as well as some Middle-Eastern influences. The rides in this port of call include the Caravan Carousel (A DOUBLE DECKER CAROUSEL!!!), Jasmine’s Flying Carpets, and Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage. We were all really excited for Sindbad, a dark ride in boats. We love our dark rides! But unfortunately, it was under refurbishment during this leg of our trip (but was scheduled to open again by the second half of our trip, so not too sad about this! Lucky that we scheduled additional days!)


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We decided to take a look at this stand:
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MICKEY CHURRO?!?!?!


THEY HAVE MICKEY SHAPED CHURROS!!!
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We HAD to get one, because how can you resist a Mickey shaped Churro, even if they’re just plain cinnamon flavoured! You can’t, when you love all things Mickey shaped haha. We decided to walk into their walk up fast food place called Sultan’s Oasis. It’s an open building, so it has a roof, and kind of all open gateways all the way around… so it’s covered but you’re still basically outside. This is where you can get their famous Chandu Tails, which are steamed buns filled with a chicken chicken cream, shaped like a tiger’s tail. Chandu is the super cute tiger that’s in Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage. We didn’t want to get a steamed bun now as we were planning on eating dinner really shortly. But we were freezing, so we all ordered a hot tea.


Sharing and showcasing our Mickey churro. We’re so happy (but so cold HAHA. Team Red Nose!)
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Haha, cute! Their tea bag labels have a Mickey on them too
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One of the neat things about Arabian Coast is that there’s this small section of to the side where there’s basically carnival games you can play. You have to line up for it, as it’s kind of a tight space. Glendon is actually pretty good at carnival games, so we decided yeah let’s go try it out! Our wait was about ten minutes. Not too bad. Plus we were seeing lots of people leave with prizes. Can’t be too bad right? Also… basically even if you don’t win anything, the consolation prize is a PIN! So if you’re a pin collector it’s kind of a win-win.


GAMES! GAMES! And a view of some of the prizes (Cute big head characters!)
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This was our game: The Cobra’s Trap
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“Try to roll the balls into the gold dishes and escape the cobra’s trap. If the balls land in the gold dishes, you will receive an original prize! If none lands in the gold dishes, you will receive and original pin instead.”

(Side story… I once met this Japanese girl, and she liked to give people random gifts here and there. One day she gave me this pin of Angel (Experiment 624) dressed in Arabian wear. I thought “what a weird pin! I’ve never seen anything like this before” and tucked it away. Then one day when I moved back home, Glendon was going through my stuff and found the pin. He got so excited, “THIS IS FROM TOKYO DISNEY!!! HOW DID YOU GET THIS???” “Oh that makes so much sense now. I got it from a girl from Japan!” But now I know EXACTLY where it came from. As a consolation prize from these games at Arabian Coast hahahahaha.)


Here’s Glendon playing “The Cobra’s Trap” aka roll the ball onto the gold dish


I TOLD YOU HE’S GOOD AT CARNIVAL GAMES! FIRST ROLL AND HE WINS!!!! WE TAKE HOME THE BIG HEAD CHIP! That was so exciting!!! (So… since we paid for the entire game, we were allowed to throw the other balls in his set. None of the rest of us managed to land on the gold dish. Why did he have to make it look so easy.)


By the time we were done playing our game, we were way too cold. We needed to get warm. So, ONWARD! To our next port of call, Mermaid Lagoon! Most of this port of all is actually INSIDE, so this was really exciting at this time of our night. The only bits that are outside are two of their attractions: their kid roller coaster, Flounder’s Flying Fish Coaster, and their spinner ride, Scuttle’s Scooters. Everything else is inside. The facade of the outside is basically modelled after King Triton’s Palace. Most of this port of call is definitely geared more towards smaller children. Their other rides are Jumpin’ Jellyfish, Blowfish Balloon Race, The Whirlpool, and Ariel’s Playground. There are also lots of shops! A great place to warm up though!




A view inside:
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That ride in the middle is the Blowfish Balloon Race


In the far back of this photo you can see Jumpin’ Jellyfish, and at the bottom of the photo The Whirlpool
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I have no idea what this photo is of… but it gives you the general idea of what this place looks like.
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Lots of colours, tries to mimic the feel of being underwater in the land of The Little Mermaid. Imagine all the steel drums music playing in the background… it’s like you’re sucked right into The Little Mermaid! A big portion of this indoor area is basically just a giant indoor playground, and shops.


LOOK AT THIS SHOP ENTRANCE
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THE EYE PERIODICALLY BLINKS TOO


THE INSIDE OF THE SHOP IS THE INSIDE OF THE WHALE
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(It’s kind of weird or creepy??)


LOTS OF WEIRD STUFF TO BUY!!! Like this Ariel body pillow
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Umm.. dresses for your mugs?
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Character die cast cars!
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THEIR CUTE MONORAIL IN TOY FORM!
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ALL THEIR RIDE VEHICLES INCLUDING THE DISNEY TRANSPORT BUS
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OMG FIGARO MERCH! So cute! So cute!
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(Am I the only one who finds this kind of amusing, that we would find Figaro in a shop that is the inside of a whale heh heh heh…)


The last Heffalump. (HEFFALUMP WHY YOU GOTTA BE SO CUTE)
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(Jenna was obsessed and HAD to get it in case we didn’t see it again. It’s the LAST ONE in this store!)​


I think these are fuzzy baby clothes
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LOOK AT THESE BLOCK TOYS they’re so cute!!!
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(I want the Pooh and Friends set so bad. But what am I going to do with block toys hahaha)


AND LOOK AT THIS WINNIE THE POOH. I swear I’ve never seen one look so cute and fluffy before…
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So frumpy. So plush. So fluffy. SO CUTE​


Jenna and I went a little bit crazy. Though there were a few sort of weird things when we first walked in (like the Ariel body pillow. They also had an ERIC body pillow but someone bought the last one so I couldn’t get a photo. YES people buy these things!!) The rest of the store was filled with SUPER CUTE STUFF. Who would’ve thought for a weird inside-a-whale store.






Still to come… Finishing our first night in Tokyo DisneySea: Ariel’s Playground in Mermaid Lagoon… back to Arabian Coast for dinner… going on the double decker carousel
 
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