Tokyo Disneyland, again

This was our fourth day at the Tokyo Disney Resort, but only our second day inside the Disneyland park. We’d spent days 2 and 3 at DisneySea, absolutely enamored with everything it had to offer: the lands, the attractions, the restaurants, the snacks…

I think we could’ve spent our entire vacation at DisneySea and never got bored. But, we only had 2 days left at the Tokyo Disney Resort before we made our way back to Tokyo proper, so it was time to head back to Disneyland and catch all the things we we’d missed on our first go ’round.

Can you believe this sunset situation from our hotel room? You can see DisneySea’s Mount Vesuvius and Tower of Terror, just behind Cinderella’s Castle. Did I mentioned how much I love the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel?!

The park was MUCH less crowded than our first day (likely cause it was a Wednesday vs. a Sunday). This was the lineup to take advantage of the Disney Hotels’ “Happy 15” Early Entry. It looks absolutely empty, but that’s cause we thought the park opened at 8AM (it didn’t), and got to the turnstiles an hour early. Oops.

As we were waiting for the park to open, the characters came out and said hello! Such a cute surprise.

Since we’d used the “Happy 15” perk, we were one of the first ones inside. We’d done the mad rush to Pooh’s Honey Hunt on our first day, so this time just took it slow and enjoyed the surroundings.

The characters were out greeting people near the Partner’s Statue for the first few minutes after the park opened. The groupie situation was unreal! We get a kick out of the characters in the States, but Japan takes it above and beyond. I really enjoyed watching all the interactions — there was genuine love there.

Our big goal for the day was to ride all the rides, see the parades we’d missed on our first day, and try as many snacks as possible.

We started off in Westernland, with a surprisingly tame Thunder Mountain.

And then Splash Mountain! I had to beg Mark to go on this with me. He was worried we’d get wet and be miserable, since it was in the 40s and FREEZING. But they must modulate the splash in the winter, cause we came off bone dry.

Our first snack of the day came in the form of a Mickey shaped cinnamon churro. Cute and deeee-licious.

Yes, I have a Dinglehopper in my hair, two Chips and two Shellie Mays hanging off me, and NOPE, that outfit was not warm enough. We actually went into a shop and bought hand warmers for our pockets and our shoes. #WeatherWimps

Second snack of the day was caramel popcorn in a souvenir R2D2 popcorn bucket.

Look at all that butter!

Then we stopped into the Sweetheart Cafe for alien men mochi balls. Forever my favorite.

(^ How creepy is the Fairy Godmother’s face mask?! What nightmares are made of.)

Haunted Mansion was all dressed up for the Nightmare Before Christmas.

The sky looked like rain all day, but we got lucky and the clouds never let loose. It was really windy though, and we had to keep popping into shops and eateries to try and warm up.

We ate lunch at the Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall, a wonderfully themed quick table service restaurant. Full review to come!

Fastpasses for Pooh’s Honey Hunt ran out within an hour or so during our first day at Disneyland (a testament to the crazy crowds), but this time they still had availability midday. Of course we grabbed a couple — can’t go wrong with Pooh Bear!

After grabbing our Winnie the Pooh Fastpasses, we plopped down along the parade route to watch Happiness is Here, the upbeat daytime parade featuring Mickey and all his friends in the most colorful of floats.

After finishing up the parade (and getting the Happiness is Here song thoroughly stuck in our heads for the rest of the day) we made our way back to the hotel for an hour or two to warm up.

By the time we got back to Disneyland, it was dark and all the beautiful twinkly Christmas lights were on display.

We’d picked up Fastpasses to Monsters Inc. earlier in the day. We’d read that it was one of the best rides in the park, apart from Pooh Bear, and were excited to give it a go.

The attraction is an interactive dark ride, where you use flashlights to “find” monsters and activate different scenes.

It’s adorable, and a lot more fun than the Monsters ride in Anaheim.

They take your picture at some point, but we couldn’t figure out where. They also don’t let you buy them — it’s just a “bit of fun, and now you’re done” kind of shot. Can you spot us two goobers!?

One of our last snacks of the day was more mochi balls. This time Lilo and Stitch themed, and filled with fruity flavored custard. I personally liked the alien men mochi flavors way better, but you can’t argue with the kawaii factor of these little guys.

Here we have the second half of the Electrical Parade, Dreamlights, which we caught after wandering around the gloriously empty castle area.

Then we rode Jungle Cruise, did a bit of shopping, and called it a night.

This was our last (planned) day at the Disneyland park, and we were so sad to say goodbye. Luckily we still had one more night at the Disneyland Hotel, and another full day at DisneySea to look forward to!

xx,

K