Hi everyone, first I must confess that this topic was originally posted on a US board, but I thought it might interest some on this board.
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I'm just back from Japan where I had a wonderful stay (despite earthquakes). In the following post I'll give some impressions about Tokyo Disney Resort (august 11-12). Please, keep in mind Disneyland Paris is my home park, and I never visited any other Disney park before.
The following comments are only my opinion and are very subjective.
It's not really a detailled trip report, and I'll first give some feelings about Tokyo Disneyland (day 1), then about Tokyo Disneysea (day 2).
Tokyo Disneyland
First, let me say honestly that after visiting my very first other Disney park, my impressions were not very good. Tokyo Disneyland is actually very different from Disneyland Paris. I arrived there quite early as it was a major advice from many TDR experts, it was raining a bit, and my first surprise is that it was not crowded at all! (in fact I was expecting total huge crowds) As I booked tickets on TDR official site, I tried to find the Guest Welcome Center to get the actual tickets. I asked 2 cast members that were there, showed my printed voucher, but they had no idea where it was. Fortunately, the 3rd CM knew what I was talking about and took me to the Welcome Center. Not a single person was queueing up. I thought how cool !
My first impressions of Tokyo Disneyland is that the main entrance look much bigger in photos than in real. Anyway... I also had a look at the Disneyland Hotel, and once again I thought that the image I had (from photos) was much better that the building in front of me. The main color is weird, probably a bit too dark, and the blue roof material looked plastic.
World Bazaar.
En route to Tokyo Disneyland! We entered World Bazaar and... Err... What can I say..? Entering Disneyland Paris Town Square and entering Tokyo Disneyland World Bazaar are 2 (very) different experiences. First, the noise. As TDL is under a canopy, the sound is a little like in a warehouse. It reverberates a bit.
That canopy is a bad idea. Rebuilt Main Street USA, and built side arcades like in Paris for rainy days!
Buildings have much less details than in Paris, I also saw a boutique (or café?) that has an art déco style (!!!) that contrast sharply with the surrounding constructions. Some things I saw there looked actually tacky. A lot of colors look garish and doesn't look as subtle as in Main Street Paris. The World Bazaar outside constructions looked better though.
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Cinderella Castle.
The Cinderella Castle look quite good (loved the colors), but once again I imagined it was much bigger that Le Château de la Belle au Bois Dormant in Paris, but I don't think it is. Seemed to me that you can't go through as there a large stage in front of it. The architecture looks more realistic than the castle imagined for Paris. My preference goes to Paris' castle.
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Tomorrowland.
Well, I don't mean to offend anyone that could be a fan of this place, it's only the point of view of 1 person, but I think it's probably the worst place in the park. The ugliness of Tomorrowland is hard to describe. It's almost all white/beige and blue, an ugly blue. It seemed to me that the place was never enhanced since the opening. Attractions look like they were placed randomly. The land is huge but seems very empty.
- Space Mountain: I'm usually not a big fan of roller coaster and not a connoisseur either. That thing in Tokyo is bad. Really bad. There are no soundtrack onboard. It's as bumpy as Paris SM Mission II. Very poor effects. And the most surprising of all, you go up very high in the mountain, but I don't remember a single drop, the descent is quite slow and made me a bit sick.
Unfortunately, Monster Inc. was down almost all day...
My general impression of Tomorrowland is that it needs to be rebuilt.
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Toon Town.
The whole place looks cute. Coming from Tomorrowland, it was a good surprise.
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Fantasyland.
I must compare "my" Fantasyland and that one, one more more time. Paris beats Tokyo, hands down. It's probably the land I disliked the most after Tomorrowland. A large part of the land has a medieval fun fair look, that looked bad to me.
- Pooh's Hunny Hunt : The so-called best attraction in this park. Probably true. I really loved the attraction. The effects used are fantastic, and even if I'm not a fan of Pooh and his pals, I'd have loved to make a second ride!
- It's a Small World. Not much to say about it. The attraction itself is not very different compared to Paris. I didn't like much the indoor boarding station though, it looked uselessly huge and empty.
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Critter Country.
Something completely new to me. Probably the best part of all Tokyo Disneyland. The only place that can remain unchanged. It's tiny, but very beautifully detailed.
- Splash Mountain was new to me, and I thought it was fantastic. The "mountain" itself looks just great. I want Critter Country in Paris !!!
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Frontierland... ah sorry, Westernland.
The land could have looked better without those HUGE pathways (which is by the way a major flaw in all Tokyo Disneyland).
- Big Thunder Mountain is a very good ride, even if you don't have a good view of the mountain, as in Paris (where it's an island.)
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Adventureland.
A land I quite liked. Even if once again the wide walks destroy the layout, some parts looked very good.
- Jungle cruise is a fun attraction, that is unknown in Paris. My friend and I liked it. Even if Cast Member speech and laughters sounded very un-natural. (I talk about Cast Members later).
- Pirates of the Caribbean. A very good attraction, and I loved the smoke during some scenes. However, I didn't appreciate much 3 details : the presence of Jack Sparrow (2 times), the soundtrack of POTC The Movie during the big ship scene, the mall escalator at the exit! (welcome back to the real world!)
- The Enchanted Tiki Room (with Stitch). I was expecting more of this old Disneyland attraction. I guess Stitch ruined it. Not bad, but not unforgettable.
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My Top 7 TDL lands :
1 - Critter Country.
2 - Toon Town.
3 - Adventureland.
4 - Frontierland.
5 - World Bazaar.
6 - Fantasyland.
7 - Tomorrowland.
Misc Tokyo Disneyland thoughts :
-"Geography" : the park looked completely flat to me, Paris has hills, and parts in lower terrains. The very wide pathways is one of this park major flaw. Boundary between the different lands is not clear (until you take a look at the ground color). The park seemed smaller than Paris (maybe it's not).
- Crowds : I was expecting huge crowds, but I didn't find the park was more crowded than a sunday in Paris. (However there was an earthquake that day, and saw on TV that many trains were cancelled, maybe it is linked..?)
- Shows : I thought "Cool the heat" was a cute show, very dynamic, and without useless chatter! (unlike Paris, where shows are often filled with useless chatters, and corny jokes)
- Parades : Jubilation! was a beautiful daytime parade with a lot of floats. The Japanese watch the parade seated on the ground, it was cool because a lot of people can see the parade, but it wasn't very cool for my legs and buttocks! Nighttime Electrical Parade "Dreamlights" was wonderful too and extremely long, I can't remember there was so many different floats. I was expecting stops and unexpected effects, but there were none.
- FastPass : a very good point. FP works very good here. Never waited more than 4-5 minutes in attractions using them.
- Merchandise : it is absolutely true that Tokyo offers a wider range of items than Paris. However, there are some items that can be found in many boutiques everywhere in the park.
- Cast Members : the only adjective I'm thinking of regarding TDR Cast Members is "efficient". But that's about all what I'm thinking of. They look very robotic, and in general their attitude is not very natural. When an attraction has a breakdown for exemple, they stand all around the attraction and repeat hundreds of times the same message very loudly in a very polite japanese, even if there's absolutely no guest around. At the end of the day, I saw some CM that looked totally exhausted.
Coming next : Tokyo Disneysea !
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Tokyo Disneysea.
Sometimes words are useless. Aren't they.
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One word : perfection.
Disneysea was far from my expectations. Coming the day before from the rather ugly Tolkyo Disneyland (even if it has some excellent attractions), it was a bit like visiting the Walt Disney Studios Paris, then discovering Disneyland Paris the day after (for those who know). A whole new world!
Tokyo Disneysea is beautiful, magnificent, poetic, radiant, marvellous, surprising, fantastic, a place you enter with a large smile, and you're very sad to leave. I can't remember a place inside the park that I loved less, as the whole place looked so beautiful.
Mediterranean Harbor.
The "port" you discover when you enter. All the above adjectives can be used for Mediterranean Harbor. The only (very small) criticism I could level is that there are mostly painted shutters on the wall and not real ones. I understand that the Hotel Miracosta is behind, and that they probably didn't want that customers open and shut them freely, but they could have place real shutters attached on the wall. Oh well. It's so beautiful anyway.
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Mysterious Island.
Maybe the most striking place in the park to me. Disneysea is a masterpiece. Mysterious Island is the masterpiece of the masterpiece. Everything is perfectly done. I could have stay all day long there, but there are so many other wonders in the park.
- Journey to the Center of the Earth : Imagineering at its best. Unforgettable.
Unfortunately I missed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, next time.
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Mermaid Lagoon.
Wonderful too. The indoor part was just pure enjoyment for the eyes!
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Arabian Coast.
A great evocation of the land of 1001 nights.
Guess what? Sindbad's Storybook Voyage had only 5 minutes waiting time. I thought it's probably a minor attraction. I totally felt in love with it. And the music!!! (Unfortunately I couldn't find the CD). Characters have very unusual face features (for Disney standards), and the ambience is just charming.
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Lost River Delta.
The place looks remote from the rest of the park. The scenery is wonderful. You're in a new world.
- Indiana Jones Adventure, Temple of the Crystal Skull : the ride is fantastic from beginning to end. I had a FastPass, and once again the system worked smoothly. I almost regretted not to have more time to discover the details in the queuing line!
- DisneySea Transit Steamer Line : domn't miss this peacefull voyage on Disneysea rivers. Viewing the park from this angle was great.
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Port Discovery.
Greatly designed and wonderful at night.
- Stormrider : An attraction themed on weather. Probably not the most exiting theme for an attraction. A good one though.
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American Waterfront.
My second favourite port in the park. Especially Cape Cod: absolutely lovely.
I unfortunately missed the Big Band Beat as it seems all shows in the afternoon were cancelled. What a shame!
Wonderful boutiques there.
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[COLOR="Blue"]The Legend of Mythica.[/COLOR]
A not-to-be-missed imposing show. Magnificent.
However, being placed almost exactly in front of the show (Hotel Miracost behind us), we had the sun in front of us, a bit painful for the eyes. I couldn't make good photos.
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[COLOR="blue"]BraviSEAmo![/COLOR]
A work of art. Impressive visual effects and the best score ever made for a Disney show. (I'm currently listening to the music...).
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General thoughts.
Disneysea is worth a trip to Japan for any Disney fans. And probably for anyone. Very much unlike Tokyo Disneyland that has a disastrous design (at least 80% of the park), Tokyo Disneysea is an absolute must-see and a brilliant creation. For example, I wrote before that Tokyo Disneyland has too wide pathways and that it was a major flaw. Most people say it was made like that to handle huge crowds. So why Tokyo Disneysea has natural, human-scale pathways? Anyway. I can't wait to go back to Tokyo Disneysea, and I already miss the park...
Thank you for reading!
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Whooo it's amazing!!!
we just on year ago and it's amazing, we like these parks!!!
Ok...now i surely wanne go to Tokio in the summer of 2010!!!
Great read and stunning pictures Paan!! Thanks!
thanks for posting this report!
I agree I don't like the look of disneyland Tokyo asmuch as Disneyland paris, although toon town looks cool. I think Tokoyo Disneysea looks absolutely amazing!! =D> :o =D> I would love to go!
Glad you had a great trip! :D/
Amazing trip report!
I would love to take a train all the way to east asia and the sail to Japan in order to experience Tokyo DisneySEA - it seems and sounds magnificent! :)
Thanks for the report :D/
Well..........I really wish you hadn't posted this TR :evil: ........ :wink:
All you've done is make me more determined than ever to visit Disneysea :lol:
Great report =D>
I've heard that the Tokyo DL park is not a patch on DLRP but have always had good reports about DS..........your report has just confirmed all that I've heard :)
Now :oops: what's my bank managers number :-"
Great TR and pictures, thanks for sharing! :) I would agree with you in that Tokyo Disneyland doesn't look a patch on Paris... However Tokyo Disneysea looks fantastic, especially the inside bit of Mermaid Lagoon!
I have to visit this place, perhaps I'll win the euromillions tonight..
Thanks for posting your fantastic trip report about Tokyo Disneyland, I really enjoyed reading it. Tokyo DisneySea still amazes me, and your photos really do it justice. I'd love to go there one day :)
Very nice trip report. =D>
Now I really wanna go to DisneySea :oops:
Wonderful report and photos!
My thoughts generally, and based on your report, are that they should have JUST built DisneySea there instead of yet another clone of The Magic Kingdom. WDW has 4 different parks from the Magic Kingdom, all very Disney, yet all different! So why can't these other Disney Parks which keep popping up around the world simply be new Disney parks (like DisneySea!) instead of more clones of the original? It makes the original less special.
Does that make sense?
oo looks like you had an amazing and disney sea look fantastic :D i no what i want for christmas ahaah
Excellent Trip Report.
I must admit that DisneySea has always seemed to be and exciting fresh NEW place. New attractions instead of just cloning the parks all over the world. The only thing is I would love to see this one cloned Either at WDW or DLRP.
Awwwww I wanna go to DisneySea NOW :(
It looks amazing! Great trip report thanks for sharing your experience and photos with us. :)
Quote from: "TR_Wolf"So why can't these other Disney Parks which keep popping up around the world simply be new Disney parks (like DisneySea!) instead of more clones of the original?
You're probably right. However, you, I, and most people on this board are huge Disney fans, that can travel the world to visit other Disney destinations. Most people (I mean regular guests) don't.
I think most people don't even know that there are many Disney parks in the world.
Disneyland Paris is
not a clone of Tokyo Disneyland, believe me. :lol:
And I wouldn't be against a clone of Tokyo Disneysea, here in Paris! The park there is so wonderful.
Quote from: "PeterPaan"Quote from: "TR_Wolf"So why can't these other Disney Parks which keep popping up around the world simply be new Disney parks (like DisneySea!) instead of more clones of the original?
You're probably right. However, you, I, and most people on this board are huge Disney fans, that can travel the world to visit other Disney destinations. Most people (I mean regular guests) don't.
I think most people don't even know that there are many Disney parks in the world.
Disneyland Paris is not a clone of Tokyo Disneyland, believe me. :lol:
And I wouldn't be against a clone of Tokyo Disneysea, here in Paris! The park there is so wonderful.
No, I mean that say a Floridian would know and love Disney's Animal Kingdom whilst not knowing about DisneySea, and a Japanese person might know and love DisneySea whilst never knowing about Animal Kingdom, but they arent losing out on anything, because their own parks are proper Disney Parks, just not copies of existing parks.
As for 'clones' I mean that Tokyo, Florida, Paris and Hong Kong's Magic Kingdoms are all based on the original, they're copies, they have their versions of Main Street, a central castle, fantasyland, various rides etc, wheras the OTHER parks (DisneySea, Disney Studios Paris, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, California Adventure, and EPCOT) are not clones of the original park, and are their own parks.
Oh, somehow I missed this, but it's absolutey interesting to see something of an Asian Disneypark, it always seems so far away!
It's interesting that you didn't like the Tokyo Disneyland so much, but you're right, the pictures of DisneySea just look amazing!! It's such a totally different park and I'm sure it's a place worth visiting :)! Thanks for sharing those pics & reports :)!
THis made interesting reading. I agree with some of your points..........i feel that TDL is very much a merge of the parks in California and Florida whereas with DLP they went back to the drawing board and started fresh. Yes, World Bazaar is quite bazaar but I had lots of rain during my trip so I can understand why they built it that way. Tomorrowland is very must they way it used to look in California (very Jetsons) before it was modernised in the late 1990's. It's a shame you didn't get to ride "Monsters Inc Hide & Go Seek" - it was under construction whilst I was there.
I agree TDS is AMAZING - totally draw dropping at every turn
THis made interesting reading. I agree with some of your points..........i feel that TDL is very much a merge of the parks in California and Florida whereas with DLP they went back to the drawing board and started fresh. Yes, World Bazaar is quite bazaar but I had lots of rain during my trip so I can understand why they built it that way. Tomorrowland is very must they way it used to look in California (very Jetsons) before it was modernised in the late 1990's. It's a shame you didn't get to ride "Monsters Inc Hide & Go Seek" - it was under construction whilst I was there.
I agree TDS is AMAZING - totally jaw dropping at every turn
Only just seen this..Thanks for the excellent illustrated reviews.. Just did China and Hong Kong with Disney last year and should do Japan tour and fit in Disney in 2011, just re searching the weather etc at the moment. ToT looks beautiful..
Was there not an elevated tramway at the planning stage for Main Street..
Quote from: "ightenhill"Only just seen this..Thanks for the excellent illustrated reviews.. Just did China and Hong Kong with Disney last year and should do Japan tour and fit in Disney in 2011, just re searching the weather etc at the moment.
Thanks. I hope to visit Hong Kong soon too. You'll be amazed by Japan, and Tokyo Disneysea. I'm planning to go back to Japan in a few year. I think I'll skip Tokyo Disneyland to focus on Disneysea. :D
Paan thanks so much for your reports will let my partner know about it as we have been thinking about Disneyseas for 2011 and i definately would love to go,fantastic pics :D
Quote from: "Dorsetcandy"Paan thanks so much for your reports will let my partner know about it as we have been thinking about Disneyseas for 2011 and i definately would love to go,fantastic pics :D
Thanks. Yes, Tokyo Disneysea is a must see!!!