Hey all,
I figure I ought to get around to writing this before the most vivid memories and sharper details start to escape me (as they probably have with that Epic report - whoops). My wife and I were fortunate enough to spend three weeks across Tokyo, the Tokyo Disney Resort, Kyoto, Osaka (including Universal Japan), and Seoul for our honeymoon. I'm a meticulous planner and have robust vacation stamina, but I did wonder if we perhaps bit off more than we could chew given the number of company moves that would need to occur. Fortunately, everything - from trains to planes to hotel check-ins - went off without a hitch.
Anywho, we checked into the Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta after spending six days in Tokyo proper (staying in Shinjuku, but traveling all over the place). We booked two separate vacation packages five months in advance (the moment they went on sale) and then "daisy chained" them together by emailing their reservation line. (This was also the opportunity to casually mention it was our honeymoon...) If you aren't familiar, Tokyo Disney offers several types of vacation packages, sold at a high premium, that give you significant advantages and perks over other guests, including those with traditional booked resort stays. Again, it was our honeymoon, and our friends and family were generous, so we splurged. We paired a one night (with two park days) "unlimited" package that allowed us to enter all priority access lines without any limitations. Then, we affixed that to a two-night, two-park-day "attractions and more" package that gave us three priority access passes per day, which could essentially be used at any point for nearly any ride.
First of all, the Hotel MiraCosta is as lavish and jaw-dropping as you've heard. Modern photography has done an admirable job conveying the scale and rich theming, but it still stuns in person. We never got over the lushness and intricacy of every corner throughout our stay. We also were lucky enough to get the "lagoon view" room, which means we had an A+ view of Mount Prometheus and the Mediterranean Harbor. If we'd wanted to watch lagoon shows from our room, we could have. My understanding is some of these lagoon view rooms aren't nearly as spectacular in terms of positioning, but I imagine the honeymoon of it all meant we got the prime spot. There was also a welcome gift and message waiting for us upon check-in.
After dropping our bags and going through the check-in formalities, we took the monorail to Disneyland. Local laws require Disney to charge for use of the monorail, but fortunately ticketing was simple (and the physical pass made for a fun papercraft souvenir). The monorail route itself has four stops, so it was very efficient and intuitive.
You do not get "happy entry," aka 15-minute early entry (more valuable than you might think), the day of your check-in, so we joined the patient masses waiting out front Tokyo Disneyland proper. We probably scanned in around 9:20-9:25AM for a 9AM opening, which isn't ideal... unless you have the unlimited priority pass, as we did.
One smart thing Tokyo Disney does is try to divert the swell of crowds heading to headliners by throwing a mob of characters into the front plaza. And I don't mean the typical Fab 5 assortment. I mean rare characters, or at least rare characters for us Americans. We saw Rabbit, Max, Clarice, Uncle Scrooge, the female Cinderella mice whose names escape me, and Marie from Aristocats... all before you even hit World Bazaar. I had to stop for a picture with Rabbit, who I'd never had the privilege of meeting anywhere.
This is where we observed one of the first major differences in American vs. Japanese park etiquette: Character greeting procedures. While there are a handful of uber-popular characters who are gated behind a traditional queue, like in the states (think Mickey, Duffy, and Donald), most characters simply roam a specific area, and a small crowd will form around them in a semicircle. Everyone waits their turn and tries to get the character's attention as they finish with the next guest through a light wave or offering an autograph book. At first, I feared this would be a disaster, but the local population was (again) remarkably patient and courteous, for the most part. We simply maintained eye contact with the character and showed our interest, and soon enough, Rabbit approached us within three or four minutes. (Most cast member character hosts are also willing to take photos for you - and seem adorably trained to say "check, please!" to be sure you're satisfied with their picture!)
Moving further into the park, you hit the sort of "Bizarro World" Magic Kingdom vibes. World Bazaar is no Main Street, but it has its own strange charm with the elaborate atrium and more varied storefronts. This is also where I started to realize that Tokyo Disneyland is the resort's Universal Studios Florida or Epcot equivalent -- the "festival" park. We soon learned Tokyo DisneySea was absolutely more crowded and difficult to navigate than Disneyland, which was largely very comfortable on all fronts. Consequently, the resort's management rotates various festivals to roll out new merchandise, entertainment offerings, and food and beverage opportunities and pull guests away from Sea as much as possible. For our visit, it was the relatively new "Pal-Palooza Vanellope's Sweet Pop World" (say that three times fast), and before that, a Donald Duck festival celebrating the character's 70th anniversary. In practice, this meant that there were lots of banners and character figures of Vanellope, Wreck-It Ralph, and supporting characters from the film (including, prominently, the green jawbreaker character) throughout World Bazaar. There was also a candy-themed parade with an infectious song in English ("yummy yummy yummy, we love sweets!").
We followed the crowds to the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast, which was already sporting a posted 150-minute queue. With our priority access pass, we were in the preshow within 5 minutes. But good lord, is the facade and queue for this ride spectacular. The Beast's castle could easily be another park's central icon. The quality of the finishing and detail in even the preshow antechamber (so many tapestries and suits of armor) was a feast for the eyes. And while the enormous preshow was all in Japanese, it was extremely easy to follow if you know the story at all. And yes, those animatronics are some of the best Disney has ever done. The Beast figure in particular is shockingly expressive, capable of showing sorrow, fury, intrigue, and suspicion convincingly. They also do a terrific job making Beast and Belle appear to "walk" in, out of, and around their respective balconies.
The loading station is possibly the attraction's one major downside. Not surprisingly, it's gorgeously themed to the back-of-house kitchen and servants' passageways, and I'm sure you've seen the vignettes featuring lovely projections and animatronic figures of Cogsworth and Lumiere to help move the story along. However, the airflow is unpleasantly lacking, giving the space a musty feeling that isn't helped by the throngs of guests crammed into the queue. I did some napkin math while observing the number of seats and the average dispatch time, and the truth is that this ride has a very large capacity (I think theoretically at or above 2,000 riders an hour), but something about the number of people they allow into the preshow doesn't square with the pre-loading station queue stretch. It's not the end of the world or anything -- you're usually on in another six to eight minutes -- but it's not the most comfortable experience.
The ride itself, though? I'd watched POV videos. I'd read the criticisms, both about the pacing and the size of the vehicles. Hell, I'd offered some myself. Folks, in-person, it all melts away. What these videos don't capture is the dynamic motion of the teacups. They sway and dance with a nimbleness that motion stabilizing video camera technology is designed to scrub out as a fault. The reality is that few rides have given me so much unadulterated joy. Not only are the animatronic figures and show-stopping set pieces (yes, Be Our Guest is more than the sum of its parts) fabulous to look at, but the experience of navigating them is heightened thanks to the thrilling unpredictability of the trackless vehicles that also dance. You also have the state-of-the-art, pristine sound system delivering some of the best songs in the Disney canon. I scrutinized the much-lauded Beast transformation illusion, and I quietly cursed as I realized I'd somehow already missed the key to how it all works. I caught it on later visits, but you have to know precisely where to look and have an understanding of how it already functions. It is a masterwork of an effect, and the entire ride is a masterwork music box. We ended up enjoying it two more times that day and another two times on our return day to the park.
More to come!