Tokyo Disney Resort Houkoku
Special Guest Trip Report
Massimo's Visit to Tokyo Disney Resort
August 16th-19th, 2005
(Posted 09/17/05)
|
MY DISNEY BACKGROUND
What I really like about Disney theme parks is the overall sense of displacement that only a very-well themed environment can give you. I love strolling the parks, paying attention to architecture and landscaping and enjoying the details scattered throughout the parks by imagineering. I tend to prefer heavily-themed attractions to roller-coasters and live entertainment but I love to watch the night shows like Fantasmic! and the fireworks.
Since I live in Italy, my home-park is DLRP so keep in mind while reading my comments that most of my disney experience come from that resort. I visited though Disneyland California in 1993 and Walt Disney World in 1997, when I worked as cast member in Epcot.
MY TRIP TO TDR
My first idea was to buy a three-day passport and spend the first day in TDL and the second and third days in TDS. But after a second thought I realised I definitely didn't want to miss attractions DLRP doesn't have, so I ended up buying a four-day passport.
The whole passport thing is very different from DLRP: in Paris you can buy a four-day passport and enjoy park-hopping from the first day, while in Tokyo when you buy a four-day passport you must choose which of the two parks you will be visiting and when during your first two days and enjoy park-hopping during the two following days only.
OVERALL IMPRESSIONS
I strongly suggest all Disney theme park lovers should visit Tokyo Disney Resort.
Both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disneysea are entertaining and interesting experiences: Tokyo Disneyland not only features unique attractions but its one-of-a-kind layout, its wide pathways, its old-looking Futureland are surely worth a visit, while Tokyo Disneysea is just pure disney magic made real!
Don't expect it to be a slice of Western ground (and culture) gently landed on Japan and don't take anything for granted just because it's a Disney thing. All resorts after Disneyland, the original (one), have been adjusted to the local culture and audience and Tokyo Disney Resort is no exception.
The whole resort looked to me very impressive, very clean, and very well-organised, though I always got the impression during my stay it doesn't have the consistent look other Disney resorts around the world share, as like different buildings and structures were just sharing the same ground. I often visit Disneyland Resort Paris and, since everything was planned there so it could easily be reached by foot, you can stroll from your hotel to the parks and always feeling you're in the resort. Tokyo Disney Resort feels very different: one of the side of Ikspiari face a street and walking to Tokyo Disneysea from the Ambassador Hotel is kind of a curious experience because you walk along an anonymous street using an erupting volcano as compass!
Click on photo below for a larger view.
Cast members are the kindest I have ever met. Even though only a few spoke English, they always proved useful and willing to help a clueless stranger! I noticed thought they often looked like they were repeating again and again the same spiel and very often they stand on the main pathway in front of the attraction and kind of invited people to visit it. That was very unusual and kind of lousy to my eye but I think I just witnessed another cultural adjustment, as during my stay in Japan that behaviour looked very common.
The way guests stay in line is was very different from what I'm used to. As you probably know we Italians tend to wait in noisy clusters while in Japan queues are very well organised but the funny thing is that is absolutely normal for a group of friends or a family to send one or more member of the group to buy something to eat and then kindly sneak into the queue again. Japanese took these behaviour as normal whereas in Europe they would probably be taken as just people trying to do some queue-cutting. Amazing Japan!
Shops & Merchandising
The nice thing about Tokyo Disneysea is that shops are so well-themed and sell such unique items, that they deserve the same attention and time usually spent on attractions.
Merchandising here is very different form what you usually find in a Disney theme park elsewhere in the world. Face towels, fans or tin boxes all seem very common as in Japan during summertime very often men and women usually carry with them a small towel to dry the sweat from the face, or a small fan to get some fresh air while waiting in the hot sun. Buying candies to give as a gift to friends and relatives is very common too.
Each shop sells items you can find in that store only and the quality is usually very high: candy-boxes are all made of tin and are very well designed. But you can find stationeries, toys, books, everything.
The one and only missing items, which, by the way, I didn't miss at all, were pins. Japanese guests seem not to like this kind of merchandising as I spotted no more that 20-30 different pins in both parks. On the other hand, watches seemed a very much appreciated item.
Book-lovers will find the available items a little disappointing maybe: you have a lot of guidebooks about dining in the resort or attractions but they are full of Japanese text and designed with a very japanese layout (I mean lots of boxes, flashy characters, noisy colors and small pictures) that can be quite disappointing if you're looking for coffee-table-like books. I couldn't find any souvenir book, but there's plenty of dvd's and they all deserve your money. Music seems much appreciated too as I found cd's of almost every special event available to buy.
I spent the first day in Tokyo Disneyland, the second in Tokyo Disneysea, the third park-hopping and the last in Tokyo Disneysea.
TOKYO DISNEYSEA
I arrived at the gates at about 7am and was quietly waiting in line when a cast member asked me to participate at the opening ceremony: I was so happy! She kindly made me sit down in a small living room and five minutes before 8:30am I happened to be between Minnie and Mickey greetings guests. What a welcome for my first time at Tokyo Disneysea!
Mediterranean Harbor
The park is stunning and simply jaw-dropping. The view of the waters of Mediterranean Harbor and the volcano is one of the best things Disney ever managed to create if fifty years of theme parks. Mediterranean Harbor features three different Italian architectural styles, gently blended into each other and you really don't know where to look and where to start. I must say that I was not the only one in evident state of shock but others reacted rushing faster than a ray of light to other areas of the park to grab a fastpass while I stayed there for a while taking some pictures. I'm Italian and I felt I had to pay hommage to what surery is an hommage itself to Italy and Italian culture. I'm not afraid to say it was the first time I really felt I was not in some kind of fake Italian environment like the Venetian Resort in Las Vegas, but in the real Venice or somewhere along the coast of Naples. Imagineers did an outstanding (and Italian-proof) job for Italian themed Harbor!
Click on photos below for a larger views.
Mysterious Island
If you're a fan of Jules Verne and his adventures, like I am, you're probably going to sit down and silently cry with happiness as you step into Mysterious Island: you'll feel like you've just sneaked into Nemo's hidden base built right in the middle of the open sea, while hearing gulls flying over the edge of the crater and distant machines. The rockwork is impressive and everything consistently adds to the sense of displacement.
The first attraction I rode was 20.000 Leagues Under The Sea and it really set the standard for the whole stay. The queueing area is themed so well I wish the queue was a little slower so that I could better enjoy the details. This attraction can compare among timeless classics like Pirates of the Caribbean as it has so many details and nice touches you just canft ride it once. Infact I rode this attractions several times in the following days!. As I realised after a full day at the park, all Tokyo Disneysea attractions with only a few exceptions share the same great design element, e.g. stunning queueing areas as gorgeous as the attractions themselves and great repetiveness value.
After having explored and survived the depths of the sea I was looking forward to exploring the bowels of the earth so I moved to Journey To The Center Of The Earth. This attraction thrilled me so much that I took a fastpass for it just after the first ride! For those of you who don't know, you explore the wonders hidden under the ground like the giant mushroom forest and the lake of fire when something goes wrong and you face some trouble. Luckily you manage to survive and thanks to the forces of the earth you're literally shot to the surface and safely come back home.
Click on a photos below for a larger view.
American Waterfront
After the excitement of Mysterious Island I wanted to cool off a little bit, so I moved to the American Waterfront. This area is divided in two sections: a New-York-in-the-1920's and a New-England-like village. As this area of the park doesn't still have many attractions, it is usually not flooded with crowds so it can be very useful if you need to escape the thick crowds of other area of the park. Moreover, this area faces the real sea, so a gentle breeze is always blowing and you could smell the real sea! Wonderful details abund here too, like voices coming from the second floor and funny billboards. I has a curious to the Main Street of Disneyland Resort Paris.
Infact, in the early sketches, imagineering thought it could be a nice idea for the European audience to use Main Street to portrait American cities during the 1920's as that was the time when Europeans started to be fascinated by American cultures. It was intended to be a much confusing environment with lightpoles, big billboards, gangsters strolling the street and jazz club hidden behind a fake facade. Eisner thought the idea, though wonderful, was to far away from the original Main Street so we ended up having our wonderfully detailed turn-of-the-century theming. But good ideas never die and a few years later it ended on the drawing board of a then unknown new theme park in Japan. This area features Encore! a full-broadway-style show I strongly suggest to enjoy.
Click on photos below for a larger views.
Lost River Delta
I must admit the theme chosen for this land is not that evocative to me but as anywhere else in the park, everything is very well-executed. This area of the park features prominently thrill rides and that makes it one of the most crowded at all times. Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull is one of the must-do of the park because it features incredible mass scenes, where different ride vehicles share the same huge room in a profusion of special effects like fire and smoke rings. Believe me, words simply do no justice to the attraction!
Unfortunately Raging Spirits was a huge disappointment: I knew this roller-coaster shared the same track of an attraction in Paris I don't particularly like, but I hoped it would be heavily re-themed to match the richness of other attraction in the parks. Well, I was wrong. The attraction is fast and features the same bumps of the French version. I couldn't spot any fire effects and there were only a few smoke clouds. I must say though Japanese guests seemed thrilled by this attraction as stand-by lines usually were 100 minutes long and Fastpass were sold-out in the first hours of the day.
Click on photos below for a larger views.
Arabian Coast
This area is magnificent. Arabian decorations and buildings are everywhere and the bazaar is very enjoyable. I must say though attractions were kind of disappointing for different reasons. I was very curious about Sindbad because from what I saw on the internet it featured a visual style reminding of Mary Blair's It's a Small World. Well, effects were cute, characters were nice but it lacked something, that special touch that makes you want to ride an attraction again and again. I also watched the show in the Magic Lamp Theatre and I think I didn't like because it realies heavily on spoken word, wich I couldn't understand. People seemed to like it very much though so I guess my judgment is kind of peculiar.
Click on photos below for a larger views.
Mermaid Lagoon
Though this area of the park is clearly intended for families with little children, you must take some time and enjoy it because I think it' such a unique environment it can feature in an art gallery. The exterior is decorated with broken porcelain mosaics, reminding one of Gaudi's works, and the final look is just impressive. There are no straight lines as the organic look of shells and sponges surrounds you completely. The interior is even better! You explore the bottom of the sea and have the chance to visit Ariel's hideway and meet Ursula. I didn't ride any of the attractions featured in this area because I was alone but I suggest anyone to stroll and enjoy the nice little details and the shops.
Click on photos below for a larger views.
Port Discovery
Port Discovery is a nice area and features one flight simulator called Stormrider and a very nice surprise called Aquatopia. The visual style is very elegant as it reminds the streamlined architecture of the 1920's. Stormrider is a very nice attraction even though I don't particularly like flight simulator. But this attraction feature some real elements like water and animated props that makes it more interesting to me. Aquatopia instead was a real surprise! Infact I wish I was not alone because it would be a lot of fun riding it with friends. The ride vehicles float on the water with sharp turns and even go backwards sometimes. You can choose the dry or wet version of the attraction before riding it and it's real fun. It seem a very simple ride but the idea behind is what make is so funny.
Click on photos below for a larger views.
FINAL CONCLUSION
A lot has been said about this park and I had very high expectations for my first visit. Well, the park successfully passed the exam and jump in no time right in my heart. Probably if you like roller-coasters and generally speaking thrill rides, you may find the attraction roster is a little bit lacking but I am confident that the park is just at the beginning of its life and face a very promising future. Just think about the Tower of Terror. Another thing I really enjoyed about this park is that attractions, even the strongest, are designed so that everybody in the family can enjoy them all together and that is definetely a disney element that is lacking more and more in recent expansions. The only sad attraction about that is Raging Spirits but others attractions like Journey to the Center of the Earth or Indiana Jones are enjoyable even for the ones who do not like to be turned upside-down.
My suggestion is to keep an eye on this park as it will probably get better and better in the future and start saving money to visit it!
By now, ciao ciao,
All Text and Photos By: Massimo Poti. [Report and photos re-printed with permission.]
Guest Website: http://homepage.mac.com/massimo.poti/PhotoAlbum29.html
Guest Email: massimo(dot)poti(at)mac(dot)com
|
