Tokyo Disney Resort Houkoku
Special Guest Trip Report
TP2000's Visit to Tokyo Disney Resort
October 16th-19th, 2005
(Posted 10/23/05)
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Tokyo WARNING for Disneyland USA fans!
I posted the content below on another message board in a topic discussing Tokyo's Halloween decorations. But I think it deserves it's own topic as it contains a warning for any American Disney fan considering a visit to Tokyo Disney Resort. Read on if you dare...
For the first time in my life I went to Tokyo Disney Resort for three days earlier this month. Fantasyland, Toontown, and Westernland are all decorated for Halloween. Pumpkins and Halloween banners on the Mark Twain, Westernland dressed to the nines in scarecrows and pumpkins and ghosts, decorations all over Toontown, Park trash cans painted in Halloween colors with ghosts on the sides, random horses on the Fantasyland Carousel replaced with wacky ghosts, etc., etc.
Tokyo Disneyland puts as much energy and money into Halloween as Disneyland USA puts into Christmas. And it's simply wonderful.
But I have to warn anyone who is thinking of visiting Tokyo Disney Resort to realize what they are getting themselves into. The Japanese have perfected and elevated the Disneyland experience into something that is dramtically superior to the Disney theme park experience here in America. Their level of customer service from every single Cast Member you encounter is so thorougly better than anything any American Cast Member has ever provided me, in any North American Disney park at any time in the last 15 years, that I am now not as enamored of Disneyland USA as I was before my trip to Japan.
Every single Tokyo Disney Cast Member I encountered was flawless in their execution, and their inate sense of hospitality and pride in their work showed with every interaction. You can not pass a Cast Member without receiving a big smile and a spoken greeting of some sort. ("Konichiwa!" or "Yokoso!" or the greeting appropriate for the time of day).
I will forever remember the impressive level of poise and grace the four hostesses working at the Enchanted Tiki Room displayed as they went about their business of welcoming us and introducing the show for likely their 25th time that day. And yes, they had FOUR hostesses working the Tiki Room on a rainy weekday night in October! One at the entrance, one in the pre-show lanai, and then two more who opened the doors and personally guided us into our seats before starting the show. And while the show performed, these immaculately dressed girls (in expensive uniforms that looked hand-tailored) gracefully wandered through the theater clapping and swaying to the music, winking and flirting with the tiki totem pole figures, and waving at the singing birds. That type of experience plays itself out at ride after ride, show after show, restaurant after restaurant, shop after shop, popcorn vendor after popcorn vendor.
And don't even get me started on the level of upkeep and maintenance. Did you know that the ghosts in the graveyard portion of the Haunted Mansion ride are actually supposed to move and do things, rather than just wiggle a bit?! It's true! Every animatronic looked like it had just had it's yearly tune-up, every handrail was newly painted, every facade freshly scrubbed, every little special effect working and performing in a continuous parade of magical little details.
DisneySea was an amazing Park, with a half dozen fantastic E Ticket rides uniquely built for the Park. A dozen or so other D and C Tickets, plus some amazing shows, water carnivals, and fabulous restaurants had us spending exactly half of our three full days at DisneySea. You don't just hop over to DisneySea to ride two E Tickets before returning to Disneyland like you do with DCA. You are enveloped in lush themes and thoroughly entertained for a full day at DisneySea, and it was just as crowded and busy as Disneyland. We eagerly went back to DisneySea for a second half-day before moving over to Disneyland for the last half of the day, and I look forward to seeing DisneySea again, especially after their MASSIVE new Tower of Terror opens.
Tokyo Disney Resort is FLAWLESS!
A visit to Tokyo Disney Resort can honestly change your perspective in such a dramatic way, that it is difficult to gain as much enjoyment out of our Disneyland and DCA once you have seen how much better the Japanese are at it.
Seriously, it's a very dangerous thing for a die-hard Disneyland fan to do. A trip to Tokyo Disneyland will forever change your perspective, and make you realize how much our standards have slipped here in this country in the past 15 years, and how inferior our Disneyland now is. And for a patriotic American like myself, that's not easy to admit. Visit Tokyo Disney Resort at your own risk, and realize you will never again look at Disneyland USA the same way.
(Webmaster's Note: This report was taken from online discussion boards. TP2000 replies to comments from other board members.)
TDR was not "flawless" in it's entirety. There were architecture and design elements that weren't perfect. But the people side of the experience was "flawless", and I will stick to that.
My point of reference for using the word "flawless" comes from many years of visiting Disneyland/DCA and several visits over the last 15 years to WDW. There is also the point of reference going in to the TDR experience where I would compare them to the service I receive at upper-end hospitality businesses like the Ritz-Carlton, the Montage Hotel in Laguna, the Four Seasons in Washington DC and New York, etc. The Cast Members of the TDR meet those type of standards, and routinely surpassed them. And I'm talking about cornball amusement park venues like The Blue Bayou, the Castle Mystery Tour, the Enchanted Tiki Room, etc. The few times we did partake in upper-end experiences like lunch at Magellan's in DisneySea, we were literally left sitting at our table with our jaws dropped open. It was breathtaking to experience.
But you also have to realize that the Japanese have a very different culture than America, and their service expectations are much higher. The Japanese expect a level of service routinely delivered by a Four Seasons when they are staying at a Howard Johnson type property. The Tokyo department stores make Nordstrom look like a cheap Wal-Mart when it comes to service and polished profesionalism. Honestly.
The other major difference in the TDR experience was my fellow guests. None of them raised their voice in queues, they immediately obeyed any instruction given by a Cast Member without protesting or saying "But I'm a Premium Annual Passholder and they've let me go this way in the past!". The Japanese are extremely polite, and they are clearly respectful of each other and the Disney property they are visiting that day. Their children are also extremely well behaved, and anyone over the age of 2 no longer rides in a stroller. There also were no rented ECV's anywhere, with one lone exception, and the few wheelchairs we saw were owned by the individual who obviously needed to use a wheelchair.
It all makes for an extremely enjoyable Park experience, and it certainly helps the CM's do their job so remarkably well.
The one exception to the complete lack of ECV's was seen on the third day. We came around the corner in DisneySea to the entrance of the Journey To The Center Of The Earth ride, and there were two people in ECV's who had just rolled up. They were both white, and they spoke English with an American accent. They were what the medical establishment would call "morbidly obese", although they appeared to have use of their arms and legs. They weren't wearing casts or any type of medical accesory, they were simply using the rented Disney ECV's to go around the Park. They then engaged in a painful conversation with the three CM's staffing the entrance area about how they were going to go on the ride in their ECV's. One of the CM's spoke pretty good english and was trying to get them to park their ECV's near the entrance and walk in. The Standby line was posted at 10 minutes, Fastpasses were being distributed for 50 minutes in advance, and it was a rainy weekday in October. The husband kept protesting and saying that they wanted to take their ECV's through the queue and that the queue looked wide enough to him. The conversation went on for about 2 minutes while I observed from 15 yards away. I took their picture for my scrapbook, and then I walked away shaking my head feeling embarassed for my fellow countrymen and the horrible way we've let our society decline in the last 25 years. As a patriotic American who loves my country, it was truly embarassing to witness.
But I can't wait to get back to Tokyo and a multi-day visit to Tokyo Disney Resort!
(Webmaster's Note: More of TP2000's comments on a Disney discussion board.)
The superiority of Tokyo Disney Resort goes beyond funding.
Certainly it was clearly obvious that they spent a heck of a lot of money on DisneySea, as that was a beautiful park that kept our rapt attention for one and a half days. DisneySea has a half dozen unique E Tickets, another dozen or so delightful D and C Tickets, plus some amazing stage shows, fantastic themed environments to explore, and several very fine restaurants and bars.
And it was also clearly evident that they were spending healthy amounts of capital on upkeep and maintenance. You never once saw a sign of neglect. Even the old rides, like the Mickey Mouse Revue originally built in the early 1970's for WDW and shipped to Tokyo in '83, looked brand new. The light pink floral carpeting looked new, the upholstered pink seats looked new, the paint and wallpaper looked freshly installed, and all of the animatronics and special effects performed flawlessly and with a range of motion unseen in the American parks. And this was a 35 year old ride that had long outlived it's ability to pull in new customers! (Don't even get me started on how amazing the AA's in Pirates and Splash Mountain were! The pirates were so realistic and moved so fluidly, I half expected them to jump into the boat with me.)
But what impressed me the most was the pride and poise and grace that the Tokyo CM's had. Their costumes were immaculate, and all their clothing looked as though they were brand new and had just come back from their first trip to the dry cleaners. Not once did you see a frayed hem or a missing button, rumpled trousers or a dumbed-down polo shirt. And the pants all fit perfectly, even on the teenage male CM's who in Anaheim have a habit of 'drooping their drawers' as is the current teenage fashion. Obviously there was some meticulous management happening on the front lines to keep these 18 to 25 year old kids working in the Tokyo parks looking so crisp and clean. It was like every single CM was about to pose for an official Disney poster on how to wear the uniform for their location!
And again, it was the little niceties extended by so many CM's that almost had us tearing up a few times each day...
- The captain of the Mark Twain who snapped off a stiff and perfectly executed salute followed by a big smile when I looked up at him after he blew the steam whistle as we left the dock.
- The kid working the remote controlled sailing ships in DisneySea's Fortress Explorations attraction who came up and did a magic trick in broken english for us, unfolding a "magic map" of Fortress Explorations with exactly six DisneySea stickers inside it for the six of us adults there that day.
- The young custodial lady who was wiping off the walkway handrailings around Mermaid Lagoon in the rain, with a smile on her face. Just in the off chance that someone would want to lean against the railing without getting wet in the next five minutes, before she came back and wiped them down again.
- The half dozen Blue Bayou waiters who paraded to our table each carrying an entree'. When they got to our big round table they circled the table in one full rotation with military like precision, before coming to a stop and setting all of the entree's in front of us in perfect unison. After a communal gasp of delight, we broke out in spontaneous applause, and were met with deep bows and a wish to enjoy our meal.
- The Tiki Room hostesses who approached us and taught us all the "hang loose" sign before the show, even though "hang loose" is a Hawaiian thing well known by most Americans (We played along and were thoroughly charmed by these girls).
- The young man selling popcorn in Tomorrowland, who produced an English/Japanese phrase book out of his coat to help explain to us that "In the Autumn the dragonflies swarm in gardens" and then he pointed out a landscaped area nearby that was bursting with the biggest dragonflies you've ever seen.
- The older woman working in a very busy The AristoCats store who insisted that I wait a moment while she rushed to the back for 15 seconds so she could get a fresh t-shirt from a box, still wrapped in it's plastic, rather than sell me the t-shirt on the hanger that had been likely handled by previous customers.
- The young CM standing outside the Bon Voyage Store (Their version of World of Disney) one morning, waving with big Mickey hands at the Japan Rail commuter train rolling by on the tracks above PACKED TO THE WINDOWS with commuters. And there he was, in an immaculate store uniform with coat and hat, smiling and waving his Mickey hands at this packed commuter train full of worker bees heading to Tokyo skyscrapers, just knowing that one or two people on that crowded train got a smile from his actions.
It just went on and on like that all three and a half days we were there. Every CM seemed to top the last one when it came to grace and profesionalism and hospitality. Sure they spent a bundle on the Journey To The Center Of The Earth ride, and it showed. But the Tokyo Cast Member's inate sense of duty to provide each of their "guests" a wonderful time is what I will remember most about Tokyo Disney Resort. And I'm not sure that's something that requires capital spending or a PowerPoint presentation to achieve. It's something the Tokyo managers have instilled in their front line troops, and God bless 'em for it. Their American management counterparts have failed compared to the service I received in Tokyo.
All Text By: TP2000. [Report re-printed with permission.]
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