Tokyo DisneySea

We decided the night before to get up bright and early - but when our alarms went off we realised it was the first day that everyone would be off work and on holiday for New Years. We all got up, and decided not to go because we knew it would be far too busy! We were searching on the internet to find things to do but everywhere except Disney was shut! Due to the New Year holiday beinga  very important thing here in Japan! After Fran made us a delicious breakfast we decided we would risk it and go to DisneySea anyway...

The train was pretty empty on the way there so we were happy. I think I have said before but ALL train stations in Tokyo have a theme tune that play when you get on and off the train, when we had gone to DisneyLand before it played a beautiful tinkly version of a disney medley - so cute! I was really looking forward to Matt hearing it cuz he'd been going around whistling all the other ones (which is very embarrassing really - hehe, we'd be on trains and Matt would be there whistling the theme song - haha, it was funny) We got off the train and it didn't play :-( I don't know why, and I have been trying to find a copy of it on the internet but can't find it anywhere. Anyway... yeah DisneySea!

We'd decided on DisneySea as it is the only one in the world and Matt might get the chance to go to a DisneyLand! We were both pretty excitable!!! The weather was pretty cold and cloudy and to be honest I thought it was going to rain!

... and it looked pretty empty when we first got there...

But by the time we had faffed around getting our tickets and maps and then waiting for Fran (who - poor thing - had to get back on the train and go to the next stop to go into a konbini to take money out cuz disney wouldn't accept our card)... THE SUN HAD COME OUT!!!!! WOOP!

We decided to head straight to one of the biggest rides to see if we wanted to queue up.... 210 mins for the queue... we carried on walking...

 As we were walking around there were rows and rows of people gathering everywhere to see the show that we going to be performed in the center of the park on water - The music began to play really loud... orchestral Disney music... through every speaker in the park - completely amazing / make you realise - oh my god... I'm in a land... where Disney is real! ha! well that's how it made me feel... and by the look on Matt's face that's he felt to!

Unfortunately we couldn't get anywhere near to seeing anything! Fran stood on his tiptoes and took this photo though...

We hoped that if we tried to queue for a ride at this point then we might be able to get on the end of a shorter queue!

After a LOT of wandering we decided to go on this ride - It was in the Indiana Jones section. 

• Raging Spirits - "Dare the wrath of two ancient gods as you speed through an archaeological excavation site aboard this roller coaster with a 360-degree loop!"

We waited in the queue for just over 3 hours! Although it wasn't the best roller-coaster ever... It was a big step for both me and Matt... Me - standing in the queue for 3 hours and not... er... panicing! and Matt has NEVER really done rollercoasters before - especially not ones with a loop anyway!!!!

When we left the ride it was dark and we had to concentrate on finding warm places to go because it really was freezing! So we went on a load of baby rides with no queues for the next hour or so

• Storm Rider - a simulation room, you are in an aricraft that drives into the center of the storm... pretty AWESOME actually!
  
• Sindbad's Story Book Voyage - Very cute boatride that tells the story of Sindbad's Voyage
• Caravan Carousel - I'm not gunna try dress this up... it's just a merry go ride in a fancy building! hehe - good ride for kids though!
• The Whirlpool - TEACUPS, we couldn't even spin ourselves!

We went and got a drink and Matt had some food, we just managed to catch the end of the New Year celebration Firework display and then we went off to queue for our last ride...

• The Journey to the Center of the Earth

We queued for nearly 2 hours but it was sooooooooo worth it! As you are queueing you are going deeper and deeper into the volcano (photo above at sunset), then when you nearly reach the front of the queue you go into a lift which felt like we were plumiting down into the center of the earth - when you come out of the lift everything is dark and smokey and red lava lighting up the rocks. Me and Matt got into the front of the rickity train and Fran sat behind us... the train started slowly and we were going through tunnes passing lots of underworld (if that's the right word) creature. Then we got to this huge firey monster... the train suddenly speeds up turning lots of corner then it starts going up up up... and then you can see out all over DisneySea and Disneyland for a split second only (which was completely mind "blowingly" awesome at night) then you just drop going pretty much straight down for what seemed like forever and then... it's over! I was soooo impressed with it and so happy that we had gone on it!

So all in all... (and after talking to other people who had been) we didn't really do DisneySea justice... at all! BUT we did have a really great day, and now we know what to do next time! And there WILL be a next time :-D