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Colleen & Tom's Explorations
After our brekky today we readied ourselves and set off for Tokyo Disney Sea. This involved going into the station and finding the Keiyo Line. This involved 3 sets of moving walkways, and 3 sets of escalators taking us down down down to the centre of the earth, where this train line runs in Tokyo. We took the rapid train out to Maihama station - it was a JR train, but there were no English announcements, and there were no electronic signs in our carriage (as there have been, alternating English with Japanese) in every other train, and this was the train to Disneyland. When we arrived in Maihama we exited and went over to the monorail run by Disney (Windows in the shape of Mickey Mouse, hanging straps to hang on to in the shape of Minnie Mouse). Luckily there were Disney helpers to help us purchase monorail tickets. The monorail took us around to Disney Sea. Disney Sea was just beautiful! Constructed with attention to detail. You enter in Mediterranean Harbour, which is just beautiful. We walked through that (came back to it later) to catch the DisneySea Electric Railway, this took us to the most distant point we wanted - we had wanted to go to the Lost River Delta, but today the Indiana Jones ride, one of our preferred rides, is closed for maintenance :( - so after riding through the American Waterfront and Cape Cod we alighted at Port Discovery. There were two rides here that interested us: Aquatopia, which had a huge queue house, and Storm Rider, whose waiting line was only 160 minutes. Tom found the Fast Pass machine for Storm Rider and we were set - we could go and do whatever we wanted and come back during a set time period and walk past the line (but you could only do this for one ride at a time). It was a great ride. Very similar to the Star Tours ride, but with fine water spray at times, as well as the moving and shaking of our chairs. We found we missed a lot because of our lack of Japanese - the attempt before and during the ride add to the excitement. But we did enjoy it immensely. Because I had a walking stick, Tom and I were put in the front row. We were astonished after the ride when we stopped to decide on our next adventure and two young girls asked to have a selfie taken with us - so the four of us got in their selfie (can imagine the caption "two random old westerners we found at Disney Sea"). After that ride we found our way around to Myterious Island where we were interested in two rides: Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and 20,000 Leagues under the Sea. The former had a huge waiting line and its Fast Pass had closed for the day, so Tom got us Fast Passes for the other. While waiting for our allotted time he got in a queue house for some lunch for us - hot dog sized gyoza sausage buns. They were in a pork bun type of roll - delicious. When we turned up to go on our ride, the Disney attendant said that there were rope ladders to climb, and when I asked how many, he said 6, so I opted out of the ride while Tom went on the ride. The rope ladders turn out to be for emergency evacuation we think, because Tom reported none on the ride. Oh well. After he went on that ride we wandered down to the Mediterranean Harbour where we were able to get the Disney Sea Transit Steam Liner. Because I had a walking stick, Tom and I were put in the front row with the people with strollers. This was a lovely old steamship ride which took us back to the Lost River Delta, passing the American Waterfront and Port Discovery again, where we had to get off (on a different side to everyone else - they had to go up stairs), so we rejoined the queue house and got on the next one which then took us past the Arabian Coast, Mermaid Lagoon and through the Mysterious Island and back to the Mediterranean Harbour again (in the front row again). We then slowly walked back over to the other side of the Med Harbour to where the gondola rides began. Their were stairs and a 45 minute wait. An attendant gestured for us to go over and join but we said no, too many people (my knee was very uncomfortable by this stage), so he disappeared and we walked to the edge to watch the people boarding, and me back with a "Guest Assistance" card, sort of like a fast pass. We were to come back in 30 minutes time and he would take us to the gondola. So we pottered around looking at things, and watching some street theatre with Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio and his father. When the time came we found an attendant who took us to a no-steps boarding platform, where we were joined by a pregnant lady and her mum and dad. We had a lovely gondola ride, with our Japanese gondoliers using Italian words like "ciao" and "arrivederci", and singing Santa Lucia under a bridge. After that we decided to have an early dinner - a small pizza and a glass of wine each for $24! We were happy. We then decided to return to our hotel room, quite exhausted, with a small bottle of Jacobs Creek C******nay. We simply retraced our steps back to Tokyo. Things I noticed: lots of school groups. School year ends in March, so it's the end of their year; Girls not in school uniform were wearing matching jackets, or buying identical Disney accessories so they all match; lots of girls had their black hair tied up in twin buns to mimic Minnie's ears. Some little girls were dressed as Disney princesses. Everyone was always on their phone! I have been offered a train seat many times.
- comments
Chari Wow mum! Sounds like a very busy day! I laughed out loud about the selfie, that's hilarious! Can't wait to see Japan one day, it sounds amazing!!!!
Colleen Watt Yes Charie - they didn't speak English, and we thought they wanted us to take their photo (so many offer to take ours for us), but no, they wanted us in their photo - crazy. You have to come to Japan - you will love it!
Sophie Bahahaha selfie! Cracked me up! Sounded like an awesome, if tiring day. And lunch sounded delicious!!!
Colleen Watt Yes - big day. Not going to Disneyland today though, as we had planned. We're 25 years older than the first time we went, and 16 years older than the last time, and we're feeling that difference, specially with my knee. That guest assistance card may have been handy from the beginning. Still, it was a lovely day.