Club Trip 2008 - 25th Anniversary Tokyo Disneyland!

[KeithS]

Hello friends! It is Keith - live from Tokyo Disneyland Resort.

After a good flight, an 50 minute bus ride from Narita, a 10 minute taxi ride to Tokyo Bay - we checked into the Hilton Hotel Tokyo Bay last night. This hotel is amazing! Because of our length of stay, we were upgraded to a Happy Magic Room - I'd like to explain more, but my Internet time is limited... So I'd rather talk about Disneyland.

We got up this morning a 6am - had breakfast and headed straight to the park at 9.00am opening. The crowds at the gates were very large, but like everything here, it moved quickly.

We got into the park, ignored the shops and headed to Pooh's Hunny Hunt. Everything you may have read about this ride is true - it is amazing!! Disneyland in Anaheim got so ripped off with its version!

From there on, we hit all the fantasy dark rides, teacups, It's a Small World, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain - just about every ride attraction in TDL except Star Tours and Buzz Lightyear - it was an amazing day with most rides a max of 10 minutes wait!

Then we saw the Electrical Parade as well! It POURED with rain during the Electrical Parade, but it was still great - much better than the one at DCA now.

Anyway - my internet time is running out - will post more tomorrow after Disneysea!

Seeyas!!

[mushu mama]

Glad to hear you are enjoying Tok-yo Disneyrando....

Can't wait to hear about Disneysea.

~ Lisa ~

[Mel]

Sounds like you're having a great time Keith. I loved the Hunny Hunt too.

Like Lisa, I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of DisneySea too

[KeithS]

Day 2!!
Well, you wanted to know about it - so here goes.

Tokyo DisneySea
I once read on the internet that you cannot take a bad picture in Tokyo DisneySea...and they were right! This park is without a doubt, the MOST beautiful park in the world - even in the monsoonal type rain we had today! This park is spectacular in every way.

We got up this morning, looked out the window and muttered a few choice swear words at the conditions outside. It was blowing a gale and the rain was heavy and falling sideways. However, being diehards - this did not put us off - we put on plenty of layers to combat the 12 degree temperature and headed to the park.

On arrival, we came across the giant globe of the world at the front of the park. Passing under the arches, we walked into a Mediterranean village, with a view across the water to a medieval fort, old ships, and an erupting volcano - just your typical theme park introduction!! hehe.

After the obiligatory trip through the shops, we headed towards the new Tower of Terror. I might add here that because of the weather, there was hardly any guests in the park - every attraction was a walk on!

The TOT is different from the US ones in that they don't theme it to Twilight Zone - it is a different story and they have some great new special effects.

From here, we went up to StormRider which is a large motion-cinema type ride. Then on to Indiana Jones which is similar to the Anaheim one, but with some different special effects. This was followed by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and some other rides. Journey to the Center of the Earth was down today because of the weather - I'm really looking forward to that one.

Enough of the rides - let me just say that this whole resort - DL and DS are two of the best parks in the world. The case here are fabulous and language is not a problem. Food is terrific, transport is great as well.

This evening when we returned to the hotel, we caught up with Wayne and his wife Jennifer, then we met Barry and Julie, and then Matthew and Nicole arrived via taxi! So all the Aussies are here. We also met some of the US NFFC members - Erich and his wife Barbara, and their friend Lewis.

Tomorrow, we are all going back to Disneyland - I hope to update you all again after that. We intend to see some of the live shows then.

Sandie - I'm collecting maps - hehe.

My time is running out again. See you tomorrow!

Just realised this was my 1,000 post!!

[KeithS]

Day 3

Today we woke up and the sun was shining - still cold, but no rain or wind. We had breakfast, got ready and headed into Disneyland.

We finished off the rides that we had previously missed out on here - Buzz Lightyear (pretty much the same as the Anaheim version) Star Tours (hilarious in Japanese) and we took in a live show "One Man's Dream II" which was great - a live trip through the history of Disney animated films. The seats in the outdoor theatre were metal though and freezing my...well, you know what.

When we came out of there, we noticed people had begun lining the parade route. There was no scheduled parade because the old one finished on the 7th (although we never saw it because the 7th got cancelled because of the weather!) and the new parade was meant to start on the 15 - the anniversary day. But yesterday - they ran the first full dress rehersal for the public!! Yay - second time Della and I have seen a day 1 rehersal - after watching the Parade of Dreams the week before it launched in May 2005.

This new parade - Jubilation - was simply awesome. I've got great photos that I'll post when I return. Lots of very large and unique floats - not just copies of ones they've used in parades in other countries.

Following that, we did some more rides and headed for dinner, then finished the night with the Electrical Parade, fireworks, and a trip to Bon Voyage - the big Disney Store outside the park.

We then caught up with Matt & Nicole in our room until midnight and talked about what we'd done.

This morning, the rain is back and we are headed to Disneysea - weather is not torrential like the other day thankfully.

We've only been disappointed so far by the shopping - we haven't found too much to buy, but the shelves are being prepared to receive 25th Anniversary stock, so we are assuming next week will be another story

Anyway - I'd better go - there is a theme park across the road beckoning for my attention!!

[KeithS]

Wow - those posts bring back memories! I still can't get over how in my last post before the hacker ($%&#ing hacker) brought our website down, I mentioned that we were disappointed by the shopping. The funny thing was, just after I hit "Send" and my internet time expired, I saw a person walk past me with a 25th Anniversary bag - and I knew right then that the merchandise had been released. Within an hour - we had spent around $1,000! So much for no merchandise! Good times, good times!!