Well, we're back in Melbourne
Sitting at my dinning table typing on my laptop, both kids are asleep, my wife is unpacking after a much needed nap.
After we got back to the Hilton we were again upgraded to the Happy Magic room, they are the only type of room that has 5 in a row that is non smoking. This time instead of facing the park we were facing the bay. A tip, if you want a larger happy magic room, request the bay view in the center, they are huge. A vast contrast to the tinny rooms in Osaka I can tell you.
Ohh, someone asked about Milk, the facilities at the Hilton are excellent, most staff speak very good english, shops include a Passtiserie, a Starbucks (visited frequently!), a small convenience store (we tested the Milk, it has 8% fat instead of aus which is 4%, tastes a little like UHT mile, the kids seem to like it though...), a disney store, a disney ticket booth, and some restaurants which we ate at every morning for breakfast.
The layout of the resort is very good, the Hilton is in a great spot for the use of the monorail, hardly a 5 minute walk to the platform. Tickets are easy to get, the machines have an english button, we got another 3 day pass. Disneyland for Tuesday, DisneySea for Wednesday, Disneyland and DisneySea for Thursday (the 3 day ticket you can use the third day to goto both parks - which we did!).
Going into great detail of each day is likely to bore most so I'm going to break it into highlights and tips.
Pooh ride is very popular, extremely popular, you think why? the LA version hardly a headliner so to speak, well, think again, this ride is fantastic...worth running to this ride first thing and getting a fast pass, the passes can sell out within the first hour, we spent 1/2 day at DL on the Friday (pickup was at 4pm, yes it was goldern week but it was packed!!!!).
Railway, we went on this 3 times, again, in comparison to other versions this is worth going on!
Jungle cruise, excellent.
Haunted Mansion, we waited over 40 minutes for this ride, it still was fun, if you've been on the LA one, and want to miss a ride, then I would miss this one, its exactly the same.
Buzz, Go for the Triangles and Diamonds, my highest score was 176900. A family favorite, except when it breaks down, which happened on the friday.
Places to eat in DL...
Hearts Banquet in fantasyland we went twice to. Food was great, the deserts were even better!
Coffee House in Main Street, well half way down Main Street and turn right, has the best Sundaes!, lunch was average though...
Only place i saw to buy fruit was near the Jungle Cruise, everywhere else sells popcorn, all sorts, pepper, caramel, salted, honey, curry, you name it, popcorn was everywhere! We tried them all, caramel was the best. The salted was not like aussie salted, more like sea salt flavor.
Coins, we collect all the disney coins, you need to go to each shop, each station, each disney hotel, if you've got the time its fun. 100 yen per coin.
DisneySea
Fav rides were Journey to the center of the earth, 10000 leagues under the sea, Indianan jones. Disapointments were Tower of Terror, and the Roller Coaster Raging Spirits. TOT was visually fantastic, but it was slow and the lifts didn't go the to full height of the DW and DL versions. Ohh, and dont get me started about Raging Spirits, Disney, you could have done much better!!! Its small, its slow, its bordering on boring yet it goings 360 degrees???
DisneySea would have to be the most beautifully, visually stunning park I have every scene, its just amazing, at night you could imagine you in Venice, you have to see it to believe the amount detail, even for Disney.
Character Dining - We went for dinner at the Ambassator Disney Hotel, it was very expensive and the buffet was very limited. It was 4300 yen per adult. I've done the character dining in all the other parks and this is worst by far.
Characters in general - Very few characters throughout both of the parks we noticed, no princesses at all?
Fireworks - much smaller than the other parks. Know this before you go so your not disappointed. Whoever designed the Tokyo ones need to take a quick plane ride down to HK DL.
I'm starting to fall asleep, so guys, all in all, Tokyo Disney Resort is a MUST SEE!!! The country and people are fantastic, so polite and refined, the rides are the best i've seen disney do, the cleanliness, the food, the parade, the magic, its all at Tokyo Disney Resort!
Rick and Family
P.s. very proud of my 2.5 year old, we told the disney cast member she was 3 and went on her first roller coaster in DisneySea, then followed it up the next day with Splash Mountain, a grand feet my little princess! Love Love...