A common questioned that visitors to Tokyo always asked is which theme park that they should visit… Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo Disneysea ??? Having visited both park during my last visit to Tokyo, I would say VISIT BOTH !!!.. if you had time…. hahaha.. You will required 2 full day to visit both park, as once you visit either of the park, you will end up spending the whole day there until the park close.. Each park had its own uniqueness. Disneyland, like those in other country, is more associated with the animation and fantasy side whereas Disneysea has more rides.  Both park is beautifully decorated and it is really fun to take in all the sights and the people dressing up in the Disney character costumes and hats.  When all was said and done, we left the park smiling and feeling like little kids again.

DisneyLand

I had previously been to the Hong Kong Disneyland, and that was a fun day, but the Tokyo one is twice as big!! Tokyo Disneyland, is very beautiful, much nicer than the Hong Kong Disneyland .. and much more cleaner too. The park is so clean and there is music everywhere and creates a magical atmosphere. The rides were very impressive, especially the graphics and illusions incorporated into rides. The dialogue on the rides are in Japanese, even familiar rides will feel new! It’s still easy to follow the plot even I  don’t understand Japanese – hearing all the songs and familiar characters in Japanese is actually quite entertaining!

Queuing to buy the ticket at the entrance gate can be quite long if you didn’t secure your ticket earlier like me. I had to queue for almost half hour before we were able to enter the park. But my heart was super warm because Disney characters were welcoming us after we stepped inside the gate!! We take pictures some with the characters but for popular characters the queue was very long, so we just took with some and didn’t bother to, because we wanted to play inside.

Tokyo Disneyland is divided into seven themed areas: World Bazaar, AdventureLand, WesternLand, Critter Country, FantasyLand, TomorrowLand and Toontown. These themed areas are not much different from the other ones found in the rest of the Disneylands. The whole park was also very friendly for families with strollers. Most of the rides were child friendly especially for 3 year olds

At Adventureland, we went ride a boat through the jungle at the Jungle Cruise and took a fun ride to the Pirates of the Carribean. At Western River railroad, we enjoy a calm ride on a steam train that takes us all the way around Adventureland, through Critter Country, and past Westernland. We also enjoyed ourselves watching a colourful musical show of enchanting Hawaiian birds and flowers at the Lilo Stitch teater.

At WesternLand, we took the Tom Sawyer Island Rafts and visited  their artificial island to experience the environment. The Big Thunder Mountain rides was really cool and one of my favorite rides, and one of the popular rides too. It was quite a long ride and I just love rollercoasters! I queue for almost an hour before we were able to ride the rides. Oh ya, if you like boat ride, they have a big boat cruise ride named Mark Twain Riverboat, we missed that due to limited time.

At FantasyLand, we board a mine car and enter the world of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, flying in a  pirate ship in the Peter Pan’s flight, travel on a mine car in Pinnochio’s Daring Journey, entering the Haunted Mansion by boarding an eerie “doom” buggy and watched the 3D Mickey’s PhilharMagic. These are well worth the wait to get into, as they will thrill the little ones. The Cinderella’s castle, served as the main focal point of the park. And I also get inside the castle, it’s called Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall.

TomorrowLand look a bit out-dated. It needs new attractions to keep up with the times, and perhaps make it more worthy of the TomorrowLand status. We missed the BuzzLightYear attraction, and the the Space Mountain ride due to the super long queue.  We manage to see the Captain EO 3D movie (featuring Michael Jackson), which was re-opened after Michael Jackson’s death… but it kinda boring.. hehehe..  My opinion is not to go for this, it definitely wasting your time, I almost slept through the show.

Toontown was clearly aimed at aimed at a younger audience, but we liked it nonetheless ! Its perfect for little ones, from 3 years to 7 year olds. Toon Town, a town where the disney characters such as Mickey, Minnie, Dolald, Goffie, and such live!! There’s also minnie and mickey house! You can also take pic with some of the disney character here but duuhhhhh, popular characters are popular, so there were long queues. There were lots of interactive building, where you could push buttons and walk through doors. It was really like a little town, with a bank, a fire department and a city hall. All the buildings here look so dreamy, and about to go against real architecture rules because of the shape is very odd… but hey, that’s what Disney is for… Imagination !!

We got to watch both day and night parade.. it was fantastic. Each parade lasts for about 20 minutes, filled with Disney Characters and dancers!! It was very lovely! The parades are a joy to watch, particularly if you’re a Disney fan. They’re bright and colourful and enjoyable, especially the night parade. The dancers in the parades look like they’re enjoying themselves and they enjoy interacting with the audience as well. So many Disney movies were represented and with every vehicle it became more beautiful! At night, the music in combination with the lights and colours was so wonderful! It was like art! I’ll admit it: It was so beautiful and I wanted it to never end! I was very happy it was a long parade!

Visiting Tokyo Disney Land is a really fun way to spend a day!

DisneySea

DisneySea is amazing and there is no other Disney park like it. It is a one of a kind attraction that you will not find anywhere else in the world and it is sure to delight both kids and adults. There is so much to see and do! Besides the rides, the amusements, the shows, the food and everything else Disney, what will really impress you most is the attention to detail in every aspect of the park. From the Inca temple in the Lost River Delta to the lighthouse at the American waterfront. From the Gondola rides in the Mediterranean harbour to the back streets of Venice. From the two level carousel in the Arabian Coast to the underwater Ariel’s playground in the Mermaid lagoon. There is a level of craftsmanship on display here that will leave you breathless. Each area within the park leaves you wanting more.

Entrance/Mediterranean harbour, you don’t need to go to Venice after being here. The front façade of DisneySea represents the most authentic recreation of the Venetian cities that you could every imagine. But more than that, these are real living areas which are converted into an actual hotel – the hotel Mira Costa. This facade continues as you go inside, with Gondola rides, various shop fronts, cafes that mimic the Italian way of life. Besides this, in the centre of the park is a huge fort in medieval themed. It also has a pirate ship (with live canons that children can play with for sound and effects) . The castle itself has a map because there is so much to explore, and we were completely blown away by the various artefacts and things we could actually play with.

The Mysterious Island is pretty mysterious in a way that it is surrounded by the man-made valley with a lake in the middle, located right from Mediterranean harbour. The Journey to the Centre of the Earth take you through the flagship DisneySea mountain for a thrill ride, one of my favorite ride at DisneySea. Queue for this ride was very long, but luckily we manage to use the fast pass system. For me, its not a extreme ride, but an enjoyable one. The ride starts out slow traveling to the center of the Earth, dark and full all kinds of creatures, and once you through the Earth’s core and then BOOM, a giant monster alien thing roaring at you and getting up in your face!  The next thing you know, the ride speeds up and you’re flying through a roller coaster.  But by the time it registered to me that I was rocketing through the tracks, the ride was over…. It was too quick!! The 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea ride made you feel like you were in a submarine going under water and exploring the bottoms of the ocean. The underwater scenes was cute, but suitable more for the little one.

At the Lost River Delta, the Raging Spirits roller coaster ride, a 360 degree loop roller coaster was closed while we were there, but the Indiana Jones attraction was open and the queue lines was very long as this is one popular ride. Luckily we had the fast pass and manage to avoid the queues. It was a really fun ride that let you ride around in a jeep-like-coaster thing through Indiana Jones’s world. You got to see dungeons, caves, and even almost get rolled over by a giant stone! hahaha! It was really cool!

The Arabian Coast represented my favorite Disney movie, Aladdin, looked identical to Agrabah and it was SO cool.  Amazing architecture on display! The authenticity of the domes and the thematic recreation of the back streets of Morocco are without compare. At Arabian Coast, we rode Sinbad’s Voyage or something like that…. It was a cute ride like “It’s A Small World” but it told the tale of Sinbad and his crazy adventures. We also ride on the flying carpet ride that will thrill the little ones. Other than that, they also have the double storey carousel ride, but we didn’t try it.

Port Discovery is the TomorrowLand of DisneySea. We did a ride called Storm Rider which was a storm motion simulator ride, maybe not suitable for little ones. The Aquatopia very suitable for little ones and grown ups alike!. It is a pointless, adventure free, three person ride which ends up being loads of fun because it goes off in different directions with what seems like an undetermined trajectory

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American Waterfront – rounds up the different themed areas and is pretty extensive. It replicates the New York harbour and the eastern seafront of United States from early 20th century very authentically. The Tower of Terror is my top most favorite ride in Disneysea. This is a high-speed, free fall-type attraction through pitch darkness. Super long queue and make sure you grab a fast pass if you can. The fast pass already finished when we were there, but the excitement of the ride really beat off the 1 hour queue. We board the tram and playing 3-D games like “egg toss” and “balloon pop” in the Toy Story Mania.

The Mermaid Lagoon was decorated like it was under the ocean and have both indoor and outdoor rides. It dedicated entirely to The Little Mermaid and was filled with The Little Mermaid themed rides, a veritable goldmine for little ones. The rides were mostly kiddy rides so we didn’t ride anything in Mermaid Lagoon.

The Musical Parade is very fun and cheerful!! The dancers were dancing with all their powers while keep smiling to entertain us! It was interesting to see how everyone sat down when they were asked to! Here, everyone remained seated before and during the parade! Amazing! Of course, since we were late, every possible seat was taken.

Overall, Disney Sea was a complete BLAST!!! We got to ride soooo many rides and see so much!! The park was beautiful and I definitely had the time of my life!

But what if…. I REALLY NEED TO CHOOSE A PARK ?????

My personal opinion… If have limited time and can only go into one park, I suggest DisneySea as it is only one of its kind in the world. DisneySea can only be found in Japan, so it’s more special. Especially if you’ve already been to Disneyland, you should choose Disney sea . Disneyland, they are all the same all over the world, whether in Hong Kong, Tokyo, LA, Florida, Paris… except  for a few special rides unique to a certain location (e.g. Matterhorn in anaheim, Indiana jones in Paris), mainstay attractions, like Space mountain, Big Thunder, Pirates, Hunted Mansion, Autopia, It’s a small world, exist in most of Disneyland parks. In DisneySea, rides like Journey to the center, 10,000 leagues under the sea, are found no where else in the world.

Some tips…

• You can expect long queues at all the popular rides, so make use of the Fast Pass system if you can. I don’t know about the fast pass system when I visited the Disneyland, so I missed lots of popular rides. At DisneySea, I managed to get three Fast Passes at DisneySea and avoided super-long queue and I manage to ride most of the rides. You can get a fast-pass on some rides depending on availability, but on busy day, most fast-pass times can be taken within an hour opening. Oh ya… you can’t book another pass until after you have used a booked one.
• Be prepared for long queues on busy day.. The Japanese queue like no other nation. 2, 3, even 4 hours doesn’t seem to phase them. Rain comes, umbrellas come out, raincoats go on, no one seems to go home, and they just endure with a smile.
• be sure to wear comfortable shoes – the park is quite large and the best rides are spread all over the park, so you’ll do a lot of walking.
• there is a plethora of souvenir shopping and you’ll be tempted even if you don’t plan to buy. Like most attractions, best to leave the shopping till last as you’ll be carting it around the whole day.
• for muslims, there is no halal eatery in both park..
• Do try the different kinds of popcorn flavors sold throughout the park and the different sorts of pastries.