We hope to always be young at heart!

We visited DisneySea Tokyo and had a blast. It was our third time to this park. Even though we are not able to understand many of the characters as they speak Japanese, the magic is the same. 

The park opens at 9AM and they say to get there early. We chose to arrive at 9AM and there were hoards in front of us, but as we entered, there were hoards behind us. Everyone was, for the most part, polite except one person on the subway.

As we left the subway to head to Disney, a short man started aggressively pushing Meg and trying to get in front of her. I was behind her and oblivious to this at first. Once I noticed him shoving to get in front, I put my arm between him and Meg. He turned toward me and, as the Friendly Giant would say “look up, way up”. Then, for some reason only he will know, he tried to push in front of me. Another one of his not-so-good ideas. I pushed my arm out and he disappeared behind us. Meg thanked me for that. There are idiots everywhere.

Soaring Fantastic Flight – We’ve Seen Almost All of the Sights!

Once inside the park, we headed toward Soaring Fantastic Flight. As we arrived, it was a 150-minute wait. So we decided to pay the premium and get fast access for ¥2,000 each. The ride, in which you strapped into a chair that “flies”, took us over many of the world’s most famous landmarks. Taj Mahal, Sydney Opera house, the plains of the Serengeti, Mad King Ludwig’s Castle in Barvaria, Canadian glaciers and polar bears, The Great Wall of China, Tokyo and ended by landing at Disney. Along the way there were wind gusts and smells. It was really well done and lasted about five minutes.

From there, we headed over to Rapunzel’s castle. We saw her in the top of the castle, singing but she was not letting down her hair! Again, we chose to fork out for a quick access but this ride left us underwhelmed. Then we waited, like common folk, for 100-minutes to ride the Peter Pan ride. This was by far the best Disney ride either of us has ever been on. 

Peter Pan – a Classic in 3-D

You board a “boat” and, wearing 3-D glasses, are immersed in the novel, Peter Pan. Peter fights Hook in a dueling sword battle (spoiler alert Peter wins). Tinker Bell spreads pixie dust you can almost feel. The Lost boys are “found” and in the end, all the children return home to London where Nana is waiting for them. You get to see 3-D London at the end of the Industrial Revolution, Never Land with its mountains and crystal-clear water. Of course, in the end Hook is chased by the croc! We liked this so much, we lined up again for 70-minutes later in the day.

Breaking for a light snack, we were back at it, heading to the Tower or Terror. Poor Harrison Hightower III, disappeared in this New York building after discovering a scared relic from some jungle. In the pre-ride, there is Harrison talking with the relic by his side. Lightning strikes and Harrison changes, shrinks and then disappears. The relic smiles and with a bang it too disappears. To make it entertaining, there was spectacular lighting and sound.

Of course, the idea was for us to find Harrison, so we followed his footsteps and got into the elevator where he was last seen. Strapped in, we were whisked to the top, but not without some blackouts, huge drops and shakes. At the top, there was an open window where we could see outside Tokyo before we plunged again into darkness. Alas, we did not find Harrison, but we had some good laughs. 

The Quiet Rides Were very Noltsalgic

With many long lines, we started to aim for shorter lines. Sinbad’s adventure was a cross between “It’s a Small World” and Pirates of the Caribbean, but with an Arabian twist. Aquatopia had us in open air saucers that travelled around a water park. Captain Nemo’s 20,000 Leagues under the Sea was a take on the 1954 movie. In our submarine we saw numerous deep-sea creatures. Of note, this ride was shut down in 1994 in the US so this may be the only place to see it.

It was nearing the end of our day and as we headed out, Meg noticed a sign on the Raging Spirits roller coaster. The line was estimated to be 90-minutes, but there was a single rider lane. In this lane, you basically wait until they have one empty seat and then you go. You don’t ride with your party, but with strangers. We decided to try it and it took 22-minutes to get us both through. For the record, this was Cam’s first 360-degree loop roller coaster. It was short but a blast. 

We left upbeat and happy. While the Indiana Jones ride was closed for maintenance, there was scaffolding everywhere, it was still a good day. The closure of the Indy ride obviously meant there were more people not in that line and in the other lines. Disney does a good job of handling lines and staff are always smiling. One thing we noticed from our last visits is the costumes. We were in the very small minority of people not wearing Disney hats, ears or full out costumes. 

We Are Planning Our Next Trip to Disney!

On our next visit, one thing we will do differently is to buy our tickets closer to the day. Of course you need to watch they don’t sell out, but that will ensure we know what rides are closed. Also, the weather plays a big factor and if you can go when it is lightly raining, the lines are a lot shorter. Being from the west coast of British Columbia, rain is a fact of life and we know we will not melt. 

Thanks for reading. Have you ever been to Disney, either as a child, an adult or a parent with kids in tow? Feel free to share any Disney tips you may have.

A Quote From Disney…It Rings True in Every Sense

“The things that make me different are the things that make me.” – Piglet from Winnie the Pooh

Cam and Meg

Read on to see how we handled it.

Day 15 – Hakodate, Japan

We arrived alongside at 7AM and it looked as if we were a long way from downtown. Shuttles had been arranged and were first come, first serve until 8AM, after which time you would need a ticket. Let’s face it, most people on vacation want to sleep in. However….at 7:15AM the Captain came on the loudspeaker and dropped a bombshell. 

Super cyclone Halong, off the coast of Japan, was tracking towards Tokyo. Its projected path would be right along the ship’s route to get to Yokohama. The Ship’s Officers, in consultation with Royal Caribbean’s (RCL) head office, made the decision to extend the cruise by two days. This would let the storm pass and make it safer for the ship. There is a full write up at Cruise Hive

https://www.cruisehive.com/typhoon-delays-royal-caribbean-ships-return-for-two-days/188231

Arriving in Yokohama on Saturday vs Thursday

These two sea days would bring the ship into Yokohama on Saturday, October 11^th, vs the planned arrival of Thursday October 9^th.  RCL would cover some change fees for flights and offered to extend beverage packages for a price (no freebies here!). Unfortunately, we had tickets for Expo 2025 in Osaka on Friday October 10^th. The tickets are not changeable. Our travel from Yokohama to Osaka for the 9^th and additional tickets for Osaka to Kagoshima on Kyushu Island on the 11th were also non-refundable. 

We considered what to do and decided to leave the ship in Hakodate. We made a hotel reservation for one night in Hakodate, booked Shinkansen tickets to Yokohama for the next day and found a hotel for one night in Yokohama. Had it not been for Expo, we likely would have opted to stay on the ship. There were many people who had flights home the day we were scheduled to arrive as well as other plans. In all, around 500 people, out of 3,900, departed early. 

Of course, most passengers stayed on including 100’s who were doing a back-to-back cruises ending in Singapore. That next cruise will now be two days shorter as the next cruise will obviously not start until this cruise arrives. It must be a huge logistical challenge for the ship. We had noted they were running low on fresh fruit and veggies as the cruise carried on. Portions were getting smaller every day – with some strange substitutions for ingredients they’d run out of. 

Making our Escape from the Ship

Leaving the ship was easy, although time consuming. Our hotel, the Toyku-Stay Hakodate, had an onsen and was well located. The bed was comfortable and although the room was small, it was functional. We wandered around town for a few hours in the afternoon once all the cruise ship passengers had left and it was very peaceful. Dinner was a quiet meal followed by the onsen which was spectacular.

It was on the 18^th floor and there was an open-air portion, providing a sweeping view of the ocean complete with a full moon shining down. It was a great way to relax before heading to bed. 

Day 1 of Interruption or Day one of our land based tour?

Once we got up and updated our families on the changes, we headed over to the train station to catch the train to Yokohama. The first part was on a local train and then a transfer to Shin-Hakodate, where the Shinkansen (bullet train) left from. Being Japan, we expected all the trains to be on time, but one was about five minutes late – shocking. It also meant we needed to move quickly, not run but not dawdle at the next station, which was Omiya, to catch our third of four trains.

Checking into the Hyatt

We arrived at our hotel at 4:30PM, it had been a seven hour day, but it did not seem as long as flying would have been. Our hotel tonight was the Hyatt in Yokohama, there was a shortage of hotel rooms in Yokohama as up to 4,000 cruise passengers for the next cruise needed extra rooms on short notice! We were very glad to come to this brand tonight, a large room with very comfortable beds.

The hotel is only 200 metres from the water, so a sunset stroll helped us shake off the time spent sitting on the train. The sky was a lovely colour, there were very few clouds and the water was calm. Unless I had seen a weather map, I would not have believed there was a typhoon out there.

Having Local Knowledge is Helpful

There is no way we would have tried to pull this off if we had not been to Japan before. Understanding the trains, the culture et al was the key to us having the confidence to leave our cruise ship on our own and make this work. The bulk of the credit for making it work is my bride of almost 38 years. She pulled pretty much everything together and did a great job. I had a key role too, it all went on my credit card!

Thanks for reading, feel free to share any trip interruption you may have had. We’d love to hear about what happened and how you got around it. 

Remember, attitude is the difference between adventure and ordeal!

Cam and Meg