And now for something completely different...: Japan - Day 11

The longer we stayed in our room, the more little details we noticed.

Cute Mickey and Minnie themed art.

And this was at the top of the cabinet that housed the TV.

We were up early for our breakfast buffet at the Sherwood Garden restaurant located in our hotel.

Looks like a normal place mat, right?

WRONG!

Mikey insisted on "popping up" his characters at every meal.

I didn't take any pictures at the buffet.

We had to jump right in and find things for the kids to eat.

Okay. Let me rephrase that.

We had to find food that looked appetizing, were possibly allergen safe and that tasted good.

We did not mention to our server that Katie or Mikey had allergies. We figured that if we did mention allergies, the kids would’ve been regulated to whatever they had for “low allergen” options, which, we were finding, were never as appetizing as the other food.

And, a fed kid is a happy kid.

The buffet had a lot of options.

We tried to get Katie to eat what she could. There were veggies, rice, fruit, and this delicious strawberry panna cotta (that we tested to make sure it was safe), but she only took a few bites of what we gave her.

Mikey stuffed himself with pancakes and I think maybe bacon?

He really loved the panna cotta stuff.

At least three of us ate until satisfied.

This day, we were heading over to Tokyo DisneySea.

DisneySea is a very different place than Disneyland.
The SEA stands for "Society of Explorers and Adventurers".
Its focus is on exploring seven fantastical ports:

Mediterranean Harbor - Renaissance era Italian port city theme

Mysterious Island - steam-punk/Jules Verne theme

Mermaid Lagoon - ARIEL LIVES HERE!

Arabian Coast - 1001 Arabian Nights/Agrabah theme

Lost River Delta - jungle adventure theme

Port Discovery - futuristic theme

American Waterfront - Northeast U.S. seaboard theme

We ran a bit behind with breakfast.

Because we were staying in a Disney-owned hotel, we had certificates that gained us 15 minutes early entry into the parks. It's called, "Happy 15!".
Now, I know that 15 minutes doesn't seem like a lot. But, know this.

As soon as the park opens, there is a mad dash to get in line/get fastpasses for certain attractions.

An extra 15 minutes gives you an advantage over this crazy rush of bodies.

When we arrived at the park, we encountered a HUGE line of people. We had no idea where to go for the "Happy 15!" entrance and there were no good signs. We eventually found it, but only as the park officially opened. So, we missed our 15 minute advantage. Bummer.

Past the turnstiles is a large courtyard area with a "floating globe" fountain.

It's a nice place to take a picture.

But, who has time for that crap!

We had rides to ride!!

We high tailed it through the plaza and under the building facade (that is actually a hotel!).

Here is a link to a map of TokyoDisneySea, if you'd like to check it out.

They had a special summer event - Pirates Summer - going on.

There were A LOT of people in the park.

And, to top it all off, it was freaking HOT already and it was only morning.

Most of the crowd ran to the newest attraction which was "Soarin'".

The rest headed for Tower of Terror and Toy Story Midway Mania.

Been there, done that.

We headed towards the Tokyo DisneySea originals.

Our first stop was in Mysterious Island, which is located within Mount Prometheus.

Mount Prometheus is a giant volcano that erupts at certain times during the day (rocket boosters installed into the mountain shoot flames up 50 feet!). It could be considered this parks "castle".

The reason I don't have any pictures was because the volcano was undergoing refurbishment in preparation for the 2020 Olympic crowds.

The entire thing was under construction scrims.

You could make out the mountain, but it just didn't look pretty.

Here is a view of the volcano that I took back in 2004.

Mysterious Island is home to two only-in-Tokyo-Disney rides.

We decided to ride "Journey to the Center of the Earth" first.

The queue is very detailed and sells the theme.

There's smoky volcanic rock everywhere.

Abandoned laboratories with various experiments.

Schematics detailing your ride vehicles.

At one point during the queue, you enter an elevator.

The elevator brings you down farther into the earth to, of course, another shorter queue.

We were REALLY far underground at this point.

It is after this shorter queue that enter your steampunk drill vehicle.

The vehicle takes you to the "center of the earth" to see all sorts of weird rocks and fantastical creatures. But, then, OOOPS! You run into a lava monster and the ride turns into an almost roller coaster shooting you up and out of the side of Mount Prometheus.

It’s great fun. Lots of screaming, of course.

The only problem was that it was SUPER SHORT for the amount of time you spend waiting in line. We found this to be the case for most of the rides at Tokyo DisneySea and were VERY happy for our fastpasses.

The kids were all hyped up with adrenaline, so we moved onto the next ride.

A bit more chill.

Our next ride was "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea".
Another overly themed ride in which you enter a submarine to explore the depths.

This rides hosts another exquisitely themed queue.

Katie LOVED all the cool sciencey stuff to look at.

Captain Nemo planned out our voyage to find Atlantis.

Here's our submarine!

Looks safe, right?

The kids got the front window seat inside our submarine.

Each submarine seats six guests and they each have a window to look out of. They also each have a spotlight they can shine on things outside the sub.

Your submarine runs into problems - GASP! NO! - and some cute deep sea creatures, presumably the inhabitants of Atlantis, end up saving you.

All of the submarine narration is in Japanese. So, I can't say for sure that this is what actually happened.

Since we survived our deep sea adventure, it was time to move on to the Arabian Coast for some fun Aladdin themed rides.

A quick pit stop for a blast of refreshing lamp mist.

The first thing that caught the kids eyes was a two story carousel.

Mikey really wanted to ride on the Genie, but they were all taken.

We ended up going to the second floor to ride.

I think at this point we were getting a bit hungry and I was looking for a place to grab a signature snack I had read about – a Chandu tail – a chicken cream steamed bun - but ended up in line for the Magic Lamp Theater instead.

We had to don our magic glasses for the show.

Huzbend said he remembered the show from the last time we visited. I remembered nothing.

The Magic Lamp Theater hosts a live-action/3D show.

The entirety of the show is in Japanese. So, we really didn't understand any of it.

Here's what we got: A mean magician tries to use the Genie to make him a star, but then he ends up jealous of Genie and locks him up. The magician's assistant is a pushover and feels bad that Genie is locked up. After a few really bad magic tricks and some jokes that everyone else understood but we didn’t, the magician ends up disappearing and the assistant lets Genie out. Then, Genie gives the magician one last wish – we didn’t know what it was – and then he disappears in smoke. I don’t know. Insert shrug here.

But I understand it all now, because I found a video online with TRANSLATION.

The show was pretty funny, even without the translation.

We decided on one more ride before snack time.

We hit up "Sinbad's Storybook Voyage".

Sinbad's is a dark ride similar to It's a Small World.

It follows the adventures of Sinbad and his tiger pal, Chandu.

They go off exploring and various things happen to interrupt the journey.

But, Sinbad makes friends wherever he goes by helping people (and creatures).

His kindness pays him back in the end.

He returns to his village with all sorts of riches, treasures and food from his new found friends.

The ride has its own original song, "Compass of Your Heart".

The kids really liked looking for Chandu throughout the ride.

The sets were impressive with giant creatures.

Snack time!

We still could not find the darn Chandu tails. But, we DID find a place that offered shave ice (kakigori) with milk ice cream on top.

The kids got a sort of Japanese-mandarin flavor and I got a strawberry to share with Huzbend.

I cannot state how hot it already was at this point in the day.

The kakigori hit the spot.

After the sweet and satisfying treat, we decided to use one of our coveted anytime fastpasses over in the Lost River Delta to ride "Indiana Jones: Temple of the Crystal Skull".

We got all the way to the front of the line and it broke down.

It broke so bad that they had to evacuate the ride and clear the line.

Sigh.

We were upset that we had used up one of our fastpasses for it.

Surprisingly, since we were so close to actually riding, on the way out of the line they gave us anytime fastpasses to use anywhere! NICE!
We grabbed a fastpass for the "Raging Spirits" loop coaster and went on our way.

Huzbend and Mikey picked up a more substantial snack on the way to our next destination.

It was called a Yucatan Sausage Roll.

A foot-long hot dog that had some sort of bun wrapped around it.

We had to find a place for Katie to eat.

Turkey leg it was.

We walked all the way through Cape Cod to get there.

There's a full sized ocean liner on the right and the Tower of Terror is directly ahead.

Notice the matching Mickey shirts there to the left.

The turkey legs were in the fortress located on Mediterranean Harbor.

You can see Mt. Prometheus in its scrim in the background.

We found the turkey legs, as well as this little moth.

(That's me, taking a picture of the moth)

Mikey was very freckly.

Must've been the sun.

After eating, we headed to our next show.

It was called "Big Band Beat".

"Big Band Beat" is a Broadway-style show showcasing big band music with singers, dancers a live band and characters. It was amazing.

Another plus, the theater was air conditioned.

I swear, the Tokyo Disney Resort characters are the hardest working characters anywhere. They pull off amazing dance moves and, in this show, Mickey Mouse plays the drums and then tap dances! And, as icing on the cake, the ENTIRE show was in English.

Here's just a snippet of the show. Guests are not allowed to record or take video.

The following video was a promotional media preview.

After the show, we headed back to the Lost River Delta to ride the "Raging Spirits" loop coaster.

It was about 30 seconds long. Seriously. So glad that we didn’t wait in line for it!

We also were able to ride Indiana Jones.

The ride is housed in a giant temple.

Guess they do a lot of human sacrifice.

They have cameras in their temple too.

After the ride, Mikey and Huzbend decided to head back to the hotel to hit the pool before dinner. Katie wanted to stay in the park and so did I.

We decided to split up for a bit.

Mikey and Huzbend took the “Resort Liner” monorail back to the hotel.

The rules on the hotel TV told them that they were not supposed to walk through the hotel with their swimsuits on.

They headed to the pool locker room and were given a key for a locker.

As they started to enter the locker room, the attendant ran over to ask them to take off their shoes. Oops.

They removed their shoes and entered the locker room.
The guy had to run over again and tell them to take theirs shoes with them.
Ooops, again.

The pool was very small for such a big resort. Nothing like the pools that they have in the U.S. Disney resort hotels.

The boys had fun cooling off.
While they were there, a nice gentleman struck up a conversation with Huzbend. He was there on vacation with his family as well.

Swim time soon came to an end and they left to meet us at the restaurant.

With the boys gone, the first thing we did was get a cold treat.

Katie got a Minnie Ice Bar Peach Raspberry flavor. I got a sea salt ice cream monaka (vanilla ice cream surrounded by thin wafers).

Yum.

Monaka.

Katie enjoyed her popsicle. Though, when we turned the corner in to the sun, it immediately began to melt and got all over her hands. We had to make a stop at the water fountain to clean up.

We remembered that the "Pirates Summer Battle: Get Wet" show was going on in the harbor. We rushed over there to catch the end of it.

The title of the show was very appropriate.

Pirates come out, they dance and wave swords. There's a battle in the harbor and they throw and shoot water at spectators. The spectators get absolutely soaked.

The boats with the water cannons exited the lagoon right under the bridge that we were standing on.

I'm guessing that Jack Sparrow felt bad for us melting tourists and decided to shoot us with his water cannons. They had amazing range. It was very refreshing.

Jack Sparrow also flirted with all the ladies before he sailed off behind scenes.

Off to Mermaid Lagoon.

Mermaid Lagoon is an indoor space that has kiddie rides and a live show starring Ariel.

Because it's air conditioned and dark, there were LOTS of people hiding from the heat in here.

There were even people curled up napping.

We jumped into line to watch the Ariel show. Ariel is suspended from the ceiling so it’s almost like she swims over top of you as she sings some of the songs from the movie.

Katie in her happy mermaid place.

After the show, Katie visited "Ariel's Playground", which houses a splash pad.

She purposely got hit in the head to cool off.

It was getting closer to dinner.

Katie was not too happy at the prospect of eating another "low allergen menu" item at the restaurant.

We decided to try a low allergen curry instead since she really liked the CoCo Curry's we visited in our travels.

We visited the Casbah Food Court. Talk about theming for a counter service restaurant!!! WOW.

We talked with a manager (after asking the cast member about the low allergen curry) and she told us the curry would work for us. Katie loved it. As a plus, this one actually had meat in it.

She ate a lot and was satisfied.

And happy.

We made our way to meet the boys for our dinner reservation.

We were eating that night at Ristorante di Canaletto, an Italian restaurant that offered some good looking wood fired pizza. I had promised Mikey pizza.

Katie threw off our waiter and just ordered a soda.

Mikey and I ordered pizza (Margherita for him and 4 Cheese for me - picture below) and I think Huzbend ordered spaghetti carbonara with mushrooms. It was really, really good. We missed good pizza.

I ordered a small tiramisu for dessert and I think Huzbend might’ve gotten panna cotta?

He did have some kind of Italian beer.

We sat outside overlooking a canal where gondolas full of people were floating back and forth.

We were full from dinner, so what better attraction to ride then Tower of Terror.

The theme of this attraction is very different than WDW’s version.

It's in a hotel called the Hightower Hotel. The purveyor, Harrison Hightower III, is a rich, "collector" of artifacts. You can see his "archaeological finds" littered throughout his hotel.

He ~~steals~~ obtains a cursed idol and brings it to his hotel. It doesn’t go well for him. He disappears, but, for some reason, his hotel is still open for tours. Of course, we’re the idols next victims.

There's a great pre-show that explains the back story.

I got asked to not take pictures after I snapped the one below.

Oops. I didn’t see any signs.

That's the cursed idol on the right.

We were in the back row.

The ride was the same droppy-type ride.

We, and when I say we, I mean the other three in the family, love these droppy rides.

I think it's fun, but I just dread the drops the whole time.

I really liked the story that went with this ride. So detailed.

The tower has a cool green lightning effect at night.

An actual gas lamp in the New York section of the "American Waterfront" port.

After this, we chilled.

Huzbend got a Crème de Cassis (black currant) beer-cocktail thing.

I believe that we ran over to get Mikey a churro. It actually turned out to be a SAVORY churro – it was like a giant French fry. He was so disappointed.

We made our way over to watch Fantasmic in the harbor.

While we were waiting, Katie and I went over to Mama Biscottis Bakery to see if we could get some Green Alien Mochi – a bite size dessert made from glutinous rice pounded into a chewy paste. These mochi looked like Green Aliens from Toy Story and were supposedly gluten free. They had three different fillings – vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. I guess everyone had the same idea of getting a tasty snack before sitting and waiting for the show. The line was long and excruciatingly slow. We gave up. Oh well.

In this version of Fantasmic, Mickey has his own mountain in the middle of the harbor.

There he is on top.

Various boats and floats and things appear and disappear, as in the normal show.

Then, the bad guys make an appearance.

A giant mirror shows up.

"Huh? What? Who 'dat?"

A giant Maleficent dragon comes out of the mirror....

....and literally LIGHTS IT UP!

Have no fear.

Mickey always wins in the end with his magic sparkler hands.

It was fun to see a different take on Fantasmic (which we still haven’t seen in Disneyland!).

An announcement said that the performance was "altered" – not sure why, maybe wind?

But we couldn’t tell that anything was missing because we'd never seen it before.

Before we left, we headed over to the Fortress to do some exploring while it was cool and empty.

First, we explored a ship that was docked.

The story is that the fortress was made to share nautical and scientific knowledge and was founded by some early innovators.

This back story is carried on in other Disney parks around the world. The Tower of Terror owner, Hightower, was a member of S.E.A., Lord Mystic over in Hong Kong, Dr. Albert Falls of the Jungle Cruise and so on…..

A view from the fortress overlooking the harbor.