Japan 2.0: Tokyo DisneySea

Hello my mermaids!

No matter if it may sound as a fangirl or not (ha!), this post shows possibly one of the happiest days of the trip: our visit to Tokyo DisneySea!

It was wonderful, unique – Tokyo DisneySea is the only one in the world with these lands! – and although it is Disney (a.k.a not Japanese from origin, like for instance Sanrio), it was a very Japanese experience indeed.

I don’t think any other Disney park can beat the enthusiasm the people exhales, from the visitors costumes (ok, we were on Halloween day which was cheating perhaps?), to the meticulous details in every corner and the staff waving hello with a smile. Without forgetting, of course, the flavored popcorns… or should I better say the super amazing popcorn buckets?

Also, I must mention that one thing I love about Disney and Japan above everything else is that people from all ages seem to enjoy it equally (we saw an elderly couple wearing Mickey and Minnie ears, cute!) and things are not by default oriented for children, which is the feeling I have at the Disney store in Barcelona.

This was morning 1 and we started the day at the same Starbucks of our daily breakfast during the honeymoon. We learnt that they were going to close the next day, so it was actually our “hello again” and “farewell” opportunity. Feeling melancholic but at the same time happy that fate allowed us to say goodbye with a matcha latte. I know, it’s only a Starbucks (duh!) but in my mind I associate this window to the starting of all our days in Tokyo.

Shibuya is usually pristine clean in the mornings, but Halloween was undoubtedly a tough night. There were regular (non-vested) people volunteering to clean the mess quickier, isn’t this an amazing community spirit?

My (very) dotted outfit for the day, and wearing my fluffy bear brooch in honor of Duffy.

There is a 40 minute ride from Shibuya to Maihama, the Disneyland train stop. From there you can take a shuttle train to go to DisneySea. I love that it had Halloween decor to make it more season appropriate.

The day of Halloween adult visitors can wear costumes. From the moment we stumbled upon Alice and the Mad Hatter we realized how strong their game was going to be :)

I usually find Disney park’s beautiful but this had an extra layer of prettiness, I don’t know how to describe it. As soon as we entered Dani and I both were exclaiming a big incontestable: wow! The lagoon with Agrabah and the volcano are a magic view.

The park has a land dedicated to the Little Mermaid called the Mermaid Lagoon. The exterior with the colors and mosaic is completely mesmerizing, and I was clearly not the only one to see its beauty, because there were like a dozen of Ariels (in their perfect costume) taking pictures. I love how they brought little knick-knacks like a golden mirror, a comb or a plushie of Flounder and Sebastian.

But if the exterior looks good, wait to see what’s waiting inside the lagoon! The Mermaid Lagoon is the only covered land of the park, and hosts small rides, a restaurant and a whale-shaped store. Since Little Mermaid is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies, Dani agreed to spend maybe too much of our time in this land, we even had lunch in its canteen.

I dare you to look at the smiling turtle and try not smiling her back ;)

Can I be here for a a few minutes more? Or, ok, make it an hour.

Groups of friends dress in a theme: three ariels, one (male) Ursula and two intruders, Alice and the (male) queen of hearts.

My Disney princesses Vans!

This was our food at the Mermaid Lagoon canteen, two chicken burgers and fries. The drinks were delicious as well: Dani had Calpis (a milky soda) while I braved the Halloween drink which consisted on coke with berry pearls.

Although it is very easy to forget about the rides with so many cute things to look around, we had a “strict” plan to follow at the beginning of our day: go straight to Tower of Terror to take a fast pass and then wait the line for the Journey to the Center of the Earth. Since they are the most popular ones, and usually have long lines, it was a good tip!

If you are curious to know, in 1 day and taking lots and lots of pictures, we still were able to ride all the following: Journey to the Center of the Earth, Fortress explorations, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (no line!), Blowfish Balloon Race, The Whirlpool, Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage, Caravan Carousel, Aquatopia and Tower of Terror. We only used a fast pass for the Tower, and still had to wait around 20 minutes or so.

Our recommendation is to plan ahead the attractions you don’t want to miss for anything, and then fill-in with the rest in your ranking that have less waiting times. But above all don’t forget to enjoy your environment, a queue could make you miss the beauty of the park, and the food!

I was surprised by how popular Zootopia was in Japan, many people wearing a costume of the movie plus some merchandising in the stores.

If you read any review of Tokyo DisneySea it will probably include a big part dedicated to the food, because it is a huge deal. There are one-of-a-kind snacks, and taking into account our experience and what we read, the canteen (& restaurant) food is also good. Probably though, the most popular food in the park has to be the flavored popcorns, the alien mochi and the Minnie popsicle.

During our visit the flavors for the popcorns were caramel, coffee, curry and black pepper. Each stand of every land has its own different flavor and let you choose between getting them into a regular paper cup or the most amazing Disney character-shaped bucket. I don’t think there will be much guessing here and you’ll know which was my choice, ha!

Of course we couldn’t resist the mochi! Do you know that they have three different flavors? Strawbery, chocolate and custard.

After taking a look at every popcorn stand, we finally opted for the curry popcorns with the Mickey Mouse bucket. The buckets change in every stand, they have two different models to choose in each, so make sure you make your favorite match!

We had a fast pass for Indiana Jones, but it was a late appointment and we were tired and choose to visit the last stores and go back home – ok, Shibuya… but please indulge me in this! – to have a late dinner. Thanks to our lovely reader Ayako (thank you sweetie!) we ate at Sushizanmai which is not only delicious and affordable but also super convenient as it opens 24h a day(!). It was around 23:00h when we arrived at the restaurant, so the crazy timetable worked super great for us. Craving for sushi at weird hours? you know where to go!

Which was your favorite costume, food and part of the park? Thanks for giving with us this last (for now!) look to Tokyo DisneySea! Next stop will be the more traditional Kamakura.