After an awesome experience at Disneysea the day before, it was time to check out what its neighbour, Disneyland, had to offer! Funnily, my husband and I didn’t actually plan to visit Disneyland at all. It was purely an error I made while trying to snag a 50% off capped at $50 promo code with no minimum spend on Klook that I carted out these tickets instead of Disneysea tickets 😛 Oh well, it was a good discount anyway!
Having tried the Tokyo Disney Resort App that provides up-to-date wait times, park map navigation and easy submission of entry requests or fast passes, I definitely recommend getting it for a smoother experience during your visit.
Access to the park can be via train, bus or car. To avoid the hordes of people on the train, we chose to take a bus from Tokyo bus interchange, similar to how we travelled to Disneysea. Boarding the bus at 9.20am and comfortably seated, we reached Disneyland in about 40 minutes at 10am.
- Inclusions:
- 1-day entry tickets to Tokyo Disneyland
- Spent: SGD$83.94 (for 2 tickets)
Although smaller in size (115 acres) than Disneysea, Disneyland still boasts 7 intricately designed themed zones:
1. Adventureland
2. Critter Country
3. Fantasyland
4. Tomorrowland
5. Toontown
6. Westernland
7. World Bazaar
However, the connecting paths in between these zones felt unusually barren without much scenery to look at, clearly demarcating one zone from another. This, unfortunately, broke the illusion that we were in “The Happiest Place on Earth” as it felt like we were strolling through any regular park. In this regard, I much prefer Disneysea’s environment design as it evokes and maintains the sense of being immersed in a completely different world.
There are also character meet-and-greet sessions at various time slots and locations in the park (we only managed to catch one). Be sure to keep an eye out for random wildlife crossing paths with you too (:
The first ride we went on was Big Thunder Mountain after a queue time of 35 minutes. I was captivated by the sheer scale and design of the ride’s outback landscape. It is a fairly high-speed wooden roller coaster – expect loads of sideways spiralling plus one slight drop towards the end.
We stopped by La Taverne de Gaston restaurant for a takeout snack to munch on while queueing for our next ride. Our order was the French toast chicken and cheese sandwich set meal with fries and a cup of hot oolong tea (JPY1260). Regrettably, everything tasted rather average.
Enchanted Tale Of Beauty And The Beast was our next ride with a longer queue time of 75min. In small groups, we sat inside a moving teacup and were brought to different rooms that showcase the well-loved story of Beauty and the Beast. Even though it isn’t a fast-paced ride, the grand sets and state-of-the-art technology make it extremely worth checking out. The characters moved in such a life-like manner and I was super amazed at how the Beast physically transformed into the Prince towards the end!
Queueing for about 30 minutes for our third ride, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, we didn’t feel it was worth the wait as it was similar to the Beauty And The Beast ride but with less impactful scenes and use of technology. This ride entailed us sitting in a honey pot and whizzing through various spaces with characters from Winnie the Pooh. It’ll certainly be great for entertaining the kids though.
Right outside Pooh’s Hunny Hunt ride was, according to my husband, a tempting popcorn wagon. You can buy a one-time regular serving of honey popcorn for JPY400 (which we did) or pay a little more for a bucket that allows refills at JPY600.
Next up was the Disney Harmony In Color parade that lasted for approximately 45 minutes. By the time we got there around 5 minutes before it started, the designated sections along the parade route were already incredibly packed. With that said, we were still able to watch the show with a fairly decent view! The vibrantly coloured floats. high-energy dancers and beloved Disney characters made it an amazing spectacle to behold ❤
We then headed to our fourth ride on Gadget’s Go Coaster as we were nearby and saw that the queue was only 10 minutes long. It is a brief, moderate-speed roller coaster that’s suitable for older children who are game to try out something more thrilling.
After that, we made our way to Splash Mountain, a log plume ride, with a wait time of 70 minutes. The ride consisted mostly of winding paths through character scenes, with three smaller drops before the final 45-degree drop down a 16-metre high waterfall. Be prepared to get a little wet!
Walking past an ice cream stall, we decided to try the Mickey ice cream sandwich (JPY350). There were also flavoured popsicles for sale but those just looked like frozen coloured water for the same price. Alas, our ice cream sandwich was on the bland side too anyway with a handful of chocolate bits in the ice cream, but it felt very comforting to eat somehow.
Nearby, we saw a staff using a stick with a wet cloth to draw a Mickey symbol and some embellishments on the ground, how interesting! It’s fascinating how small gestures like these can bring about a simple joy in us curious onlookers (:
Winding down our ride intensity, we opted for the Jungle Cruise as our sixth ride. After about 25 minutes in line, we boarded a bumboat driven by a tour guide to see several animals (or rather, animatronics). Our tour guide gave a live narration entirely in Japanese, and at certain parts of the journey, she would suddenly sound fearful to create a bit of suspense. There is one segment where the bumboat goes through a dark tunnel but thankfully nothing terrifying happens.
The last ride we took was Pirates Of The Caribbean, our seventh ride of the day, since the queue time was only 15 minutes. It is basically an indoor boat ride that takes you through larger-than-life pirate-themed scenes in very dim lighting. Do note that there is a mild drop somewhere at the beginning of the ride, which totally caught me off guard!
During our visit, the weather was mostly cloudy throughout the day but it started drizzling more heavily around 6pm. As such, we decided to call it a day since it was unlikely that they’d go ahead with the Electrical Parade Dreamlights and Sky Full Of Colors fireworks shows. It was a major bummer as we also didn’t get to catch it at Disneysea the day before due to bad weather.
Anyway, instead of jostling with everyone else on the train, we chose to stick to our plan of taking the bus to explore the Akihabara district with a guaranteed seat the entire journey there.
My overall rating of the experience: 4 out of 5 stars. I find Tokyo Disneyland more suited to families with young children as there are a lot more leisurely scenic rides and experiential attractions than high-speed thrill rides. With that said, the Enchanted Tale Of Beauty And The Beast ride is a definite must-try for all as the technology used to animate the characters is super cool! Wait times here were also significantly shorter and the parade we watched was more impressive than those at Disneysea next door. Sadly, the Space Mountain ride was closed during our visit so we didn’t get to try that. The environment within each zone is quite well-designed too, from realistic wooden fences to ornate mountain rocks, but I do think more can be done to spruce up the emptier connecting paths in between zones. Maybe we might revisit this park again when we’re travelling with kids or older (but still young-at-heart) folk!
If this post helped you in some way and you’d like to buy me a coffee, I’d be incredibly grateful (:
Dania Experiences 