It's a Small World

We took our boy to meet The Mouse!  For months, Price had been asking to fly to Japan and go to Tokyo Disney.  Don and I were both surprised with how patiently he waited once we arrived in Japan  (4 whole days) before we actually made it there.  Although, he asked daily if we were going.  I think riding the subway every day helped divert his attention a little.

Once he realized we were there, his face lit up with such a huge smile!  He ran ahead of us, not knowing we'd have to stand in line for almost an hour to buy our tickets.

Can't Wait to Get In!!

The thing about Tokyo Disney, it's almost exactly like the Magic Kingdom in Orlando.  The same lands, the same rides, the same crowds, pretty close to the same expenses.  The same Magic, just most of it is in Japanese, and some of the food is a little strange.  Like the pizza with corn and onions or the meat steak which was really a thick slice of grilled bologna.

Price enjoyed the chicken nuggets, and since he's a ketchup fanatic, he was intrigued with the ketchup packet.

Both boys were super happy about the popcorn obsession at the park.  In fact, Don remarked after seeing all of the people wearing buckets of popcorn around their necks like feed bags, "I think I was born in the wrong country, I really feel like I am supposed to be Japanese."

Because two of the three of us totally dig popcorn, we got ourselves a bucket of caramel corn. Our other choices were chocolate, curry or buttered soy sauce.

Our first line of the day

The park was very crowded and all the fast pass tickets were distributed before 1:00, so we were only able to use the fast pass once.  But it was worth it and many of the lines for the more juvenile rides in Fantasyland were fairly short only 30 minutes or so.  

We were at the park for almost 11 hours and got to ride:  

 Dumbo!,

The Tea Cups,

Haunted Mansion, It's a Small World (twice, it was Price's favorite and both of my parents said it was retribution for it being my favorite when I was his age and insisting on riding it 20 times in a row), the Race Cars, Jungle Cruise, and the Train (of course, we can't go anywhere and not ride a train).  Our boy is fearless, he liked every ride he rode.  His least favorite was probably Haunted Mansion, which was narrated entirely in Japanese, so Don and I just made up non-scary stuff to tell him.

We also got to watch both parades.  This face,

Was a result of this float,

Although he didn't get up close and personal with too many of the characters (we couldn't find them, but we weren't looking too hard) he did get to hug Goofy and Pinocchio tried to take him with him to be in the parade.

And because he saw Mickey and Minnie and Donald and all the others during the parade he felt like he saw them.

We had a good day!  And we left with one tired little boy.

If you get the chance to go, prices are similar to the US.  It seemed more crowded to me than the Magic Kingdom even though we were there on a weekday.  There is another park, Disney Sea, that we did not visit.  I was pleasantly surprised that Price would have been able to ride on almost every ride, there were only a few rides with an age limit or height limit.  If you want to ride the super popular rides, go early and get fast passes. We missed out on riding Buzz Light Year, although Price thought these guys were cool. 

I love the pic on the far right, Price posed as if he were an alien for a group of girls.

All of the rides we went on were narrated in Japanese (except It's a Small World), but it didn't affect our enjoyment of the rides- fun is universal.  we didn't watch any shows because people line up for them far in advance and we didn't want to spend our time in line for a show we wouldn't understand.  Both of the parades were excellent!  We left before the fireworks started, but got to see part of the show from the train station.

Post EQ Info-

The area around Tokyo Disney was significantly damaged (apparently the parks were built on a landfill so a lot of water came up as did some liquid earth).  However, the structures inside the parks were reportedly ok.  The parks have not reopened yet and no opening date has been released.  This is probably more about the services that are required to run the parks and transportation than anything else.   Also, I have seen several YouTube videos of the eq at Tokyo Disney and although most of the rides and shows are in Japanese, the emergency alert system is in English.  That wasn't something I even thought about while we were there...