It's Christmas and I woke up to the sound of "So This Is Love" playing in the courtyard. Ahh, it was not a dream! I'm still at the magical Tokyo Disneyland Hotel!
Enjoying the lovely view and atmosphere from the window sill
I really didn't want to leave our Beauty and the Beast room but we had to if we wanted to make it for Happy 15 priority entry for Disney Hotel guests.
Tokyo Disneyland Hotel and Tokyo Disneyland Station in the morning
Tokyo Disneyland Station in the morning
We decided to spend our final day of the trip at Tokyo Disneyland even though we were here two days ago because I personally can't get enough of the castle.
Thank God for Happy 15 special pass because the queues were crazy on Christmas morning!
The regular queue!
The Happy 15 queue
(All the way in the front almost yay! That's why I say there are perks to staying at the Disney Hotel)
You can't tell but I'm really excited, just not a morning person haha
The moment the gates were opened, the sister and I ran towards Stitch Encounter, which was the only ride open for guests with Happy 15 passes (only certain areas of World Bazaar and Tomorrowland are open for Happy 15).
As we were running, we spotted Mickey and Minnie! Initially I didn't want to fight with the kids to take a photo with my favorite Minnie Mouse but the sister pushed me forward exclaiming, "how often do you NOT have to queue to take a photo with Minnie?!? GO!!!!"
So I sheepishly jumped in, caught Minnie's attention and managed to get a photo with her! Sooooo happy! =)
With Minnie at Tokyo Disneyland
(this is still my phone's wallpaper hehe)
After jumping with joy from getting a lovely photo with Minnie, the sister and I continued our fast walk (we're not supposed to run) to Stitch Encounter, which had a really short queue so we didn't need to wait (yay!).
The welcome show at the holding area
Stitch Encounter is a very unique attraction in that it is not a ride but an interactive show where a computer-animated Stitch interacts live with the audience. Even though the show was in Japanese, we could still understand what was going on based on Stitch's body language and my limited Japanese. Both the sister and I found it very entertaining and funny!
After the show, we ran to Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters to get the FASTPASS before joining the already 30-minute long queue to ride the Space Mountain. I was panicking because I thought this was the typical scary roller coaster (like the Mummy in USS!) but it turns out it was not. Even kids as young as 5 years old can ride it!
Clockwise from left: Space Mountain;
Riding up the escalator to the ride (very futuristic);
Escape Pod for people who freak out halfway and want to leave the queue!
I actually love the Space Mountain ride! And wouldn't mind going again if only the queue was not 60 minutes long by the time we were done! =(
Loving Space Mountain
After Space Mountain, we went to ride Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters using our FASTPASS.
Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blaster
This one is much like Toy Story Mania, with a lot of laser pointer shooting. Personally, I feel if you've done Toy Story Mania, you can afford to give this a miss and vice versa because they are very similar. I actually regretted not getting the FASTPASS for Monster's Inc instead (sigh).
We decided to meet up with the family and while waiting for them at the entrance, we spotted Tigger and Eeyore! They were on their way to the photo spot and since we didn't want to queue, we tried to "steal" photos with them while they were walking =D
Failed in getting a photo with Tigger
The failed photo that the sister took of me and Eeyore versus the awesome photo I took of her and Eeyore!
Oh well, this is payback for Minnie! Hahaha
After meeting with the family, the sister took all our tickets and ran to Tomorrowland Hall to get the FASTPASS for Star Tours: The Adventure Continues. The rest of us went to queue for another ride while waiting for her (we communicated via walkie talkies that we bought for our trips).
I was looking for the Pirates of the Caribbean ride and walked right past it because it looked nothing like what I had imagined:
How is it that this dainty looking building actually housed the Pirates of Caribbean ride?!
Pirate's of the Caribbean
In fact, I found it strange that this ride is in Tokyo Disneyland and not Tokyo DisneySea anyway. Shouldn't this fit the DisneySea theme more?!
In any case, I think it's precisely because this ride didn't look like much from the outside and was often missed by people that's why the queue was only 15 minutes!
Boats awaiting passengers for the journey
It turns out to be a better ride than we expected and the girl loved it so much we went for it twice! =D
After the ride we went to catch the same Christmas Fantasy parade that we saw on our first day here at Tokyo Disneyland. My girl complained that she was standing too far away to see Elsa so I made sure that this time, we were right at the spot that the Frozen float would stop.
Left: Right at the Photo Spot, can't miss Elsa this time!;
Right: My girl wearing her Elsa dress again even though she had already worn it the day before.
More photos of the floats of the Christmas Fantasy parade
Elsa and Anna!
Unfortunately, we were sitting on the side of the float that Anna was standing on for most of the parade so we only managed to see Elsa only when she exchanged places with Anna for a short time.
Anna, Olaf and Elsa
In that short instance though, Elsa spotted my girl wearing her Elsa dress and gestured her own dress to show that she had noticed it! It must have been really quick because the sister saw it but I didn't. My girl kept waving but Elsa had to go back to her side of the float and the girl couldn't see much of her after that. She was rather disappointed.
Waving like crazy to Elsa!
After the parade, the hubby, sister and I went to ride Star Tours: The Adventure Continues
while the mum watched the kids.
Star Wars
It was a simulator ride that had really nice special effects, even though the same effects could cause you to have motion sickness.
By the time we were done with the ride, it was time for us to head back to Tokyo Disneyland Hotel to check out (sadly, all good things must come to an end..).
A group selfie before we leave
The sister and I wearing Mickey and Minnie hats
Tokyo Disneyland Hotel in the day
Enjoying the view from our room one last time!
Girl with the dollhouse at the lobby
Left: Girl wanted to take pictures with everything before we left;
Right: Baby Boy wants to be fed while we were eating our lunch at the lobby
(might as well since it was such a nice place to hang)
We left our luggage at the Bell's Desk for safe-keeping before heading back to Tokyo Disneyland for our final rides of the trip. The last one was Pinocchio's Daring Journey because it had the shortest queue at the time.
As you can see, girl was not happy that Pinocchio's Daring Journey was going to be our last ride at Tokyo Disneyland
We actually got the FASTPASS for Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek! but it was at the time when we had to leave for the airport to catch our flight back. Hence, it was with much sadness that we had to give it up and bless a random family instead (at least someone else will get to enjoy it).
We spent the rest of the day hanging out at Cinderella's castle, which is the most magical place in my opinion =)
Final photos with Mickey and Cinderella's castle
Group photo
(too bad Baby Boy was asleep)
View of the square in front of Cinderella's castle
I think we will miss this castle the most, the girl and I
As we were leaving Tokyo Disneyland (to catch our night flight back to Singapore), we came across the Christmas Fantasy parade yet again! This time, we were on Elsa's side of the float and I told the girl to run up and try to get her attention.
Left: Waving as much as she could to Elsa;
Right: Elsa and Elsa =)
Although we were further away this time, the sister managed to get Elsa's attention by waving very frantically (it also helped that we were standing in an area that had less people). Elsa waved back and blew my girl a kiss! I caught it on camera just in case you don't believe me (at 1:05 minutes of the video below):
My girl was so happy and star-struck that she literally walked back in a kind of elated daze! *laughs*
Dreams do come true =)
We headed to the bus stop at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel to wait for our airport transfer to the airport.
Waiting at the bus stop for our bus
Taking pictures with the pretty outdoor fountain while waiting
We were all really sad to leave! I will miss you so much Tokyo Disneyland!!! *sob*
Group photo by a kind hotel staff
We arrived at Narita Airport just in time for dinner at Tatsu (located at the restricted area).
We were so hungry! Yum!
The kids also had a little bit of time to play at a small play area for pre-school kids.
Play Area at Narita Airport
We had more food on board our plane back home to Singapore!
Our dinner/supper
By the grace of God, we arrived safely back in Singapore (and feeling the "warmth of her embrace" as we walk through the gates to the taxi). As always, it was a pain trying to unpack from the trip and more so since we bought a mountain of Japanese snacks from Tokyo!!
I think we have enough snacks to last us for 6 months!
Special mention: More pins to add to my already large pin collection =D
This has got to be one of the most epic trips of my life! I will never forget it for as long as I live I think =D
When can I go back to Japan? *sigh*
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