Japan trip Winter 2019 - Tokyo DisneySea and Disneyland (in the same day!)

For the first day of our trip, we had planned for and purchased 1-day tickets to DisneySea. We had consulted the crowd calendars and considered our options, and it seemed like the best option. However, things didn't quite go according to plan!

We left our Airbnb in Shibuya at around 06:20am and finally got in line at the park at around 07:50 (ten minutes prior to opening).

Upon entering the park, we went straight to get fast passes (08:45 - 09:45) for Tower of Terror (our priority ride) and then went to see how the standby line for Toy Story Mania was doing and was immediately deterred by the 170 minute wait lol.

Instead, while we were waiting for our ToT fast passes to become usable, we headed to Journey to the Center of the Earth. To my surprise, there was already a standby line wait for over an hour and the line was extending far beyond the entrance of the ride.

After maybe 10 minutes, we decided to skip out on it and instead headed to Expedition Eats in the Lost River Delta to get our first snack! This sausage baguette was a favorite from our prior visit and we got one each :)

And just like that it was time to redeem our Tower of Terror fast passes. Since we were in the area anyway, we went to go check out Toy Story Mania again and this time got fast passes with a return time of 15:30 - 16:30 which is not too bad imo.

Disney has implemented a new system where the fast passes are attributed to your park ticket and the slip that the machine spits out is just a reminder. You have to scan your park ticket at the fast pass line entrance and don't have to worry about losing fast passes anymore! The reminder slips are much less aesthetic than the prior ones lol.

As I mentioned in previous posts, this mechanics of this ride is essentially like its California Adventure counterpart EXCEPT the theming which is a huge departure from the American version. It follows the story of cursed Harrison Hightower III and then you ride up and down in the elevator in his haunted hotel.

We took our time exploring the snack options in the American Waterfront, especially looking out for any special Christmas food items.

We stopped for the cheese-filled "bone in" sausage and also the garlic shrimp flavored popcorn!

The okonomiyaki roll was also something new my husband wanted to try.

Making our way to Mediterranean Harbor, we stopped at Biglietteria to see if we could get Big Band Beat tickets for the afternoon. It was crowded as heck and we had to wait in a line to even get to the lottery machine. Unfortunately, we didn't "win" the lottery for reserved seats and would have to wait standby if we wanted to see the show.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was closed during our 2018 visit, so that was something I really wanted my husband to experience this time. We weren't able to get another fast pass yet, so we decided to wait in the 40 minute standby line which was actually a really accurate time calculation. Apparently I didn't take any pictures of this ride which is pretty dark. There's max 6 people (3 pairs) per "submarine" and it takes you on a deep sea adventure where you look out the window at an underwater scene. It's a very tame ride on a track and has a really interesting effects.

The next thing on our list was to check out the new Soarin': Fantastic Flight ride. Unfortunately, we had grossly underestimated the popularity of this ride and the wait time was 120 minutes+ and fast passes were already all gone prior to 11:00am! We weren't willing to do standby, so instead we decided to just continue around the park and consider our options.

I wanted to at least get a couple pictures by the iconic Mermaid Lagoon area and also bought some caramel popcorn.

Husband tried the seafood cream calzone from the Sebastian's Kitchen area.

And then it was on to the Arabian Coast. We walked through most of the area and then quickly went on Sinbad Storybook Voyage which, as always, had about a 5-10 minute standby wait. I've really come to enjoy this ride a little more than It's a Small World!

At this point, since the Indiana Jones ride was closed and Journey and Soarin' had too long of a wait + not getting tickets to Big Band Beat, we decided to ditch DisneySea and head to Disneyland. My husband had managed to download a Disney wait time app and saw that the Disneyland rides had much, much shorter wait times than I had expected based on the crowd calendar (which is how we ended up choosing DisneySea to begin with, and boy was that wrong). Even though we would have to buy an additional park ticket, we felt that we had gotten most of what we wanted out of DisneySea by that point and wanted to try something new given that the wait times weren't monstrous.

We took some final photos at the entrance area and then left the gates and headed for the monorail.

It was much emptier than when we first arrived and actually had a whole window to ourselves lol.

We purchased same day park tickets at the ticket window and just headed straight in! We started our Disneyland visit just after 12:20pm.

Neither of us had been to Tokyo Disneyland before and had done almost no prior research. The only thing we knew is that we definitely needed to do Pooh's Hunny Hunt and Monsters Inc Ride & Go Seek which are rides exclusive to the Japanese park.

Based on the wait time app, we went straight to Tomorrowland to seek out Monsters Inc fast passes which were valid for a 20:00 return time.

We then immediately made our way to Pooh's Hunny Hunt in Fantasyland which had a 60 minute standby wait. This entire queue and ride was new to me, so the hour wasn't too bad. Since we didn't have access to wifi, we decided to listen to a podcast together during our wait. The indoor part of the queue is really wonderful but that's where you start advancing quite quickly, so it's had to get photos without holding up the line!

Since I really didn't know what to expect, this ride was a lot of fun! It's trackless which makes it hard to anticipate where you're going next and there's just tons and tons to see. I'm sure I would notice something new even if I rode it a few more times. (I read on the wikipedia page that this ride is very similar to Aquatopia at DisneySea and I never would have made the connection because the themes are just so different!)

We stuck around Fantasyland a bit longer and went on Snow White's Adventure which had a 10 minute standby wait.

This is another dark ride but on a track and just oddly scary for a children's ride? We had seen a young child come out crying and weren't surprised after going on it ourselves. I don't remember the CA version being that wicked, but I guess it might be.

We followed that up with Peter Pan's Flight which had a 40 minute standby. This was a ride we both remembered liking at the CA Disneyland, but hadn't ridden it a long time.

The nearest snack option was Captain Hook's Galley and we got a teriyaki chicken pizza slice with a much needed coffee for my husband.

Splash Mountain was another beloved ride from the CA park and we intended to get a fast pass for it. However, by the time we got there, they had already run out! We quickly ran to get Big Thunder Mountain fast passes instead (19:20 - 20:20).

Luckily, we were able to use the "Single Rider" system at Splash Mountain so we didn't have to wait in the standby line after all.

This was my first time trying it. Apparently all you have to do is tell the fast pass line attendant that you want to do single rider and they give you a little ticket that says that. At every fast pass checkpoint, you show that ticket and may get sorted into a different line. You will get seated in the next grouping that isn't full (missing just 1 person). This often happens with parties of 3. We basically walked through the entire queue and didn't have to wait at all before an odd party log was available for each of us which was better than we had ever imagined!

Not entirely unexpectedly, the front of my face got entirely wet and I had soggy bangs for awhile wtf. I don't remember getting that soaked in the face on the CA ride, but it has been a while since I've ridden it!

Having either ridden or gotten fast passes for all of our priority Disneyland rides by that point, we noticed that the timing was perfect for going back to DisneySea to use our Toy Story Mania fast passes. Park tickets allow for re-entry, so all we had to do was get all the way back over there....and so that's what we did haha.

Exited Disneyland, got on the monorail and entered DisneySea for the second time at just about 15:30.

We went straight to American Waterfront and the Toy Story ride and entered the fast pass line. My husband has never been on this ride at DisneySea and I'm glad he was able to see the queue which is amazing! The ride is the same as in CA which is a simulated target game on a track and super fun which is why its so popular. I'm glad we didn't have to waste this fast pass.

Last order of business at DisneySea was trying the new "long pizza" and pineapple flavored churro from Zambini Brothers Ristorante. I also got a pasta because I wanted something with a little more sustenance. The long pizza has both ratatouille and basil flavors and is basically like a regular flat half and half pizza pinched up in the middle. This isn't something I've seen before and was pretty interesting! Apparently the churro tasted like soap lol.

And just like that, the sun had set and we were on our way back to Disneyland via the monorail, entering again shortly after 16:45. The park is definitely different when the sun goes down!

We got fast passes for Star Tours (17:55 - 18:55) in Tomorrowland first which is for some reason not all that close to the attraction itself, and then walked over to Pirates of the Caribbean in Adventureland which had a really short standby wait of maybe 10 minutes. As far as I can recall, this was exactly the same as the CA version, even the restaurant near the beginning of the ride!

We tried the Shoyu and Butter popcorn which my husband loved,

and then headed back to Tomorrowland to check out Stitch Encounters with a 10 minute standby wait. My husband had expected this to be like a Lilo and Stitch version of an "Alien Encounters" ride he had been forced to ride as a child at Disney World.

Upon entering the line, the staff warned us that this was a "Japanese talk show" but we proceeded anyway. It turns out this is nothing like that ride and certainly is a "Japanese talk show" featuring Stitch who heavily interacts with the audience lmao. We still had a good time and had a good laugh about it in the end.

This was perfect timing for our Star Tours fast passes which actually didn't seem to speed up our getting into the ride very much.

Again, this is likely the same as the CA version. It was a bit new to me since they updated it based on the newer Star Wars movies (compared to when I last rode it likely over 10 years ago), but the same concept. A terrible decision if you get motion sickness lol.

By this time, Haunted Mansion had gone from a 40 minute wait time earlier in the day to a 13 minute wait time and we eagerly made our way back to Fantasyland. This has the Nightmare before Christmas component added to it during this season which makes it feel extra special to visit the park in Nov/Dec.

We finished with the ride just at the right time to use our Big Thunder Mountain fast passes! This was all the way in Westernland which we hadn't spent much time in earlier in the day. This is one of my favorite Disneyland rides (just like the CA version) and I'm really glad we got to ride it with just a short wait.

Getting pretty fatigued and in an effort to kill time before our Monsters Inc fast passes, we wanted to just take a peak in Toontown - the only land we hadn't yet set foot in. Unfortunately, we were thwarted in a big way by the electric parade which blocks off an entire section of the park while its running - specifically the part of the park that we wanted to go to FOL.

We ended up just sitting down on the side in Fantasyland until the staff let us through and going straight to Tomorrowland and Monsters Inc instead.

We didn't get to see a lot of the queue, but the ride looks so cute and is really reminiscent of the movie. You use a flashlight to "tag" Monsters Inc logos as you advance along a track. This isn't score based like the Toy Story ride and just a fun, interactive activity instead.

We finished the night with some omiyage shopping at the shops in the World Bazaar. They were really crowded by that point, but I think we made some nice small purchases.

We caught the monorail one last time back to Ikspiari and Maihama station and were finally on our way back to Shibuya after a long first day in Japan.

Recap of our day:
07:50 - arrive at DisneySea
08:00 - DisneySea gates open
Get fast pass for Tower of Terror
Eat snacks
Get fast pass for Toy Story Mania!
Ride Tower of Terror (fast pass)
Eat snacks
Ride 20,000 Leagues under the Sea (standby 40 minutes)
Eat snacks
Ride Sinbad Storybook Voyage (standby 5 minutes)
12:00 - exit DisneySea
-------------------------------------------------------------
12:20 - purchase tickets, enter Disneyland
Get fast pass for Monsters Inc Ride & Go Seek
Ride Pooh's Honey Hunt (standby 60 minutes)
Ride Snow White's Adventure (standby 10 minutes)
Ride Peter Pan's Flight (standby 40 minutes)
Eat snacks
Get fast pass for Big Thunder Mountain
Ride Splash Mountain (single rider line)
15:15 - exit Disneyland
15:30 - reenter DisneySea
Ride Toy Story Mania! (fast pass)
Eat snacks
16:30 - exit DisneySea
-----------------------------------------------------------
16:45 - reenter Disneyland
Get fast pass for Star Tours
Ride Pirates of the Caribbean (standby 5 minutes)
Eat snacks
Ride Stitch Encounter (standby 10 minutes)
Ride Star Tours (fast pass)
Ride Haunted Mansion (standby 13 minutes)
Ride Big Thunder Mountain (fast pass)
Get blocked in by electric parade
Ride Monsters Inc Ride & Go seek (fast pass)
Shopping
21:00 - exit Disneyland

DisneySea I think was an absolute disaster. The crowds were way larger than I was expecting based on the crowd calendar and we didn't get to do nearly as many things as I had anticipated.

I guess the fortunate thing was that this was our second visit, so we felt okay leaving. I'm glad that we were able to do at least Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania and 20,000 Leagues, but it was a total wash on the attractions side besides that! The redeeming thing about DisneySea is definitely the snacks which we always enjoy.

Disneyland, on the other hand, was a pleasant surprise in terms of attractions.

The only rides we didn't really get to do in Disneyland that we would have wanted to do were Space Mountain (closed on the day of our visit) and the Buzz Lightyear ride which had run out of fast passes before we made it a priority to get one. At the end of the night, I was just too tired to want to wait 40 minutes in its standby line. In hindsight, we should have skipped Star Tours and opted for Buzz Lightyear at that time instead, but otherwise, I think it was quite successful despite how much we were just improvising on the fly! I'm really glad that we made the park switch even though there was an additional cost.

If you're interested in more information about DisneySea, check out my previous posts!
Our last visit [Japan trip Autumn 2018 Day 6 - DisneySea] was just a little bit more than a year prior, also during the Christmas season. I also visited in Spring 2018 and Autumn 2015 and included a planning post.

❄ Japan trip Winter 2019 posts  ❄

airKitchen review: Handmade udon & Kushiyaki
Tokyo DisneySea and Disneyland (in the same day!)

Pokemon Cafe 

Kimono rental in Asakusa, Ueno Park & Nezu Shrine 

Electric Bike tour in Tokyo at night

Harajuku Zoo Land

Ramen Museum 

Learn to play Go in a Go cafe
Sweet Escape photography in Shinjuku Gyoen

What we ate 

Shopping in Shibuya & purchases

✦ Japan trip Spring 2019

✦ Japan trip Autumn 2018
✦ Japan trip Summer 2018
✦ Japan trip Summer 2017 posts
✦ Japan trip Spring 2017 posts
✦ Japan trip Winter 2017 posts
✦ Japan trip Spring 2016 posts
✦ Japan trip Autumn 2015 posts
✦ Japan trip Summer 2015 posts
✦ Japan trip Spring 2015 posts
✦ Japan trip Summer 2014 posts