Happy International Women’s Day! And hello, I’m back with a new update! Finally! Actually, it’s a new update of something old. Returning to Singapore kept me really busy for the one and half months. So this post is dated back in December. I will definitely be putting up new posts soon though, now that I’m back in Japan!

While my cousin was visiting Tokyo, we met up and went to various places together. One of our must-visit places together was either DisneyLand or DisneySea. After much discussion, we picked DisneySea mainly because there are DisneyLands in all other countries, whereas DisneySea is the one and only in Tokyo.

We were really excited about going to DisneySea, as both of us love theme park rides, mainly the bigger the thrill, the better. Of course, DisneyLand isn’t exactly known for its thrilling rides, but as a huge Disney fan, I just simply like going to feel the magic around me. I am also a fan of The Little Mermaid, mainly for Ariel’s hit song, Part of Your World. So I was really looking forward to checking out the Mermaid Lagoon.

However, though we went early, the Disney train had broken down in the morning, and we had to walk to DisneySea. The signboards leading to the parks were rather confusing, and it didn’t help that one of us couldn’t converse in Japanese, and while I could, my Japanese language had its limits. So after misunderstanding the staff’s direction, we walked all the way to DisneyLand to discover that it is DisneyLand, not DisneySea. So we probably wasted a good hour trying to get to DisneySea.

By the time we reached, the park was already jam-packed with many people. We had chosen a weekday to go, which according to the DisneySea calendar is a relatively less crowded date, and yet it was still extremely crowded. I shudder to think if we had gone on a weekend.

 

Once we were in, we immediately went to take out first FASTPASS for the Tower of Terror, and went back to queue for Toystory Mania. That was our plan, basically to get FASTPASS for the really popular rides with long waiting time, and queue for rides with short waiting time to maximise our time.

But it was around then we realised we forgot to take the DisneySea map. In the end, I begged for a map from the group of boys behind us, only to find that it was in Japanese. So I was kept busy trying to decipher the map whilst waiting in line. Yet another thing to dampen our spirits, which already weren’t too high at the start of our day. But the rest of the day went almost as planned, except for one thrilling ride we had wanted to try but was unfortunately down for maintenance.

On a side note, I had fun exploring the park, the different zones are beautifully done, as expected of a Disney Park, and I absolutely loved the Arabian Coast, it really made me feel like I was in a middle Eastern country. Of course, the Mermaid Lagoon was beautiful as well. though unfortunately, however hard I tried to find Prince Eric’s statue, I still couldn’t find it.

The last straw was when we failed to get the FASTPASS for Journey to the Center of the Earth. We had to wait in line for almost 3 hours and that almost killed us. On hindsight, we should have gone straight to get the FASTPASS for that ride before all others as apparently it is the most popular, but it is located all the way at the end of the park, in Mysterious Island. While it may have been really fun and thrilling, I question if it is truly worth the wait. Our legs were numb and by the time we reached the ride, we were grateful to be able to sit down for a while.

After this ride, we were too exhausted to wait for any more rides, so we decided to check out the Disney merchandise before heading back. Some of the items were really distinctively Japan, and it was pretty interesting checking them out.

On hindsight, it was simply a series of unfortunate events that led us to not being able to enjoy the park as we should have. The first, and probably the worst, was the Disney train not working when we first reached. If it had worked, we would probably reach in high spirits, and not forget about the map, though the 3-hour wait would probably be still inevitable.

For more insights onto our DisneySea trip, do tune in to the video above!! ❤