Hello everyone,
In part one of this report I covered all the Disney Resort Hotels, the Disney Resort Line monorail, Ikspiari and other areas. In part two we explored World Bazaar and Adventureland. Now, in this part we are going to discover Westernland, Critter Country, Fantasyland, Toontown and Tomorrowland.
Leaving Adventureland behind, we head towards Westernland. During the Christmas season, the Country Bear attraction receives a festive overlay. While I'm not a huge fan of the Country Bears (the one in Florida really needs some help), it's always fun to see a different take on something, and the Christmas version of this show definitely provided that!
Outside the attraction we bumped into Liver Lips and Wendell one day. It was nice to see them meeting outside their own show.
Tokyo Disneyland recently started promoting Danny the Lamb, and selling merchandise based around him. Being Christmas season, there were some Christmas displays depicting Danny, which were cute.
There was also a Western themed Toy Story Christmas scene over near Big Thunder Mountain.
Westernland is home to one show, Super Duper Jumpin' Time. To anyone who doesn't speak Japanese, this show is utterly bewildering, but cute all the same. It involves some puppet frogs (portrayed by Jungle Monkeys, no less) who wonder where the rain has gone. Mickey and friends help them in their quest, and at the end, there is a rainbow. For Christmas, the game at the end had a small festive overlay, which you can see below.
While I like Big Thunder Mountain in Tokyo Disneyland (TDL), we didn't experience it this trip simply because we were too preoccupied with everything else.
Nestled snuggly between Westernland and Fantasyland is Critter Country, home to Splash Mountain. Although TDL's Splash Mountain is no where near as drenching as the other versions of it - and the the park even turns the wetness down in winter - it isn't something we wanted to ride during December's decidedly cooler climate.
Part way through our trip, Minnie Mouse started greeting for a limited time in her "berry" outfit, at the back of Critter Country. This was for a limited time only, and is something they do apparently, intermittently throughout the year. With that said, it wasn't just the simple task of going to Critter Country to meet her. This is Japan. To meet Minnie in her berry outfit you had to run like a crazy person at park opening to get a ticket, which then allowed you to come back later for your one photo, as per the usual photo rules (below are the front and back of two different greeting tickets we had).
I was determined to beat the Japanese at their own game one day, and so we were at the park entrance early, as to be near the front, and then I ran as fast as I could physically manage to Critter Country. I made it into the line, and luckily managed to get a ticket, however, the line closed right after me, and we had a friend with us who was not allowed to join us! Yes, they really are that strict (it's infuriating to us, but their rules are part of their culture, and we have to abide by that, as upsetting as it is).
So, our return time came around, and we went to take our one photo with berry Minnie, after nearly giving myself a heart attack to get the thing.
Next to Critter Country and Westernland is Fantasyland. Fantasyland in TDL really needs some help, and luckily help is coming its way. Earlier last year Oriental Land Company announced that they would be making a significant investment in the park, particularly in Fantasyland.
We rode Pooh's Hunny Hunt, using FastPass of course, which is always a lot of fun. It is so significantly superior to the US and Hong Kong versions, that the others aren't even worth riding once you have been on Hunny Hunt.
We also took a trip to Pleasure Island with Pinocchio in his attraction, and with the Queen through the Enchanted Forest in the Snow White attraction. The Pinocchio attraction is pretty much the same as the Disneyland version, perhaps a little more dated. The Snow White attraction is really odd, and is more like "the Queen's journey through the Enchanted Forest to murder Snow White, where everyone stays dead at the end." Morbid, I know, but really there is no resolution to this one. What happened to Snow White? It's odd, to say the least.
We also took a trip through the spooky world of Halloweentown, in the TDL version of Haunted Mansion Holiday (here, "Haunted Mansion Holiday Nightmare"). They haven't had the same effects upgrades yet that the Disneyland version had to its Holiday overlay (digital Jack face in the stretching room being the key example), and their Mansion is still much like the Florida version pre-upgrades, so overall it's not amazing, but it is still fun to experience.
While in Fantasyland we managed to meet Esmeralda, Flynn Rider, The Prince (Snow White), Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip, and Gaston. It's really nice that TDL have the princes out on their own, as well as with the princesses, regularly.
Along from Fantasyland is Toontown. We ended up spending a significant amount of time in Toontown on this trip, mainly because of the characters. During Christmas season the Toontown characters had special Christmas additions, which was really nice to see. We managed to meet the Three Little Pigs, Big Bad Wolf, Daisy Duck, Horace Horsecollar, Clarabelle Cow, Clarice and Scrooge McDuck, all wearing something slightly different for the festive season. Some are hard to see in the photos, especially Horace, because in some cases it was simply holly or a seasonal flower that was added - but nonetheless it was nice to see something different. We know that Pluto, Chip and Dale also had something different, but we didn't get to see them, sadly.
Donald Duck was also out, but like the Minnie Mouse situation in Critter Country, he had a ticket system, and thus we were unable to accomplish both. I did however manage to get a few photos of him coming and going, so at least we saw him and his special outfit, if nothing else, for reference purposes here at Character Central.
For the first time ever in all our trips to TDL, we managed to finally go inside Mickey's House and meet him! Mickey Mouse is insanely popular in Japan, and whenever we have tried to meet him in the past, we haven't felt like battling a two hour line at 9am! On this trip, though, we got lucky one evening, and only waited about half hour to see him. Much to my delight, we finally got to meet him while he was filming the Band Concert in the Movie Barn. I have lost count the number of times I have tried to get him wearing this at Disneyland (CA), but never seem to get lucky.
We also went through Minnie's House for the first time ever, too. Minnie doesn't meet in her house here, but for some reason, it also always has a long line. Again, we got lucky one day and there was no wait to go in.
Before we head into Tomorrowland, let's take a look at some other areas of Toontown that I took photos of, including Chip 'n' Dale's Treehouse, Donald's Boat and Goofy's Paint 'n' Play House.
Leaving the toon world, we blast into the world of tomorrow. Tomorrowland in TDL is quite uninspired, even more so than the Magic Kingdom, I think personally. We didn't really do too much in Tomorrowland on this trip, with lines being long, and having done it all before anyway. The only thing I really took photos of was the new store, Treasure Comet, that accompanies the new Stitch attraction that replaced Captain EO.
So, that's it for our travels through Westernland, Critter Country, Fantasyland, Toontown and Tomorrowland! I will be writing the next part in the next few days, so look out for that here on the blog.
In case you missed them, here are the links to my Hong Kong reports that I wrote recently, which were all part of this same trip.
Have a great week everyone,
Dan. |