Tokyo DisneySea (November 2012)

There are a lot of great things to see and do in Japan and one of the biggest things the girls were looking forward to was going to Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea.  For someone who was born and raised in Southern California, going to Disneyland was like a yearly tradition for me, which I always looked forward to.  So I certainly shared my daughter's anxiousness and anticipation in going to the Tokyo Disney Parks.

"entering DisneySea instantly transports you to a place that mixes the feeling of being in some exotic locale with the wonder of imagination"

As mentioned in my review of the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel, we bought the two day passport tickets, which allowed us to enter one park one day and the other park the following day.  We went to Tokyo Disneyland first and it was a grand experience.  In this post, however, I want to talk about our time at Tokyo DisneySea.

Bottom line:  entering DisneySea instantly transports you to a place that mixes the feeling of being in some exotic locale with the wonder of imagination. It's an exhilarating combination of immersion and interaction, creating a unique and utterly unforgettable experience.

• We hopped on the Monorail from the Bayshore Station, right in front of our hotel.  It only took us about 4 minutes to get to the Tokyo DisneySea Station.  Upon arriving into the station, looking outside the monorail window, we saw that there were already massive lines of folks waiting patiently to get into the park. It seemed that everyone bought their tickets beforehand so I'm glad that we did the same.  We got there at around 8:30am and stood in line, waiting for the gates to open at 9am.

• Once we got in, we made a beeline to Toy Story Mania, which had recently opened. Unfortunately, everyone else was thinking the same thing. Once we got close to the attraction, we were surprised to find a sea of black haired heads, waiting in line for both the ride AND the Fastpass tickets.  We decided to walk up to Port Discovery and try out Storm Riders.  Luckily, with everyone stuck at Toy Story Mania, the wait time for Storm Riders was 5 minutes.  The ride was great:  it's like the Weather Channel version of Star Tours.  We got a little wet but overall, a fun-filled adventure.

• Next stop:  Mysterious Island.  The look and feel of this land was volcanic/terraforming tech meets steampunk.  Very cool and besides, you're IN THE MIDDLE of a volcano. How cool is that?

• We wanted to ride Journey to the Center of the Earth but there was a line so we got a fast pass which told us to come back in 20 minutes.  While waiting, we were able to walk right into 10000 Leagues Under the Sea.  It's kind of like the Finding Nemo Submarine Ride at Disneyland.  You have a controller to move around a spotlight, which was pretty cool.

• Came back to Journey and with our Fastpass, we were able to walk right in.  The ride itself was ok ... you ride through these dark tunnels, exploring underground cystalline formations.  Then, you see a bunch of weird insect aliens taking over the earth's core. The ride culminates with the ride going into roller coaster mode, pushing you up a steep grade and then dropping down a nice drop, giving you a sense of freefall.

• Walked over to Mermaid Lagoon and met Ariel.  She spoke English and so did we.  I'm wonder how she feels about living in a place where the majority of the population eat fish.

• Entered Mermaid Lagoon.  Very nicely laid out kiddie land.  Made you feel that you were actually "Under the Sea", being an integral part of Ariel's world.  Rode most of the rides in there, including the Tea Cup-like ride called (appropriately enough, Whirlpool).  We even went to the Mermaid Lagoon Theater to watch Ariel and friends battle the evil Ursula in a puppets meet Cirque Du Soleil-esque presentation.

• Outside of Mermaid Lagoon, we rode Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster twice in a row.

• Now, we were in search of popcorn.  But, instead of finding popcorn, we ended up at the Magic Lamp Theater.  This presentation was in 3D, which featured Genie and Aladdin.  It was short but a sweet presentation.

• Met Genie, Aladdin and Jasmine.  Genie didn't say anything but Aladdin and Jasmine spoke to us in English.  They asked us where we were from.  My daughters answered "Seattle".  Aladdin and Jasmine responded by saying that it was very far from Agrabah but their magic carpet could make the trip.  Very cute how they stayed in character the whole time.

• We had lunch at Sebatian's Calypso Kitchen, which specialized in pizza and sandwiches. 

• After lunch, the girls played in Ariel's Playground.  Lots of caves to explore and places to climb.

• After leaving Mermaid Lagoon, we eventually found Strawberry Popcorn in Port Discovery.  The popcorn was great:  there was a nice, lightly sweet strawberry taste that wasn't overpowering.  Mixed in well with the saltiness of the popcorn.

• Next we checked out Fortress Exploration.

• We made it back to Mermaid Lagoon and rode Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster twice (again)

• Had dinner at Vulcania Restaurant.  It was Chinese food, Buffeteria Style, where you select your entries, sides, desserts and drinks from the servers.  They ring you up after making all of our selections.  It was very tasty, especially after a long day of walking around.

• We went back to Toy Story Mania.  Yup, it was still crowded.  So we walked around the park.  So many beautiful things to see, like the entry into DisneySea and Mermaid Lagoon lit up at night.

Mermaid Lagoon lit up at night.  In the foreground right, we got some popcorn with sea-salt, which was very flavorful.

• Watched Fantasmic! a water show with fireworks and water.  Impressive.

• Rode Sinbad Storybook Voyage.  It's just like It's A Small World, only set in the world of Sinbad

• Also rode Jasmine's Flying Carpet.  It's just like the Dumbo ride.

• And lastly, before calling it a day and leaving DisneySea, we met up with Minnie and Goofy at the Greeting Trails in Lost River Delta

So, here are some unique aspects about our time at Disneysea that I found intriguing:

• DisneySea, like California Adventure, is unique to the world.  However, while there are a good number of unique rides, there were some (like the Sinbad and Flying Carpet rides) which had the same, familiar feeling of having ridden a similar version of this ride before. 

• The layout is different.  Instead of the hub and spoke design of the Disneyland, Disneysea has an inner loop (between Mediterranean Harbor and Mysterious Island) and outer loop that encompasses most of the other lands.  Not sure if this is better than the hub/spoke design but interesting nonetheless.

• Obvious here, but the whole theme park centers around water (water taxis, boats, rides with water) with the Mediterranean Harbor as the center of the park, which does the Fantasmic Water Show

• Outside of Mermaid Lagoon, there is a more adult feel with more atmosphere.  Each themed area meticulously recreates places far and away that transports guests to a specific locale, whether it's the tall Mayan ruins found in the jungles of the Lost River Delta or the Spanish influenced architecture of the Fortress Exploration in Mediterranean Harbor.  Tokyo DisneySea definitely does a great job of bringing you there.

• Food was great.  Good variety of popcorn (Black Pepper, Caramel, Apple Cinnamon, Curry, Strawberry, Sea Salt).  Had the Strawberry and Sea Salt.. both good.  A good variety of restaurants from simple snack shops to sit down restaurants.

• Souvenir Guide map had tons of information.  Better than the California ones

• Lots of characters walking around (Elastigirl, Ariel, Genie, Jasmine and Aladdin, Three Amigos, Chip (of Chip and Dale fame), Minnie and Goofy) ... all walking around or a character stations where the wait wasn't long at all

                Left:  Fantasmic!                                                    Right:  Toyville with Toy Story Mania!

We had a great time and look forward to going again.  If you get the chance, it's definitely worth the time to transport yourself to a magical place full of mystery and excitement, tempered with Disney's unique sense of magic.

Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay (November 2012)

Our family tries to go back to Japan once every three years or so.  Our last trip was in November of 2012 and prior to going, the girls had their heart set on going to both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disneysea.  And, to be honest, I secretly wanted to go as well.  Since we wanted to be close to both theme parks and also be close to downtown Tokyo, we decided to make the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay in Urayasu our homebase hotel during our second week in Japan.

"... there were so many other services and amenieties that the hotel provided that it really put it over the edge of awesomeness"

We splurged and booked a Club Room, a rather spacious room located on specially designated floors of the building (in the case of the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay, it was the 11th and 12th floor (the top two floors of the hotel) that had a marvelous view of Tokyo Bay.  Hotel rooms in Japan are typically small and for a family of four, it can get cramped really quickly but our room was huge compared to rooms found in other hotels.  It accommodated four beds (two doubles and two singles) which was great since each of us got a bed to call our own. There were free bottles of water, which were replinished daily; a very nice touch since it saved us time from going to the convenience store to buy drinks. Other nice touches include having the toilet separate from the shower/bath room and nice, fluffy bathrobes, which the girls loved.

 Cloudy with a chance of Disney.  View of Tokyo Bay

Looking down into the courtyland

But the best aspect of staying in a Club Room was access to the Club Lounge.  Located on the same floor as ours and limited to guests on the Club Floors was a fairly large lounge room, with plenty of comfortable chairs to relax in, free wireless access and best of all, free snacks and drinks.  On one of the days that we were there, they had thinly sliced smoked ham, various cheeses and crackers, along with a huge bowl of Hershey Kisses.  There was also a drink bar with unlimited access to various soft drinks, including beer and wine.  My daughters had the melon soda and I had a cup of iced Calpico.  Delicious.

There are two buffet restaurants in the Sheraton:  the Grand Cafe is opened all guests so when we went there for lunch on our first day at the hotel, it was very crowded.  But wow, there was a wide variety of foods to choice from, such as rice dishes, pasta, and various meats, along with a wide range of desserts and a build your own sundae station.  It was all very tasty.  

The other buffet restaurant is the Summit, which is located on the top floor (12th floor) of the hotel.  This restaurant, like the Club Lounge, is limited to Club Floor guests so it was never crowded and we were always seated right away with a choice of looking over Tokyo Bay or the Disney theme parks.  We went during breakfast early in the morning and was surprised to see such a vast variety of food.  Yogurts, traditional western style breakfast items (like eggs, bacon, ham, cereal) as well as tasty Japanese items (miso soup, fried fish, pickles) and various vegetables.  We were there for four days and each day, the menu changed slightly but overall, it was always good and always fulfilling.

 Breakfast of champions.  So.Much.Good.Food. Corn Soup in the middle.  Yogurt drink upper right

I love pineapple.  Yogurt drink upper left; berry smoothie upper right

Both the room and the terrific buffet choices alone would have made our stay at the Sheraton a memorable experience but there were so many other services and amenieties that the hotel provided that it really put it over the edge of awesomeness.  Top on the list was location.  Since it located next to both Disney theme parks, it was easy getting from the hotel to the park.  You could walk to the monorail station but you could also wait for the shuttle to drive you there.  When the shuttle wasn't around, we just hiked it to the monorail station (less than five minutes).  When we were heading back to the hotel, there was usually a shuttle waiting for us so we just hopped on and we were back at the hotel in no time.

Along with the location, you can't beat all of the other ameneties the hotel has to offer:

• Official Disney Store in the hotel - there is a fairly large Disney Store in the hotel, where you can go and buy gifts related to Disney.  From keychains to dolls to cookie tins with Disney characters on it, there is a wide variety to choose from.  You could spend half of your day just looking through everything they have to offer
• Dedicated Tokyo Disney Resort Ticket Counter - you can buy your Disney theme park tickets ahead of time instead of buying them at the gate.  The person who was working at the counter was a young, bubbly Japanese girl who greeted us with so much enthusiasm, it was kind of scary.  I wondered if she worked for Disney instead of the hotel.  We bought the special 2 day passport, where you can visit one of the parks one day and then other park the following day.  It wasn't a park hopper type of passport, which was fine with us since we wanted spend as much time as possible at each park each day.
• Dedicated packing service - if you need to have things shipped overseas, you can get packing supplies from the packing service counter and once packed, have them shipped from the same counter.  Really convenient.
• Game Room and Convenience Store - there is an arcade that you can go to and play video game and UFO Catcher style games to win prizes.  Next to it is a convenience store to pick up snacks and drinks.  Not as complete as a Lawsons but works when you're in a pinch for snacks and stuff
• Coffee Shop - if you need a coffee fix, the coffee shop in the lobby has you covered.  There is also a fine selection of sandwiches and snacks to choose

We had a great time at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay.  Highly recommended!

Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel

1-9 Maihama

Urayasu, Chiba 279-0031

Japan

(81)-(47) 355-5555

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=361&language=en_US&localeCode=en_US