Started off the morning waking up hours before my alarm. Since I had time worked on some posts and clean up before heading to buy tickets and then to the park. Today was a full day at Tokyo DisneySea. We arrived about 15 minutes prior to the 8am opening. We were in the park by 8:15am, it was slow going due to the crowd. Took some pictures and headed to try out luck at the lottery. Lost Big Band but won Out of Shadowland (2nd row center section). Noticed no wait for the gondola so went for a cruise. Once back on shore headed out to Mysterious Island to grab a FastPass for Journey to the Center of the Earth and then doubled back to meet my group who had been looking for a place for the daytime show A Perfect Christmas. Watched the 9:30am performance and then headed for Mysterious Island to use our FastPasses after waiting about 20 minutes or so. Then headed for Mermaid Lagoon and to find the rest of our party and eat lunch. After eating it was back to the harbor to try and catch Crystal Wishes Journey, but unfortunately it was cancelled and in its place a character greeting. After seeing the characters walked through some shops and eventually made our way out to the American Waterfront where we boarded the Electric Railway to Port Discovery. Looked around there and the Lost River Delta before joining my group to head for the Hanger Stage to use our lottery winnings. After the show headed for Mermaid Lagoon to get a FastPass for King Tritons Concert. Joined my group and we stopped by the Arabian Coast and went for a voyage with Sinbad. Once back continued on through the Lost River Delta where it started to rain. Made our way to the Electric Railway station in Port Discover and saw there was a wait so decided to walk out to the American Waterfront as the rain continued to fall. Looked around and tried to stay dry. Ended up in Cape Cod for a lite dinner then hopped on the Transit Steamer to the Lost River Delta. Disembarked and some headed to rest in Mermaid Lagoon and I made way to Fortress Exploration and found a spot for Fantasmic. After the show joined my group and we used our King Tritons Concert FastPasses. Once we returned to the surface The rest of my group was tired so they headed for the room and I walked back to Port Discovery and took the railway to the American Waterfront. Wandered around stopping in Toyville and then headed for the harbor to catch the Colors of Christmas show. Opted to hike back to the Fortress in the rain. Near the end when the umbrella was not really keeping me dry made my way around the harbor and to the entrance/exit. Decided to call it a night just past 8pm. Took the Resort Line to the Bayside station and walked across the street. As I was in the elevator the fireworks started. Caught the last shell or two from the room then called it a night.

• My trend of waking up way too early continues. I was up several hours before my alarm again. I should have been more than tired but really was not.
• Purchased my 4 day pass today in the lobby, guess I could have yesterday but was not 100% sure which park I wanted to visit which day so decided to wait. For those not familiar at Tokyo Disney with a 4 day ticket (the longest multi-day they sell) you have to specify which park you plan to visit the first day, then you get the other the second day. Then park hopping the last two. The process was very smooth and only took a couple minutes. There was no wait at all.
• Since it was a cool morning and we saw on real advantage to being in the crowd we opted to hang out in the hotel and arrive at the park only 15 minutes before opening. This meant we were far back in the long entrance lines (which are a sight to behold). The lines move quickly, it took about 15 minutes once the gates opened until we were in the park. In hindsight we probably could have waited a little longer and then just walked in with a minimal wait.
• Today was the worst weather day of the trip. It was in the 50s and off and on rain throughout. This made for a long day but no where near as miserable as the rain we encountered on our last trip in April of 2015 when it poured rain all day. Even with the weather the park had a moderate crowd. It was more crowded than my last visit for sure, as we expected with this time of year.
• Again I struck out with the Big Band Lottery but for the fun of it decided to try the Out of Shadowland one.. we won that and had second row seats.
• The plan was to go get some FastPasses but I noticed no one heading to the Gondolas.. so called an audible and walked right onto a boat for a ride through the canals. Also it was not raining at the time, which was a plus.
• Perfect Christmas is the name of the show in Medeterranean Harbor. This show was staged in the same way as the Easter show we saw in 2015. There were three stages around the water and performers came out in groups to each stage as well as the area between them. On the water boats came and moved between the stages too. The show features over 100 performers and includes many Christmas songs. Most of the singing is in English but the dialog is almost entirely in Japanese. We watched from the bridge that the Electric Railway parallels. This offered an OK view and good audio.
• Used a FastPass for Journey to the Center of the Earth which saved a lot of time. I said this after my first visit. I thought it was an ok attraction but not a top one in my book. The queue and many of the show scenes are very impressive though.
• The plan was to see the Crystal Wishes show, but it was cancelled for some reason. Instead they brought out a couple boats with characters to circle the lagoon and wave to people. Nice to see they did something.
• Out of Shadowland is a relatively new production on the Hanger Stage in the Lost River Delta. This theater was dark for the transition to this show during my last visit. So it was all new to me. We had seats in the second row, which is also different for me. I tend to like to sit further back to get a wide perspective, but we won the seats and they were assigned so we were in the front. The show is almost entirely in Japanese.. felt like 99% of it. Which meant I had no idea what was being said or sung and had to try and understand from body language and what was happening. A very different experience for me. I would have liked to have had sub captions or something available to pick up on some of the nuances of the show. The staging and some of the sequences were really impressive, others odd, and others fairly routine. I thought it was worthwhile to see but if you are like me and do not know the language at all I would put it further down the list of things to visit on your trip to DisneySea.
• I did get to visit two of my favorite attractions today.. the Electric Railway and the Steamer. Both are very traditional/basic transportation attractions, but they offer some nice views of the park and a chance to sit down and take in the sights.
• I grabbed a bite to eat at the Cape Cod Cookoff. Last time I ate there I swore I would not again.. it was a horrible hamburger. So this time I went with the Mickey Nuggets.. which were much better. Plus it was raining and cold outside so a warm spot to eat was great. We did not do the Duffy show. The line for that was out the door and down the block. Instead we went to the other side which is just food and there was no wait at all. Tables were a challenge to find as many were camping out and waiting for the weather to clear, several had people actually sleeping on them too.
• Watched Fantasmic in the rain from on Fortress Explorations. The view of the show was very different from this angle/altitude than the ground level one last night. I enjoyed it but would not recommend it for a first time viewing as you miss most of the projections and some effects are hard to tell from the angle too. But for a repeat viewing it was good.. would have been much better if it was not cold, windy and raining.. which were all magnified by being on the elevated tower of the fortress.
• Went to Mermaid Lagoon to warm up and catch King Tritons Concert. This show was also dark for a transition during my last visit so it was completely new to me. We used a FastPass which helped with the wait time, but was still almost 20 minutes as you had to wait for a full show cycle. The show features Ariel singing and swimming overhead. I thought it was ok. The rigging system they used to have Ariel swim (well fly) around the theater was impressive. My one complaint is it is short. I felt like I had just sat down and it was over already. Also it was not overly memorable.
• I waited around for Colors of Christmas to see if the weather would clear. The plan was to get a nice overview from the Fortress, I thought the lights and lasers from this show would work well from that vantage point. But the rain was too much and they reduced some of the effects for the show and I decided to head for the exit mid show because it was really raining and I had three park days ahead of me still and the weather forecast was better.

2016 Tokyo Disney Trip Summary

Links from today:

• A morning at Tokyo DisneySea
• A rainy and cool afternoon/evening at Tokyo DisneySea

• Tokyo Disney Resort Pictures
• Geek's Blog Tokyo Pictures
• Geek's Blog Tokyo News/Posts