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Slept in this morning till just after 5am. Ate breakfast at the Sheraton Club and spend some time in the room before heading out to Tokyo DisneySea just before 9am and was in line at the park a few minutes after 9. It took just over 30 minutes to get through security and enter the park. We hiked out to Fantasy Springs to start the day. First up Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure, we found the end of the queue near the entrance to Fantasy Springs at 10am with a posted wait of 70 minutes. Turned out to be about 40 minutes to the preshow and just under an hour from queue to boat. Next up Fairy Tinker Bell's Busy Buggies was posted at 40 minutes (50 in the app) and took 34 minutes. We were walking by Rapunzel's Lantern Festival and it was inside its queue and posted at 70 minutes so we gave it a try. Turned out to be 54 minutes. We walked back to the front of the park. Paused to see Duffy and Friends float by and took a Resort Liner to Ikspairi for lunch then back to DisneySea. Visited the Venetian Gondolas followed by the Tokyo DisneySea Electric Railway to Port Discovery. Walked through Cape Cod as Duffy and Friends were cruising by. We waited for the Transit Steamer to reopen and went for a round trip from the American Waterfront port. Once back on shore it was time to use a couple 40th Anniversary passes (the free FastPass option). First up 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. After our adventure stopped by Port Discovery and Aquatopia. Then continued on to the Lost River Delta. Along the way saw the Incredibles out for pictures. Used a second pass for Indiana Jones Adventure. Then returned to Fantasy Springs to visit the gift shop and walk around a bit. Went for a cruise on Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage. We had one more pass for the Magic Lamp Theatre but decided to skip it and instead visit some more shops. Found a bench in Mediterranean Harbor that was somewhat out of the drizzle that had started. Waited around for the 7:15 Believe! Sea of Dreams show. Ended up watching from the entrance walkway because it was under cover and the drizzle turned to a light rain. After the show walked to the Resort Line and road back to Bayside station. A Resort Cruiser was just pulling in and to avoid the rain took it back to the Sheraton to call it a night.
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- Today was my second Tokyo DisneySea day of the trip. The game plan was to visit the rest of the Fantasy Springs attractions and then just roam the park. Since we were not in a hurry we decided to let the initial crowd enter the park and try and minimize our time standing in the security line. The group grew impatient and we left a little earlier than planned which translated into about a 30 minute wait to enter the park this morning.
- I started my day in Fantasy Springs and visited the three other attractions that the group had not visited on Wednesday. Our wait times turned out to be better than the posted times in all cases, which was a plus, but they were still long.
- First up Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure. I managed to squeeze in a ride Wednesday evening, but the rest of the group had not ridden. This time we drew a front row seat. The view did not vary dramatically from the further back row. I thought the further back row with the more focused field of view worked slightly better. The attraction held up on a second viewing, with more details coming into focus. One member of our group has vertigo and issues with motion. They decided to give it a try and basically saw the first few seconds, then decided to close their eyes and look at the ground. The queue pace was decent, and due to a lack of Priority Pass Returns, we managed to get through the queue in 40 minutes vs the posted 70, which was great.
- Fairy Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies is a short outdoor attraction; the closest stateside attraction was the Chew Chew Train in Bugsland, but Tinker Bell has more elaborate sets/effects. The queue has a number of props and larger than life plants that shrink you down to size for the attraction. The big challenge with this attraction is the low hourly capacity so the wait times are always substantial it seemed. Ours turned out to be 34 minutes which was long but not unbearable with all the new things to see. Also with no Priority Pass the queue moves at a fairly constant speed.
- We were walking by the queue for Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival was at the attraction entrance, which was the shortest we had seen. It was still posted at 70 minutes but we decided to give it a try. Turned out to be 54 minutes. The mix of Priority Access returning guests to standby was terrible with me counting a 10 to 1 ratio at times. So the queue moved extremely slow and erratically. The best moves seemed to come when then the DPA guests were having challenges scanning so there were gaps allowing more standby guests to pass through. The queue had some fun props to see but most of it was unremarkable. The attraction itself was a nice use of exterior and interior scenes. The figures are fairly static with minimal movement. Looking at this attraction in isolation and comparing it to a traditional dark ride it works well and is great. If you compare it to a more E-Ticket type attraction like Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey located next door it falls short. The ride time is extremely short and you fell as if it is missing a few scenes. Also the basic figures and scenes do not match the elaborate nature of most of the Frozen attraction.
- Having completed all four attractions in Fantasy Springs, I can now say they are a good assortment and well-done attractions. The biggest problem I see with them is that the wait times are substantially longer than what that type of attraction should be. For example, a “B” Ticket type ride like Fairy Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies, showing nearly an hour wait all day long, is too long for that type of attraction. The Disney Priority Access mix for Rapunzel’s was terrible compared to what we experienced at Peter Pan and Frozen last visit.
- Duffy and Friends are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year. The celebration is centered in the Cape Cod area of the American Waterfront with photo backdrops and the show there. There is a Duffy and Friends’ Colorful Happiness Journey that travels through the park several times a day. The characters are on a transit steamer, and there is music and plenty of bubbles. Unlike previous character greetings this time they travel around the entire park vs just the main harbor. The downside to this is only one pass through the harbor vs several. The upside is that the crowd is spread out throughout the park. I did find it interesting to watch crowds gather at various points along the water that are usually quiet/empty spots, waiting for them to pass by.
- For lunch, we looked at the Food & Wine Festival offerings and, due to our nonadventurous tastes and being hungry, we ended up traveling to Ikspairi and McDonald’s for lunch. Typically, in DisneySea, I grab pizza at the Calypso Kitchen or Zambini Brothers, but the pizza changed and did not look inviting at the Kitchen, and I had just had pizza yesterday too. I thought about trying the chicken strips, but no one else was that interested, and at the price point, decided it was more efficient to go with the tried and true meal.
- After lunch, we returned to the park and visited a number of our go-to/favorite attractions, all of which offer great views and usually have minimal waits. The trio of the Venetian Gondolas, Tokyo DisneySea Electric Railway, and the Tokyo DisneySea Transit Steamer for a round trip from the American Waterfront made for a relaxing afternoon.
- Since we had more flexibility today, I decided to take advantage of the 40th anniversary pass and picked up a trio throughout the day and used one for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Indiana Jones Adventure, which were both nice to visit with a minimal wait.
- As the sun was setting it began to drizzle. We decided to wait it out and see if it would become heavier rain or just pass. We decided to hang around Mediterranean Harbor and realized there are very few benches with cover in the area. We found one that had a tree that was mostly stopping the rain, and sat there for a while. The drizzle was off and on, just enough to be annoying.
- We decided to stay and watch Believe! Sea of Dreams, and of course, the drizzle turned to a light rain. As it intensified, I moved back and stood in the main walkway in/out of the park to be out of the rain but still have a view of the show. This was less than ideal, but I had no desire to get soaked.
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