We then checked out Visionairium,
another Tomorrowland attraction, right across from Microadventure. This
attraction utilizes the Circle-Vision theater and shows the Timekeeper
film from Walt Disney World that stars Jeremy Irons and Gerard Depardieu,
with an animatronic metal robot as the host at the front of the theater.
The pre-show area has a video with English subtitles that talks about
imagination and inventions, particularly featuring H.G. Wells and Jules
Verne, who we meet "in person" during the Circle-Vision film.
There are also lots of themed artifacts and inventions hanging on the
walls above the pre-show area for atmosphere.
The film narration inside the theater is in Japanese, but English and
Chinese translations are available through headphones in the rear of the
theater (enter through the doors on the left). It’s OK to see once,
but I wouldn’t necessarily view it again if you’ve already seen the
Walt Disney World version unless, like me, you forgot that you ever saw
it until the movie began.
We next decided to ride
the Tomorrowland Grand Circuit Raceway, which is Tokyo
Disneyland’s Autopia (shown above). This is probably the worst ride we
were on in the whole park. The boarding area is only a few cars long, so
the whole loading process is not very smooth. The track is 4 lanes wide
with not much scenery or theming. The cars are equipped with sensors
that can tell when you’re too close to the car in front of you and
automatically stop the car, which makes the return to the boarding area
long and frustrating, due to all the stops and starts. This is a very
uninspired ride that desperately needs to be revamped or removed.
We briefly walked through Toontown, right next to Tomorrowland, just
to see what was there. It contained all the same attractions as
Disneyland’s Toontown in California, although the layout was a little
different to be better accommodated to the space.
Just to the left of the Toontown
entrance is the most popular ride at Tokyo Disneyland, Pooh’s
Hunny Hunt in Fantasyland. We should have better known ahead of
time just how popular this ride is by (a) seeing that all the Fastpasses
for the day had already been distributed, and (b) remembering how much
the Japanese love anything and everything that is Winnie-the-Pooh
related. We realized that everyone who was sprinting through the gates
in the morning was probably heading to this ride.
In any case, we did want to check it out, so we got in the standby
line at 2:45 p.m. and were told it would be a 45 minute wait. The line
wasn’t terribly long, so we wondered why such a long wait time was
given. We soon understood why when were introduced to the Japanese
version of the Fastpass process. Standby guests are held in the standby
line for lengthy periods of time and not allowed to proceed into the
ride, even when no Fastpass guests enter to ride the ride for minutes at
a time!
In California, we’re used to proceeding through the standby line
and having the cast member hold up the front of the standby line for a
moment or two to let Fastpass holders into the converging line areas,
then allowing the standby line to proceed. Not in Japan! We literally
stood in the exact same spot for 30 minutes. 15 minutes into our wait, a
rope was placed across the front of the standby line. I guess it wasn’t
enough for a cast member to stand at the front of the standby line to
keep us from entering; they must have figured we were so antsy from
standing in one spot that all that pent-up energy might simultaneously
exude from the whole standby group, causing us to go stampeding into the
attraction!
Eventually, the rope was removed,
and we moved forward about 15 feet to the entrance to the Fastpass line.
Standby guests were then let in a few at a time between Fastpass
holders. We still had to wait even when there were no Fastpass holders
entering the line. It was finally our turn to join the attraction queue
just about 45 minutes since we first entered the standby area, right on
schedule.
We enter the attraction through Christopher Robin’s playroom and
wind through the queue area past large book pages with the text and
pictures from A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh books. Guests board Hunny
Pots, which depart from the boarding station in groups of 3. This group
of pots travels together from room to room within the ride, but each
individual pot sort of does its own thing, turning and spinning and
stopping at different points within each room. The technology seemed
similar to the old Universe of Energy ride at Epcot, or to the floating
elevator cars in the Tower of Terror at MGM Studios. There was even a
bouncing room where the whole floor bounced the pots in which we were
riding up and down.
Despite all the complaints I made about the standby line the ride was
totally worth it! Knowing what I know now, I would get a Fastpass for
this attraction first thing, and probably ride it standby first thing as
well. If Fastpasses are available, definitely get one and use it. I
really wish this was the version of the Pooh ride that we get in the
U.S. I think if more people knew about how spectacular this ride was in
the U.S. they’d demand it!
Since Pinocchio is one of my most favorite Disney films and
characters, we next headed over to ride Pinocchio’s Daring
Journey, also in Fantasyland. It was exactly the same as its
Californian counterpart.
We then rode It’s
A Small World (shown above) which has a smaller version of the
big Anaheim Disneyland clock outside that comes to life every 15
minutes. The boarding area is inside in a large open pavilion, similar
to the boarding area in Walt Disney World. Otherwise, the ride is
basically the same.
Tom, who is part Scottish and plays the bagpipes, noticed right away
that in Tokyo Disneyland’s Small World the little Scottish bagpiper
boy gets to "go to heaven" (that’s what we call the
all-white room at the end of the ride). In California, the bagpiper is
nowhere to be found in the final scene. Hmmm….
Under rehab in Fantasyland
were Snow White’s Adventure and the front entrance and
façade of Cinderella’s Castle (which I believe is the
most beautiful of the 3 castles I’ve seen in person – built to true
castle-size proportions and sharing the resort’s skyline only with Mt.
Prometheus in DisneySea), so we headed over to the Haunted Mansion,
which is tucked into the back corner of Fantasyland right next to the
entrance of Critter Country.
Yes, the Haunted Mansion is in
Fantasyland in Tokyo, since there’s no New Orleans Square.
However, the large mansion exterior remains, and all the elements of the
original U.S. versions exist within the ride itself. The only difference
is that the Tokyo version incorporates the hallway with the changing
paintings and busts that "follow" you into the doom buggy
portion of the ride, rather than having you walk past them down a
hallway before boarding the ride itself like in the U.S.
It was a treat to see how clean and crisp everything should really
look after years of dirt and lack of upkeep on the scrims at Disneyland’s
Haunted Mansion in California. (Editor's Note: This report was submitted
before the extensive and long overdue rehab of the Anaheim ride this
past winter.)
By now it was dark, and
we were hungry and needing to prepare for the Tokyo Disneyland
Electrical Parade "Dreamlights". Our guide map showed
that the parade route started up past the Haunted Mansion, went down one
side of the castle, looped around the hub, went back up the other side
of the castle, and ended back in Toontown—a route that is probably
twice as long as Disneyland’s in California, probably to better
accommodate larger crowds.
Using this as a guide, we decided to eat dinner at the Tommorowland
Terrace and find somewhere near there to watch the parade. The
hamburgers looked and tasted a bit like Salisbury Steak patties, but the
fries were very fresh and tasty, but without much salt on them. We also
tried the Almond Chicken Strips that had good flavor, but were slightly
dry. Tom tried the chocolate cake and thought it was so-so; like many
Japanese desserts, it was not very sweet. The Tomorrowland Terrace
décor is very 80’s, as was the light pop music played in the
background.
Since it was fairly cold and windy outside, we decided to view the
parade from the outside seating area of Tomorrowland Terrace, where we
were afforded some protection from the elements as well as a beautiful
view of Cinderella’s Castle. It looked as though there was a lot of
empty space along the parade route due to the sparse crowd.
Even though we were not directly along the parade route we could hear
the familiar Electrical Parade hoedown music just fine. Some of the
character voices were in Japanese, but all the face characters spoke
English. It was truly magical to be able to see the good old Electrical
Parade in Disneyland (albeit Tokyo Disneyland) where it belongs. Just
wonderful!
After the parade, we wanted to check out Meet the World,
a revolving-theater animatronic show about the history of Japan.
However, it was being rehabbed, so we decided to leave the park as it
was closing time.
On our way toward the front gate,
we talked about the condition of the park overall. As we traversed the
park that day, we tried to pay close attention to how well Tokyo
Disneyland has been taken care of over its 19 year existence.
Honestly, we saw little evidence of any wear on the park. We saw one
cracked and peeling decal on the Space Probe in Space Mountain, but all
of the globes in the entry port were mirrored, polished, and shiny. Rows
of benches throughout the park were all expertly painted with no chips
or cracks. The park seemed to feel fairly new to us. All the trees and
vegetation were pruned and not terribly overgrown. We also noticed that
several shops in each land were closed, probably to cut labor hours
during the slow time of year.
BACK
NEXT: A return visit to both parks
as we wrap up the series
You can write Lisa at:
scarlett1214@ yahoo.com
