MONDAY, June 29 Report
My first day of two today (Monday) at DisneySea (plus one day complete at Tokyo Disneyland). A very unexpectedly busy park day. I have been looking at park planners and thrilldata reports. It was about 100% busier than anticipated. What that does is make it very difficult to navigate the park. I am not quite sure how I misjudged: perhaps the weak yen, social media and Fantasy Spring's increased hype has driven things even higher over the last months? Part of the problem is just my theme park ethos: I won't get in a 90+ minute line, and won't do a 45+ min line for a B attraction. Peak Hourly average times today were (in minutes):
Anna - 140
Tower of Terror - 143
Soaring - 158
Rupunzel's - 117
Raging Spirits - 118
Peter Pan's...Adventure - 97
Journey to the Centre of the Earth - 140
I'm not doing 2 and 3 hour waits for any ride. No way. Once DPA times start to push, that does make for long chunks of the day where it's hard to get anything done, even if you're willing to pay to play.
I see now that a 90 second ride for small children called Blowfish Balloon Race had a peak Hourly average wait time of 41 minutes. Who sees a wait time of 45 minutes for that ride with their small child and thinks that's a good idea?
As others have noted, the park saturates very quickly.
I was able to casually get 3 DPAs. I could have gotten more if I was more focused, which I guess is really the only solution - you have to be absolutely militant in getting in early and quick and locking DPAs before they start kicking off too far. If you get entry near the beginning you could book, use and rebook DPAs before half the people behind you have even gotten through the entry line.
Nonetheless, even if you were able to get 5 or 6 of those, that's still not a full day in my opinion. There were big gaps of the day where I felt stuck. The distances between places is huge so you don't want to ping pong like other parks. I still put in 20,000 steps, but got on about half as many rides as anticipated. I took a chance and didn't get DPAs or 40th anniversary tickets for rides with single rider. Worked for Raging Spirits and Peter Pan (a fantastic ride) but I never saw it open for Anna. Finally broke down at 7:30 PM and got in the standby, realized immediately I probably need to use the washroom before waiting for 90+ minutes and when I returned they refused entry. Dang!
So I did a lot of browsing shops, transportation rides and ate interesting popcorn. Pretty cool for sure. But even their filler rides were smashed today. 50 minutes for much of the day for Aquatopia. A big part of the fun of parks is 'beating the system' even just a little and searching out lower waits and getting on as many rides as I can. As others have noted, it's hard to do that at DisneySea. There just isn't enough rides. And unlike US parks, they intentionally start refusing entry long before park closure. Definitely steals one of the most magical things about 'sneaking one last ride' on a favourite.
For day 2, midweek this week, there will be no messing around. I will be there by 7:15 AM and I will be going straight to Fantasy Springs. Hopefully with luck I'll get DPAs and get single rider on Anna and maybe get on more than once. I would suggest someone with only one day should do that.
Just lastly, I did just one day at Tokyo Disneyland, and while it's not anywhere as good as Disneyland in California, I absolute had a good time. The Japanese don't seem as keen on Pirates and Haunted Mansion (good for me!) but they are absolutely obsessed with this pretty average Baymax ride. For the former two, a real ride fan could find parts of the day to do many repeated laps on those rides. Also managed to perfection using single rider on Beauty and the Beast (a flawed but significant attraction) and I see that the waits are even more manageable across that park mid week. The ride obsessed (current company included) could do a ton: but it seems a lot of foreign travellers do just 1 day - DisneySea. They have a new space mountain coming next year and hopefully they consider some additional proper thrill rides.
Thanks for reading my trip report, it's been fun writing about! Oh lastly, lastly, the Japanese for some reason are compelled to wave back - it's so earnest! They smile and wave back to people on the train, steam ship or gondola. I find it very endearing about this place and it's people. That and the fact that they care for their public spaces (without needing garbage cans) and have no visible homelessness or public drug consumption... but that is another thread for another time!
edit UPDATE: Day 2 Trip Report Second day at DisneySea following a day off. This was my last day at the parks and was a bit more organized. Rope dropped Starbucks at 7 AM and got in line shortly after that! Managed to secure a DPA for Anna early-ish, and then beelined straight for Peter Pan. Did it three times on single rider, and probably could have done more if I didn't have other things. Imho: the best ride in the park by a lot. Other rides might be more 'impressive' but I felt like a total kid on that ride. I could do that all day.
Learned some lessons from my first day, and set an alarm to buy a DPA every hour on the hour. This let me snag a bunch that I stacked from 3:30 PM - 7:30 PM. This made for a much better time. It also wasn't cheap if comparing to just the price of entrance: but even with all that, still cheaper than a US park with lightning lane.
The following has to be the number one tip (by a lot). If you are only coming with intention of doing just one day, and that day is at DisneySea, give serious thought to #1: taking another day for Tokyo Disney, or at the very least #2: go to Tokyo Disney the evening before on their after 5 PM to 9 PM discount ticket if it is available.
Here is why:
Tokyo Disneyland is great. You will get a lot done, especially on a weeknight. Go ride Pirates and Haunted Mansion 1,000 times and watch the cool parade
Most importantly, the app and payment system are janky AF. If you haven't entered a park before your one day at DisneySea it is going to come down to whether your Internet works right, and whether you can load and use your credit card properly. My actual first day was at Disneyland and I had two phones on two carriers and multiple payment methods and it still took 30 minutes to get things right. In those first minutes you risk your whole day at DisneySea if lots of rides are your priority, no joke. Way way less stressful if you just mosied casually in the day before, loaded your payment, bought something, and made sure it's all working. Truly I feel so strongly about this: if I had a group of people going and we just weren't going to go more than one day, I would have someone go burn a one day ticket to Disneyland at 8:55 PM the night before just to make sure everything was hooked up and worked right.
Anyhow with that rant over... It was a great day. Definitely an awesome time. Also definitely the most challenging theme park I have been to in terms of trying to secure the kind of day I want to have. I think someone asked me about the vacation packages and absolutely that would be awesome. But I probably spent only 10-20% of the cost of one of those.
Thanks again for reading my trip report. I hope your time is a success!