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Old 17 Sep 13, 12:48 PM  
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私たちは、東京ディズニーリゾートに行きます G&D Day 4/1

DAY FOUR (1/9/13) – Part One – DisneySea Plus - TING!

It’s Sunday. I’m wide awake and it’s…………………………….3 a.m. Yes, Silly – o – clock has not let me down. The problem is that my early awakenings are disturbing Darrin’s sleep which isn’t very fair, so after making a mug of tea I retire to the bathroom, draw a hot bath and just soak for near enough an hour. I look like a well done prune by the time I get out of the water. I dry myself and then apply moisturiser to everywhere. I’m in no hurry and it’s nice to actually take some time just to pamper myself. I decide to shave too and have really hot water which I can soak the flannels in and then do a kind of hot towel routine. By 4:30 I’m as fresh as a daisy. I can hear Darrin moving around so I slide back the bathroom door to find him fumbling with the kettle. I have failed to mention that when you enter the bathroom you have the main wash basins in front of you– then to your right is the loo and to the left the bath and wet room. Both of these rooms have beautiful engraved glass panels featuring the Fantasia brooms carrying buckets of water:



In Japan you should not use bubble bath. (We did.) Using the wet room and a small (washing up type) bowl you are supposed to soap and dowse yourself. Then you rinse with the shower. Only then should you get in the bath to merely soak away your tensions.
It is ages before any breakfast will be available so we munch on biscuits and energy bars. It’s already daylight and from our balcony we can look across to Tokyo DisneySea and the Tower of Terror.



When the time comes we decide to have breakfast in the Hyperion Lounge. At 1400 Yen each it’s great value (around £ 9.45 each) and there is a huge selection. Once again we go through the performance of brewing a fresh pot of tea every time I want another cuppa. Time to show you some of the hotel I think:
Main entrance and some of the staff:



Lobby:



Ceiling:




Swimming pool:




Carpet :



So today we are switching parks and are headed out to Tokyo DisneySea. When we step outside it’s like an oven. It is touching 38C ( 100.4F) and it’s not even 7:30. (The record temperature this summer in Tokyo was 46! The humidity is so high that by the time the bus arrives to take us to the park we are already wet through! Now, we thought the Disneyland Park was quite busy yesterday but we ain’t seen nothing yet. See this:



That is just one line – now multiply it by fifty and you begin to see what we are up against. I am deadly serious! When we tried to book (using DVC points) for the Mira Costa we were told it was already totally booked up. We only got in at the Ambassador by the skin of our teeth. This is the last summer weekend for Japanese people and they make the most of it. As the sun comes up and over we have to cover our heads with flannels as it is scorching. We brought them along to wipe faces and other bits. Despite putting sun block on, we are toasting. Yes, I know we look like D. P. Gumby from Monty Python and when Darrin says: “Style Plus TING!” I am in absolute stitches much to the amusement of those around us who think I must be some crazy Englishman!





Ok – an explanation is necessary. On the bus to the park there is a TV screen where they advertise the parks, restaurants, upcoming events etc. For absolutely no reason we can think of the films are suddenly interrupted with a screen that says “Style Plus” accompanied by a voice that says “Style Plus” followed by a ting sound. It just really amused us every morning.
You soon realise why lots of people have umbrellas or buy and wear these:



They keep the sun off you and you have something to wipe the sweat away with.
Anyhow, at 8:30 the screen gates rise and we all start ploughing through the security tables and up to the turnstiles. Everybody is running and CMs desperately but politely raise hands to try and quell the marathon. They are simply wasting their breath! The first area you come to is a hub featuring a globe of the world. Water dashes up against this like waves.



You veer to the right and you enter the main body of the park through an archway cut through the wings of the Mira Costa Hotel. We’ll come to that later. We are using today to familiarise ourselves with the layout of the park. Maps are all very well to study but when you are presented with 176 acres it’s quite daunting. Once through the archway with its many shops on each side you come out on a Mediterranean harbour looking across to the volcano (man made) – Mount Prometheus.



You pass over a very large Venetian bridge and if you glance to the left you will see the Venice wing of the Mira Costa hotel complete with canal, gondoliers and gondolas.



We soon learn that rather than walk there are means to save legs. One of these is the DisneySea Electric Railway. This is an elevated trolley transport and when on it you get great views, not only of the park areas but also across Tokyo Bay which is beyond the sea wall of the park. It travels from the American Waterfront all the way up to Port of Discovery:



The building with the dome on the top on the right of the picture is Scrooge McDuck’s department store.
If you thought the lines for Toy Story Mania are horrendous at Hollywood Studios in Florida you should see this:



TDS only got the Toy Story ride in May of this year and everybody wants to ride it. The standby line goes back as far the large Venetian bridge and the Fastpasses are all gone by 9:45! So we give that one a miss for now.

Next door is the Tower of Terror. Forget any visions you have of the US or Paris versions. Not only is the architecture completely different but so is the story!




The Twilight Zone series was never shown on Japanese TV so they don’t know the stories. When it was decided to create the Tower for the Tokyo park a whole new approach was made. Firstly, it’s called Hotel Hightower. The building has just been restored by the New York Preservation Society. Public tours are now available of the hotel once owned by the great explorer Harrison Hightower III. As you leave the lobby to go to the study you will see a painting of Mr. Hightower. (Look carefully – you’ll see it is a bearded Joe Rhode – Imagineer with Disney.)



On your journey through the lobby and the corridors you can view the many artefacts that Hightower collected on his travels. A roped off elevator with bowed doors indicates that something horrific happened here once. You are ushered into the study when there is a large desk on a podium. You can see various writings and note books scattered on the desk top. There is also a gramophone. Above the desk is a stained glass window depicting Hightower in front of the hotel. The item of interest stands to the side of the desk on a pillar. This is Shiriki Untundi, a cursed statue that was acquired on one of Hightower’s expeditions.



The CM ( a member of the Preservation Society) speaks a few words and then starts up the gramophone. As the record spins we hear Hightower’s voice (in Japanese) who tells of his trip to Africa and how he obtained the statue. Suddenly the lights go out and the stained glass window comes to life showing what happened on New Year’s Eve 1899 when Hightower disappeared in an elevator that crashed down from the 13th floor. All that was found in the lift was the statue. Hightower was never seen again. (If you are very quick, when the coloured window turns to black and white, there is a black cloud in the top left of the skyline. It is a side on view of Minnie Mouse.)



Guests are then ushered on through a warehouse containing more collected treasures and eventually into a service elevator. What happens next is pretty much what you’d experience in other Towers of Terror at Disney parks except that the hotel corridor scene of ghostly guests is replaced with the statue and a ghostly apparition of Hightower who is flung towards the elevator shaft. The statue turns his face towards you and your companions and its eyes glow green………………….

As soon as we came off we got a Fastpass to ride again later in the day and I bought replica of Shiriki Untundi in the souvenir shop. The theming in the shop is of an old Rajah’s pool and spa.
We catch the Electric Railway which takes us up to Port of Discovery.
We explore the area and grab an ice cream. If you veer off to the left you find yourself in Lost River Delta where you find the Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull ride and also Raging Spirits (think Indiana Jones coaster at Paris with flames and mist added.) Beyond is the Arabian Coast but we’ll leave that for another visit.
To be continued……………………………….

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Old 17 Sep 13, 01:12 PM  
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Excellent - loving the improvised head gear
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Old 17 Sep 13, 01:28 PM  
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I don't suppose you'll ever complain about queues in a Disney park ever again!
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Old 17 Sep 13, 02:39 PM  
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Originally Posted by DJBenz View Post
I don't suppose you'll ever complain about queues in a Disney park ever again!
It was quite astonisjing how quickly they get folk through the turnswtiles. they don't use the fingerprint thing so I think that helps to avoid hold-ups.
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Old 17 Sep 13, 02:48 PM  
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Great

Looks like some of the ideas for a hotel that never got built at WDW ended up in Tokyo then ...the Venetian !

Very interesting stuff !

I really like the African cursed statue theme on their TOT equivalent !

Yes the flannels on heads were a real "Style Plus Ting" statement
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Old 17 Sep 13, 02:58 PM  
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very good thanks for posting
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Old 17 Sep 13, 04:28 PM  
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Noooo... you must type faster! Lol! Desperate to see more of Tokyo Sea
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Old 17 Sep 13, 04:52 PM  
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Great start to the day.

Look forward to the next part.
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Old 17 Sep 13, 08:10 PM  
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Old 17 Sep 13, 09:27 PM  
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"My brain hurts..."

Raging Spirits is indeed an almost identical clone of Indy's Temple of Peril at DLP.

And they are both, in turn, WDI/Intamins clone of a classic Pinfari TL59.
The TL for "The Loop" and the 59 for the size in metres of the coaster's footprint.
Haaaalllloooo
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