A (2019) HalloXmas trip to Asia - Shanghai, Hong Kong, Tokyo! - COMPLETED 5/1!!!

[Lesley Wake]

Elliot from Pete’s Dragon also wears a wreath.

The Peter Pan float was mostly unchanged, but I was still in awe of the sail lighting effects!

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[Lesley Wake]

Toy Story had some added wreaths, and Slinky, Trixie and Rex all had Christmas accessories on the back of the float.

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[Lesley Wake]

No changes to the Genie, just his awesome self! Also the same with the Aladdin and Tangled floats.

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[Lesley Wake]

And no change to Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast.

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[Lesley Wake]

Looks like maybe some lights added to the steamboat and maybe Christmas bows on the hats?

But again, the most gorgeous parade!

Post-parade dismeet photo evidence! Natalie and I chatted briefly after the parade but then we both headed our separate ways.

Coming up - Final evening in Tokyo Disneyland​

 

[missangelalexis]

Pretty awesome to have a meet in a different country!

Love the parade photos! I miss WDW having a nighttime parade!

 

[KathyM2]

That nighttime parade looks fantastic...as does all the food...especially the green alien mochi lol. How cool that you got to have a DisMeet there too!! I love it when DisMeets work out...sometimes they can be really hard to plan as everyone has their trip must-do's and they don't always work out...so great that it did!!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Pretty awesome to have a meet in a different country!

Love the parade photos! I miss WDW having a nighttime parade!

It was cool getting to meet Natalie! I had an awesome dismeet (well actually 2) in Disneyland Paris. It would have been cool to meet someone in Shanghai and HK so I could have ticked all the boxes, lol!

And yes, WDW needs a nighttime parade! I still think AK could be a great option. Or something like a nighttime boat parade around the park!

That nighttime parade looks fantastic...as does all the food...especially the green alien mochi lol. How cool that you got to have a DisMeet there too!! I love it when DisMeets work out...sometimes they can be really hard to plan as everyone has their trip must-do's and they don't always work out...so great that it did!!

Oh I love that mochi! And definitely it's difficult to plan Dismeets. At least at Disneyland or WDW I go so often I don't have as many issues with adjusting plans! But overseas it can be such a special trip you don't want to change everything!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Part 7 Evening photos

Before the food places shut down, I had to get one more iconic Tokyo dish – the Mickey Glove Pork Bao. There are two versions of this, one with eggs and one just pork and sauce, so I did the meat version from Boiler Bites. It’s pretty adorable!

I then hopped into one last ride, Jungle Cruise, because I wanted to see it at night. I think my lens got a bit fogged up unfortunately and the lighting wasn’t the best for camera photos!

And checked out the hub decorations at night. Someone was kind enough to take my photo too (in my Aristocats ugly Christmas sweater and Pooh hat, lol)!

I also tried to take an ambiance video.

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[Lesley Wake]

And noticed that space mountain lights were changing (I had actually seen this from my hotel balcony a previous night), so I made my way over there and realized it was actually synced to Christmas music! I took a couple videos before my phone stopped (either battery or storage, I can’t remember).

Over in the Hub I took a couple photos of the Partners statue which I was rather proud of, lol!

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[Lesley Wake]

And into the Bazaar they have a Christmas projection show. It was pretty cool, with lots of effects along the building walls, including looking like the characters were in their homes celebrating Christmas.

General projections, with character cameos (sorry for the shakiness of the video)

And the full projection show.

Some more just of the Christmas tree

Overall a lovely day. I spent lots of it waiting for parades, but I was willing to do that for better experiences!

Unfortunately, a negative experience at the end. I mentioned they only do up to 4 day tickets, and this was my 4th day. I should have really bought my 5th, 1-day ticket earlier, but I forgot, so I hoped to do it at the end of this day (I knew lines at Tokyo DisneySea the next morning would be insane as it was the first Saturday of Christmas). Well, the ticket booths had closed about 1 hr earlier, ugh! I then remembered the Disneyland Hotel was right there and they sold tickets inside. So I went over there and had to wait in the guest services line. I literally got to the front at 9:01 and they stopped selling at 9:00. The person doing the ticket sales even saw me standing there but it was so annoying that they wouldn’t sell me a ticket. I was pretty frustrated and knew I would be in for “fun” in the morning.

I did take some photos of the lobby though. It was fine. Very much like the Grand Floridian.

Anyways, I hopped back onto the monorail and back to the hotel. I was supposed to be up early in the morning!

Coming up – My final day at DisneySea
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[NancyLuvsMickey]

And noticed that space mountain lights were changing (I had actually seen this from my hotel balcony a previous night), so I made my way over there and realized it was actually synced to Christmas music!

Love the lights changing to the music!!!

Over in the Hub I took a couple photos of the Partners statue which I was rather proud of, lol!

Dang, you did take a great photo!!!

And into the Bazaar they have a Christmas projection show.

I love a good Christmas light show... Oh how I miss the Osborne Lights at HS...

 

[missangelalexis]

The Christmas projection show looks so cool!

That stinks that you couldn't buy your ticket that night like you planned

 

[Lesley Wake]

Love the lights changing to the music!!!


Dang, you did take a great photo!!!


I love a good Christmas light show... Oh how I miss the Osborne Lights at HS...

I know - the changing lights were awesome and so easy to do for the other Disney parks!

Thanks about the photo! I was pretty proud when I was checking things.

I never got to see Osborne Lights and am always so sad! (My first WDW visit wasn't until 2017, so no Osborne lights, no Great Movie Ride, etc)

The Christmas projection show looks so cool!

That stinks that you couldn't buy your ticket that night like you planned

The show was pretty cool! I love main street projections!

It was pretty annoying!

 

[Lesley Wake]

Ok, it's my goal to get this report finished before my WDW trip in 2 weeks! And this is my last park day (plus a travel day and wrap-up, so fingers crossed!)

Day 21
Saturday, November 9, 2019

Part 1 – Horrible crowds, Plus It’s Christmas Time…again!

So, here it was, my final day at Tokyo Disney Resort! In my original plan I actually wasn’t going to do a park today, as every guide I read said to avoid Disney on weekends. I was going to do Tuesday-Friday, relying on the soft opening day for 1 park’s Christmas activities and the actual start day for the other park, doing other non-Disney activities on the Saturday. But then I decided I didn’t want to rely on the soft opening day, so I would actually include Saturday in my plans.

After my annoying snafu the night before, I had to get up early to buy a ticket; I had wanted to try and get there with plenty of time for rope drop, but that was shot once I realized the ticket booth at the hotel only opened 1 hr before the park did.

Another interesting thing about tickets (this is pre-pandemic of course), is that Tokyo Disney does limit capacity. It’s not due to actual physical park capacity, but instead they have a certain “number”, which is often reached on weekends, and definitely during holidays or the start of holiday seasons. At that point you can no longer buy tickets at the park, but if you are a hotel guest (including the partner hotels like the Sheraton and Hilton) you can still buy tickets at the front desk, so that’s what I had to do as today was a day that already "reached capacity".

There was a fairly long line at the ticket desk, so I had to wait a bit, but I did eventually get my ticket (a Minnie design), and also got my Monorail ticket, DisneySea themed.

Unfortunately by the time I got to DisneySea (I think about 15 minutes before the turnstiles opened), it was INSANE! Like, the line for entrance filled the entire plaza! I have since been to MK and Epcot during NYE and this felt even worse than that!

This was the wait for Soaring about 15 minutes after the park opened! And all the fastpasses were gone Ridiculous! (Oh and the second screenshot is the wait time 30 minutes later…)

I was also not successful in the show lotteries for It’s Christmas Time.

There were also very few spots for the first Christmas show (the lottery only goes for the second and third shows). I finally found a spot near a railing, but behind some people. It wasn’t perfect, but would have to do.

I did grab some breakfast, the Okonomiyaki Roll (another Christmas offering). I wasn’t sure what it was, but basically is a pancake roll with shrimp, noodles, and okonomiyaki sauce. I wasn’t the biggest fan. Just not enough textural differences between the pancake (more like an omelet) and the noodles, and the sauce was a bit too strong. But it was an interesting offering. (Also it was a pretty long wait time to order… as everything would be that day.)

Some nice garlands though, that were wine themed.

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[Lesley Wake]

Time for the show! Again, it wasn’t the best view, but I did have a side view of the stage and occasionally characters and dancers were walk by in front.

Jet ski opening and dancers coming out.

Max was the first character to hang out nearby and he also did a little dance on top of a small stage nearby.

[

You can see the ships going by carrying Donald and Daisy

Mickey and Minnie also stopped by briefly!

The stage was pretty far away but I could see some of what was happening.

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[Lesley Wake]

Some reindeers stopped by before heading up to the stage themselves!

And I caught goofy walking by on his way around the Harbor. He didn’t stop to say hi though

You can see Mickey and Minnie taking a boat across the harbor

The chipmunks made an appearance.

Pluto did a little dance too.

The antler guys made me laugh at their hats.

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[Lesley Wake]

Donald and Daisy also walked by

And during the sign language part Chip was right in front of me. I still was a bit confused at that part.

Strike a pose!

See ya guys later!

Again, a fun show!

Coming up - Ariel swimming through the sky...and more food of course!​

 

[missjackiemcg]

I lost my quotes again!

I do remember I wanted to say how I love the cute Christmas additions to the parade, and how amazing to have a Dis-Meet all the way in Tokyo!! Still love those ears with the Christmas bows! I wonder how much I would have to pay to get a pair of those...hmmmm

Wowie, wow, wow, the crowds on this day. Yikes. Just from the picture and wait time you mentioned, it sounds astronomically worse than NYE at WDW. You're a trooper, that's for sure!

 

[Lesley Wake]

I lost my quotes again!

I do remember I wanted to say how I love the cute Christmas additions to the parade, and how amazing to have a Dis-Meet all the way in Tokyo!! Still love those ears with the Christmas bows! I wonder how much I would have to pay to get a pair of those...hmmmm

Wowie, wow, wow, the crowds on this day. Yikes. Just from the picture and wait time you mentioned, it sounds astronomically worse than NYE at WDW. You're a trooper, that's for sure!

Haha, it's ok! Maybe if you look on etsy closer to Christmas they could have something like that?

And yeah - those crowds. Nope nope nope! I can't imagine how bad it is on the actual holiday!