Travel Diary #2: Central Japan Day 1 (2/3)

Here's part 2 of Central Japan Day 1.

We've arrived at Narita Airport in the morning and were prepared to move to the next destination.

According to the itinerary, a family could choose whether to go Tokyo Disneyland or Tokyo Disneysea. For us, we've chosen Disneysea because Disneyland is an exclusive theme park made for Japan and also it would be strange to see teenagers riding on kiddy rides. I thought Disneysea would be a water theme park. Yes, there's water. No, that's not for playing.

All families decided to head to Disneysea after listening to Florence's (our tour guide) explanation. And sadly to say, as it was a Sunday (14 June 2015), both Disneyland and Disneysea were crowded with visitors. Not just overseas, even locals went to visit.

The view of Disneysea.

Different Disney characters were featured on the passport. Mine was Donald Duck.

A 1-day passport shown here. As it was a group passport, it cost 6,200 yen.

We got our bags checked at the entrance and went in to visit Disneysea. Our first stop was to watch Fashionable Easter performance at 10.30am JT (or Japan Time). Although there's 15 minutes before the start of the performance, many visitors have gathered at the Mediterranean Harbor, many sat down on the floor or with plastic sheets and other ground coverings while others stood and patiently waited for the performance to start.

The crowd gathered at the Mediterranean Harbor.

The Fashionable Easter performance was a fashion show with Disney characters and dancers in celebrating the beauty that took place on the waters of the Mediterranean Harbor and the new stage on the shore. The show was first started on 1 June 2015, performing 3 shows a day. 23 June 2015 was the final day of performance. We got the privilege to watch that show during that 1 June to 23 June period.

There were big boats, Disney characters and dancers during the show.

There were also flying colorful kites and fireworks (picture not taken).

The show went on for around 20 minutes before we decided where to go next. We decided to have lunch first before moving onto the Big Band Beat performance but things didn't go smoothly as we began to look for a place to eat. As I've mentioned earlier, there were many visitors and all we could do was to queue and wait. From Mediterranean Harbor to American Waterfront to Port Discovery to Lost River Delta, that whole journey, just to look for lunch, took an hour.

At Mediterranean Harbor, we found a restaurant called Zambini Brothers' Ristorante, serving pastas and pizzas. There were seats available, great. However, when we continued to walk in, something strange happened as we decided to queue. I looked at the menu and saw only sandwiches? Where's the pastas and pizzas?

The exterior look of Zambini Brothers' Ristronte, serving pastas and pizzas.

Where's the pastas and pizzas?

When I looked at that menu with red-colored background and I looked up, I saw "DELI". DELI?! I checked on the map and realized we were at NEW YORK DELI! The location? American Waterfront! I was like we moved to another destination by entering and exiting a restaurant?! How on earth did we do that?

We moved on instead, giving up on pastas and pizzas. Since we were at American Waterfront, we saw the "BIG BAND BEAT" sign.

Big Band Beat performance at the Broadway Music Theatre

 However, when we saw that, we gave up.

The crowd. We couldn't stay here all day waiting.

The Big Band Beat performance initially planned was out of our list. Then, we continued to search for other places to eat. We tried the S.S Columbia Dining Room but too many people. We also tried Horizon Bay Restaurant but didn't know there was another queue behind us.

After an hour of walking, we finally stopped by a restaurant named Miguel's El Dorado Cantina. No queue and not many people were in there. We're inside for lunch.

The entrance of Miguel's El Dorado Cantina

Inside there, it sells Mexican foods, mainly tacos. There were 3 types of tacos available, Teriyaki Pork Taco, Fried Chicken Taco and Shrimp Salad Taco. Sorry to all Muslims, by stating these 3, it's a non-halal fast food restaurant. Apart from tacos, there's also a Mexican Plate Set which includes a Spicy Chicken Tostada, Mexican Rice, Banana and Caramel Mousse Cake and a choice of soft drink. The set costs 1,490 yen. Each taco costs 610 yen but ordering a set costs 1,020 yen which includes fries and soft drink.

I ordered the Teriyaki Pork Taco set with Fanta Lemon and a cup of corn soup (250 yen). Total: 1,270 yen for me.

3 different taco sets (Orange: Chicken, Red: Pork, Green: Shrimp).

Teriyaki Pork Taco

Mexican Plate Set, corn soup not included.

Total for a family of 4 for lunch was...

4,800 yen!

After lunch, we continued walking around. I felt that I should at least tried a ride before leaving this place so I chose to go to the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull which is located at the Lost River Delta and also from the restaurant that we have eaten for lunch, it is just opposite.

We went there and I decided to use the FASTPASS!

[About FASTPASS: FASTPASS is a kind of ticket which will help to shorten the waiting time at any attractions marked with FP or FASTPASS. Visitors will have to place their passport into the ticketing machine and check the return time stated on the FASTPASS ticket. Until the return time, visitors can visit other attractions. During the return time, visitors will only to go to the attraction's FASTPASS entrance and minimize the waiting time. FASTPASS attractions are only available at 8 different places in Disneysea.]

FASTPASS Ticketing

Got a ticket! Wait, 6.35pm to 7.35pm?! We are staying until 5pm!

FASTPASS could help to shorten the waiting time. However, not all the time. When I placed my passport into the ticketing machine, it told me to wait for 5 more hours! I thought the purpose is to shorten the time?! Never mind, I decided to go for the standby queue but the waiting time...not 5 hours but 90 minutes.

Indiana Jones Adventure ride

No FASTPASS, never mind. Standby Entrance is there for you.

Look at that queue.

The queue went smoothly until I made that one stupid mistake that caused me to give up the ride. That stupid mistake would be revealed when I reached to queue for another ride.

After giving up the ride, we went to visit the Arabian Coast, Mermaid Lagoon and Mysterious Island. At the Mysterious Island, I decided to go on to the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride with my father. No FASTPASS was needed this time because it would be the same thing as the Indiana Jones ride. We went to the standby entrance and expected waiting time: 100 minutes.

The entrance to the ride.

The long queue, going round and round and round.

While queuing, look at those artifacts.

After around 70 minutes of wait, we reached the elevator. Huh?! That's it?

There's more! The ride itself.

Finally, it was the ride. Inside the cave, there were creatures, scary but not to an extent of hugging each other. There were colorful lights in there but things were about to get scarier when you thought the ride was malfunctioned, a dark environment, wind blowing in and the ride suddenly went fast. At first I thought it was an easy ride. No worries! However, when the ride went fast and suddenly went into a sudden drop, I didn't scream out loud but my head was almost being pulled out. Lesson learned: Don't ever underestimate the ride.

Back to why I made a stupid mistake while waiting for the Indiana Jones ride (IJ ride). That was only discovered when the passport was not checked while waiting to ride. In the middle of queuing the IJ ride, I realized that I did not have my passport with me so I gave up instead, worrying that I may not be able to ride on it if there's no passport to be shown. Actually, I made a major mistake when I discovered there was no such procedure. Well, at least I got to try on a ride at Disneysea.

We watched Fashionable Easter for the second time but this time, it's at a different view. That was a 2.30pm show and there's one more after that at 4.30pm but who wants to watch the show for the third time?

Fashionable Easter at a different angle.

The rest of the 2 hours to 5pm went to shopping and resting on a bench to see the Disney characters walking towards us and entering the staff-only entrance.

At 5pm, we left Disneysea and went for a shabu-shabu dinner at a shopping center.

Details for the shabu-shabu dinner will be revealed at the final part of Day 1.