28 May

Day 5 – Park Hopping

 

Last day in the parks today!  And we were park hopping!

We started the day at Disneyland. 

Good morning, band!

We went right to Pooh for Fastpasses!

When we got off, we were going to get in line for Mickey. Ally needed to go to the restroom so I waited for her. Ally didn’t know we were in a rush, so she passed Snow White with no line and jumped on and rode! I thought everyone else had gone on, but they waited for us!

When we found her, we were like – “You rode a ride?!!” She said – “There was no line and I didn’t know you were waiting for me!”

Complete and utter communication failure. It was pretty funny.

And then when we got to Toontown the line for Mickey was HUGGGE. Shoot! We waited for a little while to see how quickly it moved.

Well, it didn’t! So Mukta said she would go back another time. We did tour Minnie’s house!

At this point, we realized we had a decision to make. We really wanted to eat dinner at Magellan’s, and were unable to do it on the app. We stopped a cast member to see if they could help.

This was one of the times it really hit home how different traveling in Japan is. In Europe, English speakers are fairly widespread. It’s the common language a lot of countries use there. For example, if a German is trying to speak to an Italian, and neither speaks the other’s language, they go to English!

This is NOT the case in Japan. It’s fine! It doesn’t have to be! It’s their country we are visiting. It’s just something to be aware of.

In Japan, you will occasionally come across someone who speaks very rudimentary English (think of how much Spanish you remember from that class in elementary school), but it’s not the norm.

At Disney, more of the cast members know some English, but it’s only questions and phrases they expect to hear. If you go off the beaten path at all, no luck!

Even when you did find someone who spoke English, it was all very slow communication, figuring out what the other person was saying, lots of hand signals, etc! It’s a process.

So this cast member had no idea what we were asking. She went and got someone else and they also had no idea. They encouraged us to go to guest services at the front of the park. I decided it would be much easier for one of us to go, so I sent everyone else on Pooh, and I went to the front. I told Ally to turn her phone on so I could update her if I had problems.

I walked to Guest Services and waited in line. The first person realized I was off the beaten path again, and very nicely asked me to wait off to the side. Then she went to find the resident English speaker in the back! Ha! She came out, and knew what I was asking, but couldn’t help. She suggested I go to Magellans in person and try there. She warned me they may be out of reservations at that point, but I decided to risk it.

I texted Ally and told her I would be a while, and made my way to DisneySea.

When I got to Magellan’s, they knew exactly what I wanted, and we had no problems getting a reservation for dinner! Woohoo! I told Ally I was on my way back.

Passed the train!

When I got there I met them at Small World! It was so cute, we did it again!

Merida!

Then we did the castle walk through!

It was beautiful inside!

Look at this gorgeousness!

We’re back out!

Castle selfie!

We decided we were done at Disneyland and split up for a while.

Mukta went to get in line for Mickey! Ally, Sherry and Ileen and I went to Ikspiari!

Sherry and Ileen went to eat somewhere, and Ally and I walked around.

We ate these yummy little waffles!

We went in the giant Disney store, which was NOTHING at all like what I expected.

Nothing like our shopping at all. Cute things for sure, just very different. No clothes really, some home things, lots of pet things, very few plushes, it was all very interesting!

I took lots of phone pics!

These were plushes actually! Very cute little ones you could buy clothes for.

There was lots of travel gear, which I liked!

So much Donald!

Pet things.

These were also adorable!

I think we went back to the resort to rest for a little while before dinner, but I could be wrong! We all met up at Magellan’s for dinner.

Mukta got there early, and we experienced another little Japan-ism.

Whenever they wanted to emphasize the word no, they held up their arms in a giant “X”, and kind of barked the word – “NO” at us.

The people in Japan were unfailingly polite, so this was particularly funny. 

Mukta was trying to tell them she had a reservation, but the rest of us weren’t there yet, and they were not getting what she was saying. So they were holding up the X’s and saying NO to her. I may have cried. Haha!

We walked up a few minutes later and they took us in!

One great thing about most restaurants all over Japan, was that they either had an English menu, or they had menus with food pictures. Which were super helpful!

Mickey on the bread! Above and beyond.

Someone had salad!

I had steak, of course.

This was Ally’s, I believe.

Look at this adorable dessert!

After dinner we rode 20,000 Leagues Under the sea. Which is great!

Then it was almost time for Fantasmic! People were already sitting down waiting, so we found an open space and sat.

Fantasmic is held on the water, and can be viewed from all over.

It was spectacular!

We all headed back to the hotel after. We were taking the train to Kyoto the next day!

 

Tokyo or Bust!

Day 1 – On Our Way! To China? 
Day 2 – Hello, Japan! 
Day 3 – DisneySea 
Day 4 – Tokyo Disneyland 
Day 5 – Park Hopping 
Day 6 – Bullet Train to Kyoto 
Day 7 – Massive Tour of Kyoto
Day 8 – Back to Tokyo 
Day 9 – Home Again!