Big in Japan 2005 - Day 6
Today we have our whole day to the Disney themepark. Our group was splitted into 2, one to Disneyland, and the other to DisneySea. Due to the heavy traffic, we arrived at DisneySea at around 10:30 am. The park is situated next to Disneyland. It was said to be built due to overcrowding condition in Disneyland. Disneyland was attracting a daily crowd of 20,000+. A popular ride there can take up to 2 hour whereas one in DisneySea only take up to 40 mins. We chose DisneySea because we have been to Disneyland in LA, USA before. If you were to ask us, DisneySea is more adult-themed when compared to Disneyland as there are less kiddish rides and also more musicals performance. In DisneySea, you will find many japanese gals wearing the mickey mouse ear hair clip and big white gloves.

Popular rides in the lands are depicted as rides/musicals needing "Fastpass". So our strategy is very simple, take as much Fastpass rides within the day. The Fastpass rides are indicated in the brochures so you can plan appropriately. For a ride in Disney, there are 3 queues. Normal standard waiting time, Fastpass queue and single/handicapped queues. At the entrance of the queue, you can see 2 timing. One will be for standard queue and the other for fastpass. If you choose to queue up normally, the standard time applies to you. The timing is rather accurate so if it display as 30 mins, it means you have to wait for 30mins. A fastpast timing needs a bit of explaination. If the timing indicates as 14:15 hrs, it means that if you choose to obtain the fastpass from this ride, you can come back between14:15 - 15:15 hrs (Fastpasses are good for 1 hour) and walk in through the fastpass queue. The attendant will give you priority over the standard queue. However, fastpasses can only be obtained once and utilised before you get the next one.

Our strategy has enanbled us to clear all the fastpass rides! First, obtain a fastpass to "Journey to the centre of the Earth", queue for "20,000 Leagues under the Sea", "Indiana Jones Adventure : Temple of the Crystal Skull", "Raging Spirit" took the fastpass ride, and queue for "Mermaid Lagoon Theme" and then "StormRider". In between, we also watched musicals "Sail Away" and "Enchor". We really enjoyed ourselves in "Enchor" the broadway styled musicals, even though they are in japanese narration.

As for the rides, personally, I find only "Raging Spirit" and "Journey to the centre of the Earth" more thrilling. Musical of "Mermaid Lagoon Theme" is very very interesting, and is definitely worth a watch as the characters are playing a scene of the Mermaid show, where Ariel is dreaming of having her tail changed to legs. Many disney characters can be spotted in various locations at different timings. As fastpass rides were our priority, we only try and take pictures with them when we chance upon them. Taking pictures have no queue system like in US, so you have to brave yourself and squeeze through the crowd and grab the character by its hand. Speaking in English will not work as most of the guys inside the characters are Japanese, so grabbing them is the best chance to have your photos taken. After a fun-filled day, it was time to meet up with the rest of the group to have dinner. We were brought to a countryside restaurant for shabu shabu (Japanese barberque) for this evening. Afterwhich, we were brought to our Hotel for our final night stay in Japan.