Bowser
TS Member
I had Express Pass at USJ (and do again this time).
Both parks seem equally hideous in terms of average queue times.
Looks like Indiana Jones and Raging Spirits have single rider at least.
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Tokyo Disney Resort: General Discussion
I had Express Pass at USJ (and do again this time).
Both parks seem equally hideous in terms of average queue times.
Looks like Indiana Jones and Raging Spirits have single rider at least.
Just been to USJ. It was fine for us. Very busy but easily got on everything we wanted to do more than once. We had a 1/2 day ticket for first day arriving on park just after 17:30 for a 10pm close and all day next day 8:30-21:30.
Flying Dinosaur was never more than 20 mins but be warned it’s very intense. Hollywood dream forwards seemed to be around 45 max but backwards got up to an hour as they were only operating one backwards train along with 3 forwards facing. Would say waiting for backwards is worth it though.
Definitely need plenty of rest breaks and plenty of hydration. Don’t worry vending machines are 2 a penny
also leaving there at 6:30am yesterday to head to Nagashima and already hordes of people were leaving the metro to wait for 8:30 opening.
We’re heading over to Disney in a few days after Nagashima and Fuji Q so be interesting to see how waits there are. Shanghai Disney was very busy but manageable.
Flying Dinosaur was never more than 20 mins but be warned it’s very intense. Hollywood dream forwards seemed to be around 45 max but backwards got up to an hour as they were only operating one backwards train along with 3 forwards facing. Would say waiting for backwards is worth it though.
Definitely need plenty of rest breaks and plenty of hydration. Don’t worry vending machines are 2 a penny
also leaving there at 6:30am yesterday to head to Nagashima and already hordes of people were leaving the metro to wait for 8:30 opening.
We’re heading over to Disney in a few days after Nagashima and Fuji Q so be interesting to see how waits there are. Shanghai Disney was very busy but manageable.
Bowser
TS Member
Well, i made it to Disney Sea, the happiest and busiest place on earth.
Got a half day ticket and went in with the mindset of not getting on much but hopefully doing a couple of rides and just seeing the park. In the end got on 5 rides which was pretty good going!
The queues are just another level. Most of the main attractions were 120-180 minutes the entire time i was there. Also a big note for anyone ever visiting is they close the queues at the estimated time relative to closing. The park closed at 9pm meaning many queues closed at 7pm (excluding fast track but we'll get to that).
Even the food places had gigantic queues so we didn't eat for the duration. A popcorn cart had a queue to rival Wickerman, it's madness. Fortunately there are plenty of water fountains (especially considering it about 35C) so focused on survival.
The Fast Track system is unique. It's also very fair so i'll give them credit for that. I was scouring the web trying to find an explanation and muddled bits together but i think i can offer a clearer insight than i've seen anywhere else now. Basically, you can't access the system till you are in the park because your entry ticket needs to be validated first, so this is why people arrive at 7am and queue. Once inside, you can book one time slot for a ride, then you can't book another until an hour has passed. The actual release of slots isn't explained, which initially i found frustrating but in retrospect it's actually a very equal system as it stops people getting an advantage. So some attractions such as Frozen never became available whereas others fluctuated throughout the day. Generally they did go pretty quickly so you needed to be fast when your time opened up. We managed to get 2 rides using this (technically we got 3 but the third was a slot at the same time as another and we didn't think we'd be able to do both so abandoned it. In retrospect if i'd know about the queue closing policy i think we would have been ok but oh well). There's also no WiFI in the park unbelievably so i was struggling to get it working when we arrived (no ApplePay either so had to faff about getting my credit card verified) which also hindered us.
There are two single rider lines as people mentioned, Raging Spirits and Indiana Jones, both of which i used to great success. Journey also had one but it wasn't operating for some reason. Actually Indiana Jones was closed at one point, not sure why. These were comparatively fast, Raging Spirits i was on in 20 minutes and Indiana probably 10 minutes (also got to sit with my friend as there were no 2's when called!)
So the rides...
Indiana Jones was my favourite. Somewhat reminiscent of The Mummy though less of the coaster. The ride system was quite unique, it was a bit like white water rafting on land. I guess you could call it the worlds most expensive ghost train but that doesn't do it justice. Some really cool FX.
Journey was the one i was looking forward to the most. Oh that reminds me, not knowing what the attractions were made everything a lot more fun! I assumed this was a coaster but it was more of a dark ride. Again had The Mummy VIBES. Great production but didn't top Indiana.
Peter Pan was my second favourite. Was expecting similar to DLP but quite the opposite, this was more like Spiderman/Transformers but with even better FX. Best screens i've ever seen in a ride, unbelievably high quality, like 4K 120FPS giant screens incorporated into set pieces.
Raging Spirits was fine, i think it's pretty much a clone of Indiana Jones from DLP? Wasn't rough at all which was nice.
Oh they have a cool thing on lots of rides where the seat in front has a storage net (bit like on a plane) for your hat, glasses, drink, small bags etc. Other parks need to immediately adopt this, massive throughput boost!
And then we did Sinbad because we were walking past and it said 10 minutes!! Which was a miracle in this park. Actually we only waited 5 minutes. This was pretty much Small World but with about 50 years of advancements in animatronics. Again, the best i've ever seen and the ride is over 20 years old apparently so i can only imagine what Frozen and Tangled were like. Was also nice to sit down for a bit and have AC!
Other than that walked about looking at the other attractions and scenery. Everything is beautiful, the sight-lines and lighting are delightful, it's truly a wonderful park but the capacity is borderline intolerable. In any other culture it wouldn't work. I'm glad i went but i can't imagine i'll ever go back, even if i did come to Japan again.
Got a half day ticket and went in with the mindset of not getting on much but hopefully doing a couple of rides and just seeing the park. In the end got on 5 rides which was pretty good going!
The queues are just another level. Most of the main attractions were 120-180 minutes the entire time i was there. Also a big note for anyone ever visiting is they close the queues at the estimated time relative to closing. The park closed at 9pm meaning many queues closed at 7pm (excluding fast track but we'll get to that).
Even the food places had gigantic queues so we didn't eat for the duration. A popcorn cart had a queue to rival Wickerman, it's madness. Fortunately there are plenty of water fountains (especially considering it about 35C) so focused on survival.
The Fast Track system is unique. It's also very fair so i'll give them credit for that. I was scouring the web trying to find an explanation and muddled bits together but i think i can offer a clearer insight than i've seen anywhere else now. Basically, you can't access the system till you are in the park because your entry ticket needs to be validated first, so this is why people arrive at 7am and queue. Once inside, you can book one time slot for a ride, then you can't book another until an hour has passed. The actual release of slots isn't explained, which initially i found frustrating but in retrospect it's actually a very equal system as it stops people getting an advantage. So some attractions such as Frozen never became available whereas others fluctuated throughout the day. Generally they did go pretty quickly so you needed to be fast when your time opened up. We managed to get 2 rides using this (technically we got 3 but the third was a slot at the same time as another and we didn't think we'd be able to do both so abandoned it. In retrospect if i'd know about the queue closing policy i think we would have been ok but oh well). There's also no WiFI in the park unbelievably so i was struggling to get it working when we arrived (no ApplePay either so had to faff about getting my credit card verified) which also hindered us.
There are two single rider lines as people mentioned, Raging Spirits and Indiana Jones, both of which i used to great success. Journey also had one but it wasn't operating for some reason. Actually Indiana Jones was closed at one point, not sure why. These were comparatively fast, Raging Spirits i was on in 20 minutes and Indiana probably 10 minutes (also got to sit with my friend as there were no 2's when called!)
So the rides...
Indiana Jones was my favourite. Somewhat reminiscent of The Mummy though less of the coaster. The ride system was quite unique, it was a bit like white water rafting on land. I guess you could call it the worlds most expensive ghost train but that doesn't do it justice. Some really cool FX.
Journey was the one i was looking forward to the most. Oh that reminds me, not knowing what the attractions were made everything a lot more fun! I assumed this was a coaster but it was more of a dark ride. Again had The Mummy VIBES. Great production but didn't top Indiana.
Peter Pan was my second favourite. Was expecting similar to DLP but quite the opposite, this was more like Spiderman/Transformers but with even better FX. Best screens i've ever seen in a ride, unbelievably high quality, like 4K 120FPS giant screens incorporated into set pieces.
Raging Spirits was fine, i think it's pretty much a clone of Indiana Jones from DLP? Wasn't rough at all which was nice.
Oh they have a cool thing on lots of rides where the seat in front has a storage net (bit like on a plane) for your hat, glasses, drink, small bags etc. Other parks need to immediately adopt this, massive throughput boost!
And then we did Sinbad because we were walking past and it said 10 minutes!! Which was a miracle in this park. Actually we only waited 5 minutes. This was pretty much Small World but with about 50 years of advancements in animatronics. Again, the best i've ever seen and the ride is over 20 years old apparently so i can only imagine what Frozen and Tangled were like. Was also nice to sit down for a bit and have AC!
Other than that walked about looking at the other attractions and scenery. Everything is beautiful, the sight-lines and lighting are delightful, it's truly a wonderful park but the capacity is borderline intolerable. In any other culture it wouldn't work. I'm glad i went but i can't imagine i'll ever go back, even if i did come to Japan again.
Llama
TS Member
Wow, glad to hear you were able to get on so many of the rides in such limited time.
Especially Indiana Jones, it's a copy of the original at Disneyland California except, as with many other things, the people in charge of the Japanese parks have kept it in incredible shape over the years, while the one stateside has seen better days. The Japanese version has a slightly different story and some of the effects differ but overall it's the same ride and the one in Tokyo is the best version at this point. In my opinion it's the best dark ride ever built.
Especially Indiana Jones, it's a copy of the original at Disneyland California except, as with many other things, the people in charge of the Japanese parks have kept it in incredible shape over the years, while the one stateside has seen better days. The Japanese version has a slightly different story and some of the effects differ but overall it's the same ride and the one in Tokyo is the best version at this point. In my opinion it's the best dark ride ever built.
jon81uk
TS Member
The storage nets are quite common in Disneyworld too.