Japan 08/25 – Tokyo Dome City + Tokyo Disneyland
By our final day in Tokyo I had put this place off for as long as possible.
Day 13 – Tokyo Dome City
Because it’s 2025, and they’ve put new trains on Thunder Dolphin, but then it had been closed for the entire duration of the trip. So I gave it every chance to return.
Don’t particularly care, got the cred, but would have liked to give it a fresh go.
As such we snuck in the back entrance, straight into the indoor part of the other half of the park.
Which is where their latest coaster lives, having replaced an old dark ride that had not long closed down forever just before our previous visit.
#1 Panic Coaster Back!? Daaaan!! currently has an overlay for these animated characters. There was some sweaty queue for their merch as well, one that I would totally been a part of had it been for something I cared about.
Which changes what happens on the station screens before each ‘launch’ sequence. This is the clever Gerstlauer family coaster that comes into the station both forwards and backwards in each sequence, utilising the same layout twice, in both directions.
And that’s probably the most interesting part about it, gooning about the technology and trickery, as there’s not a whole lot going on force wise. There’s a weird stunted double moment to the despatch as you hit a sharp corner pretty early and then it kinda flops around in a fun way in warehouse for a bit. Much like many other Gersts in this country. +1.
Park successfully back to completion, mooched around the city until the evening for
Tokyo Disneyland
After the relative success of the Disneysea cheap evening ticket, decided to do the exact same thing for the other park as well.
They have got one new major dark ride since my last outing here.
That being Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast.
Queue is rather impressive, feel like Disney don’t use fog enough.
Then there’s a lot of indoor shenanigans, though perhaps with a disappointing amount of movement.
This leads to a pre-show, which was exceptional. The stained glass screen sets the scene before full-scale animatronics of Beast and Belle have an interaction across the two balconies. Beast in particular is absolutely incredible with his movements, real top tier Disney stuff and perhaps the highlight of the whole attraction for me.
Bit more queue before the station. Bit more life in it.
Don’t remember this guy, nor do I remember the film from so long ago to be honest, which may have been a problem.
Because I wasn’t bowled over by the ride itself. It ticks a lot of my boxes with trackless technology and ride vehicles dancing around each other, but it almost takes this trick too far, in a way that detracts from the magic.
The opening scene is no doubt spectacular, with the signature Be Our Guest bonanza, but another issue lies here with the story having to open with what is essentially it’s hardest hitter for a general audience. The one that always represents the film, the one you’ll always hear in every park, in everything from Philharmagic to the nighttime shows.
Most of the following scenes, and there aren’t that many at all, are songs with less general appeal and gusto, with the movements of the vehicles limited to just aimlessly wafting around with no purpose. There’s always 6 of them so you just end up with a bit of a mess that feels like it has no visual intent, simply creating an endless flow of watching everyone else with their phones out, while listening to some light music.
There is one very magical ‘wow’ moment later on, using Shanghai Jack Sparrow-style trickery and doing a lot of the heavy lifting before the climax, but I’d kinda checked out of the story at this point.
And then it’s another dancing scene. Eh, it’s a vibe, but not my vibe. Impressive and underwhelming at the same time.
Went straight back over to Pooh’s Hunny Hunt to prove a point.
This is more my vibe. The intent is stronger, there’s more fun moments like the bounce, the chaotic thrust into vehicles dancing around each other for one scene lands a lot harder. It’s the OG and it’s so well done.
Still best on park for me, the destination attracion, with a lot of Tokyo’s counterparts being weaker than their global equivalent.
With darkness truly falling and some reasonably hefty queuetimes for those weaker counterparts, decided to go for a basically walk-on night-time Jungle Cruise.
Couldn’t actually remember whether I’d done this version before. As with all, it lives and dies a bit on the performance and enthusiasm of the driver and on this day they were just ok. If anything there were a couple of seemingly local super fans on board providing some extra energy.
Then it goes inside and does exciting cave scenes like I thought only the Hong Kong one has over it’s rivals. Hmm, maybe I haven’t done this before.
S’alright.
Definitely done this before, but can never say no to Pirates of the Caribbean. Scale and substance, truly one of the greats.
Also bagged a cheeky Star Tours for a final ride of the night and trip. It has so many different potential story sequences at this point as they keep updating it, so always fun to see what happens.
This occasion covered a full breadth of Star Wars history, from old mate Hoth to the space whales in the Ahsoka streaming series. Appreciate how up to date they keep it.
Headed out before the masses did from the show, straight into an unbearably long travel sequence of late night flight, layover and Heathrow sucking ass. The things we do for entertainment.
Summary
Total prefectures – 12 + China
New creds – 38
New dark rides – 12
New parks – 13
New Togos – 5
Best new coaster – Ultra Twister
Best coaster – Fujiyama
Best new dark ride – Frozen
Best new park – Rusutsu
Spites – 3/41 (7.32%) plus SLC self-spite.
Successful trip overall, made me happy and want to return as soon as possible. Nothing spectacular on the coaster front, but there’s not a whole lot I can do about that at this point, sadly. Apologies.
Personally it was great to tick off some personal coaster legends, catch up with some Disney dark rides and generally just take things a bit more chill than usual. Relatively. For me.