Day One at Tokyo Disney

Our Hotel, the Sheraton Grande, had great views of the Disney Park, including Cinderella's Castle and the nightly fireworks show. 

 

Even though we were close, we still had to take the train to the entrance.

 

Loved these windows!

Check out the lines. We missed the good old days of Paris Disney when we stayed at the Davy Crockett Ranch and got to enter the park two hours early.  If you stay at a Disney property here, I think you only get an extra 30 minutes.

This guy is not kidding!  There were employees posted throughout the entrance holding these signs, but many people disregarded his notice. It was chaotic madness and some people seemed to be running for their lives. 

 Instead of " Main Street, USA" the thoroughfare is called "World Bazaar." The roofed area is a nice addition for all that inclement weather. 

 

We made a beeline to Tomorrowland and scored some fast pass tickets for Space Mountain and also managed to quickly get on a ride.  We were told we'd be lucky to get in six rides the whole day, but I think our total was 22!   I made sure to max out on fast pass tickets.  As soon as we were elgibile for another, I got it.

 It's nice to have everyone tall enough to ride all of the rides, though some may wish they weren't tall enough for "Tower of Terror," but that is not until tomorrow.   

Star Tours 

 Look who's driving on the Grand Circuit Raceway!  Elena is thrilled,

though she can't quite reach the pedals.

Annie chauffeured Uncle Paulie. 

Disney Tokyo loves celebrating Easter and they have a midday parade, which we opted to watch from a distance to maximize our ride time.  We caught a good glimpse of this elusive kitty, Marie.  She has been Abi's favorite since Abi was a baby.

 Even lunch is Disneyfied.  Elena and Abi were happy to get Mickey nuggets and Annie and the others had a Mickey Burger.

This is Cinderella's Castle in Fantasyland.

 This is how the crazy Japanese girls dress when it is freezing outside.  We're happy we didn't have to conform to that dress code.

"It's a Small World" was sung in Japanese. 

 Wish we could put Chip n' Dale's Treehouse in  our backyard.

Minnie's House

 

In Japan, it's all the adults wearing the crazy Disney hats and gear.  They love this stuff.

 The Haunted Mansion is in Fantasyland.  All these rides are very similar to Disney USA, which is amazing because Disney Tokyo is not owned at all by the Disney Company.  They are owned entirely by the Oriental Land Company.

 

We were so happy to see they had our favorite ride, Splash Mountain. 
Uncle Paulie might not be so sure.

 

Waiting to see characters, especially princesses,used to be the most important thing we did at Disneyland.  These days, we don't want to waste precious ride time.  We were lucky to stumble across these fun English speaking characters who had a pretend tea party with the girls. 

The girls had a group hug with the Mad Hatter and Alice in Wonderland!

For the most part, Japanese people love to pose for pictures--especially with blonde children. 

 This is where I want Lee to work.

Here's another illustration of the uniform of the day.  Thousands of girls were dressed like this.   

The stunning "Once Upon a Time" castle projection light show was spectacular. 

Uncle Paulie had some Tokyo friends meet up at the park.