vacation Wednesday: Disney Sea

The next day dawned clear!

We easily got up for breakfast, and, while we needed to run back to the room once or twice, made our way over to the entrance to Disney.

We got there about 30-45 minutes before anyone was let in and at least an hour before the park opened and we were still pretty far back in line.  To be fair, Disney is always pretty good at managing crowds and we got into the park fairly quickly once it actually opened.  Ben immediately got us our first fast pass and continued to do a great job with them for the rest of the day, so that we were able to ride almost every interesting ride that we wanted.  The exception was the Frozen ride, which was going down for maintenence the next day.  It's fast passes were sold out before we got into the park and the line tended to be 3-4 hours long.  Please note there will be spoilers in the descriptions below.

First was Journey to the Center of the Earth.  This was was unexpectedly fun.  I was expecting a rather slow ride, as it started just by looking at pretty crystals and neon animals.  But then you run into a big rock worm and need to run for your life!  You're in the dark and then suddenly there is a little but steep hill in the bright sunshine as you escape.

Next was Peter Pan.  This one also ended up being so much cooler than we were expecting.  In Florida it is a very tame ride where you fly around and enjoy the story.  Due to the glasses, screen, and that this ride moved the boat all around, it felt like we were lifting off and flying.  However, with this ride especially we realized how nice it is to be able to understand the story that the audio is saying.  Sure, we have an idea, but throughout Disney it felt especially pronounced.  

Next was a loop coaster!  It was Joshua's first loop.  He was not a fan.  Isaac was also not a fan, but because the coaster was too tame.  It's a bit too bad because this coaster had a single rider line so we probably could have done it again rather quickly.  Near the bottom of the coaster there was a bunch of mist and I enjoyed going through that.  Hmm...I think there was a fire and water theme to the ride.

We had a few minutes before we could line up for the next ride, so we hung out under a rock bridge.  Isaac of course started to climb the walls.  Literally.

The ride up next was Rapunzel.  Honestly, I enjoyed it.  It was, however, a slow ride with a lot of audio in Japanese and the rest of the family didn't really enjoy it.  I got to sit by Ben and the room the the lanterns was beautiful.

(photo credit)

Lunch time! Ben, once again on top of planning, had us all order lunch through the app while waiting in one of the lines.  We were almost late to our order as they only give you a ten minute window, but we made it.  We went with pizza and fries along with some special drinks and donuts.  The pizza had a different type of sauce that what I'm used to, but it was still good.  The drinks were fun.  The donuts...the chocolate one was ok, but the strawberry one was really good.  It was opposite of what I was expecting, but donuts are always fun.  We had some of the fries, but they were just normal fries and everything else was better.

We had a bit of time before our next ride and we wanted the food to settle a bit.  Joshua really wanted a Baymax something.  We looked in one shop and found one or two things but decided to go to one other shop too.  The second shop only had Baymax!  Probably because we were in Tokyo and Big Hero 7 is set in New Tokyo.  He ended up with a little shoulder hugger.  It didn't stay on his shoulder very well, so it went on assorted spots on his shirt throughout the rest of the day.

Tower of Terror was next!  This was Isaac's favorite ride in Florida, although Ben warned us that it was a little more tame than the one in Florida.  Joshua was nervous about this one too, and I'm delighted to say that he chose to sit next to me again!  When asked why, he said, "Mom is more comforting."  Score.  We sat down in our elevator (after a long dialogue in which we couldn't tell what was being said) and Joshua grabbed onto the arm rests.  I grabbed on right behind his hands with just a little touch..."I'm here" the touch said.  The ride got started and I made sure to laugh.  By the middle, Joshua seemed to be doing ok so I moved my hand back...only to have his hand follow mine back too.  Aww.  I saw some smiles by the end, and he was excited as we exited.  Phew.  (We're in the upper right of the picture below.  The QR code wasn't working, but this picture shows enough.)  Which reminds me!  One of the biggest differences about this park, besides the language, was that most rides didn't let you out in a gift store.  You just walked right back into the park.  Honestly, I'm not sure if I liked it or not.  It is sometimes fun seeing merch related to the ride you just went on, even if you walk through it quickly.  It is also easy to find the perfect souvenir without having to go to lots of stores. 

The Indiana Jones ride was probably my favorite.  We were jerked around in our car, narrowly escaped a fire trap (that was quite warm), and just as we were about to get rolled over by a boulder, the ground dropped out from under us creating an escape path.  We were saved!

The last new ride was Journey to the Center of the Earth.  We got into a submarine, went underwater, were chased by a sea monster, and saved by some fish people.  As with several of the rides, we didn't get any of the actual story and had to figure it out from the props.  A cool ride, but it would have been better if we could have understood it.

The last big ride we went on was Toy Story.  It's the same ride as Florida, but it's a fun one.  Ben got the high score, but we'll assume that's because he rode by himself.  There were also army men hopping around outside; Cheryl wanted us to get a picture with them because we often hide army men in her house.

We weren't quite sure what to do next.  It was getting close to 5pm.  The rides that we liked the most had semi-long lines still - 45 to 80 minutes long - and we weren't sure we wanted to wait that long.  The gondolas were close and said at 15 minute wait.  By the time we got to them it was a half hour, but there was at least seating in the queue.  While in line we dealt with some dumb app stuff but managed to get dinner ordered.  The ride itself was super peaceful.  Maybe not really worth a 30 minutes wait, but a fifteen minute wait for sure.

The restaurant that was nearby had alien mochis, and these were on the list of "the best food from this Disney location".  They were good and super fun.  They all had different creams in the center: chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla/custard.

It was threatening rain, everyone was getting tired, and the fun ride queues weren't any shorter.  We decided to head back to the hotel.  Once there, Isaac crashed so fast and so hard!  He couldn't even stand up while waiting for his turn in the bathroom, quickly got in bed, and was out by 6:30pm.  It was a good thing we didn't stay in the park any longer.

We were able to see the Ferris wheel lit up from our bedroom.  The lights were always moving and changing colors.