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88. 10 Things to Know Before Visiting Tokyo Disney · Mom Street USA

• 0:05
  Welcome everybody to Mom St. USA.
• 0:07
  My name is Jackie AKA wishes Mama and I am joined for this
• 0:11
  hub episode of Mom Street by our good friend Stevie AKA Starship
• 0:15
  Stevie. And today we are going to be
• 0:18
  talking about something and a Disney park that we have I don't
• 0:21
  think ever really talked about on Mom St. which is super
• 0:24
  exciting. Stevie is recently back from a
• 0:27
  trip over to Tokyo Disney. So we are going to be talking
• 0:31
  about 10 things to know before you visit Tokyo Disney.
• 0:35
  So that is the plan for today. Stevie, how are you doing today?
• 0:39
  I am so good. I am still kind of recovering
• 0:42
  from jet lag. I feel like I'm on the end of
• 0:44
  it, but it was absolutely worth it because I had so much fun on
• 0:48
  this trip. Yes, I'm so excited to hear
• 0:50
  about everything that you have to share with us today.
• 0:54
  We haven't even really gotten to talk about your trip that much,
• 0:57
  just like off of live and podcasting because you got back
• 1:01
  in a few days later. I headed to Disney World.
• 1:03
  So we've been kind of all over the place and Duck and Jess have
• 1:06
  been traveling too. So it's just been a month of
• 1:09
  travel here at Mom Street, but I'm excited we're back to a
• 1:12
  little bit more of a normal schedule for the next couple
• 1:15
  weeks until I head back to the parks again.
• 1:18
  So it'll be good to be back together and to catch up and
• 1:22
  hear what you have to share with us.
• 1:23
  So let's jump in. What are your kind of overall
• 1:27
  thoughts about Tokyo Disney and what you have to share with us
• 1:30
  today? I am so excited to talk about
• 1:33
  it. I feel like in the future, if
• 1:35
  you're going to be hard pressed to get me to stop talking about
• 1:38
  Tokyo Disney because I had such a good time.
• 1:40
  And I, I do want to say before we get into today's episode, in
• 1:43
  the future, we're going to do different deep dives on
• 1:46
  different aspects about the parks, about the hotels and food
• 1:50
  and everything else that you can expect.
• 1:53
  But I thought it would be more fun to kind of start with some
• 1:56
  quick hitters, just like things that are distinctly different
• 1:59
  from the US. That in all of the research that
• 2:01
  I did before I went, these were things that I kind of learned as
• 2:05
  I was visiting or learned the full depth of even if I kind of
• 2:08
  had hints about, kind of knew to expect.
• 2:10
  I was just like, oh, OK. And once I was there, you know,
• 2:13
  I had first hand experience that I want to make sure everybody
• 2:17
  knows about. And and it just felt like a more
• 2:20
  fun, lighthearted kind of way to ease into all things Tokyo
• 2:24
  Disney. Yeah, that's.
• 2:25
  Perfect. And I feel like online in
• 2:27
  general, the international parks obviously don't have as much
• 2:31
  kind of we don't have as much access to them, right?
• 2:35
  There's not as many blogs or podcasts or social media, you
• 2:39
  know, accounts that we can find. Disneyland Paris has a fair
• 2:41
  amount, I feel like more so than some of the other ones.
• 2:45
  But I agree, Tokyo Disney, Shanghai, Hong Kong, those ones
• 2:48
  are really hard to find information on.
• 2:51
  So that's, that's the hope with us bringing all this information
• 2:54
  to our Mom St. community is that we can find those people that
• 2:59
  need that content to help them with their trips that are coming
• 3:02
  up. Absolutely.
• 3:03
  I feel like most of the research that I did involved getting
• 3:06
  other quick hit kind of information from Tik Toks and
• 3:09
  from Reddit and from the Tokyo Disney website.
• 3:12
  I do want to add, I want to shout out another podcast that
• 3:15
  really helped me a ton. TDR Explorer is the name of the
• 3:19
  podcast. He also runs an Instagram
• 3:22
  account and he is a local to Tokyo Disney, and he makes
• 3:27
  incredible content about the parks and it's his Home Park.
• 3:30
  And so he's got a very different perspective than some of the Tik
• 3:33
  Toks or the posts that you might see of people that are visiting
• 3:36
  it, you know, once every 10 years or they're just going, you
• 3:39
  know, for the first time. And I really appreciated
• 3:42
  everything that he had to say. And because it'll take us a
• 3:44
  while to put things out if you're planning a trip right now
• 3:47
  and we've not put that out yet. I want to push you guys over to
• 3:51
  TDR Explorer too, because I think the Disney podcasting and
• 3:55
  Disney in general works best as a community.
• 3:57
  So I, I know it maybe feels kind of weird, but I'm shouting at
• 3:59
  another podcast. But I to me, the more the
• 4:02
  merrier. And, and everybody's got a
• 4:04
  different perspective. And my perspective will come
• 4:07
  from spending a lot of time after working in Walt Disney
• 4:10
  World and now going regularly to Disneyland and also having been
• 4:14
  to Disneyland Paris, Like I've got a different compare and
• 4:18
  contrast kind of perspective to bring.
• 4:20
  And so I'm really excited to talk about it and, and share all
• 4:24
  of this information. We all notice different things
• 4:27
  and I'm just obsessed with this park, so I I'm prepared to be a
• 4:31
  menace about everything that I loved.
• 4:33
  I love it. Well, and yeah, exactly what you
• 4:35
  said, there is no reason why we shouldn't give the shout outs to
• 4:39
  those other people who are making helpful content, right?
• 4:42
  Especially for those that are locals, it is going to feel a
• 4:45
  lot different. They're going to point out
• 4:47
  different things than maybe the the tourist quote UN quote group
• 4:50
  would point out. So having a little bit of both
• 4:53
  perspectives can definitely help you, especially if you're
• 4:56
  someone that's super familiar with the Tokyo area.
• 4:59
  Hearing from a local may do you more good than hearing from
• 5:02
  someone who's not as familiar. You know, like you said, lots of
• 5:05
  different perspectives, but if you need more or need it quicker
• 5:09
  than we can provide it for you, check out there 1st.
• 5:12
  And as always, if you can't find what you're looking for, send us
• 5:15
  a message. We are at Mom St.
• 5:16
  USA on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, all those places in
• 5:20
  momstusa@gmail.com. If you've got specific questions
• 5:24
  that you want Stevie to to give you some input and help with,
• 5:27
  please send those our way. We are more than happy to help.
• 5:30
  So I want to start by start this list of the top 10 things to
• 5:35
  know before you go to Tokyo Disney with addressing the
• 5:40
  language barrier. I understand how overwhelming it
• 5:44
  might be to go to a park where the language is not English if
• 5:49
  that's your native language. However, I found that there are
• 5:54
  4 phrases that will get you just about anywhere in Japan, and
• 5:57
  those 4 phrases are high. Please excuse me and I'm sorry
• 6:04
  if the English is the tourism language there.
• 6:08
  So like for example, when I checked into my hotel, the
• 6:12
  family that was next to us was also speaking English.
• 6:15
  However, they were from China and they spoke Chinese but they
• 6:19
  also knew English. So they were checking in in
• 6:21
  English because they didn't speak a lot of Japanese.
• 6:23
  And it really drove home the point to me that Japan in
• 6:27
  general, but specifically Tokyo, really sets itself up to be
• 6:31
  friendly to tourists, especially tourists that speak English.
• 6:34
  So a lot of the signs are in English or the Japanese
• 6:38
  characters are read out, written out in the English alphabet.
• 6:41
  And gestures will take you really far as well.
• 6:43
  So like pointing where something is on the map will get your
• 6:47
  point across. And so I'm not saying to not
• 6:50
  bother learning Japanese. It's a beautiful language and
• 6:53
  there's tons of free tools out there to help.
• 6:55
  Your library probably has free tools that you could access with
• 6:59
  your library card. I think Mango and Rosetta Stone
• 7:02
  are the 2 popular ones. And I think that learning a new
• 7:05
  language can be a really fun activity to do at home as a
• 7:08
  family. But the moral of the story is if
• 7:11
  you are kind and polite and patient, you will receive that
• 7:14
  energy in return. And so if you're able to just
• 7:18
  initiate a conversation in Japanese with Konichiwa or
• 7:21
  assuming Massen, which is, excuse me, it will set you up
• 7:25
  for success. And I was really pleasantly
• 7:27
  surprised that just by showing that I was trying was just
• 7:33
  enough to kind of make friends with cast members and, and find
• 7:37
  out ways to help. I, it's really great having
• 7:39
  technology that you can pull up Google Translate on your phone
• 7:42
  and type out a longer question too, and, and translate it that
• 7:46
  way. And I found that cast members in
• 7:49
  the parks, as well as employees elsewhere, are also prepared to
• 7:52
  pull out their own phones to help them translate, which as a
• 7:56
  cast member in Walt Disney World, we were always
• 7:58
  discouraged from doing that, like in terms of pulling out our
• 8:00
  own phones to kind of facilitate communication.
• 8:04
  And so I found as a cast member, it was helpful for me to know
• 8:08
  some basic phrases in other languages.
• 8:10
  But I was just so excited to see the way that that culture exists
• 8:16
  in Tokyo, Japan. Yeah.
• 8:18
  I love Tokyo Disney. Yeah.
• 8:21
  I love that one. Everyone in the live chat over
• 8:23
  here is talking about like, politeness is a universal
• 8:25
  language right? Like be polite, give it a shot
• 8:27
  and see. OK, so those 4 phrases tell us
• 8:30
  again the English and then tell us the Japanese, just because
• 8:33
  it's fun to hear you say it. Absolutely.
• 8:35
  Absolutely. So the word for hi or hello is
• 8:37
  konichiwa. Do you want to say that back or
• 8:40
  should we do it in like syllables like ko ko NI NI chi
• 8:46
  chi wah wah konichiwa? Konichiwa.
• 8:52
  Yeah, there you go. The next one is Please, which is
• 8:57
  kudasai. So we're going to do it by
• 8:59
  syllables again. Who?
• 9:01
  That one's I'm not as familiar with.
• 9:02
  That one. Konichiwa I feel like is a
• 9:04
  pretty well known word in Japanese.
• 9:07
  OK. You'll see the romanization of
• 9:09
  that on like a Small World as well.
• 9:11
  So please is kudasai so ku ku da da si?
• 9:18
  Si. Kudasai.
• 9:21
  Kudasai. Yeah.
• 9:24
  And then the one that I found that I used the most of all of
• 9:27
  them, and it's a way, a polite way to get somebody's attention
• 9:31
  is by saying excuse me. And so that's Sumima Sen.
• 9:35
  And that's a little longer. So we're going to break it down
• 9:37
  again. Sue.
• 9:39
  Sue me. Me, Ma.
• 9:43
  Ma Sen Sen Sumima Sen Sumima Sen.
• 9:50
  There you go. You got it.
• 9:52
  You got it. And then I'm sorry and I
• 9:54
  actually didn't use I'm sorry all of that often.
• 9:59
  It's not usually used in the context that we use I'm sorry.
• 10:03
  I think that for the most part, the people that when the moments
• 10:07
  where you'd want to say I'm sorry, you'd usually end up
• 10:09
  saying Sumi Masen for excuse me, so I'm sorry in Japanese is
• 10:14
  Gomen nasai. So go, go, men.
• 10:18
  Men. Na na sigh, sigh gomena sigh
• 10:25
  gomena sigh gomena sigh gomena sigh.
• 10:30
  Nice. You did it and I think it's once
• 10:35
  you hear the language, you can kind of get an idea of the the
• 10:40
  cadence of it and where the emphasis or emphasis on the
• 10:45
  different syllables will go because that really makes a
• 10:48
  difference in making sure that you're understood.
• 10:50
  But I kind of treat learning languages like music, that if
• 10:54
  you're kind of visualizing the syllables as pitches in your
• 11:00
  head and imitating it like that, I think that it's a lot easier
• 11:04
  to kind of grasp the pronunciation of different
• 11:06
  languages, especially Japanese. And I think there's just a
• 11:09
  different cadence to it, right? Like it doesn't feel like it's
• 11:13
  very, is very evident probably to a lot of Japanese native
• 11:16
  Japanese speakers when someone who speaks English is trying to
• 11:20
  speak Japanese because we just have a different cadence to our
• 11:23
  general like speaking and sentence structure than they do.
• 11:27
  So I, I totally understand. Like you got to listen for where
• 11:30
  the emphasis is and where the inflections are with with
• 11:33
  different languages. Yes.
• 11:35
  And I I do want to add, I don't want to get too far into our
• 11:39
  Japanese lesson, but there are a couple different alphabets and
• 11:42
  then characters when it comes to making up what written Japanese
• 11:46
  looks like. And so when when I say like
• 11:50
  Konichiwa to you, there are there are sometimes when you
• 11:54
  look at Japanese, there is a more complicated character and
• 11:58
  it represents one entire word, whereas there is also an
• 12:02
  alphabet system where one pictorial character makes
• 12:07
  represents one individual syllable.
• 12:09
  And so you can actually learn like how to read the Japanese
• 12:14
  alphabet. And I find that that's really
• 12:16
  helpful in terms of reading signs and just feeling
• 12:20
  acclimated, like you're going to feel a little more familiar with
• 12:25
  what you're looking at, even if characters do come up.
• 12:27
  And I think that learning a new alphabet can be really fun.
• 12:31
  And I think that it really helps understand where that cadence
• 12:36
  kind of falls once you learn the alphabet because it's giving you
• 12:39
  a better idea of like how the sentence structure is really
• 12:43
  made-up, if that makes sense. Yes, I love that.
• 12:46
  Thank you for our little mini condensed Japanese.
• 12:49
  That's the. Loopy.
• 12:50
  It's a correct course into starting, I know.
• 12:52
  And I do want to add that bowing is a way to express gratitude.
• 12:57
  I mentioned using gestures as a way to kind of communicate, but
• 13:01
  even just like, and I, I realized once I left Japan that
• 13:05
  it was hard to get out of the habit of just doing like a
• 13:07
  little like nod as like a thank you because it, it, it's a, when
• 13:12
  you are so grateful that somebody is willing to interface
• 13:15
  with you or try in English and it's not their like native
• 13:18
  language. Like, I want to make sure that
• 13:20
  they know that I really appreciate them doing that.
• 13:23
  And especially with table restaurants in Japan, there's no
• 13:27
  tipping culture. You're not, it's insulting to
• 13:31
  leave that money on the table. And so when we went out to eat,
• 13:34
  I was just like, I want to make sure that our server knows how
• 13:37
  much we appreciated her service. And so like doing a deeper bow
• 13:42
  at that point, it's like when you're generally interfacing
• 13:44
  with people, it's just like a little like head nod, but having
• 13:48
  that restaurant in that restaurant scenario.
• 13:52
  And after we'd finished and we were leaving, our server bowed
• 13:56
  at us and I bowed back because like, and, and she kind of
• 13:59
  giggled in appreciation because it was, it's an acknowledgement
• 14:03
  of the, the customs and the culture and, and I wanted to
• 14:07
  make sure that she knew like how much we appreciated her in in
• 14:10
  return. And so I just, I, I think that
• 14:14
  there's just something that feels so comforting about being
• 14:17
  in an environment where politeness is the norm.
• 14:22
  Right. Yes, I love that so much.
• 14:24
  OK, as much as I would love to listen to you talk about
• 14:28
  Japanese language than culture, we'll get there on a future
• 14:31
  episode. Like we said, we will go deeper
• 14:33
  and give more information about all of this in future episodes.
• 14:36
  But let's move on to your second thing that we need to know
• 14:40
  before visiting Tokyo Disney. Like I said, you're going to
• 14:43
  have to stop me from continuing to talk about Tokyo Disney
• 14:46
  because I love it so much. So the second point is early
• 14:49
  entry. Now, this is one of the items
• 14:51
  that I was aware of before we went on the trip, but I did not
• 14:54
  really understand the full depth of why it was helpful until we
• 14:58
  actually experienced it. So Tokyo Disney doesn't really
• 15:02
  do extended hours. Like Walt Disney World, for
• 15:04
  example, will kind of change when they're open.
• 15:07
  Sometimes they're open a little later or a little earlier by an
• 15:09
  hour or so. But Tokyo Disney has pretty
• 15:12
  standard hours. But for some hotel guests, they
• 15:15
  will allow you to enter the park 15 minutes early and they called
• 15:19
  us happy entry. And it doesn't really seem like
• 15:23
  15 minutes early is that big of a deal until you get into Tokyo
• 15:28
  Disney Sea. And I say that because that park
• 15:31
  is so, so, so big. And the new fancy, exciting area
• 15:35
  of the park is called Fantasy Springs.
• 15:37
  And that area has the new Frozen ride, has Peter Pan rides, and
• 15:42
  it has Tangled ride. And so it's the place everybody
• 15:47
  wants to go. That's where the wait times are
• 15:49
  usually the longest, especially right at park open.
• 15:52
  It will take you 15 minutes from the front of the park to get to
• 15:56
  the back of the park. And so it's just a long, long
• 16:02
  walk to get over there, and you really end up making use of that
• 16:06
  15 minutes because you've got a 15 minute head start to get back
• 16:11
  there. But the other thing to note is
• 16:13
  that you can't book any ride reservations until you're
• 16:16
  actually physically in the park and after you've scanned your
• 16:20
  ticket. So Tokyo Disney has a few
• 16:23
  Lightning Lane or Fast Pass equivalents that I don't want to
• 16:26
  get too much into because there's it's probably going to
• 16:28
  change pretty soon because some of them are celebrating the 40th
• 16:32
  anniversary of the park. But the main thing to know is
• 16:35
  that for any of them that they ever have, you can't book them
• 16:39
  in advance. So if you want to make use of
• 16:42
  any of those passes, you have to wait until after you've scanned
• 16:45
  in. And so that extra 15 minutes
• 16:47
  really means that you're more likely to get the reservations
• 16:50
  that you want when you want them.
• 16:53
  Yeah, so if you're someone who's familiar with the current multi
• 16:56
  pass lightning lane system at Disneyland, that works the same
• 17:00
  way where everyone in your party has to be tapped in before you
• 17:03
  become eligible to be able to book your your lightning lanes,
• 17:08
  your ride reservations, your fast passes, whatever you want
• 17:10
  to call them, whichever park you're in.
• 17:12
  But it's so different from Disney World, but very similar
• 17:15
  to the Disneyland system in which you have to be tapped in
• 17:18
  first. OK, so we've got the language
• 17:21
  stuff. We've got early entry.
• 17:23
  What do they call it? Happy, Happy entry.
• 17:26
  Happy entry. I love that name.
• 17:28
  Makes me so happy. OK, what else do we need to know
• 17:33
  before visiting Tokyo Disney? So the third thing is wait
• 17:37
  times. I think that there are a lot of
• 17:39
  videos, especially on social media, about lines getting
• 17:43
  really long at Tokyo Disney. And some of the lines do get
• 17:47
  really long, But I feel like there are other caveats that are
• 17:52
  not always communicated in some of those viral videos about
• 17:55
  those lines. So first of all, all of the
• 17:58
  lines that I waited in at Tokyo Disney were far more organized
• 18:01
  than any other lines I've waited anywhere else anywhere else.
• 18:07
  And I think that on social media, most of the videos that
• 18:10
  you see are of the park at park open.
• 18:14
  And that's when you see it looks really intimidating.
• 18:17
  And it's really just because the people that are waiting don't
• 18:20
  really have anywhere else to go. Like you're all kind of stuck in
• 18:24
  this one area and there's not a ton of space to spread out.
• 18:28
  And so as a result, it does look really busy and kind of chaotic
• 18:32
  because you're all in this one tiny little area.
• 18:35
  But it is not actually as nuts as as it actually, especially if
• 18:42
  you have happy entry. They're so organized about
• 18:46
  getting everybody in there very timely, like right at 8:45 every
• 18:51
  morning. They were prepared to let
• 18:52
  everybody through the gates and you get in very quickly.
• 18:55
  And it's, it is just, it's intense, but it's not, it's not
• 19:02
  frustrating, if that makes sense.
• 19:04
  Like, yeah, it is. It is there, but it's not.
• 19:07
  It's not something to stress out over.
• 19:09
  When I feel like you film any of the parks at park open when they
• 19:13
  let start letting people in and they all look insane right?
• 19:16
  Like you see people running at Disneyland to get places 1st and
• 19:20
  you know it's it. No matter where you're looking,
• 19:23
  it's going to look that crazy at the very beginning of the day.
• 19:28
  Absolutely. And I, I will say that in terms
• 19:30
  of lines elsewhere inside the park, the popcorn lines will get
• 19:35
  kind of long because they have all kinds of flavored popcorn,
• 19:40
  both sweet and savory. And it's a really fun thing to
• 19:42
  kind of go around and try different popcorn flavors.
• 19:46
  However, there are wait times for each individual popcorn
• 19:50
  stand in the app and I need every other park to get on board
• 19:54
  with. That, that's so cool.
• 19:56
  Though, right. And now how we could see, right,
• 20:00
  we could see that there was like a 40 minute wait for the Curry
• 20:04
  popcorn or there was a 15 minute wait for the caramel popcorn.
• 20:08
  And so because of that, my husband and I could split up and
• 20:11
  go wait in our separate lines and then meet up again because
• 20:14
  it wasn't a huge deal. And so it just, it was an
• 20:18
  excellent. Excellent feature that we
• 20:20
  absolutely took advantage of. If you do happen to see a short
• 20:24
  popcorn line while you are somewhere, you should definitely
• 20:26
  just go ahead and take advantage of it because it will probably
• 20:28
  get longer because Tokyo Disney also has really, really cool
• 20:31
  popcorn buckets and so that is also part of the draw for
• 20:34
  popcorn. Do they have guides to what
• 20:37
  buckets are where in the parks? Like can you see which buckets
• 20:41
  are at which stands? I'm just curious since they have
• 20:44
  the wait times. They are on the website.
• 20:47
  I don't remember whether or not they're actually on the app, but
• 20:50
  we were able to look up. I was with a friend in the park
• 20:53
  who was looking specifically for the Tangled popcorn bucket, and
• 20:57
  we were trying to figure out which stands those were at and
• 20:59
  what popcorn they had. OK, so we were able to in
• 21:02
  advance. Yes, yes, yes.
• 21:04
  That's helpful because the US parks is not always that way.
• 21:06
  You know, sometimes you get you get a few that are like, you
• 21:11
  know, only at this one or only at this party or whatever.
• 21:14
  But like, generally speaking, it's hard to know what popcorn
• 21:17
  buckets are where. So that is very helpful.
• 21:19
  And it makes sense because the popcorn is such a big thing over
• 21:22
  there in those parks. Well, and because you've got
• 21:25
  maybe 6 or 7 flavors, I think in each park.
• 21:28
  And so that makes a difference too.
• 21:30
  I, I do want to add one more thing that somebody brought up
• 21:32
  in the comments on my side that the wait times and crowds do
• 21:37
  vary a lot on weekdays versus weekends just because of lots of
• 21:42
  locals being like going to the park on weekends.
• 21:45
  And there are different holidays that you need to watch out for
• 21:47
  in Japan where the crowds might be higher.
• 21:49
  So that's something else to keep in mind.
• 21:52
  But but generally speaking, this this bullet point is all about
• 21:57
  it not necessarily being something to be as stressed
• 22:00
  about if it's any worse than any other park that you might end up
• 22:03
  in. That makes sense when it
• 22:05
  definitely gives. We talked about the similarities
• 22:07
  with the, you know, the fast passes or lightning lanes being
• 22:10
  like Disneyland, Walt, Tokyo Disney.
• 22:12
  You're going to find it being more of a local's park just in
• 22:15
  general because you don't, I mean, you have a good tourist
• 22:18
  population over in Tokyo, but not nearly as much as you're
• 22:21
  going to see in like Orlando, so.
• 22:23
  Absolutely. That makes sense.
• 22:24
  Absolutely. Perfect.
• 22:25
  All right. What else you got for us?
• 22:27
  I'm ready for #4. #4 is a language barrier.
• 22:31
  Part 2. I wanted, as we got into the
• 22:34
  park, I'm kind of easing in the different parts of the park that
• 22:37
  you'd experience. So when it comes to the shows
• 22:39
  and the rides, most of what you're going to experience is in
• 22:42
  Japanese. But I don't want that to stop
• 22:45
  you because the quality is very impressive.
• 22:47
  Even if you don't understand the language.
• 22:49
  For example, you'd think that going on Jungle Cruise wouldn't
• 22:54
  necessarily be as appealing because you're not going to
• 22:56
  understand all of the puns in the language that you don't
• 22:58
  speak. Now, I wanted to see what was
• 23:01
  featured on Jungle Cruise because as a former Great Movie
• 23:04
  Ride cast member, because I can't go an episode without
• 23:06
  mentioning that in the Jungle Cruise in Disney World in
• 23:10
  Orlando, there is a part of a plane that's on Jungle Cruise.
• 23:15
  And that is the other half of the plane that used to be in the
• 23:18
  Casablanca sequence in Great Movie Ride.
• 23:20
  And I was very curious because there wouldn't be another half
• 23:24
  of a plane that would be in Tokyo.
• 23:26
  But I was just like, I just have to know.
• 23:28
  I just want to know the answer. Like, are there different
• 23:30
  animatronics? Like what has changed over
• 23:33
  there? And as predicted, I did not
• 23:36
  understand any of the jokes. But it did not matter.
• 23:40
  Our cast member, our skipper, was so animated and enthusiastic
• 23:45
  and just like jumping around and leaping all over places and just
• 23:48
  like, so just energetic with his voice and his expressions.
• 23:54
  Like, I cannot say enough good things about our skipper that
• 23:58
  you didn't mean. You knew where the punchline was
• 24:01
  based on the things that he was doing.
• 24:03
  And there was still plenty to laugh at, even though I didn't
• 24:06
  know what he was saying in Japanese.
• 24:08
  So I don't want anybody to be like, well, it's in Japanese.
• 24:12
  We're not going to do it. It is absolutely worth it,
• 24:16
  especially for the musical shows too, because music just
• 24:18
  transcends language and you're probably already going to know
• 24:21
  the plot. So you're still going to get
• 24:23
  really excellent quality and and still having being able to get
• 24:27
  like a great time out of out of the whole experience.
• 24:31
  Yeah, well, and that's the nice thing about it being at Disney
• 24:33
  Park, right, Is like if you know Disney and you know the IP, you
• 24:37
  know the movies, you know the storylines, the songs, whatever,
• 24:40
  like, you're going to be fine. Absolutely.
• 24:43
  The quality is something that I think you can depend on like
• 24:46
  because you know that it's Disney.
• 24:47
  Like there's, there's a certain level of expectation there that
• 24:50
  Tokyo Disney absolutely delivers on.
• 24:53
  And so the costuming that in the musical shows that they do is
• 24:57
  just like breathtaking. There was a costume change in
• 25:00
  one of the shows that we saw and all of the princesses came out
• 25:02
  in white versions of their outfits.
• 25:04
  And my husband and I were like, it was just so, so pretty.
• 25:09
  And even somebody else in the comments mentioned that's also
• 25:11
  been to Tokyo Disney that I was at in the parks at the same time
• 25:14
  with mentioned that all of the characters and themes and like
• 25:19
  IP, if you will, that you may not be familiar with will
• 25:21
  probably still make sense even with the language barrier just
• 25:24
  based on gestures and the tone of the music.
• 25:27
  Music does a great job but conveying emotion that you're
• 25:30
  still going to get the general vibe even if you don't
• 25:33
  necessarily understand what they're saying.
• 25:34
  Yeah, that's super helpful to have that basis of the music and
• 25:39
  the storyline to help you along the way.
• 25:41
  And I, I will say that the thing about the Jungle Cruise that
• 25:44
  Stevie mentioned was like one of the few messages that I got from
• 25:47
  her when she was over there was like, I went on Jungle Cruise
• 25:50
  and it felt like a little slice of home over there, even though
• 25:52
  I didn't understand anything they were saying.
• 25:54
  And I was like, amazing. I love that.
• 25:56
  It was excellent. It was excellent.
• 25:58
  Lovely. Perfect.
• 25:59
  OK, what's next on our list of things we need to know before we
• 26:03
  visit Tokyo? I don't know whether or not
• 26:06
  we're all ready for it, but I am excited to talk about it.
• 26:11
  And it might be weird that I am excited to talk about it because
• 26:15
  we're going to talk about bathrooms in Japan.
• 26:17
  And I know that it might sound weird that I'm talking about
• 26:21
  bathrooms on a podcast, but I'm going to explain.
• 26:25
  I knew that bidets were a thing in Japan.
• 26:28
  I knew that that was part of the culture.
• 26:30
  I did not realize that they were going to be literally
• 26:32
  everywhere. Like every single bathroom that
• 26:34
  you go into was going to have a bidet.
• 26:37
  That's fascinating. So right.
• 26:40
  And I in this includes Tokyo Disney.
• 26:43
  So once you experience a Japanese bathroom, you're
• 26:47
  probably not going to want to go back.
• 26:49
  At least that's how I feel about it in particular.
• 26:53
  I so let me explain some of the features because like you can
• 26:56
  buy like the day attachments for your toilet in the states.
• 26:59
  And I think it's really helpful for in general from a
• 27:03
  cleanliness perspective. But if you can't get on board
• 27:05
  with that from a mobility perspective, like if you're
• 27:07
  recovering from surgery or you know, whatever else, like having
• 27:11
  this as an aid is a really great thing.
• 27:14
  But there are other aspects to this bathroom that I'm partial
• 27:17
  to. The first of all being that
• 27:19
  there is never, ever a gap between the stall doors where
• 27:23
  somebody can see you or you can see out.
• 27:26
  And if you've never noticed this being an issue in the USI envy
• 27:30
  you. I, I, I desperately envy you.
• 27:33
  I wish that I could ignore the fact that there is a huge gap in
• 27:37
  the door. See, I, it wasn't like I knew it
• 27:40
  was there when I had kids. It was, it was even more
• 27:43
  magnified because it's either them trying to look out or look
• 27:46
  in while you were trying to wrangle them in the stall.
• 27:50
  So I, I greatly appreciate that. And can we please adopt that
• 27:54
  across the United States, please and thank you.
• 27:57
  Absolutely well, and this stall walls also go down to the floor
• 28:01
  for the most part and see really get a sense of privacy, which
• 28:06
  leads me to to my next point. The stalls at Disney usually had
• 28:10
  a white noise feature that would play as well.
• 28:13
  It was like a soft running water noise.
• 28:15
  Fascinating. I don't know if this was
• 28:17
  supposed to like help you go because it's a water noise, but
• 28:21
  I liked it because it blocks out other noise in the bathroom.
• 28:25
  And you're probably thinking because of other bathroom
• 28:28
  noises. But for me personally, like I
• 28:30
  mean it in an I'm overstimulated and in a theme park and it feels
• 28:34
  nice to feel like settled in the bathroom because there's like a
• 28:38
  relaxing water noise. But I can imagine that there are
• 28:41
  lots of people that also like it because it disguises other
• 28:44
  noises, either yours or your neighbors in a stall.
• 28:48
  Like I'm not, I'm not. I think it's important to talk
• 28:51
  about these things. So it's a shame that we're all
• 28:53
  going to have to go to the bathroom.
• 28:54
  If you go to Tokyo, you're going to use the bathroom at some
• 28:56
  point. So I, I was taken aback by it at
• 29:00
  first, especially because of the third feature in Japanese
• 29:04
  bathrooms is that the seats are heated, which was took some
• 29:08
  getting used to at first, but then it rained and it was cold
• 29:11
  and it is just, it's just, it's nice.
• 29:14
  It's another thing that it's just like, wow, I didn't know I
• 29:17
  was going to miss this. And I absolutely do.
• 29:21
  And, and then obviously there's the water feature that makes a
• 29:24
  bidet A bidet. So I, I, I do want to add that
• 29:30
  outside of Tokyo Disney, you might see a different style of
• 29:34
  bathroom, which means that there's going to, instead of
• 29:37
  having a seat with a bidet, the toilet seat is just on the
• 29:42
  ground and it's basically like a hole in the ground.
• 29:45
  I only saw this when I was at the airport.
• 29:47
  And in that bathroom they had both options.
• 29:50
  They had the ground option and the seated option.
• 29:53
  So if that is your understanding of Japanese bathrooms, I did not
• 29:58
  see it all the time. I did not see it at all in Tokyo
• 30:00
  Disney. And when I did see it, they had
• 30:02
  the seats as an option as well. So as a general, FYII feel like
• 30:07
  that's just like something that's good to know because when
• 30:10
  I walked into the bathroom in the airport, all of the other
• 30:13
  stalls were full. And I walked in and I was just
• 30:16
  like, oh, I don't know that I'm prepared to use that.
• 30:19
  And then I looked at the door and there were like images like
• 30:22
  there's a seat in this one or there's not a seat in this one.
• 30:25
  I was like, OK, I can just wait for one that has a seat.
• 30:27
  So that did catch me by surprise.
• 30:29
  I was not prepared. And I, you know, want to make
• 30:32
  sure that everybody else is prepared too.
• 30:35
  But I think that's something to really consider and a good point
• 30:39
  to make, especially if you're someone that's going to be
• 30:40
  travelling with like kids or teens or young adults that have
• 30:44
  never been to Japan before or overseas before like that.
• 30:50
  There are some things that are very different about the United
• 30:53
  States and all these other countries.
• 30:55
  So it is a good conversation to have like hey, heads up, this
• 30:59
  might happen and I may not may or may not be with you when this
• 31:02
  happens, but know that this is how you can handle it.
• 31:06
  Yes, and that's actually something that I put in my notes
• 31:09
  next, because I think that it's an important conversation to
• 31:13
  have with kids in particular about what a bidet is what makes
• 31:18
  a bidet of a day that it's not a toy.
• 31:21
  But that I I do want to add that if you have kids that want to
• 31:25
  try and like experience a different culture and use the
• 31:28
  different features. I would highly recommend waiting
• 31:31
  until you were in a hotel room to try for the first time
• 31:34
  because when you're using it's a toilet at the end of the day,
• 31:37
  you don't have to use any of the features.
• 31:39
  However, if you've never used a bidet before, for reference, if
• 31:44
  you are sitting in a way that does not fully like cover the
• 31:47
  seat, especially if you are a child and you're a little
• 31:49
  smaller, if the water spray is not adjusted, it could come
• 31:56
  outside of the seat and therefore make like your pants
• 31:59
  wet on the ground, right? And I don't want anybody to be
• 32:02
  in that position when they're out traveling in a new country.
• 32:05
  Whereas if you try for the first time, whenever you end up having
• 32:08
  to go in the hotel room, you're in a great place to change your
• 32:12
  clothes if that's the thing that happens.
• 32:13
  That is excellent point. Excellent, excellent point to
• 32:17
  plan that accordingly. And yes, plan your kiddos, you
• 32:21
  know, prepare them for when we can try it and when we're going
• 32:27
  to wait. To try it, yes, well, and I do
• 32:29
  think that the first couple times that you experience it, if
• 32:33
  it's a new thing, it can be a little startling, yeah.
• 32:36
  And I think especially for kids, they might jump off of the seat,
• 32:38
  which is creates a whole other issue if the sprayer is set
• 32:42
  pretty high. So I know that at the start of
• 32:46
  this, this might have felt like a silly conversation, but I do
• 32:48
  feel like it bears a warning. I love using the Japanese
• 32:54
  bathrooms and I missed them the moment that I cashed down in the
• 32:57
  States is the first bathroom that we went in, in the States,
• 33:03
  there were giant gaps between the doors and I was just like,
• 33:06
  already we're doing this. OK, So I, I just want to make
• 33:10
  sure that everybody's in a position to stay dry and that
• 33:12
  they've got dry clothes to put better on.
• 33:14
  So you're, you know, you're, you're experiencing this in the
• 33:17
  best way possible. And I do want to add, because I
• 33:19
  asked my husband about the men's bathrooms in Tokyo Disney and
• 33:23
  they do still have pretty standard urinals.
• 33:25
  The stalls that are in the bathroom sound pretty comparable
• 33:28
  to what I've described in the woman's bathrooms.
• 33:30
  There's just less. So still a stall with a bidet
• 33:35
  and no gaps between the doors. But the men's and women's
• 33:40
  bathrooms, especially in Tokyo Disney, usually have baby
• 33:42
  changing stations, which I think is so so wonderful.
• 33:47
  And when we were talking about this, it reminded me that I
• 33:50
  should add that there are usually child sized urinals in
• 33:54
  the woman's bathroom, which I think is also excellent.
• 33:58
  I just really appreciated how logical this was set up for
• 34:02
  parents. Like I just think that that's
• 34:04
  lovely. I and there's just like I said
• 34:06
  at the beginning, there's so much of this that I wish we
• 34:08
  could just take back to the states because it just seems it
• 34:12
  just makes sense. Like why wouldn't you have a
• 34:15
  baby changing station in the men's bathroom as well?
• 34:17
  Having a small urinal there? Like it just I, I, I love that
• 34:21
  that is something that is a part of the bathrooms there.
• 34:25
  Yeah, and it's so few and far between in US public restrooms
• 34:29
  that you find baby changing stations on the men's side.
• 34:32
  So I appreciate that as a parent.
• 34:35
  And I know that my husband will too because it's very
• 34:39
  frustrating when he's like, I can also take care of my child
• 34:42
  but now I'm forced to not take care of my child because I don't
• 34:46
  have the means to in a sanitary way.
• 34:48
  So yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And I do want to add, if you are
• 34:53
  uncomfortable about the idea of a bidet, every bathroom that I
• 34:56
  went in, there was also always toilet paper.
• 34:58
  I, I don't know. So I just, if that is something
• 35:01
  that you're uncomfortable with, in the end, it is still a
• 35:04
  toilet. There is still toilet paper that
• 35:06
  you can and should use in the stalls, so.
• 35:09
  Either way, you're good to go. Yes, I have that little little
• 35:13
  tag at the end of mine that just like because I think that in
• 35:16
  some, I think in videos that I would see as a kid in like
• 35:21
  really like high class bathrooms, just really
• 35:27
  extravagant looking things that people would talk about that you
• 35:31
  wouldn't necessarily see where the toilet paper was if it was
• 35:34
  there. And so it wasn't something that
• 35:36
  I thought about. So like if that's something
• 35:37
  you're worried about and you know that you're never going to
• 35:39
  want to try to use it the day, that's fine.
• 35:41
  There's toilet paper, you're going to be great.
• 35:43
  It's a toilet at the end of the day.
• 35:45
  You got this. It's going to be awesome.
• 35:48
  OK, I think are we through with you're done with bathrooms,
• 35:52
  bathroom doc. But like you said, it's
• 35:55
  important to know, especially if you're going to be traveling
• 35:57
  with family, with kids, with even, like I said, teens and
• 36:01
  young adults that have not ever experienced that before.
• 36:04
  Perhaps I'm moving ahead of time.
• 36:05
  So OK, moving on. What is our next item on our
• 36:09
  things to know before we visit Tokyo?
• 36:13
  Our next thing is about the rides.
• 36:15
  Now, I knew that there were a lot of really cool and unique
• 36:18
  rides in Tokyo. There was a really cool Beauty
• 36:21
  and the Beast ride, the rides in Fantasy Springs.
• 36:23
  But I had not realized that there were rides in Tokyo Disney
• 36:26
  that were basically carbon copies of other rides that
• 36:30
  existed. And that's not necessarily a bad
• 36:33
  thing. It was just something that I was
• 36:35
  very surprised by and was taken aback.
• 36:38
  So some of these include Philharmagic, which the change
• 36:41
  being that it's in Japanese, but it is the exact same video.
• 36:44
  Star Tours, same same thing. It's all in Japanese, but the
• 36:48
  queue was even the same with the exception of the loading process
• 36:52
  into Star Tours. But like the big room where
• 36:55
  you're seeing the boarding times and C3PO and R2D2 are there.
• 37:00
  Same same scenario, same layout. We did still get to hear Allison
• 37:04
  Janney's voice doing the onboarding in English, which I
• 37:07
  loved because I love Allison Janney, but for the most part,
• 37:10
  everything else was in Japanese and Toy Story Midway Mania was
• 37:14
  the other one that was like pretty much the same.
• 37:17
  I was still quoting the ride in English because it was just Ben
• 37:19
  and I there and so I was like, I am not your mother.
• 37:22
  Break those points. I was like, that's amazing, I
• 37:25
  want to hear that in Japanese. Now I'm going to need to find
• 37:27
  APOV video of that. Well, I.
• 37:29
  Don't know whether or not it's the same script or not.
• 37:32
  I would assume it is because it's the same video.
• 37:34
  But like, it might be some other like culturally relevant, like
• 37:39
  I'm not your mother specific. Like I I don't know whether or
• 37:42
  not that like has the same like slightly comedic effect in
• 37:46
  Japanese or if there's a better way to kind of make that joke.
• 37:50
  But and then there are other rides that are are not the exact
• 37:53
  same, but pretty comparable. So Pinocchio and Haunted Mansion
• 37:57
  have small differences, but are generally feeling like the same
• 38:00
  ride. Snow White is the way that I've
• 38:05
  been told by Kate, our friend, the Disney Cicerone who used to
• 38:10
  be on this podcast. That's the Snow White version in
• 38:14
  Tokyo is the way it used to be. And I believe Disneyland in
• 38:18
  California, which is to say there is no happy ending for the
• 38:21
  ride. And you just end at the, the
• 38:24
  witch scene in the cliffs. I was very distraught and I made
• 38:27
  a noise of indignation when I got to the Internet.
• 38:30
  I was just like, what? We're just done.
• 38:33
  And I, we were on the ride with somebody else who did not speak
• 38:38
  Japanese but did not speak English either.
• 38:40
  And when I made my noise of indignation, they turned around
• 38:43
  in agreement with me. They were just like, what is
• 38:46
  happening? So universally we were upset
• 38:49
  that it just ended the way that it did.
• 38:51
  But other than that, the ride is basically the same.
• 38:54
  And soaring, soaring in the US that's soaring in Tokyo is also
• 38:59
  the same video for the most part.
• 39:01
  But at the end you're ending in Japan and instead of California
• 39:04
  or Orlando. The difference being and and why
• 39:07
  we thought it might be a different ride is because the
• 39:09
  outside is themed wildly different in the US.
• 39:12
  It's very much you've got flight attendants that are, you know,
• 39:16
  helping you board on on onto a plane where you're you're
• 39:20
  experiencing this. That's a poor summary of what
• 39:23
  Soren is like in the US. But there is like a because of
• 39:29
  the theming of Tokyo Disney Sea, the setup for the ride is like
• 39:33
  you're in, I guess like colonial America, like when flight is
• 39:38
  first being developed. And it's the technology for it
• 39:44
  is really cool. The pre show has you in a room
• 39:48
  with a painting of a woman with a hawk.
• 39:51
  And then when the pre show starts, it just morphs into a
• 39:53
  video and it really looks like a painting, like it was just like
• 39:57
  stunning because then all of a sudden the bird just flies off
• 40:00
  and you're just like, whoa. And it's really cool.
• 40:03
  And the whole video is in Japanese.
• 40:06
  But the implication is that they're talking about the way
• 40:08
  that like flight has developed and changed.
• 40:11
  And I think the idea is that they're like.
• 40:13
  Dreaming of what flight could look like in the future because
• 40:17
  all of the art that you're surrounded by is what looks like
• 40:20
  early, like Wright Brothers planes and where you've got
• 40:24
  people just kind of sitting in the open.
• 40:26
  So it was then interesting to me that when we sat down on the
• 40:30
  ride, it was the same kind of room that we were used to.
• 40:34
  And the video was like the exact same.
• 40:36
  It was the sworn around the world, not sworn over
• 40:38
  California. And then you end up at the end
• 40:41
  was seeing the Tokyo skyline and getting to see Tokyo Disney.
• 40:44
  So it's very cool. Loved it.
• 40:47
  And we actually got pulled at the very end of the night.
• 40:49
  We were walking out and a manager walked up to us and she
• 40:51
  was like, did you guys get to do soaring while you were here
• 40:54
  today? And we're like, yeah, we loved
• 40:56
  it a lot. And she's like, do you want to
• 40:58
  go on again? And we're like what?
• 41:00
  And we listed the time and it was like 15 minutes after park
• 41:04
  closed. Like the line was closed and she
• 41:06
  was just like come on. And sent us down the elevator.
• 41:09
  And I guess this is just like a way that they make magic for
• 41:12
  people. We did it with just us and one
• 41:15
  other family that had like 8 people in it.
• 41:17
  And we have the ride to ourselves.
• 41:18
  It was wild. And I was just like so shook.
• 41:21
  It was really, really cool. And it meant that we got to take
• 41:25
  in some of those really cool details where the paintings
• 41:27
  would kind of morph into videos. And so it's, it's I love that
• 41:32
  ride in the US just as much as I love it anywhere.
• 41:35
  Like I will always go on it. So it felt it, it felt new and
• 41:39
  familiar at the same time. So it it was a lot of why I
• 41:43
  wanted to include this as a bullet point that like there's a
• 41:46
  lot that's the same, but it's still a lot of fun, even though
• 41:49
  it's familiar. Did they have the sense for
• 41:51
  Sauron? Yes.
• 41:53
  Better than what we get in Orlando because I feel like
• 41:56
  Orlando is very hit or miss with those.
• 42:00
  So it's funny that you mentioned that because there are sense in
• 42:02
  fill her magic and I had known in Orlando, Yes.
• 42:08
  Wait, did you not know? This it's been a little while
• 42:12
  since I've done it. I don't remember any sense.
• 42:15
  OK, so OK, so my understanding, let me back up my understanding
• 42:21
  of the parks in Orlando. Like are the experiences in
• 42:24
  Orlando both fill her magic and soaring is that the sense kind
• 42:28
  of overtime got like mixed together and they weren't always
• 42:31
  like at the same potency. You were always like getting the
• 42:35
  intended effect in soaring in Orlando, you're getting like
• 42:42
  it's like an orangey scent and like a foresty kind of scent.
• 42:45
  I feel like there's like 2 like that.
• 42:47
  You're really that I really only ever remembered smelling.
• 42:50
  And then in Phil her magic, the scene in the beginning with Be
• 42:55
  Our Guest, there's a pie that comes towards you on the screen.
• 42:59
  And then there are little like animated like scent like smoke
• 43:03
  figures that kind of come out towards you.
• 43:05
  And theoretically you're supposed to be able to smell
• 43:07
  pie. That's funny.
• 43:09
  Here I really smelled something vaguely sweet, but I could tell
• 43:12
  that like it felt like the timing was off in Orlando, like
• 43:16
  the pie would come up and then beat beat.
• 43:18
  Then the scent would come out at you.
• 43:21
  Everything worked in Disney or in Tokyo Disney, like, and there
• 43:25
  was more than just that scent, which is why I say everything
• 43:28
  worked because it taught me that there's more than just the pie
• 43:31
  scent. And I turned to my husband and I
• 43:33
  was like, what? Like I just like if there was a
• 43:37
  second scent in the beauty and the beast room and then there
• 43:39
  was maybe one other that I'm not remembering off the top of my
• 43:42
  head, but I was just so shook because it felt like I was just
• 43:47
  getting a new level of detail. Like, and I, I so I don't know
• 43:51
  what like the difference is if they just have like a different
• 43:54
  sprayer mechanic or if it just requires a different level of
• 43:58
  upkeep or I don't know, functions better in general.
• 44:03
  Right. Well, I don't know.
• 44:04
  Edison is a really good point to mention that Tokyo Disney is
• 44:07
  owned by another company and they license those rights from
• 44:10
  Disney. And so there are some small ways
• 44:13
  in the parks that are just managed differently than the
• 44:16
  parks in the US and from Disneyland Paris, because it's
• 44:19
  just being staffed by a different team.
• 44:22
  There's just a different energy that's going into the park.
• 44:26
  And part of that is because in Tokyo, they're trying to make
• 44:30
  sure that it's accommodates what Japanese guests are expecting
• 44:35
  with the local guests are expecting.
• 44:38
  And so there are other cultural ways that you can see that
• 44:42
  across the park. And I think that that's really
• 44:44
  cool. And I love that.
• 44:45
  And I love the way that they've kind of interpreted the things
• 44:49
  that are familiar to me as a as a guest of the US parks more
• 44:52
  regularly. So I I was just kind of blown
• 44:57
  away by getting to pick out all of the details, like when it's
• 44:59
  different, when it's not, what's different about it?
• 45:02
  Yeah. I'm excited for future episodes
• 45:04
  when we talk more about the rides and what they were like
• 45:07
  and compare and contrast. I'm so excited for that.
• 45:11
  OK, But we got to keep going because we got to get through
• 45:13
  the end of your list. Because I could wax poetic about
• 45:18
  the Being the Beast ride, I cried every time I was on it.
• 45:20
  But I digress. That's a teaser for a future
• 45:22
  episode. Perfect.
• 45:25
  OK, let's move on to, let's see, we're on #7 I think of our 10
• 45:29
  things to know before you visit Tokyo Disney.
• 45:32
  My 7th tip is about water. I had not.
• 45:36
  I knew that like you could access water in Japan, like you
• 45:39
  could access water anywhere. Like what kind of question is
• 45:41
  that? They don't sell water on the
• 45:44
  menus in mostly anywhere in Japan.
• 45:46
  We went to other like restaurants and different places
• 45:49
  and water was never listed. And if wild to me, you will.
• 45:55
  In Tokyo Disney, there is usually a fountain somewhere and
• 45:59
  you just have to ask where you could like refill your water
• 46:02
  bottle or get like a little cup and fill that up with water.
• 46:05
  But it was just like, and I think a lot of it is from an eco
• 46:09
  friendly standpoint that like they're not selling bottled
• 46:12
  water and contributing to plastic waste, which I
• 46:15
  appreciate, but I just, it was not something that would have
• 46:18
  occurred to me before the trip to research because it was just
• 46:22
  like, of course I'll be able to get water somewhere.
• 46:24
  Like I just like didn't, I didn't really think about the
• 46:27
  details behind all of that. And so I was really, really
• 46:30
  surprised that like it was never on the menu.
• 46:34
  So the Japanese water word for water is mizu.
• 46:38
  MIZU is the romanization, so me and zu.
• 46:43
  So if you are holding a cup and you just say mizu like or like
• 46:48
  sumi masen mizu like, they will absolutely know what you're
• 46:51
  looking for and point you in the right direction.
• 46:53
  So interesting, right? Yeah, that's not something I
• 46:59
  would have ever considered either, because we're so used
• 47:01
  to. Oh yeah.
• 47:02
  Any Disney park, you can find water multiple places.
• 47:05
  They've got water fountains, they've got, you know, bottle
• 47:08
  refills that you can go to quick services and get a cup of water
• 47:11
  or whatever. So I that's also something that
• 47:14
  I would not have thought about. Right, yeah.
• 47:17
  And most of the stations are have something with like a
• 47:20
  little faucet then you can fit a water bottle under or a cup
• 47:23
  under. So it's once you know where it
• 47:26
  is, it's it's excellent. And you know, you never have an
• 47:28
  issue getting water. It's just finding it initially
• 47:31
  once you get there, right, It's not as readily available.
• 47:34
  Kind of. You have to ask a couple times
• 47:37
  before you figure it out. Yeah, cuz it's kind of tucked
• 47:40
  away usually around the corner where it's like out of the way.
• 47:43
  And it's normally by like a trash can and like the other
• 47:46
  things like where they would have napkins and stuff like
• 47:48
  that. But it's not at every station
• 47:50
  where there's a trash can. It's usually just.
• 47:52
  One interesting. Okay, so I think you've got some
• 47:56
  more information about food for us next, right?
• 47:58
  Yes. So there's lots of versatility
• 48:00
  when it comes to food, but I wanted to make sure to add this
• 48:04
  point, especially if you have kids that are accustomed to food
• 48:07
  that is familiar to them or if you have allergies, that you
• 48:11
  will not have any difficulty whatsoever finding food that is
• 48:15
  familiar to you. You will be able to find French
• 48:18
  fries. You'll be able to find chicken
• 48:19
  Nuggets. I say this as someone who has a
• 48:21
  lot of dietary restrictions and French fries are like the safest
• 48:25
  food for me. As much as I wish that I could
• 48:27
  be adventurous and partake in all kinds of cultural food, I
• 48:30
  typically can't. It's just like a risk for me
• 48:33
  that if I want to continue enjoying my vacation, like it's
• 48:36
  just not the best idea for me personally.
• 48:38
  So French fries are my lifeblood.
• 48:40
  Like I, I, and I, I wish that it were different because I, I, I
• 48:44
  understand that I sound probably kind of boring that I eat French
• 48:48
  fries like every day that I'm in the parks.
• 48:50
  But it's just something that I know that my body can tolerate
• 48:54
  and it's just usually cooked the same way and without any other,
• 48:57
  you know, weird ingredients. So I absolutely empathize with
• 49:02
  kids that are not accustomed to eating things outside of their
• 49:06
  regular food because I don't, I don't want to refer to it as
• 49:08
  like a picky eater because like every picky kid quote UN quote
• 49:12
  picky is attracted to specific food.
• 49:15
  Like there it's not necessarily like something that is
• 49:18
  specifically American or whatever else.
• 49:21
  Like I, I, I guess I refer to it specifically as comfort food.
• 49:24
  Like if you're looking for something that is familiar to
• 49:27
  what you eat everyday, you will absolutely be able to find that
• 49:30
  and you will also be able to find something new.
• 49:32
  Like it is very easy to please all members of your party.
• 49:36
  My husband was able to try new things and I was able to find my
• 49:40
  familiar things and it it was no stress.
• 49:43
  And I have been in the stateside parks and been stressed about
• 49:46
  that before. And so it was really nice that
• 49:49
  it was very dependable, I guess you could say in Tokyo that we
• 49:54
  could always find something somewhere for me.
• 49:56
  That's so nice. And I think EU, the US parks
• 49:59
  especially, are known for being pretty good about allergies.
• 50:01
  Did you find that over in Tokyo as well?
• 50:05
  So. Yes and no.
• 50:07
  So I never experimented with specifically altering something
• 50:12
  that's on the menu, which is something that I do in the US,
• 50:16
  especially in Orlando where like I will order a gluten free pizza
• 50:21
  with no sauce and it's just literally the gluten free crust
• 50:25
  and cheese. And any time that you order
• 50:29
  anything allergy friendly that isn't off of the menu, they
• 50:33
  usually have to have you talk to a coordinator or a chef
• 50:36
  specifically for legal reasons. And I was not trying to risk
• 50:41
  that. In Japan, however, they do a
• 50:44
  very good job of putting out more allergen information than
• 50:48
  they do in the States. So by that I mean in the USI
• 50:52
  believe there are six major ingredients that restaurants are
• 50:57
  required to list or like nutritional labels are required
• 51:01
  to list whether or not exists in the food.
• 51:03
  I think that's the US parks expand that.
• 51:07
  I think that it's maybe 10. Tokyo Disney has maybe 20 or
• 51:13
  more on their websites that you can filter by and it includes
• 51:18
  like different types of fish or apples or like gelatin, like not
• 51:23
  just your major allergens like wheat and nuts and things like
• 51:29
  that. And so on the website you can
• 51:32
  sort by allergen or you can sort by restaurant and you can kind
• 51:37
  of look and see what's available to you.
• 51:40
  It is not super cohesive with the app where you would do your
• 51:44
  mobile order, so you kind of have to toggle back and forth
• 51:47
  between the two to figure out what will work for you.
• 51:50
  But I was very pleasantly surprised by the amount of
• 51:54
  information that was there. And they also have dedicated
• 51:57
  allergy meals that you can order at specific restaurants that are
• 52:01
  designed around avoiding some of those major allergens.
• 52:05
  And you can just order that as that specific meal entirely as
• 52:11
  of itself. And I think that is their way of
• 52:14
  getting around like people that would necessarily need to talk
• 52:17
  to a, a chef because I, I, I got the impression that that is not
• 52:22
  something that their system is equipped to do.
• 52:25
  I would love to be wrong, but when I was kind of watching
• 52:29
  other people in line in different scenarios and things
• 52:32
  that didn't seem to be what happened.
• 52:34
  So that is generally my experience.
• 52:40
  I also personally brought a lot of food into the park and was
• 52:44
  able to eat that as well. And they have a Downtown Disney
• 52:48
  equivalent called Expiari. And there's actually a little
• 52:51
  mini supermarket inside of Expiari.
• 52:54
  And I bought food that I kept in the room and had like on lunch
• 52:58
  breaks and stuff and eat for breakfast and was able to bring
• 53:01
  things into the park. So I would highly recommend
• 53:03
  exploring that if you're stressed about food.
• 53:05
  There was so much in there and I just had.
• 53:07
  Google Translate on my phone with the image version, and I
• 53:10
  could just translate the package ingredients of everything that I
• 53:12
  was looking at. Yeah.
• 53:14
  And I imagine if you were needing to talk to a chef or a
• 53:17
  supervisor or someone in the Tokyo parks, you definitely are
• 53:20
  going to want to make sure you have a translator of some sort,
• 53:22
  whether digital or whatever, with you.
• 53:25
  Because you want to make sure that you are conveying your
• 53:29
  allergy concerns correctly to whoever you're speaking to to
• 53:33
  make sure that you're safe when it comes to all of that.
• 53:35
  So. What I've seen other people do,
• 53:38
  I don't personally do because the list of allergens that I
• 53:42
  have to avoid because it's a digestive disorder and not an
• 53:45
  allergy is too long for me to use this solution.
• 53:48
  But what a lot of people do will create a little card with an
• 53:54
  explanation of what they're allergic to, what they're trying
• 53:56
  to avoid. And that card is in the target
• 53:59
  language of wherever they're visiting.
• 54:01
  Some. I believe that there are shops
• 54:04
  on Etsy that will sell this, but you can also make your own.
• 54:07
  I find that you might want to like cross reference or double
• 54:12
  check with some other resource on whether or not it's a correct
• 54:15
  translation if you're dreaming it yourself.
• 54:18
  But I think that for a lot of people, it's easier to just be
• 54:22
  able to hand somebody something and then you're not trying to
• 54:25
  remember in the moment all of the things that you need to type
• 54:27
  into a translating app to then hand your phone over like it's
• 54:30
  already ready for you. I think a lot of people will
• 54:32
  laminate that and just kind of keep it on a key ring with them
• 54:35
  wherever they go. And I think that that's a really
• 54:38
  handy idea. Yeah, that's super smart.
• 54:40
  That's super smart. And even if you've, if you're
• 54:43
  someone who has maybe several restrictions or you're just
• 54:45
  looking for your specific safe foods or comfort foods, like you
• 54:49
  could also list something like that on there too if you choose
• 54:52
  to. But having a little CHEAT SHEET
• 54:55
  for yourself, I think it's definitely a good idea because
• 54:58
  in the moment you don't want to forget something.
• 55:00
  Absolutely. And that actually leads me to my
• 55:02
  ninth point, which is about mobile ordering, which so there
• 55:06
  are table restaurant, table service restaurants, there's
• 55:09
  counter service restaurants in Japan, and there are lots of
• 55:13
  counter service restaurants that have mobile order as an option.
• 55:18
  And I just like they do in the States.
• 55:20
  What was what was interesting to me is in Japan, in Tokyo Disney,
• 55:24
  it seems that those mobile order time slots filled up far more
• 55:28
  quickly and in far more in advance than they did in my
• 55:32
  experience in the US thus far. It's almost as if they're using
• 55:36
  it like they would a table reservation and like booking
• 55:39
  that time where they're planning to eat.
• 55:42
  So a lot of times because typically especially when you I
• 55:45
  have visited the parks, we try to avoid eating in that 11 to
• 55:49
  one time frame and that can help can help you avoid the crowds.
• 55:54
  But when we were trying to figure out when we were going to
• 55:57
  go, especially because the parks were not opening until 9:00,
• 56:00
  which meant that we had a hard time like figuring out when we
• 56:05
  were going to eat because we've not been doing stuff for too
• 56:08
  long, but we were still hungry at that 11 to one time frame.
• 56:11
  And then we would find that those mobile order slots were
• 56:15
  booked, but we were ready to eat right at 11 and we would walk up
• 56:18
  and it was empty. And that was really exciting
• 56:20
  because you'd think that when all of the mobile order slots
• 56:23
  are booked that you would encounter a really long line at
• 56:25
  the restaurant. But that was not necessarily the
• 56:28
  case. And that was really surprising
• 56:30
  and encouraging to me. I do want to add, I have a note
• 56:34
  in here and some of you mentioned in my chat as well
• 56:36
  that there are a few locations that are mobile order only and
• 56:40
  there are no lines allowed. However, I did not encounter are
• 56:44
  the same kind of like caps with how many mobile orders that they
• 56:49
  allowed and we could just like walk up and then be like, hey,
• 56:51
  you have to mobile order and then we would stand there and
• 56:53
  make them our mobile order. If I when we go a deep dive on
• 56:58
  restaurants I will do the research but my memory if my
• 57:03
  memory serves that was mostly only at fantasy springs because
• 57:07
  it was new and when we were there they had just changed who
• 57:11
  was allowed into fantasy springs.
• 57:13
  Previously. You basically had to get a
• 57:15
  virtual return time and a virtual queue and once you left
• 57:19
  the Fantasy Springs area, you could not re enter the Fantasy
• 57:21
  Springs area. And it was their way of doing
• 57:24
  crowd control basically. And maybe like two or three
• 57:28
  weeks before our trip, they lifted that, which was very
• 57:31
  exciting because it meant that we did not have to stress about
• 57:34
  trying to get a return time for Fantasy Springs and that whole
• 57:37
  section of the park. But it was definitely a thing at
• 57:41
  the quick service location there.
• 57:43
  At least one of them for Snuggly Duckling was the one where we
• 57:45
  encountered it routinely. And I think that it's just
• 57:49
  because it was in that section of the park, but it is gorgeous
• 57:53
  inside there. And I'm very excited to talk
• 57:54
  about in the future episode because the theming in there is
• 57:58
  is great. It just feels like you're
• 57:59
  walking into the set of the movie at the swaggly.
• 58:01
  Duckling Yeah. Now when?
• 58:03
  So when you were doing things like mobile ordering and such
• 58:06
  like that on the app, I'm assuming, but I could be very
• 58:10
  wrong, that your app was in English when you were ordering.
• 58:15
  Yes, OK. Just curious because I wasn't
• 58:18
  sure As I was thinking about that, I was like, oh, that would
• 58:21
  be something to make sure that you think about if whether or
• 58:24
  not you're going to be able to read the app in English or if
• 58:27
  it's going to be both or if you get just Japanese.
• 58:31
  Well, that's a good bonus point and it's something that I didn't
• 58:33
  even think about because it was something that I learned before
• 58:36
  I went on the trip. So if you're somebody that's
• 58:38
  listening to podcasts about things, you will probably
• 58:40
  encounter it the same way where you're downloading the park app
• 58:43
  far before you go on your trip because you want to explore it
• 58:46
  and click around. And so I learned when I
• 58:49
  downloaded that that it, I think because I downloaded it in the
• 58:53
  American App Store that it just defaulted to English.
• 58:56
  I don't really think that I ever had to choose that as my
• 58:59
  language and especially I had downloaded it like I didn't have
• 59:03
  to select English every time. So that was really convenient.
• 59:08
  And I, I do want to add somebody else in my comment section
• 59:11
  brought it up here that there are occasionally credit card
• 59:15
  issues with the app. We tested whether or not our
• 59:18
  credit cards were connected prior to when we went.
• 59:22
  And so depending on your bank, depending on your credit card,
• 59:26
  they might have to do some verification.
• 59:28
  This is especially important if you were trying to like by any
• 59:32
  of the Lightning Lane equivalents like the the page
• 59:35
  passes in the park. So something to keep in mind.
• 59:39
  It was not something that we personally encountered, but it
• 59:41
  is something that I would read a lot on like Reddit, for example,
• 59:45
  that would happen. But all of that will be in
• 59:47
  English on the app. So it's if you're
• 59:53
  troubleshooting. Is the word that I'm looking
• 59:55
  for. If you're troubleshooting
• 59:55
  different issues in the app, all of that will be in English,
• 59:59
  which is which is nice. That's helpful to know,
• 1:00:01
  especially if you're someone who is wanting to look at menus
• 1:00:05
  ahead of time. We've been talking about
• 1:00:06
  allergies and mobile ordering and all that kind of stuff.
• 1:00:08
  Then you have the ability to look at the menus ahead of time,
• 1:00:12
  read the descriptions of the, you know, different entrees and
• 1:00:16
  things like that in English. So that way when you go to the
• 1:00:19
  parks, you already have a clue about what it is you're trying
• 1:00:21
  to order, which is very helpful. Absolutely.
• 1:00:24
  And the website is really thorough and they do have, I
• 1:00:28
  can't remember whether or not they have a dedicated English
• 1:00:32
  version of the website or if my Google was just on top of auto
• 1:00:36
  translating it. But I never had an issue
• 1:00:38
  navigating the Tokyo Disney website, which is really the
• 1:00:42
  most important thing that it was not difficult to navigate.
• 1:00:44
  And, you know, it was very easy to kind of use that in tandem
• 1:00:47
  with. Yeah.
• 1:00:48
  Yeah, I feel like in my experience in like research that
• 1:00:51
  I've done on different international park websites,
• 1:00:54
  there's always like at the in the top, there's always the
• 1:00:57
  option of what language you want to view it in.
• 1:01:00
  And I feel like on some of them I have had to go and like
• 1:01:03
  manually select for it to be in English.
• 1:01:05
  Like when I was doing research on Disneyland Paris or things
• 1:01:08
  like that, like I had to go up and manually select it.
• 1:01:11
  But either way, there's definitely an English version
• 1:01:14
  available if you're doing research beforehand.
• 1:01:19
  I will say that I had a far easier time navigating the Tokyo
• 1:01:22
  Disney website and I did the Disneyland Paris website.
• 1:01:25
  So if you're accustomed to dealing with one over the other,
• 1:01:29
  I had a far easier time finding information, navigating,
• 1:01:33
  troubleshooting, everything was easier when it came to Tokyo
• 1:01:35
  compared to Disneyland Paris. So if that was something that
• 1:01:38
  you've been frustrated by in the past, know that you may not be
• 1:01:41
  as frustrated with Tokyo. I I certainly hope that is that
• 1:01:44
  is not the case. Well, that's good.
• 1:01:46
  Good to know, Good to know. OK, are we at #10?
• 1:01:50
  Did we? Did we cover everything with
• 1:01:52
  mobile orders? We did we are at #10 and #10 is
• 1:01:57
  about the evening shows and this is something that surprised me
• 1:02:00
  personally. I, I do want to preface and say
• 1:02:03
  that I missed some of the evening shows because they are
• 1:02:06
  quick to cancel for high winds, which I appreciate is the safety
• 1:02:10
  concern, especially in Tokyo Disney Sea, because they have of
• 1:02:15
  their show on the water and their live performers and
• 1:02:17
  they're trying to keep them safe.
• 1:02:19
  But I am very accustomed to seeing a show projected on a
• 1:02:23
  castle and then the fireworks happen after that.
• 1:02:26
  And in Tokyo Disney, the order of that is reversed.
• 1:02:30
  I, I, I wanted to mention this specifically because I think
• 1:02:35
  it's important that if you have kids or somebody else in your
• 1:02:38
  party that needs noise reduction for fireworks, you're going to
• 1:02:44
  need to reverse that. I know that for the castle show
• 1:02:46
  audio levels, especially in Disney World, I usually can't
• 1:02:52
  have something in my ear to learn or like I'll miss some of
• 1:02:54
  the smaller details in the quiet moments of the show.
• 1:02:56
  For me personally, that's just the way that my ears work.
• 1:02:59
  And so I don't know that I would have had my stuff out and ready
• 1:03:04
  in Tokyo Disney realizing that. And part of that is probably me
• 1:03:07
  just not retaining that information because I do believe
• 1:03:10
  that once you look at the name of the show and read the
• 1:03:12
  description, it will explicitly say fireworks or like show on
• 1:03:18
  the castle or like something along those lines.
• 1:03:20
  However, at the very end of the day, I was not really retaining
• 1:03:24
  much at all. I was just, you know, happy with
• 1:03:27
  my popcorn sitting, enjoying the vibes near the Baymax ride and
• 1:03:32
  just kind of just kind of coasting through life.
• 1:03:35
  And I was just really surprised that all of a sudden fireworks
• 1:03:39
  were happening when I was expecting to see like castle
• 1:03:42
  show and like happy fun music. So I also want to add that the
• 1:03:46
  fireworks are shared by Disneyland and Disney Sea, which
• 1:03:49
  is maybe part of why it is reversed in Tokyo Disneyland,
• 1:03:54
  because it's it's the same fireworks show.
• 1:03:56
  So once you've seen it, you've seen one, you've seen them all.
• 1:03:59
  I'm just kidding. That's a Singing in the Rain
• 1:04:00
  reference, but it's the same night time spectacular just
• 1:04:07
  because the parks are so close together that there's really no
• 1:04:11
  way around it being being the same.
• 1:04:15
  Interesting. Did you watch it from both
• 1:04:17
  sides? I'd be so fascinated to know,
• 1:04:19
  like if you're more on one side of the park than the other, if
• 1:04:22
  it's a different experience. So I was only physically in each
• 1:04:29
  of the parks once when they did the fireworks.
• 1:04:33
  So we spent two days in Disney Sea and two days in Disneyland.
• 1:04:37
  And in one of each of the days in each park, the show had been
• 1:04:43
  cancelled. So we had planned on.
• 1:04:46
  And unfortunately it had happened in Disney Sea on our
• 1:04:49
  first day. And based on when we were hungry
• 1:04:52
  and Frozen was down and we had like a return time, like a
• 1:04:55
  replacement for our like paid that pass.
• 1:04:59
  We were trying to make sure that we got on it and we were there
• 1:05:02
  at the end of the night and we just did not have time to like
• 1:05:05
  find a good spot. Now, we ended up watching most
• 1:05:07
  of the fireworks from near Fantasy Springs and we got to
• 1:05:10
  hear the music and see the show. And it was basically just like
• 1:05:14
  listening to music and fireworks in the sky.
• 1:05:16
  So if you're accustomed to seeing like the in Orlando,
• 1:05:20
  watching the Magic Kingdom fireworks from like the
• 1:05:22
  Polynesian, it very much had that vibe like you're just kind
• 1:05:25
  of hanging out in the park. You can hear the music and
• 1:05:28
  you're seeing most of the show in Disneysea.
• 1:05:32
  They don't really have the same kind of focal point that a lot
• 1:05:35
  of other parks will do when they do fireworks.
• 1:05:37
  There is a big volcano that exists and inadvertently kind of
• 1:05:42
  becomes the focal point, but it does not, in my opinion, have
• 1:05:45
  the same effect. Now, maybe I would feel
• 1:05:47
  differently if I'd seen the fireworks from over there
• 1:05:49
  because you'd get the reflection on the water that's near that
• 1:05:52
  volcano. But the other night that we saw
• 1:05:56
  the fireworks in Disneyland, that was our second night.
• 1:05:59
  And so we only ever got And that first night they'd cancelled the
• 1:06:03
  parade earlier in the day. They'd cancelled like all kinds
• 1:06:05
  of things because of the wind. And so we'd only really gotten
• 1:06:08
  that one time to experience it, and we were watching it from to
• 1:06:11
  the right of the castle because we were just like trying to ride
• 1:06:15
  other things. After the show ended, we were
• 1:06:17
  trying to book it back to Small World, ride it again because
• 1:06:20
  it's a different world, has a fruits takeover.
• 1:06:22
  Yes, exactly. And then we didn't have a crown
• 1:06:24
  to beat. It was actually really great
• 1:06:25
  because we could lean on the railing the whole time.
• 1:06:28
  There's nobody around us, and you could still see enough of
• 1:06:31
  the castle projection from the side.
• 1:06:33
  But we were just kind of strolling over and I heard
• 1:06:36
  fireworks go off and I was like, did we miss the whole castle
• 1:06:39
  show? I was just like, the timing
• 1:06:41
  doesn't make sense to me. We shouldn't have missed the
• 1:06:43
  whole castle show, but the fireworks are happening.
• 1:06:46
  And so we stood there and hung out and watched the fireworks
• 1:06:49
  and then the castle show started.
• 1:06:50
  I was like, oh, good, we didn't miss it.
• 1:06:52
  I was just like, normally we're a little more like on top of
• 1:06:57
  things, but it was a last day of a two week trip and we were just
• 1:07:01
  kind of coasting on vibes and kind of going wherever our heart
• 1:07:05
  and our feet let us go because we were we were pretty tired.
• 1:07:08
  But I was really glad that we caught it because the show the
• 1:07:11
  castle show song was surprisingly all in English.
• 1:07:15
  And I just had a lot of really positive form fuzzy feelings
• 1:07:19
  about the song. And it reminded me a lot of
• 1:07:22
  wishes. If anybody is familiar with
• 1:07:24
  that, it has the same kind of energy, the same kind of like
• 1:07:28
  theming in terms of deciding something in your heart and
• 1:07:34
  choosing to go after it. And I just really love that
• 1:07:38
  specific type of theme and energy.
• 1:07:40
  And I just, I got the warm fuzz talking about it.
• 1:07:44
  I'm gonna go listen to it after we're done recording.
• 1:07:47
  Well, it's so interesting to me because like Disney Magic
• 1:07:51
  Kingdom previously had more of a separation between like the
• 1:07:55
  castle projection show and then the nighttime fireworks show,
• 1:07:58
  which also had projections. But right now with happily Ever
• 1:08:01
  after, it's kind of just all in one.
• 1:08:03
  So it's I like personally for me that it's when it's separate
• 1:08:08
  because I'm not a huge fireworks girly.
• 1:08:10
  Like I will watch them, but I would much rather see the castle
• 1:08:13
  projections, just my personal preference.
• 1:08:15
  So like knowing that I have the option to like roll up after the
• 1:08:19
  fireworks works are over and just watch the Castle of
• 1:08:22
  Projections. I'm like, oh, I like that.
• 1:08:24
  That's nice. Yeah, I'm really partial to a
• 1:08:28
  show that is that has a story. And so I don't mind the
• 1:08:32
  fireworks if there's a story involved.
• 1:08:34
  There was a show that happened in Disneyland Paris in 2012 with
• 1:08:37
  an anniversary of the park, and it was basically castle
• 1:08:41
  projection and fireworks. And there were water fountains
• 1:08:44
  in front of the castle. And it had Peter Pan and Wendy
• 1:08:47
  speaking to one on another, like Wendy spoken French and Peter
• 1:08:50
  spoke in English, and they were kind of narrating this show.
• 1:08:53
  And so that included the fireworks as well.
• 1:08:56
  And so I was like, oh, I am absolutely on board with this.
• 1:08:59
  Yeah. And so I, I I agree.
• 1:09:02
  I like having having just like some, I like having the plot.
• 1:09:06
  Yeah. Somewhere to follow along with.
• 1:09:09
  It makes the fireworks more exciting to me personally.
• 1:09:11
  Too, Yes, OK, I think we got through all 10 of our just
• 1:09:16
  quick, somewhat quick 10 things to know before you visit Tokyo.
• 1:09:20
  Like we mentioned, we will go more in depth on a lot of these
• 1:09:23
  and talk about the parks and the different areas and rides and
• 1:09:27
  food and where to stay and tickets and you know, all that
• 1:09:31
  normal stuff that we always talk about in Mom St. for every park
• 1:09:34
  that we talk about. But this was kind of your quick
• 1:09:37
  list of 10 things to know. Stevie, what are your final
• 1:09:40
  thoughts on this topic? So my final thoughts are that
• 1:09:46
  there's a lot that's different about Tokyo Disney, but I think
• 1:09:49
  that it's all stuff that's pretty easy to navigate once
• 1:09:52
  you've figured it out. I could talk about how much I
• 1:09:54
  love this park for forever, but in the interest of keeping me on
• 1:09:58
  topic, I'm trying to stick to themes.
• 1:10:01
  So if there's something that you want to know specifically about
• 1:10:04
  in the future, absolutely let us know.
• 1:10:07
  And I will do my best to answer it on a future episode because
• 1:10:10
  like I said at the start, I plan to be a menace about all of
• 1:10:13
  this. But I I really think that once
• 1:10:17
  you once you learn for the first time, it's really easy to get
• 1:10:23
  accustomed to whatever it is that's different in Tokyo
• 1:10:25
  Disney. Like it's different, but the
• 1:10:27
  learning curve isn't too bad. Like once you know, it's just
• 1:10:31
  like, oh, I got this and it's fine.
• 1:10:34
  It's not love. Would take this to kind of
• 1:10:37
  acquire, if that does that make sense?
• 1:10:39
  Am I just like rambling about goodness knows what no, I got
• 1:10:44
  you, you're good. I just I'm I'm thinking about
• 1:10:49
  like especially learning like Genie plus in the US, like in
• 1:10:53
  for Orlando, like in all of the different like multi pass things
• 1:10:56
  like you learn about it and then you got to learn some more
• 1:10:58
  before you really get the hang of it.
• 1:11:00
  But I really think that with a lot of the stuff that's in Tokyo
• 1:11:03
  Disney, like once you do learn, it's just like, oh, OK, yeah, I
• 1:11:06
  got this. I like I can manage.
• 1:11:08
  So I, I really think that while it might seem intimidating at
• 1:11:12
  first, once if you're there, it's really not not super
• 1:11:15
  stressful and it's very easy to have a wonderful magical time.
• 1:11:20
  When I feel like that's really reassuring to some of our
• 1:11:22
  listeners who like myself included, who I'm like, that
• 1:11:25
  feels really intimidating. I don't know that I could ever
• 1:11:28
  do it without like tons and tons and tons and tons of research.
• 1:11:31
  Which like obviously we always suggested doing your research.
• 1:11:34
  Find a travel agent that maybe has been or has booked other
• 1:11:38
  trips to these parks overseas. Find some friends, find Mom St.
• 1:11:43
  USA friends that can help you with you know the things that
• 1:11:47
  you need to know. But I think knowing that it's
• 1:11:49
  not as cumbersome and not as, you know, overwhelming as it may
• 1:11:53
  seem on the surface, is helpful to know.
• 1:11:56
  Absolutely, especially if you're traveling internationally for
• 1:11:58
  the first time with kids, like internationally on its own, like
• 1:12:02
  if it's just like you and one other person can still feel like
• 1:12:05
  a lot, but managing other people on top of that, I it's
• 1:12:09
  absolutely overwhelming. But I really think that Japan is
• 1:12:13
  a really great. It's like even a first
• 1:12:15
  international trip, if that's the first place that you go, it
• 1:12:17
  is just so friendly to tourists. It's very much like the energy
• 1:12:21
  that you put in your going to get back.
• 1:12:23
  And I, I was just so sad to leave because it just felt so
• 1:12:27
  comforting to be there, you know, like, I knew what to
• 1:12:30
  expect. I could get around like, and it
• 1:12:32
  just, it was just so, so lovely. I'm so excited to continue
• 1:12:36
  talking about Tokyo Disney. I'm, it's just, it was such a
• 1:12:39
  wonderful experience. I, I don't know when I'll go
• 1:12:41
  back. I just know that I want to go
• 1:12:43
  back. But I think we're all excited to
• 1:12:45
  hear about it because it's, there's something to be said for
• 1:12:48
  I can sit here and research all day about Tokyo Disney and I can
• 1:12:52
  tell you the facts and the numbers and all of that type of
• 1:12:55
  stuff. But hearing it from somebody
• 1:12:56
  who's actually been there puts a totally different feel on the
• 1:13:00
  information that's being presented.
• 1:13:01
  It's like we, you know, circling way back to the beginning, like
• 1:13:04
  we talked about some of the other podcasts and blogs and
• 1:13:07
  things that you can read, you know, some of them you'll get
• 1:13:09
  tourist perspective, some of them you'll get local
• 1:13:11
  perspective. So I think having all of those
• 1:13:14
  perspectives can be helpful and I think we're we're looking
• 1:13:17
  forward to what else you have to share with us and what else you
• 1:13:21
  experienced and are, you know, excited to talk about because it
• 1:13:25
  makes us excited when you're excited.
• 1:13:27
  Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
• 1:13:29
  So all that being said, it will be a few episodes before we
• 1:13:33
  circle back to Stevie again. We've been a little kind of
• 1:13:37
  crazy with our schedules with between travel and all sorts of
• 1:13:41
  other things going on our next podcast episode, we will be
• 1:13:45
  doing another hub episode and interesting enough, we're not
• 1:13:49
  coming back to the US parks yet. We're actually going to be
• 1:13:52
  returning back to our universal conversation with Duck and Jess.
• 1:13:56
  So that is what is coming up on our next episode.
• 1:14:00
  And then after that we will go back to the US Parks and talk a
• 1:14:04
  little refresher on Lightning lanes.
• 1:14:07
  So if you are someone that is like, I don't know what I'm
• 1:14:10
  doing when it comes to lightning Lanes and multi pass and all
• 1:14:13
  those types of things, I am your girl.
• 1:14:15
  And I will be talking about that here in a few episodes.
• 1:14:17
  So if you've got questions or need help with that, send me a
• 1:14:21
  message. You can always reach out to us
• 1:14:23
  Mom St. usa@gmail.com or you can find us on TikTok, Instagram,
• 1:14:29
  YouTube, Facebook at Mom St. USA.
• 1:14:31
  You can reach out to us there. And like we always mentioned, we
• 1:14:34
  do have a channel on our good friend Kirk at Walrus Carp on
• 1:14:38
  his discord. We have a Mom St. channel there
• 1:14:40
  that you are more than welcome to reach out to us on there as
• 1:14:43
  well. All of that information can be
• 1:14:45
  found in the link in any of our social media BIOS.
• 1:14:48
  So take a look at that. If you're like, I need help but
• 1:14:51
  I don't know where to go find us somewhere and it will lead you
• 1:14:54
  to where where you need to be. So with all that being said, I
• 1:14:59
  think we have wrapped for this. I will put a a little pin in the
• 1:15:03
  Tokyo Disney conversation because we will be revisiting it
• 1:15:07
  again in in the future. I know Stevie is already wheels
• 1:15:10
  are turning for what she wants to talk about next.
• 1:15:12
  I'm sure I literally have. The songs that they play on the
• 1:15:17
  Baymax ride like going in my head because I was listening to
• 1:15:19
  it as I was working out and I'm just like jamming, jamming in my
• 1:15:24
  own Little Tokyo Disney World. So I I absolutely am thinking,
• 1:15:28
  but all of the other things that I'm very excited to share.
• 1:15:30
  I love that and we will definitely have to post a few
• 1:15:33
  photos on our Instagram, so be sure you're following us there
• 1:15:36
  if you want to see some of Stevie's photos from her trip
• 1:15:39
  that kind of correspond with maybe some of the things we we
• 1:15:41
  heard about today. But until next time, thank you
• 1:15:45
  guys so much for joining us for this episode of Mom St.
• 1:15:47
  USA. We greatly appreciate your
• 1:15:49
  support. Thank you to our friends who are
• 1:15:51
  here live as we record this on TikTok.
• 1:15:54
  Thank you to those of you who are listening after the fact of
• 1:15:56
  us recording it. We appreciate all of you and I
• 1:15:59
  hope you all have a wonderful week and we will catch you next
• 1:16:01
  time on Mom St. USA.
• 1:16:04
  Bye everyone.