Tokyo | Disneyland

I know, you are probably thinking, another Disney post? What is wrong with these people ;).  I get it, I really do, but here is what we have learned - we are obsessed with Disney (especially watching how much fun the girls have!) and we have a family goal to visit all of the Disney's. After the next few posts, I will be done talking about Disney for awhile. Pinky promise.

^ the view from our room - looking out at Tokyo Bay; p.s. the sun rises super early in Japan (between 5 and 5:30 in the morning while we were there) ^

^ Mickey inspired sunglasses plus puppy ^

^ this shows how close our hotel was to the monorail - three to five minute walk at the most, definitely the most convenient location we have stayed at for Disney ^

^ not pictured is the 45 minute wait with high winds - the girls were freezing, crying and saying that they wanted to go home.  luckily once inside, the sun came out and the buildings blocked some of the wind and the girls had a good day ^

^ so many people - I have never seen this many people at a Disney before ^

^ the first ride that we went to was a small roller coaster where you only needed to be 90 cm tall; we were so pumped for Evsie's because this is the first time she was tall enough to ride a roller coaster ^

^ she was pretty pumped too ^

^ after we rode it the first time, she asked to go again.  of course we obliged ;) ^

^ I want to permanently freeze her feeling of excitement - it was palpable and an experience I never want to forget ^

^ afterwards we checked out a Roger Rabbit ride ^

^ our first up close castle sighting ^

^ we loved this castle, it was much bigger than it looked from the outside ^

^ the girls love the teacups so when we saw the line was short we jumped in ^

^ I have the most fun asking them - what time is it? and them shrieking 'tea time' as we go around and around ^

^ next up, the carousel ^

^ it was the shortest line I have ever seen at a Disney for this ride ^

^ loved riding next to my girl ^

^ while we were walking and I was fumbling with our map/list of rides that we wanted to ride - Rapunzel walked by us.  we followed her and quickly discovered that character meet and greets are nothing like at the other parts.  the characters just appear and then walk to a spot in front of the castle and settle in with a crowd around them to say hello.  this worked out really well for the girls because they just wound their way to the front of most characters and the characters spotted them right away. ^

^ what I love most about this picture is Emma beaming at Rapunzel.  Rapunzel is number one for her right now so we felt pretty lucky to get to meet her so early ^

^ discussing serious business with Rapunzel ^

^ like Paschal escaping through this hole ;) ^

^ those smiles are worth every penny ^

^ the characters in Asia just engage so well with the little ones ^

^ Emma is adoring being 5 and had the best time telling everyone ^

^ hugs bye bye ^

^ up next, the fairy godmother from Cinderella ^

^ they have never seen a character like this and were not quite sure what to think ^

^ we knew that Cinderella had to be close by which is Emma's number 2 princess (we felt like we hit the jackpot being able to do so much and see Emma's two favorite princesses all within the first hour and a half of being there) ^

^ this time Cinderella was accompanied by prince charming ^

^ she had the best time telling Cinderella about her own Cinderella dress ^

^ so stinking cute! ^

^ hugs bye bye ^

^ we thought we were headed to ride our fast pass ride at this point, but on our way out we ran into Cinderella's mice ^

^ the girls adored how soft she was ^

^ and she made them feel like a million bucks walking hand in hand with them from in front of the castle through the castle ^

^ just look at that smile ^

^ leading the way ^

^ it was Evsie's turn to beam ^

^ and give a smooch-a-looch ^

^ Emma wasn't so sure about kissing on the nose so she went for the cheek on second thought ^

^ love this picture ^

^ we rode our fast pass ride - Monsters, Inc.  and on our way out passed by these cute little cars.  this is going to be a reality far too soon! ^

^ and this too! ^

^ first treat of the day - popsicles! ^

^ thoroughly enjoyed by both girls ^

^ there was no fast pass for Pirates of the Caribbean, so we got the girls their Popsicle and headed to wait in line (it was the one ride that Wes wanted to ride (it was closed when we were in Shanghai Disney) ^

^ much to our delight the wait was pretty painless, about 30 minutes and it was a neat ride (scared the girls a little bit though ^

^ I was constantly amazed at the lines for food everywhere - this was for a popcorn line! popcorn is the most famous snack at Tokyo Disney and we have to say we did love the caramel corn - although we tried to wait until the lines died down and get it near the end of the day ^

^ after Pirates, the girls picked out new headbands (we told them one headband and one toy for the day), no surprise here, Emma picked out Cinderella and Evsie's picked out Minnie Mouse ^

^ we found this bear from Jungle Book ^

^ this gives you an idea of what the character meet and greets looked like ^

^ close up of Emma's newest hair accessory - I think I should dedicate a post to all Emma's hair accessories ^

^ little girl, looking out over Tokyo Disney.  times like this make me pinch myself to realize that this is really our life. ^

^ we had heard that you could climb up the castle so Wes went to get another fast pass for us while I took the girls to the castle.  turns out you really need to wait in line to go through the castle and then you can climb down, but the nice lady let me snap a few pictures of the girls on the stairs ^

^ after we were reunited with daddy, we decided to go in the castle ^

^ every detail is thought out at Disney ^

^ in the castle, looking out over fantasy land ^

^ they had all kinds of depictions telling the story of Cinderella - Emma was enthralled with the whole experience ^

^ we found the glass slipper! ^

^ for a second there we lost sight of Emma and I quickly located her peeking in on one of her favorite scenes - the ball ^

^ we waited in a fairly long line for them to sit in Cinderella's chair - I didn't realize how terrible the lighting was in here.  and clearly Everly was over it by this point ;) ^

^ not this one though, beamed the whole time ^

^ walking down the steps of the castle ^

^ there was a phenomenon at Tokyo Disney that we have not seen anywhere else - groups of people dressing alike.  we picked up on this right away waiting in line to get into the park, but after I kept seeing it over and over, I decided to snap a few pictures of this phenomenon to share with you. ^

^ I feel I really missed an opportunity to dress the girls alike on this particular day ^

^ we were starving and we found Mickey burgers and Mickey chicken nuggets for the girls.  I would say that overall the food was just ok, but we were pretty hungry so it was alright .^

^ Wes and Emma went to go ride Space Mountain (can you even believe that my baby is big enough for a real roller coaster ride??) and Ev's wanted to twirl in front of the castle so I took her there while they rode Space Mountain ^

^ twirling in front of the Tokyo castle ^

^ we spotted ducks on the lawn of the castle ^

^ while we were waiting for Wes and Emma to finish, these army men (?) from toy story (?), came out and spotted Ev's right away and came over to say hi! ^

^ those big brown eyes ^

^ that smile!! ^

^ we rode the roller coaster that we had ridden in the morning again (only this time with a 30 - 45 minute wait instead of just minutes) and then we decided to wait in line to see Mickey ^

^ while in line, they weave you through Mickey's house ^

^ with lots of photo ops along the way ^

^ they loved this birthday cake ^

^ and then it was time for Mickey!! ^

^ he, of course, did not talk but he was so sweet to the girls ^

^ Wes waited this one outside (and waited in line for snacks and the popcorn!) so it was just me and my girls ^

^ another car that they had to drive ;) ^

^ the girls had never met Professor before ^

^ smooches for Professor ^

^ I am not going to lie, I have no idea who this is, but the girls loved the girl chipmunks that we ran into during our Tokyo Disney days ^

^ a quick run in with Daisy Duck ^

^ at this point we just decided to stroll through Disney at a much slower pace and see what caught our eye and take in the magic that is everything Disney - we meandered our way back to the front of Disney ^

^ main street was calmer now ^

^ my favorite castle picture ever ^

^ on our way to ride Buzz Light Year ^

^ she gave each one of them hugs and high fives ^

^ it gets dark pretty early - between 5 and 6 pm - we headed back to Fantasy Land and took another turn at Alice's tea party ^

^ her smile in the reflection :) ^

^ we rode the elephants! ^

^ and the roller coaster again - this was their favorite ride of both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disney Sea ^

^ and we got more popcorn!! ^

^ we had the best intentions of making it to the fireworks at 8:30, but we were wiped and we knew we were going to do it all again the next day so we packed up and headed back to the hotel for the evening. ^

^ this is our 'we survived 12 hours of Disney with our girls' snapshot ^

Really though, Disney is so magical, everything is still so real to the girls at this age and Wes and I have the best time taking them to Disney!!