After roaming around Shibuya & Harajuku on our first day, our second day was all things Disney. We checked into the Tokyo Disneyland hotel & got situated in our Beauty & the Beast suite. *I am majorly patting myself on the back for keeping that a secret from my Mom*. On the itinerary we created for her, we put a dummy hotel in so staying there was a complete surprise as was the themed room.

The Tokyo Disneyland Hotel has a few character themed rooms to choose from, but ultimately we went with Beauty & the Beast (the details were just too cute). Staying at a Disney hotel has a few perks for the parks:

• Guaranteed entry into the parks. Major, as they can hit capacity.
• Happy 15 : 15 mins early into the parks. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’ll allow you an early fast pass & one extra attraction.
• Delivery of purchases made in the park back to your hotel (so freaking helpful if you plan on shopping a lot)
• Exclusive products available for purchase only by guests of the hotel. When we went they had an exclusive Mickey tote bag & coin purses.

After religiously reading Chris’s blog & Tom’s posts, we got our 1 day itinerary down. I honestly think we would have missed so much had it not been for their detailed posts. For my fellow Disneyland goers, you’ll get a kick out of this. The must-do rides are Pooh’s Honey Hunt & Monster’s Inc. Hide & Go Seek. Yes. Rides that are usually no more than 20mins (that’s generous for Pooh) can get up to 3 hr waits at Tokyo Disney! All with good reason as both rides differ greatly from our home park. Pooh’s Honey Hunt is a trackless ride, very similar to Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters at CA Adventures. At one point as you’re following Tigger the entire room/ride shakes up & down, dancing around in unison. The queue for this one was the cutest.

After riding Pooh’s Honey Hunt we headed over to Space Mountain. Which by the way, is really weird without music. The track was different so it was disorienting riding a roller coaster in the dark, purely silent. After riding a few other rides, it was finally time for our fast passes as Monster’s Inc. Hide & Go Seek! The queue for this one was pulled straight from the movie.

The ride was super cute & interactive. Each seat had a flashlight attached, similar to Buzz’s Astro Blasters at Disneyland. As you shined the flashlight on Monster’s Inc. helmets, they revealed a hiding monster (& sometimes Boo!).

I loved that we visited during the Christmas season, everything was decorated accordingly. I didn’t snap as many photos of the set-ups as I thought, but here are some of my favorites shots showcasing the decor, attractions, & my cute ass kid.

Thanks to our months of planning, we were able to hit all the rides we wanted with time to spare. The best part for me was walking around & taking it all in, and..the shopping. More on that in a later post. The stores were jam packed, with the hot items being out-of-this-world headgear and stuffed animal keychains to put onto backpacks. I loved the little display they had for Sid from Toy Story & all the plastic displays to show you exactly what comes with your purchase. Here are a few more shots from our trip, including some of the yummy foods we tried.

For those who are curious, here is the list of attractions we hit up in order (must do’s because they were different than our home park/had short lines:

• Pooh’s Honey Hunt
• Space Mountain
• Cinderella’s Fairy Tale Hall
• Pinocchio’s Daring Journey
• Snow White’s Adventure’s
• Alice’s Tea Party
• Haunted Mansion
• Country Bear Theater (twice, we loved it!)
• Monster’s Inc Ride & Go Seek
• Star Tours

ROOM BREAK

• Jungle Cruise
• Pirate of the Caribbean

When all is said & done, I cannot *wait* to go back to this park.