Monday, July 06, 2009
Two Parks, One Day, PART TWO
T*KYO D*SN*Y SEAS
The story goes like this: what do you get when you have D*sney's imagination and know-how and a funding investor-owner with almost unlimited funds? You get this theme park! (and if that rumor isn't true, it's at least an apt description of this park).
Every land has a secluded feeling to it, giving you a sense of journeying from place to place.
Their T*wer of T*rror has a wildly different and more creative theme to it, including a more fun preshow. The exterior itself... massive, beautiful, amazing!
I was booking at a pretty good clip through most of the day, but managed some great details on this attraction (despite the noon glare) because I refused to ride an elevator that drops that many stories.
Of course we aren't allowed photos of the interior, and I don't quite remember where I got these two pics, but was glad to find them and share them. See the VooDoo statue.. it goes berzerk, and then disappears... spooky-scary-fun. If anyone is dying to know (ha ha), I'll post the theme/story in comments.
Even this stained glass window changes. Apparently no one on the internet has gotten good pics of the change tho. Apparently.
P*rt Discovery was the name of this very Jules Verne themed area.
Am*rican W*terfront had a very eastern coastal feel to it... (see the volcano behind it?). It's home to one of the park's most popular inhabitants... Duffy the bear (below)
But my favorite section by for, because of the architecture and color... Arabian Co*st. Just wow.
I was literally RUNNING through this section, because we didn't really have time to stop before an important business lunch.
I just loved it.
Carousel, I believe.
Zoom to see the details... they're stunning
A favorite photo of mine from the whole trip. If I showed you this, would you guess I was in Tokyo?
On to M*rmaid Lagoon... I literally popped inside this attraction... a sort of cavernous midway below ground...
With of course a theme based on a certain M*rmaid from the D*sney canon... (zoom for details)
I never got farther than the expansive balcony looking down into this hub of hoopla....
But it looked fun. :)
Tilework... exquisite.
Another favorite photo from the trip.
Lost R*ver D*lta...
Which housed this ride (zoom for title)... a sort of It's a Sm*ll W*rld meets Al*ddin.
The queue was full of colorful paintings of things to come... however, getting photos was not easy!
They were moving, I was moving, the boat was moving, and light levels were very low. It's a wonder they don't all have 3 heads! See the Tiger?? Cute!! His name is Chan du (but without the space between syllables... oh the lengths Shephard goes to not be googled).
A giant genie, of course. Our boat stopped, permitting me one unblurred photo!
Arabian Finale. I truly loved this colorful, imaginative attraction.
..and its gift shop. (let's just say a tiger came home with me, and now I'm staring at it saying, what was I thinking? But he's so cute!)
The next land.... Myst*rious Isl*nd!!!
Barren... Foreboding... and imersively fun...
Several attractions, including a journey into the volcano, but sadly it was down for rehab at the time.
Try to imagine the scale of this area. You are completely hemmed in by the craggy desolate rocks and mountain.
A certain famous sub.
And a restaurant....
Onward... lunch was next... at a very unique restaurant....
Magellan's....
From the entry... a sort of spiralling balcony around a mammoth globe.... see the tables?
We ate at a secret wine-cellar behind a hidden doorway in a bookcase... you had to know where the button was that opened the doorway. :) (clever idea for private meeting space in a restaurant).
Ceiling above the globe....
YUMMY pumpkin soup! (I couldn't use my flash, because it was an important business meeting to which I was a guest... you can imagine how distracting that would have been....)
Salad and fresh seafood...
Salmon.. very yummy also
Dessert... fresh, strawberry cakey yummy thingy... no clue what it was, just guessing, but it was delicious!
We were all over both parks during that day, from 8am til 9pm. Finishing the day was an evening at Cirque du Soleil's brand new resident show Z E D. Afterwards, we got a private tour of the amazing theatre, including a visit to "the grid" -- 70 feet above the theatre-- where we actually walked out on steel grids looking straight down (ulp). We saw the costumes and all the workings and maybe a shirtless performer or two (outside voice, Shephard... outside voice).
A flower arrangement I took just for Kenju.
If you're like me, you love a good map. Here's a map, higher res, of the whole park. And since I forget yesterday, below is one of the 1st park.
The day was a crazy back-n-forth trek between both parks to hit certain things at certain times, including sneak peeks at furture attractions.
We were moving so quickly, laughing, talking, eating curried popcorn, and ooing and awing all day... there are photos I don't even remember taking, and so many that blurred because I could barely stop long enough to point the camera. At the end of the day, I don't know how I managed not to fall asleep in that nice dark cool theatre ... maybe it was all the people flying around my head doing dangerous things with each other.
I hope you all enjoyed my very imcomplete but colorful photo-tour of the parks. :)
(PART ONE BELOW FOR THOSE WHO MISSED IT)
More Tokyo, Shopping, Kyoto, Temples, Shrines & Food to come...
~Shephard
Labels: Tokyo
posted by Shephard @ 