If you missed part 1 or 2 of this trip report or parts 1, 2 or 3 from our Japan Trip Report, click on the corresponding number to catch up!

Not every park warrants a second day. At both Disneyland and Walt Disney World that’s become even more true, as prices have climbed and theme park competition has gotten stronger. It’s an unfortunate turn because a second day at a theme park has a different vibe. There’s more time to relax, meander and take in the details and sights. The pressure to get in most of the E-tickets is out of the way, since they were done on day one and the day feels free. Nowhere is that better evidenced than Tokyo DisneySea.

Unfortunately, our second day at DisneySea was also our last day at Tokyo Disney Resort. With that in mind, we were inside of the park during the ‘Early 15’ that guests get for staying at an on-site hotel. One of our group ended up catching a very brief stomach bug the night before so they slept in a little bit while Melissa and I made our way to the American Waterfront.

Toy Story Mania remains extremely popular at DisneySea for reasons I don’t fully understand. It’s a fun ride and all but nowhere near the best in the park. We decided to rope drop the attraction this time around to see if we could spot any major differences. The queue is miles (or kilometers, since we’re talking about Japan) ahead of both the California Adventure and Hollywood Studios version but the actual ride remains the same. Suffice to say, I’m not sure it’s worth the time or effort if you’re familiar with the American Parks and visiting Tokyo.

But if you have multiple days at DisneySea, starting one of them in the American Waterfront and running through Toy Story Mania and Tower of Terror is a fun way to spend the first hour of the park. That’s exactly what we did, visiting Disney Legend, Joe Rohde… err, I mean Harrison Hightower in Tower of Terror. Seeing the queue before the attraction had filled up was a highlight and the ride is full of wonderful and original storytelling.

Our friend Shelby had made it into the park at that point and we celebrated with a bountiful breakfast of pastries! Mamma Biscotti’s is tucked right inside of Mediterranean Harbor, at the bottom of Hotel MiraCosta. I haven’t written a review of the counter-service spot yet because they only offer pastries but we really enjoyed eating there. It’s tough to top a Mike Wazowski Melon Bread! But sitting outdoors, staring at Mount Prometheus while devouring the three other pastries just might have beat it.

From there, we walked a loop around the park. We usually reserve the morning for rushing around to different attractions but with most of them done a few days earlier it was nice to enjoy the park before it got busy. This installment of the Trip Report will be a little more photo focused than the previous ones, thanks to the wandering (no pun intended) element of the day. Here are a few pictures around DisneySea’s American Waterfront and Cape Cod.

We walked to the back of the park on our way to meet Ben at Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage. There were some other friends along the way!

The Three Caballeros were out and about, posing and interacting with guests. Tokyo Disney Resort has a nice mix of walk-around characters and those who have actual meet & greets. I love the walkaround characters especially because they add a sense of fun to the area.

Jose and Panchito were very playful, taking plenty of time to pose for photos with us. I’m curious if that movie has any popularity in Japan. It’s not well seen in America but the characters remain recognizable and iconic.

Speaking of iconic, Sinbad unlocking the giant ogre with a feather key is about as cool as a character can get. That might not even be the coolest thing Sinbad does in that attraction though. Other contenders are:

• Hang out with mermaids. It’s a family friendly attraction but I have no doubts that our man won those mermaids over.
• Delivered bananas to monkeys and then joined a monkey band to celebrate the bananas!
• Sailed his boat on top of a whale. High degree of difficulty on this one.
• Seemingly saved his entire civilization.

I’m still going to pick freeing the ogre as the coolest thing Sinbad did but it’s a tight race.

The sightlines in DisneySea are incredible. Everything in the park is well thought out from a design perspective. One of those lovely design pieces is having water, and boats, connecting every land. That’s where we headed next, riding from Lost River Delta to the Mediterranean Harbor.

That’s my favorite boat route in the park, going between the Arabian Coast and Mermaid Lagoon, through Mysterious Island and then coming out in the park’s main harbor. It’s a quick but beautiful ride!

Our luck with the weather continued with a bright and sunny December day. I continued to experiment with sun spots while taking photos and am not sure how much I like the results. Thankfully, it’s hard to take an ugly photo of DisneySea. We walked from the boat deck over to lunch at Restaurant Sakura, stopping for some beautiful views along the way.

That meal ended up being my favorite of the entire trip which is no small feat! Restaurant Sakura is one of the best theme park meals I’ve had in recent memory. If you enjoy seafood then I’d absolutely recommend going here, as the food is delicious and the value is strong. We ended up eating at the restaurant without a reservation, waiting about 15 minutes before getting seated. Restaurant Sakura is far from the most popular restaurant in the park but is one of the best in the whole resort. Here’s my full review!

After a leisurely lunch, we continued the slower pace by strolling around American Waterfront (again) and Mediterranean Harbor. Seeing the gold and brick in the land lead into the pastels of Mediterranean Harbor is gorgeous.

As we approached golden hour, it was time for the most picturesque attraction in any theme park – Venetian Gondolas. This is a Venice-style gondola ride (obviously) through the canals of the port before entering the main harbor under the mountain. I’m not sure what else would be in competition with this attraction as far as prettiest views. The Mark Twain Riverboat sports some amazing views. The Disneyland Railroad and Western River Railroad are personal favorites. Probably the strongest contender is Kilimanjaro Safaris in Animal Kingdom.

Even before riding the attraction, the queue is surrounded by the beautiful Venice portion of Hotel MiraCosta. There’s a few wide open views and details tucked away. Standing in line isn’t bad when there’s so much to look at. I find the whole Venetian Gondolas experience to be so delightful, charming and relaxing. There’s nothing quite like it in theme park-dom. Dibs on the trademark to that word. I’ll shut up and just show some photos of the queue and ride now.

Getting that low to the water is really cool! There are so many different boat rides throughout DisneySea but none of them feel alike.

That they named the department store in American Waterfront after Scrooge McDuck really lets us know that the Imagineers were in on the greed idea that the port tells. I think it’s hard to have an underlying theme in theme parks, there’s just no easy way to make that clear to guests. A few parks attempt them but none of them succeed to the degree American Waterfront, and DisneySea, does.

Golden hour turned the sky light blue as we walked toward Fortress Explorations. Naturally, there were a few photo stops on the way!

Like I mentioned, those sightlines! The elevated path from Mediterranean Harbor toward Port Discovery and Mysterious Island offers the best view of the Pacific Ocean. The bridges kind of hide the wall separating the park and the ocean so it looks like DisneySea organically flows right into the sea. You can tell how good of a day I was having judging by all this praise I’m heaping on the park.

Next on the agenda was the beautiful Fortress Explorations. This is a walkthrough attraction that’s one part playground and one part science museum, all while offering some of the most interesting views in the park. It’s a wonder that this exists in a theme park. The vibe is similar to early days Epcot but toned to fit into DisneySea’s theme. In a park that has a really good attraction roster (soon to be better!) you wouldn’t think a walk through attraction would be a must-do. But that’s exactly what Fortress Explorations is. Onto the sun drenched photos!

Mysterious Island isn’t bad either!

After our first two rides of the day, we’d only been on boat rides and walk through attractions. Why stop what’s working? From Mysterious Island, we walked down to Port Discovery for a ride on Aquatopia. I was really struck by how close all of the lands felt. Don’t get me wrong, my feet were exhausted and the impending cold I had turned out to be brutal but at that moment I felt very good!

The sunset was gorgeous that night so we stayed on the west side of the park, lingering around Port Discovery and Cape Cod.

DisneySea had plenty of Christmas décor but it was most noticeable in the American Waterfront, Cape Cod and Mediterranean Harbor. That’s fitting I suppose, as those areas are the ones that predominately celebrate the holiday in the real world. Anyway, Cape Cod was quite charming with the Christmas Tree lit up as blue hour crept in.

One of the cutest signs imaginable!

The view above is one of the few spots at Tokyo Disney Resort where you can see Fuji! It’s about mid frame on the left side of that photo, peeking out over the rockwork. This is a great integration of a real world place into a theme park. Because of where it resides, Tokyo Disneyland can’t help but include a couple of the city’s skyscrapers in a few sightlines. DisneySea is lucky and smart enough to avoid that outside of some boats out on the sea and a brief glimpse of Fuji. Both of those work in the context of the park.

Dinner time was closing in but not before a walk on one of DisneySea’s quieter paths. The long exposure photo above caught a boat passing by.

Sadly, Journey to the Center of the Earth wasn’t open during our visit. Part of the ride’s track is in the photo above on that bridge. I was very thankful that there was no scaffolding up in the area!

Dinner that night was at Cafe Portofino. We enjoyed the counter-service restaurant well enough, as the chicken was good and the pasta decent. I wouldn’t put it at the top of Tokyo Disney’s restaurants but that’s speaking more to their quality than Cafe Portofino’s lack of quality.

After dinner, we walked around the back alleys on the Tuscan side of Mediterranean Harbor before going into a few shops. I like the whole area but it is very busy in the evening! Eventually, we had a priority pass (new name for FastPass) for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea where we saw this fella. He looks like he’d fit in whatever expansion they plan for Pandora – World of Avatar.

We were nearing the end of the day and felt like the best ending for the four of us would be a ride on Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage. I haven’t been shy in my love of the attraction and I’m thankful our friends loved the ride too! After how emotional it made me on our first ride back a few days earlier, it felt like a nice bookend to our three days at Tokyo Disney Resort.

Check out this banana man!

We decided to split up as I wanted to get a few photos around the park and the others wanted to get a ride and shopping in. I started in the alley of Arabian Coast before coming out the beautiful fountain and carousel.

After that, I headed toward Mysterious Island as the park was closing and I knew there was limited time to take more photos. I got lucky and caught a boat and plane passing through my frame in this long exposure.

Exploring Mysterious Island at night is a joy. There’s not many people around, as the restaurants are closed and whatever lines are left don’t affect the views. Guests can get down close to the water or do a full loop examining the different sections.

Mysterious Island feels a little more ominous at night too, which works in its favor. The mountain’s rumbles are more menacing and the soundscape isn’t quite spooky but it is, well, mysterious!

On top of that, DisneySea’s lighting package is unmatched. The royal gold, purple and blue are pronounced throughout the park once it gets dark. No other theme park is so uniform in its lighting, that really ties all of DisneySea together. The castle parks simply don’t have the infrastructure to make the light feel so united. The more recently built theme parks just aren’t as well thought out in terms of lighting. Some of that goes back to sightlines and making sure everything fits together. However they got there, DisneySea’s lighting is perfect.

Melissa met back up with me while I was in Mysterious Island and we both slowly walked our way out of the park. The clouds lined up behind Tower of Terror to make it look menacing.

This was a wonderful way to end one of the best days. We didn’t try to fit in as many attractions as possible but it did feel like we soaked in every detail of DisneySea that we could. Walking back to the hotel, MiraCosta guests stood in their windows and waved at us. Some made hearts with their hands and some blew kisses. It was all very whimsical and, until we return in June, a perfect sendoff. I stopped for one more photo.