Tokyo Disney at Halloween

Ryan and I decided to check out Tokyo Disneyland this weekend since he had never been before and I was excited about all the Halloween decorations and atmosphere for October. It was insanely crowded, and quite a bit hotter than I'm used to for October, but it was still good fun. It's hard not to have a magical, imaginative time in a place so colourful and detailed and bursting with thematic personality. Everyone in Japan comes to Disneyland with serious purpose. There are matching couples and groups of friends all decked out in costumes and outfits- all totally disney themed. It's like a parade in itself just walking around. The food and snacks are also definitely the best.

It's fun to visit the different disney parks and take note of what tried and true familiar things stay the same, and then where the subtle differences are. I've been lucky enough to visit most of them on family trips and school trips: Anaheim when we were living in Arizona, Paris when we were living in Geneva, Orlando on a lucky spring break trip from New York, and Tokyo last time we were living here. They all have their unique perks. There's something extra cute about all the details in Tokyo Disney though- especially how the holidays are so hyped and festive. There were pumpkins and jackolanterns everywhere, and lots of torn orange and black tapestries and plenty of amazing pumpkin treats

It was so crowded that even though we got there at 8am, we didn't make it into the park until 9, and by the time we got a fast pass for the Haunted Mansion and used it at 11:30, all the fast passes for everything else were gone for the rest of the day, and all the lines for the rides were two hours or more of a wait. So this time around, we rode Peter Pan and explored Tom Sawyer's Island while waiting for our Haunted Mansion fast pass time, then we got to cash that in and finally experienced the fabled Nightmare Before Christmas makeover I've been so curious about for years. Afterwards we mostly just wandered around the different lands exploring the nooks and crannies and sampling the snacks unique to the park.

I really like that here in Tokyo Disney, Tom Sawyer's island is the still in its original form and hasn't been usurped by that pseudo pirate travesty like in California. It's such a fun exploresy place to get lost for a while- and I kind of love the bygone era- first wave disney flavor it still retains. It's also by FAR the least crowded area of the park, and we had so much fun clambering over the fake red rocks, sitting in tipis, scaling rickety rope bridges, and check out tree houses of our dreams. I also just really love the wood raft ride back and forth between the island and the main park area, especially when you get to pass the huge Mark Twain steamboat or see the canoers row by.

Also, two of my favorite rides, It's a Small World, and Thunder Mountain were closed for the day, so that was a huge bummer- but I guess the lines would've just been too long anyway. All in all it was probably the most anticlimactic visit to Disneyland ever- we definitely rode the least amount of rides this time, and Ryan started feeling sick around 5, so we just went home, which leaving disney at 5pm!? I have NEVER done that before) was a kind of sad end to the day, but at least we had the time to see the Haunted Mansion redesign for Halloween and eat mickey waffles, which were two things I hadn't tried yet and had always wanted to.