So back to Space Mountain. Unlike California's Space Mountain the one in Tokyo Disneyland still doesn't have speakers in the seats. I liked it a lot! Just like the outward appearance of Tomorrow land the music-less Space Mountain brought back many memories. Also they still had the escalator in the front que unlike California's that got ripped out and replaced with a long walk back behind the Pizza Port to enter the que.
Growling stomachs brought us back to the west side of the park for lunch at the Blue Bayou which was still open even though Pirates was not. Food was of course definitely different than what you would get in the US thats for sure!
It had a tentacle, shrimp, okra, cold potatoes and some other fine extras. Surprisingly enough it filled me up enough to last the rest of the day until I was able to get a bento box at Tokyo station.Next up was a trip to the Autopia. Being a ride I used to work it was interesting to see. They don't get much shade to work in either. Let me tell you Autopia has to be one of the worst rides to work. Not only is there no shade, you are surrounded by cement which just makes it even more hot. Also those cars aren't electric so they do burn gas and you get to choke on the exhaust all day.
I haven't been on the one in California recently so I don't know if they have the same system but at Tokyo Disneyland the cars have an electronic cutout which stops your car in its tracks if it gets too close to the car ahead. Having seen many accidents/injuries because of bumping while I worked it I can see why from a safety standpoint. But to me it takes away too much fun from the ride. For me a big part of the fun was always crashing into your party members as you go around the track. Now its just a slow ride with nothing to look at and no fun to be had.
Pooh's ride was closed for rehab also when I went which sucked because that was one I was looking forward to with its magnetic operating system. Next time maybe.
Hot and Crowded!Next we attempted Splash Mountain which thanks to an ending parade and fastpass ended up being a nightmare wait. As someone who used to work in the parks let me tell you I hate fastpass. I liked working the Matterhorn because it didn't have fastpass. I liked working that ride when people would ask me where to get a fastpass and I could see the expression on their faces as I told them to go to the back of the line. I liked telling the wheelchair people too that our line was for the most part wheelchair accessible. What these people don't understand and something I experienced on Splash that day was fastpass slows the line down ridiculously. In the end you waste just as much time waiting in line to get a fastpass and then the que after using fastpass as you would have just getting in the line in the first place (as long as there is no fastpass). The Matterhorn's line because it didn't have to suffer from fastpass was always moving along at a fast and steady pace which kept the wait times down. Now thanks to fastpass the standby line completely stops and leaves you sitting there while they let all the fastpass on. Ok I will end my fastpass rant here since it's getting long but thanks to everyone using there fastpass at the same time after the parade ended the line for splash in the non-air conditioned tunnels of the que was a nightmare I don't wish to repeat.
The shooting gallery was fun also. There you win a plastic sheriffs type badge if you score a perfect 10/10 shots (for 200Y). So I had to do that twice (See all that marksmanship training in the Boy Scouts does come in handy even when you don't go to Iraq like a good trooper) to get some badges for me and the missus.
Big Thunder, Mansion, Star Tours and some shopping were about all we had time left for before we had to begin the mad dash to make the last Shinkansen to Hamamatsu of the night (actually there were two more trains we could have taken after ours but we didn't want to push it).
All in all it was fun. I would like to go back on a colder less crowded day thats for sure. Next time we go though it will be Tokyo Disney Sea. Most of the rides at Tokyo Disneyland are practically the same as California so I don't have that great of urge to go back to TDL. Especially since we will be getting season passes to Disneyland sometime soon.
