Japan Trip Day 9 (PM) - 10: Vacation Package (New Year's Eve and New Year's Day at Disneyland and Disneysea)

I previously shared that this Vacation Package planning has been a madness (here and here) and it does not end yet. The actual details of the package were only sent last week where it is written as Year End / New Year standard 3-day plan which means the ticket includes 2 Jan. This is never made known in the website since the package is called New Year's Eve / New Year's Day. Our return ticket is for 2 Jan so basically we will be wasting another day of playing. I was even contemplating to forgo my air ticket and redeem a new ticket for 3 Jan but in the end common sense triumph. It does not make sense to pay another night of hotel stay which is more expensive than a one day ticket to Disneyland. Another bullshit is about running out of Vacation Package special ticket holder as well as Vacation Package blanket (one of the options for the Vacation Package special  goodies). Aaaargh.. I felt super cheated. I could not even cancel the plan as any cancellation within 21 days before the package start day already incurred 30% penalty and all these were only informed 10 days before the start day.

In 2017, I stayed at Disney Ambassador Hotel. This time I am staying at Disney Celebration Hotel - Discover for the same price although Disney Celebration Hotel is considered value-type (aka cheaper) although both are still official Disney Resort hotels. Two main differences for this so-called value-type are: it is located far from Disneyland and Disneysea (20 minutes away with shuttle bus) and we cannot use Disney Welcome Centre to check in and drop our luggage. Other than these, I think the rest is comparable.

The only thing I took photo of in the hotel. I would recommend to stay at Wish (instead of Discover). Wish has Minnie statue at the lobby and Cheshire Cat in the garden. At Discover, Mickey statue is at the lobby but the garden only has some random ship.

Feels smaller than Disney Ambassador Hotel room but with the 2 sofa beds, this room can fit 4

Closer look of the wall decoration (right side)

Closer look of the wall decoration (left side)

More limited toiletries that are Disney-decorated

Room cardkey holder. The cardkey itself is not personalised.

The park opened at 8pm but I did not want to tire myself. Since Fantasmic was scheduled at 920pm, my goal was to reach before that. After around 2 hours nap, I ate my dinner purchased from the convenience store in the hotel and I took a shower first. My parents called to settle my winter clothes that my dad wanted to borrow so I had a better picture of how much space I was left with in the luggage and how much more I could shop.

We left hotel at around 830pm and reached Disneysea around 9pm. I was relieved that there was no queue and in general the park was not as crazy as in the morning during normal operating hours. At least this crazily expensive package indeed gave a unique overnight experience as well as lighter crowd. We received Happy New Year 2020 glow stick upon entry. We went to get our ticket holder first. Initially we thought we could get any ticket holder in the store but nope. Our choice was limited to Mike (from Monster Inc) or Buttercup (from Toy Story 4). Sigh.. definitely the not so popular ones. For the Vacation Package special goods, I chose the Mickey and Minnie Vacation Package hanging plushie and omg.. they are small and the faces look shit. I was excited with them in the photos and I was planning to take photo with the characters while holding this. I changed my mind.

Tokyo Disney Resort New Year's Eve 2020 glow stick

Mickey and Minnie in their Vacation Package outfit but their faces ...

Bad luck still continued as due to weather condition, Fantasmic was cancelled and even the New Year's firework might also be cancelled. The strong wind was still ongoing and it was cold despite me wearing 5 layers of top: ultra warm heat tech, ski base layer, fleece, fleece jacket, and ultra light down. These are my thickest winter clothes and I did not even wear this much for snow at Shirakawago few days ago.

After the magical Christmas decorations which were bright and full of lights, the decorations for new year were lacklustre. The lights were not even turned on at the entrance where the new year barrels are. There was official photographer at Mickey but not at Minnie. I was so speechless since my sister forgot to bring her photo keycard. Sigh.. Bless the nice cameraman who was not racist. Despite realising that we are foreigners who want to take photos separately, when he saw my photo keycard, he offered to combine both mine and my sister's into one order.

I am not sure why they did not offer official photos at Minnie which was just a few steps away. Thank God I bought new camera so at least decent photos at low light condition was still possible. The queue at Minnie was shorter than 10 people so we queued there. This was when I started to get angry again. Same position, same camera, same low light condition and yet my sister took fucked up blurry photos of me. She also did not tell me when my standing position covered the writing. I even re-queued and still get blurry photos. Really fucker.

 The decorations for new year the entrance of Disneysea are just these (taken during Happy 15 entry)

We decided to 'jump' to Disneyland to take photos with the new year decorations there. It was more crowded than Disneysea but there was not really a queue to enter. The new year barrels were even more disappointing than Disneysea. Similarly, the official photographer was only at Mickey and the queue was much longer than at Disneysea so it was a pass. Again at Minnie, queued 2 times for mostly blurry photos.

And I forgot to take photo of the Minnie version.. or at daytime with better light.. sigh..

Magic and miracle did not happen as the castle was still covered but at least they added 2020 LED to the castle front where Mickey usually appears during evening light show. I preferred watching the New Year's show at Disneysea but due to the tight timing, we decided to just stay at Disneyland. We managed to get a somewhat good place. In fact, that was the best at that time since after I did not manage to find a better spot after walking around.

The weather was still windy and chilling but luckily the countdown event was not cancelled. During the wait, they were playing all the music used in the parades throughout the year. I was honestly disappointed with the countdown event. Without the castle, no matter how good the fireworks and the lights were, it would not be good. The only saving grace was the show lasted for a good 10-15 minutes so it was kinda worth the wait. In fact, the only evening fireworks and light show that really impressed me was the 35th Anniversary show which included water from the area in front of the castle as well as light show including the plaza/garden in front of the castle.

My view before the countdown

With the castle under renovation and dark, it was just bad...

After almost an hour under the winter cold, we found ourselves too cold to anything. We decided to eat buffet at Crystal Palace to warm ourselves. First time ever to have buffet at past midnight so how to not gain weight... We stayed through the 90 minutes and it was kinda wasted because we still felt cold despite the food and hot tea. I knew I had to abandon the idea of enjoying the park until 6am as it was simply impossible for me physically :( Initially I wanted to take photos with the characters to experience how it felt at past midnight leh T_T

I insisted on checking out Mickey's house and on the way, I suggested to try Stitch's Encounter in an attempt to warm ourselves since it is an indoor attraction. It was 5 minutes waiting time (a.k.a no queue) but I will not do this attraction anymore. The attraction simulates our encounter with Stitch in space and it is just interactions like Stitch randomly selecting the audience to say their names and say funny things and all that. As I do not speak Japanese, I had no idea what was going on and I was super stressed if I was 'selected' by the camera to interact with Stitch. I am pretty sure the interaction is not computerised but there is a cast member voicing Stitch since the interaction was personalised with details such as repeating the audience's name and where they came from etc.

The queue for Mickey's house was just as long as day time. No way I could last another 80 minutes there. That would be insanity. My sister suggested to enter Goofy's house that I never entered before. There was almost no queue and instead of a walkthrough like Mickey and Minnie's house, inside Goofy's house is a random shooting game. There is no target and no purpose whatsoever so it is just randomly shooting the guns to 'paint' the walls. Damn lame but the shooter is something like a cannon and shooting is by pulling the string at the end of the barrel. As random and purposeless as it is, having to shoot as many as possible means a good workout pulling at the string.

On the way out, I had hot cocoa using the free drink pass from the Vacation Package and that still did not warm my body. I was so cold that I was thinking of just going back to the hotel at this point and forgoing the official photo taken at Disneysea earlier. It was decided to just press on to collect the photo but no further playing or character photos at Disneysea. We went back to the hotel after that.

I planned to have a short nap and wake up at 6am but I could not. Luckily I still got up at 645am to quickly shower. My sister did something to the toilet and the door was somehow locked from outside. I wanted to utilise Happy 15 entry no matter what so even shitting business took a back seat for now. Disneysea opened at 8am today and dang, the Happy 15 entrance was like the furthest counter from the station exit. By the way for Happy 15, the cast member simply took the Happy 15 slip without scanning the park ticket so technically I could use my sister's to enter Disneyland which opened at 830am. I entered at 750am but I did not see any characters around leh.

It was quite an experience to enter before the park officially opened. Many cast members were lining up in front at the start of the day to welcome visitors. Instead of running for fast pass and all that, I saw people asking cast members to help taking photos with the New Year decoration so I followed. I managed to take with Minnie without photobombers but not for Mickey thanks to the inconsiderate asshole family in front me who took their own sweet time with repeated photos. By the time it was my turn, the park officially opened and the crowd started streaming in.

I went to Abu's Bazaar first and the whole area was empty. I felt so intimidated to queue and play: just imagine me as the only person there vs so many cast members at the cashiers, game stations, and queue poles. So I decided to take photos at the greeting trails and suprise, the queue for Mickey and Minnie already went past 30 minutes. I went for Donald since it was only 5 minutes queue and I did not have the chance to use my photo keycard with Donald during Christmas. I noticed that since the queue was not that long yet, Donald actually spent more time playing with us. Hehe.. By the time I was done, the wait time was reaching half an hour for Donald and went past 40 minutes for Mickey and Minnie.

I bought a 500 yen hot dog at a stall opposite Yucatan there since I had not eaten breakfast. I went back to Abu Bazaar and I could only play one game as the queue started to grow. I regretted for being shy earlier since there are 5 pins (Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, and Chandu) and the theme is Genie's lamp!! I picked Chandu pin first since it is my first time seeing him in the pin prize. It was close to 9am so after hesitating between leaving for Disneyland immediate or waiting for characters, I decided to wait until 9am first. Too bad the character which came out was Abu T_T Abu's face is damn ugly and that's why I don't bother with Abu. I want Aladdin or Jasmine leh...

I feel so curious on why Disneyland feels more crowded than Disneysea this time. The queue for Mickey's new year decoration that I skipped last night because of the long queue simply became impossible as the queue this morning was even longer! Bleah... I took the ticket for Zootopia as previously I did not get Nick with my photo keycard (sigh.. it made me angry to think of that racist photographer again...). I was there before 10am so it was almost 1.5 hours after park opening time and I got 115pm slot. That confirms that there is no need to chiong for this anymore unlike my April trip when the ticket already ran out within 15 minutes.

With about 10 minutes until the New Year's Greetings parade, I was lucky to still able an open unobstructed area to watch. The New Year's Greetings parade concluded that it was not worth spending the money for New Year's Vacation Package. There were only 1 car (Clarice, Chip, and Dale), 1 float (Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Pluto) while Max and Goofy were walking on the street. That was all.

I was thinking to have early lunch at Queen of Hearts banquet. I saw Cinderella and Fairy Godmother just came out around that area and I wasted half an hour without getting chosen for pictures. Sigh..  Only managed to shake hands as she shook hands with those in the first row before she left. I waited for another 15 minutes in hope of catching another character appearing but there was not any. The queue for Queen of Hearts were already long so I decided to find other restaurants in the front part of the park that I seldom explored.

Why did you never choose me for a photo? T_T

I decided to be nice for a lunch together but she made me fed up again. How did it take her almost 20 minutes from the pavilion to the Adventure Land area. Bleah.. I even finished one cup of hot cocoa and she still had not reached. Although there was no physical queue, Blue Bayou had to be reserved and the next available slots were 2 hours later. So we tried Cafe Orleans instead. From no queue when I first arrived, the queue was long 20 minutes later but lucky we still got a seat. This was the most 'extravagant' meal I ever had because I ordered curry and ratatouille pita sandwich, banana chocolate crepe, cheese caramel milk tea, and lastly oolong tea for the sake of using free drinks pass. The sandwich was weird but the crepe and milk tea were good.

We split ways after that as my time to take photo with Nick was soon. Before that I caught a glimpse of Jamboree! Mickey which is really a kids' show. So it was worth skipping that last week haha.. Taking photo with Nick was fun but it was not as memorable as the one who even messed up my hair during Christmas.

At this point, I decided to go back to rest in the hotel since there was nothing else I was really looking forward to do: my sister messaged me that it was 2 hours queue at Mickey's house, I already saw Dreaming Up! and the New Year's Greetings, and I was not that into the rides. With the ongoing renovation and long queue for the New Year decorations outside, I doubted that there would be characters like last week. And here was where things suddenly became interesting...

The characters were out there hehe.. I queued for Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip and the wait time was 50 minutes. I did not get them as they changed characters after every 25-30 minutes. Firstly they changed to Peter Pan and Wendy which I already had from my April trip. While queueing, the cast members mentioned periodically of the characters that might appear and I heard Mary so I thought well Peter Pan would be better than Mary Poppins.

After Peter Pan, they changed the location to the far corner of the entrance so it was not that obvious to the crowd that there was a character greeting going on. This was a blessing because the queue was getting shorter and I kept rejoining the queue for more characters. In the end, the character during my turn was Flynn Rider but without Rapunzel. It was nice interacting with him as he is not a prince so we were quite casual. For example, he put his hands on my shoulders to direct me to the photo spot. I asked where Rapunzel was and after that he talked about my attire. I think conversation topic #101 for these characters would be the clothes since previously Peter Pan, Wendy, and Mary Poppins also used clothes as conversation topic.

Flynn  Rider

I went to toilet first and after that I caught Prince Philip who just appeared as roaming character. As he was alone, there were not many people crowding him. When there were not many people, usually the characters would notice who were there first and that was how I got chosen. I said he was the first prince character that I ever spoke too (Sorry Aladdin but even with Prince Ali attire, you are still Aladdin) and somehow the conversation went back to clothes!! Gosh.. Haha he said I wore princely colours (red and blue) although I had been wondering why his colours were not black and red like in the cartoon. I saw this character alone at Christmas but I was only sure that this is Prince Phillip just now when he was with Sleeping Beauty.

Roaming Prince Phillip

When I went back to the queue for characters, it was still Flynn so I waited for about 5 more people in the queue before I queued again so that I could get the next character change. The 'Mary' that I heard turned to be Marie from Aristocats. Although I prefer human characters, I do not have photos with her yet so it is okay. To make it better, Marie was not alone but with another 2 cats that I had to google the names since I never watch Aristocats. The one that I was expecting to be the most boring turned to be the most fun. These three cats were really playful and crazy in a good way. They did crazy and different poses for the photo while for the interaction, it was as if each of them was trying to get attention of the person. It was crazily fun.

From Aristocats: Berlioz (black fur), Marie, and Toulouse (brown fur)

The next character was Alice, Tweedledee and Tweedledum. I would prefer Alice with Mad Hatter as both are humans but really, interacting with more characters at one time turns to be crazier and more fun. I asked a genuine question of how to differentiate Dee and Dum and Alice showed me that their names were actually sown on their clothes. Again the conversation went about the clothes as she asked why my name was not on my clothes. Lol. She asked for my name and at the end she said bye with my name.

I learnt from my stupidity with Jasmine this April and I did not reject Alice's goodbye hug

Next were Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip. Prince Phillip was still by the same guy earlier and he still remembered what we were talking about earlier (clothes!) as he was telling Aurora about our earlier conversation. For the final one, finally I got Cinderella with Prince Charming. Haha.. Before talking about clothes, I asked about their renovated castle so that was the topic.

Prince Charming and Cinderella

So the afternoon nap ended up becoming a 3-hour character greetings. Hehe.. The change of location was really a blessing because after that I got every single change of characters which meant that it took only about 30 mins maximum for the queue. I felt quite paiseh as the cast members were not changing but there were many others who also re-queued again and again. There were even guys doing that. Thanks to them I did not feel paiseh. The cast members were also very nice as some of them even said welcome back haha..

I start to feel that the cast members are getting more generous with the photos. While they are still strict with 1 camera per party and 1 shoot, they were taking pictures even when we were interacting and few of them took multiple shots when we posed for that 1 shoot.

Taking photos when the characters randomly changed is always stressful for me. After today, I have photos with a lot of characters already so for the next visits I guess I can just enjoy the interaction with whomever instead of aiming for specific ones. Lastly, I am surprised that the princesses are actually more fun to interact with compared to the princes. The princes are acting and speaking in a more prim and proper manner that I felt as if talking to someone acting. With the princesses, I felt like talking to another normal person. I suppose this is an evidence of how well these characters are trained as Aladdin and Flynn did not give the same vibes as Prince Phillip and Prince Charming.

Cold took over me so instead of going to rest at the hotel, I went to have early dinner at Plasma Ray's Diner. I was left with outdoor seats but the tall glass panel at least helped to block the wind. Then I used fast pass for Space Mountain. I never tried this and my sister said it was good when she tried earlier. Despite the fast pass, the whole thing took me half an hour from door to door but I have to say it was worth it. This is definitely one of the more fun attraction at Disneyland. I even find it better than Buzz's Astro Blaster. I was tempted to use the next fast pass (just for the sake of not wasting them) for Pooh Hunny Hunt but if it would take me another half an hour, I would definitely not be resting so I abandoned that idea.

I returned to hotel not to nap. I bought the Disney food stuff at the hotel and started to do some packing. I returned to Disneysea to catch Fantasmic for one last time. Fantasmic is ending its run this coming March so tonight was my last time seeing it and it was nice watching it from beneath Mt Prometheus. Fantasmic is really amazing since it is still nice and enjoyable from there, considering there is the 'back' of the show. Before the show, I went to Zambini Brothers to have 3 churros hahaha... I got another 2 of the Soaring one and 1 of the potato cheese.

Tonight's weather was very comfortable. It was not crazily windy like yesterday. If yesterday's weather was like tonight, I am sure I could last until 6am and fully maximised the New Year's Eve. Oh well, weather is something that I can control so I can only enjoy what I have. I met up with my sister again after Fantasmic and to close the night, we played at Abu's Bazaar just for two games before the queue became long. I got Mickey and Minnie pins. We used another fast pass for Indiana Jones and then to end everything, we rested our butts and legs at Sinbad.

This Vacation Package has been a huge mistake: wasted 1 day (for tomorrow), ugly Vacation Package goodies, castle under renovation, cold weather, did not do much during the New Year's Eve, terrible photos by my sister, not even utilising all the fast passes (I only used 2 out of 4), and only utilising the free drinks for only 6 cups. However, at the end of everything, the 3 hours worth of character greetings really made my day. With the end of my free visa to Japan, it will be another 2 years at least before I will visit Japan again. I am alright not going next year due to the Olympics 2020 crowd. Hopefully at my next visit, the crowd for the new attractions (Beauty and the Beast, Baymax, and Minnie's photo house) opening next spring would already lighten. I also hope it can finally be a stay at Hotel Miracosta. Hehe...