Planning Tokyo Disney? David Shares Everything He Learned! [Ep.991]

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As we ride through the Grand Canyon concourse, you can see one of the largest ceramic murals ever created.

It's nine stories high and it's made up of 18,000 hand painted tiles.

Elevators running through the center will carry you high above to the Top of the World restaurant where famous stars entertain.

Hey everybody, thanks for joining us.

I'm Tim Scott.

This is resortloop.com, the gateway to the magic.

Thrilled to be joined by Mr. David Poole.

David, how are you doing today?

I'm doing great.

It's a Monday, but the weather is great out here.

The wind is blowing.

Well, you're in California, so it's always great there, right?

Yes, absolutely.

That's one of the main reasons to live here.

Well, David has been a friend of the show for a very long time.

Love David.

Have taken several group trips together, having a great time.

But David, we're going to talk about a trip you took that was not a group trip.

At least not yet.

No, we're going to talk about you going to Japan.

Yes.

And to Tokyo Disneyland.

Absolutely.

So before we get into this, tell us, like, how long have you been a Disney fan?

Like, what's your Disney story?

Well, when you live about 30 minutes from Disneyland, you kind of grow up going there.

It was something we went to for birthdays and special events and in the summertime.

And my mother was a member, she worked for Xerox and she was called a member of the Magic Kingdom Club, I think it was.

And one of her jobs in HR was she was supposed to get all the Xerox employees to go to Disneyland.

And once a year she would be invited down to Disneyland and bring my brother and my dad and the four of us would go.

And for about two hours she would have to leave and go to a meeting and hear all about the new stuff coming.

So she would go tell all the employees.

So we would probably go many times a year because of that.

And then sometime I think in the 90s, we got annual passes and you know, it just, it's just fun.

When I was working, it was like on the way home, you could just stop by Disneyland for dinner.

Oh, that's left coast locals to the Disney parks.

Yes.

Oh, that's fantastic.

All right, David, so this leads me to like a question.

At what point do you decide, you know what I need to go across the Pacific?

I need to go to Tokyo Disneyland.

It was probably in the springtime.ish of 2024.

And I saw on the Internet that Space Mountain was going to be closed and demolished and that was going to happen at the end of July that summer.

And even though I had already booked some trips, including the Alaska cruise that you booked us, which was the end of June into July that summer, I'm like, I need to go ride Space Mountain before they tear it down.

So I just booked a trip to do Tokyo Disneyland for four days and have a great time.

So what's involved in planning?

Because Japan is one of those destinations I really can't help with a whole lot.

They do things totally different over there.

And it's not even actually the Walt Disney Company, it's that Oriental Land company, actually company.

Right.

How difficult was that?

Because I tried to help you out where I could and it was just like everything had to be done better yourself.

What I ended up doing is I went online and you create an account and put the app on your phone.

And then I started looking at packages and it was very confusing to me.

I could not figure out how to customize a package.

What I wanted and what I ended up doing is booking a package at the middle hotel because they had the fancy Disneyland hotel right in the park and then they had some that were out closer to the water.

But one that looked like middle price, middle range was called the Disney Ambassador Hotel.

Okay.

But I could only book a package that gave me two nights.

It gave me three days in the parks, but only two nights.

That math doesn't work.

So I figured out, yeah, it didn't work for me, but so I finally figured out how I booked that package, which gave me three days of park tickets, two nights, and then I booked a single night the night before and a single night the night after.

Okay, same hotel.

Okay.

Yeah, same hotel.

Okay.

And I was in the same room.

I couldn't move.

Fantastic.

You know, when I checked in, they could see what I was doing, but it just had to be three separate transactions.

So when I, when I flew over, I had a long 12 hour flight from LAX and I went overnight.

So I arrived in the morning, like 6 in the morning.

Wow.

Okay.

So I wasn't sure what I was going to, how I was going to be feeling.

So I didn't book a park day that day.

So my three park days that were included were the following three days in a row.

Okay.

Well, as it turns out, I got there and I was able to sleep pretty good on the plane.

So I got there to Tokyo Haneda Airport, and it wasn't too hard to find the ground transportation area.

I got my suitcases, I got there.

There were other people there waiting to go to Walt Disney or to Tokyo Disney.

And so we got in and I had booked a ticket on the bus.

And finally the bus pulled up and we got there.

One of the funny things I thought about the buses was the bus left, picked us up, went to another terminal and picked up more people.

And I thought, there's no room for any of these people.

The bus is full.

Well, you know, you have a school bus like, and it's two seats on each side, however many rows.

But the seats across the aisle had a little fold down seat.

So they filled the aisle in with people sitting finkle file.

I'm like, I don't think codes would allow us to do that in America.

Probably not.

Anyways, so I got to the Disneyland Ambassador Hotel around nine in the morning.

I felt great.

They took my luggage and they sold me a ticket to Tokyo Disneyland right there at the hotel desk.

Okay.

So I bought a ticket and it was like 60 bucks and I went in and that was my first day at Disney.

Tokyo Disneyland.

Wow.

So when you go into the park, how's it feel?

Does it feel similar?

Totally different?

I mean, I can't imagine.

Well, I knew that Tokyo Disneyland was designed after the one in Anaheim that I go to.

Okay.

So I was kind of expecting the same thing.

You know, you go in down Main Street, Castle, Tomorrowland to the right, et cetera and all that.

Well, the one thing that did get me is when you go through and you go through underneath the Disneyland Hotel.

Cause they have a hotel right there, kind of like in Paris, that you walk under.

They have Main street, but it's enclosed, it's got a roof over it.

So that was diffa.

That's right, yes.

When I got through, I saw the castle and I'm like, okay, I could do this.

I know right where I am.

Something else that was interesting was I saw all of these markings all over the sidewalks and I'm like, what are all these markings?

And I asked someone there and they said, oh, those are your reserved spots to stand to see the parade go by.

Wow.

So you can reserve any A52 next to A53, A54.

It's all marked on the sidewalks where you stand.

Wow.

I can only imagine if it was here, you'd have to ask people to move off your spot.

Exactly, exactly.

Oh my gosh.

I mean, I had a good time.

The package deal I received had like I said, the two nights of hotel the Three park days.

And then it came with all kinds of extra stuff that I didn't even notice when I was looking when I was booking it.

But there were certain attractions that you could book a time, kind of like a fast pass.

You're booking it, which day do you want to go on it and at what time?

There was maybe four or five of those.

There were other little coupons in there that would get you a fast pass to any attraction on those two days.

Okay.

You know, so those, you had those.

In addition, there was a coupon that got me soda at any walk up service, counter service.

All the whole days I was there.

I just go up, show em that little ticket and they gave me a coke.

Nice.

Or what did I start drinking something that was like a soda iced tea.

They have this soda iced tea there that I really like.

Like a special Japanese soda.

Yeah, okay.

It was good.

There was a coupon for a free gift.

I also received three dinners included and I had to pick which restaurants I wanted.

I'm a little, a bit of a picky eater when it comes to foreign countries.

Yeah, I heard it.

I'm not a seafood person you have to do, you know, so.

But I booked an Italian restaurant one night I booked a regular American restaurant in Tokyo Disneyland.

And I booked a meal on.

They have the ship, the SS American over in Tokyo Disneysea.

And I booked a dinner there.

Oh, it also came with 2oz at 2 or 3.

And each morning I got breakfast at the Ambassador Hotel at Chef Mickey's kitchen.

So I went in there and when you go into the restaurant you get a sign that'll say American or Western breakfast to the right and Japanese breakfast to the left.

And so I like okay, I'll go to the western.

And I recognized about half the stuff on the western.

I mean I have had scrambled eggs.

I could tell there was bacon there.

And I thought well where do you cook it?

Because it didn't look cooked.

But evidently it had been boiled.

And so you could eat the bacon.

But it wasn't crispy.

It was still.

That doesn't sound good at all.

I mean it tasted okay.

Okay.

And then there was corn chowder on the western breakfast buffet.

Okay.

So that was something different.

But I, you know, I did fine.

I ate.

Did you walk over to the.

I did a lot of their attractions.

I did a lot of the fantasy land they, they have.

They have a Baymax ride in there.

How was that?

It was fun.

That was.

It's kind of like the, the one we have where maters ride Maters swinging, whatever, you know, they swing around the attraction.

There is the cast members during the ride, once they push the go button, they have to sing and dance and wave their tail at you.

It's more fun watching them.

Right, right.

Of course.

The Beauty and the Beast attraction was amazing.

I went on the Winnie the Pooh.

That was the very first Disney attraction to ever have the trackless cars.

You know, is now in so many that I guess that was the very first one.

Wonderful.

That was fun.

Of course, I loved Space Mountain.

They had a big structure out in front of it saying Space Mountain.

The final ignition, I think it was.

And they had a little section to the left of it where you could go and sit in one of the cars and have your picture taken, you know, right there set up nice.

Yeah, that was fun.

Now, one of the other things I remember is I took two suitcases, not because I needed to.

Right.

But the popcorn buckets there are huge.

So big that there is even a store that does sells nothing but the popcorn buckets.

And you can go in there and get.

And I ended up bringing about 10 home.

And so I had a separate suitcase.

And I kind of used clothes to, like, wrap around them to get them home.

Because I had several requests from people at home that wanted the Peter Pan one, the Beauty and the Beast one, these that you can't get in America.

Right, right.

So I did that.

They had a.

A little thing that you can use, you can buy.

I think it was like the equivalent of like six or seven dollars.

And it was like tongs to eat your popcorn.

So you don't have to touch the popcorn.

You know, you could pick it up with little tongs.

And they have some very strange flavors of popcorn.

I've heard they have strange.

And they have tons of different ones.

Yes, lots of different ones.

The roast beef one was kind of weird.

That's the one I tried.

But I mean, yeah.

The hotel I stayed at, the Ambassador, was a beautiful hotel.

Right next to it is a big mall, kind of like their Downtown Disney or Disney Springs.

Okay.

It's called Ixapari or something like that.

And it's on the monorail.

They have a monorail that goes from all the hotels and to the two theme parks and the shopping center.

So that was nice.

The bus service from my hotel to both parks went right in.

I mean, right up to the front.

I was right up by the gate, so that was good.

David, tell me, do the Disney resorts there have the same kind of feel as the Disney resorts at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

Can you tell you're in a Disney resort when you're there?

I did, definitely the Ambassador Hotel.

I stayed in a beautiful lobby with a piano, and it was playing itself every time I was there.

But I'm assuming at certain hours they would have a pianist come in and play, but it was always playing Disney music.

And the artwork, everything on the wall was totally Disney themed.

Okay, now we're talking about Tokyo Disneyland.

But I know a lot of people always say Tokyo Disneysea, maybe the best themed park Disney has ever made.

What are your thoughts on that?

Have you thought the same thing?

I have to agree.

I have to agree.

It blew me away because you go in there without.

It's not the walk in and see the castle at the center and spoke around it.

You came in and there was a big globe spinning, and then you made a turn.

And since it's called Tokyo Disneysea, instead of lands, they're all, like, water things, like ports and the American Bay and Fantasy Springs.

It's all labeled water things.

Some of the attractions, I'm like, okay, I'll check this out.

And it, oh, this is Soarin, but it's not Soarin over California.

Soarin over the world.

It was Soarin over there, you know?

Okay.

And then in the.

Like I said, in the American side, they had the ship, the SS American, I think.

And that's where they have their Tower of Terror.

And right in the front, you look across and you see the giant volcano that erupts.

And in that water, they had their kind of like their fantasmic at night.

Every night, there was a big show that went on with water and fireworks and lights.

And I stayed to watch that show.

The first night I was there.

That was fun.

And again, I had tickets.

I had a ticket, a Fast Pass ticket for the ride Journey to the center of the Earth.

And I didn't even realize I had it.

So I went there and I waited in line about 40 minutes to ride it.

And then when I was back to my room, I noticed I had one.

So the next day, I rode it without waiting in line.

I used the Fast Pass ticket.

They had just opened within a few months, a new area called Fantasy Springs.

And Fantasy Springs is like a land that has frozen Peter Pan and Tangled.

And each one has a ride or two.

There's two Peter Pan rides, there's one frozen ride, there's one Tangled Rapunzel ride, and different places to eat and all.

And that was the big thing to get in.

And my package let me not wait in line to get into the land.

Oh, wow.

And to fast pass on to all these attractions.

So it was definitely worth it for that.

And I didn't even know I got that right.

I got in the regular line and somebody looked at me and pulled me.

No, no, no.

You have the wristband.

You go over here.

Okay.

So what was the.

So that was fun.

What was your favorite ride at Fantasy Springs?

In Fantasy Springs, I probably liked the Peter Pan ride.

Okay.

The first Peter Pan ride, because there's two.

Um, it was.

You're in Captain Hook boat and you're flying around chasing.

It was a lot more than our Peter Pan riding.

Okay, wonderful.

Um, how was communication?

How was the communication there?

Like, did most people.

Did they have signs in English?

Did people speak English?

Could you get where you needed to go without a problem?

Yeah, signs were both.

And I had no problem asking people where to go, talking to any of the cast members.

They were there to help me wherever I needed.

Yeah, it was totally easy.

Oh, wonderful, wonderful.

What was the most bizarre, like meal or food or snack or whatever you might have seen over there that you would never see in one of our parks domestically here?

Well, I guess my most bizarre meal was in the SS American Restaurant.

And they had to send.

There was a. I guess you'd say a bus person that was.

Spoke English.

Okay.

So the waiter that was waiting on me didn't.

But I ended up talking to the bus person.

And it was like this six course meal.

And I'm like, okay, I'll try this and I try that, and then they're going to bring me the fish course.

And I'm like, no, I don't want the fish course.

And that they.

They ended up bringing.

And I go, no, no, take it away.

I don't want you fish.

That was what.

I couldn't do that.

Yeah, right, right.

That was weird.

And some of the weird popcorn flavors would have been the weirdest thing.

How many different ones did you end up trying?

I think I tried three.

The roast beef one was the one I remember the most.

And it wasn't bad.

It's just a shock for that to be in popcorn.

Right, right, right.

Do you notice any difference with the.

The guest experience?

There?

Were the guests different than maybe they are domestically.

Everything the same.

There's a lot of younger people.

A lot of younger people.

I mean, I had heard that it was a lot of family groups, though.

Grandparents and parents and kids and.

Yes, there was some, but I just saw more teenage 20s there, and especially the girls.

And they had all the ears and they had all the things clamped onto their, their backpacks and everything.

The Duffy is big there, Duffy the bear and there's a whole section, I think it was in Tokyo Disneysea where they had Duffy and Duffy's friends and there's about six or seven other animal there, animal friends there.

Wow.

Wow.

I know you talked about the popcorn buckets.

How was the, Was there a bigger or more interesting selection of merchandise?

I wouldn't say there was a lot much different.

They had the usual trinkets, stuffed animals that.

The one disappointment for me was the T shirts did not come in my size.

Oh no.

Oh no.

Yeah.

They don't get a lot of bigger people there, so.

Well, they should have some.

I mean they have sumo wrestlers there, right?

I know.

Yeah, exactly.

I looked, but oh my.

That's why they have Etsy, I guess for that kind of thing.

Yeah.

Oh, but you know, it was a great trip.

Like I said, the airline, I mean the air flight was easy getting from the airport there and you know, I'm always a little nervous my first time going by myself, but it was fine.

I was able to figure out where I'm going.

Well, you're a big traveler.

You traveled all over.

What is maybe some tips you'd give to somebody.

They're going to take their first maybe major trip out of this country and decide to go to Tokyo Disneyland.

Book as much as you can in advance like I did.

I got my package.

So everything was paid for and you have.

When you're at home, you can look up the converter from dollars to yen.

A lot easier than maybe trying to do it on the supply when you're in a store or something.

Like I said, if you can sleep on a plane, it was no problem getting right from the airport, checking in, holding the bags, going into the hotel, I mean going into the parks, that was great.

Just like Walt Disney World.

I think you should stay on a property.

I didn't see other hotels or anything around.

I mean the monorail took me to I think three hotels out by the bay.

One was, I think the Toy Story Hotel and I forget the other two.

And then of course the big Disneyland hotel in the center.

That was the priciest one.

But no, this was great.

It was.

And I thought, well, I wish I would have then added a few extra days maybe and gone to see other parts of Japan.

Right, right.

You know, that I didn't do because I was just coming off of an 11 day cruise to Alaska and I had other stuff going, you Know, was busy right now.

Since you have done a lot of flying, would you recommend that somebody's maybe coming from the east coast, maybe like stop at California or just maybe take a flight, just get straight to Tokyo?

Because that's going to be a really long flight.

Yeah.

If you were.

Yeah, I mean, I guess there's a.

Nonstop from the East Coast.

That would be more like 17 hours or so.

It would have to be.

Yeah.

Either from New York or Chicago, Atlanta.

Yeah.

Whatever you do.

I would say look at the timing, the timing of your schedule because you know, you have the date line and it works for me to fly that way on a 12 hour flight nonstop at night because I can make sure I'm tired when I get on the plane.

I could take a NyQuil if I need to.

You know, I was lucky that I was able to bump up to a business class seat which they lie flat.

Oh, nice.

And they bring you a blanket and a pillow and I could zonk out.

Right.

That was easy, right?

Yeah, I've done that to Australia and back, you know, it's just so much easier.

Last October I flew from China home.

We have our airport here in town.

Ontario International Airport has some nonstop flights from Taiwan to Ontario now.

Wow.

It's new.

They're working on getting more and so I was able to do that and I did, I was, I got.

It was like eight or nine at night, China time.

I took some NyQuil and I slept on the plate.

Ho.

When you flew over there, did you fly like a. I don't want to call them non American Airlines.

I'm just curious.

Like a foreign.

I flew American Airlines over there.

Okay.

I just wonder because sometimes they say it's, you know, if you can ride, take Korea air, it's fantastic.

Or you know, any of the other foreign carriers or sometimes have great first class options.

I've flown on, I flew on Japan Airlines but not to Tokyo.

Okay.

And I've flown on China Airlines, but yeah, I'm not adverse to taking some of those other airlines.

I'd love to give them a try.

Yeah.

It's just that when you've, you've been flying American all my life mainly and I have the frequent flyer miles to use for those things.

Right, right.

Right now they have a code share or something.

I forget what they call it that you can use your frequent flyer miles from an American carrier for some of the others.

That's how I ended up on Royal Jordanian Airlines last fall.

I caught an eye roll in there sitting there.

I never would have Picked that.

Yeah.

I never would have picked it.

It wouldn't show up in your normal searches.

So you were over there for.

You said you were in Tokyo for four days.

I was at.

Yeah, Tokyo for four days.

Yeah, I was there actually, five.

I came home on the fifth day.

Okay.

But yeah, I stayed four nights at the Disneyland Ambassador Hotel.

Did that give you enough time to see everything you wanted to see?

Would you wish you had more space, more time?

I.

For me, I could being one person by myself so I could go and do what I wanted when I wanted.

It was great.

If you're with a family, you may need an extra day or so.

Okay.

You know, because you're different people having to take breaks at different times, and people may not all be ready to go in the morning or ready to go at home at night.

You know, single, traveling.

It was fine.

Wonderful.

What is something there?

You didn't even know about that when you got there, you're like, this is fantastic.

Good Lord.

What surprised you the most?

Well, I think Tokyo DisneySea was a huge surprise.

Like you, I'd heard what people said, but every other place I'd never, you know, not experienced anything like that.

And the giant volcano in the.

When you first make a turn and go see that, that blew me away.

The Indiana Jones ride, if I remember right, was it had two.

It was like a roller coaster with two cars.

But I'm trying to think if there's anything really blew me away, and I can't think of anything right now.

Okay.

Sometimes it's tough when you do a lot of the homework on something, you're pretty much well prepared.

Right.

All right.

Well, it sounds like you had a great time, but before we wrap, I have one final question here for you.

Okay.

If one of our listeners.

So they're thinking about going to Tokyo Disneyland, is it worth the effort and expense, do you think, for someone that's already a Disney fan, because they're listening to the show to make the trip to Tokyo Disneyland?

Absolutely.

There we go.

I would say now, if you're a big spaceman fan, you might need to wait another year because the reason they tore down Space Mountain is they're building a new one.

But they said it would be three years.

Right.

So I will definitely want to go back sometime and go on the new Space Mountain.

Gotcha.

So we can look forward to another report in at least a couple years of Tokyo.

Exactly.

And I'll be honest.

Right now, my mind is Hong Kong, because that's the next Disney Park.

I have not been to.

And I need to get there.

Did you go to Shanghai?

Nope, never been to Shanghai.

That'll be last.

That'll be last.

Okay.

That'll be my next one after that.

But right now, I'm my mind set on going to Hong Kong.

You know, I've never been to Hong Kong.

I've been to Taiwan, which is kind of China, you know, but I want to go to Hong Kong and see that.

I'm told that you can spend one day there, but I think I would least book two.

I would think so.

You know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just because.

Yeah.

If you move there or something's closed when you're there on that day for reefer, maybe it'll be open the next day or whatever.

You might want to try more foods and you can eat.

Possibly eat one day also, so.

Making an event.

Yeah, exactly.

That's what makes Epcot.

You know, you always have to go there many times, and when you think.

You got it down, they change all the menus.

I know.

That's okay.

That's perfect, though.

David, thanks so much for joining us on the show.

Absolutely.

Of course.

This was great.

David, anybody has any questions for you about this?

Where can somebody reach out to you?

Just like the Luber Nation live, the best.

Okay, obviously that's about the only.

I don't.

I don't do the Instagram or any of those things, but I'm on Facebook, you know.

Okay, awesome.

Tell you what, I think you're in Looper Nation Live, aren't you?

We'll put you.

Yes, yes.

That's where they will find you.

I love it.

Okay, cool.

Excellent, everybody.

I'm Tim Scott.

Thank you so much, David Poole, for joining us to share his adventures in Tokyo.

Tokyo Disneyland, everybody.

You've been listening to the gateway to the magic.

Do you know how to end the show, David?

Yeah, do it.

See you, everybody.

I knew it.

I knew you'd know it.