Spring has arrived at Tokyo Disney Resort! After a long month of moving and taxes, I finally got the chance to pop over to TDR after meeting my friends at Odaiba for lunch and shopping. I was worried about not being able to get into the park because recently the crowds have been crazy with Disneyland reaching capacity as soon as the park opened.  Fortunately I had no problem getting into DisneySea and was really excited to try out my new lens!

I recently purchased the Canon EF50mm F1.8 II thanks to my friend’s advice and I’m eager to practice taking dark ride photos! If you’ve been to Tokyo Disney Resort before though you will know that a lot of the rides and shows are “No photo!” which means my choices are limited. Some of them are okay as long as you don’t use your flash or LCD screen. Just listen closely to the very vague announcements they make. Ha!

My ride of choice was of course Sindbad! The lines over at Disneyland for the dark rides would never have been short enough for the few hours I was at TDR that day. Sindbad was only a 5 minute wait and it wasn’t even that long. The people behind me were amazed at the short wait and were very excited to have found an “anaba” (which is “a good place that not many people know about” in English according to my dictionary.) Hopefully the ride lived up to their expectations.

I’m still a total newbie with cameras, but it’s so much fun! I can’t wait to improve and be able to take all the awesome shots that are floating around in my brain. The nice thing about Sindbad is that you can sing along while you take photos. ;D I know this ride isn’t popular at all, but since the renewal I can’t stay off of it!

Of course the highlight of the ride is Chandu! I really wish that OLC would make more Chandu merchandise. I was really excited to see a cute Chandu blanket a few weeks ago when I was browsing the shop at the Arabian Coast.  I would go totally crazy if they ever made a Chandu greeting! I suppose people would get him confused with Tigger though…Most people call the Chandu tail steamed bread a Tigger tail anyway.

Chandu has some serious bling going on here! It seems that Sindbad is pretty generous with all of the treasure he’s collected, but I think that Chandu is a hoarder like me ;D I think this is my second favorite Chandu. My most favorite is Chandu popping out of the bananas, but my photo came out blurry. Next time!

Like I said, spring has come to Disney! I don’t know if you can tell, but you can kinda sorta see Raging Spirits in the background here. I think my settings were a bit off here, but I couldn’t not share this photo. I thought they were cherry blossoms, but hubby thinks they’re plum blossoms. I guess that shows just how much we know about flowers.

Mermaid Lagoon used to be my favorite place in the park. Lately I rarely stop by, but with the Lagoon Theater re-opening in a few weeks I’m sure I’ll be a frequent visitor again. The Lagoon is so pretty at night. I wish I didn’t live so far away, then I could stay till the bitter end and (try to) get nice photos! OLC needs to allow tripods again…just for me! Hahaha.

A lot of test photos in this post. I’ve always been in love with the tiles around the Mermaid Lagoon. They also have some really cool ones of the main Toon characters in Galleria Disney (the shop on the left as you come into the park!) I wish my bathroom looked like this. There are also lots of hidden Mickeys around Mermaid Lagoon.

I spent the rest of the afternoon just wandering around the park and testing out my new lens. I love Mysterious Island a lot, especially at night! I’ve been avoiding the steamer line because it’s so cold during the winter, but it’s getting to be the perfect season to ride. It’s not the best for transportation unless you’ve just arrived to the park or are heading out…or going to eat at Zambini Brother’s :3

Refurbishing is finished and Mt. Prometheus is looking good!

I’m not a huge fan of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and usually it has a very short standby line so I had to take a photo of the 55 min wait time. I’ve seen it go up to 90 mins during the summer vacation season. Notice though that at 4:30 pm there are still fast passes left for 8 pm. So popular! ;) The last time I rode it though I realized that you can see the shadow of the sea aliens pushing the submarine up. Such detail!

I have to admit that 20,000 Leagues is a pretty fascinating ride if you’re not afraid of the dark like me. I always feel like a piranha or something is going to jump out at me from the shadows. I remember the first time I rode it, I thought we actually went underwater and felt very claustrophobic and scared. That’s probably why I’m still not  a fan of it.

More test shots! This photo looks better when it’s a bit larger. You can see a bit of Mysterious Island with the igneous rocks (is that what it’s called?), a bit of the Mediterranean Harbor  with Ponte Vecchio, and of course the American Waterfront with the S.S. Columbia. DisneySea, my favorite place in the world!

Seasons change so quickly at the parks. The tulips that were here a month ago are now these yellow flowers. I don’t know what they’re called, alright? I can name almost any Disney character for you, but I know absolutely nothing about flowers! Leave me alone! xD Personally I liked the colorful tulips better, but these flowers are pretty too. They also had a pretty strong scent! Thankfully I don’t have allergies.

I love finding the hidden speakers throughout the park. They’re usually very well hidden! This one blends in very well. I had a hard time finding the ones in Mysterious Island. It’s almost as fun as hunting for hidden Mickeys. It’s also a bit easier too cause you can just follow the sound. You can also see some pretty blue flowers that go very well with the pretty yellow flowers…Ha. Did you know that there’s a flower guide book for the Disney parks? I should probably get it and study up.

The ugly wall is gone at last! Hooray! It’s actually been gone for a few weeks now, but like I said, I haven’t been able to make it to the parks for a month. I was having serious withdrawals! Anyway, it’s good to see the boats back in place and of course the beautiful view. I saw a few photos on Twitter of the new stage and I’m really excited for the new show!

Helpful Disney is helpful. They tell you when you can’t take photos, but they also suggest where you can take photos!

And this is the view from the above photo spot.
If I had caught a steamer line going through I’m sure it would have looked much cooler.

The wall is gone! More pretty flowers!

Guests already waiting for Fantasmic. Still a few more hours to go, but you know Japanese guests and their fandoms.

Display window photos are hard! Duffy is looking pretty good though.

“Please take me home with you. I like warm hugs!” Oops, wrong character.

Gelatoni’s looking a little depressed here. Three little kittens lost their mittens…?

I only got to spend a few short hours at DisneySea before I headed over to Ikspiari to renew my annual passport and grab a cup of chocolate, but I now am the proud owner of a new passport for the next year! Hopefully the QR code will read faster than the bar code on my old passport. I can’t wait to try it out ;D I am so excited for the spring shows and all the yummy food!