Disney the Second: The Monorail

After getting in at 6:30 AM on the train and finding our way to the apartment (very easy), unpacking, and freshening up a bit, we were off to Disney! This required using the Tokyo subway system to the train station, taking a train to the Disney stop, and then taking the Disney monorail around. The subway here is amazing. The trains were on time every time, and ran every 3 - 5 minutes when we were trying to use them. Amazing. I am sure you could beat a taxi to most places. They're also so clean and unvandalized that they have upholstered seats. They have screens in them telling you what stop is next, and which side of the car the doors will open on. I'm not sure how far we went, but it was only $1.60 to go from the apartment to the train station, changing trains once in between. New York City subways scare me, but these are wonderful.


On to Disney. Here in Tokyo, there isn't really a multi-park pass. You can get a multi-day pass, 2 - 4 days, and your first two days must be at a specific park, chosen when you purchase the tickets. We thought we might like Disney Sea better and wouldn't want to deal with little children so much after the sleeper car, so we chose Disney Sea for the first day. Our second day is therefore Disney Land, and the last two days are either park, as much as we want. Good thing we purchased them in advance, because the passes we wanted were sold out when we got there.


Disney Sea is on the other side of Disney Land, so you pretty much have to take the monorail around. Here, the monorail is not free like in Orlando, because of Japanese laws regarding transportation - if it moves people, they have to pay for it. Even the train ride inside Disneyland has only one stop because they'd have to charge if they let you off at different locations around the park. We bought a 4-day pass, as we'd be there for 4 days, and it's cheaper as long as you ride the monorail at least six times. The monorail here is adorable! The windows are Mickey shaped, the seats are comfortable and family-sized, and the handles for standing people are shaped like Mickeys! I think the longest wait time between monorails was 6 minutes when we were going in the middle of the afternoon, and it was something like 3 minutes during peak times. Excellent transportation services here. (Edit by Lee - she forgot the ten minute wait late at night when we thought we might have missed the last one)

The monorails are driven from the back, instead of the front here. Instead of a small area in the front that you can sit in upon request, there are four bench seats that anyone can sit in. Of course, we only realized this the night we were leaving, but it's pretty cool! If we go back again, I am totally sitting in the nose area, if I have to ride it around multiple times to wait for the children to vacate. From the Monorail, you can see the castle, the volcano, the ocean, and the various hotels that make up the Tokyo Disney Resort. The hotels here are amazing as well. The Tokyo Disney Land Hotel is just beautiful, and can be seen from the train station. The Hotel MiraCosta at Tokyo Disney Sea is simply incredible. It is part of the park, with the back of the hotel made up to look like different buildings around the Mediterranean Harbor. More on that later. Monorail shots: