Wandering Fel

You can also spot this Gothic hotel named Hotel Hightower which is also the starting point of the queue line for Tower of Terror. If you a line is formed here, that's pretty much means you are kinda doomed (even before you take the ride) because that means you have to queue for at least three hours. Sucks.

So yeah, anyway, we wanted to do something more relaxing here. In other words, an attraction that lets us sit throughout the ride. That's where we noted that there is a Broadway-themed show, the Big Band Beat, which is shown in the Broadway Music Theatre. The problem is...you need to get yourself a reserved ticket for an access to the show.

And in order to secure the reserved ticket, you need to go to the neighbouring building and test your luck at some lottery machine. If you are lucky, you will get yourself a reserved ticket to watch Big Band Beat.

If lady luck does not smile on you that day, you will see this notification box at the monitor of the lottery ticket. Bummer, I seriously started to get irritated by Tokyo Disneysea at this point in time, to be honest with you. XD

Even Cruella de Vil said that the machines are really ridiculous (okay, I was kidding, she did not say anything because she's busy shooing people). I wonder if the characters in Disneyland or Disneysea are expected to act like the characters that they are portraying. Hmm, I guess that should be the case. If not, Cruella de Vil will not be that bad towards visitors. Hahaha.

Well, if you are in the same situation as us, do not fret because after all if you are willing, they will be a way. Right in front of Broadway Music Theatre, there is an area dedicated for visitors who are willing to queue for the remaining available seats which are given to first-come-first-served customers. Yup, the lottery machines are set not to give out all seats in the theatre so they are bound to be some available seats to be allocated to the less-lucky visitors.

You just need to wait for 2 hours plus (in our case) and you can get yourselves in the theatre. The musical was quite nice but we were pretty tired to keep our eyes opened throughout the show. I admitted I slept in some parts of the show. Too tired.

I guess if you really want to catch this show without queueing like us, you should come early in the morning to try the lottery because there are more tickets to allocate earlier during the day. I suppose.

The attraction is located at Toyville Trolley Park, which...oh apparently, it does not look like Andy's room. Yup, you are very near to the most famous attraction in Tokyo Disneysea. To infinity and beyond is your clue.

"So, are you telling me that Woody's mouth is the most famous attraction in Tokyo Disneysea?"

With a waiting time exceeding 3.5 hours, yes I would think so. Don't even bother about getting a Fast Pass for this ride unless you can beat the Japanese in running competition. The fast pass machines for Toy Story Mania are always the first ones to run out of passes.

Since we were pretty much not interested in queuing for 3.5 hours, we walked back to the vibrant New York district and went to look for something to eat. 

Thankfully, there is a New York deli nearby and it sells a set meal. 

Her comes my set meal which consists of a burger, fries and the best drink to have when you are waiting in the cold, the umeboshi wine (re: plum wine). Yum! 

The voyage starts from American Waterfront to the the next port-of-call, Port Discovery, where the water ride, Aquatopia is located. 

The next stop is the Lost River Delta, where the calling for adventure can be heard loud and clear (the rides are seriously pumping your hearts).

And here comes the beautiful Mermaid Lagoon. Under the sea...under the sea...

From the musical and magical world where Ariel lives, we are suddenly welcomed by the submarine belonging to Captain Nemo. 

Suddenly, we are transported into the land of Arabian night. I hope I can catch a magic carpet ride. 

Last but not least, we passed by the bustling New York city, which is also the entrance/ exit of Tokyo Disneysea. The famous Miracosta Hotel is also located in this area.

It was such a beautiful voyage. I could say that I really enjoyed the ride so much as all I need to do is sitting inside the boat. =P

United States Steamship Co. does not say that it sells food. Wait, it does sell food but it houses a buffet restaurant. While we were indeed hungry, eating a buffet will consume a lot of time and we did not feel like wasting so much time to eat. 

While we were looking around, Marie suddenly appeared. Hmm, what do you mean you don't know Marie?

Well, to be honest with you, I was quite surprised to know that Marie, the white-furred kitten from Disney movie Aristocats, is pretty famous in Japan. She's so busy saying hi to a lot of people and she was being followed by a group of Japanese fangirls. Wow, Marie, wow!

While we were amazed at Marie, we saw a popcorn cart. Oh yeay, Duffy saved the day with its Milk Tea Popcorn. So if you want to eat Milk Tea Popcorn, go make your way to the popcorn cart near Tower of Terror. 

Just a few steps from the pop corn cart, we spotted another cart. Initially, we thought that this cart sells ice cream because well the cart kinda looks like an ice cream container.

Turns out the cart sells churros and they are shaped like Mickey Mouse's head and hence, the name Mickey Churro. It seems that there are more than one churros cart inside Tokyo Disneysea because this one specifically sells cinnamon churro.

Ta-dah, here comes my Mickey churro. Nom-nom-nom. Taste pretty good especially when you are hungry. 

...when we see a queue which we initially thought was for Duffy store. But the queue turns out to be for a boat ride around main themed areas Tokyo Disneysea named Voyage Boat Ride. 

We figured that the queue would move pretty fast because by right a boat should be able to cater at least more than 10 people at one time.

While queuing we took our time to check out the decoration surrounding us. It kinda makes us feel that we are in a bait shop and we queue for fishing trip. 

Turns out the boat is big enough to cater more than 20 people. Phew, we were super grateful knowing that we did not have to queue for hours to ride the boat.

Let the voyage starts. Tut-tut!

First stop, the bridge to New York where Tower of Terror is located. 

Don't you feel like singing Bare Necessities when you are on board of the boat with this kind of view? Forget about your worries and your strife~~~~

There is a bridge separating the fishing village and the second part of American Waterfront which features New York Harbor and New York city (in a vintage design). The Tower of Terror is one of the iconic building in New York area of Tokyo Disneysea. 

Crossing the bridge where the New York Harbor is located on the right side of the bridge. 

At the New York Harbor, the gigantic ship, SS Columbia is docked peacefully. There is a show inside SS Columbia named Turtle Talk whereby Crush from Finding Nemo will bring visitors to look through an underwater window. Crush can only speak in Japanese though at Tokyo Disneysea. XD

Other than the Turtle Talk, there is nothing much you can do at SS Columbia. Well, I guess you can also take picture with the ship. 

You can also view Mount Prometheus here. If you wait for a while, the mountain will start spewing out smoke. 

Just like this...

You can catch up a music performance at the plaza beside SS Columbia if you know the timing. The music performance seems pretty fun even though we only managed to see the ending part. XD

American Waterfront area is divided into two section, the New York harbour and the New England fishing village. We were nearer to the fishing village so we decided to check out the village first. 

The village's name is Cape Cod and the village is pretty much lively and bustling with crowds. There is one particular restaurant which has a long queue at its door. It's probably because of the Cook Off concepts where diners can select who win the battle (?). I'm just guessing though because with that kind of queue, it will be dinner time by the time I come inside the restaurant. XD

Another restaurant spotted nearby with the same length of queue. The Japanese is really admirable in queuing. 

As there seems to be not many places that we could visit without queuing for hours, we proceeded to the harbour section of American Waterfront. This is the view taken from the bridge separating the harbour from the fishing village.

One particular icon lies on the New York Harbour is definitely the SS Columbia, the massive cruise ship from the industrial age. There are some kind of music performances held in the area in front of SS Columbia so if you are interested, you can go watch the show. 

For now, let's pose with the massive boat, the bridge and the Tower of Terror at the background before we proceed further.