21 June 2010

I had decided that Emily and I would join a TMG outing to Disney Sea, and asked Lydia and Mia to join us, since the girls are getting along so well. We were supposed to be meeting up with the others in the group but the girls had been in strollers for a full hour by the time we arrived and wanted to get on into the resort, so we did not wait for the coordinator. They perked up as soon as they saw the Mickey Mouse monorail, with its Mickey shaped windows.


We rode round past DisneyLand to DisneySea. On exiting we were first faced with a huge globe fountain.



I have to say that the whole place is an amazing conception on a grandiose scale, though it all leaves me a bit cold. The inner harbour area was gearing up for the Tinkerbell Spring parade and we ended up having our eardrums blasted by high decibel music which had Mia crying and Emily looking fed up. I am mystified how anyone could like all that cheezy mush with its garish costumery and phoney smiles.

We hurried away as fast as possible and eventually tracked down the area with rides and attractions for small kids. Lydia lost it when we tried to enter the rollercoaster because she was turned away due to her pregnancy, but I am so glad we didn't get on it as afterwards I saw it properly and I'm sure that it would have scared me and Emily. We moved on to another ride and queued for quarter of an hour in blazing sun for a ride that lasted for at most two minutes.


It is many years since I last went to a theme park and I had forgotten about the tedium of queuing up. You would think that on a Monday it would be fairly quiet; I would hate to think how bad it would be at the weekend, and in neighbouring DisneyLand, which is the more popular attraction. The ride lurched round as if on a storm-tossed boat, with the car spinning frequently into the bargain. I felt a bit seasick and I think Emily did too. She certainly didn't laugh. We decided to try our luck indoors in Triton's Kingdom, which it seemed was designed for younger children. This was a vast, dark cavern - at least providing respite from heat and burning sun - filled with nautically-themed glowing accessories.

Neither of the girls seemed very taken with the darkness. There was a series of rope walkways which was rather uninspiring and a small and meagrely-equipped softplay area. Emily and Mia quite liked the water fountains in the shape of various sea creatures and managed to get quite wet.


We moved on quickly back outside and went in search of food in the American-style Port Island section. We had some rather good fish burgers, though Emily only ate the bun and some fries. After Mia had had a bit of a nap in the stroller, we rode an elevated train a short way - again it was disappointing as we had to wait and were only on it for a couple of minutes. From there we were hoping to board a 'steamer' for a boat trip, but found the next one was not for nearly an hour. We waited out the time back in the darkness, and I decided to take Emily on one of the rides to kill time. They all had wait times of at least 15 minutes. Emily was a bit fretful as we shuffled along in the line until it was time to climb into our 'kelp cups'. Again, this short ride had me feeling nauseous as it spun quite fast in places. When I was young I used to be able to go on all these rides without ill effect; I don't know what has happened to me since then but I find anything involving spinning particularly bad.


Back outside we made our way to the pier, where we joined yet another queue for a boat ride. Once again we waited for far longer than the trip lasted, as we were only on board five minutes, passing the Arabian Coast area and 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea


before pulling up in the Venetian-style harbour. We gradually worked our way to the exit, with frequent stops to look at people dressed in character costumes (which Emily was afraid of) and to browse the souvenir stalls.


Getting home was a very stressful end to a stressful day, as we managed to hit Tokyo station at exactly 5pm. Lydia had mentioned that there was a convenient bus back so we made our way to the bus stop, only to find that there were several flights of stairs to negotiate. Emily was very tiresome as she kept running off and I totally lost it at one point, very close to tears. At the end I manhandled her and the buggy up about 30 steps, and in high-20s heat I was streaming with sweat after that. The bus started out quiet but soon collected many rush-hour passengers. As we had the strollers with us, I sat on the lower level with both of them furled, trying not to bash the many people standing around me. Lydia sat on the back seat with the girls, since Emily had insisted on sitting there (as she always does on a bus). It was hard getting off the packed bus with a folded buggy and Emily freaking out and needing to be picked up. I don't know which of us was more tired after that but I was very glad to hit the hay that night.