Day 9, Part 2: Nighttime at Tokyo DisneySea

After the show we decided to take a detour through the hotel on our way back out to the park. I was dying to see MiraCosta’s indoor pool, because seeing pix of it online was the first thing about Tokyo DisneySea that hooked me back when it opened.

Along the way we saw…

and

Getting to the pool and spa is a bit complicated—you have to use two sets of elevators to get to the wing they’re in, and we got kinda lost.

The spa overlooks Tokyo DisneySea’s Venetian canals. I LOVE this wall of windows and wish I’d had time to just hang out here!

The outdoor pool is kinda plain (and small!) compared to the ones at the Florida Disney resorts, but it’s only in use during the summer, so maybe it wasn’t worth theming to the hilt.

Looking back toward the indoor pool

We tried to go back into the hotel without going back through the spa, but the exterior hotel door we tried was locked—d’oh! At least we got this shot:

We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the indoor pool because there were people in it. So we decided to bite the bullet and pay the $22/person to use the pool early the next day before we checked out. I know… we’re crazy… but Patrick loves swimming, and I’m in love with the indoor pool!

Our path back to the main lobby took us through the hotel hall that bridges the entrance to Tokyo DisneySea. This isn’t the greatest shot, but it kinda shows the nifty view into the park from there.

Back in the park, we grabbed a few menu/food shots for the Tokyo Disney PassPorter on our way back to ride Indy.

Oh, it looks like we took a boat to Lost River Delta—probably from the dock in Mediterranean Harbor.

Yucatan Base Camp Grill…

Just the kind of view you want while dining!

We got back to the Temple of the Crystal Skull, flashed our FASTPASSes, darted inside…. and waited for about 40 minutes. I complained loudly the whole time about the “SLOWPASS” line. But Patrick was in picture-taking heaven!

When we FINALLY got off that ride, it was starting to get dark. We swung down through Arabian Coast to check out the show in the Magic Lamp Theater before dinner

This is the place to get tasty coconut soft-serve if it won't spoil yer dinner!

We only have one picture from the Magic Lamp Theater. In the elaborately themed waiting area, there’s a bit of pre-show with an animatronic snake who pops out of this basket.

We got our English translation devices, but we almost needn’t have bothered—this is another attraction that lives up (down?) to its middling reviews. It starts out as a live magic show with a hammy “evil” magician and his apprentice, and then the Genie shows up in a 3-D movie. I’m all for classic comedy, but this was pretty cheesy.

Back out into the Arabian Coast! The double-decker carousel certainly makes a pretty sight at night, but I can’t help wishing they’d put something a little more interesting to do in this area. It has my favorite theming in the whole park, but there’s hardly anything to do there.

I requested that we eat dinner at Sebastian’s Calypso Kitchen, the counter-service place in Mermaid Lagoon, so I could meet my daily scallop-intake requirement.

Mesmerized by the giant clam!

I couldn't get over how elaborate the cast member costumes were for "just" a counter-service restaurant!

I think Patrick was just showing off the zoom on his camera here… Oh wait, no, we liked how they could dispense the perfect amount of soda at the touch of a button!

We each got the Scallop Chowder (only ¥290!). Patrick got the Seafood Pizza (¥630) and I got the Creamy Scallop Croquette sandwich (¥530). It was all pretty dang good, and the prices couldn’t be beat…en.

I kinda feel like this restaurant is the one place where they dropped the ball in the theming department (or maybe ran out of money!). Although the pillars are sculpted to look like they’re covered in barnacles, and the fish lights are kinda cute, it’s mostly just a big box with a mural on the walls. But of course Patrick loved the mural!

Patrick also loved the—what in the heck is he doing?!

Oh yeah, I think that was one of the packets of liquid sweetener we saw everywhere. I dared him to try it!

After dinner we went back to Arabian Coast to ride Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage again cuz we didn’t quite have the song stuck in our heads yet…

Oh that Chandu! What a loveable little rascal!

We decided to check out a few more restaurants for reference. The first one was Miguel’s El Dorado Cantina in Los River Delta.

I still can't get over how much capacity all these restaurants have!

From there, we wound around to Port Discovery to check out Horizon Bay Restaurant.

We weren’t allowed to take pictures of the side of the restaurant where they had character dining. No such thing as a free lunch here!

Up at the top of the hill, we waited in line for the DisneySea Electric Railway, which runs between Port Discovery and American Waterfront. There’s another gorgeous mural in the queue.

As we disembarked in American Waterfront, we realized BraviSEAmo was about to start, so we grabbed a spot on the bridge to Fortress Explorations.

As we waited for the show to start, I was eyeing the popcorn cart at the foot of the bridge, which was selling Marie the Cat buckets. We already had one popcorn bucket we were never gonna use again, so I totally couldn’t justify buying another, but…. its absolutely adorable girliness overpowered me and I dashed down and bought one!

Here's what it looked like the next day at a Duffy photo spot

Unfortunately, the spot we’d chosen for BraviSEAmo turned out to be downwind that night, so not only were we getting rained on, we were sucking in smoke too! But I had a giant tub of warm popcorn 6 inches from my face and was shoveling it down my gullet, so I was happy.

I'm sure whatever was happening at this point was very dramatic!

After the show, we went back to Fortress Explorations for nighttime pictures.

While we were up there, the fireworks show started…

"And now, the thrilling conclusion of Disney Magic in the Sky!!!"

After that we used two sets of FASTPASSes to ride JTTCOTE twice in a row, which will have to be summed up by this photo:

I dunno what it is… do YOU know what it is?

I started to get pretty pooped out, so we spent the remaining time til 10pm shopping for Patrick’s uncle’s birthday present. Along with the hefty budget, we’d been given a list of his Disney favorites, which, we discovered, is also a list of Things You Will Not Find at Tokyo Disney. These include

- Tokyo DisneySea exclusive merchandise
- Conceptual art
- Lithos/ceramics/sculptures
- Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, 20,000 Leagues, Captain EO, Sorcerer Mickey, or Chernabog themed ANYTHING
- Framed limited edition pin sets (OK, we found, like, two)