In case you missed them: PART ONE, PART TWO and PART THREE

If Tokyo Disneyland (TDL) was well and truly decked out for the holidays, Tokyo DisneySea (TDS) was certainly not far behind.

Each land there has a Christmas tree of its own, specifically themed. Among them:

Mermaid Lagoon…

New York Harbor…

and Port Discovery.

An unofficial mascot for the winter season seems to be Pablo, the Cold-Blooded Penguin, from the Three Caballeros.

Pablo can be purchased in any of a number of convenient sizes and formats.

Planning tip #8: If you want it, buy it.

The Tokyo Disney Resort (TDR) seems to change out their merchandise at a much faster clip than the US parks do. Things that you see in the shops at the beginning of your trip may sell out mid-week, and be replaced by different lines of merchandise altogether by the end. You may be used to being able to do all your shopping on Main Street after park closing, but usually the Tokyo shops close pretty close to regular park closing. A few of the bigger stores at the very front of the park may be open a little later (particularly the ones selling decorative packages of cookies,) but you can’t really count on the other ones being available to you for very much longer. You may also be used to doing your shopping at the end of your trip: Remember, that because of their ticketing system, out of six days in the parks, you may only be able to park hop for two of them. If you go in to the parks for four days, then buy an extra day or evening to finish up shopping, you’ll only be able to go to one park…so choose wisely. Ultimately, what I’ve found, is that if you find something you’re reasonably sure you want, you should just go ahead and buy it then, because there’s no guarantee it will be there later, or even that you’ll be able to get to it, subsequently.

The real attractions for the holidays at TDS, however, are the shows. Terrifically executed and phenomenally popular, they are completely worth the time and effort it takes to secure a spot for them.

The morning show, taking the place of the regular “Be Magical!” presentation, is “Christmas Wrapped in Ribbons.” As with all the shows, there’s a heavy character component, with all the different mascots for each of the separate lands coming together to sing and dance.

Here’s a great YouTube video that gives you a good idea of the show from a variety of different viewpoints.

The next show is a regularly scheduled one which is given a holiday overlay:

Big Band Beat is a revue of various swing and big band hits. Along the way, various characters come out and perform different numbers, with Mickey doing a big spotlight drum solo towards the end. For the holidays, they add on some seasonal songs and snowfall at the end. There is a live band and I CANNOT TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVE THIS SHOW. I actually did prefer the show that preceded this one, which was a collection of Broadway show tunes and had no characters, because there was just something mind-blowing about sitting in this gorgeous theater, with the live orchestra and the swell performers doing the show completely straight and in English (it is located in the New York Harbor area,) and then remembering that YOU ARE IN JAPAN, IN A THEME PARK.

Because of the inclusion of the characters, you don’t get quite as good a sense of total displacement, but it has great production values, and all the performers keep to an extremely high standard. If it means anything to you, I (through really bad timing,) managed to get in line when the wait was two hours long, and I saw it twice. Unfortunately, they prohibit photos or video during the show…but I imagine anyone determined could find some online anyway.

The third and main new show of the season is Christmas Wishes–it takes place in an outdoor theater, and is popular enough that they assign seats for it based on a lottery system. You get to stick your ticket into a machine and select one of the show times for the day. You either win, and get another ticket with a seat number, or you get the sad trombone of failure. If you lose, you’re done for the day–you can’t try again for a different time.

The costuming is elaborate and beautiful, and the show is basically a collection of character-performed holiday songs set loosely in a framework of what each character wishes for Christmas. The singing is in English, but all the spoken words are in Japanese.

With its completely unironic good cheer, it reminded me strongly of the old “T’was the Night Before Christmas” show that they used to have during the MK Christmas Parties…which always kind of reminded me of the old Lawrence Welk shows. It’s a cute show with higher production values and more performers than anything you’re likely to see in a US park.

Here’s another terrific video by papaMICKEYokwy of the first part of the show (the second half is posted on his YouTube channel.)

That makes up the bulk of the major holiday offerings from TDS, although there were a thousand more decorative touches/signs/etc., around the resort and the parks.

Next time: Odds and Ends.

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