Land of the Rising Mickey
Page 4 of 6

My business done at Shinjuku, it was off to the Tokyo Disney Resort.

Ahhhh!!! There it is again!

Changing trains at Tokyo Station... It's a pretty long way (about a quarter mile) out to the Keiyo Line platforms, but there are these very helpful moving sidewalks... with these posters lining the walls -

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They advertised the latest issue of Disney Fan magazine, an issue focused on DisneySea. (Soon after, these ads were changed to ones promoting Disney Fan's special DisneySea issue, which was released on the park's opening day, was stocked by bookstores to an insane level, and sold like hotcakes.)

Then there were all the (really well done) television commercials, the tie-ins with children's shows, and the amazing 2 hour TV special. (It was almost too much DisneySea for one television sitting.)

I think I've made the point. There was no escape. DisneySea was everywhere!

And it's clear to me that the saturation played a real part in leading to something I'll call "Golden Week Syndrome"...

Golden Week is a collection of four national holidays which start on April 29th with Green Day. Formerly a celebration of Emperor Hirohito's birthday, until his death in 1989, Green Day is similar in spirit to Earth Day. It's followed on May 3rd by Constitution Day, a celebration of Japan's 1947 post-war constitution and the values of peace and human rights it's based on. May 4th is "Between Day". Created more recently, as the name implies, it keeps the string of holidays going. Finally, on May 5th there's Children's Day. Really more "Boy's Day" than Children's Day (Girls have their day on March 3rd), the holiday focuses on wishing young boys a successful future.

Golden Week is traditionally the time to travel. Shinkansen (Bullet Train) and air travel goes through the roof, as do hotel rates. You'd think the crowds at Tokyo Disneyland would be nuts. And that's what many residents of of Tokyo think... Consequently, out-of-towners fill up the area hotels, but very many of the locals, a much larger percentage of Tokyo Disneyland's audience, stays away.

Office ladies are (as always!) at the core of the situation. Tokyo can be crowed. It's not as crowded as many people outside Japan believe, but there are some situations, such as the morning train commute and... high attendance days at Tokyo Disneyland, in which the crowds become very dense. Few people like overcrowding, but office ladies tend to particularly avoid them.

So, ironically, with the combination of light crowds and ideal springtime weather, Golden Week can be one of the best times to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

The capacity of Tokyo DisneySea is approximately 48,000 guests... Opening day saw only about 27,000 pass through the turnstiles. Everyone was stunned. There were showers on and off throughout the day and during that first day those showers were blamed for the low turnout. But the next day was beautiful - perfect... and only 17,000 turned up! On the park's first Saturday Tokyo Disneyland had higher attendance than DisneySea! It was strange. Many of the DisneySea Cast Members I spoke with, Cast Members who take a very personal pride in their park and were told by their managers to expect a throng, were dumbfounded.

But I was beginning to hear them say what I was increasingly suspecting -

It's clear to me at this point that the lull in attendance at DisneySea (and, to an extent, at Tokyo Disneyland) was very similar to what happens during Golden Week. The inescapable hype and a common sense anticipation of a madhouse (I heard this a lot from friends and acquaintances) were the primary factors that lead many people to hold off on their trip to DisneySea.