Our son Chris is a huge Disney fanatic, and he has been desperate to get to Tokyo Disney, especially Disney Sea…so we thought we should make an effort.

I was excited to learn that the Tokyo parks are way less expensive than the American ones (we paid $62 for our base tickets, which would have been $109 at American Disneyland or $119-184 for a one-day ticket at Disneyworld—each park is different). But they lure you in with these misleading lower prices.

During our trip, a Disney boycott was initiated because of the Jimmy Kimmel cancellation. Fortunately Tokyo Disney is not actually run by Disney; it’s owned and operated by a Japanese company. And Tokyo Disney Sea is highly regarded as the best park ever because of its strong theming, service, and unique combination of rides and service.

For us, though, it was a bit of a bust and a disappointment. All my usual Disney tricks did not work, as this was a completely different system and culture.

First of all, we had no idea we were going on one of the busiest seasons of the year: Halloween. (Even though it was more than a month away!!) Little did I know that Japanese Disney adults take their cosplay SERIOUSLY. From September 17 to October 31, these cosplayers arrive at the park in full character costumes. Apparently, they refer to Disney Halloween as “D-Hallo,” spend long periods preparing handmade costumes and props, and visit the parks almost daily.

Being Japan, there are rules of course…you can come in costume from September 16-30 and October 16-31 only. And you must arrive costumed; the parks have no changing areas, although there is a paid changing space available nearby. In addition, you cannot come as just anyone…there are strict rules on which characters and props can be used.

I suppose it shows how little we know about Disney, specifically Tokyo Disney, that we did not know this. Consequently, the park was positively packed.

And herein lies the problem: we arrived an hour before opening, and at American theme parks you can do several rides in the next hour or so before the hordes descend. In Japan, the hordes were already there.

Once you get in-and only then-you can purchase premier access passes to the popular rides (like fast pass), which amount to about $25 for both of us). Chris had advised us to get these passes for the park’s two most popular shows and possibly one or two of the most popular rides.

What we found, though, was that EVERYTHING was sold out except for the Rapunzel ride and priority seating for the night-time show. Chris advised us to keep an eye on the waiting times throughout the day to go on the best rides, one of which was the Tower of Terror, my personal favorite.

Disney Sea is a well-designed, pretty park, but its rides are not terribly exciting.

Our favorite ride, which oddly had hardly any waiting time throughout the day, was Sindbad. We went on it twice because we liked it so much!

Because we weren’t able to go on a ton of rides (and the ones we went on had long waiting times), we spent a lot of time people watching the costumed cosplayers! They took this whole thing very seriously!!

We had to content ourselves with the less-popular rides because waiting for the hot rides (including Frozen and the Tower of Terror) never went under 70 minutes and we couldn’t abide waiting longer than an hour.

One of the things I like about Tokyo Disney is its flavored popcorn!

So even though we didn’t get to go on the best rides, we made the best of the day. I’m not sure I would necessarily recommend the park’s two most except to diehard Disney fans. The crowds just make it difficult to fully experience it. They lure you in with the lower base fee, but even if you are willing to spend more, it’s just not possible to experience everything.

I also find it interesting that a park modeled after the sea has no water rides at all. We went on a submarine sort of ride, and a few of the rides were in boats, but that was the extent of it. I wonder if Japanese especially women don’t like to get wet because it would wreck their hair, makeup, and clothing? Who knows?

We were a bit dismayed to discover the “priority seats” we’d paid for ($25!) were on the ground! Oh my! The evening show had a lot of special effects and lasers.

After the show, we tried to beat the worst crowds and headed back to our hotel, where we saw some fireworks from our balcony. They only lasted 5 minutes, also a big change from American theme parks.

Goodbye, Tokyo Disney…probably will not return!