25th Jubilee

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

We got to DisneySea 30 minutes earlier than we did on Monday, expecting to be rewarded with shorter lines queued up for security and entry (it took 90 minutes Monday. We were not fans of that) The lines were nearly twice as long as Monday!!!

It turns out today was the first day for limited souvenirs for the 25th anniversary. After we got into the park, we were VERY surprised to see so so so many people not in ride lines, but in merchandise lines. There were lines of people just waiting to take pictures of signs, or have cast members write on stickers for them (write what? No, idea, it was all in Japanese).

A lot of women are wearing shoes like this. At a theme park.

We went on Tower of Terror. The building is gorgeous and the story is new. A rich guy disappeared and whatnot, so the place is beautiful and not dusty at all. There were shoulder harnesses in the elevator and I thought Japan might be rocking us, but alas – it was very short and very tame. I still really enjoyed seeing the new stuff.

We paid for a fastpass on Anna and Elsa. It was much longer than the ride in Epcot, but similar. The animatronics are terrific – definitely next generation. There are no stores in Arendelle. I think that is a bit weird. I would buy little Anna and Elsa stuff. At least I would shop for it. Anyway, I took a million pictures of the castle because it is GORGEOUS, but none of them even come close to showing how pretty it is.

We tried to mobile order lunch, but the first time available was 5:45, so we mobile ordered dinner. Keith had meatballs and potatoes and stuff, and we both had pancakes. They were covered in whipped cream, which was both weird and delicious.

After lunch I could not stop yawning. Yawn yawn yawn yawn – no time between them, just yawns. We found a quiet bench (in the middle of a place bursting with people) and I slept for 30 minutes. Yes. I did. I think the diabetes medicine makes me extra tired after I start a new dose and I did yesterday.

Midafternoon, I saw someone wearing a very SHINY spirit jersey. What? They don’t have spirit jerseys here. They hardly have any clothes in the stores, but there it was. A jubilee jersey. I had to have it. We started looking for it and I finally went up and asked a girl. She showed me on her app (in Japanese) that I needed to have made a reservation at a store to be able to shop where they were sold. Reservations were all gone.

Blast the Jubilee-ers anyway!

We also shopped for a waffle game that we couldn’t get yesterday because even though the store was on Main Street, it closed at 9. We were not expecting that! The waffle game is only at Disneyland. Darn.

We did finally find a tropical Mickey bar. It was really good. I am sure they were elsewhere, but we found one without 100 people in line for it because we went down to a place next to a closed ride and no one else was there. Ha!

We did Anna and Elsa, Peter Pan, Rapunzel, Tower of Terror, the street cars, Journey to the Center of the Earth, the Carousel, Flying Carpets, Raging Spirits, and the boat around the park. Considering how incredibly crowded it was, we did great!

I would like this totem pole in my yard, because I like it so much.

As we were walking out of the park, we passed Ariel’s grotto. I cannot get a picture. It’s so pretty. I knew Ariel’s playland was underground, but it has been so crowded we hadn’t gone. It was empty at 8pm, so we went down. There were rides and shops and restaurants down there! Amazing!

We rode the carousel last, with its twinkly lights. It was us and four other people. Yay.

Here are some randoms from the park