I have just returned from my two week trip to Japan where I spent two days at the Tokyo Disney Resort; one day in Tokyo Disneyland and one day in DisneySea.
I have lots of content to share with you from my two days at Disney but I wanted to start by sharing a personal story from the trip that was a theme park enthusiasts dream come true!
Let me set the scene.
It was a wet Monday morning at Tokyo Disneyland. My partner and I were stood outside the gates to the park, holding on to an umbrella for dear life as the rain poured down on us and everyone else waiting to enter the park. We were already drenched before the park had even opened, but we weren’t going to let it ruin our day.
When the gates opened at 9am we headed straight towards Tomorrowland to ride Space Mountain. From my research, the Space Mountain seemed to have one of the longest queues on average in the park, and I didn’t want to miss out on riding this attraction, especially as it was due to close down in just a few months time to be rebuilt and reimagined.
We entered Tomorrowland and turned the corner to see Space Mountain in it’s all glory. My only previous encounter with a Space Mountain ride at this point was Space Mountain (or Hyperspace Mountain as it’s currently known) in Disneyland Paris, which of course looks completely different to the classic Space Mountain design, so I was excited to see the famous façade.
We had just joined the queue line for Space Mountain when suddenly, a cast member approached my partner. She asked if it was our first time riding Space Mountain in Tokyo Disneyland and when we said yes, she asked us to leave the queue and follow her.
At first we we worried because we thought we had done something wrong! Had we joined the priority access queue by accident?
Despite the language barrier the cast member tried her best to explain to us what was happening. We quickly realised that she was concerned about my partner’s height and wanted to check that he would fit inside the ride trains.
“Japanese people very small” she said with a smile.
My partner is 6 foot 2 (about 188cm) which is pretty tall, and when we looked around we realised that he was probably the tallest person in the queue at that point, which is why he stood out to this particular cast member.
We followed her as she took us out of the queue and towards the Space Mountain building. I wasn’t sure where she was taking us but I wondered if they had a test seat located outside of the ride like they do in some other theme parks. But once we reached the building, she opened a door designated for cast members only and led us in.
At this point my worry turned into disbelief. Here we were, going inside of Space Mountain at Tokyo Disneyland where guests aren’t usually allowed.
We were going backstage in Space Mountain!
I couldn’t believe what was happening. As a theme park enthusiast who has an obsession with Space Mountain this was a dream come true.
I still wasn’t sure where we were going as we followed the cast member through different doors and corridors, but I just kept thinking to myself “I’m inside Space Mountain. I’m backstage in Space Mountain. I shouldn’t be here!”.
Eventually we reached the area where they kept the spare trains. We could hear the ride going around on the tracks and the screams of riders above our heads.
The trains were on rails and the cast member pulled one of the trains forward. She moved a set of small steps next to the train and asked my partner to climb into the seats on the front row.
Good news; he did fit inside the train with the lap bar down!
She then asked him to climb out of the train and then climb into the second row of seats. Again, he managed to fit and actually found the second row to be more spacious than the first.
While we was trying out the seats I just looked around the room I was stood in. It wasn’t anything special to look at, but it felt so special to me. I knew I was in a place that was off limits to the general public, and I knew it was somewhere that fellow theme park enthusiasts could only dream of visiting.
I didn’t take any photographs. We weren’t told that we couldn’t, but I assumed it was a big no no. Plus, in that moment, I just wanted to take it all in and enjoy my short but sweet time backstage.
Once my partner had climbed out of the train after trying the second row the cast member led us out of the backstage area and straight to the front of the queue for Space Mountain.
That’s right; not only had we just been backstage of Space Mountain, we had just jumped the queue too!
Finally, it was our very first ride on Space Mountain. And I was relieved that I was able to ride it alongside as my partner.
Of course, I loved it! My favourite ride of all time is Space Mountain in Disneyland Paris and although Tokyo’s version is much tamer than the one in Paris, it was still a very fun ride. I ended up riding it three times altogether.
It’s a shame that this version of the ride will be closing but I’m excited to see how they reimagine this classic ride. Hopefully one day I’ll get to return to Tokyo Disneyland and ride the new version; tall boyfriend in tow!
Have you ever been backstage at a Disney theme park as a non-cast member? I would love to hear your stories!
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