Disney Events

As part of the Easter festivities during Tokyo Disneyland’s Easter Wonderland event, guests can participate in an Easter Egg hunt in hopes of getting a special prize if they complete the course correctly.  For this year’s event, there is an option to complete the standard Easter Egg hunt or an expert course.  The standard course gives you a chance to get a cute little Disney character shaped Easter Egg that resembles one of the eggs found on the hunt map, while the expert course gives you a chance to win a special, not-for-sale completion pin.

To keep things fresh and encourage people to complete the course more than once, each of the three months features a different expert completer pin, and get this — new hiding spots for the Easter eggs.  I have to give Tokyo Disneyland credit, what I thought would be a relatively easy task to complete turned out to be a truly difficult mission. It wasn’t until part of the way through that we realized the expert ones are NOT character eggs.  They are smaller and have more subtle decorations like stripes, flowers, etc.  All in all, we ended up walking every square inch of the park to locate the last of my eggs for the expert course.

Since the event still has over a month to go, I will not post any of the expert egg photos to give any clues away, but suffice it to say if you have plans on completing it — it will definitely test your Disney knowledge.   The small photo clues may be a little tough if you aren’t completely familiar with the Park layout, while others look pretty similar from certain angles.

Here is a look at the Donald Duck pin for May’s expert course.  For 1,000 yen to do the course, it makes this pin quite inexpensive when compared to normal, smaller pins off the racks at the US Parks.  As with every other aspect in Tokyo Disney’s seasonal events, the expert completer pin is filled with detailed touches.

On the standard course this year, there are character eggs all over the park, but you are required to locate five specific ones.   Enjoy a look at all the 2011 Easter Wonderland character eggs here — is your favorite Disney character among those on display this year?

Despite the fact that Easter was in April, Tokyo Disney celebrates the holiday for nearly three months with the “Easter Wonderland” annual event.  Obviously, this year’s event was abbreviated given the entire resort being shut down for over a month after March’s devastating earthquake and tsunami.  Normally, the Easter Wonderland event runs from April 1 through June 30, but this year’s event started a little late on April 15th, when Disneyland reopened.

The Easter Wonderland Event is one of the more interactive seasonal events as guests can partake in an Easter Egg hunt that will require you to venture all over the Disneyland Park.  There are lots of Resort decorations, seasonal goodies, and of course — the Easter parade.  In a series of upcoming posts, I will share all the details of this year’s Easter event and take a photographic look back at some elements from last year.

Each year, Tokyo Disneyland decks out the park in Easter themed decorations that are echoed in the merchandise and food.  This year, the theme was definitely the Easter egg.  Upon entering the Park, the entrance area will filled with various Easter eggs, including some that were used in the Easter Egg Hunt last year (Buzz Lightyear, and Mickey & Pluto).  The entrance sign is virtually unchanged from last year and features The White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland in an Easter basket surrounded by colorful eggs.

Something new that I don’t remember from last year’s event was three “live art” performers once you pass through the World Bazaar and head towards the castle.  They were stoic and virtually unmoving, except for position changes every two minutes or so.  Each girl had something that moved or was unique on her outfit — one had an Easter egg that popped up, while another had a bunny that moved in its basket.

The center area approaching the castle is where each event’s centerpiece is and guests can have Disney photographers take professional shots with decorations and the castle backdrop.  The main display piece for this year’s Easter Wonderland Celebration featured Disney characters decorating Easter eggs and lots of adorable bunny helpers loading them into the giant Easter basket.  Donald Duck was the leader of this year’s event as he holds the map detailing where to hide the eggs.

One of the side displays was dedicated to Alice in Wonderland and was nearly identical to last year’s decorations as well — still very cute nonetheless!  The other side featured an Easter bonnet with eggs display.  Last year had Winnie the Pooh and the gang, and sadly, there was no sign of Pooh anywhere in the Easter line up this year.

Even after nightfall, the decorations are still visible and seem to draw the most people for photo opportunities on the way out of Disneyland.

Be sure to check out the gallery below for a few photos of the 2010 Easter Wonderland event.

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