Impromptu Unplanned 1-Day Trip to DisneySea!
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Which will be at TDL and not TDS..
I'm curious on any pictures on the current status of the upcomming Nemo attraction at TDS, besides that; I'd say just pictures of the park in general. I can't get enough of it, as it looks all divine.
I'm not sure if I got pictures of the Nemo site. Ill check my camera later. But, the actual building box is up. Surrounded by scaffolding and no real signs of theming. Granted, dark and rainy so I couldn't see a ton. Easily in a state for interior work to be done in a massive way.
I will say that the ride is much needed. Port Discovery is by far the weakest land at the park.
I will say that the ride is much needed. Port Discovery is by far the weakest land at the park.
Hey all. I said I was going to do this a long time ago. This is going to be a combination park review / park planning guide / industry overview / I'm just going to rave for a bit type guide. I'm attempting to take some inspiration from ParkScope's amazing "30 Never Built Attraction Series" and not taking any inspiration from most trip reports, which talk more about manufactured family drama than parks. I'm going to reach for wit and probably end up closer to snark or cynicism. It's going to be a long, unedited write, so you'll be able to see my "English for Engineers" writing style at work. Don't expect Shakespeare or Anna Kendrick. Off we go!
Last month, I made a two-thirds day trip over to Tokyo DisneySea in the middle of a solo trip to Tokyo. Why only 2/3rds of a day? During my poor last-minute planning of my trip, I decided that I wasn't going to go to Tokyo Disney. I'm a huge theme park fan, but I was so worried about wasting what little time I had in Japan. Plus, I felt awkward about traveling across the world to go to a theme park. Why am I saying all of this? To prove a point: do what you want on vacation and forget about the haters. Life is too short to feel awkward on vacation. So yeah, looking back, it was poor logic. I ended up having too much time in Tokyo and DisneySea proved far too tempting. It would've been a full day, but a friend showed up in Tokyo last minute and wanted to do lunch. I'm not enough of a sociopath to put the Mouse ahead of that.
Put on some tunes and let's get this started.
Planning a Trip to Tokyo
Skip this if you don't really care how to plan a trip to Tokyo!
From what I've seen in the theme park community, Tokyo Disney has always seemed like the most inaccessible set of parks in the world. I've heard of more people going to Disneyland Paris than Tokyo. Tokyo Disney is surprisingly accessible if you're willing to be smart about it. Plus, Tokyo is an amazing city with an unbelievable foodie culture (more Michelin stars than any other city! more restaurants than any other city!) and a fascinating culture (arcades! anime! robots! samurais!). It's also not as expensive as you may think. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it's no more expensive than any other major international destination. The key is that you have to be smart about planning your trip. Most of the American travel sites are not as optimized for Japanese travel.
Flights
(Disclaimer: I had a boatload of miles from my past life as a pseudo-consultant to help pay for part of my ticket. I still had to find a good ticket to book, so I feel like I can talk about this authoritatively. Plus, the cash tickets I saw were still not very expensive. I was seeing tickets from Tokyo that were on-par with what I pay from Cali->Midwest).
Unless you're willing to stowaway on the back of a plane, you have to pay for a "chair" (I'm convinced we need legal definitions for that word like we do sliced cheese) on an airplane. Tokyo is a major airport hub, so tickets are easy to get access to. Here are a quick set of things I learned while I was booking tickets.
* If you can, fly out of Canada. I don't know why tickets are cheaper, but they are. Tickets from Toronto were easily 40% cheaper. The black magic of the airline gods.
* If you can buy tickets with miles, it's cheaper. You can buy miles to make up any shortfalls. Tickets (especially business class and above) are seemingly cheaper when you book in miles. Again, the will of the airline gods.
* In order to help divine the will of the airline gods, I actually had some experts show me which tickets I should book. I won't say the service name, but I'll say that it was a crowd-sourced flight search startup. They found me a business class ticket that was on-par with the economy tickets I found and was 5x cheaper than the business class tickets I could find myself. Seriously, if you can afford it, buy business class. Being able to lay down on a fifteen hour flight is completely worth it.
Hotels
Yeah, back to the bullet points.
* Western-branded hotels are all more expensive than they are in the States. Add a single star to every American chain and use that to determine prices. So, for example, if you think Best Western is a 3-star hotel with a 3-star price tag, that means that Best Western Tokyo is at least a 4-star hotel with at least a 4-star price tag. For most part, I'd say that
* You'll want to book "business hotels" (generic term for Japanese hotels). That also means you can't use Expedia or Travelocity or the like because they're American websites that book American hotel chains. Look for European sites like Booking.com. The hotels are usually on-par with American hotels and there's no language barrier if you book in a larger hotel.
* The Disney hotels are ridiculously scary expensive. Add a zero to your mortgage payment and that's the downpayment on one night at Hotel MiraCosta. It's still my life's intention to pull a John Dillinger and use the money to book a night at MiraCosta.
* Any hotel near the subway will work.
* I stayed in a hostel. Hostels are a huge thing outside of the US. They're ridiculously cheap, you can get private rooms, there's people of all ages. It was my first experience and I'd recommend it, especially if you're traveling alone. I was in the Khohan chain of hostels and was very pleased.
Transportation
Tokyo transit goes everywhere. Tokyo Disney is on the subway. I'm not going to attempt to describe Tokyo transit because Google exists. Just know that if your hotel is near the subway, you can get anywhere in the city. The subway can be confusing, even with all of the English signage. You'll want to use Google Maps to get around.
Language, Money + the rest
* There's tons of English everywhere. All the subway signs are in English. All of Tokyo Disney's signs are in English (more so than Japanese really). Menus everywhere have pictures. I had absolutely no language issues and I only speak 3 words of Japanese.
* I've heard that 7-11 is the "like the save point in an RPG game" (source unknown). It's true. They have good cheap food and foreign ATMs. I never used my credit card and just withdrew cash every day at my local 7-11. Actually, lies. I used my credit card exclusively in Tokyo Disney because they take cash everywhere.
Cool, that's planning a Tokyo trip in like 1000 words. Ask me questions if you want more info and I'll update my post!
The Resort
Tokyo Disney is two theme parks, some hotels, Ikespari Shopping District, and a monorail to tie it all together. Because I'm an obsessive theme park fan, I'm going to talk about everything, starting with Ikespari.
Ikespari
This is going to be super short. No pictures. I only walked through part of the mall after the parks had closed, so I could be horribly wrong about the district. Pretty sure I'm not, but you never know.
Aside: I spent Thanksgiving weekend at Disney Springs and I think that area shows what Disney does well and what they do poorly for their Downtown Disney shopping lands. The Marketplace is, and always has been, great. Lots of Disney stores with exclusive Disney merchandise. It's a nice place to walk around. The Landing, their restaurant district, is another home-run. Tons of unique restaurants with interesting decor and creative food choices. A couple well-known famous NYC restaurants that are way more approachable. Then, comes Town Center and the West Side. Town Center is a nicely themed shopping mall. Most of the stores have near-identical layouts and selection to the stores at my local mall. And then there's the West Side, which doesn't have theming or stores. It's just a bunch of generic boxes housing a bunch of pop-up stores. Seriously, there's a line of demarkation where Disney Springs ends and the "other buildings" begin.
I say all of that because Disney hasn't taken any of those lessons to heart in Ikispari. My home shopping mall has about as much charm as this place. I saw a T.G.I Fridays complete with ads on the windows and a generic box storefront. I mean, there's a giant Disney Store, but you need more than that.
Monorail
The single nicest monorail I've ever been on. Enough said. I was a little miffed that they charge for it, but I'm not going to complain. It added to the experience and really hyped me up. It brings up an interesting question for the Orlando parks. If they made the monorail experience better, would you pay for it? Each round trip was a little less than $2 - around what you would pay for any subway trip in Tokyo. The monorail was never insanely busy and the stations were ridiculously well staffed, clean, and intelligently laid out.
Last month, I made a two-thirds day trip over to Tokyo DisneySea in the middle of a solo trip to Tokyo. Why only 2/3rds of a day? During my poor last-minute planning of my trip, I decided that I wasn't going to go to Tokyo Disney. I'm a huge theme park fan, but I was so worried about wasting what little time I had in Japan. Plus, I felt awkward about traveling across the world to go to a theme park. Why am I saying all of this? To prove a point: do what you want on vacation and forget about the haters. Life is too short to feel awkward on vacation. So yeah, looking back, it was poor logic. I ended up having too much time in Tokyo and DisneySea proved far too tempting. It would've been a full day, but a friend showed up in Tokyo last minute and wanted to do lunch. I'm not enough of a sociopath to put the Mouse ahead of that.
Put on some tunes and let's get this started.
Planning a Trip to Tokyo
Skip this if you don't really care how to plan a trip to Tokyo!
From what I've seen in the theme park community, Tokyo Disney has always seemed like the most inaccessible set of parks in the world. I've heard of more people going to Disneyland Paris than Tokyo. Tokyo Disney is surprisingly accessible if you're willing to be smart about it. Plus, Tokyo is an amazing city with an unbelievable foodie culture (more Michelin stars than any other city! more restaurants than any other city!) and a fascinating culture (arcades! anime! robots! samurais!). It's also not as expensive as you may think. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that it's no more expensive than any other major international destination. The key is that you have to be smart about planning your trip. Most of the American travel sites are not as optimized for Japanese travel.
Flights
(Disclaimer: I had a boatload of miles from my past life as a pseudo-consultant to help pay for part of my ticket. I still had to find a good ticket to book, so I feel like I can talk about this authoritatively. Plus, the cash tickets I saw were still not very expensive. I was seeing tickets from Tokyo that were on-par with what I pay from Cali->Midwest).
Unless you're willing to stowaway on the back of a plane, you have to pay for a "chair" (I'm convinced we need legal definitions for that word like we do sliced cheese) on an airplane. Tokyo is a major airport hub, so tickets are easy to get access to. Here are a quick set of things I learned while I was booking tickets.
* If you can, fly out of Canada. I don't know why tickets are cheaper, but they are. Tickets from Toronto were easily 40% cheaper. The black magic of the airline gods.
* If you can buy tickets with miles, it's cheaper. You can buy miles to make up any shortfalls. Tickets (especially business class and above) are seemingly cheaper when you book in miles. Again, the will of the airline gods.
* In order to help divine the will of the airline gods, I actually had some experts show me which tickets I should book. I won't say the service name, but I'll say that it was a crowd-sourced flight search startup. They found me a business class ticket that was on-par with the economy tickets I found and was 5x cheaper than the business class tickets I could find myself. Seriously, if you can afford it, buy business class. Being able to lay down on a fifteen hour flight is completely worth it.
Hotels
Yeah, back to the bullet points.
* Western-branded hotels are all more expensive than they are in the States. Add a single star to every American chain and use that to determine prices. So, for example, if you think Best Western is a 3-star hotel with a 3-star price tag, that means that Best Western Tokyo is at least a 4-star hotel with at least a 4-star price tag. For most part, I'd say that
* You'll want to book "business hotels" (generic term for Japanese hotels). That also means you can't use Expedia or Travelocity or the like because they're American websites that book American hotel chains. Look for European sites like Booking.com. The hotels are usually on-par with American hotels and there's no language barrier if you book in a larger hotel.
* The Disney hotels are ridiculously scary expensive. Add a zero to your mortgage payment and that's the downpayment on one night at Hotel MiraCosta. It's still my life's intention to pull a John Dillinger and use the money to book a night at MiraCosta.
* Any hotel near the subway will work.
* I stayed in a hostel. Hostels are a huge thing outside of the US. They're ridiculously cheap, you can get private rooms, there's people of all ages. It was my first experience and I'd recommend it, especially if you're traveling alone. I was in the Khohan chain of hostels and was very pleased.
Transportation
Tokyo transit goes everywhere. Tokyo Disney is on the subway. I'm not going to attempt to describe Tokyo transit because Google exists. Just know that if your hotel is near the subway, you can get anywhere in the city. The subway can be confusing, even with all of the English signage. You'll want to use Google Maps to get around.
Language, Money + the rest
* There's tons of English everywhere. All the subway signs are in English. All of Tokyo Disney's signs are in English (more so than Japanese really). Menus everywhere have pictures. I had absolutely no language issues and I only speak 3 words of Japanese.
* I've heard that 7-11 is the "like the save point in an RPG game" (source unknown). It's true. They have good cheap food and foreign ATMs. I never used my credit card and just withdrew cash every day at my local 7-11. Actually, lies. I used my credit card exclusively in Tokyo Disney because they take cash everywhere.
Cool, that's planning a Tokyo trip in like 1000 words. Ask me questions if you want more info and I'll update my post!
The Resort
Tokyo Disney is two theme parks, some hotels, Ikespari Shopping District, and a monorail to tie it all together. Because I'm an obsessive theme park fan, I'm going to talk about everything, starting with Ikespari.
Ikespari
This is going to be super short. No pictures. I only walked through part of the mall after the parks had closed, so I could be horribly wrong about the district. Pretty sure I'm not, but you never know.
Aside: I spent Thanksgiving weekend at Disney Springs and I think that area shows what Disney does well and what they do poorly for their Downtown Disney shopping lands. The Marketplace is, and always has been, great. Lots of Disney stores with exclusive Disney merchandise. It's a nice place to walk around. The Landing, their restaurant district, is another home-run. Tons of unique restaurants with interesting decor and creative food choices. A couple well-known famous NYC restaurants that are way more approachable. Then, comes Town Center and the West Side. Town Center is a nicely themed shopping mall. Most of the stores have near-identical layouts and selection to the stores at my local mall. And then there's the West Side, which doesn't have theming or stores. It's just a bunch of generic boxes housing a bunch of pop-up stores. Seriously, there's a line of demarkation where Disney Springs ends and the "other buildings" begin.
I say all of that because Disney hasn't taken any of those lessons to heart in Ikispari. My home shopping mall has about as much charm as this place. I saw a T.G.I Fridays complete with ads on the windows and a generic box storefront. I mean, there's a giant Disney Store, but you need more than that.
Monorail
The single nicest monorail I've ever been on. Enough said. I was a little miffed that they charge for it, but I'm not going to complain. It added to the experience and really hyped me up. It brings up an interesting question for the Orlando parks. If they made the monorail experience better, would you pay for it? Each round trip was a little less than $2 - around what you would pay for any subway trip in Tokyo. The monorail was never insanely busy and the stations were ridiculously well staffed, clean, and intelligently laid out.
Tokyo DisneySea
I've probably scared most of you off with that massive block of text and pictures. I know all of you want to listen to the fun stuff. Just a couple ground rules:
* This isn't a guide to the park. I'm not giving Len Testa-style touring plans. There's a ton of people who have done far better jobs than I have.
* It was rainy when I went, which impaired my already horrific picture taking ability. I'll post a couple pictures, but sorry.
* I'm only going to cover the rides that I went on along with my opinions on them. DisneySea seems to follow the pattern of many major theme parks today: a couple big headliner rides and some much, much smaller filler rides. The dining options and all of the shows (they gave me a guide full of them) make up the slack. Or, at least they make up the slack far better than they do at DHS or even Islands.
Also, my pictures turned out eh.
Off to the lands!
Mediterranean Harbor
Mediterranean Harbor is the Port of Entry of DisneySea. I'm going to attempt to spare the hyperbole.
It's the best entry land of any Disney park I've ever been to. If I didn't have such fond feelings towards Port of Entry, I'd say that it's the best entry of any theme park ever.
So much for sparing you. Tokyo DisneySea works best because it's willing to play with to play with heights. Just like Diagon Alley, each land works in DisneySea because each land is surrounded some form of "walls" (cue the Donald Trump joke - wait, please don't). Mediterranean Harbor illustrates this best. To the north, the land is walled off by the volcano. I'm sure it has a name, but it's simply too imposing to be called anything other than "The Volcano." It's a genius stroke of force perspective. The actual spewing volcano part is higher up on top of a series of well-themed caves (I'll get there).
To the south, the wall is much more practical - Hotel MiraCosta. Every park needs a hotel if it could be this well-integrated into the park. The entire Main Street plaza seems that much larger because the mass of the hotel surrounds you on both sides and above. The hotel side streets were very much part of the park and provided a nice respite from the constant crowds watching shows. The hotel allows for more intimate areas in the Main Street land.
Also part of the Main Street section is the barrage of stores. They'll all very tastefully done and the entire area reminds me of Main Street with a different paint job.
I could go on with the Main Street part, but I think you get the idea. I do want to add one thing. There's a small castle town on the other side of the lagoon. It's still technically Mediterranean Harbor, although it's more of a transition area between Mediterranean Harbor and Mysterious Island. The Castle Forts are one of the best play areas, second only to Camp Jurassic (the most underrated spot in Orlando). I'll just leave this picture.
This is a massive land and there's a surprising amount of dead space here. The parades and lagoon shows all emanate from the Harbor. Because of that, there's a lot of space that's really just meant for people to stand around and watch. This differs from other parks, where that capacity is spread throughout the park. I think this worked perfect in TDS because there's so much land put towards it. If you look at USF, the parade and the nighttime show seem much more awkwardly placed and there's definitely some crowd control issues.
No real attractions in this land, although Soarin' is coming on line soon.
Mysterious Island
From here on out, I'm going to follow a pattern: talk briefly about the land and then talk about the attractions I went on. I didn't go on all the attractions obviously, but I'm going to talk about the "important" ones.
I think most people think of this as TDS's flagship land. It's really quite amazing. Again, TDS plays with heights. Instead of looking up, you get to look down. Mysterious Island is the famous lagoon area surrounded by a series of caves. I can't remember the last time I've seen this much rock work. The fact that OLC is able to maintain all of that rock work is remarkable. Personally, I think American tourists wreck our parks unlike the Japanese, but that's another conversation.
The steampunk effect is really cool throughout the main lagoon area in the land. I wish they had some steampunk merch, but I couldn't find any. The land ends up being the hub of the park, so it can be confusing to navigate around without a map. The signage ends up being more unobtrusive than helpful.
20K Leagues
This is a nice charming dark ride. The gist is that you board a submarine (elevated car) and go underwater to gaze in amazement at the wonders of the sea. In fact, you're going through a standard dark ride with a cool bubble effect that gives you the illusion that you're underwater. Combined with some clever lighting...it took me a surprisingly long time to convince myself that it wasn't underwater. It's a nice combination of a bunch of effects. The entire storyline is told in Japanese (all resort signage is in English but all ride audio in Japanese) but I think you're exploring with Captain Nemo until something goes terribly wrong. It's a clever storyline.
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The big one. The flagship ride at the park. I've heard it called "the greatest dark ride that Disney has ever built" and "the greatest dark ride ever." If I had to break out the buzzwords, I'd call it Gringotts with some Everest thrown in for good luck.
The queue starts out wandering through the caves as you see some desks and other office things explaining the creation of the giant drills you'll be later boarding. Then, comes the elevators. You take an actual themed elevator down to the depths of the park. Ooh and aah over the drills and the pretty stalactites (mites?) and it's off you go. I don't really want to give a full run-down of the ride, so I'll give you a video instead. I'm a very lazy writer.
This is a great ride. When it was built, it definitely was the best dark ride at a Disney park and on par with Spiderman for best ever (I don't want to get into a flame war about Disney vs Universal). The thing is that Universal has been killing it. Gringotts has usurped this as the best dark ride in country. They built a better elevator. They built a bigger queue with a better wow factor. The rides are weirdly similar - going through caves as things are happening. Apart from a monster AA (making me more confused why the Yeti is broken) and a cool outdoor segment, Gringotts tops this ride in every way. If you don't ever get to Tokyo, you can be smug everytime you go into Diagon Alley. If you do get to go to Tokyo, go on Journey. You won't regret it.
Mermaid Lagoon
Next land is Mermaid Lagoon. This is DisneySea's Toy Story Land. And, I don't mean that as an insult surprisingly. It's a compressed indoor land filled with flat rides. Lightly themed, but still flat rides. Sounds like Toy Story Land, right? The thing is, Disney did a good job with it. The exterior looks sick. I haven't seen The Little Mermaid in a while, but the outside made me nostaglic for a movie that I liked, but not loved. So, well done Disney. You get a nice waiting area with statue of Triton to help you transition in.
And then there's nothing but rides. Seriously, I couldn't take a single picture. I could barely move my arms above my shoulders. I've never seen so many rides and so many people crammed in such a small place. This is how Toy Story Land should be. Decent themeing and a ton of rides. If you're gonna build cheap rides, build a bunch of them and that creates a theme of its own.
I didn't spend any time here. I'm about fifteen years and 2 feet too tall to enjoy any of them. That being said, this is a kid's land with ample bathrooms and a well-themed shop. I didn't see any food offerings, but that's really the only knock against a very practical area of the park.
I've probably scared most of you off with that massive block of text and pictures. I know all of you want to listen to the fun stuff. Just a couple ground rules:
* This isn't a guide to the park. I'm not giving Len Testa-style touring plans. There's a ton of people who have done far better jobs than I have.
* It was rainy when I went, which impaired my already horrific picture taking ability. I'll post a couple pictures, but sorry.
* I'm only going to cover the rides that I went on along with my opinions on them. DisneySea seems to follow the pattern of many major theme parks today: a couple big headliner rides and some much, much smaller filler rides. The dining options and all of the shows (they gave me a guide full of them) make up the slack. Or, at least they make up the slack far better than they do at DHS or even Islands.
Also, my pictures turned out eh.
Off to the lands!
Mediterranean Harbor
Mediterranean Harbor is the Port of Entry of DisneySea. I'm going to attempt to spare the hyperbole.
It's the best entry land of any Disney park I've ever been to. If I didn't have such fond feelings towards Port of Entry, I'd say that it's the best entry of any theme park ever.
So much for sparing you. Tokyo DisneySea works best because it's willing to play with to play with heights. Just like Diagon Alley, each land works in DisneySea because each land is surrounded some form of "walls" (cue the Donald Trump joke - wait, please don't). Mediterranean Harbor illustrates this best. To the north, the land is walled off by the volcano. I'm sure it has a name, but it's simply too imposing to be called anything other than "The Volcano." It's a genius stroke of force perspective. The actual spewing volcano part is higher up on top of a series of well-themed caves (I'll get there).
To the south, the wall is much more practical - Hotel MiraCosta. Every park needs a hotel if it could be this well-integrated into the park. The entire Main Street plaza seems that much larger because the mass of the hotel surrounds you on both sides and above. The hotel side streets were very much part of the park and provided a nice respite from the constant crowds watching shows. The hotel allows for more intimate areas in the Main Street land.
Also part of the Main Street section is the barrage of stores. They'll all very tastefully done and the entire area reminds me of Main Street with a different paint job.
I could go on with the Main Street part, but I think you get the idea. I do want to add one thing. There's a small castle town on the other side of the lagoon. It's still technically Mediterranean Harbor, although it's more of a transition area between Mediterranean Harbor and Mysterious Island. The Castle Forts are one of the best play areas, second only to Camp Jurassic (the most underrated spot in Orlando). I'll just leave this picture.
This is a massive land and there's a surprising amount of dead space here. The parades and lagoon shows all emanate from the Harbor. Because of that, there's a lot of space that's really just meant for people to stand around and watch. This differs from other parks, where that capacity is spread throughout the park. I think this worked perfect in TDS because there's so much land put towards it. If you look at USF, the parade and the nighttime show seem much more awkwardly placed and there's definitely some crowd control issues.
No real attractions in this land, although Soarin' is coming on line soon.
Mysterious Island
From here on out, I'm going to follow a pattern: talk briefly about the land and then talk about the attractions I went on. I didn't go on all the attractions obviously, but I'm going to talk about the "important" ones.
I think most people think of this as TDS's flagship land. It's really quite amazing. Again, TDS plays with heights. Instead of looking up, you get to look down. Mysterious Island is the famous lagoon area surrounded by a series of caves. I can't remember the last time I've seen this much rock work. The fact that OLC is able to maintain all of that rock work is remarkable. Personally, I think American tourists wreck our parks unlike the Japanese, but that's another conversation.
The steampunk effect is really cool throughout the main lagoon area in the land. I wish they had some steampunk merch, but I couldn't find any. The land ends up being the hub of the park, so it can be confusing to navigate around without a map. The signage ends up being more unobtrusive than helpful.
20K Leagues
This is a nice charming dark ride. The gist is that you board a submarine (elevated car) and go underwater to gaze in amazement at the wonders of the sea. In fact, you're going through a standard dark ride with a cool bubble effect that gives you the illusion that you're underwater. Combined with some clever lighting...it took me a surprisingly long time to convince myself that it wasn't underwater. It's a nice combination of a bunch of effects. The entire storyline is told in Japanese (all resort signage is in English but all ride audio in Japanese) but I think you're exploring with Captain Nemo until something goes terribly wrong. It's a clever storyline.
Journey to the Center of the Earth
The big one. The flagship ride at the park. I've heard it called "the greatest dark ride that Disney has ever built" and "the greatest dark ride ever." If I had to break out the buzzwords, I'd call it Gringotts with some Everest thrown in for good luck.
The queue starts out wandering through the caves as you see some desks and other office things explaining the creation of the giant drills you'll be later boarding. Then, comes the elevators. You take an actual themed elevator down to the depths of the park. Ooh and aah over the drills and the pretty stalactites (mites?) and it's off you go. I don't really want to give a full run-down of the ride, so I'll give you a video instead. I'm a very lazy writer.
This is a great ride. When it was built, it definitely was the best dark ride at a Disney park and on par with Spiderman for best ever (I don't want to get into a flame war about Disney vs Universal). The thing is that Universal has been killing it. Gringotts has usurped this as the best dark ride in country. They built a better elevator. They built a bigger queue with a better wow factor. The rides are weirdly similar - going through caves as things are happening. Apart from a monster AA (making me more confused why the Yeti is broken) and a cool outdoor segment, Gringotts tops this ride in every way. If you don't ever get to Tokyo, you can be smug everytime you go into Diagon Alley. If you do get to go to Tokyo, go on Journey. You won't regret it.
Mermaid Lagoon
Next land is Mermaid Lagoon. This is DisneySea's Toy Story Land. And, I don't mean that as an insult surprisingly. It's a compressed indoor land filled with flat rides. Lightly themed, but still flat rides. Sounds like Toy Story Land, right? The thing is, Disney did a good job with it. The exterior looks sick. I haven't seen The Little Mermaid in a while, but the outside made me nostaglic for a movie that I liked, but not loved. So, well done Disney. You get a nice waiting area with statue of Triton to help you transition in.
And then there's nothing but rides. Seriously, I couldn't take a single picture. I could barely move my arms above my shoulders. I've never seen so many rides and so many people crammed in such a small place. This is how Toy Story Land should be. Decent themeing and a ton of rides. If you're gonna build cheap rides, build a bunch of them and that creates a theme of its own.
I didn't spend any time here. I'm about fifteen years and 2 feet too tall to enjoy any of them. That being said, this is a kid's land with ample bathrooms and a well-themed shop. I didn't see any food offerings, but that's really the only knock against a very practical area of the park.
Arabian Coast
I went to India a while ago as a tourist. I say this because I saw a couple palaces while I was there. And the Arabian coast was a huge deja vu in the best way. Again, it's all about using height. Disney used the walls of the palace and the alleyways to seal off this land from the rest of the park. Boy, is it effective. I grabbed some popcorn (curry popcorn ftw!) and got some killer people watching done here.
The entire land reminds me of Morroco quite a bit (which makes sense I think? I don't geography that well). There's a big stage show and Sinbad here.
Sinbad
I wrote this review because I wanted to talk about this ride. This is Tokyo DisneySea's Small World. But, I don't like that description. This is their piece de resistance. This is the pinnacle of Disney dark rides.
Alright, let's back up. I'm getting ahead of myself. This ride is about the story of Sinbad and his tiger Chandu as they journey all over the place. To start, the song is in Japanese with only four English words. Yet, it's such an ear worm. I was humming the four word English chorus for hours on end all throughout the park.
The AA and set design is amazing. This is Disney just showing off their ability to build AAs. There are hundreds of them, ranging in size from incredibly small to twenty foot tall giants. I know there's a difference between AA's and figures, but I'm willing to call these AA's. They're cartoony, but so well done. Each one moves, twists and even taps their feet. Their lops move with the music and even do vibrato. There's flying AAs and hidden AAs. The giant AA (named for its size and it's meant to be a giant) tapped it's feet, moved it's eyes, played the bongos and sang all at once.
Now, let's talk about the real hero of the show: Chandu the tiger. He's adorably hidden in each scene and he responds to Sinbad with a cute roar. The first time I rode the ride, a small girl in front of me would wave incessantly at Chandu every time she saw him. He's absolutely adorable.
I rode this ride twice. It was the absolute highlight of my trip to DisneySea. If you can only ride one ride at the entire park, it needs to be this one. I'm still trying to figure out how to best articulate this ride without using the word "magic." Quite frankly, this is proof that Disney doesn't need the most advanced tech or giant E-tickets to build enchanting rides. Plus, it's always a walk-on. Always. Seriously, you have no excuses not to ride this ride or at least watch the Youtube video.
PROTIP: If you ask the ride attendants at the vehicle load area, they'll give you a English lyrics sheet freebie. One of my favorite freebies I've gotten at a Disney park.
Lost River Delta
Looking back, I should've spent more time in this land. It's a wonderfully done Adventureland, except with more of a jungle vibe. (I'm also running out of momentum writing, so this is going to get sloppy quickly). Especially at night, there's a really great vibe. A river cuts through the land with several bridges going between the two halves. On one half, you have the two major rides: Indy and Raging Spirits (a coaster I didn't ride and have heard middling things about). The other half has shopping, dining and the like. There's some great lighting and you can get some great pictures. Again, didn't spend a ton of time here, so I don't have much to say. I was rushed for time around this time.
Indy
First, a quick rant. Tokyo Disney doesn't seem to understand single rider lines. Only Indy and Raging Spirits have single rider lines. There's absolutely no signage anywhere to explain where you should go or that the single rider concept exists. If I didn't read about the single rider lines online, I would've waited in the full line and wasted an hour more. Be sure to ask the cast members (who speak enough English) and they'll direct you to the Fastpass line for single riding. It's weird.
The internet told me that I should ride Indy. I feel like I don't have a ton to say about it. That's not to say it isn't a great ride. It's definitely different enough from the Disneyland version that you should ride it. For me, the oddest part of the queue was how close everything was to you. In Japan, they have no qualms about placing things within arm's length. One prop table with prop tools was actually part of the single rider line. I could've sat on it if I wanted to. Never gonna see that in the States.
It's a great ride. I'm not sure what more I can say.
Port Discovery
This was the biggest disappointment of the entire park. This is supposed to be DisneySea's Tomorrowland, although I didn't quite see it. It's a land that isn't fully baked yet. Hopefully the Finding Dory ride will help fix this. Ultimately, there's a restaurant, a shop, and Aquatopia, which I'll talk about in a second. There was a simulator ride called StormRider, but it has been replaced by construction walls and a couple hidden Finding Nemo characters. One thing I should point out about the park is the variety of food. Every single popcorn cart, restaurant, food stand - everything has unique offerings. Port Discovery's foodside stand had a delicious shrimp bun. At a food stand that you could overlook in a heartbeat. I absolutely love that and I wish more theme parks would take that on. Universal has started to with themed foods in most of their lands. I personally spent close to an entire paycheck eating Simpsons food because I needed to get one of everything.
Aquatopia
Another walk on ride. It's definitely a B+, C- ride, but worth doing for the novelty. The gist is that it's a trackless water ride. You board ride vehicles that go onto the water and do crazy things. Like all trackless rides, the vehicles are supposed to move and interact with each other. But, I really loved how the fountains interacted with the vehicles. The fountains would shoot right at you and then the vehicle would effortlessly move just in time. For somebody who's trying to take pictures with their phone, it's absolutely terrifying. Probably not worth a line of any kind, but it's a nice distraction.
I went to India a while ago as a tourist. I say this because I saw a couple palaces while I was there. And the Arabian coast was a huge deja vu in the best way. Again, it's all about using height. Disney used the walls of the palace and the alleyways to seal off this land from the rest of the park. Boy, is it effective. I grabbed some popcorn (curry popcorn ftw!) and got some killer people watching done here.
The entire land reminds me of Morroco quite a bit (which makes sense I think? I don't geography that well). There's a big stage show and Sinbad here.
Sinbad
I wrote this review because I wanted to talk about this ride. This is Tokyo DisneySea's Small World. But, I don't like that description. This is their piece de resistance. This is the pinnacle of Disney dark rides.
Alright, let's back up. I'm getting ahead of myself. This ride is about the story of Sinbad and his tiger Chandu as they journey all over the place. To start, the song is in Japanese with only four English words. Yet, it's such an ear worm. I was humming the four word English chorus for hours on end all throughout the park.
The AA and set design is amazing. This is Disney just showing off their ability to build AAs. There are hundreds of them, ranging in size from incredibly small to twenty foot tall giants. I know there's a difference between AA's and figures, but I'm willing to call these AA's. They're cartoony, but so well done. Each one moves, twists and even taps their feet. Their lops move with the music and even do vibrato. There's flying AAs and hidden AAs. The giant AA (named for its size and it's meant to be a giant) tapped it's feet, moved it's eyes, played the bongos and sang all at once.
Now, let's talk about the real hero of the show: Chandu the tiger. He's adorably hidden in each scene and he responds to Sinbad with a cute roar. The first time I rode the ride, a small girl in front of me would wave incessantly at Chandu every time she saw him. He's absolutely adorable.
I rode this ride twice. It was the absolute highlight of my trip to DisneySea. If you can only ride one ride at the entire park, it needs to be this one. I'm still trying to figure out how to best articulate this ride without using the word "magic." Quite frankly, this is proof that Disney doesn't need the most advanced tech or giant E-tickets to build enchanting rides. Plus, it's always a walk-on. Always. Seriously, you have no excuses not to ride this ride or at least watch the Youtube video.
PROTIP: If you ask the ride attendants at the vehicle load area, they'll give you a English lyrics sheet freebie. One of my favorite freebies I've gotten at a Disney park.
Lost River Delta
Looking back, I should've spent more time in this land. It's a wonderfully done Adventureland, except with more of a jungle vibe. (I'm also running out of momentum writing, so this is going to get sloppy quickly). Especially at night, there's a really great vibe. A river cuts through the land with several bridges going between the two halves. On one half, you have the two major rides: Indy and Raging Spirits (a coaster I didn't ride and have heard middling things about). The other half has shopping, dining and the like. There's some great lighting and you can get some great pictures. Again, didn't spend a ton of time here, so I don't have much to say. I was rushed for time around this time.
Indy
First, a quick rant. Tokyo Disney doesn't seem to understand single rider lines. Only Indy and Raging Spirits have single rider lines. There's absolutely no signage anywhere to explain where you should go or that the single rider concept exists. If I didn't read about the single rider lines online, I would've waited in the full line and wasted an hour more. Be sure to ask the cast members (who speak enough English) and they'll direct you to the Fastpass line for single riding. It's weird.
The internet told me that I should ride Indy. I feel like I don't have a ton to say about it. That's not to say it isn't a great ride. It's definitely different enough from the Disneyland version that you should ride it. For me, the oddest part of the queue was how close everything was to you. In Japan, they have no qualms about placing things within arm's length. One prop table with prop tools was actually part of the single rider line. I could've sat on it if I wanted to. Never gonna see that in the States.
It's a great ride. I'm not sure what more I can say.
Port Discovery
This was the biggest disappointment of the entire park. This is supposed to be DisneySea's Tomorrowland, although I didn't quite see it. It's a land that isn't fully baked yet. Hopefully the Finding Dory ride will help fix this. Ultimately, there's a restaurant, a shop, and Aquatopia, which I'll talk about in a second. There was a simulator ride called StormRider, but it has been replaced by construction walls and a couple hidden Finding Nemo characters. One thing I should point out about the park is the variety of food. Every single popcorn cart, restaurant, food stand - everything has unique offerings. Port Discovery's foodside stand had a delicious shrimp bun. At a food stand that you could overlook in a heartbeat. I absolutely love that and I wish more theme parks would take that on. Universal has started to with themed foods in most of their lands. I personally spent close to an entire paycheck eating Simpsons food because I needed to get one of everything.
Aquatopia
Another walk on ride. It's definitely a B+, C- ride, but worth doing for the novelty. The gist is that it's a trackless water ride. You board ride vehicles that go onto the water and do crazy things. Like all trackless rides, the vehicles are supposed to move and interact with each other. But, I really loved how the fountains interacted with the vehicles. The fountains would shoot right at you and then the vehicle would effortlessly move just in time. For somebody who's trying to take pictures with their phone, it's absolutely terrifying. Probably not worth a line of any kind, but it's a nice distraction.
American Waterfront
PROTIP: You need to enter American Waterfront for the first time from the Port Discovery side. Just do it.
I have a couple theme park moments that I would describe as magical. Moments where I've realized how special something is and purposefully chosen to stop and linger as I realize how fleeting the feeling is. The first one was years ago at Camp Jurassic. I was running around with my sister and, for just a brief moment, I forgot that I was in Orlando. Just a brief moment. But, it was long enough for me to marvel at how well-done Camp Jurassic is. The series of caves, the watch towers, the dinosaur shadows. Jurassic Park is my favorite movie of all time and I'll forever cherish that brief moment that I thought I was in the park. Camp Jurassic is why I'm a theme park fan. Seriously, regardless of your age, go wander around Camp Jurassic at night. You won't regret it.
The other two moments were much more... expected? Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. I spent most of my time in those lands wandering around and staring at the mundane details - trying to take it all in. I didn't want to leave because I didn't want the experience to end. I knew what to expect, but the collective might of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley still overtook me.
The reason I mention all of this is because I believe that the most magical (oh boy, there's that word again) moments in any theme park are the moments where you're surprised by the depth and the majesty of a themed setting. This was the American Waterfront for me. Entering the American Waterfront has joined those three moments as my favorite theme park moments.
Wow, that was a lot of hype. You enter the American Waterfront through a quaint colonial American town - Boston during the Tea Party? There's a massive sail boat on a small lagoon, a row of stores with Christmas lighting (probably due to the season) and a lighthouse on a hill with a great photo spot. Peek into all of the stores. The detail only gets better the closer you get.
It's when you turn the corner that you get the wow factor. All of a sudden, you see a steam ship, a classic hotel, and a park complete with band stand. Everything's lit up and there's hustle and bustle everywhere (this is probably the busiest section of the park with Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania).
Tower of Terror
PROTIP: After the pre-show, ask the attendants for an English sheet. You may have to show them a picture. Another nifty freebie!
The queue is quite spectacular. There's a very clear, engaging story that you can be walked through even if you don't speak Japanese. I've heard this online as a "amazing walk-through experience with an eh ride at the end" (paraphrasing, citation needed) and that sounds about right. It's one of the densest queues I've ever seen and that could entertain you for quite some time. The ride isn't as great at the Orlando version however. You can very loudly swear during the drops because nobody will understand you. Not saying I did that or anything...
Toy Story Mania
For reasons I'll never understand, this is the busiest ride in the park. Heck, I think it's the busiest ride in the resort. Lines were around 3 hours the entire day, except for right before the ride closed. Did I mention that if you get in line for a ride ten minutes before close they'll let you go on the ride? That was the only reason I got to ride this.
The outdoor area is spectacular. Think New Jersey Victorian boardwalk? I don't know my references that well. Check it out at night especially. The queue is also great, but it very much builds on the Orlando queue. The ride is a great ride, but it's the normal Toy Story Mania.
If the line is under an hour, go for it! If not, go to it in Orlando, California, Shanghai or the other fifty-five places that seem to have the ride.
Everything else
I've been writing for a while. Back to the bullet points!
* The food is amazing. I really regret not being able to get a full meal and just getting snacks. Go anywhere and you won't be disappointed.
* Maybe it was the rain, but I really didn't see any characters. This didn't feel like a Disney park, but it completely worked in the best ways.
* Can you guess what the three busiest stores that I saw were? If you guessed Duffy, you were right! Seriously, in the American waterfront, there was a Duffy store combined with an apparel store. The apparel part was near empty and you could barely walk in the Duffy part.
* DisneySea has a surprising number of shows in theaters. They're all very popular with huge lines. The most popular show (some big band show) actually has a persistant lottery system to get in.
* Lines move slow in DisneySea. The domestic parks seem a lot more efficient about getting people through the lines quickly.
* I'm going to go on a limb and say that there's more English signage than Japanese signage in the resort. But, all of the ride audio and queue props are in Japanese.
* The merch seemed to be better across the board in Tokyo. There is lots of generic merch that covers the stores, but even that seems a bit better than the generic "2016" garbage with the Mickey friends. Prices didn't seem outrageous, but that's up for debate.
* Carnival games! I liked the way that Disney did the carnival games. The lines were super, super long, so clearly everybody else did too. The only games I saw were in th Arabian Coast. They were very discrete with absolutely no annoying barkers. The merch was pretty expensive (Donald + Daisy plush) and I'm almost positive that it was exclusive to the game. You pay $5 to play. If you win (it was a skee-ball game), you get a plush. If you lose, you get a pin. I lost and still feel like I got a good deal. Seriously though, no carnival barkers makes me a happy camper no matter what.
I've been writing for about 5000 words now, so I'm going to be done before the carpal tunnel kicks in. Feel free to ask any questions. Hope you enjoyed this!
PROTIP: You need to enter American Waterfront for the first time from the Port Discovery side. Just do it.
I have a couple theme park moments that I would describe as magical. Moments where I've realized how special something is and purposefully chosen to stop and linger as I realize how fleeting the feeling is. The first one was years ago at Camp Jurassic. I was running around with my sister and, for just a brief moment, I forgot that I was in Orlando. Just a brief moment. But, it was long enough for me to marvel at how well-done Camp Jurassic is. The series of caves, the watch towers, the dinosaur shadows. Jurassic Park is my favorite movie of all time and I'll forever cherish that brief moment that I thought I was in the park. Camp Jurassic is why I'm a theme park fan. Seriously, regardless of your age, go wander around Camp Jurassic at night. You won't regret it.
The other two moments were much more... expected? Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. I spent most of my time in those lands wandering around and staring at the mundane details - trying to take it all in. I didn't want to leave because I didn't want the experience to end. I knew what to expect, but the collective might of Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley still overtook me.
The reason I mention all of this is because I believe that the most magical (oh boy, there's that word again) moments in any theme park are the moments where you're surprised by the depth and the majesty of a themed setting. This was the American Waterfront for me. Entering the American Waterfront has joined those three moments as my favorite theme park moments.
Wow, that was a lot of hype. You enter the American Waterfront through a quaint colonial American town - Boston during the Tea Party? There's a massive sail boat on a small lagoon, a row of stores with Christmas lighting (probably due to the season) and a lighthouse on a hill with a great photo spot. Peek into all of the stores. The detail only gets better the closer you get.
It's when you turn the corner that you get the wow factor. All of a sudden, you see a steam ship, a classic hotel, and a park complete with band stand. Everything's lit up and there's hustle and bustle everywhere (this is probably the busiest section of the park with Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania).
Tower of Terror
PROTIP: After the pre-show, ask the attendants for an English sheet. You may have to show them a picture. Another nifty freebie!
The queue is quite spectacular. There's a very clear, engaging story that you can be walked through even if you don't speak Japanese. I've heard this online as a "amazing walk-through experience with an eh ride at the end" (paraphrasing, citation needed) and that sounds about right. It's one of the densest queues I've ever seen and that could entertain you for quite some time. The ride isn't as great at the Orlando version however. You can very loudly swear during the drops because nobody will understand you. Not saying I did that or anything...
Toy Story Mania
For reasons I'll never understand, this is the busiest ride in the park. Heck, I think it's the busiest ride in the resort. Lines were around 3 hours the entire day, except for right before the ride closed. Did I mention that if you get in line for a ride ten minutes before close they'll let you go on the ride? That was the only reason I got to ride this.
The outdoor area is spectacular. Think New Jersey Victorian boardwalk? I don't know my references that well. Check it out at night especially. The queue is also great, but it very much builds on the Orlando queue. The ride is a great ride, but it's the normal Toy Story Mania.
If the line is under an hour, go for it! If not, go to it in Orlando, California, Shanghai or the other fifty-five places that seem to have the ride.
Everything else
I've been writing for a while. Back to the bullet points!
* The food is amazing. I really regret not being able to get a full meal and just getting snacks. Go anywhere and you won't be disappointed.
* Maybe it was the rain, but I really didn't see any characters. This didn't feel like a Disney park, but it completely worked in the best ways.
* Can you guess what the three busiest stores that I saw were? If you guessed Duffy, you were right! Seriously, in the American waterfront, there was a Duffy store combined with an apparel store. The apparel part was near empty and you could barely walk in the Duffy part.
* DisneySea has a surprising number of shows in theaters. They're all very popular with huge lines. The most popular show (some big band show) actually has a persistant lottery system to get in.
* Lines move slow in DisneySea. The domestic parks seem a lot more efficient about getting people through the lines quickly.
* I'm going to go on a limb and say that there's more English signage than Japanese signage in the resort. But, all of the ride audio and queue props are in Japanese.
* The merch seemed to be better across the board in Tokyo. There is lots of generic merch that covers the stores, but even that seems a bit better than the generic "2016" garbage with the Mickey friends. Prices didn't seem outrageous, but that's up for debate.
* Carnival games! I liked the way that Disney did the carnival games. The lines were super, super long, so clearly everybody else did too. The only games I saw were in th Arabian Coast. They were very discrete with absolutely no annoying barkers. The merch was pretty expensive (Donald + Daisy plush) and I'm almost positive that it was exclusive to the game. You pay $5 to play. If you win (it was a skee-ball game), you get a plush. If you lose, you get a pin. I lost and still feel like I got a good deal. Seriously though, no carnival barkers makes me a happy camper no matter what.
I've been writing for about 5000 words now, so I'm going to be done before the carpal tunnel kicks in. Feel free to ask any questions. Hope you enjoyed this!
- Sep 18, 2015
- 1,706
- 1,335
Loved your review. Entertaining reading. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: ...
Great review, thanks for sharing. I loved your travel advice for Japan (hoping to go myself within the next five years). Interesting what you said about Journey - I find I'm always getting told it's the best theme park attraction ever (mostly from fanboys who have never even been...) so the comparison to Gringotts sets up my expectations for it pretty well.
