Tokyo Disneyland Resort

[saint.piss]

TDL + TDS - 01/23/25 Report (my 2nd visit to the Tokyo Disney parks)

Also sorry for how long this post is going to be, I did a lot and have a lot of thoughts/pictures to share. Ps. Excuse any grammar issues it took awhile to type all this out

Attractions I did in one day: Rapunzel's Lantern Festival, Sinbad's Storybook Voyage, Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey, Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, Tower of Terror: 13th Floor, Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure, Pooh's Hunny Hunt, It's a Small World with Groot, Pinocchio's Daring Journey, Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast and Monster's Inc: Ride & Go Seek.

Woof. I did over 31k steps going around both parks in one day. It was brutal, but WORTH IT. I basically got to do everything I wanted to do (except ride Splash Mountain again, but I rode it when I visited Tokyo Disneyland last year so it's alright) so it really really worked out. To start this off, I just want to talk about Fantasy Springs. My god. This has to be the greatest Theme Park expansion in history? The artistry and attention to detail in this land is completely unmatched. It's absolutely breathtaking. It honestly makes me sad because we're NEVER going to get a land like this in the US at the Disney parks. Closest thing I can think of that could potentially match this quality is the Villains land at Magic Kingdom. But I'm not going to get my expectations too high for that lol. As for the attractions in FS, also absolutely amazing. I loved all of them really, I just wish Rapunzel's Lantern Festival was a little longer. It was short! I was honestly shocked by how good Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure is. It's a way better version of the Ratatouille ride and the closest to the Spider-Man ride at IoA Disney has gotten. It's so much fun and blend of 3D and practical sets are so good. Very charming. The queue for the attraction is also extremely cute. Now... onto what is my favorite ride in FS: Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey. This ride is an absolute masterpiece. On par with ROTR for me imo. The animatronics and effects used in this ride just blew me away. I really don't have much to say about this ride besides that it simply was amazing. Though I am a bit disappointed they didn't put Marshmallow (the huge snow man monster from the first movie) in this ride. That scene with him in Frozen Ever After is one of my favorites.

Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Attractions ranked:

1. Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey (9/10)
2. Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure (8.5/10)
3. Rapunzel's Lantern Festival (8/10)

Now back to the other attractions that I did for the first time at Tokyo DisneySea: Sinbad's Storybook Voyage and Indiana Jones Adventure. Not much to say about IDA, it's basically the same as it is at Disneyland California but more plused up. Great ride still! As for Sinbad... It might just be my new favorite ride (or at least close) at Tokyo DisneySea. I was honestly thrown off by how good this ride is. So many great set pieces. I'm all in favor of WDW replacing their It's A Small World with this ride... I hate their version of IASW. One last thing, it wasn't my first time riding Tower of Terror at TDS but it was my first time riding it with the 13th Floor overlay/story. I honestly enjoyed the ride a lot more with this overlay! It was more intense and it was what I was expecting of this ride when I first rode it last year. Transitioning to Tokyo Disneyland, the whole Pal-Palooza Vanellope's Sweet Pop World was so cute!!! They even made the whole World Bazaar smell like candy. It smelled so good. Sadly since we showed up at 5pm I didn't get to watch the parade or fireworks but the theming of this special Pal-Palooza celebration was really adorable. The only new ride I did at TDL was Pooh's Hunny Hunt, It's a Small World with Groot doesn't count because it's the same ride but with some added marvel characters. I really really loved Pooh's Hunny Hunt! The Winnie the Pooh ride at Magic Kingdom is one of my favorites and this version is just as good. It's definitely different so I don't want to compare (MK and DLs are traditional classic dark rides and TDLs version feels a lot more modern since it's a trackless dark ride with more advanced animatronics) but it's certainly tied with Monsters Inc: Ride & Go Seek as my favorite attraction at TDL. As for It's a Small World with Groot, y'all were being very overdramatic about that lol. Like I said before, they didn't take anything away from the ride they just added some marvel character's here and there in the scenes. It's very minimal and doesn't detract at all from the ride. I honestly had a lot of fun in every scene looking for the different groots. Overall I had an amazing time but it was very exhausting lol. I recommend to do both parks in one day ONLY if you've already been to both parks. Do not do it if it's your first visit. I'll be posting more pictures here from the parks later. I have a lot more pictures lmao

 

[Jake S]

those photos are amazing @saint.piss, thank you for sharing!

 

[TheUniC6]

It honestly makes me sad because we're NEVER going to get a land like this in the US at the Disney parks.

FWIW, DLR did poach a lead Tokyo Disney Imagineer to be the Disneyland Resort Creative Leader. Maybe something kinda like a Fantasy springs will come to DLR.

I was honestly shocked by how good Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure is. It's a way better version of the Ratatouille ride and the closest to the Spider-Man ride at IoA Disney has gotten. It's so much fun and blend of 3D and practical sets are so good

Hopefully this is a sign Infinity Defense will be a good ride at least on par with Cosmic Rewind.

 

[DarkMetroid567]

I was honestly shocked by how good Peter Pan's Never Land Adventure is. It's a way better version of the Ratatouille ride and the closest to the Spider-Man ride at IoA Disney has gotten.

It’s so weirdly good and my favorite of the FS three. I’d go so far as to say it’s only second to Spidey of my favorite scoop/motion base rides.

Fantasy Springs in general was a wonderful land but fell short of my skyhigh expectations. Something about it is weirdly Pandora, if that makes sense? I ended up enjoying Zootopia and HKDL Arendelle a lil more.

Insane photos btw.

 

[UNIrd]

Awesome trip report. Can't wait to experience Fantasy Springs for myself.

How were crowds and wait times? It seems like you got to do a lot!

 

[saint.piss]

Awesome trip report. Can't wait to experience Fantasy Springs for myself.

How were crowds and wait times? It seems like you got to do a lot!

It was pretty busy! I just got really lucky with some rides (Sinbad, It's A Small World, Pinocchio and Tangled) with waits under or just about 5 minutes. I got express for most of the rides (Frozen, Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones and Beauty and the Beast) but had to wait in standby for 3 rides (Peter Pan, Pooh's Hunny Hunt and Monster's Inc) with the longest wait being over an hour. The other two were 30-40 minutes. They currently have a discounted ticket offer for students so I think that's why it was really busy but I'm not sure. Also a huge reason I was able to ride the attractions in Fantasy Springs is because I arrived at the park entrance at 5am. It was a long wait and my hands nearly froze off but it was worth it. I booked a pass for both Tangled and Frozen almost instantly after getting into the park. Also, here's more pictures! I might post pictures I took at TDL here too later on as well. We'll seeeeee





















And here's some merch I got. Finally got my Duffy bear a friend!

 

[saint.piss]

Here's some extra pictures:

 

[Mad Dog]

Love it. Very impressive trip report. Thanks.

 

[saint.piss]

They're working fast! I was just there last month and it wasn't anything like this

 

[saint.piss]

 

[saint.piss]

 

[MikePat]

New Adventureland and Port Discovery possibly coming to the Tokyo Disney Resort:

 

[saint.piss]

New Adventureland and Port Discovery possibly coming to the Tokyo Disney Resort:

If this was happening in the states... lmao. People would RIOT

Edit: just to add, not a fan of these ideas. If they weren't replacing iconic rides I would be for it but they are. Scared that the US parks will take inspiration...

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Surprised by this move. I would have thought that after Fantasy Springs for DisneySea and TDL's Tomorrowland, they'd get more serious on a 3rd gate. (Speculation of them buying warehouse to the east of the resort, by DisneySea 2nd parking garage)

There's a lot of potential content for a 3rd gate, but I guess they want to prioritize maximizing the existing parks.

 

[belloq87]

I cannot possibly imagine that comes to fruition.

OLC getting rid of Big Thunder, Jungle Cruise, and their Rivers of America (which is what I'm getting from that concept art, though I can't really tell) seems totally ridiculous, and antithetical to the way they've been extremely thoughtful caretakers of Disney Parks history up to this point.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I cannot possibly imagine that comes to fruition.

OLC getting rid of Big Thunder, Jungle Cruise, and their Rivers of America (which is what I'm getting from that concept art, though I can't really tell) seems totally ridiculous, and antithetical to the way they've been extremely thoughtful caretakers of Disney Parks history up to this point.

This is the existing Adventureland area, so between Jungle Cruise and Pirates of the Caribbean (there's a BoH warehouse there that is planned to be removed soon)

The Rivers of America (to the south) was supposedly meant to become Tokyo's Cars Land, but plans changed.

 

[PerceptiveCoot]

antithetical to the way they've been extremely thoughtful caretakers of Disney Parks history up to this point.

OLC being "thoughtful caretakers" is mostly an incidental result of how the park was initially developed and expanded (MK copy first, then second park expansion). Now that expansion space is limited, the goal is to improve capacity in existing areas and make the park more unique relative to Disney parks around the globe.

As this article mentions, if you've perused any of OLC annual reports going back to the late 2010s, the redevelopment of existing park areas is an implied intiative that has been mentioned multiple times.

Up, Incredibles & Moana Adventureland Expansion Revealed for Tokyo Disneyland, Replacing Jungle Cruise & More - Disney Tourist Blog

Five years after the major project that added Beauty and the Beast mini-land and ride, plus Fantasyland, Toontown, and Tomorrowland expansions, the Oriental Land Company (OLC) has unveiled brand-new concept art for future expansions in both parks. This breaks down the redevelopment of...

www.disneytouristblog.com

I do share some of your skepticism about the scale of this blue sky expansion however. Splash and Big Thunder are still highly popular and unlikely to be removed in the near-term. But I find it hard to be too upset about this given the consistent quality of Tokyo's attractions and the placemaking that goes into them. As long as there's no hotel attached to this project, they can do as they like in Japan.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

OLC being "thoughtful caretakers" is mostly an incidental result of how the park was initially developed and expanded (MK copy first, then second park expansion). Now that expansion space is limited, the goal is to improve capacity in existing areas and make the park more unique relative to Disney parks around the globe.

As this article mentions, if you've perused any of OLC annual reports going back to the late 2010s, the redevelopment of existing park areas is an implied intiative that has been mentioned multiple times.

Up, Incredibles & Moana Adventureland Expansion Revealed for Tokyo Disneyland, Replacing Jungle Cruise & More - Disney Tourist Blog

Five years after the major project that added Beauty and the Beast mini-land and ride, plus Fantasyland, Toontown, and Tomorrowland expansions, the Oriental Land Company (OLC) has unveiled brand-new concept art for future expansions in both parks. This breaks down the redevelopment of...

www.disneytouristblog.com

I do share some of your skepticism about the scale of this blue sky expansion however. Splash and Big Thunder are still highly popular and unlikely to be removed in the near-term. But I find it hard to be too upset about this given the consistent quality of Tokyo's attractions and the placemaking that goes into them. As long as there's no hotel attached to this project, they can do as they like in Japan.

I think outside Disneyland (and maybe MK) the Jungle Cruise isn't as sacred. However, I am surprised they are tackling this first, before touching the River or addressing the outdated "legacy" side of Fantasyland. There's also a massive lot behind Tomorrowland that is easier to access for a phase 2.

 

[Jake S]

Yeah, I’d be stunned to see them do anything dramatic to the E-Tickets in Frontierland — they are extremely popular. Adventureland on the other hand… yeah, I could see something happening there.

That said, like every castle park on earth, they should be looking at Tomorrowland if they want to fix something. Yes, beyond Space Mountains rebuild.

 

[JaySalahi]

Of all the classic Disney rides to lose Jungle Crusie is the only one I’m ok with.