Day Trip to Tokyo DisneySea

DisneySea is unique to Japan, and like its name suggests it is an amusement park that is ocean-themed (think Little Mermaid, Arabian Coasts, Aladdin etc…). Since we only had a few days in Tokyo, we decided to visit DisneySea rather than Disneyland. However, if we had more time, I wished we had the time to spend one day each at each amusement park, or even stay at the on-site Disney themed hotels for a more Disney experience… but that would be a story for another time. 😆

The Disney Train Ride

To get into Disneyland or DisneySea, you would need to catch the Disney train after alighting at Maihama Station (from Shibuya Station). [How to get to DisneySea/Disneyland from Shibuya Station]

Klook.com

Getting in the Park

The queue waiting to enter the theme park was quite long, but thankfully it was fast moving. We found ourselves entering the park within a 30 minute time frame. From the moment we entered DisneySea, it was a quite an experience as we meandered our way though Mediterranean Harbor, an Italian themed port-town with canals and Venetian Gondolas reminiscent of Venice. The watershows are held on regular intervals, but we didn’t stay to watch the show.

As we made our way further into the park, there were crowds upon crowded waiting for some of the other shows. The crowds were totally crazy for the shows, the queues were already long and some of the shows had 1-2 hours before showtime. Still it was quite a sight seeing all those prams and adults sitting outside.

On hindsight, we should have gotten the fast passes for some of the rides. However, we weren’t really here for the rides, but rather to soak up the Disney atmosphere at a leisurely pace. For those who love to plan out where to go and what rides to take, it’s always best to download the map and mark out your plan. [DisneySea Map]

In summary we visited:
Mediterranean Harbor:

Mediterranean Harbor

An Italian themed port-town with canals and Venetian Gondolas reminiscent of Venice.

Toysville Trolley Park:

Toysville Trolley Park

Cute snack

Bring out the child in you with this Toy Story themed mini-park, takes loads of wefies/selfies with the backdrops, and eat cute snacks!

American Waterfront: designed after 20th Century New England, New York, and Cape Cod harbor towns. From here we took a short ferry ride to the Lost River Delta.

The ferry ride: not really worth the wait if the queue is long. We waited for about 30 minutes to have a 5 minute ride. 😂

Lost River Delta:

Lost River Delta

An Indiana Jones themed area reminiscent with the ruins of an ancient civilization that is located deep within the remote Central American jungles.

Mermaid Lagoon:

Mermaid Lagoon

Disney themed snacks!

The world of Ariel, the little mermaid, and her aquatic friends. The rides are more suited for little children but the child in you will surely appreciate the sea-theme décor and souvenir shop, not to mention adorable shaped snacks!

Arabian Coast:

There was a crazy queue for the curry popcorn.

Truly Arabian in theme with amazing visuals. There was a long queue for popcorn… curry flavored popcorn. Here, we took the short but quite entertaining ride for “Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage”. Of course, if you understood Japanese than it would have been better, but the visuals and the ride (where you can rest your aching feet as the beat meanders through the story) was a nice reprieve from all that walking.

Mysterious Island:

Mysterious Island

Located at the center of the park with a man-made volcano which spews out smoke rather convincingly all day long. Here we took 2 rides, called ‘20,000 Leagues under the Sea’ and ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’.

We thought that the ‘20,000 Leagues under the Sea’ ride would really take us beneath the waters, but we were disappointed to find out that it was just an “underwater voyage” with alien beings and stuff glowing in the ‘fake’ water (the capsule is encased with an outer layer which contains liquid which bubbles to give the effect that you are under water).

The only "exciting ride" would have to be the ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ which is located within a man-made giant volcano! It’s a roller coaster ride that could have packed a punch, alas before we could enjoy the ride, it ended abruptly: it starts out very slowly, then a few seconds before the ride ends it speeds up and takes a quick dip and then it’s done (no climax at all).

Overall, it was good fun and by the time we left it was quite dark. Unfortunately due to the weather or something, there were no fireworks. But the night time scene was just as mesmerizing as in the day, just different.

Mermaid Lagoon at night

Looks prettier at night

The sight as we made our way out

[Video: Our DisneySea Adventure]

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