This article is based on a visit made on Tuesday, 1 April 2014.
Edit 2 October 2019: Updated prices to reflect the increase in Japan's national sales tax.
Tokyo Disney Resort opened in 1983 with one park, Tokyo Disneyland. It shares its general layout, and most of its rides, with the classic Disneyland and Magic Kingdom parks. A second park, Tokyo DisneySea (東京ディズニーシー,
Tōkyō Dizunīshī), opened in 2001. Unlike its older sibling, almost all of the rides are exclusive to this park. The areas of the park are themed around exploration. I’m a longtime veteran of Walt Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line, so I’ve grown to appreciate their "Imagineering", their word for park design. So, for my vacation in 2014, Tokyo Disney Resort was the most anticipated excursion I had planned.
If arriving by train, you’ll get off at Maihama Station and transfer on foot to the Resort Gateway Station. Directly behind that is the shopping complex Ikspiari (イクスピアリ). Depending on whom you ask, the name comes from the word "experience", or the song title "
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from
Mary Poppins.
A rather funky seating area in Ikspiari.
The Disney film
Frozen, titled in Japanese as
Ana to Yuki no Jo-oh (アナと雪の女王, lit. 'Anna and the Snow Queen'), had just come out in Japan when I visited. As a matter of fact, I saw the whole thing for the first time (in English) on the flight out. If you want to read my thoughts on that movie,
visit my other blog here.
The different corners of TDR are connected by a monorail called the Disney Resort Line. It runs in a counterclockwise loop connecting four stations: Resort Gateway (connecting to Maihama on the JR Keiyo line), Tokyo Disneyland, Bayside (adjacent to the hotels), and Tokyo DisneySea. All rides cost ¥260 which, for its length, is a little expensive compared to the other JR and subway lines. Still, it’s worth checking out the trains at least once, not just to get a view of the rest of the resort, but for the train itself: the windows and handles are Mickey-shaped.
It's a Disney park, so of course there are no shortage of costumed characters willing to join you for a picture, even right behind the entrance.
The first zone as you enter the park, Mediterranean Harbor, is based on Venice and Rome. There's some good shopping and dining to be had, but not much in the way of rides, except the gondolas in this depiction of Venice. You can see some in the back of this shot if you look closely.
Moving counter-clockwise, the next zone is the Mysterious Island, based on the works of Jules Verne. Two rides may be found here:
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and
Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
Off to the left before entering Mysterious Island is a fortress dedicated to the real-world explorers of old.
You can even get on this re-production of Leonardo da Vinci's concept flying machine. It does not actually fly, sorry.
Mermaid Lagoon is an indoor area based on
The Little Mermaid. The rides aim to a slightly younger clientele.
Arabian Coast, meanwhile, pays homage to the golden age of Arabia, as depicted in their version of
Aladdin. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the centre courtyard, where a fountain is topped by a flower statue of the Genie.
Walking through the inner alleys of Arabian Coast reminds me of the Morocco pavilion at Epcot.
In the far back of the park is Lost River Delta, an Amazon jungle-themed area, home to Indiana Jones Adventure and Raging Spirits (pictured). The Indiana Jones ride hosted the longest wait times I witnessed in my trip, topping four hours at most! I wish I had known that it was one of two rides at DisneySea, the other being Raging Spirits, which offer single-rider lines for folks who are travelling alone or do not need to stick with their party.
Continuing counterclockwise from Lost River Delta, we reach Port Discovery, which has a sort of electro/steampunk vibe to it. At the moment it has only one attraction, Aquatopia. There was another ride here, a motion-simulator called StormRider, which closed in May 2016. It will be replaced with "Nemo & Friends SeaRider", a similar ride based on
Finding Nemo, a year later.
The final world on my tour, American Waterfront, harkens back to turn-of-the-century America, specifically Cape Cod and New York City. The Cape Cod sub-world is home to a musical revue starring Duffy, the Teddy-bear mascot of DisneySea. Counter-intuitively, American Waterfront also hosts the park’s only Japanese-cuisine restaurant, Restaurant Sakura.
American Waterfront also hosts two of DisneySea's few transplanted attractions. First is the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, from Disney Hollywood Studios. (The American original was since re-themed as Guardians of the Galaxy: Breakout.)
The entrance to Toy Story Mania, another transplant from Hollywood Studios, is tucked into the far corner of American Waterfront. According to the crowd forecast sites below, this often boasts the longest lines of the entire park, and FastPass tickets tend to sell out within a mere half-hour of opening time! If you want to give this one a spin, you'd better act fast!
If you hang around, you might catch a water show in the central lagoon. Apart from the daytime one shown here, when night falls they do a version of
Fantasmic!, as made famous at Hollywood Studios (once again).
Also, you may have noticed the throngs of people lining the lagoon in the above picture. This was completely indicative of my experience at Tokyo DisneySea. In my day there, I only managed to get on four rides, most of them in Arabian Coast. I only discovered after coming back home that the day I visited, April 1st, fell on the Spring holidays of the Japanese school schedule. The cherry-blossom viewing season, my other reason for visiting in April, did not help matters either, I imagine. So to help you avoid the pitfalls I fell victim to, I have some tips for you to follow in planning a visit to DisneySea:
- The very first thing you should do when you get into the park is to head to the attraction you want to visit the most, and get a FastPass ticket. It’s important to bear in mind that after you get one FastPass ticket, you will not be able to get another one for some time, so go for the attraction you are most interested in first.
- There are a few websites you can visit to read crowd forecasts in both Disneyland and DisneySea. http://tdrnavi.jp/forecast/disneysea?lang=en is in English and Japanese. http://www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/ is in Japanese only, but includes more detailed information about what conditions (holidays, school closings, etc.) will increase visitor traffic, and by how much.
- Indiana Jones Adventure and Raging Spirits both have single rider lines. If you are travelling alone or do not need to stay with your partner(s), taking the single-rider line can shorten your wait time considerably. Ask the attendant at the entrance about this.
- Not related, but seek out the different popcorn stalls scattered about the park, and try some of their unique flavours. I got a box of cream soda popcorn, which had a greenish glaze to them but were quite sweet! A single-serving box costs ¥310, and souvenir buckets start at ¥2,000; the buckets are refillable for ¥520. (NB: Upon checking the regular popcorn menu, it appears the cream soda flavour was a limited-time item which has since been retired. There are many other flavours sold at different places throughout the park; they should be listed on the latest guide maps.)
In conclusion, I would still recommend Tokyo DisneySea. I would, however, advise you to do your research in picking the best time to go in order to beat the crowds and get your money's worth. After all, both DisneySea and Disneyland are some of the more expensive attractions in all of Japan, with a one-day adult ticket costing about US$75 (see below). Mind you, that's still cheaper than the Disney parks in California or Florida, which charge upwards of $100! But this blog isn't about California or Florida, now, is it?
Hours: Opens 8 AM or 9 AM, closes 10 PM. No regular closing days.
Costs: A one-day adult ticket costs ¥7,500, which includes unlimited rides. Credit cards including MasterCard, Visa, Discover, and JCB are accepted. Discounted rates are available after 6 PM on weekdays ("After 6 Passport", ¥4,300 for adults) and 3 PM on weekends ("Starlight Passport", ¥5,500 for adults).
Address: 1-13 Maihama, Urayasu-shi, Chiba-ken 〒279-0031
Access: From Tokyo Station, take the JR Keiyo
(JE) Line to Maihama (JE07, 15 minutes, ¥220, JR Pass OK). The Keiyo line platforms are separate from the main building and connected by an underground passage, so allow yourself an extra couple of minutes to walk to the platforms.
Once you've arrived at Maihama Station, take the Disney Resort Line to Tokyo DisneySea station (8 minutes, ¥260). Or, you can walk from Resort Gateway to DisneySea in 15 minutes.
Website:
(English) (Japanese)
