lindsey clare
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 27, 2009
Disclaimer: This trip was in May 2008, so my memories are slightly fuzzy. Any inaccuracies can be blamed on that!
We had originally decided to go just to DisneySea - we did end up going back up to Tokyo one day just to go to Disneyland (this was a surprise from the husband! Such a Disney boy!). The review for that will follow later!
Having not been to Disney parks since Disneyland in 1988 (!), I was pretty excited. The weather in Tokyo that day was overcast and quite cool, which meant that there wasn't much of a crowd at all. We arrived around ten minutes before the gate opened. There was a bit of a queue, but not a lot - maybe around 100 people waiting. Even though DisneySea is traditionally the more 'adult' of the two parks (it's quite popular for dates apparently), there were lots of families with young children in strollers.
Okay, into the park and the first thing you see is the man-made lake with the volcano at the far end of the park. We stopped for a quick photo with a character, then hopped straight on a boat so we could take it all in.
I think the first ride we went on was Indiana Jones. LOVED this! Definitely a favourite. Enough action to satisfy Tim, but not so rough as to scare me
The interior of the waiting/queue area was pretty amazing too - great theming. Another great ride in this area (Lost River Delta) is Raging Spirits, a rollercoaster that includes a loop. I can't remember much about this ride, but Tim says it was over pretty quick. I remember we both really liked it though!
I can't remember the order in which we visited each area, plus we were without a plan so we did a fair bit of just walking around and criss-crossing (which is okay as DisneySea isn't huge in area). But the main highlights were as follows:
Mysterious Island (which hosts the volcano). Two great rides here with a Jules Verne theme: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Journey To The Centre of the Earth. This whole area is pretty impressive, and has a nice mysterious/mad scientist feel to it. We thought both rides were great. JTTCOFE was (I think) new at the time (I could be making this up) and was much talked-about. It was very well done.
Mermaid Lagoon. I grew up watching The Little Mermaid so I almost cried with happiness when we got here!
It is just gorgeous. There's a cute little coaster, as well as a large indoor area which is dimly lit to make it feel underwater. There's a great recreation of Ariel's cave (you know, where she keeps all her bits and pieces and the statue of Eric!). Lots of fun to look at, but probably not as exciting for non Little Mermaid fans. (Tim has never seen it and didn't know what all the fuss was about!
)
Arabian Coast. Perhaps the most spectacular part of DisneySea, this is much photographed at night due to it's beautiful lights reflecting in the water below. Sinbad's Adventure is kinda like It's A Small World, we really liked this. There's also a carousel, a 3D movie/show, and various other bits and pieces. It was nice and quiet around here, so we took our time to explore. I loved the recreation of Jasmin's garden, complete with fountain and Jafar wandering around!
Port Discovery. Perhaps our least favourite area, it just didn't quite hold enough excitement for me. The theme is sort of futuristic sea exploration, but it wasn't too different from Mysterious Island, so it didn't stand out much. There's a simulation ride called Storm Rider which we thought was a bit lame (keep in mind that a lot of the rides with spoken intro bits were lost on us as they were in Japanese) and a track ride called Aquatopia which was very tame.
American Waterfront. Being Australians, this was really enjoyable for us to just walk around and look at, especially the Cape Cod area. So pretty! There's a big ship called the Columbia where we decided we would go for dinner. There's also the Tower of Terror - which i reeeeeally didn't like. I let Tim talk me into going on it, even though i hate rides that "drop". Never again, ha!
We watched three shows at DisneySea. One was about animals and nature in the rainforest (very good), the second was an outdoor one set on a cruise ship (very funny being all in Japanese except for the cheesy musical numbers, but hey, Mickey and Minnie appeared in this one). The third was a Broadway style Big Band show, in a big theatre, and we enjoyed this one too.
As for food, we were pretty disappointed in the snack/sweets offerings, but were pleasantly surprised with the quality of all the other food. We ate at a Mexican place for lunch (fajitas etc), complete with mariachi band. We actually thought the food and atmosphere was quite fun and definitely acceptable in terms of price. For dinner we went on the Columbia for dinner (lovely, old fashioned dining room with impeccable service. Expensive but being the nicest place at DisneySea, we thought it was worth it). I remember snacking on chicken soup, stale churros, and other bits and pieces which I can't remember. They seemed to have popcorn EVERYWHERE, but we aren't huge on popcorn and really wanted warm things to eat seeing as it was so cold. This was a bit of a challenge, but we definitely didn't go hungry!
The night time finale/show was quite spectacular. It was pretty cold at this point so we huddled into a corner of a covered walkway to watch the show. Like all Disney shows, it was very well done although due to high winds that night, some of the features were not used. The theme was something to do with fire and water, and it all happened on the lake, which is the centre of the park, so everyone stands/sits around the edge to watch. Very cool.
And that's it for DisneySea! I wish I could remember more but it's been quite a while. Writing this down has brought back a lot of memories and it was such a special day, we absolutely loved it. I wholeheartedly recommend DisneySea! It's not thrill-a-minute and it doesn't even have that many rides, but it's so well-designed and there's so much to look at. As we were leaving we discovered the canal area and the gondola boys invited us to go for a ride. It would've been so lovely and romantic but at that point we were exhausted (and freezing cold!) so we declined. My one regret! But it was a beautiful day regardless.
Let me know if you have any questions!
We had originally decided to go just to DisneySea - we did end up going back up to Tokyo one day just to go to Disneyland (this was a surprise from the husband! Such a Disney boy!). The review for that will follow later!
Having not been to Disney parks since Disneyland in 1988 (!), I was pretty excited. The weather in Tokyo that day was overcast and quite cool, which meant that there wasn't much of a crowd at all. We arrived around ten minutes before the gate opened. There was a bit of a queue, but not a lot - maybe around 100 people waiting. Even though DisneySea is traditionally the more 'adult' of the two parks (it's quite popular for dates apparently), there were lots of families with young children in strollers.
Okay, into the park and the first thing you see is the man-made lake with the volcano at the far end of the park. We stopped for a quick photo with a character, then hopped straight on a boat so we could take it all in.
I think the first ride we went on was Indiana Jones. LOVED this! Definitely a favourite. Enough action to satisfy Tim, but not so rough as to scare me
The interior of the waiting/queue area was pretty amazing too - great theming. Another great ride in this area (Lost River Delta) is Raging Spirits, a rollercoaster that includes a loop. I can't remember much about this ride, but Tim says it was over pretty quick. I remember we both really liked it though!
I can't remember the order in which we visited each area, plus we were without a plan so we did a fair bit of just walking around and criss-crossing (which is okay as DisneySea isn't huge in area). But the main highlights were as follows:
Mysterious Island (which hosts the volcano). Two great rides here with a Jules Verne theme: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Journey To The Centre of the Earth. This whole area is pretty impressive, and has a nice mysterious/mad scientist feel to it. We thought both rides were great. JTTCOFE was (I think) new at the time (I could be making this up) and was much talked-about. It was very well done.
Mermaid Lagoon. I grew up watching The Little Mermaid so I almost cried with happiness when we got here!
It is just gorgeous. There's a cute little coaster, as well as a large indoor area which is dimly lit to make it feel underwater. There's a great recreation of Ariel's cave (you know, where she keeps all her bits and pieces and the statue of Eric!). Lots of fun to look at, but probably not as exciting for non Little Mermaid fans. (Tim has never seen it and didn't know what all the fuss was about!
)
Arabian Coast. Perhaps the most spectacular part of DisneySea, this is much photographed at night due to it's beautiful lights reflecting in the water below. Sinbad's Adventure is kinda like It's A Small World, we really liked this. There's also a carousel, a 3D movie/show, and various other bits and pieces. It was nice and quiet around here, so we took our time to explore. I loved the recreation of Jasmin's garden, complete with fountain and Jafar wandering around!
Port Discovery. Perhaps our least favourite area, it just didn't quite hold enough excitement for me. The theme is sort of futuristic sea exploration, but it wasn't too different from Mysterious Island, so it didn't stand out much. There's a simulation ride called Storm Rider which we thought was a bit lame (keep in mind that a lot of the rides with spoken intro bits were lost on us as they were in Japanese) and a track ride called Aquatopia which was very tame.
American Waterfront. Being Australians, this was really enjoyable for us to just walk around and look at, especially the Cape Cod area. So pretty! There's a big ship called the Columbia where we decided we would go for dinner. There's also the Tower of Terror - which i reeeeeally didn't like. I let Tim talk me into going on it, even though i hate rides that "drop". Never again, ha!
We watched three shows at DisneySea. One was about animals and nature in the rainforest (very good), the second was an outdoor one set on a cruise ship (very funny being all in Japanese except for the cheesy musical numbers, but hey, Mickey and Minnie appeared in this one). The third was a Broadway style Big Band show, in a big theatre, and we enjoyed this one too.
As for food, we were pretty disappointed in the snack/sweets offerings, but were pleasantly surprised with the quality of all the other food. We ate at a Mexican place for lunch (fajitas etc), complete with mariachi band. We actually thought the food and atmosphere was quite fun and definitely acceptable in terms of price. For dinner we went on the Columbia for dinner (lovely, old fashioned dining room with impeccable service. Expensive but being the nicest place at DisneySea, we thought it was worth it). I remember snacking on chicken soup, stale churros, and other bits and pieces which I can't remember. They seemed to have popcorn EVERYWHERE, but we aren't huge on popcorn and really wanted warm things to eat seeing as it was so cold. This was a bit of a challenge, but we definitely didn't go hungry!
The night time finale/show was quite spectacular. It was pretty cold at this point so we huddled into a corner of a covered walkway to watch the show. Like all Disney shows, it was very well done although due to high winds that night, some of the features were not used. The theme was something to do with fire and water, and it all happened on the lake, which is the centre of the park, so everyone stands/sits around the edge to watch. Very cool.
And that's it for DisneySea! I wish I could remember more but it's been quite a while. Writing this down has brought back a lot of memories and it was such a special day, we absolutely loved it. I wholeheartedly recommend DisneySea! It's not thrill-a-minute and it doesn't even have that many rides, but it's so well-designed and there's so much to look at. As we were leaving we discovered the canal area and the gondola boys invited us to go for a ride. It would've been so lovely and romantic but at that point we were exhausted (and freezing cold!) so we declined. My one regret! But it was a beautiful day regardless.
Let me know if you have any questions!
Thanks for the great report. I love the how detailed it looks, in particular Arabian Coast and Mermaid Lagoon. The canal part looks really lovely too. 
I can't wait to visit TDL one day!
