disney sea

Katie and I have always enjoyed playing full-on tourist and going to a theme park occasionally.  In fact, the only time I went to Wet ‘n Wild was with Katie where we spent a record-breaking 14 hours–who knew it was open that long!

When we talked months ago about visiting Tokyo, we decided to go to Disney.  Katie found out that in addition to Tokyo Disney, there is also the only DisneySea in the world, so we decided if we had to choose, we’d to go a new park that no one ever heard of!

When we were in Shibuya on Wednesday, Katie learned there was a Disney Store where we could buy our tickets in advance.  We waited in line for about 20 minutes and paid about $140 for 2 tickets–nearly half the rate for a 1-day ticket in the US.  The next day Katie-the-amazing-navigator found the bus station and we took the bus from Shibuku to DisneySea for 200 yen total–about $19, or less than the cost to park 1 car at DisneyWorld.  Just the bus ride to DisneySea was incredible!  This was not a Disney bus, but a company bus at a massive bus station with dozens of buses coming and going and many employees directing traffic.  We drove on the highway which was busy with occasional stopped traffic during our 9:30 a.m. ride.  We cut right through downtown Tokyo toward the port along Tokyo Bay.  We crossed the water on an amazing suspension bridge and could see marinas and beautiful blue water.

We really didn’t know what to expect, maybe a combination Disney/SeaWorld, but it was neither.  It was beautiful and unlike any park we’d been to.  It was 70 degrees and sunny and not crowded by Orlando standards.  There are 7 areas and when you first enter the park you are in Mediterranean Harbor, which is fashioned after Italy.  There is a wall like the Roman Coliseum, gondolas on the canal in “Venice,” Italian restaurants, and a lovely waterfront.  As they always do, Disney did a great job capturing the look and feel of Italy!

We noticed a very large group of people sitting on the ground by a stage on the harbor.  These people were pros!  They all had picnic mats and umbrellas to sit on! Obviously something big was going to happen but we’d have to wait to see what!  We decided to head for the volcano, which looked huge and amazing!  It was located in the center of the park in Mysterious Island.  It turned out to include a ride, Journey to the Center of the Earth, so we got fast passes for later.  It also included the ride 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.  Katie was too young to remember that ride at DisneyWorld, so we jumped on with no wait and it was really well done!  You were in a “submarine” with your own window.  I’m sure we were never under water, but it looked like we were and was hilarious to hear the tale in Japanese!

Soon they began making announcements in both Japanese and English about the upcoming show.  The voice was the exact same voice that makes all the announcements in Orlando, I swear.  They talked about Fashionable Easter–what!?  It said Watch as Mickey and his friends show off their best Easter bonnets…….huh!?  We grabbed a place to stand along the harbor and sure enough, here came fancy boats with Mickey et al in elaborate Easter outfits!  We really couldn’t help but laugh because they don’t even celebrate Easter here and wasn’t Easter like 3 weeks ago?  Everyone was excited though and we realized that many people were wearing dressy clothes and some had on bunny ears that they were selling throughout the park.  We watched only a minute then gave up our spot to lucky tourists and went to the Raging Spirits ride in the Lost River Delta section.  I’m a roller coaster wimp, so I watched from the sidelines.  Meanwhile I found a locker for our jackets–100 yen that you got back if you used it for under 3 hours, compared with the $7 lockers at DisneyWorld.  While we were there, Katie went on the Indiana Jones ride, which she assured me was well within my abilities so we went again!  It was really fun, hidden within a huge cavern! 

There was a very impressive Tower of Terror ride, but we both opted out of that!

Mermaid Lagoon was sweet and lovely, centered of course around The Little Mermaid.  It had adorable little rides for the young ones, or the young at heart because we enjoyed them too!  There were play areas for the tiniest visitors. 

Mostly the lines were really short, so we were able to see nearly everything!  One of the features within the park was flavored popcorn in each area.  Mermaid Lagoon had shrimp flavored popcorn, which we skipped.  We wandered over to the Arabian Coast, where they had curry flavored popcorn, as well as a Sindbad ride.  I’d never heard of the movie, but the ride was really cute!  It was the style of It’s A Small World, but it seemed even longer with room after room of animatronics.  Later we found salt flavored popcorn (!!!) and milk chocolate popcorn; they also had herb-tomato and blueberry flavors.

We stopped to eat at the Mexican restaurant and had another laugh at the small portions.  There was merely a dollop of guacamole and another of salsa with about 25 chips haha!  What was craziest was in this huuuuuuge restaurant that could easily seat 250, there were only about 20 people.  As Katie had noted before, they just don’t like Mexican food here yet.

In the American Waterfront area, they had restaurants, trolley cars, shops, and shows.  There was a cool ride that took you into the water in little like that boats that move and spun.  And of course, a Finding Nemo ride in a theatre that held about 120 people.  The whole room moved and shook with Nemo’s adventure. 

They had an interesting area about discovery, including a giant pendulum and huge model of the solar system within various turrets among a wall.  While we were up there, we realized the nighttime show was about to start.  We noticed there was a giant sorcerer’s hat in the middle of the lagoon.  Soon it lit up in blue and silver lights, with Mickey Mouse shining in a red lighted jacket on top, cheering in perfect Mickey voice but in Japanese!  Soon there were fireworks and lighted boats with dancers and music filling the park!

It was windy and chilly on the top of the wall once the sun went down, but we still had an hour until the park closed.  We headed over to the Toy Story ride and this was the only line we waited in with all the other tired guests for about an hour.  It had just opened in May of 2017, so everyone was excited!  It was similar to the Buzz Lightyear ride at Magic Kingdom, except the shooting was more accurate and each time the car moved you were shooting different things or throwing rings or darts.  Really fun!

All in all the park well exceeded our expectations!  And if the service is great in general in Japan, then it was crazy at DisneySea!  Every single employee smiled and waved to adults and children alike.  There was also an entire collection of animals surrounding a bear named Duffy and his pale colored friends.  They must be very popular here because lots of people were carrying them around.

We were told when we bought our bus tickets that the last bus left at 9 p.m., and surprisingly it turned out to be true so we had to find another way home.  The helpful clerk at guest services told us to take the monorail, which was similar to the Magic Kingdom but bulkier looking with giant windows in the shape of Mickey Mouse ears.  From the monorail we took the train to the subway, then the subway home–it all took over an hour and everything was packed with people including lots of sleepy kids.  We noticed there were also many men in suits, just heading home at 10 p.m. in this city where the work culture is so demanding.  We were exhausted by the time we climbed into our capsules, walking about 13 miles during our long, exciting day at DisneySea!

Photo:  Fashionable Easter Celebration at DisneySea, Tokyo