Tokyo DisneySea

Today's travelogue entry is dedicated to Randy E -- the most incredible Disney fanatic that I've ever met! :-)

Originally we had planned to visit both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea but, given all of the interesting things there have been to do in Tokyo and given that we have already been to Disneyland, we decided to only take in the DisneySea. The Tokyo DisneySea is a relatively new attraction, opening 5 years ago. It is the only Disney attraction of its kind in the world. Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea are apparently the most successful amusement parks in the world -- in fact, Tokyo Disneyland recently celebrated its 400 millionth visitor on Nov. 2nd; it has only been open since 1983.

It was a very windy and blustery day here in Tokyo -- very strange for this city. In fact, it was so windy we could have been in Regina! This caused some problems for our commute out to the Disney site. The wind made the trains unsafe and we had to take a subway and a bus to get to our destination instead. This caused a bit of chaos -- especially with respect to transferring to the bus; the line ups were incredible. What should have been a 15 minute commute from the Tokyo station took us more than an hour!

We finally arrived at the DisneySea without any idea of what to expect. Would the park be as good as Disneyland or would it be better? Would it be worth the price of admission? Did we make a mistake in going only to DisneySea? Our first impressions were pretty good -- the entrance to the park is very impressive and once you enter, you truly are transported to a different world of medieval ports, Arabian cities, and futuristic sites. I wouldn't say that DisneySea is better than Disneyland, it is simply different and, in many ways, similar with alternative themes. Many of the main attractions in the various theme areas are quite similar to those within Disneyland. For instance the StormRider is very similar to the StarTours ride at Disneyland and The Journey to the Centre of the Earth is very similar to Splash Mountain.

 

 

 

Definitely our favourite ride at DisneySea was The Journey to the Centre of the Earth. There is a surprise drop (almost a free fall) in this one that will scare the crap out of you! My voice is still recovering from screaming during this one! We ended up going on this ride twice. In fact, the line-up area is done so well, it is almost worth the price of admission.

There were a couple of major rides that we did not go on though since they were seemingly quite extreme. Raging Spirits is described as follows: "Dare the wrath of two ancient gods as you speed through an archaeological excavation site aboard this roller coaster with a 360-degree loop!" In addition, the following warning is given: "Please put backpacks and handheld items in the nearby complimentary lockers". This was enough to turn me off of this ride. I've never been much for roller coasters and I did not bring any Gravol with me! We also skipped the Tower of Terror as it was obvious from observing this ride from the outside that it involved at least 3 major free falls. The wait in line was also over 45 mins. I guess that we copped out on these two but at least we were able to keep our lunches down...

Once we were through all of the rides, we managed to do a little Disney shopping. The pure commercialism of this place is staggering. There are opportunities upon opportunities that Disney provides to park attendees to part with their money for trinkets and trash. Some of the souvenir stores are massive. We bought a few things but thankfully managed to not get too caught up in all of the shameless commercialism. Regardless, it was an expensive day but worth it as it was quite fun.

If you're ever in Tokyo, Disneyland and DisneySea are well worth taking in...