I'm close to a year late with this, but on Christmas Eve and Boxing day last year I visited Tokyo Disneysea, which has probably been the #1 park I've wanted to visit. I had a great, albeit very long day from opening till close, and then back again on the 3rd day at Disney to get on rides I had missed.

https://www.parkz.com.au/parks/JP/Urayasu/Tokyo_Disneysea/

The park gets exceptionally busy. We arrived at 7am, an hour prior to opening and the entry plaza was already full. It really is important to get in early so you can get a fastpass and a first ride with a shorter wait. Because of the crowds, the park has generous opening hours. You can pretty much ride most things in one day, but you have to keep in mind you'll probably only ride everything once, and you'll have a handful of 90+ waits peppered in.

Access to the park is simple. Maihama station, then a monorail loop runs around the resort, though you have to pay a nominal fare to ride, which can be done using your smartcard. At park closing time Maihama gets crazy busy, it's like what you'd see at a station here after a footy game. It wasn't so bad for me because our hotel was outbound from Tokyo (We stayed at Holiday In Shin Urayasu)

General thoughts:

-Superb theming, and i think there was literally only a single time where i spotted a break in the theming.

-The rides are pretty much Disneys greatest hits, albeit some like Tower of Terror felt a little toned down compared to the US versions in terms of thrills, but often much better in terms of theming.

-The park has a lot of stuff that is "nice" and very beautiful to look at, but not necessarily all that "fun", for example the Fortress and Aquatopia. But this is clearly geared to the local market who appreciate finer things.

-The food is great, but i could never understand the lines for them. Attractions yeah, they are expensive to build, but i would have thought if all these special menu items perpetually have long queues and there are signs saying max 4 items per order, then like, open more stands? It was wild seeing lines to get into the department store.

-Indiana jones was closed for maintenance 😥

-If you only had one spare day in Tokyo, go here for one day and plan your time. 1.5 days was just enough, but if you were really taking everything in, allow 2.

The park entrance area is themed like an Italian harbour, but what i had never realised till now is that all the detail of those buildings is flat and painted on.

I had split off to try and get a fastpass for Toy Story Mania , and in the time i had done that they had already run out for Soaring, and the standby was at 3 hours (An annoyance, locals can use the app to book fastpass slots, but that app isnt available outside japan so you have to walk to the machines, which is a bit unfair IMO)

So in order of what we did,

Journey to the Center of the Earth

A gorgeous themed queue themed like a 1800s underground science lab with ornate equipment. You are then loaded into lifts down to the load area, again with heaps of details like the scent of metal undergoing friction, and a Galileo thermometer indicating how far you were underground.

The load area is amazing, feeling like a huge underground drilling operation, with huge spinning dynamos, drills, and a seemingly bottomless pit full of green fog.

 

The ride itself is decent, feeling a bit like an old school disney dark ride, with lots of pretty sets, albeit not too much action until the final scene. I do have to deduct points for the use of painted backdrops in some sections. The climax of the ride is accelerating in your vehicle to high speeds, test track/radiator springs racers style. The only flaw is the acceleration happens in pitch black darkness, so you lose a bit of the sense of speed. After a lap of honour around the mysterious island themed area you re enter a tunnel and unload.

20,000 leagues under the sea.

Actually really liked this one. Its a suspended dark ride where you ride in submarines, though you don't actually go underwater like they Disneyland version, rather the windows are full of water and they release some bubbles to simulate the dive. The theming in the queue is similar in style to Journey, just replace geology lab theming with natuical navigation theming. The submarines have 6 seats, and you can look out the front, or left and right, with some slightly different views for each. I thought this had the best sets out of anything at the park!

Spoilers :

Spoiler

Shipwrecks, a giant squid, and then a bermuda triangle style alien civilisation.

Midway Mania

We all know what this ride is about, though this one has a nicer facade than the rest, themed like an old amusement park (Or rather a trolley park....in bygone years tram companies would build amusement parks at the end of the line to encourage people to use the tram) and hеntai woody over the main entrance.

Once you get inside its the standard "Andys Bedroom" theming, with some huge sets.

The ride is fun, with you shooting on screen targets whilst wearing 3d glasses, but if you've done other versions of this ride, there's no real reason to ride unless you are a fan.

Electric Railway

The park has an elevated railway, with some great views over the immense American Waterfront themed zone. It's quite a zippy thing. Worth a look just for the station theming at the NYC end.

Aquatopia

Aquatopia is a trackless boat ride in a shallow lagoon, with cars that just scoot randomly around the area, narrowly missing each other and things like waterfalls. It's a great curiousity, and fascinating to watch, but a bit bleh in terms of the ride experience.

Transit Steam Line

The park has an extensive network of internal waterways, so there are boats you can catch around the park, with some lovely views. It's pretty cool in one part where you pass through a tunnel into the middle of the cauldron of the mysterious island volcano.

Raging Spirits

A bit below par really. The theming is great, with a temple / archeological dig theme, but the coaster itself is crap, very slow, and essentially a clone of the Nitro traveling coaster, but with heaps of theming. Now, i fully understand thrills aren't Disney's forte, but they did a good job on California Screamin and Rock n Rollercoaster, so it makes no sense that this should be so disappointing.

 

Sinbads Storybook Voyage

Hah, this one is cute, and very long, its basically like its a small world, but through various arabian themed scenes, and things are less "toybox" looking than small world.

Magic Lamp Theatre

All in Japanese, this a 3D film with live actors themed around Aladdin. Imagine a family friendly version of Terminator 3d, with similar types of gags. My memory is hazy but it its basically about this nerdy magician type accidentally unleashing the genie.

Nemo and Friends Sea Rider

Sad that i never got to experience storm rider instead of this re-theme. A fairly family friendly and uneventful simulator, with pods that seemed about 3x bigger than what you see in star tours. The preshow has a cool gag where they demonstrate a special material that is able to be shrunk in size,  shrinking a submarine down to fish size, enabling them to observe fish without scaring them. The ride is a trip around the reef, bumping into various Finding Nemo characters. I was suprised how similar the japanese voice actors were compared to the english version originals.

Fortress Explorations

The thinking mans Tom Sawyer island, a multi level fortress with rooms themed around various bits of classical art and science, for example a room with a giant lens onto a distorted painting that would appear correct when viewed through it. The most spectacular rooms are the model solar system, and a map of the 7 seas with ships sailing around on it. It was a bit dull in some parts, eg there is a ship you can walk around on, but there is literally nothing to do on it other than look at cargo crates and other props.

Fantasmic

We watched this from a high walkway waiting for Soaring Fantastic flight, but i guess viewing it from side on isnt the ideal view, lots of illuminated boat “floats” and a giant LED screen mickeys hat. Was decent. I liked the Go Gator themed float.

Soaring Fantastic Flight

We saw the wait time was down to 140 minutes, which is still a long time, but not out of the question for a brand new ride, and it still gave us enough time to get to TOT by closing. In reality it was well over 3 hours, and we didn’t get off till after closing. Fastpass users were getting most of the capacity and were never held, blowing out the wait.

With the negatives out of the way, lets get to the positives, this is easily the best version of Soarin and the best flying theatre. The queue line is done up like an Italian museum of flight in a classical building, with lots of art with things from Cherokee eagles to the Montgolfier brothers hot air balloon.

The queue winds through endless courtyards and down ornate staircases around the outside of the building, till you eventually get into the foyer of the museum.

The preshow is amazing, using projection mapping and paintings that seem to come to life and gain DEPTH (more realistic than the paintings in the harry potter queue!) An eagle statue ‘comes to life’ and its shadow starts flying around the room, meanwhile the eagles handler appears on a talking painting that is initially 2d, then suddenly becomes lifelike, with trees in the background appearing to be in the distance. True disney magic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfFO_ca43DA

The pre boarding room safety video is done just as well, with a frieze around the room that looks like painted wallpaper springing to life and animating the instructions.

The boarding area of the ride isn't just a big dark room, it has been done like a hall with a stone pillaster balcony looking out over the night sky on the dome screen, so it actually feels like you are taking off from the top terrace of the museum. The ride vehicles have been themed like Da Vinci flying machines, with faux wood framing and canvas seats/ top cover.

The film is the new one, so various scenes from around the world, though a lot more jump scares compared to the original (Which only really had the golf ball), with a final shot coming in past the Tokyo TV tower with Mt Fuji behind.

Spectacular, but i was well and truly exhausted by a long wait at the end of a long day.

Tower of Terror

The 2nd day here finally saw me getting a couple of rides on this. From memory i ran and got a fastpass for Journey, then got to this on standby, then got a 2nd fastpass for this upon exiting.

This one has the best theming out of the Disney Towers, themed like a NYC hotel, owned by an eccentric explorer/collector, who has collected numerous statues and artefacts from around the world and incorporated them into the architecture of the hotel, for example there is a beautiful indian garden and wall in the outside queue, and a fireplace with an ancient mantle in the foyer. The story goes the owner of the hotel disappeared after collecting a relic he shouldn’t have, and now, the hotel has been opened again for ghost tours. In the preshow, that relic makes an appearance, before disappearing menacingly….wooooo!

Instead of going out into the boiler room of the hotel like in the other versions, here you are taken into the archives of artefacts, so imagine a room stuffed with even more art and statues. You are then loaded into lifts for the tour up to the hotel owners penthouse, and of course thats where the ride goes wild.

The ride itself was much shorter and less thrilling than the US counterparts, but hey at least its a pretty ride to look at.

SS Columbia

There’s a legit full sized ship in the park, mostly there to house Turtle Talk and a couple of restaurants, though the top deck is great to just chill out and enjoy the views.

Flounders Flying Fish Coaster

Basic kiddy coaster but the theming was nice....Wait, no, this features the one bit of mis-done theming in the park. 0/10.

Jumpin Jellyfish

The kiddy land here at Disneysea is indoors and ridiculously detailed, but hellishly busy. I had a go a jumping Jellyfish, which is a parachute drop ride on valium that went for about 30 seconds. I was able to strategically get one of the seats looking out over the whole themed area for piccies.

 

Big Band Beat

I feel terrible. I’ve visited a few of these broadway style shows at Universal and Disney, and whilst they are entertaining, the combination of long days and a warm theatre means i fell asleep, which was even worse considering the Japanese girls seated next to me burst into tears because they were so taken by the show.

 

Food

As far as i can recall, this is what I ate. The food here is very good, so I grazed.

-Gyzoa Dog

Pork Gyoza that was like 5x bigger than a normal gyoza, with a thicker more bready exterior like a Bao. Tasty. Located in Mysterious Island.

-Tiger Bun

Steamed bun (Again like a Bao or what you get at 7/11 in Japan) but this one was orange with food colouring, and had curried chicken inside. Would recommend, can be found in the Arabian area.

-Teriyaki Roll

Was ok, but not a must get. It was a piece of chicken thigh, but a bit of extra skin was wrapped around itself to make it a neat little thing. I was expecting bread, but no just chicken, and a bit too much fat on it for my liking. Found in the NY area near the docks.

-Casbah Food Court Curry

Had dinner here on the first night waiting for Alladin to start. Standard curry, not that spicy, with a nice warm bit of naan.

-Little Green Alien Mochi

Everyone instagrams these, its basically a lump of custardy ice cream in a skin thats like a chewy icing. Each was flavoured separately, strawberry, choc, vanilla. Yummo. Found opposite toilets next to TOT.

-Demi Glace Churro

Normally churros are sweet, this was a savoury one but with a dash of gravy in the middle, I liked it, it was more or less like eating meat pie/ sausage roll pastry. Found in Mysterious island.

-Pizza stick / Choc Stick

I forget the actual names of these, but they were from a stand opposite Raging Spirits. Kind of like a breadstick meets churro, one was choc with choc sauce (average), another had a cheesy pizza sauce type filling (again, was okay)

-Curry Popcorn / Black Pepper Popcorn

Both pretty nice, but i wish the flavour was a bit stronger. Why did they use Comic Sans on the box though?

In the waterfront area they had a garlic prawn flavour one i didnt try, and it smelled so realistic i thought there was an actual seafood grill in the area.

Oh, and the one ride I completely missed was the Venetian Gondolas, and in fact I didn't even walk through this section until my 2nd day.

And thats Disneysea. Feel free to ask any questions or anything you want more detail on, heres a bunch of other photos i liked, but there are plenty more if you follow the link to the parkz database page for Disneysea

Edited October 26, 20205 yr by Gazza

Fantastic review! 
 

japan has really come into our mindset in terms of a trip in the next 12-24 months due to covid since our USA trip was axed this year. Japan’s borders much more likely to open up short term. 
 

Disneysea was always top on the list if we go, but this has given me heaps more idea of what’s instore. 

Disneysea is my favourite theme park, been there twice. Next Japan trip (once there's a vaccine for the covid) will go there again without hesitation.

Great review as always Gazza!! After our Florida trip in 2017, Japan had firmed as our next overseas destination. COVID has put those plans back of course but we will wait and see what will occur. My son and I have sketched out a fairly decent park run that was always going to include Tokyo Disney , DisneySea, Universal Studios, Fuji Q and Nagashima Spa land as the must do's. Giving ourselves 3 weeks to start with so that we can take in cultural sites and tourist hot spots, is there anything you would add to the list as a must do?

 

Disneysea is fantatsic loved that place, the theming is unreal. Universal Studios is another must. As for tourist stuff, id suggest depending on when you go, is to do the Mt Fuji tour, such a great day and we also went to a Ninja Temple and watched them train. Love Japan

@Gazza I did the version of raging spirits at Disneyland Paris. There the theming was also pretty good (but to Indiana Jones), but the ride was very rough and uncomfortable (especially if you’re tall). How was the Japan version in that regards?

5 hours ago, themagician said:

@Gazza I did the version of raging spirits at Disneyland Paris. There the theming was also pretty good (but to Indiana Jones), but the ride was very rough and uncomfortable (especially if you’re tall). How was the Japan version in that regards?

It was a bit rough, and had overbearing OSTRs (Bulkier than the old ones on Lethal Weapon)

Thankfully had single rider so only took about 20 min to ride.

8 hours ago, themagician said:

@Gazza I did the version of raging spirits at Disneyland Paris. There the theming was also pretty good (but to Indiana Jones), but the ride was very rough and uncomfortable (especially if you’re tall). How was the Japan version in that regards?

Did you get to ride it when they were running it backwards or forwards? It was definitely rougher going backwards.....

https://youtu.be/celXMa80JtM

2 hours ago, DJKostya said:

Did you get to ride it when they were running it backwards or forwards? It was definitely rougher going backwards.....

Forward 

21 hours ago, Gazza said:

An annoyance, locals can use the app to book fastpass slots, but that app isnt available outside japan so you have to walk to the machines, which is a bit unfair IMO

I believe the app is now available outside of Japan, so everyone can use the app to redeem fast passes now (well, everyone that can get to Tokyo Disney ).

Great writeup, thanks!
Yeah, Indiana Jones' ride experience was a bit of a let-down for me at Paris, but the theming was good.

The loop was a surprise for me, so enjoyed that.

Was there more 'western' foods as well? I'd imagine so. Good to try the locally inspired foods I guess.

Yeah, they have typical western foods, but having the unique stuff is part of the fun at TDS, and as you can see the stuff I had didn't really have weird ingredients anyway.

This is kinda my outlook. One would expect Disney standards on food to be higher than your typical streetfood - so when we were in Hong Kong a little while back, we had the 'star dinner' which was all very traditional chinese stuff we'd never have tried on the street - some of it was a little weird, but all of it was amazing!

The Sinbad song is catchy as hell.

https://youtu.be/GlfcDCCev24

Preparations in the lagoon for the Sea of Dreams (20th Anniversary) Spectacular:

Via THIS TWEET.