DisneySea

If you have never been to a Disney theme park then its hard to explain how detailed everything is. Disney Sea is different to Disney Land as it looks to be intended for an older target audience instead of families. It still has all the family stuff but it felt a lot less kiddish. A small fact about the two parks in Japan is that they are the only two in the world that are not owned by Disney themselves.

The park has 7 sections, the Mediterranean Harbor, Mysterious Island, Mermaid Lagoon, Arabian Coast, Loser River Delta, Port Discovery and the American Waterfront and they are all themed extremely well. The rides, food and restaurants all relate to the area perfectly.

Like Universal Studios, Disney Sea offers a Fast Pass system to help you get a ticket in line in the future so you can enjoy the park and come back at that time to get to near the front of the line. The one benefit about the Disney system is thats its FREE, you don't have to pay any extra to use this feature. It was great last time I went to Disney as the park was a little busy but this time round Disney Sea wasn't at all busy so we just waited in line. A couple of the rides we had to wait 30 or so minutes but others we were able to get straight on.

We got in to the park about lunch time and were greeted by a small show out the front of the Mediterranean Harbor with Daffy, Donald, Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and the whole crew dancing away singing crap in Japanese. Then we headed for to the American waterfront area and passed all the Venice canals with gondolas passing through them.

We came to our first ride, the Tower of Terror. This ride is inside a big crazy tower which drops you from a height, in the dark. I thought this was going to be hell scary like those ones which drop you faster than gravity but it wasn't. You sat with about 16 people together on the ride and you were able to take your belongings on with you, plus you were held in with a normal seat belt. This instantly gave away how lame it was going to be :) It was alright though, they throw you up to the top of the tower and down a few levels back up and open the window at the top fo the tower so you can see all over the park then all the way back down to the bottom again!

Next we had lunch, a Hamburger and Fries in an ole American shed which just happened to have a chipmunk show on stage when we rocked up. Not knowing we watched it and then headed off to the Port of Discovery, A section themed as if it was from a science fiction book. There was a bumper boat ride which when I saw how fast they were going I had to go on it but upon closer inspection they were little boats on rails under the water.. pass.

Stormrider had no line so we jumped on board. Your immersed in a spaceship in the future and your mission is to go out into the storm, fire your weapon and take the storm down. Your spaceship is on hydraulics so your thrown about everywhere to match what happens on the big screen. Water is sprayed on you to get the feeling of going through the storm and by the time the end came I sort of felt a bit motion sickness, I guess the ride did its job :)

The Lost River Delta was next and this was based on Indiana Jones. It had two rides, a small themed ride on a coaster of sorts where you go through chasing the Crystal Skull. Essentially your helping or following Indy through some of the scenes out of the movies. One included where you steal the Gold Idol and you set of the booby traps and you have to run away with the walls shooting spears at you. The other main scene was when the big ball comes chasing after you, in this case your heading right for a massive 3+ meter ball as it rolls towards you and just before you get to it your thrown down under the ball at a fast pace and this is pretty much were the ride ends. A very well themed ride.

The other ride was a small roller coaster, about the size of the one we have at Adventure world except this one has a 360 degree loop. I almost had troubles getting on this ride because I was too tall.. TOO TALL!! The ride was ok, it took you to the top of the coaster and at the start of coasters you always get that big drop but this one started like that but then took you back up again. You were about to scream and then.. nope. By the time you got to the 360 loop you weren't going that fast but they had steam/smoke before the loop and after it so you couldn't see the entry and exit to the loop. It was themed as very old and rusty and they did the job great. The ride was alright :)

Around the park we went skipping through the Arabian Coast as it was all about alladin and was orientated towards children.

Megan loves Ariel from The Little Mermaid so we had to go to Mermaid Lagoon. I knew this was going to be orientated towards children and the rides were but the place was awesome. So colourful and weird, I think someone spiked the Disney "Imagineers" drinks. A very whacky fantasy land. They had a Little Mermaid show which we watched and it was pretty awesome. Massive mechanical and human controlled puppets flying out from the roof and from everywhere. Very cool indeed.

Located in the middle of the park is a massive volcano which constantly has smoke coming out of it and often erupts with flames flying out of it. Under this volcano are two rides, 20,000 Leagues under the Sea and the Journey to the Centre of the Earth.

The 20,000 leagues under the sea ride placed you inside a small submarine and it took you down under the water to view whats deep down below. But you didn't really go underwater, instead the submarine capsule you ride in had two layers of glass on the windows and between them it was filled with water. The pumped air bubbles into this to give you the feeling of submerging, hitting objects and coming back up to the surface.

The other ride, Journey to the Centre of the Earth was a coaster ride which took you inside the volcano showing what lives beneath us. The best part was the finale where they flung you up a hill fast and then you appeared through a gap in the mountain so you could see the park and nothing else ahead of you. The track then throw you back down again into the mountain into the dark and then around a sharp corner up again into an opening and then back down again to the end of the ride. Something we weren't expecting.

We finished off the park with a dinner at one of the few table serviced restaurants in the park and then headed out to the watch the Christmas carol lights around the Harbor.

A few crazy things about the park.

1. how many different flavours of popcorn they have for sale.
2. Everyone had these hats which they wore, they were all Disney heads and looked to keep your head very warm. I looked for an alien one (from toy story) to wear camping but couldn't find one :(
3. In the carpark I saw the most modified cars together that I had ever seen throughout Japan.

The park was great and it is a lot different than Disneyland. So if you've been to any of the Disneyland's around the world you will know that they are all the same, except Disney Sea. It was very hard to fault anything, everything was so well themed. Everything.

Pics

Shaun