Here comes the happiest day of our trip, day 12 we finally went to DisneySea! Having seen some parts of the park from our hotel room window, it felt surreal to finally set foot in there. The Happy 15 entrance gate should be opened at 8.15 am and we went to the line at around 7.45 am. There was already crowd every where, noticeably more on the regular entrances. The Happy 15 entrance also had a fair long queue and I thought to myself the 15 minutes may not be that much help at that rate. Really have to give to the Japanese for their motivation to line up for theme parks so early! The same case happened when we visited Universal Studio Japan, although then we made an effort to came at least one hour before the opening time.
Anyway, let’s talk a bit about DisneySea. As far as my knowledge goes, there is only one DisneySea theme park in the world and it is only in Tokyo. Currently there are seven ports: Mediterranean Harbour, American Waterfront, Port Discovery, Mysterious Island, Mermaid Lagoon, Lost River Delta, and Arabian Coast. So yes, the park is massive and there is no way to enjoy everything thoroughly in one single day visit. But, a good planning ahead and choosing a right day to visit can help to maximise our visit.
As many others have suggested, try to come on either Wednesday or Thursday, avoid public holidays or weekends or school holidays. Make sure to check the crowd calendar to avoid heavy visitors days. If you do not read Japanese like myself, you can translate the page when opening it on Google Chrome. When we went there on December 6th, the predition was going to be well crowded (39,999 people) and sit on the mid range of the crowd prediction. I think the crowd calendar was quite accurate on the day, it was crowded but not that bad. And with the Happy 15, we managed to do all the rides I wanted to try.
Day 12
As soon as the Happy 15 gates opened, the line moved very quickly. The staffs browsed our bags only very briefly then off we went in. Our first destination was Toy Story Mania located on American Waterfront, as were many other people. Along the way, there are many staffs whole waves and smiles and remind people to not run 🙂 As we got to Toy Story Mania, there were already a big line. Hubby went to get the fast pass for 11.30 am and we went straight to Port Discovery for Nemo & Friends Sea Rider. Luckily there was almost no line and we went right in. It was a fun kids-friendly ride despite we do not understand Japanese 🙂
It is also a good advantage to familiarize yourself with the map and locations of rides that you want to try. Because of the huge land size, it is easy to lost yourself in all the other attractions. Getting lost and distracted will leave you with shorter time do the rides you want. They have maps on the show schedule stand and I believe you can always ask the staff for a copy. Also take note of what time your have-to shows started on this notice board near the entrance plaza.
After that, we tried our luck at Lost River Delta for Indiana Jones Adventure. Again, the waiting time from entrance to actually got into the ride was perhaps only 15 minutes. I love this ride, all the little details was meticulous and amazing with a tiny bit of adrenaline kick.
Finishing that ride, we still had more than one hour before we could use our fast pass for Toy Story Mania. So, we went to Mysterious Island for Journey to the Centre of the Earth. This one was a long wait ride, it took us approximately 90 minutes to finally get to the ride. It started as easy ride with beautiful props then it started roller-coaster-like and out of the blue we were out of Mount Prometheus and turned downward right away. I did not see that coming, but I enjoyed the ride and would definitely do it again if not for the long wait!
Next was Toy Story Mania which we agreed is our favourite ride and no wonder as many people would also agree. It is such a fun ride while shooting at stuffs then at the end of it, you get to compare your score to the person you share the seat with. I would absolutely ride this again and again and again, but man, the queue was long. Even to get a fast pass, it already run out so early! 🙁 So, despite we would love to ride few times, we only got one chance. Before we joined the fast pass queue for Toy Story Mania, we actually went to grab another fast pass for Tower of Terror.
We then walked back to Mysterious Island for 20,000 Feet Under The Sea. I had no idea what that was, it sounded cool, right? Turned out it’s such a kiddie ride 😛 But, it was pretty and felt like we were really under the sea. Anyway, there was almost no queue on that ride when we went there. After that, we went for our fast pass queue for Tower of Terror. It was meant to be one of the rides at DisneySea with most adrenaline kick and frankly, we were quite anxious about it. The actual ride was fairly short, but definitely turned our stomachs upside down 😀 I am not a fan of such ride where you get dropped suddenly from height, so I would not look forward to do that again.
Another kiddie ride we took while at Tokyo DisneySea was Aquatopia which we did twice, not really because it was super exciting. Just because we wanted to ride something before the day ended and it was one of the few with significantly less queue 🙂 But regardless, the ride was fun and enjoyable enough. We also did Jasmine’s Flying Carpet and Flounder’s Flying Fish Coaster which the latter we also did twice and I quite fond of. It was a mini coaster with just enough adrenaline kick, a tiny scale in comparison to Raging Spirit. Raging Spirit with its 360 degrees coaster was probably a little out of our league, so we didn’t go for it. Maybe next time going there, I would join the single rider queue for this ride 🙂
The only shows we did at Tokyo DisneySea were Magic Lamp Theatre and the infamous Fantasmic! Looking through the website now, I regret not doing Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage – in fact, we did not pass that at all. Anyway Magic Lamp Theatre was nice even though not understanding Japanese.
Fantasmic was so magical!!! I could not recommend this enough to anyone going to DisneySea. You’ll see people started taking up best seats for the show like two hours before it started. We joined the crowd taking our seats about 90 minutes before it started and sat there in cold. A lot of the Japanese people came here really well prepared, brought their own mat and blankets. We definitely should do so next time, especially during the colder season. But, all that waiting in cold was so paid off when Mickey came to life! The show was magnificent and absolutely made you to be kids again. Love how it ended with the Disney characters parade on the boats, dancing and singing – total highlight of the day!
By the way, getting to restroom after the show finished was somewhat a challenge, all of them had super long queue 😀 We walked around the park once more time and by the time we went back to Mediterranean Harbour, the Christmas Tree Show was just about to start. We stayed for that and realised this was what’s on when we checked in to Hotel MiraCosta last night. Beautiful show complete with fake snow 🙂
Also, do not forget to ride the Transit Steamer Line or Electric Railway to get from one port to the other. It’s fun and you get a glimpse of the theme park from different perspective than walking. We tried to ride the Venetian Gondola, but it was not started yet when we were there. And we did not come back on the time they supposed to run again, so we missed it. We also missed out on the highly recommended Big Band Beat show.
Make sure to drop by inside Mermaid Lagoon, it is very pretty. All the colourful and lighting and underwater-themed truly brings mermaid cartoon to life! And there are also many child-friendly rides here, so if you come here with little kids, I am sure they would totally in love with Mermaid Lagoon.
I thought we did a lot that day and yet we still miss out on so many! It truly was an extremely happy day, being kids again, forget about all the worries in our lives and just enjoy the magical moments. We miss Tokyo DisneySea so much and wish if only they made one in Australia, which I would definitely buy the annual pass then 😀
Anyway, the Christmas Tree show wrapped up our day at Tokyo DisneySea and off we went to Tokyo DisneyLand hotel for the night.
What We Ate Here
There were a few snack food I wanted to try even before came here: weirdest flavoured popcorn, the gyoza steamed bun, and lastly those mochi with ice cream fillings. In fact, I deliberately looked for those mochi here until we found it in a small cart with long queue 🙂 It could be very easily missed but we got them at last. Some of the food we tried were surprisingly yummy. Some others were not that nice and I would definitely not bother with them again next time. Without further ado, here are what we ate at Tokyo DisneySea:
We also got a sausage roll and some hot drinks after Fanstasmic! show which we forgot to take the pictures. The hot apple cinnamon drink, I believe a seasonal menu, was really good. There were actual chunks of apples in it and goes really well with subtle cinnamon flavour. The hot chocolate, on the other hand was so so – but it served the purpose to keep us warm 🙂
Obviously we missed many other good food here, for example spring tail from Sultan’s Oasis; Seaside bun; Gondolier’s snacks and Magellan’s. Let’s save them for our next trip!
Longest post for the most fave place :). The Mermaid Lagoon is a mesemrizing green light teeming with surrealistic creatures. This place is indeed a dream-like haven. I like the Nautilus submarine. I wonder if it goes around or just stay there.
Hahaha yes that was my longest post so far, even after a lot of editing. Yes, Mermaid Lagoon really is something. But overall park has beautiful little details every where, which in a way differs to USJ where they use a lot more “effects” than actual items (especially in their rides). But, both were a great experience for us 🙂 The Nautilus submarine just stay there, but we rode the mini version of that in 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.