Disney Sea

As mentioned in my last post, Sharron and I spent our 4th of July at Disney Sea in Tokyo.  But first…

We’d made reservations at the New Sanno for 2 nights, so we drove into Tokyo on Tuesday night.  I’d also made reservations at Wellingtons, a 5-star restaurant at the New Sanno.  They weren’t too busy, so we were able to show up a little after our reservation time.  We both ordered the special, which was a 5 course meal.  It was great!  The only disappointment was our souffle dessert which turned out to be ice cream and not a souffle.  :-(

Anyway, on to Disney Sea!  We got up at around 9:30 and ordered room service.  The weather wasn’t looking great, but it wasn’t raining yet.  We made it out of the hotel a little after 11 and headed for the trains.  We only needed to make 1 line change and really made amazing time.  We got to the Disney station right at 12 and then switched lines to the Disney Monorail line, which actually cost more than either of the other lines we’d been on that day.  :-)  We got our tickets for the park and then headed in.  It still wasn’t raining, so we were feeling pretty lucky, when we saw how few people were there, we really counted ourselves lucky.  The first thing we did upon entering the park was run into Mickey Mouse!  Normally, the Japanese are like a swarm of angry bees around the characters, but since there weren’t many people in the park, we were able to get our picture taken with him.  Too cool.  I hadn’t had my picture taken with him since I was probably 5 years old and Sharron had never had hers taken with him (this being only her second Disney park).  We headed for the rides and decided that either Journey to the Center of the Earth or 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea would be first.  We ran into 20,000 first headed in.  Not the same as the old subs at Disney California, but instead a super awesome dark ride.  It was really spectacular and honestly made you feel like you really were underwater.  Too cool!  We next rode Journey and were blown away by that too.  It’s based off the Test Track ride’s technology from Epcot, but is a COMPLETELY different ride.  Really excellent and fun!

We next made our way into Port Discovery and rode the Stomrider.  It’s a Star Tours type ride and is set in a futuristic storm chaser craft.  Pretty cheesy.  Even more so since it was all in Japanese.  I’ve found that even if you don’t understand the words that you can usually follow along with what’s going on.  :-)  After Stormrider, we jumped on the Aquatopia for a quick water ride.  Pretty fun for something so easy.  It’s basically just a people mover like on a dark ride, but you’re outside and in a couple inches of water.  What was really cool was that the cars aren’t on tracks, they just drive around and know where to go, even if you’re going backwards.  :-)

Lunch!  To get to lunch we had to walk through the American Waterfront.  By this time, we’d had a little rain, but still nothing terrible and the crowds were still great.  We’d decided for a quick lunch so that we could have a nice dinner.  We headed for a sandwich shop, but really had more fun just getting there.  The American Waterfront district was set up like old New York and was really cool.  There was even a huge 3 stack luxury liner that housed 2 restuarants (no ride at all!  Theming at it’s best!).  Our first ride after lunch was the Tower of Terror.  I’d ridden the one at MGM Studios, so I wasn’t expecting much.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to find that this one was tons better.  I really liked it!  Sharron liked it enough that we got the souvenier photo.  :-) 

On our way back towards the rides, we stopped in the Mediterranean harbot and watched The Legend of Mythinca show.  It was pretty good for a day show.  Around the other side of the harbor is a castle that you can just walk through at your own pace.  Inside are many scientific experiments that you can play on or with.  Really a fun place as you didn’t always know where you were going or what you were going to find when you got there.  Lots of small staircases and fun stuff.  Next to that area is a recreation of a Spanish Galleon.  We took a look around it and noticed that we were starting to get wet.  The rain had finally reared it’s head.  :-(  It wasn’t a downpour or anything, but it definitely dampened our spirits.

New area!  The Arabian Coast!  Home of the parks 3D show, The Magic Lamp Theater, and small world type ride called Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage.  We thought they were going to offer an english translation of the 3D film, but instead they gave us a huge PDA type device that contained subtitles!  Crazy!  It was too hard to watch both, so we mostly just watched the show and enjoyed the 3D.  It was ok.  Sinbad actually turned out to be a lot of fun as they followed his voyage around the world.  I’m not sure how close it follows the Seven Voyages of Sinbad story, but the ride was fun.

Heading to the Lost River Delta, we go to find a ride I’d been waiting to try, Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Crystal Skull.  However, the ride was closed.  :-(  We jumped on board a boat taxi and headed to wherever it would take us…back to our original rides.  We decided to again ride 20,000 and Journey. 

Dinner…sort of.  We went to the ship, the S.S. Columbia, in the American Waterfront to the Teddy Roosevelt Lounge for drinks and appetizers.  It was a good chance to get out of the rain a little and just rest up.  We decided to ride the Tower of Terror once more before trying Indiana Jones again.  It was great even the second time.  We walked back to Indiana Jones and it was OPEN!  As with all the rides, there was no line, so we walked through the endless queue and got onboard.  It was very similar to the Disney California ride, but with some differences.  Sharron and I both loved it and Sharron said it was her favorite ride of the day.

Before heading to the night show, we decided to try the Raging Spirits roller coaster.  Man, it was terrible and should be avoided.  Go ride almost anything else here but this.

We’d decided to try for a spot on the science castle to see the show on the Mediterranean Harbor.  It wasn’t empty, but we had a pretty good view.  The show was pretty cool with lots of water and fire and some fireworks.  Very musical and no lyrics, so no confusion.  It was introduced by Mickey who sounds the same, yet different, when he speaks Japanese.  :-)

Lastly we saw the fireworks.  The rain wasn’t bad anymore, but the clouds were LOW!  You could only see the bottom half of most of them and none of some of them.  Oh well, at least we got fireworks on the 4th of July.  :-)

The thing that really stands out about this park is how well themed it is.  Honestly it is VERY beautiful and I just couldn’t believe what a good job they’d done in designing it.  It really has to be seen to be believed.  Go.