Photo By: Elin Chow
Official Website: Tokyo DisneySea

Good morning! This is the second day of our 9D8N trip to Japan. After a hearty breakfast at the hotel, we headed straight to Tokyo DisneySea, the happiest place on Earth.

Tokyo's Disney Resort is home to two amazing theme park - Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea. But sadly, we could only visit one of the two due to limited budget and time.

To be honest, we have difficulty deciding whether to go to Tokyo Disneyland or Disneysea. After much discussion, we picked Disneysea mainly because it is unique to Japan. There is only one Disneysea Park in the world and it is distinctly different from Disneyland. Since many Disney fanatics have claimed that Disneysea is the best Disney park in the world, we had to check it out.

Even though the park is suitable for all ages, Disneysea is specially designed to appeal to a more grown up audience with wilder thrill rides. Alcoholic beverages are also sold in almost every food kiosks and restaurants around the park.

Japanese is the primarily language spoken at the park. Most of the staffs at the park may not be able to communicate much in English. But you should not have much problems navigating around the park as the signages and food menus are in English. The biggest problem would be there is barely any English in dialogues for attractions and shows. So it will be tough for you to understand the story of the attractions if you do not know the language.  But other than that, you will still have a wonderful time at Disneysea.

Please note that the use of monopods, unipods, tripods and selfie sticks are strictly not allowed in the park. We were unaware about the rule and were stopped by the staff when we were trying to use a selfie stick to take our photo. It was pretty embarrassing. However, hand-size grip attachments are allowed as long as you do not cause inconvenience to other visitors.

How To Get There

The nearest station to Disneysea is Disneysea Station. To get to from Ikebukuro Station to Disneysea Station, you will need to take the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line to Shin-Kiba Station, then transfer to the JR Musashino Line to Maihama Station. The journey will take about 46 minutes and costs 400 Yen.

To get to Disneysea, you will need to transfer to the Disney Resort Monorail at Maihama Station. The monorail goes in a loop around the resort every few minutes in a counter clockwise direction.


There are four stations on the loop line - Resort Gateway Station, Tokyo Disneyland Station, Bayside Station and Tokyo Disneysea Station. It takes about 13 minutes to make one circuit and and costs 260 Yen for adult and 130 Yen for children per ride.

If you are going to ride the monorail often, you might want to consider getting a day pass. The price of the day passes is as shown below:

Ticket Type	Adult (Aged 12 Years Above)	Child (Aged 11 Years Below)
1 Day-Pass	650 JPY	330 Yen
2 Day-Pass	800 JPY	400 Yen
3 Day-Pass	1,100 JPY	550 Yen
4 Day-Pass	1,400 Yen	700 Yen

The monorail will depart from the Resort Gateway Station, which is located just 2 minutes walk away from Maihama Station. You can buy the ticket from the ticket machines at any of the stations. Alternatively, you can also use an IC card if you have one.


The interior of the monorail is pretty spacious, with Mickey Mouse shaped windows and strap handles. It departs every 4 to 13 minutes depending on season and time of the day. Below is the operating hours of the monorail.

Station	First Train	Last Train
Resort Gateway Station	6.03 am	11.55 pm
Tokyo Disneyland Station	6.05 am	11.57 pm
Bayside Station	6.08 am	11.59 pm
Tokyo Disneysea Station	6.12 am	12.04 am

Ticket

Disneysea is open from 9 am to 10 pm daily. But you might want to get there as early as possible, preferably one to two hours before the opening time if you wanted to go on all the rides. This is simply because Disneysea is always busy throughout the year, even during low season. The theme park is often very crowded and you can expect huge queues for even the smallest attraction on a normal day. You might also want to avoid visiting on the weekend or national holiday if you hate the crowds.

Spring time is certainly one of the most busiest time to visit Disneysea and you will often find queues forming in front of the entrance gate hours before the official operating time. So I would definitely recommend buying your ticket in advance as the queue at the ticket booths can get very long on a crowded day. You might actually ended up in disappointment as tickets might be sold out for the day

Ticket may be purchased in advance from the resort's official website or any of the Disney stores, travel agencies, online sites (Klook, Traveloka, etc) or kiosks at convenience stores in Japan. However, the ticket machines in the convenience stores are in Japanese only. It might be difficult for you to buy your ticket if you do not know the language.

I bought our Disneysea ticket a month in advance from Traveloka because I am unable to buy the tickets through the resort's official website. The website is pretty reliable and easy to use.

The below shows the price of a one day pass if you purchase directly from Disney's website:

Ticket Type	Adult (Aged 18 Years Above)	Junior (Aged 12 to 17 Years Old)	Child (4 to 11 Years Old)
1 Day-Pass	7,400 JPY	6,400 Yen	4,800 Yen

However, the price shown on Traveloka is in local currency and will fluctuate a little due to foreign exchange rates. But it does not really matter much to me as the price difference is not too huge. Also, please note that Traveloka do not offer ticket for Junior. You can only purchase Adult or Child tickets from the website.


Once you made the payment, you should receive an confirmation email with an e-voucher. You will need to present the e-voucher to redeem for the physical ticket at Maihama Station North Exit. Please note that you can only redeem your ticket from 8.30 am to 1.00 pm. If you fail to redeem your ticket by 1.00 pm, you will be considered no show.

We arrived at Disneysea at around 10 am because we did not intend go for any rides or shows.  As first-time visitors, we really do not want to waste our time waiting in the crazy long queues all day. The weather was also pretty cold, windy and wet (around 6 °C) on the day we visited, so we certainly do not want to stuck in a queue for too long.

Disneysea

Located adjacent to Tokyo Disneyland, Disneysea is inspired by the myths and legends of the sea. Based upon the theme of nautical exploration, the theme park is made up of seven themed ports of call: Mediterranean Harbor, Mysterious Island, Mermaid Lagoon, Arabian Coast, Lost River Delta, Port Discovery and American Waterfront.



Upon entering the park, you will be greeted by the Aqua Sphere, the icon of Disneysea. The Aqua Sphere is a large model of Planet Earth. It hovers and spin gently above the water, just like our planet itself.

Mediterranean Harbor

The Mediterranean Harbor is located at the entrance of the park. Designed after an Italian port city, the centre of this area consists of a large man-made lake and feature venetian canals and gondolas.  The lake is also where the nightly Fantasmic show is presented. But unfortunately, we have to give the show a miss and went home early because we were too tired.


Across the lake, you will see a gigantic volcano in the distance. That is Mount Prometheus, which is the centrepiece of the park. To the right, the path leads to Mysterious Island, and to the left, the path leads to American Waterfront.


There are no rides or attractions in the area.  But the area is full of souvenir shops, cafes and restaurants. In fact, the Mediterranean Harbor has the most number of shops and restaurants in the park. Thus, it is the best place to go if you are looking for something to eat or souvenirs to bring home.



The Mediterranean Harbor is also home to Tokyo Disneysea Hotel Miracosta. Themed after ports of Portofino and Venice, it is only hotel in the world that stands entirely inside the Disney theme park. Guests who are staying at this hotel will be able to enjoy direct access to the theme park.

Mysterious Island

Passing through the Mediterranean Harbor, we arrived at the Mysterious Island. Despite its name, it is not an island. Instead, the area is built into the side of Mount Prometheus, a giant volcano fortress inspired by Jules Verne's science fiction novels.



The fortress is the secret base of Captain Nemo, known as the Vulcania island as featured in the Disney movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Inside the volcano, you will find a lab and a harbor for his submarine named Nautilus. The entire area is comprised of only huge steel platforms, completed with strange machinery installed across the mountainside.


The volcano is "active" and we just happened to see it erupted with huge flames while we were strolling through American Waterfront's streets.


Mysterious Island is home to two dark rides (20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the centre of the Earth), a restaurant, a food cart and a gift shop. The 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is a submarine ride where visitors will get to venture to the ocean floor to explore the lost city of Atlantis.

However. the main attraction here is Journey to the centre of the Earth, which is also one of the most popular ride in the park. In fact, it is a ride exclusive to Disneysea. Visitors will get onboard an eight passengers mining vehicle and travel through pre-drilled tunnels within Mount Prometheus, right down to earth's core. However, be prepared as the the queue and wait time can be pretty long (at least an hour or more).


Sitting next to The Leonardo Challenge is Magellan, a fine dining restaurant that offers full course meals and a selection of wines. It is probably the most fanciest and expensive restaurant in Disneysea.


Located just beside Magellan is Refrescos, a small food stand that serves a selection of in-between meal snacks and alcoholic drinks. Refrescos is Spanish for refreshment. Since we were feeling a little hungry, we decided to grab some snacks here.

Price: 800 Yen (Turkey Leg) | 290 Yen (Oolong Tea)

We bought two smoked turkey legs and two cups of hot oolong tea. Turkey leg is a popular snack to eat while walking around. It is very tender, juicy and has a nice smoky flavor. The hot tea goes well with the chicken and warmed up us in the cold weather.

The Lost River Delta

Far behind Mysterious Island, we walked into The Lost River Delta - farthest themed area from the entrance of the park. The area consists of two sections, separated by a river. One section is a dense forest set in Central America in the 1930s. This is where you will find ancient temples, ruins and angry spirits.


The other is a makeshift village with outposts, food carts, cantinas and seaplane docks. This is also where the archaeologists live and can be accessed by a couple of hastily constructed bridges.


The landmark of this area is an ancient Aztec Pyramid, which houses the attraction Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, a dark ride based on Lucasfilm's Indiana Jones film series.


Located just a few steps away, you will find an ancient temple that houses another attraction: the Raging Spirits, a thrilling roller ride that brings you through the ruins of an ancient ceremonial site.


The attraction looks really beautiful but creepy at the same time, featuring stair step waterfall, fire and smoke effects.

Arabian Coast

Leaving the ancient ruins of Central America, we entered the exotic, enchanted world of The Arabian Nights. Arabian Coast is an Agrabah themed area mainly based from Aladdin and 1001 Arabian Nights. As a result, the architecture and atmosphere are inspired by Middle-Eastern and Indian influences. It is a world of Genie, magic and mystery.


This is another kid friendly zone with a number of attractions for young ones to enjoy. Approaching from the Lost River of Delta, the first attraction that you will come to is Jasmine's Flying Carpet. It like similar to Dumbo the Flying Elephant attraction, where visitors will be soaring in the sky on magic carpet instead of elephants.


Price: 880 Yen

We ordered chicken curry and I must say we were quite disappointed with the food. The serving size was really small and the curry was bland and taste nothing like Indian curry. Instead, it taste more like Japanese curry. However, I love the naan. It was so soft and fluffy.


Passing through the narrow alleyways, we entered a vast open-air courtyard. Standing here is the Caravan Carousel, a double decked carousel ride housed within a majestic blue domed roof palace. With an ability to hold over 190 passengers per trip, the Caravan Carousel is probably the largest carousel in the world.


Next to it is the Magic Lamp Theatre, where a combined live-action/animatronic based magic show with a 3D movie featuring Genie is featured. Again, the entire show is presented in Japanese.



Strolling down the street makes us feel like we were travelling through a Arabian desert city, except that it was cold.

Mermaid Lagoon



Crossing the bridge, you will arrive at the Mermaid Lagoon. The Mermaid Lagoon is the home to the character of The Little Mermaid.


In the centre of the Lagoon is a castle named the Triton's Kingdom. As its name suggests, the castle is made to resemble King Triton's palace with spiralling towers, rainbow colored giant seashells and corals and numerous waterfall. It is probably the most beautiful and colorful themed area in Disneysea.


Most of the attractions in this area is indoor and and are geared towards younger children. In fact, it is the only area in Disneysea that is specially catered to small children. However, it was still a cool place to walk through even if you have no children. The design is stunning and make you feels as though you are under the sea. It is a good place to go when you want to escape summer heat or winter cold.


Inside the underwater world of Ariel, you will find three ocean themed rides (The Whirlpool, Blowfish Balloon Race and Jumping Jellyfish) along with Ariel's playground and a Mermaid Lagoon Theater. Ariel's playground is a walk-through playground that every kids will love. You are free to explore this playground at any time of the day you like with no waiting required.


Other than rides, the Mermaid Lagoon also hosts a restaurant and a gift shop, which is located  inside the mouth of a sleeping giant whale. Here you will find a great selection of gifts and merchandise related to the Disney film The Little Mermaid. It was just amazing!

Port Discovery

Port Discovery has a retro-futuristic theme where it explore the future and technology. It is called the Marina of the Future with lots of domes, brass fittings and futuristic design. Port Discovery is one of the smallest themed area in Disneysea and home to three attractions - Disneysea Electric Railway, Aquatopia and Nemo & Friends Searider.




Disneysea Electric Railway is an elevated railway ride that runs between Port Discovery to American Waterfront. The railway has stations at both ends.


Beside the railway station at Port Discovery, you will find the Horizon Bay Restaurant. The restaurant is housed in a renovated yacht club and offers bufferia style, serving mainly seafood dishes and meat. Disney Character Dining is also available, usually featuring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Pluto. Please note that reservation is required if you would like to experience Character Dining.



Aquatopia is a trackless water ride. Visitors will get on board a watercraft and spin off around in every direction through a large water lagoon. There is no fixed route, so you will not know where you will end up at. But don't worry because they are programmed to dodge jagged rocks, so you will be perfectly safe. Each watercraft can only hold a maximum of 3 persons, so the queue for this ride tends to get very long.

Nemo & Friends Searider is a large-scale simulator ride housed in the Marine Life Institute. Visitors will board a fish-shaped submarine that will shrink to the size of a fish and go on an under sea adventure with Nemo and Dory.


Somewhere between Port Discovery and Cape Rod, we chanced upon a food cart called Seaside Snacks.

Price: 500 Yen

Seaside Snacks is popular for their Ukiwah Bun (Ukiwah means life saver in Japanese).The bun is shaped like a life saver and filled with plump, juicy shrimps, ground pork and vegetables. It is thick, soft and really delicious. The packaging is also pretty cute and interesting as well, featuring Donald Duck wearing the life saver and floating in the water.


Next to the food cart, there is a small seating area that faces the river. It was nice to eat here while watching the boats pass by.

American Waterfront

Passing through Port Discovery, we arrived at the American Waterfront, which is designed to represent the northeastern seaboard of the United States in the early 20th century. It is largest themed area in Disneysea and is separated into two themed areas - an Old Cape Cod section and a New York Harbor section.



The Cape Cod section is a quaint little fishing village complete with jetty and a lighthouse. It is popularized as the home to Duffy the Disney Bear, a character that most casual fans have probably never even heard of. For those who do not know, Duffy is the phenomenon in Japan. You will find the bear everywhere in the theme park. Thus, it is really not surprising to find an area specially dedicated to Duffy in DisneySea.

The main attraction here is the Tower of Terror, an accelerated dark tower ride. It is located in the fictional Hotel Hightower, a New York landmark built by Harrison Hightower III. The hotel is tallest and most majestic building at American Waterfront.

Continuing further down, you will arrive at Toyville Trolley Park, which resembles a New York amusement Park of the 1900s. Inside this mini land, you will find one of the most popular attraction in Disneysea - Toy Story Mania!. This is an interactive 4D attraction inspired by Disney Pixar's Toy Story.

The queue for Toy Story Mania! is crazily long, even with FastPass (at least 2 hours and above). We feel that it is really not worth to waste your time being stuck in the queue, especially for first-time visitors.


Further down the streets, you will find a Broadway-themed theater which plays the show "Big Band Beat". The show features 1940s-style swing jazz performed by 12-piece band, as well as 20 singers or dancers.


You will find plenty of restaurants and shops where you can get food and souvenirs all along the bustling streets. Enjoy strolling down the streets while taking photos. Or ride on one of the 20th century Big City Vehicles that roam the streets of New York. There are many different vehicles to choose from - the open-top town car, police wagon, delivery truck and etc. All in all, American Waterfront is a beautiful area to eat, shop and stroll around.

Conclusion

Is Disneysea worth visiting? Well, it is really hard for me to say. Personally, I feel that I would prefer Disneyland to Disneysea. This is mainly because I am more of a Disney traditionalist. Yes, Disneysea is interestingly cool and amazingly unique, but I actually feel a little disappointed as it does not focus much on traditional Mickey and princesses.


Even so, I would definitely love to visit Disneysea again in the future because there are so much to see and do here. It is a place where magic happens! When that happens, I would want to go for as many rides and shows as possible.


We left Disneysea at around 7 pm and took the train back to Ikebukuro Station. Feeling extremely hungry and exhausted, we randomly walked into a fast food restaurant called Nadai Fujisoba to have our dinner. Nadai Fujisoba is a soba and udon chain with branches throughout Japan. I believe it is popular among the locals because we were the only foreigners eating in the restaurant.

The restaurant is pretty small with about 25 seating. Prices of food is really cheap. You can get a simple bowl of plain soba for 300 Yen.


Ordering is done via a ticket machine located near the entrance. However, the menu is entirely in Japanese. Thus, we have rely on the food samples outside of the store, each with a number to order our food.

Just like most other fast food restaurants in Japan, everything is self serviced here. After making your payment at the machine, you should receive a meal ticket for your order. Pass the ticket to the staff at the kitchen and wait at your seat. The staff will call you once your food is ready for collection.


The udon was too salty for my liking. But still it was delicious. It was bad that we could not finish our food and ended up wasting them.


If you are interested to know more about our trip, you may want to check out our 9D8N Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka Trip Itinerary + Overview for the list of attractions that we had visited during our 9 days in Japan. For anyone planning your first trip to Japan but have no idea where to start, you should read my "How To Plan A Trip To Japan" post.

Be sure to follow me on Facebook or Twitter for the latest updates on my 9 days adventures in Japan! You might also want to check My Wanderlust page for some of my other travel adventures