Tokyo DisneySea: Where Imagination and Adventure Set Sail

July 15, 2012.

Disney changed people’s lives. And age doesn’t matter when you’re heading to a Disney Resort. This time, it’s Tokyo Disney Sea.

Like our 22hr trip back in January 2012, we again travelled all the way from Nagano to Tokyo to visit this one-of-a-kind resort. But this time, we are staying overnight to visit both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. Yay! Brace up for another adventure! This is bigger than Tokyo Disneyland!

We arrived at the resort before the park opened so we went straight to Hilton Tokyo Bay to park our things (we can’t check-in yet). My host family also decided to park the car there and take the Disney Monorail from the hotel to the resort for another experience.

At Hilton Tokyo Bay Hotel

Tokyo Disney Resort Monorail:
It’s the same with the HongKong Disneyland Rail – with Mickey windows, Mickey handles, and all the other Disney designs -- but this one is way more expensive.

Look at the ticket prices!

Tokyo Disney Sea Map:

Familiarize yourself with the entire DisneySea resort.  It has 7 main themes: Mediterranean Harbor. Mysterious Island. Mermaid Lagoon. Arabian Coast. Lost River Delta. Port Discovery. American Waterfront. Travel Tip: Make sure to get your map at hand and plan your route inside the park. You may want to take an unconventional route by starting in the 3^rd or 4^th theme. Normally, when people arrived in the park, they just do clockwise or counter-clock wise route. Start in the middle when there are still less people. Make sure to consider live performances as well!

Familiarizing myself with the park

Entrance:

Once you entered the park, you will be welcomed by the DisneySea SquaSphere , showing the model of the earth, helping you realize the body of water that surrounds us.  From this place onwards, seems like everything is a fantasy.

Welcome to Tokyo Disney Sea!

Where's the Philippines?

Mediterranean Harbor:

It’s the center of DisneySea, just like the Cinderella Castle for Disneyland, where you will be caught in awe.  Surrounded by an Italian-themed (re-creation of Venice) hotel overlooking the man-made lake where main performances of the park happens. Travel Tip: Make sure to catch the live performances here. Check out the schedule once you arrived in the park.

Mount Prometheus, Mediterranean Harbor, Disney Sea

Hotel Miracosta surrounding the park

Picturesque view of the park

View from the mysterious Island

DisneySea Grounds:

You’ll enjoy strolling around the American Waterfront seeing a real-size ship docked at the port with live performance from Disney characters. Take note: you are inside Disneysea, and not a real port.

SS Columbia in town

Tower of Terror & The Port

Captain Mickey ~

Port Discovery 

Smaller Port

Walk further and you’ll see more of what DisneySea has to offer you. You might bump to some Disney characters like Princess Jasmin walking around Arabian Coast while waiting for Alladin. Travel Tip: Be Brave! Call her attention to get a snapshot with Princess Jasmin or any Disney character. She won’t just stand there and pose for a photo with you.

With Princess Jasmin of Alladin

Arabian Coast

Pirates Ship

Speedboat around the island

Attractions:

There can be so many people wanting to take the rides and can obviously be time-consuming waiting for an average of 45min just to experience a 3-min attraction. HAHA. In my case, I just pick the most thrilling rides in the park since I’ve conquered several rides like the Dodonpa (once the fastest roller coaster) in FujiQ Highlands, Japan, and T Express (World’s steepest wooden roller coaster) in Everland, South Korea, and the Abyss Turbo Drop (20-storey free fall) in Ocean Park, Hongkong.

One of the attractions

Mysterious Island

Look at the lines to the attractions

Travel Tip: Try to get the FastPass in some of the rides available. Check out the map or ask any of the park staffs around for more details.  It’s free! In our case, we got fastpasses so we just roam around the place in the morning and took the rides in the afternoon on our scheduled time.

Performances:

It is what I really look forward to see in every Disney Resort I visit. The world-class performances never  bore me even if I saw the shows a couple of times already. Travel Tip: Try to be early to get a good spot for your eyes and of course, your cameras. Don’t rush or overtake people. It might cause an accident. Show schedule varies so make sure to check it out once you arrived.

Counterpart of Disney Parade of Stars for Disneyland

It's all in the water show!

Look for Mickey ~

Night Performances

Souvenir Shops:

You don’t have to worry where to buy your Disney keychains or Mickey Mouse tees and stuff toys because they all over the corner just like the food available. You can go to a small kiosk or carts themed in your current location or big stores near the entrance. Travel Tip: Grab your souvenirs at night after all your rounds and right before you go home so you don’t have to bring your shopped items around the park. And even if the park is close, they’ll wait for you to finish shopping! Beware, the souvenir items are quite expensive K well, for a shoe-string traveler like me.

DisneySea Souvenir Shop

DisneySea at Night:

The lights at night can still make you wonder? How did they design this park? The lights are perfectly in place.

SS Columbia at Night

DisneySea Symbol

Certainly, it is worthwhile to visit the only DisneySea in the world. A must-visit when you go to Japan. Though you need at least the entire day to explore the park, it's worth your money, time and effort. Plus another day to see Tokyo Disney Land: Where Dreams Come True.

To know more about Tokyo Disneyland's ticket prices, park maps, park hours, transportation and other useful information, you can check out my post: Tokyo Disneyland: In Detail

For Disney Performances and Shows: Tokyo Disneyland: A Whole New World