Recently, a group of us went to Disney Sea here in Tokyo.  What an amazing place!  Every ride and every different area (Atlantis, Arabia, etc.) was constructed so well with incredible detail to make the whole experience an unforgettable one.  I was more impressed by Disney Sea in Tokyo than I was by Florida’s Disney World.  Disney Sea was smaller though and built more recently so the Japanese did have the advantage of the existence of more technology when the park was built. 

When we got to off the train, we took the Disney monorail to get to the specific Disney Sea park.  The Disney monorail was really decked out in Mickey Mouse.  The windows were shaped like Mickey’s head, the dangling straps for people who want to stand were Mickey shaped, and there were little Disney displays at the end of the cars.  A nice welcome before we even got to the park.

Now, I have never seen Indiana Jones, but I did go on the Indiana Jones ride.  The ride was one of the best I have been on.  Definitely worth a try.  20000 Leagues Under the Sea was also amazing.  With about six people to a submarine, we were locked in and submerged into the water.  We had a great view of all the story book scenes and creatures as we went through the ride.  However, the sub dove and turned enough to provide an exciting ride along with all the visuals. 

My favorite area of the park was Atlantis (from the Little Mermaid).  In Atlantis they had a Little Mermaid show.  If you have been to MGM in the U.S., seen the Little Mermaid show there, and are currently relating the two – don’t. This show was completely incredible.  It reminded me of a mini Broadway production with all the different technology, choreographing, and costuming that went into it.  While I don’t want to give it all away, I will tell you all a bit about it.  ‘Ariel’ was on a trapeze, the top of her ‘fin’ intersecting with the bar so she could flip and spin in the ‘water’ a.k.a. the air.  The whole show was done above the audience, in the air, so that it appeared like the characters were actually swimming.  When Ursula appeared, the one wall parted and her huge animatronic head came out towards the audience with huge animatronic moving hands to accompany her.  Her tentacles were ‘floating’ all around the audience giving a feeling as if she were covering the whole room.  Each character was done so well and it was great to see what take the Japanese had on the characters and how they would be portrayed in the show.  All the dialogue was in Japanese, but all the songs were in English.  It was a little strange listening to Japanese and then experiencing a quick change to English in the middle of the show, but I think that just makes it an even more amazing experience.  The food in Atlantis was great too.  We all took pictures of our clam shaped sandwiches and our sea salt ice cream in a plastic clam (sea salt ice cream is really good by the way). 

I guess you can tell Atlantis made a great impression on me.  But for those Aladdin enthusiasts out there, there is an Arabia area.  There is an Aladdin based show (while it does not include Aladdin, it is done well and is very funny), a double decker merry-go-round, another live show (I did not see this particular one), and more.

Of course, I could never tell you everything that is in the park, just a few highlights.  I also could not get to all that was in the park in that one day.  However, I do suggest that if you are ever in Tokyo, or Japan for that matter, you make a stop at Disney Sea.  There is also a Tokyo Disney, however I have heard that is very similar to Disney World in the U.S. and Disney Sea is Disney with a Japanese twist to it.  But, I do not know from experience and that would be yours to decide.  I will leave you with a few pictures so you can see some of Disney Sea for yourself!

    In Atlantis.  Eating sea salt ice cream.  In Arabia on the merry-go-round.  The clam sandwich in Atlantis.  A view of Tokyo Disney. Part of 20000 Leagues Under the Sea In Atlantis.

On the monorail.

 View of Atlantis.

That’s it! =)

Location: Tokyo, Japan