A Disney Parks Around the World Journey: Day 16 – Tokyo Disney Sea Revisited

“Some dream it, some do it, some do both.” – Walt Disney

IT’S GAMEDAY!!! I woke up at 4:30AM because I am just so excited about the Notre Dame game. This is the biggest Notre Dame game since the 2012 BCS National Championship game in Miami. Kendall and I did attend that game, and it was a great time…. until the game started.

I can only hope and pray this game goes better than that walloping. To this day I still have PTSD from that disaster. I had already downloaded a VPN the night before and tested out the internet. The internet in our room is absolutely terrible and streaming is nearly impossible so I will need to watch elsewhere. I take a real quick shower as I will be watching the game in the lobby on my iPad.

I get to the lobby lobby and I am totally by myself as there is no one up at 6:00AM aside from Bell Services. I honestly can’t believe that for Notre Dame’s biggest game in 12 years I am watching it on an iPad in the lobby of a hotel in Tokyo Disneyland. I look up and say a quick Hail Mary and ask God to please help Notre Dame. As I do so I notice that the lobby atrium is absolutely stunning.

The game is intense but Notre Dame gains some momentum going into the half leading 13-3 and I head back to the room for a bit to check on Kendall and Lucy.

The internet is a little faster now and I start to watch it in the room. Midway through the 3rd quarter we head to our breakfast reservation at the buffet downstairs, Oceano. This is part of our Vacation Package and the reservation time was selected when we booked it 5 months ago well before the football season had even started. I then start streaming the game on my phone and listen to the broadcast via AirPods. The streaming is pretty inconsistent and that’s putting it nicely so I have my brother text me updates as to what’s happening.

The restaurant here is very nice and modern.

The buffet is pretty expansive and interestingly enough has a large number of lunch options despite it being 8:40AM.

I have some beef dish that tastes like braised beef and some Cocoa Krispies. I did eat them separately and not together in case you were wondering although that may be an experiment for tomorrow. We finish breakfast and head back to the room. Unfortunately the connection has slowed again so I finish watching the game in the hallway.

Notre Dame ends up being victorious over Georgia in their biggest win in over 30 years so I am on cloud nine. I can’t think of a better way to start the day.

With the game over we start to get ready to go to the park. We look out our room window, and see the crowd is slowly starting to build.

We then head out to the park. Conveniently, we enter via the Hotel Miracosta park entrance we used the other night.

It is overcast and feels much colder today. The feels like temperatures were in the mid 30s Fahrenheit and this is probably the coldest we’ve felt since our first park morning in Orlando ironically. First thing we do is to go rent a wheelchair near the park entrance.

There are ample available and I continue to be shocked at the wheelchair pricing which is about $3.50 USD.

We didn’t take our Mount Prometheus picture the first day we were here so we go and do that first.

Mount Prometheus is the main icon of the park, and is home to two attractions. A fun fact is that it is the exact same height as Cinderella’s Castle rising to a 189ft.

Afterwards, Lucy is dying to go on “Whoop! Jump Scare!” AKA Journey to the Center of the Earth again so we head that way. We only walked by this area last time at night and it’s slightly disorienting as it looks totally different during the day.

It’s a 220 min wait right now, and we have never been more thankful to have the unlimited Premier Access.

We all absolutely love this ride, and have just as great time riding it for the second time.

The queue and theming is just excellent.

Even though it’s a dark ride there is a short outdoor section and the last time we did the ride it was nighttime so it was definitely a little different doing it during the day when you could see a little more. This is still one of our favorite rides this vacation which is saying a lot after 10 theme parks.

Our next ride is 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea which is also in the volcano.

While making the short walk I hear a guy yell “Go Irish!” as he sees my Notre Dame hat. I oblige him and yell “Go Irish!” right back. It’s great to know there are ND fans everywhere.

The wait for 20,000 Leagues is 80 minutes but we have the unlimited Premier Access and the wait isn’t even 10 minutes.

This is a dark ride that simulates going underwater whereas the original 20,000 Leagues in Magic Kingdom and Disneyland actually did take you underwater in a submarine. I’m assuming they made the change due to the amount of maintenance required for an underwater ride.

The ride vehicle is unique, in that you’re boarding a suspended submersible.

The seating inside is a little claustrophobic which definitely gives you that submersible feel. The scale of the show scenes is massive with an impressive amount of detail. Unfortunately, we don’t know Japanese so it is very tough to figure out the story but the scale and theming is absolutely top notch, and even without knowing the story we found the ride to be very enjoyable.

This area of the park definitely gives the feeling of being in the crater of a volcano with a lake in it. They have details everywhere, including a suspended vehicle that appears to be burrowing to the center of the earth.

Afterwards we head toward Mermaid Lagoon which is the kid’s area of the park.

We really don’t know much about this area as we I did zero research on it but it’s right next to the 20,000 League area so we head over to check it out. I didn’t realize it but Mermaid Lagoon is composed of an indoor and outdoor area. I originally only thought it was an outdoor area with small kiddie rides.

Apparently not. The indoor area is very large, impressively themed, and most importantly it is heated.

There is a theatre, a quick service restaurant, some kid’s rides, and a shop shaped like Monstro.

I honestly can’t think of a better place to shop than the inside of a whale. If I ever setup a store, that is without a doubt going to be my go to design.

There is also a large playground, Ariel’s Playground. Lucy really wants to go play for a bit so we take a short break. I was glad to see she still gets excited to see a playground as I know those days are sadly limited. The playground is incredibly well themed, and is probably the best themed playground I’ve ever seen. I think I still like The Boneyard at Animal Kingdom better, but in terms of sheer theming it’d be hard to beat this playground.

We were totally in shock just how big this indoor area is. We figured it’d be a throw away attraction akin to Dino-rama in Animal Kingdom. NOPE! The size and theming of this indoor space is quite incredible and there is nothing like this in Walt Disney World or Disneyland. Probably the closest thing would have been the Wonders of Life Pavilion or maybe Innoventions before they both closed. In general, from our time in DisneySea thus far the scale of everything is just BIGGER. This goes for not just the spaces but the rides as well. The only ride in the US that compares in scale to the newer rides in Tokyo would be Rise of the Resistance. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind would also qualify, but since it’s a roller coaster I don’t lump it in the same category as all the dark rides that Tokyo DisneySea has. It was almost as if they gave the Imagineers a nearly blank slate and unlimited budget when designing this park. The ONLY thing that felt like they cheaped out a little is probably Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival just because it’s sooo short.

Lucy finishes playing, and we grab a quick snack before we head out of Mermaid Lagoon. There was an ice cream stand inside with 4 possible ice cream bar options.

This is by far the most options we have seen from a snack stand ever in our time in Tokyo Disney Resort and were nearly paralyzed by the choices. We order a sea salt ice cream monaka and two tiramisu ice cream sandwiches.

The sea salt manaka was nothing special and neither was the ice cream sandwich, but it was ice cream so you really can’t go wrong. While we are eating we notice a sudden influx of people into the building. Apparently, for the first time this vacation it started pouring the rain while we were inside the Mermaid Lagoon. The rain was quick and only lasted 15 minutes, but it sent everyone scrambling inside which caused some mild chaos. By the time we were done eating our ice cream the rain had stopped, which continues our streak of not having been rained on this trip.

We then head over to Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage just across the way in the Arabian Coast.

There is no Premier Access for this ride but it’s just a 10 min line so no Premier Access is really needed.

This is a dark boat ride that is very similar to It’s a Small World in that it has a lot of small cute characters and there is a catchy song that plays throughout the entire duration of the ride.

Given everything was in Japanese we really aren’t entirely sure of the story. As best as I can tell Sinbad goes on a voyage and returns so it definitely lives up to the name, Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage. The ride was VERY long and the show scenes like everything in DisneySea had a very large scale about them and were very well done. The sidekick tiger, Chandu, was super cute as well and I’m sure he sells a fair amount of merchandise.

The animatronics are plentiful and very impressive. Tokyo DisneySea just seems to take proven formulas and just improve on them in every aspect, either by adding more of something, making it bigger, or just making it longer. The ride was so long I can honestly say I think I spent more time on the ride than in the line.

Continue the day here.

Read about the previous day here.