Cracking the Tokyo DisneySea Code (19/03/2024)

Our last full day in Japan was also our second and last attempt at having a fulfilling DisneySea day. A week earlier, we’d had a somewhat challenging time at the park, coming up against the slog of graduation season crowds, but the relatively satisfying time we’d had at Disneyland the day before had boosted our spirits and given us a slither of hope for our final shot at the Most Beautiful Theme Park in the World.

An Earlier Start – But Not Early Enough

 

This time, we managed to get to the park a bit earlier, as we were no longer held back by exhaustion from our travel to Japan and my ‘four-days-of-literally-no-sleep’ insomnia that I had suffered from leading up to our trip and for the first two nights (falling asleep mid-conversation in Yomiuriland’s Starbucks was not my proudest moment). Interestingly, I don’t think the earlier start particularly benefited us; despite getting into the park around 40 minutes earlier than before, queues were already hitting the 90-minute mark when we got in twenty minutes after the official park opening time. The only benefit we got was a few more minutes to assess our strategy for the day once inside the park without feeling like we were already ‘behind.’ I think in high season, if you want to see any reward for showing up early, you’ve got to show up really early; think several hours before park opening at least, not ninety minutes.

Rooting for Shiriki on Tower of Terror

My most anticipated ride of DisneySea was probably Tower of Terror; combining thrills and sumptuous design, this ride has a lot of what I want out of a park. Having run out of time for it on our first day, we made a visit to Hotel Hightower our top priority. Unfortunately, by 9:25am, the hotel was clearly already at full occupancy, as we joined a queue that was extended and growing by the second. In the end, it would take us from 9:25am to 11:35am to tick this ride off. Guests knew they were in for the long haul as friends arrived laden with hot snacks to give to their mates already in the queue, and others dashed out to the nearby toilets for a strategic wee. Normally, I’d consider this all a form of queue-jumping, but to be honest, with the queues as long as they are, threatening you with the opportunity to wet yourself and/or faint from a blood sugar crash, I say don’t hate the player; hate the game.

Once we reached the gardens area of the queue, we made the decision to pay for Premier Access to experience the ride again at night (¥1500/£7.89 each), partly just to have the chance to soak up the building in all its Gothic Revival/Neo-Moorish glory again. We had also booked ourselves free Priority Passes for Raging Spirits for 1:45pm on the way to the Tower, so we already had two more rides locked in to look forward to before our first ride of the day.

We didn’t realise at the time, but we were visiting DisneySea during a Tower of Terror seasonal event, with two different overlays running depending on the date of your visit: ‘Level 13’ (more thrills) from January to February, ‘Level 13 Shadow of Shiriki’ (more spooks) from February to March, and then the general public’s choice of the two by vote from March to April. The Japanese public either can’t get enough of the funny little murderous deity Shiriki Utundu, who stars as the antagonist/anti-hero of the ride, or they’re a bunch of wusses who hate drops, as we got ‘Level 13 Shadow of Shiriki’ for our mid-March visit. I say that’s what we got, but it wasn’t made clear at all that what we were getting was anything different, and even after watching POVs, I’m still not sure whether they were running a normal cycle on at least one of the elevator shafts and we had just got the bog-standard version.

Either way, I really enjoyed the ride; I could have done with more drops and a looser seat belt for some genuine airtime, but it was still good fun in a beautiful package.

My greatest disappointment however was the gift shop! Exquisitely themed to the swimming pools of Hotel Hightower, complete with artwork of Imagineer Joe Rohde’s Harrison Hightower leering down from the tiled walls, the Tower of Terror gift shop still serves up the exact same generic character goods as every other shop on site, barring a fairly ugly tote bag and some highly breakable ceramic ware. I would have loved to have purchased anything with a hint of the architectural stylings of the ride on it, or something featuring Shiriki Utundu – everyone’s favourite little anti-colonialist – but alas.

The most elaborate exit gift shop I've ever seen.

Absorbing the Fun(icular) Vibes of Mediterranean Harbour

On our way to our next ride, we paused in Mediterranean Harbour as I heard one of my all-time favourite pieces of music playing: Funiculì, Funiculà. Even if you don’t know it by name, you’ve probably heard it, either used as stereotypically Italian music, or more specifically as the Pizza minigame song from 2004 Spider-Man 2 video game. It is joyous and silly and about a funicular railway, so I was naturally thrilled to hear it multiple times across the day as part of this port-of-call’s soundtrack. I vibed to it, Gelatoni vibed to it, and the world felt better for its presence.

Gelatoni enjoying the Italian tunes.

Hacking the System with Single Rider

Next up was Indiana Jones Adventure – this time in the single rider queue instead. The single rider queue is not especially well-advertised for this ride, since cast members send you down the Premier Access line, but early in the day, this line was a life-saver. Joining the Indie queue at 12:07pm, we were off by 12:25pm, so after a toilet break that took longer than the ride wait time, we went for another round, which again got us in the queue and off the ride in twenty minutes. We would attempt to use the single rider line again in the evening but gave up, as it was probably almost an hour’s wait. Why this happened when it was just a five-minute wait to be batched around midday, only a Disney expert would know.

Relaxing on the Railway (Before Raging Against the Spirits)

Conscious of our upcoming Priority Pass slot for Raging Spirits, we then aimed for a quick win with a ride on the Electric Railway. It’s a little short, but it was nice to have a reason to sit, and it’s a very civilised experience.

After a mosey around another Duffy merch store, it was time for our Raging Spirits ride. This got off to a fun start as my friend is pretty tall so was (cheerily) pulled over by a cast member to be measured as under the maximum height limit (195cm) and given a lanyard to give to the ride host as proof of measurement. I have however very little good to say about Raging Spirits itself I’m afraid. In terms of my coaster rankings, it sits in the bottom 15 at present – not uncomfortable but offensively dull – with stunning company like Crazy Coaster on Blackpool’s South Pier. It’s perplexing how Intamin managed to create such a tedious ride that, just when you think it might pick up the pace, it doesn’t even grind to a halt, but gently decelerates to a pootle. It does at least look pretty, and we only waited ten minutes not the billed two hours, so my rage towards its intense mediocrity was slightly assuaged.

Sure, it looks great. But it isn't.

The Superior Transport Ride: The DisneySea Transit Steamer Line

My memory is hazy, but within the next hour, I only have a record of me eating another gyoza dog. By this point in the day, I think I’d worked through all of the conbini snacks I’d hidden in my bag under Gelatoni to sustain me in queues (outside food is technically forbidden, but I was not the only guest with a Ziploc bag of snacks – although I was probably the only guest surviving off of a large Ziploc bag of takoyaki-flavoured corn puff balls.) I would still expect to primarily eat Disney’s offerings, but I highly recommend bringing some inconspicuous emergency snacks for when you’re wilting in a three-hour queue. I brought more food with me than our first DisneySea day and it didn’t stop me buying the same Disney food I would have, but it did make lines bearable. Again, I’m not one to break park rules, but sometimes you need to prioritise not fainting.

At 3pm, we boarded the walk-on-queue Transit Steamer Line and rode it from port to port for the next half hour. If you only have the time or the enthusiasm for one transport ride, pick the steamer over the railway. It’s a far more novel experience, the view is more interesting, and you get some lovely interactions with guests waving from walkways. I even got Gelatoni out to wave at his adoring fans! I would say that sitting on this boat was the only point during our Disney days when I experienced that feeling of “ah, this is a holiday.”

Gelatoni enjoying his cruise, with Tower of Terror looming in the background.

Taking Gelatoni to His Homeland

This day felt far more relaxed than our previous DisneySea day even though the queues were roughly the same, so we took some time to head over to the mini Venice part of Mediterranean Harbour, which I can only assume is Gelatoni’s home turf, for a photoshoot with the Boy at his official photo point. We were finally on our last day getting to enjoy the environments that the park is renowned for, and I can’t recommend enough finding time to wander, as these moments goofing around with Gelatoni are some of my fondest ones from our time at Disney – perhaps more so than the rides.

In Defence of Nemo and Friends SeaRider

At some point in the afternoon, we acquired a Priority Pass for Nemo and Friends SeaRider because it was still available; this tells you all you need to know about the appeal of this ride. I wouldn’t have wanted to have waited the standby queue time of 45 minutes to an hour, but I actually enjoyed this simulator more than Disneyland’s neighbouring Star Tours, which I’m sure is an unpopular opinion. The plot for this ride was thin, but more coherent than Star Tours, and I thought it was a really cute ride for children. I sense that much of the dislike for this ride stems less from the experience at face value, and more from the fact that it took away its better incarnation, StormRider. It’s not that bad!

Exploring the Fortress

Leaning into this being a day of soaking up park vibes rather than of hurtling to the next ride, we spent about forty minutes before dinner and some time afterwards wandering around the Fortress Explorations area. We didn’t bother with the ‘Leonardo Challenge’ game you could pick up a paper guide for, as I’m not sure we were mentally awake enough at this stage to be working on puzzles in Japanese. The Fortress affords some excellent views of the harbour and is clearly a decent viewing spot for the evening fireworks, as some guests were already camped out on the ramparts with blankets and plushies in tow an entire four hours before the show, like absolute madmen. Some interactives, including the telescopes, seemed to no longer be functional, but it's still fun to traipse around – and we even caught Mount Prometheus erupting whilst up one of the towers!

Losing My Mind at the Casbah Food Court

We chose our old faithful Casbah Food Court and its vegetable curry again for dinner around 5-ish, and it was at this point that I realised just how shattered I was. As I went to pay for my food, my passport tumbled out of my bag onto the floor, and upon picking it up, I delicately placed it on the little tray you are meant to put your money on that the cashier was holding up for me. It took me just a few moments to notice, but they are moments that will live on in my head forever as the time I tried to give a puzzled cashier my most precious piece of official documentation as payment for a £6 curry and naan. After the curry, we continued to sit for a while in our much-needed quiet corner, facing out into the restaurant side-by-side on bench seating and softly disassociating in the soporific lighting.

The Final Stretch!

We couldn’t just lie down and go to sleep in the remains of our curry sauce however – we still had our Tower of Terror Premier Access and a second attempt at Journey to the Center of the Earth to go! We’d picked our Tower of Terror slot to be late enough for it to be dark, but early enough for us to be able to squeeze in one last big ride before the queues closed, and this worked out really well. Getting off of Tower of Terror at just after 7pm, we were then able to scuttle over to Journey to the Center of the Earth, joining the queue at 7:20pm, and exiting at 8:56pm – just 4 minutes before park closure.

We had a far better ride this time round too. Anxiously we monitored the queue for the tell-tale signs of yabai girls – Linabell ears and matching leopard print paired with a school uniform – and whilst there were some close calls with our batching, we escaped unscathed and did not have to hear screams of yabai for the whole descent to the centre of the earth. That drop out of the side of the volcano also felt more thrilling at night, so I recommend a night ride if possible!

The rest of the evening was a complete blur, as we made our final long commute home to our hotel in Hamamatsuchō at park close, to get up bright and early for our flight back to the UK.

Final Thoughts on Tokyo DisneySea: Attempt Two

Our second attempt at Tokyo DisneySea felt far more successful than our first; not only did we manage to get on nine rides (plus explore the fortress) versus just five rides (plus Teddy Roosevelt Lounge) the previous visit, but I felt far more relaxed about the whole experience. The small changes that added up to a big difference for us were: bringing more snacks, buying into Premier Access (just once) to top up our ride count, making peace with not riding Soaring, and getting to the park a little bit earlier, to give ourselves time to a make a gameplan. An even earlier start might have helped, but then again, were we willing or able to compete with a bunch of die-hard fans who camp out overnight to secure the latest Duffy merch? No, we were not. It certainly also helped that the pressure was off because we’d already got some rides done on our previous visit, so I strongly recommend dedicating two days to DisneySea if you really want to do it justice and not come away fuming that you spent a good percentage of your time in the Most Beautiful Theme Park in the World deep in the brown noise purgatory of Journey to the Center of the Earth’s endless queue caverns. (Was this a traumatic experience? No, definitely not).

See that snaking line of people on the left hand side? That's the extended queue for Soaring.

I’m so relieved that I was able to form an appreciation for DisneySea on the second visit day; I’d been worried that my takeaway was going to be “it’s technically really pretty, but impossible to enjoy with the crowds” after our first Disney day. It’s true that the crowds are tough, but if you have the luxury of a visit spread across multiple days, you can balance the crowd-pulling rides with quiet exploration – not every path is teeming with guests, even if it feels like it when you’re stuck trudging behind a sea of Minnie ears in Mysterious Island, and there is some magic to be found in just existing for a little while in DisneySea’s carefully crafted spaces. Am I already longing for another go on any of DisneySea’s rides? Not really, to be truly honest. But would I love to be bopping along to Funiculì, Funiculà with Gelatoni, to the backdrop of Mount Prometheus erupting across the harbour? You bet.