I have to admit that I was a bit unsure about going to Disney Sea. Honestly I didn’t want to go all. Disney Land maybe, but Disney Sea just didn’t sound like my idea of a good time. Although I did kind of back myself into a corner because I promised my girlfriend that we’d go, thinking that she wouldn’t follow through on it, and then promptly forgot all about it. So I was a bit caught off guard when she set a date in December.
I managed to weasel out of that by telling her that I didn’t have the money, which again was my fault for not budgeting a fat paycheck properly, but when I collected my next check I new that I wasn’t going to get off so easily this time. Obviously my heart wasn’t in it because I was out clubbing until about four in the morning the night before and went on only two or three hours of sleep. My girlfriend wasn’t happy about this and neither was the other girl, we went as part of a double date, and it led to a lot of bickering early on but once we had walked around and rode a couple of attractions all that was quickly forgotten.
Don’t get me wrong the place was still very screaming schoolgirl oriented, but there was still plenty to do and see to keep us entertained.
The first ride we went on was Journey to the Center of the Earth and yes the line was 90 minutes long, even in the morning. It was still pretty cool with lots of cute little cuddly imaginary creatures that supposedly live deep underground and the end has a special surprise, which I won’t spoil for you, but let’s just say that I lost my hat, much to the surprise of the girl sitting behind me who thought that she’d dropped her camera.
The next ride we went on was Storm Rider. This is one of those “rides” where you sit in a movie theater and the chair you’re sitting in moves giving you the illusion that you are actually flying through a storm. Oh well, that meant the line was only an hour instead of 90 minutes or longer. This was also cool and they had a lot of special effects inside the room like holes appearing in the walls to make you think that the plane had actually taken damage. I would probably recommend this for the not so adventurous who want a bit of a thrill, but not the rush of a real roller coaster.
We had dinner at the New York Diner. Like almost anything in the entire park that you can actually buy it was expensive and good, but not great. Although on the plus side it was nice to actually enjoy a beer even after I was repeatedly being told about five times that I couldn’t take it outside of the restaurant.
After that we decided it was time for a real roller coaster. I was pretty hyped up about the Indiana Jones ride, but that was unfortunately closed so we checked out Raging Spirits. I got a bit of a rush riding that, but it was nothing compared to what I recall riding at Six Flags. Actually my last trip to Six Flags was nearly a decade ago so I’m guessing they’ve got even bigger and badder stuff now.
After that we checked 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. It was fairly interesting, but I just couldn’t get over the fact that you don’t actually go underwater. I found the Disney World equivalent to be a lot more interesting – or am I actually remembering things from an eight year old’s point of view who thought that riding in a real submarine was really cool?
After that we had dinner at their Chinese restaurant. It was fairly decent. They had a fairly filling set consisting of rice, two main dishes and a desert although it was pricey for the 1,500 yen I paid, and again good, but not great.
Of course eating a full meal may have not been the best idea since that last ride we planned on taking was the girls’ favorite, The Tower of Terror. Luckily we’d gotten the fast pass tickets when we’d first gotten to the park. The fast past tickets allow you to skip a majority of the line; just go to the ride and find the fast pass machines nearby, slide in your ticket and it will spit out a pass valid for later in the day.
At any rate the Tower of Terror was pretty cool. You get to go through a haunted house of sorts with some pretty cool effects. The opening sequence has the cursed statue glowing and flashing through out the duration before finally disappearing. At first I wondered how they made the thing actually disappear until I realized that it was all just lighting effects and not actually there to begin with.
Once you actually do get into the main part of the ride, which’s made to look like an elevator, it gradually takes you up floor by floor and shows you cool yet scary lighting effects of the haunted house. That was a very nice touch because it totally builds up the sense of anticipation. Finally once you hit the top floor it just drops you. Quite honestly I think this gave me way more of a jolt than any of the other roller coasters because the sensation of just suddenly being dropped after all your senses have been thoroughly stimulated is like the cartoon image of when your body falls, but your stomach stays where it was. They even manage to bounce you up and down a few more times before the ride ends. No it isn’t like being dropped a full thirteen floors like you get in Disney World, but it’s still worth trying.
The exit of the ride conveniently (for Disney anyway) takes you through a gift shop selling overpriced hats, candy, and T-shirts and you of course have the opportunity to buy the really overpriced picture of you and your friends taken at the very beginning of the ride. (I really did wonder why the girls where posing and throwing peace signs before the ride even started.) Watch in awe as almost everyone that you rode the ride with crowds around the TV screen to take a picture of the picture with their phone…and then just walks away. I guess I wasn’t the only one who thought that 1,600 yen for a laminated photo in a folder was way too much. So yeah, just like everything else in Disney, this ride is overly commercialized, but still cool.
On our way out the door we paused a bit to watch the fireworks and then began our journey home – much more tired, but happier on the inside.
All in all I’d definitely say that Disney Sea was worth a shot – especially if plan on making it a date however there are a few things to consider; the first is cost. Disney Sea could be done on a budget of 10,000 or even less if you want to be really cheap. Tickets are around 6,000 plus a few hundred extra to take the Mickey Mouse monorail to the door and of course a bit of food and drink on the inside. Of course you could easily spend several times that if you want to go all out and stuff yourself with all their goodies (I recommend the popcorn- it certainly tastes as good as it smells) and buy souvenirs for all your family and friends.
I would actually also highly recommend making it a double date or at least a date with someone that you can have plenty of long interesting conversations with. I went with a good friend and his girlfriend and the fact that he was leaving Japan for good in less than a week meant that we had plenty to talk about, which made all mandatory waiting in line infinitely more bearable.
Lastly, as I said before, it’s probably best to go early, grab a map and use the fast passes to help plan your day out. That will give you less time in lines and more time to check out a lot of the other stuff that won’t be as busy.
