Tokyo DisneySea is Disney’s highest theme park any place on the planet. It’s uncommon for me to make an unqualified remark when calling one thing the most productive, however this park is so nice that I’m assured in that remark with none kind of hedging my bets.
When this was once first revealed 12 years in the past, that was once a contested opinion. Now not essentially a arguable one, as maximum Disney enthusiasts who had visited would agree that Tokyo DisneySea was once #1. The one drawback was once that now not many of us on the time had visited Tokyo DisneySea. It was once a lot more uncomplicated to make the cross-country flight to Disneyland, the most typical #1 park on fan ratings on the time, than midway all over the world to Japan.
Announcing so much has modified since could be a gentle understatement. The ubiquity of smartphones with ever-improving translation apps. The explosion of social media, with hugely-popular influencers “finding” Tokyo Disney Hotel with every passing week. Shuttle prices have diminished, the yen has gotten weaker, and Japan is a lot more out there. Glance no additional than Is It Less expensive to Consult with Tokyo Disneyland Than Walt Disney International in 2026? This can be a level we’ve been making for over a decade, but it surely’s long past viral and mainstream not too long ago.
Then there are the adjustments to Tokyo DisneySea itself. Since we up to now up to date this in 2019, so much has took place. There was once the entire COVID closure factor, which has left lasting affects on Tokyo DisneySea. Even 6 years later, the park nonetheless has now not totally recovered from that.
Staffing shortages are an ongoing factor, eating places and retail stay closed, leisure is decreased or changed, hours are shorter, simplest single-day tickets are bought, and extra. Operationally, the Tokyo DisneySea of 2026 may be very other from the Tokyo DisneySea of 2019.
The unhealthy of this has been overcrowding. We spent numerous time at Tokyo DisneySea closing yr, together with a Christmas-time day with 10/10 crowd ranges, a median wait time of 67 mins, and top waits of 200+ mins at a half-dozen other sights. It was once one of the crucial ~5 busiest days of the yr, and it was once depressing.
Clearly, that’s an excessive. However days with a couple of rides hitting 200 mins is not unusual. It’s Why Disney’s #1 Park is Getting 1-Megastar Evaluations. As that identify suggests, Tokyo DisneySea is receiving increasingly 1-star opinions, in large part from crushed first-timers who consult with unprepared for simply how busy it’s.
Satirically sufficient, there’s now a refrain of Disney enthusiasts who will contend that Tokyo DisneySea is the number 1 park. It’s the transparent consensus. The similar influencers who (rightly) criticize the home parks for post-COVID cutbacks have blinders on on the subject of extra egregious adjustments at Tokyo Disney Hotel.
The article is, they’re now not unsuitable. On paper or with correct making plans, Tokyo DisneySea continues to be the number 1 Disney park. Even regardless of all the unlucky adjustments since 2019, it’s nonetheless the most productive. Now not via as broad of a margin because it as soon as was once, however there’s really one thing particular about Tokyo DisneySea.
And naturally, there have additionally been some certain adjustments within the closing ~6 years! Myth Springs is now open, and this blockbuster $2 billion growth that includes Peter Pan, Frozen, and Tangled delivers much-needed stability to the experience roster. Leisure is beginning to get again not off course and the twenty fifth Anniversary guarantees to be an out of this world tournament. It’s now not all unhealthy–a long way from it! However we’re getting forward of ourselves.
My take is that Tokyo DisneySea is awesome to Disneyland (the obvious selection #1 select) and each and every different theme park when seen relating to an purpose evaluation of which is the “higher” theme park. To me, Tokyo DisneySea is a completely discovered conceptual park, carefully corresponding to the unique EPCOT Heart, however with a extra balanced execution.
The unique EPCOT Heart and Disneyland are each introduced up within the “highest theme park of all-time” dialog basically for 2 causes: nostalgia and pioneering standing. Many Disneyland and Walt Disney International enthusiasts grew up on the ones parks, and a large a part of their love for the parks is steeped in idealized recollections of the previous. Nostalgia isn’t a nasty factor; on the contrary, it’s an asset to the Disney Parks. However person fan nostalgia has no position in a dialog about “the most productive.”
As for its pioneering standing on the planet of theme parks, that makes Disneyland extra traditionally important and most important than Tokyo DisneySea, but it surely does now not make it higher. The truth that Walt Disney in fact walked down Major Side road USA in Disneyland is a ‘bragging proper’ that Disneyland enthusiasts will at all times have over enthusiasts of each and every different theme park, however whether or not Megastar Wars: Galaxy’s Edge or Myth Springs is the awesome land has zilch to do with Walt.
That you must argue that the reverse could also be true. That some enthusiasts love the glossy new object; that familiarity breeds contempt. That longtime Walt Disney International and Disneyland enthusiasts change into hyper-critical to these parks’ faults, taking factor with issues that no first-timer would understand.
After they themselves cross from common customer of the home parks to first-timer at Tokyo DisneySea, they likewise put on rose-colored glasses. I might argue that there’s in fact been numerous this within the post-COVID generation. It’s now not intentional, in fact. They by no means visited Tokyo Disney Hotel pre-closure, so that they don’t know what’s lacking. In fact, the similar is correct of first-timers to Walt Disney International or Disneyland in 2026. It’s all an issue of viewpoint.
As for why Tokyo DisneySea is the most productive Disney theme park on the planet? Listed below are 10 (of many) the explanation why…
10. Mysterious Island.
You might imagine hanging this on the most sensible of the thing is a solution to steer clear of burying the lede via hanging this at #1. Relatively the opposite. Nearly each and every Disney fan who yearns for a consult with to Tokyo DisneySea cites Mysterious Island as their most sensible reason why for short of to consult with.
Mysterious Island is each and every superlative you’ll consider it being, however I don’t believe it the end-all, be-all of Tokyo DisneySea. If truth be told, I waiver backward and forward on whether or not it’s my 2nd, 3rd, or fourth favourite land within the park. Mysterious Island lives as much as the hype, it’s simply that different lands within the park a long way surpass their relative loss of hype.
9. Myth Springs
Myth Springs, the brand new growth that includes Frozen, Peter Pan and Tangled, is receiving rave opinions. It’s regarded as a contemporary masterpiece of Imagineering via some enthusiasts, with reward crowning it the best theme park land ever. It’s a large a part of what has drawn such a lot of new influencers to Japan, they usually love the land. That is the marketable addition this is perhaps drawing you to Tokyo DisneySea in 2026.
Myth Springs is a most sensible 5 port-of-call at Tokyo DisneySea. However for me, it’s indisputably now not #1, #2, or #3. Possibly now not #4, both. Because the new land odor has worn off, we’ve spent so much much less time in Myth Springs. It’s indisputably now not higher than the aforementioned Mysterious Island, neither is it awesome to the #5 access in this checklist. I’d additionally put Arabian Coast above it (see #3) and most probably Mediterranean Harbor (see #8). Now that we have got a baby, we spend extra time in Mermaid Lagoon, however that port doesn’t rank forward of Myth Springs.
So why does Myth Springs make this checklist whilst a few the ones others don’t? Points of interest. No doubt, the highest two sights in Myth Springs are Peter Pan’s By no means Land Journey and Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Adventure. Each are just about flawless stories which might be among the finest Walt Disney Imagineering has ever created. Maximum visitors will most probably want the Frozen experience, however they’re each 10/10 sights in my e book.
Then there’s Rapunzel’s Lantern Competition and Fairy Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies. The Tangled appeal has in all probability the most important ‘wow’ second in any Myth Springs appeal and a couple of different beautiful scenes and results, but it surely’s somewhat at the quick facet and likewise extra rudimentary. Nonetheless a forged C or D-Price ticket, even supposing it’s masquerading as an E-Price ticket. Higher nonetheless is Busy Buggies, which has a undeniable je ne sais quoi.
Again once we first revealed this submit, the most important (legitimate) complaint of Tokyo DisneySea was once its mild experience roster. This is not a correct critique. Within the closing a number of years, the park has opened Hovering Implausible Flight (the definitive model of that grasp drift experience) and four sturdy sights in Myth Springs. And that is why this port-of-call makes the checklist while thematically-stronger applicants don’t.
8. The Counter Carrier Choices are Powerful.
In different parks, there’s a standout counter carrier possibility right here or there with both tremendous meals or cool atmosphere, however normally now not each. Tokyo DisneySea is the most productive Disney theme park for counter carrier meals, and for counter carrier theming. At Casbah Meals Courtroom, you’ll dine in an Arabian open-air bazaar whilst having superb curry. Vulcania gives visitors the chance to devour within a transformed geothermal energy station carved out of an lively volcano whilst eating on scrumptious Chinese language meals.
At New York Deli, you’ll dine throughout the retail outlets of quite a lot of mother and dad proprietors whilst having a Mile Top Sandwich. At Cape Cod Prepare dinner-Off, you’ll devour within a boathouse whilst looking at a Duffy degree display and consuming terrible burgers. K, that closing one was once a nasty instance…however there truly are a couple of 1/2 dozen different superior counter carrier eating places in Tokyo DisneySea. And don’t even get me began at the desk carrier or the snacks.
7. Lodge MiraCosta is within the Park.
From the sea wall in Port Discovery to the S.S. Columbia to the monorail that circles the park that you just in some way by no means see while you’re throughout the park, Tokyo DisneySea makes use of a litany of design tips to tremendous luck. Through a long way the best of those methods is its placement of Lodge MiraCosta throughout the theme park in an unobtrusive way. However this isn’t simply hidden like Membership 33 (was). The Lodge MiraCosta is hiding in undeniable sight, “rubbing visitors noses in it” who can not find the money for to stick there.
That, or it’s in undeniable sight and is improving the surroundings of Mediterranean Harbor because it supplies intensity and lived-in constructions that will another way be false facades. The prominence of Lodge MiraCosta within the design of the park needed to were a large gamble on the design degree relating to how it might be perceived, however right here the gamble paid off in spades, as Lodge MiraCosta is without doubt one of the maximum most important and groundbreaking options of Tokyo DisneySea.
6. It Takes Transportation Critically.
Just about each and every Disney fan is aware of of Walt Disney’s fondness for trains, and likewise of the way most important quite a lot of method of transportation were to the kinetic power of Disneyland. Tokyo DisneySea continues the proud custom of transportation in Disney theme parks.
The park makes use of the entirety from Venetian gondolas to the increased Tokyo DisneySea Electrical Railway, which is their model of the PeopleMover, for my part. Boats, automobiles, and different types of transportation abound, now not simplest serving utilitarian functions, but additionally giving the park that ever-important kinetic power.
5. Nice Variations of the Best possible Points of interest.
On Sarah & Tom Bricker’s Most sensible 15 Disney Points of interest within the International, there are 5 other sights discovered at Tokyo DisneySea. A type of can be mentioned beneath, however the others are Tower of Terror, Indiana Jones Journey, Adventure to the Heart of the Earth, and Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Adventure.
Then there are 20,000 Leagues Underneath the Sea (the one surviving model of that appeal), Peter Pan’s By no means Land Journey, Citadel Explorations, Rapunzel’s Lantern Competition, and all the transportation sights. All rating very extremely with numerous enthusiasts, us (most commonly) incorporated.
Two different sights that everybody however me turns out to like, Toy Tale Mania and Hovering, have their highest variations at Tokyo DisneySea. The park would possibly not have classics like Pirates of the Caribbean or Haunted Mansion, however Tokyo DisneySea does have tremendous variations of a number of new-classics, plus a number of authentic sights that aren’t to be overlooked. Check out our evaluation of each and every Tokyo DisneySea appeal to get an concept of the overall lineup.
4. It Does The united states Higher.
Being that the primary 3 Disney theme parks have been all in-built The united states and are rooted to various levels in Americana, it’s a daring statement to say {that a} theme park in Japan does The united states higher. However this weblog is all about daring assertions. Tokyo DisneySea’s American Waterfront port of name is the biggest within the park, and has a degree of element the United States parks appear to order for unique locales, whilst taking extra superficial approaches to spaces in accordance with The united states itself.
Don’t get me unsuitable, I really like Major Side road USA and the American Journey, however within the latter, when you get previous the fantastic American Journey appeal, there’s now not a ton of element to the pavilion. It’s simply a big mansion. Distinction that with the Morocco pavilion. Different Americana within the U.S. parks delicately feet the road between sentimentality and kitschy.
American Waterfront turns the speculation of Americana in Disney theme parks on its head, providing a space that’s romanticized, and at all times loaded with reasonable and gritty element. Due to an asset from its sub-ports, Cape Cod and Toyville Trolley Park, American Waterfront is well the number 1 port in Tokyo DisneySea. There’s even an ocean-liner with a living room themed to Teddy Roosevelt on board. Want I say extra?!
3. Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage
If Tokyo DisneySea will get penalized for now not having classics like Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, each and every different park will get penalized for now not having new-classic Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage.
The truth that that is the one appeal that has its personal spot at the checklist must talk volumes, however in case you need to learn extra on why Sindbad and Chandu are so tremendous, we’ve already devoted a complete article to the subject.
2. The Solid Individuals are 2d to None.
I really like Disney Solid Individuals. From Orlando to Anaheim to Hong Kong to Paris (sure, even Paris), Solid Individuals are a large, very important a part of what makes the parks glorious. With all due recognize to anyone Solid Individuals in the United States parks who could also be studying this, no team of Solid Individuals, jointly, hang a candle to the Solid Individuals at Tokyo Disney Hotel.
To make certain, there are completely superb Solid Individuals at each and every park, and maximum Solid Individuals at each and every park are good-to-great, however nearly each and every unmarried Solid Member we’ve ever encountered at Tokyo Disney Hotel is of the ‘completely superb’ selection. From simply normal politeness to actually strolling you to the place you wish to have to move while you ask for help to completely dealing with crowd keep an eye on and maintenance, the Solid Individuals there rock.
Now technically, that is an characteristic that applies similarly to each Tokyo parks, however except any individual is arguing that Tokyo Disneyland is the most productive theme park on the planet, it is a feature of Tokyo DisneySea that provides it a bonus over all different challengers.
1. You By no means Take into accout You’re in Tokyo.
For me, the one maximum most important facet of any Disney theme park is its talent to move you from the place you geographically are to the place its creators need you to consider being. That is the standard that separates a theme park from an amusement park or a random number of sights.
From the time you stroll via Aquasphere Plaza till you allow on the finish of the day, you aren’t in Japan, you’re in the ones quite a lot of ports of name. As a foreigner, the one reminder that you just’re 1000’s of miles from house is the occasional Solid Member who has bother with English. Except for that, it’s simply every other day at the Misplaced River Delta with Indiana Jones.
As an grownup, it’s now not such a lot that I in fact imagine that I’ve stepped underneath the ocean when coming into King Triton’s Citadel, or that I’ve jumped into the pages with Jules Verne. It’s that the park offers me no believable choices for the revel in I’m having.
There aren’t any cracks within the phantasm and there aren’t any disasters in the way in which the revel in is gifted and carried out. In different phrases, it’s now not such a lot that you just imagine you’re in fact in those puts, since at the back of your thoughts you realize you’re in a theme park, it’s extra that you just prevent fascinated by the outdoor international and kind of take the place you’re without any consideration since it’s so detailed and so immersive.
I’ve heard Imagineers describe their objective as developing areas and sights that facilitate the suspension of disbelief. For this to happen, it’s the shared burden of the author and the target market. The author has to make one thing so compelling that there’s a unconscious, mental want within the target market to omit its flaws and benefit from the fable with out rational concept. The target market has to include that fable with out giving attention to the faults.
Suspension of disbelief is what occurs during each and every inch of Tokyo DisneySea, however it kind of feels like extra of the weight has shifted to the author, and somewhat than being an target market member passively taking part in a fantasy-story, the visitor is an lively player in adventures.
This all might look like over-analysis of a theme park, however I feel that is the linchpin of why Tokyo DisneySea is one of these tremendous and compelling theme park. It is vitally tough to articulate this rather then within the summary phrases above, and with no need skilled the park, it can be tough to totally comprehend. That’s why I drew the comparability to EPCOT Heart on the outset.
A lot of what as soon as made EPCOT Heart particular has been stripped from the park, however a few of these transportive puts stay. Once more, Morocco is a main instance. I incessantly in finding that I lose myself within the paths, nooks, and crannies of Morocco, by no means as soon as considering that I’m in a theme park. I think a lot of you might have had that very same feeling. Relative to the entire of the park, Morocco is an attractive small space. Now, consider a complete park like Morocco.
Is your thoughts blown via all of that? That’s Tokyo DisneySea. The best theme park on the planet.
Making plans a travel to Tokyo Disney Hotel? For complete recommendation, the most productive position to start out is our Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea Go back and forth Making plans Information! For extra specifics, our TDR Lodge Ratings & Evaluations web page covers lodging. Our Eating place Evaluations element the place to dine & snack. To save cash on tickets or resolve which sort to shop for, learn our Pointers for Saving Cash submit. Our What to Pack for Disney submit takes a novel have a look at artful pieces to take. Venturing in other places in Japan? Seek the advice of our Final Information to Kyoto, Japan and Town Information to Tokyo, Japan.
Your Ideas…
Do you settle that Tokyo DisneySea is the sector’s biggest theme park? The most productive ever? If now not, which Disney theme park (of those you’ve visited) do you assume is #1? Why? Of the parks you haven’t visited, which do you maximum wish to revel in? In case you have any questions, pointers, or ideas to proportion, please submit them within the feedback. We adore listening to from readers!
