The morning of our DisneySea day, we were up bright and early and at the front gates of the park entrance before opening. To say we were excited for our first visit to this park would be a huge understatement. We did extensive research on DisneySea and read it was best to get to the park early and get a fastpass for one of the big attractions right away because of how quickly the fastpasses get snatched up.

After getting through the turnstiles, we hurried to get a fastpass for Journey to the Center of the Earth and then straight back to the American Waterfront area to get in line to meet ShellieMay (priorities!). The front of the park is stunning, but in order to get our fastpasses and meet Shellie, we decided it was best to come back to the front later on to really experience it. While we were waiting in line to meet Shellie, Kevin ran to Tower of Terror to get some fastpasses for a few hours later.

Tokyo DisneySea has seven different “ports of call” instead of “lands” like in other Disney parks. The seven ports are Mediterranean Harbor, American Waterfront, Port Discovery, Lost River Delta, Arabian Coast, Mermaid Lagoon, and Mysterious Island.

MEDITERRANEAN HARBOR

Fashionable Easter

Tokyo DisneySea’s Easter celebration was called Fashionable Easter. Three times a day, there was a boat show on the water of the Mediterranean Harbor. The show consisted of several boats with various Disney characters showcasing fashions and outfits created by different designers. At the time, this was the only place to see the Gelatoni character…and Brianne was OBSESSED!

Now that we saw Gelatoni, we went to Gondolier Snacks for some coffee (and a Gelatoni cup sleeve of course).

AMERICAN WATERFRONT

StellaLou Greeting Drive

It was April when we were visiting, and StellaLou was still a very new (yet already extremely popular) character. Three times a day she had a “greeting drive” where a car drives around the American Waterfront with StellaLou, Duffy, and Mickey to introduce Stella to everyone all while the catchiest song played in the background (STILL can’t get it out of our heads). This was the only place to see StellaLou in the parks, so this was a must do for us. We even got to be part of the parade by following the car after it passed us for the rest of the route. So much fun!

Tower of Terror

The end of the StellaLou parade route was right near Tower of Terror, which worked out perfectly with the timing of our fastpass. We tried to take pictures of the inside, but as soon as we tried, a Cast Member politely told us that there was no photography allowed inside. What we do have, however, is a ton of pictures of the outside. We think this is the most beautiful Tower of Terror from any of the Disney Parks so we spent a lot of time admiring it.

Cape Cod

After riding Tower of Terror, we walked through the American Waterfront over to Cape Cod, walking past the S.S. Columbia (which is a replica of the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California) along the way. It was around lunchtime so we figured it was the best time to head to Cape Cod because you all already know about Brianne’s obsession with Duffy and friends, and if there’s an entire restaurant dedicated to them…she’s there!

Cape Cod Cookoff has two sides to the restaurant. One just for food, quick-service style where you order at a counter and bring your food to a table, and another side where you order food and then watch a show called “My Friend Duffy” while you eat. Of course the line was MUCH longer for the side with the show, so we opted for the side with just food but it was still amazing and so well themed. The menu was great too! They had Mickey shaped chicken nuggets…how cool is that?! And so many fun options for Duffy themed desserts and souvenir items. We wanted to order the entire menu! We bought the Duffy and ShellieMay cup sleeves to complete our collection. Kevin used them to make a Duffy and friends crown, which was very popular with the locals.

PORT DISCOVERY

Our next port of call was Port Discovery, which houses the ride Aquatopia and the brand new ride, Nemo & Friends SeaRider (which had it’s grand opening just a couple weeks after we visited). The line was short for Aquatopia so we hopped on. This ride uses the same trackless ride technology as Pooh’s Hunny Hunt at Tokyo Disneyland. Each boat wanders around the lagoon dodging whirlpools and waterfalls without any clue of where you’re heading next. We laughed the entire ride!

LOST RIVER DELTA

We cut through the Lost River Delta port on our way to the Arabian Coast. We didn’t spend much time in this port, but we did make a monkey friend!

ARABIAN COAST

Kevin is a huge Aladdin fan so he was so excited to visit the Arabian Coast! He even ordered a shirt several months in advance in preparation for this area!

The Arabian Coast is also home to the famous Sindbad and Chandu ride, “Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage.” To be completely honest, we didn’t love this ride like everyone else seems to, but to be fair, we were exhausted at this point and it was a struggle to stay awake on this slow moving boat ride. We did love little Chandu though, he is absolutely adorable! Next visit to this park, we will make sure to ride this again so we can get a better sampling of it.

MERMAID LAGOON

We were so excited about Mermaid Lagoon because we had seen so many gorgeous pictures of grotto beforehand, and it definitely lived up to the hype. The pastel colors made it so dreamy. We also stumbled across Goofy and Prince Eric. It was such a magical moment meeting Prince Eric in Mermaid Lagoon!

PARK ENTRANCE

At this point in the day, the temperatures were dropping so we went back to the hotel for a quick outfit change and to grab a jacket so we were prepared to stay warm throughout the night until park closing.
Now we were able to really experience the beauty of the park entrance since we weren’t in a hurry.

MYSTERIOUS ISLAND

The fastpasses we had gotten in the morning for Journey to the Center of the Earth were now valid. We really had no idea what to expect from this ride and it blew us away. If you want to stay spoiler free for this ride, skip this paragraph. This ride starts out slowly going through the creatures beneath the surface of the earth for quite a long time. Then suddenly, after a “Dinosaur” attraction inspired scare, the train speeds up faster and faster until you shoot out of the side of Mount Prometheus in full rollercoaster fashion. It was so much fun and had such an unexpected ending. Near park closing, there wasn’t much of a wait, so we had to ride it again.

We went back to the Arabian Coast and the American Waterfront to take some nighttime pictures of the amazing courtyards and architecture in these ports.

Toyville was on the other side of the park, but we knew we wanted to see it all lit up at night. The line for Toy Story Mania was still very long so we weren’t able to ride it, which was okay though because it’s roughly the same ride as at Hollywood Studios, just with a much better queue entrance.

Brianne was patiently waiting to buy all the merchandise she found throughout the day, so we stopped by McDuck’s Department Store to buy a Gelatoni plush and a few other Duffy inspired items. We also went back to Aunt Peg’s in Cape Cod since that is the official Duffy store.

At this time, it was getting very cold and the park was getting ready to close so we made our way to the front of the park and exited through the Hotel Miracosta, which is the only hotel located inside of a Disney Park. It’s gorgeous!

We picked up the monorail from the DisneySea stop and went back to our hotel. Unfortunately, we had to fly back in the morning. We weren’t ready to leave so we started planning our next trip to Tokyo on the monorail ride back and had a photo shoot with our new pal, Gelatoni.

DisneySea quickly became our favorite park in the world, and we would recommend it to anyone. If you go, you’ll fall in love with Duffy and friends, experience the greatest Cast Members, see the most photogenic and unique landscape, and eat the cutest of Disney foods. We have so much love for this park, and for the entire city of Tokyo. We decided we’re starting a yearly tradition of coming back to this park because we can’t just get enough. In fact, this blog post has inspired us to actually plan our next trip back in hopefully just a few months!