19 January 2026 – Disney Sea
After our very late night coming back from Hakone, we’d decided on the trip back it was a hard ‘NO’ to trying to get to Disney Sea for opening. It was 80 odd minutes from Taito City out to Disney Park and we all needed some sleep. We did however set an alarm for 8am so we could get there not too late.
Off to DisneySea
After walking in a few circles in Tokyo station and picking up as many konbini snacks as we could carry, to sustain us through a day of lining up, we finally made it onto the Disney monorail. The kids were impressed at the Disney theming and fluffy mickey hand rails. This was Zinnia’s first ever Disney. The other 2 have been to Disney Hong Kong and Disney Paris.
Unlike Universal Studios in Osaka, which we also did on an off-peak day, Disney Sea seemed a lot less crowded. However, some of the line times for the popular rides were already at over 180 minutes as we were checking the line times on the trains in. Getting into the park was a very quick and efficient process and we were through security and inside in a matter of minutes.
You need mouse ears!
We’d spent the long train trip back the previous night working out which rides we wanted to do. But first on the agenda was was mouse ears. Astrid and Zinnia both used some pocket money on some very cute ears. This was by far the cheapest Disney we’d been to for ears!
Almost Venice……
Ears acquired, we found ourselves wandering through the Mediterranean Harbour Venice section. Having been to Venice it was a very accurate replica, although it was way cleaner and much less smelly!
It was a beautiful sunny day and we were enjoying the milder temperatures, all ready for a big day of lining up!
Off exploring via train and boat….
We were keen to do a Venetian gondola ride but they weren’t open yet so we decided to line up for the steam train ride from the American Waterfront as it had a reasonable length line. Soon we were off on the steam train, which gave us a good view around a section of the park.
We hopped off at Port Discovery and decided we’d line up for the Aquatopia ride. This is pretty much the only ride you can get wet on at DisneySea,but they turn that feature off for Winter so we didn’t have to worry about getting wet and cold. Anto, Zinnia and Soren went in one ‘boat’, while Astrid and I went in another. While you can rotate yourself around the course you get taken on seems to be a little random.
It was pretty fun, although Astrid and I did get taken very close to a waterfall and thought we might be getting wet for a bit!
The gondolas were now open and showing only a 5 minute wait. This was unheard of so we hightailed it over there and were soon on a gondola, cruising the fake canals. It was a great way to see some more of the park.
Aside from being much newer and less smelly than actual Venice it was disturbingly realistic!
The DisneySea park is very well done and the views of the harbour area and canals while on the gondola were fabulous!
After our Venetian Canal cruise We decided to line up for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.The wait wasn’t too long and we were locked into our submersible and off. Four of us really enjoyed that ride (despite not understanding much of the the Japanese) but Zinnia was not a fan. It was a bit dark and noisy for her.
Mermaid lagoon….
After assuring Zinnia it wasn’t real and we were heading back to the daylight, we found ourselves in Mermaid lagoon which was all inside so a nice break from the cold (although it was about 10 today so the layers were coming off fast). The Mermaid Lagoon area is very pretty and extremely well done.
The kids were of course hungry. We found some options at the restaurant in the lagoon complex that I could actually eat and food lines were building so we decided to lunch now. Astrid and I had tortilla sandwiches, Soren a chowder, and Anto the worlds smallest calzone. The prices were theme park level as expected but given the healthy exchange rate for the Yen it’s more affordable than some of the other Disney’s we’ve been to!
Zinnia was keen to do some of the rides in this area and they all had fairly short (less than 20 minute) lines. All the other rides we were keen on were still sitting at over 180 mins. So we lined up and had fun on Jumpin jellyfish and the Blowfish Balloon race.
They were a bit on the tame side for the older kids but about the right pace for me, and we enjoyed the bright colours and being zoomed up and down with relatively short lines.
Finding Nemo…..
We then dragged Zinnia away from lining up on everything again to go out and line up for the Nemo and friends Sea rider. It was now about the peak temperature and sun for the mid-Winter day so we were enjoying being outside while lining up for Nemo.
It had a super short line, and soon we were inside to watch the intro presentation and then getting strapped into our seats in the theatre.
We all loved this ride! You really felt like you were swimming with Nemo under the sea. Nemo and Dory spoke fluent Japanese we couldn’t understand but it was fun, and you did get some water sprayed on you which added to the effect as you were being tossed around. There were many shrieks of joy for this one.
Afternoon adventures…..
Both Astrid and Soren really wanted to do the Journey to the Centre of the Earth ride. They talked Anto into it but the lines were really long so we decided to buy them a fast pass. This meant they got a time slot and could go back later. We decided this was a wise investment rather than wasting the day standing in lines!
So in the meantime we had a wander around and then went and did a paddle steamer ride around the harbour.
We again got some excellent views of the park as we cruised around!
Zinnia spied some more rides she wanted to do as we were cruising around. She was definitely not keen on the big scary rides so I promised I’d go and find some tame ones with her while the others did their Journey to the Centre of the Earth.
As their time slot hadn’t come up yet we went and lined up for the Big American car rides. This was also pretty fun, and we did get to hear lots of people screaming on the Tower of Terror that Astrid claimed she wanted to do.
Scary rides and Donald Duck Hugs….
It was time for Anto, Soren and Astrid to head off to Journey to the Centre of the earth. It was now late afternoon and we were starting to get some very pretty sunset views of the park.
Zinnia and I thought we’d go and find the other rides she wanted to do, but in our wanderings around to locate what we’d seen from the water (which isn’t easy) we happened across the character meetings. Donald Duck had a short line (Minnie did not). Zinnia didn’t care which character she got to meet so we jumped into the line for Donald and in under 5 minutes we got ‘huggles’ with Donald, which made Zinnias day.
Despite being in there only 10 minutes it had gotten quite dark when we emerged and we wandered in circles for a bit trying to find the ride Zinnia wanted. Anto had messaged to say they were done with their ride (fast passes for the win) and he was still alive…. barely! I was glad I skipped that one. It took us a good half an hour to try and find each other as everything looks different in the dark and neither of us really knew where we were.
In the meantime Zinnia and I finally found the ride she wanted – Scuttle’s Scooters. It had a nice short line so by the time we were onboard the others had turned up to watch us whizz around.
The park all lit up…
Astrid was still banging on about Tower of Terror. None of the others were keen on that one and the lines were long so we bought her a fast pass so she could go and be scared on her own. Again she got a time slot for later in the evening, and with the teen satisfied it was time for dinner. We were in the Arabian Coast area that looked very pretty at night.
We found a curry place that had really good curries, including something I could eat and the meals were pretty big. It turned out to be much better value than lunch. We were all hungry and had made our way through our bag of snacks during the day.
Anto had procured me an interesting blue cocktail with mango pieces. It was quite tasty although it stayed cold for ages which was chilling on the hands once we walked back outside.
Astrid then had to head off to her Tower of Terror. Zinnia wanted to ride the fish coaster, which was a fairly tame rollercoaster but Soren and I weren’t feeling up to that post-dinner, so we watched while Zinnia had a wonderful time riding with Anto. She loved that ride but hated 20,000 leagues which seemed far more tame!
At this point the lines for all the tame rides were dropping fast. We all walked onto Scuttles Scooters. Zinnia and I had enjoyed that just before dinner. Soren and Anto agreed it was super fun despite looking a bit lame.
Mermaid lagoon now had very short lines so we head back in there to do the whirlpool ride Zinnia had been keen on all day.
Unfortunately, while plenty of the line times were dropping the Elsa Frozen ride and Fantastic Flight, that we all wanted to do never had their lines drop, and the fast passes had all sold out hours ago so we gave up on those for the day and enjoyed what we could get onto easily.
The final rides…..
We were still waiting to hear from the tower riding Astrid. In the meantime Soren convinced Anto to go on 20,000 Leagues again as it only had a 5 minute wait. Zinnia was not having any part of that so I took her back to Nemo Searider as it had no line. Curiously it was a different simulation this time so it was worth doing it a second time, and we had another really fun time and enjoyed getting thrown around and sprayed again.
By now Astrid had reappeared from her Tower of Terror. She claimed she has never been so scared in her life and did not enjoy it. Apparently after the intro movie she was shaking as she understood enough of the Japanese to be scared. We did laugh at the fact that she was so keen to do it and we’d invested $15 in a fast pass for her to be terrified!
It was now almost time for the fireworks. We’d been hoping to hang in until the fireworks show at 8.30pm. Unfortunately at 8.20pm they announced they were cancelling the fireworks for the night due to wind. The park was very nicely lit up so at least we got some pretty views, if no actual fireworks.
As much as it would have been fun to do some more rides we were now on the opposite side of the park to all the things we hadn’t done yet, and it was quite a hike back to the other side and the park closes at 9pm.
So we bid farewell to Disney Sea and started to trek back to our apartment, along with pretty much everyone else. We all agreed it had been a pretty good day. Despite not getting there as early as we originally planned, we did get quite a few rides with fairly minimal lining up time. There were quite a few we would have enjoyed and in hindsight should have bought fast passes for earlier in the day. But it was overall a fairly fun and not too hectic Disney experience. The park is definitely scenic.
We’d decided we only wanted one day at a Tokyo theme park after doing Universal in Osaka, so it was a choice between DisneySea or Disneyland. We picked DisneySea as it was something different and there were definitely no regrets there.
Despite the crowds leaving, there was the usual efficiencies on public transport and we made it back to our apartment just before 10pm. We considered this pretty good stamina for the kids after a busy 3 weeks!
Up next….
