As someone who frequents Disneyland California, it was very refreshing albeit disorienting to visit DisneySea. I am so used to being able to easily navigate around the park by using all of the shortcuts available to me. So DisneySea definitely threw me off! Once you walk through the main entrance/shopping area, you are welcomed with the grand view of the park. This featured European style buildings flanking on either side of you and a towering volcano separated from you by a lake.

This volcano was so large you could see it anywhere in the park. The locals refer to this as Mount Prometheus and inside lies Mysterious Island. Which was our first stop. We made it to the park early enough to get in on the morning rush to claim Fast Passes. There are two attractions and a couple of restaurants within Mount Prometheus. This included Journey to the Center of the Earth (based on the movie) and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (based on the Jules Verne novel of the same name). We immediately got our Fast Pass for Journey, then walked over to ride 20,000 Leagues which ended up being a walk-on. This ride places you in a submarine with up to four other people. It is an interactive ride where you get to light up creatures with your own spotlight. Journey to the Center of the Earth is a much more thrilling, adventure-type ride with a high speed car that takes you…you guessed it, to the center of the earth! Most of this ride is in the dark, so all I remember is coming down the mountain at the end of the ride.

After getting our thrills in at the volcano, we went off to explore the rest of the park. This park is filled with both familiar and unfamiliar places to see. For example, although Indiana Jones (located here in the Lost River Delta) was nearly identical to the California Disneyland, the queue was completely different. I guess they don’t want anyone triggering the massive spikes that come down from above. We then made our way to Port Discovery where we grabbed a small bite to eat, and a delicious a delicious Orange and Pineapple hot drink from Bayside Takeout before riding Nemo and Friends SeaRider. I had no idea what to expect getting on this ride, and it was definitely not like Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland California. Here guests enter a large 4D motion theater and take a tour underwater inside a shrunken fish-looking vehicle. This allows you to be up close with the creatures in the world of Finding Nemo. After the ride we had the time to explore the rest of Port Discovery and checked out Aquatopia. This is an interesting twist on a Disney classic. Instead of the ride being about cars and leisurely drives around a controlled track, this ride has guests sitting on what I can only describe as a bumper boat…without the ability to bump anyone. This ride is completely controlled by computers and has no track. The boats actually rest on a solid surface that is covered with about six inches of water. The computer then pulls, pushes and spins you in just about any direction as you make your way around the lagoon. There were definitely parts that we didn’t get to experience on our ride that we saw others experiencing, so each boat takes its own path.

Once finished in Port Discovery, we made our way toward the American Waterfront which is a quaint New England themed seaside town with shops and restaurants. We came here via the Disneyland Electric Railway, an elevated electric train designed to look similar to old American street cars.

The American Waterfront housed Tower of Terror which we were able to ride pretty much right away, no Fast Passes needed. This Tower is themed completely different from the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror that used to exist in California Adventure. Instead this ride was themed off of a fictitious American explorer who collected artifacts from around the world. One of these artifacts was cursed and as such, his tower is haunted.

Along the waterfront we took some pictures and ate some of the most delicious little Toy Story alien themed mochi. Similar to the ones we had the previous day in Tomorrowland, these were filled with chocolate, strawberry and caramel. After eating this snack we walked around while we decided what to eat for lunch and settled on Cape Cod Cook Off which had American food such as burgers and fries. While we were eating we were treated to a Duffy and Mickey stage show. This was my first experience with Duffy the bear, previously I had only seen him through photos but couldn’t quite understand the obsession. He’s pretty cute, I’ll give him that.

With our bellies stuffed from lunch, it was time to move on to another land. We hopped on a boat called Disneysea Transit Steamer Line which took us to the Lost River Delta and from here we walked to the Arabian Coast. We felt like we were in Aladdin with all of the Arabic styled buildings and street merchants. We checked our maps and saw there was a snack we had been wanting to try in this area. We ended up grabbing a little bite to eat, because curry pan. Then we went to ride a two story carousel and watched a show at the Magic Lamp Theater.

After exploring the Arabian Coast we found our way under the sea once more, this time in the Mermaid Lagoon. Which was based on the world of the Little Mermaid featuring Ariel and her friends. This was a very elaborate underground world which made you feel like you were Under the Sea. Pun intended.

Once we were topside again, we made our way back to the American Waterfront where we were on a mission to find popcorn. Conveniently we found both Garlic Shrimp popcorn and Strawberry popcorn within the same area just steps away from the USS Colombia. I failed to mention this earlier, but this area is themed after New York City which is where Hotel Hightower is located (setting for Tower of Terror). I loved the way this park represents the architecture of all the different parts of the world so well. It definitely makes us want to visit many places around the world. Adding more to our bucket list as I type.

After this we walked around for some shopping and photo-ops back to the Mediterranean Harbor and the canals of Venice. We didn’t realize they had Venetian Gondoliers here so we didn’t get the chance to ride them but we’ll have to just save that experience for the real deal when we go to Italy. We did however try the gelato from Gelatoni’s shop. Which was so delicious despite it being freezing outside. After our gelato fix, we then enjoyed Fantasmic! Which was conveniently set in front of the majestic Mount Prometheus.

It was just about dinner time so we decided to try out an Italian restaurant in the same area. Cafe Portofino it was called. This Italian restaurant was a cafeteria style setup with delicious pasta and desserts! It was here while sitting down we realized how much walking we had truly done in the past two days. After dinner would be some last minute shopping and some pictures on the way out.

Tokyo DisneySea was quite a pleasant change from the Disney we were used to, but it was exactly that change which made it memorable. We can’t wait to return on a future trip to Japan to visit this unique Disney park.