Tokyo Disneysea - Port Discovery

The part of the park protected from the sea by the defence wall in the background. This is the futuristic themed area and contains a few attractions. On the right is the Centre for Weather Control, a simulator ride through a typhoon (eery, that given the current weather warning). On the left is Aquatopia, a small water based ride.

There is also a train ride that takes you to the American Waterfront part of the park. This is the station on the right. It overlooks the main rides area.

The Weather Control Centre is a pair of simulator rides that start out like any other. The story is around two planes chosen to fly into the eye of a storm. As you do so the weather starts to smash the craft you're flying in apart. Water comes pouring in and pieces of machinery start smashing through the walls. What started out as just a standard simulator became something so much more. The wettest ride in the park by a long long way. Don't take pictures during the pre-show, I got told off.

Another example of Japlish. This T-Shirt says "We learn that it's better to be rational do feel anything they're not likely. Let you know stereotype of the English"
I have no idea what message it is trying to explain, but stuff like this can't help any Japanese people trying to speak English when they travel to the UK.

The Weather Centre as seen from the Aquatopia queue line. A lot of the detail here is superfluous but is only there for effect. Can you imagine how the theming meetings must have gone. "I want an endless number of radar dishes", "done". "I'd like bits of metal sticking out in random directions", "done". "Aerials, we must have aerials", "done". It's like the guy who gives the OK for everything is Jimmy Saville.

Another shot of the complex this time taken from the train station. I think we were extremely fortunate with how empty this park had been. This place must look horrendous when it is busy.

The statue on the right is the logo for Port Discovery and in the background is the volcano. The winds were starting to pick up a little but it was still a nice day.

Welcome to Port Discovery! The Disney Ears were very popular with the Japanese Girls with Minnie ones being the favourite. The most odd looking ones would have to have been the Stitch ones.

This is the walkway leading from Port Discovery back into the Volcano and the Mysterious Island part of the park. Notice the complete absence of Electric Chairs in this park. I love this place! Actually this is an area in which the cultures differ perhaps in a bad way. Theme parks here typically don't cater to disabled or lazy people, partly because of there being no litigatious environment where anyone felt hard done by can threaten to sue. More disturbingly though disabled people don't integrate into society as much as they do in the West.

Perhaps the most ridiculously themed toilets ever, but in a good way. You're certainly not going to miss finding these should nature call. I wonder where the waste goes.

Well fortunately it doesn't go into the water directly behind the toilets. If it did this water burst must have been due to someone with really bad gas. The small paddle like fans on the weather vane double as oars for tall people should they wish to go boating on the water, although they wouldn't want to do it with whoever it was on the toilet when I took this. (This is all made up)

Aquatopia has two circuits; the wet course to the left and the regular course to the right. I decided to try the former thinking it would be the more exciting of the two. I'd already gotten pretty wet on the simulator ride so it would be interesting to see how this compared.

I took this picutre in the queue line not because of the theming, nor the magnificent print on the back wall, but for the T-shirt that the girl was wearing. Clearly a play on the Burger King logos of the 80s this one read "bugger heck". I'm certain she had no idea what it said, which made it even more curious.

OK, Here's a little bit of the picture mentioned previously. The detail in this is stunning and whilst clearly a celebration of future transport systems it had a nice Final Fantasy look to it.

Each car sits three Japanese or two Western people and uses the same system as the Winnie Pooh ride in the other Disney Park. The cars don't run on rails but instead follow a preprogrammed route, although these ones seemed to be assisted by clearly visible lines just beneath the inch of water that the cars travel through. This gives the freedom to allow the cars to dance around each other and in this case fountains and whirlpools too.

As it turns out it would have made no difference which circuit we tried. The weather had meant that the additional water effects, such as the waterfall at the back here, had been turned off. The two cars in the foreground were actually waiting to return to the station, but rather than just stop, the ride keeps you moving around until a space is available for a car to take.

Taken from the train leaving for the American Waterfront you can see the Aquatopia cars doing their dance and the whirlpool that you spin around at the middle point in the ride.

The best theming in a park I'd visited prior to this one was Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure in Orlando Florida. It's signature monument is the lighthouse that stands outside its entrance. Being a sea themed park I'd have thought there would have been a superb lighthouse, but this was the only one I could find. Whilst not as grand as the IOA one it still looked pretty good.

American Waterfront