Tokyo Disneysea - American Waterfront

The final zone in the park is also one of the better themed ones but it lacks any attractions worth visiting it for. Themed around New York at the start of the 20th Century it contains docks and seaside warehouses that wouldn't look out of place in Titanic or Gangs of New York.

Speaking of the Titanic, the centre piece is the SS Columbia, an actual ship that currently contains only a posh restaurant. When I said that the park has a 10 year plan, this was one example of constructed space that can be used to house a ride in the future. It would be perfect for a Haunted Swing type attraction themed around the ship capsizing. In effect they also have a hotel here, maybe that will happen in years to come.

The pierside buildings house a number of stores and restaurants. They also offer a vantage point to a couple of shows that take place here during and at the end of the day. As it happened those shows ended up being cancelled due to the weather.

The train line from Port Discovery brings you in at roof height to the buildings in this area. It's nice given the number of billboards themed here. If you entered at ground level you'd be less inclined to notice this.

Construction was under way on the park's attraction for 2006/7. Tower of Terror is already up and running in both California and Orlando. In 2007 France will open their's. This one is due to open soon. It does have a lot more theming than any of the others so I imagine it'll take some time to open. To be honest I don't think this attraction will fit with the rest of the park. It's almost as tall as the volcano and so will eat the skyline, which is currently dominated by that.

One of the eating establishments in this area, with some of the group trying to decide what to eat. I was quite happy just taking in the sights, although the thought had entered my mind to try to hijack the taxi and take it for a joyride. I chickened out though when I saw how little legroom there was.

For that authentic American theming you have to include a shoe shine stand, don't you? Good to know that Harry is always going to be about should you need to have anything buffed.

The steamship warehouse housed another restaurant. Boy, those American people sure eat a lot, huh!

More theming just for the sake of theming, although this propellor did seem to be a popular meeting point, perhaps because the raised platform offered a fairly good view of the area.

[picture comes from www.clydesite.co.uk]

The SS Columbia was actually built in a shipyard on the River Clyde in Scotland near where I was born. It completed building in 1902 and sailed regularly between Glasgow and New York. In 1929 it ended up in Venice where it was eventually scrapped.

If they used that as inspiration for this they did a pretty good job. Other than the smoke stacks being angled it looks pretty close.

It was nearly time to head back to the coach, fortunately I wasn't too far away with the Meditteranean area clearly in the background. If you were done eating in all the eating places here, a little snack stand offered a final temptation.

Overall, the park was great, and is easily the best "themed" park that I've ever come across. It does however lack rides that make it a truly world class park. Tokyo Disneysea is however still a very young park and it has a great footing on which to build a better and better park. To be honest if I was here when it was busy I would be happy with taking in the scenery and detail. A park for photography fans as well as the theme park ones.

Journey back to the hotel