Guests Mourn the Fall of Disney's Best Theme Park

For years, the question of Disney’s best theme park has been met with a pretty resounding answer: Tokyo DisneySea. Lately, however, that answer isn’t quite as confident.

As Tokyo Disney Resort’s second theme park, Tokyo DisneySea is home to several of the hallmarks of a typical Disney park. Signs of Mickey Mouse linger around every corner — whether that’s in the form of merchandise, food, or the Mouse himself — while there are also plenty of attractions inspired by Disney films, such as Toy Story Mania, Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival, Indiana Jones Adventure, and Mermaid Lagoon.

But at the same time, the park is also deeply original. A (faux) volcano serves as DisneySea’s landmark, while a significant chunk of rides are totally sans IP, such as the thrill rides Journey to the Center of the Earth, Tower of Terror (which is notably different from the version found in Florida), and Raging Spirits.

This has long been recognized as Disney’s most immersive theme park, with lands that genuinely feel akin to their inspiration rather than a theme park setting. Mediterranean Harbor, for example, is an immersive take on Italy featuring Venetian gondolas, while Mysterious Island couldn’t feel more like the setting of a Jules Verne-esque adventure.

What Happened to Disney’s Best Theme Park?

But in recent years, some guests feel like something has changed at Tokyo DisneySea. In the wake of COVID-19, it feels like criticism of the once-untouchable theme park has soared.

For many, the primary issue has been the park’s massive (and we mean massive) crowds. As one fan noted on Reddit, “On crowded days it’s particularly challenging to efficiently navigate around the park with the number of chokepoints.”

The park – which is rather large – can take a while to navigate at the best of times, but combined with the dense crowds that have arrived in recent years, a walk around Tokyo DisneySea has become a different kind of beast.

Guests have also criticized the inconsistency of the park’s attractions. “I find it a little frustrating that there’s big sections of the park without distinctive attractions,” explained one visitor.

“I think it has very great highs like Journey to the Centre of the Earth, but a lot of mids, like Mermaid Lagoon, SeaRider and Magic Lamp theatre, they’re not meant to be E tickets, but because they’re the only things in that area it can feel a little bit of a letdown.”

While food in general at Tokyo Disney Resort is of a good quality (not to mention extremely cute – where else will you find boiled eggs with a yolk shaped like Mickey?!), some claim that Tokyo DisneySea gets the short straw of its culinary offerings.

“A lot of the food is mediocre at best,” claimed a guest. “There are some items that are inspired by America or Italy for example, and let’s just say the interpretation of those dishes isn’t exactly accurate.

The Duffy show meal, for example, has a sandwich with roast beef, eggs, mayo, and peaches all on the sandwich (it’s bad). But I always love to take an afternoon break and go to Ikspiari [the resort’s equivalent of Downtown Disney or Disney Springs] anyways.”

Last year, Tokyo DisneySea debuted its newest land, Fantasy Springs. Inspired by Frozen (2013), Tangled (2010), and Peter Pan (1953), it’s received glowing reviews from most guests.

However, one resounding issue for many international visitors is the design of the resort’s attractions themselves. “Pretty much all of the rides are built for Japanese people, so if you’re larger like me, sometimes the rides can be a bit uncomfortable,” one guest pointed out. (Guests have notably had similar complaints about select attractions at the U.S. parks in recent years.)

Several have also noted that, despite the hype, they found Tokyo Disneyland to be the better park.

“Don’t get me wrong, they’re both phenomenal parks and DisneySea is definitely the best-themed Disney park in the world, but its lineup of attractions is fairly middle-of-the-pack and I can’t help but feel people tend to rate it highly because of how many exclusives it has, despite many of them just being okay,” one guest explained.

Tokyo DisneySea Still Has Its Fans

But not everyone is quite as disappointed by the park.

“There’s an aura of sophistication and romance throughout the park that’s hard to describe,” raved one visitor. “Most parks try to wow you, excite you, or make you feel general joy. TDS does this in addition to giving you a sense of romance, discovery, and journey. Every section is detailed but also makes you feel like an explorer. This might be due to the ever-present waterways (I’m a sucker for water features) being a connective tissue for unique lands with similar DNA and all the attractions following this ‘journey’ thesis.”

Ultimately, Tokyo DisneySea is by far Disney’s worst theme park. (That title goes to Walt Disney Studios Park in our eyes.) With the U.S. parks gradually devolving into IP overload, there’s something to be said for a park that has, for the most part, stuck to its guns about being a truly original space in the Disney theme park lineup.

But as tourism continues to grow in Japan – and, in turn, hype grows for Tokyo DisneySea – it feels inevitable that some will decide it doesn’t quite meet expectations.

Have you ever visited Tokyo DisneySea?