Miscellaneous Tokyo Thoughts

[Kevin_W]

That said, it's not as if Disney's building hotels to their old standard.

The Fantasy Springs Hotel is no MiraCosta.

I was at TDS last week and really enjoyed wandering the Fantasy Springs area. I'd read the complaints about the hotel, but thought to myself that it looked pretty nice and I really liked the fountains and stonework.

Then I walked back to the front of the park and saw Mira Costa over the harbor and remembered what the standard for an in-park hotel had been. Mira Costa is amazing and doesn't eve look like a hotel, just part of the Mediteranean waterfront.

 

[Kevin_W]

I was there late June 2025 and tried to exit via Fantasy Springs to get to the Sheraton. Was told no, only Fantasy Springs Hotel guests and Toy Story Hotel guests could enter and exit this way. Ridiculous as it turned a 5 minute walk back to my hotel unto a 45 minute the across the entire park plus monorail loop.

I was curious about this. I googled that the 6 partner hotels near Bayside station have a total of 4100 rooms. At 80% double occupancy that would be 6560 people riding the monorail at $2USD each to return to their hotel room. Let's say half of those went to TDR and half to TDS, so opening the gate would cost >2MM per year in lost revenue from the monorail.

(That said, I would happily swipe my IC card and pay the $2 anyway just to walk out that gate.)

 

[CosmicDuck]

I was curious about this. I googled that the 6 partner hotels near Bayside station have a total of 4100 rooms. At 80% double occupancy that would be 6560 people riding the monorail at $2USD each to return to their hotel room. Let's say half of those went to TDR and half to TDS, so opening the gate would cost >2MM per year in lost revenue from the monorail.

(That said, I would happily swipe my IC card and pay the $2 anyway just to walk out that gate.)

I don't think the monorail revenue is why they're not allowing it. If I had to guess it was initially an OPs issue that has now turned into a small hotel incentive.

But I'm guessing it's still just an OPs issue they are being lazy about addressing to account for the increased traffic through those gates so they're keeping the system as is. But I'm not a TDR native so the others here may have actual insight.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I don't think the monorail revenue is why they're not allowing it. If I had to guess it was initially an OPs issue that has now turned into a small hotel incentive.

But I'm guessing it's still just an OPs issue they are being lazy about addressing to account for the increased traffic through those gates so they're keeping the system as is. But I'm not a TDR native so the others here may have actual insight.

I don't think it's anything more complicated than OLC set a rule and will not bend it.

 

[AxolotlTales]

New Ursula face and body debuted at TDL for "Into the Frenzy".

 

[Supersnow84]

It’s a poor rule they have set because it negatively affects guest flow in disneysea.

Prior to fantasy springs one unique thing about disneysea is that it had no defining “path” to the way its paths were laid out.

The 6 castle parks have the hub and spoke model as does animal kingdom. DCA has the performance corridor, EPCOT is a figure 8, DHS has the park loop and WDS is Y shaped.

Disneysea meanwhile had no defining shape and no single route that would allow you to pass by everything. This diffused its massive crowds (which Disneyland next door does with its (outdated) giant wide coloured pathways). However since fantasy springs is in the corner it’s turned the Arabian coast->20,000 leagues under the sea side of discovery isle->soarin side of Mediterranean into a de facto “spine” without the capacity to absorb an outsized amount of sea’s guest traffic

Allowing people to leave through fantasy springs reduces the strain on this new “spine” because people can move from any path to fantasy springs knowing they don’t have to retrace their steps all the way down the “spine”

It’s incredibly noticeable how badly fantasy springs messed up sea’s pathing

 

[The Empress Lilly]

It’s a poor rule they have set because it negatively affects guest flow in disneysea.

Prior to fantasy springs one unique thing about disneysea is that it had no defining “path” to the way its paths were laid out.

The 6 castle parks have the hub and spoke model as does animal kingdom. DCA has the performance corridor, EPCOT is a figure 8, DHS has the park loop and WDS is Y shaped.

Disneysea meanwhile had no defining shape and no single route that would allow you to pass by everything. This diffused its massive crowds (which Disneyland next door does with its (outdated) giant wide coloured pathways). However since fantasy springs is in the corner it’s turned the Arabian coast->20,000 leagues under the sea side of discovery isle->soarin side of Mediterranean into a de facto “spine” without the capacity to absorb an outsized amount of sea’s guest traffic

Allowing people to leave through fantasy springs reduces the strain on this new “spine” because people can move from any path to fantasy springs knowing they don’t have to retrace their steps all the way down the “spine”

It’s incredibly noticeable how badly fantasy springs messed up sea’s pathing

Yes, I was in TDS during relatively slow days in May, and the 'spine' was as walkable as MK's MS. Wall to wall crowds, opening to close.

Also, it's basic layout, connected physically only through an umbilical cord of a pathway, makes FS feel like its own thing. An add-on. Thus aggravating it being disconnected thematically to the rest of TDS.

Wish they would have been a bit more imaginative. Open a second entrance, EPCOT style, through the hotel and Bayside metro right accross. Or even to DL Toontown, Universal Orlando style, combining both parks. Or a loop to south of Indy, somehow (yes, there's a road and monorail there, but stuff can be rerouted). Or a high capacity in-park transportation system.

 

[AxolotlTales]

Some Christmas stuff spotted backstage.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

TDS has a wait times problem.

Wait times right now, random, but I'm sure we've all encountered similar numbers:

Jungle Cruise 5
Pirates 5
Thunder 40
Pooh 40
Monsters 40
BatB 60

Soarin 160
Frozen 140
ToT 100
TSM 100
JttCotE 120
Raging Spirits 70

When Raging Spirits is double Thunder you know the parks have an extreme imbalance. Fantasy Springs, counterintuitively, seems to have only excarbated rather than decreased the problem of TDS' never having anything but Sinbad at a reasonable wait time.

 

[Supersnow84]

that’s a problem that fantasy springs will eventually fix. The rides fantasy springs opened are exactly the gap that sea needs, more than mermaid lagoon kids rides but not sea’s very deep list of decently intense e tickets

It’s just you can never open anything to minimal fanfest in Tokyo so people will flock to anything while it’s new

When the hype for fantasy springs calms down it will quite well fill that niche but I don’t see that happening till Disneyland finishes overhauling Tomorrowland and Adventureland taking the thunder back from disneysea

 

[ThemeParkTraveller]

I do think after the new Space Mountain opens, they need to fast-track development of the Port Discovery project or add a new land on the plot behind it. The right side of the park (from Soaring to Fantasy Springs), as mentioned previously, feels very imbalanced in terms of crowd distribution.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

that’s a problem that fantasy springs will eventually fix. The rides fantasy springs opened are exactly the gap that sea needs, more than mermaid lagoon kids rides but not sea’s very deep list of decently intense e tickets

It’s just you can never open anything to minimal fanfest in Tokyo so people will flock to anything while it’s new

When the hype for fantasy springs calms down it will quite well fill that niche but I don’t see that happening till Disneyland finishes overhauling Tomorrowland and Adventureland taking the thunder back from disneysea

Well I've waited for a full year, and summer, to pass. It's now the low season.

 

[denyuntilcaught]

I do think after the new Space Mountain opens, they need to fast-track development of the Port Discovery project or add a new land on the plot behind it. The right side of the park (from Soaring to Fantasy Springs), as mentioned previously, feels very imbalanced in terms of crowd distribution.

I do hope they intended to fill that TDS plot sooner rather than later. Let's not sit another two decades for a significant expansion.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Because it took place in the dark, most home video footage of the Castle Mystery Tour is in night vision, not colour

This is a better colour video of the climax that gives you an idea of some of the effects, along with showing guests exiting the castle the same way you do now with the current walk through (though I'm sure they're were two different exits used)

 

[SweetDuffy101]

If its on schedule OLC will announce something this Thursday or within this week via Press release.

 

[SweetDuffy101]

Broadway Musical The little mermaid comes to Tokyo Disney Resort @ maihama Amphitheater.

Gekidanshiki announces that popular broadway musical The little mermaid will be coming to TDR on August 2026. Touting a long run. within the area.

This comes after the broadway musical Beauty and the beast ends its run on March of 2026.


Personal thoughts.

I mean what is going to happen with mermaid lagoon theater remains uncertain at this point.
with recent management decisions, id rather think that a new show will debut at disney sea.

 

[ThemeParkTraveller]

I'm not sure if OLC would want two Mermaid shows running at the same time, especially if the Broadway version looks higher budget in comparison. Maybe they should just turn the theater into a ride. Something like this would fit the current footprint.

Dynamic Motion Stage - Intamin Amusement Rides

Strongest LSM Launch Coaster on the market with single-, multi- or swing-launch sequences and the most comfortable state-of-the-art trains.

www.intamin.com

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Broadway Musical The little mermaid comes to Tokyo Disney Resort @ maihama Amphitheater.

Gekidanshiki announces that popular broadway musical The little mermaid will be coming to TDR on August 2026. Touting a long run. within the area.

This comes after the broadway musical Beauty and the beast ends its run on March of 2026.


Personal thoughts.

I mean what is going to happen with mermaid lagoon theater remains uncertain at this point.
with recent management decisions, id rather think that a new show will debut at disney sea.

Just to clarify for everybody, this is in Ikspiari (Downtown Disney) outside of the parks.

 

[Robbiem]

I'm not sure if OLC would want two Mermaid shows running at the same time, especially if the Broadway version looks higher budget in comparison. Maybe they should just turn the theater into a ride. Something like this would fit the current footprint.

Dynamic Motion Stage - Intamin Amusement Rides

Strongest LSM Launch Coaster on the market with single-, multi- or swing-launch sequences and the most comfortable state-of-the-art trains.

www.intamin.com

It looks like there is room for a decent ride in the mermaid theatre. Based on google maps it looks like what I think is the theatre (in red) is about the same size as the nemo simulator (in yellow). Im sure if they can fit Buzz into the circle vision theatre they can do something similar here

 

[tanc]

The original mermaid show is something I really wished I could have experienced. I really love the new show at HS, but to know that TDS had something far superior is something I would have loved to see.