Tokyo DisneySea Breaks Ground on Fantasy Springs Expansion + New Concept Art

© Tokyo DisneySea

The previously announced expansion for Tokyo DisneySea, a part of the Tokyo Disneyland Resort, had already shown off some beautiful concept art for the project but now we have more.  The art comes as the park has officially broken ground on the project, which will be the 8th themed port at the park.

Above is the entrance to the area, which is officially named Fantasy Springs.  It is being built along with a brand new super deluxe hotel at the park.

© Tokyo DisneySea

The Fantasy Springs name makes sense as the land is themed around some magical springs that bubble up and flow throughout the area.  This concept art shows an elaborate waterfall area that's probably going to be an attraction in its own right if it turns out this nice!

© Tokyo DisneySea

The area should open in either late 2022 or early 2023, and is being built to be just as amazing at night as it is during the day.  Take for instance this nighttime concept art of a glowing area complete with more waterfalls and amazing rockwork.

© Tokyo DisneySea

And here is the same view only during the day.  Disney found some amazing success with the nighttime transformation of Pandora at Animal Kingdom, and while I am not suggesting this will be quite on that scale it seems that they're making push in that direction from this concept art.

Fantasy Springs will be subdivided into sections themed around Tangled, Peter Pan, and Frozen.  You can see more daytime/nighttime concept art in this story from Laughing Place.

Tokyo Disney Resort Unveils Massive Expansion for Tokyo DisneySea in 2022

© Oriental Land Co.

Oriental Land Company has announced that they have reached an agreement with Disney to build an all new themed Port inside Tokyo DisneySea along with a new hotel, all scheduled to begin operations in 2022.

The expansion, costing roughly $2.3 billion, appears to be the final version of major additions planned for Tokyo DisneySea, which date back an announcement in 2014 that were clarified in 2015 that a new Frozen themed Port was coming to the park.  The plans were eventually reconsidered, with a new Soarin' attraction announced while final plans were drawn up.

Now, the company has released details of their plans for Tokyo DisneySea, which will expand into a much larger area than previously planned.  The resort already is hard at work constructing a large addition of Tokyo Disneyland's Fantasyland area.  Also of note, the licenses between Oriental Land Co. and Disney have been extended another 30 years, all the way through 2076.

© Oriental Land Co.

The brand new, 8th themed Port at Tokyo DisneySea can be seen in concept above, and is based around "magical springs that lead to a world of Disney fantasy," and will include areas based on Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan.  It will be bordered by a brand new hotel that is themed to the Port, and accessed from a pathway between the Arabian Coast and Lost River Delta areas.

© Oriental Land Co.

Interestingly, Peter Pan will be a major part of the new Port, featuring both Captain Hook's ship and Skull Rock.  It will have two attractions, the first of which will see riders flying "over the jungles of Never Land in a battle with Captain Hook and his crew of pirates."  In the story, Captain Hook has kidnapped John, Wendy's brother, and visitors go with Peter Pan to save him by floating down the river with the Lost Boys.  Tinkerbell sprinkles a bit of her magic, and suddenly riders are flying through Never Land "on an unprecedented adventure that features iconic music and dynamic 3D imagery of the characters of the film."

The area's second ride lets visitors enter Pixie Hollow, to see Tinker Bell and her friends.  The area will also have a restaurant inspired by the Lost Boys and their hideout, and will feature views of Never Land while they dine.

© Oriental Land Co.

Tangled with be featured heavily in one section of the Port as well.  Rapunzel's tower will stand over the area, along with a forest setting and a restaurant set in the hideout of the thugs that appear in the film.  The area's attraction will be a boat ride through Rapunzel's "best day ever," following her journey to the lantern festival with Flynn.  The press release states that the ride will see "countless flickering lanterns illuminate the attraction's climactic scene while Rapunzel and Flynn sing an iconic song from the film."

© Oriental Land Co.

Frozen, at long last, will be the third theme of the new Port.  Downsized from originally being an entire new Port, the village of Arendelle will rise at the park.  Set after Queen Elsa has "embraced her magical power to control snow and ice," the castle gates are now open and welcoming visitors.  The area's ride will tell the story of Elsa and Anna, via a boat ride.  The attraction will tell their journey to get to the current happy era, and of course feature many songs from the film.  A new restaurant will open that is set inside Arendelle Castle, sure to be a popular dining location.

© Oriental Land Co.

This is a concept of the new hotel that will be built with the project, which is be inside the park and rise up from the magical springs that the Port is based on.  The Port's theme will be further explained through a retail location on the hotel's first floor that faces the park.

The hotel will have 475 rooms and offer deluxe and luxury accommodations, in fact the luxury rooms will be the "finest accommodations in Tokyo Disney Resort."  The hotel will have two restaurants of its own, a lobby lounge and a dedicated parking area.

Oriental Land Co. is dedicated to expanding and growing the resort, and they definitely are putting their money where their mouths are with this expansion!

A New Set of Expansions Planned for the Tokyo Disneyland Resort Parks

The Tokyo Disneyland Resort has provided an update on their future expansion plans, and while pretty different from what was initially announced, there's still some rather neat things coming to both of the Japan parks.

Exact expansion plans have been a bit of a moving target - back in the fall of 2014 the resort announced a 10 year, $4 billion set of expansions, then gave more detail on them in May of 2015.  At the time the plans included a new Frozen themed land for DisneySea and a major expansion of Fantasyland at Tokyo Disneyland, including an Alice in Wonderland sub-area and more.  This past December the parks announced they were extending the "study period" of the expansions which many thought meant a decrease in the expansion size.

Now things appear back on track, and several new attractions have again been announced - replacing the original plan and speeding things up.  Now the goal is to have a combined 30 million visitors to the parks by 2020, and they will spend 50 billion yen ($460 or so million) a year on new fun to do it.

© Tokyo Disneyland Resort

The large expansion of Fantasyland at Tokyo Disneyland has been somewhat reduced, with a brand new Beauty and the Beast area replacing Tomorrowland's Grand Circuit Raceway and StarJets.  The area (above) will be home to a major new ride, restaurant, retail and also a 1,500 seat live entertainment theater - all set in the highly themed world of the film.

© Tokyo Disneyland Resort

The Beauty and the Beast section will feature a new ride unique to Tokyo Disneyland, retelling the famous story through what looks like trackless vehicles.  Set inside the Beast's castle, the 8 minute attraction will feature "enchanted serving dish" passenger vehicles and open in 2020.

© Tokyo Disneyland Resort

Adjacent to the Fantasyland development will be a new Tomorrowland ride, themed around Big Hero 6.  The "whip" style attraction features cars pulled by their own "personal healthcare companion" and lively music.  A new popcorn food location will also open next to the ride, aimed for 2020.

© Tokyo Disneyland Resort

Tokyo DisneySea an switched from adding a new land to a major new ride, a copy of the popular Soarin' attractions at existing Disney parks.  Located in the Mediterranean Harbor area, the ride will be meticulously themed as seen in the above concept art - making it fit in nicely with the rest of the beautiful park.

© Tokyo Disneyland Resort

The Soarin' ride will take guests over famous landscapes across the globe, and it appears as though the rider cars will have some unique theming in this version.  The new ride is scheduled to open in 2019.

Both parks will also see major improvements in operations and staff training to support the record number of visitors they hope to obtain.  Plans for post-2020 include developments in all the existing themed lands of Tokyo Disneyland and filling in additional expansion plots in Tokyo DisneySea.

You can check out the entire press release, will much more information and concept art, at this link.

Tokyo Disneyland Resort Extends "Study Period" of Major Expansions

The Tokyo Disneyland Resort has announced it is going to "extend the period to study the two large scale development plans" at both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.  Essentially, this means that the operators aren't quite sure that the plans released earlier to expand both parks over the next ten years are the best way to "create a long term and sustainable value of the theme parks."

© Tokyo DisneySea

Back in October of 2014 we first heard that the parks were going to embark on a ten year, $4.45 billion expansion in both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea.  The plans, released in more detail this past May, called for an entire new port (themed area) at DisneySea, seen above, themed to Frozen.  Well technically the plans are for a Scandinavian themed area, however it doesn't take much to realize the intent here was to go full throttle Frozen.

© Tokyo Disneyland

Fantasyland in Tokyo Disneyland was labeled for an expansion that would dwarf the one done to the Magic Kingdom in Florida, doubling its size.  A totally new Small World building, a new Alice in Wonderland sub-area, a Beauty and the Beast section and plenty more were included in the plans that can be viewed in the above image.

Oriental Land Company, operators of the parks, are not cancelling these plans, however they seem to want to take more time to make sure they're making the right decision, at least that's what I gather from reading between the lines.  They say that the consideration period was to have ended in 2015, but now is extended for an undetermined amount of time.

It's possible that scaled back plans will be released in the future with more concrete opening dates; but we'll have to wait to see just what Oriental Land Co. has in store.

New Finding Nemo Themed Ride Opening at Tokyo DisneySea in 2017

© Tokyo DisneySea / Pixar

As if the resort didn't already have enough expansion already their plate, Tokyo DisneySea has announced that a new ride, themed to Finding Nemo, will open in 2017.  The theme of the ride is fitting since Finding Dory, the Finding Nemo sequel, will open in June of 2016.

The new ride will replace StormRider, and utilize its two simulator ride systems.  StormRider will close in mid-May of next year.

© Tokyo DisneySea / Pixar

The production staff working on Finding Dory will also create the new footage for this attraction.  Above is concept art of the giant fish shaped submarine that will "shrink to the size of a fish" for the journey, and serve as the ride vehicles.  Aboard the attraction "guests will explore the vast underwater world from the same point of view as Nemo and Dory."  No solid details of the ride's storyline have been released, though it will feature encounters with other characters from the movies.

The new ride will utilize two motion simulator cabins, each seating 122 people during the five minute ride.  The tentative budget for the attraction is 5 billion yen, or just over $41 million.

Tokyo Disneyland Resort Brings Frozen, Alice In Wonderland + More In New Expansions

After announcing a set of giant expansions that will take place at both Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea last Fall, the resort is now revealing some additional details.  The expansions will cost the parks around $4.5 billion to complete, and won't open until beyond 2017.

This map of the overall Tokyo Disneyland Resort shows off the changes that will be made.  Tokyo Disneyland is in the pink, and will feature a total redevelopment of Fantasyland, including renovating the existing area and expanding into new land as well.  Tokyo DisneySea will open an entirely new themed port.

© Disney

Thankfully, along with the new details of the area's themes comes some concept art.  This is DisneySea's new port, which will be themed to Scandinavia in general, but most importantly will include the Frozen franchise.  That is not to say the whole Port will be Frozen themed, but you can pretty clearly see the influence of the film and its characters in this art.  The land will include both attractions, shops and dining but no details on exactly what have been released.

This new area will be the 8th themed Port at DisneySea, and will be located to the South of the Lost River Delta area.  Its overall size will be comparable to the park's existing Arabian Coast Port.

© Disney

Tokyo Disneyland will begin the massive undertaking of redeveloping Fantasyland, much like Disney World in Florida did - only even bigger it appears.  When all is said and done Fantasyland will be double the size of the current land.

Above is concept art for a section of the new Fantasyland that will be dedicated to Alice In Wonderland.  Details of the new area are not being revealed just yet, but one might assume there will be at least one major attraction along with retail and food.

© Disney

Another theme for the Fantasyland work that was revealed is Beauty And The Beast, with the above concept art released as well.  This looks somewhat similar to a part of the Florida expansion, only it seems that Beast's castle might be more life-sized in Tokyo.  The smash success of the Be Our Guest Restaurant in Florida will no doubt be worked into the expansion in Japan, though not yet officially confirmed.

With the phenomenally high level of quality and detail already put into the Japanese parks fans have much to look forward to.  Can't wait until even more is released on these projects.

Massive Expansion Revealed for Tokyo Disneyland Resort

Happy Halloween!

Yesterday the owner of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea revealed quite a 'treat,' no trick here.  They will be spending a nearly insane $4.45 billion to expand both parks over the next ten or so years.

The announcement includes two large projects: an expansion of Fantasyland at Tokyo Disneyland that will nearly double the size of the land, and a totally new Port at Tokyo DisneySea.   Plenty of the expansion money will also be spent on smaller changes at both parks to make the guest experience more comfortable, and backstage improvements will also take place.

The least amount of details are available about the new Port in DisneySea; however rumors are swirling that an entire new land may be built themed around Frozen.  The land left for development is in the Southern corner of the park, and is listed as around the size of the Arabian Coast area.

Tokyo Disneyland's expansion to Fantasyland can be seen in this released concept art.  Click the image for a larger version to see additional detail.

The park will be removing a big part of Tomorrowland in order to complete the work, with both the Star Jets and Grand Circuit Raceway heading into history.  It appears as though the pink area next to the Alice in Wonderland themed eatery will be a new Alice mini-land, which is where Small Wold currently is.  That blue building on the far right appears to be the new home of Small World - yes - the park is moving the entire ride!  There's also what looks like a Beauty and the Beast area, and some sort of village that I'm not sure the purpose of.

Here's a look at the current area of the park, reversed in direction from the concept art above.  The entire red area is the section of the park that will be removed and built over.  The orange circle is the current Small World building, which will be removed or reused for something Alice themed, it appears.  The building next to it is the Pooh dark ride structure.  The small area that isn't changing in the south part of this image is Toontown.

This unprecedented announcement is so big that the parks aren't ready to give all details out, or opening dates for all the new attractions.  All I have to say is: wow!

Tokyo Disneyland Resort Announces New Shows for 2014 and 2015

© Disney

The Tokyo Disneyland Resort has announced two new large-scale entertainment additions for the years of 2014 and 2015.  Known for not being afraid to spend the big bucks to have the best there is, we can count on these shows being spectacular.

The first is "Once Upon A Time" at Tokyo Disneyland, which will "richly use projection mapping technology" to create a nighttime show on the park's Cinderella Castle.  The park points out that this is the first time that digital mapping will be used in the Tokyo parks, so visitors will be treated to something entirely new to the resort when it opens.

The photo above is a press image of Disney Dreams, which shows curently at Disneyland Paris.  Once Upon A Time will be similar to the show, using the aforementioned mapping projections along with special effects and pyrotechnics.  The Disney Dreams show looks incredible, so I have high expectations for the Tokyo version!

The new production has a budget of 2 billion yen (over $10 million) and has an expected opening of Spring or Summer 2014.

© Disney

In 2015 there will be a new show at Tokyo DisneySea in the Mermaid Lagoon Theater.  The theatre currently shows a Little Mermaid production, but will undergo renovations including an upgraded stage and lightning for the new version.  Still having a Little Mermaid theme, the show will also see new display screens installed behind the audience seating area, creating a more immersive experience.

The show will see King Triton hosting a musical concert (seen above in the concept art - click here for a cleaner version) also with popular characters from the film such as Ariel, Flounder and Sebastian.

The current Under the Sea production will close on April 6, 2014 in order for the new show to open in the Spring of 2015.

The resort is known for adding multiple attractions at a time, so there could easily still be more addition announced for upcoming years as well.

Opening Soon: Toy Story Mania! at Tokyo DisneySea

Tokyo DisneySea, the second theme park that makes up the Tokyo Disney Resort, is gearing up for the official launch of Toy Story Mania! on July 9th, 2012.

The ride is already very popular in both Disney California Adventure and Disney's Hollywood Studios here in the U.S., but the Tokyo version marks the first time the ride has moved outside the States.

As the Tokyo resort has been doing for decades now, they've built a fairly amazing looking plaza for the new ride, called Toyville Trolley Park, which fits in among the American Waterfront themed section.

This screen capture gives you just a bit of an idea how the area turned out, and it is from this You Tube video that I highly suggest checking out.

For photos of the new area during the daylight check out this post on a French site.  The area's color scheme is definitely unique, and I'm sure it looks great in person.  Check out how neat the cast member's uniforms are, too!

A Whole New World at Tokyo DisneySea

© Disney

Tokyo DisneySea has opened a new attraction, a spinner in the same vein as the Dumbo rides named Jasmine's Flying Carpets in the park's Arabian Coast area. Themed after the elaborate fountain found in the courtyard of her palace in the movie, the ride takes passengers on a spinning ride up and down aboard one of Jasmine's magic carpets.

Not surprisingly, since the new ride is in DisneySea, it's theming has been kicked up a notch when compared to it's sister ride, Aladdin's Magic Carpet Rides at the Magic Kingdom.  The water effect at the top of the fountain is especially nice in this regard.

The Disney Blog shares some information and photos, and Disney And More has a nice video up.  Not because of this attraction, per se, but DisneySea is so on my bucket list.

Tokyo DisneySea 2011: Jasmine's Flying Carpets

Image © 2010 Disney

I'm starting to not be able to keep track of all the new attractions going into the Tokyo Disney Resort over the next few years!

They've just announced another new one for 2011, this time a spinner rider named Jasmine's Flying Carpet. To be located in the Arabian Coast section of Tokyo DisneySea, the ride will allow guests to fly over Jasmine's (from the class animated film, Aladdin) garden on a magic carpet.

Passengers will have control over the vehicle they are in, allowing them to bring it up to 5 meters in the air, as well as tilt it forward and backward.

For 2011 alone, the resort will also introduce Mickey's PhilharMagic and Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall at Tokyo Disneyland. Other large attraction for future years have previously been announced, such as Toy Story Mania.

Tokyo DisneySea Adding Fantasmic! in 2011

The Tokyo Disneyland Resort seems to really mean business when it comes to adding new rides and attractions over the next few years. They've already announced that Tokyo Disneyland is adding a Cinderella Castle walk through for 2011, along with Philharmagic for the same year. DisneySea also announced Turtle Talk with Crush, which recently opened, and Toy Story Mania for 2012.

And this is coming off of adding the Tower of Terror and the Monsters Inc ride in recent years!

But for the latest announcement, - Fantasmic! will be coming to DisneySea starting April 2011 to help celebrate the park's 10th anniversary. The latest version of the show looks to be slightly different than the shows at Disneyland and Disney World - this one almost looks like a combination of the World of Color technology with the traditional Fantasmic! story line.

The show will feature content from Cinderella and Finding Nemo, neither of which are in the U.S. versions. The attraction represent a $30 million investment.

New Attractions for Tokyo Disneyland Resort

Tokyo Disneyland Resort has announced another two new attractions for their property. This is coming off the recent addition of the Monsters Inc Hide and Go Seek and Tower of Terror attractions AND the previously announced additions of Turtle Talk at DisneySea and Mickey's PhilharMagic at Tokyo Disneyland!

The latest announcement is that Toy Story Mania! (concept art above) will be added to the New York section of the American Waterfront themed area of the DisneySea park. The ride will open in 2012 and is said to cost over $115 million according to the press release. Looking at the art it seems the New York section of the park will get a makeover as well to include the new ride.

Tokyo Disneyland will also add a Cinderella Castle walk through attraction in 2011 - the same year Philharmagic should open. The attraction will take place inside Cinderella Castle and be similar in concept to the recently reopened Sleeping Castle walk through at Disneyland.

It's wonderful to see Tokyo Disneyland Resort moving on full steam ahead with new attractions!

Tokyo Disneyland Resort's Record Year

Tokyo Disneyland Resort, consisting of the Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea theme parks reported a record amount of attendance during it's recently completed fiscal year. 27.2 million guests visited the parks, up 7.1% from the previous year.

Most of the gains are attributed to special 25th anniversary events and celebrations that were held in honor of Tokyo Disneyland's first quarter century.

Plus both of the parks are totally awesome so that doesn't hurt attendance, either.

Aerial Antics: Tokyo Disneyland Resort

Is there some sort of rehab available for people who can't stop looking up things in Live Local? I need to sign up...

The Tokyo Disneyland Resort now has wonderful birds eye views up, and there's tons to see. Let's take a little tour, shall we?

Let's start outside the main gates and look at the new Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. The hotel opened in July of 2008 and looks beautiful. It's now the 4th Disneyland Hotel, obviously the first was in California, second Paris, and then Hong Kong.

One other stop (for Jeff) before the parks, the new Cirque Du Soleil theater featuring the resident show ZED. The theater looks somewhat like a tooth to me, but it's fairly awesome that they built a resident show at Tokyo Disneyland Resort.

Just inside the entrance to Tomorrowland you'll find the newest attraction at Tokyo Disneyland, Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek. The dark ride has a rather impressive building that looks just like the scream factory from the film. It opens this spring.

Like Disneyland in California, Tokyo Disneyland has a Toontown section of the park. Basically a mirror image copy of the section in California, the area in home to the Roger Rabbit Cartoon Spin dark ride as well.

Here's the park Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain attractions. They are quite squished together! I still have a hard time placing the park's Haunted Mansion in the Fantasyland section of the park, but it is so I'll deal with it.

Also in this photo you can see the park's parade just about ready to go on stage in between the Haunted Mansion building and Splash Mountain. Cool!

Let's head next door to DisneySea. The resort's 2nd gate opened in September of 2001 and has been wowing visitors since. I can only wish that I could say I've been one of those visitors. Above we see Mt. Prometheus and the Mysterious Island section of the park.

Here we have the beautiful Tower of Terror on the left in the American Waterfront section of the park. I believe that the large ship, the S.S. Columbia, will be the home of the park's upcoming version of Turtle Talk with Crush.

To wrap things up we have a view of the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull building and the Raging Spirits roller coaster in the Lost River Delta section.

If you would like to go sightseeing on your own, follow this link!

Journey to the Center of the Earth, DisneySea

Journey to the Center of the Earth, at Tokyo DisneySea, is one of the coolest looking rides that I've yet to experience.

One of the reasons I'm so drawn to it is the animatronic "lava monster" seen in the picture above. The ride, which uses a Test Track-ish ride system, takes passengers deep into inner earth and provides them with an encounter with many odd creatures, including Mr. lava monster.

The lava monster is surrounded by fire balls and flowing, molten lava, and does not seem happy that riders have entered it's lair. The animatronic is 20+ feet tall, and moves with amazing fluidity for its size.

Hopper from Bug's Life will always be my favorite animatronic, but this baby looks like it would make it a close race.

Mouse Planet features this awesome photo during a review of the ride:

© MousePlanet

When you really think about, the lava monster looks like it could be a pretty close relative to the Alien Encounter alien:
And yes, I do have the toy, thank you very much.

Anyway, here's a really high quality video of Journey to the Center of the Earth via You Tube user TBDave716:

LaughingPlace also has a nice video of the lava monster in action. You can get that video from their site, just click here.

How much does it cost to fly to Japan?