-The history of Tokyo Disneysea-

Tokyo Disneysea officially opened on September 4, 2001 in Japan. It was inspired by a rejected sea-themed theme park concept of the same name originally planned for Long Beach in California, USA. However, Disney's California Adventure was actually built in Anaheim, California instead at that same year.

In 1988, various American Disney Imagineers in Japan tried to pitch a new concept for a new second theme park that is next to Tokyo Disneyland called "Disney Hollywood Studios Theme Park", which is inspired by the then-under development Disney MGM Studios at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

However, Oriental Land Company politely rejected that concept in 1991, because that rejected Hollywood-themed theme park idea inspired by American show business wouldn't really translate well with Japanese culture.

Imagineers would eventually present the "Disneysea" concept from Long Beach, California, revising the then-proposed park's theme to focus on the idea of the "Seven Seas". Oriental Land loved the idea of a sea themed group of attractions drawing on an appeal to the Japanese people in their cultural history with the ocean.

Oriental Land and Disney would agree on a contract to build the new theme park on May 26, 1996 and on November 26th, 1997, Tokyo Disneysea was officially revealed to the public, the groundbreaking for Disneysea took place on October 22nd, 1998 with Michael Eisner and president Toshio Kagami of Oriental Land in attendance.

When planning and developing the new park, Oriental Land and Imagineers wanted to create an experience that was completely different than what Tokyo Disneyland offered.

To achieve this, the Disneysea park would consist of all original attractions seen nowhere else in the world made possible due to Oriental Land agreeing to a budget of 335 billion Yen or three billion American Dollars.

Besides offering unique, one-of-a-kind attractions that couldn't be found in other Disney Parks elsewhere, Disneysea would feature highly detailed areas, each one having their own distinctive theming and narrative to explain what they were.

For example, Mediterranean Harbor, Mysterious Island, Mermaid Lagoon, Arabian Coast, Lost River Delta, Port Discovery, and American Waterfront. Fantasy Springs will officially be opened in 2023.

After 3 years of construction, the 176 acre Tokyo DisneySea would finally be officially opened on September 4, 2001, thirteen years after the idea of a second theme park was officially announced.

In conjunction with the opening of its second park, Oriental Land would open "Tokyo Disneysea - Hotel Miracosta", the resort's second hotel the very same day. a full-scale reproduction of the various buildings of Portofino and Venice ports in Italy, It's currently the only hotel in the world that is entirely placed inside a Disney theme park.

So, since we've talked about it's history, let's take a look at what Tokyo Disneysea has to offer.

- Duffy