Disney Sea, that's why.
After doing some research, it appears that the Disney Sea park is something different. It's a more adult themed Disney experience. Hell, they serve Alcohol at several eateries in the park!
It has themed worlds, like some other Disney parks. But they are more general in nature - Mediterranean Harbor, Arabian Coast, Lost River Delta, Port Discovery, Mysterious Island, and the American Waterfront.
Within these areas are some of the rides you would see at other Disney parks - Indiana Jones (Lost River Delta), Tower of Terror (American Waterfront), Aladdin stuff (Arabian Coast). The park also has other unique rides and attractions - lot of boat riding opportunities, a "Voyage to the Center of the Earth" thing that shoots you out of the volcano in the middle of the park, a train system, some water (yea, you're going to get wet) rides. Lots to do here.
And, it's not really a true Disney owned park. It's a park that is licensed to use some Disney elements. Though some of the Disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, etc) will make appearances, the main mascot for this park is Duffy the Bear. The locals go crazy for this bear, and buy up him and all of his merchandise. There are specific "Duffy Photo Op" places that people will bring their Duffy Bear to, and take photos of him. Yea, it's a thing here.
Another "thing" here - young attendees will dress up alike. Like twins. Girls will coordinate their clothing to exacting standars. Sometims there will be groups of 3, 4, even 5 girls all dressed alike and having a good time at the park.
And to help in our decision - this week just happened to be a "low attendance" week, down to a predicted 22 out of 100 (according to a Disney Crowd prediction calendar that is updated regularly). They take into account the weather, when school is in session, national holidays, school holidays, weekends/weekdays - and can predict with some accuracy the crowd load. Lots have been written about Tokyo disney on high capacity days - it's not a good thing.
When we got to the park, it appeared the calendar was right. Though there were people all over the place, the park never felt crowded. Sure, some of the popular attractions (Indiana Jones, Tower of Terror) started to have wait times of 90 to 120 minutes. No way I would wait in line for a ride that long.
However, there was a little know tactic that we tried. On Indiana Jones, if you are willing to be a single rider, they will let you go down the Fast Pass line anytime and be a "filler" person. Surprisingly enough, most attendees either want to stay with their group, or they don't know this trick.
Either way, Donna and I got on that ride in less than 10 minutes going as singles, rather than waiting 90 minutes in the normal cue. I'll take that.
On a side note - since we're in Japan, pretty much all of the dialogue is in Japanese. It was really funny to see Indiana Jones yell at us in Japanese. It had a higher intensity level than the english versions in the US.
Our main goal of this was to just take in the park. The attention to detail was astonishing (in the usual Disney fashion), and we just went through the park slowly in order to take it all in. Going on rides was not a priority - though we did go on a few more, if the lines weren't too long.
My goal was to stay here until after dark. The online reviews and blog posts said that Disney Sea really looked beautiful after dark. Well, the reviews were correct.
I probably took over 100 photos in that park today - here are a few of my favorites.
If you like Disney at all, and you're going to Tokyo, then go to this park. Preferrably, in a low attendance time. The low attendance made it so much easier to get around and enjoy the park.
Tomorrow - the original Tokyo Disneyland
What a great time you and Donna are having. You seem to be making the most out of every day.
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