The park entrance has a huge sculpture/fountain. On the globe, the waters of the world's oceans flow down the surface behind the land masses.
Once you enter the park itself, you're greeted with this impressive view of Mysterious Island, a Jules Verne-themed land.
Inside, you're in the crater of a volcano. Unfortunately the signature ride, Journey to the Center of the Earth, was down for rehab...but you could get a tour through the queue, and the guide let me go inside one of the displays for a picture. He even gave me his hat to wear for the picture!
Raging Spirits is only so-so as a roller coaster, but the theming is fantastic!
Arabian Coast, with attractions based on Aladdin.
There is an interactive exploration area with displays based on medieval science. If you look back at the big volcano picture earlier on the page, you can see a golden dome...inside is an amazing hand-cranked wooden orrery. It's beautiful.
King Triton welcomes you to Mermaid Lagoon, with Little Mermaid themed attractions. The high point for me is Mermaid Lagoon Theater, which shows a live-action abridged version of Little Mermaid. Everyone sits in a circular room while the performers fly above you doing acrobatics. The undersea creatures are beautiful flowing hybrids of costumes and giant puppets. At one point the entire room transforms itself into a giant version of Ursula.
The park also as a version of Tower of Terror...and this version has a story line that actually makes sense! One problem I've always had with the other versions is there is no explanation of why you are there...what are you doing in this abandoned hotel, and why are you going up in its freight elevator? In Tokyo's version, the hotel was built by Mr. Hightower, a world explorer and artifact plunderer, as a monument to himself, and as a place to show off his treasures. The lobby is full of murals showing him looting various sites (Easter Island, Egypt); in each one he is leaving with some giant artifact while natives chase after him. But one day, he made the mistake of stealing a statue from Africa that was supposed to be cursed...and after he brought it back to the hotel, the very night the elevator crashed and he was never seen again. But the building is still full of his treasures, and the Historical Society is now giving tours...concluding with a ride up the freight elevator to see his penthouse. But the statue is still here, and it's still not very happy...
As you leave, the gift shop has more murals of Hightower. He was not shy about self promotion!
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