Mermaid Lagoon
| Mermaid Lagoon | |
|---|---|
| Park | Tokyo DisneySea |
| Land / area | Mermaid Lagoon |
| Type | Themed port |
| Opened | September 4, 2001 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Operating |
Mermaid Lagoon is a themed port at Tokyo DisneySea at Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. It is King Triton's kingdom from Disney's 1989 film The Little Mermaid, built as a palace of shells, coral and spires, and it is the park's port for its youngest guests. Unusually for a Disney land, most of it is indoors: beneath the palace facade, in a space known as Triton's Kingdom, dim blue light, projected water effects and seashell architecture recreate the feeling of being under the sea, which also makes the port a refuge in rain, heat and cold.
History
Mermaid Lagoon opened with Tokyo DisneySea on September 4, 2001, as one of the park's seven original ports, with a full set of family rides, Ariel's Playground and the Mermaid Lagoon Theater all operating from the start.[1]
The theater's history defines the port's changes. Its opening production, Under the Sea, ran from 2001 to 2014, staging Ariel's story with performers and puppets suspended in the air above a theatre-in-the-round so that the characters appeared to swim. It was replaced in 2015 by King Triton's Concert, a revised production in which Triton hosted a musical concert performed by Ariel, Sebastian, Flounder and other characters, again using aerial staging. King Triton's Concert ended in 2020: the Mermaid Lagoon Theater closed on July 1, 2020, and on September 29, 2020 the space reopened as an indoor greeting location for Ariel, replacing the port's outdoor Ariel's Greeting Grotto, which had closed that January.[2] References that still list King Triton's Concert as a current show are out of date.
Attractions
The port divides into an outdoor section above the sea and the indoor Triton's Kingdom below it.
Outdoors:
- Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster — a small steel roller coaster for children and families, themed to Ariel's friend Flounder, and a common first coaster.
- Scuttle's Scooters — a spinning caterpillar-style ride themed to Scuttle the seagull, in which the cars swing outward as they circle.
Indoors, in Triton's Kingdom:
- Jumpin' Jellyfish — a gentle parachute-style ride, a smaller relative of the Jumpin' Jellyfish design used in California, in which guests rise and float down in jellyfish-canopied cars. (The Tokyo ride is a distinct installation.)
- Blowfish Balloon Race — a balloon race ride in which guests spin in cars carried by blowfish.
- The Whirlpool — a teacup-style spinning ride in kelp cups, whose speed guests can influence by turning a central wheel.
- Ariel's Playground — a walk-through play area recreating settings from the film, including Ariel's grotto of human treasures, with climbing, exploring and hiding places aimed at small children.
- Mermaid Lagoon Theater — the theatre-in-the-round described above, in use as Ariel's greeting location since 2020, following the earlier runs of Under the Sea and King Triton's Concert.
Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen, inside the palace, serves counter-service food beneath the sea, and a large statue of King Triton guards the entrance to the indoor kingdom.
Description
Where DisneySea's other ports aim at realism, Mermaid Lagoon is openly a fantasy: pastel coral towers, giant scallop shells, starfish and seaweed worked into every surface, and lighting that keeps the interior in permanent twilight. Its rides are familiar fairground forms — a spinner, a balloon race, teacups, a junior coaster — but each is completely redressed in the film's undersea world, and the concentration of gentle rides, a playground, a greeting and indoor dining in one enclosed space makes it function almost as a small park within the park for families with young children.
See also
- Tokyo DisneySea
- The Little Mermaid – Ariel's Undersea Adventure
- Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid
- Jumpin' Jellyfish
- Tokyo Disney Resort