Venetian Gondolas
| Venetian Gondolas | |
|---|---|
| Park | Tokyo DisneySea |
| Land / area | Mediterranean Harbor |
| Type | Gondola boat ride |
| Opened | September 4, 2001 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Operating |
Venetian Gondolas is a gondola boat ride in Mediterranean Harbor at Tokyo DisneySea in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. Real gondolas, each worked by two standing gondoliers, carry guests through the canals of the park's Venetian quarter and out onto the open harbour. It is among the slowest and most scenic attractions in the park, and it has operated since Tokyo DisneySea's opening day, September 4, 2001.[1][2]
Mediterranean Harbor, the park's entrance port, recreates an Italian harbour town called Porto Paradiso. Its Venetian end is a district of canals, bridges and waterside palazzi known as the Palazzo Canals, built as a working piece of Venice rather than a backdrop — and the gondolas are its working transport.[2]
History
Venetian Gondolas opened with Tokyo DisneySea on September 4, 2001, as one of Mediterranean Harbor's original attractions.[1] Where most Disney entrance lands are walked through on the way to somewhere else, Mediterranean Harbor was designed to be lingered in, and a slow boat ride through its canals was part of that idea from the start: the gondolas give the harbour a constant, gentle motion that can be watched from its bridges and waterfront as much as it can be ridden.
The attraction has changed little over the years, which is rather the point. It remains a human-powered ride in a park full of machinery — no track, no engine and no recorded narration, just gondoliers poling and rowing their boats through the canals much as their Venetian counterparts do. Its one regular interruption is built into its location: because the route crosses the harbour used for Tokyo DisneySea's waterborne shows, the gondolas do not operate while a harbour show is being set up or performed.[1]
Experience
Guests board at the Palazzo Canals dock, where each gondola takes up to 16 guests, seated in rows on either side of the boat while two gondoliers stand at bow and stern.[1] The gondoliers push off and steer the boat through the narrow canals of the Venetian quarter, passing under low bridges and along the fronts of the palazzi, in the closest thing Tokyo DisneySea offers to a quiet back street.
The canal then opens out, and the gondola emerges onto Mediterranean Harbor itself, with views across the water to the rest of Porto Paradiso, the Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta and Mount Prometheus rising behind the park. Out on the open water the ride becomes social: the gondoliers encourage guests to call "Ciao!" to passing gondolas and to the boats of the DisneySea Transit Steamer Line, and passing boats call back.[1]
On the return leg into the canals, the gondoliers traditionally sing for their passengers as the boat glides back to the dock.[1] The full round trip lasts about 11.5 minutes, making the Venetian Gondolas one of the longest continuous rides in the park despite travelling one of the shortest distances — a deliberate piece of slow theatre at the front of a very busy park.[1][2]