Scuttle's Scooters
| Scuttle's Scooters | |
|---|---|
| Park | Tokyo DisneySea |
| Land / area | Mermaid Lagoon |
| Type | Caterpillar-style spinning ride |
| Opened | September 4, 2001
|
| Duration | About 1.5 minutes |
| Status | Operating |
Scuttle's Scooters is a spinning flat ride in Mermaid Lagoon at Tokyo DisneySea, the second park of the Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. Themed to Disney's 1989 animated film The Little Mermaid, the ride sends guests travelling in circles aboard brightly coloured hermit crabs while Scuttle, the seagull from the film, keeps watch over the proceedings from above. It is one of the gentle, child-scaled attractions that make up the outdoor section of Mermaid Lagoon, and it has operated since the park's opening day.
History
Scuttle's Scooters opened with Tokyo DisneySea on September 4, 2001, as part of Mermaid Lagoon, the port themed to The Little Mermaid.[1] Mermaid Lagoon is divided between an outdoor section, where Scuttle's Scooters stands alongside Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster, and a larger indoor section built to suggest King Triton's palace, where most of the port's other rides are sheltered from the weather. The outdoor rides, including the Scooters, give the port much of its visible motion when seen from across the park's waterways, and the Scooters are often remarked on for how the little crab vehicles look when lit up after dark.
The ride takes its name and its presiding figure from Scuttle, the eccentric seagull who in the film fancies himself an expert on the human world and inspects its artefacts through a telescope he habitually holds the wrong way round. That running joke is built directly into the attraction: the figure of Scuttle perched above the ride peers down at riders through his telescope, held backwards, while the crabs circle beneath him.[2]
Experience
The attraction is a caterpillar-style ride, a close relative of the whip-like spinning rides found in many parks, and it is frequently compared with Slinky Dog Zigzag Spin at other Disney resorts.[3] Each vehicle is styled as a colourful hermit crab — the resort's own description calls them sand crabs — and seats two guests. Once the ride starts, the crabs travel around the central platform in a looping, undulating circuit, swinging outward as the speed builds so that the circuit feels less like a simple carousel circle and more like a series of swoops. A full ride lasts about 1.5 minutes.[4]
There is no height requirement, but guests must be able to sit upright unaided in the moving vehicle, and children may not be held on a lap. Because the vehicles seat only two and the ride is short, the Scooters are aimed squarely at younger children and their accompanying adults rather than at thrill-seekers; the port's slightly bigger ride, Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster, plays the equivalent role for children ready for a first roller coaster. Waits are usually among the shorter ones at Tokyo DisneySea, which makes the Scooters a common filler attraction while families wait for theatre shows or dining elsewhere in the port.
See also
References
- ↑ Mermaid Lagoon (Tokyo DisneySea). Wikipedia. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Scuttle's Scooters. Tokyo Disney Resort. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Scuttle's Scooters. Disney Wiki. Retrieved 2026-11-14.
- ↑ Scuttle's Scooters. Tokyo Disney Resort. Retrieved 2026-11-14.