Lost River Delta
| Lost River Delta | |
|---|---|
| Park | Tokyo DisneySea |
| Land / area | Lost River Delta |
| Type | Themed port |
| Opened | September 4, 2001 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Operating |
Lost River Delta is a themed port at Tokyo DisneySea at Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. Set at the back of the park where a jungle river meets the sea, it is a 1930s Central American river settlement built around an archaeological sensation: the excavation of an ancient temple complex lost in the jungle. Ramshackle expedition buildings, wooden docks and dense planting surround two of the park's biggest thrill rides, both of which grow out of the same dig-site fiction.
History
Lost River Delta opened with Tokyo DisneySea on September 4, 2001, as one of the park's seven original ports.[1] On opening day the port had a single major attraction, Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull, and a great deal of atmosphere: a steamer dock, greeting trails through the ruins, and the temple pyramid looming over the river as one of the park's most recognisable silhouettes after Mount Prometheus.
The port gained its second ride on July 21, 2005, when Raging Spirits opened on a narrow strip of land beside the Indiana Jones show building. It was the first major attraction added to Tokyo DisneySea after opening, and the first roller coaster with an inversion — indeed, the only inverting coaster — at Tokyo Disney Resort.[2] A new counter-service restaurant, the Lost River Cookhouse, opened alongside the coaster.[3]
Attractions
- Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull — an enhanced motion vehicle dark ride in which guests board troop transports for a tour of a temple guarding the Fountain of Youth, presided over by a vengeful Crystal Skull. The tour predictably goes wrong, through chambers of traps, snakes and supernatural effects. Tokyo's version shares its ride system and much of its layout with the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland in California, but has its own temple, story and effects, and it opened in 2001 — years before the film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, to which it is not connected.
- Raging Spirits — a steel looping coaster running through the ruins of an ancient ceremonial site. In its backstory, excavators unearthed two great stone idols, of fire and of water, and set them facing one another against local warning; the enraged spirits produce the fire, water and steam effects around the site and, in the fiction, twisted the excavation railway into a 360-degree loop. The roughly 600-metre (2,000 ft) track reaches 60 km/h (37 mph), and the layout derives from Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril at Disneyland Paris, rethemed and elaborated for Tokyo.[4]
The DisneySea Transit Steamer Line docks in the port, connecting it by water with Mediterranean Harbor and American Waterfront, and the Mickey & Friends' Greeting Trails offer character greetings among the ruins.
Description
More than most DisneySea ports, Lost River Delta is built from its backstory. The settlement exists to serve the dig: there are supply stores and expedition offices, weathered signage in Spanish and English, crates and scaffolding, and a between-the-wars expedition mood that matches the 1930s setting of the Indiana Jones films. The temple of the Crystal Skull dominates one side of the port, while Raging Spirits' loop and its flaming and steaming altars animate the other. At night, torches, lanterns and the coaster's fire effects make it one of the most atmospheric corners of the park.
Dining follows the expedition theme. The Lost River Cookhouse serves smoked chicken near the coaster, Miguel's El Dorado Cantina offers Mexican-inspired food in a dig headquarters setting, and the Tropic Al's stand sells snacks by the steamer dock.
See also
- Tokyo DisneySea
- Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull
- Indiana Jones Adventure
- Tokyo Disney Resort