Mysterious Island
| Mysterious Island | |
|---|---|
| Park | Tokyo DisneySea |
| Land / area | Mysterious Island |
| Type | Themed port |
| Opened | September 4, 2001 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Operating |
Mysterious Island is a themed port at Tokyo DisneySea at Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. It occupies the caldera and slopes of Mount Prometheus, the erupting volcano that serves as the park's centrepiece and icon, and it is the smallest of the park's original seven ports of call. The port recreates Captain Nemo's secret base of Vulcania, drawn from the novels of Jules Verne, and its two attractions send guests under the sea and deep beneath the earth in Nemo's service.
History
Mysterious Island opened with Tokyo DisneySea on September 4, 2001, as one of the park's seven original ports.[1] The concept was not new to Imagineering: a Mysterious Island built around a volcano had been designed a decade earlier for Port Disney, the unbuilt resort planned for Long Beach, California, and the idea was revived and substantially reworked for Tokyo.[2]
Mount Prometheus rises 189 feet (58 m), the same height as Cinderella Castle at Tokyo Disneyland, and contains more than 750,000 square feet of rockwork, making it one of the largest rockwork projects Imagineering has built.[3] The volcano periodically erupts, throwing flame and steam from its summit, an effect visible and audible from ports all around the park.
Unlike the other ports, Mysterious Island has changed little since opening. Its two opening-day attractions remain its only rides, and both are still among the most sought-after experiences at the resort.
Description
Despite its name, Mysterious Island is not an island at all. It is built into the side of Mount Prometheus, and the volcano itself forms the show building for both of its attractions.[4] Guests enter the caldera and find Nemo's base laid out below them: a harbour where the submarine Nautilus is moored, laboratories and workshops carved into the rock, and the flooded crater lagoon, its waters kept restless by the volcano above.
The theming follows Verne's books closely. In Verne's 1875 novel The Mysterious Island, the island proves to be Nemo's lair, and the base here is also known as Vulcania, the island workshop from Disney's 1954 film of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Because Nemo explores both the ocean depths and the interior of the earth, the port's two rides divide his world between them, one going down through water and the other down through rock.
Attractions
- Journey to the Center of the Earth — guests descend by Terravator deep below the volcano, then board subterranean vehicles for a tour of caverns filled with strange crystals and creatures, before an eruption blasts the vehicle up through the side of Mount Prometheus. The ride system uses technology similar to that of Test Track at Epcot.
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Tokyo DisneySea) — a dark ride in which guests board small submarines and descend to join Nemo's crew, encountering sea life, a shipwreck graveyard and the giant squid, all viewed through portholes with a dry-for-wet effect rather than real submersion.
Dining is part of the fiction. The Vulcania Restaurant, a counter-service restaurant inside the volcano serving Chinese food, is presented as the base's mess hall for Nemo's crew, while the smaller Nautilus Galley serves snacks at the lower level near the harbour.[5] The Refreshment Station at the caldera's edge is known for its gyoza sausage bun. The DisneySea Transit Steamer Line also passes through the lagoon on its circuit of the park.
See also
- Tokyo DisneySea
- Journey to the Center of the Earth
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Tokyo DisneySea)
- Tokyo Disney Resort