Port Discovery
| Port Discovery | |
|---|---|
| Park | Tokyo DisneySea |
| Land / area | Port Discovery |
| Type | Themed port |
| Opened | September 4, 2001 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Operating |
Port Discovery is a themed port at Tokyo DisneySea at Tokyo Disney Resort in Urayasu, Chiba, Japan. Billed in the park's fiction as the port of the future, it is a retrofuturistic marina devoted to exploring the oceans and, originally, to controlling the weather. Copper roofs, whirling instruments and bright harbour buildings give it a look somewhere between a Victorian science fair and a vision of tomorrow imagined a century ago. It sits between American Waterfront and Lost River Delta on the park's eastern shore.
History
Port Discovery opened with Tokyo DisneySea on September 4, 2001, as one of the park's seven original ports.[1] Its opening-day headline attraction was StormRider, a large motion simulator housed in the Center for Weather Control. Guests flew aboard a futuristic aircraft into the heart of a storm to detonate a device that would dissipate it. StormRider closed in May 2016 after nearly fifteen years of operation.[2]
The port's theme shifted with its replacement. Nemo & Friends SeaRider opened on May 12, 2017, reusing StormRider's simulator system and building, which was redressed as the Marine Life Institute.[3] In the new attraction, guests board a submarine that shrinks to fish size for an undersea journey with Nemo, Dory and their friends from Pixar's Finding Nemo and Finding Dory. With the change, the port's stated mission moved from weather control toward marine research and a deeper understanding of the oceans.
Attractions
- Aquatopia — the port's signature outdoor ride, in which three-person boats glide and spin across a shallow lagoon among waterfalls, rock formations and whirlpools. The boats are trackless, guided by a local positioning system of the kind first used at the resort by Pooh's Hunny Hunt at Tokyo Disneyland, so no two circuits follow quite the same path and passing boats continually surprise one another. In summer a wetter version of the course soaks riders more deliberately.
- Nemo & Friends SeaRider — the simulator described above, housed in the Marine Life Institute at the heart of the port, in which a shrinking submarine joins the world of Finding Nemo.
- DisneySea Electric Railway — an elevated electric trolley railway linking Port Discovery with American Waterfront. Its red cars run on a 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow-gauge track above the harbourfront, and the Port Discovery station makes the line both a ride and a practical shortcut across this side of the park.[4]
Description
Port Discovery is one of DisneySea's smaller ports, and much of its pleasure is its skyline: spinning anemometers, gleaming domes and the elevated railway crossing the water on its viaduct. Snack stands near the station and along the waterfront serve guests crossing between American Waterfront and Lost River Delta. Because both of its neighbours are larger ports, Port Discovery also works as a hinge in the park's circulation, with the Electric Railway above and walkways at water level moving guests through it in both directions.