Rapunzel's Lantern Festival
| Rapunzel's Lantern Festival | |
|---|---|
| Park | Tokyo DisneySea |
| Land / area | Fantasy Springs (Rapunzel's Forest) |
| Type | Boat dark ride |
| Opened | June 6, 2024 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Duration | About 5 minutes |
| Status | Operating |
Rapunzel's Lantern Festival is a boat dark ride in Rapunzel's Forest, part of Fantasy Springs at Tokyo DisneySea. Based on Tangled (2010), it takes guests by boat through Rapunzel's "best day ever" — her journey with Flynn Rider — to the kingdom of Corona's annual Lantern Festival. It opened with Fantasy Springs on June 6, 2024, and was the first ride-through attraction at a Disney park built around Rapunzel's story.[1][2]
Imagineer Daniel Jue described it in pre-opening coverage as the most romantic attraction Disney had built, a billing the finished ride has largely kept in reviews since opening.[2]
History
Rapunzel's Forest was one of the three areas announced for the Fantasy Springs expansion on June 14, 2018. Until Fantasy Springs, Tangled had a famously small footprint in the parks — its best-known presence at Walt Disney World was a decorated restroom area — so a full boat ride was a notable step up for the film.
The attraction opened on June 6, 2024. Since March 1, 2025, it has been sponsored by Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd., under an Oriental Land Company sponsorship announcement of February 28, 2025.[3] Disney Premier Access is available for the ride.[1]
Experience
Tokyo Disney Resort describes the attraction simply as a romantic boat ride leading to the annual Lantern Festival, where guests experience Rapunzel's "best day ever" as she falls in love with Flynn Rider and visits locations from the film.[1] The ride vehicles are boats carrying 16 guests; they are often described as gondolas in guides and reviews, but the official description is a boat ride, and that is the safer term. The ride lasts about five minutes, passes through darkness, and has no height requirement; a child may sit on a lap.[1]
The journey begins outdoors. Boats float past Rapunzel's tower, where Rapunzel can be seen and heard, before entering the show building. Inside, scenes follow the film's day out: Rapunzel swinging by her long golden hair around a tree in the "best day ever" sequence, encounters that bring in Flynn Rider, Maximus and Pascal, and the Snuggly Duckling world that also gives Rapunzel's Forest its restaurant.[2]
The climax is the lantern festival itself. The boat enters a large scene filled in every direction with countless glowing lanterns rising into a night sky, and slowly circles a boat in which Rapunzel and Flynn Rider sing "I See the Light". Reviews single this scene out as the emotional peak of the ride, and the point at which the attraction's slow, outdoor-then-indoor pacing pays off.[2]
The finale passes through a boathouse workshop, with boats, oars, barrels and ropes decorated in the spirit of the film, before guests unload. At about five minutes it is shorter than Anna and Elsa's Frozen Journey, and its appeal is concentrated in a single, very fully staged set piece — a trade-off noted in most reviews, even favourable ones.