Why Disney’s #1 Park is Getting 1-Star Reviews

In response to one of our (many) posts effusively praising Disney’s best theme park in the world, a reader recently asked whether our review is still true. They expressed concern based on a huge number of negative reviews on TripAdvisor. We looked, and sure enough, they were correct: Tokyo DisneySea has seen a huge spike in 1-star and 2-star reviews there and on Google.

Tokyo DisneySea still maintains a respectable 4.5 score average across over 6,000 reviews on TripAdvisor and sterling 4.9 on Google with more than 90,000 reviews. But that actually speaks to the problem–the park’s score is still strong despite an influx of lower reviews because, prior to 2020, it was almost exclusively receiving 5-star reviews. And with over a decade of those in the bank, there’s only so much the new reviews can drag down the overall score.

It’s a simple math problem. The scores arguably exacerbate the issue, too. If you go in expecting a 4.9/5 experience and one of the top-ranked attractions in all of Japan, or read posts like ours calling Tokyo DisneySea the best theme park in the world, you might be more inclined to go in with high expectations. When your experience isn’t on par with those reviews, you might leave feeling frustrated and more disappointed than if you rolled the dice on a 3.5/5 offering.

So what are the new reviews saying? A lot of different things. Most common are complaints about lines, crowds, and wait times. I don’t make a habit of reading Google and TripAdvisor reviews of theme parks, but honestly, I would expect this to be the #1 complaint about any of them. No one likes waiting in lines and theme parks have a lot of them.

With that said, I suspect that the negative reviews for Disney theme parks revolving around wait times have been exacerbated by the loss of free FastPass. Although there’s still a free option in Priority Pass at Tokyo Disney Resort, it’s not nearly as robust as FastPass. Most worthwhile attractions, especially those in Tokyo DisneySea, now have paid line-skipping via Premier Pass.

Second-most common are complaints about accessing Fantasy Springs. Or rather, being denied access to this new port-of-call featuring Frozen, Tangled, and Peter Pan. This is understandable and unsurprising, as Fantasy Springs is not open-entry and the rides do not offer standby lines.

As a result, Fantasy Springs is exceedingly difficult to enter. It’s worse than any Walt Disney World or Disneyland attraction to ever use virtual queues, Lightning Lanes, etc. See How to Enter Fantasy Springs & Get On Rides: Good, Bad & Ugly Access Options for a rundown of how to gain entry into the land.

The bottom line is that if you simply show up after park opening, there’s a good chance you will not be able to enter Fantasy Springs, let alone ride any attractions. We’ve been warning guests of this since the new land opened, and cannot over-emphasize enough how important advance planning is for Fantasy Springs. The challenge of gaining access has only worsened since the land first opened.

While there are other reasons for the 1-star reviews, these are the big ones. So to those points, I wanted to share a recent experience we had at Tokyo DisneySea during Christmas 2024…

We arrived at the turnstiles to Tokyo DisneySea over 90 minutes before park opening. Our goal was to get there 2 hours in advance, but that simply wasn’t possible with a baby. Our bad, I guess? In any case, being experienced TDR guests, we’re aware that the turnstiles typically open well before the published park opening time as a release valve on crowds. So our thinking was that, more realistically, we’d be waiting for less than an hour outside the front gates.

Our logic was at least partially correct. Tokyo DisneySea did open security, or at least, the line began moving for some reason or another, before 8:30 am. (My apologies for not having precise times and poor quality phone photos–I was not expecting to write a post about this. I thought we were just visiting for fun.)

What we did not account for, but should have, was TDR’s glacially slow security screening. Nor did we take into consideration the fact that multiple makeshift lines were merging into one for each security checkpoint, meaning that the family with the stroller would be getting passed by other guests previously behind them as everyone jockeyed for positioning to have a better shot at getting into Fantasy Springs.

Obviously, this is only partly TDR’s fault. They can control the speed of their security but whether we use a stroller or not, and whether people pass us, is largely out of their hands. Although I would contend that having 4 makeshift lines merging into one is unduly stressful and destined to result in a negative experience for many guests, especially in a competitive scenario when typical Japanese courtesy goes fully out the window.

After what felt like an eternity waiting in the direct sunlight–thankfully this was not a rainy day, as the prior two had been, as the area where crowds congregate offers no shade nor shelter–we finally approached security. Naturally, our stroller or who knows what else set off the scanner, necessitating secondary screening that was somehow both cursory and time-consuming. (Seriously, I’d never attempt this again with a stroller–we would’ve been in a much better position without it.)

In any case, we were inside Tokyo DisneySea by 9:10 am. For those keeping score at home, that’s 10 minutes after official park opening. Surely this would be enough time to score either paid Premier Access or free Standby Pass for Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey, the best attraction in Fantasy Springs, right?

Wrong. On the day we visited Tokyo DisneySea, Anna & Elsa’s Frozen Journey ran out of both queueing options by 9:08 am. If you’re incredulous that this could happen so quickly, I’d encourage you to consult the @_fantasysprings fan account that tracks data for Standby Pass and Premier Access availability. This ride is regularly running out before 9:30 am–sometimes even before official park opening.

It might seem like we just barely missed it, and thus should’ve simply tried to arrive slightly earlier the next day or thrown sharper elbows to the guests who passed us in line. But in reality, it wasn’t that close at all. As soon as we got inside the park, I tried to buy/book one of these passes. Unfortunately, my phone had insufficient signal and, despite a heavy reliance on the app, Tokyo Disney Resort does not offer WiFi.

A couple of app crashes and moving to a part of Mediterranean Harbor with superior cell service later, and I was able to access free Standby Pass and Premier Access. At that time, both Peter Pan’s Never Land Adventure and Fairy Tinker Bell’s Busy Buggies had Standby Pass availability. For whatever it’s worth, Never Land Adventure is an incredible attraction, almost on par with Frozen Journey. If this ride is your “ticket” into Fantasy Springs, you’re not doing too poorly!

If it were just me, I would’ve been perfectly happy with Never Land Adventure. But Sarah had issues with motion sickness on that previously and we’re a family with a small child, so that made Never Land Adventure a no-go. We opted for Busy Buggies, which punches above its weight and provided us the requisite access into Fantasy Springs. As good as that ride is for what it is, we definitely wouldn’t have arrived over an hour and a half early and dealt with the stressful pre-park opening entry process.

In the interest of balance, arriving so early did mean we were able to to have our pick of the free Priority Passes, and it’s sometimes the case that arriving later means getting shut out of Indiana Jones Adventure. So at least there’s that. I quickly booked us for that attraction. I then tried my hand at all of the show lotteries, and failed at every single one.

We also had our pick of Premier Access options outside of those in Fantasy Springs. Again, in the interest of fairness, if we were normal guests who visit infrequently, we would’ve bought a couple. Journey to the Center of the Earth, Soaring: Fantastic Flight, and Tower of Terror all would’ve been “worth it” for the 90 minute to 210 minute lines they skipped. Having a toddler, we opted against those.

Even around 9:30 am, most headliner attractions already had wait times above 90 minutes, so we opted for one of our favorite attractions–the Venetian Gondolas. The wait was completely manageable and the experience was fantastic. Most of our morning would be occupied doing transportation attractions–probably not everyone’s idea of a good time, but we were perfectly happy.

After one of these, we headed over to the Broadway Music Theatre to see if there was standby/overflow seating for Big Band Beat: A Special Treat. For those unfamiliar with this show, it’s the COVID modified version of the swinging jazz revue at Tokyo DisneySea. The full show is fantastic–one of the greatest pieces of live entertainment Disney has ever produced. The modified version is fine, but doesn’t hold a candle to the real thing. (Note: our visit was in Late 2024, not 2021–COVID closures and modifications are still a thing at TDR.)

Anyway, we were informed that standby/overflow seating is no longer available–the only options are the Entry Request lottery, which we lost, or the new Premier Access. We would’ve maybe considered paying for the full show, but Tokyo Disney Resort charging for seating–and having no other option–at a COVID modified show in the year 2024 is just beyond the pale. At this point, I was getting more than a little frustrated at my favorite place on earth, but that was the end of our issues for the day.

The rest of our day at Tokyo DisneySea was very enjoyable. This is in part because we’re experienced guests and minimized friction. We knew to place Mobile Orders early and make midday table service restaurant reservations, avoiding buffeterias and snack stands that tend to have long lines. We went deep into the park while it was still fairly early, accomplishing a decent amount before lines built at those attractions.

We also knew not to hassle with more Standby Passes and Premier Access for Fantasy Springs. For what it’s worth, there are ‘drops’ throughout the day at which times more availability is added. We’ve scored spots this way in the past. The problem, at least for us, is that our internet is slow throughout much of the park, which makes this tedious and frustrating.

The last time we did this, I felt like my head was buried in my phone for a good chunk of the day as I was preoccupied refreshing the app. Although I came up empty many times, I was able to score Standby Passes for both Never Land Adventure and Frozen Journey. Whether that was worth the screen time is debatable.

For this trip, we made the judgment call that it was not–hence the early arrival in the first place as opposed to just winging it with Fantasy Springs drops throughout the day. We were there to enjoy time as a family, see our daughter’s reaction to Sindbad and Chandu, let her play in Mermaid Lagoon, take transportation rides, and so forth. All things that we accomplished with ease, even on a reasonably busy day when the headliners averaged wait times of ~120 minutes.

Speaking of which, I could’ve even done a headliner (by myself) at the end of the night! Sarah and Megatron left early, leaving me with the opportunity to jump into 90 minute lines for Journey to the Center of the Earth or Soaring: Fantastic Flight. Unfortunately, I couldn’t do this with 1 minute on the clock, as you can in the U.S. parks, because TDR now cuts the lines when the wait time plus the current time more or less corresponds with park closing. (It’s not precise.)

In fact, I did briefly jump into that 90 minute line for JTTCOE before seeing how backed up the standby line was and noticing the steady stream of Premier Access guests. At that point, I realized the wait time probably wasn’t inflated, and I didn’t “need” to do Journey to the Center of the Earth badly enough to endure an hour and a half wait by myself. I’d rather walk around and soak up the incredible atmosphere of Tokyo DisneySea at Christmas.

Ultimately, our day at Tokyo DisneySea was frustrating but, in the end, very fun and memorable (mostly for the right reasons). It started off on the wrong foot and, for that reason, we opted against even bothering with rope drop of Fantasy Springs for the rest of the trip. As a result, our experiences were even better on subsequent days, and that was in spite of moderate-to-high crowd levels. If I were reviewing our visit, it still would’ve been 5-stars. Okay, maybe 4.5-stars.

Of course, as you’ve probably been able to gather, our circumstances are fairly unique. We’re former Tokyo Disney Resort Annual Passholders and have done everything in the park many times. At this point, simply being there is almost enough for us. We are also ‘path of least resistance’ people, so if something is clearly going to be a problem or stressful, our approach is avoidance.

To wit, if we had that rope drop to do over again, our solution would not be to arrive even earlier–it would be not doing it at all. Because of this, I almost hesitated to even share this story, as it sounds a bit like entitled whining. Hopefully that’s not how it comes across, as our goal is informing–so you know what to expect when you visit and can adjust your plans and expectations accordingly.

The reason I am sharing is because, if we were first-timers, our ‘review’ of that day in Tokyo DisneySea be totally different. It would’ve been starting the day on a sour note, and potentially waiting in a bunch of long lines or buying our way out of them. It would’ve meant committing time to playing the refresh game for Frozen Journey, or giving up and savoring the atmosphere. It probably would’ve meant not having the knowledge or expertise to avoid pitfalls and friction.

Maybe we would’ve still been so blown away by the lavish themed design and extravagant attention to detail, and still given the park a 4 to 5-star review, but I’m honestly not sure. What I do know is that it would’ve been a sharp contrast to our first day in the park over a decade ago, when we instantly fell in love with Tokyo DisneySea. Other Disney diehards not having a comparable experience and falling in love with the world’s best theme park–when it’s firing on all cylinders and operating normally–is why I’m still reticent to enthusiastically endorse a visit to Tokyo Disney Resort in 2025.

The good news is that the entry process for Fantasy Springs is almost certainly changing in Spring 2025. However, the core problem of a supply-demand imbalance will persist, as it’s not like switching from a virtual queue to standby will alter capacity. What Tokyo DisneySea needs–like a year ago–is more entertainment, longer hours, and better staffing to help soak up the current crowds. Here’s hoping all of that happens, but Tokyo Disney Resort’s lethargic pace to restore normalcy–even as crowds explode–is not reassuring.

Planning a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort? For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea Trip Planning Guide! For more specifics, our TDR Hotel Rankings & Reviews page covers accommodations. Our Restaurant Reviews detail where to dine & snack. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money post. Our What to Pack for Disney post takes a unique look at clever items to take. Venturing elsewhere in Japan? Consult our Ultimate Guide to Kyoto, Japan and City Guide to Tokyo, Japan.

YOUR THOUGHTS

If you’ve visited Tokyo DisneySea since 2020, has your experience been positive? If you visited both before and after 2020, did the post-COVID visit measure up to the previous one? What are your thoughts on accessing Fantasy Springs and riding the rides? Have you been shut out of the new Peter Pan, Tangled, and Frozen land or were you easily able to access it? Thoughts on rope dropping Tokyo DisneySea, lines for security or the entrance, or anything else covered here? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback—even when you disagree with us—is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!