A Look at Tokyo DisneySea’s $2.3 Billion Fantasy Springs Expansion
Oriental Land Company, the owner and operator of the Disney Parks in Japan, held the groundbreaking for its 250 billion yen (~$2.3 billion) expansion of Tokyo DisneySea, which it announced will be named Fantasy Springs. In this post, we’ll share new concept art and thoughts on this record-setting addition to what’s already the best theme park in the world.
Fantasy Springs will be inspired by “a magical spring leading to a world of Disney fantasy” and will be the overarching theme for the port that brings Frozen, Tangled and Peter Pan mini-ports to Tokyo DisneySea. When it was announced last year, we dubbed this area FantaSea Springs; turns out we weren’t too far off.
As we also previously reported in our “New Frozen, Peter Pan & Tangled Areas, In-Park Hotel Coming to Tokyo DisneySea” announcement post, this will be the most expensive addition to any theme park ever. While Walt Disney World and Disneyland haven’t released official numbers for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, estimates peg each of those lands at just under $1 billion.
This is no knock on Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, which itself is no slouch. That rumored $1 billion is a hefty price tag for a single land, and the end results (or at least what’s been shared thus far) look pretty fantastic. It’s difficult to imagine a land being over double the cost of that, Cars Land, or Pandora – World of Avatar (both of which are also stunning), but that’s exactly the case with Fantasy Springs.
Ultimately, the difference between Fantasy Springs and all of the aforementioned additions is that DisneySea’s new port will feature four new attractions, three restaurants, and one gift shop. Three of the new attractions will be boat rides, which is fitting for Tokyo DisneySea. It’s unclear how lavish the rides will be, but we’re expecting at least two of them to be E-Ticket attractions.
The Fantasy Springs name was announced at the joint groundbreaking ceremony and traditional Shinto prayer for safe construction held by Oriental Land Company and the Walt Disney Company held at the planned development site.
OLC COO Keiichiro Kaminishi, OLC President & CEO Kazumi Toshio, and Disney CEO Bob Iger were on hand for the ground-breaking, with the latter two offering remarks:
Before we offer much more commentary, let’s take a look at a video fly-through of the new concept art for Fantasy Springs.
We’ll have images of the concept art later in the post, but we’d recommend watching the video, as it does a great job of showing the day-to-night transitions:
Now for the same thing via concept art:
In my commentary to the initial announcement, I expressed some trepidation. Namely, that this further cartoonifies Tokyo DisneySea, a park that was originally built with a more mature audience in mind. That remains a concern, and one that I think is valid given Japan’s aging population.
Without question, Fantasy Springs will be a great draw in terms of current guest demographics at Tokyo Disney Resort. How it’ll hold up in a decade or two remains to be seen. When it was built, Tokyo DisneySea had the long-term in mind. There has been a slow pivot from that as more immediate returns could be seen from a character-centric approach.
Thematically, I’ve started to come around on Fantasy Springs. Selfishly, I’d love for Tokyo DisneySea to be a treasure trove of original concepts and deeper dives into grittier intellectual property. Part of why I instantly fell in love with Tokyo DisneySea is because it carried forward the torch of EPCOT Center in its own way.
With that said, Tokyo DisneySea has always shoehorned attractions and concepts into the park. Its main sense of thematic integrity and cohesion comes from the various waterways and the themed ports themselves. On an attraction level, it’s hard to claim that Indiana Jones Adventure, Journey to the Center of the Earth, or Tower of Terror–universally beloved DisneySea rides–have any logical nexus to the sea.
Those attractions, along with others at Tokyo DisneySea, succeed because of the way they are framed in the overarching themes of the park. They’re not scrutinized because they’ve been there since the earlier era of Tokyo DisneySea, and they just work. (They’re probably also given a pass by fans because they’re exceptional attractions that don’t seek to highlight popular, arguably overused animated films.)
Fantasy Springs has the same potential. It could frame this magical springs feature multiple animated properties in a way that cohesively works with the rest of Tokyo DisneySea. If anything, these particular movies are better fits for DisneySea than the attractions mentioned above–all of animated films feature water and their rides will utilize boats. Sure, Fantasy Springs might be treading a bit close to Fantasyland, but if the land itself is unique and compelling (and the concept art sure makes that look to be the case), I doubt many people will worry about that.
This is just one of several huge projects to expand Tokyo Disney Resort, which is pictured in the map above. (The blue area is Tokyo DisneySea and the green is Tokyo Disneyland.)
The bottom yellow area is a new Toy Story hotel, the upper left yellow area is a new parking structure, and the red is this Fantasy Springs expansion, which will replace what’s currently a parking lot and will basically abut the Bayside Station monorail stop.
It’s more difficult to ascertain, but the solid green area (just above the red) in Tokyo Disneyland is the Beauty and the Beast mini-land (and Fantasyland expansion) currently under construction at Tokyo Disneyland at a cost of $750 million.
The solid blue area in the middle-ish area of Tokyo DisneySea is Soaring: Fantastic Flight. This new attraction will debut on July 23, 2019. As you can see from what OLC has released, this will be an incredibly lavish presentation of Soarin.
Overall, we’re incredibly excited about the future of Tokyo Disney Resort. While we absolutely love the Japan parks, the level of capital invested on new attractions in the last decade had been lagging behind the United States parks. With all of these new additions, that will no longer even be remotely the case starting this summer and continuing every year through 2022!
If you’re thinking of visiting Japan for the first time and are overwhelmed with planning, definitely check out our Tokyo Disney Resort Planning Guide. It covers much more than the parks, from getting there to WiFi to currency and much, much more. For more photos and an idea of what we did day-by-day during our first visit, read our Tokyo Disney Resort Trip Report.
Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Fantasy Springs expansion at Tokyo DisneySea? Do you think this is a good fit for the park? Do all of these additions to Tokyo Disney Resort between 2020 and 2022 make you want to plan a trip there? Any questions? Hearing your feedback is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
I don’t think it cartoonifies the park at all. In fact I love that they are sticking to core Disney IPs and Pixar IPs. This is what Disney is about, the world of fantasy and magic. I don’t want Marvel or Star Wars polluting the Disney experience I’ve come to love.
I know I will love this new port very much.
Well, we were already considering a trip to China and Japan for the Disney theme parks, now it’s time to start planning! Maybe May or September for mild weather, but need to pick a year… When are most of these wonderful additions scheduled to be complete?
Thanks for the update! Exciting to hear this – as a non US reader it should be cheaper to visit than the American parks. Hoping for 2022.
Although I prefer original attractions over IPs, I like the look of the plans for Fantasy Springs. Once again, I am jealous DisneySea is not located in USA. I would rather have these TDL/TDS expansions instead of non-Disney IPs in WDW and DLR (Marvel, Pandora, and Star Wars).
Texas Disneysea has a certain ring to it. 🙂
It would have been helpful if you’d put in your headline that the expansion is planned for Tokyo Disney. I really dislike teasers that turn out to be something different from the headline
The headline says: “A Look at Tokyo DisneySea’s $2.3 Billion “Fantasy Springs” Expansion”. Tokyo is the 4th word. 🙂
The headline to the article does, but not the e-mail the link was in. I too was extremely disappointed to find it’s going to be in Tokyo 🙁
The email actually just said Fantasy Springs but nothing about location, I assumed Florida too. Disappointing,
I’m like so many that won’t ever go to the Asian parks. So as a Disney fan, it’s sad that we don’t have a version of DisneySea in the US. Hey I’m even bummed we in FL won’t get a Marvel Land. Yay Universal agreement. But I do hate reading that OLC is better at Disney than Disney.
So sick and tired of hearing about ALL this exciting stuff happening at Disney properties in Europe and Asia where most AMERICANS will NEVER get to experience. Toyko seems to get all the most amazing editions and I am very jealous!
I agree that Japan (specifically) has the BEST expansions for everything! Even other theme parks that rival Disney. I think these properties would be more accessible if Disney made buying packages more accessible. I can’t tell you how many times I tried to ‘price’ a package in Japan but it wouldn’t let me book a stay more than 3 days or it didn’t have the currency exchange viewpoint available. I think they need an American-friendly website for abroad properties so we can book in advance and budget accordingly. The properties abroad aren’t very pricey in comparison to Walt Disney World at all. In reality, it’s the flights that cost families a HUGE amount from the states. Anywho, my point is that I’m jealous too. And, I would like an easier way to book a package deal on the Japanese website, so I can stay ON the resort and not at a nearby Hilton.
I think that there is some kind of restriction on OLC that they are not allowed to actively market Tokyo Disney Resort outside of Japan, so that they don’t cannibalise attendance at the Disney-owned resorts. (Maybe that’s a myth but it would make sense). That will probably prevent them making it too easy for us…
Completely off-topic: I wonder why Disney Cruise Line doesn’t make more of the asian parks? All of the asian parks would be very accessible via ship – can you imagine a sailing from California to Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo taking in all of the parks?
“I wonder why Disney Cruise Line doesn’t make more of the asian parks?”
The reason Disney ‘overlooks’ Tokyo Disney Resort is because Disney doesn’t own it. That’s why it’s not included with Adventures by Disney packages, and if/when one of the ships is relocated to Asia, it likely won’t be one of the featured land/sea destinations.
Shanghai and Hong Kong are a different story, but Disney has no reason to promote Tokyo beyond the basic ‘courtesy’ marketing of announcements on the Disney Parks Blog. Moreover, as U.S. guests make up an incredibly small guest demographic, OLC has no incentive to actively market the parks to us.
“And, I would like an easier way to book a package deal on the Japanese website, so I can stay ON the resort and not at a nearby Hilton.”
For what it’s worth, the Hilton *is* on property. It’s connected to the parks via the monorail, and is closer to both Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea than the Polynesian is to Magic Kingdom.
I wouldn’t get too hung up on booking a vacation package. We’ve never bothered with that; the individual components are much easier to purchase on their own.
tom, do you have a post on this site you could link that outlines planning a trip there? if not, would it be possible to post one? same question for DLP?
Laura-
Comprehensive Tokyo Disney Resort Planning Guide:
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/tokyo-disney-trip-planning-guide/
Disneyland Paris: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/disneyland-paris-trip-planning/
They need to build a frozen and tangled land here in Florida!! We have plenty of space and it would be a wonderful addition to the parks.
I agree! I’m amazed at the glacial speed of Disney especially with Frozen. It was an enormous hit and it took them a year to get merchandise into stores. They have a ride they did an overlay on but that’s it for one if their biggest hits ever. Tangled is also very popular with children especially. And Peter Pan come on that’s one of their biggest classics.
I’m so excited for this. Yes, it’s a little bit of a change of focus for DisneySea, but to me it’s more appropriate than Ariel’s Undersea Kingdom (or whatever it’s called) which always stuck out as not really ‘fitting’ within the park, despite it fulfilling a useful function. I think it will be absolutely amazing. I see another trip to Tokyo in a few years….
It will be fascinating to see how it integrates with the hotel and with Disneyland. After, Fantasy Springs and Fantasyland will now be right up against each other – will there be an entrance between the two parks? Will it effectively make it one large park for guests with parkhoppers and annual passes? Or will the hotel serve as a portal between them?
Has Disney said that anything is going away to make room for these rides? My first thought when I heard the news was that one of these boat rides will be a retheme of Sinbad, given its location right about where Fantasy Springs starts, as well as the fact that it’s never appeared to be all that popular (as much as I love it) and we would otherwise have four boat rides next to each other….
I don’t know if I’ll ever get there (4 kids about to enter college every 2y for an eternity), but the fact that they have 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and it looks way cooler than the one I remember here as a kid…it’s basically moved to the top of my dream travel wish list.
Anyone else find it ironic that all the big expansions in the U.S. are non-Disney IP (Avatar, Star Wars, Marvel) while Tokyo gets all the Disney ones (Beauty and the Beast, Peter Pan, Tangled, Frozen)?
In terms of popularity, Disney animated films overshadow other IP in Japan–both at the box office and in merchandise sales.
We’re just back this week from Tokyo and our first visit to Disney Sea. Tom’s remark that this is the best Disney theme park for unique activities in the world is spot on. It’s excellent – and we’ve visited all of them outside of China. Outside of that, it has a few glitches. After spending a hour on the train from downtown Tokyo to get there, it was disappointing to have to take (and pay extra for) another train – the park monorail. The “western” food at the signature restaurants was not great, even by theme park standards. Also, oddly, you simply can’t buy a shirt or hat that says “Tokyo Disney Sea” at ANY gift shop; they just don’t have them – but there are entire stores dedicated to Duffy the Bear (so that’s where all that junk went)! Still, these glitches are nit-picky. If you get the chance, go!
You are right; for all of the wonderful things about the Tokyo resort, the merchandise definitely clashes with prevailing Western trends/fashion.
I had a real issue with Duffy & Friends before visiting the Asia parks, and now after visiting the resorts in Tokyo, HK, and Shanghai, I totally get it. For some reason it just makes perfect sense there, and I’m now a HUGE Gelatoni fan!
I did find a simple T shirt that said “Tokyo DisneySea” on it but it took a LOT of searching around. I don’t even recall which gift store I found it in, though it was inside the park.
Very excited for this. The Tokyo resort never disappoints. That’s why, regardless of the specific project, we can rest assured it will be nothing short of spectacular.
I’m very excited for these new additions. It’s amazing that Disney has never done anything with Peter Pan except one ride especially because it’s always been such a popular ride. Going to be planning a trip to Japan for 2023. The focus of our trip will be Japan in general but will definitely have to have a few days at Disney. How many days do you recommend?
Our Tokyo Disney Resort Planning Guide has a “How Many Days” section: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/tokyo-disney-trip-planning-guide/
That’s it, we’re going in 2023!! Avoiding the chaos of the Olympics and seeing these new additions will be great. The next decision will be when to go during 2023 to avoid the most crowds. Thanks for the update Tom, gotta go save up now.
“The next decision will be when to go during 2023 to avoid the most crowds.”
We can help with that! See our when to visit post: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/tokyo-disneyland-crowds-tips/
…and crowd calendar post: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/crowd-calendars-tokyo-disneyland-disneysea/
Suddenly I feel a need to price a future trip to Japan. All of your reviews have made we want to visit Disney in Tokyo but this new land is extra appealing. Excited for the future of all these projects.
I’m with you Sydney. We’re considering a pre-Olympic spring break trip to Tokyo next year. Without this blog, I don’t think that would ever have entered our minds.
Tom’s reviews have had the same effect on me – we’ll absolutely be hitting Japan after our big Disneyland/California holiday.