20,000 Leagues Under the Sea — Local services in Urayasu

"20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" is sort of a spiritual descendant of Disney's "Submarine Voyage" rides, but unlike those, it doesn't actually go under water; instead, it effectively simulates that with ride motion and fluid effects embedded in the vehicle portholes. That's probably much easier to keep running.

Physically, this is a sort of suspended dark ride, with submarine-themed ride vehicles hanging below the track. There are large bulging porthole-shaped windows through which you view the outside scenery, including glowing sea creatures, shipwrecks, a battle with a giant squid that tries to grab the vehicle, and a strange Atlantean civilization. At the beginning and end of the ride, bubbling fluid in the portholes makes it appear that you're descending into the sea and emerging from it. The best view is from the front seats but there are animatronics and gags positioned just for the benefit of people looking out the side portholes, so there's a lot of re-rideability there.

As with all of Tokyo DisneySea's rides, the on-ride narration is solely in Japanese apart from safety announcements. I didn't feel that I was missing much by not being able to understand that--the scenery is pretty easy to get.

I feel as if "20,000 Leagues" the ride doesn't get the respect it deserves--people may come in expecting it to be a thrill ride on the level of "Journey to the Center of the Earth" or "Indiana Jones", and it's not. But that also makes it accessible to people for whom "Journey to the Center of the Earth" is too much. This is a ride that children and seniors can handle, and this park knows the importance of having some of those to complement the higher-thrill rides. We actually went back and rode this a second time later in the day, we...

I have mixed feelings about this attraction.

I used an express pass, so I got in very quickly and didn’t have any negative thoughts. But if I had waited two hours in line for this, I probably would have been very disappointed—and maybe even angry.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea attraction itself is basically a small room decorated to look like a submarine. The lights go out, and you listen to a story about something happening underwater—hearing the captain shouting and occasionally seeing something resembling the ocean floor and sea creatures through the window.

After two minutes, it’s over, and you just walk out.

Another downside is that there isn’t much to look at while you’re waiting in line, unlike other attractions where the queue is decorated with interesting details to keep you entertained.

❗Don’t get me wrong—it wasn’t bad. It’s worth trying once, but maybe save it for the very end, after you’ve been on...

This ride is interesting and unique but if you’re going in the summer it is VERY HOT inside the submarine.

The ride centers around the idea of, well, deep sea exploration. You and 5 other people board one ship and each party of 2 will have some sort of contribution to the ship. The two parties on the left and right will be the ones “exploring” by using the designated lights controlled by a joystick while the party in the front and center will get the opportunity to do all of the action.

It is an interesting and unique ride that has a strange twist on mermaids and merpeople. Do I think it’s the best ride at Tokyo Disneysea? Not in the slightest, but if you do have the time to go then I recommend checking it out since the lines are never too long with...