Tokyo DisneySea

There is perhaps no theme park on Earth as grand as Tokyo DisneySea. Dedicated to the romance, adventure, and mystery of our water planet, the park is divided into six ports, each offering a connection to the water and the legends, myths, stories, and songs it inspires.

Some of these ports have become pinnacles of Disney Imagineering's portfolio, like the park’s iconic central port, Mysterious Island themed to the secret Vulcania lair of Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo. Mysterious Island is comprised of the geothermal vents and the bubbling, primordial lagoons of Mount Prometheus, a 200-foot tall rumbling, steaming, flame-belching volcano.

Image: Disney

Mysterious Island is comprised of the suspended oxidized catwalks that ring around the volcano’s collapsed caldera, with sudden bursts of steam and molten geysers acting as larger-than-life wonders of the land. Its two unforgettable headliners: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and the undisputed king of Modern Marvels: Journey to the Center of the Earth, each based on Jules Verne’s 19th century adventure novels.

Image: Disney

There’s also Lost River Delta – a vast South American adventure-land, with a bubbling river separating the modern encampments of explorers from the vast, misty jungles with criss-crossing dirt paths connecting the ancient temples that house the park’s Indiana Jones Adventure and its off-roading quest toward the legendary Fountain of Youth.

Image: Disney

Or the port that’s perhaps one of the most sensational Disney’s ever designed: Arabian Coast. It’s a photo-realistic world passed through a fantasy lens, housing the gorgeous double-decker Arabian Carousel, the mysterious Magic Lamp Theater, a street bazaar of shops, restaurants, and games as authentic and easy to get lost in as the Wizarding World, and the phenomenal can’t-miss original dark ride, Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage.

On and on, each port of DisneySea could itself support a day of exploration – lived-in, built-out worlds of adventure. DisneySea is that unique kind of park that you could spend a whole day in, ride nothing, and still leave feeling satisfied. With the grandeur of World Showcase, the beauty and “magic” of Disneyland Paris, the scale and scope of Animal Kingdom, and a legendary atmosphere sincerely its own, DisneySea is commonly agreed upon as the best theme park on Earth.

That being said, if you’re determined to ride something memorable, there’s another port you won’t want to miss.

American Waterfront

Image: Disney

American Waterfront is perhaps one of the most spectacularly-sized ports in all of DisneySea. A loving recreation of early 20th-century America’s northeastern seaboard, the port is divided into two regions: Cape Cod (a charming, relaxing, quaint seaside village) and the bustling new metropolis of New York Harbor, both literally appearing to be built on Tokyo Bay’s endless watery horizon.

Image: Disney

Our exploration today takes us to New York Harbor – a sprawling young city at the end of the Industrial Age. It’s a world of brick and iron, with the oxidized elevated rails of the DisneySea Electric Railway, delis, elaborate department stores, street vendors, and more, all recalling the wonders of this growing port city. Indeed, by stepping through these bustling electric streets, we're transported back to the 1920s and the heyday of the Big Apple.

It’s nearby in the New York Harbor area that you’ll find Toyville Trolley Park, presenting Toy Story Midway Mania in by far its most elaborate incarnation: an East Coast seaside boardwalk reminiscent of Brooklyn’s Coney Island, alight in the unfathomable wonder of the Electric Age. Fittingly, the area looks like the glistening end of the Toyville Trolley Company's criss-crossing pathways through te city.

Heading further through the streets of New York, you’ll pass through Waterfront Park en route to the harbor proper, home to the stunning S.S. Columbia, a full-scale steam-powered ocean liner open for exploration. Guests can walk the entire ship's deck and even down into its innards, containing the S.S. Columbia Dining Room restaurant and the internationally sought-after Teddy Roosevelt Lounge.

Image: Disney

Returning to that “better in Tokyo” idea, the S.S. Columbia also houses Turtle Talk with Crush in its lowest underwater deck, dressed as an underwater viewing chamber on the elaborate ship.

American Waterfront and its New York Harbor could be the subject of its own multi-day exploration, but the entire port is really built around one spectacular structure… Though even here in the 1920s, the glamor of the Hotel Hightower is long since faded...

The Hotel Hightower

Image: PeterPanFan, Flickr (license)

Rising from the cityscape of Park Avenue is a true beacon of the wealth and power of the Empire State: the Hotel Hightower is quite unlike anything you've seen before. Built decades before the Hollywood Tower Hotel would grace California's Tinseltown, the Hotel Hightower is another beast entirely...

It lends itself to the Moorish Revival architectural style that spread across the Western world as colonial British settlements in the Middle East made minarets, domes, multifoil arches, and other Asian influences. Still, there are tastes of New York's brownstones thrown in, plus elegant iron-lined windows and stained glass, robust patterns to highlight different sections of the building, and red brick chimneys, and glorious copper roofs with a matte seafoam patina overtaking them.

Click and expand for a larger and more detailed view. Image: Peter Lee, Flickr (license)

Put another way, there's nothing understated about the Hotel Hightower. And that's just how its builder wanted it. It's an icon of power looming over the unwashed masses below, complete with an ornate stone balcony high atop the tower – the presiding penthouse of its owner.

Speaking of whom, the whispers abound about Harrison Hightower III. They say that Hightower was a card-carrying member of a secret internaitonal organization called the Society of Explorers and Adventurers. Though, more appropriately for Mr. Hightower, a Society of Exploiters and Abusers. After all, it's said Hightower ventured across the globe collecting innumerable artifacts – and enough curses and bad karma for each. Something happened here on New Years Eve 1899 – more than twenty years ago – and the once-grand hotel has been shuttered ever since...

In fact, as the Roaring Twenties begin and the refuse of the past is swept away, the Hotel Hightower is slated for demolition.

Image: Jack Spence, AllEars.net

The good news for us is that a local organization – the New York Preservation Society – has deemed the Hotel Hightower a local landmark and are fighting to save it from the wrecking ball. But to rescue and restore the gargantuan hotel, they need to fundraise.

That's where you and I come in, because the New York Preservation Society has decided to pull back the doors of the once-headlining hotel to run tours of the supposedly "cursed" relics Harrison stored away inside. Of course, all press is good press, so to lure visitors into their tours of the hotel, they've come up with a catchy name to capitalize on the urban legend style mystery around Hightower and his artifacts, calling offering tours of "The Tower of Terror."

Image: Dejiki

Collect your FastPass ticket for the tour (from one of Disney's most highly-decorated FastPass distribution kiosks at any of its parks) and prepare.

The marketing must've worked, because we now stand before the Hotel Hightower eager to step inside and explore its mysteries. What did happen to Harrison Hightower all those years ago? Where are his treasures and relics? Perhaps our guide through the "Tower of Terror" can shed some light on this striking story.

Image: Dejiki

On the next page, our tour of the Hotel Hightower begins... Read on...