TheThemeParkGuy

The Tokyo Disneyland photos from my helicopter flight in February 2008 didn't turn out the way I wanted them to. This time I was luckier: below are some proper aerial shots of Oriental Land's brilliant Disneyland park! You can now clearly identify the new Monsters Inc Ride and discover Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain and the Jungle Cruise from above.

What pictures can't capture is the fantastic work of the staff on the ground. Visiting Tokyo Disney Resort is a spa treatment for the mind due to its enthusiastic, engaging and polite Japanese employees.

[additional 2009 aerials added on April 02, 2013]

I have never seen visitors as happy as in this theme park. The Japanese really embrace their Disneyland and have made it the busiest theme park on earth. This overwhelming passion everywhere will make you forgive a 100-minute queue for a 3-minute Fantasyland ride.

Japan’s amazing Disneyland comprises updated and predominantly better versions of all the popular rides in the two American Disney parks. 

Particularly outstanding: 'Winnie the Pooh’s Honey Hunt', situated in Fantasyland. No joke! It’s insanely good. There are rides with the same name in Hong Kong and Orlando, but this one is different and much better. Kids aged 5-99, give it a go! A track-free, magnet-driven honey pot drives you randomly through different rooms portraying a dream of Winnie the Pooh. Your pot even hops around with Tigger. This ride is a jewel, exclusive to Tokyo Disneyland.

Other highlights include a great version of the 'Splash Mountain' flume ride, an atmospheric 'Big Thunder Mountain' roller coaster, an awesome 'Pirates of the Caribbean' dark ride featuring Jack Sparrow (a stunningly life-like animatronic), a very good 'Haunted Mansion' ghost castle, a 'Space Mountain' roller coaster, a 'Star Tours' flight simulator and of course the Disney castle, similar to the one in Florida.

The staff in Tokyo Disneyland is the best of any Disney park in the world and takes good care of non-Japanese visitors as well. No complaints, no improvements, nothing to add: a great day awaits you over there! But don’t you dare miss DisneySea next door, the best theme park in the world.