Pins of Mysterious Island

Today we finish our series on Mysterious Island with Pins of the island from Tokyo DisneySEA.

There are many pins that symbolize the port of call. All oddly enough feature Donald, maybe he is the unoffical mascot of Mysterious Island?These next few pins feature Mount Promenthus as the icon of the park for various reasons, such as this logo, or the countdown pin of 10 days till opening.

These two pins (to the left and right) feature the Nautilus submarine with the mountain rising out of the top and both are for the attraction of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.

These next three pins represent Journey to the Center of the Earth...With various Fab 5 characters inside the attraction Journeying to the Center of the Earth...

This pin if for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea...

This final pin is for the shop in this port of call, Nautilus Gifts, as a part of the Tokyo Pin of the Month series....

Well that is it for this installment of Mysterious ISland... Stay tuned to see what parade you picked... Please place your vote for the poll if you havent, if even if you have feel free to do it again.... Pictures from PinPics.com

20,000 Pics

Well there really wont be 20,000 pictures, this is just out last article depicting the history and such of Mysterious Island in Tokyo DisneySea, with our final one tomorrow featuring the Pins of Mysterious ISland. Most of these pics are concept art done by the Imagineer know as THOR.
THis final pic sums up the whole attraction with the submarine with key elements of the attraction featured in it, such as the ship graveyard, the treasure, the fish and of course the encounter with the giant squid...

For a video of the queue and attraction of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at Tokyo DisneySea: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsGp92IQCVc

All Pictures courtesy of AllEarNet's Jack Spence, Disneyandmore.blogspot.com and LaughingPlace.com and concept are Copyrighted by DISNEY

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

This type of "underwater" attraction has been used in Disney parks since the Submarine Voyage opened in 1959 in Disneyland and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea in 1971 at Magic Kingdom. But this 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is much different here in TDS than the others that used to be at MK and DL and the current Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage at Disneyland. THis attraction is more of a darkride on a track that is above you, similar to the track in Peter Pan's Flight around the world or a smaller version of the Monorail, above your head. This attraction has guests seated in a Nautilus submarine and sit infront of small port holes to view the scenes of the attraction, similar to the "original" at Magic Kingdom, just without water.

The story goes something like this...

In an unprecedented decision, Captain Nemo has invited the world's scientific community to come to Mysterious Island and share in his discoveries of the countless marvels and mysteries of the ocean's depths. He has announced that his special guests will be permitted to board one of his fleet of submersibles, similar to the Neptune, and join his crew as observers to assist in his research and to share the ocean's majesty.

board their vessel, guests descend a spiral ramp and enter a volcanic rock cavern that leads first to Captain Nemo's Private Study and Control Station. Discovering that Captain Nemo is working in another part of the facility, they are able to walk through these private quarters and observe Nemo's various notes, maps and research materials related to his studies of the sea and his efforts to develop the ocean floor for fanning. It is here too that they are introduced to the Aquaphone. Nemo's amazing wireless communications invention, which allows him to monitor activities throughout Mysterious Island and to broadcast information to his fleet of research vessels under the sea.

Moving along, they enter the Dive Hatch Area where they observe that Nemo and his crew are able to don diving suits and enter the ocean directly through a special pressure hatch. It is clear from the missing dive suits in the storage area, and from the seawater and kelp around the hatch, that divers must have recently used the hatch and that their dive is still in progress.
Soon the guests enter the Submarine Docking Port, a rock cavern that has been reinforced by large metal riveted plates. The submersibles are suspended from an overhead conveyor system for loading. They arc attached by large metal hooks that release the vessels into the water. Guests board the six-person submersibles and the conveyor moves them to the ocean's edge to be dropped into the water and begin their dive.

Upon release, Captain Nemo can be heard over the Aquaphone in the vessel. He broadcasts along the way and provides information to the intrepid voyagers about the sites they see. In their first view after diving to the ocean floor, they observe the beauty of the ocean reef around the perimeter of Mysterious Island. Then they enter one of the many undersea fields where Nemo is harvesting the limitless bounty of the ocean and continuing to develop and refine his Aquafarming operations.

Nemo reminds his guests that the ocean is a vast and wondrous place, but that it is not a domain that can be controlled by man-that man is merely a visitor in the sea. As evidence, guests next encounter a graveyard of lost ships. As they float through the Ship Graveyard, in and out of the wrecks of sunken ships from every era, they observe that all the power and riches the people who piloted these vessels might have possessed or sought, were only destined to become so much junk at the bottom of the sea-a playground for the denizens of the deep. But there is little time to reflect on the irony of man's quest for fame and fortune. Then the porthole shuts and the next thing you see is your submarine getting attacked by a giant squid. After escaping the giant squid your submarine ventures many feet below and discover many things never encountered before such as weird creaturs of Humanoid fish. After adventuring the seas, your submarine returns back to base and you exit.

That is it for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea segment... Tomorrow we will post the Pics of 20,000 segment... Also please vote on our poll about our next feature please and thank you.. You our readers mean a lot and I want to write about not only but I want, but also what interests you... So if you have any suggestions please comment or email our headquarters..

Information from LaughingPlace.com and DisneyandMore blog

Pics of the Center of the Earth

Today we are presenting a photo/ art tour using pics found in our research for this attraction...

This image is a conceptualized creature from underground done by the Imagineer known as "THOR"..

CONCEPT IMAGES Copyrighted to Walt Disney COmpany

ALL pictures from http://disneyandmore.blogspot.com and LaughingPlace.com

Journey to the Center of the Earth

Entering into the volcano to journey with Captain Nemo to tour the inside of this volcano. Many say that this attraction has a great queue and is well themed.

Here is a walkthrough of the attraction and story of Journey to the Center of the Earth...

Captain Nemo has established this desolate site as his secret base of operations. It is here that he is engaged in experiments and research intent upon unlocking the secrets of the oceans and uncovering the hidden forces of nature deep beneath the earth's surface.

On an ashen slope inside the caldera a crater formed at the base of the volcano, a large drilling machine hangs suspended from a huge crane. The hole it has created marks the place where Captain Nemo first discovered natural volcanic tunnels running through the caldera rock. Below the drilling machine is a giant screen to protect those below from falling debris and volcanic ash. Flanking either side of the screen are other corridors that Nemo's crew has drilled into the rock. These corridors lead to another natural cavern inside and the entrance to Journey to the Center of the Earth.

In an unprecedented decision. Captain Nemo has invited the world's scientific community to come to Mysterious Island and share in the discoveries he has made deep beneath the earthy surface. He has announced that his special guests will be permitted to board one of his fleet of smaller subterranean drilling vehicles, personally designed by Nemo himself specifically for scientific subterranean sightseeing excursions.

To reach their vehicle, guests must first trek through the Magma Sanctum (Lava Sanctuary). En route, you will hear Captain Nemo's voice welcoming you to witness the marvels that he has discovered.

As they make their way through the Lava Sanctum, they will pass Nemo's Study, where they will observe that the Captain has continued his study of the caverns he has discovered. It appears that he has recently been engaged in a study of maps he has made and is drafting new ones.

A little farther inside, they arrive at a cast iron structure with walls of glass. This is the Bio-Lab. Here, on worktables and shelves are various reference materials and unique samples Nemo and his crew have brought up from the center of the earth. They include beautiful colored crystals, gigantic mushrooms, bioluminescent life forms and petrified egg fragments that appear to be prehistoric.

As you move along, they pass a Specimen Case where more strange insects from the center of the earth are preserved and studied using gloved portals built into the side of the case. Nearby is the Workstation where experiments mechanical in nature are being conducted.

To board their vehicle, guests must now descend a half mile below the surface of the earth in a special elevator known as a Terravator, similar to the old Hydrolators at Epcot's old Living Seas pavilion. After a quick and exhilarating ride, guest arrive at another massive cavern dug by Nemo's drilling machine. This is the Base Station where they will board their subterranean vehicle. Large pistons shore up the rock walls and ceiling of this cavern and a giant bellows pumps in fresh air from the surface. Huge dynamos generate the electricity that lights the chamber.

As they make their way to the loading area, they pass the Communication Center, which is the terminus for a system of speaking lubes used by Nemo and his crew to communicate throughout this underground network of caves and drilling sites. On a large map overhead. signal lights indicate the condition of seismic activity. Since the station is unmanned at the moment, there is no notice taken by Nemo's crew of warnings over the speaking lubes to the dispatcher of increased volcanic activity and requests to suspend further departures of vehicles into the caves.

With you aboard, the vehicles pull out of the station and the excursion is underway. The plan calls for the vehicles to pass the areas where the samples from the Bio-Lab and Specimen Case were originally found. These places are all well known and well-explored by Nemo and his crew.
Starting at a leisurely pace, the vehicle enters the beautiful Crystal Cavern, a subterranean cave of colorful crystalline structures, the place is alive with sparkling color reflected and refracted onto the cave walls. Along its route, the vehicle passes through a Giant Mushroom Forest, a strange forest filled with huge. luminous mushrooms and populated by odd colorful creatures, never before seen on the earth. It all seems very wondrous and somehow quite safe until the vehicle travels ever deeper into the center of the earth and comes upon a vast Subterranean Sea. This cavern is vast and dark—so vast that it has developed its own atmosphere.

Along the way when almost in the end you encounter a large Audio Anamatronic Lava Monster coming out of the lava and trying to attack your vehicle. From there your vehicle picks up speed and races and shoots out of the side of the volcano and speeds around awhile outside. (similar to the system as Test Track at Epcot) Reentering the volcano you slow down and make your way back to the loading/unloading area.

Ok that is the overview and summary of Journey to the Center of the Earth... TOmorrow we will show pics and concept art of this attraction.. Once again we will be just splitting Pics and Pins segment to just Pics... and Pins... Stay tuned....

Information and Pics courtesy of LaughingPlace.com and DisneyandMore.com

Pics of Mysterious Island

Here today I would like to take you on a photo tour around Mount Promenthus in Pics of Mysterious Island...

First we have a few pics of Mount Promenthus from afar... including one with fire shooting from the top.

Throughout the water in the Mysterious Island area, geysers spray out of it from the warming from underneath the earth....
You will notice the recognizable mint green bridges and ramps throughout and around the mountain and island, another way to make this land more unique then anyother land in a US Disney Park.


While coming closer to the mountain you see a drilling machine in the side of it, a site that is forshadowing what you can ride into the core of the mountain....

To reach the attraction 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, you must travel down this sprial ramp... and pass by many sea and research items. This pic of the Nautilius in the water is just a photo-oppurtunity spot.

That is it for today... Tomorrow we will explore and Journey to the Center of Earth.... Once again sorry for no pins there really is not that many, so will hold on for them to be last for a final tie up of Mysterious Island...

Pictures from LaughingPlace.com and AllEars.Net

The Mystery Behind the Island

The concept of Mysterious Island has been around since the days of early Disneyland. With a proposed and conceptualized area of Discovery Bay, a Jules Verne inspired area. Then when building Disneyland Paris in the late 1980s the concept was used for its Tomorrowland, Discoveryland. But in the early 1990s the proposed second gate of Disneyland Resort in California was Port Disney. And in it was the land of Mysterious Island, similar to how it is now in Tokyo DisneySea, but never approved, the idea sat in the Imagineering offices for years until, the Oriental Land Company (the operators of Tokyo Disney Resort) greenlite the Port Disney concept under the name of Tokyo DisneySea, and Mysterious Island was in the plan, and not just in the back of park but as the main port of call and icon of the whole park. A HUGE honor for this small little land.


You enter via a tunnel carved through the side of the volcano, and find yourself in the crater. Below you can see the Nautilus docked. Above is a huge "drilling machine" stuck into the rocks. Blasts of steam vent from parts of the crater. It's 1870 and you're on a volcanic island in an uncharted part of the Pacific Ocean. But it's not the real 1870, it's Jules Verne's. It's not even a real island... It's an eye-poppingly massive monument to exactly what Walt Disney Imagineering can do. The startlingly realistic 167 foot tall Mount Prometheus, with its billowing smoke and sudden thunderous eruptions of fire. So realistic, yet so other-worldly at the same time. A bizarre environment of geothermal activity which envelops one in its walls and is made even more strange by the threatening devices of a mad genius. Those devices include a large scale exterior mock-up of the Nautilus submarine, a research submarine base, and an automated drilling device in the process of boring into the side of the live volcano. The attention to detail is taken to an even greater level of realism in this place. It's Captain Nemo's home and it's about to explode.


This port of call really isnt an island by itself it also is attached to Mermaid Lagoon, the home of Ariel and her Underwater friends and shares the front with the Mediterranean Harbor's Fortress Explorations. This port of call features two landmark attractions, three restaurants and one shop. Most of which are built into the giant Mt. Promenthus, the weenie of the park and icon of the park as well. The showbuilding for both attractions: Journey to the Center of the Earth and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and Vulcania Restaurant are all built into the mountain.


Our next post we will break up Pics and Pins to just be Pics of Mysterious Island... Stay Tuned. [Sorry for no pics, my computer wont let me upload them. Hopefully will beable to tomorrow]

Information for this post was from LaughingPlace.com and MouseSavers.com.