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TOKYO DISNEYLAND
at the Tokyo Disney Resort
Tokyo, Japan (Abbreviation: TDL)
Disney & Oriental Land Company (OLC)

General Resort News - (8/29/2024) Tokyo Disneyland is installing a special overlay for their version of It’s a Small World that will run from Jan. 15th through to June 30, 2025. In this limited-time attraction, an assortment of Marvel themed figures, created in the style of the Small World children figures, are being added throughout the classic attraction’s various scenes.
    While this sounds a little weird at first, remember that Disneyland did something similar back in 2009 to their version of “Small World” by adding an assortment of Disney and Pixar animation characters into the mix. A teaser video from the park is showing off many of the Marvel characters to be added to the ride, and based on the look of things, there will be several versions of Groot to enjoy along with lots of Guardians of the Galaxy characters to love.
    These look like a fantastic addition, and if the public falls in love with it, you never know, some of them might have to stay.

 
    (8/11/2024) Tokyo Disneyland will launch a new nighttime spectacular this year on Sept. 20th called “Reach for the Stars”
 
    (5/18/2024) Want to be one of the last riders to experience Tokyo Disneyland’s original Space Mountain taking place on July 31, 2024. The park has begun to promote the big finale of the classic attraction as “The Final Ignition!”, and is now offering people the chance to essentially purchase a lottery ticket to be entered into a drawing to win a pass to ride Space Mountain once on the very last day.
 
    (12/17/2023) Tokyo Disneyland Planning Farewell Event for Space Mountain in 2024
 
    (11/4/2023) The Tokyo Disney Resort has reported increased attendance at their properties thus far for the first six months of the Oriental Land Company’s fiscal year. This represents a nearly 40% increase over the same term from the previous year for a total of 12.5 million visitors, with 1.63 million of them being international guests visiting from countries outside of Japan. Rising international tourism is a good thing to see, after Japan largely shut down visits from international visitors throughout the pandemic. OLC’s prediction for the full 12-month fiscal year that will end on March 31st, 2024 is estimated to be around 26.3 million guests.
    This will all take place before the opening of the huge Fantasy Springs expansion in the Tokyo DisneySea park in June 2024 that will surely boost attendance once again for next year’s numbers.
 
    (8/5/2023) The Tokyo Disney Resort has updated their planned attraction closures for the first half of 2024 and another item that caught my eye was a 4 month long planned closure for Big Thunder Mountain. The biggest roller coaster in the park will be closed from Feb. 7, 2024 until June 13th, 2024. No word yet on what may be planned. While some scenic improvements are always a possibility, there is also a chance that the roller coaster track itself may be undergoing some extensive maintenance during this time period as we’ve seen take place periodically at the US counterparts.

2026 - Wreck-It Ralph Dark Ride - (4/28/2024) Tokyo Disneyland surprised everyone with the announcement that the park would be closing down their current Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters dark ride (that just turned 20 years old). The attraction will close in October 2024 and be replaced by a new interactive dark ride themed to the Wreck-It Ralph animated film series. According to the press release guests will “enter the candy-themed racing game Sugar Rush, which is being attacked by Sugar Bugs – glitches created by King Candy. Guests team up with the beloved film characters Ralph and Vanellope to transform the Sugar Bugs back to their original “kawaii” confectionery such as cookies and cakes.”
    While the final name for the new dark ride has yet to be announced,  the park did confirm that it would be ready to open sometime in 2026 and that the neighboring “Planet M” gift shop will also be rethemed.
    The timing is interesting, as the park’s Tomorrowland will be undergoing some significant changes over the next two years, with the closing of Space Mountain taking place on July 31st 2024, shortly before Buzz Lightyear closes. However the new version of Space Mountain will not be ready until sometime in 2027. The closure of both attractions, located right down the center of Tomorrowland itself, will create an interesting void, but also makes one wonder what other changes could be in store for Tokyo’s Tomorrowland going forward.
    This will also be the second of the Buzz Lightyear themed dark rides closed to be transformed into new attractions. The first one was at Hong Kong Disneyland which opened in 2005 and closed in 2017 to be transformed into a Marvel themed ‘Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle!” dark ride. Other than the soon to close ride in Tokyo, the other remaining Buzz Lightyear themed dark rides are located at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (opened 1998), Disneyland (2005), Disneyland Paris (2006) and Shanghai Disneyland (2016).

2027 - New Space Mountain - (11/19/2024) Did the layout for Tokyo Disneyland’s NEW version of Space Mountain leak online this week? An interesting coaster layout was spotted online that does bear a striking resemblance to what Tokyo is currently building right now from Intamin. Perhaps the most curious feature of the entire layout shown is that after leaving the station the trains will make a slow 180º turn and enter what appears to be a tilt-track that will move the train from a fairly level horizontal position and tilt-up to engage with what would normally be a lift hill, though in this case we can only assume it will be an LSM launch hill to fire the train to the top of the Space Mountain dome at the start of the ride. Think of this as sort of a modern take on what Disney and Vekoma created with Space Mountain in Paris.

 
    (10/13/2024) One of our readers stopped by Tokyo Disnseyland this weekend and sent back another fantastic set of pictures of the new Space Mountain under construction. I zoomed in to a couple of the sections where we can get a look at what’s going on in the center of the dome to get a closer look at the track installed so far inside before they close off that final section forever.
    Meanwhile the old Space Mountain is now closed for good, but the structure is still standing and intact from what we can see from this angle, though I surmise they probably already have have crews inside starting to taking the old attraction apart before they demolish the iconic outer structure.
 
    (9/28/2024) A new construction video shot from the Tokyo Disneyland Monorail this week by TheCoasterKings gives us a great look at the progress on the park’s NEW Space Mountain. While there is a lot of scaffolding and structure up around the perimeter, you can also get a great view at the beautiful tangled mess of roller coaster track that has already been installed on the inside! Plus there is a definite structure that seems to rise to the top of the dome from the connected rectangular building to the side that will likely contain a lift or maybe even a launched lift.
    Meanwhile, you can still see the dome of the old Space Mountain in the background, which closed forever to guests at the end of July 31st, so it’s only a matter of time before they begin to take that structure down.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Coaster Kings (@thecoasterkings)

 
    (5/19/2024) Special thanks to one of our readers who was just at Tokyo Disneyland and sent back some great shots of the NEW Space Mountain construction site, as seen from the resort monorail. As you can see they’ve got a very large crane on site moving the pieces into the future Space Mountain dome structure before they fill in that wall segments. Some track pieces and supports are already installed and visible.  As we move out to the wider shots, we also get a clear view of the entire project site and realize that this new new version of Space Mountain won’t just be self-contained inside the dome structure like the originals, but instead will be attached to a fairly large rectangular shaped building hidden from view behind the dome. Once the crane is no longer needed, my guess is that this back building construction will also expand to cover the long empty stretch currently occupied by the crane as well.
    If I had to guess, the station, maintenance bays and likely a good segment of the queue may likely be located within this back segment, along with some segments and show scenes for the ride itself, along with the entirety the of main Space Mountain dome.
 
    (4/22/2024) Another piece of track has been spotted for Tokyo Disneyland’s new Space Mountain and this one is a bit different than what you might expect. According to the post, they believe this track section to possibly be part of an Intamin Drop Track, Bungee or Lift Track effects system.
    If so, it sounds like this next generation Space Mountain ride may become much more interesting that we at first suspected.

First piece of track has been seen for Tokyo Disney’s Space Mountain Intamin coaster. And to make things REALLY interesting, it’s a piece of drop track. Even more enticing, it could also potentially be a never before seen bungee lift element from Intamin ???? pic.twitter.com/oM6xDKkQ1R — Wallin Ballin (@wallin_ballin) April 21, 2024

 
    (3/31/2024) A few new pictures on Reddit show off the vertical construction of the next-gen version of Space Mountain now under construction at Tokyo Disneyland. Several of the dark colored vertical track supports are already standing within the new structure, and if you look carefully at the bottom of the photo, just to the left of center, you can see a piece of track has already been installed as well.
    What is interesting is that while Disney has long had a history of mainly hiring Vekoma to build their roller coasters, the style of the track piece seen in the photo looks more like Intamin track. While this obviously isn’t a close-up image of the track in question, the styling does appear to match the kind of track Intamin has been producing for their major new launched coasters over the past couple years, such as VelociCoaster, Batman Gotham City Escape, Toutatis and Pantheon.
    This wouldn’t be the first time that Disney has worked with Intamin, as the pair did partner to create the Incredicoaster (then California Screamin’) at California Adventure, the Indiana Jones et le Temple du Peril at Disneyland Paris and in Japan they worked at Tokyo DisneySea on Raging Spirits which opened in 2005, and was the last new coaster built at the Tokyo Disney Resort.

Construction update for the new [Space Mountain, Tokyo Disneyland]. It's an Intamin byu/Projektion inrollercoasters

 
    (12/17/2023) While Tokyo Disneyland started construction on their next-gen version of Space Mountain almost a year ago, they’ve been holding off on announcing an official closing date to the original, until now. The park has now announced that they will be hosting a celebration event to say goodbye to the original Space Mountain from April 9 to July 31, 2024, with the ride closing forever at the end of the night on July 31st.
    From the sound of things, June and July might be a great time to visit the two Tokyo Disney Resort theme parks, as the new Fantasy Springs area and attractions at Tokyo DisneySea are set to open on June 6th. Time it right and  you can try out the newest attractions while saying goodbye to a classic.
 
    (7/22/2023) Construction continues as cranes and piledrivers are assemble on the site of Tokyo Disneyland’s next-gen Space Mountain, as shown in the tweet below. As we previously mentioned, the plan is to begin building the new domed structure BEHIND the existing Space Mountain structure, which will remain open until they are ready to close it for good sometime in 2024.
    Once demolished the site of the old Space Mountain will be cleared out and used to create a new open plaza area in front of the new attraction building, which is something they were not able to do when they built the first one. A fan’s 3D modeling of what the new plaza space may look like once the new Space Mountain opens can also be seen below.

???????????????????? pic.twitter.com/G8tqajatff — ???? (@Sea_Mattsu) July 19, 2023

????????????????????! pic.twitter.com/TJ6sBgMOJn — ???? (@Sea_Mattsu) January 5, 2023

 
    (5/28/2023) A couple of new pages added to DisneyGeek this past week show off construction  progress on the new Space Mountain at Tokyo Disneyland as seen on May 13 and May 16, as crews are preparing the site for the new attraction just behind the existing Space Mountain structure.
 
    (1/9/2023) Special thanks to reader Ted Gressick who visited Tokyo Disneyland just before Christmas and managed to grab a great photo from the monorail showing off construction already in progress for the new version of Space Mountain set to open in 2027. While the existing Space Mountain will remain in operation through to 2024, we can see that the entire space behind the existing attraction has been cleared out and work crews are already installing piles into the ground back there needed to support the huge new domed attraction structure.
    With at least a year or more to go until the old Space Mountain closes down, what this also means is that the NEW Space Mountain structure will rise long before the old one closes, but this also means that the new attraction will likely be bigger and definitely located further out towards the outer perimeter of the park than the existing Space Mountain. This would put the new Space Mountain more in line with the peritmiter created by the new Beauty & The Beast attraction building. This also explains why in the artwork, the new Space Mountain seems to have a nice wide entrance plaza in front of it, while the existing Space Mountain does not.
    So when the time comes to close Space Mountain sometime in 2024, the new Space Mountain structure located behind it should likely already be well under way. This would technically allow the new ride to be under construction at the same time that demolition crews arrive to begin gutting the inside of the old ride hardware, ahead of a full demolition of the structure itself once it is empty. The interesting thing is that once the old Space Mountain building is ready to come down, they will likely already have the new ride structure fully enclosed behind it to establish a new skyline for Tomorrowland a year or two before they are ready to open it.
 
    (4/28/22)  Tokyo Disneyland surprised everyone with the announcement that the park’s Space Mountain attraction will be undergoing a complete overhaul. As part of the announcement, new concept art was released that definitely gives the iconic mountain attraction an all new look that will set it apart from its American counterparts.
    Gone is the old classic hard-line design and find a new Space Mountain design that seems to have taken on more of a swooping organic style of design instead. According to the release this will be an “entirely new attraction” featuring new “immersive special effects”, but will maintain the original concept of an indoor roller coaster ride through outer space.
    As you may have guessed, this seems to be a complete rebuild of the attraction that will see the original Tokyo Disneyland Space Mountain close for good sometime in 2024 and reopen sometime in 2027. The project will also see a new enhanced plaza built around the new Space Mountain that will “express the connection between Earth and the universe, representing an image of a future where humans are in harmony with nature.””
    No further details were given about what the new attraction experience may offer but I am very curious. Tokyo’s Space Mountain opened in 1983 and was built essentially as a clone of the Disneyland version that opened in 1977 and later closed for it’s own rebuild in 2003. When the Disneyland version was rebuilt over a two years period, they really only rebuilt the actual roller coaster ride inside of the structure. It isn’t known if any of Tokyo’s original structure will remain, or if this will be a complete rebuild.