Disney Park Reaches Breaking Point, “The Crowds Are Apocalyptic”
Guests believe one Disney park is reaching the brink when it comes to attendance lately.
In the years since COVID-19, attendance patterns at Disney parks have shifted significantly. While Disney World and Disneyland Resort experienced a 1% drop in visitors this fiscal year – following a 1% increase in 2024 – regular guests claim that there’s no longer a “quiet” season for the U.S. parks, which instead feel steadily crowded throughout the year.
We’ve experienced something similar at Disneyland Paris, where the parks have reached capacity on multiple occasions this year.
Tokyo Disney Resort has not escaped that shift.
Crowds Reach New Levels at Tokyo DisneySea
Tokyo DisneySea remains one of the most admired theme parks on earth. Its scale, design, and nearly obsessive attention to detail continue to draw global travelers. The result is a daily crush of visitors that now stretches the park’s operations to breaking point — and a recent viral Reddit post from an experienced Disney fan puts that tension into uncomfortably clear focus.
While the guest acknowledged that Tokyo DisneySea is “stunning,” “jaw-dropping,” and “themed to perfection,” they claimed that these highlights are slightly marred by its operational issues.
According to the poster, the line times “hit you like a brick wall.” They’ve visited Disney parks worldwide and insist they know what crowded looks like — but the situation at Tokyo DisneySea “is a different kind of crowding.”
While the walkways, supported by the park’s large footprint, remain manageable, the attractions do not. Two- to three-hour waits dominate the board, and guests line up with a calm patience the poster calls unprecedented.
This is where Tokyo Disney Resort’s upcharge system becomes central to their frustration. The post argues that Disney has effectively adopted a “pay or suffer” model. Guests unwilling to buy the paid Premier Access options face extraordinary standby waits. It’s a complaint echoed across global Disney parks, but here — in a resort famous for its efficiency — the contrast feels sharper.
Still, the lines aren’t what pushed the guest to the edge. The food operations did.
They describe dining at Tokyo DisneySea as “a quest. A trial. A punishment.” Food windows come with a minimum wait of 45 minutes. The park’s limited quick-service infrastructure becomes a choke point on busy days, and the reservation system — already competitive — collapses under pressure. In the poster’s words, time slots seem to “vanish… dissolved into the ether” before they can even review a menu.
Then there’s the mobile order glitch. Once a guest selects a restaurant, they are “locked into the ordering window.” Forget something? Want seconds? Too bad. They claim you must wait for the full hour-long window to expire before placing another order. That leaves one alternative: snack carts. Those, too, reportedly sit at 30–45 minutes. “For popcorn. Or a bun. Or a drink.”
The guest’s frustration lands on a larger operational critique — that Tokyo Disney Resort appears to be operating at near-maximum attendance with infrastructure that no longer scales to meet demand. “Either lower the capacity or actually provide enough food/entertainment infrastructure,” they write, arguing that the imbalance creates an experience where guests spend more time managing lines than enjoying attractions.
Even new offerings aren’t immune to scrutiny. The poster cites Rapunzel’s Lantern Festival — one of the newest additions to the parks, having opened with the rest of Fantasy Springs — sitting at a two-hour wait for a ride they describe as “fine” but not worth the time investment. Their praise goes instead to Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage, calling it the “unsung hero” of Tokyo DisneySea and “absolutely” superior to Rapunzel.
Their final takeaway is blunt. If you’re planning a visit, “brace yourself, pack patience, or be ready to pay for every skip option humanly possible,” because “the crowds are apocalyptic.”
This follows a string of similar complaints about Tokyo DisneySea in recent months. On our own visit, we found that the park closed some of its most popular ride queues – such as Soaring: Fantastic Flight and Anna and Elsa’s Frozen Journey – early and without warning due to crowding. The exception is guests who have prepaid for Premier Access.
Earlier this month, the line for Soaring: Fantastic Flight reached an eye-watering six hours, compounded by the closures of two other popular attractions: Journey to the Center of the Earth in Mysterious Island and Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull in Lost River Delta.
Have you ever visited Tokyo DisneySea?
