Journey to the Center of the Earth

Journey to the Center of the Earth is an attraction at Tokyo DisneySea which is based on the Jules Verne novel of the same name. It uses similar technology to Epcot's Test Track. The attraction is located at Mount Prometheus which is the icon of Tokyo DisneySea.
==Story==
The volcano of Mysterious Island, Mount Prometheus, has become Captain Nemo's base. After traveling through its caverns, now guests board "Terravators" (which are elevators) to the facility's base station which is one half mile below. In the base station is a communication center which is currently giving warnings of increased volcanic activity, but the scientist who works it is currently away on tea break.
Guests then board steam-powered mine vehicles that travel through pre-drilled tunnels into the heart of the Earth. The ride begins through a cavern of colorful glowing crystals, before entering a giant Mushroom Forest, which is inhabited by strange insect amphibian-like life forms. Before the car can proceed further, an earthquake causes a cave-in of the tunnel ahead, forcing the car off its planned route and down a side branch filled with giant egg-life sacks. The car emerges on the shore of the Subterrenean Sea, and is nearly stuck by a lightning from the electrified gas clouds. The finale comes when guests are forced into the fiery heart of an active volcano (Mount Prometheus), where the guests come face-to-face with a giant lava monster that calls the Center of the Earth its home, roaring at them for disturbing her nest, before escaping back to the surface on the wave of an eruption.
==History==
Journey to the Center of the Earth was originally planed to be a free-fall type ride as part of Discovery Mountain, which is a former Disneyland Paris concept in place of Space Mountain. There was also plans to make it an addition to the Studio Backlot Tour at Disney's Hollywood Studios when Disney was exploring the idea of adapting the book into a film, a sequence which included an encounter with a giant lava creature. When both of these concepts fell through, the project reemerged in Tokyo DisneySea in the form of a dark ride utilizing the slot-car ride system developed for Test Track.
Its score was composed by Buddy Baker, who was also responsible for the scores of rides such as Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion.
== Trivia ==
* A corporate sponsor lounge exists within the mountain with a window looking directly at the lava monster.
* The lava monster's figure seems to be repurposed from the defunct Walt Disney World attraction ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter where it was used for the titular alien until the attraction's closure in 2003. It is unknown if this animatronic figure was moved from the attraction or simply reuses the same moulds as the original figure however.
* The giant lava monster was nicknamed as Hortense by the imagineers.
==Gallery==
JTTCOE Ride Poster.jpg|Attraction poster
JTTCOEStoryCard.jpg|Story Card brochure for the Attraction
JTTCOTE-Tokyo DisneySea 02.jpg|Mushroom Forest
Journey to the Center of the Earth Lava Monster.jpg|Lava Monster
Journey to the Center of the Earth Mushroom Creature.jpg|Moss Picking Skenk
Lava Monster JTTCOTE.jpg
Category:Tokyo DisneySea attractions
Category:Disney's Fastpass equipped attractions
Category:Thrill Rides
Category:Dark rides
Category:Mysterious Island attractions
Category:20,000 Leagues Under the Sea