Just back! TDR + Tokyo trip report 6/26 - 7/5

MimiDee905

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 24, 2016
Hello all!
My DH and I are sitting in LAX waiting for our final leg of our return flight home from a super awesome 8 days in Tokyo and I thought I'd share a few thoughts about our trip!
If anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask! Especially if it's something I didn't mention. We booked our trip in January of this year and I did a lot of the planning and research on my own for this trip. I asked many questions on this thread and used posts of others and it was super helpful!

-We landed at Narita and flew out of Henada. If I had to do this again, I would go with Henada both ways. It seemed to be a much nicer airport with much nicer amenities and it's also way closer to TDR.
-We used the Airport Limousine both to and from the airport. Our flight to Tokyo from LAX ended up being delayed for 2 hours (yay American Airlines!) And because of this delay, we landed in Narita after the Airport Limousine buses stopped running to the TDR resorts. The last bus is at 6:10pm. Taxis are too expensive and we didn't feel comfortable navigating the trains with all our luggage so we booked an Airport Limousine bus for 8:35pm to Tokyo Disneyland. It literally dropped us off the at gates to the park. We them took a short taxi ride to our hotel which cost about 900yen.
-I booked the Airport Limousine bus for our return trip online and paid in cash at the hotel. Super easy.
-We stayed at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel and it was the nicest hotel I've ever stayed in. I felt like I was staying at the Ritz or something similar. Everyone was so friendly and went out of their way to be accommodating. We arrived around 9:30pm and the check-in line was super long. The check-in process is very long and involved.
-We did pay extra to have breakfast included each day. We had our choice of four restaurants each morning, but we only used two of the options. Both were buffet style, one just had more selections than the other. Both buffets had plenty of Western options for us to choose from.
-The Sheraton is right across from Bayside Station, which is where you can ride the monorail to either resort. It also has bus service from the front lobby to the station, but it was such a short walk that we walked most days. I timed it one day after Fantasmic ended at DisneySea and it took us 26 minutes from standing in the park to get to our hotel room. That's it. 26 minutes to leave the park, get on the monorail, ride to our station, walk to the hotel, and get to our room. That part was my favorite. It is incredibly easy to get around the resort.
-The monorails are so clean and cute and we loved riding them! I hardly cared that each ride cost 260yen because it was such a great experience.
-We spent 4 days total in the parks and 4 days exploring Tokyo. We opted not to travel to Kyoto or Osaka on this trip just because of our limited time and priorities. Our schedule was as follows :
Day 1 : Disney Sea
Day 2 : Disneyland
Day 3 : Tokyo
Day 4 : Tokyo
Day 5 : Tokyo
Day 6 : Disneyland
Day 7 : Disney Sea
Day 8 : Ghibli Museum

-We know that our Disney days are exhausting as we are park open to park close kind of people. That's why we split our Disney days up, and it ended up working great! Disney was what we were most excited about so it was nice to do that right away and it was nice to also have it at the end. Since we know how "Disney" works, it was also a good way to assimilate into Japan culture with ordering meals and paying for merchandise. It gave use good practice for traveling into the city.
-The biggest thing I can say about the Disney Parks is to do your research and planning ahead of time. Know how the tickets work and know when you want to go. What everyone says online about the difference between a Friday crowd and Tuesday crowd is 100% true. Our best park days were Tuesdays Wednesdays and Thursdays. Look at ride closures and refurbishments. Two rides that were important to us we're going to be closed the second half of our trip, so we knew we had to ride them during our first two days. Knowledge is power.
-I did not know a single a single word of Japanese going into this trip and it was honestly not a big deal at all. Most people know enough English to speak to you, all the signs are in English, and pointing at things always works too! I had no issues with language barriers at all.
-We traveled with 2 suitcases each knowing all of the souvineres we would we bringing home and we bought enough to fill 1 and a half suitcases with merch so plan ahead on your luggage and keep that in mind.
-The popcorn hype is real and I made a point to try all of the flavors I wanted. We tried curry, soy sauce and butter, honey, garlic shrimp, strawberry, milk chocolate, and barbecue. None of them were bad. If I had to pick a favorite, it'd be curry.
-We definitely missed being able to reserve fast passes ahead of time and use the app to get more. Paper Fast passes are incredibly annoying to me, but we made it work! You can also say "keep" and the cast members will punch a hole in your fastpass and you can keep them for souvineres!
-At DisneySea, everyone runs to Toy Story Mania. Since we have this identical ride at WDW, we instead got our FP for Tower of Terror first thing in the morning. TDS's ToT is the same mechanically, but different in it's theming and storyline, making it a unique attraction to that park. After getting our ToT fastpass we rode Journey to the Center of the Earth standby. This was easily my favorite attraction in the whole resort!
-At Disneyland, we made our first Fastpass Monsters Inc Ride and Go Seek the first day and Pooh's Hunny Hunt the second day. Both of these attractions are unique to TDR and have very long lines during the day.
-Do not underestimate the TDR population. The locals seems to really know exactly how FP works and how to use it to their advantage. I feel like so many visitors to WDW have zero idea about FPs and how they work, which is great for those of us that do. But definitely not the case in TDR.
-Getting to the gates at least one hour prior to park opening is essential. Unlike at WDW, no guests are allowed into the park at all until the exact moment the park opens. They pretty much do bag check at the ticket turnstiles. If you're staying at a TDR hotel you can use the "Happy 15" to get into the park 15 minutes early. The reason why getting there early is so important is because EVERYONE gets there early. EVERYONE. Getting in line early puts you in the front of the crowd to get through the gate and get to your first Fastpass. Getting there at park opening does not give you the best odds as far as popular fastpasses. Most FPs in both parks were gone by 2pm for the day for all rides. On our first DL day, we were towards the front of the line and headed straight to Monsters Inc and our FP return time was still 11:55-12:55. They go quick!
-Bring a small blanket to sit on. We sat in the morning waiting for the park to open. We sat for every parade and nighttime show. Everyone sits and it's so nice because it makes almost every spot a great spot for shows and parades and you don't have to worry about short people problems (like me!). No one sits on the ground without something under them. Some even use park maps to sit on. Most people have special foldable mats that they use for this exact purpose.
-We thought the food selection at Disneyland was way better and cuter than at DisneySea. We wanted to eat so many things at DL and struggled a little at DS but that was just us.
-Ordering menu items customized isn't an outright option and we were too worried about inconveniencing CMs to ask for items plain or without sauce. I know others have done this, but we just picked things we didn't need to customize or just sucked it up and ate it.
-We did not do any table service meals and did all counter service. We did not eat anything that wasn't good. We did eat at Cape Cod Cook-off in DisneySea and chose the side with the Duffy show and at Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall in Disneyland. Both of these places have long lines by 11:30am, so we heading there around 10:50am each day to avoid the lines and it worked out great.
-We aren't huge in size, but I definitely felt larger than most people in Japan. We had zero issues fitting or getting on rides.
-We bought so many things. Every store we went in had so many things that were just so cute. It was so hard to contain myself. Tip is to shop before 8pm as the stores get super busy at night and make it really hard to move around.
-The parades at Disneyland were both so so so good, we watched them both days! I loved being able to see an Electrical Light parade again. Fantasmic at DisneySea was also so so so good. Same story but with different tech and details.

As far as our non-Disney days, we took the monorail to Gateway Station and then used our IC card at Maihama Station to get around Tokyo. If anyone has any questions about the trains or subways, let me know! It was intimidating at first but Google maps is your best friend and just follow the English signs and you can't go wrong. We never once got lost or got on the wrong train, so you can do it!
-Our first Tokyo Day we hired a private tour guide (through TripAdvisor) and it was 100% worth it! He taught us how to use the trains and subways and took us to places where he was able to explain things in detail about the traditions, customs, and history. We visited the Tsjuki Fish Market, Sensoji Temple, Imperial Palace, and Meji Shrine. We ended the night in Harajuku.
-Our second Tokyo Day we visited the pandas at Ueno Park Zoo, the Samurai Museum in Shinjuku, and had conveyor belt sushi in Shibuya.
-Our third Tokyo Day we did souvinere shopping in Asakusa, had a ramen lunch, and did a lot of exploring in Akihabara.
-We booked our Ghibli tour on Klook as it seemed the easiest way to have guaranteed tickets to the museum and transportation. The Museum is located pretty far from the TDR side of Tokyo so having the transportation was helpful. It also took us to lunch at Hotel Gojen and to the Edo Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum. If you are a true Ghibli fan, this museum is a priority. It brought me to tears. It is so hard in the US to find any Ghibli appreciation and this Museum is everything I could have ever hoped for. If you are just sort of a Ghibli fan you may not enjoy this. The museum is small, and all of the details could easily be overlooked if you're not a Ghibli fan. But it was in my opinion 100% worth it.

Hope this information is helpful for someone! Planning for this trip was daunting. Going out of the country on our first international flight was terrifying. But now that it's all said and done, I'd do it again tomorrow. It was the trip of a lifetime. We thought about going to Japan for so many years and I'm so glad we finally hit that "book it" button. If you're on the fence, jump over it. You will have no regrets!

Again, any questions or anything I missed, feel free to ask or inquire!

Michelle
 
Wait... you paid for the monorail individually? The two day monorail ticket is 800 yen which is cheaper than paying for 4 individual monorail trips.
 
Wait... you paid for the monorail individually? The two day monorail ticket is 800 yen which is cheaper than paying for 4 individual monorail trips.
The first two days we bought the 2-day pass, because you're right, it's more cost effective. But once we got our suica card we just used that because of ease and not having to wait at the ticket machines. We weren't worried about a few yen breaking the bank.
 
The first two days we bought the 2-day pass, because you're right, it's more cost effective. But once we got our suica card we just used that because of ease and not having to wait at the ticket machines. We weren't worried about a few yen breaking the bank.
We also didn't consistently use the monorail on our non-Disney days as the Sheraton has a free bus service straight to Maihama Station in the mornings and evenings. If it was time for the bus, we'd take it. If not we would just hop on the monorail. But if we had bought the pass I'm sure we would have just used the monorail everyday.
 


Michelle

Thanks for sharing. My husband and I recently booked a two week trip to Asia. Our plans are 8 days in Japan and then 5.5 days in Thailand.

We have started planning but it’s really overwhelming. Can I ask how long the commute was from your hotel to Tokyo proper?

We are thinking our trip will look a little like this:

Day 1 tokyo
Day 2 tolyo
Day 3 Nagoya
Day 4 Nagoya (formula 1 race. We are fans)
Day 5 tokyo
Day 6 Tokyo/disney
Day 7 disney
Day 8 disney (flight leaves late this night)
Day 9-14 Thailand

The first few days are a lot of running but like you we are rope drop to close people.
 
Michelle

Thanks for sharing. My husband and I recently booked a two week trip to Asia. Our plans are 8 days in Japan and then 5.5 days in Thailand.

We have started planning but it’s really overwhelming. Can I ask how long the commute was from your hotel to Tokyo proper?

We are thinking our trip will look a little like this:

Day 1 tokyo
Day 2 tolyo
Day 3 Nagoya
Day 4 Nagoya (formula 1 race. We are fans)
Day 5 tokyo
Day 6 Tokyo/disney
Day 7 disney
Day 8 disney (flight leaves late this night)
Day 9-14 Thailand

The first few days are a lot of running but like you we are rope drop to close people.
Yay! So excited for your trip!
If you use Google maps, put your starting location at Maihama Station and it will give you a good idea of how long it takes to get to various places in the city. If estimate about 10 minutes from hotel to Maihama Station using the monorail. Once there, we used the Keiyo Line and that is a 15 minute ride into Tokyo Station which is pretty centrally located. I'd say we spent between 30-50 minutes commuting each morning into the city depending on where we were heading.
 
Thanks so much for your very detailed Review. Did you get the tour guide from Tokyo Bay or did you have to meet him/her in the city...we have only 1 day that is not disney days...so worried about attempting getting into the city by ourselves...and we have been considering a day tour but we cant find any leaving from Tokyo Bay. Did the guide cost much and how many hours did they stay with you for?
 


Thanks so much for your very detailed Review. Did you get the tour guide from Tokyo Bay or did you have to meet him/her in the city...we have only 1 day that is not disney days...so worried about attempting getting into the city by ourselves...and we have been considering a day tour but we cant find any leaving from Tokyo Bay. Did the guide cost much and how many hours did they stay with you for?
We booked the tour through Trip Advisor. It was called "Tokyo Custom Private Tour" and you can choose a half day (4 hours) or full day (8 hours). We opted for the full day and it was about $250 per person. All transportation costs, snacks, and lunch were included. All your guides will always meet you in the lobby of your hotel regardless of how many hours you choose. And you get to completely customize your tour with whatever activities you'd like to do. If the full day is out of your price range, the half day would be great! They would still meet you at the hotel and show you how to use the trains and subways to get into the city. It really helped our confidence to navigate the city on our own!
 
We booked the tour through Trip Advisor. It was called "Tokyo Custom Private Tour" and you can choose a half day (4 hours) or full day (8 hours). We opted for the full day and it was about $250 per person. All transportation costs, snacks, and lunch were included. All your guides will always meet you in the lobby of your hotel regardless of how many hours you choose. And you get to completely customize your tour with whatever activities you'd like to do. If the full day is out of your price range, the half day would be great! They would still meet you at the hotel and show you how to use the trains and subways to get into the city. It really helped our confidence to navigate the city on our own!
Thanks so much for extra info...definitely going to look into it!
 
We booked the tour through Trip Advisor. It was called "Tokyo Custom Private Tour" and you can choose a half day (4 hours) or full day (8 hours). We opted for the full day and it was about $250 per person. All transportation costs, snacks, and lunch were included. All your guides will always meet you in the lobby of your hotel regardless of how many hours you choose. And you get to completely customize your tour with whatever activities you'd like to do. If the full day is out of your price range, the half day would be great! They would still meet you at the hotel and show you how to use the trains and subways to get into the city. It really helped our confidence to navigate the city on our own!


This is a great tip... Definitely going in the notebook.... We are not going until Nov. 2020, I love the fact that they will help you understand the trains, and subways to be able to get around... Thanks for a great trip report as well as the tips...
 
Hi Michelle,

Thanks for such a great trip report.
We are going next year Nov. 2020, and I do have a few questions for you...

When you were talking about customizing your QS meals or asking what's in something... is it a option that can be done ? fairly easily ? 2 reasons, - 1) I have a food allergy coconut, 2) DH is a meat, cheese, burger bun, kinda guy, he has become more adventurous maybe some bacon or onions... so getting it plain like this is it going to be a huge issue or just a few more steps...

On the ride seating... DH is a big guy, 6'4" and I am around 5'8", are we going to be squished in the ride cars? Not that it will make a difference if we ride or not, just interested,

Did you try for any of the shows? and how did that work out if you did?

DH hates really hates to change hotels... for him its a complete waste of a day... Which in some ways I agree with him... So in reading your trip report it seem like really doable commute... Overall were you happy with the over all process of commuting? and would you do it again? and if we stay in one spot we don't have to pay for luggage shipping between hotels...

With the luggage, we were thinking about just one rolling reg. check bag each... and a roll-a- board + personal item each... I have a duffelbag with wheels, that we could take for purchase's... DH is like I really don't want to lug around extra luggage.. If we need one we could just buy it there... So are there lots of places around to buy a cheap luggage just to get our stuff home?... like here in Orlando there are so many place to get a extra rolling bag... We bought a ton of stuff in Paris and DLP and all we needed was a the extra back pack that we bought at DLP that I carried as my personal item, with my handbag tuck inside when we boarded...
 
Hi Michelle,

Thanks for such a great trip report.
We are going next year Nov. 2020, and I do have a few questions for you...

When you were talking about customizing your QS meals or asking what's in something... is it a option that can be done ? fairly easily ? 2 reasons, - 1) I have a food allergy coconut, 2) DH is a meat, cheese, burger bun, kinda guy, he has become more adventurous maybe some bacon or onions... so getting it plain like this is it going to be a huge issue or just a few more steps...

On the ride seating... DH is a big guy, 6'4" and I am around 5'8", are we going to be squished in the ride cars? Not that it will make a difference if we ride or not, just interested,

Did you try for any of the shows? and how did that work out if you did?

DH hates really hates to change hotels... for him its a complete waste of a day... Which in some ways I agree with him... So in reading your trip report it seem like really doable commute... Overall were you happy with the over all process of commuting? and would you do it again? and if we stay in one spot we don't have to pay for luggage shipping between hotels...

With the luggage, we were thinking about just one rolling reg. check bag each... and a roll-a- board + personal item each... I have a duffelbag with wheels, that we could take for purchase's... DH is like I really don't want to lug around extra luggage.. If we need one we could just buy it there... So are there lots of places around to buy a cheap luggage just to get our stuff home?... like here in Orlando there are so many place to get a extra rolling bag... We bought a ton of stuff in Paris and DLP and all we needed was a the extra back pack that we bought at DLP that I carried as my personal item, with my handbag tuck inside when we boarded...

Sorry for the late reply! Just now saw your post!

If you have an allergy I would recommend having some sort of pictured card like with a picture of a coconut and maybe the Japanese symbol for allergy on it that you can show to cast members as a precaution. I honestly don't remember seeing anything with coconut but you never know. My DH is the exact same as yours, meat cheese and bun only. My research before our trip led me to believe that getting things custom was possible but sometimes tricky. He just completely avoided anything that he would need special custom orders with. He always found something yummy to eat and we spent a lot of time looking at the menus beforehand on the Tokyo Disney website so we knew our options for him.

We have zero issues fitting in any rides. I do follow someone on Instagram that went to TDR with her very tall DH and cast members did stop him in line to make sure he could fit for space mountain and he ended up being fine so I wouldn't worry.

We did try the lottery all 4 days. We had great success in DisneySea and won Big Band Beat both days for the last show of the day. That was a tip I had read to try for the last show of the day. At Disneyland we did not win either day for One Man's Dream and only won one day for Let's Party Gras. If you've ever been on Disney Cruise Line and seen the shows, Big Band Beat reminded me of that caliber of dancing and performing. It was great. Let's Party Gras made me chuckle the entire time. I would attempt the lottery but if you end up not winning I wouldn't stress. It definitely didn't make or break our experience getting to go or not go to the shows. It was nice to be able to sit somewhere cool and see a great show, but I wouldn't have waited in standby for any of them when there is so much else to do in those parks.

I'm glad we didn't switch hotels, especially since we separated our Disney days and did two at the beginning and two at the end. The commute into the city was definitely doable. And we didn't have to worry about packing up and moving our luggage. And the Sheraton was honestly so nice! I don't think it's as necessary as people make it out to be to switch to a hotel in Tokyo proper once you're done at Disney. We managed with zero issues.

As far as luggage we each brought our own 25 in roller, our own 18 in roller, and our own backpacks. So 3 pieces each you could say. And every inch was used on the way back. We packed both 18inches very lightly and used both of those for our souvineres. I don't really recall seeing places to buy luggage honestly, but I also wasn't looking for luggage so I could have easily not noticed.

Hope that helps! :)
 
Sorry for the late reply! Just now saw your post!

If you have an allergy I would recommend having some sort of pictured card like with a picture of a coconut and maybe the Japanese symbol for allergy on it that you can show to cast members as a precaution. I honestly don't remember seeing anything with coconut but you never know. My DH is the exact same as yours, meat cheese and bun only. My research before our trip led me to believe that getting things custom was possible but sometimes tricky. He just completely avoided anything that he would need special custom orders with. He always found something yummy to eat and we spent a lot of time looking at the menus beforehand on the Tokyo Disney website so we knew our options for him.

We have zero issues fitting in any rides. I do follow someone on Instagram that went to TDR with her very tall DH and cast members did stop him in line to make sure he could fit for space mountain and he ended up being fine so I wouldn't worry.

We did try the lottery all 4 days. We had great success in DisneySea and won Big Band Beat both days for the last show of the day. That was a tip I had read to try for the last show of the day. At Disneyland we did not win either day for One Man's Dream and only won one day for Let's Party Gras. If you've ever been on Disney Cruise Line and seen the shows, Big Band Beat reminded me of that caliber of dancing and performing. It was great. Let's Party Gras made me chuckle the entire time. I would attempt the lottery but if you end up not winning I wouldn't stress. It definitely didn't make or break our experience getting to go or not go to the shows. It was nice to be able to sit somewhere cool and see a great show, but I wouldn't have waited in standby for any of them when there is so much else to do in those parks.

I'm glad we didn't switch hotels, especially since we separated our Disney days and did two at the beginning and two at the end. The commute into the city was definitely doable. And we didn't have to worry about packing up and moving our luggage. And the Sheraton was honestly so nice! I don't think it's as necessary as people make it out to be to switch to a hotel in Tokyo proper once you're done at Disney. We managed with zero issues.

As far as luggage we each brought our own 25 in roller, our own 18 in roller, and our own backpacks. So 3 pieces each you could say. And every inch was used on the way back. We packed both 18 inches very lightly and used both of those for our souvenirs. I don't really recall seeing places to buy luggage honestly, but I also wasn't looking for luggage so I could have easily not noticed.

Hope that helps! :)


Thanks so much.... your info is very helpful.... :thumbsup2

That's a great idea for the food allergy... I would hate to have any problems when I am that far away from home...

We are going for 2 weeks, and we are both super excited... We are going to change hotels... we want to do some day trips, so it will work out better just with the logistic of everything... I am going to post a rough rough draft of our plans soon...

In Paris I got away with just buying a back pack at DLP, to get our stash of souvenirs home... While we did shop some, and we did bring everyone home souvenirs T-shirts and such... overall we really did not buy all that much... In Japan I think that it is going to be different, we have already started a list so somethings that we want to check out to buy... For me a really nice camera is top on the list, and DH loves electronics so he has some things that he wants to look at... plus we will have the T-shirts and such for the family to think get... Plus I know that I will want a ton of stuff at TDR...
 
Thanks so much.... your info is very helpful.... :thumbsup2

That's a great idea for the food allergy... I would hate to have any problems when I am that far away from home...

We are going for 2 weeks, and we are both super excited... We are going to change hotels... we want to do some day trips, so it will work out better just with the logistic of everything... I am going to post a rough rough draft of our plans soon...

In Paris I got away with just buying a back pack at DLP, to get our stash of souvenirs home... While we did shop some, and we did bring everyone home souvenirs T-shirts and such... overall we really did not buy all that much... In Japan I think that it is going to be different, we have already started a list so somethings that we want to check out to buy... For me a really nice camera is top on the list, and DH loves electronics so he has some things that he wants to look at... plus we will have the T-shirts and such for the family to think get... Plus I know that I will want a ton of stuff at TDR...
Oh you just wait until you get to TDR. I wanted to buy everything in those stores. We knew going in that we planned to buy lots of merch. I use everything I bought though because a lot of the things they sell are practical things you could use every day
 
Oh you just wait until you get to TDR. I wanted to buy everything in those stores. We knew going in that we planned to buy lots of merch. I use everything I bought though because a lot of the things they sell are practical things you could use every day
I totally agree! I am regretting not to buy more cable bites!!
 
Oh you just wait until you get to TDR. I wanted to buy everything in those stores. We knew going in that we planned to buy lots of merch. I use everything I bought though because a lot of the things they sell are practical things you could use every day


Oh I can't wait... what all did you buy? I know that I will want lots of stuff... I can't remember in your trip report what you said about price point?
 
Oh I can't wait... what all did you buy? I know that I will want lots of stuff... I can't remember in your trip report what you said about price point?
We bought so much I can’t list it all out: umbrellas, shirts, passholders, stationery, and a bunch more. I thought most things were very reasonably priced. My main focus was to get things we could actually use and said Tokyo Disney on them
 
Two things we loved the most are cable bites (about ¥700 and there’s a discount if you buy 2+) and umbrella covers with terry cloth lining (about ¥1800). The cover keeps the wet umbrella inside, so we don’t get places wet. It rained almost every day when we were there and loved that we didn’t have to use plastic bags to hold our umbrella once we were indoor. We bought these in the Disney store. Didn’t see them in the parks. I bought a baby bib (the one that is a sleeveless top) which was super cute (about ¥1600) and some “cool towels” (around ¥1600). I saw camera covers too (over ¥5000), but I didn’t buy any. We exercised extremely self-control not to bring the stores back home!
 

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