Side trip from TDR with kids?

[wanderlust7]

I'm in the early planning stages of a trip to TDR for early June next year. It'll be a short trip (maybe 5 nights) on our way to Asia. DH and I have been to Japan before, pre-kids (Tokyo, Hakone, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Kyoto, Arashiyama). It was a great trip and one I'd like to share with the kids some day, but since they will only be 4 and 7 next year, the transportation part just seems too daunting to me.

I'm thinking we'll just focus on TDR this trip and probably we'll stay at Hilton Tokyo Bay. First day we'll just get our bearings and go to Ikspiari, definitely 2 days at Disney Sea, and maybe 1 day at TDL. I'm not really sure yet about TDL since we've been to Disneyland Anaheim and WDW several times, it seems very similar. Is there a list of differences somewhere?

So - we'll have 1 extra day. What would be a good place to go with kids? Ideally, I'd like to do no train transfers, is there anything on the Keiyo/Musashino Line? Or maybe a tour to Hakone, are there any that go from TDR? DD would probably like Sanrio Puroland, but it seems too complicated to get to.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[bc7ate9]

I'm in the early planning stages of a trip to TDR for early June next year. It'll be a short trip (maybe 5 nights) on our way to Asia. DH and I have been to Japan before, pre-kids (Tokyo, Hakone, Hiroshima, Miyajima, Kyoto, Arashiyama). It was a great trip and one I'd like to share with the kids some day, but since they will only be 4 and 7 next year, the transportation part just seems too daunting to me.

I'm thinking we'll just focus on TDR this trip and probably we'll stay at Hilton Tokyo Bay. First day we'll just get our bearings and go to Ikspiari, definitely 2 days at Disney Sea, and maybe 1 day at TDL. I'm not really sure yet about TDL since we've been to Disneyland Anaheim and WDW several times, it seems very similar. Is there a list of differences somewhere?

So - we'll have 1 extra day. What would be a good place to go with kids? Ideally, I'd like to do no train transfers, is there anything on the Keiyo/Musashino Line? Or maybe a tour to Hakone, are there any that go from TDR? DD would probably like Sanrio Puroland, but it seems too complicated to get to.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!

We've been to WDW many times and just took our first trip to DL in CA in January. Tokyo DL is a really cool hybrid of some of the best things about the U.S. parks. We really like it. We'd probably go just for Pooh's Hunny Hunt and Monsters, Inc Ride and Go Seek, but that's us. We just posted a ton of photos on our FB page and tried to note differences and what we preferred maybe they'll help - it's a public album so feel free to look and ask any questions you have - https://m.facebook.com/bc7ate9/albums/651425498325153/

We went to Hakone on our last trip (2 weeks ago) and I thought it was a transportation nightmare. I felt like we spent all day switching from transport line to transport line...granted, we saw a lot of cool sites and it was fun...but I don't think I'd do it again. My husband loves it, though - he was very excited about all the different trains and rope cars and ships and it didn't disappoint.

We went to Sanrio Puroland and loved it!!! (https://m.facebook.com/bc7ate9/albums/644150115719358). We thought it was very easy to access, but we did have to change trains at Shinjuku - beyond that, it's a very easy and obvious walk from the station, though. It's a really good option for a climate controlled day.

There isn't much on the Keiyo line...Tokyo station has the character street which is fun, but not really all day entertainment.

Have you considered Odaiba? The science museum there is amazing. Again, you'd have to transfer trains, but a taxi there from Disney probably wouldn't be that much - you can easily walk around much of the area or take the electric monorail-like train.

Ueno is easy to access from Tokyo Station and the zoo there is pretty large and we had fun exploring it. It's very kid friendly with a large petting zoo and kid-level viewing spots.

This link should take you to all our FB albums with our recent photos from Japan - they're mostly separated by day right now which isn't especially useful, but we're happy to try to answer any questions! - https://www.facebook.com/bc7ate9/photos_stream?tab=photos_albums

Hope this helps a little - have an awesome trip!

 

[tinibee]

+1 for Odaiba. There is a Legoland Discovery Center (spoiler - there is only one ride and it's kind of lame, but kids still love it there and all indoors) and a Madame Tussaud's at the Decks Mall. If you order online you can get tickets for both with a slight discount. There is also Sega Joypolis there but I thought many of the attractions were too scary for my then 7 year old. Joypolis gives a discount if you show your foreigner passport. We went to the tokyo trick museum in Decks and it was surprisingly fun and relatively cheap to get into - bring your camera for sure if you go there. You can walk to Diver City mall from Decks and there is the giant gundam robot that is pretty cool. Odaiba is a fun area!

 

[bc7ate9]

There's also a kids' play area in Venus Fort, a short walk from Diver City...and it's in the middle of the Toyota Megaweb area - neat old cars to see on one side and brand new cars on the other. There's a huge arcade and amusement area over there too.

 

[wanderlust7]

Thank you tinibee and bc7ate9 (I love your username, BTW). Odaiba sounds promising. DH and DS are both into cars. I was googling it and looks like there's a hybrid car DS would be able to drive and build(!), he would love that. He would get a kick out of the giant Gundam too. Looks like a taxi there from TDR might be around $50, kind of pricey, maybe we can handle one train transfer.

And if we can handle one train transfer...maybe we should go to Sanrio Puroland too. The more I research, the more days I'm going to want to stay, LOL.

 

[bc7ate9]

If you are interested, we posted photos of our trip to Odaiba on our Facebook page. We tried to include useful info in the captions as much as we could.

This album has Odaiba photos - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.643595939108109.1073741844.632841970183506&type=3
These are specific to the cars - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.643607252440311.1073741846.632841970183506&type=3
The science museum is here - https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.646745648793138.1073741857.632841970183506&type=3

FYI - the science museum is closed on Tuesdays...we failed to check this in advance which is why it ended up in a separate album...oops.

 

[wanderlust7]

Great photos! That Gundam is way bigger than I imagined and I gotta get some shinkansen chopsticks!

In your first photo at Sanrio Puroland, the tiger next to Hello Kitty, does he appear anywhere at Puroland? DD is into him. He's the main character in some educational books and toys we get from Taiwan, produced by a Japanese company (not Sanrio though).

 

[bc7ate9]

That's Daniel Tiger - he wasn't at Sanrio Puroland, but he is currently pretty popular in Japan. You'll find his merchandise all over - he's a regular in the "character goods" shops. I guess that's why he's posed with Hello Kitty? It's also just a very child-friendly area so whatever appeals to the preschool crowd goes, I suppose!

Shaun the Sheep and Snoopy and the Peanuts are other characters that are big in Japan that your kids may recognize!