Tokyo Disney Itineraries

[Haley R]

I wanted to make this a separate thread because it will only focus on TDR. I now have all of my days planned out. The first two days seem pretty busy, but that's kind of what I want so the second two days can be more flexible and relaxing. Please feel free to give any tips, hints, or criticisms since I've never been there and don't know for sure if my plan is good. Thanks!!!



I'm kind of anal so everything is color-coded:
FPs
Rides
Meals

 

[Haley R]

Day 1-DisneySea (9 am-10 pm)

• Park opens at 9 am (get there by 8 am)

• Grab a Today pamphlet at the front

• Head to Journey to the Center of the Earth first thing (inside Mount Prometheus)

• Ride 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Mount Prometheus/Mysterious Island)
  • If 15 minutes or less, otherwise save for later

• Go to Tower of Terror and get a FP (American Waterfront)

• Ride Indiana Jones (Lost River Delta)
  • Get a FP if the line is too long

• Get Big Band Beat Lottery ticket on the way to our Tower of Terror FP (Biglietteria)
  • Pick an afternoon showtime for Big Band Beat. If we don’t win, consider jumping in the standby line for the first show about 45 minutes before it starts

• Use Tower of Terror FP (American Waterfront)
  • Grab next FP (Tower of Terror or Journey again)

• Lunch at Magellan’s (Mediterranean Harbor)
  • Not sure on the time yet

• Explore the American Waterfront
  • Check out the Teddy Roosevelt Lounge, look inside the NY Deli

• Walk around Fortress Explorations (Mediterranean Harbor)

• Ride the Venetian Gondolas (Mediterranean Harbor)
  • Check what time they close so we don’t miss them, they close when there are shows on the harbor so plan around that

• Ride Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage (Arabian Coast)

• Ride the double decker carousel (Arabian Coast)

• Explore other areas in the Arabian Coast or go eat dinner
  • Vulcania (Mysterious Island)

• Head to Aquatopia and Nemo & Friends SeaRider (Port Discovery)

• Take the Electric Railway (Port Discovery to the American Waterfront)

• If we have free time either go watch Fantasmic or go walk around Mysterious Island to see it at night

Day 2-Disneyland (9 am-10 pm)

• Park opens at 9 am (get there by 8 am)

• Grab a Today pamphlet at the front

• Get a FP for Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek (Tomorrowland)
  • Use the shortcut in the World Bazaar to get to Tomorrowland

• Ride Pooh’s Hunny Hunt (Fantasyland)
  • If longer than 30 minutes, ride Peter Pan instead
  • If down, grab a fp for it and ride fantasyland rides

• Ride Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin (Toontown)
  
  
• Get a FP for Space Mountain (Tomorrowland)
  
  
• Use FP for Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek (Tomorrowland)
  
  
• Could get another FP for Space Mountain
  
  
• Get a Nighttime Show and One Man's Dream Lottery ticket
  • In Tomorrowland Hall to the left of Space Mountain

• Ride It’s a Small World (Fantasyland)
  
  
• Lunch at Queen of Hearts Banquet Hall (Fantasyland)
  • Eat here around 2 pm

• Ride Haunted Mansion (Fantasyland)
  • Get a FP if the line is too long

• Get a FP for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Westernland)

• Use FPs or do the Enchanted Tiki Room (Adventureland)

• Ride Jungle Cruise (Adventureland)

• Try the Adventureland Bazaar games (have to lose to get a pin)

• Ride Pirates (Adventureland)

• Dinner at Grandma Sara’s Kitchen (Critter Country)
  • No one can get in or out during the fireworks so get out on time

• Find a spot 30 minutes before the castle show
  • Don’t know times yet
  • The middle balcony of Tomorrowland Terrace or the terrace behind Stitch Encounter are good fireworks viewing/photography locations

• Find a spot 30 minutes before the Dreamlights parade
  • Don’t know times yet
  • Stand to right of Partners statue for best photos of any parade

• Ride Thunder Mountain (Westernland)
  
  
• Race over to Pooh’s Hunny Hunt to ride again (or for the first time)

 

[Haley R]

Day 3- DisneySea (9 am-10 pm)

• I think we will have a late start and sleep in some (maybe get there at 10 am)
  
  
• Grab a Today pamphlet at the front
  
  
• Get breakfast at Mamma Biscotti’s Bakery
  
  
• Get FPs for anything we want to re-ride from the first day
  
  
• Ride Raging Spirits (Lost River Delta)
  • Get a FP if the line is too long

• Abu’s Bazaar (Agrabah)
  • Lose the games to get pins

• Eat a bunch of snacks for lunch
  
  
• DisneySea Transit Steamer Line (Mediterranean Harbor to Cape Cod)
  
  
• Shop for merch
  
  
• Explore Mermaid Lagoon
  
  
• Eat dinner at Sebastian’s Calypso Kitchen (Mermaid Lagoon)
  
  
• The Cape Cod lighthouse platform is good fireworks viewing location in Tokyo DisneySea

Day 4-Disneyland (9 am-10 pm)

• I think we will have a late start and sleep in some (maybe get there at 10 am)
  
  
• Grab a Today pamphlet at the front
  
  
• Breakfast at Sweetheart Cafe
  • Mike melon bread

• Get FPs for anything we want to re-ride from the first day (on the way to Fantasyland)
  
  
• Ride Pinocchio's Daring Journey (Fantasyland)
  
  
• Ride Alice’s Tea Party (Fantasyland)
  
  
• Ride Snow White’s Adventures (Fantasyland)
  
  
• Ride Star Tours (Tomorrowland)
  • Get a FP if the line is too long

• Lunch at Pan Galactic Pizza Port, Tomorrowland Terrace, or Plazma Ray’s Diner in Tomorrowland
  • Could try things from each one
  • Personal pizzas, Alien Mochi and Star Wars Mochi
  • Mickey shaped burgers and chicken nuggets, Alien Mochi
  • Mickey Glove shaped chicken pao sandwich

• Walk through Donald’s boat (Toontown)
  
  
• Walk through Chip and dale’s treehouse (Toontown)
  
  
• Walk through Cinderella’s Fairytale Hall (Fantasyland)
  
  
• Shop for merch
  
  
• Eat a bunch of snacks for dinner
  
  
• Get medallions in the Penny Arcade (World Bazaar)
  • Need yen for this

• Could hop over to DisneySea for our last night

 

[Chewbette]

Just a warning for Pooh's Hunny Hunt, my favoooorite attraction , it's VERY often down/closed. Like 4 on 4 mornings when we arrived at the entrance of the attraction it was down, so we had to quickly improvise. And also last November, we had saved 2 FP from our package to end our stay with Pooh's...It was also down.
For me in the future if I have a package FP I will use it when I see the attraction open, and not save them haha.

Oh and be prepared to have quite a wait at the Queen of Hearts Buffet, we went there at 10h45 and had to wait like 40mn, the longest line we had in our stay haha! But I wanted to eat there.

 

[indoshakespeare]

I think Indiana Jones has a single ride line

 

[OldSchoolReasons]

A couple of comments

Single-rider Indiana Jones, we did it instantly that way! Also by the time you get to the Venetian Gondolas they will likely have a massive queue, I think they were out longest wait of the holiday as we arrived there around 3pm.

I concur with the above comments about Pooh. It was down when we did a rope drop so instead we rode - Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Dumbo, Star Tours, Snow White and Pinocchio with the first hour and all with zero wait and before our Monsters FP slot. We ended up riding it late at night with a Fastpass.

 

[MKTokyo]

Indiana Jones does have single rider but I personally wouldn't use it on a first trip. I'd want to experience it together. You have enough time that it's not a speed race & you don't need to split up or start knocking out attractions like crazy.

The only issue is going to be Big Band Beat. People start lining up for those shows at absurdly early times & I don't think 20-30 minutes is going to be enough. I think you're going in June so it's not the busiest time ever but I would still allow 45 minutes minimum. They will tell you if the standby line is at capacity so you won't waste your time. (This is one of those situations where blogs from 3-4 years ago are irrelevant because the real life line situation in 2019 is different. They will tell you that the first show of the day is standby only... it's not because domestic vacation packages now have access to it... etc)

Chandu Tail is gone. It's now a Chandu bun thing with a curry flavor.

Everything else looks okay!

 

[Agent 86]

It looks pretty good.

Are you booking Magellan’s in advance? If not, you’d need to allow time to line up and try to make a booking at ... 10am when they “open”. You may want to double check what time the gondolas close, to be sure you don’t miss out as it can be busy and they close pretty early. I’m not sure how popular Nemo still is - you may want to check whether you can walk on later in the evening or whether it may still require a Fast Pass due to its popularity.

For Disneyland, try to eat at the Queen of Hearts either early or late as it gets really busy. Be careful not to get locked in Grandma Sara’s. During the evening fireworks, they don’t let anyone in or out of the restaurant for unclear safety reasons. We got unexpectedly locked in on one visit (which meant we missed the fireworks).

I don’t think you’ll need to line up 30 minutes early for the Statlight Parade. It’s pretty easy to get a spot standing 4 or so people back around 10 minutes beforehand. As the Japanese are incredibly courteous, the first few rows all sit down for the parade, so you have uninterrupted views.

Have fun!

 

[gelatoni fan]

Based on what you want to do, I would probably rearrange the Disneyland rides for shorter lines:
1. Pooh or Peter Pan
2. Haunted Mansion
3. It's a Small World if line is still short (if not, do this after nighttime spectaculars)
4. Roger Rabbit

If you don't ride Pooh in the morning, you may want to make that your second FP. Also try to get a FP for Big Thunder Mountain.

For DisneySea, I would rush Journey to the Center of the Earth and grab the Tower of Terror FP after because the line can build up fast. I agree with the prior points about the gondola wait times and not being early enough for Big Band Beat. I've been at the park when they cut the line for BBB over an hour before the show started. The gondolas close when there's shows happening on the harbor so remember to work around that.

With such a ride-centric itinerary, remember to rearrange your day based on FP and wait times. I haven't seen any English language wait time apps have restaurant wait times so you may want to download the official Tokyo Disney Resort app for that (region locked to Japan so get an apk if you're on Android).

 

[Haley R]

Thank you everyone for your input! I won’t be able to reply in detail until tonight. The good thing is we will have a whole other day for each park so I’m sure anything we don’t fit in we can do on those other days.

Would it be helpful for me to post my other two days before I start changing things?

 

[kbmartin]

When you come back from your trip, can you post this itinerary again and tell us what worked and didn't work? I don't want to reinvent the wheel for my trip next year and might just make use of your schedule and tips if that's okay!

 

[Haley R]

When you come back from your trip, can you post this itinerary again and tell us what worked and didn't work? I don't want to reinvent the wheel for my trip next year and might just make use of your schedule and tips if that's okay!

Yeah I can try to do that. I've been working somewhat off of Tom Bricker's plan, but I'm making changes based on tips from people on here and looking at ride closures online. I plan to do a trip report (maybe on a separate website) for anyone interested. I'm not sure if I'll do it during my trip or after we get back.

 

[Haley R]

Just a warning for Pooh's Hunny Hunt, my favoooorite attraction , it's VERY often down/closed. Like 4 on 4 mornings when we arrived at the entrance of the attraction it was down, so we had to quickly improvise. And also last November, we had saved 2 FP from our package to end our stay with Pooh's...It was also down.
For me in the future if I have a package FP I will use it when I see the attraction open, and not save them haha.

Oh and be prepared to have quite a wait at the Queen of Hearts Buffet, we went there at 10h45 and had to wait like 40mn, the longest line we had in our stay haha! But I wanted to eat there.

I think we're gonna try to eat at the Queen's banquet hall close to 2 or 3 pm. I'm hoping that will be a littler later and less people will be there, but if it takes awhile that's okay. I would really like to eat there so I'd be willing to wait a little bit. Probably not an hour though. Do they post on the app or at the restaurant how long of a wait it'll be?

ETA: I found out my app shows wait times for restaurants

 

[Haley R]

A couple of comments

Single-rider Indiana Jones, we did it instantly that way! Also by the time you get to the Venetian Gondolas they will likely have a massive queue, I think they were out longest wait of the holiday as we arrived there around 3pm.

I concur with the above comments about Pooh. It was down when we did a rope drop so instead we rode - Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Dumbo, Star Tours, Snow White and Pinocchio with the first hour and all with zero wait and before our Monsters FP slot. We ended up riding it late at night with a Fastpass.

I'm hoping to get to the gondolas around sunset. Do you think it'll still be pretty busy at that time? If so, that's okay. We are willing to wait for them. It's nice that we have another day for DisneySea for anything we miss or don't have time for.

I didn't realize Pooh was down so often. I do have an app with wait times and it shows when rides are closed. We'll try to use that and if Pooh is down in the morning we will just do some Fantasyland rides instead. I'm sure there will be times we have to fly by the seat of our pants.

 

[Haley R]

Is the Chip and Dale treehouse and Donald's boat worth it to go through?

 

[Haley R]

Indiana Jones does have single rider but I personally wouldn't use it on a first trip. I'd want to experience it together. You have enough time that it's not a speed race & you don't need to split up or start knocking out attractions like crazy.

The only issue is going to be Big Band Beat. People start lining up for those shows at absurdly early times & I don't think 20-30 minutes is going to be enough. I think you're going in June so it's not the busiest time ever but I would still allow 45 minutes minimum. They will tell you if the standby line is at capacity so you won't waste your time. (This is one of those situations where blogs from 3-4 years ago are irrelevant because the real life line situation in 2019 is different. They will tell you that the first show of the day is standby only... it's not because domestic vacation packages now have access to it... etc)

Chandu Tail is gone. It's now a Chandu bun thing with a curry flavor.

Everything else looks okay!

Yeah we won't be doing the single rider line. Neither Dh nor I want to do it that way. We've actually never done a single rider line before because we just prefer riding things together even if it means we have to wait.

Do you think Big Band Beat is worth the 45 minute wait? We really aren't show people, but I have heard such good things about it. I watched it on Youtube and it looked okay. Dh would probably get bored in it. The first show is the only one that's not a lottery right?

I think I'm just going to completely leave snacks off the list because they change so often. We will look once it gets closer and maybe make a separate list just for snacks and their locations so we can stop if we're nearby.

Thanks for all your help!

 

[Haley R]

It looks pretty good.

Are you booking Magellan’s in advance? If not, you’d need to allow time to line up and try to make a booking at ... 10am when they “open”. You may want to double check what time the gondolas close, to be sure you don’t miss out as it can be busy and they close pretty early. I’m not sure how popular Nemo still is - you may want to check whether you can walk on later in the evening or whether it may still require a Fast Pass due to its popularity.

For Disneyland, try to eat at the Queen of Hearts either early or late as it gets really busy. Be careful not to get locked in Grandma Sara’s. During the evening fireworks, they don’t let anyone in or out of the restaurant for unclear safety reasons. We got unexpectedly locked in on one visit (which meant we missed the fireworks).

I don’t think you’ll need to line up 30 minutes early for the Statlight Parade. It’s pretty easy to get a spot standing 4 or so people back around 10 minutes beforehand. As the Japanese are incredibly courteous, the first few rows all sit down for the parade, so you have uninterrupted views.

Have fun!

Yes I plan to book Magellan's online on the Japanese website. We are just going to use google translate. That's true about the gondolas. I'll make a note that we check what time they close so we don't miss them.

I think we're gonna eat at the Queen of Hearts close to 2 or 3 pm. Do you think that'll work? I don't think we'll get stuck at Grandma Sara's because we plan to watch the fireworks. How early do people start sitting for the parade? I'm thinking we might want to do that instead of standing, but not if we have to get there really early.

 

[Haley R]

Based on what you want to do, I would probably rearrange the Disneyland rides for shorter lines:
1. Pooh or Peter Pan
2. Haunted Mansion
3. It's a Small World if line is still short (if not, do this after nighttime spectaculars)
4. Roger Rabbit

If you don't ride Pooh in the morning, you may want to make that your second FP. Also try to get a FP for Big Thunder Mountain.

For DisneySea, I would rush Journey to the Center of the Earth and grab the Tower of Terror FP after because the line can build up fast. I agree with the prior points about the gondola wait times and not being early enough for Big Band Beat. I've been at the park when they cut the line for BBB over an hour before the show started. The gondolas close when there's shows happening on the harbor so remember to work around that.

With such a ride-centric itinerary, remember to rearrange your day based on FP and wait times. I haven't seen any English language wait time apps have restaurant wait times so you may want to download the official Tokyo Disney Resort app for that (region locked to Japan so get an apk if you're on Android).

If we plan to ride BTMR at the end of the night do you think we still need a FP for it?

If we switch Journey to first would you do 20,000 Leagues right after and then go get a ToT fp? I just don't want to go back and forth too much.

I have an app that's in English with wait times for both attractions and restaurants. It's called TDR Alert.

 

[Haley R]

Okay I updated my itineraries so they should look a little different now. I'm going to start working on Day 3 here pretty soon.

 

[indoshakespeare]

Is the Chip and Dale treehouse and Donald's boat worth it to go through?

They never have any wait so you can visit them anytime (maybe on day 3/4). Goofy's house is quite interesting although the experience is too short for the wait (20-30 mins usually at peak time)