Four Days at Tokyo Disney Resort ***Pixie Dust High, People!!!***

[charmama4]

Nothing wrong with disagreeing....WDWFigment thinks very highly of DisneySea which is clearly evident in his blog; to the point he considers it the best Disney park in the world, to which I agree without any reservation. It may be true that DisneySea doesn't "go all out" like WDW but the decorations are thematically appropriate to each land with many unique features. WDWFigment may be biased due to his love for the park so that may account for his "don't even remotely agree" statement. I'm pretty sure he has been to WDW during November-December...in fact here are some links to some excellent trip reports he's written:

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-world-christmas-2010-trip-report/

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/christmas-2008-trip-report-pt-i/

Again, I agree that the Japanese don't go all out during Christmas like we do in America...you said it yourself when saying it wasn't a nationally recognized holiday. We just spent our first Christmas in Japan last year and boy were my kids going nuts because we had to wait for my sister-in-law to come home from work Christmas Day before we could open presents! However, there are some nice traditions that the Japanese share; for instance, the fried Chicken dinners (you should've seen the lines in front of KFC on Christmas Eve!!) and the neat Christmas cakes that are really cute and tasty. We did both and it was a lot of fun spending time with my wife's family sharing in their traditions while mixing in some of our American ones.

KFC and cakes at Christmas??!! I thought that was a myth till we moved here (Okinawa) and now it is a tradition that we will bring back to the states with us. Just one little memory of a wonderful place...
Loving your TR by the way. We will visit TDR in May (no, not during Golden Week, eek!). And this is helping to get all of us excited for it!

 

[charmama4]

The link you posted for the hotel you stayed out is broken. Did you go directly through the hotels website or through japanican.com or similar?

 

[ichabody]

KFC and cakes at Christmas??!! I thought that was a myth till we moved here (Okinawa) and now it is a tradition that we will bring back to the states with us. Just one little memory of a wonderful place...
Loving your TR by the way. We will visit TDR in May (no, not during Golden Week, eek!). And this is helping to get all of us excited for it!

Golden week would be a very bad time to visit!! I can only imagine it how crazy it would be! Maybe like Disneyland the day after Christmas! Gotta love those cakes...just not sweet enough for my taste, but my wife loves them!!!

The link you posted for the hotel you stayed out is broken. Did you go directly through the hotels website or through japanican.com or similar?

Directly through the hotels website, but you're right...it's down. I'm not sure if they have an English reservation line, but 9200 yen through japanican.com seems reasonable. That's right around what we paid for our room. Can't beat that price for off site plus a free shuttle!

 

[charmama4]

Awesome! Ok. Does the hotel you stayed out offer shuttle in the evening as well? I know it does in the morning but does it offer it when the parks close? I'm looking at the Mystays hotel and it says it's 1km away from The resort. Not quite sure I want to even walk that distance after spending all day I the park. Know what I mean? And I do like that there's a Lawson's right there in the hotel you stayed at. Any more info you can share about the hotel would be great.

 

[ichabody]

It most definitely picks you up at the parks after they close. We stayed until after closing in the parks each day and there was always a bus available to get us back. After you exit the park just return to the drop off point and there will be signs that say "Palm and Fountain Terrace Hotel". The ride is about 10 minutes. In the mornings the shuttle takes you straight to the parks, stopping at Tokyo DisneySea first, then Disneyland. In the evenings it stops at both hotels for drop off.

The Lawson's is GREAT!!!! What a lifesaver it was! I would recommend picking up breakfast items (they have juice, apples and bananas and some really good breads and pastries) the night before because in the mornings in can be pretty hectic and the selection might be poor. There are small refrigerators in the rooms. In the AM we would wake up, shower and head to the shuttle towing our breakfast along with us and then eat it while waiting in line for the parks to open. Remember to get to the parks at least one hour before opening if you're a commando style touring person!

I see your party is six and that probably means you'll need two rooms, but they are fairly inexpensive compared to the Resort Hotels. It's an official partner hotel and as such it has high standards...we thought the rooms were very clean and reasonably sized by Japanese standards. We've stayed in a lot of hotels in Japan and most of them are the size of walk-in closets! Palm and Fountain Terrace were very nice and roomy. In our room for five there was a day bed, bunk bed for our two boys and then two twins for my wife and I. If you have any other questions just let me know!

 

[jsilvers]

I'm looking at the Mystays hotel and it says it's 1km away from The resort.

It's actually only about 1/4 of a mile from the bus stops at DisneySea to the MyStays (roughly the same distance as the Ambassador, although in a different direction and less scenic). The walk to TDL is probably about a kilometer.

 

[maryandtyson]

Just found your trip report. I'm finding it so interesting, especially the cultural differences. I love how polite everyone is watching the parades!

I can't imagine the backlash if we had a lottery system for anything at WDW. It makes FP+ look better and better!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[scrump]

Nothing wrong with disagreeing....WDWFigment thinks very highly of DisneySea which is clearly evident in his blog; to the point he considers it the best Disney park in the world, to which I agree without any reservation. It may be true that DisneySea doesn't "go all out" like WDW but the decorations are thematically appropriate to each land with many unique features. WDWFigment may be biased due to his love for the park so that may account for his "don't even remotely agree" statement. I'm pretty sure he has been to WDW during November-December...in fact here are some links to some excellent trip reports he's written:

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-world-christmas-2010-trip-report/

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/christmas-2008-trip-report-pt-i/

Again, I agree that the Japanese don't go all out during Christmas like we do in America...you said it yourself when saying it wasn't a nationally recognized holiday. We just spent our first Christmas in Japan last year and boy were my kids going nuts because we had to wait for my sister-in-law to come home from work Christmas Day before we could open presents! However, there are some nice traditions that the Japanese share; for instance, the fried Chicken dinners (you should've seen the lines in front of KFC on Christmas Eve!!) and the neat Christmas cakes that are really cute and tasty. We did both and it was a lot of fun spending time with my wife's family sharing in their traditions while mixing in some of our American ones.

Our trip is later this month, so I'm going through this Trip Report with a fine-toothed comb! Awesome!!

I found the observations re: Christmas very interesting - I had gone to Tokyo Disneyland almost 20 years ago (before there was a DisneySea) during Christmas and I thought it was very heavily themed, definitely enough to compete with the US Parks (we go to WDW during Christmas often). It is not a nationally recognized holiday in Japan, but I think it is just as commercially marketed as it is in the US, minus the religious factor. I would not be surprised if it has changed over the years in TDR, but judging from what I had seen years ago, what they did was BEAUTIFUL and just as memorable as what WDW had done during our xmas trips to FL! I would go only during xmas if I could!

 

[loladelorean]

Thanks for your great trip report! Your enthusiasm and love for the parks shine through, and I'm even more excited for our September trip to tdr after reading. Im encouraged by how much you managed to get done each day - although I need to convince my cousin who I'm travelling with that getting to the parks an hour early is necessary! We only have one day in each Park so I'm going to need to be even more commando than usual.
My "home Park" is paris (I'm in Scotland) and I hope you get to visit one day! It sounds from your description like raging spirits in tdr is exactly the same as our Indiana Jones rids in dlp. Also, if you think American crowds are a bit impolite when it comes to queues and parades you should experience the Europeans! Especially when it comes to meet and greets, all civility goes out the window. We call them character scrums. I can't wait to experience the Japanese politeness you've described.
Thanks again and hoping you get a chance to tell us about your final day

 

[BagOLaughs]

and I'm even more excited for our September trip to tdr after reading

You're post made me laugh, like you my "home" park is DLP, you're going to love Tokyo! It's the only park in the world (literally!) where a character handler actually pulled me forward because i'd been waiting in the "scrum" for a while, took my camera and snapped a picture of me with Jessie. Being an adult this is truly unheard of! usually its just parents shoving their kids forward.

Enjoy you're trip in September!

ichabody - great trip report, i'm really enjoying this one. It must be amazing to have a Japanese wife to help you over come cultural hurdles. Only problem after reading this is now is I want to go back!