I Am Doing This - TDL

[BrianL]

Okay...I've been dreaming about it enough. It's time to take action. I'm going to Japan and Tokyo Disneyland. I am targeting mid-April, which seems like a good time. I am thinking 2 or 3 days in the parks; Would that be enough? While there I also want to visit Kyoto for a day or two and see a little of Tokyo, and maybe Osaka, though I hear it is similar to Kyoto. I'll likely stay at the Hilton Tokyo Bay for that part, and have no idea about Kyoto.

Anyone here have any experience doing a trip like this? Thanks for any advice/support.

 

[wanderlust7]

I like your thread title. Yes - just do it. There are some great trip reports in the Tokyo Disneyland subforum that include TDR, Tokyo, and Kyoto.

I'm currently planning a first trip to TDR - 4 nights Tokyo, 2 nights Nikko, 5 nights TDR (4 days in the parks). We're taking the kids (4 and 7), so we tend to move a little slow. Without kids, I would think 3 days would be enough, 1 day Disneyland and 2 days DisneySea.

Before kids, DH and I did a trip with 5 nights Tokyo, 1 night Hakone, 1 night Miyajima, 5 nights Kyoto. For me, the most memorable from the Kyoto leg was Arashiyama (day trip from Kyoto) and the Golden Pavilion (Kinkakuji). I really loved Hakone and Miyajima as well. We stayed in ryokans at both places and they were great cultural experiences. The Hakone ryokan had a private outdoor hot springs pool (onsen) that we could reserve. We used a delivery service (takuhaibin) to get our big suitcase from Tokyo to Kyoto so we didn't have to lug it on the trains. It's very reliable and not too expensive (about $20 if I remember right).

I really enjoyed Japan, it's safe, clean, with polite and helpful people. There are cultural differences and a language barrier, but that's what makes it an adventure. Have fun planning!

 

[BrianL]

I am hammering out my itinerary and it looks like 3 days TDL, 1 day in Tokyo, travel to Kyoto (as early as possible), explore, have one full day, then return the following day for a flight out the next. So it's really only 7 full days excluding travel. Everyone is telling me to stay longer, but tacking on the travel time makes it about 10 days and, aside from the cost, I just don't like being away that long. I dunno, is it not long enough? Any input is appreciated.

 

[BrianL]

Well, it is booked, April 11th to 20th with 3 days for TDL. I'm nervous but excited about it!

I didn't even realize there was a TDL sub-forum so if a mod want's to move this in there that would be great.

 

[wanderlust7]

Well, it is booked, April 11th to 20th with 3 days for TDL. I'm nervous but excited about it!

Congrats! If you only have 1 full day in Kyoto, you might want to think about a tour to cover more ground. Kyoto is rather spread out. It's not like Tokyo where just about everywhere is near a subway station.

 

[BrianL]

Cool. It looks like we will train into Kyoto, and have the entire day after we arrive, then the next two full days. I'l train back to Tokyo early the next morning for a departure that evening. That's how it worked out anyway.

My return flight is from Narita all the way to Atlanta! Yuck!

 

[bc7ate9]

Okay...I've been dreaming about it enough. It's time to take action. I'm going to Japan and Tokyo Disneyland. I am targeting mid-April, which seems like a good time. I am thinking 2 or 3 days in the parks; Would that be enough? While there I also want to visit Kyoto for a day or two and see a little of Tokyo, and maybe Osaka, though I hear it is similar to Kyoto. I'll likely stay at the Hilton Tokyo Bay for that part, and have no idea about Kyoto.

Anyone here have any experience doing a trip like this? Thanks for any advice/support.

Mid-April is a great time to visit. We were there April 20-21 last year and the parks were EMPTY.

We stay off site when we go to Tokyo Disney and that works very well and saves us a lot of money. We like the APA Hotel Tokyo Shiomi Akimae.

Osaka is nothing like Kyoto. They don't even stand on the same side of the escalator.

We stay in Shin-Osaka when we go to Kyoto. Staying in Kyoto itself is too expensive for us and we always get the JR Pass and love taking the Shinkansen back and forth. We like the Remm Shin-Osaka (it's IN the train station. SO convenient.)

I would try to take a longer trip if I was you. You're going to have jet lag and Japan is crazy.. It's a totally different world and most things take longer than you expect just because things are so different (mostly in very good ways, but very different nonetheless.)

 

[BrianL]

Thanks. I'll be staying a the Hilton Tokyo Bay while at Disneyland. Glad to hear the parks won't be too bad. Reading about them has me expecting massive crowds and worrying if I'll have time to get all my must-do's done.

That's good advice on the Kyoto-Osaka thing. I'll look into that.

I know a longer trip would allow me to see more, but I also know that after that long away from home, I will want to come back. I'm just like that, so I think we've settles on a good time frame.

 

[bc7ate9]

I know a longer trip would allow me to see more, but I also know that after that long away from home, I will want to come back. I'm just like that, so I think we've settles on a good time frame.

Fair enough. If I were you, I'd skip Kyoto...There is SO MUCH to see in Tokyo - and Kyoto is a total pain to get around, unless you like being shoved into a bus like a sardine. It's the only place I'd be willing to visit as part of a tour group. People go to Kyoto for the beautiful temples, but there are tons of gorgeous temples in Tokyo! There may also be cherry blossoms still in bloom. I highly recommend visiting the Shinjuku Gyoen - there are lots of different kinds of sakura there that bloom throughout the spring. It's gorgeous.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

Since we have a TDL site, let's move this over there!

 

[BrianL]

Since we have a TDL site, let's move this over there!

Thank you!

 

[aussie shaz]

Sounds great. Like you, we had to keep our trip shorter than we would have liked. We're doing 11 nights. Japan's pretty expensive (there's 4 of us) and I also don't like being away from home for too long. Luckily our flight is shorter than yours.
We have got 4 nights in Tokyo, 4 nights in Osaka (staying at Claiton Hotel Shin Osaka), then 3 nights at the Hilton Tokyo Bay. We're squeezing in 2.5 days at Disney. We'll do half a day at Disneyland when we return from Osaka. Then do one full day at Disney Sea, and the next day we can hop. Maybe do Disneyland in the morning to get on some rides that we didn't do the first half day, then hop over to Disney Sea. I guess we'll see how we feel after our first 1.5 days.
Regarding the Hilton, we got a really cheap price direct on the hotels website. Much cheaper than we've seen on any 3rd party website.
Have fun with the planning.

 

[amyren]

You'll have a wonderful time!! We went for 2 weeks in June 2014, it was the best trip EVER. Our friends thought we were crazy for dragging our 6 yo and 1 yo to Japan but I wouldn't trade that trip for anything. I'm dying to go back. We spent time in Tokyo, TDR & Kyoto.
We had a private tour our first full day in Tokyo to get aquatinted with the lay out. Then explored on our own for a day before heading to Disney. We stayed at the Disneyland hotel which was super expensive but amazing!! We did 4 days in the parks which we thought was great. Traveling with little kids required us to take it slow and take mid day rests but we still got to see EVERYTHING.
We really enjoyed Kyoto. We had a private tour there also then used the train system on our own. In addition to the shrines we saw Nijo castle, Fushimi Inari (amazing), the bamboo forest & went to a monkey park in Arashiyama. I found Kyoto pretty easy to navigate the trains weren't nearly as crazy as Tokyo. I definitely recommend doing another city in addition to Tokyo just to get a better feel for the country. Plus the Shinkansen was a fun experience. I can give you links to both guides if you're interested. I also have a much neglected blog with a ton of pictures if you're interested. www.amyandjasonallen.blogspot.com

 

[BrianL]

Yeah, I'm sill trying to figure out Kyoto, but we'll be riding the Shinkansen there and back which is an attraction in itself. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Agent 86]

We toured Kyoto on foot and with a couple of confusing bus rides.

But, some friends who were much wiser than us hired some bicycles to get around to all of the temples. Kyoto is a very peaceful and quiet town and the locals are so courteous that I don't think you would have any trouble getting around on bikes.

 

[BrianL]

Okay, so new question for those who have been to TDL: The Shows. Some of them seem to require a large time investment or are held in restaurants, so I assume that's like a dinner show. Some need reservations and it looks like one even gives tickets out via lottery,

So, which ones are worth seeing? I don't think we'd have time for all of them, so I want to narrow it down. Thanks.

 

[Agent 86]

To be honest, on our last visit we skipped the vast majority of the shows due to the crowd levels. And a lot of the outdoor shows and fireworks weren't on due to the wet weather.

The Night time Parade and Once Upon a Time in Disneyland were good. We didn't have any luck with the lottery for OUAT, so we viewed it from the "side" and it was still good.

From memories of a prior trip, One Man's Dream was good. I know we enjoyed The Little Mermaid on a prior trip, but we were pretty disappointed by the revised show on our past trip. In fairness, that may have been due to waiting in line almost an hour to see it.

For DisneySea, on a prior trip, Big Band Beat was especially good.

 

[Douglas Dubh]

We went for 4 nights in July of 2014 and scored seats for the castle show the last night. It was awesome. Fantasmic was pretty good but nothing spectacular if you've seen the Anaheim or even Florida versions. We watched the Duffy show while we ate one afternoon. Unless you have a little kids it's not worth the time. Didn't get a chance to see Big Beat or One Man's Dream or Mystic Rhythms though. Little Mermaid was closed for refurb. The electric parade is superior to WDW's. There was also a lagoon show in the afternoon at DisneySea we stopped for, but also wasn't worth the time.

 

[bc7ate9]

We did a couple shows at Disney Sea. Big Band Beat is completely in English. There's a lottery to get the better seats, but we didn't do that and were able to walk in 5 minutes before the start and get seats that were fine. The show in the Magic Lamp Theater has translation devices available and also didn't require us to wait for long.

 

[BrianL]

Thanks for the advice on shows. I really want to see King Triton's Concerto the most. Unfortunately, it looks like the day parade, Happiness is Here, is not running while I will be there. I downloaded the soundtrack and am listening to it and I think it would have been great. One Man's dream also looks fun.

I notice the fireworks program is the same at both parks (Happiness on High) and it seems to be a short program. Any tips regarding it?