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New blog on Tokyo Disney Resort

Following up with answers to questions I had a week or two back. Shellie May's waits were in the 45-60 minute range a couple of days ago, and Oswald only about 30 in the middle of the day. I was pleasantly surprised.

Thanks to all for your helpful advice here, it helped my 3 days there go smoothly. If I can add any info with my very recent experience, please let me know. :goodvibes
 
I wanted to drop in to say how much I enjoyed your blog. I read the whole thing this weekend :D Thank you to you and your wife for all the great information.

We are planning a big trip to Japan in 2016. It seems a long ways off, but we are a family of 4 living in New Zealand and want to spend a fair amount of time once we get there, so a budget is in order. Our children will be 15 (DD) and 12 (DS) at the time of our trip. They are Disney fans, but my husband is more tolerant than enthusiastic. His best friend and his wife live in Tokyo and other friends of ours live in Chigasaki, so we have a lot to see and do with amazing guides (we will also be staying with them). However, they are school teachers, so we need to visit during school holidays and have decided on Golden Week 2016. I imagine it will be crazy then, but what an awesome opportunity to see Japan in full celebration mode.

Following that adventure, we plan to stay for an extra week after Golden Week - during which time we can go to TDL and TDS :yay: I think it will be less crowded the week AFTER Golden Week, but still decent weather. There is a lot yet to decide, but we have heaps of time and the planning is fun. We are leaving the Golden Week plans up to our friends, so Disney is the only part I need to deal with. We have only been to DLR in California, and are excited to explore another venue.

Some early thoughts:

1. Official hotel vs. Disney Hotel vs. offsite
2. Three or four days (probably 4)
3. Figuring out vegetarian meals (for our daughter - the rest of us are omnivores)

My husband speaks some Japanese, but the rest of us do not, so we are starting a language program this year to at least get some simple phrases down before we leave. I lived in Hawaii for the majority of my life, and Japan has a sense of familiarity about it. We are already excited.

Thanks again
 


adventuregirl said:
I wanted to drop in to say how much I enjoyed your blog. I read the whole thing this weekend :D Thank you to you and your wife for all the great information.

We are planning a big trip to Japan in 2016. It seems a long ways off, but we are a family of 4 living in New Zealand and want to spend a fair amount of time once we get there, so a budget is in order. Our children will be 15 (DD) and 12 (DS) at the time of our trip. They are Disney fans, but my husband is more tolerant than enthusiastic. His best friend and his wife live in Tokyo and other friends of ours live in Chigasaki, so we have a lot to see and do with amazing guides (we will also be staying with them). However, they are school teachers, so we need to visit during school holidays and have decided on Golden Week 2016. I imagine it will be crazy then, but what an awesome opportunity to see Japan in full celebration mode.

Following that adventure, we plan to stay for an extra week after Golden Week - during which time we can go to TDL and TDS :yay: I think it will be less crowded the week AFTER Golden Week, but still decent weather. There is a lot yet to decide, but we have heaps of time and the planning is fun. We are leaving the Golden Week plans up to our friends, so Disney is the only part I need to deal with. We have only been to DLR in California, and are excited to explore another venue.

Some early thoughts:

1. Official hotel vs. Disney Hotel vs. offsite
2. Three or four days (probably 4)
3. Figuring out vegetarian meals (for our daughter - the rest of us are omnivores)

My husband speaks some Japanese, but the rest of us do not, so we are starting a language program this year to at least get some simple phrases down before we leave. I lived in Hawaii for the majority of my life, and Japan has a sense of familiarity about it. We are already excited.

Thanks again
Click to expand...

I went this past May the week after Golden Week. Crowds were not a problem in the least. I followed my touring plans for the first few headliner rides on my first days at each park, but other than that I just did everything at my own pace and it worked out fine. I highly recommend that time of year. The weather was pretty good -- one morning was drizzly and one of the evenings was incredibly windy, so much so that the Electrical parade was canceled. Otherwise, the weather was nice, although a bit colder than I'm used to May being, coming from the states.

1) We stayed at the Hilton. We only had 2-3 months between deciding to go to Japan and arriving there, so the Disney hotels were already pretty booked up once we started looking. That said, with the price difference between the Disney hotels and the official hotels, I'm not sure I would've been able to justify the cost anyway. The resort area is rather compact so you never feel far removed from the parks and transportation only takes a few minutes, no matter where you stay. I'm sure the Disney hotels are lovely but I'd book the Hilton again in a heartbeat. (Getting a Hilton Honors card will earn you further savings.)

2) We spent our first partial day exploring Ikspiari and the three Disney Hotels, then four full days at the parks (2 days per park). It was plenty of time. The first day for each park was rope drop to close, then we'd return for shorter hours on the second day. You could probably do just about everything you want to in three days but four days will allow you to move at a more relaxed pace.

3) My boyfriend and I are vegans and the Tokyo parks... Sigh... It ain't pretty. We lived off of coffee, French fries, and popcorn in the parks. There is one vegetarian/vegan meal offered at East Side Cafe in TDL and one at Ristorante Di Canaletto at TDS. (We didn't eat at either as we were unable to get priority seating the two times we tried.) El Dorado Cantina at TDS offers some sad chips, guacamole, and salsa, as well. Your daughter should plan to bring along some snacks of her own (everywhere in Japan, not just Disney) just in case she has trouble finding something, although, as a vegetarian, she'll have options available to her that we didn't, such as pastries, yogurt, etc. We always carried our own onigiri, fruit, oatmeal, "jerky", fruit leathers, wagashi... Another good thing about the Hilton is their breakfast buffet (free add-on option for Honors members). The buffet had lots of veg-friendly options. We'd fill up there in the morning and then just make do at the parks.

Don't worry about learning Japanese unless you want to for the experience. Just about everyone in Japan speaks English to some extent.

You'll have a wonderful time in Japan. Don't hesitate to ask more questions. Everyone here is very helpful.:)
 
Adventuregirl: Thank you so much for those kind words. I appreciate it.

1) Well, if you don't mind spending the money, I would recommend the Miracosta. That's one special hotel. If you do decide to stay in the Miracosta, do go for the Venice Side room, at least. Forget about the Tuscany side rooms.

2) If time permits, I would definitely do 4.

3) My sister is vegetarian too and when she visited Tokyo last year, we had a hard time finding vegetarian food for her in both Tokyo and TDR. As TipsyTraveler said there are only 2 restaurants in the whole resort that specially caters dishes to vegetarians. I would suggest heading to Seijo Ishi supermarket in Ikspiari to stock up on food before heading to the parks. The buffet style restaurants do serve up some vegetarian dishes too. That might be another option for you guys.

With regards to learning Japanese, I agree with TipsyTraveler. A lot of them speak some form of English. Just speak slowly and use loads of body language and you should be fine. I would use that money that was gonna be spent on Japanese classes to fund for a stay at the Miracosta. That would be a better use of the money to enhance my trip, IMO. Hope this helps.

Orph: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

By the way, I'm going to upgrade the site soon. I'm hoping to get the new site up and running by September, so there might be a couple of weeks at the end of August whereby I won't be able to add new blog posts. I wanna pretty up the site. I hope that you guys will enjoy what's coming up. I'm really excited about sprucing up the site. Cheers.
 


Thanks TipsyTraveler for the tips!

I like the idea of stocking up on vegetarian snacks from the market for the parks. DD likes most foods and will try anything, as long as there is no meat.

We are going to use Rosetta Stone - it is not very expensive for the four of us to use, and the kids are pretty pumped about learning. My husband's friends (from Chigasaki) speak very little english, so it will help us all to communicate. His friends in Tokyo are from the US, so their english is fine :)

I am looking forward to the new Blog site and will definetly be following along.
 
I love your blog! I spent 3 weeks in Japan last August/Sept. and we are going to visit again in April 2015 for 2 and a half weeks. Reading your blog keeps me up to date on TDR info! Keep up the great work and どうもありがとう ございほす。
 
disneychic said:
I love your blog! I spent 3 weeks in Japan last August/Sept. and we are going to visit again in April 2015 for 2 and a half weeks. Reading your blog keeps me up to date on TDR info! Keep up the great work and どうもありがとう ございほす。
Click to expand...

Thank you. Appreciate those kind words. I am glad that it's helping you. I'll be updating the site real soon to make it better. April is a great time to visit. Beautiful weather!!! Once again, thank you.
 
Teslascar, have you tried the Black Pepper popcorn yet? I tried at least a half dozen flavors while I was there and it was THE. BEST. I try to replicate it at home but, alas, it's not the same. (Then again, I didn't think soda popcorn was all that bad so maybe you shouldn't listen to me. ;))
 
Oh I love Black pepper popcorn. It's really good. You've got me craving now. Wish I could have a bucket of those now!!!
 
NEW BLOG POST!!!

Updated the blog. This time, we talk about food catered to those with allergies in Tokyo Disney Resort. I hope that this will help some of you guys out there. Thanks for the support and hope that you guys will enjoy this read. Cheers.

By the way, I am currently creating another site to replace Konnichiwa Mickey. That site will be ready sometime in October. Once again, thanks for reading guys. Cheers.

http://konnichiwamickey.wordpress.com/2014/09/19/for-those-with-food-allergies/
 
Hello!

I have spent much of the weekend reading through most of your blog with great intentions to get through the rest! :eek: :laughing: It's wonderful! Thank you so much for doing it! And your little girl is TOO CUTE! :goodvibes

My daughter (7 years old) and I are quickly becoming obsessed with making a trip to Japan, and of course, we couldn't do that without visiting TDR! It may be years (or maybe not - depends on how obsessed we get :laughing:), but it's never too early to start researching. :woohoo: We have good friends who keep poking at us to go to Japan - the wife is from Japan and the husband is ex-US-military and spent a lot of time there. They go every year, so I'm hoping we could experience some of the country with them - would be nice to be there with someone who knows what she's doing! They aren't Disney people though, so that part is going to be all on me.

Anyway, I am LOVING your blog! You give so much great information and make it personal as well. Great job!

I'm curious about Club 33. We are frequent Disneyland (California) visitors, and there, you have to know someone to get into Club 33. Is it the same way at TDR???? Because the birthday experience you posted looked amazing!

Also, what time of year would you most recommend to visit in order to avoid the worst crowds? :confused3
 
RGirl said:
Also, what time of year would you most recommend to visit in order to avoid the worst crowds? :confused3
Click to expand...

Avoid the month of March and the first week of April. Avoid the second week of August (approx.). Avoid almost all weekends.

January midweek has the lowest crowds, but there is a reson for that. It can be bitterly cold and windy along Tokyo Bay. And you also want to avoid major ride closures. At TDR, ride closures and maintenance are regular and planned well in advance. You need to check the TDR website; they list the schedule of closures. The summer sun can be very harsh. It will wilt you. So if you go at that time, I recommend bringing a parasol (the Japanese women use them) so you don't bake. I've been twice in August. The good thing is that everything is open plus they have some great additional entertainment.

Here is a link for the TDR Crowd Calendar.

http://www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/

It is in Japanese, but the calendar pages are pretty easy to figure out if you spend some time looking at it. There is a colored square in every date that tells you how many visitors (in the thousands) are expected. I have done a '46' day, which is very crowded but manageable. Above that, it's hard for me to imagine just how crazy it could get.
 
It's been a long time since I've updated the site. Been trying to create a new site. It's DONE!!!

The new Tokyo Disney review site is called Honorable Rat. I hope that you guys will enjoy it. More Tokyo Disney reviews to come real soon. Updates will be posted on www.honorablerat.com

Thanks for the support guys. I really appreciate it. Hope that this will help you guys plan your trip. Cheers.
 
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