Back from first TDR trip and had an amazing experience!

[aschwarz]

When I think about how nervous my husband and I were, seriously losing sleep over the thought of navigating Tokyo with absolutely no knowledge of the Japanese language/culture, I can't help but chuckle.

We embarked on the trip of a lifetime and I am so happy we took the plunge and did it. Tokyo quickly became my favorite city (and I live in a suburb of New York City!) due to the lovely people, incredible culture, and, well, everything else!

As for TDR? I'm now dreaming of the day we can go back, hoping to do a Disney Asia tour and include stops in HKDL and SDL. We had more fun than should be allowed, and I'm seriously in awe of TDR. The Japanese truly have the spirit of Disney -- what I really think Walt envisioned for his parks -- and we were lucky to be surrounded by people who were genuinely happy and excited to be there, which made US happy and excited to be there.

My only two gripes? I didn't take into account just how hot and humid it would be, which made it a challenge to go as full force as we would've liked on our park days. I avoid FL in all but the fall/winter for this reason, and the humidity in Tokyo is NO joke. But we lucked out to have basically no rain during their rainy/typhoon season, so I can't complain too much.

My other gripe? My husband is not such an adventurous eater, so much of what we ate consisted of pizza, fries, and sandwiches.. just like at home. We did get to eat sushi and a few other Japanese staples, but not as much as I would have liked.

Thanks to you all for your help when I was freaking out about doing it. Now I'm just wishing we could get back on a plane!

 

[HMANSION LOVER]

I am very glad to hear you had an awesome time. My family and a bunch of friends are planning a trip to TDL and it's nice to hear that a picky eater AKA your husband was able to eat well, because I am a kindred spirit when it comes to adventurous eating and was afraid I would lose to much weight LOL. Like I can't afford to lose some weight! We are really looking forward to Disney Sea. Did you stay at any of the Disney hotels? I would love to hear about it if you did. Also if you did not could you fill us in the hotels you did stay at because we will most likely not want to pay the premium price to stay at onsite hotels the whole time $$$$$ .

 

[katt789]

I am very glad to hear you had an awesome time. My family and a bunch of friends are planning a trip to TDL and it's nice to hear that a picky eater AKA your husband was able to eat well, because I am a kindred spirit when it comes to adventurous eating and was afraid I would lose to much weight LOL. Like I can't afford to lose some weight! We are really looking forward to Disney Sea. Did you stay at any of the Disney hotels? I would love to hear about it if you did. Also if you did not could you fill us in the hotels you did stay at because we will most likely not want to pay the premium price to stay at onsite hotels the whole time $$$$$ .

We started out doing a split stay but found an airbnb SUPER close to til that was half the price of HALF the stays of the other place, and you can get whole houses with airbnb!

Naturally, right after we booked this, the Hilton Tokyo Bay had a flash 50% off sale!!!!! It has onsite amenities, anise a Hilton! Follow TDR explorer on Facebook to keep up to date on those!!

 

[wanderlust7]

Did you stay at any of the Disney hotels? I would love to hear about it if you did. Also if you did not could you fill us in the hotels you did stay at because we will most likely not want to pay the premium price to stay at onsite hotels the whole time $$$$$ .

We stayed at the Sheraton (Ocean Dreams room) and liked it a lot. Photos in my trip report if you're interested (link in signature). The first post has links so you don't have to read the whole thing. Sheraton - Day 7, Disneyland Hotel - Day 10, MiraCosta - Day 11.

 

[aschwarz]

Hi @HMANSION LOVER! Yeah unfortunately I ended up gaining 4lbs even with all the walking/sweating from the crazy heat -- guess I enjoyed the food more than hubby he's one of those annoying people that literally never gains weight though, so life is just unfair I guess! You will find plenty to eat.

We stayed at the Hilton Tokyo Bay during our time in the parks and had a fabulous time -- the hotel room was super futuristic (we called it the Tomorrowland room!) and it was absolutely beautiful. The staff was incredible and the location/transportation to everything simply can't be beat.

As for our time in Tokyo, we stayed at the Shiodome Royal Park Hotel in Shimbashi, which was a bit far from Narita/TDR, but perfect for sightseeing throughout Tokyo. Minutes from Shimbashi and Ginza, and very close to the major hotspots like Shibuya, the fish market, and Odaiba. We only had about 1.5 days of sightseeing in Tokyo before we headed to TDR, and I wish we could've explored more, but this hotel was equally perfect for our needs. In fact, we ventured to TDR using mass transit on a steamy Monday morning in the middle of rush hour commute, and it only took us about 45 minutes to reach the park gates (that's with checking in/dropping our luggage at the Hilton luggage drop area!) the transit system in Tokyo was pretty flawless for our needs, but we're used to the messy, delayed-ridden NYC transit!

Let me know if you have other questions -- you're gonna have a great time!

 

[HMANSION LOVER]

Tokyo mass transit during rush hour!!!! You guys are truly brave. Being from Long Island and having worked downtown I have "enjoyed" the NYC transit system as well but have heard about very very crowded cars on the Japanese system. Is that true? I was concerned about navigating my way through a very crowded system I was not familiar with.

 

[aussie shaz]

We loved the trains in Tokyo. We don't really use trains much here in Australia, but the Tokyo trains were so easy.
HMansion Lover, we had one 'experience' of being physically pushed onto a train. It was so fun because it's what I had heard about taking the train in Japan! Very, very squishy though. You wouldn't want to have a fear of enclosed spaces.

 

[rosaciri]

Hi @HMANSION LOVER! Yeah unfortunately I ended up gaining 4lbs even with all the walking/sweating from the crazy heat -- guess I enjoyed the food more than hubby he's one of those annoying people that literally never gains weight though, so life is just unfair I guess! You will find plenty to eat.

We stayed at the Hilton Tokyo Bay during our time in the parks and had a fabulous time -- the hotel room was super futuristic (we called it the Tomorrowland room!) and it was absolutely beautiful. The staff was incredible and the location/transportation to everything simply can't be beat.

As for our time in Tokyo, we stayed at the Shiodome Royal Park Hotel in Shimbashi, which was a bit far from Narita/TDR, but perfect for sightseeing throughout Tokyo. Minutes from Shimbashi and Ginza, and very close to the major hotspots like Shibuya, the fish market, and Odaiba. We only had about 1.5 days of sightseeing in Tokyo before we headed to TDR, and I wish we could've explored more, but this hotel was equally perfect for our needs. In fact, we ventured to TDR using mass transit on a steamy Monday morning in the middle of rush hour commute, and it only took us about 45 minutes to reach the park gates (that's with checking in/dropping our luggage at the Hilton luggage drop area!) the transit system in Tokyo was pretty flawless for our needs, but we're used to the messy, delayed-ridden NYC transit!

Let me know if you have other questions -- you're gonna have a great time!

Hi - we are from Australia and planning our TDR trip for next year. Was thinking of the Hilton Tokyo Bay - can I ask how close this is to TDR and how you would you get to the resort. I have gathered they don't have shuttle services. So much to learn about TDR. We have only been to DL Anaheim and the Asian parks seem to be so different. TIA

 

[aussie shaz]

Hi Rosaciri. We were at the Hilton in April. It's a great hotel and great location. It's directly across the road from the monorail station, which you can then take to both parks, and Ikspiari (shopping/restaurant mall). We bought a 3 day monorail pass which was great and easy.
Catch a train to Maihama station, then take the monorail to the Hilton.
Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[aschwarz]

Sorry for delay in response! I didn't get a moment to check in this week.

@hmansionlover we never found the trains to be crowded at all, and I had heard about the pushing and seen videos. In fact, hubby kept complaining about having to go back to MetroNorth/NYC subways after our Tokyo experience! It was truly easy to navigate, clean, and pleasant all around.

Hi @rosaciri no worries, I too was panicked about planning for TDR but all our worries vanished once we got there -- seriously. As a PP mentioned, Hilton Tokyo Bay is a great hotel in a great location -- we made it to the parks most mornings within 15 minutes by using the hotel's bus to the Maihama station, and the monorail to the park (or we walked). We did purchase a 4 day monorail pass, so we had the option if we didn't feel like walking. One morning, we walked from the hotel to Tokyo DisneySea and it was a bit of a long walk (15-20min) but doable if you've got the energy.

I know this sounds totally confusing, but trust me, the signage is all very clear and hotel staff at the Hilton are VERY helpful, so you'll have no problem navigating once you are actually there.

 

[HMANSION LOVER]

Aschwartz thank you so much for all your help. We were apprehensive about staying offsite because we were worried about our ability to navigate the transportation systems available but you make it sound so easy. We will still have to stay at the Disneyland resorts for at least a night or two as we always like to enjoy staying onsight and enjoying some of the extra magic. And the fact that the Mira Costa is actually inside a Disney park is too much to pass up. Thank you so much for allying our fears about staying offsite and traversing the public transportation system in Tokyo

 

[aschwarz]

@HMANSION LOVER ENJOY! you will have a fabulous time.

 

[Tanzanite]

When I think about how nervous my husband and I were, seriously losing sleep over the thought of navigating Tokyo with absolutely no knowledge of the Japanese language/culture, I can't help but chuckle.

We embarked on the trip of a lifetime and I am so happy we took the plunge and did it. Tokyo quickly became my favorite city (and I live in a suburb of New York City!) due to the lovely people, incredible culture, and, well, everything else!

As for TDR? I'm now dreaming of the day we can go back, hoping to do a Disney Asia tour and include stops in HKDL and SDL. We had more fun than should be allowed, and I'm seriously in awe of TDR. The Japanese truly have the spirit of Disney -- what I really think Walt envisioned for his parks -- and we were lucky to be surrounded by people who were genuinely happy and excited to be there, which made US happy and excited to be there.

My only two gripes? I didn't take into account just how hot and humid it would be, which made it a challenge to go as full force as we would've liked on our park days. I avoid FL in all but the fall/winter for this reason, and the humidity in Tokyo is NO joke. But we lucked out to have basically no rain during their rainy/typhoon season, so I can't complain too much.

My other gripe? My husband is not such an adventurous eater, so much of what we ate consisted of pizza, fries, and sandwiches.. just like at home. We did get to eat sushi and a few other Japanese staples, but not as much as I would have liked.

Thanks to you all for your help when I was freaking out about doing it. Now I'm just wishing we could get back on a plane!

Glad you had a loveley time .We have gone 2 years in a row in summer humidity is awful but only time we could go.I am not keen on sushi last year we had hardly any my son was disapointed so this summer we went out for sushi and left twin siblings at hotel with 7 eleven food few times/We love Disney Tokyo favorite Disney Sea.

 

[aschwarz]

@Tanzanite glad to hear we're not the only ones who didn't eat much Japanese food in Japan too funny!

 

[Tanzanite]

@Tanzanite glad to hear we're not the only ones who didn't eat much Japanese food in Japan too funny!

I wont be taking twins to Japan again as we must have kept 7 Eleven in business probably 2 weeks out of 3 and they only really enjoyed Universal and Disney they didnt want to do Temples so stayed in hotel a lot only place i felt safe leaving teens is Japan..

 

[aussie shaz]

We also didn't eat much Japanese food, but had no problems finding western food wherever we went.
My teen loooved Japan. He likes all things Japan and says this was his favourite holiday ever (we've been to USA a couple of times, Thailand, Bali, Fiji, other Aussie states)
The rest of us probably preferred USA and Bali.

 

[Corbisblue]

We started out doing a split stay but found an airbnb SUPER close to til that was half the price of HALF the stays of the other place, and you can get whole houses with airbnb!

Naturally, right after we booked this, the Hilton Tokyo Bay had a flash 50% off sale!!!!! It has onsite amenities, anise a Hilton! Follow TDR explorer on Facebook to keep up to date on those!!

Thank you for the shoutout! The Hilton Hotel does flash sales every so often. We try to keep an eye on it so we can tell everyone about it. It's definitely the best alternative for a Non-Disney Hotel right on the resort.