Beginner questions for October trip please..

[eebuckeye]

We are going in early October and I did read through the FAQs and tried to skim some posts. A few questions please..

1. We want to go for 5 days but 4 is the max. Would it make the most sense to buy a 3 and a 2 or a 4 and a 1 day pass? I think you have to say which part you are going for the first two days?

2. Advanced tickets online can only be bought 3 months in advance, correct?

3. Do I need to book restaurant reservations far far in advance like DisneyWorld or Disneyland?

4. I can not find a meal plan - I guess it does not exist?

5. We are staying at a partner hotel - Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay. Can I get 5 or 6 day monorail passes or is it pay each time?

6. Where is a good place online to buy the rail pass for Japan trains?

Thank you!!

 

[Bobb_o]

1. You just have to price it out, I think the only thing that would matter is if you want to park hop because I believe on multi day tickets you can't park hop on day 1 unless you stay at a Disney hotel.

2. Not sure. On Klook they have tickets up to August as of today.

3. From what I have read no. I don't believe you can make advance reservations in English unless you're at a Disney hotel (I could be wrong here)

4. I don't believe there's a meal plan.

5. You can buy up to 4 day passes https://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/tdr/resortline/fare.html

6. http://www.japanrailpass.net/en/purchase.html but note that the pass only covers JR trains so if you're using private lines you'll have to pay out of pocket.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I can't answer all these questions but here goes:

1. This depends on what you want to do and what the operating hours/show schedule is like. Wait until within a month of your trip for the schedule to come out to decide how you want to do it. IMO, it makes the most sense to buy a 1 then a 4 day pass. That way your first 3 days are designated and your last 2 are park hopper so you have more freedom on the last days after you know what you like. You can always pay 200 yen at guest services to change the designated parks if you change your mind later (I did this on Tuesday when I decided to change my Wednesday from Disneyland to DisneySea).

3. Depends what restaurant you want to eat at. I knew that I wanted to eat at Sakura and Hokusai for Tanabata to try their seasonal sets but didn't think to book 30 days in advance so there were no more reservations available during the week of my trip. I ended up waiting a combined 2.5 hours to eat at those two restaurants. Character dining such as the Horizon Bay at DisneySea can be completely booked with no walk-ins so you should book character dining in advance. Of course, food at any restaurant in Tokyo is really good so you won't be disappointed even if you can't get a reservation.

5. You can buy up to 4 day monorail pass. Due to the length of your trip, you may want to check if it's cheaper to pay one way for the first or last day of your trip.

6. Are you going someplace far away that warrants a rail pass? They're generally expensive and not necessary if you are planning to visit only Tokyo and Disneyland but they can be purchased at both Narita and Haneda. If you are talking about a subway/metro card (Suica/Passmo), those can be bought at any subway/metro station.

 

[Absimilliard]

We are going in early October and I did read through the FAQs and tried to skim some posts. A few questions please..

1. We want to go for 5 days but 4 is the max. Would it make the most sense to buy a 3 and a 2 or a 4 and a 1 day pass? I think you have to say which part you are going for the first two days?

2. Advanced tickets online can only be bought 3 months in advance, correct?

3. Do I need to book restaurant reservations far far in advance like DisneyWorld or Disneyland?

4. I can not find a meal plan - I guess it does not exist?

5. We are staying at a partner hotel - Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay. Can I get 5 or 6 day monorail passes or is it pay each time?

6. Where is a good place online to buy the rail pass for Japan trains?

Thank you!!

1- Buy a four day ticket and then a single day. The reason is that after you name your parks for day 1 and 2, day 3 and 4 will be park hoppers. If you buy a 3 day ticket and a two, you will need to name your parks twice and only have day 3 to do as you want.

2- Another option to buy tickets is the Tokyo Disney desk at Disney Stores in Japan. 3 months in advance is the most you can buy them ahead of time.

3- You can do reservations up to thirty days in advance... but its either over the phone or on the japanese reservation website. When I went last january, I got a fast pass at Tower of Terror, ran to Journey to the Center of the Earth, rode it with no wait and then came back to the now defunct Sailing Day Buffet to stand in the same day reservation line. Restaurants will start taking same day reservations at 10am and like gelatoni fan said, some restaurants can be completely booked. This is the link for the japanese reservation website: https://reserve.tokyodisneyresort.jp/restaurant/search/

4- No meal plan. All meals need to be paid out of pocket. To give you an idea on what prices to expect, figure that the most expensive meal at a park is the amazing Magellan's. At dinner, a "set menu" including a soup, vegetable appetizer, appetizer of scallops, main dish of Kuroge Beef, dessert and soft drink will run 8020 yens or 73$ US. This include taxes and tipping does not exist in Japan. What is Kuroge Beef? Its a family of high end japanese beef that include Kobe Beef. Quick service meals are all around 900-1200 yens.

One thing to note, portions are much smaller than what we're used to in the US there. Don't expect to be able to split a meal unless you're very, very light eaters.

5- Get a four day pass and then a two day pass.

6- Are you expecting to travel outside of Tokyo? For Tokyo only trips, I would suggest not getting a Japan Rail Pass. Get a Suica/PASMO card, load it up and you're all ready to go to travel using the subway and JR train. Buying the Japan Rail Pass from a direct agency will be cheaper than at the airport in Japan.

 

[ChanduTail]

To add a few things...

2. If you buy online, don't worry about the paper size requirement if you don't understand what it means. The tickets will print fine on regular, standard US computer paper.

3. It's definitely not true that all restaurants in Tokyo have good food. Some do & some do not. It's just like any other city. Please do not expect a magical paradise where every single restaurant is an achievement in culinary delights. The in-park restaurants range from sort-of okay (Cape Cod Cook-Off) to really amazing (Magellan's).

4. No meal plan, and you don't want one, because snacking is fun

5. If you plan to use the monorail only once per day, you do not need a monorail-specific pass if you are using a Pasmo or Suica. You can use those cards to pay for your trips on the monorail. If you plan to use it more than once per day, it becomes more cost-effective to buy a pass.