Fantasy Springs is opening June 6th 2024

[gelatoni fan]

I feel like this trip gave me very unrealistic expectations for the next time I go to TDR . It was so much quieter and easier to tour than the US parks, and I only visit those in lower times as well. I heard Golden Week was generally pretty quiet this year as well, so just an oddball of a year I guess.

It's possible that the crowd level changes may last for a while though due to no more annual passes and multi-day tickets. The cost of hotels around Tokyo has also gotten astronomical with the cheap yen. An American may not feel as much of a price increase but to someone earning yen, a lot of hotels now cost 50-100% more than they did in 2019.

The weak shows and seasonal events, especially at DisneySea, are also softening crowds. And standby pass is convincing people who don't want to wake up early to not even bother going in.

While the extremely low crowds due to Fantasy Springs are definitely an anomoly, we may also be in a new era of lower crowd levels.

 

[Disneyhanna]

It's possible that the crowd level changes may last for a while though due to no more annual passes and multi-day tickets. The cost of hotels around Tokyo has also gotten astronomical with the cheap yen. An American may not feel as much of a price increase but to someone earning yen, a lot of hotels now cost 50-100% more than they did in 2019.

The weak shows and seasonal events, especially at DisneySea, are also softening crowds. And standby pass is convincing people who don't want to wake up early to not even bother going in.

While the extremely low crowds due to Fantasy Springs are definitely an anomoly, we may also be in a new era of lower crowd levels.

I thought the Tokyo hotel costs were wild, even as an American, compared to the price of everything else. I know I was limiting my options quite a bit as I wanted a large room, but yeah, it definitely took me by surprise. Kyoto hotels in comparison felt much more reasonable.

For the sake of everyone looking to visit FS, I do hope the lower crowds stay. It was so nice to visit a Disney park and be able to ride things standby on a whim, without needing any sort of pass or waiting a significant amount of time. The US parks are struggling to balance the standby lines with the Genie+ lines and it didn't feel like the DPA/priority lines were causing the same issue at TDR, but I know my four park days were a bit of an anomaly.

 

[Flossbolna]

Wow crowds are low these days. It's weird to think that after Fantasy Springs opening, you can now expect to be able to go on Soaring after Believe. Before this month, I don't think I've ever seen the queue not get cut before the show was over except maybe on super cold, low crowd days in February.

Wow!! That’s interesting! I think what Fantasy Springs is doing that it adds so much capacity that it makes all the other waits go down. We watched Believe just from in front of Soarin and skipped the finale. I think they cut the line quite exactly at the end of the show.

 

[Flossbolna]

@gelatoni fan thanos for the input from a local experience! It’s really interesting to hear.

One thing we noticed is the amount of English being spoken by other park guests. In 2017 we did see quite a few Western looking people, but it was more like: see, other tourists from far away. My husband went in 2010 for the first time and said they more or less did not encounter any other Western tourists in the parks.

 

[Disneyhanna]

@gelatoni fan thanos for the input from a local experience! It’s really interesting to hear.

One thing we noticed is the amount of English being spoken by other park guests. In 2017 we did see quite a few Western looking people, but it was more like: see, other tourists from far away. My husband went in 2010 for the first time and said they more or less did not encounter any other Western tourists in the parks.

There were a lot of visibly foreign guests! Especially in FS, I even saw a handful of US vloggers on opening day that I knew of but don't necessarily follow. What I was surprised was how few Americans I encountered throughout Japan over my two weeks. Pretty much everyone I thought could be American, ended up being British/Australian/etc. I encountered so few Americans I was a bit surprised, given how "popular" going to Japan seems to be on social media right now. Going solo, you overhear a lot of conversations, and I often had days where I never encountered anyone speaking "American English" lol. But the cost to get there from the US unless you live near LA is so high, I guess I shouldn't be as surprised.

 

[gelatoni fan]

@gelatoni fan thanos for the input from a local experience! It’s really interesting to hear.

One thing we noticed is the amount of English being spoken by other park guests. In 2017 we did see quite a few Western looking people, but it was more like: see, other tourists from far away. My husband went in 2010 for the first time and said they more or less did not encounter any other Western tourists in the parks.

Japan is absolutely flooded with foreign tourists right now. It's crazy how quickly shopkeepers and hotel staff default to English now. There's also a lot of visitors from Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong but I feel like visitors from these areas are only slightly more than pre-pandemic while the amount of Europeans and Americans has to be way more than pre-pandemic. Kyoto and Kanazawa in particular have a lot of Westerners.

I actually feel like Tokyo Disney is a bit more balanced becasue despite significantly fewer Japanese visitors than pre-pandemic, most of the visitors still seem to be Japanese. The same can't be said for the monkey park in Nagano which is super trendy for Western visitors right now.

 

[nalababybear]

Japan is absolutely flooded with foreign tourists right now. It's crazy how quickly shopkeepers and hotel staff default to English now. There's also a lot of visitors from Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong but I feel like visitors from these areas are only slightly more than pre-pandemic while the amount of Europeans and Americans has to be way more than pre-pandemic. Kyoto and Kanazawa in particular have a lot of Westerners.

I actually feel like Tokyo Disney is a bit more balanced becasue despite significantly fewer Japanese visitors than pre-pandemic, most of the visitors still seem to be Japanese. The same can't be said for the monkey park in Nagano which is super trendy for Western visitors right now.

Funny you say that. We have Nagano scheduled for our January trip for 2nights up there. Not worth it? How about daytrip to Hakone from Tokyo?

We're capping it with 4 days at TDR after we pickup DD from her 1month stay in Tokyo for college intersession.

 

[gelatoni fan]

Funny you say that. We have Nagano scheduled for our January trip for 2nights up there. Not worth it? How about daytrip to Hakone from Tokyo?

We're capping it with 4 days at TDR after we pickup DD from her 1month stay in Tokyo for college intersession.

I think Hakone is worth visiting. It's someplace I want to revisit when I have time.

The Nagano monkey park can be worth doing but it depends on what you're looking for. It's not in the city and after an hour on a bus or train, you'll still have to hike up to the park. For a lot of people, the novelty is to see monkeys bathing in a hot spring, especially in the snow like you would get in January. Then some people pair it with a stay in a ryokan in the area or go skiing.

If you just want to see some snow monkeys and don't care to see them super up close or in a hot spring, it's a lot less hassle to just visit a zoo, especially if you're not used to walking in the snow. If you want to take things more slowly and see a bit more of the natural environment, then it could be worth it.

 

[dunkindonut]

usj had so many foreigner visitors May 2023 I was shocked. There were more foreigners there than TDR, almost felt like going to Universal Orlando in some places in the park.

 

[Flossbolna]

Japan is absolutely flooded with foreign tourists right now. It's crazy how quickly shopkeepers and hotel staff default to English now. There's also a lot of visitors from Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong but I feel like visitors from these areas are only slightly more than pre-pandemic while the amount of Europeans and Americans has to be way more than pre-pandemic. Kyoto and Kanazawa in particular have a lot of Westerners.

I actually feel like Tokyo Disney is a bit more balanced becasue despite significantly fewer Japanese visitors than pre-pandemic, most of the visitors still seem to be Japanese. The same can't be said for the monkey park in Nagano which is super trendy for Western visitors right now.

The strange thing is that we have rarely seen Europeans so far. I have heard Italian once and French once. No German so far which is shocking. I am German myself and it always seems to be that Germans are everywhere all the time.

I am feeling guilty of just following the usual tourist paths myself. To be honest, I am just a risk averse person and the fear of not being able to communicate if I venture off to lesser known places does scare me. I have been doing an evening class in Japanese for over two years now and feel like I am still so far away from real
communication. It’s the highlight of the day when I can ask for cutlery at a cafe successfully. Forget about understanding anything in an attraction. So maybe our next trip will lead us to lesser known places, too, when my language skills have improved.

 

[soniam]

The strange thing is that we have rarely seen Europeans so far. I have heard Italian once and French once. No German so far which is shocking. I am German myself and it always seems to be that Germans are everywhere all the time.

I am feeling guilty of just following the usual tourist paths myself. To be honest, I am just a risk averse person and the fear of not being able to communicate if I venture off to lesser known places does scare me. I have been doing an evening class in Japanese for over two years now and feel like I am still so far away from real
communication. It’s the highlight of the day when I can ask for cutlery at a cafe successfully. Forget about understanding anything in an attraction. So maybe our next trip will lead us to lesser known places, too, when my language skills have improved.

I understand that feeling. That’s probably why I have dabbled in several languages. I have picked up words here and there while we are here. I pick up numbers really well, which usually isn’t true for me. Well, I don’t pick up large numbers in French well, because of the weirdness with 80+. I am happy that they seem to appreciate my meager effort. Everywhere I have been, except Paris, people have appreciated or at least smiled at little efforts.

 

[hopemax]

Not exactly Fantasy Springs related, but since my previous posts in this thread were about booking the Fantasy Springs Hotel package and it's all part of the same trip...

Successfully, booked our 5 nights at the Disneyland Hotel and I'm so glad that stress is behind us!

Given the discussion about prices, I went back to our reservation at the MiraCosta in 2018. 5 nights in the Captain Mickey Triple Room was ¥344,300. 5 nights in the Beauty & the Beast Triple Room at the Disneyland Hotel was ¥504,500. A significant increase. However, accounting for the exchange rate, this will probably be about $3300 and the 2018 trip when it was ¥108ish per dollar would have worked out to around $3200. So lucky for us, but that's got to be rough for Japanese families.

Sorry to read the news about the ending of luggage transfer at the Good Neighbor Hotels. We are staying at the Hilton the night before our Fantasy Springs package starts. So we won't have that far to lug our bags, but it would have been nice not to have to.

 

[djmeredith]

This isn't specifically FS related, but I didn't want to start a whole new thread for this info. The 100% Cotton TDR t-shirts we bought a few weeks ago have shrunk A LOT. My poor nephew bought three shirts and they shrunk so much he doesn't want to wear them. He even went up one size from his regular U.S. size. He's an adult med U.S. and bought adult LG at TDR, but he wishes he went up 2 sizes. So be aware that you may want to go up 2 sizes as you consider t-shirt purchases.

 

[princesscinderella]

This isn't specifically FS related, but I didn't want to start a whole new thread for this info. The 100% Cotton TDR t-shirts we bought a few weeks ago have shrunk A LOT. My poor nephew bought three shirts and they shrunk so much he doesn't want to wear them. He even went up one size from his regular U.S. size. He's an adult med U.S. and bought adult LG at TDR, but he wishes he went up 2 sizes. So be aware that you may want to go up 2 sizes as you consider t-shirt purchases.

Thanks for this information, we too would be disappointed to have bought shirts and have them unwearable after the first washing.

 

[Agent 86]

This isn't specifically FS related, but I didn't want to start a whole new thread for this info. The 100% Cotton TDR t-shirts we bought a few weeks ago have shrunk A LOT.

After washing in cold water and line drying? I haven't purchased shirts recently from TDR as I didn't like any of the designs and they seemed too short in the midsection, but ones from ... 5+ years ago washed and wore well.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Not FS related but I saw on TDRExplorer's Twitter account that TDR will begin to sell park specific merchandise on the Disney Store website starting July 1st. Not everything will be available and shipping is only within Japan, so you would have to use a proxy service to buy anything (I've had good experiences with Zenmarket in the past).

Depending on what's offered it sounds like a decent alternative to dealing with eBay personal shoppers that mark up items by at least $20 more than they're worth.

 

[djmeredith]

After washing in cold water and line drying? I haven't purchased shirts recently from TDR as I didn't like any of the designs and they seemed too short in the midsection, but ones from ... 5+ years ago washed and wore well.

No, he washed and dried them with his regular clothes. My guess would be that there would be less shrinkage if you washed cold and line dried. He's going to try stretch them out when they are wet and line dry them to see if that stretches them enough to make them wearable.

 

[Agent 86]

No, he washed and dried them with his regular clothes.

Ah, okay. I've only ever washed mine the standard, Aussie way (cold water, line dry). I'll remember the shrinkage factor if we buy anything for my daughter since I typically tumble dry her clothes.

 

[cinnamoroll]

Pleasantly surprised at how well they’re managing crowd levels in FS compared to Nintendo World at USJ. I bought an evening pass on Sunday on a whim and was able to grab standby passes for Rapunzel and Peter Pan and mobile orders at Snuggly Duckling after constant refreshing. Never felt like a sardine and the standby lines weren’t unbearable (40min for Rapunzel and 50 for Peter Pan). Didn’t have problems finding seating in Snuggly Duckling either. People with DPA/vacation packages seemed to be able to walk straight up so we’re very excited to start our vacation package today! Assuming crowd levels and ease of snagging standby passes stay the same we’ll be staying off-site and spread out our visit over multiple days in Nov to save $$.

 

[dunkindonut]

The vacation package perks just seem simple unbeatable honestly, no Disney park in the world offers anything remotely similar. Kind of crazy to see that some of the rides have open spots though. I guess they must have a god tier level of management or something, although I hear the TDR app has been the Achilles heel lately, which is unsurprising.