Split Tokyo hotel stay or onsite entire time?

[wendyt_ca]

We are planning on taking our first trip to Asia in October to do all 3 locations - Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. We will be there for about 2 weeks. With about a 7-8 days in Japan.
I plan to dedicate 3 days to Tokyo Disney and also want to see Tokyo and a little bit of Japan while there (and we might do a day at Universal).
I am wondering if we should book the entire stay onsite at a Disney hotel so we don't have to move luggage another time. Or split it up and stay in Tokyo for a few nights and then move to Disney for the end of the stay.
For anyone who has been what would you recommend?

 

[indoshakespeare]

Universal Studios Japan is located in a different city (Osaka). If you plan to spend more than 1 day in Tokyo, you should change hotel because the commute from Tokyo Disney to Tokyo can be time consuming and pricey.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

I would switch hotels as needed.

 

[Sarahboo]

I don't think you'd want to be staying at Tokyo Disney and commuting to Osaka for Universal (it's about 3 hours each way by Shinkansen which is about 500 round trip for 2 people). I would split my stay.

We stayed in Shibuya for our whole Tokyo stay and then moved to Osaka for our time there. The commute from Shibuya to Tokyo Disney was only about an hour and it only required one transfer at Tokyo Station and then onto the monorail. Tokyo Disney is not particularly convenient to the rest of Tokyo so if you plan to spend more time not at TDR than at TDR it might be worth considering commuting to TDR instead of from there.

 

[wendyt_ca]

We still aren't sure about Universal. We had ruled it out until they announced the Nintendo Land.
My husband hates changing hotels and we are changing 3 times for sure.But I was thinking it likely would be more convenient to stay right in Tokyo for that portion but I wasn't sure. I definitely want to stay at one of the Disney resorts cause for us this may be the only time we get over and since we are committing 3 days to solely Disney I want to be right there.

 

[kbmartin]

One option you could also consider is staying in Tokyo at a Disney Good Neighbor hotel. They have buses every day to take you to and from the parks. The commute could be kind of long each day, though.

My DH and I are doing a split stay. We are starting at TDR (Hilton Tokyo Bay) and on our last day, we're getting on the Good Neighbor Bus to our next hotel (Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku) with our luggage. I totally understand not wanting to deal with luggage on the subway.

 

[Agent 86]

If you're doing three days at Disney and five days in Tokyo (including day trips to locations closer than Osaka), I'd definitely do a split stay.

The days at Disney are LONG if you want to get the most out of them. You need to be in line at least 30 minutes before the scheduled park opening, stay until late and then possible do some shopping on the way out (after the park has technically closed). It's not nice adding a 45 to 60 minute commute onto either end of the day.

On our first ... three or so trips, we stayed in Tokyo and it made our Disney days huge. We were getting up at 6am (or earlier) and not getting back to the hotel until around midnight, then doing it all again the next day (and the day after that).

But, at the same time, it's not awesome adding that extra time to day trips into Tokyo or beyond from Tokyo Bay / Disney Resort.

 

[gelatoni fan]

I advise doing a hotel switch. The Disney hotels are far from things in Tokyo - 1.5 hours by public transit to some common tourist spots.
If you really hate switching hotels, you can stay at Tokyo station which is about 30 minutes from the parks. The park days will be long but it's doable and your hotel will be close enough to pretty much everything most tourists want to see in Tokyo. But you will lose Happy 15 and the other hotel benefits.

Being in Tokyo station also makes it easy to do Universal because all the transportation departs from there. It is possible to do Universal from Tokyo station by taking the first bullet at 6AM (you get to the park around 9) or an early morning flight and leave the park a bit early to catch the last train or flight back. That's a lot of money for transportation though and pretty much everyone will book a hotel in Osaka instead.

 

[nutshell]

Universal Studios Japan is located in a different city (Osaka). If you plan to spend more than 1 day in Tokyo, you should change hotel because the commute from Tokyo Disney to Tokyo can be time consuming and pricey.

This.

 

[nutshell]

We are planning on taking our first trip to Asia in October to do all 3 locations - Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. We will be there for about 2 weeks. With about a 7-8 days in Japan.
I plan to dedicate 3 days to Tokyo Disney and also want to see Tokyo and a little bit of Japan while there (and we might do a day at Universal).
I am wondering if we should book the entire stay onsite at a Disney hotel so we don't have to move luggage another time. Or split it up and stay in Tokyo for a few nights and then move to Disney for the end of the stay.
For anyone who has been what would you recommend?

When are you going? Shanghai DL and Hong Kong DL are closed due to the virus outbreak.

 

[MKTokyo]

When are you going? Shanghai DL and Hong Kong DL are closed due to the virus outbreak.

Apparently she’s taking her “first trip to Asia in October” ... in October.