Tokyo Disney planning help

[SPINster]

Yeah the hotel sizes worry me, paired with the not knowing if you can get even one room. As for the language barrier, my oldest daughter is fluent in Korean and has been learning Japanese so we’ll be leaning on her a lot. I told her we’ll pay for her and her spouses trips if she lets us use her as our interpreter lol.

Western brands like Hilton tend to have bigger rooms (and bigger beds). Also there are "family style" hotel brands like Mimaru that are lower price but sleep more people. They even have a little kitchenette, large table, etc in them that make them more apartment style.

If you want to do a ryokan experience (which I recommend!) usually they have rooms that fit four people.

As far as the language barrier, the various translation apps are a lifesaver! Many restaurants we went to, the servers would speak into the app to help us. Google maps works really well, even tells you the exit number to use for every train station (each door is numbered, with clear signage, so once you get the hang of it you can really save yourself a lot of walking).

 

[jimmymc]

I'd recommend three days minimum, two in DisneySea and one in Disneyland. For a longer trip, I would probably make the 4th day Disneyland and 5th DisneySea. Five days is the max I would do on a three week Japan trip.

There are basic food options, like pizza, burgers, and chicken nuggets. Most quick service restaurants have small menus, like 2-3 entrees and 1-2 sides. So you might find yourself visiting the same restaurants multiple times a day.

Tokyo vacation packages are interesting and very different than the US ones. They will normally include your hotel stay, park tickets, skip the line passes, character/show passes, and breakfast at the hotel. But these packages are limited to 3 days, 2 nights. If you want to stay on-property longer, you need to book hotel rooms or multiple packages back to back, which can be difficult. You can also just book a hotel room and purchase tickets, then add on the skip the line passes later.

I don't personally know any, but there are definitely travel agents who specialize in TDL. With this large of a group and a longer trip, it might be worth paying one to make sure you get what you want. Rooms sell out quickly, so trying to book multiple of them with identical packages on the TDL English website sounds really tough.

 

[BarlowFamily]

What we did was a weekday pass (5pm-9pm) at Disneyland, 1 full day at Disneyland and 2 full days at DisneySea. We stayed at the Hilton Tokyo Bay located next door to Toy Story hotel.

For hotels understand that in Japan they are normally smaller hotel rooms and smaller beds and their room occupancy is normally lower than what you'd normally be able to find in the U.S. You have 8 people and that is going to be really tough to not have to get 3-4 rooms. The beds are often twin sized beds.

Thaks for sharing your experience! We are in the early stages of planning a trip November 2026. We can't decide between doing your exact days (evening Dl, day DL then two days DS) while staying at the Sheraton. We will purchase any access passes we can and do our best to book the free ones. OR do a one night unlimited package with just a day at each park. Do you feel like you missed out on anything or spent loads of time in line?? I'd love to hear more about your trip.

 

[BarlowFamily]

Boy, you have a lot of planning work ahead of you!

I'd plan on at least three days in the parks: one at Disneyland, two at Disney Sea. Depending on your familiarity with the US castle parks, you might want to add another day at Disneyland.

We did the Unlimited Vacation Package when we went in April of this year. It was really expensive, and my sanity was tested trying to even get the reservation. But it made things so much easier not having to be at the gates at 6:30AM, and getting the unlimited Priority Lane (think FASTPASSES) for every attraction that has one (except for the Fantasy Springs attractions, but that could change by the time of your trip). A travel agent, if such a specialized one even exists, won't give you a leg up.

I wasn't overly impressed with the food. There are some unique treats, but meals themselves weren't much to write home about. There are plenty of things for picky eaters at almost every venue.

The least expensive option which will get you early entry (not necessary if you have the unlimited package) will be at the onsite Ambassador. "Best" hotel is a toss-up between Disneyland Hotel for overall convenience and MiraCosta, for the unique in the park location. We stay at Fantasy Springs hotel, but the theming is somewhat underwhelming compared to the other three, and it was only convenient for its Fantasy Springs entrance and exit. Next time I'd do Disneyland Hotel or MiraCosta.

Ask away, if you have more questions.

I'd love to hear more about your experience with the unlimited vacation package. We will book the Sheraton for all our nights, especially since that can be booked 11 months out. If I'm able to snag an unlimited night I will do so and then just hotel swap for that night. Could you give a run down of your park days. Would you recommend the unlimited??

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Thaks for haring your experience! We are in the early stages of planning a trip November 2026. We can't decide between doing your exact days (evening Dl, day DL then two days DS) while staying at the Sheraton. We will purchase any access passes we can and do our best to book the free ones. OR do a one night unlimited package with just a day at each park. Do you feel like you missed out on anything or spent loads of time in line?? I'd love to hear more about your trip.

It was a trade off for us with the evening ticket for DL. We were actually coming from Takayama back to Tokyo that day so we had a free evening, if we were already at the Hilton Tokyo Hotel for the morning I probably would have done the full day pass. Most of the DPA and 40th Anniversary passes and all the Fantasy Springs Standby passes were gone by the 5pm entry (which people were lining up before 4:30pm (that was around the time we made it to the DL gates) but it was good to see a short Halloween fireworks show that got cancelled due to winds the next evening and we got to see the main fireworks show knowing if we did we didn't necessarily have to wait for it the next evening. And we got to be in the parks, do a few rides, etc. Food however be careful of as they may not stay open as late as you want. We did have fun trying out different flavors of churros and I kinda got a liking to the jelly drinks.

We did spend some time in lines, Toy Story Mania was particularly rough we tried it first in the morning and that was a mistake. The next time we did it we just paid for a DPA (Disney Premier Access) but just about everything else we did we did passes for or waited relatively low. One morning we were in the parks before they officially opened (because we were waiting quite early outside the tapstiles) and my husband got in line for Tower of Terror before the parks officially opened which helped him get through in a decent amount of time.

Sinbad ended up being one of our favorites and we still talk about it even a year later (it's like its a small world which was being refurbed while we were there so it wasn't open) and we rode that 4 to 5 times?? All but one time with only a 5-10 min wait (I think the longest was 20 or so just hit it at the wrong time), it grew on us as an attraction and was normally low waits which helped. Aquatopia was another favorite we rode more than once and normally that one was 20-25 mins (sometimes under) but one time was 40 mins.

Note when we went Fantasy Springs was only allowed to be entered if you had a Standby Pass or a DPA (or if you had the Fantasy Springs entry pass). We were able to get in 3 separate times via two DPA purchased and 1 Standby Pass. Fantasy Springs no longer has this restriction. Back then Rapunzel was astronomical in wait times for the evening especially, the line snaked back and forth within the Fantasy Springs area but this was a screenshot I had from lunchtime on one day when it wasn't quite as high of a wait time for that.

But again that was October 2024 when Fantasy Springs was new. I haven't kept up on the wait times. The only ride we didn't do in Fantasy Springs was Busy Buggies. It was only available via Standby Pass and we favored trying to get Frozen, Rapunzel and Peter Pan instead.

Journey to the Center of the Earth was closed for refurb while we were there and that one is a main attraction for DisneySea so I couldn't tell you the wait times for it. My husband was too tall to ride Raging Spirits and it's too intense of an attraction for me (goes upside down) but I noticed it was also a very popular ride. The outside is great for ambience and photo ops at night though. Electric Railway was closed for refurb while we were there which was slightly disappointing (it's a transit option within the parks)

We only got to ride Haunted Mansion one time at the very end of the evening, just due to wait times mostly, but it was the Nightmare Before Christmas overlay which we have seen at Disneyland in California. Beauty and the Beast was done both times via DPA, it is typically considered the attraction that gets the highest waits sometimes several hours. Our first time through with DPA was right at park opening which was perfect for subsequent availability of DPA and 40th Anniversary Passes. I loved that ride so much I wanted to do it again. We were able to get a DPA for the afternoon but unfortunately it did have a minor breakdown even though we still didn't wait long it wasn't quite as quick. That attraction is very technical.

Believe Sea of Dreams was quite a wonderful nighttime evening show. We did not pay for the special viewing area just found a spot ahead of time on the side up a bit but from what I've heard people aren't thinking the special viewing area is worth it. Do know that people in Japan have a norm more of putting things down to mark their spot and then leaving so it was quite common for us to see backpacks, sitting mats (which are abundant there and used in lieu of sitting on the ground), small small sitting chairs, etc around the area in preparation for watching the show. I do believe people did this for the parades as well in which people will wait an eternity for and I mean that like 4-7+ hours they will sit down on the ground waiting for the parade. Average parkgoers do not mind waiting in lines or waiting around which for the rest of people tends to keep the availability of DPA and 40th Anniversary a bit better due to that.

They seem to take much better care over their attractions such that at least while we were there Beauty and the Beast seemed to be the only ride that went down although I know Aquatopia can also go down (and needing to be drained) but it didn't happen to us while we were there. The trade off there is attractions are more frequently on a refurb and your trip stands a decent chance of having one or more attractions unavailable due to a refurb. Check their website over time.

We normally don't pay for passes at WDW and only did MaxPass at Disneyland in CA but because we were in Japan we didn't really spare an expense on purchasing DPA, I don't mean we went crazy but that we didn't mull over it. The pricing is on average a much better bargain that the U.S. parks. They just use a flat yen fee.

 

[gmi3804]

I'd love to hear more about your experience with the unlimited vacation package. We will book the Sheraton for all our nights, especially since that can be booked 11 months out. If I'm able to snag an unlimited night I will do so and then just hotel swap for that night. Could you give a run down of your park days. Would you recommend the unlimited??

If you have the means, I absolutely recommend it. It takes all the stress out of navigating this very complex set of parks. Do what you want, when you want. We were lucky to get FSH for all three nights and didn't have to move rooms. We did:

31 March - FSH room only. This was the last night of the Fantasy Springs pass (great timing!), so upon check-in we did all the FS rides over and over, then went into DS for dinner at Magellan's and hit some low-line things like Sinbad's. We had all our VP tickets in hand, as we checked into the VP when we checked in for the room-only.
1 April We had our tickets in hand, as we checked into the VP when we checked in- Day One of our 2-night package, at DL. We rope-dropped the waffle stand, as we didn't have to rush anywhere to get in line or fiddle with trying to snag Priority Entry passes.
2 April - Day Two, DS. Room only night. DS, after a leisurely (included) breakfast at FSH. Unlimited pass didn't include FS attractions, but we'd done them all multiple times on 3/31, but got some extra rides on Frozen and Peter Pan (our favorite) at rope-drop, and again at closing. Cold rainy weather helped keep park attendance down a bit.
3 April - Day Three, Room Only night. We opted not to do a park today, since we'd actually done everything. We explored Ikspiri, and left the area around 5PM for our 9PM flight to Honolulu, where we stayed of five nights to "recover."

To recap, we did one room-only on 3/31, buying the Fantasy Springs Pass for DS that day, then the one-night Unlimited VP starting 4/1, which included tix to DL on the first day and DS for the next day.