(Updated 7/27) How Many Times Can We Switch Hotels? - Tokyo Disney TR May 2025

Araminta18

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Mar 11, 2016
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Hello everyone! I haven't been very active in this part of the Dis forums, but my husband and I just returned from a trip to the Tokyo Disney resort, and one of my favorite things is writing up (bonkers long) trip reports that let me relive the trip. Soooooo here I am, with an absolute ridiculous amount of photos (the theming in TDR is just amazing). Warning you ahead of time - If this is your first time joining me on a trip report, I go SUPER extra with the photos #sorrynotsorry - I used to use imgur to host 30 photos per post but I got burned when that whole thing went weird, so now I just upload directly to disboards, but that means each post only gets 10 photos. So that's why you'll see days broken up into like 20 or 25 posts, cause ALL the photos.

The details:
who: me and my husband Trevor
when: Saturday May 24th through Sunday June 1st
where: SO MANY - Tokyo Disneyland Hotel Park view, Miracosta Harbour View, Miracosta Piazza View, Fantasy Springs Grand Chateau, Tokyo Disneyland Beauty and the Beast room, Toy Story Hotel

Introductions:
I'm Tiffany, I'll be your ghost host for this trip report. :) I'm 37 and while I'm a librarian by education, I've fallen into being a supervisor for a cyber security team. Favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty, but I also love Mary Poppins and Beauty and the Beast and Rapunzel. Generally my favorite rides are Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Tower of Terror - you'll see how those adjust (or dont?! :D) after Tokyo Disney.

My traveling companion is my husband Trevor. He's 39, and loves Star Wars and Marvel, but has grown to love Disney--his favorite characters are Boba Fett, Vader and Stormtroopers, and on the non-Star Wars side, Grumpy. I recently turned him into a roller coaster fan (after him not riding them for our first several trips), so now he likes Cosmic Rewind and Everest...I think Rise of the Resistance and Star Tours are his favorite rides though. :)
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Ok, off we go! This trip was kind of an impromptu trip - or at least, impromptu for Tokyo Disney. I had a work trip to Asia pop up in February, where we were going to go to Thailand and Japan. And obviously if we're going to Japan, I figured I'd add on a couple days and do Tokyo Disneyland/DisneySea. Generally all the blogs and everything online recommends that you be online to book rooms and vacation packages the minute they go on sale, but with me only being 3 months out, obviously I couldn't do that. But I managed to cobble together some rooms - I wanted to try 4 of the hotels (Miracosta, Tokyo Disneyland hotel Beauty and the Beast room, Fantasy Springs Hotel, and Toy Story Hotel), and I was able to get them all! It had us moving rooms a lot, but what can you do. :) So I was getting excited. Trevor was going to come - he had a bunch of United points so his trip was actually free! He was going to arrive about a day or two after I would arrive in Japan, but we figured that was worth it to save 50k points.

Then about 6 weeks out, my work trip changed - we were no longer going to Japan, but rather South Korea. So we had a decision to make: scrap the Tokyo trip, or just go to Tokyo Disney after my work trip, despite needing to fly to Japan. We waffled for a bit, but eventually decided (surprise! :D) to go ahead and still go. Trevor had enough United points to get me from South Korea to Japan and back (cause work wouldn't fly me home from Japan, only from South Korea), and enough hotel points to book him a hotel room in Japan for the two/three days before I would arrive (we kept his flight the same) and to book me a room on points on the other end in South Korea. It was definitely getting a bit more complicated than originally planned or hoped, but it worked! We did have to extend the trip by about 2 days cause there wasn't an available flight back to South Korea for me, but darn. :D And because of the trip getting a bit more complicated, this is where we (I) kind of decided to not try and worry about touring the rest of Tokyo or anything but just do Tokyo Disney. I realize that's crazy - essentially 9 days at the resort - but it worked for us.

I kept checking every day to update our rooms and try and get it all set the way I wanted with the fewest room moves possible. I also (somewhere in there - can't remember if it was pre- or post- work trip changing) booked an Unlimited Vacation package - I got scared with the reports of all the lines and so figured that the unlimited vacation package would let us ride all the things without having to stress. The room was a Miracosta Harbour view room too, so...fancy! I appreciated that the cancellation policy was about 2 weeks so I was able to switch all the things around - I was really happy with what we ended up with:

  • Saturday May 24th: Tokyo Disneyland Hotel park view room
    • this was originally a BatB alcove room but since we had a BatB room later in the trip I decided to switch to a park view. This was a GREAT CHOICE!
  • Sunday May 25th: Hotel Miracosta Harbour View room (part of vacation package)
  • Monday May 26th and Tues May 27th: Hotel Miracosta Piazza view room
    • This took me FOREVER to cobble together - I had two Miracosta rooms but they were different. But eventually I was able to cobble together two piazza view rooms. I think this was like the very last room I was able to get
  • Wednesday May 28th: Fantasy Springs Grand Chateau
    • This was originally booked for the day before, but then I realized that the Frozen ride opened up after refurb on Thursday the 29th, so I changed our booking so that our Fantasy Springs early early entry would be the day that Frozen opened back up
  • Thursday May 29th/Friday May 30th: Tokyo Disneyland Hotel Beauty and the Beast Triple view room
  • Saturday May 31st: Toy Story Hotel Superior room
    • Originally I wanted Toy Story to be our first night (and after staying I think that would have been better) but I wasn't able to get it. I was able to get it for the last night, and then bumped us up to a superior room when it came available.
We were a bit worried about switching rooms 6 times but spoiler alert - it was not an issue at all. Stay tuned! Also, once the hotels were pretty well set, we planned our park days to maximize Happy entry:
  • Sat May 24th: Disneyland
  • Sun May 25th: Disneyland with Happy Entry
  • Mon May 26th: DisneySea with Happy Entry
  • Tues May 27th: DisneySea with Happy Entry
  • Wed May 28th: Disneyland with Happy Entry
  • Thu May 29th: DisneySea with Happy Happy Entry
  • Fri May 30th: DisneyLand with Happy Entry
  • Sat May 31st: DisneySea (no happy entry)
  • Sun June 1st: no park
Now obviously, I was in charge of the rooms and the park days (Trevor is my Disney passenger prince :D), but I did make Trevor sit down with me and go through foods/snacks to decide what we were interested in. There was kind of a lot, but I put together this spreadsheet of doom of what we wanted and which places sold it, as well as the restaurants we wanted to eat at. Not that we have to stick to the plan, but I like having a plan that we can deviate from vs not having a plan and then realizing at the end that we missed something 'cause we just forgot about it.

Finally, it was time to go! We'd watched a bunch of vlogs, read a bunch of things - we were excited. :) I left a week beforehand for Thailand and then flew to South Korea on Wed the 21st; Trevor flew to Tokyo on Thurs the 22nd. He spend the 23rd doing Tokyo touristy stuff, and then on Saturday the 24th, we were going to meet up and the Disney vacation would begin!
 
Trying to get to Tokyo Disney - Sat May 24, 2025 (part 1)

Ok, so since this is my trip report, it's going to start where I was Saturday morning - South Korea! Work stuff had ended the day before, so we'd booked me a flight to Tokyo that took off at 8:40 am and landed at 10:45 am. I got the airport pretty early cause me and anxious for flights, but all was smooth. They had this really cool automated you check your own bag system - like you put your bag in the big mouth and then it sucks it in, and you do it yourself without going to a counter/talking to an agent. It was neat!

Security and such was fine, and then I was at the gate just hanging out (though I got a starbucks egg muffin for breakfast). And then they put up this sign:
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Like this blew me away - they delayed boarding for 15 minutes and put up a whole sign of the time change and if you notice down below they even put in a reason. As opposed to my normal experience in American airports where they don't even bother to tell you if they're delaying boarding or anything. And after that they boarded at 8:22 am, so only a 7 min delay.

The plane was pretty nice - a bit old/dated, but well kept up. Per usual the seatback video screen was playing ads but look what one of the ads was:
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Phantom of the Opera!! Too bad it started on the 31st - if it had started while I was still in South Korea I ABSOLUTELY would have gone and seen it. I love musicals, and I know Phantom well enough that it'd be cool to see it in Korean. :)

Boarding was super fast and efficient - there were so many flight attendants and everything. It was crazy. Asia flights are on another level, no lie.

The flight was only about 2 hours, but they served us a whole meal!
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Not gonna lie, too heavy of a meal for me at like 9 am, but the noodles were fine and the chocolate bread thing was good. It also helped the time pass by quickly.

The plan upon landing was that Trevor would meet me in the arrivals lobby with his bags, and then we'd go together to Disney. We landed a bit early, and while it was a bit of a walk from the plane to customs, the customs/immigration didn't take super long (it helped that I'd done the QR code thing already - definitely do that, the line for that is WAY faster than the line for a paper form). But it took at SOLID 30 minutes to get my bags after I got through immigration. My bag must have been one of the last ones - I also got nervous cause the air tag hadn't updated. It was saying it was still in Seoul. But finally it pinged so at least that was a bit of a relief. And eventually, it came! Trevor and I were texting and he was like "ok i'm gonna sit down just for a bit" and that's when my bag came out. LOL He should have sat down earlier!

I met up with Trevor (yay!) and the plan was to buy a limousine bus ticket to take us to Tokyo Disneyland, but we weren't sure where to buy it. Thankfully there was an info desk right there, and they pointed us to the desk about 30 ft away. We asked for tickets to Tokyo Disneyland and they said the next bus was at 11:45. It was 11:38 am, but they didn't seem worried and sold us tickets for 11:45 and off we went!

It was a little bit of a walk but not too far -
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This is us at the bus stop at 11:42. :) We were a bit nervous the walk would be super far but then we were like "well they wouldn't have sold us the ticket if the bus stop was a super far walk away".

The bus was already there, so we dropped our bags and hopped right on.
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The bus was pretty empty - like maybe 1 or 2 other families? Not bad.

Once we were settled and off (we stopped at the two other terminals, I think - our terminal must have been the first stop), Trevor pulled out his bag of goodies! He'd been to 7-11 to pick up the egg salad sandwich I'd requested, and he got a couple other sandwiches too:
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The egg salad sandwich was so good! The 7-11 hype is real y'all. I also wanted the strawberry sandwich from 7-11 but it wasn't on sale, womp womp.

Trevor had also stopped at a little bakery and got some other fun things. A chocolate banana croissant:
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This doesn't look like much but it was yum - I love banana and chocolate so put that in a croissant? Yes please. :)

He also got me a croque monsieur 'cause I love those.
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This was more interesting than good but I really liked trying it. So interesting.

But yea that was our trip to the resort - eating goodies and talking/catching up and figuring out our initial plan for the day.

(also I realize there's a definite lack of Disney content in this first post...don't worry, that'll change starting next post!!)
 

Looking forward to your reports. I'm trying to move hotel rooms for my September dates. How many days in advance, and what time of day, worked for you
 
Looking forward to your reports. I'm trying to move hotel rooms for my September dates. How many days in advance, and what time of day, worked for you
Thanks for joining! As far as moving the rooms, I was trying to move so many and moved them so many times I don't know that I have good recs - I tried right when I woke up in the morning so about 7 pm Japan time, and then at night for me so like 9/10 am in Japan. But honestly it was just trying over and over and seeing what popped up and what was available.
 
Checking In - Sat May 24, 2025 (part 2)

The bus ride was pretty uneventful, what with Trevor and I snacking and talking. At one point I looked up and was like "hey, what is that building?"
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It looked even more yellow than it does in the photo, but after a second I realized - that's the Disneyland hotel! We were basically here!
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Though this is where my first screw-up of the trip happened: at the bus desk at the airport I asked for tickets to Tokyo Disneyland, not Tokyo Disneyland hotel. The bus stops at the parks as well as the hotel, and since I'd asked for Tokyo Disneyland (meaning generically Tokyo Disneyland, expecting that they'd ask me which particular stop), they had us getting off at Tokyo Disneyland the park vs Tokyo Disneyland hotel. And yes, while we could theoretically have just stayed on the bus to the hotel, they'd tagged our bags and unloaded our bags there at the park. But it ended up not being a big deal, as the bus stop for the park was like a 5 minute walk from the hotel itself.
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First Tokyo Disneyland selfie! (there will be more...bwahahahaha). So this is 12:25 pm, and the bus left at 11:45. So bus ride itself was like 30 minutes - not bad at all! I was so excited too - this is the back of the hotel and it's just gorgeous. And you can't see it in this picture but behind the camera is the entrance to Tokyo Disneyland! The last 18 months have been very difficult and stressful for a variety of reasons, so I was looking forward to a vacation at a new Disney resort, especially one that everyone says is so good. I couldn't stop smiling!

First up, check in! As we were heading to the check in desk, I was already excited to see the pretty theming/artwork on the walls (yes, this is where the SO MANY PICTURES part of the TR kicks in).
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This was at the end of the hallway on the first floor, right besides the elevators. I love Sleeping Beauty!
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I don't remember where this was but Prince Philip stamps!

There wasn't a line at checkin, which was nice. It was about 12:30 pm, and check in at the hotels here is a little bit of a process. I had to fill out a form/ipad with name, passport number, where we stayed the night before, and where we were going the next night and a few other things. They give you maps and room keys, and then print out your happy entry pieces of paper, and whatever else that takes a few minutes. Since everything was under my name, I was the main one checking in, which left Trevor free to take some pictures! Behind the check in desk, they had these awesome paintings of the park but as if they were open in the early 1900s:
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This was the best picture we got of this one, but Crystal Palace!
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World Bazaar

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Steamboat!
 
Brief Jaunt Over to Hotel Miracosta - Sat May 24, 2025 (part 3)

And one last:
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Toon Town! I love the contrast of the fancy clothes and then Toon Town. :D

The room was not ready yet, but she did give us our room keys and the room number. Which thinking about it now seems weird 'cause theoretically we could just go to the room but *shrugs*. It worked out nicely later, but odd. Anyways, all checked in, the next plan was to drop our bags at Bell Services. We did recombobulate ourselves a bit (I changed my shirt and got my ears out), but then dropped off our bags. They said the bags would be waiting in our room once the room was ready, which sounded awesome.

Next, buying park tickets! I'd seen lots of horror stories online about international guests trying to buy tickets online and it not working, so I was just planning on buying tickets at the hotel (hotel guests are able to buy tickets at the hotel, regardless of if tickets are sold out or not). It was pretty easy - no line, and we just filled out a paper form of what we wanted (1 day Disneyland tickets) and off we went. As a note, two one day Disneyland tickets were 19,800 yen or (per my credit card statement) $139.04. For two people! Crazy. :)

Next up: taking the monorail over to Hotel Miracosta. We'd booked the unlimited vacation package that would start the next day (Sunday), and it had our tickets and fastpasses. Since the hotel for the vacation package was Miracosta, they had our vacation package stuff, and I didn't want to get up SUPER early to go pick up the tickets and such the next morning, so next best option was to pick it up today (the day before). So having checked in and got all set at the Tokyo Disneyland hotel, off we went to the monorail!
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Pretty mosaic on the stairs as we walked out of the hotel.

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The monorail station! Right beyond it is Tokyo Disneyland. But look at the gorgeous paintings there right underneath the station name -
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Love it. :)

We did get a little flummoxed by the monorail - we tried to buy tickets using our credit card and spoiler alert, you cannot do that. It's cash only. Luckily Trevor had his Suica card that he'd bought when he arrived, and he had a bit of change so we just bought me a pass, and off we went.
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The monorail came after like 3 minutes. It's so stinking adorable. The Mickey upholstery on the bench, the Mickey window...I can't.

Hotel Miracosta was two stops away, so 8 minutes later, we were hopping off to this view:
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That's the hotel. Isn't that so cool?!

We walked into the lobby and were just flabbergasted - the Disneyland hotel is lovely and more to my taste but it's not quite as stunning/grabbing your attention as Miracosta.
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Over to the desk there was again no wait (it was about 1:20 pm), and I just gave them my name and they handed me the vacation package folder. The whole thing took like 5 minutes. But while I was getting it, Trevor was wandering and taking photos of the art they had behind the desk:
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FINALLY Entering Tokyo Disneyland Park - Sat May 24, 2025 (part 4)

My favorite artwork at Miracosta:
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But I'm a sucker for maps. :)

Vacation package stuff all picked up (tickets for tomorrow!), we hopped on the monorail back to Disneyland. I was hoping at the monorail station there at DisneySea they'd have the commemorative Fantasy Springs monorail ticket, but no dice - all gone. I guess it makes sense, it's been like a year. :) They didn't really have any other commemorative tickets that I wanted (lots of Duffy, and Donald Duck), though I ended up getting the "It's a Small World with Groot" ticket, which was cute.

By 1:35, we were back in the hotel - we just wanted to drop off the vacation package folder in our bags (cause it was kind of big) before we headed into the park. That ended up being more of an ordeal than we expected - it ended up being about 15 minutes for them to bring us a bag so we could just drop the folder in it. Oh well! Gave me time to use the bathroom, and take pictures of the lobby.
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No idea if this was like a gift certificate or what, but I want it. :)

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I love this with the ship made of clouds.
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They also had these fun Mickey and Minnie statues.
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Very dapper!

But by 1:50 we were all squared away, and it was FINALLY time to head into Tokyo Disneyland!!! With it being nearly 2 pm, there was no wait at all, and pretty soon we were past the ticket booths!
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This was during the Donald Duck celebration, so...Donald stuff was everywhere. :)
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Park selfie!

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Adorable fountain. No idea who the ducks are all around - Donald worshippers, or subjects? Cute though. :)

As we headed in, we passed some fun attraction posters:
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Happy Ride with Baymax was down for refurb (it would open up near the end of our trip on the 29th).
 
Our First Ride - Sat May 24, 2025 (part 5)

One more attraction poster:
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This was the ride I was most excited for!

As we walked in to World Bazaar, it was both familiar and completely different:
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It's covered, but the facades all look familiar. And there's the castle back there! We showed up right at the end of the set of the band:

Little clip of the ending :)

As we kept walking through World Bazaar, I noticed the theming (again) -
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A window near one of the "millinery" shops, of Aurora's dress!

We were a little bit at loose ends, not gonna lie. What to do?! We could do anything, but we hadn't bought any fastpasses or anything, and the free ones all were gone. With having an unlimited fastpass for Disneyland tomorrow, we didn't necessarily want to buy any today so what to do? I had us wander over to the Beauty and the Beast area just to see the theming:
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Lookit at that gorgeous castle!

And then, I'd kind of been looking at wait times, and Beauty and the Beast was posting 120 minutes earlier in the day, but then it dropped to 90 minutes, and then to 80 minutes, so since we didn't have anything really planned, we decided to bite the bullet and hop in line. I did want to see the regular queue as well so...yea. :)
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This was basically the end of the line. Also we realized the wait time dropped to 70 minutes right after we hopped in line. The rest of this post is going to be castle pictures. You're welcome. :)
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I just can't get over the detail on the castle - the windows and the theming in the windows ...the whole thing. Also, they were playing super loud forest/cricket sound effects, which would have been cooler if it weren't the middle of the day. :D
 
Popping over from your last TR . Can’t wait to read more about this adventure.
 
Wow, 6 hotel split stays might be a record on the Dis for Disney stay! But the whole trip sounds awesome and Im here for it!
 













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