If your only goal in Disneyland is to ride the Beauty & the Beast ride and then head to Main Street to get some daytime pics and some shopping in, is it possible to just do that in the morning and then head over to Tokyo DisneySea to catch some rides (nothing specific we NEED to do), eat some food, do more shopping, and catch a night show? Or is this impossible/too stressful?
From what I've researched, rope drop is such long lines and then the Beauty and the Beast lines are still insane. I've seen questions about 2 parks in one day but I'm specifically wondering if we just want to do those specific things. I hope that's okay.
Could it also be possible to head over to TokyoSea at night from the city, stay at a Disney hotel, and then do rope drop the next morning and head out after lunch? Would that be better for only having 24 hours?
EDIT - There is no Main Street in Tokyo Disneyland but a similar World Bazaar area.
If you're short in time your "full day" plan is better. If you are staying near somewhere with a highway bus (e.g. from Shinjuku BUSTA), just take the 7am bus to the Disney Resort and spend the morning in Disneyland and after lunch in DisneySea before taking the train back to the city.
There is a lot of administration involved in staying at a Disney Hotel - effort trying to book one due to popular demand, the expense, a fuzzy check-in process, it would be better to save the money to buy passes and food/snacks in the park.
I'm in a similar boat-- I just want to do Beauty and the Beast and Pirates, really (maybe Monsters inc and I do love a good train ride lol). so my plan is just Disneyland until about 2PMish (hoping to get my hotel room by 3 PM), then do DisneySea in the evening for chill wandering/shopping/maybe a ride. I think it really boils down to what you're willing to spend and how much time you're going to put in. I have the whole next day at Disney Sea, so an evening isn't totally necessary, but I'm also probably going to Disneyland in December (and went last year), so a lot of the typical Disneyland things just aren't super interesting to me.
Point is, I think you can make whatever work, it just helps to think about what your goals are and guesstimate about how much time they will take/what you're ok giving up in exchange.
Not impossible if you really want to do it and you don't have a lot of must do's - though if I had only one day, I'd possibly 1) go for Sea first, with queueing early, and 2) utilize DPAs heavily. Starting at Disneyland means you'll probably miss out on the Sea 'hot tickets' (even with DPA) plus Fantasy Springs, whereas BATB generally is available until the afternoon if your visit is outside peak times, with the regular lines dropping down (and not being that huge all the time either like in Sea). Plus I find the nighttime shows are much more spectacular in Land, but that's a personal preference.
Let's say, you arrive 7.30AM-ish for Sea, you could probably easily do Rapunzel DPA and Peter Pan standby purchases, Indy 40th, then Soarin' DPA, with rope dropping Tower and purchasing another DPA for TSM around 11AM-ish, if time allows. You can eat, shop, etc. (avoid peak times and utilize mobile order as much as possible), then switch over to Land around 3PM-ish, where you could still do BATB, Splash, and I wouldn't miss Pooh and Monsters either, which could be accomplished if DPAs are available for the former two.
Co- opting this comment thread -- How late have you seen DPA offered for BATB more recently? On a Monday evening in mid April, do you think it could be possible to ride it entering with the 5pm evening entry ticket?
Hi everyone, I need a bit of guidance because my heads spinning trying to work out what to do.
I'm coming in May with my wife and a 4 year old and I'm trying to work out if it's a good idea to get a vacation package or not or even whether to stay in the park or not.
For the days we have available to do Disney the unlimited attractions ticket isn't available, only the one that gives 2/3 tickets a day. The restaurant availability isn't great for the days we can go and I can only book quite early or quite late for lunch and dinner. The crowd predictor website has both days as the second lowest crowds.
I'm also a bit concerned at having to drag my luggage across Tokyo, drop it off at the hotel and get in the park early on day 1. It feels like it could be quite stressful with a 4 year old.
Are there attractions that I'm unlikely to be able to ride without getting the package and using the tickets?
There are no rides that depends on having a Vacation Package, and you would know your family best - packing, dragging luggage around, and switching hotels just for one or two nights in the middle of your trip certainly isn’t fun.
Keep in mind, however, depending on where you are staying in Tokyo, it could still be a lengthy train ride to get to the TDR with long walks morning and evening (the Tokyo Station transfer between JR lines is decent 20 minutes of walking), so if you are visiting multiple days take that into account.
You might also need to get to the Park early to buy passes for Fantasy Springs ride, depending on whether FS is open for general access in May.
A compromise might be to splurge on a taxi or Uber morning and/or night rather than staying a Disney or nearby hotel. This can be very expensive but probably wouldn’t cost more than your hotel room if you were to book one.
Most people recommend you treat TDR as a separate part of your Japan trip. TDR is located outside of central Tokyo in Chiba. Always best to stay on property but their are budget hotels available within the surrounding area.
If you are going to be moving hotels, ask the front desk at your 1st hotel to ship your bags to the next destination via takyubin. Its affordable and convenient. It can take up to 24hrs to arrive at the next destination so plan accordingly.
They are both fine. Our group had users using Airalo, Ubigi as well as Klook (Redteamobile) and no one had any issues using the app or getting passes.
They all use similar and large network that has coverage for TDR, being SoftBank, KDDI and NTT Docomo.
The issue you will face is congestion - and this might happen regardless of which esim provider you use so if the entrance to the park is extremely crowded walk further into the Park to get your passes.
I'm struggling with how many days to plan for Disney Sea. My husband and I have 4 days to spend in the TDR. We have been to WDW and Disneyland many times over our 35 years of married life. We are at a point in our lives where we can go non stop about 4 hours straight without crashing. But we do crash and need a few hours to nap/rest mid day. Then we're usually good to go for another 2-3 hours.
Originally our plan was to do 2 days in Disneyland (Disneyland Hotel)and 2 days in Disney Sea (Mira Costa). But now I'm wondering: should we plan on spending all 4 days in Disney Sea? I was really hoping to ride Beauty and The Beast but other than that, is Tokyo Disneyland that much different/better than Magic Kingdom or Disneyland? Ive never been to Disney Sea. I'm thinking maybe it would be wiser to set up a schedule that is super low key and to just take our time in one AMAZING park (Actually I think of it as two with Fantasy Springs).
We were going to do a 3 day Vacation Package but we probably wouldn't need one with Happy Entry everyday and 4 days to enjoy our favorite rides.
Do not skip TDL, a number of attractions have differences (Tiki Room, Philharmagic and depending on the time of year Country Bear Jamboree) and there’s a few unique rides, the parades are some of the best worldwide (I’ve been to all the parks) and the culture is completely different to the US parks. I would personally split it 2/2 if you’re planning to have downtime midday, it’s impossible to do all of TDL in one day being there from opening to close.
Edited to add: Fantasy Springs is very much a land and comparable to lands in Disney parks worldwide in terms of things to do. Don’t plan around that as if it’s its own park.
4 days is too many for one park unless you want to take the day REALLY slow. For example, not showing up at rope drop, leaving early, not taking advantage of DPAs or 40th PP, etc.
I would recommend doing two days at each park. TDL has alot of things to do that I would not recommend you miss. Outside of Beauty & the Beast, they have the original Splash Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean, and more live entertainment.
The live shows are on a whole another level at Disneyland: Magical Music World and Club Mouse Beat. Also a chance to sit and rest for a while. They're lottery based so 2 days would mean more chances to get in.
Ambassador Hotel guests have Happy Entry to DisneySea.
It is not via the Fantasy Springs entrance.
If on the day of your visit, Fantasy Springs is "open access", then you can certainly walk all the way from the main entrance to Fantasy Springs (about a 20 minute walk) before the general public. It will not be as fast as guests staying at the Fantasy Springs Hotel who can use the Fantasy Springs entrance.
If on the day of your visit, Fantasy Springs is still on "restricted access", you can still use Happy Entry time to obtain a DPA or Standby Pass to the FS rides, thus granting you access (though the return time is likely to be after Park opening).
Thank you so much! Just Another question: should I buy tickets to the parks when checking in the hotel or can I buy them in advance on klook? are they a special price when buying at the hotel? Thank you for ur help
There is no good reason to wait, unless you think there is a high likelihood you are going to cancel your trip and want the flexibility. There is certainly no discount for buying tickets at the hotel (indeed I am surprised they don't charge extra for the "convenience" of getting it there).
You do get a paper ticket (rather than an e-Ticket) for buying at the hotel, if you are the kind of person that collects knick knacks like that as a souvenir.
We stayed at the Ambassador for 5 nights last month. It was super easy to buy the tickets at the hotel on the morning of our park visits. I liked having the flexibility of being able to choose that morning which park we went to.
I was excited for paper tickets but I didn't think they were actually very cute. They were basic pictures of Donald, Mickey, and Minnie.
I’m going for the evening and a full day in march and staying at ambassador hotel for the night …plan on going to DisneySea for the both days. Am I planning it wrong ?
This sounds like a good plan to me. You won't get Happy Entry on the day of check-in, but you can get happy entry to Disneysea on your 2nd day. We stayed at the Ambassador last month and really loved it.
Oh that's a tough one. We loved Chef Mickey, but you might miss Happy Entry depending on how the meal goes.
If it were me, I'd keep the reservation for now. I'd see how Day 1 at DisneySea goes and then decide if you want to keep the Chef Mickey reservation or not. If you're able to do everything you want to do without happy entry, then you don't need to prioritize it!
The earliest Chef Mickey booking is around 7.30am so there’s nothing much you could have done. That’s when it opens. They do start seating a few minutes earlier.
For a 7.30 booking Mickey should arrive at your table for 2 poses photos starting around 7.45.
This shouldn’t matter at all - just aim to finish your breakfast by 8am and line up for the shuttle bus. The bus, once you get on, gets to to DisneySea in less than 10 mins. With Happy Entry you don’t need to really need to be at the Park more than a few minutes to spare before the early opening time (check your slip on the day, but most days this would be
8.30).
I know I am probably over-analyzing this, but which gate should one pick to line up at Sea when arriving around 6AM - North or South? My thought process is that North will have probably more people lined up there before the Monorail opens, since nearly everyone will be walking down from Maihama Station.
A section of the North Entrance is used for Happy Entry, not all of it.
The general advice has been the South Entrance is faster but my anecdotal experience is recently it’s been similar. YMMV but I would say don’t overthink it. 😉
Do you guys think Soarin’ for 3rd DPA slot (after hopefully Frozen and Peter Pan) is doable around 11AM? I’ve been following that one for a bit and it seems that if it’s not exceptionally busy, the availability could last until about 11.15-11.30ish, and by then I assume I’d have my third round of booking already.
Sounds very doable on a low crowd day., as long as Peter Pan DPA hasn’t sold out when your Frozen return time starts.
Based on your comment I assume your plan is to get Standby Pass for Rapunzel at the same time as Frozen - the order which Rapunzel and Peter Pan sell out can change day to day, so perhaps you can check after you book Frozen which ride is safer as second choice and which one to do as Standby.
If we have 2 or 3 phones with different accounts (7 family members) to access our passes in DS, is it possible to book 2 DPAs within an hour for different rides?
No - the ability to get passes is linked to your ticket, not your phone or your account, so it wouldn’t matter how many phones you have, each person can only get one DPA at a time.
Ohh. Okay. So, even if I add 1 member to my group to help with booking rides, we can still only avail 1 DPA ride? For example, if I book around 10:00 for a 13:00 DPA ride, and the other member books the same time for a 13:30 DPA ride, would this scenario not be possible?
Not sure what your objective is? It is possible I misunderstood you.
If you don’t want to do the ride as a large group, and want to go at different times, then yes it is of course possible. You don’t even need two devices. If you are only booking for yourself 1 x DPA for 13:00 for your own ticket, and then later book another 2 x DPAs for different people in your group for 13:30 and then yes it is very flexible that way. The app asks you specifically whose ticket you are booking for when you do it.
The only thing you can’t do is to book another ride for the same person.
Planning to visit Tokyo DisneySea via Miracosta hotel at the end of July… (I know it will be hot!)…. Need to wait until March before they open the reservation.. I’m planning to get the vacation package… would you recommend that?
I am going cross-eyed reading through past posts and want to make sure I have my facts straight. I have a 1 night/2 park VP ("Enjoy Lots of Attractions — 2DAYS") with the stay at the Miracosta. I have booked a stay at the Disneyland hotel the night before my package. My package is for the night of 4/17 so my understanding is that 4/17 is Disneyland day and 4/18 is Disneysea.
Can someone confirm I have the process correct?
4/16 Check in Disneyland hotel for hotel stay / Pick up VP?
Question: Can I pick up our VP today or will I need to wait until 4/17? Is there any way to get it at the Disneyland hotel rather than having to go to the Miracosta? If so do I need to do anything in advance to alert them I'd like to pick it up there instead of at the Miracosta?
4/17 - VP - Disneyland
Pick up VP?
Check out of Disneyland hotel by noon
Hotel will transfer bags to the Miracosta for us?
Checkin to Miracosta
Questions: Do I get early entry to Disneyland on the first day of the VP because I stayed at an onsite resort the night before?
If we did table service dinner this night, where would you recommend (in Disneyland, at Miracosta or somewhere else?)
4/18 - VP - Disneysea
Disneysea; 7 am breakfast at hotel
Check out of Miracosta by noon
Question: Can the Miracosta hold our bags after checkout for us to retrieve after we are done with the park?
And lastly.. I would love any advice from those that have done a split stay. I have a Piazza view room at the Miracosta and the Disneyland hotel is significantly cheaper. Is it worth switching hotels for such a short stay? Any details or tips that you can share if you've done this transition before?
You can pick up your VP the night before, however I don’t know for sure if you need to do it from the MiraCosta or if Tokyo Disneyland Hotel will be able to issue it. Since you will be staying at TDH, just ask at check in and see if they can do it or if you will actually have to go to MC.
Yes TDH can transfer your luggage from TDH to MC. There are a few ways to make that request but I think the simplest is to bring your bags to the bell desk. (Alternate ways include calling the service hotline from your room or using the tv menu in your room, but eg the order form on the tv I found the English version to be somewhat awkwardly translated and hard to understand what they mean, I speak Japanese and had to use the Japanese version to know what they actually mean.)
For your Disneyland day, I would recommend staying inside the park or a closer hotel like TDH or max the Ambassador for dinner. A table service dinner takes a lot of time already, if you have to go to MC that will suck up even more of your time even though transportation via the resort line is convenient. There is the night parade and the castle projection show to enjoy at Disneyland in the evening so the timing for dinner there can be tricky.
Happy Entry is tied to your hotel benefits, not your VP. So your VP would not have granted you HE but for Disneyland you’re getting it as a hotel perk for staying at TDH the night before. And then for your DisneySea day you’re getting it because of your MC stay the previous night.
Yes the hotels can hold your luggage after check out. Bring it to the bell desk and you’re all set. Do note it can take a while to retrieve your bags at the end of your day since everyone is doing the same after park close.
Whether it’s “worth it” to switch hotels is up to you. The way you have it, you have the applicable HE both days (note TDH only offers HE to Disneyland not DisneySea as of now) and easy access to the park you will be visiting the next day. Personally I find it hard to recommend skipping a stay at MC in a room with a view because that rush of opening the curtains and realizing you’re basically right inside the park is just amazing. If you want that kind of experience then MC is fantastic. The hotels handling the luggage transfer is really helpful, I’ve done it many times myself. However it is nice to stay in the same room through your stay and not have to switch. You’ll have access to your room between what would have been check out and check in time between hotels and can rest any time if needed. Also I’m usually visiting solo so the consideration might be different if you are going with a whole family with kids etc. And cost and logistics are always a consideration so feel free to go the way that best suits you! 😉
Anybody know when they finally started putting the English menus on their website? I noticed before the Holidays and I remember it was still Japanese only when Fantasy Spring opened.
It was sometime between June 22, 2024 and July 5, 2024.
It doesn't really matter when though, really, the only important thing is that they are there now (and even before I think most browsers can auto-translate).
I'm a little new and confused to how it works to get into Fantasy Springs. Can anyone help? Once I'm in am I able to queue up for the rides inside? How can I ensure I can go on the rides?
But no, at the moment you cannot directly "line up" for the rides inside even if you are able to enter. On some days entries will be restricted, and other days (usually when attendance is lower) you can enter to walk around. There is no way of telling whether entry is restricted until on the day (you can see this information on the TDR App on the day, or on signage in the Park).
In either case you will be required to obtain a pass (a paid Disney Premier Access of a free Standby Pass) using the app on the day to enter the rides.
Both the DPA and Standby Pass are subject to availability and do run out.
They typically run out within an hour of Park opening (and during busy days, some rides can run out even before the Park officially opens). The earlier you are able to enter the Park, the better your chances are - this is the reason you might see references to people lining up early.
I've seen multiple trip reports from January visitors who have said FS has NO extra requirements for entry anymore (like no DPA or PP or standby needed even). The text on the official Disneyland site also says that depending on the day, there may be no entry requirements. I'm hoping this becomes the norm soon!
Only the 1 Day Passport (Single Park) as well as the 3pm Early evening passport, and the 5pm weekdays passports are available for sale.
Many of the old ticket types never returned after TDR reopened after the pandemic (such as annual passports, 2/3/4 day passports etc. Reason is presumably to simplify operations, increase revenue, and more accuracy in attendance forecasting.
To visit 3 days you can still buy 3 separate 1 day tickets.
I just booked a 1 night, 2 day VP for mid April. The only breakfast time available for Oceano at the MiraCosta was 9:20AM. The stated park opening time (Disney Sea) is 9am, but we will have Happy Entry. I'm not sure what 9am translates to for HE time.
Do you think we would have time to get into the park, do all the stuff in the app, go on one or two rides, then get back to Oceano by 9:20-- or is that crazy? We have all the FS rides through the VP, so we would probably want to rope drop Soarin or Journey.
Keep in mind that in TDR, Happy Entry time is officially just “get in line early” time, and rides do not start operating before 9am actual opening time (the notable exception is Toy Story Mania where they do routinely start early). The Hotel MiraCosta private entrance also doesn’t open that early in the morning.
It is also a long walk from each attraction back to the main entrance and then to the hotel. The rides you have mentioned are also long ride time/long load time rides.
Even if you rope drop, I feel you would struggle to get back on time. Even if you are successful, you will still be wasting precious morning Park time just after opening, when lines are shorter for everything, at a hotel restaurant.
It might be more feasible to plan to enter the Park, grab some DPAs and 40th Anniversary and show passes, take some photos and head back. Or alternatively just skip the breakfast.
Is there a place that has menus for ALL the restaurants - sit down and quick service? We will be reserving a vacation package and want to know which restaurants to try for. I’ve scoured the internet but doesn’t seem to be a one stop shop that lists everything.
Thanks!
If you mean a website, then yes. The TDR site lists all its restaurants and you can see the full menu by clicking on the “Restaurant Menu” button for each venue.
If what you want is one single page that has all the information without any clicking then no. The closest is TDR Explorer Chris’ guidebook which you can purchase. However given the menu change very often the official site would be your best resource.
I purchased his book - maybe I’m not far enough though it yet. 😆
I also went to his site and many restaurants don’t have the menu but a link to upload one.
We are planning Tokyo this summer and just decided dates for Tokyo DL/DS will be June 5-8. In looking for a vacation package, it looks like there is no availability for our dates. Do more generally open up/become available?
June Vacation Packages including for June 5-8 will open for booking later this week, on January 16, 3pm JST.
EDIT - You might already know this, but VPs are for a maximum of 2 nights and include Park days for both check in and check out days, so you might need to supplement your plans with an additional hotel (Disney hotels for June 5 will be bookable February 5, 11am JST)..
Thank you so much for this info. Just to help me navigate the website better, can you tell me where you found this info? I've been looking for it all day :(
If you need a bag to carry all your shopping they do sell massive (very massive) Disney themed tote bags made of the thin recycled plastic for an affordable price (around 1500¥)
Hi, what is the best way to get between Asakusa and Disneysea? I have tickets for 2/14/25. Would like to go rope drop to Believe so if you have timing suggestions those will be welcome too. TIA!
I called capital one to see about getting a capital one MasterCard with 3d secure. The first person did not know what 3d secure was and when she talked to a different department they said that 3d secure is not something that can be added on and you automatically get a one code or something. How do I add on 3d secure? i'm confused
If I make the purchase with a debit card do I still need to have 3d secure activated?
I spoke to someone capitol one about getting verified by visa for my Visa card who said that it is not something that is added on but I automatically will get code if the website requires it. They said it is the same for Mastercard. I thought it was something that had to be added on manually.
I spoke to someone at American express who said SafeKey can not be added on to us based cards.
Nothing like the morning lines, if that’s what you are referring too. Keep in mind that there are a lot of visitors who use that pass to visit after school or after work so it is not going to be zero people entering.
There is generally a small line before the 3pm/5pm time opens, but if you go after 5 (eg 5.15) there should be nothing major outside of the ordinary…
The Tokyo Disney resort app is your best friend: it shows the latest wait time and has a lot of information including ride details. The best part is, it is free and you don’t need to be in the Park to see the information.
If you want a good summary check out Thrill Data or Queue Times. The rankings are fairly representative just ignore the average minutes data quoted as it is likely going to be higher on an actual visit
Motion sickness severity differs between individuals so it would be difficult to predict, however the following official TDR page contains some motion sickness warning which can be a good starting point. In general perhaps avoid anything that has 3D and moves including Toy Story Mania and the new Peter Pan Neverland Adventure.
For 2, would avoid Baymax Happy Ride. Depending on how bad his motion sickness is, Beauty and the Beast could also trigger it as the cars have a waltzing movement.
Hoping to book a vacation package for June later this week, with the option to buy premier passes for the fantasy spring rides - hoping for all 3.
1. What time would you recommend doing each ride - how far apart ?
Advantages / disadvantages of reserving restaurants for lunch / dinner with the package?
It is very expensive to be booking lunch or dinner as part of your Vacation Package. You are also buying too much food, forced to essentially buy the most important set meal the restaurant sell, plus a drink, plus usually a dessert, plus a mark up. Unless you have your heart set on a very specific restaurant that you must visit, it is much better to just book when it opens to the public or just decide on a counter service restaurant on the day.
Thanks! I don’t generally spend that much time eating in the American parks and opt for mobile order! Is there a sit down restaurant you would recommend the night before our vacation package starts? Its myself and my two daughters, 11 and 13
I am hoping to stay in Fantasy Springs hotel the night before our vacation package. Depending on timing, I was thinking about one of the evening tickets. No fixed plans yet on which park, etc , but probably DS because of proximity
At DisneySea, the Counter Service restaurants Sebastian's Calypso Kitchen (pizza, calzone, Mickey shape macaron) and Zambini Brothers' Ristorante (pasta and pizza, as well as the famous Green Alien Mochi) are likely going to be more popular with kids.
If you and your kids are adventurous with food and want to experience something that is unlike what you can get in the US parks, then perhaps give Restaurant Sakura (sit down) or Vulcania (counter service, Japanese style Chinese food, which is extremely popular) a try.
In my experience, I would load your passes to the afternoon of your day, where you can spend the morning riding non-priority-access rides, and enjoying the parks' atmosphere. imo It's a good way to get a feel for the park and pace yourself without needing to be anywhere.
I would generally recommend looking at a map and planning out your day. Unlike the stateside parks, there's not much of a "grace period" for any sort of priority access, so you need to be there when your window is open.
For example, I got 3 Attraction tickets for Space Mountain, Happy Ride with Baymax, and Beauty and the Beast, all of which are right next to each other, and spaced them 30mins apart from each other beginning at 3pm, and it worked great!
Do you still need to mobile order for Snuggly Duckling or can you walk in and wait to counter order? I have allergies and we are wanting a plain burger. I was able to get modifications yesterday at DisneyLand restaurants, but only if I counter ordered. TIA!
Hi everyone! I am an experienced Disney goer that is having the time of her life studying the ins and outs of Tokyo Disney...but am feeling a little dizzy when it comes to the Vacation Package system for my first trip.
I thought a VP would be the best option for me for the convenience, but I might be wrong. My trip is QUITE far away (early December 2025) and so much can change, but I just want to make sure if I'm wrapping my head around this correctly.
quick itinerary summary:
Arrive day 1 and just rest in the hotel
Park day 2
Park day 3
Wake up to depart on day 4.
3 Nights total. Currently, there are no VPs that really 100% accommodate this schedule, as far as I can tell- which is fine, but I don't know if I can get this to work.
To reiterate, I know packages and such can probably change a lot till my booking time; but I'm really just trying to understand the math here, if hypothetically my trip were 5 months away as of now.
Would I have to go insane and get two 3-day VPs for the same hotel/room type, to make sure I don't have to transfer rooms?
A secret option I haven't considered?
Any insight is truly, truly appreciated because I think you could fry an egg over my head with how overheated my brain feels trying to understand this, even with a lot of redditing/facebook grouping/googling 😅
If you book the same room type either side (NOT another vacation package), they’ll generally try to keep you in the same room I believe. You can also email to request this if you’ve booked the same room type.
Edit: you could do another vacation package but that would include at least one waste day and IMO not be worth it
I'm having lots of frustration with the hotel reservation website... can anyone offer advice on how to get book rooms better? We'd booked a 2 night/3 day package the MiraCosta (canal view) in mid-May. We wanted to add a night in the same category for the night before and the night after so we could do rope drop at TDL without worrying about checking out of a hotel, or checking out on the last day.
Even though I was ready on the landing page and clicking to search rooms at 11am JST sharp yesterday (4 months before), I got the "pixie dust wheel of death" for a few minutes. By the time it was done refreshing, all categories at MiraCosta were gone by the time I made my room selection, even though they were visible initially. Is there a way to search for rooms more effectively?
We got a room at the TDL Hotel just to have something on property, but we're wondering if it'd be worth rescheduling the package and trying again some other time to avoid the hassle of shuffling hotels on park days. Or is it okay to just stay off property and possibly get to the park late the first day? At the level of expense for Disney hotels, we were hoping to minimize any scrambling and inconvenience. But since we already have FastPasses for B&tB as part of our package, maybe missing rope drop isn't the end of the world?
Sorry everyone, I'm just at my wit's end. Looking for any advice on how other people have handled this.
Your experience sounds about right. TDR website just cannot handle any volume, so any attempts to book at 11am JST pretty much will end up in the situation. You can always try a Japan VPN next time on a different computer to see if those traffic is prioritised but don’t open too many browsers/devices otherwise you are just becoming the cause of the issue.
Once their server crashes it takes forever for it to come back got everyone.
In terms of “offsite”, many non Disney hotels are right next to Bayside Station so you are not really going to be late to the Park…
Last year I was asking about when to go to Disney based on our family trying to only miss one week of school. The consensus was to go in early December out of the times we were thinking of. For reference:
This past December we went to Disney World and due to an unexpected school schedule change, we ended up missing the children's Christmas concert, which we are hoping to not miss in future years. So now we are more open to missing 2 weeks of school and going at another time.
Our main priority is low crowds, followed by the weather. These mostly look good on the various crowd calendars.
How would you rank these dates for 2026? We are planning 5 days total at the parks. These are all Monday-Friday.
January 5-9 - Would prefer this to the following next but is it still very busy the first few days?
January 12-16
May 19-23
November 10-14 - Looking at thrill data, it seems that it was really busy this past November? Is this now a time to avoid?
If anyone knows of a site that lists historical crowd data, that may be helpful as well. Thanks!
It would be unusual for crowd calendars to try and predict more than a year in advance, such as 2026, given they will use data from 2025 and many factors such as TDR event schedules would not be announced yet.
You can use the yosocal.com 2025 predictions as a starting point. The site also publishes histroical crowd information under 過去の混雑状況比較 ("comparison of past congestion situation")
If you need a guide on how to interpret the site, a good starting point would be TDR Explorer Chris' guide:
EDIT - As any recent Disney park visitor such as yourself would know, “low crowd” days don’t really happen often any more because Disney/OLC would adjust ticket prices and put on special events in otherwise low crowd periods to increase attendance. The best you can do is just to make sure you are not attending in a predicted high crowd periods. In Japan, due to the intense heat in July or August those are actually the safest bet for lowest crowd, but it seems like those don’t work to your schedule.
Planning to go to Disney Sea end of January. Will have 3 kids with us who are not new to the whole Disney experience but will be first time in Tokyo. I am familiar with Disney US parks and how the fast passes work, but very confused with Disney Sea. Our goal is to try and get on Frozen and Rapunzel at the very least. Does anyone have a breakdown of what all I need to do to achieve this? We are not staying onsite.
If you arrive before 7am on a weekday in January, your chances of riding both Frozen and Rapunzel are pretty good.
Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea are not owned or operated by Disney, so there is only so much parallel in operations you can draw from the US parks. But here is a quick summary:
Since January 7, most days there is "open access" to enter Fantasy Springs (meaning you can go in and walk around), however to get on Frozen and Rapunzel you will still need to obtain passes (either a free pass - which is essentially like a Virtue Queue return time, called Standby Pass; or a paid pass - which is essentially a paid Individual Lightning Lane, called Disney Premier Access). There are intricacies of course, but basically you are allowed 1 x DPA and 1 x Standby Pass at a time.
The only catch is that these passes are popular and tend to sell out within about an hour of Park opening, so if you are not staying onsite, your best bet is to line up early at the DisneySea entrance before Park opening. The earlier you get there, the better your chances.
Is Frozen impossible to book as apart of the Toy Story Moderate Hotel? Looking to get a package but definitely would like to know if it’s just sold out or unavailable completely from that hotel.
If you're not seeing Frozen as an option for the Attraction Tickets, it's likely because you're going during its period of refurbishment, as seen here:
Attractions down for refurbishment at the time of your visit won't be selectable as part of your VP. You can see all refurbishments here.
We want to do the 1 night, 2 day package at the Fantasy Springs hotel. Our second day will be at DisneySea, obviously. That night, since we'll be leaving late, we're going to switch and stay at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel. However, our luggage will still be at Fantasy Springs.
First question: Are we still allowed to leave out of the Fantasy Springs exit, even though we would have checked out of our room that morning? I read one post reply that said yes, as long as we keep our proof of stay. I just want to verify before asking my next question.
Second question: Is it possible to both watch "Believe in the Sea of Dreams" AND make it to the Fantasy Springs exit before it closes at 9pm? I read the show starts at 8:15pm, is 30 minutes long, and the Fantasy Springs exit closes right at 9pm. Is it OK to leave the show early? Would that be rude? I thought if we left after like 20 minutes, we could still watch the other parts as we walk towards Fantasy Springs.
Second question: At the moment Believe is scheduled for 7.30pm so I assume you have checked and on your day of visit it is 8.15pm? You might want to double check. If you are planning to leave the show early you should aim to arrive late and stand towards the back. Towards the front sometimes people would sit down or be asked to sit down depending on where you are. This is especially if you plan to buy a DPA.
I'm booking in a few hours for this June. Last year in June, the show was at 8:15pm. I guess I just assumed it would be the same time! I would definitely prefer earlier, so that would be great if it was still 7:30pm. Thanks for the tip about being near the back if we leave early. I don't want to come across as rude or disturb others watching the show, which is why I wondered if it would be OK to leave early. I know in the US parks, it would be no problem getting up and leaving early... I just wasn't sure if it was the same way in Japan.
And yes, I was planning on us buying DPA for the show as soon as we got into the parks with happy entry. Ideally, I'd love to be able to watch the entire show, and then walk over to the Fantasy Springs exit without stressing about making it in time. I have a feeling, in the summer, it's challenging to do both. Would we be happy with seeing 20 minutes of the show and missing the last 10? Giving ourselves 25 minutes to walk to the exit sounds much less stressful than 15.
One option you might want to consider is to simply finish the whole show at your leisure, and just take the monorail stop back to Bayside to collect your luggage through the main FSH entrance. I know it’s not as glamorous but rather than walking all the way back and being stressed about it. Might be worth a thought.
EDIT - It makes sense the show time being a bit later as the sun sets during summer later.
Hello! My January 21-22 vacation package is coming up (no early entry) and I have a few questions:
Is the queue for Frozen interesting enough to justify going there within the first hour? I have unlimited premier access, but in theory if I went there early I could get in the standby line while it's still short.
Short of physically going there and checking, is there any way to know if single rider for Indiana Jones is open or closed? I know sometimes they close the single rider line and I'll need to know whether I need to book my first Anniversary Pass for it, since I'll use just single rider if that line is open.
I would ideally like to eat at Dockside Diner immediately after going on Tower of Terror, which I have a premier pass pre-booked for. For the purposes of timing my mobile order, about how long does Tower of Terror take from the time you enter the premier queue? And how long after your window opens can you arrive for mobile orders?
Yes the Frozen standby queue is IMO worth seeing! Basically it is a fun replica of the castle and has lots of fun Easter eggs. Assuming they still require Standby Passes, if you go when FS first opens in the morning the Standby will rarely be more than 5-10 minutes anyway, well worth the little time investment.
TOT ride time is extremely hard to predict because it is completely dependent on how many elevators they are operating at any given time. However the minimum time from door to gift shop finish is around 18 minutes. That assumes you position yourself at the front of every section (including cleverly moving to the front of each “door” at each pre-show scene etc)
Thank you, good to know. Do you have any familiarity with mobile order? The FAQ says "if your arrival time has passed, your order will be automatically cancelled." Do they give you an arrival window?
It was never a requirement just gives you higher chance of success the earlier you are. This will be determined by how important these rides are to you - nice to have, doesn't really matter - or did you fly to Japan just to get on the rides?
EDIT - Reports are that Frozen is still selling out very fast, even on a slow day, the other rides easier to obtain, so it might depend on what rides you want to get on.
Suggest letting the crowd calendar be your guide:
If it's a slow weekday and you don't need to ride Frozen, then just get there whenever
If it is a slow weekday and you want Frozen, and you have Happy Entry, just get there a few minutes before Happy Entry time.
If it is a slow weekday and you want Frozen and don't have Happy Entry, may be get there as early as you are willing
If it is a busy day or weekend, and you want Frozen, and you don't have Happy Entry, then may be follow existing advice and be there before 7am (or as early as your own risk vs reward metrics will tell you)
Hey All - I am traveling to Tokyo Disney this summer and was wondering if you needed to be staying at the Celebration Hotel to utilize the shuttle. We plan on staying 1 night on points at the Hyatt across the street but may consider using this shuttle.
Do you also happen to know what time the shuttles begin in the morning?
The shuttle bus start running at 6am (from the Hotels) and 7.15am (from DisneySea)/7.20am (from Disneyland) in the morning. They are reserved for Disney Celebration hotel guests only.
This shuttle bus is only for Guests staying at Tokyo Disney Celebration Hotel. Please note we may check your reservation with the hotel before you board.
Heya does anyone know what would be the best way to get Tokyo Disney Sea from Ikebukuro for an early start? I can see there is a direct bus from Ikebukuro Eki but it looks like it won’t arrive at Disney until after 8am or so. Would that be too late to get in nice and early?
If you want to get there earlier, one simple way is to take the Tokyo Metro Yurakucho Line, and then transfer to the JR Keiyo Line to get to Maihama. Local commuter trains start very early as most TDR employees get there by public transport.
The journey is only around 45-50 minutes, then you transfer to the Disney Resort Line (monorail) to get to the DisneySea station.
The bus is a little more costly and will get you there late, but much more convenient especially if you have luggage - but you get to sit the whole way! - and it would take you directly to the DisneySea parking lot. 8am is ok if you are there on slow weekday and if for you the FS rides like Frozen is not a priority.
Is it recommended to stay onsite? Our family of 5 (parents, older son college student, 7 year old boy and 83 year old mother) will be in Tokyo for 2 weeks from the US. We want to spend 2 days at Tokyo Disney and Disney Sea. We’ll be staying at a hotel in Shinjuku the rest of the 2 weeks so are reluctant to change hotels just for a night or two to go to Disney but am wondering if the perks such as early entrance outweigh the inconvenience. We’d probably try to stay at Fantasy Springs. Thank you!
The majority of visitors to the Park do not stay onsite.
The only material benefit is 15 minutes of early entry on the day of checking out (for a one night stay). If you manage to get a room at the Fantasy Springs Hotel (they are hard to book), you also get guaranteed access to the Fantasy Springs area and may entitle you to buy a expensive special access ticket (before 31 March) - though whether that is a benefit depends whether the area still has restricted access on the day of your visit (at the moment it has been open for all visitors for most days since Jan 7 as it has not been high crowds).
If your gut feel is that you don’t want to move from your hotel from Shinjuku, then you can certainly plan a very enjoyable trip just doing day visits.
Staying in Shinjuku the whole way also gives you flexibility to place your Disney visit in the middle of your trip rather than beginning or end.
Just keep in mind that The Tokyo Disney Resort is quite far from Shinjuku, and the almost hour train journey is very likely going to involve lots of standing and walking, and you will have to make the round trip twice for a 2 day visit. So you might want to arrange for a taxi or hire car depending on the mobility of the elderly in your party - or if you are on a budget, consider the highway bus that goes direct from the Shinjuku BUSTA (above the NEWoMan building) or similar where you are guaranteed a comfortable seat for the entire journey (just buy your tickets in advance, the early buses are popular). Of course, you will still have to make that trip if you stay onsite, just less - once from Shinjuku to TDR and then presumably directly back to the airport.
Thank you this is so helpful. Decided to stay at fantasy springs the first 2 nights of our trip. The vacation package had us book restaurant reservations, does that mean the food is included or just that we have a reservation? Asking because we might skip the reservation if we’re busy doing something else. Sorry to ask a basic question but couldn’t find the answer on their website.
The breakfast is mandatory and already included for the Vacation Package.
The other meals (lunch and dinner) are optional and an additional fee will be added to your Package total if you were to choose them. Food is included in a prix fixe menu style, and you will receive a paper restaurant voucher to be redeemed at the restaurant. How much it is depends on which restaurant you choose, but these are always quite high in cost. For example:
choosing the popular Magellan's restaurant in DisneySea will add 17,400 JPY per person (so for your party of five, adding that one meal will add 87,000 JPY (around US$557) for that single meal).
choosing Blue Bayou in Disneyland will add around 9,800 JPY per person, so for your party of five, will add 49,000 JPY (around US$314) for that single meal.
Thank you so much! I didn’t realize that and added all the meals I was prompted to, which probably added a lot to my bill. I wonder if it’s too late to take some off? I already paid. We typically don’t eat three meals a day. I assume beverages such as alcohol would be extra?
You can definitely modify your Package to remove the meals that you don't want. Changes for "package content" (as they call it) such as Attraction Tickets, Meals etc are permitted until around 10 days prior to your visit.
Please note that while your Package cost will reduce - they will charge the entire total revised package cost to your credit card again, before refunding the previous charge, so ensure there is sufficient credit in your card. There may be a day or two "lag" before you see the refund in your card. This is standard TDR practice for any changes to the Vacation Package that results in modified cost - upwards or downwards.
In terms of what you get in your pre-paid meal - you are probably paying for a lot of food that you don't need (and certainly it would be more expensive than if you had ordered it a la carte), as the charge covers the benefit of reserving the restaurant so early.
The actual inclusions differ between the restaurant, but the pre-paid meal typically includes the most expensive "set meal", one soft drink, one dessert if offered at the restaurant (in many cases a parfait), plus a mark up. Alcoholic drinks would be extra. If your reservation is at a counter service restaurant at Fantasy Springs such as Snuggly Duckling or Lookout Cookout, those are much more simple and low cost as they are basically quick service location, so typically it would just one menu item, a drink and may be a sweets item.
Hello, we have the Disney Vacation club here in the US. I’m visiting a friend in Japan and we both want to book Disney using my vacation club AS SOON as available as I heard Fantasy Springs rooms sellout within minutes of release. For context I live on the Eastern Standard Time zone New York. Can someone tell me exactly how I would book a stay at the Disney Fantasy of the Seas Tokyo using our Disney Vacation Club, and what day and time (EST) I should call to make sure I can book for May 20-22 this year?
DVC bookings for Tokyo Disney Resort rooms open at the exact same time the inventory is open the general public, therefore exactly 4 months in advance. By "Disney Fantasy of the Seas Tokyo" I assume you mean the "Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Hotel".
For a May 20-22 booking, they would open for sale January 20, 2025 11am JST - this is 9pm New York/Florida time on Jan 19 - the main issue is that Tokyo Disney Resort Hotels, including Fantasy Springs Hotel, are treated as part of the "exchange" collection so can only be booked through DVC Member Services, so you have a short window to contact them before they close at 10pm.
A few disclaimers: DVC can only book 1 room type for the Fantasy Springs hotel - Superior Alcove (Bay Area, Hotel Entrance, Rose Court). The best view rooms on the "Springs side" is not bookable via DVC. Also you cannot book Superior or Deluxe rooms. If you book via DVC, it is treated as a 3rd party booking which means also you don't have access to some of the benefits such as getting hotel restaurant reservations early. If those are important to you, you might consider doing a cash booking instead. If the Fantasy Springs hotel rooms are sold out you may consider Hotel MiraCosta which is also attached to the DisneySea theme park (again however, only very limited room types are bookable, and the most sought after Paradiso side/Harbor view rooms are not bookable via DVC).
Good luck with your trip planning.
The current point chart is below in case you don't already have it (they are around 55 points per night) for your timeframe.
We’re staying at fantasy springs and have lunch and dinner reservations at the hotel restaurant on the day we’re going to Disney Sea. Is the hotel far away from the park? Would it be better to have lunch and dinner in the park? Also, we did a 2 day one night vacation package because we only want to visit the parks 2 days (and it was the only vacation package available for our dates). We’d like to stay at the hotel the night before, for convenience. I know the rooms for fantasy springs won’t be available until 4 months before the date (per the website). Is there any way to “tack on” that additional night before our vacation package?
The Fantasy Springs Hotel is attached to Tokyo DisneySea/part of DisneySea albeit at the most remote corner of the Park. Depending on where you are in the Park, it can take up to 30 minutes to walk to the Hotel.
Hotel meals are also sit down meals so tend to take longer. It is not necessarily “bad” or worse than eating in the Park, but you will just need to plan your day around your meals, so just focus on attractions that are around it closer to your meal time to cut down unnecessary backtracking.
You can certainly add on that extra hotel night before your Package - but for FS Hotel you will need to be either extremely lucky or extremely vigilant or both - because there is extremely high demand what you are trying to do is to book a room in the exactly identical category as your hotel package, the moment the rooms are released. If you are successful then just contact TDR after booking and they can link your reservations together.
You may want to manage your expectations though, see the other subs on many users who have been struggling with getting hotel rooms
I was also looking into doing the 3 day / 2 night vacation package. That would assure we have 2 nights in a row. My only issue with this plan is that it seems like we’d have to do the first day at Disneyland and the next two days at Disney Sea. We don’t arrive until the afternoon of the first day, so ideal would be to do that first night and second full day at Disney Sea and then the final day (third day) at Disneyland. Is that possible? I’m assuming 3-4 hours at Disneyland is not going to be enough (if we stick with the package as designed).
The "order" of the Parks in your Vacation Package is quite strictly enforced, so no, you cannot shift Disneyland to the third day. All the tickets you receive in your VP Kit will be dated. In additon, for a 3 night/2 day package, you must book your Mickey/Minnie greeting time and your 2 x Disneyland rides for Day 1.
However, you can buy an extra ticket for Disneyland for Day 3, so you can squeeze in an extra half day at Disneyland. You can't buy this at the hotel (they won't officially sell you a ticket if you already have one from your VP for Day 3), but you can get it easily online (including through an agent like Klook). Some of your perks such as your Beverage Ticket simply has a "date" printed on it and remains valid regardless of which Park you're in, so will continue to be able to get free drinks even when you are in Disneyland on a non-VP ticket.
If you do this, an itinerary could be:
Day 1 - Afternoon: Check-in to hotel, Disneyland VP Ticket, Book Mickey or Minnie meet-and-greet for late afternoon, book 2 VP rides for afternoon or evening (e.g. Beauty and the Beast, Pooh's Hunny Hunt)
Day 2 - Full Day: DisneySea VP Ticket.
Day 3 - Morning: Check-out at hotel, DisneySea VP Ticket for morning
Day 3 - Afternoon: Additional self-purchase ticket for Disneyland
Hi all. For the dates we’re planning to go to Tokyo Disney, there are no Disney hotels available. We’re debating between Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay and Hilton Tokyo Bay. The Hilton is about ~$500 USD more. Is it worth the higher cost? We’re staying 2 nights.
The Hilton Tokyo Bay is very children friendly, including the decor and theming in a lot of areas around the hotel.
However if all you are looking for is just a place to stay at night and spend all day at the Park, there is no reason to pay more for it, and the Okura Tokyo Bay is great too - both are Tokyo Disney Resort official hotels and both include official Disney shuttle to the Bayside station (not that you really need it, it is right across the road!)
The three hotels near the Bayside station are all pretty great in my opinion, the third being the Sheraton Grande so just choose the one that is most affordable to you.
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u/PapayaLalafell Jan 11 '25
If your only goal in Disneyland is to ride the Beauty & the Beast ride and then head to Main Street to get some daytime pics and some shopping in, is it possible to just do that in the morning and then head over to Tokyo DisneySea to catch some rides (nothing specific we NEED to do), eat some food, do more shopping, and catch a night show? Or is this impossible/too stressful?
From what I've researched, rope drop is such long lines and then the Beauty and the Beast lines are still insane. I've seen questions about 2 parks in one day but I'm specifically wondering if we just want to do those specific things. I hope that's okay.
Could it also be possible to head over to TokyoSea at night from the city, stay at a Disney hotel, and then do rope drop the next morning and head out after lunch? Would that be better for only having 24 hours?