Tokyo Disney

"f86sabre" (f86sabre)
03/03/2016 at 08:47 • Filed to: travel

Has anyone been? Thoughts? Tips?

We are thinking about taking the kids for spring break. Ok, before anyone freaks out here is some relevant info: my superpower is I can travel to most places an American would want to go for free or nearly free. Problem is I can’t always do it when everyone else wants to travel. So, when things like spring break happen I have to look for places where most folks aren’t going. Second, the ticket prices are remarkably low and the hotels in the area are reasonable. Third, they are supposed to be great parks.

DISCUSSION (11)

Flavien Vidal > f86sabre
03/03/2016 at 08:53

If you have girls, go to Disney Sea.... Other than that, keep in mind that Japanese are massive Disneyland fans and it will be crowded as hell whenever you go.

Also with a pilot father and a stewardess mother, I know the feeling of travelling around the world in the off season :) . My personal best was 4 days of stand-by, stucked in San Francisco while attempting a Seattle -> Nagoya in the middle of the summer :)

OPPOsaurus WRX > f86sabre
03/03/2016 at 08:53

I went to Disney Paris, It was very much like Disney Merica but with more french language. They even had a version of Space mountain. I’d imagine Tokyo being the same way but with a lot of the typical wierd Japanese shit

f86sabre > Flavien Vidal
03/03/2016 at 12:59

I’ve heard Disney Sea is quite cool and I do have a 6 yer old daughter! There is a website that has crowd estimates based on previous years and the dates we are looking at don’t look too bad. The hotels are still booked up though.

Standby has been pretty good for us. I think the worst I have had was having to stay overnight a couple of times. I’m starting to get to the point where I have some seniority as well.

Pistol Whipped Cream > f86sabre
03/03/2016 at 13:25

f86sabre,

The wife and I were just there in Nov. We got there and back nearly free (probably in a similar situation). I have some advice:

Just do Tokyo Disney Sea. If your kids have been to the Magic Kingdom in CA or FL skip it. It is a lesser version of those. Similar rides, long lines. There is NO park hopper option in Tokyo.

Being that you are going to Tokyo, try and go on a weekday. We went on a tuesday or wednesday, the longest we waited for a ride (tower of terror) was 30 minutes. On a weekend all the big rides tend to have a 90-180 minute wait (NO JOKE!). The Toy Story Mania ride is new there so it has long lines every day (We never saw it fall below 100 minutes and the fast passes disappeared very quickly.

That being said, play the fast pass game, The day we went 20,000 leagues under the sea was never above a 15 minute wait so I would suggest getting fast passes for: Journey to the center of the earth, Indiana Jones and the crystal skull and tower of terror.

Everything is so reasonably priced... Tickets are like $50, food and souvineers are even less than we expected.

The best thing I ate was these chicken legs sold by the Indiana Jones ride ($4 or 500JPY). I had multiple. The popcorn is overrated in my opinion though a lot of the locals go crazy for it. The lines for popcorn are always long as different lands have different flavors.

The night show is done on the main lagoon so there really isnt a bad place to watch it.

A lot of the rides do not have any english but as most have english counterparts, it is easy to know what is going on. The exception is Tower of Terror. The one in Japan is not twilight zone themed. We werent sure what was going on then a cast member handed us these sheets of paper with the story written in English.

We had a great time and will definitely be heading back next time we find ourselves in Tokyo.

Have a great time!

f86sabre > Pistol Whipped Cream
03/03/2016 at 16:36

Thanks for the great info. Your comments about just hitting Sea are interesting and I will discuss it with my wife. Where did you stay? WE are looking at the Hilton. It is a bit spendy, but not as bad as a comparable US hotel and it is close to the park.

Rainbow > f86sabre
03/03/2016 at 18:20

This isn’t related to the post, but I figured you would be the best to ask about this:

Do you think I’d get into any trouble if I spent some time in Hart Cemetery watching the planes land? It’s the closest you can get to the runways at Hartsfield-Jackson without buying a ticket. I’d just be worried that people would get suspicious of me if I’m just sitting on my car and not actually mourning anyone.

https://www.google.com/maps/@33.62233… There’s the cemetery if you don’t already know about it. It’s literally tucked inside of the restricted area.

f86sabre > Rainbow
03/03/2016 at 19:53

Kinja'd!!!

Seems to be ok, but I have never been to either. I’ve seen the signs though. You could always bring some flowers and say they are distant cousins or something.

https://adventuresincemeteryhopping.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/wit…

If you are feeling saucy you can make a reservation for lunch at Porsche HQ and you have a good view of the north runways from there. Plus Porsches! You can also get a good view from the cell phone pickup lot on the South Terminal.

The picture above is from our parking deck at work yesturday.

Flavien Vidal > f86sabre
03/03/2016 at 21:12

Yeah, as the son of a french pilot, you can imagine my seniority sends me at the very bottom of the stand-by list when I travel between the US and Japan lol. The good thing is that after 2 or 3 days of stand by, the people at the gate start to know me and feel sorry for me, so I often end up being put in business at least or first... But well, good thing I have lots of free time in my life :)

Pistol Whipped Cream > f86sabre
03/04/2016 at 10:11

Being as there was just the two of us, we stayed in a Japanese business hotel near Tokyo Station. I hear the Hilton near Disney isn’t bad, the one out by NRT has dated rooms. Definitely different then Hilton’s out here.

f86sabre > Pistol Whipped Cream
03/04/2016 at 14:08

Yeah, the one on Tokyo Bay gets good reviews. I’ve stayed at the one near Shinjuku a couple of times for work and it was nice enough. I’ve done the business hotel thing a couple of times as well. Interesting, but probably not the best for a family of four.

Pistol Whipped Cream > f86sabre
03/07/2016 at 10:28

Definitely not.