First timer in Tokyo

[BasiltheBatLord]

I'm gonna be studying abroad in Tokyo this spring/summer and am planning on hitting TDR a couple of times while I'm there (three or four 2-day trips most likely).

I'm planning on doing everything in both parks, but just as a first timer I was curious if there were any particular tips that would be useful for someone who's not familiar with the resort. Stuff like what I should be prioritizing in terms of FP, standby lines, land layouts, parades, shows, anything else that might be useful to know etc. I won't be staying on-site.

Thanks

 

[jaxonp]

I'm gonna be studying abroad in Tokyo this spring/summer and am planning on hitting TDR a couple of times while I'm there (three or four 2-day trips most likely).

I'm planning on doing everything in both parks, but just as a first timer I was curious if there were any particular tips that would be useful for someone who's not familiar with the resort. Stuff like what I should be prioritizing in terms of FP, standby lines, land layouts, parades, shows, anything else that might be useful to know etc. I won't be staying on-site.

Thanks

I don't know yet because I'm going in 2 months but, I can say that everyone seems on the same page in terms of fast pass. At Disneyland its Poohs Hunny Hunt and Monsters Inc that people go nuts over for FP. While over at Sea its all about Toy Story, if you've ridden in US then don't worry, its the same i've been told. So Toy Story is most popular but the closely followed by Journey to the center of the earth and Tower of Terror. Check tdexplorer.com for more info and watch videos on youtube. That has been the most helpful to me. Maybe you should consider an annual pass while your going to be there??? Good luck.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

I don't know yet because I'm going in 2 months but, I can say that everyone seems on the same page in terms of fast pass. At Disneyland its Poohs Hunny Hunt and Monsters Inc that people go nuts over for FP. While over at Sea its all about Toy Story, if you've ridden in US then don't worry, its the same i've been told. So Toy Story is most popular but the closely followed by Journey to the center of the earth and Tower of Terror. Check tdexplorer.com for more info and watch videos on youtube. That has been the most helpful to me. Maybe you should consider an annual pass while your going to be there??? Good luck.

Thanks for the info. I looked into buying an AP but it's too much for what I wanna do. (I don't see myself going more than 4 times, and that alone is only about half the price of a 2 park AP)

 

[Nomarian]

Thanks for the info. I looked into buying an AP but it's too much for what I wanna do. (I don't see myself going more than 4 times, and that alone is only about half the price of a 2 park AP)

We have done this recently and I can tell you that the people at the park know how to Fastpass and the big rides were normally gone in the first few hours. We did 3 days in the parks and the first day we lined up for Pooh Honey Hut. We were able to get on the ride right away and then pull the Fastpass for later. The 2nd day, we ran to Nemo as it was the newest ride and did the same thing and just did a line up for Toy Story Mania as it is supposed to be the same as WDW. Nemo passes also went in the first few hours.

 

[ChrisFL]

I'd focus on the newest attractions first as they'll usually be the most popular. If you've been to all of the WDW parks, many of the Tokyo Disneyland attractions are similar, though may be "plussed" a bit, so just keep that in mind, you probably want to focus on the attractions that are unique.

At TDL I recommend a few:

Pooh's Hunny Hunt
Monster's Inc. Hide and Go Seek
Pirates of the Carribean (since this is the LONG version)
Buzz Lightyear (is similar but plussed a lot)
Space Mountain (based on the DL design, much smoother than WDW)
Splash Mountain is also supposedly nicer but I haven't been on this one.


At TDS:

Nearly EVERYTHING.
Maybe skip Turtle Talk with Crush as it will all be in Japanese and it's basically the same with a nicer queue.

 

[jaxonp]

So anyone have tips on getting from either airport to Tokyo Hilton Bay? Our first night is at the Hilton before heading over to Disneyland Hotel. We're not afraid of taking the subway but not sure how crazy it will be and how much time it takes.. google says an 1hr 20min from Narita! Taxis seem to be crazy expensive! Any suggestions would be appreciated!

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

So anyone have tips on getting from either airport to Tokyo Hilton Bay? Our first night is at the Hilton before heading over to Disneyland Hotel. We're not afraid of taking the subway but not sure how crazy it will be and how much time it takes.. google says an 1hr 20min from Narita! Taxis seem to be crazy expensive! Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Taxis are exorbitant. You can do the subway if you don't mind a very long trip, and lots of station changing including what seems like a miles long trek through Tokyo Station.

The easiest, quickest and most cost effective way is the Airport Limousine bus service:

https://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/bus_services/

 

[Voxel]

So anyone have tips on getting from either airport to Tokyo Hilton Bay? Our first night is at the Hilton before heading over to Disneyland Hotel. We're not afraid of taking the subway but not sure how crazy it will be and how much time it takes.. google says an 1hr 20min from Narita! Taxis seem to be crazy expensive! Any suggestions would be appreciated!

If your taking rail it's going to be 2 or 3 rail lines and at least one transfers from either airport. Haneda is the closer airport and only takes about 50 mins if the trains line up well. Narita is outside of town and does take longer to get to Disney, an hour 20 sounds right with that. But you have less transfer.

The nice part is every station in Japan has directions, information and platform signs in English, so while it will be intimidating you should be able to navigate.

 

[Peridot25]

I don't know what to suggest really. I have an itinerary before but I ended up eating a lot during my visit. I keep on buying their Mochi, Churros, Ice Cream; I also ate at The Queen of Hearts Banquet hall and ordered a birthday cake even though it's not my birthday. One thing I can say that if possible, leave before 9pm. The train in Urayasu is jampacked in evening.

 

[Robbiem]

Definitely agree on the limousine bus. It will take you straight to the Hilton, which is a nice hotel, if you take the train you will have to make your way from Maihama station at the resort entrance to the hotel which will involve a bus or monorail trip, although if you arrive at the right time you can leave your luggage by the station at the welcome centre and they’ll move it to the hotel for you. Not sure if you can do this if you are leaving by train and travelling elsewhere in Japan

 

[Nomarian]

Taxis are exorbitant. You can do the subway if you don't mind a very long trip, and lots of station changing including what seems like a miles long trek through Tokyo Station.

The easiest, quickest and most cost effective way is the Airport Limousine bus service:

https://www.limousinebus.co.jp/en/bus_services/

I am not sure anyone else has tried this, but we used Uber in Tokyo and it worked great. We had no issues and it was cheaper than a taxi.

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

I am not sure anyone else has tried this, but we used Uber in Tokyo and it worked great. We had no issues and it was cheaper than a taxi.

An Uber from NRT to TDR would still be pretty pricey if I remember correctly. Did you do it from the airport or just within the city?

 

[Nomarian]

An Uber from NRT to TDR would still be pretty pricey if I remember correctly. Did you do it from the airport or just within the city?

We did it from Disneyland Hotel to a hotel in the city.

 

[jaxonp]

Tokyo Disney friends!? I have a question... Does anyone know how long Big Band Beat is? I've got a 15:50 big band beat show and Magellans at 17:50. Can I make that work?

 

[Stevie Amsterdam]

Tokyo Disney friends!? I have a question... Does anyone know how long Big Band Beat is? I've got a 15:50 big band beat show and Magellans at 17:50. Can I make that work?

You'll be fine, when I saw it last month it was about 30 minutes. You wanna take 5 to 10 minutes for exiting the building and another 10 to walk to Magellans. Have a great time!

 

[Piebald]

I'm here now and we did every thing we wanted in 2 days, but got the 3 day pass to take our time and shop on the final day. We coincidentally showed up on the first day of their 35th celebration and thought itd hell on earth but it wasn't bad. I definitely recommend getting there very early though. The first day was damn near hurricane conditions (forecast said light rain) and no one cared. Like 0 inconvenience. I'd start with Monsters Inc and work your way around. At Disneysea everyone bum rushes Toy Story so follow them but then go get FP for ToT and then go back and do Journey and 20k leagues. Sinbad never had a wait and we got FP for Indy and Raging Spirits. I recommend doing everything at Disneysea as I was impressed with even some shows I'd think were filler. That place really spoiled the US parks for me.

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I finished everything in both parks (well mostly everything: ignored shows, Hunny Hunt was down for refurb and skipped Toy Story since it's a clone) in 2 days. I really like these parks, however to be honest I found Disney Sea to be somewhat overrated. Not that it's a bad park, just it didn't really live up to the hype that I've been hearing all these years (there's really just not that many attractions and tbh the park kind of looks like Universal). Was surprised that Tokyo imo has the best version of HM worldwide.

Looking forward to some more visits over the next few months. For anybody else reading this thread who's going for the first time, I highly recommend the TDR Explorer website. Not sure if I've ever seen a more comprehensive guide for a Disney park.

 

[Nomarian]

Thanks all for the suggestions. I finished everything in both parks (well mostly everything: ignored shows, Hunny Hunt was down for refurb and skipped Toy Story since it's a clone) in 2 days. I really like these parks, however to be honest I found Disney Sea to be somewhat overrated. Not that it's a bad park, just it didn't really live up to the hype that I've been hearing all these years (there's really just not that many attractions and tbh the park kind of looks like Universal). Was surprised that Tokyo imo has the best version of HM worldwide.

Looking forward to some more visits over the next few months. For anybody else reading this thread who's going for the first time, I highly recommend the TDR Explorer website. Not sure if I've ever seen a more comprehensive guide for a Disney park.

Aw, it's too bad you missed Pooh's Hunny Hut. I really liked that ride and we must have done it about 5 times. Did you at least ride the new Nemo ride?

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Aw, it's too bad you missed Pooh's Hunny Hut. I really liked that ride and we must have done it about 5 times. Did you at least ride the new Nemo ride?

Yes I did ride the new Nemo thing. It was... exactly like a Universal ride lol. I’m not a fan of Nemo in general (I actually only ended up riding it because the person I went with wanted to, she made me wait an hour and a half for that thing). To it’s credit, there’s a cool practical effect in the preshow that I’m still trying to figure out how it worked (the shrinking fish-vehicle thing).

I’m going to hit TDR a couple more times while I’m here so I’ll be able to see Hunny Hunt eventually. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of attractions are going down for refurb over the next few months (is that normal in Tokyo? I was surprised because the 35th anniversary is going on), I think Center of the Earth is going down for like the whole rest of the summer which kinda sucks. Next time I go to Disney Sea, both ToT and Center of the Earth are going to be down which imo makes it almost less than a half day park...

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

Yes I did ride the new Nemo thing. It was... exactly like a Universal ride lol. I’m not a fan of Nemo in general (I actually only ended up riding it because the person I went with wanted to, she made me wait an hour and a half for that thing). To it’s credit, there’s a cool practical effect in the preshow that I’m still trying to figure out how it worked (the shrinking fish-vehicle thing).

I’m going to hit TDR a couple more times while I’m here so I’ll be able to see Hunny Hunt eventually. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of attractions are going down for refurb over the next few months (is that normal in Tokyo? I was surprised because the 35th anniversary is going on), I think Center of the Earth is going down for like the whole rest of the summer which kinda sucks. Next time I go to Disney Sea, both ToT and Center of the Earth are going to be down which imo makes it almost less than a half day park...

TDR refurbs very aggressively, so regardless of events, refurbs schedules go on. But yeah, TOT and JTTCOTE both down at the same time sucks.