Well, I've been back from TDL for a couple of weeks now so I figured it's time to write a report.
General Notes
It was nowhere near as busy as I had expected. TDL is supposedly busy all year round but I don't think I saw any queue longer than 30 minutes (space mountain). Most of the time, even the most popular rides only had a 10 minute wait. I'm putting this down to it being quite wet weather and that we visited during the week prior to Golden Week. Perhaps everyone was waiting till the next day?
Almost everything is in English too. This is a great help to me but it somehow felt a little wrong too - perhaps I was just used to Tokyo by the time we got to TDL. Anyway, if you see a menu, a sign or anything else, you will find it in English too. Many of the attractions (including the parades and nighttime shows) also had English audio although none of the shows and performances did.
Many of the staff will speak some level of English but my top tip for visiting Japan is to learn a little Japanese. It really does help!
The place is immaculate. As with pretty much all of Japan, the place is kept spotless and running perfectly. The crowds (which were admittedly quite small) were managed well and the whole place had a much better feel than any other Disney Park I've been too (which includes WDW, DL and DLP). I think I only heard one crying child, only saw a couple of stollers and I was never stood on once!
I didn't see anyone using flash photography on rides at all! People were taking pictures on some but the flash was always disabled! :sohappy:
Right, on with the Report.
Checking in a getting to the first park:
We arrived at TDL fresh from a week in Tokyo. It's super easy to get to with only a couple of changes on the Subway. Upon arrival you enter into Ikspiari (essentially DTD / Disney Village) which is also the location of the Disney Ambassador hotel.
Checking in to our Hotel (Miracosta, located at DisneySeas) could be done from a Guest Relations location in Ikspiari which meant that we basically arrive, checked in and left our luggage to be delivered to the hotel within minutes. The staff were super helpful and got everything sorted pretty quickly.
One funny thing about TDL is that when you prebook 2, 3 or 4 day tickets, you need to specify what you are doing on the first two days and you can't change that! We specified we would visit DisneySeas on the first day so we jumped on the Monorail and headed to the park.
A quick note on the Monorail - there is only one line and it runs in a continuous loop from Ikspiari -> Disneyland -> Partner Hotels -> DisneySeas then back to Ikspiari. This only goes one way but a whole loop will only take around 15 minutes and trains arrive every 6 minutes (or 4 during busier times of the day).
The monorails are, in short, better than those at WDW or DL. Here are a few pics!
Yep, those are Mickey shaped windows!
Much more comfortable!
Next up - Arriving at DisneySeas!
General Notes
It was nowhere near as busy as I had expected. TDL is supposedly busy all year round but I don't think I saw any queue longer than 30 minutes (space mountain). Most of the time, even the most popular rides only had a 10 minute wait. I'm putting this down to it being quite wet weather and that we visited during the week prior to Golden Week. Perhaps everyone was waiting till the next day?
Almost everything is in English too. This is a great help to me but it somehow felt a little wrong too - perhaps I was just used to Tokyo by the time we got to TDL. Anyway, if you see a menu, a sign or anything else, you will find it in English too. Many of the attractions (including the parades and nighttime shows) also had English audio although none of the shows and performances did.
Many of the staff will speak some level of English but my top tip for visiting Japan is to learn a little Japanese. It really does help!
The place is immaculate. As with pretty much all of Japan, the place is kept spotless and running perfectly. The crowds (which were admittedly quite small) were managed well and the whole place had a much better feel than any other Disney Park I've been too (which includes WDW, DL and DLP). I think I only heard one crying child, only saw a couple of stollers and I was never stood on once!
I didn't see anyone using flash photography on rides at all! People were taking pictures on some but the flash was always disabled! :sohappy:
Right, on with the Report.
Checking in a getting to the first park:
We arrived at TDL fresh from a week in Tokyo. It's super easy to get to with only a couple of changes on the Subway. Upon arrival you enter into Ikspiari (essentially DTD / Disney Village) which is also the location of the Disney Ambassador hotel.
Checking in to our Hotel (Miracosta, located at DisneySeas) could be done from a Guest Relations location in Ikspiari which meant that we basically arrive, checked in and left our luggage to be delivered to the hotel within minutes. The staff were super helpful and got everything sorted pretty quickly.
One funny thing about TDL is that when you prebook 2, 3 or 4 day tickets, you need to specify what you are doing on the first two days and you can't change that! We specified we would visit DisneySeas on the first day so we jumped on the Monorail and headed to the park.
A quick note on the Monorail - there is only one line and it runs in a continuous loop from Ikspiari -> Disneyland -> Partner Hotels -> DisneySeas then back to Ikspiari. This only goes one way but a whole loop will only take around 15 minutes and trains arrive every 6 minutes (or 4 during busier times of the day).
The monorails are, in short, better than those at WDW or DL. Here are a few pics!
Yep, those are Mickey shaped windows!
Much more comfortable!
Next up - Arriving at DisneySeas!
