Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Review
Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay is a TDR official hotel within a 5-minute walk of the monorail station serving DisneySea and Disneyland. This resort review features room photos from two rooms in which we’ve stayed at the Sheraton, plus thoughts on the hotel, and our overall recommendation on whether you should stay here.
The Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay is a tale of two hotels. You walk into the lobby, and it’s lavish, modern, and upscale. It feels like a hybrid of a upscale business-class hotel and a high-end family resort. Nicer than the adjacent Hilton Tokyo Bay, which is our favorite hotel at Tokyo Disney Resort.
If you’re lucky enough to be upgraded to one of the new Sheraton Club, Park Wing, or Ocean Dream rooms, this experience continues in your guest room. This redesigned rooms are all quite nice, with sleek and stylish designs. However, most of the rooms are not of this caliber…
Normal guest rooms feel like they are straight out of the early 90s. They have the smell of cigarette smoke caked into the walls, non-descript, and boring decor. Even after the recent refurbishment, they just look a bit too dull.
Take a look for how this juxtaposition plays out in photos, starting with the guest rooms and followed by the common areas and amenities…
On our first stay at the Sheraton Tokyo Bay, we stayed in a room for 4. For whatever reason, the Japanese hotels that do accept 4 guests in a room (most max out at 2-3) provide 4 separate beds.
These rooms offer coffee, tea, water, and flat screen TV for watching your favorite Japanese game shows after a long day in Tokyo Disneyland or DisneySea.
They also provide a large table in the middle of the room, and I’m not really sure why. Maybe it’s presumed that you’re going to have a board room style meeting or they are trying to accommodate American guests who engage in epic nightly poker tournaments. The table is more of a hassle than anything else.
Make sure you’re a SPG member and book through the Sheraton website to get free WiFi. We did not book directly the first time we stayed here, and it took some persistence to get free WiFi (we have an SPG credit card, so we showed the front desk that, and they gave it to us–otherwise it’s 1,000 yen per day).
Regardless, the room is bland. In fairness, however, this is pretty common of Japanese hotel rooms, and the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay is not even an outlier among the nearby hotels.
Despite its age, in typical Japanese fashion, the room has been impeccably maintained.
On the plus side, the bathroom was exceptional. A large and spacious shower room (yep, big enough to be considered its own room, I’d say) and an excellent stash of toiletries.
This area is dated like the rest of the room, but functionally, it was solid.
On our second stay at the Sheraton Grande, it was just the two of us, and this was our room. Same type of issues with age and blandness, but definitely a better layout with just two beds. These rooms are not awful by any means, but as compared to the alternatives, they’re a bit disappointing.
These are two double “Sheraton Sweet Sleeper Beds,” which I guess is Sheraton’s proprietary bedding system. By American standards, these beds are pretty firm, but still softer than the typical Japanese beds (which tend to be on the firmer side). Think of them as a compromise between the two.
The bathroom in this room was nice, too, albeit smaller.
If you’re able to book one without paying much of a premium, the “Ocean Dream” rooms are newer and have a much more engaging style. We have yet to stay in these ourselves (the prices have never been ideal), but look forward to doing so.
The normal rooms versus the ‘enhanced’ rooms make it a challenge to rank the Sheraton in our Hotel Reviews & Rankings for Tokyo Disneyland. We’ve heard from a few people who received a free upgrade to this class of room, and if that happens to you, we’d consider the Sheraton superior to the Hilton. (In case you want to roll the dice on a free upgrade…)
All of the common areas are modern and extremely nice.
These look like they’re virtually brand new, and my presumption is that the lobby was the first phase of the renovation project.
There are plenty of areas to sit and relax around the lobby, and there’s a waterfall area that’s a soothing place to sit while enjoying a morning cup of coffee (there’s a coffee shop in the lobby, plus other restaurants).
Beyond that, the lobby offers a Link@Sheraton business center, which has computers for complimentary internet use. There’s also a florist, beauty salon, and shopping promenade adjacent to the lobby. I’m pretty sure the hotel does substantial wedding business, as several of these shops seem aimed squarely at brides. That would explain the florist.
…and the chapels. (That’s chapels, plural. There are 2 at the hotel.)
There’s also a Disney Fantasy Store where you can purchase tickets and other various souvenirs. If you’re going during a busy time, it’s worth noting that guests of the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay are guaranteed admission even when the parks are sold out. (Which happens on plenty of weekends.)
I forgot to take photos, but there’s also an area called the Oasis just beyond this in an annex building (which I assume is the future home to the guest room expansion). The Oasis is where the Treasure Island kids play area is located, as well as “Namco Land Game Arcade.” (It’s also where guest laundry is located, which is why I was there.) This area is huge, and kids seemed to be having a blast there.
There’s also a pool in the Oasis building, but the main draw is the Garden Pool, which is only open seasonally. On our stay at the end of June, it was just preparing to open (at the beginning of July).
It looks awesome, but sadly, we did not get to experience it. On the last day of our stay, it was filled with water, but not yet open…what teases.
Overall, Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay is generally solid, but the standard guest rooms leave something to be desired, especially as compared to the basic rooms at the Hilton Tokyo Bay next door. However, the common areas at the Sheraton look wonderful, as do the enhanced rooms, and the hotel is incredibly rich in terms of amenities. With all of that said, we would only recommend the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay if it’s $20/night (or more) cheaper than the Hilton Tokyo Bay.
If you’re thinking of visiting Japan for the first time and are overwhelmed with planning, definitely check out our Tokyo Disney Resort Planning Guide. It covers much more than the parks, from getting there to WiFi to currency and much, much more. For more photos and an idea of what we did day-by-day during our first visit, read our Tokyo Disney Resort Trip Report.
Your Thoughts
If you’ve stayed at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay, what did you think? Are the lovely common areas and robust amenities enough to convince you to stay here, or are the rooms too big of a disappointment? Thinking about staying here? Other thoughts or questions? Share in the comments below!
Is there an updated version of this review given this one is now 8 or more years out of date?
There is not. In quickly skimming it, I don’t see anywhere that the review is out of date. The regular rooms still look like that; the Ocean Dream ones are much nicer and new. If you book the Sheraton, my advice would be paying the premium for those–they were redone a few years ago and are a night and day difference over the standard rooms.
Thanks Tom – it’s more on what you get versus price. These days Hilton is more expensive than Sheraton Grand (even accounting for Park Wing or Ocean Room bookings), which is more expensive than Grand Nikko (for family rooms). Your reviews and rankings seemed based on Sheraton rooms being bland, and Grand Nikko being more expensive than the other two – so those two key things have changed since your review.
I stayed here summer before last. Got it for a good sale rate. Picked one of the weird penguin themed rooms…I have no idea why. Anyway, that floor has definitely seen better days–I don’t care about style, but the hallway carpet badly needed replacing. The room was better than expected.
The garden pool is great, but costs extra (I didn’t mind this, as it means fewer people). The breakfast at the hotel restaurant was really, really overpriced, but tasty.
The service is excellent, but honestly, I though the service I experienced elsewhere in Japan was excellent. I don’t think I’d stay there again unless, once again, I went in the summer when the garden pool is open.
I want to go back in March next year–do you have any suggestions for cheap lodging? Thanks!
Have you been able to revisit since the renovation was scheduled to be completed in 2018?
If so, do you still consider the Hilton far superior?
Thanks!
Hi Tom,
Trying to book a room here on SPG points. Curious how they show a room available with two beds for two adults, but when we add our two kids to the reservation there’s nothing available. I’m sure it has to do with your observation about their 1 bed/person rule. From your photos looks like the two beds in the room are both doubles, each large enough for an adult and a small kid right?
Yep, it’s all about that 1/bed person rule. There’s no way around it, either.
You could just leave the kids off the reservation, but it’s possible you could run into issues upon arrival.
I’m considering a return trip to Tokyo Disneyland Resort, and I would love to be able to easily browse all of your posts about this resort. In addition to your existing tags by topic, would you consider adding tags by resort when applicable?
How much was the room though? Was it $100 or $1000?
Around $150/night. Prices fluctuate from $125-300, depending upon the night and how far in advance you book.
I just stayed here in December 2015 and was upgraded to one of the Ocean Dream rooms. They were amazing! At least twice the size of my hotel room in Singapore, and perhaps the most comfortable hotel bed I’ve ever slept in. I had a fantastic view of the parks and the bay from my balcony. No smoke smell that I noticed.
Not sure what caused me to be upgraded, as I was a brand new SPG member with no loyalty points. Timing of arrival, having pre-paid for the room through my travel agent, or being a Westerner were all possibilities. The front desk staff were incredibly helpful with helping to navigate the trip into Tokyo as well.
I would absolutely stay here again, even without an upgrade.
Hi Tom,
In May me and my wife are going to stay at this hotel for the third time. We stayed here before in 2009 and 2011 and the lobby and common areas already looked like this in 2009. Either this is a very looooong refurbishment project or we were intoxicated due to large quantities of gyoza buns….
Anyhow, for our trip in May we really wanted to stay in a Disney hotel or at the Hilton but we could not justify the enormous extra costs per night at a Disney property and we thought the € 50,00 extra per night at the Hilton was also not worth it.
We loved this hotel because of it’s value but you are absolutely right that the rooms really need an upgrade and they need to ban smoking in all rooms!
Hope they upgrade us this time because it is our anniversary!! Fingers crossed.
Erik – you made the right decision.
I stayed at the Hilton in 2011 and then the SGTBH last April and the Sheraton is superior. It helped that upon arrival we were upgraded to a Concierge level room, which was WONDERFUL as it was my partner’s FIRST EVER trip to a Disney theme park (I wanted him to have Tokyo first – no dinky HKDL or over crowded ghetto US parks for him – only TDR, THE BEST!!!). The concierge level room was BEAUTIFUL with an AMAZING room of Mt. Prom. and the bay! It was a GLORIOUS way to start our Japan holiday.
We finished our stay in Japan by coming back to the TDR and staying four more nights, once again at the Sheraton! This time we were put into one of the newly refurbished rooms and, we liked that EVEN BETTER! I’d say the author of this piece had bad luck (and that table room looks weird!).
Our new room was nautically themed with portholes and maritime ephemera scattered around. It made it WONDERFUL coming back from TDS in the evening (after drinks at either the Miracosta or the TDL Hotel!) and feeling the theming carried over into our room with the nautical touches.
No – overall, we’d ONLY ever stay at the Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel again and, in a way, I’m glad the author is putting people off it – means the place won’t be overrun with unruly gaijin and the prices hopefully won’t go up too much!
Now, if he can ONLY stop telling Westerners how wonderful the TDR is, we won’t have to deal with them all flocking to my parks, either!
; ) ……….. kinda
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t think comparing the Hilton pre-refurbishment (2011) to free-upgrade rooms at the Sheraton is quite a fair assessment. At this point, all of the rooms at the Hilton have been refurbished. All of the rooms at the Sheraton have not. If you are making an apples to apples comparison of standard rooms, the Hilton’s are newer and nicer.
The Ocean Dream rooms at the Sheraton look beautiful. If you’re willing to pay for that upgrade or are hoping to roll the dice on a free upgrade, that’s great. You’ve been fortunate with your experiences at the Sheraton, but statistically speaking (in terms of number of Ocean Dreams rooms versus non-refurbished standard rooms) most people will not receive the same treatment, particularly when the hotel’s occupancy rate is higher.
I’ve never encountered unruly westerners at Tokyo Disney Resort. 🙂
Brad – surprised to hear the lobby looked like this in 2009. I wonder if anything in the common areas have changed since then, or if it’s just been meticulously maintained since. It still looks brand new, and the implication of the signs I saw was that it was remodeled as part of the refurbishment. Interesting.
I don’t think the Sheraton standard rooms are so bad to pay such a significant surcharge for the Hilton. I think (but could be wrong?) that all of the rooms are non-smoking now. It’s just the years of smoking being allowed in the past that have left a mark that won’t be undone until the upholstery is removed, the walls are repainted, etc. I’d assume the Ocean Dreams rooms–even those that used to be smoking rooms–in no way smell like smoke.
I book Sheraton Grande when I want to convince myself it will be a cheap trip to Tokyo. I do this to feel better and budget conscious, then I cancel and book at the Disneyland Hotel two weeks later. I am fully aware of my own psychology even when doing this!
Haha, seems like a good strategy!
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to have that reaction to the, frankly, bizarre rooms and equally bizarre bathrooms. On the other hand, I trekked across to the Hilton and it seemed a step down in terms of the common areas. Despite the buildings basically being mirrors of each other!
I’m not certain that I do agree however on the common areas being less important than the rooms. I’d say #1 is basic standards of hygiene, #2 is bed comfort, #3 is acceptable climate, #4 is not too noisy, #5 doesn’t smell of smoke (very disappointed to hear that was the case for you, and I’d certainly have complained). It’s amazing how much trouble you can run into just making sure 1-5 are up to your standards. Everything else, personally, is way down the list, but if I had to prioritise on decor and design, I’d put the common areas first since you’re likely to be awake when you experience those – rooms are for sleeping in!
I think the prioritizing is all a matter of personal preference. I’m way more likely to be spending waking hours in the bedroom than I am common areas, but that’s not necessarily true for others.
I do agree that bed comfort is pretty important, but my preferences there aren’t often met totally by Japanese hotels due to local preferences there. With that said, both the Sheraton and Hilton do fairly well. (Not as good as the Hyatts in Japan, but still good.)
You’ve made me really glad that I’ve made reservation at the Hilton Tokyo Bay in April. I was tossing up between these two hotels and your review made me feel like I had made the right decision.
By the way, based on your recommendation of Universal Studios in Osaka, we are now going there too and are staying at Hotel Universal Port. Very excited, but a little worried about the crowds!
When we stayed at this hotel last year we (two adults) stayed in one of the treasure rooms which are the kids/family friendly rooms. That was more colourful and modern looking than the standard rooms you show.
Overall, wouldn’t hesitate to stop here again. Room was clean and tidy and the location to the parks was perfect.