FastPass Strategy for Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea
An efficient day at Tokyo Disneyland or DisneySea means using FastPass to skip long lines. Smart use of FastPass can literally mean saving hours in line, and will allow you to do the best and most popular rides (plus Raging Spirits) with minimal waits. This post offer a ‘how to’ guide for FastPass, plus which attractions you should prioritize in each of Japan’s Disney parks.
Not all FastPasses are created equally. At some attractions–like Tokyo DisneySea’s shows–the time spent pulling a FastPass, leaving, and returning might cost you extra time. By contrast, FastPassing Toy Story Mania could save over 2 hours. Hence strategy being important. Also important to efficient use is running to grab another FastPass once your window reopens.
Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea still use the legacy FastPass system, which means you obtain FastPasses via the “old school” paper slips, which require physical retrieval from in-park kiosks. Familiar territory for long-time Walt Disney World visitors, and our preferred method for using FastPass. If you’re not a fan of criss-crossing the parks to collect FastPasses, you may disagree.
In practice, obtaining paper FastPasses is relatively simple. For those who have never used this system, you go to the FastPass distribution area near the attraction entrance and insert your park ticket into the FastPass kiosks, receive a paper slip with an hour window for expedited attraction boarding, and then return at that time. In the meantime, you do whatever–shop, eat, or experience other attractions via standby.
At the bottom of the FastPass ticket you receive from the distribution kiosk, you’ll find the earliest time you can obtain your next FastPass. Typically, you will be eligible for another FastPass 2 hours after the time you pulled your previous FastPass, or at the start of your return window for that FastPass, whichever is earlier.
Tokyo Disneyland FastPass Priorities:
- Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek
- Pooh’s Hunny Hunt
- Splash Mountain
- Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Space Mountain
- “it’s a small world”
- Haunted Mansion
- Star Tours
The heavy-hitters at Tokyo Disneyland are Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek and Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, which are also the two unique E-Tickets at Tokyo Disneyland. Some fans favor Pooh’s Hunny Hunt for their first FastPass (we disagree with that) since most people believe it’s the better attraction (we agree with that).
This strategy is objectively poor. Not only do Monsters FastPasses go faster, but it has longer wait times all day long. By contrast, Hunny Hunt is usually a walk-on at the end of the night. Additionally, you should be able to get FastPasses for both attractions no matter the crowd level so long as you start with Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek. If you pull Hunny Hunt first, Monsters might be gone for the day by the time of your second FastPass.
On a light to moderate day, you should also be able to obtain FastPasses for all other attractions on that list if you run a tight FastPass game. If it’s a busier day, we’d recommend cutting Splash Mountain from the list. Even though it’s #3, it also has Single Rider, and doing it via that instead of a FastPass can be really helpful to your itinerary.
As of the time of publication, “it’s a small world” FastPasses are available at the Pooh’s Hunny Hunt distribution area. It remains to be seen whether this is permanent or just in light of this attraction’s renewed popularity post-refurbishment. If you don’t see these FastPass machines during your trip, that means it has been discontinued.
Tokyo DisneySea FastPass Priorities:
- Toy Story Mania
- Tower of Terror
- Journey to the Center of the Earth
- Indiana Jones Adventure
- Nemo & Friends SeaRider
- Raging Spirits
- Mermaid Lagoon Theater
- Magic Lamp Theater
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Seasonal)
When it comes to Tokyo DisneySea, you’ll want to focus your FastPass energies on the top 5–namely #2 and #3. If you’re an American visiting Tokyo DisneySea who has already done Toy Story Mania in a different park, skipping that to focus on Tower of Terror and Journey to the Center of the Earth are your best options.
We round out our FastPass priorities with Nemo & Friends SeaRider. Not because it’s a revolutionary attraction, but because the lines can get long and it’s unique to Japan. Also, since Indiana Jones Adventure has Single Rider, we almost always use that rather than FastPasses. Raging Spirits is a crumby roller coaster, so we typically don’t do that at all–but it also has Single Rider.
Then there are the shows. I can’t remember the last time we pulled FastPasses for Mermaid Lagoon Theater or Magic Lamp Theater as it’s almost always faster just to wait for the next showtime rather than getting a FastPass, leaving, and returning. We have gotten 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea FastPasses recently, but only as souvenirs since they are rarely being distributed during our visits.
In terms of other FastPass tips, the final big one is using a FastPass runner to save additional time. This is especially crucial in a couple of scenarios. First, at rope drop at Tokyo DisneySea when the quickest person in your party can dart to Tower of Terror while the rest of your party takes a leisurely stroll to Journey to the Center of the Earth to do that via standby. Same with Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek at Tokyo Disneyland while everyone else heads to Fantasyland.
Speaking of which, if you’re looking for strategy beyond FastPass, consult our 1-Day Tokyo Disneyland Itinerary and our 1-Day Tokyo DisneySea Itinerary. Those offer full-day efficient plans of attack plus restaurant suggestions, which entertainment to watch, and other things to do during your days at Tokyo Disney Resort.
FastPass runners are also helpful around mealtimes when waits can be long for restaurants. Having one person obtain FastPasses while everyone else orders food, secures a table, etc., is an efficient use of time. Finally, the same with saving parade spots and FastPass runners.
Overall, efficient use of FastPass is right up there with visiting on weekdays and arriving at rope drop in terms of the most important strategy for avoiding crowds and long wait times at Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea. Think of them as the Tokyo Disney Resort Crowd Avoidance Trifecta. Almost every single popular attraction in these two parks has FastPass, meaning that on a good day, you will never wait in line more than 30 minutes if you obey the trifecta.
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
What are your FastPass priorities for Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea? Do you agree or disagree with our advice? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Just FYI to everyone, free FastPass no longer exists at TDR. Anywhere. There is only a paid FastPass option for one attraction per park. This article and many others need updating to reflect this.
Hi!! After WDW swipping to Genie+, Do you know if traditional fastpasses still work and Disney Sea Tokyo? Thanks!
Love your awesome articles & reviews of TDR! I’m planning my 3rd Disneyland-Disneysea trip, and I’m stumped at fastpass rules. We’ll be staying at Miracosta for 3 nights & I would like to maximize the happy 15 perks. Do you know if 1 person go inside the park & bring others tickets to get fastpasses? Without the rest of the party going in to the park (they won’t wake up at 7.30am). Thank u!
“Do you know if 1 person go inside the park & bring others tickets to get fastpasses?”
This won’t work unless the other people scan their tickets in for the morning. Once everyone is in the park, you can send a runner to get FastPasses.
Hello
All the hotels at Tokyo Disneyland seem to be the delux (expensive) hotels. Is the a more budget option that let you get fast passes. I am a single traveler from reading your post I read that there are some single lines, is it worthwhile getting a fast pass.
I will be visiting on a Wednesday and Thursday in the 3rd week of May, how crowded are the parks at Tokyo Disneyland at that time of year.
Thank you,
Anyone visiting the park can get FastPasses. Just walk to the FP kiosk near the attraction you want the FP for and insert your park ticket if you are ok with the return time being displayed (when you are able to use your FP).
You definitely want to get as many FastPasses as you can. They will save you hours of time in line and are free and available for everyone to use. There’s no reason NOT to use FastPass.
Use the single lines. They are not marked with signage (except Raging Spirits), so just go to the FastPass lines and say Single Rider. Super easy and usually very helpful.
I have not been to the parks personally at the time you are visiting, but May is often said to be one of the best months of the year to visit the parks.
Thank you for your advice. it was most helpful.
Stephen
Can you expand a bit on recommended days to visit and how much of a difference it makes? Are the online crowd calendars a good indicator at the Tokyo parks? Thanks
We just got back from our first trip to Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea. We did 3 days and were able to do everything, and many of our favourites 2 or 3 times. We did go on weekdays during a very non-busy time of year (after all the New Years holidays), but the tradeoff was that it was sooo cold (and this is coming from Canadians!)! The single rider lines also really helped us and there didn’t seem to be any clear signs saying there was a single rider line (at least in English) so by asking a cast member we were able to access these lines via the fast pass entrance.
We completely agree with the priority list except that Nemo was consistently much less popular than the Raging Spirits. However, we agree that Raging Spirits was nothing special while Nemo was pretty cool.
Thank for all of your help with the planning process! We followed your daily itineraries to a T and it worked out very well!
We just got back from our first trip to Tokyo Disneyland and Disneysea. We did 3 days and were able to do everything, and many of our favourites 2 or 3 times. We did go on weekdays during a very non-busy time of year (after all the New Years holidays), but the tradeoff was that it was sooo cold (and this is coming from Canadians!)! The single rider lines also really helped us and there didn’t seem to be any clear signs saying there was a single rider line (at least in English) so by asking a cast member we were able to access these lines via the fast pass entrance.
We completely agree with the priority list except that Nemo was consistently much less popular than the Raging Spirits. However, we agree that Raging Spirits was nothing special while Nemo was pretty cool.
Thanks for this beautifully timed post! We are off in just under 2 months & my research & preparation is going gangbusters. Unfortunately, our timing is coinciding with expected heavy-ish crowd weekdays, so this will be especially useful. I’m a bit worried that the 4 full days, plus a final morning (8am-noon?) add on might not be enough to allow us to see everything, given we will be there for one of the final days of the 35th anniversary & then 2 weeks later for the start of Easter, but we’ll just make the most of it. We can also add a starlight pass option for the day we fly in (turns out we arrive on a national holiday! How well planned was that?! Not!), but we may just use that afternoon to meander the resort hotels, Ikspiari, etc. Not sure yet. Anyway, I’ll be taking notes from this post & your single day itineraries to help us maximize our first few days. And then our last 2 days we are at the TDL Hotel, which gives us the extra 15 minutes. Might have been better to have that at the start of the trip rather than the end, but pricing was such that those dates were the “most-affordable” of our trip. Anyway thanks, as always, Tom. Love your posts, pics, and perspective. I expect this will all be immensely helpful for our first trip to Japan & TDR!
I really think the “tip” to buy two park tickets per guest needs to make it into the mainstream. Most US Disney-fan visitors to Tokyo will be extremely time-poor to enjoy the parks, and doubling one’s Fastpass entitlement, which is the only practical way to enjoy certain attractions at certain times of year, is arguably a really good investment for small groups of 1 or 2 people.
I know it’s not for everyone – and I don’t even do it anymore as the atmosphere means more to me than the rides – but it was invaluable on my first visit and I really think it deserves a place in the main article, especially with how comparatively cheap TDR tickets are.
Ooh, thanks for the info. I was wondering if 1 person can buy 2 tickets and use that to get double the fast passes cuz my friend canceled
Great advice! I think your strategies are sound, Mr. Bricker, and largely followed them on our prior visit. But I would add that if you are staying at a Disney property you can do things a bit differently/more easily thanks to the 15 minute head start the Happy 15 provides. For example, if you want to ride Toy Story Mania you can go straight to it, grab a fast pass and/or ride it (you can easily do both if you want to ride it twice), then do Tower of Terror, all before the official rope even drops. And having a fast pass in hand before the park officially opens sets you up well to potentially get two or three more fast passes during the day than you otherwise would (because your first return time will be VERY early and you’ll be able get a second and third one that much faster). But ultimately your suggested order of doing things still applies.
We are fortunate for our upcoming trip that we booked a vacation package that includes one night at the MiraCosta, 5 fast passes (for each person), and tickets to both Big Band Beat and One Man’s Dream. Having those extra five fast passes in addition to getting ones the traditional way (and using the single rider lines) should allow us to just about never have to wait in a line (we’re going on a Monday/Tuesday). I must admit the vacation packages are wildly overpriced (I calculate that we are paying something like $25 for each of the 21 fast passes/show tickets our group of three is getting) but for a “once in a lifetime” trip we figure it’s (probably) worth it. Plus we’ve never won the BBB lottery (albeit only in two tries) so having guaranteed passes to that is a big plus. And we get unlimited beverages, so there’s that.
Lastly, I don’t really get the popular disdain for “crumby” Raging Spirits – we found it to be a fun little coaster, especially at night! How many Disney coasters world-wide actually go upside down, maybe five? But I guess in the end I still would only put it ahead of Nemo in your pecking order, and understand your logic that Nemo is one-of-a-kind.
Hey Tom! Just curious, how did you find out about Tokyo Disney vacation packages that involve 5 extra fastpasses per person? Are these fastpasses good for any attraction/any time? Any info on the direct website, etc would be super helpful. Hope you had/have a great trip!!
Ahhh… I miss the paper FP days. Knowing the system and getting mulitiple FPs across DL and California Adventure, knowing which rides were “off-line”, having runners, getting show tickets, etc. was part of the game! I think beating the lines for me was better than the actual rides themselves! We’re headed to DL this May, I’m thinking MaxPass is too easy… everyone will be on the same playing field.
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