Tokyo Disneyland Hotel Review

Tokyo Disneyland Hotel is a luxury hotel at Tokyo Disney Resort just outside Tokyo Disneyland. This review features photos of guest rooms, views, and common areas, plus thoughts on the hotel in general and whether it’s worth the money. With its Victorian theme, luxurious style, and location a short walk from the most popular Disney theme park in the world, this would be the flagship Disney hotel anywhere else in the world. At Tokyo Disney Resort, it’s often overshadowed by Hotel MiraCosta (read our Hotel MiraCosta Review), which is actually located inside Tokyo DisneySea. Rooms in Tokyo Disneyland Hotel start at around $300/night, and go up depending upon the view, season, and number of guests (see this rate chart).

The view pictured above is from our room at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, and while this view was absolutely stunning, it is not the norm. We were incredibly lucky with our room location, and because Tokyo Disneyland Hotel is located farther back from the park than its counterpart, Hotel MiraCosta, and because the roofed World Bazaar is fairly tall, many rooms–even those that face the park–offer little in terms of view.

I mention this from the outset because I think view might be the biggest consideration for those contemplating a hotel at Tokyo Disney Resort, and Tokyo Disneyland Hotel simply isn’t as consistently good as Hotel MiraCosta in this regard. If you get lucky or book one of the rooms that’s sure to have a great view, Tokyo Disneyland Hotel is definitely an incredible experience, though. If you’re trying to do Tokyo Disney Resort on a budget, there are great monorail loop hotels offering excellent views at a fraction of the cost of Tokyo Disneyland Hotel.

If you set aside the view, Tokyo Disneyland Hotel is arguably the best hotel at Tokyo Disney Resort…

Let’s get pricing out of the way from the outset. If you’re used to visiting Walt Disney World, you might not balk at that $300+/night rate, knowing that’s a standard rack rate for a Walt Disney World Deluxe hotel. The difference here is that discounts on Tokyo Disney Resort hotels are unheard of because the 3 Tokyo hotels operate at 95%+ occupancy.

In fact, depending upon when you’re going, it can be difficult to book a room here. In my experience, it was much easier than Hotel MiraCosta, but rooms here do frequently sell out. If you plan on staying at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, you will want to book online as soon as your booking window opens. The Tokyo Disney Resort Online Reservation Center will accept reservations starting at 9:00 a.m. (JST) 6 months before your arrival day. For those of you living in the US, this is going to be the night before that morning (do the math for your time zone). You may have to change your computer clock to get the reservation system to work.

I was responsible for booking our hotels via the online system, and I booked our room here the moment the window opened. After that, we had discussions amongst ourselves about booking a different room category, so we ultimately changed the reservation. I noticed availability for many rooms here a few weeks after our window opened, too, so demand isn’t as intense here as it is at Hotel MiraCosta.

One big perk of the Online Reservation Center is that it also gives you the ability to book dining reservations. This is an important amenity for those who don’t live in Japan, as many of these restaurants book quickly, and during the busier seasons, you won’t be able to get same day priority seating. The best way to take advantage of this by booking the insanely popular dinner shows: Polynesian Terrace and Mickey & Company at the Diamond Horseshoe.

As mentioned above, Tokyo Disneyland Hotel has a Victorian theme that’s somewhat of an extension of World Bazaar (except arguably better-done). I am not biased towards this theme. I think Disney has done Victorian hotels to death, and it disappoints me that most Disney flagship hotels around the world are Victorian. Not only is it not the most compelling theme to me, but a little variety would be nice.

With that said, I think this is about as well-executed as the Victorian theme could be, with tons of little details, opulent elements (such as the chandeliers in the lobby), and a real grandiose feel. It truly feels like it has a sense of old world elegance, while also having modern luxury. I know this is a divisive thing, but it also infuses a variety of Disney characters (from films like Lady and the Tramp, Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland, and more) into elements of the design in a very tasteful and discreet way. Personally, I find this to be fun and whimsical, but I know opinions vary on this sort of thing.

There are several restaurants at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel: Dreamers Lounge (bar/restaurant), Sherwood Garden Restaurant (buffet), and Canna (fine dining). We did Sherwood Garden Restaurant, and it was superb. We have a somewhat embarrassing story from there, but we’ll save that for another day…

Each day of your stay (including check-in and check-out), you can access either park 15 minutes early; this is called the “Happy 15.” This is a significant perk, as those 15 minutes give you a head start on the huge lines to get in the parks, and huge lines that follow inside. You receive vouchers for this and access the park via a special line. It may not seem like much, but this is seriously an invaluable perk.

Other benefits include complimentary monorail passes, special park hopper tickets hotel guests can purchase (we don’t recommend this), baggage storage on check-in and check-out days, and baggage transfer to and from the JR Station. There is also complimentary baggage transfer among the 3 Disney hotels, making a split stay (if you’re considering Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, we highly recommend Hotel MiraCosta, too) very easy. Unlike Hotel MiraCosta, there’s no charge for the pool here, but it’s only open in the summer.

Another random tip is to make sure to hit up these gift shop if you want some Tokyo Disney Resort logo merchandise–especially women. Tokyo Disneyland Hotel has some gorgeous merchandise. Unfortunately, the shirts they had were a little too feminine for me, but the design was really cool, nonetheless. Almost all in-park merchandise is simply character stuff, and doesn’t prominently feature the location.

Out front is “Fantasia Court” one of the several gardens that can be found at the hotel. For a hotel that has a relatively small footprint, it has a decent amount of places to explore.

Other spaces are Mickey & Friends Square, Alice Garden, and Sherwood Garden. Mickey & Friends Square is a beautiful area, but the fountain in Fantasia Court is just stunning. A really cool concept.

We stayed in a “Standard Superior Alcove Room (Park Grand View),” which essentially meant that it was a preferred park view room that could sleep 4 people. Few rooms at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel can sleep 4 adults, but we deliberated intensely over which of those to book, ultimately deciding to go for the slightly more expensive “grand” option so our chances at a good park view were higher.

After checking into the room downstairs, a Cast Member took us upstairs to show us to the room and provide us with a tour of its features. I think at first she was intimidated by having to speak so much English, but she became incredibly happy when asked if we could get a photo with her. It should go without saying that the service here, as with anywhere at Tokyo Disney Resort, was impeccable.

In our tour of the room, we’ll start with the bathroom. On the left is the bathtub and shower, with the sink on the right. If you look closely, you’ll notice a ton of specialty Tokyo Disneyland Hotel-branded toiletries. Rest assured, none of these remained when we checked out of the room! 😉

To the right of the sink is the toilet. It’s common in Japanese hotels to have shower, sink, and toilet each in separate rooms.

Moving onto the bedroom, here are the two main beds, with the alcove bed directly behind the camera and another bed that pulls out from under the bed on the left. I opted to sleep on this floor-bed so I could be closer to the balcony and fall asleep to the sound of the Tokyo Disneyland entrance area background music loop.

Here’s the view from bed. Not too shabby.

An artsy shot through a Mickey head on the balcony. I really wish I took more closeup photos of the details in this room, because there are tons of little flourishes that made the room feel great. From the vaulted ceiling to the silhouette portraits of Mickey & Minnie to concept art of other characters, beautiful trim, and more, the room was really richly textured. I often criticize Disney for not doing the best of job of balancing theme with luxurious design, but with Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, the Imagineers totally nailed the rooms (at least the standard ones–I’m not a huge fan of the new character rooms).

We found ourselves wandering around the room discovering new little touches here and there and remarking on how cool they were. This isn’t well-conveyed in my wide-angle photos of the rooms, but all of us agreed that the room here was superior to Hotel MiraCosta. In fact, I think in many regards Tokyo Disneyland Hotel trumps Hotel MiraCosta. Of course, it probably didn’t hurt that we won big in the room view lottery.

One of the many topiaries between the back of the hotel and Tokyo Disneyland, Minnie Mouse welcomes guests to Tokyo…

Overall, if you have the means to book one of the Park Grand View rooms (assuming view matters to you) and also have the time to stay at Hotel MiraCosta, I would highly recommend doing a split stay between the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel and Hotel MiraCosta. If you set aside the novelty of being inside a theme park at Hotel MiraCosta (which is a totally arbitrary thing to set aside, as that’s the main draw of the hotel), I think Tokyo Disneyland Hotel actually surpasses Hotel MiraCosta in most regards. It’s a world class hotel, and my second favorite Disney hotel in the world, but I don’t view it in quite the same regard as Hotel MiraCosta. That hotel is just something special, unlike anything anywhere else. By contrast, Tokyo Disneyland Hotel is superior to all other Disney hotels, but it mostly is doing the same things as those hotels–just better.

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.

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Your Thoughts…

Does Tokyo Disneyland Hotel appeal to you? Have you stayed here? Want to stay here? If you have any other comments or questions about Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, post them below and I’ll try to answer!