Tokyo Disneyland Winter Trip Report – Part 1
It takes a special kind of crazy to travel to a place where it snows during the coldest time of the year. That’s what we did for our recent trip to Tokyo Disney Resort during Frozen Fantasy, a tagline that takes on dual meaning during January in Japan. If you ski, this is a great time to go to Japan–not crazy at all. We saw several Americans carrying ski boots through customs. But…we don’t ski anymore.
Our reason? Long-shot odds of seeing snow in Tokyo Disneyland. No joke. If you recall our updated Top 10 Disney Bucket List Experiences, it’s on there. Tokyo Bay seems to get a good snow storm about once every other year, and the week we chose in January is (historically) the coldest time of the year. It seemed like we had a shot at snow.
Knowing our chances of snow were only minuscule, we did have other reasons. We wanted to see Tokyo Disney Resort’s seasonal events this time of year. During our visit, those were Frozen Fantasy and Sweet Duffy (again, no joke) plus the finale of Tokyo DisneySea’s 15th Anniversary. Laugh if you must, but we’re Disney completionists, and these are two events that we’ll probably look back on in a decade with a mix of nostalgia and humor.
Then there was the final variable, which pushed us over the top. Cost. While putting together our travel plans for 2017, we had nixed a potential trip to Japan in January in light of other travel expenses. It wasn’t totally out of the question, and there was still a vague possibility that we’d end up doing this or the Dopey Challenge/Marathon Weekend at Walt Disney World.
The idea drifted to the back burner, likely to be forgotten, when Black Friday came around. An airfare sale popped up: $495 roundtrip, as well as a monorail loop hotel for ~$150/night for 4. The Dopey Challenge alone would’ve cost more than airfare to Japan ($560 v. $495), so it was a done deal. If you’re interested in the total cost of our trip, let me know in the comments and I’ll tally things up and post the final numbers in a later installment.
Anyway, fast forward to the day of our flight. We met the Selgas (our travel companions for the trip) at LAX, breezed through a random upstairs hallway security check, and boarded our American Airlines flight. Normally, we try to book codeshare flights with international partner airlines, which allows us to earn miles on the US carriers, while enjoying superior amenities. The airline industry has become a race to the bottom in the US, but that isn’t the case with virtually all of the foreign carriers. Unfortunately, for this flight, our best option price and timing wise, by far, was AA.
On the plus side, with a stockpile of heroic in-flight entertainment like this, it’s really tough to complain. One of the questions we’re often asked by readers who are hesitant to travel to Japan is how we survive long-haul flights. Sarah gets by with the selection of movies (included in the cost of the flight) and manages to sleep a bit.
As for me…have you ever seen a cat fall asleep in a cardboard box or some other random, uncomfortable spot? That’s me on a plane. On any normal day, I have ~5% BCC (blood coffee content). If I go without coffee the morning before we fly, I can barely manage to stay awake to board the plane. It doesn’t hurt that long-haul planes usually have more legroom and more comfortable seats.
Unfortunately, this meant missing out on the back catalog of Schwarzenegger titles, but if there’s one thing I prefer to watching Terminator, it’s sleeping.
After my 12-hour nap, I woke up to watch the plane make its way along the coast of Japan during a beautiful sunrise. I probably should’ve taken out my DSLR, but this iPhone pic gets the point across.
We landed in Japan at Tokyo Narita Airport. The long line at customs moved quickly, and we then raced to the airport post office to pick up our MiFi units. If you have questions about this, they are probably answered in our Tokyo Disneyland Trip Planning Guide (there are a lot of linked resources in this trip report, all of which will open in new tabs/windows).
We then literally ran back down to the bottom floor to try catching the last Airport Limousine of the night. (It’s a bus–we’re not that fancy.) The ticket line for the Airport Limo was long, but we managed to purchase our tickets and make it out to the curb with 4 minutes to spare. This was a nice bonus, as I figured we’d arrive too late and have to take the Narita Express into Tokyo Station, then the JR Keiyo Line out to Tokyo Disney Resort, then the monorail to our hotel.
Instead, the Airport Limo bus dropped us off directly at our hotel. Either option is pretty easy, particularly in the era of Google Maps. The JR Line would’ve been cheaper and taken slightly longer, whereas the bus has nice seats (see below), no transfers (but potentially multiple stops), and drops off directly at the hotel.
We stayed at Hotel Okura Tokyo Bay, and if you recall our review of that hotel, it wasn’t all too positive. However, it was significantly cheaper for a 4-person room, and our goal was to do this trip as inexpensively as possible.
As before, the beds felt like sleeping on a sleeping on a piece of plywood.
It was too late to go to the parks but too early to go to bed, so we headed to Ikspiari (Tokyo’s version of Downtown Disney) for dinner. We have been to Ikspiari a dozen times now, and have yet to not get lost there. This could be because we’re total idiots, or its layout could be confounding. (Or both, which is the most likely scenario.)
After finally finding the food court, we had some ramen, pastry meat pies, and takoyaki (octopus balls). Jet lag was setting in at this point for those of us who didn’t sleep the entire flight, so we headed back to the hotel without doing any other shopping.
For our complaints about Hotel Okura, it’s cheap and right across the street from the monorail station–less than a 5 minute walk. Or, if you’re feeling super lazy (as we were some mornings), there’s actually a free bus service to the monorail station.
This is almost comical in its duration. The bulk of the distance is in the hotel’s entranceway, and it basically pulls straight into the monorail station without ever driving on an actual road. It’s totally unnecessary, but on a cold morning, it’s nice.
Due to transportation laws in Japan concerning rails, the monorail costs money at Tokyo Disney Resort. It’s a nominal amount and something we’ll happily pay given the reliability and cleanliness of those monorails, but it is something to keep in mind. (You could easily walk to Tokyo Disneyland if you don’t want to pay for a monorail pass.)
We always buy multi-day tickets, but the monorail also accepts the PASMO card if you’re traveling elsewhere throughout Tokyo.
This trip started out at Tokyo DisneySea. Its hours were 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. every day of our trip, aside from the first day when it opened at 8 a.m., so that was our reasoning.
We all woke up between 4 and 5 a.m. (thanks, jet lag) anyway, so we were ready to go well in advance. We only got to the park 20 minutes early (as fun as standing in 30° might sound, we decided to pass on arriving earlier) and we were still near the front of the line. This is pretty unheard of at the Tokyo parks, where people line up hours in advance even on lightly crowded days.
Per our go-to Tokyo Disney Resort crowd calendar, the week we were visiting was one of the least busy of the entire year. This was apparent in crowds throughout the day, which felt lighter than midweek at Disneyland in January.
I think it’s worth emphasizing that Tokyo crowds vary significantly. Sarah and I have visited during one of the busiest weekends of the year (tickets actually sold out for both parks), and that was utter insanity. There were lines for everything from the restrooms to popcorn. Photos of days like this tend to go ‘viral’ on social media, and scare a lot of Americans away from Tokyo Disney Resort.
That’s unfortunate, because we have also visited on weekdays like this one, when wait times are lower than even a slow day in the U.S. parks. Tokyo hasn’t mastered the “art” of promotions (or runDisney events) like the U.S. parks to fill slower times on the calendar, so there are true off-season dates there. More importantly, they are consistent and predictable from year to year.
Point being, if you’ve nixed the idea of visiting Tokyo Disney Resort because you’ve seen photos of packed parks and you can’t stand crowds, you’re actually better off visiting these parks. All you need to do is plan strategically for days that won’t be crowded. If you need help choosing the best dates, we have all the variables covered in our When to Visit Tokyo Disneyland post.
Seeing the relative lack of lines to get into Tokyo DisneySea, we decided to stop and smell the roses on our way in, pausing to listen to the Tokyo DisneySea Band and enjoy the ambiance of Aquasphere Plaza as we entered.
Above is a video Sarah shot of them playing. I could watch them all day–and their nautical costumes are so cool!
After a few moments there, we decided to stop at Mama Biscotti’s Bakery for breakfast. Neglecting to have breakfast before we left the hotel might seem like a fatal touring error, but no grab and go locations were open.
Plus, we had been consulting the TDR Now Wait Times App (highly recommended!) and it was showing no waits for anything.
The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast in Japan is Toy Story Alien Mochi, a motto Sarah took to heart by ordering a pack of nine of these guys. She kindly shared…one of them…with me. I had an ordinary sandwich.
We made this a quick stop, and then “walked briskly” to Mysterious Island to grab Journey to the Center of the Earth FastPasses.
We then immediately bounced to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which was a walk-on. I’ve been on this ride more times than I can count, but discover new details each time. Its re-rideability is also helped by the fact that there are 3 different vantages from which to view show scenes, so you cannot possibly see everything without multiple rides.
I loved 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea after our first visit to Tokyo DisneySea, but I love it even more now. That it never seems to have more than a 15 minute wait doesn’t hurt.
Sarah popped into the Mysterious Island gift shop after that, where she bought a Mickey Mouse hamburger purse. She was elated by this find, as she thought they stopped selling these.
This combines two of our passions (burgers and Disney) and it really made her day. I’m not normally a huge fan of Tokyo’s merchandise, but even I have to admit that this is awesome. I wish they made it as a shirt or novelty hat.
On a normal day, we’d knock out as many popular attractions in the first couple of hours as possible, but with short waits park-wide, we decided to do our favorite attraction first: Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage.
I’ve dedicated two posts (Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage: Disney’s Best Modern Dark Ride and Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage: Still Awesome.) to this attraction, so I won’t belabor how awesome it is again here.
Suffice to say, if you were to tell me that I could ride only one Disney attraction ever again, I’d first ask, “are extinct attractions an option?” (I mean, it’s a hypothetical, so what the heck?)
If they are, the original Journey into Imagination is my pick. If they are not, Sindbad’s Storybook Voyage is my pick.
Even though I don’t think it’s Imagineering’s objectively best attraction, it’s my favorite. Same goes for Sarah.
When the inevitable day comes that its closure is announced, we will do everything in our power to be there for its last day. We feel its our duty as proud members of #TeamChandu.
At this point, I decided to “go live” on Facebook and do a brief walk-around video. The video isn’t even remotely good as I was distracted by all the beautiful sights while walking around, but if you want a better feel for (part of) Tokyo DisneySea, here it is:
One of the things I’m going to try with this trip report (and future ones) is more video. Since I’m too lazy to record and edit a proper vlog right now, embedded stuff we posted on Facebook and Instagram will have to suffice. I think/hope these nicely complement the text and photos to give more “dimension” (or whatever you want to call it) to the reports.
From there, it was time to use our Journey to the Center of the Earth FastPasses. I’m still as mesmerized by this attraction as I was the first time I rode it. Although I wish it were a bit longer with more after its climax, it’s an amazing attraction. I’m optimistic Walt Disney World will have something like this in the very near future. I’ll put that nugget out there now and circle back to it in a future installment. Gotta keep you in suspense/coming back! 😉 In any case, we then continued on to Port Discovery, my least favorite land/port at Tokyo DisneySea. We’ll pick up there on Page 2…
Looking forward to future installments.
Greetings from Toronto! Thanks for these trip reports Tom!! I visited Tokyo DisneySea and Tokyo Disneyland for the first time last year (with your blog’s help) and I can’t wait to get back. Your travel caffeine blog was also helpful for the rest of Japan!
Awesome. We should have a lot more Japan content on TravelCaffeine in the next few months, so stay tuned! 🙂
Love your trip reports..Looking forward for the next installment….Also interested in cost breakdowns…..And is there a particular app or website you use to get your airfares…..Thanks….PS…We live in central Oregon and I worked flower and garden and food and wine festivals for 4 years
Will do on the cost breakdown! As for airfare–check out the “Airfare & Transportation” section of our Tokyo Disneyland Planning Guide: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/tokyo-disney-trip-planning-guide/
You mentioned doing a cost breakdown for those interested. Color me interested.
Hello from Traverse City, Michigan! I was so excited to see the first installment of your latest Japan trip report pop up today. Going to TDR has definitely become a bucket list item for me because of these reports…even if I can’t check this one off now, I appreciate living through your posts and photos and it makes me even more excited for future international Disney trips I want to take! So thank you both! 🙂
Just had to pop up and say “HI!!” to a fellow Traverse Citian!!
Love the trip report. I have commented in the past that Tokyo Disneyland Resort is the top item on our bucket list. My wife has made a friend through pin trading there so we would have a local guide. Hopefully in 2018.
Typo’d my own name! 🙁
Greetings from Arizona!
I really hope to make it to Tokyo someday in the future and I love reading your trip reports to keep me going until then. Oddly enough, I may make it to Shanghai Disneyland first as I currently have family living there. So thanks for both parks’ coverage!
My heart breaks every time I see Nemo construction pictures. StormRider was my choice for 3rd best attraction in the park behind Journey and Indy. I am glad that Out Of Shadowland (which I seem to like more than just about anyone else) and Soarin’ are still non IP additions to the park. I really hope the replacement for my least favorite thing in TDS, A Table Is Waiting, represents American Waterfront better and has some originality to it.
Third best or third favorite? I know it can be hard to separate out emotion from the equation, but I have a hard time putting StormRider in the top 5 if we’re talking ‘best’ of TDS.
We’ll get into it more later, but we love A Table is Waiting. In part for the same reasons we enjoyed StormRider, actually. Kitschy, tongue-in-cheek fun. Curious why didn’t you like it?
I would say third best. Probably 2nd favorite, if not top favorite. The reasons why would be the setup in the preshow, which I feel was one of the best preshows for any attraction ever. Plus the movement of the large simulator was so unique and more effective than the Star Tours model IMO. But the in theater effects are what would put it on the Best list. Lots of attractions use water as a 4D effect, but nothing comes close to how it was used in StormRider. Plus the storm diffuser actually breaking through the vehicle is without a doubt one of my best moments I’ve ever experienced in a ride. Knowing the backstory of Port Discovery added to the overall experience too. How many original rides have a land all centered around it? You take all of that with a score that I can listen to over and over and I think I can definitely make an argument for Best every bit as much as Favorite.
As far as A Table Is Waiting, it was a one and done show for me. But other than Big Band Beat and Shadowland, that’s fairly typical for TDR for me. I find Table to be over the top corny and not in a good way. I look forward to seeing what replaces it, but can appreciate that it is popular with the locals there and others.
Greetings from Vancouver, B.C.
I really appreciate your writing, photographs and videos – great advice, helpful information, with a wonderfully entertaining style.
You are part of my required reading to maintain ‘theme park happiness’ between my own visits and to help plan the next.
I’m thinking that my long wished for trip to Tokyo/Japan should be brought forward….perhaps to May 2018….so I definitely will be studying your reports and planning tips.
It’s an amazing place, and we’d recommend visiting sooner rather than later, but if you’re definitely only going once ever, waiting until after New Fantasyland/Beauty and the Beast construction is done might be a good idea. If you’ll be back, go as soon as you’re able!
Many happy returns for you to Disneylands everywhere- from Lexington, Ky.
Caught a glimpse of y’all in ’15 at DL as we boated under one of the IaSW overpasses, on which you stood. I yelled, “Hey, you’re the people from the blog!” And while I think I’ve mentioned this to you before, I still get a kick out of it.
Won’t be back at a park for years, probably, but I still follow y’all on Instagram and visit this site regularly. A lil’ of my heart is always at Disneyland, which- at 7 times-is the only park I’ve been to in my 43 years (ok, ok, unless you’re counting DCA as a separate park. Which I don’t.).
Will probably next do WDW, as a) I’m a little sad to see how much DL has changed, b) it’s in the same time zone, and c) Star Wars Land will have opened by then and I expect the WDW version to be a bit more expansive as it’s not under the same constraints as the DL version. (Also the kids are dying to do Harry Potter and sounds like the USH version is a pale imitation of the USF one.)
But I’m also feeling a pull toward Japan… your posts are a part of that, as is an affection for Japanese film and (incongruously enough, here) the novel and movie Silence and the history of Christianity in that country. Someday.
I don’t know how you manage it all, but keep it up!
A.
Hahah on the IASW story.
I also enjoy Japanese film (everything from Kurosawa to Ghibli) and in that case, I’d recommend the Kyoto region for your ‘outside the parks’ visits. You’ll see a lot of imagery that’s recognizable from films, and it’s the kind of experience I’m guessing you’d enjoy.
Greetings from London! Have enjoyed your other social media posts about your Tokyo Disney trip and great to read the first blog post. My fiancé is now wondering why I’m so suddenly so keen to travel to Japan!!
My husband and I are going to Tokyo Disney Reosrt at the end of March! We have a trip planned to Taiwan to visit his family and decided to tack on Tokyo as well to visit Disney there! Can’t wait! However, we are scared of the crowds that are usual in march. 🙁 Hopefully the fast passes will help and we will still be able to enjoy our time! Love you blog!
-Carly and Chris
As long as you follow our itineraries and do NOT visit on a weekend, you’ll be totally fine, even in March. Have fun! 🙂
Greetings from Cleveland, OH (incidentally I’m also originally from Michigan).
Love your international Disney posts. Tokyo Disneyland is definitely on our bucket list as is Shanghai Disney (my husband is obsessed with their version of Pirates of the Caribbean), so it’s nice to live vicariously through your posts until such time that we can go ourselves.
Thanks for the report! Seeing your pictures (and Guy’s snack video) definitely makes me want to go back (we took our first trip to Japan this last July). Huge fans of those parks – and definitely agree on Sinbad’s. We love the music for that ride, so much so that my wife (an elementary school music teacher) is including it in her “sea” themed program sung by her 1st graders (english translated of course). Serious level of Disney nerdom there, but I’m guessing approximately 0% of her audience will have been to Tokyo Disney so it’ll be our secret.
Great start to what looks like will be an awesome trip report! Your blog has been an invaluable resource to planning our first and second trips to Disneyland (we of course went during Halloween and Christmas), our honeymoon to Aulani, and of course, to styling some amazing Disney outfits (thanks, Sarah!). I undoubtedly know that a trip to Tokyo will be on the horizon in the next few years.
Greetings from El Segundo, CA! I went to the Tokyo parks exactly one year ago today, using your posts and guides. It turned out to be an incredible trip. I snagged a top-floor, park view room at the Hilton Tokyo Bay for ~$140/night and splurged on one night in a harbor view Hotel MiraCosta room (which was not $140/night…). As my sleep schedule was similarly messed up, I got to watch the sunrise on the harbor from my room. I nearly froze to death waiting for Dreamlights my first night in the parks, since my naive LA mindset meant I didn’t dress appropriately for the 34° evening. Touch-screen-compatible gloves were indispensable on that trip.
Love your trip reports, and may be heading to HKDL/SHDL in the next month or two, since they’re my last two parks. Ten out of twelve is not good enough!
I followed your trip through social media and am excited to read your entire trip report! I’m heading to Tokyo and Kyoto in early April (with one day saved for Disney Sea), and all your tips and suggestions have been so helpful!
I’m trying to get as many Kyoto posts done as quickly as possible for people visiting this year during cherry blossom season, so make sure to keep an eye out on our TravelCaffeine Kyoto section: http://www.travelcaffeine.com/location/kyoto/
Hope you have a great trip!
As a Disney Nerd and someone who enjoys international traveling – I hope to visit the Asian parks within the next few years. Originally this prospect seemed daunting due to the language barrier (weirdly I’ve been to Disneyland Paris and never worried about language issues, but Japanese and Mandarin are a. It more intimidating in written form). Your international trip reports are very interesting reads and I will definitely use your tips and info when planning. Thanks!
If it helps at all, all signage is in English and many attractions provide English handouts explaining the ride premise. There are not as many Cast Members who are fluent in English as at Disneyland Paris, but most know some English. It’s really no big deal at all! 🙂
Greetings from Nebraska! As much as Cape Cod has great ambiance, my favorite memory of DisneySea was sitting right outside of Vulcania on a quiet night. Also, Indy speaking in Japanese is always a shock. Keep up the great Japan content! Its my favorite country to travel to.
Mysterious Island on a cool night when the park is almost empty and all you can hear is the spooky noises in the background “music” loop is awesome. Awesome in a quasi-creepy way, but awesome nonetheless!
Love the trip report – and count me in as #TeamChandu!!! That is where we run to first when the park opens. We were there in January as well this year 🙂 The funny thing is we thought it was nice – we hail from Minneapolis, so 30-40 degree weather was a nice change for us! We avoid California and Florida in the summer as we can’t do the heat anymore.
Look forward to reading the rest of your trip summary!!
BTW – so jealous that you can sleep on a plane – I wish I could!!
I’m originally from Michigan, but I guess living in California for a couple of years has made me soft, as the evening was a bit chilly for my preference this trip. I will still take cold weather over the humidity of Florida’s summers any day of the week, though. (California heat doesn’t bother me–I can do the desert in the summer without issue–it’s the humidity I hate.)