Visiting Tokyo Disneyland for Summer 2020 Olympics?
We’ve devoted a section of our Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea Planning Guide to answering the frequently asked question of whether you should visiting Japan before, during, or after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Following our summer trip and also spending several months in Japan during peak tourist seasons, I thought it’d be worth elaborating.
We’ll be blunt and won’t bury the lede: we do not recommend first-timers visit Japan during or immediately after the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which will occur from July 24, 2020 until August 9, 2020. There are some obvious upsides to visiting during the Olympics–especially for those who want to experience the games–but we’ll start with the downsides, and some of our anecdotal experiences in Japan.
First, visiting Japan in the summer is not pleasant. The record heatwave this summer made international news, so you probably heard about it. Even in a normal year, summer heat and humidity is oppressively bad in Tokyo. I’d liken it to Florida–perhaps worse.
I’m not exactly a tough guy when it comes to hot weather, so maybe I’m more susceptible to this than the norm. While we’d love to visit Japan for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the biggest stumbling blocks for us are pricing and weather. The idea of enduring that heat in heavy crowds while paying an obscene amount of money makes us very hesitant.
Second, thanks to a concerted marketing effort by the country’s government, tourism to Japan has been surging and is projected to continue on its current trajectory. Japan’s tourism numbers were up 19% last year, to a record 28.7 million visitors. This year, tourism is up another 15%, with a projected total of 31-32 million visitors. Japan’s government is aiming to hit 40 million annual visitors by the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
To put that into perspective, the country had just 8 million tourists in 2012, a number that has more than tripled in just 5 years. This increase has been noticeable, and some places we like to visit that were once serene or frequently primarily by locals are now often overrun by tourists. (We see the irony in our complaint here.)
This is also borne out in guest statistics released by Oriental Land Company, the operator of Tokyo Disney Resort. In 2012, just 2.6% of guests were overseas visitors. Last year, overseas visitors represented 9.8% of all guests to Tokyo Disney Resort, making for growth in international tourists slightly above Japan’s national average.
While OLC offers no explanation for this trend (the company largely does not market its parks overseas), it is likely driven by awareness and cost. With regard to cost, the yen has been weak and airfare deals from major international airports have been abundant. Hotels near Bayside Station have likewise offered exceptional pricing. As for awareness, social media and blog coverage of the Tokyo parks has exploded in the last few years.
Perhaps more importantly, Disney is becoming even more of a household brand in Asia thanks to the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, film releases, and other consumer products. China, South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong collectively account for more than 70% of tourists to Japan, meaning increased demand by these demographics likely dwarfs whatever blogs such as this one are driving. (As much as we’d like to feel important, we probably play an insignificant role in the surge.)
Nevertheless, this continuing spike in international visitors should have less of an impact on Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea than other popular attractions in Japan. Both parks have attendance caps, and once those are hit, no additional guests are allowed inside.
I’m not saying both parks are going to hit their caps every day of Summer 2020…but it wouldn’t surprise me. Even currently, soft attendance caps are frequently hit on weekends and holidays. Between the Olympics and a huge new addition (more on that later), there’s reason to believe Tokyo Disneyland is going to be a popular place come Summer 2020.
Where this surge of tourism will be most pronounced is in train stations and temples. Japan’s busiest train stations are already miserable and near their breaking point during rush hour(s), with JR and local governments currently trying to figure out creative solutions (like “rewards” for off-hours use of Suica cards) to alleviate some of that. Aside from encouraging modification of human behavior, these stations don’t really have a means of capping attendance a la the theme parks.
As for temples and their surrounding areas, this is something we’ve already experienced in Kyoto during peak fall foliage and cherry blossom seasons. Weekends in Kyoto during both peak seasons have bordered on miserable, with congestion at some popular temples creating gridlock in the surrounding streets. We are somewhat concerned that Japan’s sharp increase in tourism is not properly-managed growth, and will have unintended consequences.
Due to its status as Japan’s cultural capital, many attendees of the Olympics will also head to Kyoto, leading to an even greater crush of crowds than what we’ve witnessed. Our breathless praise might be getting old for regular readers, but Kyoto is our favorite city in the world, and you should absolutely experience it. Just not under those circumstances. Kyoto simply was not built to absorb the kind of crowds that Tokyo can handle with comparative ease.
Then there’s the issue of cost. As demand rises, so too do costs. There’s already a chasm in the price you’ll pay for a hotel at Tokyo Disney Resort on an off-season weekday as compared to a peak season weekend. We’re talking ~$125/night versus ~$375/night for the Hilton and Sheraton Tokyo Bay hotels. Expect every night during the Summer Olympics to make that peak season weekend pricing to look like a bargain.
Even if you don’t visit Japan for the Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020 and instead wait until the games over, you’re likely to see increased prices. Japan is going to be riding the wave of increased tourism due to its promotional blitz. That advertising will also result in higher crowds, which will result in higher prices. Sure, prices will spike during the Olympics, but we’d expect the overall trend in pricing to steadily slope upward between now and 2023.
With this said, it isn’t all doom and gloom. On the plus side, Tokyo Disneyland is adding a mega-budget Beauty and the Beast mini-land that includes what promises to be one of the best attractions Imagineering has ever created.
Of course, there’s a downside within that addition, which is that we fully expect 240 to 300 minute waits to be the norm for the “Be Our Guest” E-ticket attraction. FastPass will ‘sell out’ almost instantly for the day at rope drop. The plus side to this downside, though, is that this ride will draw crowds away from other areas of Tokyo Disneyland. Sort of like the “Toy Story Mania Effect” a few years ago at Tokyo DisneySea.
Then there’s the mega-expansion of FantaSea Springs, consisting of new Frozen, Peter Pan, and Tangled mini-lands (plus a new hotel) over at Tokyo DisneySea, which is slated to open in 2022. This is the most expensive addition to an existing Disney theme park ever, and is more expensive than several parks (even adjusted for inflation) when they were constructed. It’s going to have several lavish E-Ticket attractions, and should really impressive.
As with the Beauty and the Beast mini-land, FantaSea Springs will also result in a huge spike in attendance at Tokyo DisneySea. Despite the praise of Disney fans like us, Tokyo DisneySea has always lagged behind Tokyo’s castle park (not really surprising, since this trend plays out between 1st and 2nd gates at every Disney resort in the world) and this should close that gap.
We anticipate similarly hellacious wait times for all of the new Disney FantaSea Springs attractions, and the rope drop dash to that area of the park–which is about one mile from the park entrance–is always going to be something of an endurance marathon. On the plus side, it’ll be much easier to do Tower of Terror or Journey to the Center of the Earth!
Suffice to say, Tokyo’s Disney parks are going to look dramatically different in 5 years than they do today. If you’re planning a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Japan, waiting to see this all might seem really appealing. The parks are also likely to have significantly higher attendance, so perhaps waiting is not the best course of action.
The other benefit of waiting is that there are a lot of beautification and enhancement projects going on throughout Japan right now. During our recent trips, we’ve visited more temples than we can count that are in the midst of multi-year refurbishment projects. Almost all of these beautification projects are slated to be completed in Spring 2020, which is no coincidence. There’s also a concerted effort to make train stations and other public spaces more accommodating to English-speaking visitors.
That’s a lot to weigh, so we should probably offer a clear and concise final verdict: Don’t wait. Unless you are going specifically for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, you shouldn’t go during Summer 2020. If you’re concerned with seeing the Beauty and the Beast mini-land at Tokyo Disneyland, plan a trip for May 2020. This is after the new area debuts, and is also shoulder season with nice weather. Fall 2020 will be another good time to visit–we recommend after typhoon season but before peak Christmas season starts.
As for waiting until 2022 or 2023, we are not particularly keen on that due to the projected growth in tourism to Japan by then. Going before the crush of Olympics crowds descend upon Japan will make you more likely to fall in love with the country, increasing the probability that your “once in a lifetime” trip will turn into more than that.
Planning a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort? For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Tokyo Disneyland & DisneySea Trip Planning Guide! For more specifics, our TDR Hotel Rankings & Reviews page covers accommodations. Our Restaurant Reviews detail where to dine & snack. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money post. Our What to Pack for Disney post takes a unique look at clever items to take. Venturing elsewhere in Japan? Consult our Ultimate Guide to Kyoto, Japan and City Guide to Tokyo, Japan.
Your Thoughts
Are you aiming to visit Japan during the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics? If you’re a regular visitor to Japan, do you agree or disagree with our advice on going in May 2020? 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!
I’ve been dreaming of going to the Olympics since Tokyo was a finalist city. I want to do both Universal and Disney while there but I’ll like to go back someday too.
I’m an introvert/hermit with anxiety but I feel like I have to go. I know the crowds everywhere will be ridiculous especially for BOTB at Disney and Nintendo at Universal but hey that’ll be an incentive to go back. Plus my favorite Olympian is retiring and I’ll love to see him live just once.
I live in the hot south so I’m used to the heat but I hate it. Plus I know hotels will be price gauging for the event. Such a hard decision.
Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts about crowd levels and visiting in late June/early July 2020. I’m thinking we’d plan on leaving Japan by the 16th. I’m a teacher and in New York, we’re not out of school until June 26th, so unfortunately that’s about the only chunk of time I’ll have to go before the Olympics hit.
I would be very interested in someone’s opinion on late June/early July as well. We’re travelling to Japan from the 25th June and staying until the 11th July. We fly into Osaka and spend the first four nights in Kyoto, then travel to Tokyo and spend five nights seeing the city and then spending the remaining time, (except the final night at a pod hotel at the airport), at Tokyo Disney.
We are staying at The Tokyo Disneyland Hotel from Sunday 5th July until Friday 10th July. It will give us the better part of five days at the park, ( avoiding the weekend). Looking at online park attendance maps it shows this week to be on the ‘lighter’ to ‘normal’ attendance levels.
Does anyone with personal experience of Tokyo Disney have any thoughts on what it will be like during this period which is smack in the middle of a park expansion opening in Spring 2020 and the start of the Olympics on the 24th July?
Sorry for the long post! Just wanted to give specifics of our trip to get others’ thoughts.
when will the Tokyo Disney on-site hotels start taking reservations for stays during the Olympics?
Is there a USA firm that does Tokyo DIsney packages?
Hey Tom,
We are looking at doing Tokyo Disney mid to late April 2020 (NSW School holidays). I have heard it is quite good with both theme parks from friends that have been int he past. Would you know if there will be many rides out of action for construction during this time, or should we plan to do Tokyo 2021 and maybe look at another Disney park for 2020. We have an 11 year old son who loves the rides so I would hate to go there and be disappointed. We have done Paris and Hong Kong Disney in the past and loved them both.
Regards,
Michael
I’ve been planning my Oct 2019 honeymoon to Tokyo and Kyoto. Finding reasonable airbnbs in both cities wasn’t hard at all. But the Tokyo Bay Hilton at Disney was around $250 a night even for a Tues-Fri stay. That wasn’t nearly as cheap as I was expecting. I still plan to price out the on property Diary owned hotels for those days once the 5 month window opens but I was hoping the Hilton or Sheraton would be more affordable. Overall since it’s a honeymoon, $250 a night isn’t terrible. But compared to my $90 a night Kyoto airbnb it’s high!
So, we are planning to travel to Japan for the first time for the Summer Olympics and to visit Disney. It will be myself, my 2 daughters who will be 11 and 21, my niece who is 22, my parents and my uncle all over 65. We are from Texas, hot is normal here. What I’m concerned about is the price difference. We are planning based on the highest prices we could find for hotel rooms, but it feels really expensive for the 3 rooms we would need. Is Air BnB an option, or VRBO?
There’s a prediction among Japanese fans that the opening date for BatB area is May 25 because this day is listed as Annual Passholder Blockout Dates on the official website despite being a weekday. Rarely they list weekdays as blockout dates (Some weekdays in March and August are listed as well but they are exceptions because of End of Semester vacation and Summer Bon Holidays respectively) and later May is not usually that busy, thus it is pretty suspicious why they have to set this day as a Blockout date. Note that OLC didn’t say the area will open in April 2020, but in “Spring 2020”. Take it with a grain of salt because it’s just a prediction, but for me it’s pretty convincing.
I hadn’t seen that, thanks!
May 25 is later than I was expecting, but if they have set a grand opening date over a year in advance, I’m assuming there’s a fairly healthy buffer in that, allowing for the possibility of several weeks of soft openings. That’d be consistent with the last few major attraction openings, and I’m more concerned with soft openings than the grand opening, anyways.
Loved this article! Everything I need to know is here in your pages, everything is so helpful. We are definately planning to go during the olympics. There’s an outside chance that a family member might qualify for the games, and Disneyland Tokyo is our last Disney park to visit.
That being said, we will be taking my mother and father (who are both in their 80’s) and one is wheelchair bound. Can anyone shed and light on how the Japanese treat elderly/disabled guests as our experiences in Shanghai and Hong Kong Disneylands couldn’t have been more different- Hong Kong wonderful, Shanghai so bad we will never return.
I have no personal experience in this regard, but Japan itself has an aging population and is the most service-oriented place I’ve ever visited, so I’d expect it to be wonderful.
Despite Japan’s aging population, wheelchairs aren’t nearly as common there as you would expect. The Disney Resort area is generally accessible, and the Japanese people will be very kind and respectful to your parents. However, Tokyo itself can be challenging to navigate in a wheelchair. Especially at train stations, it can be hard to locate elevators and navigate around stairs, so build some extra time into your schedule. At restaurants, especially older ones, sometimes the restroom is up a step or two and through a narrow door.
If possible, try to avoid major train stations at rush hour. Although Japanese commuters are polite and orderly, the crowds can be overwhelming. My number 1 tip is to relax and take your time. Don’t stress if you fall a bit behind schedule. Safety is the most important thing, so don’t rush to jump on a train. If you miss it, the next one will come in just a few minutes. Don’t be afraid to ask station attendants for help. The Japanese word for ‘elevator’ sounds like ‘elebaytah.’
Aiming to go for Spring (most likely May of 2020) before the Olympic craziness. One thing I also want to do is make a day or so pit stop in Shanghai and Hong Kong just to visit the parks there and complete my visit all the Disney parks quest! Then we would spend the majority of time in Tokyo visiting the area and the parks for about 3 or 4 days. Hoping to save enough money for then! Already trying to read up and keep notes about everything I read from you guys.
We’re planning for late May/early June 2021. I do worry about a jump in tourism after the Olympics, but it’s a matter of timing the ages of our kids, the length of the flight, the cost, etc. I’m thinking many schools in the US don’t release until June. I’d love to go during cherry blossoms or during the fall, but it simply won’t work for such a long trip w/ school schedules. (We’re planning for 17-18 days.) Do you think we should be OK, crowds-wise? We’re planning to do Tokyo Disney weekdays at the end of our trip.
Hi Tom,
What do you think about June 2020? Due to school age children, we can’t get there before Memorial Day or later. Originally I thought we would wait until 2021 Summer but from our article, maybe pushing it up would be better. Thanks, I would greatly appreciate your opinion. I love your blog!
By the way, I worked at Disneyland in 1984. It was dead!!! The press was that the roads were going to be so bad that many locals left Southern CA for the summer & no one was there until the 2 weeks of the Olympics. The only busy weeks at Disneyland that summer were the actual 2 weeks of the Olympics. Disney had hired many extra people & then had to let many go since they couldn’t give them hours.
Glad to read this – was thinking Japan in Oct 2019 but was wavering and thinking New England leaf peeping instead. Now reading all of this, I think it’s a a must do for me before the Olympics, either Oct 19 or April 2020. Appreciate the warning!
We were planning to meet my son in Hong Kong, November of 2020 and then travel to Japan to see the parks and country. Do you think the mayhem will have died off enough by then?
Sorry forgot to add, mid November, if that makes any difference.
Japan’s government is attempting (successfully) to increase the country’s profile as a tourist destination, with the Olympics playing one piece of that puzzle.
Suffice to say, I don’t think it’s a matter of dying down. The Olympics will cause a spike over the summer, to be sure, but I would expect the number of international visitors to continue rising every year.
Ugh, now I don’t know what to do! My and my husband’s probably once in a lifetime trip was tentatively planned for fall 2020, mostly because I thought it would be ok AFTER the Olympics and because your fall color photos are so beautiful. But now I’m not sure. I’m not sure we can swing May 2020. Otherwise, should we wait till the following fall – 2021?
Fall in Japan is absolutely amazing. There’s nothing like it anywhere.
If you can’t swing April or May 2020 (great time for cherry blossoms in Japan, for what that’s worth), my recommendation would be to stick with Fall 2020, and just seek out the less-crowded spots. (Good news! We’ll be covering those in detail on TravelCaffeine.com very soon.)
This was two generations ago, so take it with a grain of salt, but Disneyland was my local park during the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. We went to the park in the middle of the games, and the place was dead. Slower than a rainy day – dead. It’s a big and expensive gamble, but it could be that the two weeks of the Tokyo games are the very best to go to see the new additions.
That’s an interesting possibility, but I wouldn’t bank on it. Another big difference between Los Angeles and Tokyo is public transportation. Maihama is just far enough outside of the city that it could present nice ‘counter-programming’ for locals who want to avoid the busy train lines that’ll be bound for the venues. I know the same could be said for LA-Anaheim and the roads, but I’m not so sure it’s analogous.
If Iam not mistaken the Olympic venues are not to far from the Disney Parks.
It would be a lot of people in that area during the Olympics
If there’s one place in the world where we would like to experience the Olympic Games ourselves – once in a lifetime thing for us -, it sure is Tokyo. But since you’re probably right about the huge amount of visitors and the humid head, we’ll probably pass…
We will almost certainly go to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles (never been otherwise), but we’d also love to see them in Tokyo. Between the crowds, pricing, and weather, I think there’s at best a 50/50 chance we do Tokyo.
Have you considered going to the games in LA?
Not really, since we’re Dutchies in the Netherlands, without a drivers license and Los Angeles isn’t exactly our favourite city. Tokyo and it’s amazing public transport would be a much better fit. 🙂
Come to think off it, off course there’s Paris in 2024. We’ve been in Paris a lot, ultimately it’s the combination Tokyo and Olympics that appeals to us.
Definitely avoiding going during the Olympics. Way too many tourists.
I appreciate your articles like this. We would enjoy seeing the Olympics and have talked about visiting the Tokyo parks, so we’d thought about travelling in 2020. But I think you have sufficiently scared us off.
Those tourism numbers are staggering! Perhaps some year we’ll try our spring break to avoid peak seasons.
Thanks for this post, Tom.
Because of my wife’s love of beauty and the beast, we are waiting for the mini land opening for our first trip to Japan despite the “go now” recommendation — I’m similarly hoping for an April opening so that we can make a May 2020 trip.
We know we’ll spend 4-5 days on TDR, but still have many decisions on what to add — Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong, and Aulani are all considerations but it’s a “pick 1-2 for highlights” situation with 8-9 days up for grabs.
Your guides are very helpful with planning things like this, so thanks again!