1nfrequent
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jul 3, 2012
Thought I'd share my highs and lows of my trip to Tokyo Disney last week. I went from Wednesday to Friday with a 3 day pass.
HIGHS
- I really enjoyed the Japanese take on Tower of Terror (which doesn't have the Twilight Zone element to it, substituting an original story involving a cursed idol), the Haunted Mansion (which was themed with Nightmare Before Christmas) and the Winnie the Pooh ride (such a lot of fun and very cute).
- Cast members were superb - always smiling and waving, even when it was peeing it down during a tropical storm - and if you had a question or issue they were doing their best to help answer it notwithstanding the language barrier.
- I got picked as the Rebel spy on Star Tours for the first time ever! So excited to have Boba Fett try to bring me in.
- Food was actually pretty good - I ate at Blue Bayou (good food but small portions - the chocolate pecan tart was divine though) and Ristorante di Canaletto (big portions and excellent service). I didn't get to do the popcorn due to diet restrictions but the smell was incredible.
- Space Mountain - loved it. It's my second favourite of all the parks I've been too - not least because it's completely pitch black.
- Theming at Disney Sea - they've done a hell of a job with this and I was really impressed with the detailing. Absolutely lovely to wander around.
LOWS
- 2 of the days were impacted by bad weather - not Disney's fault but it did feel pretty miserable at times, especially as parades and fireworks were cancelled so the queues were pretty long.
- some of the rides kept going down for long periods - Space Mountain and Pooh were the big offenders here.
- didn't get the Monsters Inc love - cute ride but I waited 90 minutes and didn't think it was worth it. Ditto the mania for TSM - waits were 2 hours at times - completely nuts.
- queue management - I get that fast passes need to get priority but on some rides they were letting on 100 FPs for every 10 standby - that made standby a lot longer than it needed to be for some rides.
- Hilton Tokyo Bay - this was the most expensive hotel I had booked for my trip but the hotel room itself felt cheap (wall mounted soap and shampoo, plastic cladding in the bathroom) and unlike every other hotel I stayed in in Japan, they charged for in room wi fi (even though it was available for free in public areas). I get that you're paying for location and I did have a view of the fireworks from my hotel window but I really did not feel like I got value for money. If I go again, I would try one of the other hotels instead.
TIPS:
- Get there at opening time and get FPs for popular rides - TSM, Space Mountain, Monsters Inc and Pooh would be my top targets but YMMV.
- If you're going during low season, don't automatically go with a 3 day pass. I had all the rides done that I wanted within the 2 days and just used day 3 as a mop up and a chance to meander around and check out the detailing.
Hope that's useful.
1F
HIGHS
- I really enjoyed the Japanese take on Tower of Terror (which doesn't have the Twilight Zone element to it, substituting an original story involving a cursed idol), the Haunted Mansion (which was themed with Nightmare Before Christmas) and the Winnie the Pooh ride (such a lot of fun and very cute).
- Cast members were superb - always smiling and waving, even when it was peeing it down during a tropical storm - and if you had a question or issue they were doing their best to help answer it notwithstanding the language barrier.
- I got picked as the Rebel spy on Star Tours for the first time ever! So excited to have Boba Fett try to bring me in.
- Food was actually pretty good - I ate at Blue Bayou (good food but small portions - the chocolate pecan tart was divine though) and Ristorante di Canaletto (big portions and excellent service). I didn't get to do the popcorn due to diet restrictions but the smell was incredible.
- Space Mountain - loved it. It's my second favourite of all the parks I've been too - not least because it's completely pitch black.
- Theming at Disney Sea - they've done a hell of a job with this and I was really impressed with the detailing. Absolutely lovely to wander around.
LOWS
- 2 of the days were impacted by bad weather - not Disney's fault but it did feel pretty miserable at times, especially as parades and fireworks were cancelled so the queues were pretty long.
- some of the rides kept going down for long periods - Space Mountain and Pooh were the big offenders here.
- didn't get the Monsters Inc love - cute ride but I waited 90 minutes and didn't think it was worth it. Ditto the mania for TSM - waits were 2 hours at times - completely nuts.
- queue management - I get that fast passes need to get priority but on some rides they were letting on 100 FPs for every 10 standby - that made standby a lot longer than it needed to be for some rides.
- Hilton Tokyo Bay - this was the most expensive hotel I had booked for my trip but the hotel room itself felt cheap (wall mounted soap and shampoo, plastic cladding in the bathroom) and unlike every other hotel I stayed in in Japan, they charged for in room wi fi (even though it was available for free in public areas). I get that you're paying for location and I did have a view of the fireworks from my hotel window but I really did not feel like I got value for money. If I go again, I would try one of the other hotels instead.
TIPS:
- Get there at opening time and get FPs for popular rides - TSM, Space Mountain, Monsters Inc and Pooh would be my top targets but YMMV.
- If you're going during low season, don't automatically go with a 3 day pass. I had all the rides done that I wanted within the 2 days and just used day 3 as a mop up and a chance to meander around and check out the detailing.
Hope that's useful.
1F