Which land to start in?

Don't start in & stay in one land. Arrive early. For TDL, get a FP for Pooh & ride Monsters Inc standby, or vice versa. For TDS, you will want to get your first FP for Toy Story or Nemo. If you're used to the US parks and have been on Toy Story there, it's really not much different in TDS. It's also the most popular ride in the park so you will have to decide whether or not it's worth it to you. Tower of Terror is much different so you will want to do that one even if you're familiar with the US versions.

In general, most people go to the right in TDL and the left in TDS, but that's also where you will need to go if you want to save yourself a lot of time.
 
If you’ve done TSMM in the states, I’d grab a FP at either Tower or Journey on my way to Nemo or Indy.
 
Thanks! Although I’m sincerely bummed I just found out Journey to the center of the earth is closed while I’m there.
 


Thanks! Although I’m sincerely bummed I just found out Journey to the center of the earth is closed while I’m there.

I'm going on 7/21 because that's only 1 of 2 days all Summer when Journey and Sinbad's are open.
 


http://info.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/schedule/stop/stop_list.html

I don't know when they update it but when I was starting to look in March all the Summer dates were up there.
Okay sounds great. Thanks! I am feeling overwhelmed, but it sounds like I should book our hotels first then plane tickets. I would like to wait for the hotels until I know what rides will be closed. This may be our only trip to Japan so I hope the good rides stay open!
 
Okay sounds great. Thanks! I am feeling overwhelmed, but it sounds like I should book our hotels first then plane tickets. I would like to wait for the hotels until I know what rides will be closed. This may be our only trip to Japan so I hope the good rides stay open!

If you're booking Disney hotels I would say yes. However, being locked in to certain dates for flights can limit your savings (happened to me a bit) so I would look out for that. I'm not sure about Disney hotels but I think almost every other hotel you can get refund or won't be charged until much closer to your stay. I look at it like worst comes to worst I can find a place to stay near (hotel or AirBNB) but there's only so many flights and once those are booked that's it.
 
If you're booking Disney hotels I would say yes. However, being locked in to certain dates for flights can limit your savings (happened to me a bit) so I would look out for that. I'm not sure about Disney hotels but I think almost every other hotel you can get refund or won't be charged until much closer to your stay. I look at it like worst comes to worst I can find a place to stay near (hotel or AirBNB) but there's only so many flights and once those are booked that's it.
I completely get what you're saying! We will either do Hilton Tokyo Bay or try to stay at one of the Disney hotels for part of the trip. We then will use Airbnb for the rest of our trip in Tokyo and Kyoto. I think I'll just try to look out for both plane tickets and hotels and see what we see. Thanks!
 
Thanks! Although I’m sincerely bummed I just found out Journey to the center of the earth is closed while I’m there.

Aw man, that was closed when I was there too. Hope it's open when I go this fall!

As far as land to start in, it depends on your focus. If you're trying to cram in as much as possible then the FP strats others laid out are probably way better than anything I could give you (I've only been once). That said-- if you've been to the parks in NA, I'd say prioritize Sea, since there's so much stuff that's unique to that park only. I only wound up going to TDL at all because I had the time to kill, tbph.

Staying on the little metro line while you're at the parks is super convenient. I stayed at the Sheraton (cheapest non-hostel option) and it was great. :) Make sure to check out their "downtown Disney" equivalent, Ikspiari, too-- there are two big Disney merch stores and they both carry stuff you won't find in the park (or outside the country).
 
Aw man, that was closed when I was there too. Hope it's open when I go this fall!

As far as land to start in, it depends on your focus. If you're trying to cram in as much as possible then the FP strats others laid out are probably way better than anything I could give you (I've only been once). That said-- if you've been to the parks in NA, I'd say prioritize Sea, since there's so much stuff that's unique to that park only. I only wound up going to TDL at all because I had the time to kill, tbph.

Staying on the little metro line while you're at the parks is super convenient. I stayed at the Sheraton (cheapest non-hostel option) and it was great. :) Make sure to check out their "downtown Disney" equivalent, Ikspiari, too-- there are two big Disney merch stores and they both carry stuff you won't find in the park (or outside the country).
We are planning on 2 days at each park. Right now I'm planning on doing the FP strategy first thing in the morning. We will skip TSMM because we don't really like that ride in the states and don't want to rush there to get a FP.

I think we are going to stay at the Hilton Tokyo Bay. Have you ever stayed there?

That's good to know about Ikspiari. I didn't know the Disney stores there had things that you can't get anywhere else. We will have to check them out!
 
We are planning on 2 days at each park. Right now I'm planning on doing the FP strategy first thing in the morning. We will skip TSMM because we don't really like that ride in the states and don't want to rush there to get a FP.

I think we are going to stay at the Hilton Tokyo Bay. Have you ever stayed there?

That's good to know about Ikspiari. I didn't know the Disney stores there had things that you can't get anywhere else. We will have to check them out!

I haven't stayed at the Hilton, but it sure looked nice from the train! I'm sure it'll be pretty nice.

2 days at each park sounds great! I only had one day to cram in both, but it was also just me-- no kids or hubs to worry about :) I do have one in-park recommendation: there's a Japanese restaurant in the bazaar area of Tokyo Disneyland (their Main Street USA equivalent) that has a katsu that straight-up melts in your mouth. I was really impressed. (I ate there because my coworkers were so whiny about eating Japanese food! They wanted like one sushi meal-- no ramen or curry or anything. Boooooo.)

The two-store thing at Ikspiari threw me off! One is sort of just the Japanese equivalent to the American Disney store-- lots of merch, and it's not specific to the park per se, but it's stuff you won't be able to get outside Japan. (If you plan to go to the big Disney store in Shibuya, it might have the same or maybe even more stuff-- I haven't been there.) There's a SECOND store that's just past Ikspiari, about a block's walk past the Maihama subway station, that is a giant store that has more park merchandise...at least, that's how it was explained to me. I didn't have time to explore that store because I was rushing to get to the airport, I ran in just long enough to see if they had any Chandu merchandise (they didn't!) and then left. There's also a bunch of other mid- to high-end shopping at Ikspiari, including an Ippudo if you want to check out one of the bigger ramen shop chains in Tokyo, it's pretty good for a chain.

(Hyper-specific tip: If you are/fall in love with Chandu, the adorable tiger from the Voyages of Sinbad ride, buy his merch at the shop closest to that ride...there's not much else in the parks, maybe nothing else.)

One other super random tip...they do NOT have coin-op lockers inside the parks like they do at the American parks, so there's nothing (for example) right next to Splash Mountain. If you wanna do a water ride and don't have a designated non-rider to hold electronics, you may want to think ahead about bringing plastic bags to protect them or putting them in the lockers outside.

Sorry, now I'm blathering. I loved the parks so much when I visited for that one day! You're going to have a blast! :D
 
I haven't stayed at the Hilton, but it sure looked nice from the train! I'm sure it'll be pretty nice.

2 days at each park sounds great! I only had one day to cram in both, but it was also just me-- no kids or hubs to worry about :) I do have one in-park recommendation: there's a Japanese restaurant in the bazaar area of Tokyo Disneyland (their Main Street USA equivalent) that has a katsu that straight-up melts in your mouth. I was really impressed. (I ate there because my coworkers were so whiny about eating Japanese food! They wanted like one sushi meal-- no ramen or curry or anything. Boooooo.)

The two-store thing at Ikspiari threw me off! One is sort of just the Japanese equivalent to the American Disney store-- lots of merch, and it's not specific to the park per se, but it's stuff you won't be able to get outside Japan. (If you plan to go to the big Disney store in Shibuya, it might have the same or maybe even more stuff-- I haven't been there.) There's a SECOND store that's just past Ikspiari, about a block's walk past the Maihama subway station, that is a giant store that has more park merchandise...at least, that's how it was explained to me. I didn't have time to explore that store because I was rushing to get to the airport, I ran in just long enough to see if they had any Chandu merchandise (they didn't!) and then left. There's also a bunch of other mid- to high-end shopping at Ikspiari, including an Ippudo if you want to check out one of the bigger ramen shop chains in Tokyo, it's pretty good for a chain.

(Hyper-specific tip: If you are/fall in love with Chandu, the adorable tiger from the Voyages of Sinbad ride, buy his merch at the shop closest to that ride...there's not much else in the parks, maybe nothing else.)

One other super random tip...they do NOT have coin-op lockers inside the parks like they do at the American parks, so there's nothing (for example) right next to Splash Mountain. If you wanna do a water ride and don't have a designated non-rider to hold electronics, you may want to think ahead about bringing plastic bags to protect them or putting them in the lockers outside.

Sorry, now I'm blathering. I loved the parks so much when I visited for that one day! You're going to have a blast! :D
I think the Hilton looks nice, too! I love the look of the Celebrio rooms plus it's nice that we could get a king bed there. I think we will most likely spend our entire Disney stay unless we can get a really good deal at Disneyland Hotel or MiraCosta (both out of our price range).

I am so excited to go into the Disney stores! We will also be going to the one in Shibuya, but they all sound so cool! I would love the chance to get something we can't get outside of Japan.

We never use the lockers at Disney World either. We just brought plastic bags for the first time last trip and ended up not even using them! I thought for sure we would need them on Splash Mountain but we ended up forgetting and luckily nothing got wet.

Thank you! We are so excited! I read through all of Tom Bricker's blog because he has such great info. We are monitoring plane tickets and hotel prices right now.
 
Planning my TDR trip for next week and decided to give my 2 cents. I may have more updated info after the trip.

The Maihama and Shibuya stores have store specific items so you should definitely visit both if you have time. The stores themselves are beautifully themed so it's worth visiting even if you don't have anything you specifically want to buy.

During the 35th anniversary, the strategy at Disneyland is different due to rope drop and the welcome greeting in front of the castle. It used to make sense to pass through Tomorrowland to grab Monsters Inc at gate opening and do Pooh first before the lines got long. But given the rope drop line is further forward, you will now be backtracking into Tomorrowland so Pooh as a first FP makes more sense. The entire park fills up so what you do is more personal preference after that.

DisneySea strategy is easier. The order that FP runs out is:
1. Toy Story
2. Tower of Terror
3. Journey to the Center of the Earth
4. Indiana Jones/Raging Spirits
5. Nemo
6. 20,000 leagues under the sea
Depending on which ones you want to skip, you just go down that list in order and fill in gaps with other rides.

Go left in DisneySea and right in Disneyland.
 
Planning my TDR trip for next week and decided to give my 2 cents. I may have more updated info after the trip.

The Maihama and Shibuya stores have store specific items so you should definitely visit both if you have time. The stores themselves are beautifully themed so it's worth visiting even if you don't have anything you specifically want to buy.

During the 35th anniversary, the strategy at Disneyland is different due to rope drop and the welcome greeting in front of the castle. It used to make sense to pass through Tomorrowland to grab Monsters Inc at gate opening and do Pooh first before the lines got long. But given the rope drop line is further forward, you will now be backtracking into Tomorrowland so Pooh as a first FP makes more sense. The entire park fills up so what you do is more personal preference after that.

DisneySea strategy is easier. The order that FP runs out is:
1. Toy Story
2. Tower of Terror
3. Journey to the Center of the Earth
4. Indiana Jones/Raging Spirits
5. Nemo
6. 20,000 leagues under the sea
Depending on which ones you want to skip, you just go down that list in order and fill in gaps with other rides.

Go left in DisneySea and right in Disneyland.
Is the difference in strategy just because of the 35th anniversary? We will be there next May after the 35th anniversary is over.
 
Is the difference in strategy just because of the 35th anniversary? We will be there next May after the 35th anniversary is over.

The difference is rope drop which may or may not change after the 35th anniversary. Plus, it doesn't always happen: Thursday, we were let in at scheduled park opening time with no rope drop but Friday they let us in 15 minutes early for rope drop.

Basically, if they let you in early, rush the rope to the right of the castle if you don't want to see the welcome greeting to grab Pooh FP. If they let you in when the gates are scheduled to open, run to grab the Monsters FP as a slight detour to hit Pooh before it gets long. BTW, this is all assuming that when you arrive before park opening, you are in front of the ticket kiosks and don't have Happy 15 privileges. That usually means arriving at least one hour before scheduled park opening.
 
The difference is rope drop which may or may not change after the 35th anniversary. Plus, it doesn't always happen: Thursday, we were let in at scheduled park opening time with no rope drop but Friday they let us in 15 minutes early for rope drop.

Basically, if they let you in early, rush the rope to the right of the castle if you don't want to see the welcome greeting to grab Pooh FP. If they let you in when the gates are scheduled to open, run to grab the Monsters FP as a slight detour to hit Pooh before it gets long. BTW, this is all assuming that when you arrive before park opening, you are in front of the ticket kiosks and don't have Happy 15 privileges. That usually means arriving at least one hour before scheduled park opening.
Okay thanks. We won't have the Happy 15 because we are planning on staying at the Hilton Tokyo Bay. DH and I don't care about the welcome greeting too much either.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top