My wife helped put herself through college working summers at the Magic Kingdom. Sister-in-law worked there her for over a decade. Have close friends who are cast members at WDW. Wish they were going with us, although I don't know if their benefits would transfer to Tokyo Disney. We took them to Hawaii once paying for everyone's flights using miles. They returned the favor by getting us all an insane discount (70%!) staying at Aulani on Oahu. Gorgeous property.
Pooh is cute, but neither I or my wife are attracted to pooh rides. Just isn't for us.
Thanks for the warning about getting from Shinagawa Station and having to pass through Tokyo Station! I can imagine people being crammed into cars by attendants--been on a lot of subway systems throughout the world and have never experienced anything like that, nor do I want to.
Thanks also for the idea of doing the parks on arrival. Great tip, and hopefully useful to someone else out there. Won't work for us. We arrive on a Monday around 5pm... Not happy about arriving during rush hour, but hoping the NEX will help with that. We'll probably be exhausted since neither of us will have slept for quite some time. Leave some time early AM from RDU, change planes at ORD, then it's ORD non-stop to NRT. In economy.
Thought the after 6pm ticket was available only to children. At least that's what I recall from the Tokyo Disney ticket sales page.
Anyone here stayed at the Sheraton on the monorail loop? Maybe that's a good option for our first night in Tokyo since it's cheap (around USD $125 a night), close by, and all I really imagined us being capable of doing was checking in, unpacking, and crashing.
On the other hand--and no offense to anyone here; all great info--I'm having second thoughts about visiting Tokyo Disney now at all. Perhaps it will no longer be a Must Do for us in the short time we have to experience Japan. Dunno, will have to spend more time looking at the attractions and reading about both parks' features. Will look for a good guidebook to the parks on Amazon (if there is one). I'm old school that way. Love Internet research, but like to curl up with hard copy guide books as part of planning. Of course they're outdated by the time they hit the press; but I always look up prices, opening hours, etc, as part of my trip research. Typically keep all the bits I need in a Google Docs doc my wife and I both edit for any given trip.
Originally Posted by
OskiBear
I've been to both parks several times and most recently a year ago. I'd also strongly recommend Disney Sea over Tokyo Disneyland, which feels a bit like the Magic Kingdom at WDW. It's still got a bit of an 80's feel from when it was first built. Of course, growing up in SoCA and working at Disneyland, I'm probably a bit biased. That said, my one "must do" attraction at TDL is Winnie the Pooh. Best Pooh ride out of all the parks.
Keep in mind that rides you are used to in Anaheim and/or WDW are distributed among the parks in Tokyo so not everything at DisneySea is completely unheard of in the US. That said, they are certainly better representations in most cases.
It's a bit of a haul from Shinagawa (where Strings is located) to Disneyland in the morning. You'll transit through Tokyo station with that crazy long walk underground with a million other commuters.
Have you considered heading directly to the parks upon arrival in Tokyo? I did that a couple of times and actually made it in time to use the after 6pm ticket. Even if you choose not to spend the night there, you can do both parks in one day by using the evening ticket if available instead of purchasing another full, one-day ticket.