Length of stay?

[sushi the cat]

Hello friendly people,

For anyone who has been to TDL before, can you tell me how many days you think is appropriate?

My DH and I are planning a Japan trip for 2017 and are thinking of doing 3 days, 1 at each park, and then a third for both, in case there's anything we didn't have enough time for or want to do again. Trip will be around 3 weeks total.

Also, we have the means to stay at one of their hotels, but is it easy to get there/stay nearby? I guess, is it more like Disneyland or WDW in terms of accessing the parks from the hotels?

TIA!

 

[aussie shaz]

I haven't been yet but we're going next March. I was going to do 2 full days, but have decided to add an extra half day at the start.

We will be coming from Osaka, so plan to take an earlyish train and arrive at our hotel (Sheraton Tokyo Bay) by around lunchtime. I think we'll do the first half day at Disneyland. Then the second day (full day) at Disney Sea. Then because we can hop on the last day, we can do any rides in Disneyland at opening, that we may have missed on the first day, and then spend the rest of the last day at Disney Sea.

I assume we'll want longer at Disney Sea because it's different to Disneyland California and it's supposedly the best Disney park in the world. If we have 'done' Disneyland in that first half day, then we can spend the whole last day at Disney Sea.

From what I've read, the Disney hotels are close to the parks. Miracosta is right in Disney Sea, so that would be my pick if I could afford it. The other hotels are close to the monorail, so it would be similar to WDW I guess (not that I've been in a long, long time!)

 

[CharmedCake]

3 days should be fine, but it totally depends on when your going? EG peak or low month, weekend or week day (Tuesday to Thursday are the lowest weekdays).
Will you be there before rope-drop? As the Japanese plan their holidays well, and have strategies in place to make sure they get to see/do what they want to see/do with being their more than an hour earlier.
Here's one of the many crowd calendars on the Internet

http://tdrnavi.jp/forecast/disneyland?lang=en

Hotels depend on what you want, their is the top tier the official Disney hotel's, then the official Disney resort hotels, the Disney Partners Hotels and Lastly the good neighbours hotels.

Here are some links of what hotels there are and their benefits links.

http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/hotel/lists/
http://www.tokyodisneyresort.jp/en/hotel/compare.html

My sister and I stay at the Sunroute Plaza and had a great time has we got one of the good deals on a room and breakfast for our stay, so watch the hotel sites for deals, also unless your using a third party site such as hotels.com, Japanese usually don't accepted bookings more than 6 months in advance.

Here are some god sites for your trip

http://www.disneytouristblog.com/
http://www.honorablerat.com/
http://tdrexplorer.com/

My sister and I did nearly everything we wanted to do at Tokyo Disney and more in 3 days, except meet more characters or the rides which were closed down, and we are already planing out return trip with a new Disney plan.
I hope you have a wonderful time and expirence te beauty of The Tokyo Disney Restort.

 

[sushi the cat]

Thank you so much for the responses! We haven't planned out exactly when we're going to be in Japan yet, still quite a ways to go for us. Probably would plan to be there for opening through closing though, and definitely on weekdays. I will definitely check out these links as we move towards a more concrete plan.

 

[Agent 86]

I recently went in early September.

I had three days, which was okay. BUT, I have been twice before. IF it had been my first time to visit Tokyo Disneyland and DisneySea, I would have been very disappointed because the crowds made it very difficult to see and do many attractions and shows. I guess it really depends upon when you'll be visiting, how much you love Disney and how much you want to do when you're in the parks (e.g. do you only want to do the attractions and shows which are unique to Tokyo or do you want to do ALL of the attractions and shows).

As for accommodation, I've always stayed in or around Tokyo. I find that the train makes it very easy to get to Disney, BUT it obviously adds on time to your day. If you plan to be at the parks from before opening to after closing, then the extra travel time will make for very long days (with only 5 or so hours for sleep between visits). Also, while the trains are extremely convenient, the transfers between train lines can involve a LOT of walking. When you've spent a good part of the day walking around a park and/or standing in lines, the extra walking to get back to the hotel can be very tiresome.

There are a number of hotels, including the official Disney hotels, which utilise buses or the Disney monorail. I understand that Disney also plan to open another official hotel next year. That hotel will be their "budget" hotel (if I understood the original press release correctly), although it will probably still be expensive. If I had the funds, I would probably stay within easy travel distance to the parks.

 

[swooshbear]

I would say three days minimum if it's your first trip. One day for DL and one day for Disney Sea. When you buy the 3 day pass, you are locked into one park for the first two days, then you can park hop the third day. From what I've heard and experienced, there doesn't seem to be much down time in terms of crowds anymore, it's going to be crowded and the headliner rides will have long lines.

We have stayed at the Hilton nearby and it's an easy monorail ride to the parks. The room was also very big for Tokyo, comparable to a normal US hotel room. We have also stayed in Shibuya and it's at least an hour by train to get to the parks.

 

[Agent 86]

From memory - Nordic Land (and Arendelle) in DisneySea and the expanded Fantasy Land in Disneyland are due to open in 2017.

If they do open before your planned visit, then I would anticipate additional crowds as I think this is one of the biggest expansions in Tokyo Disney's history (if not the biggest), so the new areas and attractions will probably attract huge crowds. As such, you may even want to consider visiting for four to five days, depending upon how much you want to see and do.