Trip Report, 9 nights, TDL, Tokyo & just a little Earthquake !! completed 9/22

[MimitoAlex]

Well as promised I am going to write a pretty detailed trip report. So lets get started.

First off I want to say I was completely blown away by how beautiful Japan is, even in a city the size of Tokyo with almost 15 million people living there, there is beauty everywhere, and so much green space. Everything is so clean and nice. The people that we encountered where very kind and helpful to a couple of Americans who knew little to no Japanese, and tried to help us. At one train stop an older gentleman and his wife, basically took us by the hand and put us on the right train. We absolutely fell in love with the culture, the people, the history, and the customs. I will say that I was very sad to leave, so much so that on the way home, I started planning another trip right away.

Flight and Arrival Day -
We flew with Delta it's our go to airline, we are sky miles members. It was chaos at the airport at 4:00 am. The Delta counters were not even open, and there was about 20 or so people in line, the Sky priority line, due to our seat class we were able to check in there. The other side with international and domestic lines were absolutely crazy long. Finally they sent some out to our side only one person, I felt so bad for her, people where taking the situation out on her, which is really silly since she has no control over that. One lady had a absolute melt down, as she was not in first class or premier seating. She wasn't even a sky miles member, lets say that her language at 4:00 am was most definitely was not Disney or kid friendly. When the delta employee came out she was very clear on who should be in that line, and she kept repeating, plus the giant sign which was right there. We had a flight delay, just a small one, still it cause a glitch in the car service more on that in a bit. The flights themselves were very good, the flight crew was really on their game, 5 stars. I even slept for around 3 hours then around 90 minutes later in the flight. I will say the meals service was fair, it was edible and not overly salty, so we were good to go. The issue is the breakfast sandwiches they serve are just terrible, I brought some breakfast cookies with us so we had them and we ate the fruit, and had some juice. The bags were there and in one piece so a win win. Tips - buy bottled water or fill up your water bottle. As well as a another type of drink. As well bring something for the long haul portion for some type of breakfast snack, granola, breakfast cookies. We also always bring other snacks with us to munch on.

Once we arrived at Haneda, it was super organized, even with all the people they were moving and directing everyone on where to go, which was nice to have some directions, immigration and customs, luggage pick up, and then on the the car service. Even with the hick-up they had someone there to meet us. We asked for a English speaking guide, and the young woman they sent did not speak English at all, yet we made it through with google translate. I did receive a text explaining due to the flight being late, the driver assigned had another pick up and could not wait. So once we went back and forth for a couple of minutes she went to get the car and we found the help desk, we did the cash exchange which was the simplest one we had ever done. Then on to pick up the WIFI, which was very confusing, we had to go up to the third floor then the kiosk, which was closed and had a sign written on a sticky note telling us to turn around and go to the other wifi counter, and low and behold they had our wifi. We used Japan wifi and it worked great the whole trip. It would have been nice if there were some type of directions inside the envelope on how to set in up, thank goodness for Youtube. I will use this company again. Tip - keep your passport within easy reach we had to show it over and over again.

Covid documents, So while they did not ask us for our proof, they were sending people over to and area to show proof of vaccination. We had ours in the passport holder.

Then after a quick stop at 7-11 to grab a couple bottles of water we were off to find our car and driver, who was texting us on her progress to the pick up line.

On a side note, We encountered our first Japanese toilet in the airport. I will say that I want to replace all the toilets in my house now.. My tip here is spend a few minutes on youtube so you understand how they work and what the symbols mean... Just saying... lol

Found the driver, loaded up the luggage and off we went to TDR...

I'm going to stop there, as the laundry is refusing to do itself... lol............... I will pick back up hopefully later today.

At any time please feel free to ask questions. Thanks for following along.

 

[BroadwayHermione5]

Looking forward to the rest of this report!

 

[helenk]

If I may ask, what company did you use for the car service?

 

[nono]

Hope you are recovering from your jet lag!

 

[MimitoAlex]

If I may ask, what company did you use for the car service?

Get your guide, from Haneda to TDR is about 100.00 US. I would use them again for sure.

 

[MimitoAlex]

Hope you are recovering from your jet lag!

No kidding its terrible this trip. Last night I did manage to sleep all the way through the night. I'm still tired today a little bit.

The trip was amazing....

 

[MimitoAlex]

Op here, I'll pick up where I left off.... ummm.... lets see... Oh yeah..

We arrived at the Hilton Tokyo Bay. We included breakfast with our reservation. I loved how they explained everything to us, where we could have breakfast, other amenities. We only had to wait for our room about 10 minutes. Our room was just as in the picture, and we did have a view of the monorail, and could see the top of the castle and space mountain. We stayed in a king non smoking Celebrio ( I think that's the spelling if not sorry). The room was spotless, which is really good. The bed was hard, really hard for my liking I really don't like a hard mattress, as well there is only a bottom sheet and a comforter, no top sheet and the pillows were nice but when you put your head on both of them it was like as my DH called them tortilla pillows... We did bring our body pillows with us, Thankfully and found 2 more pillows in the closet. The the bathroom there are the large refillable bottles of Crabtree and Evelyn, I really like that they had pump hand soap in the bathroom. Water pressure was great, be very careful the water will scald you if your not careful. Only 2 towels, 2 hand and 2 bath cloths.
Tip bring a hair wrap towel, after I use it I hung it in the closet area and it would be dry the next day. Another thing that we used and needed were 2 travel fans, to move the air around in the room, even with the air on, it was stifling. I bought bigger fans than we had before and boy oh boy they did the trick.

So by this time we were really getting hungry, so we freshened up a bit, and headed out and over to Ikspiari, which is the Downtown Disney area. First we headed over to the "Bayside station" its about a 8 minute walk, we managed to purchase the monorail passes, we went for the 4 day, If I remember correctly it was about 15.00 each ticket. US.
There is a English button at the top of the machine. The monorail is soooo cute with the Mickey head windows and mickey shaped hand holds. I love how everyone lines up, and waits for other to get off, no pushing or line jockeying around. So Ikspiari is 4 levels, We had dinner at Tonkatsu Wako, they did have a english menu, and a button to push if you need something else, pork cutlet is really tasty. After dinner we walked around, I will say that the Disney Store was quite disappointing on merchandise. Lots of anniversary merch. We could not find any kids T-shirts, this was a theme through out our stay. One cast member said it was because Golden week was the week before, so I don't know. Duffy is on overload for sure. So we found out early on not to ask where the monorail is, "Resort Line" is what you want to ask for.

Tip - Make sure to have a jacket or hoodie, as well if you have long hair something to pull it up with, it was super windy, and the temp before and after dinner was alot different.

Back on the resort line and back to the hotel. Sleep much needed Sleep!!!

Next up Tokyo Disneyland.

 

[zanzibar138]

Subbing in for the next instalment

 

[DisneyaholicRaquel]

Cant wait for the next day…I’m so excited! We are staying here in October.

 

[nono]

So we found out early on not to ask where the monorail is, "Resort Line" is what you want to ask for.

Ah yes, that moment when everyone is speaking English and no one understands what the other is saying! After my first trip to China, I came home speaking "broken" English or "Chinese" English. Took me a week to start speaking "New Jersey" English again. My daughter has been home from Japan for almost 3 weeks, and yesterday she said something in English but with Japanese grammar rules. Her face looked so confused as she heard what she said.

Language is so cool. And a great tip for all to travel in the future!

 

[MimitoAlex]

OP here ... Good Morning... so I'm going to jump right in...

Lets start with were I left off. We made it back to the resort, and we both were so tired that we were running on fumes. We found the Lawson store located in the hotel, as well as a small Disney store. Thank goodness for Lawson, grabbed some bottled water, colas, and some kinda chips - we went by the picture on the package, they were quite tasty. We went straight to sleep it was around 8:30, unfortunately we both only slept till around 2:00 am, I managed to fall back to sleep around 3:30 then was up again at 7:00 am,. I did peak out side and it was raining, and foggy, I could barely see the Bayside Station. I went ahead and showered and started getting ready, DH wasn't far behind. Those colas we bought the night before really came in handy, caffeine jolt, please and thank you for sure... We looked out before heading down and it was pouring at this point, Rain jackets and umbrella in the backpack ... check . It was about 8:45 am when we headed down stairs for breakfast. We had breakfast at "Forest Garden" which is located on the Lobby floor past the reception desk. Since we are honors members, we were seated right away. The procedure they will ask your room number, and they could tell that we had included breakfast they gave us a card to lay on the table and told us to hand it back at the desk when we were done. There is a front and back buffet bar they all the item are the same on both bars so no need to worry you are missing out on something, The drink station is kinda hidden in the back, There is a English button at the very top, so you can tell what kind of juice is offered, the coffee machine is located over on the pastry, and fruit bar. The buffet itself was really great, all kinda of yummy things to try. The description are in English as well. There is a egg station, omelets, scrambled, & over easy. As well as a really nice kids buffet area, it is in-between the Drink station and the pastry and fruit station. I will say it was really good, all the items we tried each morning were Oishi ( delicious). We did have breakfast here every morning, and each morning there were different items and the basic items. One thing I wanted to point out is while the breakfast buffet is open till 10:00 this means at 10:00 they start tearing it down. They do come around and tell you that they are going to start tearing it down.

We headed back upstairs to our room, to grab the back pack and DH wanted to change his shoes at it was really raining. TIP - you will need a waterproof rain jacket one that preferable come's over your butt, not water resistant - waterproof and no fabric shoes.

Double checked tickets in the back pack and off we went. As we headed outside there is bus that run constantly from the hotel to Bayside Station, it just pulled up so we rode it over to the station easy peasy. Then on to the Resort line and arrived at Disneyland. It had stopped pouring and was just misting at this point so we did get to take some really nice pictures.
We bought our tickets from Klook, and I had them on my phone as well as I did print them out. Both worked at the turnstiles I wanted double check. There are no paper maps or at least any that we could find, so we just used the app. I really liked how it updates really quickly on the wait times. We found them to be very accurate. It rained pretty much all day long. Basically the park was pretty empty the longest wait time was for Pooh's honey hunt, 20 minutes. Most lines were just around 5 to 10 minutes. We loved Pirates is was so fun, and Yes, the Red head was there. Poohs was really cute and fun. Wish the one here at WDW was like this. All the outdoors ride were closed which really was no big deal to us. One of the things that I did notice is that with all the rain there is alot of standing water, deep standing water, which the cast member stood around and directed traffic away from these areas, this is one reason I said no fabric shoes.
At 3:30 we headed out of the park, (make sure to get your hand stamped if you plan on returning to the parks) over to Oceano at Mira Costa, for "Linner" you know late lunch - early dinner. Mira Costa is a beautiful resort. I was lucky and scored a reservation a few days before we left. So don't give up! keep checking. It is a buffet, a high end buffet, The food is really high quality and very well prepared. Lots and lots of interesting choices. They did give us a drink menu and English descriptions were included, so we just pointed at what we wanted, and we were good to go. They kept the water glasses full at all times. A host stopped by our table to tell us, that they were very sorry that the water show was not going to be perform today due to the rain. Otherwise we would have been invited to head out onto the balcony. So I found it really nice that they would go table to table to inform everyone. We really enjoyed our meal from start to finish, food and service were stellar.!
After Linner we head back into Disneyland. They will check your stamp and ask to see the paper copy or your phone to re-enter.
We did do everything and ride everything that we wanted to. Shopping again no T-shirts, even jackets for kids, which I found really strange. There were a few for babies. All the T-shirts were medium or large, in adult sizes. We did buy a few things, we loved all the boxed treats, cookies, rice crackers shaped like mickey, candy, and it was all display so that you could see exactly what was inside. Beauty and Beast tin was really cute, toy story with alien cookies, and other things that we bought, I did pick up a couple of T-shirts. All the popcorn cart had been closed all day, so no pop-corn for us. It had finally stopped raining, and I had taken off my jacket while we were shopping and I was wearing one of WDW 50th anniversary shirts. The cast members became really interested in my shirt, as well the other guest were looking at it very discretely. DH said that several people took pictures of it... again very discretely. One cast member asked about the shirt and did we visit WDW, we told her we lived in Orlando and we were pass-holders, and she started clapping her hands, and was so excited. Then several other cast member came over and really were impressed by my shirt. It was really sweet.
Once back at the hotel, a trip to Lawson, bottled water, couple of colas, and a different snack, this one wasn't as successful as the one the night before. LOL !!!

Tips - Rain gear is necessary for sure. Waterproof jackets, umbrellas and water proof shoes are a must. Google translate works great.

Next up 2 days at Disney Seas -

 

[helenk]

Thank you!

Get your guide, from Haneda to TDR is about 100.00 US. I would use them again for sure.

 

[nycdisneygal]

Get your guide, from Haneda to TDR is about 100.00 US. I would use them again for sure.

Do you happen to have which company you actually did with them! There are so many options! Thanks!! cant wait to read this report

 

[wdwpluto]

I leave it two weeks and this is making me even more excited! Thanks for sharing and can't wait to read more!

 

[Annabell]

I enjoy reading your trip report, thanks for sharing.

 

[DisneyaholicRaquel]

OP here ... Good Morning... so I'm going to jump right in...

Lets start with were I left off. We made it back to the resort, and we both were so tired that we were running on fumes. We found the Lawson store located in the hotel, as well as a small Disney store. Thank goodness for Lawson, grabbed some bottled water, colas, and some kinda chips - we went by the picture on the package, they were quite tasty. We went straight to sleep it was around 8:30, unfortunately we both only slept till around 2:00 am, I managed to fall back to sleep around 3:30 then was up again at 7:00 am,. I did peak out side and it was raining, and foggy, I could barely see the Bayside Station. I went ahead and showered and started getting ready, DH wasn't far behind. Those colas we bought the night before really came in handy, caffeine jolt, please and thank you for sure... We looked out before heading down and it was pouring at this point, Rain jackets and umbrella in the backpack ... check . It was about 8:45 am when we headed down stairs for breakfast. We had breakfast at "Forest Garden" which is located on the Lobby floor past the reception desk. Since we are honors members, we were seated right away. The procedure they will ask your room number, and they could tell that we had included breakfast they gave us a card to lay on the table and told us to hand it back at the desk when we were done. There is a front and back buffet bar they all the item are the same on both bars so no need to worry you are missing out on something, The drink station is kinda hidden in the back, There is a English button at the very top, so you can tell what kind of juice is offered, the coffee machine is located over on the pastry, and fruit bar. The buffet itself was really great, all kinda of yummy things to try. The description are in English as well. There is a egg station, omelets, scrambled, & over easy. As well as a really nice kids buffet area, it is in-between the Drink station and the pastry and fruit station. I will say it was really good, all the items we tried each morning were Oishi ( delicious). We did have breakfast here every morning, and each morning there were different items and the basic items. One thing I wanted to point out is while the breakfast buffet is open till 10:00 this means at 10:00 they start tearing it down. They do come around and tell you that they are going to start tearing it down.

We headed back upstairs to our room, to grab the back pack and DH wanted to change his shoes at it was really raining. TIP - you will need a waterproof rain jacket one that preferable come's over your butt, not water resistant - waterproof and no fabric shoes.

Double checked tickets in the back pack and off we went. As we headed outside there is bus that run constantly from the hotel to Bayside Station, it just pulled up so we rode it over to the station easy peasy. Then on to the Resort line and arrived at Disneyland. It had stopped pouring and was just misting at this point so we did get to take some really nice pictures.
We bought our tickets from Klook, and I had them on my phone as well as I did print them out. Both worked at the turnstiles I wanted double check. There are no paper maps or at least any that we could find, so we just used the app. I really liked how it updates really quickly on the wait times. We found them to be very accurate. It rained pretty much all day long. Basically the park was pretty empty the longest wait time was for Pooh's honey hunt, 20 minutes. Most lines were just around 5 to 10 minutes. We loved Pirates is was so fun, and Yes, the Red head was there. Poohs was really cute and fun. Wish the one here at WDW was like this. All the outdoors ride were closed which really was no big deal to us. One of the things that I did notice is that with all the rain there is alot of standing water, deep standing water, which the cast member stood around and directed traffic away from these areas, this is one reason I said no fabric shoes.
At 3:30 we headed out of the park, (make sure to get your hand stamped if you plan on returning to the parks) over to Oceano at Mira Costa, for "Linner" you know late lunch - early dinner. Mira Costa is a beautiful resort. I was lucky and scored a reservation a few days before we left. So don't give up! keep checking. It is a buffet, a high end buffet, The food is really high quality and very well prepared. Lots and lots of interesting choices. They did give us a drink menu and English descriptions were included, so we just pointed at what we wanted, and we were good to go. They kept the water glasses full at all times. A host stopped by our table to tell us, that they were very sorry that the water show was not going to be perform today due to the rain. Otherwise we would have been invited to head out onto the balcony. So I found it really nice that they would go table to table to inform everyone. We really enjoyed our meal from start to finish, food and service were stellar.!
After Linner we head back into Disneyland. They will check your stamp and ask to see the paper copy or your phone to re-enter.
We did do everything and ride everything that we wanted to. Shopping again no T-shirts, even jackets for kids, which I found really strange. There were a few for babies. All the T-shirts were medium or large, in adult sizes. We did buy a few things, we loved all the boxed treats, cookies, rice crackers shaped like mickey, candy, and it was all display so that you could see exactly what was inside. Beauty and Beast tin was really cute, toy story with alien cookies, and other things that we bought, I did pick up a couple of T-shirts. All the popcorn cart had been closed all day, so no pop-corn for us. It had finally stopped raining, and I had taken off my jacket while we were shopping and I was wearing one of WDW 50th anniversary shirts. The cast members became really interested in my shirt, as well the other guest were looking at it very discretely. DH said that several people took pictures of it... again very discretely. One cast member asked about the shirt and did we visit WDW, we told her we lived in Orlando and we were pass-holders, and she started clapping her hands, and was so excited. Then several other cast member came over and really were impressed by my shirt. It was really sweet.
Once back at the hotel, a trip to Lawson, bottled water, couple of colas, and a different snack, this one wasn't as successful as the one the night before. LOL !!!

Tips - Rain gear is necessary for sure. Waterproof jackets, umbrellas and water proof shoes are a must. Google translate works great.

Nex

Thanks, for the report loving it thus far! Has me super excited. Could you tell me what type of foods did they have at Oceano? Sounds lovely but, want to make sure they have other items than seafood as I’m allergic.

 

[MimitoAlex]

Do you happen to have which company you actually did with them! There are so many options! Thanks!! cant wait to read this report

We just picked the one that offered airport pickup at Haneda.

 

[MimitoAlex]

Thanks, for the report loving it thus far! Has me super excited. Could you tell me what type of foods did they have at Oceano? Sounds lovely but, want to make sure they have other items than seafood as I’m allergic.

Sorry it took me a bit, I went back through all the pictures. It is really very seafood forward, with that said they did have 1 chicken dish, and a carving station with beef. Some type of veggie rice, as well as white rice, a small salad bar selection. Its not like the buffets at WDW, with the balance of poultry, beef, and seafood. As far as veggies, they were mixed in with several fish and dished, so that would not work out for you. I really don't know if it would be worth it or taking the risk with all the seafood on the buffet. It was very plentiful, and using thing like fish or seafood stock to make rice or sauces could pose a real problem for you. I hope this helps out.

 

[MimitoAlex]

Op here, and ready to tackle our 2 days at Disney Seas... So as they say on with the show.

We woke up to a full on thunder storm, so we did not rush around getting ready, by the time we got dressed and had breakfast, double checked for the paper tickets, and made sure to have our umbrellas. It was just raining by the time we headed out. We waited a a couple of minutes for the bus to return from "Bayside station", hopped on the "resort line" and off to Disney Seas. We also asked if they could help us with a car service to take us into Tokyo to our hotel there, which they did happily, and we even got a hand written note with all the info under our door with all the details. Amazing service!!!

WOW... it is so different from all the other parks that we have been to. The details where amazing nothing was missed each area completely told a story. When you visit take time to really look around. Disney Seas is really impressive!!!

I will say that the park was not crowded at all on our first day, We did alot on the first day. I will say the second day the crowds where there, and while we could have kept going on the first day after dinner the jet lag started creeping in, so we called it a day after dinner. I can say with the crowd size on the 2nd day I understand why I have read that 2 days is needed to to see everything at Disney Seas would be necessary.

Journey to the Center of the Earth was our favorite for sure, we rode it 3 times over the 2 days. In the Indiana Jones Crystal skull we rode twice, and it was really fun as well. Then we tried to ride Raging Spirits and this was a no go. My DH is 6'4" and a big guy, not heavy just big, the cast member came running up and made an X with his arms, and took us back to this area for my DH to see if he fit into the ride vehicle, which he did not, the cast member was determined to make him fit. My DH was saying no no. Keep this in mind, that some of the ride vehicles are on the smaller side. The cast member was so apologetic. We really were okay not riding it in no way did it take away from our time there.

We did manage to get some different pop-corn options. Caramel was by far my favorite and black pepper DH's, we did notice on the 2nd day that some of the pop-corn carts, both of the ones we stopped at the day before were closed and yet this was a beautiful day.

We had dinner at Sakura on our first day which which we were not impressed with at all, it was our least favorite meal the whole trip. I know that others here really have enjoyed it. For us it was a let down. The service while a little slow wasn't the problem it was the food. One thing we really did enjoy was the miso clam chowder which sounded weird, it was more in line with a thick stick to your ribs chowder. It was really delicious, that's where it stopped at. Everything after that was really not very good. The tempura option was just bland and over salted. DH's pork cutlet was good, but not as good as at Tonkatsu Wako on the first night. Not sure if it was just a bad night or what.


ON the second day we did whatever we did not get to the day before, and watched the show on the lagoon. It is cute and everyone was dancing along, the energy was crazy. Everyone was having such a good time. I will say ride the gondolas for sure. We cancelled our dinning reservation for Magellans, we stopped by and looked at the menu early on the second day and decided that it really wasn't something that we wanted. We did a bit of shopping, and again nothing in the way of T-shirts for kids, which was completely kinda disappointing. One cast member said it was because golden week was the week before. I did manage to get a Pandora charm for my bracelet, and some other things for gifts.

Overall thoughts on our 3 days in parks - The attention to the details is like at no other parks we have been to, along with how amazingly clean the parks are.The kindness of the cast members, and the energy that they bring is really amazing. I wore my WDW shirts while there showing some love to our home parks. We did get alot of pictures being taken of us and the shirts all very discretely which we had no problem with. I have blonde hair and on several occasion I had people taking pictures of my hair, it was cute that one young man with his hair dyed blonde, was getting his girlfriend to take a picture of my hair close up, I guess he liked the color. I loved how everyone was dressed so nicely, and are thoughtful of other guest. NO pushing or crowding up while waiting in line. I can not wait to go back. Visiting here is totally worth it.

We headed back with the plan of going to Ikspiari, as we were getting onto the resort line, the heavens opened up and it started raining that kinda sideways rain that we get here in Florida. So we decided to head back to the hotel and call it a night.

As always Thank you for following along, and I'm happy to help with any questions you might have and hopefully I can answer them.

Up next transfer day, and the beginning of our time into Tokyo

 

[zanzibar138]

Thanks for posting - really enjoying reading along! In your last update, you've mentioned 2 things that I have concerns about. My partner is a pretty big guy, and I am worried that we may have issues with some of the rides. Was it mostly the more thrill ride types that could be problematic?

We also have concerns about the food, mainly because we both just enjoy plainer type food and neither of us are big on seafood, although I will eat fish and prawns if they're peeled and in a dish already. Neither of us have any allergies as such, but I can't stomach mayo, really hate pickle and don't like mushrooms, which all seem to be pretty common in Japanese cuisine along with the seafood. For this reason, I don't think we'll bother with reservations at any of the sit down restaurants. For quick service, did you notice whether there are any pretty plain options for kids meals?