Culture Shocks and Disney Magic... in Asia!!! A TR on all Asia Disney Resorts! [Update Dec19!]

I am so sorry for your loss. :hug:

I don't usually comment on trip reports, but I just wanted to let you know that I have really been enjoying reading along.
 


I'm so sorry for your loss. I can understand how it would be doubly upsetting to relive happy memories when you were away for his passing. Take your time.
 


I am so sorry for your loss.

I love reading your trip reports. Your DCL trip reports helped me get excited for my first DCL cruise back in September (and we just got back from another one today!), and this particular trip report is making me want to go visit Tokyo even more.

As others have said, take your time. I know I myself will be here to read when you are ready. <3
 
Day 6 [part 1]: OFFICIALLY IN TOKYOOOOO!!!!! Sheraton Grand Tokyo Bay Hotel, Disneyland Hotel, DISNEYSEA!


And FINALLY!!!! 4:55 am local time, and we have arrived in TOKYO!!!! This was the city that all of us were most excited for. Tokyo Disney Resort is so highly rated, by everyone and especially Glendon haha. Plus the city itself is so exciting. Fast paced, polite, foreign, modern, something new new new for all of us! (Minus Glendon, but he’s in LOVE with Tokyo.) Okay! So previously, we had ordered a pocket WiFi and we just had to pick it up at the airport. This is so that we could easily connect to the internet while we’re in Tokyo. I can’t remember how much it was and for how many gb… I don’t think it was too expensive (cheaper than a phone plan) and we decided on.. something like maybe 5gb? Maybe it was 3gb. Or maybe less. Honestly I can’t remember, but whatever we decided on, we chose it because cost wise it made most sense and seemed adequate for the 10 days we’re there. Mostly we wanted it so that we could pull up maps, use uber, and yes, use social media haha. Pick up was very easy.


(Side note: The stinky dreadlocks guy pulled out his guitar in the middle of the airport in the pick up area and started busking. Is busking legal in Tokyo? I really don’t know! Either way he started to do a performance. And the entire time it looked like he kept trying to make eye contact with us. We’re sorry, but we don’t want you to crash our Tokyo plans, Mr. Stinky Man.)


So! From the airport we called an Uber to take us to our destination: Sheraton Grand Tokyo Bay Hotel. It’s a beautiful Sheraton that is basically right at the Tokyo Disney Resort. It’s along the monorail line and right on Tokyo Bay. It was around 6-7am by this time, and our plan was to check in for the morning, and check out by the late check out time. This way we could nap since we hardly slept on the flight in, then grab all our stuff and make our transfer over to the Disneyland Hotel. Then spend our day and evening at Ikspirai (their version of Downtown Disney).


Our room view!!!
0Yu8vx9.jpg


Okay, if we weren’t obsessed with staying on actual Disney property for our extra 15 minutes of entry, we would have been okay to stay at the Sheraton. It’s a beautiful location, right on the Bay! Anyways, we had a couple hours of sleep, woke up, and decided we couldn’t wait. We didn’t want to go to Ikspirai… WE WANTED TO GO TO THE PARKS!!!! LET’S GO TO TOKYO DISNEY!!!! But first we had to transfer all our luggage over to the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. There is a Resort Liner bus at the hotel to take you to the monorail line. (Honestly it’s about the same amount of time to wait for the next bus as it is to walk to the monorail station. About 5-7 minutes haha. But we wanted to see the bus.)


HERE WE GO! Disney Resort Cruiser
mYWc10W.jpg



(So cute. The details. THE DETAILS. ALL THE MICKEY EVERYTHING! SO CUTE)


How the windows look from the inside. AND THE SEATS
KgykKwV.jpg



UHH, PERFECT
tEWlD4J.jpg



The hand holds!
DAqMVXS.jpg



Needless to say, Jenna and I squealed when we got on. WE SQUEALED ABOUT A BUS. But seriously though. So cute. I want it all. I never thought I could want to own a bus. (2 minute bus ride later, we’re at the monorail station)


Here is a map of the Monorail line
sSDQvAH.jpg


So right now, we are at Bayside Station (the green area) and you can see that it lists all the Tokyo Disney Resort Official Hotels. Included are Sunroute Plaza Tokyo, Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel, Tokyo Bay Maihama Hotel Club Resort, Hilton Tokyo Bay, Hotel Okra Tokyo Bay, and Sheraton Grand Tokyo Bay Hotel. They’re all along the Tokyo Bay and all look like great places to stay, and each of them will have a bus that will take you to the monorail line. The actual “on property” hotels are the Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, Tokyo DisneySea Hotel MiraCosta, Disney Ambassador Hotel, and their newest one Tokyo Disney Celebration Hotel. Ambassador and Celebration would be their moderate resorts, and Disneyland Hotel and MiraCosta their Deluxe. I don’t think they have any “value” resorts.



Small side note: our hotel stays on property at Disney in Tokyo would have cost us a LOT of money. We had 3 nights at the front half of our Disney time at Tokyo Disneyland Hotel, but we booked these three nights with DVC. Then, for our second half of our time in Disney, we booked discounted SPG rates at the Sheraton Grand Tokyo Bay Hotel for 2 nights, and then splurged for a night at Hotel MiraCosta. There’s basically only ONE room style available at Hotel MiraCosta that fits 4 adults. (It seems they don’t have queen sized beds in Japan, all double sized! So rooms that are available for 4 adults would either have to have 4 double beds, or be like this one which had 2 double beds, a cot and a pull out.) Otherwise we would have had to book a super extravagant room that would have been a million times over budget. Glendon had to call in on booking day to Hotel MiraCosta to book this room (the website wouldn’t take our Canadian Credit Card, so it had to be called in) and was on the line for 3 hours while they had a translator help him out. Good thing he originally had the room in a booking phase on the website because all the other ones got booked up while he was on the phone. Literally we got the LAST ONE. This one night at one of the cheapest rooms was still about $700-$800 Canadian. To put into perspective, our 3 bookings with Sheraton Grand total was less than one night at the Hotel MiraCosta haha. But we felt we NEEDED to experience it.



Anyways! The monorail line: There are only 4 stops. From the Bayside Station, the next stop is Tokyo DisneySea Station (Hotel MiraCosta at this station), then Resort Gateway Station (here is Ikspirai, walkway to Disney Ambassador Hotel, and the transfer to the main train station JR Maihama Staion that connects you back to the city), and lastly Tokyo Disneyland Station (also where Tokyo Disneyland Hotel is).


So cute!!! Map and brochure holder
3XxuZHX.jpg



Resort line pricing sign
Ik6ClQ4.jpg


Side note: there is a Japanese law that the monorail line, even though it’s a Disney line, has to be ticketed and passengers must buy a ticket to use it. Something about because you are transporting passengers to more than just one location (4 stops on the line) or something like that. However, when you check into Disney hotel, they give you a monorail pass per person for length of stay. But since we were coming from the Sheraton, we just had to buy a day pass to get us over to Tokyo Disneyland Hotel. I do believe you can buy a multi-day pass from the machines. 260 yen is about $3 Canadian for the single pass.


Ticket machine! Ahh, looks like you can get day passes, single tickets, 11 tickets… on machine is a Frozen pass
7DLnJu0.jpg



This machine has a cute Duffy and Shellie May one (sorry blurry photo)
Jhggc4s.jpg



This is what a single pass looks like
CZnBwpf.jpg



Standing on platform waiting for train!
YJbAklt.jpg

(Tokyo DisneySea was celebrating its 15 year anniversary!)​


The monorail is coming! AND IT’S CUTE


MORE MICKEY SHAPED HAND HOLDS
s0Md6e6.jpg



Official first “ride” selfie in Japan: we’re on the monorail! (With all our luggage)
6WONqbQ.jpg



AND HERE WE ARE! TOKYO DISNEYLAND HOTEL!!!
Ii7Hum7.jpg


SG9p5wE.jpg



jBHtowk.jpg


Walking towards the entrance. Look at the ground
xNJC1Oq.jpg



Here are our day passes for the monorail (they don’t make day passes longer than 3 days, so our 3 night 4 day stay was split into two 2-day passes each)
uQyHOyn.jpg


We had our park passes in our email, but they needed a physical printed out copy for us to redeem them. The hotel staff literally went around and asked everyone who could be asked if there was a wireless printer around anymore. Literally it was like the entire staff were helping us by going to find us a wireless printer. AND THEY CAME BACK WITH ONE!


Here are our tickets getting printed
Ro2s59m.jpg


Because the parks get really busy really fast, there isn’t really such a thing as park hopper. When you buy multi-day passes, for the first couple days of your trip you have to pick which park you want to visit and you can’t park hop to the other park after you enter the gates of the one park. After the two days your ticket becomes open and you can visit either park. It sounds weird at first but you’d understand when you visit and the crowds are ENORMOUS.


Our rooms weren’t ready yet but they took our luggage and we couldn’t wait. OFF TO DISNEYSEA WE GO! (Truthfully, since we were staying at the Disneyland Hotel, it would have made more sense for us to spend the first day at Disneyland since we didn’t have to waste time on the monorail and just walk to Disneyland… but we were too excited to see something different, so we voted and DisneySea won.)


Back on the Monorail, and this one is decked out in Frozen walls!
bfBDcAA.jpg



They LOVE the snowgies here!
89Yk709.jpg



HERE WE GO!
DZZS0Wi.jpg



HERE WE ARE!!! We’re IN!!!!
AUz34ja.jpg



So much excitement! Plus the 15 year anniversary celebration was on, called Year of Wishes
eZ7jOda.jpg



Walking more into the park. That’s the Hotel MiraCosta. It’s actually IN Tokyo DisneySea
mMYSOZw.jpg

(They have their own park entrance that is right in the park itself.)


More wanderings! Tower of Terror in the background
A4xqElz.jpg


We were super excited and a little bit overwhelmed. But mostly we were REALLY HUNGRY as we hadn’t eaten yet and it’s now entering afternoon. As much as we wanted to explore and take all the photos (notice that I hardly had any photos so far even though I was dead with excitement??) we really needed food. Our plan was to go to Vulcania for some quick service food.


w7FHMHb.jpg



I just love seeing pretend versions of real food haha
ILhtCQG.jpg



This is what I had. I can’t remember what it is, but it looks like shrimp and plain rice
sl3jtNN.jpg



And this is what Glendon got. (I don’t care what it is, it comes with a Mickey shaped carrot)
Vv8ryKG.jpg



Truthfully, the food was tasty, but we all found that it was less-than-warm. It was kind of a cold day, and we wanted piping hot food. Some parts were hot, but most of it was definitely less-than-warm. But it was tasty and we still ate all of it. Plus… mostly we were extremely excited to get on with our day!!!







Up next… walking around DisneySea!

Oops, if you follow along by contents, I forgot to post my Shanghai Recap.
 
Last edited:
We may be tagging along with my DH on a business trip he has to take to Singapore next March, and were thinking about stopping in Tokyo on the way back. How did you find the weather there in March? Is it super-crowded at the Tokyo Disney parks year-round or is Feb/March an especially busy time? TIA!
 
We may be tagging along with my DH on a business trip he has to take to Singapore next March, and were thinking about stopping in Tokyo on the way back. How did you find the weather there in March? Is it super-crowded at the Tokyo Disney parks year-round or is Feb/March an especially busy time? TIA!
They are busy YEAR ROUND! Feb/March is actually a quieter season. If you can, definitely try to hit the parks on the weekdays as opposed to the weekends. It's a locals-heavy park. When we were there last year, I think they had some student promo going on or something like that. Weather wise, most of our days were between 5-13 degrees celsius (41-50 Fahrenheit) and it's on the coast so to be honest it was colder than we were expecting. We definitely bought more layers while we were there.
 
Shanghai Recap


Oops! I was so excited to post about Tokyo that I forgot about my Shanghai recap!


Here goes:

We really enjoyed staying at Toy Story Hotel. The theming alone is enough for us to book again in the future. While there were some minors (again, you could tell that it was built very very quickly, and that air circulation could be greatly improved), it’s just so darned cute. Plus some of our favourite meals was at Sunnyside Cafe. We definitely would have loved to have been able to try out Shanghai Disneyland Hotel.


Some of our favourite things about Shanghai Disneyland:
  • The meals you get from the quick service restaurants ended up being a really good value, because they all came with a beverage.
  • TRON! It’s just so fun. Not really sure how else to describe how I feel when riding it! It’s just so fun! And I like the idea that you’re basically in a lightcycle race battle. So excited for this to come to Florida in the future. But a little bit sad that Shanghai won’t have it as an exclusive anymore. I would definitely travel back to Shanghai specifically to ride Tron!
  • Pirates!!! As I said before, this ride is just WOW. Extremely different from the classic Pirates of the Caribbean rides in North America. But the set pieces, the screen scenes, the animatronics!!! For sure I would go back to Shanghai to come back to Pirates.
  • Shanghai Disneyland. How do I describe Shanghai Disneyland… Tokyo Disneyland Resort, it’s Japan. They embrace the Disney like no tomorrow. They might even do it more intense than America. Hong Kong Disneyland, same kind of cute magic that you feel from Disneyland California. Shanghai Disneyland, you still get that Disney magic, but I feel like they mix in and embrace the Chinese culture so much. It’s a very neat feeling. It makes you really feel like “wow I travelled this far to be in a Disney park in CHINA!” I don’t know if I’m getting my point across. It was really neat. Maybe having some background knowledge of Chinese history is what makes me feel this way? Not sure! Either way I enjoyed my visit haha
  • THAT CASTLE IS HUGE. And the courtyard EVEN BIGGER.
  • Disneytown is literally steps away from the park. Even has its own exit from the park. And you can bring Bread Talk in for throughout-the-day snacks



Some things that I’m sad/disappointed about our Shanghai Disneyland experience:
  • Roaring Rapids was closed! We were REALLY looking forward to riding this brand new ride! We understand that the weather wasn’t permitting… but we wanted to ride it regardless of weather haha.
  • We didn’t do Soaring. We were gunning for at least one set of fast passes for at least one of the two days we were there. Sad that they didn’t have fast passes going for Soaring. And the wait times never went down below the 2 hour mark. Ultimately the ride would have been the same, just ending in Shanghai at the end. Still would have been nice to have gone on.
  • We didn’t get a second ride through of Voyage to Crystal Grotto!!! There ended up being more people on the Saturday, and the line never lowered enough. We just didn’t think it was a good use of our time when there was still stuff to see haha.
  • Same goes for Peter Pan! We didn’t get a second ride through of Peter Pan!!!!
  • We didn’t go to any of the shows. We weren’t sure any of them would interest us, and with the language barrier we didn’t want to accidentally waste some of our time sitting through a show we might not understand. If we had even one extra day for parks, maybe we would have gone to the more popular ones.
  • WE DIDN’T GET A CHANCE TO TRY TURKEY LEGS! Who on earth could have waited TWO HOURS for turkey legs?! We had heard that it was more of a hoisin barbecue instead of the classic smoked style…. sounds interesting!
  • Souvenirs and gift shop items after conversion, was a little bit expensive.


Then… when we arrived in Tokyo and all logged onto social media, we found out that on the evening that we left Shanghai, Beauty and the Beast had their Chinese premier AT SHANGHAI DISNEYLAND. At the Walt Disney Grand Theatre in Disneytown. And when I’m saying the Beauty and the Beast premier was at Shanghai Disneyland, I mean the stars of the film WERE THERE. AS IN, EMMA WATSON, DAN STEVENS, LUKE EVANS, JOSH GAD, and director BILL CONDON. THEY WERE ALL THERE. WHAAAAAAAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT. They even spent some time in the park. HAD WE KNOWN THAT THE PREMIER WOULD BE AT DISNEYLAND AND THAT THE STARS WOULD BE THERE FOR IT I WOULD HAVE WANTED TO DEMAND WE HAVE TO FIND THEM. Only half kidding! That would have been so cool and a hollywood dream come true. Accidental “look who I ran into in Shanghai!” But alas, it was not meant to be. I cried inside a little bit that I was so close to Hermione Granger.




Overall, I’d say we enjoyed our time at Shanghai Disneyland.




Shanghai City. If it were me with my family, I’m sure we would have done a few more days in the city. I think it’s my dad’s dream to travel to China with Glendon and I. But I’m going to be honest and say that Shanghai the city scared Glendon, Jenna, and Brian a little. Mostly Glendon. And then a little bit Jenna. Hahahaha. If it were me I would travel back for more haha. One day in the city isn’t enough.




If you're reading in the order of table of contents, up next:
Tokyo Day 1 [part 1]

If you're reading in the order of posts since I forgot to post this one first, up next:
Tokyo Day 1 [part 2] DISNEY SEA!
 
Last edited:
Day 6 [part 2]: DISNEYSEA!!! ~ 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, American Waterfront


After lunch, we were excited to explore. Right by Volcania is the ride entrance for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and it looked to be a walk-on, SO we decided WHY NOT! Hurray! Time for our first ride ever at Disneysea!


lcbxGIX.jpg




Lots to look at in the queue
vkBqXbV.jpg



JE9Ol4j.jpg


The ride is really cute. You load into a little submarine pod. It seats about 6 people in total. Basically there’s 3 windows to look though (one in the front, and one on each side) with a small bench in front of each window. Then your submarine “submerges” and goes “20,000 leagues under the sea” and basically there’s a small control in front of you to move around a giant flashlight so you can look at stuff in the “deep sea”


Looking down on the light controller
pt7gKYK.jpg



A view into the little submarine
pTfE6pc.jpg


Truthfully, it’s a very small space!!! We tucked ourselves in and ducked our heads and crouched in to load onto the seats! Luckily it wasn’t very busy so they let the 4 of us in our own submarine.


I tried to take a picture of the things you can see but this is an awful photo haha
FGDazEx.jpg


We enjoyed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Mindless exploring from inside your little submarine! After our ride, we decided to wander the park! It’s not extremely large, but there’s sooooooo much to see.


I found this map on the internet as a bit of a reference
qM7SDfR.jpg


Volcania and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea are both in Mysterious Island. The main entrance to the park is at the bottom where it says Mediterranean Harbor. Hotel MiraCosta is literally under the label that says Mediterranean Harbor.


Here is a view of Mount Prometheus from inside Mysterious Island
f3TfKgx.jpg


That’s basically also a view of the ride that is Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Most of the ride is inside the mountain and if you see the bit of cave opening kind of to the left of the peak of the mountain, that’s near the end of the ride! Journey to the Centre of the Earth uses the same track style as Test Track and Radiator Springs Racers, so you can imagine that there is a fun fast section at the end.


From Mysterious Island we decided to wander. We ended up in American Waterfront. This is where Tower of Terror is! As well as their SS Columbia “cruise ship." (I put cruise ship in quotation marks because it's stationary, but really you can wander basically a full ship! They even have a restaurant and bar inside)


A view of Tower of Terror in the far background
JLYPufs.jpg


We walked there via the Mediterranean Harbor way and there is this area called Fortress Explorations which is a fun walk-through. This is also where they have some restaurants including Magellan’s.


Looks cute! Can’t wait to explore more!
rWavkbd.jpg



Coming to American Waterfront! Trolly!
pvwuxgl.jpg



Iggqciu.jpg



2IdHtph.jpg



WiyK4ZF.jpg


The American Waterfront area has two themed areas, with the major part themed to an early 20th century New York City. (The other part is Cape Cod and Duffy central!) But the old-time New York City is SO charming. There’s so much backstory to this land that you can really explore forever. Plus it’s a great place to take a million photos! The Japanese LOVE their group photos. They also like to have full on group wear as well for their photos. You literally look around and most groups had on matching outfits.


McDuck’s Department Store (aka, giant gift shop!)
b3B9EfM.jpg



Duffy and friends march! I think… these might be… face towels? I can’t remember
VhbbIqp.jpg



Some Duffy … cookies?
DWTAwuc.jpg



Oooooooh look at these Little Green Men things!
1blyikb.jpg



Most decorative alien lint roller
Yxvd51m.jpg



A visual of Duffy cookies!
T9kifLx.jpg


Okay, if you didn’t already know, Duffy and friends are HUGE in Japan. HUUUUGE! People LOVE Duffy. There are Duffy headbands, Duffy bags, even Duffy sweaters! Jenna and Brian weren’t really Duffy fans before Japan but it definitely grows on you when it’s thrown at you left right and centre haha. Anyways, another big thing in the shops are Disney SNACKS! Less so the sweet stuff like Minnie’s confectionary in America, but all kinds of other snacks. Cookies, salty snacks. Well, I guess mostly cookies haha. Tins and boxes of them! They have little pretend versions of them on display so you know what’s in each box.


Winnie the Pooh is my favourite!
uA7tOca.jpg



Mickey is a close favourite too! Cute small pouch bags
4EwIrnN.jpg



A view of the elevated railway and bits of Old New York. Hot dog stand
WXk8J47.jpg



View of the street with McDuck’s at the left end
ORxWAfS.jpg



TOWER OF TERROR!!!
TOlHe7V.jpg

[ featuring Japanese group photos in front of the tower haha ]​



Truthfully, none of us really got all that many photos because we were busy looking at stuff and continually moving. It was colder than we were expecting!!! Windy and a little bit of that cold damp air chill.






Up next…
[part 1 and 2 continued] ... a couple of missing photos
and then SS Columbia, Intro to Snacking in Tokyo Disney, More wanderings!
 
Last edited:
Hands down the most elaborate Tower of Terror of any of the Disney parks I think! Wowza!!

Love the theming of the American Waterfront, very old-timey lol Very cool.
 
I'm a latecomer to your TR but am really enjoying it and skipped work for most of the day to read it and admire your pictures. I was debating adding an extra day in Shanghai or Hong Kong on an upcoming cruise to visit the Disney Parks and will wait to read about the HK park before deciding. Not sure there's enough new things to do in the Shanghai park to make it worthwhile - esp. of one is not into riding things multiple times.
 
I'm a latecomer to your TR but am really enjoying it and skipped work for most of the day to read it and admire your pictures. I was debating adding an extra day in Shanghai or Hong Kong on an upcoming cruise to visit the Disney Parks and will wait to read about the HK park before deciding. Not sure there's enough new things to do in the Shanghai park to make it worthwhile - esp. of one is not into riding things multiple times.
Is it choosing one or the other? I would say that after Hong Kong, I added two new rides to my favourites list (Mystic Manor and Big Grizzly Runaway Mine Cars) but then I realized that I also added Tron and Pirates from Shanghai to my list too haha!
 
Is it choosing one or the other? I would say that after Hong Kong, I added two new rides to my favourites list (Mystic Manor and Big Grizzly Runaway Mine Cars) but then I realized that I also added Tron and Pirates from Shanghai to my list too haha!
Time-wise I could do both, but, honestly, after 40 years of going to WDW (mostly) and Disneyland, it doesn't excite me the way it used to. I know I shouldn't even entertain the thought while on a Disney message board, LOL, but I've been kind of bored with the rides and the experience the last few times. I've done most of it before and it's starting to feel like that.
I really dislike the crowds and queueing for upwards of 45 min. for a 3 minute ride, and the prices have really gone through the roof lately. I think Asia Disney sounds like more of the same with the exception of a few rides, so I'll only go for one or the other. I feel like I've actually been there reading your TR - which is great! There's so many other wonderful adventures in the world - which I've also been doing - and I'm leaning more towards them ATM. BTW, I live in Vancouver, so we're almost neighbours.
 
So many new experiences and different parks! It's all pretty overwhelming to me to take in! Sounds like you are all having a blast!
 

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