First Night in TDR Dinner and a Jet Lag Question

kbmartin

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 20, 2014
We are arriving in Japan on a Sunday afternoon and will stay at Hilton Tokyo Bay for the TDR part of our trip. On that day, we're going to try to stay up as late as we can and will venture out for dinner once we get settled at the hotel. I'm hoping that we will be so excited that we'll get a second or third wind... Right now, I am thinking we'll go to Ikspiari and eat at Ippudo Ramen. Has anyone been there? It seems highly rated. On the other hand, is there anything I'm not thinking of that would be a fun first dinner? For example, is there anything exciting for dinner at one of the hotels on the monorail loop?

I know we're going to be jet lagged beyond that first night, too. We're coming on a flight from Chicago to Narita if that helps for this question. We'll be exploring TDR the next day (starting on Monday), and I'm planning for us to buy 4-day tickets. I know they will make us choose one park for each of our first two days. Which day does one feel MOST jet lagged? Day one or two? We're definitely more excited about DisneySea than Disneyland, so I'm wondering if we should go to DisneySea on a day we are less tired. Any experience you can share would be great!

Thanks!
 
Anecdotally, seems that 3rd is the most jet lagged for my family.
Arrival day/1st day would be overcome by excitement and 2nd day towards the end of the day everyone will be exhausted.
YMMV.
 
I think it is wise to stay up as late as you can on arrival day. Alternatively you could buy a starlight pass and go to the parks on your arrival night. The excitement of being in the parks would surely keep you awake, and there are lots of cool quickservice restaurants with great theming. We fight jetlag by taking mid day naps on day two and three, and are always fine. For me it's always flying back home that gives me bad jetlag.
 
I arrived on a Thursday afternoon and went right to the parks with an after-6 ticket. Stayed near until closing at 10. Got up the next morning for Happy 15. By afternoon I was dragging and decided to lie down for a little rest around 6. I didn't get up again that night! Saturday was much better and was able to do Happy 15 and be up until nearly closing with an afternoon break.
 


Honestly, once I got that first night of sleep I felt okay. We arrived in the afternoon/early evening and fought to stay awake as long as we could, then crashed around 9pm. Woke up bright and early at 4am the next morning. If anything, getting up stupidly early every day was a bigger issue than daytime fatigue or wanting to fall asleep early (which wasn’t really an issue). I slowly got myself “sleeping in” until 7-8am as the trip wore on.
 
After picking up the vacation package and it’s already 7:00 pm on our arrival day which was a Sunday. Then we upgraded our special 3-day passports to 5-day for ¥9200 each. This is much cheaper than buying the starlight pass. You may want to ask about passport upgrade before buying a starlight passport. Yes, you can upgrade passports beyond 4 days. I think it’s up to 6 days.

We stayed till closing the first night at DisneySea because it’s the last day before refurbishment for Sindbad’s Voyage. It’s hard to look for our ways in the dark at the park for the first time. We walked back and forth to find our ways a few times. We always went back to hotel for a nap in late afternoon. Jet lag kicked in for DD on the second day. Her nap turned into a long sleep. I went back to Disneyland at night by myself. A nap in the afternoon was enough to reenergize me. I didn’t experience much jet lag. Probably I was more excited to enjoy Disney in Tokyo!

At first, I was planning to eat at a restaurant which opened till late at Ikspiari on our first night. There were a few opened till 11 pm. But parking closing was at 10 pm, so I figured it would be too rush to try to eat at one of the restaurants. Instead, we bought onigiri from the konbini at the Disney Ambassador Hotel. We were too tired at that point to enjoy any meal at any restaurant. We quickly ate, took a shower and slept. We woke up a bit later than I had planned the next morning, but still made it to Happy 15 at Disneyland with no issue and had a good head start for the day!

Update:
We bought curry popcorn on our way to Sindbad’s Voyage, and it was yum...! We didn’t have time to try any other quick service as it’s almost 8 pm when we got into DisneySea.
 
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DH and I find that for us Jet lag seem to creep up on us arrival day and then about day 2 ...


This is sorta a formual that we have found works for us... it's all about what time you land and what time zone your in... and if you got lucky and slept on the plane..

Early morning arrival (before 8 to 9 am)... head to hotel and check in and check the luggage... head out and try to keep moving... we plan on sleeping the minute we get in the room to take a nap for several hours... then go out in the evening for dinner, and maybe some site seeing... then early to bed...

If we arrive mid morning, lunchtime to mid afternoon ( 9 to 2)... we plan on check in... lunch and if our room is ready... sleeping for a couple of hours...then heading out..


Late afternoon, to early evening... ( 2 to 6) check in... get something quick to eat for dinner... shower, and sleep...

Later evening ( 6 to ??) straight to hotel... and shower and sleep... hopefully we have eaten... if not we will grab something in the airport to go, and eat in the car on the way to the hotel...


Then I plan for us to sleep in on day 2 which seem to keep us from hitting a wall...
 
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For us, night 1 tends to be a solid sleep due to exhaustion, and night 2 can be rough - in Asia that tends to mean waking very early.
I like your plan - taking the monorail to Ikspiari will give you a bit of a 'fix.' If you want Disney, you can check out the Disney store at Ikspiari, Bon Voyage and even a couple of the Disney hotels.
Ippudo is delicious - limited menu, and super quick service. Don't be deterred if there is a line outside, as it is not a restaurant you linger at.
The lower floor/basement of Ikspiari has a food court, and also a bunch of small food shops that can be fun to wander and buy a sweet treat.
Ikspiari to me is more like a mall than Downtown Disney.
Have a great trip!
 

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